Hive III (8 page)

At last we reach the light. It’s a doorway, but the Zees are nearly on top of us and Klaus is alternating between cursing his gods for abandoning him and begging them for forgiveness and deliverance. I swing my repeater around and empty the entire magazine. I’m not trying to kill them, just slow them down and hope the ones who fall will trip up the others. Sneak tries the handle, without any luck, and then begins pounding on the door with the heel of her boot. Klaus brings his Keeper rifle around and doesn’t take his finger off the trigger until it clicks empty. There isn’t enough time to swap magazines, but it doesn’t matter. A final blow by Sneak and the narrow corridor floods with light. We charge onto an open-ceilinged catwalk. Below us, the streets are packed with Zees pushing forward. They’re heading toward the front gate. The sound of gunfire roars just beyond view. A few remaining Keepers in a last stand? Then my ears perk up with the thundering boom of Bron’s 20mm cannons and I see Sneak’s expression register the familiar sound too. But the Zees are still behind us. At the other end of the catwalk is another door. The lip of the roof lies a paltry three feet above that and I’m sure if we can get up there, the Zees won’t be able to follow. Sneak glances back and I sign, telling her the plan.

S
he hops as she reaches the door, one foot on the handle, the other along the frame and in a second she’s up. She makes it look so easy Klaus takes a leap and smashes his face against the wall, landing in a heap. I don’t have a choice but to pop in another magazine and lay down some fire. I’m aiming for their legs now, since gimps don’t run nearly as fast. Sneak’s got her hand hanging over the top edge and she’s waving it emphatically to say, ‘all you gotta do is reach out and hold on.’

The Zees are fifteen feet away. Bullets to the legs hobbled the first few, but they
are simply knocked over and trampled by the ones behind them. So much for brotherly love. When I turn around, Klaus is nearly up, his feet struggling to find purchase on the slippery wall. Sneak’s face is red, but it isn’t just from the effort. She’s worried this buffoon’s lack of coordination might have sealed my fate. A second later he’s up and I break into a full run, repeater and Katana slung over my back. I’ll have one shot, otherwise I’ll have to turn and fight, or jump down and take my chances in the sea of Zee flesh below.

The leap I take isn’t nearly as solid as I hoped it would be. My footing is all wrong and the horde hissing behind me isn’t making things easier. Sneak reaches out a hand and our fingers barely connect. The Zees are right below me, reaching for my feet and legs and I’m kicking back at them with enough force to send a few tumbling to the ground. One of those bastards grabs a hold of my pants and starts yanking with everything he’s got.
Poor Sneak jerks forward and nearly comes tumbling over the edge. Now Klaus’ got her by the waist and they’re playing tug of war, with me as the rope. More hands reach out and it’s obvious that if I don’t break free, these leathery pricks are gonna do to me what they did to the Hive leader. I free my right hand, draw my Katana and bring it down in an arc behind me. Five severed arms and hands tumble to the ground. The sixth doesn’t fall ‘cause the muscles in the stubborn bastard’s fist are still clenched tight. I toss the Katana onto the roof and swing up with Sneak’s help. Klaus is staring at that hand like it means to go for his throat. Sneak signs me with one hand: “Doesn’t get much closer than that.” She pries the fingers open and tosses the hand over the edge. Klaus is white as a cotton tunic and his own hands have started shaking. I keep forgetting how new all of this is for him. Although it hasn’t been more than a handful of days since we came upon that underground complex, it feels like years have passed.

That’s when Sneak taps my arm and points. The
Zees on the causeway below us aren’t giving up as easily as I’d hoped they would. The edge of the roof is only five or six feet above their heads and those pricks are crawling on top of one another, like ants, to get at us.

More firing and I remember now why I was in such a hurry to get up here in the first place. Ret, Bron, Oleg, and maybe even Dhal. They aren’t far away and, judging by the swarm down below and the frantic sound of the gunfire, they’re in trouble. A cable runs from our building to the next one over. The kinda thing residents use to send messages back and forth.

“This way,” I shout and we
grab hold and begin shimmying across, hanging upside down like one of those sacrificial deer paraded through the streets before the Summer Solstice. We’re dangling in mid air between the two buildings, certain death swarming below us, when the Zees scurry onto the roof and come straight for us. The first actually makes it two full strides onto the cable before losing his footing and toppling to the ground below. Wave after wave follow and the result is almost the same every time. Mostly ‘cause the average Zee is as dumb as a pile of rocks. They spot a target and, more often than not, charge at it in a straight line. It’s only when there’s a Hive leader directing them do they begin to act with a moderate amount of intelligence. That’s the reason there isn’t a chance in hell of them catching us. They’re too stupid to mimic what we’re doing. But that isn’t what’s making me worried. Each of those twits that goes tumbling off the cable is making it bounce and vibrate just a little bit more and, as we draw closer to the center, it’s becoming harder to hold on. And yet on they come, in a relentless stream, salivating for a chance to sink their bacteria-soaked teeth into our flesh. That’s when I notice the spot where the cable is anchored to the building. Bits of concrete are being chipped away with every bounce. This sucker isn’t going to hold much longer. I tilt my head back and catch sight of Klaus, holding onto the cable with everything he’s got, a terrified and determined grimace on his face. You toss a hungry pack of Zees a juicy morsel like that and you’ll be lucky to find anything left. They’ll even eat the bones, when they’re hungry enough.

I’m about to tell them to keep moving when I hear a loud twang and it doesn’t take a Keeper’s
smarts to tell the cable’s just snapped off the building. Wind buffets my ears as we glide through the air. One of the few books to survive the fall was about a half-man half-monkey, who would swing from tree to tree using vines and this is exactly the thought going through my head as the edge of the building quickly approaches. I’m in the middle of a rather graphic curse word when we hit. Sneak manages to swing her legs out front to absorb most of the impact. So have I, but the sound of the wind being knocked out of Klaus’ lungs tells me he wasn’t so lucky. His body falls past me a second later and I swing out to grab hold of him, but don’t manage to snag more than the tail end of his Keeper robe. The mass of Zees below aren’t more than a few feet away; their heads tilting up, along with their reaching hands, as though the gods decided to dangle some delicious treat before them. I can hear Klaus coughing and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold him.

“Try and grab the cable, will you?”

Slowly, his hands close around it as he rights himself. I keep hold of his Keeper robe until the burning in my forearm becomes unbearable. I’m trying to give him time to catch his breath because we’re heading for the roof as soon as he can move. Sneak’s nearly there already, waving us on. She races to the other side to survey the situation and reappears a moment later, fingers signing so fast I can barely keep up. The others are there, Bron, Ret, Oleg and a giant Goliath machine, and the Zees are closing in from all sides. But it’s worse than that. A bad ass Hive leader’s directing the troops and he’s called back part of the chunk that had originally peeled away to chase us through the passageway. They’re about to head through the main gates and when they do, our friends will be overrun for sure.

We struggle to the roof and I pull myself over, my arms burning something fierce. This new Zee body of mine might have tremendous new strength, but it doesn’t have a whole lot of endurance. With Skuld gone, I might have a chance of tapping into Zee central, even if only momentarily, to help even the battle, but none of that’ll be possible unless we can take out this Hive leader.

Klaus is perched over a water tower coughing up blood.

“Can you move?” I ask and wonder if the young Keeper’s about to kick the bucket right here on this very roof.

He shakes his head. “I need a minute.”

“We don’t have that kinda time.”

Sneak and I move to the edge and peer over. She’s using her eyes to scan the rooftops
to find the Hive leader that’s causing all the problems. But I don’t need eyes to spot him. I can feel the bastard, moving amongst his Zee soldiers. For a moment I can even see through his eyes. He’s watching as the bronze colored machine drives its fists into the ground, crushing a dozen zees in the process and that’s when I realize not only is Dhal with them, he’s driving that thing. The angle is all weird, but seeing things from the Hive leader’s perspective helps me pinpoint his location. He’s on the ground, surging forward with his men. The Zees outside the city gates are getting closer. Suicide mission or not, I know it’s now or never.

There’s another cable at my feet which leads to the corner of the next building. If I can kick off at just the right angle, I may have a chance of getting close enough to make a difference. Sneak watches my eyes trace back and forth and knows exactly what I’m thinking. She darts across the cable like a fearless acrobat and even I’m impressed with her agility. As soon as she’s on the other side, I dangle from the wire with one hand and use the Katana in my other to hack it free. It takes three full chops before it cuts loose and my feet kick off at the very last second. A blur of speed and the ground races up to meet me, then the cable grows tau
t and I’m sailing less than a foot above the crowd of Zees. Landing will be the tricky part and when I let go I can feel my legs cycling wildly in mid air. I probably look like a human windmill, until my boots make contact with the first Zees skull and from there I go sprawling to the ground, knocking dozens of them down as I go.

A quick glance
at my hand reveals the Katana isn’t there anymore and now the Zees are starting to scramble back to their feet; I’m about to be lunch when I notice one of the poor wretches has a sword protruding from this side of his head. I lunge forward and slide the blade out, swinging it wide enough to kill another three before bringing it to my side. From there it’s a mad hack and slash toward the Hive leader, who’s sure as hell aware of my little stunt by now. The blade sweeps back and forth, cutting down several Zees at once, but there’s always more to take their place. Already I can tell he’s drawing his drones toward me, so focused on taking me out he doesn’t notice the little girl drop down behind him. A glint of sun winks off her twin blades as she goes to work. Watching her move in the chaos around me, I see she isn’t just a killer or an assassin. Sneak is an artist and watching her deliver precise, almost surgical death makes the hardened skin on my arms crawl with gooseflesh. The Hive leader barely has time to turn before a line opens across his throat and a thick stream of blood begins pumping from the wound. Sneak learned a thing or two from her encounter with the first Hive leader. Never underestimate your opponent. But more importantly, don’t leave them an opening. Her next strike goes up through the bottom of his chin and into the brain. The light in his eyes dulls and goes out before he hits the ground.

This was the gap in leadership I was hoping for. If I can splice into Zee central and pirate the Hive leader’s signal
, before the Queen can tell he’s down, we might have a chance of saving Ret and the others.

Sneak fights her way to me and works to fend them off as my eyes close and I see a burst Zee code streak past my closed eyes. My feet lift off the ground and I’m hovering about a foot in the air, arms splayed out
, and suddenly every Zee around us stops dead. They’re staring at me, their faces filled with unwavering adoration, their eyes glowing as brightly as the windows in Newton’s Temple. I’m watching all of this through the thousands of Zees surrounding us. Sneak, poised in case they decide to attack. Bron, Ret and the others not quite sure what’s going on. Only Dhal, locked inside his metal cocoon, high above the others, has any idea what’s afoot. Then, in unison, the Zees drop to the ground, not in death, but in admiration. They’re bowing before me. Now the others are truly in shock. I feel myself weakening and know I won’t be able to hold this for long. By now, the Queen surely knows what I’m up to and is doing her damned best to slither into my head and cut my signal off, but I can tell she’s having trouble. Her body is weakened and in terrible pain. I can feel every nerve in her body screaming as if they were my own. And then I realize why. The Queen is giving birth. And no sooner does that thought run through my brain then I feel a burst of light and everything goes black.

I open my eyes to find a crowd standing around me. I blink hard, wondering if they’re Zees, preparing to eat the Queen’s imposter. My eyes focus and I see Ret kneeling down beside me. Next to him is Dhal.

“Did you manage to close the city gates?” I ask and judging by the look on Ret’s face it’s clear they
didn’t.

“We barely had enough time to scoop you up and make it into this warehouse.”

The building we’re in is filled with electronic parts, scavenged by Prospectors from each corner of the ten territories. From here they’re destined for White Rock, but something tells me this shipment won’t ever make it. I lift my head to see Sneak and Klaus standing a few feet away.

“How did he get here?” I ask, motioning to Klaus in surprise.

“He found his way onto the roof and we heard him banging to be let inside.”

A voice I know all too well pipes up from a pocket of shadow behind us. “Yeah, the little Keeper didn’t find Bron’s arms so funny this time, let me tell you.”

Bron’s talking in the third person, which is a good sign, but the strain I detect in his voice makes it clear enough he’s still not sure about having me around. No doubt Ret must have settled his nerves after I’d saved their hides.

I get to my feet and dust myself off. Bron comes into the light. His arms and chest are splattered with Zee blood. In fact, all of them are and it becomes clear just how close a call it was. Bron isn’t about to thank me for saving them and I can’t entirely blame him. It wasn’t long ago that I nearly killed them all, even Ret. But the situation’s changed and I have to let them know.

“Skuld is dead,” I say.

“What?” It’s Oleg, off to the side and sitting on a make-shift stool, proba
bly trying to figure out what he wants on his tombstone. “Did you see him die?” he asks.

“No,” I reply. “Not exactly.”

“Then how can you be sure?”

“He entered the Queen’s chamber,
that much I know. But it didn’t go down the way he expected it to.”

“She killed him.” Dhal says
, with clear disappointment. Skuld murdered Master Lund, the only father the boy had ever really known, and the kid wanted nothing more than to even the score. But revenge is a nasty little cycle that feeds on itself.

The sound of Zees pounding on the
warehouse doors hits me for the first time. They’ve got the place barricaded, although it’s clear by the way that sheet metal’s bulging under the pressure, that it’s not going to hold for long.

“When you took control of those Zees,
” Oleg says. “I was quite sure Skuld and the Queen were both dead.”

“I wish that were so.”

“Can you do that again?” he asks.

“I doubt it. She did something at the end
that knocked me out of Zee central. Some sort of burst wave.”

“
Sounds like a mental EMP,” Dhal says matter of factly.

Bron spits in disgust.
“A what?”

“Electro magnetic pulse,” Dhal replies.

“If only there was a way to block her signal,” Ret adds. “The way Skuld was doing to you.”

“That’s not a terrible idea.” Oleg says and turns to Dhal. “Think you can whip something together from the junk that’s lying around?”

Dhal pic
ks up what looks to me like a metal box covered in tiny switches. “Maybe, but I’ll need some time, and even then the AOE wouldn’t be larger than about ten meters.”

Dhal sees
Klaus scratching his head.

“Oh, yeah, sorry I forgot. Area of effect. It denotes the radius...”

Those Zees are still outside banging louder than ever and all I can think of is how much I wish Dhal would quite blabbing and start building. He’s worse than Oleg, if that’s even possible.

“If this thing works,
” the kid says, “it’ll block anything within ten meters from sending or receiving Zee signals.”

“Effectively
neutralizing the Queen’s ability to control her troops.”

“For as long as it works, they won’t be her Zees anymore,” I say. “They’ll be mine.”

“Great! Then just send them in to kill her,” Bron says.

“She can’t,” Oleg replies. “Once they enter the area of effect, as Dhal calls it, they’ll be effectively cut off from all direction and go dormant. Likewise, if the device stops working, the Zees will once again be hers.”

Ret looks about as frustrated as I feel. “Azina, can’t you send out an order for the Zees to kill themselves?”

I shake my head. “
I can make them step off a rooftop, but an all-out order to commit suicide just won’t work. The sense of self-preservation must still be strong, even in Zees.”

Bron smacks his metallic fist into his palm with a clang. “
Damn shitbags.”

Suddenly I’m hit with a burst of Zee code that’s chock full of bad news. “
Looks like we’ve got bigger problems.”

The chatter in the room dies down and all I can hear is the sound of Zees hissing outside, trying their dam
nedest to break down our barricade. “The Queen,” I say. “She’s given birth.”