Partials

“There’s no one in the hall,” said Samm, confused.

“Yes there is,” said Dr. Morgan. “Humans.”

Another gunshot rocked the door, blowing it off its hinges. Marcus appeared in the doorway with a shotgun, and Kira called out, “Get down!” just as the medical spider swung a vicious surgical razor at his neck. Marcus dropped, rolling under the blade, then raised his gun and blasted the spider at close range. Kira shrieked, feeling the heat from the gunpowder, the rain of shrapnel cascading down from the damaged robot. The sound of the blast nearly deafened her.

“She’s in here!” shouted Marcus, calling over his shoulder, then turned and nodded at her. “Hi, Kira.”

Xochi stepped in behind Marcus, already crouched low, training a pair of semiautomatics on the doctors in the corner. “I just reloaded,” she said, “so feel free to make any sudden moves.”

“Get them,” snarled Dr. Morgan, but Samm seemed frozen in place.

Jayden came last, dodging another scalpel from the spider and crouching inside the door. Marcus fired again at the spider, disabling it, then rushed to Kira’s side and began untying the restraints.

“You’re a hard girl to find,” said Marcus, forcing a smile.

“They’re close behind us,” said Jayden. “Don’t take any longer than you have to.”

“Can I shoot the doctors?” asked Xochi, running her pistols back and forth across the line of them.

Jayden fired into the hallway. “And now they’re here; I told you to hurry. We’re pinned down.”

“Samm, stop them,” said Dr. Morgan, but still Samm didn’t move, his body tensed, his face frozen with some intense, invisible effort.

“How did you get in here?” asked Kira. Marcus finished her first arm, and she instantly used it to work on her other arm while Marcus moved down to her legs.

“We saw you get captured,” said Marcus, shooting a venomous glance at Samm. “We followed you here, ran out of ideas, and then another group of Partials attacked the hospital. When the outer defenses fell, we just kind of … slipped in the back.”

“We heard them talking,” said Xochi, “and Samm was lying: All D Company does is crazy research, like this, on humans and Partials alike. The other group follows something called the Trust.”

“We follow the Trust,” said one of the doctors. Kira shot a glance at Dr. Morgan, but the cold woman stayed silent, her face revealing nothing.

Marcus finished untying Kira’s feet while Kira finished her second hand, and when she was free she clutched the sheet to her chest and sat up. Jayden fired again into the hallway.

“Do you have a plan to get back out?” asked Kira.

“Honestly, I’m kind of shocked we made it this far,” said Marcus. “Are you okay?” He noticed her bare shoulders and frowned. “Are you…”

“Yes,” said Kira, looking around for her clothes. There was nothing in the room but a tray of syringes and some debris from the broken spider. She pointed at one of the doctors. “You, give me your lab coat.”

“They’re getting closer!” shouted Jayden.

The doctor didn’t move, but a grim gesture of Xochi’s pistol encouraged her to take off her surgical smock. Dr. Morgan shouted with rage.

“Damn it, Samm, stop them!”

Samm’s hand came down on Marcus’s shotgun, discarded on the table where he’d left it to help with Kira’s ties. Kira swore, diving away from Samm off the far side of the table, but the Partial soldier simply stood there, staring straight ahead.

“Samm,” Dr. Morgan began, and suddenly Samm brought up the shotgun and fired — not at Kira or her friends, but at Morgan. She dodged, shockingly nimble, and the wall screen behind her exploded in sparks and shards of glass. Xochi began firing as well, but Morgan was too quick; round after round tore into the wall screens while the doctors screamed and cowered on the floor. Dr. Morgan danced ahead of the bullets, all too quickly working her way toward the door. Samm leaped across the room, fired and missed again, and the third time the shotgun clicked on an empty chamber. He spun it around, gripping the barrel with a roar, and drove it into the back of Morgan’s skull as she made a final dive for the hallway. The doctor slumped to the floor, and Xochi pumped a round into her thigh.

“And stay down!”

“She was too strong,” said Samm, and grabbed the ammo belt from Marcus’s shoulder. “I’m sorry that it took me so long. How many are outside?” He slid a shell into the chamber, then another and another, quickly and methodically.

Kira rose to a crouch, watching Samm in wonder. Is he really on our side? Jayden turned warily, sizing him up, then looked back at the open door.

“Just four,” he said, “around that near corner. The main body of their force is tied up with the rival Partials.”

Samm checked his gun quickly, making sure the safety was off. “Cover me.”

Jayden fired out with his rifle, clearing the hall, and Samm dove past him in a blur, rolling to the far wall and then dashing down the corridor toward the enemy position. Jayden stopped firing, and the Partials peeked out just in time for Samm to come barreling into them, shotgun blasting.

Kira took the doctor’s offered surgical smock and pulled it on, wrapping the back all the way closed with a pair of ties around her waist. For good measure she took the doctor’s mask and hairnet as well, and finally her shoes.

Samm came back, his face and shoulder bleeding. “Hallway’s clear. I think we can make it to the jeeps, but we have to go now.”

“I’m getting really sick of trusting this guy,” said Xochi.

“He’s coming with us,” said Kira. There’s something I have to talk about, that I can’t talk about with anyone else. She gave him a long glance, wondering what it meant now — if she was really a Partial, if she was really an agent, if she was really everything they thought she was.

“We have to go,” urged Marcus.

“One thing first,” said Kira. She scooped up the last syringe from the tray in the corner: a sample of the Partial pheromone.

The cure for RM.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Samm drove, the only one of the five who really knew how. Marcus examined Kira’s wounds in the backseat: It seemed the Partials had done little more than give her a few shots, draw some blood, and prep her for a surgery that never happened. The burn on her leg was almost fully healed, but the sight of her own shin, nearly scarless, seemed suddenly strange and alien; a sign not that the regen box had worked better than normal, but that her own body was healing well beyond the human standard. Just like Samm.

She looked at him, saw him looking back at her in the rearview mirror. Their eyes locked for a moment, silent. The others didn’t know, and Kira and Samm had said nothing.

Am I really a Partial? How could I not have known? Partials heal quickly, but this is the first major injury I’ve ever really had, so I’ve never had a chance to see my own healing abilities in action. I’ve never really been sick, either — does that mean anything? She racked her brain for anything else she knew about them. Partials are sterile, and that’s never come up. Partials are fast and strong and agile, but is that only the soldiers? She remembered Dr. Morgan, screaming frantically about secret Partial designs and some kind of inter-faction war. If I’m not a soldier, what am I? How many groups are out there, and what do they want? And why would any of them plant a Partial agent in a group of human refugees?

“You’ve been quiet,” said Marcus.

“I’m sorry,” said Kira. “I’ve had a lot to think about.”

This time it was Marcus who glanced at Samm, studying him silently, thinking. He looked back at Kira, then down at her leg. “Looks like you’re doing great. You’re sure they didn’t do … anything else?”