by Gun Brooke
“You’re almost there,” Emeron said encouragingly. “A few meters, that’s all. You can do this. Dwyn, just let them help you.”
It seemed like a lifetime, but eventually a new set of strong arms hauled her over the edge and up on soft grass. Yhja and Trom collapsed next to her, and she looked up in time to see Leanne kneel next to Yhja and hug her.
“You made it.” Emeron embraced her and buried her face in her hair. She groaned as her scalp burned, and Emeron flinched and let go. She protested wordlessly by hiding her face at Emeron’s neck, trying to catch her breath.
“You’re injured,” Emeron said hoarsely. “There’s blood in your hair.”
“Some branches caught it.”
“Want me to tie it back for you?” Leanne asked. “I have a spare clasp.”
“Thanks.” Dwyn whimpered almost inaudibly as Leanne quickly braided her hair.
“Rest a few minutes and drink some,” Emeron said, as she stroked her back. “We have to get away from the bots’ trail here. They’ll be looking for traces of you the next time they pass the ravine. They lost track of you when you veered off up the wall. It’s just a matter of time before they return.”
“Can we repeat the EMP?” Dwyn asked, breathing a little easier with each new breath.
“Not advisable, since we risk disrupting any backup that Jacelon’s called in.”
“Damn.”
“Exactly.”
“Sorry, but you’ve rested long enough. We need to leave.” Leanne sounded casual, but it wasn’t hard for Dwyn to sense the sincerity and professionalism behind her words. “The bots haven’t fired as much on the northwest side of the clearing. I say we move carefully to that side, preferably without bumping into any of the bad guys.”
Emeron helped her to her feet. “Lean on me. Yhja and Trom, you follow me, and Leanne will come last. You okay to walk, Dwyn? I can carry you.”
“You cannot,” she said firmly. “I can walk.”
“Okay.” Emeron kept her arm around Dwyn. “Let me know if that changes.”
“All right.”
They crept along small, winding paths, Emeron’s night-vision visor enabling her to lead the way. Dwyn heard shouting and firing in the distance, and once they had to duck and play dead for several minutes while two bots circled them like vultures. They finally flew away, and she shivered so violently that Emeron had to feel it.
“Why don’t they see our body signatures?” she asked. “The others we came across seemed to.”
“The plasma-pulse charges must have jumbled their sensors. Smell them in the air? The slightly phosphorous scent?”
“Yes. That could mask us?”
“My best guess.”
They kept walking and Dwyn thought they would reach Jacelon and the rest of their team any minute. Perhaps SC backup had already arrived?
A loud explosion sounded not far from them, followed by a blinding light. She pressed herself against Emeron and clung to her weapon harness. “What was that?”
“I have no idea.” Emeron stood still. “I thought I saw something.”
“Where? More bots?” Dwyn froze and looked frantically around her.
“No. A shadow. A person over there?” Emeron began to walk toward it, dragging her with one hand and holding her weapon ready with the other. “You. Show yourself. Damn if I’m going to pass you and let you shoot us in the back.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Let me check it out.” Leanne pulled out a scanner. “I’m getting erratic readings. There are a lot of disturbances. Can you see them?”
“I think they’re behind the trees five meters ahead of us, ten o’clock.”
“Come out,” Leanne demanded, raising her weapon. “If you don’t, we’ll be forced to shoot.”
Another bout of silence, then a soft rustle of leaves.
“I know that voice,” a woman said, sounding tired but with obvious command in her tone. “D’Artansis?”
Dwyn blinked. Who—?
“Diplomat Jacelon?” Leanne said, her voice reverent. “Dahlia?”
“Oh, Leanne, for stars and skies,” the woman they’d been sent to rescue said as she stumbled toward them. “If you’re here, so are Rae, Kellen, and Owena.” She stood before them and Dwyn could barely make out the contours of a tall woman. “And while we’re on the subject, what took you so long?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kellen placed her plasma-pulse rifle in its harness on her back and dislodged her gan’thet rods. The familiar cold rage at the sight of an oppressor, or in this case, a hardened criminal, a murderer, engulfed her, and she tore across the clearing. Many years of training kept Kellen’s fury at the exact level she needed to perform at peak rt. She was determined to find Dahlia and kill M’Ekar and the female leader of the mercenaries. Her night-vision visor tinted everything faint green, which gave the situation a ghostly glow.
Rae and Mogghy covered her, firing repeatedly at the bots and the criminals, and as far as Kellen saw, none of the mercenaries dared poke their heads up, except a small blond woman who stood straight up in the middle of the huddled and wounded.
“Ahh.” Kellen pivoted when she saw the woman raise her weapon. Plasma-pulse beams singed the air next to Kellen’s head, but she maintained her trajectory, whirling in an evasive pattern that her father had taught her. Ducking and twirling at the same time, she launched one leg sideways, hitting the blonde in the back of her knees.
To Kellen’s surprise, the woman fell, but not all the way to the ground. Her arms were thin, but she placed one hand on the ground and somersaulted, came full circle, and was about to redirect her weapon toward Kellen when Rae or Mogghy shot again, hitting the blonde’s rifle. It flew out of her hands, and she cried out as it broke against a tree trunk.
“Damn you to hell,” she screamed, and produced a knife. Her left hand hung useless from the elbow down. The laser-blade hummed to life, and Kellen crossed the rods in front of her in a deceptively defensive stance.
“I know you,” the blonde said, gasping, perhaps from pain, but Kellen doubted it. Something in the other woman’s eyes, something bordering on insanity, made Kellen think she probably didn’t even feel the pain.
“Really. You have me at a disadvantage.” Kellen closed in slowly, menacingly. She heard Rae and Mogghy lay down cover fire and saw out of the corner of an eye how the mercenaries retreated.
“You are the protector. Her daughter-in-law.”
The mention of Dahlia sent a jolt through Kellen, but she disregarded it. “Then you should be concerned.”
“Should I?” The blonde smiled sweetly. “I’m not famous like you, but I can hold my own against anyone.” She sliced the knife through the air in a slow pattern.
Kellen didn’t have to guess. “You are known as Ms. White,” she said, circling her.
White looked taken aback for a few moments, only to produce the same sickly sweet smile as before. “I’m flattered.” She rocked from side to side, looking up at Kellen with burning eyes.
“Don’t be. You’re a pirate turned mercenary. Hardly an accomplishment, especially since you and your cohorts in crime failed so blatantly in your last endeavor.” Kellen saw movement reflected in White’s eyes and leapt to her left.
A bot, with black smoke billowing from underneath, spun past her toward White, who jumped to the side, but not soon enough. The bot struck her, and her unrestrained cry confirmed what Kellen saw—it had knocked White’s shoulder out of its socket.
She watched without feelings as the woman fell to her knees, dropping her knife as she clutched her upper arm. Kellen calmly took the knife from where it had fallen and switched it off, then tucked it into her harness next to her own.
“Where is Dahlia Jacelon?”
“Not here, obviously.” White grunted.
“I see. Where have you hidden her?” Kellen lifted her foot and placed it on White’s injured shoulder. “Where is she?”
“I don’t care whe
re she— Ahh!” White cried out again when Kellen shoved her onto her back and stood over her, her gan’thet rods ready to give the final blow.
“I will not ask again.” Kellen could hear her own frozen rage.
White, now looking like she was about to throw up from pain, stared at her with unabashed hatred. “I don’t know. All of a sudden she was gone, and so was M’Ekar, and he’s dying from his injuries. She must have taken him.”
Kellen had to struggle to hide her bafflement. In her opinion, White was telling the truth. She was in far too much pain, and too furious, to fabricate something so implausible. Kellen judged that she wasn’t going to learn anything more from the blond sociopath. Raising her gan’thet rods in the classic pattern, she spoke words in Gantharian that revered life and welcomed death.
“Stop it, Kellen,” Rae said from behind her. “We’re doing this by the book.” She shot at White, and Kellen knew her weapon was set to heavy stun. “No unnecessary blood on your hands, darling.”
Kellen bowed and tucked her gan’thet rods into her belt before she grasped her rifle again. As if she’d slipped into her lieutenant-commander skin and tucked away her nature as protector with the rods, she nodded briskly. “Aye, Admiral. White said that Dahlia ran away and took M’Ekar with her. Apparently he’s badly wounded, perhaps dying.” She tried not to sound too pleased.
“The mercenaries have regrouped farther south in the clearing, so it should be safe to conduct a quick search of the immediate area,” Rae said. “If Mother pulled M’Ekar out of here, she can’t have dragged him far. She’s tired and he’s probably dead weight.”
Mogghy came up, pale and obviously in pain. Kellen admired the way he still carried himself.
“Report,” Rae said.
“The bots have disappeared from the clearing, at least for now. We can’t detect them with scanners. It’s disturbing that they just vanished, and I hope that doesn’t mean they’ve located Dwyn.”
“I do too.” Rae pointed at the unconscious White. “Tie her up. We don’t want her to cause any more trouble. Are the other mercenaries we took care of secure?”
“Aye, ma’am,” Mogghy said. “Commander Grey and Ensign Oches put two of our junior officers on that. Apprehending criminals is their area of expertise.”
“Good.” Rae looked around. “I need you to establish a perimeter around this part of the clearing, Lt. Mogghy. Commander O’Dal and I will search along the tree line. Keep an open comm line, Lieutenant.”
Mogghy nodded and began to issue orders, and soon Kellen could see the marines and several of the Cormanian junior officers approach from the forest. Ducking, they ran toward Mogghy.
“Come on, Kellen.” Rae attached her rifle to her back and pulled out a sidearm. “We don’t have much time. Weiss Kyakh is undoubtedly regrouping at the other end of the clearing, now that the bots aren’t here.”
“I agree.” Kellen’s scanner beeped quietly as she flipped it open, and she was stunned to get a reading immediately. “Rae. Faint life signs to your immediate left.”
Rae lit a small light on top of her sidearm and went down on one knee as she searched the bushes next to her. “I can’t see any—wait—oh, gods, I see a hand.”
Kellen knelt next to Rae and they began to pull away the broken branches. Soon they stared down at the body of an emaciated man they both knew so well. M’Ekar, their nemesis, lay still and white on the ground.
“He’s alive. Barely.” Kellen spoke quietly and felt nothing for their ancient enemy. “His body is shutting down one organ after another. This isn’t a medical scanner, of course, but unless I’m reading it wrong, he has high levels of toxicity in his blood.”
“Sepsis. He’s dying.” Rae sighed. “And we have no way to care for him. Damn it.”
“You want to heal this person, the one responsible for all this?” Kellen asked incredulously. “You should rejoice in his failure. This is, how is that saying, literary righteousness?”
“You mean poetic justice.” Rae corrected Kellen without her usual smile when she got Earth sayings wrong. “Trust me, Kellen. If I let myself off the hook, professionally, even for a second, I’d snatch those gan’thet rods off your belt and break his neck. But I can’t. And, really, death is too mild a punishment. I want him incarcerated.”
“I don’t understand, but as an officer I will abide by the SC regulations.” Kellen had never found it so difficult to restrain herself, to respect the rules. She was ready to kill M’Ekar, but knew she wouldn’t.
Rae grabbed her communicator. “Jacelon to Mogghy. Come in.”
“Mogghy here, ma’am.”
“Is Commander Grey there yet? We’re only a hundred meters due east of your position and we’ve found M’Ekar, half-dead. Send the marines to retrieve him and take him inside the perimeter you’re establishing.”
Mogghy confirmed that Owena had joined him, and within seconds, she arrived with the marines, who carried M’Ekar over by the large trees.
Then Rae and Kellen followed the winding path that led away from the shrubbery. Kellen kept an eye on the scanner readings and also looked among the treetops, in case the bots tried a sneak attack.
They had walked for five minutes when the scanner signaled another presence. Just as Kellen began to report to Rae, their communicator came alive again.
“D’Artansis to Jacelon. Admiral, this is Leanne, do you read?”
“Leanne. Glad to hear you’re all right. Are Emeron and Dwyn with you?”
“Aye, ma’am, they are. And we’ve added another member to our group.”
Rae gripped Kellen’s arm. “Go on.”
“Rae, this is your mother. I’m in one piece.”
Kellen could barely make out the tears in Rae’s eyes, but they glittered where they hung on the tips of her eyelashes.
“Mother,” Rae said huskily. “Did they hurt you?”
“A few bumps and bruises, but otherwise, no. Leanne gave me some water, which helped.”
Kellen circled Rae’s waist. The shared strength would rejuvenate Rae like nothing else could. Rae stood still for a moment, clutching Kellen and breathing evenly as if that were her only way to regain her equilibrium.
“I’m so glad, Mother,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “So very glad.”
“Child...” Dahlia’s voice drifted off, only to return with a sharp undertone. “What’s that sound? That faint buzz. Damn, those machines are back.”
The communicator went silent, and Kellen tapped the sensor several times before it became functional again. “Leanne, Emeron. Go back to the southeast end of the clearing. Mogghy and Owena have set up a perimeter there.”
Static sizzled from the communicator, and then Leanne’s voice returned. “We’re on our way. Six bots are performing a search grid and we can’t take the shortest route. We have to maneuver under the densest foliage.”
“Affirmative. Keep the civilians safe, Commander.”
“Naturally. D’Artansis and D’Artansis out.”
Even Kellen had to smile at Leanne’s attempt at humor, which she took as a good sign, since Leanne was normally facetious only if she was in an optimistic mood. Rae, on the other hand, tended to use the humorous approach when circumstances were horrible.
“All right. Let’s return to the clearing. Owena and Mogghy will probably need all the help they can get to keep both bots and mercenaries at bay.” She began to walk, but stopped suddenly and gazed at Kellen with eyes turned silvery gray in the twin moonlight. “We found her. We found her, Kellen.”
“Yes, we did. And now we have to hang on to her and keep her safe until backup arrives, then take her back with us.” Kellen wanted to embrace Rae, but knew this wasn’t the time or the place. They could indulge themselves later, when they were all safe. Kellen touched her gan’thet rods, taking comfort in their presence. She was an expert with all types of weapons, but the rods never failed her.
“Come on, then.” Rae smiled faintly. She had opened her mou
th to say something more when the now-so-familiar whining buzz drowned out her words.
The bots were back.
*
Dahlia forced her heavy legs to keep running, following in Leanne’s erratic zigzag pattern to try to fool the machines, which the others called bots. The large orbs buzzed around them, and sometimes the noise they made was pierced by colorful beams that burned holes in tree trunks and set more than one bush on fire. The forest lit up, making it easier to see where they were going. Dahlia was afraid, however, that the light might also make it easier for the bots’ ocular sensors to determine their position. So far the zigzag method seemed to work, but she wasn’t sure she could keep up much longer.
The young woman with the long blond hair, Dwyn, seemed even worse off. She needed the Cormanian law-enforcement officer, Emeron, to help her keep her balance. They were last, and Leanne kept glancing back to check on them.
The path they were on widened and now Leanne picked up speed, running more in a straight line than before. “We’ll be there soon,” she said, gasping, “just a few more minutes.”
Dahlia began to think she wasn’t going to make it. Her legs felt completely uncooperative and each new step was like wading through syrup. The smoke around them made her cough and she was desperately thirsty again. She had emptied all of Leanne’s water, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
They rounded a cluster of trees and Leanne stopped, holding up her hand. She placed a finger over her lips as she pulled out her scanner. Emeron and Dwyn caught up with them, and Emeron flipped open her scanner as well.
“The mercenaries are still grouped in the far southeast corner. Our people are fifty meters away, approximately, to our left. Let’s get behind the tree line. You up for it, Dwyn?” Leanne asked. “I’d rather not leave you behind and risk not finding you later.”