by M. D. Cooper
“There are more ships coming,” Francis pointed out from where she stood near a holotank. “A dozen SSF destroyers and two cruisers.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Maverick said. “Unless they plan to nuke us from orbit, they can’t do anything.”
“And if they do?” she asked.
The president shrugged. “I’ll be gone before that happens.”
Francis’s eyes narrowed, and he saw a spark of fight in them that hadn’t shown in some time.
“That a problem for you?” he asked. “You’ll be with me. We’ll be safe.”
The threat and promise hung in the air for a moment before she nodded.
“It’s not a problem, thank you.”
He nodded, glad that she understood that safety could only be found with him. “Good.”
* * * * *
The AI was silent for a few seconds.
Grayson considered what that could imply.
A simplified diagram of the central atmospheric processing tower appeared on Grayson’s HUD.
A frown settled on Grayson’s brow.
* * * * *
One squad remained below, situated amongst the pumps at the head of the aqueduct, guarding the entrance carefully cut into the pipes that once carried water to the top of the tower, where, in centuries past, atomizers had heated and dispersed it to maintain the planet’s atmosphere.
Of course, if Alice was right, those atomizers wouldn’t be there anymore. If she was wrong, they’d find out soon enough.
The pipe was just over a meter wide, and the soldiers rose through it on their a-grav harnesses in single file, a corporal in the lead carrying a demolition pack. It took just a few minutes to soar up the two kilometers to the top of the tower to the location Alice had marked. Grayson knew they might be tripping sensors, but he was relying on speed and surprise at this point, not stealth.
Get in, get Maverick, get it done.
The blast shook the pipe, a hot rush of air pushing the soldiers down. Once it was past, Grayson looked up to see light shining through the hole. Then it was blotted out by the first fireteam moving through.
He tapped their feeds and saw that they were in a clean, white passageway, not the internals of an atmospheric processing tower.
The rest of the troops moved up to the hole, and a minute later, fourteen SSF soldiers, along with Kal, were in the curved corridor, spreading out and checking the doorways that led off.
On Grayson’s right, a fireteam kicked in a door, only to be met with return fire, causing them to fall back around the sides.
one of the squad sergeants called out.
Grayson dashed down the hall, bellowing through his armor’s speakers. “Maverick! You’re not getting out of here. Surrender.”
His words were met by a laugh from inside the room. “Not likely. Your dozen tin soldiers aren’t enough to take me down.”
The squad deployed drones, and Grayson tapped the feed, seeing Maverick standing in the room on the far side of a holotable. A collared woman was standing next to him, and a dozen of his other girls were arrayed around the room, crouched behind cover, weapons trained on the door.
“What about you, girls?” Kal called out. “You all willing to die for Maverick? I recognize you, Francis. Your brother and I were working to free you—even led a raid on The Shade. How many of you have loved ones out there? Abandon Maverick, and you can be reunited.”
Grayson said to the man.
Grayson saw that a few of the women shared sidelong glances with one another, several locking eyes with Francis—including Maverick.
“Oh really?” he asked. “It was your brother who was with Kal? You reviewed the feeds, how come you never brought that up?”
“It wasn’t relevant.” Francis’s eyes narrowed, and her weapon remained trained on the doorway. “He’s dead to me. Showing up to rescue me just shows that he’s still an idiot.”
“A resourceful one,” Maverick muttered, regarding her silently for a moment.
“We’re not going to wait forever,” Grayson called out. “Decide.”
The crime lord laughed again, a throaty chuckle that filled the room as he shook his head. “Oh, I’ve decided. Girls, get them.”
Nine of the women in the room advanced toward the doorway, while three held back, looking uncertain.
Maverick nodded to Francis, and the pair dashed toward a side door while the other women began to fire through the doorway and into the hall.
Grayson took a second to consider options, and then directed his team to lob a dozen concussive grenades into the room.
The shockwave from the blast nearly knocked him off his feet, but he used the lull in fire to dash past the doorway, Kal and a fireteam in tow.
The docking bay was only a short distance away, and when they reached it, the ramp was rising on a small shuttle inside.
“Fuck!” Kal swore, firing at the shuttle as it backed out of the bay and boosted out of view.
“Get in!” Grayson gestured to a small, two-seat skiff parked on the side of the room.
Kal nodded and ran toward the skiff, while Grayson glanced back at his troops. “Secure the tower, establish a comm relay with the Polis Fury. I want it on station to hit Maverick’s shuttle if we can’t run it to ground.”
“
Aye, sir,” the corporal replied.
“Her?” Kal asked as the skiff rose from the deck and shot out into Montral’s deepening dusk.
“Nevermind,” Grayson replied, scanning the nearby aircars. “There!”
“I see it,” Kal nodded, angling toward the shuttle Maverick had boarded. “Stars, Barry’s gonna kill me if I have to shoot down his sister.”
They wove through the city’s towers, keeping the crime lord’s ship in sight, but unable to catch up, their skiff’s engines not up to the task.
“Where’s he going?” Kal mused as he dove under a walkway connecting two towers. “He must be heading for a new bolthole.”
“Think so?” Grayson asked, gripping the armrests as Kal banked around a dome support pillar. “Where could he go?”
“In Montral? Anywhere.”
Alice said.
“Why’s that?” Grayson grunted as the skiff jinked to the left, Kal narrowly avoiding a collision.
“Or a place to hide in Ventralla,” Kal suggested. “Trust me, if we lose him there, you might as well just give up.”
“He can’t get away outside of the city, though.” Grayson’s brow furrowed. “With the Polis Fury overhead and no risk of civilian casualties, we’d just take him out from orbit.”
“Dammit,” Grayson shook his head. “Maybe he is trying to make a break for it. How—”
He backtraced the connection and found that it was routed through a dozen nodes in Montral, obscuring its source.
There was a pause.
Grayson let out an irritated sigh.
Alice said.
Grayson’s eyes widened—partly in surprise at the AI’s statement, and partly due to a gut-wrenching maneuver Kal had pulled.
Francis was silent for a moment, then said,