Castillo studied it. “You want Prunkard to think we’ve gotten scared and are trying to make a run for it. That angle, if the Spiral pushes her engines to max, they might be able to get some rail shots on us before we’re clear.”
“Yep. Prunkard won’t be able to resist the prize. Which means Spiral will be closing really fast when she gets a bunch of missiles in her face.”
Castillo was doing his own calculations. “Waiting until he’s committed—that’s not much of a window before those railguns fire.”
“Pride comes before the fall, XO.”
“Yours or Prunkard’s?”
“Finding out is half the fun. Pop containers three through ten. I’m feeling festive.”
* * *
Jane, Tui, Katze, Bushey, and the last of her bots ran through the streets of Big Town, heading for the docks. It was complete pandemonium. Normally a bunch of heavily armed, obviously shot-up people, with a bunch of little robots tagging along, would stand out, but not today.
Big Towners had come out of their homes, first to see what the commotion was about, and then to join in, one way or the other.
“I haven’t seen this much excitement since the gang wars!” declared one old man as he gleefully lit a Molotov cocktail, before throwing it at a police car.
“This place is insane!” Jane shouted.
If she had to guess, a quarter of the population were loyal to the Originals, and today they saw an opportunity to strike a blow for freedom. Another quarter were loyal to the Warlord, and they’d turned out to fight the first group. The remaining half of Big Town were hiding or fleeing, depending on how close they were to the action.
Judging by the explosions and tracers flying across the interior of the orbital, most of that action was following Jackson in the opposite direction. When he said he would draw them off, he hadn’t been joking. One of the things she appreciated about Jackson—he never did anything halfway.
Too bad he hadn’t drawn off Fain.
Jane winced as she lost another bot. Everything she’d sent to slow Fain and his pet monster down had vanished. She’d collected plenty of videos of him spotting a bot and blasting it out of the sky with a pistol, or of his dog thing chomping them, but that was it. She hadn’t been able to land a single shot on him, and he was closing in on them.
She got a transmission from Jackson “Hey, Jane, I’ve got an idea. A surefire way we all get off Big Town alive is with a ransom.”
“Warlord’s not going to accept anything from us now.”
“No, he won’t. But we won’t be offering to pay anything. We’re going to be the ones receiving the payment.”
“You’re going after him.”
“Biggest fish in the pond. A nice fat prize.”
“That’s the wetware talking. Oh my God, I gave you brain damage.”
“I’m good. I’ve got a plan. I just need you to unlock guns, sensors, and first aid. Then I can take him. He’s after me right now.”
“Don’t underestimate Warlord. Your mechs are equals, but he’s got mods and is flying by mind. You can’t beat that. He’s…” Then Jane trailed off as she realized, “You linked in.”
“Yeah. I didn’t have much choice.”
“But those nanites are still fighting in your head! Do you have any idea how much danger this puts you in?” With that vicious wetware running wild, he was especially vulnerable to getting brain fried. Other than the tiny chip she’d stuck in there, he had no real defenses against a hack. If he lasted that long! With his brain running hot enough to meld with a mech, it was going to put a terrible strain on some already overtaxed systems, in a brain that was currently overrun with murderous nanotech.
He was venturing back into the land of demons, and she wasn’t there to light his way. Jackson was doomed.
“I know what you’re thinking, but just get me my systems. If I can capture Warlord, then he’ll order his forces to stand down. I’ll make him call off Prunkard’s pirate ship. It’s our only chance.”
She had left her programs running, but the Citadel’s firewalls were excellent. More systems should have fallen, but they were adapting on the fly and fighting her off. The time-remaining estimates had jumped from minutes to hours. There was no way she could pause and deal with that while sprinting through the streets of crazy town. She was good, but she wasn’t that good.
“Tui, we need to stop for a minute. I need to reassess my cyberattacks to help Jackson.”
“We’re almost to the spinner. We’ll be stuck on the platform while it matches rotational speed no matter what. He’ll just have to hold out that long.” He glanced back over her shoulder, apprehensive. “Where’s Fain?”
“I don’t have eyes on him.” In fact, she was running unnervingly low on eyes, and was down to just a few members of her platoon left.
The spin bays were just ahead of them. Luckily, it appeared the security goons who would normally be watching them were otherwise occupied. They must have gotten tired of having rocks and bottles thrown at them and sought shelter. Past the platform, it appeared the docks were spinning rapidly while Big Town held still. She knew the opposite was true but knowing that didn’t stop her stomach from churning from looking at it. This sort of madness was why she was content to just stay in her lair.
They walked into one of the bays. Most of the interior was taken up by an eight-wheeled freight hauler and its containers, which had been abandoned here when the workers had either fled or joined the riot. Katze had to help Bushey along. Despite the stims and med kits, he’d lost too much blood. He tripped and fell.
“Don’t you fade on me,” Katze begged.
Bushey’s words were slurred. “I’m jus’ takin’ a little nap.”
Tui knelt next to him. “At least you waited until someplace we’ll have zero G before making us carry your ass.”
“I’m considerate like that.” Bushey’s head sagged. He was out.
The controls were locked down, but with direct access, it only took Jane a few seconds to bypass those. The bay began to move on its axle. Big Town seemed to lurch away. Their gravity would lighten as they slowed down. Once they were stationary and weightless, they would enter the docks. She set her remaining bots on guard mode, but she was down to Ron the Bear, tiny Baby, Roger, and Tom. Those last two were fliers the size of golf balls who could drill through all sorts of things—wood, metal, flesh.
While Katze tried to keep Bushey alive, Jane flipped down the visor and checked the bots she’d left attached to the Citadel. Seth was gone, smashed during the fight, but Pilgrim was still burrowed in, granting her direct physical access. Some of her programs had been stopped cold, so she analyzed how the firewall had beaten them, then adjusted and relaunched. Jane was professionally offended. She had given Jackson an ETA and failed to deliver. That would not stand.
“Jane, sorry to interrupt,” Tui said. “But could you put your chain-saw bear on cutting the door? It’s safety locked to not open to the dock side until the spinning stops, but I’d rather not wait.”
“Ron, go. Do as the big human commands.” Then she went back into the VR world, where the Citadel seemed to have multiple personalities, with half of its systems actively connected to Jackson’s brain, while the other half rooted for his demise. She helped them see the error of their ways, and was making good progress, and then Roger’s alarm began wailing.
Intruder.
She jolted back to reality.
But the alarm had gone off too late, because an instant later someone grabbed her by the shoulders and flung her violently to the floor.
There were gunshots right above her. Stunned, she lifted her visor.
Fain.
He had leapt onto the moving platform, hit her, and then started shooting. Somehow, he had snuck right past her bot net.
Katze got hit. She yelped and fell over Bushey’s unconscious form, then scrambled on her hands and knees behind one of the containers.
Fain spun toward where Tui and Ron were tryin
g to get the door open. Tui ducked behind the freight truck. Not fast enough. One of Fain’s bullets hit. Blood splattered across the wall as Tui dropped.
“No!” Jane shouted, kicking wildly. Except—without even bothering to look—Fain caught her by the ankle and pulled. He was so outlandishly strong that Jane got swung through the air, was then airborne, briefly, before hitting the floor hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. She skidded across the metal surface until she hit the far wall.
“Come out, Fuamatu. Let’s end this,” Fain shouted, keeping his pistol trained on the spot he’d last seen Tui. “Come along quietly and maybe I’ll spare your friends.”
Tui didn’t even dignify that lie with a response. He just came out shooting.
Only Fain was already dodging to the side, faster than any human had a right to be.
Katze leaned out from behind the container, aiming her carbine, but before she could fire, a shadow appeared behind her. The grendel pounced, landed on Katze, and took her to the ground. Katze managed to draw her pistol, but the monster’s jaws clamped around her forearm. It bit. Bones broke. Katze screamed as it shook her back and forth.
Tui was standing there, bleeding, gun empty. He dropped it and started toward Fain, lifting his fists.
Fain shot him in the gut. Tui dropped to his knees.
“Hold,” Fain told his beast, which stopped shaking poor Katze, though she was still pinned beneath it. Then he turned his attention toward Tui. “I’ve got to say, you Tar Heel people are a scrappy bunch. Your little buddy is making a mess of the station. This was a cushy contract until you came around. This is the hardest I’ve had to work since I’ve taken this job.”
Tui had both of his hands pressed to the wound on his abdomen. Blood came out of his mouth as he said, “You work for a nutcase.”
“Not my first time, probably won’t be my last.” Fain lifted his gun and pressed it against Tui’s forehead. “But upgrades aren’t cheap.”
Everything hurt. Jane struggled to breathe. She wasn’t designed for combat like her companions. She wasn’t a scrapper like Jackson. She’d never signed up for this physical nonsense. But she had skills the rest of them couldn’t begin to understand.
“Wait,” she managed to gasp, interrupting Tui’s execution.
She could have launched a bot at the dog, but she’d seen the thin fingers of blue-tinged lightning arc from its collar to zap the others, so she knew better. Besides, the grendel seemed content to hold onto Katze as its master had commanded. For a Swindle creature, it seemed remarkably tame, and there had to be a reason why. Jane pulled up some of her bot’s dying vids, zoomed in on the collar, studied the mechanism, drew some conclusions, and then let some programs fly.
Fain glanced at her, but he didn’t remove the gun from Tui’s head. “Don’t worry, little specter girl. I haven’t forgotten about you. When I was pulling files on your crew, it was like you didn’t even exist. No history, no records, nothing. I’ve never seen anybody’s identity get scrubbed that clean. Which makes me think you must be really valuable to someone. I think I’ll keep you alive long enough to find out who you’re hiding from, so I can sell you to them.”
“I’m worth a hundred of you, soldier boy.”
“Doubtful. I get paid really good for this.” He pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
Fain scowled at his gun long enough to realize that Baby had crawled behind his trigger and was blocking its rearward travel with her body.
Tui tried to grab him, but Fain jumped back and snap kicked Tui in the face.
Jane launched Tom at Fain’s head. The murderous golf ball zigzagged back and forth, going for his eyes. Ron the Bear ran and slid under the cargo hauler, slashing his saw hands at Fain’s leg. She sent her last bot, Roger, off to do something special.
Fain leapt over Ron, ducked beneath Tom, and then tossed his pistol when he realized he wouldn’t be able to pry Baby out. Jane immediately had Baby spring from the gun onto Fain’s jacket and activate her laser cutter.
She guided all of them simultaneously, with surgical precision, but Fain was just too fast. He swatted Tom out of the air. Pinched Baby between his fingertips and kicked Ron across the bay. The bear bounced off the hauler hard enough to dent the sheet metal.
Jane commanded Baby to pierce his gloved fingers with the sharp needles embedded in her body. She did. But Fain just smiled, then chuckled. “That only works on flesh and blood. This arm’s titanium and armor weave.” He squeezed. There was a pop. And Jane lost Baby’s connection. “You’re too much of a pain. Screw selling you to the highest bidder. I’m just going to beat you to death.”
As Fain started toward her, Jane sent a silent message to Katze and Tui. “Hard stop coming.” Then she told Roger to throw his body into the spin bay’s emergency brakes.
The whole world lurched. Instead of the pad’s rotation gently slowing, it was an immediate halt. The suddenly weightless hauler and containers flew upward. Everything was violently flung across the bay.
Except for Jane, who had locked her mag boots to the floor.
Fain hadn’t seen that coming. Sailing through the air, off-balance, he was temporarily vulnerable.
Tui hit him, probably harder than she’d ever seen any living thing hit another. And Fain crashed into the hauler. Tui slammed his fist into Fain’s armored skull, again and again. As the two spun, weightless and struggling, it looked like Tui might actually be able to take him.
Desperate, Fain shouted, “Sabano, sic him!”
The Swindle beast’s jaws let go of Katze. It struggled to move, unused to zero G, but it had killer instincts, and managed to hook onto the hauler, pulling itself toward the two combatants. Its claws stretched for Tui’s throat.
Jane flipped her visor down and concentrated on the programs she’d launched at it earlier. They’d been chipping away, so she picked the most vulnerable point and hit that damaged firewall like the hammer of Thor.
The light on the grendel’s collar turned from green to red.
“No!” Jane shouted. “Bad grendel, stop!”
The monster paused and shook its head as if stunned. Fain looked at Jane, then the collar, and then back at Jane.
“Kill h—” But Tui slugged Fain in the jaw before he could finish the command.
The beast looked lost, confused, and then it raised its head and looked balefully at Fain. It rumbled deep in its throat, a menacing sound.
Fain managed to hurl Tui away. His pistol was floating by. He snagged it from the air.
The grendel lunged and took Fain by the throat.
Jabbing the gun into its ribs, Fain fired several rapid shots, but the beast only bit down harder, then wrenched the flesh away. Fain shot it in the heart. But the grendel bit his spine. Fain spasmed, as the dog snarled and tore.
It was horrific. Jane flipped up her visor to watch better.
A few painful seconds later, Fain and his grendel were both dead, slowly turning in a cloud of blood droplets.
Jane looked around. Tui was gut shot. Katze’s arm was shredded. She couldn’t tell if Bushey was alive or dead. Sirens were sounding.
The door to the docks slid open. A troop of security forces suddenly rounded the corner. Half a dozen men were pointing guns their way.
Speakers blasted at them. “Stick to the walls! Facedown! Spread your arms!”
Jane had no bots left. Her platoon was gone. Jane shook her head. They’d come all this way only to fail when the peanut gallery arrived?
“Stick to the walls!”
“You’re on your own, Jacky.”
Chapter 37
The Citadel moved along the exterior of the orbital, leaping from spire to spire. Even while his real body was reaching the limits of physical agony, his new body was joyous and free. He might be dying, but for the first time in years, he was truly alive.
There had been one maintenance airlock big enough for him to fit through on the schematics, less than half a klick from where he�
��d popped the Shine canister. Jackson had made sure he’d appeared on multiple cameras and scanners along the way. It was a trail of breadcrumbs. He wanted—needed—Warlord to follow.
Out here they could fight without endangering thousands of lives. If he could capture Warlord, he could force a surrender. Jane, Tui, Katze, and Bushey could escape. The Originals would be spared. The Tar Heel would be safe.
But then he got Jane’s message.
“Jane? Jane, are you there?”
Nothing. Jackson hurried and checked the status of her hacking programs. He still didn’t have his main systems unlocked, but the timer had gone back to minutes instead of hours. She’d come through for him after all.
Except looking at those countdowns made him realize he’d been too distracted to think about the bomb in his spine. He checked the timer he’d set back on Swindle. Thirty-seven minutes.
“Shanks. Not good.” It was a race to see what was going to kill him first. Damn LaDue. He needed more time. More time to let Jane and the others get away. And if it was going to work, he needed to have the Warlord well before LaDue’s surprise jumped out of its birthday cake parting gift.
Sensors were the next system to fall to Jane’s automated onslaught. The difference was astounding. Before, it had been like being blindfolded under water. Now he could sense everything.
Being a mech meant he had hundreds of eyes, some were powerful telescopes, and others so fine they could scan the microbes floating by. He could see in IR, UV, and thermal. He didn’t just hear, he had dozens of microphones, active and passive sonar, and a layer of liquid skin that could translate vibrations into a 3D map of the surrounding world. Vents and filters collected particles and fed them in mass spectrometers for his sense of smell. The Citadel picked up and analyzed every bit in that flood of information and by a miracle of technology and the shard of silicone in his brain, he understood it all.
Back on Gloss, he’d felt like a god of war in his old mech. This was so much better. Staggeringly better.
In the distance, past the shining solar panels and orbital farms, the Tar Heel was slugging it out with another ship. The Citadel read the heat trails from hundreds of missiles and the crisscrossing beams, and Jackson knew that his people were in real trouble. Tar Heel was tougher than she looked, but she was no warship. He needed to take out Warlord soon, or else.
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