by Rod Carstens
Vin slowly moved forward, his weapon always pointing the direction he was looking. Christine put a hand on his right shoulder to let him know where she was. There was no sign of Rule, Morgan, or Cat.
“This is not good.”
“No shit,” Christine said.
Then he heard a moan to his right. It was Cat, lying on her back in a pool of blood. Vin pointed to Cat and said, “Check her out. I’m going to clear the rest of the apartment.”
Christine immediately knelt next to Cat and began working on her. He moved through the living room, then the bedroom, and found nothing.
“Clear.”
“Bring me towels and water out of the bathroom!” Christine yelled.
Vin grabbed several towels and a large basin of water and rushed back into the living room. Cat was trying to sit up as Christine said, “Now just a minute. Let me look at your wounds.”
“Who the fuck are you? Get away from me.”
Vin hurried over to Cat and Christine. “Easy. Easy. She’s with me. She’s a good guy, now let her work. I don’t have time to tell you the whole story now.”
Christine obviously had medical training. She moved with quick, sure movements as she examined Cat’s wounds.
“What happened, Cat?” Vin asked. His mind was swimming with possibilities. This was one they had not planned on, or even foreseen in their most out-of-the-box thinking during the planning of the mission.
“Steiger freaked out when Rule told him what the program was predicting. He shot Rand and Geoff and then grabbed Rule and Morgan.” Cat groaned with the effort to sit up. She glanced over at Christine before she continued.
“I told you, she’s all right. She got me up here hours quicker than I could’ve on my own.”
Cat glanced at Christine one more time before she said, “The program is predicting a pandemic will start within six months and kill almost eighty percent of the population.”
“Jesus Christ,” Vin said.
“It will be wrost in the city-states because of the density. We have a chance to live if we can get the settlement away from the City. Steiger realized we were going to run as soon as Rule gave them what they wanted. He panicked and shot those two,” Cat said, nodding to the bodies on the floor.
“Where’d he go?”
“Now, remember this was just after he shot me, but I heard something about tilt-rotors.”
Vin thought for a second. Steiger would use a Resource Control ship. He would have one at his disposal if he was as high up now as Vin suspected.
“How long ago did he leave with Rule and Morgan?”
“Not long, I think but after getting shot and smacking my head hard enough to get knocked out, my timing may be off.”
Vin looked at Christine. “How is she?”
“A lot better than she feels, I’m sure. The bullet hit nothing but the muscle in her shoulder. The crack on the head is the biggest thing she’s got going. She’s bleeding like a stuck pig from what amounts to a small cut. Not unusual with scalp wounds. I can get her up and moving in a few minutes, but she won’t be much help if we go after Steiger.”
“I’m going after Steiger by myself. Christine, you stay here and take care of Cat. When you can get her on her feet do you think you can get down to the tunnel entrance?”
“Yeah.” Turning to Cat, she said, “Did you get civilian clothes for your escape?”
“Yeah. Morgan bought them online and had them delivered. They’re in the bedroom.”
“Good. We’re good to go,” Christine said.
Cat looked from one to the other, her face puzzled. “But Vin, I can help you. Besides, who is this bitch? You’re going to leave me with somebody I don’t know?”
Vin leaned in to make sure she heard him clearly. “Cat, she’s with us. Do you think I would leave you with somebody I don’t trust? Now let her take care of you and I will meet you two at the tunnel entrance as soon as I can run Steiger down. In your shape you would only slow me now. I’ll take care of Steiger and get Rule and Morgan.”
“No, you can’t do it by yourself. You need my help.”
“Cat, don’t waste my time arguing. Go with Christine.”
Cat nodded slowly, then started to keel over. Christine grabbed her before she could fall. She flipped open a hidden compartment in one of the gold cuffs that lined her arm and pulled out two pills.
“Cat, take these. One is for the pain, and the other is to prop you up long enough to get you to the tunnel entrance.”
Cat slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position and took the two pills. She washed them down with some of the water Vin had brought from the bathroom.
“Once the pills kick in, I’ll get her dressed, and we should be able to make it to the tunnel entrance without much trouble,” Christine said.
“You sure?”
“Get going! They could already be in the air!” Cat said.
Vin stood. His eyes met Christine’s. “If I don’t come back, take care of my people.”
“You got it, buster. Now go.”
Vin turned to run out the door, then realized he didn’t know where the Resource Control headquarters’ tilt-rotor hangar was. He couldn't afford to lose time trying to find his way there without directions was time going to be critical to saving Rule and Morgan.
“Do you know where it is?” Vin asked Christine.
“Ask your suit.”
“What?”
Christine stood and walked over to him. “They bought you the smartest suit on the market. Touch your wrist here,” she said.
When he did, a display popped up above his wrist.
“It syncs with your ID and gives you the access your clearance allows to the City’s directory. Now simply ask it where the hangar is. I can’t. It will only respond to the wearer.”
“Where is Resource headquarters’ tilt-rotor hangar bay?” Vin said.
A display popped up showing where it was and how he could get there. Vin glanced over at Cat and said, “I told you we needed her. Now the two of you get to the tunnel.”
Vin disappeared out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Vin stepped into the corridor and moved toward the elevator, staring at the schematic his suit was displaying above his wrist. He stopped when he realized that the tilt-rotor hangar bay was a hundred stories below him. It was where all of the tilt-rotors for Resource Control were housed, including all of the teams’ ships. It would be crowded with mechanics and technicians. When he had been on the teams, they had always been picked up on the ground floor, so he had not been to the hangar before. But it didn’t look like somewhere Steiger would come strolling into with two prisoners. Especially since he was trying to escape. No, he had to have taken them somewhere else. Think, Vin said to himself.
Then he looked up where Steiger’s office was. It was only three stories below where he was standing, and it had a tilt-rotor landing pad. He must be coming up in the world, Vin thought. Steiger had to be in his office. It was the only thing that made sense.
Tanner strode down the corridor, remembering Christine’s advice. Shoulders back, a scowl on his face. Two Resource Control officers approached him from the opposite direction, and he could tell they did not recognize him and were about to stop and question why he was on the floor when they both looked down at their wrist security scanners. He was about to find out how good his security cover was. Vin could tell by the looks on their faces they thought he was Internal Security. You didn’t question why Internal Security was anywhere, and you tried to avoid them at all costs. More than one person had ended up in detention for a very long time at the whim of a security officer.
As they passed, the Resource officers nodded curtly in respect. Vin reached the elevator, where two more Resource types were waiting. When he stopped next to them, they both checked their wrists and then stepped back. When the elevator came and the doors opened, they stayed behind and let Vin have the car to himself.
Vin checked his display for
the last time. He didn’t want to be seen not knowing how to reach Steiger’s office. He would go straight down the corridor when the elevator doors opened, then take a right, and it would be the third office on his left. All of those offices were on the outside wall of the building, Steiger’s tilt-rotor pad would be right off the office.
The corridor was empty when he reached Steiger’s office door. He put his hand into the jacket of his suit and slipped out his pistol. Then he took his ID out and slid it across the reader. Internal Security officers had access to almost any office or building, with few exceptions. The door slid open silently, and Vin saw Steiger standing behind his desk with his back to the door, talking into his comm.
“Goddamnit, I ordered that tilt over an hour ago! Where in the hell is my ship?”
Rule and Morgan were sitting in two chairs facing the desk. Their hands were handcuffed to the chairs. They both turned when the door opened, and Morgan said, “Look out, there’s—!”
Something tackled Vin, throwing him across the room on his back. A woman in a Spec Act uniform had been on the right side of the door and had blindsided him before he even knew she was there. Vin’s pistol had gone flying when she smashed into him, and she was reaching for the weapon on her belt as Vin drove a foot upward, catching her in the stomach. She was bent double by the blow, and Vin followed it up by grabbing her around the neck then throwing his legs around her waist and pulling her to the ground. She knew what he was trying to do, and used her hands to fight off the hold. If he could cinch the arm around her neck and tighten the hold, he could choke her out then kill her.
Steiger spun around at the sound of their struggle. He threw his phone down and pulled his pistol as he came around the desk. Since the two were locked together and grappling for advantage, he couldn’t shoot without hitting the woman. He walked over until he was almost standing on them. The woman was strong and well trained and Vin had all he could handle. Steiger took a couple of steps closer so he was standing over them and began to lower the pistol toward Vin’s head so he couldn’t miss. That was when Morgan stood up, and with all of the strength she had, she brought the chair she had been sitting in down onto Steiger’s back. The shock of the blow made him pull the trigger, and the round just missed Vin’s head. It was so close he could hear the snap of the round as it went by.
Back when Vin and Cat joined the settlement, Cat had made teaching Morgan how to fight a priority. After the scene in the park when she had slapped the girl to get her attention, Morgan had taken to it seriously. Despite her talent on the computer, she had turned into a real little fighter.
Steiger fell to the floor next to Vin and the woman. The woman had managed to slip Vin's headlock and rose up on her knees. She reached behind her and brought out a knife. In one smooth motion, the woman thrust the knife at Vin’s throat. Vin parried the move with his left arm, never losing contact with the woman’s knife arm, and deflected the thrust away from his body as his hand slipped down to the woman’s and rotated her hand outward. Once he had control of her arm, he unwrapped his legs and rewrapped them around the woman’s neck, then tucked his right foot under the left knee. With one arm out and in control, Vin had her in a classic choke hold. He tightened his legs with all his strength, beginning the choke. The woman fought desperately to get out of the hold, but Vin sank it in deeper.
Steiger was starting to get up when Morgan hit him with the chair again. Rule was also standing over Steiger. He raised his chair to hit him, but Steiger’s foot swept Rule’s legs out from under him. Rule fell in a heap as Morgan kicked Steiger’s pistol across the room before he could get it. The woman was still struggling to get out of the choke but wasn’t getting anywhere. Morgan raised her chair up to hit Steiger again. This time, Steiger was ready. He grabbed the chair and shoved it, knocking Morgan to the floor.
Vin saw he was running out of time. If he didn’t take care of this woman, Steiger would get to the pistol. Using the all the power in his legs Vin tightened the vise around the woman’s neck until there was an audible pop and the woman was still. He unwrapped his legs and rolled to his feet. Steiger was staggering as he went to stand up. That blow to his back must have injured him.
Vin had no idea where his pistol was and no time to find it. He dove at Steiger and knocked him to the floor. For a second he had his back, but Steiger rolled under him and got his knees up into Vin’s chest. Now Tanner was the one on top, his hand found the woman's knife on the floor.
Steiger kicked out with his legs, throwing Tanner off of him and giving him time to stand. They faced each other across the litter of broken furniture and office equipment. Vin turned the knife in his hand. He held it in his fist, tip down and the blade forward.
“I should’ve killed you a long time ago, you fuck!” Steiger said.
“Yeah, maybe you should have, because now I’m going to kill you.”
Tanner wanted Steiger to move first. They both knew all of the ways to defend against a knife attack, so it was going to be a matter of who was best. Vin brought his hands up in almost a boxing-style stance, waiting and moving to Steiger’s left, trying for an opening. Steiger moved first with a snap kick with his right foot. Vin blocked it and stepped into the kick, allowing him to throw a right hand with the knife blade out at Steiger’s face and neck. Steiger blocked the blow, but the knife lacerated his left arm from the wrist to the elbow.
Steiger dropped his useless left arm and switched his stance. He now faced Vin with his right side. Vin had to give it to him—Steiger was tough. Most would not have been able to move as quickly with one arm so severely injured.
Steiger knew he was in trouble and tried to rush him. Tanner drove his right fist into Steiger’s jaw, the knife cutting deeply into his face and neck. Blood spurted out of the cut in his neck, and Steiger grabbed it with his good hand, blood flowing through his fingers. Vin let his momentum carry him across Steiger’s body so he could drive the knife into Steiger’s side with a backhanded fist. Steiger fell to his knees, and Vin grabbed his chin and drove the knife down into his neck for a final killing blow.
Vin stood behind Steiger, breathing hard and staring at the two bodies on the floor. When his breathing had finally slowed, he looked up. He saw Morgan and Rule watching him, wide-eyed.
“Who was the woman?”
“Steiger’s girlfriend,” Rule said.
“Who knew?” Vin said.
Morgan was staring at the two, her eyes wide a look of horror on her face. Vin thought it had to have been the first time she had seen such violence. It was difficult for anyone much less a teenaged girl. It didn't matter that she had grown up in the zones this had been brutal and vivacious fight to the death. He needed them to get moving.
“Where are the handcuff keys?” Vin asked.
Neither said anything. Both Rule and Morgan were still in shock they could not take their eyes off the two dead people. Vin stepped in front of the corpses and said, “Don’t look anymore. It’s over. We’ve got to get out of here. Where are the keys?”
Rule was the first to shake himself out of his shock.
“Uh…the woman has them in her right-hand pants pocket.”
Vin searched her and found them, went to Morgan and Rule, and began to unlock them from the chair. Then he cuffed them at the wrists.
“This is the way it’s going to go. You’re my prisoners. No one is going to question that. Just keep your mouths shut and we’ll be all right. My credentials are good. You understand?”
Both just nodded, still stunned by watching Vin kill two people with his bare hands. Good, Vin thought. They looked like two people who had just been arrested by Internal Security. Now, how to get them back to the tunnel entrance? He couldn’t walk down the concourse that Christine had gotten him in through. He needed another route.
Then it hit him: he was standing in Resource headquarters. Those old tunnels were for the teams, and there was one that they’d used on one mission when they had to emergency escape and evade on foot. What
was the number of the tunnel they'd used? Think! Then he remembered it was forty-eight. He punched Tunnel Forty-eight into his suit, and asked it how to get there. It gave him the route to the basement and the tunnel that would lead to forty-eight.
“Okay, here we go. Remember, just keep your mouths shut, and we’ll be fine.”
Vin led them out the door, a hand on each of their necks.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The trip down to tunnel forty-eight was almost anticlimactic. No one came near the three of them or asked what he was doing with the two prisoners as they rode down to the basement. Then it was a simple matter of walking down to tunnel forty-eight. He found the entrance and led Rule and Morgan into the tunnel. Blondie and Matos were waiting.
“Good to see you,” Matos said.
“It’s good to be seen. I had some trouble getting them out,” Tanner said.
“What?”
“I had to kill Steiger and a friend. You guys bring my clothes and weapons?”
“Yep. Got them right here.”
“Good. Here’s the key. Take their cuffs off while I change.”
As Vin put on his clothes, he said, “Did Christine and Cat get back yet?”
“Yeah, almost two hours ago. Christine took Cat to get her shoulder taken care of.”
“Good.”
Vin finished changing his clothes and got his weapons. He led the way, with Morgan and Rule in the middle and Blondie and Matos pulling up the rear. They moved quickly down the black tunnel using the light from their head lamps. When they got close to the settlement, two figures emerged out of the darkness.
“It’s us. We’re all back safe and sound.”
The two men led them to the side-tunnel entrance, where they found Ben waiting for them.
“So it’s a pandemic,” Ben said.
Vin looked at Rule, who still stunned by what he had seen during the escape.
“Doctor,” Vin said, prodding him to answer. “This is Ben, the leader of this settlement and the man who helped us free you.”