Gardner watched with mute fascination as Ciro and Lynx worked on the safe’s security system. His dismal pronouncement that only a living Fable would be able to get past that lock had been answered by a smirk from the young man.
As Ciro worked, the safe’s computer beeped in protest, but none of the safeguards engaged. When the first of three bolts pulled back with an audible crack, the young man had looked up at Gardner and winked.
“Mr. Vas, you’re horrifying,” Gardner said. “If I wasn’t already busy betraying them, I’d rush back to MI and tell them about the Rising’s most secret weapon.”
“General, be aware that comments like that make some of us uncomfortable,” the other Vas said.
Ciro shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
“Forget your ego, Wonder Boy,” Jane snapped. “Get the safe open.”
“Hey, Jane, want to bet if I can do it or not?”
“A ten coin says it takes you longer than ten minutes to get in.”
Ciro smiled. “A ten coin says it takes me less than five.”
Reyer wandered over to where Tate was guarding the door. “Anything?”
Tate shook his head.
“Is something off?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t tell if I’m uneasy, or if I’m reading your mind a bit too well.” He glanced at her. “You all right, Sarge?”
“I thought you could read my mind, Tate.”
There was a flash of her teasing smile. Joseph had seen it more than most of the team, but even he hadn’t seen it much. Five years away from the front lines had given her time and space to find some peace. She’d be all right. Eventually.
“It was Rurik, wasn’t it?” Tate said.
She tensed at his comment.
“I’m sorr—”
“How did you know?” Alix demanded.
Tate glanced over her shoulder. Vas was watching them, but after their eyes met, the captain deliberately turned away.
Tate kept his voice low. “When Captain Vas flew me out to Gaoyun, we had a few days to talk.”
“You talked about me.”
Joseph lowered his voice even further. “That’s the thing—we didn’t. You don’t think I was waiting for it? I mean, he’s got this captive source of information that knows almost all of your sordid dating history—”
“Go to hell, Tate.” Reyer was shaking her head, but there was also a slight smile on her face.
“Yeah, we swapped war stories, and yes, you’re in my war stories, but that’s it! He never brings you up, never asks me any questions. Then we’re bunking down on the last day, and he asks me to tell him about Ivan Rurik.”
“You wanted to know why.”
“He said it was the only thing he couldn’t ask you about.”
They both fell silent.
“He didn’t tell you?” Reyer asked.
Tate shook his head. “You’re the one who said someone betrayed you.”
“And you assumed—”
“Come on, Sarge. It’s not like you don’t know I hated the guy. It’s no real leap of imagination for me to assume he’s an even bigger scumbag.” Joseph waited. “Well?”
“It’s been almost six years. Why do you want to know? Do you want to say I told you so?”
“I want to know exactly how much I get to hate him.”
“He’s dead.”
“You think that matters? Do not underestimate my ability to hold a grudge.”
Reyer had to force out each word, one at a time. “Yeah. It was Rurik.”
Tate put an arm over her shoulders and pulled her to his chest. “Fuck him,” he whispered. “I’d go to hell for the honor of kicking his ass for eternity.”
He felt her laugh. He also felt the shuddering breath she drew in.
Reyer stepped back when he released her. She wiped her eyes. “God, I hate this place.”
“Don’t worry, Sarge. We’ll grab those papers and get out of here. We can incinerate the base as we go.”
“Is that your recommendation for therapy? Burn it to the ground? Come on, Tate. Get your head in the game. Aren’t you supposed to be guarding something?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He returned his attention to his watch, and Reyer went over to Vas.
When she was beside him, the captain leaned over to kiss her cheek. “I love you,” he whispered.
Before she could respond, the last bolt on the safe slammed back into its housing. Ciro put his open hand over his shoulder. Jane placed a ten-coin into his palm, then ruffled his hair.
While Ciro was busy getting his hair out of his face, Gardner pulled out a metal file case.
“Was that everything in there?” Jane asked.
“No,” Gardner said, “but I have a hunch this’ll be most of what we’re looking for.” The general went over and put the case on the desk. He pulled out his ID and inserted it into the slot in the lid. The others gather around him.
“It’s a simple classified security,” Gardner explained.
“I could break through that with a bobby pin,” Ciro said.
“I have no doubt, Mr. Vas, but this is mostly to prevent people from reading these papers on accident.” When the light glowed green, the general put his thumb down on the print pad.
“It knows you?”
“If it has anything to do with Project 32, it will.”
There was a beep and two small clicks.
Gardner smiled. “Oh, look. I broke in.” He lifted the lid and began pulling out file after file. Most he put on the desk beside the case. One he held over his shoulder. “Dr. Bonumomnes, I believe this might interest you.”
She took it and moved away from the group to read.
Vas put his hand on the growing pile of papers. “Tate, Alix, please go through the rest of the safe. I don’t want to miss anything.”
“Yes, sir.”
When Tate turned from the door, there was a flash of light from outside the room. Blood spattered across the concrete. There was a cry from Ciro. Both he and Gardner collapsed. Papers floated to the floor beside them. Ciro let out another strangled yell, but the general was silent.
Jane ran to them, cracking both her knees when she dropped beside Ciro.
“Lynx!” Vas yelled.
The robot pointed through the open door to the level above. “There, Captain.”
Vas and Tate scattered fire across the whole area.
By then Reyer was next to Jane, kneeling between Ciro and Gardner. “Lynx, secure the door! Tate, cover!” She looked down. Her pants were already soaked with gore. There was blood on Ciro’s shirt, but none of it was his. The pool under her was from a wound high on his thigh. She turned to Gardner. The hole was through his chest. The edges were charred.
“Alix?” Vas said.
Reyer looked up at Adan. “One sniper shot from an e-weapon. He adjusted the focus.”
“I’m going after him.”
“Take Tate and Lynx.”
“Lynx stays here.”
Alix reached up and grabbed his jacket. “Were you listening?! He adjusted the focus, Vas! It plowed through Gardner and almost took out Ciro. You’ll take Lynx, or I’ll shoot you to save time!”
Adan looked away for less than a second. “You’ll stay here.”
“Jane and I will do what we can for them. Don’t be long.”
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“Lynx, get the door.” Vas turned back to Reyer. “How much time do we have?”
She shook her head. “We don’t.”
Vas and Tate followed Lynx to the open door, careful to keep his metal body between themselves and the sniper’s last known position. They moved at a quick pace, guns raised, checking each area as they went.
“Lynx, set a timer.”
“For how long, Captain?”
Yes, Captain, Vas thought. How long are you going to let your baby brother bleed out before you take him to safety? His teeth were grit so hard his jaw ached. “Five minutes. If we move further than three minutes from that room, inform me.”
“Requesting priorities.”
“Find the shooter. Take him prisoner if possible. Kill him if you can’t. Our highest priority is making sure he can’t ambush us again when we evacuate.”
“Understood, Captain.” When they reached the top of the metal stairs, Lynx pointed to his left. “The reverberation of the walkway indicates one person is over there, moving away from us.”
“Damn.” Tate’s whisper was filled with awe.
Vas said, “I’m taking Lynx and going head-on. I’ll be moving fast, but I want you to move faster. With Lynx’s weight, the shooter will hear us coming. You sneak up behind him. Try to take him alive. If he notices you, kill him.” Adan paused for a breath. “Find cover—”
“I know, Captain. Find cover wherever I can. Yes, sir.”
A half smile appeared on Adan’s face. “Sorry, Tate. I’m not used to working with professionals.”
“Do you know the way?” Lynx asked.
“A professional, bot,” Tate said. “Didn’t you hear him? I got to look at the schematics on the panel. I’ll be fine.” As Joseph passed, he clapped a hand on Vas’s shoulder.
Tate ran down the walkway, listening to the clanking footsteps behind him. He took the first corner, ran the length of the two rooms, then stopped at the next corner. He forced his breathing to slow so he could listen. All he could hear was Lynx. He ducked his head around the edge of the wall to take in the scene.
The shooter was there, holding a type of e-rifle Tate had never seen before. He was raising it to fire at Lynx. As anticipated, the man’s full attention was on the bot sprinting toward him.
Joseph moved around the corner, his gun ready.
The shooter dropped the rifle and picked up a thick bar he must have scavenged from the base. Lynx jerked back as the man swung at him with a blow that would’ve torn the bot’s head from his body. Lynx tried to grab the bar as it swept by his faceplate, but the shooter continued his swing, arching it down and back toward the bot. The bar smashed across the outside of Lynx’s knee joint with a sound loud enough to make Tate’s heart skip.
The bot crashed to his knee, but his program automatically corrected the imbalance, keeping him upright and leaving his head at perfect striking height.
Tate flinched when he saw the flash from Adan’s e-pistol, even though the blast was too far away to do more than singe him.
It wasn’t close enough to be lethal to the shooter either. He took part of the blast with his arm and torso. It opened the flesh, but the man was still standing. The bar hung from his uninjured hand. Lynx ripped it from the shooter’s grasp and slammed it down on the e-rifle beside him. The weapon leapt off the metal walkway, dropping to the floor below.
The shooter had already backed away from the crippled bot and drawn a pistol from a concealed holster.
“Vas!” Tate yelled. “Get down!”
The shooter turned when he heard the cry.
Joseph swore when he realized his mistake. Vas had stayed out of range, and he had Lynx between him and the man they were fighting. Tate was much closer and had no cover.
Tate dropped as the blast went over him.
Lynx lunged forward to grab the shooter’s foot but only caught his heel. When the shooter turned to kick the robot away, he saw Vas closing the distance.
The shooter pulled the trigger. Vas crouched behind Lynx as the robot moved to block the blast. Then the shooter turned and took aim at Tate.
Joseph, who’d been preparing to charge, jumped away from the shot, scraping his ear and cracking his collarbone against a metal baluster. His momentum carried most of his weight over the open edge, but his arm was around the post and his leg was still on the walkway.
The shooter kicked Tate’s side hard enough to shove his body the rest of the way off. With the way cleared, the shooter ran, dodging a shot from Lynx’s pistol as he fled.
Tate hung on the pole by his elbow, trying to ignore the agony in his side and collarbone.
Vas ran over, reached down, and grabbed him. Tate let out a shout as he was hauled back onto the walkway.
“The shooter?” Tate gasped.
“He’s gone. Are you okay?”
“I think he cracked my ribs. And—” Joseph grunted— “my stomach wound.”
“Is it open?”
“I don’t think so. It hurts though.” He winced against the pain. “I should be okay. I’m not shot.”
“Can you get up?”
Tate forced himself to his knees. “Yes.”
“Lynx!”
They robot said, “The damage to my knee-joint is extensive. I cannot put my weight on it without destroying it completely and rendering myself immobile, sir.”
“Can you fix it?”
“A full repair is impossible. I can lock the joint, wire a bypass, and adjust my movement programming to use it as a brace as I walk, but I won’t be able to manage the stairs without an active problem-solving program.”
“Do you have the program?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Tate’s breathing was labored, but he managed to gasp, “Where the hell did you get him?”
“Ciro.”
“Can I have one?”
“We have to get out of here first. Lynx, time left on timer?”
“One minutes and eighteen seconds.”
Vas swore. “Get down those steps. Go back to the room. Guard the door. We’ll meet you there.”
“Understood, Captain.”
Tate nodded when Vas looked at him. Together, the two of them went after the shooter.
[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]
“I can’t stop the bleeding,” Jane said.
Reyer glanced away from her work.
Jane’s voice had been clear, but Reyer could see she was trembling. The doctor was pressing down with all her meager body weight, trying to stanch Ciro’s wound.
“It got the artery,” Reyer said. “Do you know how to tie a tourniquet?”
Jane’s head jerked once in a nod.
“Middle section, under the flap.”
The small first-aid kit Reyer wore at her hip had been thrown on the ground between them. Jane dived for it. The moment her hands left Ciro’s leg, a fresh pulse of blood rolled over his saturated clothes.
Reyer returned her attention to the chest seal she’d fixed over the front of Gardner’s wound, but she called out, “Ciro, are you still with us?”
“I will never say ‘shoot me’ again” was the weak reply.
Alix inspected the general. There were no bulging veins. His lips were pale, but not blue. The chest was even. She put two fingers to his neck. He was alive. At the moment.
Reyer turned away from Gardner to look after Ciro. “Are you in shock, or are you being a dork?”
“He’s an idiot!” Jane yelled. She yanked back on the tourniquet strap before fastening it down. She was shaking so bad she couldn’t twist the bar. Reyer gently moved Jane’s hands so she could take over.
“Dr. Jane,” Ciro mumbled, “that’s a lot of tears.”
Alix glanced up. Streams were rolling down Jane’s face. The doctor furiously wiped one side away with her sleeve, but by the time she lowered her arm, Alix couldn’t tell she had.
“I hate you so much, Ciro Vas,” Jane said.
“Marry me now?”
“Promise me you won’t die!”
“All right, lover-boy”—Reyer paused to secure the bar—“stop harassing Jane. Don’t you think you’ve given her enough grief?”
There was no answer.
“Ciro?” Reyer said.
“Ciro!”
Reyer put her fingers to his neck. “His pulse is insane.”
“Look at his breathing,” Jane said.
His chest dipped and rose in quick, small movements.
“We’ve stopped the bleeding—”
“He needs iron shots!” Jane shouted. “And we have to get a chem-kit over here, or he’s going to lose the leg.”
“We have stuff back on the ship—”
“He’s not going to make it back to the ship!”
Reyer reached out and took Jane by the shoulders, smearing her shirt with blood. “Listen to me. Take a deep breath.”
Jane’s face flushed, but she saw reason in the advice. Her anger faded after the second lungful of air.
“We’ve done what we can,” Reyer said.
“Gardner?”
Reyer shook her head. “He’s not dead yet, but I need the tools back at the ship to do anything more for him.”
“No.” Jane’s face lit up. “The first-aid kit! There’s a full first-aid kit in this base.”
“This base is abandoned.”
“They didn’t take it with them! I saw one in the rooms we passed!”
“You think they’d leave resources behind?”
“This isn’t the Rising! The Supremacy actually has money. It has to be worth a try.”
Jane held her breath while Reyer hesitated.
“You’ll have to stay here,” Alix said. “We can’t leave Gardner. A lung could collapse at any moment.”
“I’ll go.” The doctor stood up.
“There’s a shooter out there, Jane!”
“I can actually run, Alix! You can’t! And I know exactly where it is. I’m going—good luck trying to stop me.”
Silence.
“Get your gun ready,” Reyer said.
Jane grabbed the XM4 off the floor.
“Safety off?”
The doctor nodded.
“Hurry.”
Jane burst out the door and didn’t stop to close it behind her.
Reyer picked up her pistol and crossed over to shut it. As she was moving back, she stepped on something.
It was a paper. At the top there was a small black banner: Re: 32.
The pain in her back blazed as she knelt to gather up the files.
[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]
Jane found the room and crossed over to the massive first-aid kit mounted on the wall. When she opened it, she couldn’t hold back the gasp or the laugh that tumbled from her mouth. The kit was full. She locked the clasps and pressed herself against the wall to see how it was fixed in place. The hooks were long strips of metal welded to the wall.
She put the XM4 down so she could wedge herself under the kit to lift it.
Behind her the door slammed shut. Her startled jump left her facing the intruder.
“Thank god, you’re okay,” the man said.
“Who’re you?”
“My name is Carter Levin.” The man held out a hand when he saw her backing away. “Don’t worry! She sent me.”
“Who’s she? Who are you?”
Levin froze where he was. The room was so still, it was easy for him to see Jane’s eyes drift down to the rifle she’d left lying on the floor.
When she bent to pick it up, he stepped forward, drawing his pistol. By the time her hand touched the weapon, the muzzle of his gun was only inches away from her forehead.
“Back away slowly,” he said.
Jane had no choice.
“Back to the wall, hands up.”
She felt the cold metal of the wall through her shirt. As Levin drew closer, she closed her eyes. She could smell the blood and burnt cloth around his superficial wounds.
“You’re not one of us,” he said.
“But I’ll bet you can sense the proteins I was working with, can’t you?” Jane’s teeth were bared. “Is that why you thought you knew me?”
Levin pressed the e-pistol against her head. “What happened to Lia Wauters, Dr. Bonumomnes?”
“You mean the last xeno you sent after me? She’s dead. Oh! Did you think I was her?”
Jane’s bravado withered when she saw his face.
“Ah,” he whispered. “Now that changes things.”
[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]
Vas and Tate got back to the room as Lynx was arriving. The captain knocked before opening it.
“It’s us.”
Reyer was on the floor by Ciro and Gardner. Her pistol was pointed at them.
Vas sighed and raised his hands. Tate saw the captain’s reaction and mimicked the gesture.
“Lynx, were they with you the whole time?”
“No, Miss Reyer.”
“Test them.”
Lynx moved to follow her instructions.
“Where’s Jane?” Vas asked.
“She’s gone.” The words almost stuck in Reyer’s throat. She had to take a breath before she could continue. “She went back to get a first-aid kit she’d seen, but she hasn’t come back—”
“You let her go?!”
“I couldn’t stop her! Ciro is dying, Adan. Gardner might already be dead.” She paused. “You didn’t see her?”
Adan shook his head.
“You didn’t get the shooter?”
From her reaction, his face must have been answer enough.
“Miss Reyer, I can confirm, they’re not xenos,” Lynx said.
Her e-pistol clattered to the ground when she dropped both her arms to steady herself. Tate came forward to check Gardner and Ciro. Adan squatted beside Alix. He put his hand on her shoulder while Lynx drew blood from her other arm to test her.
“I’ll go find Jane,” Vas said.
“No, we have to get them back to the ship,” Alix muttered.
“It’s bad math.” Tate nodded to Reyer. “That’s what she always calls it. Two lives for one—bad math.”
Vas looked up at him. “Is Gardner alive?”
Tate made an inarticulate noise. “Right now, yes. Ciro seems more stable, but she’s right—they both need help.”
“We’ll need stretchers.”
“Captain,” Lynx said, “I advise you to allow me to carry General Gardner while you or Mr. Tate carries Master Ciro. It’s unlikely Miss Reyer could handle the task of carrying a stretcher, and given their injuries, speed is more important than limiting their movement.”
The captain helped Reyer to her feet.
“I’ll get the papers,” Alix said. “We need to go back the way we came.”
“Miss Reyer, leaving by the front entrance would be faster,” Lynx said.
“No,” Vas said. “We’re going back through the tunnels. We’ll look for Jane on the way.”