by Rachel Bach
With that thought, the cold rage blossomed in me clear and crisp as a battle drug, pushing all the conflicted feelings away. Oddly, it also sent my fingers tingling, the tips prickling with the pins and needles I’d come to associate with the black stuff, but I was too angry to care. I had only one focus. Rupert the man tied me in knots, but an enemy I knew how to handle, and when I looked at Rupert now, that was what I saw: a clever, dangerous enemy who wanted to take away everything I’d worked for.
He was still watching me with those pleading eyes, and he must have seen the decision on my face, because his mouth opened. Whatever he was going to say, though, he never got the chance. I was already in the air.
I’d put all my suit’s power into the jump, and I flew at him so fast even Rupert was surprised. I was just cold enough to savor the look of fear on his face as Elsie ejected on my wrist, her thermite firing like a shot of sunlight as I brought her down on Rupert’s arm.
For one moment, I thought he was actually going to let me cut him. I should have known better. Just before I hit, Rupert moved, flicking away like a shadow. But he must have forgotten who he was dealing with. I’d seen him fight several times now, and fought him myself. I couldn’t match his speed, but I knew how he moved, and the second he dodged, I spun, slamming Elsie’s glowing blade deep into his side.
It was like trying to cut through a reinforced cement pillar. Even with my new tungsten blade and the thermite going full burn, there was enough resistance that I couldn’t finish the slice before Rupert jumped back. To his credit, he didn’t cry out, though when I spun around to gauge the damage, I didn’t see how.
I’d cut him clean across the side. The thermite had burned his dark jacket and shirt away like they were tissue, so there was nothing to hide the gaping hole I’d put in the smooth skin just below his ribs. Anti-armor bullets might not work on symbionts, but like the xith’cal they resembled, thermite sliced them open just fine. I couldn’t get too cocky yet, though, because Rupert was still standing.
Elsie’s intense heat had cauterized the wound, so there wasn’t as much blood as there should have been, but Rupert’s hands were still crimson where they held the wound closed. I expected him to change into his scales and charge me then, but he didn’t. He just stood there, staring at me with that brokenhearted look, like this was all my fault.
“Change,” I ordered, swinging Elsie’s blade at him, letting the thermite hiss through the air. “Now.”
“No,” Rupert said solemnly. “I don’t want you to see me like that.”
“Are you kidding?” I shouted. “That cat’s been out of the bag.”
Rupert set his jaw. “I won’t be a monster for you, Devi.”
“If you think I’ll hold back just because I can see your puppy dog eyes, you’ve got another think coming,” I snarled. “You don’t take me seriously and I will take your damn head, scales or no.”
Rupert said nothing, just pulled himself a little straighter. I was about to give him a final warning when I saw his eyes flick toward my thermite blade. I glanced at my timer and cursed myself for an idiot. I’d thought Rupert was playing on my sympathies. I’d even thought he didn’t want to fight me because he loved me. What a joke. Rupert wasn’t holding back out of love, he was wasting my thermite. I’d just lost twenty of my eighty-five seconds of burn time talking.
With that, the cold rage fell on me like fresh snow, and I charged. I had just enough time to see Rupert’s eyes widen before I crashed into him, blade going deep into his stomach. Or that was the plan. He spun at the last second, grabbing my shoulder and using my own momentum to send me falling past him.
On anyone else, that move would have sent them to the ground, but I’m not anyone else. I’m a Paradoxian armored merc, and the second he threw me, my suit caught me. I spun on a pin, flipping around with my blade up to catch him on the back step, only to grind to a halt.
There was no dodge this time; I hadn’t missed. Elsie’s glowing edge was less than an inch from Rupert’s side, but I couldn’t move her forward because the shining blade was caught on a black claw. I was so close to Rupert now I couldn’t see his face on account of our height difference, but I saw the change all the same. Black scales bloomed across his body, starting with the hand that had caught my thermite blade and spreading up his arm, shredding his already ruined clothes. As before, the transformation took less than three heartbeats, and it was on the second one that I struck.
I wrenched my arm up, twisting my blade. Those black claws of his were hard, but they weren’t indestructible, and with the extra torque, Elsie’s blade sliced through them like wooden pegs. I heard Rupert hiss as the sharp ends of his claws were cut free, and then something grabbed my shoulder. Rupert was going for a submission hold.
I ripped out of his grip and spun away, my left hand reaching for Mia. I swung the plasma shotgun off my back, dialing the charge to max as I whirled to face him again. Rupert’s other form was just as I remembered, all sleek black scales, speed, and power. A few scraps of his shredded suit still clung to him, but the symbiont had covered the wound in his side without leaving so much as a bloodstain.
He was looking at me as well, those black, alien eyes watching my feet as Mia’s whine filled the forest, but I didn’t give him a chance to figure out which way to dodge. I didn’t even give myself a chance to finish turning. The moment Mia’s charge was primed, I fired.
He dodged the first blast by a hair, but the second one hit him across the shoulder. He staggered as Mia’s sticky white fire splattered over his body, clinging to his scales. I was actually a little amazed it wasn’t eating through him, but I’d learned the hard way to take nothing for granted with symbionts.
But though it didn’t consume him, the fire slowed him down enough for me to shoot him three more times before dropping Mia in the grass. I had one more shot in the charge but no time to take it. Mia’s fire only crippled him anyway, and I had less than twelve seconds left on Elsie’s burn. It was now or never.
I closed the distance between us in a heartbeat. Rupert had fallen to his knees in an attempt to get the burning plasma off him, and he saw me too late. My shining blade was already falling toward his neck, the thermite smoking through the air as I bore down, throwing all my power into the stroke that would take his head. But then, just before I hit, my hand twisted.
It wasn’t even a conscious decision. I’d committed to the strike fully, or I thought I had. But something inside me must have gone soft, because the blow veered at the last second, and instead of cutting through Rupert’s neck, Elsie’s shining blade lodged in his shoulder.
I kept pushing anyway, hoping against hope to get something useful out of it, but I was down to seconds on my thermite, and cutting through Rupert’s symbiont body was like cutting through bedrock. Before I’d even made it to his collarbone, Elsie’s light snuffed out.
Elsie wasn’t brittle like Phoebe had been, and her blade didn’t snap when her fire died. But hard as Elsie’s tungsten core was, Rupert was harder, and my blade stuck fast inside him, trapping me. For almost a full three seconds, I couldn’t do anything but stand there and pull. Finally, I managed to yank Elsie free by retracting her back into her sheath, and not a second too soon. She was barely clear before Rupert punched up with his uninjured arm.
I dodged the punch by a fraction, but no amount of fancy footwork could stop me from falling. I stumbled backward, my suit rolling automatically when I hit. This time, though, even the Lady’s speed wasn’t enough.
Rupert was on me in an instant. He landed on my stomach with his full weight, slamming me into the ground so hard even my stabilizer couldn’t save me from the neck snap. He was burned and bleeding freely from his shoulder, but the damage barely seemed to slow him down as he grabbed my right arm and squeezed, crushing the little motor that ejected Elsie from her sheath.
I cried out in dismay. Elsie might not be burning anymore, but she could still stab, and I’d been ready to shove her straight into his damned l
ungs. But it seemed like my moment of idiotic softheartedness was about to be my undoing, because with Elsie locked in her sheath and Mia lying on the ground a dozen feet away, I was running low on weapons. I still had Sasha, but I knew from experience that she wasn’t the best weapon against symbionts. I couldn’t reach her anyway, not with Rupert pinning my arms.
I tried another kick instead, but Rupert had learned from his previous mistake. He’d already shifted his weight to pin my joints, ruining my angle so that I couldn’t get the leverage to land a hit. All I could do was lie there and thrash while Rupert sat on top of me like a victorious gladiator toying with his kill.
“Stop this,” Rupert said softly. “It’s over, Devi.”
The hell it was. I still had my grenade string. My low-ordnance explosives weren’t strong enough to actually hurt Rupert, but I could blow him off me. I was about to drop the whole string in his face when my proximity alarm began to beep. That was all the warning I got before a gunshot exploded through the woods.
Rupert and I jumped at the same time, and then Rupert rolled off me, falling slack on the ground. I lurched to my feet at once, but Rupert didn’t move. A second later, I saw why. There was a huge blast wound in his back, turning his scales into a burned, bloody mess, and not three feet behind him was Rashid, dressed in his tactical armor with his disrupter pistol in his hand.
Rashid looked at me briefly, like he was just checking to make sure I was alive, then he walked over Rupert’s fallen body and dropped his arm, aiming his disrupter pistol at the back of Rupert’s head.
“Don’t!”
Rashid looked up, finger paused on the trigger. I stared back at him, panting. I hadn’t even realized I’d spoken until he looked at me, but I didn’t take the word back.
“He is one of them,” Rashid said, his voice as cold as mine had been earlier. “He does not deserve your pity.”
My eyes went back to Rupert as I tried to work up the courage to tell Rashid to go ahead, to end it, but I couldn’t. Despite everything that had happened, I hadn’t been able to kill Rupert even in my cold rage, and I couldn’t let Rashid kill him now. “Just don’t,” I said quietly. “Please.”
The anger was draining out of me so fast I felt like I was going to faint. I didn’t even know if I had it in me to stop Rashid if he tried to fire. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. Rashid sighed and holstered his pistol, kicking Rupert in his injured side before turning away.
“Come on, then,” he said, walking into the woods.
I stared at his retreating back for several seconds before bursting into motion. I ran across the ground Rupert and I had torn up in our fight and grabbed my armor case. I snatched up my gun boxes as well, strapping them to the Lady’s case before hefting the whole lot onto my shoulders. When everything was secure, I ran after Rashid, scooping Mia off the ground where I’d dropped her as I passed. I didn’t look at Rupert as I left, but I watched his still body through my cameras until the trees hid him from sight.
Rashid was waiting for me a few dozen feet away. He looked me over, then nodded at my armor case. “You should leave that. It will slow us down.”
“Nothing doing,” I said. “My case charges my suit. Without it, the Lady’s only got five days of power and no nano-repair. Besides”—I glared at his tactical armor, which didn’t even have a motor, much less anything that could help him run at even a quarter of the Lady’s encumbered speed—“I don’t think you should be worrying about me slowing us down.”
Rashid held up his hands in peace. “You are correct, I meant no offense. Shall we go?”
I motioned for him to lead the way, but rather than jog into the woods as I’d expected, Rashid walked over to a place where the trees were thick and held out his hand. I was about to ask him what the hell he was doing when I saw a slender, small hand reach out to wrap around his as Ren stepped out of the undergrowth.
“Holy hell, Rashid,” I breathed. “Is that the real Ren?”
“The very same,” Rashid said quietly, grabbing the girl’s hand tight as he set off down the hill. “Hurry, please. They will be here soon.”
Ren followed him into the forest without a sound, her brown eyes wide and vacant as a doll’s. I looked back up to where Rupert was lying before jogging after them, my stomach sinking further with every step. “Caldswell is going to murder us.”
“He’s going to do that no matter what,” Rashid replied.
I started to say there was a difference of degree but swallowed the words again just as fast. Now was not the time. Rupert was down, but I had my memories now to tell me just how fast symbionts could heal, so I kept my mouth shut as we jogged into the woods.
The direction Rashid chose led straight down the dell and then up into the mountains. The up and down landscape made me doubly glad of my suit’s help, but Rashid handled the steep slopes on his own without complaint. He kept Ren going as well, carrying her when things got too rough. We made good time, and when we were thirty minutes and five miles of rough country away from where I’d fought Rupert with no sign of pursuit, I decided it was time to get a few things straight.
“So,” I said. “Did you sell Caldswell out, or were you a plant from the start?” When Rashid didn’t answer, I went on. “I’m betting you were in on this from the beginning. Why else would all of my applicants not show up for their job interview?”
“Not showing up for an interview on the Glorious Fool sounds like an excellent act of self-preservation,” Rashid said, glancing at his handset.
“Why did you do it?” I asked, jerking my head at Ren, who was following Rashid like a toy dog on a string. “Was it for her?”
“Yes,” Rashid said, sliding his handset back into his pocket. “But the daughter was a target of opportunity. My primary mission was to infiltrate the Glorious Fool and protect Deviana Morris until we had a chance at a successful extraction.”
“Guard me?” I scoffed. “Why?”
“Because I heard you were the one who was going to save the universe.”
I stopped cold. “Dear Sacred King, you work for Brenton.”
Rashid just smiled.
I looked away with a groan, but I looked back just as quickly when I realized how little sense that made. “If you work for Brenton, why did you fight his merc team on Ample? You killed more of his people than I did.”
“It was a calculated move,” Rashid said with a shrug. “We needed Caldswell to trust me.”
My look turned into a glare. “So you killed your own men?”
“They were told they’d be facing a sniper and a Paradoxian armor user,” Rashid replied. “It wasn’t like they were sent in unprepared.”
“And what if they’d gotten me?”
“Then you’d be safe, the mission would be accomplished, and we wouldn’t be here,” Rashid said, completely unruffled. “As it was, we won, and Caldswell trusted me enough not to bother watching me when he landed here, allowing me to seize the daughter while the Eyes were busy as well as cover your own escape. So you see, both outcomes were in our favor.” His smile widened. “John Brenton does not waste his moves.”
I rolled my eyes. “And I suppose extorting the captain for double hazard pay was just more character acting?”
“Indeed,” Rashid said. “Caldswell understands money-hungry mercenaries very well, and we tend to overlook that which we think we understand.”
I sighed. He had a point. “Okay,” I said. “Excellent inside job. Bravo and well done. What happens now?”
Rashid took Ren’s hand and started walking again. “We hide from the Eyes until the others arrive. I’ve already sent the signal, but it could be hours before we get a pickup, so we’re going to use that time to put as much distance between ourselves and the Fool as possible. Without their daughter, the Eyes will be at a temporary disadvantage. She is what allows them to communicate instantly between teams. But they are still a great threat, especially since you refused to let me eliminate Caldswell’s most dangerous weapon.”
<
br /> He said this last bit with a glare over his shoulder that I ignored. “So that’s your plan?” I said, walking after him. “Run and hide?”
“I think I did quite well considering the circumstances,” Rashid said. “We did rescue you right out from under Caldswell’s nose on minimal notice. With your armor, I might add. Certainly that is worth a little hiding in the woods?”
“We?” I asked. “Who’s we?”
Rashid smiled down at Ren. “The daughter helped me. She spoke in my mind and turned off the security on your armor case, which was the only way I was able to get your suit to where you could find it without being shocked to death.”
That was not the answer I’d been expecting, but it made sense. No one else on the Fool would betray Caldswell. Maat had been busy, apparently. “Is she speaking now?”
“No,” Rashid said. “She has been silent since the explosion.”
“Well,” I said. “Thanks for saving my bacon, then. That was a nice shot you got on Caldswell, by the way.”
Rashid chuckled. “I missed, actually.”
“Missed?” I said. “You blew a hole in his chest.”
“But I was aiming for his head.”
I had to laugh at that. “So,” I said. “Disrupter pistols take down symbionts?”
“They’re the only handheld weapon that can,” Rashid said bitterly. “And only if you get it in the head.”
That explained why Caldswell had scowled so hard at Rashid’s weapon choice when we’d first hired him, and why the captain and Rupert both carried the things. “I guess this means you’re against the Eyes, then.”
“Utterly and completely,” Rashid replied.
“Why?” I asked. “I mean, do you think nothing should be done against the phantoms, or do you just disapprove of their methods?”
