by M. R. Forbes
He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. They had killed Frank and Neko on the way into the city. They had killed Happy and Seventy near the hospital.
And Judge had killed Bennett.
He clenched his hand tightly on the steering wheel when he thought of the Spacer’s betrayal. Judge had been working for the Trust. She had orders to kill Nathan Stacker, regardless of whether he was innocent or not. Whatever he knew, they didn’t want him to share it with anyone else.
They didn’t know it was too late for that. They didn’t know Stacker had told him what he was doing, and about the data chip the replica’s late wife had hidden in her wedding ring.
The wedding ring Hayden was carrying in the pocket of his fatigues.
He had taken it from Stacker because he knew it was what the soldiers were after, in addition to Stacker himself. The fugitive was pissed about that, and Hayden understood why. The ring was a symbol of the love Nathan had lost, and the love he was still carrying in his heart. He didn’t want to give it up.
In his anger, he couldn’t see that it was for the best. If the enemy wanted two things, it was better to split those two things up. Hayden hoped Stacker had made it out of the city, or was at least hiding somewhere and would find a way off the island eventually. In the meantime, it was his responsibility to keep the ring safe, to keep the data chip safe, until he could find somewhere to have it processed and find out what was on it. If there was one thing he knew for sure — if criminals didn’t want some information to get out, the more people who knew what that information was, the better.
“Sheriff!” Animal cried, getting Hayden’s attention.
He looked to the left, hitting the breaks and making a hard turn as another car came toward them, moving too fast to avoid. He managed to get the front end clear before the two vehicles collided, the armored front of the enemy car smashing into the rear end of the driver’s side and sending them spinning into an old light pole.
The car rocked to a stop, the hit shaking up Hayden and Animal despite the belts they were wearing. There was little time to recover. The trailing cars came to a stop nearby, their occupants climbing out.
Bullets started pinging off the armored plates bolted to the sheet metal of the car and coming in through the open windows. Hayden and Animal both unclasped their belts and ducked low beneath the front bench seat, with Hayden doing his best to cover their heads with his hands. He felt the bullets when they smacked into the metal prosthetics, leaving small dents and scratches in the tough alloy. It was the only thing keeping them from serious harm.
“We’re trapped in here, Sheriff,” Animal said. His face was losing its soldier calm, his eyes showing a bit of panic. “There’s no way out.”
Hayden lowered one of his hands to the revolver at his hip. He opened the cylinder. Four bullets left. His ammo belt was empty, the rest of his ammunition spent.
“Stay down,” he said. “I’m going for it.”
“You won’t even get your head out of the car before it gets blown off, sir,” Animal replied.
The attack stopped, someone outside calling a momentary cease-fire. Hayden could hear the magazines released and fresh ones loaded.
He sat back up in the driver’s seat, reaching out and wrapping his hand around the bottom sill of the door. He gripped it impossibly tight, his mind registering the tension as he flexed the synthetic muscles of the fake arm.
The frame bent slightly. Then the solder fusing the door closed began to give way.
“You have to be kidding,” Animal said, watching the exercise with awe.
“Get ready.”
The soldiers were moving, working to get in position around the car. They kept their rifles up, freshly armed and ready to shoot.
“You might as well surrender,” a gruff voice said. “There’s no way out. Let us shoot you in the head, save yourselves the pain.”
“Go fuck yourself!” Animal shouted. Hayden glanced back at him, and he shrugged. “We’re going to die anyway, right?”
“Gomes, Hall, get them out of there.”
Hayden kept pushing against the door, using all of the strength in the arm to weaken it. They were running out of time.
No, they were out of time. The two soldiers moved in, rifles aimed at Hayden and Animal.
“Put your fucking hands up!” one of them shouted, shoving the rifle forward.
Hayden looked up at the man. A kid, really. He was too young to be out here. Too young to be ready to kill him.
“I said, put them the fuck up!” the kid repeated.
“You’re going to bring the trife, you keep shouting like that,” Hayden said, slowly releasing the frame of the door and raising his hands. The kid looked at the damage he had done, amazed by the strength of the replacements.
“Now get out,” the kid said.
Hayden glanced at Animal.
“Don’t look at him. Just get the hell out.”
Hayden started climbing out of the car on his side. Animal did the same on the other. He was halfway out of the window when a sharp crack sounded from somewhere nearby, and the kid stumbled forward. Hayden reached out and caught him, holding him as blood started to emerge from a new hole in his chest.
“Ambush!” someone shouted.
The enemy soldiers started shifting, looking away from the car for the source of the attack.
Another crack and a second soldier fell.
Who the hell was helping them? Stacker?
Hayden brought one hand up to cover his face, using the other to pull himself the rest of the way out of the car. He fell to the ground, and then he had his revolver in hand, pivoting on his knee, aiming and firing.
His target’s head snapped sideways, a bullet piercing his skull. Hayden stood up, shouting as he charged the soldiers, stealing their attention away from the shooter. He cracked one of them hard across the jaw, the blow forceful enough to spin the victim nearly all the way around. The other soldier turned to defend himself, rewarded by a trio of bullets hitting him in the side, coming from Animal’s direction.
“Clear!” the Spacer announced.
Hayden quickly looked around. They had dropped half a dozen targets in a matter of seconds. He turned his attention to the shadows, looking for their guardian angel. She appeared a moment later, ragged and bloody, her clothes torn and dirty, her hair a tangled mess. Hayden recognized her through the grime.
“Rhonna?”
She limped toward them without speaking. She had a pistol in her hand, but it fell from her grip as she approached.
“Oh, shit, Sheriff. I lost her back at the hospital. I figured her for dead.”
“She’s in shock. Grab her and let’s go.”
Hayden ran to one of the stopped cars. Its engine was still running, purring too smoothly for such an old vehicle. Someone knew how to take care of them. He climbed in, throwing it in reverse and then maneuvering to where Animal was holding Rhonna and guiding her toward the car. He came to a stop beside them and the Spacer lifted her into his arms, sliding her into the back seat.
“I think we’re — oh, fuck,” Animal said, his eyes shifting to the sky. He jumped into the back of the car behind Rhonna. “Get us the hell out of here, Sheriff. That stealth ship is back.”
Chapter 4
Hayden found the spot where Animal was looking. The ship wasn’t trying to hide. It had flashing lights on each end of its stubby wings, and a searchlight came on, beaming down right at them.
The bullets came an instant later, fired from a large gun mounted to the side of the vessel. The muzzle flashes were long and bright, the rounds a high caliber that chewed into the ground, edging closer to their new ride.
Hayden pulled himself into the driver’s seat, pressing the button on the dash to activate the car. The rounds from the helicopter were deafening, echoing like thunder across the night. The car roared to life, and he threw it into reverse, backing it away from the carnage. The shooter expected him to go forward, and the rounds skipped over
the car, only two or three hitting the armor plating and punching almost all the way through before digging up weeds and concrete in front of them.
He put the car back into drive and shoved his foot down on the accelerator. The engine screamed and the vehicle shot forward, bouncing hard over a pair of dead soldiers as he frantically tried to get them away from the scene.
The car moved into the center of the street, heading south. The shooting stopped, the helicopter pausing its attack to follow. Hayden kept turning his head to look for it, watching as it swept away to the right and vanished behind a building.
“It’s going to circle back,” Animal said, watching it too.
“We need somewhere to lose it,” Hayden said, already hitting the brakes. If the enemy thought they were going south, he was going north. “Rhonna, you know this city. Rhonna?”
The woman was still in a daze, staring blankly out the window. She had enough agency to shoot the enemy soldiers, but not help them now?
“Rhonna,” Animal said, shaking her. “Come on. We need you. Snap out of it.”
She looked over at him. Then she pointed out the front window.
Hayden returned his attention to the road. A group of trife were charging the car. One of them leaped over the spiked grill and landed on the armored hood. It hit its claws against the metal wiring protecting the windshield, trying to tear through.
Hayden hit the breaks again, but the trife was already holding on. Slowing down let the others get near the car, and two more jumped onto the back, trying to lean in through the side windows.
Rhonna ducked away from them, pressing herself between the seats. Animal raised the rifle he had taken, blasting each of the demons in the head and knocking them away.
Hayden sped up again, the car heading north toward an even larger group of trife. He reached an intersection and turned, breaking west.
“Rhonna, we need to get out of here,” Hayden said. “There has to be a way. These other cars came from somewhere.”
“I… I don’t know,” she said. “There’s…” She screamed as a trife leaped at the car from the side, getting a hand in the window and almost grabbing her. Animal shot it a moment later. “I want to go home. Get us underground. The trife won’t follow.”
“But the soldiers will,” Hayden said. “And there are too many of them. Think. How can a car get onto the island?”
He accelerated down a more narrow street, heading west. A car was blocking the path ahead. “Hold on,” he said, not even trying to slow as he plowed into the back end, throwing it violently away with a loud crash. The impact barely slowed them down, the reinforced grill preventing them from taking any damage. They continued along, crossing two more streets.
Hayden heard the heavy, rhythmic thumping of the helicopter’s cannon an instant before the rounds started chewing the street ahead of them again. He nearly closed his eyes as they passed through the barrage, one of the rounds piercing the car and passing clean through, leaving a large hole in the roof. He looked over and up, finding the aircraft moving ahead, slipping sideways while it tracked them.
“Rhonna!” he shouted, turning the car north again to get away from the helicopter.
“There’s an old tunnel,” she said. “On the west side. South of here. But it’s sealed. Part of it collapsed a long time ago.”
“Unless it was unsealed,” Hayden said. “West and south?”
Rhonna looked out the window, judging their location. “Yes.”
“Right past the enemy ship,” he said. “Hold on.”
He wrenched the steering wheel to the left, turning the car west at the next intersection. They passed over a cross street and headed south. The only good news was that they seemed to have outpaced the trife.
The car made it another three blocks before the enemy ship appeared again, darting out from behind the remains of a taller building and hovering in front of them.
“Shit,” Hayden said, watching the helicopter rotate to get its cannon in line with them. They were getting close enough he could see the silhouette of the soldier guiding the weapon, a tall, bulky figure in what looked like some kind of combat armor.
The rounds started raining down on them again. Hayden didn’t dare slow down and give the enemy a chance to put more bullets into the car, so he sped up instead. The slugs pounded across the hood, sinking through the armor and into the engine. They worked their way back, crushing the wiring in the windshield and punching through the glass, breaking it to pieces. One of the rounds caught Hayden’s right wrist, and the replacement sparked, the last two fingers clenching against the wheel. Then the rounds hit along the roof and down the trunk before stopping a moment later after they began to detonate the road.
Hayden glanced over at his hand. The prosthetic was ripped open, the synthetic muscles damaged. If it had been a real hand, he would have lost it above the wrist.
He half-expected the car to give out right away. Instead, some of the gauges began to complain, and a moment later smoke started to pour from the hood. Hayden kept his foot on the gas, keeping it moving for as long as it would go.
“Rhonna, how far?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. Half a mile?” she replied.
He didn’t know how that translated to kilometers, but it didn’t sound far. He leaned his head out the window, looking back in search of the helicopter. It had disappeared, likely angling to get in front of them again.
“Shit, that was close,” Animal said. “We can’t afford to take another hit like that, Sheriff.”
“It’s already too late,” Hayden replied, watching the gauges. “I don’t know if we’re going to make it.”
“We’re all dead if we don’t.”
They covered two more streets before the car started shaking, the smoke billowing out of it. Hayden brought the car to a stop.
“We aren’t getting out this way,” he said. “Come on.”
He climbed out of the car. Animal and Rhonna did the same. The smoke from the dying car filled the air around them, rising and giving them limited cover as the helicopter circled into view, the searchlight brightening the area and bouncing off the burning particles. It didn’t bother shooting through the obscured air, and Hayden could see it start sinking toward the street to allow its passengers to jump off.
The three of them ran to the nearest alley opposite the enemy vessel. Hayden’s hand hung limply at the end of the prosthetic, the power cut beneath the elbow of the device. He gripped his revolver in his other hand, though he only had two bullets left in the weapon.
They didn’t slow when they reached the alley. Rhonna moved ahead of them, expertly moving around the debris that lined the area despite the limited light. Hayden and Animal followed her path until they reached the next street.
She pulled to a stop at the corner, remaining beside the edge of the building. She pointed up and out.
Hayden came up beside her, finding the helicopter back in the air, its light sweeping over the area. It had a general idea where they had gone, and the beam split the darkness one block over.
“We have to cross,” Hayden said, pointing to the alley on the other side of the street. There was a chance the enemy would see them, but they had to take it.
Rhonna didn’t wait for instructions. She bolted from her place, charging across the street. Hayden and Animal did the same. The ground lit up around them as they neared the other side, the pilot finding them right before they reached the alley.
Animal stopped and turned, which caused Hayden to stop. He watched the Spacer bring the rifle up, aiming quickly and firing a burst of three rounds. He heard a crack, and then the searchlight went out. It was a shot only a Centurion Space Force replica could make.
“Fuck you,” Animal growled.
He was about to turn back to rejoin them when something at the far end of the first alley caught his attention. Hayden noticed it too. A light at the end of the street, mounted to the shoulder of the soldier’s strange armor.
Anima
l dove to the right as the enemy started shooting, heavy rounds cutting across the alley and skipping into the pavement where the Centurion had just been standing. He popped to his feet, glancing back at Hayden and Rhonna before charging to the right, cutting the angle between the armored enemy and the cover of the buildings nearby.
“Sheriff, get out of here,” Animal said through the comm.
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Hayden said. He brought his revolver up, aiming at the armored soldier as if his six-shooter would do a fucking thing to it.
“Don’t be stupid, Sheriff.”
Animal reached the building, pressing tight against it. The soldier was approaching the corner, moving cautiously. He knew Animal was trying to catch him as he emerged. He was ready for it.
“Sheriff,” Rhonna said. “Come on.”
She grabbed his arm, tugging on him to get moving again. He kept staring back at Animal. They didn’t leave people behind.
“Sheriff,” Animal said. “If Stacker is innocent that means someone else killed his wife and set him up. Maybe the same people that sent us after him, and maybe the same assholes that are chasing us now. Whatever is going on, you have to get a message out to Command. I know you have the resources to do it. The mission is more important than my life.”
Hayden could almost feel the weight of Stacker’s wedding band suddenly pulling him down. Animal was right. Whatever this was about, he was convinced it would have consequences for both Earth and Proxima. There was a secret the Trust didn’t want getting out. A secret that tied them to well-equipped forces here, and maybe…
He stopped fighting Rhonna’s tugging, letting her pull him away.
“Fucking go, Sheriff!” Animal shouted into the comm.
Hayden heard the gunfire a moment later, the two soldiers exchanging rounds. It continued for his next dozen rapid heartbeats as he and Rhonna ran.
He felt guilty for leaving, guilty for running before Animal had begged him to do it and before the Spacer was dead. He had done it anyway, because of what Animal said and because of what Bennett had said about the Trust before that. Whatever was on the chip was too important to lose. It was too important to ignore.
