by L. B. Carter
Ace about-faced and kept moving, squinting to avoid getting a plant to the eye, but the impairment to his vision was not helping. He whipped Henley around, letting go of her hand to push her from behind, with both of his palms pressed to the small of her back. “You’re smaller, you lead.”
She didn’t hesitate, picking up on his intentions as she used her now-freed hands to make a sort of prow, fingers together, arms straight, splitting their obstacles and leaving a wake behind her in which he could move unencumbered.
“They’re following,” she panted, her voice faint among their movements and being projected away from his ears.
“Move faster,” he suggested.
“How do we know—?”
“Not sure,” he admitted.
They were keeping a general straight line parallel to the dirt road they’d ditched, detouring back the other way when they veered too far off course. That didn’t mean they weren’t going to unknowingly pass right by the house. Ace couldn’t remember all the twists and turns in the driveway, not while he was trying to determine what to do next when—or if—they did make it back to the others.
“Watch?”
“No good.” He couldn’t take the time to triangulate anything at the moment.
“We have to yell to the others,” Henley gasped out, moving faster, worry lacing her voice.
If she was worried, it meant BSTU had equipped their drones with listening devices. Yelling would enable the drones to zero in on them. The machines were likely too high in altitude to hear their present discussion, but if they were to be heard by those in the house, they would truly have to raise their volume.
Ace debated for a moment and then directed, “Keep quiet and keep going.” He veered off.
“Bus? Where are you going?” she shouted after him loud enough to not heed his directions.
He sighed inwardly and kept going. If they split up, the drones would follow only one of them, leaving the other free to get back to their base.
Ace filled his lungs as he now intentionally darted in a serpentine pattern, constantly adjusting his short-term path, and tilted his head back to scream, “Jen!” elongating the vowel to give more emphasis and reach to his call. “Jennifer Tate!” He paused to catch his breath, still tumbling the fastest he could go, switching course again, before shouting once more. “Reed! Nor!” His voice broke he was projecting it so hard. He couldn’t recall the name of the science experiment so he skipped her. “Wake up! Trouble!” He repeated his string of alerts like an alarm, hoping it would rouse them and concurrently draw attention away from them if they did hear him and respond.
Finally, the engines were audible to him, which meant they had honed in and were catching up. Moving as wildly and unpredictably as possible, he closed his eyes as much to protect them from the stalks as to improve the randomness of his path as he pushed himself harder, picking up speed. He panted, running with strides as long as his legs could stretch, worry for Henley encouraging his waning muscle energy.
Suddenly the whine of a small engine appeared in front of him, and his eyes snapped open in time to catch an out-of-focus but nevertheless chilling sight of the reeds ahead bending away from each other with the gust of a descending drone, a blue light beaming down their length. Ace pulled up and picked up again ninety degrees to his left.
Another appeared ahead, its spinning blades creating enough wind to move the corn aside, generating a natural landing pad in which it could descend further.
Ace turned ninety degrees counter clockwise once more, now jogging back where he’d originated from. An engine flared directly overhead and kept with him as he roved around organically like he was lost in a corn maze or labyrinth, which wasn’t too far from the truth. It followed his every variation; it had locked on.
He stopped moving altogether, hoping it might overshoot.
No such luck. The drones were precise. Ace was starting to bet Henley had had a hand at working on them, as he started up his run again. He could picture her in her lab, tongue poking between her lips as she twiddled at some piece with a steady hand. Obviously that hand would be steady.
Away from the house was at least advantageous to those who’d gotten away even if he couldn’t lose the drones.
It suddenly occurred to him that she was wearing BSTU tech. Was this how they’d been found so easily? Would they have to leave her, or worse, her hand, behind?
“Bus. Buster! Bus!” Henley’s last scream was so vehement her voice crackled in the middle, yet it sounded distant.
Ace moved away from it, hoping it would fade into nothingness again. The whole point was to distance himself.
“Buster.” Another voice called from a slightly different angle. Jen. They were awake. It sounded like Henley hadn’t found them yet though. Hopefully, she could hear Jen wherever she was.
Ace’s hackles raised as the drone tracking him moved in, slipping in between the corn stalks right behind his shoulder blades. The engine was powerful enough that he could still hear his heaved breaths and crunching boots over its quiet motor. Henley was an excellent engineer. It would also explain why her hearing was so attuned to the sound if she had worked on these particular devices, which were coming back to almost literally bite them in the ass.
Ace arched, trying to avoid getting one of the spinning blades to the back. Was that the directive it had been programmed to do? Kill rather than discover and herd?
Ace was moving too fast for his tiring legs to keep up. He hadn’t exerted himself this much since before he’d moved to Boston. He tripped over whatever was on the ground and went flying, rolling ass over head, plowing down cornstalks.
He rolled onto his back, eyes widening as the drone settled over him, a soft blue light pointing directly into his retinas like a spaceship about to teleport him up for alien investigation.
He didn’t think BSTU had that technology yet. He should have asked Henley what the specs were before he ditched her.
The whole scene had a dreamlike quality without his lenses. This was why he should have been wearing contacts like his sister scoffed at him constantly to do before he’d gotten several years’ peace from her at the university where they simply made him look more studious. Well, he used to argue back, he couldn’t be sure contacts’ internal workings hadn’t been tampered with and wouldn’t adhere to his eyeballs with flesh-eating amoebas working into his brain. Paranoid was her response.
Well, now look where he was. Henley’s own creation was chasing them down. Paranoia, his ass.
Even though it felt unreal, Buster closed his eyes, waiting. He was morbidly curious what else it could do with Henley’s help. Thus far, it was just hovering, pinning him with its spotlight. It was possible it would just stay there, keeping him in place until a human search party arrived. Maybe he’d be turned into BSTU’s next experimental human test subject.
Go, he urged Henley and the rest of them silently. He had missed the pick-up. His contact might be dead if Reed were to be believed. He’d gotten Henley out. He was ready to be impressed one last time at her feat of engineering.
◆◆◆
The sudden rustle snapped Ace’s face to the left. He had told Henley to go. Stubborn girl, she never listened to his—
The woman who emerged from the corn wasn’t blond. Her hair was long and dark. And she brandished some rod above her head in both hands as though ready to bring it down on his stomach.
Ace instinctively curled up in a fetal position and rolled to his right, covering his head and brainstem with his hands to protect his most vulnerable spots.
There was a loud thwack, then another clunk, and the whir of the drone’s engine dropped in a dip-thong then attempted to get back up to speed.
Ace peeked through his fingers, uncurling slightly on the ground. The woman gave the drone one final whack, and its engine cut out as it plummeted to the ground right where Ace had been laying, digging itself slightly into the dry soil with the residual spin of its rotors.
He rolled further away,
flattening more corn. Then he popped to his feet, squaring off with the woman, still unsure if she was a friend or foe. The item—a bat, he thought—lowered to her side as they both ogled the carnage: several broken-off stalks that Ace had destroyed himself, and a damaged drone in kicked up soil, half buried in the earth.
“Vamanos,” the woman snapped then turned and vanished between the remaining upright stalks she’d emerged from.
Ace gave one last look to the drone then hoofed it after her as the buzz of other drones picked up in the distance. Did they hunt fallen comrades like ants? He didn’t wait to find out if Henley had given them that feature. Only a few steps, and he’d caught up to the woman he was speculating was Little Lindy. “Thank you.”
“De nada.” It didn’t sound very meaningful. They had led BSTU straight to her and her family.
“I’m sorry…” Ace’s voice was low to avoid picking up the remaining drones’ sensors, but it had to be said.
Lindy didn’t answer, making a turn and disappearing. Ace darted after her, emerging suddenly onto the gravel of the open area in front of the house, on the porch of which Henley, Jen, and Reed were standing, facing different directions, calling his alias in soft whispers, clearly having realized the danger of raised voices.
“Buster!” Henley’s voice was relieved when she saw him, and she trotted down the porch steps in a hurry.
It was nice to be welcomed. Ace felt some warmth that had nothing to do with the sweat pouring down his skin beneath his clothes. And simultaneously, he felt a loosening of his muscles at seeing her unharmed and in relative safety.
“Thank God,” she breathed, pulling up in front of him, her eyes flicking over his physique, presumably to affirm he was okay.
A small smirk slipped from his lips. It felt really nice.
“Dios did nada,” Lindy said, passing them as she made her way up onto the porch.
“Thank you,” Henley amended.
“And thanks to Henley who woke us up. Where are your glasses?” Jen questioned Ace, her nose scrunching up. “You look naked.”
“We need to go,” Ace told them. “There are at least two more still out there.”
“And who knows who or what’s coming after them.” Henley agreed.
Ace looked down at her. “What are they programmed to do?”
“Nothing good,” she said nervously, her eyes shifting away. She turned to the porch. “Let’s go.”
Ace let the lack of real response slide. Perhaps she was hoping to avoid worrying their companions, but once they were out of there, he would insist on questioning her for more details; they needed to know the capabilities of the weapons their enemy was using against them.
He looked up at the others who hadn’t moved. “Let’s go,” he echoed, his deep voice more forceful. Then he realized the hesitation. “Where’s Nor and—” Her name continued to escape him.
Jen huffed a laugh. “Speaking of naked…”
Reed snorted. “They’re getting dressed,” he said with a quirked brow, amused but not entirely pleased.
Henley let out a nervous giggle.
“Traumatic situations bring people together,” Jen mused. “One last fling and all that.” She didn’t sound particularly thrilled either.
Had the couple kept the others awake with their activity? Ace supposed that was a blessing for his night-time stroll with Henley, even with its exciting ending. A different kind of exciting ending to the one Nor and the experiment likely experienced. What a time. Ace was baffled at why they would choose now, in someone else’s house, without any air conditioning, no less, to become intimate.
“What are we waiting for?” Nor said, stepping onto the porch with a creak of the screen, pulling his shirt down with one hand and holding the door open for his partner to pass through with the other. Ace could see a heavy blush darkening her cheeks in the moonlight.
“You,” Henley answered, also slightly annoyed. She was still in flight mode, dancing on her toes, eager to depart.
“You know I’m proud of you for learning some moves,” Reed told his brother, “but timing is really everything, bro.”
“Not to mention that you didn’t discuss your intentions with me first,” Jen scolded.
“I don’t need your permission,” the green-haired girl finally spoke up, eyes narrowing on Jen. “You may have been involved in my… upbringing and helped me get out, but that doesn’t make you a mother figure.” Her fists were curled at her chest now, a barrier between them. “My only parent is gone.”
“I’m not trying to be,” Jen said, uptight, the words clipped, attempting to be patient, but irritation bled through. “But since I was involved in your upbringing, as you call your creation, I know the dangers of procreation with modified DNA, the result of which hasn’t been studied and might result in some severely unwanted repercussions. Unless—” She turned on Nor, who now had a hand on the shamed girl’s back. “—you have protection somewhere on you.” She gave him a once over. “I very well doubt that your game is strong enough to warrant that.”
Reed laughed aloud. “Got you there, brother.”
“We took precautions,” Nor argued, his tone subdued. “We—”
“We don’t have time for this,” Henley interrupted, to Ace’s gratitude. “Lindy, we need the keys to your truck. Please. They’ll follow us and leave you in peace.”
Lindy shook her head, arms crossed, looking uninterested in all the drama around her. “No.”
Ace’s irritation elevated. There were too many people who thought they could be the authority figure for their decisions. He was the one who had organized this expedition. They needed to adhere to his advice.
“She’s an accomplice now.” Reed’s mouth twisted with discomfort at that truth.
“No, really. They want us. We’ll tell them you were uninvolved. They’ll leave you alone, I’m sure.” For once on the trip, Henley was supporting Ace’s desires.
“No,” Lindy repeated slowly. “You cannot have the keys.”
Henley was taken aback, mute for a second in her bartering. “If you don’t let us go, they’ll send more.” She waved an arm behind them toward the fields.
“You can go,” Lindy countered. “But you take me with you.”
Lindy was being too aggressive, too demanding. “No,” Ace said, dropping his tone low in rigidity as a quieter alternative to the voice-raising he was inclined to take. At BSTU, others he had been forced to collaborate with on occasion simply accepted whatever statement he went as far as to vocalize and immediately proceeded to achieve whatever he had asked, or he did it himself, brushing them aside. “We already have too many stragglers.” He sent an intentional stare toward Nor and Reed.
“You don’t take me, you don’t get the keys.” Lindy shrugged and moved toward the door, the baseball bat dragging loudly along the rough wooding, detouring around the couple.
She was going to attract the drones. Was it possible that was her intention? No, she had destroyed one to aid his return to the house. Ace wondered if, based on Henley’s view of him, everyone at BSTU had merely been disquieted or in awe of him, a respect Lindy would no longer hold toward him having taken the role of protector already in their interactions.
“Shit,” Reed and Nor said at the same time. Nor ran a hand through his hair then put it up to stop Lindy from passing him into the house.
“Fine you can come with,” Jen allowed.
“What? No.” Ace’s brows dropped. This was not acceptable. He couldn’t guarantee any of their safety without his contact, let alone not knowing for certain Valerie’s status once they reached their destination.
“She’s a civilian,” Reed seemed to agree, crossing his arms, brows lowering at Jen, who turned on him, hands on hips.
“Yes.” Henley turned on Ace. It was almost men versus women. “We need transportation.” Her eyes were too wide. She knew first-hand they needed something that traveled faster than they could run in order to desert the drones.
; Dammit, they were wasting time arguing. “Fine, but we leave now.” Ace had made it toward the rusted truck when Lindy spoke again from behind him.
“What about mi familia?”
“Oh, Jesus,” Jen whined. “Make up your mind. You want to go or not?”
“I have to go,” Lindy corrected. “I cannot be sure that you will return my truck. But I cannot leave my sick mama and tio and… They need caring for.”
“Stalemate,” Reed pointed out redundantly, head tipped back to face the porch ceiling.
“Fine, I’ll stay with them.”
“No, Jen.”
“It’s fine, Sirena. You guys don’t really need me anymore. You’re free. Maybe if I stay here, my mom will come for me and leave you alone.”
There was a silence for a moment, everyone accepting that as improbable.
“Fine.” Ace waved a hand. “Problem solved. Everyone else in the truck.”
“No.” Sirena’s voice was solidifying, her earlier embarrassment waning. “No one should be alone.”
“She’s not alone. She’ll be with the Juarez family.” Ace’s impatience was waxing.
Sirena stared him down from her perch on the porch, undeterred. Ace needed Henley’s assistance here. Sirena’s weird blue-green eyes were unnerving in their hold.
Ace looked away first, staring at the scuffs and dirt coating his boots. He was losing his control over them all.
“Everyone deserves to be with their friends and family.”
“So stay,” Ace growled at the experiment, at his wit’s end, turning back to the truck.
Henley patted his arm, probably attempting to calm him, then pulled it back quickly. She averted her gaze, looking back up at the porch, though her shoulders were square toward him as she explained calmly, ever the negotiator, “She can’t stay. That defeats Jen’s intentions.”
“I’ll stay with her.”
Everyone fixated on Reed.
“Are you sure?” Nor asked. “You’re letting me out of your sight on my first mission? Are those drones or pigs flying around?”
Reed nodded, not baited by Nor’s attempt at humor. Ace was getting better at reading his company. He could tell the joke was made to cover nerves. Sirena was right that Nor didn’t want to be separated from his brother. “You can send someone to collect us after you get Sirena to safety and can contact Father. The mission is priority.” The fact that Reed hadn’t retaliated with sarcasm indicated he had contrasting feelings toward the plan modification; he agreed with Ace. Another level-headed person.