Cade 2

by Neil Hunter

  Glancing across the center, Cade saw Janek. The cyborg stood his ground as he traded shots with the combat droid. Cade saw a couple of slugs strike Janek’s upper body, making him reel backward.

  Cade shoved himself to his feet and lurched at the combat droid. He rammed his shoulder into the droid’s side, pushing it briefly off balance. The droid made an angry sound and swung one big, powerful hand in Cade’s direction. The blow caught the Justice cop across the side of the face, sending him spinning across the deck.

  The distraction gave Janek the opportunity he needed. Angling the muzzle of his weapon, the cyborg emptied the rest of the magazine into the droid’s skull. The droid swung around, emitting a harsh screech of sound. Its fingers jammed down hard on the trigger of its rifle. The half-full magazine was blasted at almost point-blank range against the bulkhead. The high-velocity slugs struck at a point where there were no heavy pieces of equipment to slow their passage.

  A high crack of sound was immediately followed by the shrill warning sirens. Warning lights began to flash, and the open hatch started to close, sealing off the weapons center.

  With a whoosh air began to rush out through the punctured bulkhead, and pressure dropped with alarming speed. The damaged area expanded from a few ragged holes to a six-inch rent in the bulkhead as the weapons center depressurized. Loose objects were dragged through the air, crashing against the bulkhead, all being dragged in the direction of the rupture.

  “Janek,” Teclan yelled. “For Cade.”

  The security cyborg thrust an emergency oxygen cylinder and mask into Janek’s hand, then turned to grab something from a locker.

  Janek, fighting against the relentless drag of the lowering pressure, struggled in Cade’s direction.

  The weapons center was filled by a howling noise, and the rush of air was lowering the temperature.

  Cade, already starting to feel weak from the loss of air, had wedged himself into a gap between two of the electronic units. He could feel the drag of the escaping pressure. It threatened to haul him from his safe hole and splatter him across the bulkhead. His lungs were beginning to burn from being denied oxygen, and despite trying to keep control, he could feel the spidery fingers of panic breaking down his resolve.

  The problem was he didn’t know where to go, and even if he did, he couldn’t risk moving.

  He thought the lights were dimming, then realized he was starting to pass out.

  He wanted to yell, to scream his defiance. This was no way to die, trapped in some metal coffin floating above the Earth. But he couldn’t even voice his feelings. There was no strength left in him. It was all draining away—just like the air screaming out through the tear in the bulkhead.

  Hands grabbed him, yanked him into a sitting position. Cade stared up through blurred eyes. He saw a hazy face topped by white-blond hair. Then a rubbery mask was jammed across his mouth and he began to breathe in the purest, sweetest air he’d ever tasted. He gulped it down, choking and gasping until he got control.

  “Don’t know how you ever manage without me,” Janek intoned, his face deadpan.

  Cade didn’t say a word. For once he was speechless. Getting air back into his starved lungs was more important than getting the better of Janek.

  Over his partner’s shoulder Cade watched Teclan place a square pad of thick, flexible material over the rupture in the bulkhead. The magnetic square sealed the gap and would hold long enough for Teclan to assign the service droids to make a permanent repair. With the pressure eased, Janek was able to get Cade back on his feet. Along with Teclan, they quit the weapons center. Teclan punched the button to close and seal the hatch.

  Cade’s final view of the center showed a mercenary lying in a crumpled, bloody heap. The man had been dragged across the deck by the force of the pressure drop and jammed against the side of a computer console, his dead face crushed out of shape as the drag of the escaping air had tried to pull him through a too-small gap.

  The massive hatch closed with a final thud.

  Cade slipped the oxygen mask from his face. He breathed in the clean, filtered air from Skylance’s purifiers.

  “No offence, Teclan,” he said, “but I can’t wait to get off this platform and back to Earth.”

  “You don’t like it up here?” Teclan asked. “I know it’s been rough “

  Janek shook his head. “It isn’t that,” he said. “We’ve a case to close back home. And it won’t wait.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Janek docked the shuttle, cutting the power. As the whine of the motors faded, he saw a refueling tender approaching, followed by an open truck carrying a team of maintenance droids. Quitting the pilot’s seat, the cyborg crossed to where Cade was standing by the hatch. Janek watched his partner make a final check of the auto-pistol before jamming it back in its holster and closing his jacket.

  “This is where it could get touchy, T. J.,” Janek said. “How do we play it?”

  “Official, if we can. Make up the rules if it turns hot,” Cade replied with conviction.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “Let’s do it without too much chatter, Janek,” Cade said as the hatch began to open. “I hurt all over. My ribs ache where that bullet bounced off. I’m feeling pretty beat-up, so don’t be smart. Okay?”

  Janek shrugged awkwardly, clicking his teeth in frustration. The more he tried to pull a shrug off correctly, the more he looked deformed.

  “You’re no fun anymore, Marshal Cade,” Janek said accusingly. “I should have stayed on Skylance with Te-clan. Hey, I bet he treats Curtis better than you’re treating me.”

  “Prisoners have rights,” Cade said pointedly.

  Without waiting for a reply, he walked down the ramp as it slid out to lock on the base of the hatch. Cade crossed the docking bay, flashing his Justice badge at the security droid on duty. The droid took its time scanning the bar code. Janek watched it from a distance, seeing the droid edge its right hand close to the butt of the handgun holstered in its belt. He swung around the back of the droid and came up close, jamming the muzzle of his own weapon against the droid’s eye.

  “You wouldn’t want to be found obstructing Justice Department business, would you?” the cyborg suggested quietly.

  The security droid hesitated. “My orders were to look out for Marshals Cade and Janek.”

  “Orders from who?” Cade asked, relieving the droid of its weapon.

  “Police Chief Norris.”

  “Since when did Norris have jurisdiction over Newark?” Janek asked. “He’s only chief in New York.”

  “I only work for Security Systems,” the droid explained. “Our head office is in New York.”

  Cade peered at the droid’s ID tag. “You’ve got a choice, 663. Call this in and break the law, or cooperate with us.”

  The droid turned and scanned Janek, aware he was dealing with an advanced cyborg.

  “What would you do?” it asked. “I’m programmed to serve and protect. I’m supposed to stay within the law, but I’m obligated to do as my supervisor tells me.” The droid made a vague gesture. “This isn’t going to be my day.”

  “Turn us in,” Janek said, “and you assist in a conspiracy against the legal government.”

  The droid sighed. Then it brightened.

  “I have a thought. If I’m deactivated, I can’t do anything. Can I?”

  The droid led Janek across to a storage locker and opened the door. It stepped inside, turning its back to the CB. Janek opened the droid’s jacket and exposed the small access panel in its side. He opened it and keyed in the sequence that cut the droid’s power supply. The security droid instantly shut off. Janek closed the door and locked it.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Janek said.

  They cut across the docking bay, heading in the direction of the service hangars. Threading their way through the busy maintenance bays, they emerged on the far side and walked through the administration offices.

  “Hey, who let you guys in h
ere?”

  Cade faced the heavyset man who stepped out of an office. He was dressed in crumpled clothes, and his un-- shaven face was pockmarked.

  “Justice Department,” Cade said, showing his badge.

  The man studied it, squinting his small, hostile eyes. “Maybe you got that out of a packet of cereal,” he said, smirking at his own humor.

  “Same one you got your IQ, maybe,” Janek snapped.

  The man spun around on the cybo. “Smartass. Maybe you want I should toss you outta here.”

  “Go ahead,” Janek said. “Make the best of it ‘cause you’ll have plenty of time dreaming about it in the lockup.”

  The man shrugged. “So what do you want?”

  “How about some privacy?” Cade suggested. “And a phone?”

  The man relented, seeing no point in hassling a couple of Justice cops. He knew they could carry through any of the threats they might make. The last thing he needed was trouble with the cops. His old lady was enough for him to handle.

  “In there,” he said, pointing to an empty dispatch office.

  “Thank you for your cooperation,” Janek said as the man slouched off. Then the cyborg stationed himself at the door while Cade picked up the phone and punched in a number.

  Milt Schuberg’s face swam into focus on the vid-screen. “Jesus, am I glad to see you, Cade. How’d it go?”

  “It went,” Cade said. “You all set?”

  Schuberg nodded. “We got all kinds of shit going down. Something is definitely happening. Whole department’s being reassigned. New people being moved into key positions. Ask questions and all you get is told to butt out and do your job.”

  “Time to move, Milt. Watch your back...this could get bloody.”

  “Yeah? Well, I feel pretty bloody myself,” Schuberg announced. “I don’t like what’s goin’ on, and there are going to be some asses kicked.”

  “Be in touch, Milt.”

  “Where you heading?”

  “I’ve a message to deliver to Sinclair. In person.”

  Cade put down the phone and rejoined Janek. “Milt’s on it,” he said. “Now let’s go find ourselves a ride upstate.”

  Out in the dispatch yard Cade looked around for a suitable vehicle. He spotted an air cruiser belonging to a courier service. The driver had gone off to hand in his packages to the delivery office, leaving the cruiser unattended. Cade crossed to the cruiser and accessed the hatch. Janek followed. As Cade fired up the turbo-boosted General Motors power plant, the hatch locked with hiss of hydraulics. Keying in the hover mode, Cade took the cruiser up and out of the dispatch yard. Once he’d achieved the height he wanted, he changed to forward power and the cruiser headed across country.

  Cade nodded to his partner. “See if you can get through to Braddock. Tell him what we’ve got. He’ll need to push it through to Washington so the department can get a line on the conspirators there.”

  Janek picked up the cruiser’s handset and keyed in a transmission code on the phone. The code was for Braddock’s personal phone line. The call was answered instantly, and Braddock’s face filled the cruiser’s vid-screen.

  “Where the hell have you guys been?” Braddock asked.

  “You don’t want to know,” Janek said. “Braddock, we’ve got to move fast. Got some names for you. They need to be removed from action. And watch your back... there’s a lot of queer stuff going on.”

  Janek reeled off names and laid out the details of the conspiracy as briefly as he could. The cyborg didn’t want to stay on the line any longer than necessary, in case there was a tap on the department phones. Braddock had thoughts along similar lines, so he didn’t question Janek’s information. He simply accepted it and cut the connection. Janek ended the session and leaned back in his seat.

  “Are you in control of this damn thing?” he asked as Cade cut around the rear of a slow-moving air freighter and dodged a floating advertising drone.

  “Got my license years ago.”

  “I wasn’t asking that,” the cyborg said tersely.

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “On the ground, okay,” Janek said. “Up here I like to feel I’m in good hands.”

  Cade increased the power, taking the cruiser to its maximum altitude as he approached Manhattan. He skirted the edge of the city, turning the cruiser to the north, and followed the gleaming ribbon of the Hudson as he moved upstate.

  “What if Sinclair isn’t home?” Janek asked.

  “I’m banking on him staying put. Amosin will be his command base. He’ll be worried because Skylance hasn’t been in contact for a while. But he isn’t about to quit now—he’s in so deep. Until he has to accept his scheme’s gone sour, he’ll hang on. This is his last chance, Janek, and he won’t let go easily.”

  “I bow to your superior intellect,” the cyborg intoned mirthlessly.

  The cruiser’s speaker system began to crackle. Jumbled sounds filled the compartment, then a voice broke through as a trace locked onto the cruiser’s waveband.

  “Cruiser S422-NYS. This is the NYPD air-traffic authority. You are in violation of city regulations. Request you land at emergency pad 67 immediately.”

  Cade snatched up the phone and keyed the transmit button.

  “Listen up, air traffic. This is T. J. Cade, Justice marshal. Don’t interfere with department business. I don’t give a damn who issued your orders, and I suggest you go back to chasing speedsters. Leave me alone or I’ll land this damn thing on your roof and come down to kick your butts.”

  “Tough talk, Cade, but we got instructions from Chief Norris to nail your ass.”

  “Norris is through,” Cade snapped back. “I’m yanking his badge before today’s over, so figure out who goes down with him if you follow his orders. Your choice, boys.”

  He cut the connection, swearing under his breath as he took the cruiser in a long power drive over the river.

  Janek clamped his lips shut tight, deciding now was not a good time to ask if he could take a vacation. Instead, the cyborg searched his circuits for a jazz station. He locked on to a concert by a visiting Chicago combo, and silently lost himself in the music, while he continued to monitor the sky around them.

  Suddenly he became alert. “Hey, watch out,” he said, but the next second he was thrown to one side as the air cruiser lurched violently. As the cyborg righted himself, he caught a glimpse of a dark shape looming alongside.

  It was a matt black combat helicopter. The pilot was using the chopper’s rotor wash to push the lighter air cruiser off course.

  Janek started to say something, but his words were lost as Cade pushed the cruiser into a steep dive, taking it away from the menacing helicopter. The cruiser, built for more sedate travel, groaned and creaked as pressure built up along its seams.

  Twisting around in his seat, Janek located the chopper. It was curving down in their wake, lining up for a clear shot from its nose-mounted rotary cannon.

  “Get us the hell out of here,” Janek said. “I think you annoyed that pilot to no end.”

  “He’s annoyed! I’m not in that good a mood myself.”

  Light winked from the barrels of the rotary cannon. A stream of shells cut the air around the cruiser, some scoring the hull.

  Cade yanked the controls, almost turning the cruiser over as he executed a series of maneuvers the designers hadn’t even dreamed of for the craft. As he pushed it into an extreme turn, something cracked with a sharp sound, and the controls became sluggish.

  “See,” Janek reprimanded. “See. I told you.”

  “Hang on,” Cade yelled above the noise.

  The cruiser sank like a stone, and the ground rushed up to meet them. A stretch of forested countryside lay below. Cade didn’t pull up until the last moment, allowing the air cruiser to crash its way through the uppermost branches of the trees. The thin alloy of the cruiser was ripped open. A trail of debris trailed behind the craft.

  Spotting a clearing ahead, Cade angled the cruiser toward it
, taking a reckless chance at landing. The cruiser struck the soft ground bouncing wildly. Cade hit the retro jets, feeling the cruiser shudder and yaw to the right. Losing its flight capability, the aircraft became a dead weight. It careered violently, slithering in a wide arc, and came to an abrupt stop against a tree. The canopy shattered, showering Cade and Janek with Plexiglas as they were thrown forward against the seat restraints.

  Janek twisted around as he picked up the noise of the combat chopper. A shadow began to slide across the ground, converging on the downed cruiser.

  “Time to move on,” he said, thumping the emergency-hatch release.

  They cleared the cruiser seconds before a raking blast from the chopper’s cannon tore through the passenger compartment. The heat blast from the cruiser’s exploding fuel tank singed their clothing as they hit the ground, scrambling for safety. Flaming fuel rained down around them, fanned by the rotor wash from the settling chopper.

  Cade pulled his auto-pistol, peering through the swirl of smoke from the burning cruiser. He watched the three-man team jump from the helicopter, their combat rifles at the ready as they began to spread, fanning out to pick up any trail.

  Before the strike team had moved more than a few yards, Cade loomed out of the smoke, his auto-pistol crackling as he laid down a deadly burst.

  The closest mercenary caught a trio of .357 slugs in his throat that slapped him to the ground. Turning the moment he’d fired, Cade took out the second one, laying two shots into his chest and a third in the back of his skull as he was spun around.

  The surviving mercenary swung his rifle on Cade, his finger already pressuring the trigger when something solid struck him between the shoulders. He was thrown to the ground, and his rifle bounced from his hands. Pain spread through him like a wild burn, coring deep into his chest cavity, then leaving him numb.

  Cade picked up one of the rifles and made for the idling chopper. Behind him Janek jammed his still-smoking pistol back in its holster, selected a weapon for himself and followed.