by M. R. Forbes
The Liberator’s airship appeared outside the hatch, descending toward them. The armored soldier was standing in the open space beside the cannon.
Nathan was behind the cannon, gripping the controls in his hands.
Chapter 26
Hayden’s body froze, refusing to move at the moment he needed it most. His eyes registered Stacker pulling back on the cannon’s safety, disengaging it. Then the fugitive angled the barrel directly toward him.
Survival instinct overcame his paralyzing fear. Hayden swung his leg over the bike, activating it and hitting the throttle. He had a lousy grip on the handlebars, he was utterly off-balance, but he was desperate.
The bike shot forward, away from the hatch.
Nathan started shooting.
Heavy slugs tore through the hatch and the already pierced metal around it, making new holes. The rounds found the trife closer to the hold’s entrance, clipping into them and causing them to hiss in pain. Nathan would have cut down Grimes too if the trife hadn’t already overwhelmed him when he ran out of ammo.
The motorcycle darted twenty meters across the floor before Hayden fell off, the bike dropping and sliding out ahead of him. The bodysuit spared him any severe damage, and he rolled into a tent, crushing a corpse still inside and coming to a stop.
“Sheriff!” Rhonna cried, running over to him.
The shooting stopped. Something outside clanged on the deck.
Hayden bounced up, grabbing Rhonna’s arm. “There.”
He pointed toward a large lift at the forward end of the hold, used to carry heavy equipment to and from the main deck. He didn’t know if it was even functional, but there was no other way out. He picked up the bike again, mounting it and reaching back for Rhonna. She jumped on behind him, just as Nathan ducked in through the outer hatch, shooting first at the trife rushing toward him from the passageway.
Hayden was more measured with the throttle this time, and he rode them the fifty meters across the cargo hold to the lift, coming to a sharp stop on top of the platform.
“Get the controls,” he said, pointing. There were only two buttons, up and down. Rhonna jumped off the bike, slapping the top button.
The lift started to rise. Nathan heard it moving, and he redirected his attention toward them.
“Get down!” Hayden said, dismounting the motorcycle and falling flat on his stomach.
Rhonna did the same, barely dropping beneath the first round of wildly fired plasma bolts, which hit the wall behind them and sizzled, causing the bulkhead to bubble and melt.
“Sheriff!” Nathan shouted again.
The lift was rising, headed into a shaft that would carry it to the surface. Hayden lifted his head, looking for Nathan at the far end of the hold. There were more trife pouring in now; the remaining slick attracted to the sounds of fighting and presence of the humans. He found Grimes’ body, and Needle’s body. Where was Stacker?
He leopard crawled toward the edge of the platform until his head was close to the edge. Then he came up again, looking down.
Stacker was at the base of the lift, and Hayden watched him spring up in a three-meter vertical jump that allowed him to get his hands on the edge of the platform. He looked up at Hayden, fury in his eyes.
“I told you…I won’t stop coming…”
Nathan was breathless, desperate to get to Hayden.
“What the hell are you doing with them, Captain?” Hayden asked. “They were trying to kill you. Whatever promise they made, they aren’t going to keep it.”
“You’re wrong,” Nathan said, biceps flexing as he started pulling himself up.
Hayden glanced up. The shaft was almost on them. Stacker wasn’t going to make it.
“I help them get you, they let me see what’s on the chip.”
“Even if they do, they’ll kill you right after. I’m going to read the chip. Get free of them and find me.”
“Oh, I’m going to find you, Sheriff. Wherever you go.”
“Damn it, Stacker. I’m not your enemy. The Trust is your enemy. The Liberators are your enemy. If you can’t see that in your anger, I can’t fucking help you.” He stood up, pointing his rifle down at Nathan. “But I can kill you. Is that what you want?”
“Sheriff, no,” Rhonna said.
Hayden didn’t shoot. He couldn’t bring himself to kill a defenseless man any more than Nathan could, and the other man knew it. That didn’t mean he had to let him up. He shifted his feet, stomping on Nathan’s hands with his boots. Nathan’s left hand gave out first, leaving him dangling five meters above the deck.
Nathan let go before Hayden could step on his other hand. He dropped, landing smoothly on his feet. He stared up at the rising platform, and then he turned and ran back toward the outer hatch, fighting his way through the trife to get back to the aircraft.
The lift ducked into the dark shaft, still rising steadily.
“I thought you were going to kill him,” Rhonna said.
“Not like that,” Hayden replied. “But this isn’t over yet.”
The lift didn’t move that quickly, and it had to rise three decks to the surface, giving the Liberators time to cut them off. They had to be ready to move as soon as they were clear.
Hayden straddled the motorcycle again, pointing it to the port side of the ship. The opposite side of the river was within a hundred meters of them. He handed her his rifle. Then he reached over to his dead hand, prying open the fingers with his good hand and manually wrapping them around the bike’s handlebar.
“Give me your gun,” he said.
She handed the Gauss rifle to Hayden, swapping it with his gun. He balanced it in his good hand, resting the barrel on the handlebars.
“Good. Now get off.”
“What?” Rhonna said.
“There’s a good chance I’m going to die. There’s no reason both of us should.”
“Forget it, Sheriff. What do you think they’re going to do to me after I ambushed their soldiers? Whatever you’re planning, I’m in.”
Hayden glared back at her for a second and then nodded. How was he supposed to argue?
A loud clang sounded overhead, and then the seal began to part, a pair of deck plates sliding beneath the deck to allow the lift passage outside. Hayden looked up as the plates separated, searching for the airship as the sky became exposed. They were becoming exposed too, completely vulnerable to the heavy cannon as they finished their ascent.
Only the aircraft wasn’t there. The lift reached the main deck, coming to a stop. There were no trife nearby, all of them already having entered the ship to protect the nest.
Hayden turned his head, looking out over the bow. They were only a few dozen meters from the shore, an expanse of overgrown vegetation visible ahead. “Why haven’t we—“
The ship shuddered suddenly, answering the question before Hayden could finish asking it. The entire frame reverberated and shook, and he planted his right foot to keep the change in momentum from throwing them over again. There was a loud thump from the aft, and then the vessel came to a jarring stop.
“Run aground,” he finished. “When we get over the water, let go and hope you survive.”
“Sheriff?”
“Too late to get off, Danno,” he said.
He turned the throttle, putting the bike in motion. Rhonna’s arms wrapped tight around his waist as he accelerated toward a small opening in the railing, slightly to the left of their current position.
“Sheriff?” Rhonna repeated, arms gripping him more tightly.
His heart was racing too. He had fixed his dead replacement hand to the handlebars, and couldn’t easily separate himself from the bike when it fell from the deck. It was an eighteen meter or so drop to the water, hopefully survivable.
The sound of the airship’s spinning rotors became audible as they closed on the edge of the deck, near the opening. It was still hovering below the deck.
Still waiting to pick up Nathan?
Hayden estimated the ai
rcraft’s position. It would be to his left, close to fifty meters away.
He shifted the Gauss rifle against his body, pointing it out and down. He didn’t know how fast it could fire, but he was going to pull the trigger like a fucking madman and hope for the best. It was the only chance they had.
The ship vanished in front of them, the river replacing it in front of the wheel. Hayden leaned back, pulling the front up slightly as it pushed out off solid ground and into the air. Rhonna let out a sharp scream behind him.
Then they were off the edge. For a moment, it seemed like they were flying. The moment didn’t last. Hayden started firing the Gauss rifle, squeezing the trigger again and again. Dense flechettes shot out of the barrel at supersonic speeds, causing small sonic booms as they escaped the muzzle and zipped out in the direction of the Liberators’ aircraft.
The airship was facing them and Hayden caught a glimpse of the pilot’s shocked expression as they appeared. He almost let out a smile, but then gravity took a solid hold of them, and they started to fall.
He kept pulling the trigger on the rifle, even as his arm was pulled out of position by the sudden change in resistance, the shots spreading out around the craft. Rhonna’s hands released from his waist, and he sensed her falling away behind him, letting go to dive into the water. He realized she probably didn’t know how to swim. Or maybe she did? She had grown up surrounded by water. He had only learned recently, convinced by Deputy Latos that the skill would come in handy one day.
That day had arrived sooner than he had ever guessed it would.
He kept his eyes on the aircraft as long as he could. He saw smoke start pouring from just below the rotors, and the dampening of the craft’s sound vanished, making it suddenly loud, thudding and rumbling and swinging away from the ship.
Hayden lost the seat, the bike swinging down, his body flipping up and over the handlebars, stuck to them by his fixed grip. The water was approaching in a hurry, and he closed his eyes and clenched his stomach, trying to lead with his replacement hand, balled into a fist. He heard Rhonna splash down a second before he did. A second before the water was thrown up into his face by the motorcycle, and then he hit too, coming down on his back.
The force knocked the wind out of him, and he went below the surface, water pouring into his mouth as he sank. He didn’t know how far down he went, but it seemed to him as if he was dropping forever, the world suddenly silenced by the liquid surrounding him.
His lungs burned, desperate for the air he had lost. There was no way to replenish them down here. He opened his eyes, able to see a little bit in the murky water. He looked down. The bike hit bottom, sending a wave of sand and dirt particles billowing around it.
He kicked his feet to keep from colliding with it, his boots hitting the soft ground and kicking up their own wave of sand. His body desperately wanted him to breathe, fighting him with a desire to suck in water. He resisted, reaching down and grabbing his powerless hand, forcing open the fingers to release himself from the bike. Once he was free, he started kicking, pushing himself to the surface as fast as he could. Every muscle in his body hurt. His chest hurt. His throat hurt. His lungs especially hurt. He was tired. Spent. Exhausted.
He couldn’t stop yet.
He continued to rise, kicking with all the strength he had, bringing his head ever closer to the surface and the sweet, sweet air above. The water around him got lighter, and the heat from the sun started reaching him.
He broke through, rising out of the water to his elbows before dropping back down. He sucked in air, heaving as hard as his body would allow, trying to get his breath back. He spun in a circle, looking for the airship.
And for Rhonna.
He found her a dozen meters away, already swimming toward him. He didn’t see the Liberator’s ship, but he did see a plume of dark smoke on the shore to his left, over the line of vegetation.
“Come on, Sheriff,” Rhonna said, reaching him and proving she not only knew how to swim, but she was pretty damn good at it. “They went down over the ridge there. We don’t have a lot of time.”
Hayden didn’t have enough breath to speak. He just nodded, and she wrapped her hands around him, putting herself behind him and lifting him back, kicking with her legs and pulling him toward the shore.
He kicked his legs too, helping her as best he could. It took almost a minute to reach water shallow enough for them to stand. He had some of his breath back, though his whole body felt exhausted. She helped him to his feet, and he stumbled through the water, heading for the shore.
He pressed his hand to the pocket of his shirt, making sure he still felt the familiar bump of Stacker’s ring beneath it. Then he glanced over at Rhonna, amazed that she was still wearing the heavy bulletproof vest. It was a good thing, too. At some point, either a bullet or a piece of shrapnel had hit it, leaving the cloth over it torn and a fingernail-sized dent in the plate.
“Where did you learn to swim?” he asked as they reached solid ground. He was tempted to fall to his knees to kiss it.
“Hawaii Five-O,” she replied, grinning widely.
Chapter 27
“Well, that went fucking great!” James shouted, his frustration close to boiling over.
He walked away from the downed helicopter, over to a tree they had nearly clipped on their barely-controlled descent. He hit it full-force with the powered armor, chipping off the bark and ripping into the wood. He punched it two more times, and it collapsed.
“How is that going to help?” Doc said, standing quietly beside Nathan.
He glanced over at her and shrugged.
He was probably as furious as General, but he was keeping it buttoned up. He could hardly believe Sheriff had gotten away from him again. The man was either the smartest or luckiest Spacer he had ever known, and considering he wasn’t even a fucking replica…
He held that thought, a new one shoving past it. He remembered Sheriff’s voice when they had spoken in the hospital. The man spoke with an accent that sounded more Earther than Spacer. How had he forgotten that?
What if Sheriff was so good at escaping them on Earth because he was from Earth? He seemed to know a lot about the trife.
“Buzzcut, what’s the status of the damage?” Nathan asked.
The pilot had climbed onto one of the helicopter’s stubby wings and was looking at the destruction the round from the Gauss rifle had caused. Nathan had noticed the shredded metal and wires beneath the rotors. He was amazed they had managed to land at all. He flexed his shoulder a few times. It had been smashed hard against the side of the chopper on the rough landing, and he had taken a few trife while retreating from the cargo hold. It was nothing life-threatening, but it was annoying.
“We’ll need to bring some parts in from the base sir,” the pilot replied. “But I think we can fix it.”
“Forget it,” James said, storming back over to them. He looked slightly less pissed, but only slightly. “The boat’s about three klicks north. We’ll go on foot.”
“C-Dog's busted, General,” Doc said. “I’m hurt. Relentless is hurt. Glitch, Pokey, Grimes, Needle — all fucking dead. We walked right into a fucking trap, sir. He may be one man, but he’s playing every move smarter than us right now.”
“Relentless, you should have fucking waited for your squadmates,” James said, turning his attention to Nathan.
“None of the combat occurred until we were all together, sir,” Nathan replied, forcing his response to remain calm. “Until Grimes started shooting the trife nest. If I hadn’t been with my squad, maybe that wouldn’t have happened.”
“Are you a loner, Relentless? You like flying solo? Were you a discipline problem on Proxima? I wasn’t expecting that from a Stacker.”
“No, sir. Not a discipline problem. But you know as well as I do that we’re meant to be the first line of defense. We’re stronger. We’re faster. We can save human lives by going in first. That’s how we were made. That’s how we were trained.”
James glared for a moment and then nodded. “We’ll talk more about this later, Colonel.” His helmet slid closed, and he opened a wide comm channel.
“COMCENT, this is General Stacker. I’m activating the emergency response beacon. Send two squads three klicks north of the beacon, full combat gear. Also, get a drone focused on that area ASAP.”
“Roger, General,” the operator replied. “Transferring orders immediately.”
“Stacker out.” He clicked off the wide comm. Beside the chopper, he was the only one whose transmitter could cover the distance back to McGuire.
“We’re still going after them, sir?” Doc asked.
“Are we dead yet, Doc?” James replied. “We might not get another chance to catch them so close.”
“Without C-Dog, sir?”
“Without fucking C-Dog.”
They all knew it was James’ temper that had broken the robot. He was displaying the same instability that all Stackers possessed.
“There’s no way they made a jump like that without getting hurt,” Buzzcut said. “I saw them. Flying off a boat on a motorcycle?” He laughed. “Crazy fuckers. It’ll slow them down.”
“What if they still have Needle’s gun?” Doc asked. “It’ll blow right through that armor of yours, sir. You might as well be wearing a nightgown.”
James shifted to face her. Nathan could picture his angry expression behind the dark glass of the helmet. Had it been another mistake to let his soldiers take whatever guns they wanted? No doubt, James hadn’t been expecting them to fall into enemy hands.
They had massively underestimated Sheriff. Maybe they were still underestimating Sheriff? The man had told Nathan he was planning on reading the chip, and that he wasn’t his enemy. Sheriff had let him go once already, and he couldn’t deny the Liberators had been trying to kill him.
Had he made an allegiance with the wrong side? Sheriff said the Liberators were his enemy, but James said they hated the Trust and were only using them to try to save their planet. The Liberators hadn’t killed him when they had the chance, either. James had taken him in and made him a colonel. He had given him a new purpose, and if he stayed loyal to the replica, he would get Niobe’s ring back anyway. Sheriff was wrong to think James would kill him once he saw what was on it. What reason would he have to trick him? What reason would he have to lie?