by M. D. Cooper
Marge asked.
Kylie wasn’t sure how Sera would feel if she killed the agent, so she slipped up behind the woman and placed a hand on her neck, delivering a paralyzing dose of nano to her spine.
The woman let out a strangled gasp as she fell to the ground. Kylie dropped her stealth as she approached the fallen agent, then stared down at her. “Sorry to say it, but you’re not killing me today, whoever you are. What’s pissing me off is that you were willing to kill hundreds of people to achieve one agenda.”
“To weaken Orion! To stop your murderous brother! And I’d do it again.” The woman laughed, and there was a crazed note of glee in it that told Kylie the woman had another card up her sleeve.
Marge said.
“Think you can get to a safe distance in five minutes?” the woman snickered where she lay unmoving on the ground.
* * * * *
Ricket was running.
What she’d told Kylie hadn’t exactly been a lie, barring the fact that she had just left the hotel. She could see Kylie in the distance, so that wasn’t a lie, either. She knew she could catch up to her.
If only.
She was crossing the drive, when a redheaded woman rose up from the grass across the road and charged straight for her.
“Teryntha?” Ricket asked, shocked to see another agent present. “We have to go—”
Ricket turned and ran into the garden, where she darted behind a pillar and quickly shucked off her dress and kicked off her shoes.
As she activated her armor’s stealth, Teryntha called out, “I know you’re there! You have special armor, don’t you? Just like your friend. How dare you side with Paul Rhoads? Extracting him like this? He should be dead!”
“I have my orders directly from President Sera,” Ricket called back, skirting around a hedge, working her way toward the bridge.
“And I have mine straight from Airtha!” Teryntha shot back. “You’re with the impostor!”
Ricket clenched her teeth, turning away and racing down the drive and then onto the bridge. She didn’t have to look back to know that Teryntha was hot on her tail, the sound of the woman’s footfalls and curses reaching Ricket’s ears over her own labored breathing.
“I can’t see you, but I can hear you, you traitorous bitch!”
Ricket kept running and was halfway across the bridge when Laura cried out,
Without hesitation, she leapt over the railing and sailed toward the water, only dimly aware that something had sailed right past her head.
She hit the water feet first, and a second after her head slid underwater, the surface lit up in a brilliant flash.
Suddenly something grabbed her legs, and Ricket twisted in the water to see a mass of red hair and the glint of a knife as it streaked toward her stomach. The blade glanced harmlessly off her armor.
She delivered a kick to the woman’s head, but it wasn’t enough to dislodge her opponent.
Above the surface of the water, the light had begun to fade, though some glow still remained. Ricket imagined that what was left of the island was probably on fire. The beautiful hotel and its grounds gone, all because the psychotic woman holding onto her legs had used a sledgehammer to kill a fly.
And she’d missed.
Teryntha pulled herself further up Ricket’s body, trying repeatedly to drive the blade past her armor, to no avail.
Ricket hated the idea of having to kill the other woman, but Kylie needed backup, and she couldn’t stay underwater forever.
She drove a fist into the other woman’s gut, and then tried to kick free, only to have the enemy agent grab her again.
Ricket managed to kick Teryntha away long enough to swim to the surface. She wasn’t worried about the fallout—the armor would keep her safe, so long as she kept it intact.
Getting her bearings, she began to swim for the shore, but her attacker caught up with her.
Ricket said remorsefully and turned to Teryntha, getting her hands around the woman’s neck as the pair came back to the surface, thrashing as ash fell all around them.
The enemy agent tried to choke Ricket as well, but the flow armor hardened, keeping her safe.
Until suddenly, she wasn’t.
One instant, Ricket’s body was safely cocooned in the armor, the next it was gone, dissolved into the water around them.
Teryntha’s grip finally found purchase, and Ricket clenched her muscles, desperate to choke out her opponent first.
With their mods, both women could hold their breath for many minutes, but they did need blood to flow to the brain. Ricket found herself growing dizzy, but she knew Teryntha had to be in worse shape.
Debris was falling all around them, pieces of the hotel that had been thrown high in the air by the explosion. A glint of light caught Ricket’s eye, and she realized that a piece of the glass staircase was falling toward them.
Without a moment to spare, she gauged its descent and released her grip on Teryntha’s throat, then drew her legs up, kicking out against the other woman.
A split second later, a meter-long shard of glass drove into the mad agent’s sternum, driving them both underwater.
The woman’s grip finally loosened from Ricket’s throat, and a long stream of bubbles, along with a cloud of blood, escaped her lips.
Ricket swam to the surface once more, realizing that she was naked, in the middle of the lake, with radioactive fallout coming down all around her.
She looked to the shore and saw flashing lights and a bubble of clear air.
Ricket didn’t reply as she ducked her head and drew in a breath, beginning the long swim to shore and whatever dubious safety awaited her there.
PURSUIT
STELLAR DATE: 12.21.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Harmony House, New Roma, Dante
REGION: Dante, Dante Velorum System, Fringe
Kylie made it into the basement of a live performance theater, along with fifty musicians who had been practicing before the tacnuke exploded. She checked the small window in the basement and could see the clouds of smoke and dust in the distance.
A fifth nuke. Kylie wouldn’t have guessed that the rogue Hand agent would’ve had a ‘just in case’ nuke.
She’d tried to reach out to Ricket, but the nuke’s EMP burst had knocked out the local relays. Even though the emergency ones hadn’t come back online yet, she was itching to find out if Ricket was OK. She hadn’t seen her come off the bridge, and it was hard not to fear the worst.
Kylie nodded. Ricket had become a friend, a very good friend. She regretted how they’d fought over how to handle Paul—though that might not even matter any longer, if he was in the hands of the Orion Guard.
“Are you talking to someone?” a lady in a black velvet dress with her blonde hair cropped short asked. “Do you have Link access already? You don’t look like you’re from around
here.”
She really needed to watch the physical cues when she was upset.
“You wouldn’t understand.” Kylie turned away from her and headed toward the stairs.
“You don’t know if it’s safe up there yet,” another man said.
“It’s safe enough, but don’t go toward the lake. Head toward the space elevator, it’ll be safe there.”
“How can you be so sure? I think we should stay here. That was a bomb; what if there’s fallout?” a man asked while clutching a violin to his chest.
“I have an AI, she did the math.” Kylie watched all their faces drop before she did an about-face and raced up the stairs.
Great acoustics are not ideal for skulking.
She walked as quietly as possible, trying to remember the last time she’d been in a place like this—for enjoyment, not to use as a bomb shelter.
It was probably when Grayson had courted her like the gentlemen he was. For a moment, her mind took on a new worry, hoping he was OK with whatever it was he was doing.
Kylie let out a long breath.
Kylie listened as Ricket gave a quick recount, feeling guilty that she’d not checked to be sure the assassin was dead.
Ricket gave a strangled sigh.
Kylie spotted a groundcar with the door open and slipped inside, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes while Marge hacked the car.
If they got her brother away, they might take him to Orion space. If that happened, she’d never see him again.
Kylie groaned at Ricket’s melodrama.
Hmm…
An idea began to form in Kylie’s mind.
CAREFUL BALANCE
STELLAR DATE: 12.22.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Polis Fury, orbiting Battia
REGION: Hanoi System (independent)
Grayson acknowledged that it was a tricky situation.
Fallon continued,
Grayson said, his tone implying that he had no hope for that outcome.
Grayson snorted.
Fallon replied.
The rest of the fleet was still two days out, and he was eager for them to arrive so that he could make the four-day trip to bring Ranstock to Battia. He hoped she was ready for him, because there wasn’t going to be much room for negotiations.
* * * * *
Maureen folded up the biomonitor suit she’d been wearing and placed it neatly on her bed before rising and smoothing her uniform.
“You really should stay here another day,” Dr. Hammond said as he entered the cabin.
“I feel perfectly fine,” Maureen said as lifted her arms to test her range of moment, wincing at the tightness in her left side. “OK, mostly fine. I’m not going far, I’ll still be on the ship…I just don’t like lying here all day.”
“Does it hurt a lot?” the doctor said, frowning at where she held her side.
“Only when I laugh too much or try to eat a sub. I’ll be fine now, doctor. Thank you for everything that you’ve done.” Maureen squeezed his arm.
Dr. Hammond grunted. “No subs, at least not for another few days. I won’t have you ruining those perfectly good teeth we’ve grown for you.”
Maureen laughed and gave the doctor her assurance that there would be no subs in her immediate future. As he turned to leave, she saw Major Fallon outside her room.
“Excuse us, won’t you, doctor?” she said.
Dr. Hammond nodded and gave the major a curious look before exiting the room.
Maureen braced herself as Fallon entered. She’d been dreading this conversation for quite some time.
“Good to see you back on your feet, Commander,” Fallon said.
“Thank you. It’s good to be back on my feet, ma’am.”
Fallon crossed her wrists behind her back. “I was hoping you’d have an answer to my recent messages? I know I should’ve waited for you to be back on active duty before we further discussed these matters, but—”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree, Major Fallon.” Maureen shook her head. “If you’re looking to gather evidence against the colonel, I don’t have anything that will help you. All my personal logs are on record and support his decisions. He tried diplomacy. It didn’t work, so he switched gears. You know our mandate here in the Fringe; we’re not pussyfooting around. Ultimately, he saved me, he saved Fen, and he saved the people of Battia.”