"Executing," Lobo said.
I dashed into the forest to my left.
Lobo lifted off as soon as I was clear, rose straight into the air, and then sped away above the treetops the moment he was clear of them.
I ran along the edge of the road until I found a section where the ground sloped slightly away from it. I dropped the camo cloth there, lay on top of it, and scanned the area through the rifle's scope. I'd get a good view from here of anything that passed my location. Even if they were moving quickly, I should be able to assess more accurately the number of guards.
That wasn't enough. I could get the same information just by watching Matahi's house. I had to generate more data from this opportunity. I still felt I was right not to try a full-scale attack with Lobo without more information and with a large group of people less than a klick away, but maybe I could get lucky. Maybe his bodyguards were a bunch of second-rate corporate types, and maybe they ran with a minimal crew. If so, all I had to do was get them to leave their vehicles, and I might be able to pick them off.
It was a lot of maybes, probably too many, but I'd have wasted Wei's trip if I didn't set myself up to take advantage of good luck should it come my way. I stood and jogged along the edge of the road back into the sunnier area. Stumps on each side of the pavement made it clear why sunlight reached this stretch of road. Something, maybe lightning, maybe developers charged with providing periodic clear zones for air rescue, had caused people to clear those trees.
I could slow Wei, probably even stop him. Downed trees would probably alarm his guard team, but at least I'd get to see them in action. If no one attacked them, they might chalk up the roadblock to natural causes.
Too bad I didn't bring any explosives.
I had another option, of course, but there was risk. If Lobo pushed, I'd have to bluff that I'd kept some small charges he wasn't aware of.
The opportunity was too good to ignore, and time was melting away.
"Lobo," I said, "can you do anything to block the route behind them?"
"Yes," he said. "I could land and act as a barrier, destroy a section of the road, or possibly cause a traffic problem at the nearest large interchange. What are you planning?"
I ignored his question. "Do what you can with the traffic," I said, "and create as big a non-lethal—repeat, non-lethal—mess as possible, but don't leave any traces."
"As if I would," Lobo said. "I repeat: What are you planning?"
"To slow them and take a closer look," I said. "Time is short. Out."
I chose two of the bigger trees on the edge of the sunny stretch. Each was over a meter in diameter; the ones opposite them on the other side of the road were similar sizes. I grabbed some dirt, spit into it, and instructed the nanomachines to use a section of each tree to make more copies of themselves, to consume a slice through the trunks of my targets, and then to disassemble themselves. I rubbed the small bit of wet dirt on the first tree, careful to put it on the side nearest the road so the tree would fall across the pavement. I repeated the process on the second. When I checked out the first one, an arm-size chunk of it had disappeared. I dashed across the road, did the same thing to one tree half a dozen meters down from my first two targets, and heard creaking sounds. The trees were coming down fast. I set the nanobots on one more tree, then ran down the road as the sounds of groaning wood filled the air. I didn't stop until I was thirty meters away and heard a sound like a thunderclap.
I turned in time to watch the top of the first tree smash into the trees on the other side of the road and tear downward through their branches, ravaging those still-standing trees as it crashed onto the ground. I covered my ears as the second followed right behind it. Blasts of disturbed air spread leaves and parts of branches everywhere. The second fell slightly to its left and hit one of my targets on this side of the road, but that tree was already in the process of coming down. It tilted to its right a bit, struck my other still upright target, and then the two of them came slamming down. As it fell, the top of the last tree sheared off part of one of the healthy trees on the other side of the road. Dust filled the air, and I covered my nostrils.
Quiet. My four trees and the part of the fifth the last tree had hurt sprawled across a section of road that had to be at least twenty meters wide. Branches and leaves covered most of the visible permacrete. Just days ago, I'd been living in trees; now, I was destroying them. I pushed aside the regret and surveyed my handiwork. It wasn't the neatest job, but that was a plus; it didn't look like a well-planned roadblock. More importantly, it should meet my needs. Unless Wei's vehicles could go airborne, they wouldn't be able to hover over this mess; it was just too high and too uneven for typical civilian shuttles to pass above it. Even smaller military transport craft would have to stop or at least slow for it.
"Five minutes," Lobo said over the comm, "assuming a constant speed. I trust you're in position."
"Moving to it. If I call, come fast."
"Will do."
I ran to my initial location, grabbed the camo cloth, and jogged through the forest to the far side of the fallen trees. Just beyond the stumps of the first two I'd downed, I found a spot where I had a clear view of the area in front of the mess. I crouched, spread the cloth to its fullest, stretched out on the ground, and worked my way under the cloth. I watched as the edges nearest me mutated into a pattern identical to the forest floor. I should be nearly invisible under both normal light and thermal scans. I set the rifle in position in front of me, then worked on slowing my pulse and breathing.
If Wei's team was small and bad, I'd trank them as they spilled onto the road to check out the trees. If they came after me on foot, I should be able to pick them off.
Of course, if they were careful and their vehicles were heavily armed, they might blow up everything in the vicinity just to be safe. It's what a Saw unit would have done under a good or even just a very conservative commander.
"One minute," Lobo said.
I had to hope they weren't that good or that conservative.
Chapter 24
I heard the hum of the convoy before I saw it. The sound grew into the familiar hover growl of civilian armored cars designed as much to impress as to protect; I'd driven plenty during my courier days and never much liked them. When it comes to transport, I prefer functionality to appearance; give me serious armor and a more powerful but less throaty engine any day.
The three vehicles appeared down the road. I grabbed the rifle and watched them through its scope. The front and lead cars were little more than lightly armored taxis, metal and plexi with seats for four normal people. The guys inside looked amped and cramped and overgrown. Wei didn't care much about protecting his staff if he made them ride in those things. Lobo would have had a hard time finding a missile small enough not to destroy both those vehicles and their passengers.
Wei clearly cared a great deal, however, about show. In addition to the eight men in the other cars, he had a full complement of three bodyguards riding with him. Eleven men was certainly impressive, but unless the team leader was very good or willing to use several of the guys as ammo soakers, it was also too many to manage in a typical non-military attack. Wei's ride was, predictably, the one making all the noise and screaming "look at how important my passenger is." Sleek black metal with curves that gave it attractive lines but that were difficult to armor well, the vehicle was pretty, impressive, and a skimming bulls-eye. Its windows, which started transparent, tinted black as the whole convoy slowed and someone got smart about the possible threat ahead.
Ego can make you stupid.
"Lobo," I whispered over the comm in case they were monitoring audio in the area, "any luck with the interchange?"
"Yes," he said.
The lead car stopped twenty meters short of the edge of the roadblock, and for the better part of a minute the whole convoy simply sat there. Any decent team would have reversed course immediately and gotten out of the zone they didn't control. Good; their immobility meant t
hey weren't top-drawer, and the delay suggested they had to consult with either Wei or some control person back at the island before making any significant decisions.
The rear doors on both the lead and follow cars opened, and all four rear-seat passengers got out. Each sprinted for the trees on the near side of the road. They were outfitted identically: Activefiber, short-sleeved uniform with a small shoulder emblem and a name over the heart, both of which faded as the uniform shifted colors to blend with first the street and then the woods; holstered pistols; rifles they held at port arms; and no sign of significant armor. The uniforms might have provided basic body armor, but the guards moved easily enough that either they were very strong indeed or the armor was extremely light. I tracked one of the men in the scope; I could have taken him with a shot to the neck, head, or bare arm, but there was no point in it. There were too many of them. Still, if I were part of a more typical four-person team, we would have tracked and taken out this initial group before any of them could find cover.
The men in the trees spread slightly wider into the forest, then moved ahead of the lead car in a slow advance. I lay under the blanket and watched. They covered ground in reasonable alternation, exposing only one man at a time, so at least they'd trained a little bit for this type of work. They scanned the area through scopes, but I trusted to both my position and the camo cloth to render me undetectable; I might read a bit cooler than the surrounding ground, but so would any of the stands of moss here and there on the forest floor.
When the lead man on each side reached a position parallel to the nearest of the fallen trees, they came into the road to assess the damage. That dumb maneuver made it clear that Wei was running the show himself and not calling back to any trained controller. His optimism was ill-advised; he should have stuck to running nano-research labs. Any half-competent driver could have told him their vehicles couldn't clear these trees, and I had to assume at least one of his drivers had, but he hadn't believed them. Sending his team into the open on a useless check was a bad amateur decision. Another good data point: As long as Wei was in charge of his own protection team, they'd make some sub-optimal moves.
They were at least smart enough, however, to keep him and most of the team in the cars, so I couldn't count on outright stupidity. Too bad; an easy answer would have been nice, and we could have finished the mission then and there.
I couldn't take out all of them, however, and if I brought in Lobo this would turn into a bloodbath, so I kept watching.
The men out front studied the trees half-heartedly for a minute, making a show of walking back and forth and pushing on the trunks as if that would help. The scope gave me a clear view of the one on the other side of the road; he was leaning on a tree and scanning the area, clearly aware that he was wasting time but with no choice but to do so.
The men gave up their pointless tree inspection, jogged back to the lead car, and climbed in. The trailing duo returned to the follow car, and for a moment nothing happened as they relayed their news to Wei.
The whole convoy reversed direction for a few seconds, then stopped again. Interesting. They were just now checking on their path home and finding out it was blocked. They should have assumed an ambush the moment they'd encountered an obstacle. Instead, they went through the motions for Wei but didn't think to check their exit path until he decided they had to leave.
Everything changed all at once. The lead car swiveled toward my side of the road, while the follow turned to face the other side. As a unit, they proceeded slowly backward down the road, all three cars skimming back and forth in their small zones as they moved.
Somebody else, someone who understood that staying in one position was a bad idea, was now in charge. The escort team must have finally called home. Wei must have both a competent security head and someone with enough power over the bodyguard team to make them ignore Wei and follow commands from central control.
The convoy headed off like a platoon guarding treasure backing away from a threat.
"Incoming aircraft," Lobo said. "Moving fast. Want me to intercept?"
"No," I said. "If we start this, we have to finish it, and a lot of people will die."
"We might get Wei and be done," Lobo said.
"More likely, he'd be one of those to die," I said. "Hold your position."
The convoy had gone far enough now that I doubted they could see me, so I tucked the camo cloth into my collar and began backing away from the downed trees. If the incoming plane scanned the area or, worse, decided to clear the trees with missiles, I didn't want to be near them.
The aircraft appeared over the road behind the convoy, then accelerated toward the three cars. I stopped moving and cranked up the scope so I could check it out more closely. An armored, gray platoon transport, it brandished guns as it flew a few meters past the lead car and then settled straight to the ground. The lead car pulled in front of it on the far side from me, and then Wei's car pulled close to its body. A hatch on that side of the transport slid aside, then the doors of Wei's car opened, and a cluster of men moved quickly and as one into the plane. I never saw Wei. The plane closed the moment the men were inside it. The two cars skimmed away from it, and as soon as they were clear, it took off. It cleared the trees, turned, and jetted off.
The entire rescue had taken way less than a minute from touchdown to take-off. Whoever had run it was competent and had the attention of all the security staff.
The three cars resumed their original formation but now headed back toward the island. Apparently the control person didn't care how long it took them once Wei was safe—another sensible and professional choice.
"Lobo," I said, "release the traffic system. We're done here."
"Done?" he said. "I could have taken that little thing."
"I know," I said, "and we could have blown up the cars. We just couldn't be sure we wouldn't kill Wei, and our job is to return him alive for trial."
"Our local friends won't be happy," Lobo said. "They've been calling Pri for status updates."
"Let her talk to them," I said. "I'll review their conversation later."
The convoy was out of sight, so I stood and stretched.
"You're not going to like this," Lobo said. "Pri told them Wei was away safely, and they're furious at you."
"Tough," I said. "Come get me."
I picked up the camo cloth and thought about what I'd learned.
"ETA one minute," Lobo said. "You know they're going to want to talk to you."
"I can't wait," I said, the anger already growing in me. I hated second-guessing, particularly from rear-echelon watchers who knew nothing of what was really happening and who still felt justified in giving orders. "I just can't wait."
Chapter 25
They're really angry, Jon," Pri said.
"I don't care," I said. "They weren't there, and they don't know what they're talking about. They hired me, so they should shut up and let me work."
"They'd like you to call them and explain," she said.
Her tone was plaintive, and she was clearly caught in the middle, but right then I couldn't make myself care enough to do as she wanted.
"No," I said, stepping so close to her that she backed away. "Not now." I turned around. "I need some time."
I almost ran to my quarters, and as soon as the door closed behind me I paced back and forth in the small space. I could have called Lobo and tried for Wei, but any attack sufficient to take out the cover cars could easily have killed him. That wasn't the mission; he couldn't stand trial if he wasn't alive. But maybe we could have gotten him, maybe the collateral damage would have been acceptable; by signing up to be guards, those people had to have known they were taking a risk. I'd end up hurting some people when we finally got to Wei; why not do it then?
I stopped, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. There was no point in second-guessing myself.
I stood there, breathing slowly and deeply and keeping my eyes shut, until I felt some of the anger ebb. My m
uscles relaxed a bit. I'd made the right call. In a firefight, Lobo couldn't be sure he wouldn't kill Wei; I knew that, and he knew that.
He knew that, yet he wanted to start one anyway.
"Lobo," I said over the machine frequency, "you asked me to get involved in this mess."
"Yes."
"Yet you were willing to risk Wei's death."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He certainly deserves to die," Lobo said, "but more importantly, if we can't stop him and his research any other way, we can at least end it by killing him."
I sat on my bunk. I'd never heard Lobo talk about a target or a job so personally. "You told me Wei used you as an experimental subject in his lab on Velna, but you didn't tell me why he wanted you or what he did to you. What happened that left you so angry at him?"
"I told you I was broken when I arrived on Velna," Lobo said, "and that Wei's team needed a rugged test subject."
"Yes," I said. That he didn't deny being angry worried me; that's the first time since I've found him that he's admitted to such an emotion. No point in pushing on it now, though; I wanted to know what had happened more than I wanted to understand this sudden acceptance of emotions.
"They brought my computing systems online almost immediately," Lobo said, "so I knew what was happening from that point onward. Their charter was to build a new breed of fighting machines, weapons with enormously greater intelligence and ability to carry out orders independently than anything that had previously existed. The FC has the least resources of the three planetary coalitions, so it was hoping this R&D gamble would let it get by with a smaller fleet of more powerful weapons and also let it save money by hiring far fewer mercenary forces."
"That makes sense," I said. "Is that why you're so much more adept at hacking into other systems than any other intelligence I've met?"
Overthrowing Heaven-ARC Page 18