Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance) Page 13 by Chris J. Pike
Grayson replied.
The trio of men dashed down the alley as the sounds of pursuit spilled out from the restaurant they had passed through.
“We’ve got company,” Grayson called ahead as pulse blast hit a garbage bin next to him and bowled it over. “They’re shooting at us!”
“Well, shoot back!” Winter hollered.
Grayson pulled the pistol from the holster inside his jacket and twisted, firing several rounds at their pursuers, aiming high—no need to kill anyone, just slow them down.
A volley of weapons fire came back in response, and Grayson ducked behind a large steel bin. Ahead, Rogers leaned around the corner at the end of the alley, firing wildly down the street. Winter was wrestling with a man almost as large as he was and Grayson dashed from his cover, and punched Winter’s attacker in the head, pulling the albino away and into cover.
Beamfire lanced down the alley and sliced the man Winter had been wrestling with to ribbons.
Winter let out a long string of curses, before giving Grayson a smile that was almost warm. “Still not in my good graces, but you’re getting there.”
DOUBLE DOUBLE-CROSS
STELLAR DATE: 08.37.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: City of Montral, Jericho
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
“We didn’t find anything out of order,” captain of the squad said. “She’s on the up and up, just like she said.”
Slowly, careful to make no sudden movement, Kylie released her hold on Maverick’s throat. His eyes, still wide, followed her movements as she stepped back. “I told you we could be trusted.” She adjusted the hem of her dress. “I’m hoping now we can put this little disagreement behind us.”
Maverick didn’t say anything, but the rage behind his eyes was easy to see.
“C’mon, Mav. You’re getting way too paranoid. Maybe if you went off world a little more often you’d realize—”
“Nothing was out of order, you say?” Maverick’s voice was too calm as he turned to address his men.
The captain nodded. “Paperwork, vids, cargo. Everything was as it should be.”
“Nothing?” Maverick’s eyebrows furrowed. “Nothing? Since when has a junker been so squeaky clean?” He turned his gaze to Nadine and then Kylie. “My girls might be gorgeous, a pleasure to look at and more to touch, but they’ve never been clean. You’re thieves—you and your crew of misfits. So, the question that begs asking is…why’d you doctor the records?”
He approached Kylie, and she backed up. Holding out her hand, until Maverick walked into it. “You think I have the time necessary to go around doctoring logs, vids? If I had stolen freight, why didn’t your men find it?”
“I don’t know, so why don’t you answer the question? What are you hiding!”
“All very good questions.” A new voice came from the room’s entrance. Kylie looked over Maverick’s should at this new man. Tall and wearing heavy combat armor—enough to take anything Maverick’s guards could throw at him—his face showed splotchy skin, and his lips were pulled back in a menacing snarl. “My guess is they’ve come for the girl.”
“Girl?” Maverick asked with a twist of confusion. “What girl?”
Kylie reeled at the thought. He didn’t know? He didn’t have Lana? He must’ve be faking, he was a liar. If he didn’t have Lana, who did?
Without a moment’s hesitation, the man fired his railgun in short bursts, mowing down the room’s guards before they could fire a shot. He turned the gun on the squad captain.
“Sorry, but I don’t answer questions. I’m the one looking for answers.”
The squad captain reached for his pistol, but he was dead before his hand managed to pull it free.
Who the hell was he? He had the look of a bounty hunter, but no one she knew, and that surprised her. Anyone brazen enough to walk into The Shade—not to mention able to successfully pull it off—should be well known. But this man wasn’t; he was a mystery.
“Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can just walk in here and kill my men? You’ll be dead for this? Dead!” Maverick screamed and reached for the plasma sword that had fallen when Kylie grabbed him.
“I wouldn’t worry about me; it’s you who won’t be leaving this room alive. I guess from your reaction and stress indicators, you really don’t know what girl I’m talking about.” The man scowled, and his eyes showed some small amount of compassion. “It’s too bad. The GFF needs you to hold things together, but I really don’t.”
He was going to kill Maverick.
“Get down!” Kylie screamed and kicked Maverick out of the way as the man fired his railgun. The blast grazed past Kylie’s hip, the heat of its passage blistering her skin. Maverick wasn’t so lucky—the round hit him in the back. He screamed as he fell onto his stomach, half on the sofa and half off.
“You’re next,” the man said as he trained his gun on the two women. Defenseless, Kylie searched the room for something she could use against this man. Maverick’s plasma sword was useless against the bounty hunter’s railgun. He’d fill her full of holes before she got in range. Then, her eyes lit upon a pulse rifle that one of the guards had dropped. It was just a few meters away…
Nadine screamed and charged at the bounty hunter just as Kylie lunged and snatched up the rifle.
But it was too late. Nadine took a shot right in her gut and collapsed on the ground just as Kylie fired off her own shot at the man. His armor took the brunt of the blast and he trained his railgun on her. Kylie knew she was a dead woman.
“Seems we’re at an impasse, Captain Rhoads,” the bounty hunter said in a low voice.
She glanced down at Nadine, moaning and clasping her stomach as blood seeped out between her fingers. Sweat beaded off her brow, and her lips were flecked with red.
Like Kylie cared about that? Had she spent the last five years making sure Nadine was okay and now this? She bit her lip and looked back up at the man who held both their lives in his hands. “Tell me what you want.”
“I can help your friend if you help me. My ship isn’t far. I can get her onboard, get her treated, but it’s going to take a sacrifice from you. Are you willing to make a trade?”
A trade? Kylie wasn’t going to barter for Nadine like she was an object. “She’s a person you piece of shit. You help her—”
“I need more information on the girl. Where she is. Where to find her. From here on out, you work for me. Soon as you find out where Lana is, you can have your friend back.”
“What’s Lana to you?”
The bounty hunter smiled. “You don’t know what she is! Oh, this is priceless. Since you’re in the thick of it, and clueless, let me take this mess off your hands. It’s more trouble than you want, trust me. If you agree, I’ll take the misses to my ship, heal her, and contact you when all is well…but if you think of shooting me on my way out, I’ll pull her head off nice and slow. Deal?”
Kylie stared at Nadine’s pain-filled face. There was no real choice to be made. She nodded and lowered her weapon as a show of good faith. “Deal.”
“Good. I’ll be in touch.” The bounty hunter slung his railgun over his shoulder and scooped Nadine up, draping her over his shoulder. She cried out in pain and Kylie took an involuntary step forward.
“If she dies…”
The man laughed. “You’re not really in a position to threaten anyone, but I understand you have pretenses to keep up—you’re a big, tough girl after all. Oh, and don’t try contacting her over your private Link. The connection has been terminated.”
Then, like someone flipped a switch, the man disappeared. Kylie had never seen stealth tech like that before. Even Nadine was gone. There were no footfalls or anything; they were just gone.
K
ylie pushed the impossibility from her mind—there was no time to waste. She turned Maverick over and saw that blood was pooling on his plush leather sofa. “Maverick!” She slapped his cheeks. “That bastard has Nadine. It’s up to you now, do you understand?”
He groaned. “The round…it went clear through…” He grunted and held his hand to the hole in his chest to stem the flow of blood.
“Your nano will heal you if I let them. Answer me, Mav, do you know about the girl? Did you kidnap a girl from Silstrand?”
“Silstrand?” Maverick shook his head with a cringe. “If I knew, I’d tell you.”
“Then who? If someone in the GFF kidnapped her, who would it be? Where would they be keeping her? Maverick, wake up!” Kylie slapped his cheeks.
“Harken,” he groaned. “She’s had a side project the last few months…I just thought…bored.” Maverick started to slip away into unconsciousness.
“Where? Where’s she running this project? Where!”
“Sending the information….to your Link…” Maverick’s head rolled to the side. Kylie sat back on her heels and read the data as it came in. It all pointed to a dwarf planet out in the Gedri’s scattered disc. Nothing but a cold ball of ice. Not terraformed. No significant population–the perfect place to hide something big, but a simple girl?
Lana couldn’t be just a girl. No one went to that much trouble for something so plain. So, the real question was, what had Grayson got them into?
“What the hell?” an angry voice called out from behind her.
The voice was unmistakable, and Kylie raised her hands before slowly rising. She turned and saw Harken standing at the room’s entrance. Her mouth hung open as she took in the sight of Maverick’s body and the blood-stained carpet where Nadine had been. She glanced at the fallen guards and a sinister grin crept across her face.
“You stay right there. Don’t move a muscle,” she barked as her eyes ticked to the side, her tell for holding a Link conversation.
She was summoning reinforcements. Kylie grabbed the pulse rifle she had dropped. “Don’t, Harken. I didn’t do this!”
“Like hell you didn’t. Stay where you are, Rhoads. You’re not going anywhere!”
Kylie frowned, Harken didn’t seem to care that she held a weapon—though the woman probably believed there was no way out for Kylie. She was almost right.
Without warning, Kylie fired a shot at Harken and then another at the room’s window. She didn’t even look back to see if her first shot had hit before she leaped over the shattered plas and down to the floor below. There was no time to question Harken—not if she valued her freedom, and her life. The only thought on her mind was to get out of The Shade.
And fast.
Kylie called to her team as she pushed her way through the men and women in the VIP fetish party, eliciting cries of both anger and excitement. She crashed through a door, into a back stairwell and dashed down the steps as the lights around changed from a soft orange amber glow to red and a klaxon wailed.
Rogers mental tone sounded out of breath as he replied in her mind.
“Grab her! There she is!” a voice called from further up the stairs, and a shot rang out, ricocheting off the steps at her feet.
“Lethal force? Really?” Kylie muttered as she returned fire with her pulse rifle. A curse came from above, and she hoped one of her shots at least gave a bruise. She kept to the outside wall as more shots rang out and the sounds of heavy boots echoed down the stairwell.
She couldn’t believe how quickly things had gone from bad to worse. Kylie stuffed her fears and doubt down deep—she needed to focus on Nadine. Do what was necessary to get Nadine back.
Kyle glanced up the stairs and saw a guard leaning over the railing one level up to get a clear shot at her. She didn’t give him the chance and fired at his legs with her pulse rifle. The blast made his limbs go numb, and he lost his balance and tumbled over the railing with a scream.
One down, hundreds to go. She just had to get through the Red Zone without being incapacitated, killed, or captured.
Three things that were going to be near impossible.
She raced down the final flight stairs, past the unconscious body of the man who had fallen, and burst out into the main floor of the club. The music was still blasting, and the sea of bodies still writhed on the dance floor, but as she stood, looking for the best path through the never-ending party, shots rang out, and the patrons near her screamed as the glass lining the wall shattered.
“Shit!” Kylie swore and dove behind the bar to her right. She hunkered down and saw that she wasn’t alone. A woman wearing The Shade’s uniform of a skimpy dress that didn’t even cover her ass cheeks and thigh-high boots crouched nearby with hands clasped over her ears.
“Great party,” Kylie cringed as the weapons-fire renewed and bottles above them shattered.
“They’re looking for you, aren’t they?” the woman asked.
Kylie nodded. “You won’t tell, will you?”
“Your dress kind of makes you hard to hide, no offense.”
Kylie glanced down at her blue glowing dress that was lit up like a neon sign. “None taken.”
The woman grabbed a fallen bottle and pulled the stopper out with her teeth. “To a good party! Who needs a job anyway?”
Nice girl. Kylie crawled away, using the bar for cover. At the end, she ducked behind the chairs and tables lining the wall and ran for the door.
“Hey! Stop!” One of the guards at the entrance called out and Kylie clocked him as she ran past. He went down, but she didn’t look back to see if he stayed that way.
The other man grabbed for her, but she ducked to the side and dashed out into the settling gloom of Montral’s night. She didn’t pause to admire the glow of the city’s lights reflecting on the dome and raced down the stairs as projectile and beam rounds filled the night around her.
By some miracle, she didn’t get hit by the wild shots from Maverick’s guards. Ahead, Kylie saw a pair of men on hoverbikes pulled up at the corner talking to a couple of women. She took a deep breath and charged straight at them.
Her shoulder slammed into the first man and knocked him off his bike. She leaped onto its seat, cranked the throttle, and raced down the street, heading for the Red Zone’s exit.
Over her eyes, Kylie’s HUD flashed a dozen warnings. She was speeding, she was wanted for attempted murder, her crew was wanted for a variety of crimes…and the Dauntless was impounded.
Things had just gotten even more complicated.
Kylie messaged Rogers.
Rogers began, but Kylie didn’t give him a chance to finish.
They had to, because if they didn’t, Kylie might never get Nadine back. Already her anxiety was mounting. Already Kylie wanted nothing more than to hear she was okay, listen to her voice. Even listen to Nadine yell at how stupid Kylie was for making this shitty deal with Grayson would be better than not knowing how she was.
Had she been stupid to agree to any of this?
Most likely.
Ahead, the security arch and checkpoint for entry into the Red Zone loomed. A large truck blocked the road—undergoing an inspection, from the looks of it. Kylie didn’t equivocate and ramped her bike over the curb and crashed into a crowd of people, shooting wildly at the guards and police ahead.
No one cared about casualties. Not her, and certainly not Maverick’s men as they fired back. Kylie poured on all the speed the hoverbike could muster and smashed it right into the large, heavily modded guard that had given he
r and Nadine a hard time as they entered.
“Shiiiiiit!” she screamed as she flew through the air and slammed into the window of a groundcar waiting behind the truck. The window shattered, but broke Kylie’s fall well enough that her limbs all still seemed to work. She didn’t bother looking to see if she was being pursued as she pulled herself off the car and onto her feet.
Getting back to the ship was all that mattered.
* * * * *
Bullets flew all around Kylie as she dove behind an overturned table. Her pulse rifle was long gone, its batteries depleted two gunfights ago. The slug thrower she had found somewhere along the way was out of ammo and she tossed it aside. She looked around and saw a fallen plasma rifle at her feet.
One thing was for sure about Montral: a loaded weapon was never far away.
Plasma rifles had terrible aim, but shooting star-stuff at people also had a way of getting them to fall back. How many people had to die because of General Samuel’s daughter? And why was everyone going through so much trouble to get some snot-nosed brat?
Grayson, the general, they had to be leaving out part of the story. Maybe that had been a given, and maybe Kylie should’ve pushed harder. Sure, they didn’t give her much choice, so maybe Kylie hadn’t stopped to consider it. Hadn’t stopped to think that maybe Grayson—with all their history—might be not telling the whole truth.
If they survived, if she saw him again, Kylie would make him explain himself.
She fired several shots. One took out a woman near the bar’s door. The second tore through the guy standing at the window. The third, directed at the guy by the vending machine, missed. She ducked back down behind her cover as the patron returned fire. It was like the whole city was after them.
OK, maybe this plasma rifle wasn’t so bad.
“Why don’t you just come out and make it easy?” the man called out.
Kylie fired blindly around the edge of the table. “I don’t believe in doing things the easy way, if you couldn’t tell.”
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