The Courier (San Angeles) (24 page)

Devon closed the link with a gentle touch to his screen. The call had been made, as he had been instructed to do. He walked to his Level 7 exit, pulled another unit from his pocket and dialed.

“It’s done.” He listened quietly for a while before continuing. “Doc Searls’ office. Green Heights Community, Level 6.”

After listening a bit longer he hung up and put the comm unit into an inside pocket. It was time to head back to his office.

With Nigel gone, it was a lot easier to get out and make his phone calls. There was no one that contacted him over the hard line. Not yet anyway. And with ACE going into full shutdown mode, there wouldn’t be for quite a while.

He would stay here as long as he was needed. He smiled to himself. Or as long as it was safe. Whichever came first.

The door to his office rolled open when he approached and closed again behind him. Devon settled into his chair and watched the screens.

“What’s going on?” I realized my voice sounded too high again.

“You heard. ACE is shutting down until they find the leak.”

“What about me? What happens to me?”

“They want me to dump you. Leave you out here for the corporations to find.”

I just stared at him.

“It’s not going to happen.” He turned in his seat to face me. “Look, Kris. I’m not going to do it. I don’t care what they say. It’s just not right.”

Without thinking, I reached out and brushed the scars on his face with my fingertips. “Thank you.”

Turning to face forward again, Miller pulled past a slow moving car. “First things first, we see if Doc Searls is still in.”

Two minutes later, he spun the wheel and the car rocketed into the parking lot. “When we stop, get out and follow me. I’ll do all the talking.”

“What if he’s not here?”

Miller paused. “Let’s just hope he is.”

Miller turned the wheel again and the car slipped into a parking spot. I threw my door open and ran toward the building, just behind Miller. The doors were still open, and I felt some hope rise in my chest.

“It’s on the second floor. Stairs.” Miller ran past the elevator and pulled open the door to the stairs. He took two at a time. I followed as close behind as my short legs allowed.

We came out into a reception area. The waiting room was empty and no one sat behind the desk. Two hallways went to the back of the building, one on either side of reception.

“Fuck. Come on, we’ll look in the back.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him, taking the closer of the two hallways.

The corridor was as deserted as the front. All of the examination rooms stood empty. The hallway took a ninety-degree turn, and at the other end it turned again, toward reception. In the back were two operating theaters. One looked recently used, with surgical instruments and blood-soaked gauze scattered on the floor. We stood by the table, both of us trying to catch our breath.

“Now . . . Now what?” I asked.

“I dunno. We might be able to find a black market doc, but that’s a pretty risky—” Miller held up his hand, telling me to stay quiet. “I think I heard something,” he whispered.

He motioned for me to stay low, and when he pulled out his gun, I followed suit. My ears strained in the silence, trying to hear whatever it was Miller had heard. From down the hall, I thought I heard a soft footstep, but I wasn’t sure if it was real or just my imagination.

We left the operating room and moved toward the hallway we had just come from. No other sounds came from the front room. I mimicked Miller and placed my back to the wall, stopping just before the corner. Miller dropped into a crouch and looked around it, pulling his head back quickly. He pointed at the other hall back to reception and stepped past me to lead the way. Dropping to a crouch again, he looked down the other hallway. He stood and stepped around the corner. I followed him. I was sure he could hear the pounding of my heart.

When we reached the reception area, Miller repeated the process, this time crawling around the desk. We moved past the elevators, staying under the cover of the receptionist’s desk, and moved to the stairwell door. Miller pushed the door open and waited until I was through before closing it quietly behind us.

We went slowly down the stairs until we reached the turn, and then sped up, taking two or more stairs at a time. Each step pulled
the new jean material across my knees, sending a sharp pain through them. When we reached the first floor door, he stopped and turned to face me.

“Quincy was up there.”

“What? Oh god.” I felt the blood drain from my face and an icy hand grab at my pounding heart.

“Yeah. How the hell did they find us? And so fast? They must have our entire comm system tapped, and already been in the area.”

“Let’s just get in the car and go.” I started to push past him.

“Wait! If I was them, I wouldn’t have let Quincy work alone again. You’ve escaped from him a couple of times already. Somewhere out there may be a partner . . . or more than one.”

I froze in my tracks. Why didn’t I think of that? “What do we do?”

“We can’t stay here, we’re sitting ducks.” He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. “Okay, on the count of three, we run for it. I’ll go for the car. You go out the back door and run for the first cover you can see. I’ll meet you at the driveway we turned around in. Stay out of sight.” He tucked his gun back into his pocket. I hesitated and did the same.

“Separate? Are you sure?” The moment the words were out of my mouth I felt a wave of embarrassment. Of course he was sure. It was me that wasn’t.

“I think we have a better chance to get out of here separately. And
if
Quincy has a partner, they’re probably watching the car. The back exit may be safer.”

“What if someone’s watching the back as well?”

“That’s a chance we have to take. Just run as fast as you can to some cover, and keep going.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Miller turned toward the door.

“Wait!” I reached up and pulled on his shoulder, turning him to
face me again. The thought that this might be it, that this might be the last time I saw him, filled me with the urge to hold him, to feel his lips on mine.

“What?”

What if he didn’t like me like that? He would think I was a stupid young girl. I gave him a quick hug instead. “Good luck.”

He awkwardly returned the hug with one arm. “I’ll see you at the driveway,” he said.

Miller pushed the door open and ran for the front entrance. I turned, bolting for the back. Before I reached it, a loud crack split the air and my step faltered. I resisted the urge to turn around. I didn’t dare stop to see if Miller had been hit.

I ran to the doors, pushing them open without slowing down. As soon as my feet hit the pavement outside, I veered toward the right, away from the street Miller had specified as a meeting place. There was no point in leading anyone who was out here directly to the spot. I reached the back of the parking lot and scrambled over the fence, scraping my neck on the top. The bandage covering where the bullet had grazed me peeled off.

Dropping over the other side, I found myself in a backyard, but not like one I had ever seen before. The grass was green and lush; flowers bloomed in beds that lined the edges. Clumps of dirt stuck to my shoes as I ran through the flowers. A pool, blue and glowing in the Ambients, was near the house.

I ran to a shaded corner, made darker by the gnarled tree growing there. I touched my neck and looked at my hand. There wasn’t any blood; the wound must have closed. A car door slammed in the parking lot behind me, the sound echoing off the house. Just as I climbed over the fence into the next yard, another car door slammed shut in front of the house.

By the third yard, I changed direction and started heading back
to the meeting spot. The driveway was only a few streets over. I still moved in what I hoped was an erratic pattern, trying to confuse anyone who might be following me. I raced through a yard and down someone’s driveway, crossing the street without even looking down it. I kept running into the next yard, the next place of relative safety. By the time I’d run several blocks, the fear-driven adrenaline rush started to fade, and I stumbled to a halt and collapsed.

I’m not sure how long I lay there. My legs felt like rubber and my lungs hurt with every breath. I pushed myself upright and scanned my surroundings.

This backyard was pretty much like the first one I had run through, without the swimming pool. As my breath came back, I looked around and realized I’d gotten myself trapped. This yard had a two-meter-high fence all the way around it, and nothing to help me climb over it. I moved back to the open gate and looked through. Nothing. The street was empty of cars and people. Either I hadn’t been followed, or I’d managed to slip away from them.

I limped through the gate and closed it behind me, keeping my hand on the gun in my pocket.

A
BBY WAS SURE
her first shot had hit, though it was tough to tell with all the people. She had caught glimpses of Miller in the crowd heading through the doors. His timing couldn’t have been better; the people made perfect cover. The moment he had moved away from the crowd, she had squeezed off a shot. The crowd froze for a split-second. After that it was pure mayhem, and she had lost him.

She thought she saw Miller running and took another quick shot, but it wasn’t him. Just another casualty. Six cars left the parking lot in quick succession. Any one of them could have been Miller. She memorized the makes and colors.

A minute later, Quincy walked out of the building without the girl. Abby broke her new rifle down into three pieces and started
packing it up. In the distance, she could hear the police drones moving toward them.

They’d gotten lucky, being close enough when the location call arrived. Lucky to have found Miller and the girl still in the building. She hoped their luck held out a bit longer, that Miller was hit, and the girl would be easy to find.

By the time Abby had ducked into the roof stairwell, the drones had arrived, buzzing around the area, trying to figure out what was going on. A couple of them skimmed to the ceiling to get a bigger picture, looking for something out of the ordinary. Quincy would know to blend in, wouldn’t he? Damn, she hated working with someone else.

Five minutes after leaving the roof, Abby was walking out of the building, looking like a businesswoman on her way to a meeting. When she passed Quincy, he joined her.

“Did you get the girl?” she asked.

“No. I didn’t even see them. I heard your shots though, so I’m assuming you saw them?”

“Just Miller. He won’t go far. I’m pretty sure I got him. It’s just a matter of time until he shows up. With ACE shutting down everything they can, he’ll have to go somewhere public to get the wound looked at.”

“Damn. We’ll take the car and cruise the neighborhood. If the girl is here, she’ll be on foot now, and she doesn’t know her way around this level.”

“I have a couple of cars to check on as well. One of them might be his,” she said.

Abby walked to the car in silence. There was no excuse for Quincy missing them inside. This should have all been a done deal.