by JM Guillen
“Bishop doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Wyatt scanned below, his oculus glinting with cobalt glimmers.
“Bishop actually might remember something that matters.” I turned to Wyatt. “Back on that elevator, you made some pinpoint shots.”
“True.” Wyatt nodded. “I can plug coordinates into Rosie here and get pretty damn close.”
“What if we had spikes on both ends?” I looked to Delacruz. “I know that our favorite hillbilly mathematician can pull off the shot, but would it make a difference?”
“Um,” Sofia glanced from Wyatt to Anya. Then her focus shifted, and she fiddled with her Crown augment. “Maybe. That’s definitely a maybe.”
“Give us a few minutes.” Wyatt sighed. “The thing is, we can fix the space variance, but the time variance’s the slippery bit.”
“I might have something for that.” Delacruz bit her lip in thought.
“I’ll peek over the edge and do some tactical planning.” I gave them a backward glance. “While you nerds do math.”
“Wonderful.” Delacruz rolled her eyes at me.
Stone still peered over the edge, remaining hidden behind an outcrop of rock.
“Come to check out the view, Michael?” When I didn’t answer immediately but still stood a few paces from the edge, he turned to me. “Do you not care for heights?” He furrowed his brow in disbelief.
“No.” I shook my head. “I mean, what?” I shook my head again. “I’m fine. No issue.” I peeked over the edge, absolutely not feeling vertigo like a sea of snakes in my stomach.
Three hundred meters suddenly didn’t seem like that much distance, not when we gazed down on such a heavily fortified location.
Sadhana wasn’t playing fuck-around.
The Breach itself lay around the next mesa over, impossible to see clearly from our current location. At least we knew the direction. We would need the fissure to face our left once we got down to the road.
“It would be best if we came up beyond those gentlemen there.” Stone pointed at two watchtowers, which flanked the road. “Those machineguns are mounted and don’t have much agility.”
“What we really need is to see past the mesa.” I tilted my head to the far right. “That straightaway won’t give us much cover, and they could be hiding anything around the corner.”
“There’s only one guard down that way.” Stone glanced at me. “Perhaps a little recon is in order?” He tapped the gauntlet with a forefinger, a touch eagerly.
“As far as I can tell, the range on that thing is as far as you can see.” I shrugged. “I haven’t found any negative side effects.”
“Then I think I’ll poke around.” He grinned as he took a few steps back. “Watch my… body for me?”
“I won’t kick it off the edge or anything.” I cracked.
Stone peered intently below, then pressed the button on his gauntlet.
CLICK. His body lurched and then went slack.
Hey there Sun Tzu, Wyatt’s link drawled through my mind. Since you’re over there planning our amazing conquest, I thought I’d share a little tidbit about how we’re gonna pull off this aperture.
I’d love to hear it. I took a step closer to the edge. Dazzle me with your genius.
I watched the soldiers below as Wyatt detailed things like trajectory, speed, and mass specifications. I noticed these were not men who seemed overly concerned about an imminent assault.
Why would they be? If, in fact, there were only one road, they would expect a warning long before Assets on FAVs came pouring along their swamp-bordered land.
Suckers.
The primary worry is energy. We’ve got too much of it when the figgerin’s done. There’s a remainder, Wyatt finished.
Okay. Wyatt might as well have been yammering on about the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It didn’t matter, as long as it all came out in the end. But you’ve got it?
Well, yeah. He paused. I just thought you should know. I mean, velocity specs are at 2.7, minimum. Maybe as high as 3.5.
Perfect. I nodded. Stone is pulling recon for us now. How long before you three are ready?
I’d say the numbers will be crunched properly in about ten.
Perfect. Head over here when you’re finished, would you? I want to talk about some spikes with you.
Roger that.
As it happened, however, Stone beat Wyatt back. His body lurched, as if a shot of electricity bolted through him.
He blinked and looked at me. “That,” he exclaimed, practically giddy with excitement, “is a trip and a half!”
“Alright there,” I humored him. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
“I’ll patch you the record.” He paused, remembering. “Not straight to memory, though. I know you’re short on space.”
Stone’s patch was a brilliant thing. He had managed to get not only a good long look around the corner, but his puppet had a set of binoculars on him. Therefore, I had a good look beyond an odd bridge and a ground-eye view of the landscape below.
“That’s perfect.” I gave Stone a crafty grin. “Let me tell you what I’m thinking.”
“I thought you usually just made things up?” He raised one eyebrow.
“I do. I mean, I will.” I tapped my temple with my forefinger. “But in the last couple of days, my cadre has made their opinions known.” I held up fingers. “My Caduceus has called me reckless; my Artisan and best friend has called me an idiot. Delacruz, who just met me, thinks I’m insane. Even Anya had a go at me as we extracted you.” I shrugged. “Perhaps a bit more planning would make things simpler.”
Fuck! One of the Vyriim! Wyatt’s sarcastic link hit me just as the others stepped up to the ridge. What have you done with Michael Bishop?
“Having a solid plan would be helpful.” Anya’s quiet voice held just the barest trace of what I thought might be approval.
“It would help the insane idiocy go down more smoothly.” Sofia glanced at Wyatt and then at me. “Whatdaya got, Mike?”
I looked down at the valley for a moment, chuckling. In my mind, it all made sense. We needed spikes set in certain locations, a speedy line of Assets punching through, and explosions.
God yes, lots of explosions.
We could do this, I was certain of it.
When I looked back up, my cadre stared at me, waiting.
“Um.” I shrugged. “I got insane idiocy, of course.” I shot her a smile. “What else?”
56
I called Phase II of my plan The Point of No Return.
“Hold on.” Delacruz adjusted her Crown augment and peered over the edge.
Anya and Wyatt had already mounted their FAV, and Stone sat shotgun with Sofia. He strapped in snugly, certain that, even if Sofia flipped the thing a dozen times, he wasn’t falling out.
The engines in all three vehicles rumbled, already in position.
I had point.
To the side of my vehicle, I geared the Adept. In front of me, Wyatt had embedded two shiny tungsten spikes in the ground. Each radiated anchoring effects.
“Initiating aperture one.” No sooner had Delacruz spoken, than the crimson fissure tore the space in front of me.
For the moment, though, it led nowhere, except perhaps into the vast labyrinth of the astral tides.
Delacruz held up her hand. “Hold a second.” She watched below, all the better to organize her apertures. “Let the Sadhana assholes get into position.”
Hurry up, assholes, so we can kill you, Wyatt linked me, but his tone didn’t contain much mirth.
It was game time.
“Initiating aperture one on marks five, ten, and fifteen, aperture two on mark twenty.”
The moment Delacruz spoke, my Crown inserted a twenty-second timer into the upper left corner of my vision.
“Copy that, Gatekeeper.” I gave her a nod.
The numbers flipped by. Seventeen, then sixteen, then…
“Mark.”
Aperture one opened, and I sta
red straight ahead through a window of vertigo and nausea approximately three hundred meters above our position, far above the Sadhana fortifications below.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t secretly terrified of heights. No sir.
Less than a second after the aperture ignited, I hurled the first of nine Sadhana grenades right at them. With the Adept geared, I had the grace to make a good shot even from almost six hundred meters away.
Timing mattered with grenades.
“No going back now.” Wyatt coughed quietly.
I tossed a second and a third. The numbers in the corner of my vision ticked by, eleven becoming ten.
The first explosion echoed through the valley just as Delacruz called mark again.
The aperture shifted in front of me, and I saw one of the watchtowers below as mercenaries and soldiers scrambled around it like insects.
No one cared if grenades got vertigo, so no fancy math had been required for these apertures. Sure, if Sofia had intended them to remain active for more than a moment, they might have drifted. As it was, I only needed five seconds to pull the pins on three grenades and, using the Adept, make some amazingly agile throws.
Two more delayed explosions, like vengeful thunder, made the valley tremble. We heard the screams and confusion below as Sadhana’s forces scrambled to find their enemy.
I liked to think that at least one of them thought it was a helicopter.
“Mark.” The aperture shifted again and Delacruz leapt onto her FAV. Let’s go, gringo. She smiled a bit devilishly in time with her link.
This time, the fissure opened upon a different perspective, far down at end of the valley with a clear view of the road we intended to take.
I saw an occasional straggler and noted a pair of Sadhana agents erecting a gate across the road.
As if gates could stop helicopters.
Last three, Hoss. Make it count. Even as he teased, I heard the soft tap of his keys as he adjusted aperture two.
I didn’t respond, instead I hurled all three grenades at the men attempting to get the gate into place.
They all hunkered down, hands over their necks like they’d learned in grade school tornado drills.
Our path seemed clear.
A furious symphony of echoing explosions accompanied me as I leapt onto my dune buggy.
I waited in position as my counter flipped down to three.
On two, carnage and chaos exploded in the valley below, echoing across the badlands.
Everyone knew we were coming.
One.
“Mark.”
The counter hit zero, and I heard Wyatt type furiously.
Well ahead of me, aperture two opened and showed a wavering view of the packed soil constituting the make-shift road below before solidifying at the beginning of the straightaway. It was the one change we had made to my plan: the placement of our egress.
Wyatt had said that this placement would help offset the odd remainders they’d found in their equations. I’d have rather us been closer to the corner, but it was fine.
I revved my engine.
Hang onto yer hat, Hoss. Wyatt linked grimly.
CLEAR! Delacruz linked, making certain we all heard her over the explosions. 99.7% temporal stability! Go! Go! Go!
Mashing the gas pedal flat, I pushed the sandrail as hard as possible as I made for the aperture. In the last two meters, I widened my focus, peering ahead to pick out any surviving Sadhana operatives.
Looks clear in front, I linked excitedly.
My link heralded the last moment that everything went according to plan. Everyone in position, everything in line with my expectations, except…
In retrospect, it said something about my faith in my companions that it never truly crossed my mind that the aperture might be adrift, even after Wyatt decided to chat numbers with me. I had completely focused upon the mission, my mind three moves ahead, ready for anything…
Except shooting from the aperture, like a monkey out of a circus cannon, at what I suspected was the speed of sound.
Catapulted through the air, I screamed like a toddler as I clung to my steering wheel for dear life. The dune buggy didn’t touch the ground for a good fifty meters, minimum. When it did, my tires screamed and bled black rubber as they tried to grip the rough stone.
WHAA—!?!
There was no time for panic, for focus, for coherent thought. I revved the engine as high as it could go in a vain attempt to match the FAV’s RPMs to my current speed, which I guessed easily hit Mach five.
If I’d exited at the corner I wanted, I would have been splattered across the wall.
“YEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” Wyatt’s cry echoed along the valley walls as the aperture hurled him, Anya, and their FAV after me at the approximate speed of a cruise missile.
All he needed was a horn that played the first twelve notes of “Dixie.”
Someone, amazingly, fired at me as I wrestled my four-wheeled stealth bomber under control. There was no dodging, however, no swerving at all. Until I slowed, I was fairly certain that if I tried to turn, even a few centimeters, I would roll the damn thing.
WHAT. THE. FUCK. WAS. THAT?! I screamed across the link as my vehicle came under control.
Velocity variance. Wyatt’s link was exultant. Too much energy. The remainder had t’ be accounted for.
You said you told him! Delacruz felt harried, but I was certain that was just her dealing with her own rail.
I did!
Bullets sang and struck the ground around me. Ahead, two of Sadhana’s men stood on either side of the path, holding automatic weapons trained on our emerging caravan.
Wyatt, I have hostiles.
Looks like they’re in segment four. I got ’em.
Moments later four silvery stasis fields blossomed, one directly in front of me and the others off to my left. One of the soldiers had been entirely trapped inside, and another’s left leg and partial midsection was held within.
He tried pulling himself loose frantically, before beginning to scream.
Genius, I linked to Wyatt.
True.
Setting up the spikes from our position above had been the most taxing part for Wyatt, sniping them into place without being seen. Over a dozen spikes had been peppered along the first corridor, and Wyatt held his two most common algorithms, temperature control and stasis field, at the ready.
The bend is clear, I linked anxiously as I leaned far over my steering wheel.
Now, things could quickly get tricky, as we had no real preparations beyond Stone’s initial visual patch.
Copy that. What about the bridge? Stone’s link held an edge of adrenaline and panic, but he seemed to have things under control
It’s—My heart sank as I realized what I saw. It’s shit.
The canyon bent a bit, but only a few squiggles, nothing worth worrying about. With no watchtowers, only the bridge spanning a wide crevice filled with swamp and loathsome symbiont lay between us and our goal.
Except we hadn’t accounted for it being a drawbridge.
The explosions had been more than enough warning for the men manning the bridge to start pulling it up, leaving us with a square shot into the muck and frothing grossness.
It was only about a meter off the ground at this point, but by the time we got there…
The Breach has been in existence for four fucking days! Wyatt felt livid.
Local time, Delacruz interjected.
Right! Who has time to build defensive bridges in four days?
Relax. I felt Stone’s eager smile over the link. I got this. Just give me a moment.
I hadn’t even slowed my rail before automatic fire sounded from the bridge.
That’s not aimed at us. Amusement filled Wyatt’s link.
No. Anya felt a bit distracted, which I thought odd, as she should not be reading telemetry. It’s not.
We’d idled to a stop by the time some of the opposition realized that one of their own was slaughtering them
from behind. A lot of screaming and orders got bandied about before they returned fire.
Oh my. Stone’s sudden surprise came over the link as he vaulted back into his own body. I truly didn’t expect they’d shoot back.
Bridge is still up, Stone. I couldn’t help a sliver of wry amusement. Although it’s progress has stopped.
Right. He only hesitated a moment. Be right back.
[Now he’s going to get brain cancer using that thing.] Sofia pulled up next to me.
There was a brief moment of quiet, interrupted by several bursts of weapons fire. One of Sadhana’s soldiers tried to escape, but Stone quickly got him as well.
Then the drawbridge came down.
I’d say that’s clear. I revved my engine, and we were on the move again.
Hostile. Wyatt linked abruptly. Then, Or not. It must be Stone.
He’s waving? Delacruz snorted over the link, something I didn’t think possible.
I waved at the “Sadhana operative” as we cruised across the bridge. Five corpses were draped across a gun tower and the nearby fortifications; apparently Stone had taken most of them by surprise.
I’m clear. I peered ahead but couldn’t see past the next turn. At least it wasn’t swampy, which meant—
Motion to the left caught my eye.
A small tunnel had branched off from a crevice, and several Sadhana operatives lurked inside, just out sight.
Correction: several Sadhana operatives and one rocket launcher.
Fuck! I had time for that one articulate link before the assholes fired on me.
The ordinance burned a trail of yellow and orange fury as it came straight for me.
Relying solely on the Adept, I released my harness straps and leapt away from my FAV before my world was swallowed in fire and concussive thunder.
Darkness fell toward me. But it was not blissful or serene.
No. I clawed at the edge of consciousness, fighting to remain aware. A long moment passed as I tried to sit up. I couldn’t hear anything except a ringing…
A second FAV burst into flame and shattered into parts as I fell into the shadows of my mind.
57