Legacy (Alliance Book 3) (19 page)

Laurel was shaking her head, “I am staying, Brody. I am not going anywhere.” She saw Brody’s face tense up.

“You promised me that you’d do what I say, Laurel. You need to do that now. You can be angry at me after this is over, I don’t care. Right now, you and Ams are going to get on that street, turn left and go back to the flier.” His voice was barely above a whisper, but she could feel the anger in it, anger he was trying hard to control.

She walked up to Laurel and took her by the hand, “We are going, Brody, all right? We are going,” and Laurel let her lead her away from him without a word, not looking at him either.

Maybe it was better that way, both of them angry at each other, angry enough to want to keep fighting later. And she understood why Riley has barely touched her in weeks leading up to this day, what he was trying to spare her from.

They found their way back to the narrow street easily enough and they were almost at the end of it when she heard the booms of the explosions. It sounded quieter than she thought it would, like one of those old school guns when they shot them back in the clearing at Reston. She picked up the pace, hoping they’d make it to the flier without anyone realizing they had something to do with the commotion far behind them, and hoping for Laurel’s sake that Brody was safe, following them, that he’d show up at the flier a few minutes after them and Laurel wouldn’t look like she was about to cry any more.

Riley met them at the door of the shielded flier. She wouldn’t have seen it if it wasn’t for him standing there smiling widely at them from the opening, and she ran to him, forgetting all about Laurel for a moment, forgetting about the streams of smoke breaking the shimmer in the haze behind them, letting him cradle her in his arms and finally relaxing the hands she’d been clenching. Drake and Ella hugged them, full of smiles, but she could sense the apprehension in Drake’s face, could see the question in his eyes that he didn’t want to ask.

“He didn’t want to risk us with the things going off so close, Drake. He should be right behind us,” she said as calmly as she could, and then Stan came out from the cabin, his face without any smiles on it and she knew that Brody did something stupid, could sense it. Brody wasn’t trying to keep them safe, he needed them gone so he could do what he must have planned on doing all along. And she hoped Lancer could protect him, could keep him safe.

She went into the cabin, Stan following her. “Is he at the lab?”

A nod.

“Is he on comm?”

Stan dropped his eyes, “No. He clicked it off as soon as he got into that building. I can’t track him. He is on his own. I am sorry, Ams.” And he looked sorry when he said it. And not for the first time she wished they never met that boy, and Laurel wouldn’t be standing behind her now with tears in her eyes, trying her best not to cry, and Riley wouldn’t look like it was hurting him to breathe.

She was hugging Laurel when the comm in the flier clicked on, “I have the girls. I need you guys on that roof in four minutes.” Lancer’s voice, calm, too calm. She didn’t trust that. Loren already had them up in the air, heading to the short building they were supposed to pick them all up from.

She could hear the sound of gunshots even before they landed. Riley and Drake had their guns drawn, standing at the door, waiting, and then she saw them, the girls sliding down the rope towards the roof, most of them screaming. She spotted Trelix, gun drawn, pointing backwards, and suddenly she could see soldiers running after them, could hear them screaming commands at each other. Somehow they must have lost access to their comms then. Her eyes were searching wildly for Brody and Lancer, but she didn’t see them anywhere. As she watched, the girls kept landing on the roof, and Drake was ushering them into the flier, and she was grabbing them by their hands without thinking about it, dragging them in, urging them to go faster and faster.

There were only a few left, and she finally saw Brody and Lancer, their backs to the flier, shooting at a quickly increasing line of soldiers behind them, and then Lancer dragging Brody, running, and Drake and Riley were out of the flier, shielding Brody and Lancer, spraying bullets into the line of soldiers, making holes in the dark uniforms, blood spreading through the soldiers’ fingers as they tried to cover the holes with their hands.

She was staring at the face of a young man, Riley young, the look of surprise on it, as if he couldn’t understand what happened to him. He staggered forward, his hand collecting so much blood on his chest, questions in his eyes, so many questions. Somebody’s hands pulled her deeper inside the flier, and she couldn’t figure out why or what was happening anymore. She didn’t know where anybody was. All she could see was that Drake was still out there for some reason, facing all the soldiers, only they weren’t shooting at him now, and she couldn’t figure out why, and he was moving away from the flier, not towards it. Riley was screaming at him, telling him to just get in there, only Drake was shaking his head, and screaming back that they had to take off right now, and then telling Trelix to do what he bloody promised.

And she could hear Ella sobbing and everyone else screaming when Trelix stepped to the door and punched something into the code panel, and suddenly, the glass door slid shut, leaving Drake out there, cut off from them, from the flier, and she saw Drake get on his knees, and he had something in his hand that he was holding up, and she knew then why the soldiers weren’t shooting at him.

She finally registered loud voices next to her, Riley and Lancer, screaming at Trelix to open the bloody door, threatening him. Trelix just stood there, not moving, with his back to the door, to Drake, shaking his head and talking calmly to Loren on his comm, “How much time do you need to get us up? Count me down, Loren.”

And they could all hear Loren now, voice strained, counting the seconds they needed to take off, Trelix looking directly at Riley finally speaking, slowly, quietly, “We lost the shields and one of the reactors. We are on aux power. I am sorry, guys. Drake is wired and it’s keeping them from shooting at us. There is nothing else we can do.”

She watched as Riley walked right up to Trelix and put his gun to the kid’s forehead, “Open the door, Trelix. We are NOT leaving Drake to die out there like this,” his voice deathly quiet, full of rage quiet.

Trelix stood still, looking at him, unblinking, “No.”

Riley’s hand was shaking, Trelix holding his in fists at his sides, not trying to fight him.

“Seventeen seconds, Trelix,” Loren’s voice. Lancer pushed Riley’s gun down and shoved him away from the kid. She noticed for the first time that his uniform was soaked in blood, only she couldn’t tell if it was his or not.

He grabbed Trelix by the throat, whispering into his face, “Wire me. I got this, Trelix. I owe him. Nobody else will die, I swear. You need to let me do this,” and the kid nodded. Lancer took his jacket and then his soaked shirt off, letting Trelix tie the vest with the explosives around him, Riley’s voice screaming at Lancer that there had to be another way, only he wasn’t paying any attention to him, and finally the door was open and Lancer quickly walked out there to Drake, guns trained on him now, but nobody was firing, and then he was kneeling next to Drake, telling him to go back to the flier, only Drake didn’t move....

“Stand down!” An older man wearing a white uniform walked toward Drake and Lancer. All the guns were pointing at the ground now. “I am Max Fuller. I am told my son is with you.”

Brody. She forgot all about Brody once it all went insane, she could only remember that Lancer had to drag him for some reason. She searched behind her and saw him slumped in the chair, looking as if he were asleep.

“I need to see my son.”

The man was still standing in front of Lancer and Drake, his voice louder now, but there was something shaky in it too, an emotion she couldn’t place. Laurel was crouching next to Brody, holding the box of salts under his nose, and suddenly he was up, and then Laurel was talking to him, frantically, and Brody was on his feet, trying to get to the door, only Riley and Trelix were blocking it from him.

“Move, Riley.”

They stood stock still, not budging and with no warning, Brody punched Riley in the jaw, hard, his head snapping back and Trelix just shook his head and let him pass. She watched, terrified, as Brody walked down the steps and straight toward the man in white, hands in fists at his sides. She heard him say something to Drake and Lancer, and they stood up, but still didn’t go back to the flier, hands on the detonators.

“Let them go. Let all of my friends go. You have me,” Brody’s voice quiet. The man nodded.

Lancer walked up to Brody then, and put his arm around him, “We are not leaving you here, Brody. Sorry, but we can’t do that.” Brody said something she couldn’t hear to him and Lancer stepped back. She could see Brody’s father smiling, his mouth twisting unpleasantly.

“I am not interested in keeping him. I just wanted to talk to him,” the man spat, and she watched, horrified, as he pulled out a gun and aimed it straight at Brody’s head, Brody not moving a muscle, staring at him. “There hasn’t been a day I didn’t regret having you for a son. I wanted you to know that. And I wanted you to know that you killed your mother. Well, she pathetically killed herself, because of you. It should have been you who bloody killed himself. You did that to her. And that girl... the shame of it,” he shook his head. “You’ve no idea how much shame, you piece of shit, listening to a Zoriner breeder calling out your name, the name of my son. I waited for so long to tell you this. But enough of this. I need to know who is in charge here.”

Brody’s soldier voice, “I am.”

The man nodded, “Here is what’s going to happen. I’ll trade you the lives of all the Zoriner girls you stole and all of your friends for the two replenishers you are hiding. I will let everyone but you go then, unharmed. There are two hundred soldiers behind me. And this little stunt with explosives,” he pointed at Drake and Lancer and laughed, an ugly laugh, not at all like Brody’s, “it’s just silly. They don’t scare my soldiers. You see, you bloody idiot, my soldiers will do what I tell them, no matter what. They don’t have any kind of choice about it and they don’t feel fear at the moment.”

Suddenly Lancer was standing right next to Brody, in front of the man, free hand wrapped around his neck, “They may not, Fuller, but something tells me you do. We haven’t met. I am Maxton, you son of a bitch, and I have nothing to lose, not a soul in the world left. So here is how this is going to go. The replenishers are gone, dead gone, Fuller, so you can’t have them, and I’m not letting you have Brody, you piece of shit, so I’m all you’ve got. You are going to disconnect your soldiers’ implants and you will have them stand down. And then you and I are going to watch as my friends take off, and I won’t blow you up. That’s as good a deal as you’re going to get, and from what I just saw of you, much better than you deserve.”

The man was gasping for breath, turning colors. Lancer, without turning to look at them was screaming at Brody and Drake to go back to the flier and take off, only Brody was arguing with him, not doing it. Lancer’s voice angry now, “You don’t have a choice, Brody. I got this. Go.”

She watched Drake drag Brody to the flier, Brody’s face wet. Trelix pulled them both in and shut the door, and she felt the tiny vibration and knew they were in the air. She could still see Lancer, standing with his back to them, the vest off of him, hands banded behind his bleeding back, and Brody’s father punching him in the face over and over again, and then soldiers grabbing him by the arms. She turned away, had to turn away. She felt Riley’s arms around her after a while and closed her eyes, keeping the tears in, hoping there was something they could do to save Lancer. And if they couldn’t, hoping they would simply put a bullet in his head.

Lancer, June 11, 2236, Crylo.

H
e hoped Brody would simply do what he agreed to do for them, detonate the explosives outside with the girls and get them back to the flier safely. It would have made him feel better if Brody could drop the explosives into the collector bins himself, but there was no place to hide anything the way their uniforms were, so they needed to use the girls for that, and he was more nervous about it than he liked to admit. He was listening in on their conversations, and Ams sounded strange to him, uncertain, not like she normally did. And when Brody sent them away by themselves, he knew he’d try to get into the lab, and hoped he wouldn’t get them all killed in the process.

The distraction worked well enough, and they hardly had to disable any soldiers getting into the lab. It was almost too easy and he distrusted it. The Zoriner girls did what they were told, likely too afraid to protest or to question anything, and it only took a few minutes to get them all out onto the roof. Trelix moved faster than he thought him capable, dropping the carabiners on the ropes for the girls and pushing them down. They were almost all down on the roof with their flier when he heard shots behind him. Brody, face flushed, was running towards him, a group of soldiers behind him.
Stupid bloody kid
, he cursed. He grabbed him, shooting his stunner at the approaching soldiers, hoping they’d still make it to the flier unharmed. At least Brody had the armor on him. They all did, but Stan couldn’t find anything large enough for Drake and him, so he was exposed. He could tell that these soldiers were using old school guns, though he couldn’t for the life of him think of why they’d resort to those, and then he knew. They were trying to disable the flier, and suddenly he could see it, plain as day, sitting on the roof, shields gone.

He felt a searing pain in his shoulder, wetness spreading around it. He blocked it, concentrating on dragging Brody behind him, shooting, and clipping Brody’s belt to his own carabiner. He finally looked at him and he could tell something was wrong. Brody’s face was sweating and his eyes unfocused. “Are you hurt?”

The kid nodded, tried to say something and gave up.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. All right, just hang on. I got you.”