by Mel Odom
“I thought you couldn’t see through the walls in this place.”
“I can—now.” The shaman followed Rachel to the wall. “The magical barriers protecting this building have dropped.”
Placing her hands on the wall for a moment, Rachel backed away as an entire section, covered by another bas-relief of a rearing, fire-breathing dragon, slid aside. Beyond the false wall, a black passageway stood.
“Now go.” The Shadowman’s command filled the chamber.
Hawke dropped his pack to the floor and slid his rifle onto his shoulder. Head spinning with questions about what had been done to Rachel and what it meant for them, he focused instead on the approaching enemy troops.
He glanced at Rolla while Twitch picked off sec men trying to approach down the passageway. “Got any plastic explosives left?”
Rolla grinned. “I never empty the cupboard unless I know I’m not coming back.”
“We’re not coming back.” Hawke brought out his own blocks of plastique and equipped them with detonators. By the time he had his ready, Rolla was waiting. “On three.”
The street samurai nodded and gripped the explosives. On Hawke’s count of three, they threw the explosives down the hallway. The bundles skipped down the debris-strewn floor, tumbling end over end.
“Flicker, they’re keyed to your command.” Hawke pulled his rifle into his hands and ran for the secret exit.
“I’ve got them,” she replied.
“Detonate them when we’re clear.”
“Happily.”
Hawke followed Paredes into the passageway. Rachel, Nighthorse, and Snakechaser had already entered. Rolla and Twitch brought up the rear.
The passageway was seven or eight meters in diameter, providing plenty of room to run. Hawke paused just a moment to look back and see what the Shadowman was doing.
“Fire in the hole!” Flicker announced.
The blast spread fire and destruction the length of the passageway leading up to the chamber. A wave of flames burst into the chamber and washed over the dragon statue, but didn’t do any damage. When the flames extinguished, the Shadowman had vanished with them.
Hawke cursed the man, knowing he’d never been there anyway. He hadn’t risked anything.
On the drone view, he saw several sec men down, dead or wounded, in the hallway outside the chamber. But reinforcements were already arriving to take up the slack.
Rolla dropped a big hand on Hawke’s shoulder. “Let’s go, omae. Nothing here to see any more.”
Hawke nodded and pulled back. Rachel paused beside him and closed the entrance, blocking the scene of the dragon and the false Dragonseed nestled in its talons.
Together, they ran into the darkness.
“Director Sukenobu, I have the Dragonseed.”
Watching the scene inside the temple through her smartglasses, Sukenobu accessed the man’s hardsuit cam.
He stood there in front of what looked like a dragon statue covered in soot. But he held the artifact in one hand. Its blue glow tinted the video display.
A thrill of joy filled her. She had spent a fortune and over a year pursuing the device. Now it was hers.
“Bring it to me at once,” she ordered.
“Yes, Director.”
Shifting to another sec man’s commlink, Sukenobu commanded him to scan the room. He began turning in a complete circle, revealing all the artwork on the walls.
“Slower. I want every millimeter recorded so I can recreate it.” Just in case there was something they’d missed.
“Yes, Director.”
“Where are Rachel Gordon and the shadowrunners?” Sukenobu didn’t think they would just leave the Dragonseed. But maybe they’d been afraid to take it. The artifact was supposed to be exceptionally dangerous and hard to acquire.
Yet, she had it.
“There’s no sign of them, Director.”
That troubled her. Leaving the Dragonseed behind was one thing, but for the group to disappear completely was unsettling.
“The explosion might have taken them out, Director,” the colonel said. “It killed a lot of my men.”
Sukenobu considered that, didn’t immediately reject the possibility, but she didn’t like it when things weren’t neatly tied up. Complete closure when the whole truth wasn’t in hand was sloppy, wishful thinking. She liked hard facts. Knowledge was always better than guesswork. Guesswork was intolerable.
“I see them,” the combat mage said.
Turning to the old woman, Sukenobu asked, “Now you see them?”
“Yes, Director. Whatever magic was protecting that building is now gone.”
That bothered Sukenobu as well. If the magic was as powerful as the woman had indicated earlier, its absence was a definite clue that something was not as it should be. Sukenobu’s grandfather had taught her to be not only aggressive and merciless, but thorough.
“I want to know why the magic is missing,” she said.
“Of course, Director.”
“In the meantime, I want to know where Rachel Gordon is.”
The old woman pointed along the side of the cavern roof high above them. “She’s there, Director. With her friends. They’re in a concealed passageway above us. The Awakened among them seek to block my sight, but I am too powerful.”
Sukenobu didn’t question the woman’s answer. The truth would be revealed quickly enough. “Colonel.”
“Yes, Director.”
“Send three of your teams—” Sukenobu grabbed the old woman’s arm and pushed her toward the indicated side of the cavern, “—with her to get Rachel Gordon. I want her alive if possible, but above all, I don’t want her leaving this area.”
“At once, Director.” The colonel turned and relayed orders to his men over his commlink.
Sukenobu stayed where she was. The Dragonseed was the most important thing. She would see to Rachel Gordon and the shadowrunners later.
None of them would live. Except maybe the woman. And then only until she was of no further use.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
“Can you tell how far this passageway goes?” Hawke ran beside Rachel, leading the team away from the building. He’d scattered button cams behind him so he’d know when and if the sec team in the dragon chamber found the hidden door.
“I think it goes down to the harbor. I can’t see that far, but that’s the feeling I get. I think this was another level of the city.”
Hawke agreed with her assessment. Crunched up into the sides of the tunnel, the remains of small houses and buildings sat vacant and broken. Several sections lay across the passageway.
Muffled gunfire sounded on the other side of the corridor wall. Or maybe it was coming up through the floor. Hawke thought it was possible the passage ran across the cavern’s roof, at least in sections.
“NeoNET got their Dragonseed,” Flicker said.
Images from the two drones inside the dragon chamber ghosted through Hawke’s vision. The sec team bolted from the room with their prize locked in an armored box.
When the view shifted out into the passageway, Hawke saw the firefight shaping up between the NeoNET sec team and the Aztechnology warriors. Small arms fire and shimmering spells covered both groups. He was very glad they hadn’t been caught in the middle of it.
A moment later, one of the Aztechnology squads reached the dragon chamber. When they did, Flicker’s drones, silently floating up near the chamber’s ceiling, recorded them taking the false Dragonseed again.
“Well, whoever played us got what he wanted,” Flicker said. “Both corps got a Dragonseed.”
“Yeah,” Hawke growled. “We know what they got, but we still don’t know what Rachel got.”
“She’s alive and you’re alive, omae. I’ll settle for all of us getting the same deal at the end of the day.”
Spotting a pile of broken rock partially blocking the passage ahead, Hawke veered left while keeping his AK-97 ready. So far none of the sec teams had found their way into the pas
sage, but that didn’t mean there might not be other threats along the way.
“Can you track us?” Hawke asked.
“I’m pinging your armor.”
“Where are we?”
“On the outside edge of the big cavern where the last building is. You’re about halfway across the cave. You’ve got NeoNET troops over to your side. I suppose you can hear the gunfire.”
“Yeah.”
“They’re still engaged with Aztechnology.”
“Works for me.” Hawke skirted the pile of debris, thought he spotted a shifting shadow, then realized it was only dust settling due to the vibrations from below coursing through the passage. “Can either of those teams ping us?”
“I’ve hardened your shielding as much as I can. We’ll have to see. In case things get ugly, I still have explosive-equipped drones along the cavern wall above NeoNET and Aztechnology.”
Watching the sec team bring the Dragonseed out of the temple, Sukenobu controlled her impatience. She shifted her attention to the team following the combat mage’s direction. They were in position.
“How thick is the passage floor?” the lieutenant in charge of the squads asked.
“No more than two or three meters,” the combat mage answered.
“Director Sukenobu,” the lieutenant called over the commlink.
“I am here, Lieutenant.” Through the relayed feed, Sukenobu studied the craggy cavern roof above and in front of the sec team.
“I don’t see any way up into the passage the mage says is there. If those people do have a clear path to run, I don’t know how much farther they have to go to get away.”
“Do you have a suggestion?”
“I can open that passage from below, maybe take out some of those people in doing so. Once we get an opening, we can send in drones to take the rest out.”
“Do it.”
The lieutenant called up one of his men, who approached at a run, leveling a big missile launcher over his shoulder. “We’ve got a guaranteed wall-opener here, Director.” Kneeling, the sec man aimed it at the passageway. “Just tell me where to put this.”
The combat mage pointed at a section of the ceiling and a red dot manifested on the rough surface. “There.”
Fire and smoke belched from the rear of the weapon as the missile screamed toward its target.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
“Hawke!” Flicker yelled over the commlink. “A NeoNET team is right below you! I think they’re track—”
The rest of the rigger’s words were lost when the ground beneath Hawke’s feet suddenly surged up and his hearing went out. Time slowed as his wired reflexes automatically came online to help him deal with the situation.
Propelled by the sudden blast, he flew upward, pounded again and again by debris that blew upward with him as well. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized the passageway floor had gotten hammered with some kind of warhead or explosive. He slammed against the ceiling as a large hole opened up below him.
As gravity reclaimed him and he started on the inevitable downward trajectory, more of the rock floor around the gaping wound in the cracked stone gave way and tumbled, falling into a two hundred meter drop.
The rest of the group was far enough back that they were able to stop their forward momentum and remain on stable ground. Rolla flung out a big arm and caught Twitch, shoving her back from the edge, then stopped Nighthorse and Snakechaser as well.
Near the hole’s edge, Rachel lay on her back, barely moving and looking dazed as lime-green tracer fire cut through the air. Then the ground beneath her gave way and she fell, preceding Hawke through the opening by a meter. The sudden sensation of weightlessness tightened his stomach as he tried to position himself to reach any kind of stability.
Ahead of him, in free fall, Rachel tumbled and spun, arms and legs flailing. Her scream shut down Hawke’s helmet audio, and he couldn’t even speak to her. A plummet from two hundred meters would take something over six seconds. Hawke knew that because he’d jumped that distance before while learning parachuting, but during those times, he’d had a parachute.
Despite the battlesuit’s hardening, it wouldn’t survive the fall.
Neither would he.
On the ground, below Rachel, a squad of NeoNET troops tracked them and fired. Several rounds struck Hawke. He didn’t know if the armor deflected the bullets or not, and he didn’t waste any time wondering about it because nothing was going to make a difference once he struck the ground. Dead or dying didn’t matter. Once he hit the ground below, it was all over.
For a moment, when Rachel’s combat armor came apart just short of impact, he was certain she’d gotten hit by another missile and ripped to shreds. Then she emerged from the ragged hardsuit, suddenly growing in size and changing—getting longer—becoming inhuman—covering over with golden scales—sprouting wings—
Just before she hit the ground, Rachel—now a dragon—stretched her wings and caught the air. Incredibly, she stopped her fall. Then she arrowed up at once and grabbed for Hawke with her back feet. One of her taloned claws missed him, though it struck with incredible power, but the other claw caught his left arm and jerked him up. For a moment, the sharp pain that cut through Hawke nearly made him pass out. He was certain his arm had been torn off.
It hadn’t, though, because Rachel—if she still was Rachel—had him and slowed his fall, though they were still headed to the ground.
Amazed to still be alive, astonished at what Rachel had become, Hawke knew they were easy targets for the sec team only a few meters away. Bullets ricocheted off his armor and from Rachel’s scales. Instinctively, Hawke fired the AK-97 one-handed, hitting most of his targets. They went down, dead or wounded or terrified of him or of Rachel.
Not fully in control of her flight, Rachel crashed into the nearby wall and went down in a flurry of wings. Bouncing off the cavern wall himself, breath knocked from his lungs, Hawke hit the ground, swapped out magazines in the rifle as he rolled, and came to a kneeling position firing at the sec team.
A few meters away, Rachel struggled to get up, flapping her wings and kicking her rear legs. She had to be twenty meters long from nose to tail, and she was a huge target. Rounds peppered her, and she was bleeding in a few places now.
“Get down!” Hawke roared.
For a second, the dragon looked confused. Then she ducked her head to take cover behind a low hill. A rocket from one of the men’s launchers struck the top of the dirt mound and blew debris into the air and over Rachel’s new body.
When the rifle’s receiver locked back empty, Hawke reached into his thigh pocket for the grenades he’d brought. Grabbing a couple, not taking time to figure out what they were, he popped the activation rings and threw them at the NeoNET team.
Above, Twitch was at the edge of the hole, firing her pistols systematically, accurately hitting targets even at that distance. Rolla added his own rifle fire. Snakechaser, Nighthorse, and Paredes threw spells to increase the confusion among the sec team. Waves of fire and explosions swept over and detonated in the corps muscle even before the grenades Hawke had thrown dumped more misery into the mixture.
The NeoNET ranks broke, scattering to find defensive positions. Instead of being in control of the firefight, they found themselves hard pressed just to stay alive.
Autofire, the whumps of rocket launchers, and the heated rush of flames fought for top position in the cacophony of hellish noise that filled the cavern.
“Hawke.”
Rachel’s voice sounded different inside Hawke’s head, not coming over the commlink now. Behind him, she staggered to her rear feet, rocked uncertainly for a moment, then got her balance.
“I’m here,” he told her as he found and fed a new magazine into the rifle. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Are you still . . . you?”
“Yes.” Rachel stretched her wings and stood taller. “This is . . . different. But it also feels . . . familiar.”
> More rifle fire struck Rachel, but there wasn’t as much any more because a good portion of the sec team had gone down under the combined attack. Bodies, some burned black or torn apart, jerked as more explosions tore through them. Rolla still had a few grenades, and was making the most of them.
Rachel draped a scaly wing in front of her face to block the small arms fire. A rocket streaked toward her and she brushed it away with her other wing. When the warhead struck the cavern wall behind her, it exploded, spreading a cloud of dust that almost hid her from sight.
“We can’t stay here.”
“Well, we can’t march across this cavern.” Hawke emptied his magazine, firing three-round bursts of suppressive fire.
A four-man squad of NeoNET sec men charged from the left side. Hawke swung his rifle over to them, fired a three-round burst that put one of their attackers down, and cursed when the receiver locked back again. He dropped the rifle and reached for his pistol. Even as his hand closed around the weapon and swept it from its holster, Rachel stretched her neck forward and breathed a stream of flames over the men, setting their suits on fire.
“Hawke,” Flicker said, “NeoNET’s sending reinforcements.”
Already aware of the troop movement, Hawke picked up his rifle and slapped another magazine into the weapon. “Blow the drone mines in front of them.”
“Blowing them now.”
Immediately, the explosive-equipped drones that had attached themselves to the cavern roof between Hawke and the reinforcements detonated in rapid succession, chewing a ragged line amid the stalactites. Several of the stony spears dropped among the sec force, killing some of them outright and trapping others. Then large sections of the roof came free, falling in a spread of boulders and chunks that formed an impromptu wall.
Hawke picked off a couple more targets. “Snakechaser, how much nylon line do you have?” he asked, even though he was certain of the answer.
“Not enough to reach you, cousin.”
Cursing, Hawke knew there was no way he could climb up the cavern wall. Even if he could find purchase points to make the ascent, he’d be picked off by sniper fire before he could reach the passage.