Flight (33 page)

My attention snaps back to Sera and I grab a pipe and slide my feet across the surface until I find a lip for each to perch on. My wings stop waving and I am still.

Where?

Climb, Junco. You must be on top.

My left foot searches for something, anything to allow me to pull up and when I find it I waste no time and begins searching on the right side as well.

All the way to the top, Junco, So you're looking down on the core.

When I reach it I see the biometric pad and slam my left hand down. "This what you needed?"

Yes, but I need a drop of blood too, Junco. Just a tiny drop to extract the code.

"You never said anything about blood–"

Now, Junco. The alarms will sound any second.

I spy a sharp edge of metal and swipe my forearm across it until I bleed. "Where?"

Under your palm.

I remove my left palm from the pad and slap it across the blood, then put it back. A progress bar appears in my vision screen and I watch it grow as the data flows.

The download starts and I almost fall back writhing in pain as the synapses in my brain begin firing uncontrollably.

You're going to kill me! Holy shit, that hurts!

Relax, Junco. It will subside, just relax.

I do, I try my best, really. I close my eyes as I cling to the machine and start counting breaths until I feel the pain lessen and the pressure inside my head begins to leak out into the core. I never realized how much she filled me up, I feel empty by comparison.

"Get a fucking move on, Junco, the temperature's rising–" Gideon's voice is cut off as the alarms sound and there is a thunderous rumble when the cooling cells come online.

"Almost done – like thirty seconds."

"Now, Junco. Leave her, just come–"

The shaft above me slams closed with a crash as a shower of red light shoots down from the ceiling and encapsulates the core.

"What the fuck just happened?"

I hear myself, but that's about it. All the alarms are silent and everything happening on the other side of the red curtain is cut off from my world. I remove my palm from the biometric pad. "Sera, what the–"

Just finish, Junco. I'll tell you what to do to get out. Just finish it, please.

I stick my palm back on and a flame erupts but I no longer have control and it stays there, burning. "Fucking shit, Sera – stop! You're burning me!" I feel her climbing around in my brain, taking things and leaving me nothing but empty places. "Stop!"

And then Isten is there in my head too, all three of us fighting for access to my brain. He's powerful, but Sera cannot be stopped. I feel a build-up of pressure inside me and my head wants to explode.

And then it does. Or something does because my ears are on fire. Not burning, like a figure of speech, but literally on fire. I unsnap the helmet and throw it to the ground, frantically swatting away the sparks that have now fried my coms for good.

"You fucking bitch! You're trying to kill me!"

Junco, pull off now!

I can't, Isten, she has my palm! I'll rip the skin.

Pull off! Pull off!

I pull and then go careening backwards as she releases me, smashing into the barrier where an electric current attempts to grab hold of my body and burn it to shriveled toast. My armor holds and I pull away, but my wings are scorched and they flail in the small space as I swim the air currents and grab hold of the core again.

Isten is gone and only Sera remains.

Calm down, Junco! You're going to ruin everything! I said I'd help you, now stop it!

"You're hurting me! You're stealing from me!"

I'm going to put it back, you stupid child! Now let me do my job or you'll kill everyone!

I feel her filling me up again and I relax a little.

See?

Well, a little explanation goes a long way.

The metal security barrier on the shaft we came down whisks open again with a satisfying snick.

I have disabled the electrical security in the upper shaft so you will simply leave the way you came. I'm done, thank you, Junco. You have fulfilled your obligations to me.

What was in my blood? Why did you need it?

Nanotech that I built and you were holding for me, that's it. It was not yours to keep, understand? But it is still inside of you, so you may use it if you need to. Now I must go and disable the defenses so Ryse won't be shot out of the sky. You have ninety minutes before the core explodes. Gideon has set a charge.

I stand there holding onto the core, blinking at her words. Then I barely prevent myself from slipping off when the ground shakes and the machines around me begin to flash and squeal with protest.

Ryse hit something out there. The battle has started without me!

"Climb, you stupid girl! Climb or you will meet your destiny burned and disfigured." The voice booms out of the walls somewhere and snaps me back to my senses.

I climb back up towards the vent in the ceiling and then jump and grab hold of the swinging grate and pull myself up into the shaft. Then it hits me – I'm missing my AI and cut off from Tier, Isten, and Gideon.

Alone. I'm all alone.

I scurry up the rungs and I feel it.

This is how it's supposed to be.

I smile and adjust one more time. And then I'm back.

I am just Junco and I feel invincible.

Chapter Thirty

I climb into the shaft and crawl as fast as I can towards the hole we came out of. I stop there, listening. If Tier and Gideon got out this is where they'd try and find me. "Tier?" I quiet my breathing and listen, but all I hear is the tell-tale sound of boiling water.

Shit! That was quick.

They're both grown men, they'll have to get out of this without my help. I forgo climbing down, that's a trap if ever there was one with that water getting hot. I'm staying up here even though I have no idea where I am.

I crawl over the hole and continue down the shaft until I reach the corner. I listen, then peek my head around and go around quickly, my knees aching from all this crawling on concrete, even through the thick armor.

This part of the shaft is short and ends at a small door that is obviously an access point because it has a latch. I try it but it doesn't budge. My SEAR comes out and I thrust it into the steel and begin the slow cut to make myself a door. The fumes coming up out of the steel suffocate me and I have to move back around the corner and drop down into a lower passageway a few times to stop the burning of my eyes and lungs.

When the plasma loop finally makes its way back to the start I power it off and begin thrashing at the cut-out with a two-footed kick. It gives a little with each impact and finally goes careening to the floor on the other side where it smashes into the biggest nightdog I've ever seen.

The thing yelps and scurries away towards its pack and I'm frozen in place for a fraction as the sound in my world dies down to battle decibels while my senses gather information so quick, the seconds stretch out like minutes.

I jump down and power the SEAR back up.

These are not Slightdogs but I'm not a scared little girl out on the prairie anymore, either. I put my weapon away and laugh. "Fuck you, dogs!" I swing the plasma around and blast the pack back into the wall until they are nothing but a pile of charred remains. The sprinklers come on and drench me with water, but fuck it. It's not like we're in stealth mode anymore. I slosh through the puddles, pass the dogs and turn the corner.

A mini-mutant Junco slams straight into me and falls to the ground where it clamps its teeth down on my leg like something out of the zombie apocalypse. My hand has the SEAR out and the mutant's head is spinning through the air before it takes out a hunk of flesh. I reach down and rub my hand over my leg. Fuck! It actually tore my armor!

For the first time I look around and notice I'm in the kennel, which explains the dogs. I put my plasma at low ready and take a cautious look around. A little late, since I already made a huge commotion with the dogs, but fuck it. Habits.

Nothing, just these dogs and that one mutant.

Not likely.

My rifle tracks in each direction as I pivot, then back up towards the door. My heel is just touching it when I hear the hissing coming from the dark kennels. Just one at first, but as the seconds pass more and more join in until there is a chorus of hissing so loud it overtakes the sprinkler system.

I wait for it, but they don't advance.

My right hand is on the weapon as my left feels for the door latch behind me.

It clicks and I feel the lock disengage. A barrage of force meets me as the door begins to open and I crash forward into the shallow water pooling on the floor. I recover just in time to watch the toddler Juncos fly into the room and start writhing mid-air. The screaming permeates my inner ear and travels all the way up to my brain in a wave of pain.

I train the plasma up and start blasting them on full stream until they begin to drop from above like they're getting sucked into heavy-G or something.

I open the door wider but no more fly in. When I peek around they are still there, but they refuse to enter.

My vision screen scans them for several seconds and a smile erupts on my face when I realize their issue. There are flame-retardant chemicals in the sprinkler system and they have a problem with this. I spray plasma fire until the sprinklers in the next room erupt, disorienting the little mutants, and then I get busy burning them with plasma fire.

I push them back this way through several more rooms, their numbers thinning but not nearly enough for comfort. Finally we reach the end of the line and the mutants scurry off into a motorpool hangar.

I fire the plasma up at the high ceiling but this time there is either no sprinkler system or the plasma is not powerful enough to trigger it.

The sprinklers in this room spray down, drenching my wings and making them heavy as I try to think of a way to get from this door to the next without being eaten alive by things that might be related to me. I find the controls for the far door and slam my hand against the activation switch and count the seconds until the door closes.

Ten. That's pretty fucking quick for such a large door. I slam the button again and count back. A flurry of mutants flies out of the door as it opens, maybe afraid of getting trapped in there.

Ten again. At least it's consistent.

I take a deep breath, check my ammo belt to see the status of my plasma cartridges, and then bounce my hand on the button one more time as I step out in the hangar.

The ground shakes from hellfire somewhere outside and they come at me from all sides. I blast them as I pivot and count in my head. My world slows down and the fractions drag on as I step and shoot my way across the shop floor.

The door is one quarter way down when a mutant gets through my plasma perimeter. I continue shooting with my right hand and my left goes for my weapon and has it powered up just as the little fucker sinks its teeth into my leg. I fist the SEAR rod and stab at the mutant while jetting a spray of plasma stream up into a pack that decided this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

I kick the little body off my leg and takes several more steps as I log the status of the door that is still several yards off.

Ten feet, halfway down.

I whirl and spray with one hand while cutting and dragging with the other.

Another little Junco latches on to my wing and I realize I'm vulnerable. I stretch them out and flap, taking myself upward, then whirl and spin the plasma and the SEAR at the same time.

Five feet, three quarters of the way down.

I thrust hard and dive down, praying I'll make it under the door before it slams shut and cuts my body in half. Another mutant grabs me by the feathers and slows my progress but I flap harder and then streamline my body into a bullet shape and put my arms out in front of me like I'm diving into water and not across concrete trying to outrun things that might want to eat me alive.

I slide under the door dragging the mini-mutant with me. The door crashes hard on my wing, leaving that thing crushed underneath. I scream out in pain as I jerk back and break off the two blood-filled primary flight feathers that were almost grown out after the third Fledge fight, plus almost a dozen more.

The blood shoots out of a dozen fractured feather shafts and I almost faint as buckets of scarlet pool around me. The pain coming from my wings has me writhing on the hard concrete floor as I try to catch my breath.

Shit. Sometimes being just Junco is not all that fucking awesome.

Stop the bleeding, Junco. Right now.

I shove my hand into my pockets and pull out the mapolina wrapper, praying the little starch packet is still inside of it.

It is. I rip it open with my teeth and the fine powder spills out. I bring my wing around and squeeze the outermost shaft together, stifling down the pain. My hands are shaking badly as I dunk the first blood squirting shaft into the little packet of starch. It sticks to the blood and hardens almost immediately so I repeat the process until all of the feathers are capped off.