by M. R. Forbes
Bennett stumbled back, managing to catch the next swing of the club. He blocked it, turning and yanking the weapon from Nathan’s hands. He shot toward Nathan, driving a hard punch into his gut and following it up with a crack across the cheek. Nathan rocked from the blows but didn’t fall, recovering and getting in a hit of his own.
Hayden glanced out through the entrance to the arena. He almost froze in place at the sight of the chaos that had taken hold. In only a few seconds, he watched half a dozen trife tackle a man trying to run away from them, their claws ripping into him. A soldier fired into them, killing two of the trife, but then someone else blasted him with a bolt of plasma. That shooter was pulled to the ground a moment later by another group of trife.
Had the trust let the demons in? Were they out of their minds?
He looked back at Nathan, just in time to see him get another solid blow in on Bennett. The replica backed up a step, grabbing a knife and crouching in front of Nathan.
“Come on Stacker,” Bennett hissed.
Nathan lumbered toward him. Hayden stopped watching, running to the arena’s entrance. A trife came around the corner, meeting a quick end as Hayden grabbed it and threw it hard into the pole on his right. He hurried out into the terminal, looking up at the walkway above for Pyro’s workshop. Had she and Gus made it out?
He scanned the area ahead, looking for a dropped weapon he could use. There were trife everywhere, hundreds of them still pouring into the terminal. There was so much gunfire it was nearly deafening, and it was combined with constant barrages from plasma rifles that hit both demon and human.
Hayden waded out into it. He needed to find a way out of the building. A means to get himself and Nathan to safety.
He had an idea.
He could only hope it wasn’t too late.
He was about to start running when something or someone grabbed his shoulder. He turned, about to throw his large fist when he saw it was Nathan. His shirt was covered in blood.
“Not mine,” Nathan said. He held out Bennett’s pistol, and Hayden took it. Nathan also had the Spacer’s rifle. “It felt damn good to kill that guy, though.”
Hayden didn’t want to know. Just because the replica wasn’t Austin, he was glad he didn’t have to see him die.
“How do we get out of here, Sheriff?” Nathan asked. “Watch out!”
A burst of plasma bolts cut through the building, sizzling around them. Nathan grabbed Hayden and pulled him to the ground, dragging him out of the way. A moment later two more of the Trust’s assassins came out from cover. One of them shot a trife before it could attack the other, and then both weapons turned back on them.
“You’re pretty quick for a dead guy, Stacker,” the woman said. “Too bad it’s over.”
“Not yet,” Nathan said, firing his rifle from the ground. Bullets screamed past the woman, and she threw herself back behind a large support beam. The other Spacer tried to shoot again, but Hayden kept him honest with a pair of rounds from his pistol.
Hayden and Nathan took the opportunity to get back to their feet, moving sideways and firing at the Trust’s soldiers to keep them pinned. They had only made it a few meters when a group of trife caught sight of them, hissing and charging.
Hayden emptied his magazine into them, dropping three of the demons. He heard shouting nearby and saw that the Trust’s Spacers had come under attack as well. Nathan fired into the group of creatures, cutting through half a dozen more to clear a path.
It was no use. There were too many, and they were still closing in.
“It was a good try,” Hayden said, backing up until he was beside Nathan.
“I said it isn’t over yet,” Nathan replied, at the same time his rifle stopping firing. He tossed it aside, returning to the bat. “Let them come. I’ll beat all their fucking brains in.”
“You don’t give up, do you?”
“Never. You?”
“I was starting to think about it,” Hayden admitted.
They turned, going back to back as the trife charged in from both sides.
A rapid-fire burst of plasma bolts appeared through the haze, tearing into the line of trife, pausing, switching to the other side and ripping through the second group, cutting down nearly thirty of the creatures in the blink of an eye. The shooter was too far away to spot, but his aim was impeccable, each bolt a solid hit against the creatures.
“Nathan!” someone cried out from nearby. Hayden turned, and a woman appeared around one of the columns, her rifle pointed at him.
“Doc?” Nathan replied. “What are you doing here?”
“I brought a friend,” she replied. “Or rather, the friend brought me.”
A large form emerged into view from the haze and smoke and debris a dozen meters away, a hulk in powered armor.
“Nathan,” the Iron General said. “It’s time to go.”
Chapter 53
Nathan glanced sideways at Hayden. It was a look Hayden understood, even if it was a look he didn’t like.
The bat in Nathan’s hand hit him a half-second later, hard in the back of the leg. Hard enough to bring him to his knees.
The other Liberators closed in. The Iron General and the woman. He casually turned his rifle to blast a pair of trife that were getting too close, holding the weapon in one hand. He had a large canister clutched in the other.
“General, I—” Nathan started to say.
“It doesn’t matter now,” General said. “Do you have the ring?”
Nathan nodded.
“Good. Then let’s finish the job for the Trust, and we can get the fuck out of here. This place is crawling with trife.”
He laughed.
Hayden stared at the Iron General, trying to see through the darkened visor of his helmet. The voice was familiar. Too familiar.
Save for a slightly synthesized hum to his speech which could have been coming from the suit’s external speaker, he sounded just like Stacker.
What the hell?
Nathan still held the bat behind Hayden’s head. One solid hit to his head would crush his skull.
“I won’t kill an unarmed man,” Nathan said. “Not now. Not ever.”
“We don’t have time for this, Colonel,” the General said.
“I’ll do it,” Doc said.
“No,” Nathan replied. “Just leave him. We got the ring. The Trust’s kill squad is dead. If he can get out of here alive, he deserves to.”
“He killed Glitch, Needle, Pokey,” Doc said. “General, he has to die.”
The Iron General loomed over Hayden, still a few meters away. He was thinking about it. Trying to decide whose request to honor.
“Just this once, Colonel,” General said to Nathan. “Because you killed that asshole Bennett.”
Hayden wanted to jump up, to lunge at the general and shove his hand through his armor and grab him by the neck. He was the asshole that had killed the real Bennett.
He didn’t move. He kept his eyes down. Was Nathan switching sides again, or was he trying to save his life? He hoped it was the latter, but he couldn’t be entirely sure. Not after they had spent the last few days dancing around one another like this.
“Let’s go, Liberators,” the General said. He leaned over, placing the canister on the floor of the terminal.
“What is that?” Nathan asked.
“The newest trial,” the General replied. “Hopefully the last. We have five minutes to get out of here.”
“If it works, we’ve got nothing to worry about,” Nathan said.
“We’re leaving,” the General barked. “Try to follow at least one of my fucking orders.”
Nathan moved away from Hayden. Doc kept her gun trained on Hayden as the three of them walked back toward the south end of the terminal before vanishing into the chaos.
Hayden was alone.
Not really alone. Trife still surrounded him, and the fighting was far from over.
Judging by the volume of gunfire, the Crosstons had found th
eir second wind and finally managed to get themselves into a better defensive position. They were shooting from the walkways above, and from the ground. But the trife were everywhere — climbing the rafters, crawling along the floor, and going after any of the people they could reach. He had rarely seen them this angry and aggressive.
His eyes fell on the canister. The general had called it the newest trial. Trial for what?
A pair of trife emerged from the haze, rushing toward him. He bounced to his feet, bracing himself. He caught the first’s claws with his metal arm, punching it in the gut with the other, hard enough to knock it down. The second circled to his side, heading for his back.
A bullet hit it in the head, sending its blood splattering across the side of Hayden’s face.
He looked up to the walkway. Pyro and Gus were standing near the railing. Gus had a new arm, a barebones skeleton of metal and exposed artificial muscle. It worked well enough to hold a rifle.
“Come on!” Hayden shouted. “Meet me near the middle of the terminal.”
Gus flashed him a thumbs-up, and the two mongrels rushed to the left, toward the stairs leading down. A trife tried to stop them and met a quick end as Pyro slammed it with her replacement, knocking it from the walkway.
Hayden returned to the canister. He looked down at the display on top of it. Four minutes, thirty seconds. He could guess what would happen when it reached zero. The device would detonate. But what was inside? What would it do?
The newest trial. What had Nathan said? A virus. That was it. A virus that killed trife. That had to be what was in it. The Iron General had left it to detonate in here.
Why?
He watched a group of trife run past, tackling a Crosston citizen whose gun had run out of bullets and tearing into the man. They had shown up at the same time the general had, and they were pissed.
He had brought them here, hadn’t he? The Iron General led them to Crosston to attack. But why bring them here to kill them? Even if he had a problem with Loki and the community, he could have sent them in and let them kill every last person in here, instead of setting a timer on a virus that would wipe them out in less than five minutes.
A trial meant a test. An experiment. The Liberators weren’t convinced the virus would kill all the trife. They seemed pretty hopeful. Again, why bring the trife here, and deliver the canister here?
It wasn’t adding up.
Neither was the Iron General’s voice. He knew Stacker was a replica, but why would a copy of him be here, on Earth? How would a copy of him wind up as one of Tinker’s highest-ranking officers?
He didn’t have time to stand around and figure it out. He left the canister where it was, hurrying south into the scrum. He kept a tick of the countdown in the back of his mind. He still wanted to know when it was about to go off. There was something he was missing. Something he hadn’t figured out yet. It seemed so obvious, and at the same time so damn elusive.
He ran from cover to cover, using the terminal’s support columns as well as the tents and shanties that were still upright. Most of them were riddled with holes. Some had bodies laying against them. The floor was slick with blood and debris. Ash was floating in the air, and the smell of death and fire was thick. He knew where he was going. He knew what he wanted to do.
He hoped it wasn’t too late.
He kept track of the canister’s countdown in his head. Four minutes became three. He killed the trife who got too close, but when they saw what his hands could do, they started steering clear and going for easier targets, at least for now. It was a different tactic than he had seen from other nests, and this time he was grateful for it.
He broke through the area, coming up to the small wall of junk that marked the perimeter of Loki’s makeshift palace.
He was happy to see the RV was still there. With any luck, the leader of the Crosstons hadn’t made it back alive.
If Loki was dead, what would happen to Isabelle?
He jumped the wall, coming up on the left side of the vehicle, opposite the door. He stayed low, trying to keep from being seen from the windows, just in case Loki was inside. He pressed against the chassis, slowing as he circled the front of the vehicle and spun around to the right side, hands up and ready to fight.
Lane was on the ground a few meters away, head twisted at an impossible angle. A Trust Spacer was nearby, also visibly broken. Only Isabelle could have done that kind of damage.
The door to the RV was closed.
“Sheriff.”
Hayden looked to the left. Pyro was crouched near the wall on the other side, Gus right behind her. He put his hand up, signaling them to wait and stay where they were. He pointed to the vehicle’s door. Gus rested his firearm on the wall, aiming it at the door. Hayden flashed him an okay and then moved into position to grab the handle with his replacement.
It swung open before he could reach it. Gus opened fire, two cracks sounding close by. Hayden heard the bullets hit Isabelle’s metal shell and ricochet off.
Then the robot grabbed his arm and flipped him on his back.
Chapter 54
Hayden grunted as he hit the ground. Isabelle dropped out of the RV, dressed in a skintight black bodysuit with a cowl to contain her hair and cover her head. A pair of dark goggles sat over her eyes. She looked down at Hayden, and then to the right as Gus shot her again.
“She’s a robot, idiot,” he heard Pyro tell the other mongrel.
Isabelle looked back at Hayden and then started walking toward Pyro and Gus.
“Run!” he shouted to them. “Go!”
He rolled over, grabbing Isabelle’s ankle and dragging her to the ground. She kicked back, hitting him in the face with her foot. He winced in pain, using the big arm to shove himself to his feet and bringing both hands up balled into fists and ready to fight.
“I owe you,” he said, vaguely aware of the countdown in his head. Around two minutes. He didn’t have a lot of time to waste.
She crouched down, getting into a fighting stance. They faced one another, nearly motionless for a few seconds.
Hayden glanced back over his shoulder. The door to the RV was open, and it was right behind him.
He smiled, jumping back.
Isabelle came forward, suddenly realizing her mistake. He threw a wild punch through the doorway, catching her in the temple. Metal met metal, and she spun backward and onto the ground again.
He slammed the door closed and locked it. Then he turned and climbed the three steps into the main part of the RV.
He ran down the narrow aisle, at the same time Isabelle tore the door from its hinges. He would only have a few seconds at most.
There was blood all along the carpeting in a wavy line leading back to a closed door at the rear of the vehicle. Hayden followed it, slamming the door with his fist and bashing it down.
Loki was laying on top of the bed, surrounded by blood. He had a deep gash in his neck and another wound in his chest. He lifted his head slightly as Hayden charged in.
“You,” he whispered, barely strong enough to speak.
Hayden jumped onto the bed, straddling Loki. He glanced back. Isabelle was at the end of the corridor, coming on fast.
“Where is it?” he hissed at the dying man.
“What?” Loki said. “Fuck you.”
Hayden grabbed the man’s shirt, tearing it open. His chest was bloody but bare.
“Where is it?” he asked again. Isabelle was almost on him, and then he would be as good as dead.
Loki’s eyes shifted to Isabelle. Then they dropped toward his hand. Hayden grabbed the hand and forced it open.
Isabelle’s control device rested in his palm, a small octagonal piece of metal with a flashing green LED. Hayden grabbed it, throwing himself to the side as the robot lunged at him and fell on Loki instead.
He groaned at her sudden weight, and she rolled off him to the opposite side of the bed, facing Hayden.
Hayden held up the device, pressing down on it. “Stop,”
he said.
She froze in place.
Hayden exhaled. Damn, that had been close.
He glanced over at Loki. The man’s eyes didn’t move to follow him. They had already glassed over. Dead.
Hayden looked back at Isabelle. “Is this vehicle functional?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Good. Do you know how to drive it?”
“Yes.”
“Get behind the wheel and get us ready to go.”
She walked out of the bedroom, to the front of the vehicle. Hayden walked behind her. He remembered the countdown. He had lost track at two minutes, but that had been less than a minute ago. There had to be at least a minute left.
A minute until what?
Isabelle got behind the wheel. She pressed a button on the dashboard, and the vehicle rumbled to life.
Hayden went down the three steps, leaning out of the open door. “Pyro! Gus!”
“Here,” Pyro said, against the RV right beside him. “Shit, Sheriff. I thought you were dead.”
“And I thought we were next,” Gus said.
“We’re getting out of here. Let’s go.”
He moved aside, and they climbed into the RV, stopping when they saw Isabelle.
“Uh, Sheriff?”
“It’s okay,” he said, showing them the control device. “She’s with me now.”
“I don’t know how you did it, but right on, Sheriff,” Pyro said.
Hayden retreated to the top step. “Isabelle, are there any guns on board?”
“Yes. Storage compartment above the sofa in the living area,” she replied.
“Gus,” Hayden said.
“On it,” Gus said, heading back to find the weapons.
“Isabelle, is there another exit out of here?”
“Yes, there’s another door to the north.”
“Can we get there in this thing?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
She put the RV in drive and hit the accelerator. Hayden grabbed on to keep from falling back as the vehicle lurched forward.
Hayden thought of the canister again. How much time did they have? A minute? Thirty seconds?
