side of the valley. I imagined the screams.
I reached the lift platform and triggered the mechanism just as the combat drone came into view, rising over the terraces. I raised the SAW to my shoulder to fire but Apakura beat me to it. I flinched involuntarily as the rapid- firing railgun closest to me fired a short burst from its rotating barrels. The drone disintegrated.
I could see the burn of missiles coming towards us, fired from a battery on the huge stalactite city, as the lift platform began descending into the shaft. They were too slow. That said, I still felt like getting into the FAV.
We were further down the shaft when the missiles hit. Our world went orange and the overpressure battered us to the ground. Apakura had protected us from the worst of the blast and the rain of debris. Try not to think about the train.
Morag staggered to her feet, blood pouring out of her nose. I felt blood running over my mouth as well. She climbed into the FAV. We’d left the engine running. The downward journey seemed to take for ever. There must be someone up there by now, a Black Squadron rapid response force of some kind, but nothing bad was happening to us yet. Maybe we deserved something bad. Try not to think about the train falling.
After an eternity of waiting for some kind of death to land on us from above, we reached the base of the elevator. I sat on the bonnet of the FAV as Morag drove me towards the control box for the explosives. This would have been a lot easier with wireless detonators but we couldn’t take the chance so we were doing it the old- fashioned way. I just hoped none of the wires had been damaged by the missile strike. Don’t think about the train.
Apakura shifted off the lift platform and away from the base of the shaft, moving more like a spider than any quadruped I’d ever seen. When it got to us it crouched down, providing more cover as I got down behind the FAV. I could hear the sound of vectored-thrust engines in the shaft now – poor timing on their part. Don’t think about the train. I opened my mouth and triggered the explosives.
It had taken three nights to wire. The shaft and every tunnel connecting the Moa City cavern to our vicinity blew. Overpressure rocked the mech and moved the FAV across the tunnel floor and knocked me over. Rubble avalanched into the mine from what used to be the elevator shaft. Then it went dark in a way that lowlight couldn’t help with as dust filled the air. I felt my way into the FAV and Morag drove us out of the mine, Apakura following.
I could see it in their faces when we finally made it back to the pa, having taken a circuitous route and checked and then double-checked we weren’t being followed. I climbed out of the FAV covered head to foot in rock dust.
The belly hatch on the Apakura opened, Mother and Tailgunner climbed out. They looked stricken. Horrified by what they’d done. It’s one thing to destroy part of the enemy’s infrastructure; it’s another to kill some poor sod who was just taking the Mag Lev back home, or just worked there. I was pretty sure there’d be more of this before we were through.
The thing was, after I’d managed to clean myself up, Morag found me and took me deeper into the caves. Where we could be alone. Where we could make love or have sex or fuck, I wasn’t sure which. I still wanted Morag, needed her, even loved her, but she was becoming more and more alien to me.
14
Despite the prep, despite the waiting for it to start, you’re never ready for when it does. Without comms, separated from one another, you’re left with nothing but going over the plan again and again. Where did we fuck up? What have we forgotten?
I felt like I stuck out a mile. I didn’t belong in the Rookery and the people here knew it. I didn’t meet their eyes and they ignored me, but I think they knew my presence here meant trouble for them.
Cat, Merle and Tailgunner were on roofs on either side of the main thoroughfare. Morag and I were on the same side of the street but separated, with Mother and Strange, who were our drivers. Mudge and Pagan were on the other side of the street, again far apart, with Dog Face and Big Henry as their drivers.
I saw the Ground Effects Raider leading the convoy. I watched it wind round the bend on the spiral roadway and head towards my position. The GE Raider was the bigger, better-armed and better-armoured older brother of the GE fast-attack sled. Almost as heavily armed as a main battle tank, it used four low-level vectored-thrust engines to provide propulsion and manoeuvrability. Hopefully they wouldn’t help much in the cramped streets of Moa City.
Behind the first GE Raider were four civilian trucks that had been up-armoured for military use. Each of the cabs had an armoured turret with an autocannon. These cannons were tracking from side to side, looking for targets, intimidating the street. Maybe the gunners in the cabs were in control, maybe Demiurge was. It must have been pre-combat nerves but to me the autocannons looked eager. Why hadn’t I taken some drugs? Just to even out the mood a little. Bringing up the rear of the convoy behind the trucks was another GE Raider. There was a lot of firepower in the convoy for just eleven guns. The four combat drones in the air above the convoy were a further unplanned-for complication.
I was standing on one of the alleyway corners, next to a lean-to that was half home and half a third- or fourth-hand used-tech stall. Its inhabitant kept on giving me dirty looks. I knew that as we watched the convoy street kids working for the Puppet Show were blacking out security lenses all over the Rookery with spray paint.
It was Mother’s job to start the show. I was used to being out on my own fighting armour; she was used to fighting from inside hundreds of tonnes of mech so God knows how she must have been feeling. I checked the time on my IVD, looked away from the street and started pulling the balaclava that I’d been wearing as a hat down over my features. I hoped Mother’s nerve didn’t fail, otherwise I was going to feel really stupid wearing a balaclava and not doing any crime.
The tech salesman in his little packing-material stall/house saw what I was doing. He watched me with a kind of helpless resentment. He could see what was coming. I reached into the duffel bag with my left hand and gripped the smart frame inside. My right reached up under the armoured combat jacket and I took hold of the Benelli assault shotgun slung under my arm. The jacket was fine but I missed my long coat. Also it didn’t have a break-open flap for my shoulder laser, making me a weapon down.
The GE Raider passed my position, its engines blowing rubbish all over the street, collapsing stalls and trash-built homes. I needn’t have worried about Mother. She kicked the wheeled anti-armour mine out into the road under the GE Raider. As soon as it appeared, the remotes and the turret on the first truck started tracking her. The corner of the alley she was concealed behind was eaten away by autocannon and railgun fire. She triggered the mine. The GE Raider seemed to bend slightly in the middle and lift itself up into the air. Flames rolled out from underneath it, engulfing the street ahead, the shock wave flattening everything it hit, knocking people to the ground, cracking teeth together and destroying eardrums that weren’t made of metal and plastic.
I ran towards the first truck. As I did, Merle triggered the two Laa-Laas set up on a tripod on the opposite roof from his position. The GE Raider was driven back down onto the street as first one and then the other missile went through its turret armour and exploded. As this happened, two combat remotes and the autocannon turrets on the first two trucks turned and fired at the now empty Laa-Laa tubes. The stone by the tubes disintegrated like someone had taken a bite out of it. On the opposite roof Merle popped up and fired his plasma rifle four times in quick succession. Before I even reached the door of the truck, he’d reduced the first two truck turrets and the remotes to molten slag. Hot liquid metal was raining down on me, eating into my armour, from the destroyed remotes above. Behind me I could hear more weapons fire and explosions as Cat and Dog Face took out the rear GE Raider and dealt with the other two remotes.
I reached the truck. The crew were trying to manoeuvre but they had nowhere to go. The convoy was blocked ahead and behind by the burning wreckage of the GE Raiders. I just hoped their ammunition didn’t cook off or we were all fucked. I could see the panicked faces of the driver and the now-redundant gunner in the cab. The former was frantically driving backwards and forwards, trying to make it difficult for me.
I pulled the smart frame out and dropped the duffel bag. I let the shotgun hang on its sling as I jumped onto
