Star Road (27 page)

“Are you his nursemaid?” she said, glowering at Ruth. “Or maybe... you’re interested in the Runner for other reasons.” The Chippie was grinning wickedly now. “Can’t say I blame you.”

Then, a sudden lurch of the vehicle threw her off balance and almost onto the floor.

The captain’s voice came over the speaker.

“Please—everyone remain seated and strapped in.”

Ruth checked Ivan’s straps, and then sat down and buckled in as the Chippie made her way back to her seat.

And then SRV-66 started moving on the ramp leading to the Portal.

Fast.

Something,
Ruth thought,
is going on....

~ * ~

As soon as she powered up and started rolling, Annie saw the incoming vehicles on the screen.

She watched as they split up and took different ramps.

Different vectors.

Circling like vultures...

Surrounding us...

“Looks bad, Jordan,” she said into the commlink.

“Go as fast as you can, Annie,” Jordan said over the headset. “I’ll keep them busy.”

“Okay.”

The SRV picked up speed as she moved it away from the demolished terminal building.

Fast, Annie trying to gauge how much speed she could muster as she hit the curved, fun-house ramp to the portal... just how much she could push it.

Zigzagging to avoid the still-smoldering rubble and scattered body parts.

Her breath froze in her throat when she brought up the rearview screen with a swipe of her hand.

A vehicle suddenly appeared behind them, and it was
huge.

Almost as large as a WC troop ship.

And then she realized that’s exactly what it was—a decommissioned troop ship that had been modified, almost unrecognizable. Its hull was scored with numerous pulse blasts and dents. Gun turrets bristling everywhere.

Even as she watched, the forward portals opened, and several small, bullet-shaped speeders shot out, heading toward her.

“Jordan, they’re coming in fast. Speeders all over the place,” she said.

“They have to stick to the Road like we do.”

As if in response, a white spike of fire shot from the rear of the SRV. The shields on one of the speeders exploded in a shower of orange sparks and bubbling hot metal.

What was left of the speeder stopped dead on the road—a twisted wreck.

Annie’s options of which ramp to take were numerous ... and confusing.

The map configuration on her HUD displayed dozens of interlacing ramps and roadways, all curving around wildly and converging in gigantic Gordian knot-like intersections.

The entire interchange was supported by hundreds of massive pylons that faded away into the distance. Below the ramps, the oceans churned, hurling huge waves up to the sky.

The oncoming vehicles skillfully navigated the winding intersections.

How the fuck do we get out of here?

Even as she thought that, a group of speeders started to close the distance, speeding up behind them.

So far, they were holding their fire.

Why?

Annie had to make a decision. Moving to full power, she saw four good options immediately up ahead.

They must want to take us alive.

The speeders—still far enough away ...

Maybe she could shake them off, get to the portal, get back onto the Star Road.

Get the hell out of here.

Maybe.

She decided not to take the obvious route—the most direct route to the portal.

That’s exactly what the Runners would be expecting; so before she got to the junction, she cut the SRV hard to the left and onto a ramp that dropped down ... toward the ocean.

Has to be rocking the passengers... and if they see the speeders?

They’d be getting the Road trip of a lifetime. She wondered briefly if the Chippie was recording all of this. No doubt.

Checking a screen, she saw that the maneuver had worked.

For now.

One of the speeders tried to take the unanticipated turn but, moving so fast, it flew off the edge of the ramp. It dropped in a lazy, dizzying spiral and then flared in a silent explosion when it hit the edge of another ramp thirty meters below. Still spinning like a whirligig, it plunged another hundred meters until it splashed into the raging ocean.

And disappeared.

Nothing left but a large, iridescent oil slick on the surging waves and bubbles rising to the surface, marking where it had gone under.

“Two down,” she said into the commlink.

“Make that three,” Jordan said.

Annie watched as a pulse cannon took out one of the two speeders that had successfully negotiated the hairpin turn, coming up fast behind them.

The other had forward shields up; but each turn exposed its flank ... at least for a moment.

She watched as her gunner took full advantage and fired short, sharp blasts.

The speeder exploded in a glorious shower of sparks and twisted metal.

That leaves two more left that we know of,
Annie thought.

And then she wondered:
Why aren’t they shooting at us?

She had no idea how many more speeders might come after them. There could be dozens more still inside the troop ship ... or circling around out of scanner range or hidden behind the massive pylons to head them off.

Eventually, with planning, every section of ramp could be a trap for the SRV, and these guys looked like they knew what they were doing.

Frantic, she scanned the various screens, looking for more signs of enemy pursuit.

When her gaze flicked back to the rearview, she groaned.

“Shit…”

A speeder close on their tail... and all she could think of to say to Jordan, shouting into her headset, was: “Why aren’t you taking that son of a bitch out?”

“Easy there, Annie. I can’t get a bearing. He’s too close, and this ramp is anything but straight.”

Even in this situation, Jordan sounded calm ... collected.

No pressure.

Wish I could say the same.

Annie took a quick turn and dropped down to another, lower level, as if she might be doubling back to the station, in exactly the wrong direction if she wanted to access the portal.

The SRV skimmed along the undamaged ramp surface, shifting from side to side as she adjusted for its winding curves.

She kept an eye on the speeder on her tail, but she had to focus on the path ahead. Its twists and turns made her stomach roil.

Who the hell designed this?
she wondered.

Her passengers below had to be losing it.

“Okay. This ... is going to be crazy,” she said, as much to herself as to Jordan.

With a sudden jerk of the controls, she took a sharp turn onto an even lower level, one that nearly skimmed the surface of the sea. Foaming waves towered against the sky.

The SRV sped along the ramp at nearly sea level.

Massive tongues of water splashed across the ramp’s surface and pulled away, leaving behind thick tangles of a strange kelplike substance that gave off an eerie red luminescence.

Stuff looks slippery. Hit some of that on a sharp turn and... good-bye.

In spite of a few reckless turns, the single speeder behind them kept up and now was gradually shortening the distance. Annie had no doubt that the driver was in communication with the troop ship, giving his exact location so they could send out more speeders and intercept her.

Only a matter of time ...

“Still can’t get a clear shot,” Jordan said over the headset. “If you got to a straight section. Even for a few seconds ...”

Annie checked her screen showing the ramp sections ahead.

“Okay ... we’re coming up on a straightaway.”

“Copy that. I’ll be ready.”

Annie also saw that there weren’t any other ships directly ahead of her.

Not yet, anyway.

Coming down so near the surface threw them off.

“Gun needs more pivot and arc. Then I could get off a shot. Fucking design flaw, if you ask me,” Jordan added.

“We’ll see about redesigning the vehicle once we get back home, okay?”

“Just get us straight, Captain.”

Annie throttled the SRV up as fast as it would go and still stay on the twisting roadway, now close to a short, straight section.

But then another one-man vehicle appeared on the road in front of them. She jumped when Jordan fired forward and turned the speeder into a blazing, spinning ball of slag.

Fucking Jordan—got eyes on the back of his head.

She checked to onboard nav systems. The bad news: she was moving farther away from the portal. Once again, she wondered why the Builders—or whoever—had made such a complex system of interchanges and ramps. Part of a defense system for Hydra Salim? Or maybe it was simply a very busy hub at one time or another.

Annie glanced at the rearview display again just in time to see something that didn’t make sense.

The speeder right there ... behind them ... still not firing, to the side, in the water ... something huge and dark was moving fast along the road, tracking them like a predatory shadow.

~ * ~

In the gun turret, Jordan watched his pursuer intently, waiting for him to stop wobbling back and forth so he could actually hit it.

He could see a straight section ahead.

C’mon,
Jordan thought.
Come to papa. Just need one clean shot.

He jumped when a surge of sudden turbulence in the ocean off to his left hit the SRV.

His first thought was that a huge wave had heaved up and was about to break over them.

This one looked big enough to sweep the SRV and its pursuer into the ocean.

But that isn’t what happened.

Instead, out of the churning gray water, a huge head—
bigger than the SRV itself-
—broke the surface. It thrust up and out of the water, towering above them, balanced on a thick, elongated neck.

The underside of the animal was translucently pale, but everything happened so fast, Jordan could barely register it.

Then the thing
struck.

Whipping its head around faster than should have been possible for something that size, it opened its mouth, exposing a red, gaping maw lined with huge, sharply honed teeth. With a quick, vicious snap of its body, the head darted forward like a striking cobra and snatched up the speeder.

And the speeder ... simply...
vanished.

Like it had never been there.

The water churned, throwing frothy whitecaps to the wind as the creature returned to the depths. A wave thick with red kelp sloshed over the road.

But that was the only sign that it had ever been there.

That could have been us,
Jordan thought.

~ * ~

“What the hell just happened?” Annie was staring at the rearview screens.

One second, the pursuer was there.

The next...
gone.

She tapped the screen to make sure it was still functional. The view of the road behind them was perfectly clear.

So where’s the speeder?

“Jordan?” she said, more calmly than she felt. “What the hell just happened?”

Jordan’s laughter came over the commlink, and then he said, “You— ahh, might want to take a higher road. Trust me on this.”

“I’m getting a reading that there are more of the Runners up ahead. How you holding up?”

“Any ramp ahead and I’ll be fine. Send as many as you want my way. Just because they’re stupid enough not to shoot us down, doesn’t mean I can’t shoot
them.”

~ * ~

27

SHOOTING GALLERY

Gotta give ‘em credit. They’re
tenacious bastards, whoever they are.

Now Jordan was enjoying himself as he picked off their pursuers one after another.

But why the hell aren’t they shooting back? Even to cripple us, if they want to take the cargo or someone on board?

He had no doubt they were Runners, and they were here to get their leader—Ivan—back alive.

“Look...”

He saw what lay ahead at the same instant Annie did.

They were moving in the direction of the portal now, the diversion down to the surface having worked ... at least for the time being.

Jordan checked the nav systems and saw several routes to the Star Road entrance. He hoped Annie would take the quickest one and get them the hell out of here.

Once they were back on the Road, they should be safe, but could she shake these guys when they closed again? Could she evade them and could he shoot them all down before a well-placed shot crippled their vehicle?