“Quite frankly, I don’t think you are very committed to this relationship,” Moira droned on. “You certainly seem to enjoy yourself a lot more in the company of your friends.”
“That’s different,” Christie argued. “We just go back a very long way.”
“But they’re obviously not from Earth. How long have you known them?”
“Oh,” Christie waved a hand and fought to suppress a yawn. She was too tired to lie. “Three years.”
“But that’s nothing, is it? I mean don’t get me wrong, nobody brought up the word ‘exclusive’, but if you’re just after a fun time then it’s the end of the road for me. That’s my ultimatum.”
Christie nodded miserably. She hadn’t slept the entire night. The intelligence team had been monitoring every form of signal traffic in the city for the slightest hint that the night’s operation would go wrong. In the morning, Zhang had ordered them to try and get a few hours’ sleep. Christie had returned to her cover apartment, but had been so consumed with stress that she couldn’t drift off. So, she had gone for a walk and phoned Moira to meet her for a cup of tea in the nicer part of town. Unfortunately, she had not counted on being ambushed over her perceived relationship failures.
“Such an odd group of people you spend your time with,” Moira continued, and her voice carried an edge. “Hardly our level of cultural sophistication. Oh, I’m sorry, am I boring you?”
“Yes,” Christie said coldly, after she finished a deep yawn.
The last comment had snapped her patience. But her mind was certainly distracted from the emotional rollercoaster of the operation, and now she wanted nothing more than to walk back to her apartment and sleep.
“For your information—” she began, but stopped, as a distant explosion disturbed the peaceful atmosphere of the street.
In the café, heads turned, and people started muttering in alarm. Hands reached for phones to check the live news feeds.
“What do you think that was?” Morea asked. “Not another shuttle shot down, I hope. It was bad enough that they closed the starport.”
“Uh…” Christie’s mind locked up as she felt a buzz through her purse. When she reached for her phone, she saw a message from Zhang telling her to get back ASAP.
And then she saw that she had a dozen missed calls from VennZech, nearly an hour old.
But she had called in sick.
A sliver of fear ran through her body, and she remembered that the company could track her location through the device. She had obviously never carried the thing to the team’s apartment, but if they wanted to track down employees…
Which meant she was now caught in a horrible dilemma, even though, with danger already on its way, there was an easy way out. But she shuddered to think of herself becoming that sort of a person. A knot formed in her gut and drew even tighter when she caught sight of a black SUV nosing its way down the street in her direction.
Another explosion rattled the windows, and thankfully made the decision suddenly easier.
“Well, Moira, frankly I find you stuck up and ignorant,” Christie snapped. “I won’t hear you say another word against my friends. And you are a cold, passionless fish who grossly overestimates your attractiveness. I only slept with you because I needed the distraction and I felt sorry for you. Do be a dear, and make this easier on both of us.”
Morea’s jaw dropped open, and her eyes began to water. “How… How—”
“You and an Earther? How could you have imagined it would mean anything?” Christie waved her phone as her internal voice screamed at the woman to get moving. “I have work to deal with. Do you want to get out of my hair, or shall I start listing your faults in public?”
Moira slapped her hard, then leaped to her feet and staggered away from the table. Christie felt a horrible shudder of relief and shame. She buried it in her mind as she quickly found the app she had saved. There was a tense wait as the program connected to the company’s secure line, then disguised her signal as a headquarters call.
“Mr. Tensall’s office, how can I help you?” demanded the secretary.
“I don’t care where he is,” Christie snapped in her most reptilian voice, “get him on the secure phone, and tell him to call me back. And tell him he’d better have a good explanation.” Then she hung up.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The black SUV drew up in front of the café, and a VennZech security man jumped out.
“Miss Derby-Fletcher?” he said, his expression conveying a great deal of stress. “I need you to get in, right now.”
“What’s going on?” Christie cried, her eyes wide with terror. “Are we under attack?”
“Please just get in the vehicle.” He began to reach for her arm.
“I actually left my tablet—”
“Forget it. We are taking you somewhere safe.”
With no choice, Christie staggered into the passenger seat where a panic-stricken suited woman was waiting. In the distance, the noise of explosions mixed with that of gunfire. The door slammed closed, and they drove through the streets of the city center, taking many twists and turns. Christie saw with a sinking feeling that she was being driven to the headquarters building. To Rayker.
And no traffic accident had interrupted the journey.
Her phone buzzed in her purse and she pulled it out.
“Hello?” she said sweetly.
She felt a small rush of elation as Tensall answered. “Divine? What’s happening? What did you need from me?”
“Gosh, I’m so sorry,” she said, for the benefit of the vehicle’s occupants. “There seems to be a bit of an emergency, I’ll have to call you back.”
Then she punched in an activation code, and hung up the phone. Another few taps activated the panic subroutine. The system started to erase all its data, leaving nothing behind but a positional beacon that would transmit for days.
Inside his office, Tensall was still holding the secure phone to his ear in confusion when he heard the clamor of the building alarms ring out. The security door to his office slammed down, as did the armored blinds on the windows.
He span back and forth, trying to make sense of the chaos. “What the—”
A small bang from beneath the desk interrupted him, and all the electronics in the room went dead. Now blinded by darkness, he stumbled towards the office door and tried to find the keypad.
But it wouldn’t respond. He was trapped inside.
Kayla drifted back to consciousness as though she was waking from a dream. Through a cloud of darkness, she made out the shape of the airbag that had cushioned her impact. Next to her, a colorful blur slowly resolved into a groggy looking Ray.
“Guuuugggh…” Kayla moaned as saliva dribbled from her lips.
“What happened?” Ray said, then looked around sharply.
The front of the vehicle was crumpled, but the body was mainly intact. Behind them, the Mech lay in a twisted pile, jerking around as it struggled to get back up. In the back seats, Jess and Tian looked stunned, but mercifully unharmed.
Kayla fought to think through a splitting headache. Through the rear windshield she saw the black SUVs pulling to a stop. Armed men got out.
“I’ve got the nanitic charge,” Ray said as she threw off her seatbelt and tried to open the passenger side door. She struggled with it for a moment before it popped open. “Cover me?”
“Okay,” Kayla managed.
She forced her own door open and stumbled out with her weapon. Tian was fighting her door handle, and Kayla decided she could leave her to it. As Ray raced towards the downed war machine, now managing to push itself upright, the approaching men raised their weapons. Between them, flames shot up over Kes’ inverted vehicle. No movement was visible behind the shattered glass windscreen.
Kayla leaned out from the back of her truck, snapped her carbine to her cheek, and fired a pair of rounds. A man dropped. The others scattered, and began to return fire.
“Tian!” she yelled. “Let’s go.”
Tian’s door opened gradually with a metallic screech, and she emerged. “Leave your door Jess,” she snapped. “Exit this way.”
Kayla kept shooting, and accurate fire started bouncing off the back of the truck and the tarmac. When she sensed someone behind her, she turned to see the wide-eyed rookie, looking scared, but focused.
“See that bus stop?” Kayla gestured. “Dash behind it, then start shooting, and don’t stop.”
Jess sprinted away immediately. Tian grabbed Kayla’s shoulder and passed in front of her.
“Wait—what the hell are you doing?” Kayla demanded, as Tian rounded the back of the truck and stopped in front of the boot, in full view of their ambushers.
Kayla sprayed shots towards them, but sparks spat from an impact inches from her squad mate’s head. Unperturbed, Tian calmly reached down and opened the back. She leaned inside and retrieved the light machine gun, then ducked back behind Kayla.
“You are one crazy bitch,” Kayla yelled.
Tian laughed as she dropped to the floor, popped the bipod on her weapon, and began laying down short, controlled bursts against the distant SUVs.
There was a horrible moment when the nearby mech hauled itself to its feet and turned to face them. Then Ray reappeared, her finger on the charge’s detonator.
“Always wanted to watch one of these,” she said gleefully, and pushed the switch.
The towering machine aimed a weapon right at them, but then faltered. Its damaged leg collapsed as it seemed to rot from the inside out. Then the whole body smashed to the ground and began to disintegrate into a pile of scrap metal.
Kayla wanted to whoop and high five Ray, but the sight of growing flames brought her back to reality. The rest of her squad were being burned alive. Rage began to consume her as she helplessly exchanged fire with the men down the street. She was so fast… why didn’t she just charge them?
Kayla breathed deeply, and fought for control. She grabbed Ray’s arm and yelled into her ear over the sound of gunfire. “Take the others, get across the street and flank them! I’m going for the vehicle.”
Ray nodded, and whistled to get Jess’s attention.
Then Kayla darted out of cover and sprinted for the burning wreckage between them and the enemy. Rounds passed inches from her body, but she ignored them. A storm of adrenaline fueled her legs as she raced forward, faster than she had ever run before.
Once she reached the wreck, more gunfire broke out, though not aimed at her. She stopped, dropped to a knee and emptied her magazine, killing two more men. Then she ducked back to check on the passengers. Somewhere behind her, shots rang out from the other side of the street. Ray could deal with the enemy. Kayla’s job was to save her squad.
The truck was a mess, and a fire was burning in the upturned chassis floor. Kayla had no idea how long the fuel tank could last before it became a bomb, and tried not to worry about it. She blinked away tears as the smoke began to sting her eyes, and reached for the rear passenger door frame.