Skybreach (The Reach #3) (45 page)

The blood was not hers.

Around her, the three Redmen were dead.  She climbed to her feet and stared in horror at the carnage she’d left in her wake, wondering what in hell she had done.

She thought of van Asch covered in blood, the other innocents in the observation deck.  The technician out by the departure gates.  Was this to be the way of it from now on?  Was everything that Ursie Meyer touched destined to fall into ruin?

Movement caught her eye.  Further down the concourse, Redmen reinforcements were headed her way.

You can hate yourself later
, she thought bitterly. 
Just get out of here.

Ursie stumbled awkwardly as she began to run in the opposite direction, hoping against hope that she would somehow be able to blend in with the crowd of terrified citizens who were still trying to flee the concourse.

40

Roman nestled in behind the shields that jutted up from the floor, along with Talia, Silvestri, and the two strangers, Zoe and Duran, as the light by the elevator suddenly shone bright in the evening gloom.

Whoever was inside would be stepping out of those doors any second.

Roman glanced down at the handgun resting in his palm, trying to balance the unfamiliar weight as he wondered what
he was going to do.  He wasn’t a soldier – quite the opposite.  These days he was more of a farmer than anything else, spending his time at Grove where he nurtured the fragile plant life that grew therein.  His fingers had become accustomed to the feel of fertiliser and soil and shovels, not the cold steel of a weapon such as this.  Zoe had given him a few pointers as they’d gotten themselves ready, but that brief lesson had done little to reassure him.

Beside him, Silvestri wrestled with one of the discarded pulse rifles that had been left in the wake of the Redmen’s demise, yanking the bolt handle back and forth with little effect.  Roman noticed that the glowing blue strips of light that had adorned its edges a few minutes earlier were now dull and lifeless.

“Problem?” Zoe said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

“This pulse rifle looks dead,” Silvestri said, disgusted.

“They probably use some sort of biometric security,” Duran said as he surveyed the elevator through the sights of his gun.  “If it doesn’t pick up a heartbeat from its owner for a couple of minutes, it shuts down.”

“So it would seem,” Silvestri said.  Relenting, he tossed the weapon aside and reached for an assault rifle.  “I guess we’re going to have to do this old school.”

There was a muffled shout from behind them, and they turned to see Remus manhandling one of the bound technicians, attempting to haul him back toward the empty railcar dock.

“Remus, get out of sight!” Silvestri yelled.

“What’s happening over there?” Remus called back.  He turned and kicked the technician in the stomach to prevent him from rolling away again.

“Don’t worry about us,” Silvestri said.  “Just keep an eye on those techs and help Yun where you can.”

“Can do,” Remus said, ducking out of sight again.

Roman glanced up at the Wire, but the railcar had already disappeared from sight into the night sky.  Strangely, he could still hear the sound of it; a deep whirring, grinding noise that seemed to emanate from all parts of the sky at once, like some sort of residual background thrum.

He wondered, with some excitement, how it would look from up there.  To leave Earth behind.  How would it feel to shoot upward when it was his turn?

The elevator doors slid open, and Roman abandoned his reverie.  Those around him readied their weapons.

The five of them breathed a collective sigh of relief.  There were no Redmen inside.  Those who had arrived were a ragged-looking bunch,
devoid of armour or any kind of distinctive clothing, but Roman could see rifles and clubs in their hands as they began to move outward.

“Get back!” Silvestri shouted, discharging a warning shot over their heads.  “This is a restricted area.”

There were several bursts of gunfire in return, and Silvestri ducked his head as the shields were struck.  The newcomers found cover inside the elevator car, but the doors remained open.

“What do you think?  Looters?” Silvestri said.

Zoe nodded.  “Opportunists.  Or could even be more Children of Earth.”

Roman stared cautiously over the shield and saw those in the elevator arranging several large objects in the space just outside the doors.

“What are they doing?” he said.

“Dammit,” Silvestri said.  “Looks like riot shields.”

“They might have raided the Enforcer barracks,” Duran said.  “Who knows if there’s anything st
ill protecting the place by now?”

“I don’t want to kill any of these dumb bastards,” Talia said, her .22 at the ready, “but if it comes down to them or us…”

The looters began to advance behind their shields, and Silvestri fired a burst that thundered into them, striking one of their number in the foot.  The man cried out and the group began to retreat once again toward the elevator.

“For now, we just need to keep them where they are,” Silvestri said.  “We need to hold our position until the railcar returns.  They can squat there all night, for all I care.  If they make it beyond the path, that’s when we need to worry.”

“We need to conserve ammo,” Zoe said, glancing at the supplies around them.  “Don’t get too trigger happy.  Make your shots count.”

The elevator doors closed again, and the looters remained eerily quiet as they crouched behind their shields.  Roman and the others did the same, and a strange kind of standoff began, as both sides evaluated what to do next.

Roman’s eyes fell upon the charred and battered RECS nearby, the one that Knile had used earlier, and wondered if there would be cause for him to step inside before the night was done.

The moon had risen high in the east, gibbous and blotchy yellow-white, like a baleful eye watching over those gathered on the roof.  The standoff had gone on for hours, the elevator making routine trips to and from the Atrium, sometimes bringing new passengers, and at other times taking them away.  Silvestri studied the looters warily through squinted eyes, obviously unsettled by what he was seeing.

“They’re gearing up for something,” Duran said.  “And the elevator will be coming back for another visit soon.  Are we just going to sit here?”

“What do you care?” Roman said.  He still had not become accustomed to the idea of having this guy around, given his history with Knile.  “I thought you didn’t want any part of this.”

“I don’t.  I just want to leave, preferably in one piece,” Duran retorted.  “All things being equal, I’d rather be a long way from here.”

“Stay cool,” Silvestri said.  “Play the odds and stay in cover.  If they want to roll the dice and push forward, let them try.”

“We should hit them first,” Duran insisted.  “They–”

There was the sound of a gunshot behind them, and someone screamed.

Yun’s voice.  “Someone’s here!  Help!”

Silvestri reacted first, moving with great alacrity as he kept low on his way toward the railcar dock.  He turned toward the terminals and fired three shots at something Roman couldn’t see, then glanced further within the machines to ensure the area was clear.  He paced forward cautiously and knelt to inspect something.

“Dammit,” he said. 
“Fuck!”

“What is it?” Talia said.

Silvestri lifted a hand to his brow.  “This is bad.”

“Oh, god.”  She didn’t like where this was going.  “What happened?”

“
They got Remus.  He’s gone.”

“What?  How?” Talia said.

“One of them made it back here.”

“
Must have dropped below the ledge, worked their way around behind without us seeing,” Duran said.  “I told you, we should have made a move on them before now.”

“Zoe,” Silvestri said urgently, appearing at the edge of the terminals.  “We need a sweep of the northern end of the platform.  Find out if there are any more of them creeping around back here.”

“On it.”

As she left, Roman glanced back toward the elevator.  The light outside had activated once more, indicating that the doors were about to open again.

Worse, the looters were edging forward along the pathway, their heavy riot shields held protectively before them.

“Shit, they’re coming again,” he said
.  “Heads up!”

Roman moved instinctively, bounding into a run before he could think better of the idea.  Bullets whizzed around him as the attackers opened fire, but in a few steps he had reached the RECS.  He dived inside, slamming the door behind him, and a hail of bullets rained against the hull behind him.

He settled himself behind the controls and
powered up the RECS.  With dismay, he noted that the power core was almost dead.  He didn’t have long to work with.

The only question is
, he thought,
what the hell am I going to do?

He looked through the cockpit window to see Talia and Duran firing upon the attackers, who continued to advance.  Beyond, a handful of new arrivals were making their way out of the elevator.

Then he understood what he had to do.

Roman pushed the RECS forward, veering to the side and continuing past Talia and Duran.  He heard her shout something at him, but it was lost in the sound of gunfire.  As he moved across the platform into the gloom, the lights on the RECS speared into the night, illuminating the scuffed floor where he’d battled the Redman earlier in the afternoon.  The edge of the platform was not far away.  More rounds smacked ineffectually against the RECS, and the
n he found his target – the inert form of the second RECS, which was lying on its side in the place Roman had left it during the fight.

He reached out with the claw of the RECS, snaring the broken machine by the arm, then turned back the way he had come.

He began to drag it toward the pathway that led to the elevator.

The looters turned their attention to him in earnest as he approached, directing their gunfire almost exclusively at the hulking form of the RECS, and Roman saw the hull begin to dent inward in places where it had been weakened earlier by the pulse rounds.

In a few seconds, those bullets would be coming through.  He had no doubt about that.

Looking in his rearview camera, he could see the dead RECS sparking as its underside ground against the platform.  Roman pushed forward with everything he had.

A few strides later he was on the pathway, then he was amongst the looters themselves.  He swung the free arm of the RECS, bashing aside their shields with a lusty blow, then caused them to scatter backward with a second.  He kept swinging, keeping them at bay as he advanced, and in moments he had forced them all the way back to the elevator.

The doors were closing again.

Roman turned the RECS, gripping the second machine with both claws, then hefted it up off the floor.  The RECS groaned mightily around him, sounding as though it were about to fall apart, then Roman flung his cargo toward the elevator doors, where it bounced along the path before coming to rest in the opening.  As the doors attempted to close, they met with the bulky metal hull of the RECS.  There was a grinding sound as the doors tried to force their way shut, but the RECS proved far too strong.  The doors creaked and strained a moment longer before coming to rest.

A klaxon began to sound inside the elevator.

The looters formed up again, attempting to dislodge the fallen RECS from the doorway, but Roman moved forward and pounded them with the claws again, knocking them away and sending them sprawling.  As he turned to seek help, he found that Talia and Duran had materialised beside him, and now had the prone attackers in the sights of their weapons.

“Stay down, all of you!” Duran thundered.  “You even
think
of moving and I’ll put one between your eyes.”