Crossways (39 page)

“That's better.” Nan's tan was suspiciously pink and she could barely catch her breath to speak. She laughed, a kind of gurgle. “And now I don't think I can get up again. Give me a hand, Ricky.”

She wasn't such a dead weight as Minnow. Ricky managed to get her on her feet and she rolled herself back onto the bed.

“Now what?” Ricky asked.

“Now we wait for Cara.”

Archie sent a handful of bots scuttling down into the pit of the stairwell. “Floor below is clear,” he said.

Cara switched to silent mode.
*Check for booby traps: ordnance, gas vents, anything unusual.*

*Nothing,*
he said after a short interval.

On the fourth level they paused for the bots to check the next floor down, Nan's floor, even more thoroughly, but the corridor remained stubbornly empty.

*This isn't right. There's no way we could get so lucky,*
Cara said.
*Is the antigrav shaft working? Are they going to come at us that way? Rappel down?*

*Antigrav tube isn't working, but I can reset it,*
Archie said.
*They switch it off during matches.*

*Power it up. At least it will slow them down if they try to come that way.*

Cara nodded to Tengue and Gwala and fell into step behind them down the last flight of stairs to Nan's level. From the landing there was a corridor with a comm station in it and beyond the comm station a bend. This was how Ricky had described it.

The grav shaft was just behind the stairwell, a faint hum announced that it was operational. Beyond the grav shaft the corridor dead-ended. She compared it with Ben's schematics that he'd infodumped into her head. There used to be doors there, but they'd blocked off the corridor.

Bronsen put his hand on the left-hand wall.
*Nan and Ricky are behind this. The door must be around the next corner.*

Cara nodded.
*Thanks. You've done your bit. Go back up a level. Guard the antigrav and the stairs. Don't do anything heroic, just yell if anyone comes close.*

*Understood.*

Cara let her senses roam out to see if she could feel any human presence. Ronan joined with her. Just Nan and Ricky.

*Nan, we're outside. How's your guard doing?*
Cara brought Nan into the gestalt so that everyone got the answer.

*Sleeping like a baby. My great-grandson is a very smart kid.*

*Tell me the details later. We're on your floor, by the side wall. There's still no sign of a trap. Sending a bot to hack your door lock. Don't come out until we're sure it's clear.*

*Got that. Staying put. I don't have much choice, my legs aren't up to much right now.*

*Don't worry, we've got that covered,
* Ronan said.
*Got an antigrav harness for you.*

*Oh great, I get towed along like a balloon on a string.*

Ronan chuckled.
*That's about it. Are you complaining?*

*I wouldn't dare.*

They moved to the corner. Tengue used a scope to confirm what the bots had told Archie.
*Empty. Door on the left, five meters. Corridor dead-ends.*

*What?*
Had they blocked off the corridor since Ricky had seen it on his abortive escape attempt? Ben's schematic said it was a set of doors, too.

*Oh shit. Each end of the corridor. Archie, send your bots down, don't just look. Check for a holographic screen. There should be doors there.*

The blank end wall of the corridor behind them disappeared. A dozen buddysuited figures boiled out of the space. A barrage of bolts hit the ceiling beyond them—deliberately fired high.

“Stand down. Raise your hands in the air,” a female voice shouted.

They jumped back to the bend in the corridor. At the other end the blank wall had disappeared and another dozen figures stood, six abreast across the corridor, bolt rifles aimed.

Tengue and Gwala moved in opposite directions. They each hurled a flashbang while at the same time banging a shield-stick on the floor. A shield rippled across the corridor, one on each side of Cara's group. Stride by stride they moved around the corner and to the open door of Nan and Ricky's cell. A barrage of bolts pounded into the shields simultaneously, but they held firm.

“Very useful gadgets,” Cara said. “How long will they hold?”

“About long enough to get into here.” Tengue and Gwala held the barrier while they all piled into the cell and then doubled up what was left of the shield while they slammed the door.

“Know how to make an entrance, don't you?” Nan said.

“Hi, Nan. Hi, Ricky,” Cara said. “Seem to have made a mess of this. How are you?”

“Well, we were all right. Not sure now,” Nan said as Ricky threw himself at Cara, almost bowling her over.

“Where's Uncle Ben?”

“He's meeting us later.” She jerked her head sideways. “This is Ronan. He's our medic.”

“Hi, Miss Benjamin.”

Nan checked him over for a few moments. “You can call me Nan.”

He grinned at her then produced an antigrav harness from inside a slim pack. “I brought a spare pair of legs. May I fit them?”

“Cara, is Uncle Ben all right? I mean, why didn't he come himself?” Ricky was at her elbow, face all concern.

“He's coming, Ricky. In the sleekest spaceship you can imagine, a raider with a jump drive.”

“Oh, boy.”

We just have to get out of here first, she thought.

*Bronsen, activity on the floor above us?*

*Nothing yet.*

*Right.
* “Archie, what can your bots do to break through the ceiling? Can it be done?”

“Some of the boys are still outside, I'm sending them up to the floor above. Oof!” He clutched his head. “Sorry, they just totaled them. Just these guys then.” He sent five small spider bots up the wall and across, each drilling into a different section of the ceiling and disappearing through into the void.

Something whomped into the door from the outside.

“Archie, can you hurry?”

“Three charges, here, here, and here should do it.” Archie pointed and brought down three bots.

Cara took a single charge from her belt and handed it over, Archie added one of his own, and Gwala a third.

“I suggest making a makeshift shelter out of the bed and mattress. There's going to be a lot of debris.”

Another whomp shook the door.

“Everyone behind the bed,” Cara said. “Whoa, he's a big boy.” As they moved the bed Minnow's recumbent body was exposed. He snored loudly once and fell silent again.

“Three of us could shelter under him,” Gwala said.

“That's Minnow,” Ricky said. “He was kind to me. Don't leave him out there to get hurt.”

“Look, kid—” Gwala began.

“Pull him into the corner,” Cara said. “Get down, use the
bed frame and the mattress. Right, Archie, best we can do. Blow it!”

She'd barely said the words when three sharp cracks and a tearing groan dropped a section of ceiling on the far side of the room, filling the air with dust and the acrid reek of explosives.

Tengue was on his feet first, coughing, followed closely by Gwala. There was another whump against the door and a sprinkling of rubble cascaded down from the raw hole above them.

“Quick. I can hear movement.” Bronsen peered down from above.

“Tengue,” Cara said.

“On it.” Tengue cupped his hands, Gwala stepped into them and got a boost upward. He caught the reinforcing beam that projected from the hole and swung up easily. Archie did the same for Tengue, boosting him up to Gwala's waiting grasp. They didn't wait, but ran to secure the stairwell. The building shook as they dropped a charge down it to slow down the opposition.

“Ronan, Nan, get up there now,” Cara said. “Drop a line.”

Ronan flicked a switch on the side of Nan's antigrav casing and pushed off, rocketing upward to be caught by Bronsen. Archie boosted Ricky up next.

Another whomp on the door. The next one would batter it down.

“You next,” Archie said, cupping his hands for Cara's foot and shoving as she sprang. Bronsen caught her hand and pulled.

Ronan lay down and dropped a thin line for Archie, whose head appeared through the hole as another whomp blew the door inward. He swung his legs up and rolled clear of the hole as a bolt gun discharged into the space he'd just cleared.

“Grav shaft, quick,” Ronan said.

“Got an idea,” Cara said. “Tengue, can you blow the stairs?”

“One charge left.” Tengue pulled it from his belt.

A head appeared above the hole in the floor. Cara put a smart-dart into the man's cheek and he fell back.

Nan thumbed the safety off the bolt rifle, set it on spray
burn and heated up the floor around the hole until it was glowing red and the reinforcing bar was twisting in the heat. “Stay back, you bastards,” she yelled. “First one through goes home without a head.” She glanced sideways at Cara. “What? I was trained in negotiation. Sometimes things got a little rough.”

They ran for the grav shaft.

“Push off hard,” Ronan said. “Like you would if you were playing grapple. Follow me.” He bent his knees and pushed, soaring upward with Nan in tow. Cara took hold of Ricky's hand and followed him. Bronsen came next, closely followed by Archie. Gwala and Tengue came last, and Cara heard the crump of explosives as the stairwell collapsed below them.

“Archie, can you take care of the grav shaft once we're into the arena?” Cara asked.

“Got one bot left.”

*Hilde, are you there?*

*Affirmative.*

*Hover over the roof of the stadium. There's a vent.*

They shot upward into the stadium where spectators were still being evacuated. The null-G was back up to full strength. Cara caught the lip of a platform and pulled Ricky onto it. “You ever played grapple before?”

“No.” His voice trembled. “But I've watched it plenty on the vid.”

“Well, now's your chance. See that bar up there?”

“Right up there?”

“Yes, that one. Push off from here, grab it with both hands, then get your feet on to it and aim for where Ronan is up there on the loop with your Nan. I'll be close behind. You can't fall. Don't think of it as up and down.”

“What if they cut the power?”

“Gravity will come back slowly, just like it does in a grav shaft.”

“Yeah, but there are no ladders to grab.”

“Just jump for it, before the guys with guns get past that blockage on the stairwell.”

Ricky jumped. Cara jumped after him. Bronsen and Archie had each taken different routes and were traversing across to the loop. Tengue and Gwala had halted by the head of the grav shaft to throw a flashbang down now that
it was deactivated. There was a lot of healthy screaming as the crowd jostled to escape what had become a fiasco.

Tengue had torn the marker tape from the head of the stairwell and was busy directing fleeing spectators down the staircase Crowder's militia would be coming up. Cara suppressed a smile. Good man.

Ricky had reached the bar, but hadn't taken off again yet. “Like this.” Cara swung her feet up and launched herself toward the goal. She grabbed on to the loop and looked back. Ricky was still on the bar. She beckoned him toward her.

“Hold Nan,” Ronan said and launched himself over to where Ricky clutched the bar, frozen. Everyone else had made it safely and Gwala was working on the roof vent catch three meters above their heads. One of Archie's bots would be perfect, but they'd used them all up.

Cara could see Ronan talking calmly to Ricky, but the boy had a thousand-meter stare. Suddenly he doubled over and puked, globules spraying out. Ronan just rubbed his back, took his hand and launched through the vomit, delivering Ricky to the loop.

“Don't worry about it. Most of us puke in free fall the first time,” he said as they landed. “Don't make me tell you about my first time in a grapple arena. They made me clean it up myself. Didn't tell me until afterward there were bots to do it.”

“Got it,” Gwala said as the hatch cover sailed away.

“Hilde's in place,” Tengue said.

The sound of a flyer's drive droned above the roof canopy.

“Okay, everyone,” Ronan said. “The antigrav field extends beyond the external skin of the sphere. Outside, grab onto anything you can to anchor yourself. The field weakens about three meters out and it is possible to slip out of it altogether. It's a long way down.” He took Ricky's hand firmly and powered off the loop toward the roof hatch and through it. “Come up one at a time and I'll guide you through.”

Bronsen shot up first and would have gone straight through at some speed, but Ronan caught him by the arm and pulled him sideways, out of sight.

“Not so fast. Next,” Ronan called down.