Something kept her standing and something kept that gun in her hand. Call it training, call it courage, call it something else. It didn’t matter.
Deep within Nida was the determination and drive she needed not to give up.
But she would need more to face what would come next.
Just as Nida shook at the sound of a blast from downstairs, she heard something to her side.
A scrabbling sound.
She ran forward, expecting to see some sort of grappling hook. She would shoot it off before any lithe soldier had the opportunity to jump onto her roof.
She reached the scrabbling, saw the hook, and shot it clean off the roof.
Then she turned.
As she did, a fist cut through the dark and slammed into her jaw.
Nida stumbled back, dropping the gun as she did.
It skidded over the roof, falling into one of the drains.
She tried to grab for it; she wasn’t quick enough.
Turning slowly, she saw a figure in jet-back, bulky armor.
He loomed over her, one hand curled into a fist.
Nida waited.
She didn’t cry.
She didn’t scream.
She didn’t beg.
She waited for the soldier to kill her.
But the soldier didn’t.
Instead, he took a step back, turned over his shoulder to track the path of the plasma gun, then nodded, no doubt content it was now out of reach.
‘Don’t move,’ the soldier said simply.
Nida didn’t.
Blood streamed down her nose and over her lips. It was hard to breathe. Each panting inhalation brought with it the tinge of iron.
Silence descended between them. Though no silence could be complete with the cacophony below. The shouts and shots and engines swelling together like the beat of a tribal drum.
The soldier appeared to assess Nida. Though the man wore a helmet, it was directed down at her.
‘What?’ Nida asked quietly.
The soldier didn’t answer.
He took a step back though, considering her from another angle.
‘What do you want with me?’ Nida tried to get up.
The soldier shook his head in a quick, almost violent tick.
Nida froze.
Her blood still streamed down her face, completely covering her chest.
‘Whatever you do to me, know this: I won’t help you,’ Nida said determinedly.
‘Yes, you will,’ the soldier said simply.
Though the voice was distorted, Nida suddenly recognized it. Now she peered at the armor, she recognized that too. ‘Cara?’ She accused in a shaking voice.
Cara didn’t react immediately, then she slowly removed her helmet, flicking her long white hair out behind her. She looked down at Nida with a terrifying expression. It wasn’t exactly angry. It was still awed, but it had a desperate, cold edge to it as if Cara now looked upon some powerful and forbidden weapon.
Nida shook back at that thought.
She felt cold again.
Stone, stone cold.
Her fingers locked hard around her arms and she drew her torso down, trying to hold in the warmth she could.
The entity . . . was it corrupting?
Was this why she felt so utterly frozen?
Cara watched her with silent interest, but did not say nor do anything.
‘Why are you just standing there? Do something. Say something,’ Nida screamed.
Cara didn’t react.
‘You’re waiting for Carson, aren’t you?’ Nida now realized, trembling as she spoke her words.
Cara nodded once.
Nida got to her feet. She didn’t care that Cara took a menacing step her way.
‘I don’t know who you are,’ Nida said through bared teeth, ‘but whatever you’re planning won’t work. Carson will stop you.’
Cara didn’t react. Not a smile, not a word, nothing.
She just waited.
And Nida was forced to wait with her.
With the building shaking underneath her and the shouts a constant drone from below, she sat there as cold as ice waiting for someone to save her. For, no matter how strong she had pretended to be, apparently she was not strong enough.
She should never have joined the Academy. She should never have gone down to Remus 12.
The entity needed someone else; someone capable and powerful enough to get it home. And the United Galactic Coalition deserved better; someone strong and diligent enough to save it from the future that lay ahead.
The wind began to pick up, roaring over the high roof and sending Nida’s blood-covered hair cutting across her face. It whipped against her cheeks and closed eyes, stinging the flesh.
She could no longer smell the terrible, acrid tang that permeated this city, only the blood clogging her nostrils.
Feeling more alone than she ever would, Nida kept her eyes closed and waited.
Chapter 24
Carson Blake
The building was a nightmare. Troops were everywhere on the streets below it, yet with a croaking breath he realized they weren’t trying to get to the roof.
They just stood there.
In fact, there were only two figures on the roof—Nida and someone else.
That someone else scared Carson senseless. It was the reason that saw him tear down the street and slam into a garrison of soldiers.
He no longer bothered to engage in combat—he just surged forward like a boulder rolling down a hill. If the grass couldn’t get out of his way, it would be flattened.
The soldiers shot at him, and again a few fired rockets. Yet Carson dodged them all.
Though his armor certainly was complaining at his frantic level of activity, it was still operating at near 100% capacity.
It would take more than this time had to take him down.
He held onto that fact as he held onto the building.
That’s right.
Rather than go inside and fight his way to the top, he took the direct route; he climbed up the brick and concrete as if it were a ladder.
He punched his fingers into the stone, powder flying out at the force of his move.
It caked his torso and helmet as he powered up the side of the building with frightful speed.
Planting his feet into the flat wall, he pushed up, finally grabbing the lip of the wall that ran around the roof.
Then he reached it.
He reached her.
His scanners had already confirmed she was there, but it was different to see her.
Immediate.
Visceral.
His heart skipped an infinity of beats as time slowed down.
He saw her crumpled on the floor, blood splashed over her face from a nasty gash over her nose.
She turned to him. Her eyes flashing wide, she screamed, ‘watch out.’ Her voice was a croaky, hoarse mess.
He didn’t watch out.
He ran right up to her.
Blame it on the armor. But right now it made him feel like a god amongst mortals. The people of this planet didn’t have a single weapon that could harm him—his run through the streets with an entire army at his heels had confirmed that.
He ignored her warning.
He reached her.
He intended to dive to his knees, grab her up, and then just jump off the frigging building.
There was no longer time to think. Just to act.
He reached her.
He knew there was someone else on this roof; his scanners told him as such. But he didn’t care.
. . . .
That would be his downfall.
His heart did a funny thing as he finally collapsed his arms around Nida.
It didn’t feel like it belonged to him anymore. It felt bigger. Stretched. Whole.
There was no time to enjoy the sensation.
Something came snaking out of the shadows.
A grenade.
He grabbed it with his free h
and and, without pause, crushed it, destroying the explosive mechanism before it could detonate.
Nida flinched back.
He wouldn’t let her fall.
He turned.
Then he saw her.
Cara.
She stood there, another grenade in her hand, her helmet off, hair whipping over her face and around her shoulders.
She didn’t say a word.
Carson hesitated.
‘Put her down,’ Cara warned.
‘Hell no,’ he snapped.
He turned to jump. To sail right over the roof.
He had to get Nida out of here.
‘Do it, or I’ll kill her.’
‘You aren’t going to risk her,’ Carson wagered.
He knew he was right. Everyone wanted Nida. Whatever had happened to her, whatever the entity meant, the people of this time were awed by it.
Well right now it was time to use that fact.
‘You’re right. I won’t kill her. That’s why you should put her down before I kill you,’ Cara said plainly.
She had such a direct way of speaking. Once he’d been infatuated by it.
Now he realized how dangerous she truly was.
The look in her eye—that passion that had once drawn him in—instantly he understood it.
Loyalty.
Blinding, crippling loyalty.
The kind of fundamentalist devotion that would see someone sacrifice everything, from their family to their planet, for some cause.
‘Put her down,’ Cara said as she threw her grenade in the air and caught it distractedly.
‘No,’ Carson turned on his foot and headed for the edge of the roof.
It was almost ten meters away.
He didn’t reach it.
Cara threw the grenade, then another.
There was no time to catch them—they detonated immediately.
Carson pitched to the side, trying to protect Nida from the bulk of the explosion.
He tucked himself over her, but it wasn’t enough.
She screamed as shrapnel ate into her left leg, blood splattering across his helmet.
Then he heard another faint ping, ping, ping, as another grenade rolled to his side.
He put out a foot to crush it.
He managed to just in time, but then Cara threw yet another grenade.
This time Carson faltered.
He fell to his knees and crumpled his body over Nida just as the section of roof they were on started to groan. The concrete cracked, fissures moving through it like holes forming in the very earth. Pitching to the side, he managed to roll with Nida in his arms, bringing her to safety just as the section of roof gave way.
Cara walked forward. Calmly. He could hear her measured, unhurried footfall.
He turned to see her reach around and grab a grappling gun. She aimed it at Carson, then twisted until it centered on Nida’s already injured leg.
He moved in front of Nida.
‘We want her alive, but what condition she’s in will depend on you,’ Cara noted passionlessly.
He’d once been so attached to that strength. So intrigued by how powerful she was.
Now it terrified him.
‘You won’t get through this city. Your armor might be a match for our army, but she will be your liability. You’re bulletproof, Carson, but she isn’t. You take her down there, and a stray bullet or two will slice through her with ease.
Carson felt cold.
Weak even.
Cara was right.
But she was also wrong.
He could get her out of here; he just had to fight, not run.
He stood up, keeping the bulk of his armor before Nida as she sat on the ground and clutched at her injury.
‘This isn’t going to happen,’ he stated in a dark tone that rang with every note of authority he could muster. He was head of the Force; he was a lieutenant in the United Galactic Coalition army.
He could win.
And he would.
He curled his hands into fists. First the left one, then the right.
‘Go on, fight me,’ Cara offered simply. ‘But aren’t you going to ask if it was all an act first?’
Carson didn’t answer.
‘Don’t you want to know why I’m doing this?’ She challenged.
He shook his head.
He knew.
He’d misjudged her. He hadn’t appreciated the true source of her power and skill. ‘I know what you’re doing.’
‘Protecting my country, my people, my world,’ she added bitterly.
‘Don’t confuse protection for oppression,’ Carson cautioned. ‘Look around you, Cara; this isn’t worth protecting.’ He gestured to the cold spires and buildings, to the fences, to the wire, to the weapons.
‘We won’t give up our planet for the future,’ she hissed.
It was a strange statement, and one that didn’t entirely make sense. Was she referring to Nida’s vision, or something else?
He didn’t have the time to question her.
She sprinted forward, throwing herself at him, yet trying to get off a shot at Nida with her grappling gun at the same time.
With a guttural cry, Carson slammed the gun from her hand.
As he did, Cara buckled forward, throwing herself over his right arm.
He could feel her fingers prying back the device.
It was not part of his armor, so his armor could not lock it in place. While the plating that covered his skin couldn’t be pulled away by anything less than a high-powered neutron laser, the device was not attached by anything stronger than straps and bands.
She stumbled back.
She had it.
He thrust forward.
He would get it back.
He didn’t get the chance.
With a flash of determination drawing her black eyes wide, Cara screamed and slammed her hand forward.
She held the device.
It impacted his armor.
Instantly red energy blasted out from it, encompassing him.
His on-board computer went haywire as his legs and arms buckled and convulsed.
Energy spat and hummed and shot through his armor.
He couldn’t move.
All he could do was watch the warning flashes on the inside of his helmet as his armor told him it was about to shut down.
Then it did.
It receded into his wristbands.
Click.
Click.
Then Carson fell.
He was exposed.
He didn’t have a weapon.
And Cara still loomed above him.
The shock of his armor shutting down and the power of the Goddess’ tear rendered him close to unconsciousness. He could hardly move his muscles.
Yet he could watch, and he saw as Cara brought her hands up and wrapped them around his throat.
He caught a flash of the determination burning bright in her gaze. Too bright.
Far too bright.
It would burn through her too, if it hadn’t already.
Her passion for her world would see it destroyed one day.
With that thought, Carson began to black out.
Chapter 25
Cadet Nida Harper
‘No,’ she yelled, her voice halfway between a sob and a scream.
Cara had used the device against Carson, shutting down his armor.
And now she had her hands around his throat.
Nida pushed to her feet, thrusting herself at Cara. Trying to grab the woman’s wrists and pull them off him, Cara quickly flung Nida to the side.
Nida struck the ground so hard she heard something snap.
Pain shot through her. Hotter and harder than before, it brought with it a wave of nausea.
She felt giddy, weak, close to collapsing.
She didn’t give up though.
She could hear Carson choking; she could see his body loosening in Cara’s grip.
Cadet Nida Harper wa
s Lieutenant Carson Blake’s only hope.
She pushed herself to her feet, fighting through the nausea and her pitching, rolling stomach.
She stumbled forward, looking for a weapon.
She considered going for her plasma gun. She could try and find it in the gutter.
Instinctively Nida knew she didn’t have the time.
Then she saw it.
The grappling gun.
She grabbed it up.
As she turned, Cara saw what she held, and the alien woman finally dropped Carson, snaking towards Nida with alarming speed.
Cara let out a snarl.
Nida doubled back, trying to figure out how to use the gun.
She didn’t have time.
Cara reached her and slammed her hand around, catching Nida across the jaw.
She stumbled backwards.
But she didn’t fall, instead she thrust forward with her remaining strength.
Right into Cara’s chest.
The woman instantly grabbed Nida, yanking the gun from her grip.
Nida didn’t have the strength to hold onto it.
She buckled backwards again.
As she did, she pushed her blood-covered hands into Cara’s chest.
Cara grabbed one, twisting the wrist viciously.
Nida crumpled.
She didn’t scream.
She didn’t beg.
Instead, she saw her opportunity.
The device.
It was still on Cara’s hand as she twisted Nida’s own.
Using every scrap of strength she had left, Nida pushed forward, and she thrust forward with her wrist as she did.
It was enough to see Cara stumble.
And that was all it took.
Nida directed the device against Cara’s own chest.
Though Nida was not wearing the Goddess’ tear and had no idea how to use it, in that moment she forced her mind forward.
Her thoughts—filled with hope, bitter determination, and an urgent plea—sprang from her mind.
She concentrated them just as she would when using her implant.
Then it happened.
The red.
The surge of energy.
It shot from the device and ate into Cara’s chest.
She was flung back far across the roof. And when she struck the concrete and eventually came to a rest, Nida knew she was down.
For a bare moment she stood there and breathed heavily, her body a broken mess.
Ouroboros- The Complete Series Page 48
