I glanced towards the staircase that led back to the floor below, where our escape was located. My decision was to run away. There was no point in fighting for no gain. I was going to give Bubbles one last warning, and then I was going to grab Noah and leave.
However, it wasn’t going to be as easy as that. Even though I personally avoided shooting to kill, it didn’t mean that others were. Bubbles and Noah had already landed a few clean shots on a few mercenaries. Noah was starting to get the hang of his submachine gun, and his suppressive fire just became regular fire. Bubbles himself had been shooting to kill since the beginning. His aggressive pushing had earned him a few holes in his torso, but Bubbles also managed to put a few holes into the mercenaries, too.
I took a deep breath and shouted. “Bubbles, our way out is here! We have to leave right now! If you don’t follow me, I’m leaving without you!”
Noah reacted to my shouting and immediately started retreating to my position. He was a little extended, but it was definitely possible for him to return safely.
Bubbles didn’t say anything. He didn’t even stop. Bubbles managed to reach the staircase before my father did, and scrambled up the steps. Several bullets tore through him, and beams scorched his liquid flesh, but he continued to move.
My father, who was trying to cut Bubbles off, cursed and quickly followed Bubbles up. He didn’t have a clean shot on Bubbles, so my father stopped shooting entirely and scrambled up using all six of his limbs. Noah took a few shots at him, but it was too far away to score any hits. Low caliber bullets pinged off the metal parts of the staircase and shattered the glass parts of it, but to no avail. Bubbles disappeared over the lip of the balcony that overlooked this floor, and soon after, my father did as well. We were going to have to leave without Bubbles. He made his choice.
I seriously doubted Bubbles’s ability to come back alive. With some luck, he might’ve been able to shoot Yaro before my father caught up. But once my father caught up, Bubbles was toast. Their difference in ability was too high. On top of that, Bubbles was heavily outnumbered. Soon after Bubbles and my father ascended the stairs, a few of my father’s elite mercenaries followed to provide backup. They knew how unpredictable and durable Bubbles was. Even if there was a gap in skill, they were taking now chances.
The lightened presence of my father’s mercenaries meant that Noah and I had an easier time retreating to the staircase. The mercenaries’ attention was completely on the second floor, and not us. Noah and I stopped shooting entirely and ran for our escape route.
“Are you hurt, Noah?” I asked. “You didn’t get shot, did you?”
Noah rapped his knuckles against the chestplate of his suit. “A few stray shots hit me, but it was nothing the shield couldn’t take. What about you?”
“I’m fine. We’re almost at the stairs. Let’s hope we make it to the extraction point in time.” I replied.
A few of the mercenaries that remained on this floor noticed that we were running, and started taking potshots at us. Noah and I dove behind cover. We were hiding behind the same marble countertop as each other, and were about ten meters away from reaching the staircase.
“Shit.” I swore. “We’re pinned down. I’ll distract them first, you move while I do that, okay?”
“Why you? I can do it.” Noah argued.
“I’ve got Yori’s wiresuit underneath the regular suit. I can take more hits than usual. Plus, you already took some hits. Just go, man.” I said.
“Right.” Noah sighed. “I’ll cover you when I reach the stairs. Are you sure we can’t wait for Bubbles?”
I shook my head. “Absolutely not. Keshi has no time. We’re not just risking our own lives here, we’re risking Keshi, Sil, Needle, and all of those captured people’s lives if we don’t make it on time. Keshi said he’ll leave without us, but I’m not sure if I believe it. He still might regret the time that he did leave us.”
“You’re right. Okay, I’m ready.” Noah said.
“Go.”
Right when I said that, I launched myself out of cover and started firing rapidly, in the general direction of the mercenaries. I wasn’t aiming to hit them at all, I wanted to make them flinch and cower behind cover. It worked. The mercenaries shooting at us ducked behind tables, couches, and countertops, relieving the pressure on Noah and I.
Noah was able to reach the staircase first, and he laid down suppressive fire so I could join him a few seconds later. I wasn’t hurt, but it wasn’t like I didn’t get shot either. I got hit by a couple bullets during my distraction, but they were all absorbed by my suit’s personal shield. Noah and I were now back on the staircase. All we had to do was descend and make a run for Keshi’s ship. The gunfire had momentarily stopped, too. However, the brief moment of silence was quickly interrupted.
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Echoes of a gunshot rang through the room, and escaped into the hallways below. I recognized the sound immediately. It was the sound Bubbles’s hand cannon made when it fired. It was a deafening boom that immediately betrayed the fact that the gun being fired packed a serious punch. Soon after that one, singular gunshot, a few more rang out. But this was from a different, smaller caliber gun. It was most definitely from my father’s pistol. I knew this gun well. It wasn’t his most used gun, but it was his most prized possession. He carried it everywhere he went. When I used to be on his mercenary crew, I never saw him without it. And that was the gun being fired several times, right now. After Bubbles’s shot had already gone off. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that meant.
The gun kept firing a few more times, until it abruptly stopped. I stopped gawking on the steps of the stairs and grabbed Noah’s arm.
“Let’s hurry. They’re probably going to follow us if we don’t go now.” I urged.
Noah let himself get pulled by me as we descended the stairs frantically. “Bubbles only fired once. Does that mean he got Yaro?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out later.” I replied. “But I know that Bubbles is dead now, for sure. He had no chance of getting out.”
Noah shook his head in disapproval. “He was too focused on his revenge. It was possible for him to make it out.”
“What’s done is done. Let’s go.”
We quickly descended the stairs, entering the floor below. We were back in the grid of fancy, identical hallways filled with harsh yellow lighting. I wasn’t concerned about getting lost, though. Noah, with his perfect memory, would remember the way back. I let him lead, while I followed close behind. I glanced backwards to see if we had any pursuers. I could hear mercenaries shouting from the floor above us, but none were in sight at the moment. We were getting a minor head start at best.
While we were running, I called Keshi over my comms.
“Keshi, what is it looking like? We’re running over as fast as we can, but we’re getting chased. Are you ready to leave?”
Keshi replied immediately. “Yeah, we’re ready. We have the escapees on the ship already. We’re waiting on you!”
Needle butted in over the comms. “Hey, Saka, is Bubbles okay? His clone thing collapsed like a minute ago. It was standing there and following us for a while, but then it dropped like a puppet with cut strings.”
“I don’t think Bubbles made it, Needle. He rushed to Yaro's room instead of retreating, and I heard gunshots. We’re coming back without him.” I said, somberly.
“Damn. Alright.” Needle sighed.
Suddenly, Sil burst in on the comms. “Noah, Saka, you need to pick up the pace. Since we blasted open the window on this skyscraper, there’s police outside starting to mobilize. There’s going to be ships on our ass real soon. Get back right now!”
Noah replied to Sil over the intercom. “We’re running as fast as we can. Stay for as long as possible.”
“We’ll try.” Keshi said. “Good luck, you two.”
I cut the comms and committed all of my energy to running. I was running on all six limbs at this point, but slow enough to not leave Noah behind. He could run for a longer distance, but I was much faster than him at short range.
Behind us, I heard shouting and the stomping of boots on carpet. My father’s mercenary squad had apparently gotten reorganized and were in pursuit. We’d turned a few corners so they didn’t have line of sight on us, but they were definitely following.
“Why are they following?” I complained. “My father didn’t seem like he was gunning for us. All he was interested in was protecting Yaro!”
“Maybe Bubbles did manage to kill Yaro, so Ocke got angry? I don’t know. He seemed like someone who isn’t driven by emotions at all.” Bubbles said.
“Yeah, I can’t figure out his motive. Whatever. Let’s just keep running.”
We fell back into silence, other than the rhythmic thudding of our boots on the ground, and my deep, raspy breaths. I was starting to run out of steam, but I pushed on. We were almost there. We had to round two more corners, then it was a straight shot to the escape point. The mercenary crew behind us was still out of sight, too.
Noah and I skidded around the corner.
“Freeze!”
Fuck. The security guards that Keshi’s crew was distracting were no longer distracted, so the guards that normally protected Yaro’s penthouse returned. We took too long getting out of the gunfight with my father, so it allowed them to cut us off from our escape. Someone must’ve raised the alarm at some point. Now we had a small battalion of guards aiming their guns at us.
“Drop your weapons now!” A security guard shouted. “You’re under arrest!”
Noah glanced towards me. “What do we do?”
Before I could answer, the mercenaries that had been chasing us caught up to us and pointed their weapons at us, too. My father strolled to the front of his crew. Despite the chase, he didn’t seem tired at all.
“Okay, you two are trapped. There’s no way out now. Just drop your weapons so we don’t have to shoot you. It makes it easier for all of us.”
I swept my eyes around, trying to take in the situation. My father was right. We were completely trapped. Security guards were blocking our way to Keshi’s ship, and my father’s mercenaries stopped us from backtracking. In short, we were fucked. I turned my comms on so I could broadcast whatever was said here to Keshi. Hopefully, he’d get the hint and leave.
“Noah, drop your gun. We can’t do anything.” I muttered.
Both of our guns dropped to the floor.
My father waved his pistol at me. “The shotgun on your back, too.”
I slowly reached around my back and placed it on the floor. I hadn’t been able to use it at all. It was too lethal and imprecise, so I couldn’t go around shooting guns and legs like I did earlier.
“Happy?” I asked.
“Very.” My father replied. He addressed the security guards, waving his hands. “Okay, we’ve got it under control. Yaro is fine, too. She’s given me full authority over this situation too, so here’s what we’re going to do.”
My father pointed at me. “You guys can arrest that Togumo woman right there. She broke into Yaro’s property, and worked with someone who threatened her life. Throw her in jail, or whatever. I don’t care.”
He pointed at Noah, next. “That one didn’t actually commit any crimes against Yaro. But he did shave down my manpower quite a lot, so I’ll be taking him instead. If he worked for me, he’d make up for all of the mercs I lost, maybe a little more. He’s good. So you get the Togumo, I get that little guy.”
I couldn’t even say anything. I didn’t know if it was his way of sparing me and Noah, or if it was for his own personal gain. He could have the security guards shoot me right here and nobody would get in trouble. I understood why he had an interest in Noah, but this seemed kind of light. Not that I was happy about being arrested, though. Maybe I could try to break free while the security guards tried to wrangle me to the nearest police station? I had no idea.
While I was thinking, the security guards approached to handcuff me, and my father approached Noah to lead him away.
“Noah, don’t trust my father. Always keep an eye out.” I warned. It was my way of silently telling him to escape as soon as he could, without actually directly saying it.
Noah nodded slightly. “I’ll look for you, Saka.”
We didn’t say any more, not to incriminate ourselves. We couldn’t talk about any plans here. If we promised to break each other out or something, they’d be extra cautious of that.
A few moments later, all four of my hands were cuffed together behind my back, and I watched Noah get pulled away from me for the second time this week.