“I stayed up late looking over some stuff,” Erik admitted. “Reviewing the cases and evidence we’ve discovered about the conspiracy. I was thinking a lot about working for Alina, the Knights Errant, and everything that’s happened this last year. When I left the Army, I had a year to sit around brooding. There’s only so much planning a man can do before he starts a bloody campaign of revenge.” He grunted. “Especially when the man doesn’t even have a target for that vengeance.”
“And now? How are things different?”
“Since I’ve hit Earth, I’ve concentrated on getting the job done, whether as a cop or my personal business. Not that I’m brooding.” Erik grinned.
“Sure, you need more atmospheric lighting to properly brood.” Jia smiled. “Maybe a dark cape or something, too. An organ to play during storms, or you can just wait for rainstorms and sit there, looking up at the sky getting soaked.”
“Exactly. Something like that.” Erik twisted the yoke to join a patchy line of flitters in a hurry. “But I’m over that. I’m ready for this hunt to continue, but while we’re talking about things, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay we’re leaving your flitter behind. We kind of talked about it before, but I don’t know if you were paying attention.”
“My flitter?” Jia stared at him, at a loss. “What about my flitter? Oh, you’re right, not enough space.” She frowned. “Even less if we’re going to get exoskeletons and more equipment.”
“Being logical and all that, the MX 60 is far more suited for trouble,” Erik explained. “I’ve decked it out to deal with that, and we’re staring down the barrel of a lot of trouble going forward.”
“I would vastly prefer this vehicle to Jia’s new flitter,” Emma offered. “The enhanced sensors alone make it tremendously useful for a large variety of tasks like surveillance, investigatory and combat, let alone all the ways it’s been reinforced and modified. We don’t know what our tasks will be going forward, so it’s good to be prepared. It would be nice if we had a weapon I could control, but I’m sure that’s something we can add soon enough. Engineer Quinn will probably be more than happy to work with me on that.”
“A gun would be handy, but it has to be something not easily detected if we’re ever going to stick it in a commercial transport.”
Jia watched a bright yellow flitter in a lower lane. “I’m fine with using the MX 60 on assignments. I’d just not thought much about it being an issue. Why did you think I’d put up a big fight?”
“I don’t know.” Erik turned the yoke, altering course. “I figured you’d think you wasted a bunch of money on buying a new flitter. I was the one goading you into it with the bet and everything, and I thought that you’d be pissed about that. It’s not crazy when you go through the logic.”
“You’re right. I did waste a lot of money on a vehicle I might not use nearly as much as I anticipated.” Jia sighed. “But that was my choice, so I can only blame you so much.”
“What about not at all?” Erik suggested.
She frowned at him. “Remember the bet you just mentioned?”
“If it makes you feel any better, you should remember it wasn’t about a new flitter. It was about a new you, a symbol and all that. If anything, I did you a favor challenging you with that bet.”
Jia glared at him. “I’d punch you if you weren’t flying. I hope you are well and truly cognizant of that.”
Erik laughed. “What? That excuse didn’t do it for you? And here I thought it was a brilliant defense.”
“I could have been a new me for free!” Jia grumbled. “But like I said, it does come down to me in the end, so no punches or final blame today.”
“As much as it pains me to note additional complications,” Emma interjected, “you need to be prepared for such basic realities as air pressure differentials and how they’ll affect flight efficiency. Your flitter was designed for use on Earth. Not every possible colony you’ll go to is under a full dome with Earth pressure levels or air composition. The grav emitters might keep the MX 60 up, but the thrusters are primarily responsible for maneuvering. I can actively compensate for it somewhat, but you’ll need a more permanent solution, depending on where you’re sent.”
Erik frowned. “Damn it, Miguel. I’m going to have to trust this new woman.”
“What happened to believing in Alina?” Jia asked.
“That was before we were talking about this baby.” Erik softly tapped the dash. “What if Lanara has weird thoughts about what’s best for the MX 60 and changes everything I love about it?”
“We’ll be trusting Lanara to maintain the ship we’ll be flying in.” Jia’s expression turned amused. “And there are far more ways to die in space than in a flitter.”
Erik shrugged. “What do I care? I didn’t pay for that ship or any of the modifications.”
Jia laughed. “You won’t mind if we die because you didn’t pay for the Rabbit?”
“I’ll care. I think I’ll care less.”
Jia sat there for a moment staring at Erik, her brain trying to make the phrase into something coherent. “What twisted logic.”
“But it is logic,” Erik insisted, putting up a finger.
“There’s more for your consideration,” Emma added. “And to build off what Jia has said, as wonderful as this body is, it is not designed to operate outside atmosphere. The recent events at the detention facility only reinforced the difficulties inherent in having limited options when in space.”
“That’s what the Rabbit is for, but I think I see what you’re saying. We need some sort of tactical solution, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” Erik shook his head. “It might be nice to have Cutter flying a fighter and Jia flying the Rabbit, but that isn’t going to happen. I had to push to get exoskeletons.” He looked at Jia. “Speaking of which, that meeting didn’t take as much time as I thought it would. I thought we were going to have a serious briefing, but I suppose I should have known better with Alina.”
“So?” Jia asked. “Did you have somewhere to be?”
“We could get in some exo training time,” Erik suggested. “Emma, can you check the schedule?”
“There are several open slots this morning,” she reported. “Shall I book one?”
“Why not?” Jia replied. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Erik kept pace with Jia’s exoskeleton as they ran through the rubble-strewn city. Half the building had collapsed, blast marks or holes marring the debris. Huge craters lay all over, along with the smoking remnants of destroyed vehicles.
A true battlefield would have had more bodies, but Erik wasn’t worried. Jia had seen and created her share of corpses. She’d hardened herself through real-world experience.
“Isn’t this fun?” Erik shouted. “Don’t you want to do it all the time?”
Jia laughed. “You say that, but I’m having a good time. If I had known it was this enjoyable to control an exoskeleton, I might have been pushing to join TPST instead of being a detective.”
“I don’t think you would have liked never being able to investigate,” Erik commented. “All combat-focus all the time appeals to a certain kind of person.”
“Like you?”
“I did spend thirty years in combat arms in the Army,” Erik replied. “Most jobs in the Army don’t require you to strap into an exoskeleton with a heavy rifle. There’s a reason I ended up where I did. No one does a job for that long unless they like it on some level.”
“I don’t know if I enjoy battles,” Jia offered. Her exoskeleton slowed. “They get my heart pumping, but that’s not the same thing as enjoying them.”
“You don’t have to enjoy fights,” Erik insisted. “You just can’t be terrified of them. A little fear is healthy. You end up dead when you get too cocky. You’ve been hurt in firefights. You know how quickly it can turn to shit in a fight, and I’d prefer if you didn’t get an arm blown off.”
“I’m good with the w
hole arm-keeping plan.” Jia turned toward a nearby collapsed building. “If that means I need to put in more time in training scenarios, I’m fine with it.”
“Okay, it’s simple,” Erik explained. “Check your map. You need to get from point alpha to point beta.”
“Deceptively simple,” Jia commented. “I’m assuming this city looking like this implies there are at least a couple of enemies hiding in the rubble.”
Erik nodded. “Good first assumption. The briefing is short but important. Recon spotted multiple rebels still in the area. Close-air support eliminated the enemy’s arty, but an earlier squad got wiped out. You got cut off from your platoon, and you need to reconnect with the rest of your platoon for a final sweep of the area. Note, this isn’t about you being a hero and trying to wipe out all the remaining forces yourself.”
“Noted. Point A to point B? It’ll be easy.”
“We’ll see.”
“Maintain your sensor awareness,” Erik ordered. “We might have Emma with us in the field, but we might not, so don’t ignore what the recon drones are bringing in. Make it a habit to do a manual check every five to eight seconds. Depending on how you configure your feeds, that might make the difference between you spotting an ambush or taking a rocket, bullet, or laser in the back. In an environment like this, the guy holding the bullet with your name on it could be anywhere. You might not be a soldier, but if our luck stays as it has been, you’ll have to fight as much as one, so you might as well develop all the soldiers’ instincts you can.”
“I’m realizing this isn’t all that different from flying a ship,” Jia commented.
Erik laughed. “Really? I can’t fly a ship worth a damn, and I could probably do ballet in an exo.”
“I meant in terms of spatial awareness,” she clarified.
“Too bad your parents never sent you to a Fleet recruiter. You’d have made a hell of a fighter pilot.”
“Probably, but my parents didn’t see any political and financial future in a military career, and I never expressed interest.” Jia slowed and frowned. “Are you picking up the movement at nine o’clock?” She spun that way, pointing her rifle. “I’ve got a potential contact.”
“Verify contact.” Erik kept a stone-face despite wanting to grin. She was doing fine. Now it was time to see if she overreacted. She’d trained herself well when using a personal firearm, but wandering around in an exo with a huge rifle was different. The bigger the gun, the bigger the temptation to use it.
“Magnifying,” Jia announced. “And it appears to be…a drone flying in a circle, projecting a hologram of you eating a beignet. Not the deadliest of enemies.”
“I’m glad you checked.” Erik let out the laugh he’d been holding in. “You could have killed me while I was eating. That would be a hell of a way to die.”
“Very funny, but at least it’s not a Zitark in a bikini.”
“True,” Erik replied, “but you’d be surprised at some of the distractions I’ve seen terrorists and rebel troops use. I’ve seen things almost that ridiculous.”
“Assuming you’re not just screwing with me, that could mean there are enemies nearby,” Jia concluded. “The drone might have been intended to get me to expose myself by opening fire.
“It could be, or it could just be me screwing with you.” Erik grinned.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re only three klicks from the rendezvous point. It’s not a straight run, but we’re almost there. I’d rather pick up the pace then crawl along and risk missing out on exfil with the rest of the squad.” Jia pushed forward, the heavy feet of the exoskeleton echoing among the skeletons of the once-tall buildings.
Birds scattered in the distance, startled by the sound.
“True, but with all this debris, it’ll probably take another ten minutes to get to the rendezvous point,” Erik commented after reading the estimate on his faceplate display. “Jungles and bombed-out cities are the worst. You can’t go as fast as you want, and there are too many places to hide. I’ve lived this more times than I care to count, and it’s annoying every damned time.”
“Do you really think we’ll end up in a jungle or a bombed-out city?” Jia asked. “We’ve had some huge fights, but we’re not going to be fighting a war.”
“You never know what can happen. Did you ever think you’d get jumped by a yaoguai in an apartment?”
Jia sighed. “No, that scenario didn’t occur to me, even after some of the other fights we had.”
“The way I figure it, if you train for the worst, it makes everything else seem easy.” Erik resisted the urge to drop a hint about the next encounter. Jia might be a natural in terms of piloting, and she could handle herself in a fight, but fighting in an exoskeleton required new instincts—ones best learned through harsh lessons and simulated fire.
The better he trained her now, the better the chance she had of surviving in the future.
A distant gunshot sounded. Jia hissed as their recon drone dropped out of the sky and crashed into a deep crater, shattering into half a dozen pieces.
“Sniper,” she announced. “But I didn’t spot any drones, so the drone and hologram weren’t just you screwing with me. That means they’re close. Maybe I should not have had the drone flying.”
“Going recon blind is an option, but it can be dangerous,” Erik commented.
Jia turned her head, seeking an enemy, her eyes dipping to take in sensor readings. Her shield expanded from her left arm. “We ran hard. They had to have heard us, and they just took out the drone. Why aren’t they attacking?”
“Sometimes it’s better to work a squad’s nerves,” Erik noted. “They could have ambushers set up in both directions. Or, if this was a real-world scenario, they might be more concerned about getting away if there is only a small number in this area. We’ve fought a lot of fanatics, but most terrorists and rebels aren’t stupid enough to take on fights they know they can’t win. Even if you’re not interested in arresting people anymore, there are advantages to not taking the fight offered. It all comes down to the objective.”
Jia crept forward, her shield covering the bulk of her exoskeleton—cautious but not overly so. Erik nodded, pleased that she understood one second of distraction could mean losing a battle.
All the criminals, terrorists, and yaoguai they’d fought together had proven to be excellent teachers, effectively compressing years of experience into a single year.
“Contact!” Jia shouted.
Her exoskeleton’s jump thrusters came alive, propelling her exoskeleton backward. A rocket screamed from the window of a nearby building and struck where she’d been standing. Her gun roared, spitting bullets toward the source. The screams of dying men joined the cacophony of other rifles firing. Muzzle flashes highlighted targets in several windows or barrels poking over the tops of craters. Bullets bounced off her shield. She repaid an ambusher with a large-caliber, high-velocity burst to his head and then blasted through a second man. The scenario settings weren’t graphic, but the bodies didn’t disappear.
Erik slowly backed up, not shooting. He knew where every target was in the scenario, and the enemies were programmed to not shoot at him. He would have Emma generate a more dynamic scenario during their next training session. A few exo dances here and there weren’t the same as constant practices, and the last time he’d strapped on a real exoskeleton, he wasn’t at one hundred percent.
Loud, deep thumps sounded in rapid succession as Jia employed the grenade launcher on top of her rifle.
Explosions rippled through an arc, scattering men hidden behind overturned vehicles and in craters. Some screamed. Others never got the chance. Jia didn’t yell profanities. She continued identifying and picking off targets until there was nothing left but thick, acrid smoke and bodies, bloodied but not as mangled as they would be outside a simulation.
“I think that’s all of them,” Jia offered, her breath ragged. “My launcher is empty.”
“Huh. I intended for you to run and gu
n, but that works too.”
“They can’t follow me if they’re all dead,” Jia pointed out.
“True, but I do have a critique,” Erik replied.
“What?” Jia asked, pride in her voice.
“Try to keep a few of those grenades in reserve,” Erik recommended. “Just in case, but good job overall. I think you wouldn’t get me killed in an exo fight. Good to know.”
“Why do that when I can kill you myself?” Jia smirked. “Let’s get to the rendezvous point, then go get some lunch.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
November 2, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Apartment of Erik Blackwell
Erik groaned and slapped a hand to his head. He let his head loll back on his couch. “It’s a problem. I didn’t think about it much, but now I can’t get it out of my head.”
“No, it’s not.” Jia rolled her eyes from beside him.
A chance post-lunch conversation had taken a turn toward the absurd.
Jia would have liked to have been surprised, but Erik could be surprisingly passionate about the most minor of subjects. Not that she could criticize him. She was still irritated by the goalie’s performance.
“You don’t get it,” Erik explained. “Space travel isn’t always twelve hours to the moon.” He stared at the ceiling. “We haven’t even checked the food or ingredient printers. If we get stuck on that ship for a month and all our meals taste strange, I’m going to remind you of this conversation. It’s not like you can call delivery when you are millions of kilometers away from the next slice of what passes for human civilization.”
“Lanara and Emma can fix it if it’s a problem.” Jia shrugged. “You’re overreacting. And you’re wrong. We had food on the way to the prison.”
“We had a huge breakfast and barely ate anything more than snacks. I didn’t attempt a pastry, let alone a beignet.” Erik shook his head. “It’s not the same. And Lanara? I might trust her not to kill us, but I’m not going to trust her with anything about food. She will probably just say, ‘The point of food is to deliver nutrients. Why aren’t you just printing nutrient cubes?’ We can improve food efficiency by 24.4 percent if we don’t add any color or significant flavor.”
Maelstrom of Treason Page 27