corridor up ahead. I couldn’t risk reviving her yet, but I couldn’t wait much longer. Her JZI would keep her blood oxygenated for a short time, but not forever.
The eyes watched us impassively as the walkway took us past them. As they receded into the shadows, several of them began to take notice, but none followed.
An explosion drummed through the ship, and the emergency lights went out completely. A beat later, the walkway slowed to a stop.
The revivors behind us still hadn’t moved. The way ahead looked clear. I turned on a flashlight and lifted Cal up again, pain shooting through my legs.
Something darted across the beam ahead, but whatever it was, it didn’t stop for us. I staggered down the corridor, then shouldered open a door to my right, taking us into a stairwell. Up above, I could hear wind whistling through the open hatch. Gunfire cracked above the sound of waves.
A whine rose in pitch, then the sound of the helicopter’s chain gun blared. A torrent of rounds crashed off the deck as the racket drowned out everything else, then stopped ten seconds later.
I hung on to the rail and hauled her up as cold, wet air blew down the stairwell. Over the ringing in my ears I could hear the wind howling on the deck, and the thump of helicopter rotors on the helipad outside.
Open flames blew in the wind as rain and smoke sheared across the deck in front of me. The ship tilted as a wave swelled, its nose rising in front of us. Ahead I could see the helipad. Most of the MSST who were left were inside, but two were moving toward us, carrying a stretcher between them. One of the men stopped to fire at something off to his left. I waved to one of the soldiers on the pad.
An explosion went off, and fire climbed into the night sky as the surface of the water lit up. Soldiers on the helipad began firing at something off to their left. The two soldiers on deck reached us and helped me get Cal strapped in.
They ran, Cal’s body swaying on the stretcher between them as they made their way back. I stayed behind and covered them as more revivors appeared on the deck behind us. The rain was driving now, making it hard to see them, let alone target them.
I turned toward the spot where the soldiers had fired. A small group of figures gathered on the deck, eyes glowing softly in the dark. As the spotlight swept over them, I saw a tarp come free, taken by the wind. It cracked like a whip and blew off into the darkness, revealing a small aircraft underneath.
As the floodlight focused on them, I saw Faye standing near the aircraft. Her coat whipped in the wind as she met my eye. Behind me, the MSST leader had spotted them.
There was another revivor next to Faye, a male. It had a coat draped over its shoulders, but was naked underneath. Its skin was waxy, and even at that distance I could see the network of dark veins underneath it.
As gruesome as it looked, though, I recognized that face. I zoomed in on it to be sure.
He looked past Faye and met my eye. It was definitely him. Fawkes was out of stasis.
I took aim across the deck and fired. With the weather and the movement of the ship, the shot went wild and clipped his shoulder, dotting Faye’s face with black spots.
I moved toward him and slipped on the deck. I went down hard on one knee and pulled the trigger again as pain shot up my thigh. By then, the others were crowding him. I caught one of them in the back of the head as it moved to shield him. Faye stepped into the line of fire.
My finger tightened on the trigger. From behind Faye, Fawkes was still staring at me.
Ai had said that. She said it at the restaurant where she first dragged me into the case. To her, it was a given. To her, it was something that couldn’t be changed.
I might be able to shoot past Faye and hit him. The dark spot that floated in front of my eyes darted back and forth over his face as he watched me.
They were starting to move him, with Faye between us. My finger tightened on the trigger.
Faye broke from her position and ran across the deck toward me. Fawkes looked back over his shoulder and watched as she stopped in front of me. She stood there, like she wasn’t sure what to do.
I began to move the gun toward her when she grabbed my lapels and, before I could stop her, she kissed me on the mouth.
I began to move back, but she wrapped one arm around the back of my neck, pulling me closer, and I felt her fingers move through my hair. It had been years since we’d kissed, and even in the middle of the chaos, it struck me how familiar it felt, how that one, small, human part of her hadn’t changed. Her kiss was exactly the same as it had been before. Her lips were cold now, but still soft, and just like she had all those years ago, she still had the power to disarm me. As crazy as it was, there was still some small part of me that surrendered in her arms. There was still some part of me that remembered when my duty was to her and her alone. I’d meant to push her away, but when my hands found her waist, I didn’t.
She broke the kiss and hugged me, pressing her cheek to mine as she extended a connection and I accepted.
I staggered back, slipping out of her arms as she aimed the pistol and fired a second shot. It struck the body armor above my solar plexus, an inch from the first shot. It didn’t penetrate, but for a second I couldn’t breathe as I fell back onto the deck.
Faye turned, smoke drifting from the barrel, and ran back to Fawkes and the others. Gasping, I raised my gun and fired after her, but between the rain and the motion of the ship, I couldn’t get a clear shot. Fawkes climbed onto the escape aircraft as Faye reached them, and I saw her grab the rail and climb in after him.
“Wachalowski!” a voice shouted from behind me. I turned and grabbed the hand that was waiting, and climbed in as the helicopter began to lift off. As it pulled away, I saw the other craft below rise quickly, then the rotors turned and it banked quickly in the other direction as another explosion shook the ship. By the time the smoke began to clear, we were far overhead and moving away. One of the soldiers heaved the door shut.
“Three minutes, people! Get us clear now!”
“Cal!”
I pushed my way in next to her as the helicopter bucked in the wind. Leaning over her body, I released the stop I put on her JZI systems. It saw her vitals had tanked, and sent a jolt of electricity to her heart.
Energy was building in the musculature around her spine and neck. The JZI detected it, but couldn’t identify what it was. Her heart was still stopped. It sent another jolt.
Emergency systems were feeding oxygen into her bloodstream and had begun a regular pulse to keep the heart beating artificially. That would work for only so long. I watched her face in the dark.
The energy collecting at the base of her neck had me worried. I focused on it, looking through the muscle
