by C. G. Hatton
He gave a half shrug, half shake of the head. “I haven’t seen her since I was thirteen.”
She put her hand on his shoulder, thinking he was funny. He could pick that up without trying. Sweet and funny, and she was thinking that she would do anything for him.
Christ, that was hard to hear.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Luka,” she said softly and just hearing her say his real name made him almost lose it. “How are we going to talk to you if you don’t have a Senson and you can’t do your thing?”
His thing. She knew. He hadn’t told her. Hadn’t had a chance to explain and now she knew.
His chest felt hollow, like he’d forgotten how to breathe, like his heart had forgotten how to beat by itself.
“Just let me find her,” he mumbled, “and we’ll get straight out. We can’t be down there when they get here.”
She rubbed his shoulder again. “I know. Get some rest. We’ll wake you up when we’re closer.”
He couldn’t sleep, not with the hive so close as it was. Flashbacks were prickling just below the surface of his mind. And when Edinburgh began to reel off stats and sitreps as they headed in, his realities threatened to clash and merge, old memories mixing with the latest nightmares.
Hanover was under martial law. Word had reached the place already, ships of all shapes and sizes answering the mayday call and flooding into the system to help with the evacuation. The space port was in chaos, even those with a shit load of money having to fight to find a way off the planet.
He went and sat in the ship’s tiny mess area, head back, eyes closed and feet up, trying to keep his head in neutral.
“You stay close, you understand?” Sienna was saying.
He nodded.
He couldn’t help listening in to the comms, struggling to stop himself falling back to that dark night on Kheris when a schoolteacher, who owed him nothing, had defied armed soldiers to let him onto the school bus and through the gates.
It was weird to hear the panic in the distant communications and know what it was like down there already. It had been over ten years ago and he could remember every detail as though it was yesterday.
They were just in time. It was going to be a race to get down there, find her and get the hell out before the aliens descended en mass to obliterate what defences the colony had managed to establish, and subjugate what was left for their own devices. He’d seen what the Bhenykhn fleet could do ship to ship out in space and in low orbit. They had no defences against that. No one did. They needed to be gone before the bastards arrived and it was going to be tighter than tight.
They geared up before they hit orbit. LC refused the body armour someone thrust into his hand, getting a glare from Sienna. She shoved it back into his arms and gave him no choice, tying a guard too tight around his neck, and leaning in to whisper in his ear, “You wanna do this, you do it our way. Let’s keep this lovely throat of yours intact this time, shall we?”
She thrust a helmet at him with a grin, followed by a belt weighed down with ammo pouches and holsters, and a rifle.
Sean was watching as he checked the mechanism, slick and practised, thinking he looked used to it, thinking that he used to be so averse to carrying a gun, thinking that he really had changed. And it wasn’t just the scars he was carrying.
He looked up and caught her eye.
“They have energy shields, you know that, right?” he said, torn between wanting her to know everything and wanting to protect her from it.
“I know. I’ve read the reports. Don’t worry.”
How the hell was he supposed to not worry?
He pulled the belt round his waist and cinched it tight. The combat jacket he was wearing was bulky, the body armour uncomfortable. There wasn’t much point, the protection it gave was more psychological. Bhenykhn weapons went straight through light armour anyway. And what was freaking him out even more wasn’t so much that Sean was watching with that look on her face but that the others were. They were all worried about him.
Sienna edged past, securing a flask to his belt and palming a couple of ampoules into his hand.
Sean didn’t miss it and he felt a flush hit his cheeks as he tucked them away in a pocket.
“That isn’t go-juice, is it?” she said.
“Sean…” He didn’t know how to say back the hell off, what the hell do you care what it takes me to get through every minute of every day, you haven’t been here.
He froze as soon as it crossed his mind. He glanced up and his stomach flipped when he saw her looking at him the same way she had when they were at Jiro Tierney’s place on Tortuga, when he’d said he was a thief.
He couldn’t help seeing it in her mind. She wasn’t impressed. Not impressed with him. Not impressed with Sienna and not happy that someone else was helping him in a way she couldn’t, a way she wouldn’t want to. And she was pissed off at herself for being stupid enough to think that the guild would take care of him. And they hadn’t.
“Sean…”
Hilyer broke the tension by pushing between them and saying loudly, “So come on then, LC, who the hell is it we’re going in there for?”
They dropped planetside, leaving behind the Thundercloud and the MOV in orbit amongst a host of other massive deep spacers that had turned up. The airspace around them, above the capital, was full of drop ships, shuttles and smaller vessels, all dropping down to attempt an evacuation and fleeing as soon as they were full. He could feel the fear and panic from every individual as a sickening, dire weight in his stomach.
Duncan took over the comm, communicating a fast update, using Earth codes and relaying the latest packet of intel that Evelyn had authorised be issued galaxy-wide. They were ordered to stand the hell by and wait for a goddamned runway or land wherever the hell they could.
“Don’t go to the port,” LC muttered. “Sean, anywhere else but not the port.”
He expected Edinburgh to argue and override anything he said but she acquiesced, picked up speed and dropped them right in the heart of the city, in an open area that was some kind of park, the extraction teams scouting ahead and the grunts of the combat unit spilling out of the drop ships and establishing a temporary cordon around them. They had other targets to acquire as well, other priority evacuees, and the Security sergeant made it clear the ships couldn’t stay where they were, not without risking being overrun or worse. “It’s bad enough as it is,” he was saying. “We do not want to have to start shooting here, for Christ’s sake.”
LC walked off Sean’s ship and waited, breathing calmly, rifle slung across his back, the helmet and armour heavy in the warmth of the late afternoon sun, while Duncan talked with the grunts. The big man was tense, combat-ready, thoughts locked down tight but unease filtering through.
Air raid warning sirens were wailing throughout the city.
“We’re going,” the sergeant said. “Call us in when you need us.”
He overheard Sean saying pretty much the same to Edinburgh. They couldn’t afford to lose any ships here.
LC pulled sunglasses out of his jacket and slipped them on, staring vaguely in the direction he needed to go. It was hard to stop himself from scanning ahead but he didn’t know if he’d recognise her even if he found her. He could see the map in his head, waited, and ignored the concern emanating from Sean and the others. He’d run tabs like this, using the confusion of a combat situation to infiltrate the target, full stealth. This time there was no need to hide. There was nowhere to hide.
Duncan turned, gave him the nod, then he ran.
He could hear Sienna swearing as she ran alongside him, feel the tension in her every muscle, taut as a wire. Hilyer was on his other side, five Hailstones buzzing out in a defensive formation. Sean and Duncan weren’t far behind.
The main streets were packed, log-jammed, cars and buses surrounded by people pushing past them, running.
LC ran along the main drag, forcing his way through the crowds, bumping past vehicl
es that were spewing steam from overheating engines, running against the flow of people, kicking up dust, thinking of nothing but putting one foot in front of the other and getting to the schoolhouse.
A gunship flew low overhead, guild, circling back and covering them as they moved.
The emotions swelling all around were getting overwhelming. He glanced over his shoulder and yelled, “I can’t do this. We need to get up high,” veering left without waiting, Sienna and Hilyer keeping up with him as he dodged into a narrow alley and ran up steep steps.
The city was a maze of old and new structures, winding alleyways, terraces and balconies. The white walls were bright with the reflected light of the lowering sun, greenery spilling from brilliant blue and terracotta pots lining the streets.
He didn’t stop, vaulting up onto a wall, sprinting along and leaping up off railings onto a balcony and from there up to the roof. It was easy enough then to run over the rooftops, jumping gaps between buildings, sweat dripping down his back, and the chin strap of the helmet rubbing. He unslung the rifle and ran with it balanced in one hand, ignoring the noise and panic of the rabble in the streets below.
He could tell before he got there that the school had been pretty much abandoned. He dropped down off the roof and ran across the yard, into the building he’d only ever seen in financial reports, stuff he’d had sent to him that he’d never given a second’s glance, pushing through the doors and into cool corridors that were deserted.
He spun around, ran and bumped through double doors into a dining room. Scared faces looked up at him, children who were waiting to be evacuated in the next batch, the teachers in there standing up at the sudden intrusion, not sure from the looks on their faces and the emotions they hit him with whether he was there to hurt them or help them.
He backed off, feeling sick at the onslaught.
He could scan for life signs even ship to ship out in deep space, recognise people he knew and tell what mood they were in. Trying to find someone he hadn’t seen for over ten years was tough but not impossible. It didn’t take much to know that she wasn’t amongst them.
“She’s not here,” he said, desperate.
Sienna was right at his side. “Where is she?”
LC closed his eyes and scanned out, risking detection but he didn’t care. They were too close and it was too tight.
“I don’t know,” he said, out of breath. “There’s too many people.”
Sienna shoved him. “Concentrate. C’mon, everyone’s trying to get to the space port. Where are they?”
She looked round, listening.
LC might not have had a Senson but he heard her thoughts as she listened in to hers, overheard Hilyer say to her, “There’s a string of buses out on the highway. They’re from this school. Give me a minute…”
Hil was checking with the colony’s databases, speaking direct to the AIs controlling the place.
It was strange to be so far out of the loop.
LC started walking towards the front door without waiting. He called back to Sienna, “Tell Sean and Hal to get these kids out of here. We can’t leave them.”
He scanned ahead and found the buses, teeming with scared children of all ages, teachers at the edges of their nerves, law enforcement officers trying and failing to clear a way out for them, the thoughts and emotions he was picking up raw and desperate. If she was there, he couldn’t tell. Not for sure.
“She’s there,” Sienna shouted. “Hil said she’s there.”
LC ran. Through the school, out through the front and back into the street.
This time he was running with the flow. He edged past people, avoiding them, managing to not shove anyone or cause any more upset than there was, making his way out onto the main roads leading to the space port, vaguely aware that Sienna was following and catching glimpses of Hilyer when he glanced back. He jumped up onto the roofs of vehicles and jumped from one to the next, climbing up onto a bridge support and swinging up onto the highway.
The buses weren’t going anywhere. The sun was setting, shadows lengthening, a heat haze rising from the road ahead that mingled with the steam and heat from the vehicles to create an almost mirage, an image that wasn’t quite real. The noise of people shouting, arguing, screaming for help, all faded into the background as he walked, calm, in amongst the pressing crowd of panicking bodies. He slung the rifle, and focused on one bus and the next, mind to mind until he found the one he was looking for.
She was there. He had no idea how he recognised her after all this time but he knew it was her.
He grabbed the door and climbed the steps. It was sweltering inside the bus, even with the windows open. God knows where the driver had gone but there was just a huddle of kids, the older ones trying to calm the younger ones, a girl of about fifteen standing in the aisle, dark hair in bunches, turning as she heard the door open and freezing as she saw him there.
Her dark eyes stared right into his.
She didn’t know who the hell this freaking soldier was, standing there with a rifle on his back, staring at her, but she wasn’t scared.
The defiance was the same. The way she lifted her chin was exactly the same.
LC fumbled to release the strap of his helmet and tipped it off his head, grabbing the sunglasses with his other hand.
Recognition flared in her eyes, disbelief, relief, a wariness that she didn’t know if she could be sure. But then she stepped forward and said hesitantly in little more than a whisper, “Luka?”
He nodded and she ran at him, throwing herself at him the way she had that night.
“I knew you’d come for me,” she breathed into his neck.
He hugged her tight, hearing Sienna thumping on the door, yelling him to get his ass moving.
“We need to go,” he said.
Spacey nodded, like she was five again. “All of us,” she said. “You have to take all of us.”
Chapter 8
“The child is a sentimental fool.”
The Man raised his eyes. “Did you not know that Luka was funding a private school on Hanover?”
Sebastian shrugged. “No, but I know that he’s as weak and emotional as the rest of them, so no, it doesn’t surprise me.”
It wasn’t surprising. The Thieves’ Guild had always been one of the wealthiest organisations in the galaxy. Guild operatives were paid well. But not well enough to fund an entire school. He read the rest from the Man’s mind and shook his head. “You were subsidising the boy’s donations. How noble.” He looked deeper and gave a snort of derision. “Even more precious. You funded a peace treaty between Earth and Winter to ensure stability on Hanover? Now that does surprise me. That must have cost a fortune. You would invest that much to humour a shallow gesture driven by guilt from a boy you virtually kidnapped?” He laughed. “Of course you would. If only you had thought to make such investment elsewhere.”
•
LC herded them out of the bus and led them through the crowds, against the flow of bodies, all the kids holding hands. He kept glancing back to check on them, saw the older ones watching Hilyer and his little gang of Hailstones warily. It was tech they’d never seen and they didn’t know if they could trust it. They were looking at Sienna the same way, wondering who they were, a couple of them looking at him and thinking that Spacey had been telling the truth the whole time. God knows what she’d been saying.
Sienna sidled up next to him. “We need to speed this up,” she said. “Apparently the recon ship just shifted mass in system. We need to get out of here. Edinburgh is coming in now and she is not happy.”
LC nodded. “Where?” he said. “Where can it land?”
The highway was surrounded by buildings, the road itself packed with vehicles.
“Space port is overcrowded. Gotta be the park.”
“We’re not going to make it.” He dragged Spacey into a run, feeling the others panic behind them.
“The park,” Hilyer shouted from the back of the line. “She’s going to t
he park.”
They dropped down off the highway, leading the kids down a slip road and into the shade of an underpass. LC could feel himself slowing, nausea welling in the pit of his stomach as the pressure in his mind increased. He had Spacey on one side, hand firmly gripping his as if she’d never let go, and Sienna on the other, nudging him, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him along.
“What’s wrong?” she hissed. “LC, what…”
He missed the rest as an immense shockwave hit his mind, like the headache from hell, hitting fast, blisteringly painful, blocking out everything else in an instant. He felt his knees go, hit the floor and curled up, swearing, internal temperature shooting sky high. His eyes were watering or bleeding, he wasn’t sure, ears ringing under the relentless force. He had to battle to get it under control enough that he could breathe, awareness filtering back slowly, someone loosening off his jacket and the neck guard, popping shots into his wrist.
He managed to push it into the background, hands trembling, managing to mutter out loud that he was good, and picking up from Sienna that she didn’t believe him and from the kids that they thought he was going to die.
They were here. The Bhenykhn were here. He could feel the full force of the hive, feel the fighters incoming, the fleet approaching fast, revelling in the kills to come. NG had shown him how to block it out but hell, it was hard.
He raised his eyes. Spacey was still clutching his hand, alarmed at the blood dripping down his face. He heard her whisper to Hilyer, “What’s wrong with him?”
He didn’t catch Hil’s reply, just let go of her hand as Hil pulled her away, one arm around her shoulders, talking quietly.
“They’re here,” LC muttered, wiping his face with his sleeve. Yep, it was blood. “Just give me a minute.” He got to his knees and tried to breathe through it. Christ, it felt like it got worse each time he encountered it. He should be used to it. Should be getting easier not worse but it felt like he was more sensitive the more he was exposed. Especially on that first hit.
