Siv walked over and fired a lethal neural disruptor shot into the back of each reaper’s head. He thought about taking one of their force hammers and smashing their skulls, but that was too gruesome. Shoot and kill a man? If he had to. Bash someone’s head in, even if they were already dead? No.
“Sir, police are on their way.”
“What’s taking them so long? They should've been here already.”
“The reapers were jamming the signals, sir. They used a device not unlike the one our friend Bishop restored.”
Bishop gazed around his apartment. Slowly, his grip on his gun released, and it thunked onto the chemical foam covered floor. He dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Everything gone…all ruined.”
“Bishop, grab anything valuable, and whatever clothes you need. Pack fast. You have—”
“Two minutes, sir.”
“You’ve got ninety seconds.”
Bishop looked up at him dumbfounded. “What? Why…why would I run?”
“You can’t afford to waste the rest of the night answering the authorities’ questions.”
“Why not?”
“You and your inventions have already attracted too much attention. That reaper captain may be hurt but he'll live, and he's got a ship somewhere nearby. He'll be back, and he won't be the only one coming for you. A man wanted by the reapers is worth acquiring. I'm sure you can imagine the sort of protection a megacorp or underworld organization might insist that you accept.”
“Slavery, you mean? But won't the police protect me?”
Siv grabbed Bishop by the arm and hauled him up onto his feet. “Cops can be bought off. You really want to risk that?”
Bishop shook his head. “But…but that just means I’m screwed.”
“Not if I help you.”
Bishop still hesitated. “I don’t know…”
“So all of your inventions, all the devices you've restored, all the side projects you've worked on and the people you've sold them to…all of that is completely legal with proper permits and such, right? There's nothing in this apartment that the authorities might object to, is there?”
"Oh." Bishop launched into action. He grabbed a duffle bag out of his closet and started stuffing clothes into it. While Siv retrieved his spy-fly drone from the windowsill, Bishop added a tool set and an array of small devices. Then he ran to the living room to retrieve his gun.
“What happened to the security cog?” Siv asked as he followed. He couldn’t find any trace of it in the wreckage.
“That’s what I detonated,” Bishop answered.
“That explains a lot, sir.”
“What now?” Bishop asked, zipping the bag shut and settling it on his shoulder. “I don’t know where to go or what to do.”
“First let’s get away from here, then we can talk.”
Bishop headed for the hallway, but Siv stopped him. “We can’t go that way. The elevators will be offline, and too many people will see us.”
A scrawny man with an unkempt beard poked his head through the hole in the ceiling above them. “You okay?” he asked, almost half-heartedly.
“All fine!” Siv called.
“What the hell happened?”
“Our food replicator exploded.”
The man grumbled and walked away. “I’ve called the cops.” Siv wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a threat or a reassurance.
“So how are we supposed to leave?” Bishop asked.
“The hard way.” Siv stepped up to the window ledge and peered down. “You’re not going to like this.”
“We’re…we’re going to jump? Um, thanks, but I’d rather take my chances with the cops.”
Siv drew the spider-grapple from a belt pouch and stuck it against the side of the building. Eight legs sprouted out from the small, round base as soon as he let go. The top of the spider flipped open and a thin thread of line spooled out. The white thread looked delicate enough to break under the weight of the carabiner clip at the end but was actually strong enough to hold up a skimmer car.
Siv snapped the clip to the harness he was wearing under his clothes. This was how he had planned to get into the building if the easy way hadn’t worked. The spider, another inherited gadget, used to connect to a harness in his armor, but the harness had broken.
Siv linked Silky to the spider. Then he called up a three-dimensional display of the apartment building inside his HUD and triggered the gesture interface. Moving his hand in the air, he traced the route he wanted the spider-grapple to follow, and it scurried away.
Bishop was watching him. “Oh, so we’re going to rappel down?”
“That’s the plan.”
“I…I guess that’s reasonable.” The gizmet eyed the line and frowned. “Will it hold us both?”
“The line? Without a doubt. The anchor…” Siv shrugged. “Can you hold onto me long enough to make it all the way down?”
Bishop glanced around the room, then ran over to an overturned box. He dug out a second body binder. “I’ll use this. It works.” He shook his head sadly. “I was restoring them for a client.”
Siv tossed his coat aside. “I don’t even want to know.”
“You really don’t.”
Bishop climbed onto Siv’s back and secured his body to Siv’s using the harness. Siv grunted and took a heavy step to regain his balance. Luckily, the gizmet was much lighter than Siv had expected, even with his heavy bag stuffed with tools.
“Is there enough line to get us all the way down?”
“It should take us to the eightieth floor.”
“And then?”
“I have a plan.”
The spider reached its position just on the other side of the building. Fortunately, Bishop lived near a corner. Otherwise they would’ve had to have gone straight down, which was just begging to be spotted by the authorities when they arrived.
The spider flattened its body against the exterior and, using diamond bits, drilled into the concrete. Then it extended its anchors and signaled that it was ready.
Siv drew a distraction grenade from his pack, primed it for remote activation, and tossed it into the apartment.
“Was…was that what it looked like?”
“Not really. Don’t worry, no one will get hurt.”
“Um…about that anchor?” Bishop asked.
“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Siv tapped the antigrav belt he was wearing. “This will cancel most of our weight.”
Bishop whistled. “That’s an antigrav belt? I haven't seen one like that before.”
“It’s military issue. I got it from my dad.”
“Couldn’t it just levitate us down?”
“Not both of us. Without your weight, I’d make it about two-thirds of the way then free-fall the rest.”
“Need to get moving, sir. The authorities are almost here. Three ambulances, half a precinct, and two tac teams with heavy weapons. I intercepted some chatter. Somehow they knew reapers were involved, which raises a lot of questions.”
“Recall Spy-Fly 01. And can your curiosity.”
“Roger that, sir.”
Siv checked the anchor and the line, then activated his antigrav belt and stepped out onto the window ledge. Bishop grabbed onto his shoulders. His entire body tensed.
“You’ll be okay,” Siv assured him.
“Really? Cause tonight you tried to rob me, then reapers—bloody reapers!—tried to kill me. Now, I’m trusting you, a thief, instead of the cops.”
“Hold on!” Siv leaned backwards out the window until he was perpendicular to the wall. Then he kicked off the building, and they swung down and out, toward the corner. Silky adjusted the release of line from the spider grapple so they would swing clear of the corner and fall at a controlled rate.
They stopped three floors down and directly below the anchor. Siv caught his breath, and felt Bishop almost vomit. Thankfully, the gizmet swallowed it.
Siv began to rappel downw
ard in large hops. The spider-grapple had a motor that could lower them slowly, but it was faster if he kicked off to force the line to unspool. He risked breaking the spider, descending this way, but it was a risk he was willing to take at the moment.
“You’re lucky I was robbing you tonight,” Siv said, trying to distract Bishop. He couldn’t stand the smell of vomit, and this night had gone bad enough without having another man’s dinner running down the back of his neck.
“Why? It was my self-destructing cog that killed the reapers and saved us.”
Dozens of sirens sounded as the cops closed in.
“Maybe…but you were awake because of me.”
The gizmet groaned. “I’ve lost everything. Nearly all my side projects were destroyed. And now I’m going to owe a lot of money to several very powerful people.”
“You need a fresh start. I can help with that.”
They had descended several floors when dozens of skimmers with flashing lights swarmed the streets below. Siv hoped they didn’t fly up this side of the building on their way to Bishop’s apartment.
“What happens if the police catch us?” Bishop asked as Siv rappelled down another floor.
“For me? Nothing good.”
The police skimmers converged on the front and rear entrances, ignoring the sides. Their path down was clear. Siv breathed a sigh of relief. Then Silky spoiled his mood.
“Tac teams incoming, sir.”
Siv glanced around. “I don’t see them.”
“Dropping in from above, sir. Two small assault craft. A pilot and nine cops each.”
“Damn. Scramble our signal. And call Mitsuki.”
“Mitsuki, sir? She’s unreliable at best.”
He should have called Mitsuki sooner, but he hated to depend on her for help. And Silky was right, she was unreliable, capricious even.
“Got a better idea?”
“Hope?”
“Not good enough.”
“Mitsuki is on her way, sir. Tac teams will be level with the apartment in thirty seconds. Twenty seconds until your signal scrambler can’t block their scans anymore. If they pick up someone moving down the outside of the building…”
“Ignite the distraction grenade before they spot us.”
“Assuming they haven’t done so already, sir.”
“What happened to hope?”
“It died long ago, sir. I only peddle it when I don’t want you to do something crazy.”
The distraction grenade activated: bright, multicolor flashes along with a few dozen micro-explosions that sounded like gunfire. It only lasted a few moments, but it would catch the cops attention.
“What the heck was that?!” Bishop asked.
“The distraction grenade I tossed in your apartment. Basically fireworks. Hold tight.”
“I don’t like the sound of that!”
“The tac team scanners just picked you up, sir.”
“Is Mitsuki in range?”
“Almost, sir.”
“How almost?”
“Choose hope, sir.”
“Sorry, Silkster.”
Siv glanced down. They had started almost a hundred and eighty floors up. They still had at least one hundred and fifty more to go. Siv bent his knees as if to rappel again, held it for a second, then launched as far outward as he could. At the same time, he unclipped the hook from his belt.
As they began to free-fall, Siv spread his arms and legs out wide and maxed out the antigrav belt.
They slowed considerably, but not enough.
“We’re falling too fast!” Bishop shouted.
“He’s not wrong, sir. You have only a three-percent chance of survival. Bishop’s holding at four percent since you’ll take the brunt of the impact.”
“Mitsuki will save us.”
“Sir, you’re accelerating, and the antigrav belt is losing power. By the time Mitsuki gets here… You might as well slam into the street. It won’t make a difference one way or another.”
Chapter Thirteen
Siv Gendin
“Help’s on the way!” Siv yelled to Bishop as they continued to plummet toward the street.
“Not soon enough!”
Siv shook his head. "No!"
“I’ve got an idea! I can—”
“Just do it!”
Bishop fiddled with something, but Siv couldn’t tell what it was. “Any ideas, Silkster?”
“Prayer, sir?”
“Give me your left arm!” Bishop shouted.
Siv reached his arm back and twisted his body to maintain their balance, so they wouldn’t begin to roll. The gizmet fumbled at Siv’s force shield projector.
“Time to impact is twenty seconds!” Siv said, relaying the info in his HUD.
A few moments later, the gizmet seemed to get the hang of working while falling. He pried the spent power pack out of the force shield and tossed it aside. Then he installed a new one. The shield meter in his HUD went from zero to ninety-two percent.
“Hold the shield overhead,” Bishop said, “like a parachute.”
Siv shifted his weight so his feet faced downward. Their rate of descent increased. Quickly he placed his left forearm directly overhead and braced the wrist with his right hand. He started to activate the force shield.
“Wait, allow me, sir.”
Silky maxed the antigrav and activated the force shield simultaneously. The shield deployed, caught the air, and jerked them upward. The energy shield was set to full density, which could deflect bullets and extended to its maximum width of two meters. Even with the antigrav maxed, Siv barely managed to keep the shield in position, without his arms being ripped out of their sockets.
Silky tapered the antigrav down to the previous level so that it would last longer. Siv strained to keep the shield in place. Their descent had slowed considerably, though probably not enough to save them. It wasn’t a parachute after all, and it wouldn’t have worked at all without the antigrav. Still, maybe it would give Mitsuki a chance to save them.
If she arrived soon enough… The shield’s energy level was falling faster than they were. Force shields were great for blocking energy blasts or a couple of bullets, but they couldn’t stay at this level for long, especially when deployed beyond a meter in width. By the time they hit the ground, it was going to be as if they had fallen from only twenty stories up, which wouldn’t really make a difference.
“Sir, time to impact is now back to twenty seconds. And I have bad news.”
“Bad news?! It can’t get worse than getting pulped on the street.”
“Actually it can, sir. One of the tac teams is now pursuing us. Of course, we’ll splat before they arrive.”
“Great. That’s just—”
An engine, roaring like a comet plunging through the atmosphere, shook the night. The vibration rattled deep into Siv’s bones. Mitsuki had arrived.
Bishop flinched. “What the hell is that thing?”
Siv's didn't bother responding. He was too busy keeping the shield in position.
“Will she reach us in time?”
“Maybe, sir.”
As the ground raced toward them, Siv looked upward at what could best be described from this far away as a small, exceedingly pale dragon—with a flame-belching, oversized jetpack strapped daringly onto its back.
Mitsuki was wakyran, one of the presumably alien species inhabiting the Benevolency. Presumably because the Benevolence had toyed with the human genome enough that one could never be certain, and it was a well known fact that some sentient species were human/alien hybrids.
Mitsuki was a head taller than Siv, with a broad, muscled chest and a slender waist. Her powerful legs ended with clawed feet, and hooked nails extended from the tips of her fingers. She had a long neck and a narrow, almost human face with deep-set, emerald eyes and spiky auburn hair and a teal cast to her light skin.
Of course, her most distinctive features were the broad, bat-like wings that extended out from her back, and the ser
pentine tail that flowed out from her spine and ended with a pair of retractable winglets that helped her stabilize while flying.
Hailing from a volcanic planet with half gravity and extreme temperatures, Mitsuki could only fly on Ekaran at low altitudes and for a short time. Hence the jetpack and an over-sized antigrav unit. The heat from her monstrous jet engine was absorbed by her naturally thick, heat-resistant skin and a special skintight, black bodysuit made for firefighters. Three layers of the material covered her tail.
Though wakyrans were generally a serious and thoughtful people, Mitsuki was…special and, for the most part, blameless. Unreliable at best, she was often lost in her whimsical thoughts or high as a satellite. But when she was on her game, she was the best hot extraction agent in the business. If you were a criminal operative deep in trouble, Mitsuki could get you out—and fast. And at a price that would almost certainly exceed whatever profit you had dared, in your wildest dreams, to imagine you'd receive for the job that had turned to hell in a hand basket on you.
Siv had only ever needed her twice. He regretted both occasions…for multiple reasons.
Mitsuki dived toward them, engine blazing. A flame trail to rival a falling meteor stretched behind her. But the ground was speeding up at them even faster. We’re not going to make it.
“No, sir.”
The ground sped up as the antigrav belt sputtered. It was nearly spent.
Bishop screamed.
Siv closed his eyes. He tried desperately to focus on something pleasant, but all he could think was that this couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t die.
“Sir, it was a pleasure serving with—”
Thunder clapped, and a voice wailed. Something big struck Siv in the side, with the force of a skimmer. Ribs cracked and his head whipped sideways as he was thrust up and away from the apartment building. Before he could make any sense of what was happening, he blacked out.
Chapter Fourteen
Siv Gendin
A plasma bolt flared past Siv’s face. He jerked in surprise—and nearly fell from Mitsuki’s grasp. The wakyran woman half-rolled one way then the other as they careened dizzily around the corner of a skyscraper.
Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1) Page 10