Edward

by Marcus LaGrone

  Reluctantly the craft lifted off and timidly accelerated across the vast cityscape.

  “Faster people! Time means lives!” barked Alex. “Takru gave you the jump point, get there as fast as this thing can move. If there are speed limits over the city, tell them to take ‘em up with the Shukurae!”

  The craft finally started picking up serious speed and altitude. The sun was finally gone below the horizon. Good. They liked the dark.

  “Has the target stabilized?” asked Edward over a secure channel.

  “Affirmative, second to top story on the new construction of the Nedej Mercantile Bank project. Sending you a live feed.”

  Suddenly Edward and Alex had a little red blip in their goggles that was Ethan’s location. Alongside it was a distance and speed vector as well as altitude. Superimposed along with it was the layout of the building under construction.

  “They are too far in to come in from the front quickly, and they are pretty far back from the elevator shaft. You planning on smashing the roof?” asked Alex.

  “Unfortunately that looks like the way to go. Will hurt like crazy and I doubt I could jump him out the front,” replied Edward.

  “I’m going to have to follow your crater. I don’t think I’m in any condition to smash a reinforced roof.”

  “Understood. I’ll hit first and roll forward. You follow and cover me while I grab Ethan and fast rope out the front.”

  “Too high to make it all the way down. That and the rest of the motorcycle gang will probably be down there.”

  “I know. We’ll figure out the rest when we get there,” murmured Edward.

  “Gunship is still twelve minutes out from contact,” came Takru’s voice.

  “We get clearance yet?” asked Alex with a bit of a laugh.

  “I stopped asking. It is in their ‘inbox.’ Not my fault if they don’t keep up,” replied Takru. “Stand by!”

  Edward glanced at Alex, “I wonder what’s up?”

  “Don’t know, don’t care,” laughed Alex.

  “We have contact with the kidnappers,” said Takru. “I will keep you in the feed. You are ninety seconds from jump?”

  “Eighty,” confirmed Alex.

  Edward and Alex both checked their equipment again. There were doing over 400 km/h at 12km up. The air was thin and cold and they were in their element. Two Highlanders on a mission.

  “Stand by to jump,” noted Alex.

  “Last chance to abort,” called Edward to Takru.

  “You’d just go anyway,” came Takru’s cruel laugh.

  And with that Alex and Edward disconnected their harnesses and dropped clear of the repulsar craft. It took a few seconds to get clear of the turbulence but soon they were in freefall. They reoriented themselves, squarely focusing on the little red blip that was the tracking device on Ethan as they spread their arms and opened the small wings on their suits. They fell like flying squirrels, gliding at a steep angle toward their target in total darkness guided only by the display on their helmets. Having jumped so far away and using the webbed wings to glide in, they were invisible in the dark sky. No hint of light to give them away.

  Unlike flying squirrels they quickly started to pick up speed as they both invoked their Live Steel armor. Their weight skyrocketed and they fell more like guided bombs than like flying squirrels.

  “We have the boy, and if you ever want to see him alive again, you will do exactly as we say,” came the chatter over the comlink. Edward and Alex flexed their armor again and the last attempts of drag fell away as he used his Live steel armor to shred the glide wings and they fluttered away in the night sky.

  Edward mentally strained as he pushed his armor as hard as he could. More mass. More mass. Fall faster. Hit harder. Punch the floor. He soon was falling noticeably faster than Alex. Edward could now clearly see the building come screaming up at him without the goggles, and he let the last bit of his armor shred those too. They had served their purpose.

  Takru’s voice came online, talking to the kidnappers, “I have a counter proposal. You all lie down right now and surrender, and you will live.”

  Edward would have smiled, but he did something far more fun instead: he smashed into the roof of the building. Several hundred kilograms at a large fraction of the speed of sound made short work of the concrete and reinforced steel. It hurt. It hurt a lot and it hurt all over and he had one more floor to go, but Edward didn’t care. A split second later the second floor gave way too and he mentally shifted trying to throw back the mass and momentum of the armor. If he had just done a simple fall, then it would have been no big deal, but punching through the two reinforced floors was taking its toll on him. He came to stop, just as planned, and quickly rolled forward to clear a path for Alex.

  The chaos in the room was complete. Dust and debris filled the room as Edward scanned the room. He quickly made out the bound and gagged form of Ethan and with a simple burst of Live Steel cut both his binders and the gag clear. A split second latter Alex slammed to the ground behind them. The Highlanders had arrived.

  Edward relished the confusion; he needed it, he hurt. He quickly pulled a fastweld connector attached to a rope from his backpack and stuck it to an exposed steel girder as he reached for the terrified form of Ethan. Recognition flashed across Ethan’s face as he made eye contact, and the boy quickly ran to him. Edward scooped up the teenager as best as he could and ran for the front of the room while Alex made short work of those in his path. With a quick jump out the unfinished front of the building Edward found himself once again in freefall.

  This time the freefall was slowed by the rope in his backpack as it unspooled and flexed under their weight. The pair swung back toward the building only now four stories lower. Edward carefully played with the tension of the rope to ensure they landed through an opening rather than an unforgiving support beam. That being said, their landing was still rough as they hit the floor and rolled.

  “Ethan!” screamed Edward, “are you okay?”

  “Shin hurts like crazy, but I can bloody well run if that is your next question!”

  “Good lad!” Edward quickly helped him to his feet and the pair raced down the hall. Edward slammed his comlink, “We have Ethan. Backup would be nice.”

  “En route. Tenth through fifteenth floors look the most defensible.”

  “D-tack,” replied Edward as they approached the elevators. One was in motion and he pressed its call button.

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” asked Ethan. “They have guns.”

  “Eh. Just stand clear. Why the heck doesn’t this building have proper security?”

  “They pay the gangs and things don’t get stolen.”

  “You are kidding me, right?”

  “No, sir.”

  Edward rolled his eyes, “Oops! Stand clear of the elevator!” He raised his armor and invoked a pair of long swords in a cascade of blue sparks.

  Alex smiled at Edward as the door opened, “Sorry, but I didn’t take the scenic route.”

  “Awesome, Alex. Ethan!”

  Ethan quickly made his way to the elevator and then struggled not to vomit as the doors closed.

  “Sorry, kid,” grimaced Alex. “I did make a mess in here.”

  Suddenly there was a thump on the roof.

  “Grenade,” said Edward and Alex in calm unison.

  Ethan would have screamed but he was quickly engulfed by Edward’s Live Steel armor and the muted sound of the detonation overhead came across instead as comical. Ethan’s eyes shone brightly as Edward relaxed the armor and looked at the damage overhead.

  “Where do these people keep coming up with grenades?” asked Edward flatly.

  “Keep?” asked Alex. “Oh yeah. There was that guy that threw one at you on the motorcycle the other day.” Alex cocked his head and looked at Ethan, “Is it standard equipment or something? Get a motorcycle and they toss in a few grenades for fun?”

  Ethan shuddered, “You two are way too calm. There are like
a hundred and fifty of them!”

  “Kadu took out ten,” began Edward.

  “You landed on one,” replied Alex.

  “Eww!”

  “Yeah…then there were five in the back of the room and either two or three in the elevator car. That leaves…”

  “Well, he was being a little dramatic with the one hundred and fifty,” observed Edward.

  “True, true… Floor fifteen?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Very well.” Alex hit the emergency stop button sending the car lurching to a stop. With a long trailing arc of blue sparks, Alex winked a pole ax into being and effortlessly sliced through the elevator doors. With two more quick slashes the entire section fell away revealing the lobby below. “Mind the drop,” he called as he hopped out and scanned the lobby.

  A quick nod later and Ethan and Edward followed. Ethan landed hard and grimaced furiously but didn’t cry out.

  “Your shin again?” asked a fatherly Edward.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Lean on me if you need to, just stop calling me ‘sir.’ Fair enough?” he asked with a smile.

  Their comlinks suddenly chirped. Edward activated his, “Silverglade Sightseeing Tours, how might I help you?”

  “Shukurae Airways is pleased to announce its new service arriving on the north side of your building in five minutes,” came Trevor’s voice

  “Pleasure to fly with you. What happened to Takru?”

  “He’s flying the second gunship.”

  Alex and Edward both laughed.

  “Thanks for the update, out.”

  “Out.”

  “They are on the stairs,” noted Alex quietly.

  “Then let’s go get them!”

  With that Edward and Alex ran across the lobby toward the emergency fire stairs while Ethan limped behind them. “Stay close, kid!”

  Alex raised his Live Steel armor and poked his head into the stair landing and then quickly withdrew under a hail of gunfire. “Whee! They are mad!”

  There was suddenly another clinking sound.

  “Grenade,” repeated Alex and Edward in calm unison again as Edward raised his armor around Ethan. The subsequent explosion shredded the door and most of the landing.

  “Those are starting to hurt,” observed Alex.

  “Maybe you should start dodging,” suggested Edward.

  The pair stood there bickering like brothers as a gun toting mob descended down the stairs. Once they were finally in range, Alex and Edward winked long swords into their hands in a shower of blue sparks and rushed the crowd mercilessly easily cutting them down. Edward kept repositioning himself to make certain stray bullets didn’t find their way toward Ethan, and in a red splash of fury, it was all over and Alex and Edward retreated back to the landing.

  “They’ll think twice, before… Oh… ,” began Alex. His words were cut short as they both noticed a large black metal device fall down the damaged stairwell.

  “Breaching charge!” screamed Alex and Edward in unison as they grabbed Ethan and ran as fast as they could toward the corner of the lobby. They barely reached the corner when the device activated. A dispersal charge filled the lobby with the detonable mixture and a split second later it ignited.

  Edward all but smothered Ethan in spite of engulfing him in his armor. “Oh…I mean, just really!” screamed Edward as parts of the ceiling started to crumble. “Outer wall! Now! Before they do that again!”

  Ethan needed little reminding, anything that got Alex and Edward motivated had him doubly motivated. Limp or no, he was easily keeping up with Alex and Edward as they ran down the halls of the unfinished building.

  “Turn!” barked Alex. “We need to zig zag!”

  “Keep us going north-ish,” yelled Edward back.

  “Heavy on the ‘ish’, heavy on getting the heck away from… oh…” Alex did his best to expand Ethan’s vocabulary as they all suddenly noticed another set of fire stairs.

  “Do you think they got here yet?” asked Edward.

  “I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know!” screamed Alex as they took off running again, back the other way. Nothing exploded. Yet. So they kept running until they hit the north end of the building.

  Edward slapped his comlink, “Now would be a very good time, people.”

  “Two hundred meters out,” came the reply.

  “That will do nicely,” nodded Alex as he and Edward looked out the window to the reassuring lights of the Shukurae gunship. It was hovering there in space as its search lights suddenly lit up the entire end of the building. The whine of four pulse rifle gatling guns filled the air as the ship bathed the floors above them in a relentless barrage of fire. These were followed by 90mm rockets, and their thermobaric warheads soon shredded what was left.

  “Don’t drop the ceiling down on top of us!” yelled Edward over the comlink. Well, actually he was far more colorful and descriptive than that.

  The gunship killed its search lights and then quickly swooped to the edge of the building with its landing ramp extended. Alex and Edward broke out what parts of the windows that hadn’t been destroyed by the concussion and quickly moved Ethan onboard. The ramp hadn’t even closed all the way as it pulled away from the building.

  “We need a medic to check his leg!” called Edward.

  A pair of Taik medics descended upon Ethan with great haste and they quickly had him sequestered on a gurney. Thirty seconds later they had his leg scanned and started a bandage, “Muscles hyperextended and a hairline fracture on the tibia.” They then started the procedure to request his medical records for drug allergies before giving him anything for the pain and swelling.

  “The second gunship will be here in less than five to clean out what is left,” offered a Shukurae door gunner to the group.

  “How the heck does a motorcycle gang get that powerful and get access to that kind of equipment?” asked Edward with no small amount of disbelief.

  “Unclear. Takru and Trevor will be inquiring.”

  “Did we ever get clearance?” asked Alex with a bit of a laugh.

  The Shukurae gunner laughed, “Unclear and unconcerned. The property is held by the Nedej Mercantile Bank. As such, we have a standing order to protect their properties. Thus, we will actually send them a bill for tonight’s activities. Their building was, after all, infested with armed felons.”

  “The kid mentioned that the gangs get paid on the side as part of a protection racket,” mentioned Alex.

  “If that is the case, then things may get very ugly as that could jeopardize their standing contracts with the Shukurae. This may get very interesting.”

  “Any word on Kadu?” asked Edward anxiously.

  “She is doing well enough that they had to sedate her to make her remain at the hospital.”

  Edward laughed, “That is Kadu.” He turned his attention to his comlink as he paged the hotel.

  “Gillian here,” her voice was calm. A very practiced calm.

  “We are on our way back. Ethan hurt his leg as we jumped through a window, but outside of that, we are all fine.”

  “Zoë will be delighted to hear that,” replied Gillian. The relief in her voice was obvious.

  “I can put Ethan on if she’d like.”

  “Let me get her. I think she’d like that very much.”

  Fifteen minutes later they were all back at the hotel. Alex retired to his room, as Ethan retold the story of his rescue for the tenth time to Zoë, Tatiana and Gillian.

  Zoë caught Edward by the side, “You went in without the rest of the team?”

  “Alex and I were pretty sure we could stall until they got there. Kidnappings are always dangerous things. I’d rather a gunfight over hostage negotiations any day of the week.”

  Zoë cocked her head, “You really broke through two layers of floor on your entrance?”

  “Yes, indeed. That hurt a bit. Okay, more than a bit. But it seemed the best way to get to him and get the initiative.”

 
Zoë smiled, “You are crazy, you know that? How can I thank you?”

  “You aren’t mad at us because he was kidnapped in the first place?”

  Zoë shook her head, “I can’t blame you or Tatiana. Those stupid street gangs are the problem. If I’m going to blame anyone it’s going to be Tatiana’s father. But I’m not going to take it out on her. I hate people that do that, and I don’t want to be one of those people.” She broke eye contact, “I have other people I can blame.”

  “Hey! Back to happier things, eh?”

  Zoë smiled, “I’m sorry. I am very grateful for what you did. You, Alex, your whole team. I heard Kadu is going to be all right.”

  “Yep, she is a tough bird. But she’ll be out for several days.”

  “That means you won’t have a chaperon.”

  Edward blew a raspberry, “There is still mom.” He gestured to Gillian. “So how about dinner tonight?”

  Zoë smiled, “I’d like that. On one condition: Tatiana comes too.”

  Edward laughed, “I think we can all live with that.”

  21

  Edward woke the next morning to the sound of an argument in the living room. Ethan was still there; his aunt and the police had all had their talks with him, but it was decided he could spend the night, and the Shukurae would be taking him to and from school for the rest of the week. But that didn’t seem to be what the argument was about. Edward made himself presentable and carefully entered the living room. Ethan and Zoë were there with Gillian.

  “If I work the entire concert tour rather than just the first six months, I can afford to have you moved to a better side of town,” growled Zoë at Ethan.

  “The guys at the university granted you a six month stay; they’ll cancel your scholarship if you don’t start classes on time. You’ve worked all your life for that scholarship; you aren’t going to throw it away because you are paranoid about me,” growled Ethan back.

  “Paranoid? You were taken off the streets in a hail of bullets! That is case history. I don’t want to see it repeated.”

  “You won’t. It was a fluke. The government can’t risk the embarrassment of a repeat. We both know how that works.”