The Girl in the Machine (Leah King Book 3)

by Philip Harris

  “Oh man, I’m sorry. I—” said Morgan.

  “There’s no time; you can apologize later. Did Transport find out who you are?”

  Morgan shook his head. “They had no idea.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the other man. “I’ve got James to thank for that.”

  “I didn’t really do anything,” said James. His right eye was swollen shut, and a trickle of dried blood ran from the left corner of his mouth. A puzzled look came over his face. “I thought your name was Martin?”

  Morgan started to speak, but Alice cut him off again. “We need to go, right now.”

  Alice led them out of the room and ushered Morgan and James toward the supply carriage. “Leah, go with them, and make sure everyone gets into that carriage.”

  Leah nodded and followed Morgan down the corridor.

  Hobbs was still standing over Davin. He nodded to Leah as she passed. Davin was slumped against the wall. His hands were resting on his legs. Sweat beaded his brow.

  The old man, Henry, had already gone on to the next carriage. Leah could see him standing in the doorway, looking back at them with concern.

  The woman gestured toward the bulky man. “You next, Adam.”

  Leah expected him to protest, but he didn’t. He stepped quickly across the gap between the two carriages and shooed Henry out of the way. The woman stepped through the doorway, hesitating as the carriage swayed slightly.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  19

  The door at the opposite end of the carriage exploded in a mass of torn and twisted metal. Dust and smoke billowed outward, obscuring the opening. A moment later, a small cylinder arced through the air. It bounced, clattering along the carriage, and landed beside Alice.

  Both Leah and Hobbs shouted at the same time. “Alice!”

  There was a dull pop, and thick gray smoke began pouring from the cylinder.

  Alice jabbed her finger toward the back of the train. “Go!” She pressed her arm across her face and began to run.

  Hobbs moved to follow her, but as he did, Davin struck. Leah caught the silver flash of the shard of metal from his leg before it sank into Hobbs’s calf. Hobbs screamed and went down. Davin pulled the metal free and swung again. This time, he was aiming for Hobbs’s arm, but he missed, cutting through air instead of flesh.

  Hobbs kicked out. His boot connected with the wound in Davin’s leg. Now it was Davin’s turn to scream, and he rolled away, clutching his leg.

  Gunshots rang out. The wall beside Hobbs exploded, and fragments of metal and plastic showered the corridor. Another metal canister bounced into view. More smoke billowed into the air. The door was almost completely obscured now, but there were shadows moving through it. Leah raised her pistol, but she didn’t dare fire in case she hit Hobbs or Alice.

  Alice waved at Leah. “Go on!”

  Leah stood her ground. More gunfire. Behind her, someone cried out. The sound of the train and the wind was too loud for her to tell who it was.

  Alice came shuffling out of the smoke. She’d waited for Hobbs and had her arm under his. He was limping, dark blood pouring from the gash in his calf. A grimace creased his face.

  Leah stepped forward, past Alice and Hobbs. The smoke was too thick for her to see where anyone was, but she let off four shots anyway before following Alice.

  Hobbs was almost across the gap between the carriages. The wavering of the train was making life difficult, but the woman they’d rescued from the cell was helping. Alice jumped across and guided Hobbs the final couple of feet.

  With Hobbs safe, Alice called to Leah. “Come on!”

  As Leah lined up her own jump, she heard Alice cry out. Then a weight hit her shoulders, driving her to the floor. She landed heavily on her elbow. A sharp pain shot up her arm. She tried to flip, but her attacker was on her back before she could. He pinned her to the floor. His knee pressed into her back, his hands forcing her face against the platform. She could see the ground rushing past beneath them through the metal grille.

  Something cold pressed against her cheek—the man’s gun. Leah closed her eyes and waited for the end.

  Boots clanged off metal, and then the weight lifted from Leah’s back. Before the man could pin her again, she twisted herself from underneath him. Alice was wrestling with him. She had him trapped against the end of the carriage while she tried to pry the gun from his grip.

  Leah stumbled to her feet and aimed her gun at the man. She shouted at him to stop, but Alice was in the way, and he knew it. He ignored Leah and pulled his knee up, jamming it into Alice’s side. She grunted, and her face contorted in pain. The man twisted his hand, freeing it and the gun. Leah squeezed the trigger of her pistol.

  The gunshot was a dull crack, quickly replaced by the man’s scream as the bullet hit his shoulder. Alice drove her elbow into his jaw. He collapsed to his knees, and his gun clattered over the side of the train.

  “Look out!” said Leah.

  A Transport guard wearing a gas mask appeared out of the smoke. He was carrying a baton, and he swung it at Alice. It caught her in the ribs. She brought her arm down on the baton, trapping it between her arm and her body. It didn’t matter. The guard punched her in the face. Her head snapped back, and she let out a grunt before dropping to her knees.

  The man pulled his baton free and slammed it into the back of Alice’s neck. She fell forward and lay still.

  Leah raised her gun, but before she could fire, a second Transport guard appeared. He was standing above Alice, his own pistol pointing directly at her head.

  The guard flicked his baton to one side. Leah threw her weapon off the train. Apparently satisfied she wasn’t a threat, he crouched and pressed the tips of his fingers against Alice’s neck. A trickle of blood ran down the side of her head, but Leah thought she could see her breathing, just slightly. The man grabbed the collar of Alice’s jacket. Fear gripped Leah as he began to pull Alice’s unconscious form to the edge of the platform.

  The whump-whump-whump of a helicopter rolled over them from out of the darkness. The sound did nothing to dispel Leah’s fear. It had to be Da Silva coming back to pick them up, but there was no way to detach the carriage now.

  The helicopter streaked overhead. Leah’s heart leaped. It was a green military chopper, not the white one they’d borrowed. Billingham’s team had arrived.

  The helicopter was barely out of sight before the air was filled with the chatter of machine-gun fire. The train’s horn sounded again, a discordant wail cutting through the rushing wind.

  Leah heard another round of gunfire and then the soft thump of an explosion. The carriage bucked and rocked. Leah was thrown sideways. She grabbed a metal handhold, but the momentum carried her legs out over the side of the train. Her hands slipped as her legs swung back. Her shins hit the side of the platform. The pain brought tears to Leah’s eyes, but she managed to pull her legs back up.

  A TRACE Jeep appeared alongside them. It swerved left and right as the driver fought against the terrain. A man in the back raised a rifle and fired at the train. More shots rang out, and sparks flew from the side of the Jeep. The man ducked.

  The sound of the helicopter grew louder. It swung into view above them. The windshield was cracked and broken. Leah could see the pilot inside, fighting with the controls, but couldn’t make out if it was Da Silva or someone else. Flames blazed around the engine, and streams of liquid sprayed from half a dozen holes in the fuselage of the helicopter. It turned sideways then dropped toward the train, disappearing out of sight. The Jeep veered away.

  The guard with the gun had his arm hooked through another handhold. He was aiming at Leah, but there was a look of fear on his face. Alice was still lying on the floor at his feet. She raised her head and looked blearily at Leah. The guard with the baton had fallen inside the carriage. He was just getting to his feet when an explosion tore the carriage apart.

  Fire erupted from the end of the corridor. Leah felt the carriage lift up, hang in the air
for what seemed like an age, then come crashing back down again.

  Metal shrieked as it was torn apart. Another explosion detonated in the middle of the carriage. Fire swept along the corridor, engulfing the guard with the baton. A wave of heat burst out of the doorway. The side of the carriage exploded outward, the flames illuminating the trees rushing past. A burning piece of wreckage clattered past Leah and disappeared into the darkness.

  The train twisted, caught, and then tipped. Leah grabbed the side of the doorway. The remaining guard let out a panicked cry, then he threw himself off the train. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch and was gone.

  Leah screamed and grabbed the doorframe as gravity took over and the carriage slammed onto its side.

  20

  The carriage rolled onto its side. Dust and debris flew through the air as the carriage scraped over the rocky ground. A chunk of something metallic bounced past Leah. There was a heavy crunch, and the carriage slammed into a tree. The trunk tore partway through the roof then disintegrated. Shredded metal spun off into the gloom. A cylinder arced through the air and crashed into the branches of another tree.

  Leah was jolted forward. Her hands slipped along the doorframe. Behind her, a woman screamed, and Leah had enough time to wonder if it was Alice before someone collided with her. The impact knocked her backward, and she lost her grip. She kicked out as she fell and cleared the carriage but landed hard. She rolled twice, grunting as she bounced across the ground. Her forehead glanced off a rock.

  As she came to a halt, she saw the rear carriage coming toward her. It, too, had been knocked off the track. Sparks flew as it tumbled across the ground. One end hit a massive boulder, and the carriage exploded in a cloud of shattered metal and wood. A billowing cloud of brown dust rolled over her. Grit peppered her face.

  Leah threw herself to one side as pieces of the destroyed train flew past. Off to her right, something exploded. A billowing wave of thick black smoke momentarily blotted out the landscape. Someone started shouting. Scattered bursts of gunfire came to Leah through the smoke. They sounded close. She reached for her gun and then remembered it was gone.

  She got to her feet. Her head was ringing, and the world swam for a few seconds until she managed to find her feet. The sound of rending metal had stopped now. She took a couple of steps toward the rear carriage and screamed as the movement sent a river of fire streaming down her right side. Fighting to stay upright, she forced herself forward as more gunfire echoed around her.

  The carriages were lying on their sides in a V shape. Clouds of dust and smoke hung in the air around them and obscured much of the damage, but Leah could see the prison carriage had taken the brunt of the crash. The front of it was a twisted, blackened mass of metal. Fire still flickered inside the wreckage, sending a steady stream of greasy black smoke into the air. A few feet away from the carriage lay the body of one of the Transport soldiers. She wavered slightly.

  “Leah!”

  The voice had come from off to the left, somewhere near the second carriage. It had to be Alice.

  Leah ran toward the sound. “Alice?”

  “Over here!”

  Another explosion ripped through the air, followed by the rapid-fire chatter of a machine gun.

  Leah dodged around a chunk of burning wreckage and saw Alice. She was leaning heavily against a boulder. Her gun was in her hand, and she was looking around, alert, but there was a gash in her forehead, and her other hand was pressed against her ribs. The bulky man, Adam, and James were sitting on the ground nearby. Adam was holding his shoulder, and James’s jacket was stained with blood, but otherwise they seemed okay.

  “Alice!”

  Relief broke across Alice’s face, then she called Leah forward. “Help Hobbs.” She pointed back toward a ragged hole in the carriage.

  Leah ran to the opening. The interior was dim and filled with smoke, but she could see someone moving.

  “Hobbs?”

  “In here.”

  Leah clambered inside the train. The smell of burning plastic caught in her throat. The crash had scattered broken wood and pieces of drone everywhere. She picked her way through the debris to where she could see Henry. He was pinned beneath a metal beam.

  The woman from the cell was kneeling beside him. She touched his shoulder. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Hobbs and Morgan were standing at one end of the beam. It was wedged beneath a twisted chunk of wreckage, and they were trying to pull it free. Hobbs grunted as he pulled on the beam. It groaned and shifted a few inches then caught. Morgan cursed and shook his head.

  Henry coughed. Dark fluid bubbled from between his lips. “It’s no good, Elaine.” He coughed again. “You need to go.”

  “No, we’re—”

  Gunfire sounded from outside. It was close enough to be Alice’s weapon.

  Henry clutched Elaine’s arm. “Please.” His voice was weak.

  Hobbs yanked on the metal beam again. Morgan was pushing from below, but it refused to move. Sparks exploded from a nearby panel, and the smell of burning plastic grew stronger.

  Alice appeared in the opening. “We need to go, now!”

  Henry tightened his grip on Elaine.

  “Dammit!” she said.

  She grasped Henry’s hand and squeezed it before turning and clambering out of the carriage. Hobbs followed her. He was limping heavily, and there was a blood-soaked shirt wrapped around his calf.

  Henry grabbed Hobbs’s ankle as he passed. He looked up at Hobbs with pleading eyes. Hobbs pressed his lips together and nodded.

  Leah pushed past Morgan to the beam and grabbed it. The metal was slick and hard to grip. She pulled at it anyway. It didn’t move. It was wedged tight.

  Morgan put his hand on her shoulder. “Come on.”

  Leah pulled away, but she let go of the beam. She couldn’t look at Henry as she made her way past and out of the carriage.

  Morgan came out just behind her. A few seconds later, there was the hollow crack of a gunshot. Leah clenched her fists as she fought back tears.

  Hobbs climbed out of the carriage and joined them beside James and Adam. A column of smoke was rising up from behind the carriage, and the wind was blowing it toward them, obscuring their vision.

  James helped Adam to his feet; he looked at Hobbs. “Where to now?”

  “This way,” said Alice.

  She set off across the ground, running parallel to the last carriage.

  The sound of gunfire grew more frequent as they ran. Leah could hear the bullets ricocheting off metal. Somewhere behind them, a harsh male voice shouted to someone to pull back, and she wondered if it was Transport or TRACE that was losing.

  Her thoughts were cut short when a hail of bullets slammed into the carriage above her. Someone cried out.

  “Get down!” said Alice.

  Leah threw herself to the ground as another burst of gunfire raked the carriage. Muzzle flashes lit up a cluster of rocks about thirty feet away.

  Hobbs was just ahead. He pulled the last of his grenades from his belt and threw it in the direction of the guns. A few seconds later, there was the familiar thump of an explosion.

  Alice fired off a couple of rounds and then shouted again. “Get to the other side!”

  “Adam’s hit!”

  Leah thought the voice belonged to James.

  “I’m okay.” The pain in his voice made it obvious he was lying. Leah started to go back to help, but Hobbs grabbed her arm. “I’ve got it.”

  Reluctantly, she took off toward the end of the carriage. Gunfire still rang out from farther away, but whoever had been shooting at them was either injured or taking cover.

  Alice reached cover first, but Leah was close behind. Alice positioned herself behind cover and began firing off shots into the darkness. “I’ll cover them. Keep a watch on our backs in case they try to flank us.”

  Leah took up position at the other side of the carriage. She gasped. There, about sixty feet away, was th
e pile of wreckage that had once been the TRACE helicopter. It had been swallowed up by a raging fire that was filling the air with a choking haze of smoke.

  It took her a few seconds to realize that the remains of a third carriage were mixed in with the wreckage. The fire had claimed much of it, too, but it was clear from the mangled ruins that the chopper had crashed through the train. The bodies of at least half a dozen people lay scattered around the site.

  Anguish twisted Leah’s heart. What if Da Silva had gotten back to Billingham and come to rescue them?

  There was no sign of Transport on Leah’s side of the train, but the gunfire behind them had resumed.

  “It’s clear,” said Leah.

  Alice’s gun barked. “Get ready to fall back.”

  Something inside the chopper exploded, sending fresh gouts of smoke into the air. There was a long burst of gunfire, and then Hobbs staggered around the corner with Adam and James in tow. Hobbs joined Alice, and the two of them laid down more fire. Less than twenty seconds later, Morgan and Elaine appeared. They ducked past Alice and Hobbs. Elaine stood beside Leah. Blood smeared her face, but Leah couldn’t see where it came from.

  Adam’s injury was clear. The lower half of his shirt and his pants were soaked in blood. His face was pale, and even leaning against the train, he looked like he was about to pass out.

  Alice ducked back around the corner. She hesitated for a fraction of a second when she saw the helicopter then pointed off toward a nearby cluster of trees. “We should be able to lose them in the forest. If we’re lucky, someone from TRACE will pick us up.”

  “Come on!” shouted Morgan.

  Adam moved to follow Morgan but stumbled and fell to his knees. Morgan and Elaine slipped their arms beneath his shoulders and hauled the big man back to his feet. Shouts came to them from the other side of the wrecked train.

  The wind gusted and sent a cloud of acrid smoke rolling over them. Leah pressed her hand across her mouth to stifle a cough. The remains of the helicopter’s fuselage groaned under the heat of the fire.