Flight (39 page)

I pry his hand off and whisper back. "It could be Tier. They only got his genetics a couple years ago, how could they've made adult clones already?"

"Please, he wouldn't be calling your name, Junco. He'd be murdering people."

That's true. I nod but the voice appears in the stairwell with us, a few flights up.

"Junco, goddammit! Answer me!"

I take a deep breath and hold up my index finger to Gideon's face. Then flatten my palm and push it towards his face.
Let me handle it
, it says. A signal I know he knows because we are partners and we've used that signal since we were children.

"Tier?"

"Junco!"

I hear his boots race down and he comes into sight. I have to admit, they got the uniform dead-on accurate. I let my face flood with relief as he approaches and watch him for a reaction. He smiles, then looks up at Gideon. "I'd kill ya for being stupid enough to get left behind and put her in danger, but right now I just want to get the fuck off this planet before the core blows."

My surety of who this man is wavers and I feel the same conflict in Gideon.
Is this Tier?
I ask.

He shrugs internally.
I don't know.

Fuck.

Fuck,
he echoes.

"Where's Tessen and Ryse?"

"Down there, let's go. Ryse is waiting for us on ship."

I shoot him in the back and watch him fall down, his eyes looking up at me in honest-to-God surprise.

"Tessen didn't come, clone."

"Fourteen minutes, Junco."

We book it back up the stairs and when we get to the top the door is padlocked. I take out my SEAR and melt the lock, pull the door open, then wave the stubby plasma loop across the door jam and melt the door to the frame. I fall to the ground in a wave of pain as Isten's memories flood me again. I feel Gid next to me, taking the memories, then the pressure release, but before I can recover they're all in my head. All the siblings, all the clones, Aren, Tier, Moju, Iren, Sariel, Tukker, and even Soli and Gid.

Junco, help us!

Junco, don't walk away!

Junco, we're here for you.

We're your siblings. Don't leave us here.

Please, Junco. They're killing us!

Don't leave–

Gideon shakes me hard. "Junco, put up a fucking wall right now, or–"

"They have you, Gideon. I can hear him."

"Yeah, so what. We're real, Junco. They are just copies!"

"That doesn't make them fake, it makes them our twins. That's all the clones are, just–"

"You're fucking crazy. They made them."

"But they made me too–"

"Junco, did your SEAR kill them?"

I nod. "Yeah, but maybe those were mutants. These are clones, not mutants."

He shakes his head at me. "Call for Lucan, right now."

"No, I'm not done here yet."

"Call him or–" He grabs my hand and I pull away and step back a few paces.

"What the fuck are you doing? I'm not calling him, he's not supposed to be down here!"

"The core is gonna blow in twelve minutes." He looks up to the sky, then back at me. "And I don't see your fucking friends. Call him!"

I shake my head and grab the rifle. "We'll finish what we started, Tier will show up. I've got a beacon on me somewhere–"

"Where, Junco? I don't see any fucking beacon on my screen. Where?"

"Let me take the shot, and if they don't show up at two minutes I'll call Lucan. He'll come instantly, he's on ship. Trust me, OK?"

He stays silent so I take this as acceptance. I sniper-crawl over to the ledge and reach back for Subjack's map of the compound. I see the cryo building and ask for Isten's scope-sight gift. A gift I now possess because I possess him. Gid crawls up to me as I snap down the bipod, but my eyes are on her.

Iliana. She paces along her rooftop, agitated just like us, and looks worried about her pick-up, just like Gideon.

I feel her and realize that she can feel my gaze, even from this distance.

She pivots around looking, searching. For me. She doesn't know where I am. Then up in the sky, looking desperately for a hovercopter, no doubt. I'd be worried too if I were her, because I'm about to send a fucking 50-caliber round straight through her skull and blow up something else on the other side for good measure.

I settle down and look through Isten's rifle. I flick the auto-scope on but use my eyes to make my observations, just using the one-shot as a backup. My eyesight is phenomenal and now I know why Isten did so well out on the range. Fucker was cheating.

Was not, Junco. It was a gift.

Isten? Where are you? Are you alive?

What do ya mean, Snowbird? I'm fine. I'm in the stairwell, come open the door.

I look over to Gideon but he's looking behind us, not even paying attention.

"Maybe I should call Lucan?"

He snaps his attention back to me. "What did I miss?"

"They have clones of Isten too. He says he's in the stairwell."

"Use it now, Junco. I am not even fucking around. We're not winning anymore, use it!"

I rub my fingers together and there's a little spark of light as the gift kicks in.

I wait.

And wait.

But no one comes.

I look over to Gideon.

"Ten minutes, Junco. Take the fucking shot, that's all we have left now!"

I concentrate on the cryo building but Iliana is gone. "Fuck! She's not in sight." I scan what I can see of the rooftop that is at least a mile and a half away according to my newly enhanced vision screen, but there is no one out there. I wait. Patience is a huge part of being a sniper so I'm good at waiting. But it's not exactly the easiest thing to do when your vision screen is telling you that the entire valley will be glowing in nine minutes.

I see her again, for just the briefest moment. She's on the other side of a small mechanical building on the roof, pacing, but on the wrong side of where I need her to be. The fact that she flicks in and out of sight in her movements tell me she that she's not actively hiding from me. She just happened to wander out of sight by accident.

I start on my breathing, because that's how I take shots. It makes no sense to change my routine because I have a new gift and Isten's rifle. Stick with what works. I calibrate wind and direction, then realize that the dots on my vision scope are not mil-dots. They are something avian that no one thought to teach me.

I shrug it off and get back to breathing.

In out stop.

In out stop.

She's still on the other side of the building.

I check the one-shot and compare it to my own observations. It's way fucking off, goddammit. Not even close. I have a small panic attack and watch Iliana come into view for a second, then slip out just as fast.

Goddammit!

Gideon's hand is on my back then and I feel his heartbeat as he passes it over to me as a calming mechanism. In my head he chants with me.

In out stop.

In out stop.

I relax and decide to use the auto-scope on the rifle. It hasn't changed, but I have. I gifted myself scope sight, and that has to have consequences.

One cold-bore shot, Junco. Either you do it, or it doesn't get done. One cold-bore shot and that bitch's brains will splat out the other side and she'll be history. Hopefully her fucking digital mind is stored on site too, and the core explosion will take care of any future Ilianas–

"Get a fucking move on, Junco. Seven minutes."

Bastard. Daydreaming about the kill shot is part of the process.

I see another set of feet on the roof with Iliana now and I strain to make out who it might be. Gideon stirs behind me and then crawls back towards the door.

The core meltdown sirens stop abruptly and the entire valley is silent. Then the wails erupt again with a countdown sequence.

"Six minutes to full core meltdown. Six minutes to full core meltdown."

The voice is female and projects a fake calm that makes all the people down below panic in response.

I put my finger on the trigger, ready for my one opportunity, and then my attention is diverted by a commotion down below in the quad between two nearby buildings.

It's Matthew. Or maybe not
the
Matthew, but
a
Matthew.

I look over at Iliana but she's not visible. No shot. I point the rifle down at Matthew and reset the one-shot. It buzzes internally as I target his head. Then I smile and squeeze.

My body is shunted back three feet from the recoil, but I don't even feel it, just wiggle back up into position and refocus on the blood-spattered pattern on the side of a nearby tree. I choke down a snort as people around him panic and look about.

Gideon crawls up next to me. "What the fuck was that?"

"Matthew. I got him in the head. Was too easy, really." And it was a little too much fun as well. I've spent a fair amount of time picking people off from a distance in my teens and sniping just feels an awful lot like home to me.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Shoot that goddamn bitch, Junco!"

I ignore him and turn the rifle back towards cryo, waiting for her to appear.

I see other people now, getting ready for the pick-up I assume. Once the hovercopter shows my chances are over. There's no way to get enough accuracy in that type of wind. The seconds stretch out and I begin to get jumpy as the alarm calls out the time left.

Then, like a gift, another woman appears. Long golden hair, long golden gown. Now, who the fuck could that be? I wonder.

"Inanna," Gid says, looking through the sniper scope.

"Yeah, should I take the shot?"

"Fuck yes, take the fucking shot!"

I squeeze and watch the round blast though her skull. Inanna drops to the ground, her body an explosion of red as 25,000 foot per pound force of muzzle energy reaches out to kill her from more than a mile and a half away. Iliana panics and runs out into my line of sight and I squeeze again, blowing her left arm completely off.

A laugh bursts out before I can tuck it down.

"Junco, that's sadistic. Kill the girl, now!"

I send off one more shot and blow apart her leg this time just because I can.

"Goddamn it! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Me? That bitch deserves it."

He reaches over to take the rifle and I elbow him in the jaw, he tackles me and pins me down. "You're losing it, Junco. Snap back to me, now." I pull away and turn back to my scope sight. She's on the ground writhing in pain now. I end it for Gid. But if I was alone, I'd blow off her other arm, then her other leg. And let her sit there till she died of pain or blood loss. Because killing is my one true superpower.

"Four minutes to full core meltdown. Four minutes to full core meltdown."

"We're gonna die here, Gideon." I look over to him. "And I don't even care." I turn my rifle back to the valley floor and start picking off people just for the hell of it. Just to prove to them that I am the scariest bitch on the block. Sun Tzu, right? Desperate soldiers have no fear because if you're gonna go down. Well, fuck. You might as well go down fighting.

He doesn't stop me this time, just lets me kill like a psychopath.

And if you think about it, that's all I've ever been. A psychopathic killer who thinks it's funny to blow off someone's arm and let her writhe in pain.

The world had better hope I die here today, because I've suddenly got an itch to become the Wind of Vengeance and show the world exactly what I'm made of.

Chapter Thirty-Six

It only takes a few seconds for the people down below to scatter and target practice to be over, but things don't calm down, because the Runout defenses that were taken out earlier by Arel and Sera come back online and they are targeting me.

The blast blows up the small roof access structure and Gid and I go tumbling over the side, falling towards the ground until I snap out of it and snatch his armor with my razors as my damaged wings unfurl and create a slight break in our rapid acceleration. He screams as I penetrate his skin and it echoes past the angry alarms accentuating the voice that patiently announces that we only have three minutes to core meltdown.

We fall to Earth, still slamming hard at a pretty good rate, but not anything like it could have been. I release Gid and we roll and both pop back up in a run.

My mini-plasma is out and firing at the Runout forces that are almost upon us in every direction when the avian ship appears above us and the hellfire rains down.

It's pretty indiscriminate, being that individual solders are small targets for a cannon made to wipe out cities, and the wave of flame rolls towards Gid and me.