Not Dead Yet

by Dennis Young

  “Jian, report.”

  “Clear, they’re trying to split us up.”

  Talice glanced at her Headup. Tooley was twenty meters away now, Jian still only ten.

  “You followed me.”

  “Hua, Captain, and I was covering your back.”

  “Does that mean there are more than two?”

  “Never say never.”

  Talice gritted her teeth. Yeah, Jance is one to bend the rules.

  She pulled up a copy of the contract, reading through quickly on her Headup. Fuck! It says, “no more than three at any given time in the contest zone”! Hell, Jance might not even be here! She could feed henchmen in continuously until we’re all dead! Fuck!

  “Alright, listen up, everyone. The rules are shit. Read them over and understand, we could be facing an army, three at a time. The fucking network bought it all, not even realizing what Jance might do.” Talice paused for a moment. “Abie, you’re in orbit?”

  “Negative, Captain. Mac had me drop immediately when you said the contract was rigged. We’re on our way down, ten minutes.”

  Talice waited, watching again. “Mac, you’ve got another drone, right?”

  “Two, not prepped.”

  “Get them ready. Then launch one, but stay away from the combat zone. Let me know when it’s in the air.”

  “Copy. Give us ten minutes.”

  “Tooley, Jian, stay put or get into serious cover, go full camo if you haven’t already.”

  “Captain, I’ve got movement about fifty meters away to the north, in the trees.”

  “Keep an eye on it, Jian.” Talice glanced around. She could no longer see Tooley, but she knew Jian was somewhere behind her. She took a quick glance and caught sight of his helmet. Barely, as he was well-hidden.

  She waited in silence, listening to the forest. For now, it was calm.

  “Drones prepped and ready. Drone Two is in the air.”

  “Send it around the combat area. Find whatever the hell Jance is hiding on the other side.”

  “What? Talice, what are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking she’s got a squad feeding in one at a time as necessary. Right now, there are three, per the rules. If we take one out, they’ll just plug in another. Jance will have them pick off Tooley and Jian, then she’ll come after me.”

  “Not gonna happen, Captain.” Tooley, sounding grim.

  Mac was back in seconds. “Copy, got it. Nikolay is working on deep radar through the camera. Don’t know if it will work, but whoever we’re looking for could be pretty well concealed from sight.”

  “Check in when your drone is in position. I’m thinking about two or three kilometers north, where we saw that strew of rocks and ravines.”

  “Captain, this is Briggs. You want us to suit up and stand by?”

  Talice considered. “Suit up, yes, and get Ollie ready to drop, just in case. We could use his bionic eyes, that’s for sure.”

  “Hua, suiting up.”

  “Talice, give me about fifteen minutes to get the drone in position. I’m going to two kilometers altitude for a good look.” Mac again, her DI voice starting to come through.

  “Just watch out for ground fire. If Jance has any idea what we’re looking for, my guess is, the last thing that drone will see is a missile.”

  * * *

  They waited. Talice checked the outside temp, noting breezes in the forest were gentle. It would all have been idyllic, if she hadn’t known they could all be dead in a second. She went through her telltale lights again, sipped from the S-H tube, then shifted her position a bit, to give her a better view to the northeast, where she’d heard brush crackling. After a few minutes, and a 10X mag scan, she decided it was animals. Or her too-active imagination.

  “Talice, I’m over the target. Nikolay is still working on the deep radar, but visually, I’m not seeing anything suspicious.”

  “Copy, Mac. You’re technically out of the combat area, right?”

  “By a full kilometer. But there are other spots closer where half a dozen mercs could be hiding. Closest I can see is about two hundred meters out.”

  “Captain, I’ve got movement in the trees again, east.” Jian, sounding, if not worried, certainly puzzled.

  “Rory, run a check on this forest, find out what might be in the trees other than birds.”

  “Copy, checking.”

  “Captain, sounds to the west, on the ground.” Tooley.

  “Flanking, dammit.” Talice checked her safety, making sure it was off.

  “Captain, there are no tree-dwellers known in this forest. No simians or anything else monkey-like.” Rory.

  “Thanks. Are they climbing the fucking trees?”

  Gunfire left, and Tooley screamed. His return fire peppered an area Talice couldn’t see.

  “Jian, support Tooley, I’ll cover your tree sounds. Go!”

  Talice caught a glance of Jian as he sprinted west. She swung around just in time to see something vaguely man-shaped drop from the canopy. The trees around her exploded with HE rounds, sending limbs and leaves and dirt everywhere. She fired blind, a full five-second burst, fanning left to right. When the dust settled, she saw no one and nothing. Her rounds had cut two saplings to flinders and exploded against rocks buried in deadfall. She waited a full thirty seconds, then lowered herself behind a shattered tree trunk.

  “Jian, status!”

  “Tooley’s alright, HE deflected off his shoulder and another knocked him over.”

  “Sorry, Captain, just caught me by surprise.” Tooley, sounding chagrined.

  “Where did your attacker go?”

  A pause. “No idea. Want us to look over the area?” asked Jian.

  “No! Move to a safe area away, but be careful. Let me think for a minute.”

  Talice watched, creeping around the tree. “Mac, report.”

  “I’ve taken the drone to one kilometer. I’m spotting tire tracks leading into a hillside. Probably a cave.”

  Talice nodded to herself.

  “Rory, contact the net people, see if they have personnel or equipment on the ground at that location. Mac will give you coordinates.”

  “On it. Five minutes.”

  “Mac, check my sanity. What about hunters, or someone owning property in that area who might be checking out what’s going on?”

  “This is all unincorporated land, Talice. Technically, it’s open for homesteading. There isn’t a town or village for at least fifty kilometers. Closest city of any size is at least two hundred. They probably chose this for its isolation.”

  “So who’s in that cave? How fresh are those tracks?”

  Mac was silent for a few moments. Talice watched for Jian or Tooley, but saw nothing of either one. Hope they’re just laying low and not dead. Geez, this will be really spooky if we’re here overnight.

  Mac was back. “I’m getting faint heat from around the tracks, so they were made recently. Within the last couple of hours, I’d say.”

  “Any grenades on that drone?”

  “Well… now that you mention it…”

  Talice grinned inside her helmet. “If you dropped a couple just at the entrance, think we could get their attention?”

  “Oh, hell yes. I could take the drone right into their laps, if you want me to. Hold on.”

  Talice waited. Finally, she caught a glimpse of a helmet visor. Something shiny, anyway. She watched it for a moment.

  “Talice—”

  “Wait a minute, Mac. Jian, where are you.”

  “About thirty meters west of you, slightly south. We’re between a boulder and a couple of big birch trees.”

  “We’ve got movement not fifteen meters north of you. Check it out. Take no chances.”

  “Hua, moving.”

  Talice watched the other direction, considering another flanking maneuver was in progress. Gunfire broke the silence, and a flock of birds lifted from the trees above where she’d seen the movement. Then Jian sprinted north, firing. Then a
scream, not Jian’s.

  “One down.” Jian. “Not Jance, male. Dead. Armored but not a standard HCS, something cobbled together. I got a lucky shot through his visor. Some sort of tech on the back of his armor.”

  Yeah, lucky. You’re damn near as good a shot as Ollie. Talice relaxed only slightly, still watching east. “Don’t mess with it, might be a self-destruct. Mac, did you hear?”

  “Copy. Nikolay says his deep radar is working sort of. He’s picking up movement in the cave, maybe as many as a dozen, and possibly one or two small vehicles.”

  “Tooley, report.”

  “Covering Jian and you, Captain. No other movement.”

  “Captain, Rory. The network flunky says they have no one within ten kilometers of the area.”

  “Okay, listen up. We’ve drawn first blood. Now it’s serious. They’ll be more wary, but more aggressive, too. So look sharp. As long as we know where we are in relation to each other, shoot first. Nikolay, can you overlay our positions on the Headup map?”

  “Of course, Captain.” Three green dots came up on the overhead view of the area.

  “Who’s who?”

  Icons appeared. Talice nearly laughed. They looked like cartoons, but there was no mistaking the one with breasts.

  “Okay, got it, thanks. Jian, take five, get a drink, and your vitamin goop. Tooley, cover. I’m going to check something out about twenty meters away.”

  “Stay safe, Talice.” Mac, sounding very severe.

  “Hua. I want to see where this thing was that I shot at. I’m beginning to get an idea.”

  * * *

  Talice found nothing where she thought she’d seen someone drop from the trees. She hunkered down, a bit weak, but otherwise unharmed. She clicked over to the Clear channel Niky had provided and spoke. “If you’re out there, Jance, what’s the deal? Why are you hiding? I thought you wanted to get it on with me. I’m waiting. So far, all we’ve seen are minions. Cannon fodder. What’s the problem? Got a headache tonight?”

  She checked her chrono. They’d been out a bit over three hours. Still should have at least four or five more hours of daylight. Sure as hell don’t want to fight in the dark. She’d like that, I’ll bet.

  The intercom crackled. “Hello, Talice. I’m just enjoying the show. Yeah, the guy you blew away, I’m not surprised. All talk. I guess by now you’ve figured out the loophole in the contract. Pretty neat, huh? I’ll see you when I’m damn good and ready. Don’t hurt yourself out there. I want you fully functional when I kill you. Bye-bye.”

  The line went dead before Talice could reply. She clicked over to her encrypted channel. “Niky, did you get her location?”

  “No, Captain, not quite enough time. Perhaps if you use the commtext instead. I can put a tracer on her incoming message and backtrack it.”

  Fuck! Why didn’t I think of that? She blew a breath. “Right, I’ll do that next time. Sorry.”

  She looked around again. The area had been shattered by her return fire, but it was also flattened, like someone had stomped around on the grasses.

  I know I saw a figure fall out of the tree. Then gunfire. What the hell? She looked up, into the canopy. Holy fuck!

  A figure dangled from a tree limb, limp, drifting as the limb moved with the breezes. Something splattered against Talice’s shoulder. She wiped a finger across it, and it came away with a dark stain. Then another drop, onto her boot. Blood! I got the fucker after all!

  “Jian, Tooley, they’ve got… something. Lift belts probably, and they’re hiding in the fucking trees!”

  “Captain?”

  She turned and ran. Why, she didn’t know, but she felt eyes on her. She dodged and juked and hid, finally collapsing five meters from Jian, kneeling and watching behind her as she approached.

  “Down!”

  Talice hit the dirt. Jian’s pulse rifle fired a three-second burst over her head. Tooley let go with a grenade, and the explosion rattled her eyeteeth, it was so close. She stayed down, unmoving. Silence.

  “Jian… report.”

  “Hold on, Captain.”

  She watched as he walked past her. Tooley moved up, off her right. He fired a burst into the trees both ways.

  “Clear.” Jian’s voice was calm.

  Talice raised her head. “That was too close. Damn, talk about fucking sneaky.”

  Jian knelt and helped her sit. Her pulse rifle barrel was clogged with dirt. She set the safety and started cleaning it out.

  “That’s two, maybe three. Assuming Jance knows what’s going on, we may have a little time,” said Tooley.

  “We’ve got a natural defense about twenty meters back.” Jian stood. A single shot rang out. He fell.

  “Fuck! Tooley, down! Down!!” Talice crawled to Jian’s side. There was a neat hole in the upper right of his carapace. She rolled him to the side. The exit hole in the back was not much larger. “Get his armor off, now! AP round!”

  They struggled, prone, trying to unbuckle Jian’s armor before he bled to death.

  “Mac, Jian’s down! I need Ollie’s eyes to find that sniper!”

  “He’s on the way, headed out the second we heard the shot over your intercom. Give him twenty minutes to find you. At least.”

  Tooley had Jian’s helmet and chest armor off, and was applying pain-jel and coag-patches as fast as he could.

  “Apply pressure to the back, I’ll patch the front!” Talice lathered the pain-jel quickly and applied three patches over the AP hole in Jian’s upper chest. His breathing was thready, and his mouth filled with pink froth as he coughed.

  “Fuck! Lung hit! Mac, what do I do?”

  “His lung is collapsing. Get a hardpack and cover the wounds, so he won’t be drawing air into the space between his chest and lung. Get him to cough. Dig out your chest pin and stick it in close to the wound. Not too deep, you’ve got to get the air out of the chest cavity.” Mac’s voice was calm, but Talice caught a thread of dread within it.

  Tooley ripped open the hardpack and slapped one on the entrance and exit wounds. Talice dug out a pin and gently eased it into Jian’s chest. She was rewarded by a jet of fetid air spraying her visor. “Done! Okay, he’s breathing a bit easier now. Entrance and exit holes are patched. Need evac!”

  “Bird One enroute, Captain, we’ll land at the edge of the forest. Five minutes.” Abie, sounding too damned cheerful for Talice’s mood.

  “Dosu will bring up the ATV, get out of the area as safely as possible. Ollie should be in your vicinity in ten minutes.”

  “Then we’ll wait. I’m not gonna chance us getting picked off by that sniper.”

  “Captain…” Jian raised a hand to Talice’s arm.

  Talice flipped her visor up. “Take it easy, we’re getting your ready to transport. Relief on the way.”

  “Lift belts,” whispered Jian.

  “Yeah, I know. Clever, huh? Stay down, don’t move, you’ve got a hole right through you.” She lowered her visor and looked over her shoulder. Tooley was wrapping Jian’s chest while trying to watch in three directions. Talice knew they were in trouble, but wasn’t going to admit it to anyone but herself. If that.

  She caught Tooley’s eye. “You’re going back, too.”

  “Captain?”

  “This is nuts. Jance isn’t just interested in me, she wants to kill the whole team. I’m not gonna allow it. So you’ll clear the area with Jian, and I’ll send Ollie back, too. No one on my team is gonna die today, except me, and that’s only if I have to.”

  “Captain… please. Let me stay. I promised my uncle—”

  Talice laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine Scarbach saying ‘don’t let anything happen to my meal ticket’.”

  Tooley’s voice held hurt. “That’s not true. Well, not exactly, anyway. He… he respects you and Mac. You’ve never lied to him in your business dealings. That’s something no one else can say. And it’s made a difference in how he does things now. That’s why I’m here. He said… I’m not supposed to tell you this… he
said, it’s part of his debt to you. Honest.”

  “I thought you were here because you like getting shot at.” Talice huffed inside her helmet. “No, Tooley, this is my fight now. I’ve finally figured out, Jance won’t ever play fair. So it’s time for me to not play fair.” She held up a hand before he could protest. “Look… there’s stuff I’m going to do, and you’ll like it, I promise. I’m gonna get as nasty as she is.”

  A roar in the trees beyond, and the ATV skidded to a stop ten meters away. Dosu was out and hustling to Talice’s side, then down.

  “Get Jian to the infirmary. Tooley is riding shotgun. You have Ollie’s location on your visor, right?”

  “Of course, Captain. Shouldn’t we—”

  “No time, Dosu. Twilight is less than three hours away, and I’ve got a plan. Get back to the ship fast, because hell’s a’comin’, I promise you.”

  * * *

  They loaded Jian in the back of the ATV, and Dosu drove away carefully. Talice watched around, terrified the sniper would find the range, and take them all out as they fled. But nothing happened.

  She waited until they were out of sight and hearing range, then clicked All-Channel. “Mac, you’ve been awfully quiet.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I need to change my patch and maybe get a boost. I’m shaking like every leaf around me, and I’m thirsty. I’ve drank half my S-H.”

  “There’s nothing that says you can’t come in for the night. I’ve checked the contract. By the way, the network wants an interview.”

  “So give it to ’em. Let Briggs do it. They’ll have to censor half the words.”

  “They also want a feed from your visor cam.”

  “No problem. They can watch Jance’s guts spatter all over the forest.”

  They were silent for a minute. Talice made way quickly to the area Jian had located as a defensive position. Three trees grew among a jumble of large boulders, with a space in the center big enough for three or four people. Talice had to admit, it was a good spot.

  “What’s the plan, Princess? I know you’ve got something up your sleeve.”

  Talice struggled out of the left leg of her armor, slid out of her camis, dug out a patch of C-12Ultra, and slapped it on. She didn’t bother removing the other one. It wouldn’t matter. “Jance is either gonna play by the rules, or get buried in her little hideout.” She wriggled back into her pants and slid the HCS panels back into place as she talked.