She reached a bend and followed it. In seconds the Tasins were out of view. She continued, and when everyone was past the bend, she glanced at the silhouettes of her companions, who appeared outlined in blue on her HUD, thanks to their link. From their body language, she could sense relief. Renaldo had slumped visibly.
Don’t get too relaxed, Rhea said. We’re not out of this yet.
She led the way through the empty stalls, past the occasional, looted shells of vehicles. She glanced over her shoulder often, leaning forward to gaze past her companions. There was never any sign of pursuing Tasins.
The concrete floor sloped downward, eventually leading to another bend. When she took it, even she couldn’t help but feel more relaxed, as they continued to put more distance between themselves and the creatures. A part of her hoped they’d find an alternate exit somewhere here, something that wasn’t on the map, a path that the bombing had opened up, perhaps leading to the basement of another building. She knew it was wishful thinking.
They attempted to check the stairwell here, hoping for a shortcut, but the door wouldn’t even open; seemed the roof had collapsed on the other side.
You know, I thought stairwells were supposed to be designed to be the last things to collapse, Chuck commented. So that people would have an escape route in case, you know, there were problems.
Seems someone ignored that design rule, Will sent.
Rhea quickened her pace as she continued down the sloping ramp. She zig-zagged from one side of the parking garage to the other, descending two more floors until she reached the fourth and final level. As expected, there were no alternate exits. No escapes. But at least they had found what they had come for.
Ahead, parked in the middle of the ramp, was an SUV in pristine condition. In addition to scouting, the advance team had dropped off three vehicles at strategic fallback points across the city. The fourth level of the parking garage was one of them.
Rhea was a bit relieved to find the vehicle where it was expected, and not already stolen. But of course, it wouldn’t be; salvagers didn’t pass this way with all that much frequency. Not even the Aradne security forces would have known about it: the advance team had taken advantage of blind spots in the satellite coverage to strategically deploy the vehicle right under their noses.
No, she was more worried about another betrayal among her men than anything else, but it looked like the daily scans had been successful in preventing another Anderson incident.
Will approached the driver side door. “Just so you know, I’m overriding self-driving mode.”
Rhea nodded. “I trust you more than whatever AI is installed.”
“Shouldn’t we switch to mental communication?” Renaldo said softly. He cringed as if at the loudness of his own words.
“Their hearing isn’t that sensitive,” Horatio said.
Will entered and took the wheel. Horatio sat in the front passenger side, and Rhea squeezed in beside the robot. Chuck and Renaldo piled into the back seats. Everyone shut their doors as quietly as possible: this usually involved closing the door until the latch clicked, and then pulling hard to seal it the rest of the way.
“So, what now?” Chuck asked.
“We wait for the bioweapons to come,” Rhea replied.
10
Rhea stared out into the darkness, at the LIDAR-illuminated fourth floor of the parking garage.
Chuck thrummed his fingers on the back of her seat.
She turned around and told him: “Can you stop that?”
Chuck stopped.
When she turned forward again, the thrumming resumed.
Will glanced at her. From the blue silhouette of his face, she could tell he was smiling.
Rhea growled, and the thrumming instantly ceased.
“Probably a good thing you stopped,” Renaldo said. “You wouldn’t like to see the Warden angry.”
“No,” Chuck agreed. “I apologize, Warden. I guess I’ve become… too familiar with you. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.” He glanced at Will. “I used to believe she was infallible. Unbeatable. She’s still the Warden. A good leader, and brave, but I know now she makes mistakes like the rest of us. She gets afraid, like all of us. That’s one of the drawbacks of hanging out with one’s hero too long, I guess. As I once said, familiarity breeds contempt. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not quite contempt I feel. I still respect the hell out of her. I’ll still follow her to the gates of hell, at least I think I will, but I do so no longer in utter awe of her. That’s why I’m not afraid to thrum my fingers a bit, to playfully annoy her. Because I know she’s not so different from me.”
“Okay, just to be clear, you say you still respect her?” Will asked. “That means you’ll obey her—and my—commands? Otherwise you’re of no use to us.”
“Yes, I will obey her,” Chuck said coldly. “Not you.”
Will snorted, then returned his gaze to the fore. “Better hope my pistol doesn’t accidentally go off in your back one of these days.”
“And you better hope the same, Salvager,” Chuck said.
“Enough you two,” Rhea said. “We need to work together. Save the pissing contests for when we’re back in Rust Town.”
That seemed to diffuse the situation, at least somewhat. Everyone remained quiet, at least for the next minute.
“You sure none of the satellites saw us go in here?” Renaldo asked into the silence.
“None,” Horatio said.
“Their forces will arrive eventually,” Chuck said. “They know our general neighborhood after all, thanks to the drones we shot down.”
“They’ll be conducting a building to building search, no doubt,” Will said. “But it could take them all day. Which is too bad. They’d make a tasty treat for the bioweapons. And a good distraction for us.”
“Maybe they’ll go away,” Renaldo said.
“Who, the
