by C. G. Hatton
There were troops sweeping through the entire complex. Deep rumbles echoed through the pipelines and conduits. McKenzie was right – there was no way this attack was coincidence.
He led Sean up through the substructure, racing Fiorrentino to the surface. LC was anticipating where the guy was going, no time to hook back in to the security system to check, and running on pure, desperate instinct.
It was going to be close.
They made it to ground level and he listened for a second before dropping down from a maintenance hatch into a wide open concourse. It was dark, eerie white light reflecting in through the broken remnants of shattered windows from floodlights illuminating the airstrip. He glanced around, opening his mind a fraction to scan for company. Sean landed next to him, gun out, casting around herself, not liking that they were out in the open, exposed.
LC flinched as he picked up a surge of emotion heading in. He shoved Sean into a run and they made it to the shadows on the edge of the dome before a door crashed open and a group of corporate suits appeared, dishevelled, herded by a unit of soldiers in dark nondescript uniforms who were moving with the coordinated precision of experienced bodyguards.
“That’s him,” LC sent to Sean through the wire, recognising the man from the files. Fiorrentino was looking rough, shirt bloodstained and barely holding in an immense anger. “And that’s Anya.”
She was struggling to keep up, pulled along by a guy who was holding her arm. LC stared. It felt like a fist gripped his heart and squeezed tight. Mendhel had never let them get as close as they wanted, warning him off the first time they’d met as kids. LC hadn’t even seen her in almost three years. Except for that night on Earth, in the storm, where they’d been shown the recording of her pleading them to help.
He twitched as the soldier dragged her forward. Sean placed a hand on his wrist, holding him back.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she sent. “I don’t see Hil, do you?”
LC shook his head. He could feel Sean beside him slowly taking items from her belt. She squeezed his hand and placed two grenades in his palm. “Make sure you throw them far enough, we don’t want to get caught in the blast.”
The soldiers were leading the group across the centre of the open area. LC edged around, waited for Sean’s signal and tossed in the concussion grenades. The dome lit up and echoed with the clatter of bodies and weapons hitting the floor.
LC ran. He skidded to a halt, sliding in beside Anya, and gently pulled her away from the grasp of the soldier lying next to her. He had absolute confidence that Sean was covering him. He picked Anya up, cradling her head against his shoulder, and carried her away.
It was cold outside. They huddled in the shelter of the doorway watching gunships fly low over the complex, searchlights sweeping in wild arcs, knowing that troops could be running out after them any minute.
He could smell Anya’s hair, a soft perfume amidst the scent of smoke.
They paused, waited for a break and ran, making it to the shelter of a bombed out hangar and hunkering down as another beam of bright light cut up the darkness in front of them. Anya stirred as LC set her down. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face, aware that Sean was watching them with mixed emotions.
“Hey,” he said quietly as the woman Mendhel’s little girl had grown into opened her eyes. She was stunning, beautiful, even though her face was smeared with dirt and soot. He didn’t even know where she’d been living the past few years. Mendhel had always just said she was fine, and they’d respected his privacy.
She blinked and reached a hesitant hand to touch his cheek as if she didn’t believe he was real. “LC,” she whispered. “It’s you. It’s really you.”
Sean stood and looked around. “LC,” she sent privately, “we have a real problem. Edinburgh can’t make it back in here.”
He glanced up, hadn’t even thought that far ahead. He took hold of Anya’s hand and said softly, “Where’s Hil, Anya?”
Dismay crossed her face. LC resisted looking into her mind. His head was still pounding. He didn’t know how he was keeping it at bay but whatever he was doing was making it more bearable. He didn’t dare risk trying anything that could make him lose it again. He couldn’t bear the thought of letting that onslaught back in.
Anya sucked in a shaky breath. “He’s dead, LC. They killed him.”
Chapter 34
NG watched as the Man moved the fallen queen to join the neat row of discarded figures at the edge of the board.
“In everything you’ve ever taught me,” NG said, “the hardest is that we sometimes have to make sacrifices.”
“It is never easy,” the Man said gently.
The flame of the candle was down to a small burning ember and the darkness was closing in.
NG rubbed a hand across his eyes. “If we’d known earlier that it was Zang who was behind this we could have protected our people more. We could have hit harder with more precision.”
“Hindsight,” the Man said. “Never look back and never question what may have been, NG. What is, is. We learn and we look forward.”
He poured the rest of the wine from the jug into the two cups, vapour trails winding lazily up to disappear into the darkness surrounding them.
NG reached for his goblet, looking at the configuration of pieces arrayed on the chequered board between them. It was over.
“We’ve lost some good people,” he said quietly.
“We have,” the Man said, raising his goblet, “and we will lose more before this is finished.”
NG raised his own. It was never going to be finished. Zang Tsu Po had precipitated events faster than the Man had liked but it was only in the direction that Earth and Winter had been heading anyway. The guild was caught between two powerful factions and was the only chance humanity had to survive the coming onslaught that had nothing to do with either side.
He looked from piece to piece, his two knights poised in readiness, and moved his bishop to trap the Man’s king in a final sweeping attack. Checkmate.
•
It didn’t register. Sean put a hand on his shoulder.
“What the hell was Hil even doing here?” LC said, more harshly than he intended, shivering, feeling that shock begin to encroach again.
Anya blinked long eyelashes at him. “He came here for me, LC. I knew you’d get the package. I knew you’d come to rescue me.”
He was vaguely aware of Sean moving away. She was uncomfortable and he couldn’t help but feel her own dismay. She’d liked Hil.
LC rubbed a hand across his eyes. He’d always known it was possible that Hil could be in trouble but to be so close…
He sat back, rubble digging into his back.
Anya lifted her hand to his face again, gently tracing the bruising under his eye. “I knew you’d do it for me.”
A gunship roared overhead, sweeping round and flying over the low domes of the complex, explosions blossoming out beneath as it passed. LC flinched, grabbing Anya and shielding her, heat flaring and fragments flying around them. The pop of dark void hit him again and again.
“Sean?” he managed to send frantically. He didn’t want to lose her too.
“I’m fine,” she sent back. “We need to go, LC. We have to get away from here.”
He wavered, finding it hard to move, limbs feeling weak as the cold darkness of so many deaths spread over him. He couldn’t keep it out.
An arm gripped his shoulders gently and drew him away.
“What’s wrong with him?” he heard Anya say, sounding distant.
I wish I knew, Sean was thinking, close up, breaking through his barriers. She was worried about him. A jab hit his neck. “I can’t give you any more of this,” she breathed into his ear.
He could feel the explosions in the depths of the complex below them, each shock of void hitting hard. He tried to shut it out, feeling sick, wanting to sink to the floor and curl into a ball until it was over.
“LC, Luka, come on. Look at me.
”
He struggled to open his eyes. “We need to get away from here,” he muttered.
Sean nodded. “Yes, we do.”
She told them to wait and ran off into the darkness. He didn’t know where she found the car, but she warned him as she approached, lights off, that it was her.
They had to help him up and he huddled in the back, shivering, Anya beside him, clutching his hand.
Sean drove fast, avoiding the sweep of the searchlights, bumping over rough ground to get away from the horror of the massacre.
He’d felt the violent passing of every individual that had died in there. It was ironic – he’d come here wishing revenge on the people who had killed Mendhel and he’d seen it, living every moment of it with them. Dying with them.
It felt like he’d never stop shaking. He stared out of the window to the horizon, starting to feel more in control as they increased the distance.
Sean avoided the roads, the neatly landscaped area around the base giving way to rough scrubland that stretched across the top of the plateau. It got peaceful fast, the sky an inky black once they left the artificial lights of the corporate complex.
There was a small copse of trees ahead and LC fixated on that dark shape as Sean swerved the vehicle towards it.
She pulled up and killed the engine. “We need to wait here,” she said.
Anya squeezed LC’s hand. “Wait for what?”
Sean looked back at them. “The ship that’s coming down for us.”
LC sent privately, “Edinburgh? I thought you said she couldn’t make it. Aren’t they still shooting down everything?”
“Yes, they are. I didn’t mean Edinburgh. It’s the Duck. Elliott’s been shielding us – how did you think we got out of that compound without anyone chasing us?”
LC sat in the back of the car with one arm around Anya who was leaning on him and still grasping his hand as if she was afraid to let go.
Sean got out, leaving the door open and letting a damp, cold breeze creep in. His internal temperature dropped another notch but he still felt too nauseous to move to close it.
Sean paced around the vehicle, talking to Edinburgh. He didn’t try to listen in, head too delicate, clear of the constant barrage but sore.
Anya stirred. “I knew you’d do it for me,” she murmured.
“Of course we did,” he said softly. “We weren’t going to leave you there.”
“I told them,” she said, still half dazed from the effects of the concussion grenades.
Something jarred. He resisted taking a look inside her mind, hesitant to risk losing the level of control he was barely managing. “What did you tell them, Anya?”
“That you’d get it for me.”
“Get it?” A cold chill settled in the pit of his stomach. “How did they know about us, Anya?”
She nuzzled into his shoulder. “MJ told them,” she said innocently, groggily. “MJ and Kase.”
The chill twisted into a knot. LC looked up. Sean was watching, leaning on the open door.
“MJ and Kase?” she sent through the wire.
“Extraction agents,” he sent back, struggling to keep his heart rate steady.
“Guild extraction agents?”
He nodded, the knot gnawing deeper inside. “They’re missing, awol.” Martha and Kase. Christ. They’d pulled his ass out of the fire too many times to count. It was almost impossible to see them betraying the guild, even harder to see them setting Mendhel up to be killed. “MJ is Hil’s ex-girlfriend. They’ve had an on-off thing going for years.”
“And what? They’re working for Zang?”
Martha had got Hil killed. LC shivered. “I don’t know if I can go back, Sean.”
She hesitated, as if she didn’t know how far she could push him. “NG needs to know.”
“He probably does by now. He might have known all along.”
She frowned, looking at Anya nestled there against him, unconscious after everything she’d been through, vulnerable and pushing all LC’s buttons. “You have to trust him, Luka. You said it yourself, you’re done running. Please LC, it’s time to go back.”
The sound of the waves crashing against the natural barrier of the breakwater was hypnotic. It was warm and dry, the mid-summer heat lasting into late afternoon.
LC sat on the end of the rocky outcrop, feeling the cool spray mist his face each time a wave broke. He was finally warm right through.
Sean was back at the cabin, close enough for him to sense her there, far enough for it to feel like he was alone.
They’d left the Duck at Aston. It had been hard to leave Anya but sending her to Pen was the only way he’d know she was safe. Gallagher had been happy enough to detour and Hal Duncan had offered to take her down to the planet. LC had sent a message to Pen then split with Sean and Edinburgh.
He knew he had to go in. It was never going to be the same, not without Mendhel and Hil, but the guild wasn’t going to let him disappear, tempting as it was to try to convince Sean to vanish with him. He’d tried anyway and she’d compromised – a few days alone at a place she went to pains to make sure no one could find. And as soon as they’d landed, she’d sent Edinburgh to fetch NG. LC had read it in her mind, along with an intense regret that she had to deliver him to the Alsatia at all.
He stretched his legs out and leaned back, feeling the sun on his face. He’d heard the roar of engines as they landed a little while back. Any minute now NG would walk up and that would be it.
NG was the Man’s right hand. NG was the guild.
LC was rogue. No one ever walked away from the guild and this panicked feeling of having been caught finally was worse than when he’d screwed up badly enough to end up in the hands of the bounty hunters on Tortuga. It took a massive inner strength to keep his heart rate low and steady, breathing deep and calm as he watched the waves build and crest.
He became aware of someone approaching from the headland behind him and closed his eyes, reaching out cautiously to read their intention. What he felt hit deep and he got to his feet and turned, shading his eyes to look out down the length of the breakwater.
Hilyer was limping, something almost like guilt fluttering around his mind, an apprehension like he couldn’t really believe it was LC there in front of him and an awkward agitation that he didn’t know how much LC knew.
Damn, it was good to see him.
Hil grinned as soon as he was close enough to see it was him. “Hey, LC,” he sent through the Senson, “NG says get your butt back to the guild – he has a job for us.”
“I was thinking a few more days by the sea,” he sent back with a grin. “A few beers, tequila…”
He stood and watched as Hilyer walked up and they stood slightly apart for a second, looking at each other, grinning like idiots. Hil had a scar on his forehead and was favouring his left hand side, meds dampening the sharp edge of pain that LC was picking up.
“It’s good to see you,” Hil said quietly.
“It’s good to see you’re alive.”
“And kicking.” Hil grinned again and stepped forward, grabbing LC in a hug. They slapped each other on the back. Awkward. As close as they’d always been since they were kids, they’d never been hugging types.
LC pulled away. “You look like shit. What happened?”
“Crashed Skye – she’s okay. Got screwed by the guild. Started a war. How about you?”
Hil was being flippant and trying desperately to figure out how to say that Mendhel was dead.
“I know about Mend,” LC said softly.
They stood in silence for a while then Hil gave up trying to stay standing and eased himself down onto the rocks. They sat on the edge of the breakwater and looked out to sea, watching the sunlight glint off the surface of the water. LC shut out the confusion milling around Hil and resisted the urge to read the whole story direct from his mind. He didn’t need to – Hil would fill him in when he was ready.
It was peaceful and it felt like the universe had
given up chasing them, even if only for a few moments.
“Pen took care of the guy who killed him,” Hil said eventually.
“Good,” LC said. “I found Anya. I sent her to Pen. She should be safe there.”
Hil snapped his head round to stare, a pop of shock hitting his mind that LC couldn’t avoid.
“You did what?” Hil said sharply.
LC blinked, confused at the emotions he was picking up. “What?” he said hesitantly.
“Anya,” Hil said with dismay. “When did you see Anya?”
“About a week ago. I sent her to Pen. She’ll be safe. I trust the people I left her with.”
Hilyer was still staring. LC couldn’t help but look, seeing her face in his mind, hearing her words resound around Hil’s thoughts, ‘You forced me to this. And all I want now is that package’.
The cold knot stabbed deep inside. “Hil?” he said and listened, detached, as Hil told him everything Anya had thrown at him in a small room deep in the bowels of Zang’s underground complex.
“She told me you were dead,” LC said quietly when he’d finished, trying to think back, trying to figure out how he’d missed it. He hadn’t even thought to look into her mind; even once they’d got clear of the death and destruction that was screwing him up so badly, he hadn’t once considered looking into her thoughts.
“She’s barking mad,” Hil said, anger stinging deep inside from the betrayal. He picked up a pebble and tossed it up and down in his hand.
“What about MJ? Anya said it was Martha and Kase that set us up. Was that another lie?”
Hil rubbed at the scar on his forehead. “I wish it was. LC, I don’t know. Kase is dead. MJ killed him.” He looked up sheepishly. “He was about to shoot me. She wasn’t working for Zang but she’s not guild either. I don’t know if she ever has been. NG thinks she’s been some kind of plant the whole time she’s been with us.”
It was hard to overhear the distress Hil was keeping locked up inside thinking about her. MJ had got Hil out of there alive. They’d probably been there when he was there with Sean.
