Redemption Protocol (Contact) (69 page)

> Five
meters
, Stone.

> Ok.

Havoc decided to take a chance. He broadcast on an open channel.

“One chance, Intrepido. One chance only. Three seconds.”

~    ~    ~

Intrepido sat stock still, staring at the holo.

He considered Havoc’s proposition then dismissed it. Havoc was scared. Why else would he make the offer? And he was Rodrigo Intrepido, blade genius, in control of a G6. He had such a huge advantage it was ridiculous. He shouldn't be worried.

He used Havoc's offer as an opportunity to snatch his water. He watched the two men on his instrumentation as he swigged heavily. Not far to go.

“Come on, come on.”

Intrepido willed Havoc into his trap. One on one with a G6. The guy was fucked, no matter how good he was. They were nearly there. It was so close. They had to come to the cabins. He was banking on it. Stone needed a helmet. Check mate.

Havoc turned to Stone.

Intrepido bounced in his chair.

“Come on.”

Havoc started to advance again.

Intrepido shivered with nervous excitement. Havoc’s line was perfect.

He held his breath.

~    ~    ~

Havoc looked around. There was rubble everywhere and the dust plastered everything. Stone followed close behind him.

> How did she die?

> Not now, Stone. I'm sorry but not now.

> Ok.

Havoc resumed his progress. Something didn't feel right.

> Can’t you just summarize though?

Havoc stopped abruptly. He resisted the urge to tell Stone straight. Too cruel.

> Stone, we are in danger here. Danger close. This could be a trap. We need to get you a helmet and get out of here. Sunrise is coming. We need to be gone, far gone, from here. Further west, to the library or the pyramid. Or we'll cook. Please, let's talk about it later. I'm not asking you.

> Ok. Sorry. Go ahead.

> Ok?

> Ok.

Havoc stepped forward.

> You know what the Aalirika say when an elephant steps on a trap?

Havoc turned. Enough was enough.

> Look, Stone, I know your body is flooded with chemicals because you thought you were going to die and instead you lived. But trust me, that can change. Would you please shut the fuck up?

Stone raised his hands as he pouted.

> Fine.

Havoc groaned.

> Alright. Tell me, what do the Aalirika say when an elephant steps on a trap?

Stone looked content in a brutally wounded, frostbitten, kind of way.

> No more trap.

Havoc laughed, despite himself.

> Very good. Now can I please...?

Stone gestured with his arm.

> Be my guest.

~    ~    ~

Intrepido watched Havoc and Stone confer about something. Havoc was probably chastising Stone for trying to climb inside his suit with him.

Intrepido leaned forward as Havoc resumed his advance.

“That’s it.”

Intrepido watched with growing excitement as Havoc neared the G6. The prototype blade was of composite construction, operating in passive mode and practically undetectable. It was buried under a screening sheet that covered a much larger area. Havoc would probably assume it was the normal properties of the ground. The collapse of the alien tower had been the icing on the cake, or rather, the rubble and dust on the cake.

Intrepido licked his lips. He had Havoc right where he wanted him. Not only that, but the idiot Stone was right behind Havoc again. Havoc wouldn't be able to flare his suit or blow his armor without killing or critically injuring Stone.

Intrepido balled his hands into tight fists.

“Come on.”

He chewed his lip, willing Havoc on.

“I have him, Tyburn. Give me one minute to confirm the kill.”

“Don't get ahead of yourself, Intrepido. We're meeting the Admiral now. Keep me informed.”

Intrepido’s hand hovered over the kill switch. He watched intently, not wanting to miss a thing.

Havoc stepped forward. Bull's eye.

“Fuck you, Havoc.”

Intrepido stabbed the button.

~    ~    ~

Havoc stepped forward.

Not far to go now.

Stone hustled up behind him, far too close. Havoc turned.

> Stone, for fu––

The ground underneath his feet exploded.

 176. 

Jafari watched the gas billow out of the opening capsule.

It was the moment of truth.

Jafari's keen senses could make out thin tendrils launching out of the gas and into the Nmr Qátl's helmet. The slender fibers pulsed momentarily. It took less than a thousandth of a second.

The kneeling Nmr Qátl clawed at his visor.

It might just be hello in Aulusthran but it didn't look good.

> Move back immediately, please, Ambassador.

> We mustn’t prejudge, Jafari.

Jafari wasn’t so sure. Everything stopped. Every eye in the chamber watched the inanimate Nmr Qátl. What would he do? How would he react to this cosmic kiss? He knelt, his body disturbingly still.

The Nmr Qátl toppled sideways. He plummeted a hundred and fifty meters and crashed onto an ORC soldier.

Another ORC soldier stepped forward and was immediately rewarded by fourteen, seventeen, twenty three tendrils whipping across the gap.

The soldier recoiled, thrashing his head from side to side. He half spun, staggered back and opened fire. Kinetics sparked brilliantly across the bottom of the disc, scattering the diplomats, then danced down the double helix staircase and neatly segued into massacring the ORC troops around him.

One of the ORC behind the possessed soldier grabbed him in a bear hug. The possessed soldier pointed his tricannon down and blew the attacker's legs off then spun around, still firing, with the legless torso clinging to him. Jafari saw the tendrils shoot out of his face toward another soldier as the original soldier was, quite literally, blown to pieces by his comrades.

In the next second the alien parasite, whatever the hell it was, transferred between seven more ORC soldiers, careening between them like a deadly pinball. The recipients of the alien's attention didn't seem to like it much. The ORC were dropping like flies. Jafari realized to his horror that the ORC soldiers had started firing
at each other
. The ORC soldiers charged off in all directions as their morale broke and discipline disintegrated.

The Gathering group broke for the exits as the ORC fled and the fire temporarily subsided. The diplomats jumped off the disc and flared to land beside them. A group of ORC soldiers ran past the Gathering when one suddenly doubled back. The tendrils whipped out again. Jafari watched them pierce a helmet visor, no mean feat, before the Gathering recipient unloaded hypersonic kinetics into the people around him. The final semblance of order in the room snapped. Everyone started running everywhere. It was chaos.

It was carnage.

The people who had been visited, touched or whatever the alien was doing to them were not getting up, moving or generally displaying any signs of life whatsoever. Jafari knew that most of the exits that people were running for did not lead out of the pyramid.

It was a blood bath.

Jafari didn't need to see any more directly. He had microdrones everywhere. The weapons fire increased in panicked bursts. It wasn't the time to mount a rescue bid.

He launched up the wall to the heat hide.

 177. 

Havoc fought for balance as the blade erupted from beneath his feet like a Kraken bursting from the depths of the ocean. Debris flew into the atmo as the upper half of the blade whipped upright. The blade was a centaur design that he hadn't seen before. Four legs and two upper arms, two primary sense bundles with micromissile batteries on either side of the frame.

In every imaginable sense they were dead. He couldn't flare his suit or blow his armor without killing Stone. He watched the blade’s arms unfurling as Stone stood with his mouth gaping wide open.

The blade hadn't used its missiles at this close range. Presumably it was set to avoid self-kill if possible and it had calculated that it had a certain kill without them. Havoc couldn't disagree.

Mechanical death loomed as the blade's massive filament pincers scythed inward. The blade hadn't even lit up its filament blades since it had burst from underground. They would be skewered on its two prodigious scimitars.

Havoc’s reaction speed was astonishing. Kinetics streamed out of his right forearm tricannon. His kinetics blasted the missile batteries from either side of the frame stem. The blade jerked back like a living animal at the impacts.

The two sweeping scythes swung inward like the snapping jaws of a trap.

 178. 

Jafari crouched in the darkness of the heat hide, high on the wall of the amphitheater. He considered what to do. He had to get the word out but he also needed to save Abbott. Not just wanted to, needed to. A lot of Alliance secrets were walking around in Abbott's head.

Havoc had installed three heat hides. Jafari wondered if Abbott had managed to get to one of the other two.

He monitored numerous feeds as he flexed his hands in the confined space. A Gathering soldier came into view on a microdrone feed just off the main chamber. Next into the image and towering over the Gathering soldier with his lion's mane clearly visible was Abbott. Another Gathering soldier followed.

Jafari breathed with relief. They were flanking Abbott but the Ambassador looked ok. Jafari calculated the best way to get to Abbott’s location. He wasn't sure how to get them both out of the pyramid without being shot to hell. There were panicked ORC and Gathering soldiers everywhere, some hiding and some moving around, and the Gathering was taking an increasingly strong position at the base of the double helix staircases. Not only that, but somewhere out there the homicidal alien still lurked, possibly concealed in one of the Gathering troops right in front of him.

Jafari’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as a Gathering megatank rumbled in through the western entrance. It wasn't the most advanced piece of kit but you still didn't want to be on the wrong end of it.

He turned his attention back to the feed as Abbott raised his arm in greeting. In response, two ORC soldiers walked hesitantly into the frame, heading toward the Alliance Ambassador. Jafari was relieved to see Abbott helping broker a peace. Abbott moved freely and looked uninjured. The ORC soldiers gave the Alliance Ambassador more leeway than they did the two Gathering soldiers who hung back.

Abbott walked toward the ORC soldiers with his arms out wide, indicating he didn't want any trouble. One of the ORC soldiers nodded at his colleague. Jafari was pleased. It all looked good. Things were settling down.

He needed to get to Abbott and they needed to get a grip on this alien situation as soon as possible. He pulled back the inner cover on the heat hide.

The ORC soldier stood paralyzed as the tendrils flayed into him from Abbott's face. The ORC soldier's expression suggested that every nerve end in his body was on fire. Before his colleague could do more than understand the trouble he was in, the tendrils shot toward him as well, again from Abbott’s face. The two ORC soldiers dropped together, flopping to the floor like gutted fish.

Jafari replaced the inner cover.

“Fuck.”

What the hell should he do? Wait it out?

His eyes widened in the dark. He had a major problem. The only other person who knew where the heat hides were.

It was Abbott.

He leaped down and ran for his life.

 179. 

Intrepido's hand covered his mouth.

“No.”

He punched the button in front of him as if reiterating the command would actualize his wish, but it didn’t change anything. He stabbed at the button like he was fitting. Nothing happened.

He chewed his fingers like a child.

“He shouldn't be able to do that.”

Intrepido found himself doing what he’d watched enemy blade runners doing countless times in replays of their feeds as his blades converged on their position to kill them.

He stared at the door of his cabin.

 180.