The creature bounced away, its face shaven clean off, leaving behind a molten, dripping mass.
A crescent-moon talon sliced at her from the opposite side. She swiveled away, leaping behind the injured body of the rock cobra whose face she’d just cut off; the claw struck its hard carapace and deflected harmlessly aside.
Both creatures were struck by plasma bolts a moment later and collapsed.
Rhea continued forward, cutting a path through the rock cobras with her Wardenites until she reached the wall beneath the balcony.
The Wardenites formed a half-circle behind her and continued firing into the incoming bioweapons. She surveyed the smooth surface, and realized it wasn’t something a human could climb easily.
“Horatio, carry someone,” she said. “Will, on my back!”
Will leaped onto her back, and she deactivated the Ban’Shar. She began climbing. She thrust her fingers into the rock, pressing hard to form handholds. She didn’t bother to make holds with her feet—she simply used the handholds as footholds when she climbed high enough.
Horatio joined her, following in her wake.
The others continued to keep the rock cobras at bay below.
She glanced down, and saw Brinks try to climb up, but he lost his grip after climbing only a pace and dropped down.
“Wait for me!” she shouted.
Brinks nodded and turned back to keep firing into the creatures.
Rhea reached the two stories to the balcony, and slowly peered over the lower edge to confirm Veil wasn’t lying in wait to ambush her. There were no bioweapons in the passage beyond. For now.
“Get up there,” she told Will. “And watch your back.”
He nodded and climbed over her to take up a defensive position. Occasionally glancing over his shoulder, he fired down into the rock cobras to help the others.
“Look out!” she told the others.
They cleared the wall below, and she shoved off from the rock ledge, passing over Horatio. She landed hard on the stone surface, and when she stood up her knee servomotors whined in complaint.
Horatio deposited Miles onto the balcony, and then released the wall to land beside Rhea. Miles meanwhile joined Will, and together they offered support from above.
Rhea and Horatio carried the men up one by one like that. When they arrived, they either joined Will and Miles in firing down into the fray, or they guarded the rear.
Finally, Rhea and Horatio unloaded the last of them. She pulled herself onto the balcony and glanced down one last time. The bodies of the rock cobras were piled in a tall semicircle around the base of the wall. Without anyone to defend that base, the remaining bioweapons shoved past the bodies and attempted to climb, but their talons scraped uselessly against the stone.
She smiled and turned away.
Miles, still standing guard beside her, released a few more wasteful shots before following.
“Damn rock snakes,” the albino said. “Veil could have custom designed any animal. And she had to choose rock snakes.”
“I take it you’re not a big fan of snakes…” Rhea said.
“Are you?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted.
Brinks and Horatio led the way. Soon the tunnel became so cramped that they had to continue in single file. Rhea imagined her enemy having a hard time passing through with her large, augmented body—Veil would have had to crouch, and perhaps crawl on hands and knees. Then again, maybe Veil merely had to release the smaller humanoids who composed her body, sending them through individually before reassembling on the other side.
They traveled at least two kilometers through that tunnel, according to her internal accelerometer.
“Got an opening,” Horatio announced.
The robot carefully checked both sides of the entrance, and then emerged.
“It’s clear,” Horatio said.
The others followed, stepping onto the rocky plains just outside the foothills. The terrain formed an arch over the exit, which made it difficult to see from above. That would explain why the drones had missed it—that and the fact it was well away from the closest hill.
A camouflage tarp lay abandoned on the ground. It had likely hidden a vehicle—and a big one at that, judging from the size of the tarp.
“The drones missed the opening,” Will commented. “And the vehicle, too.”
“Hey, you had one of your drones among them,” Miles said. “And it didn’t detect this exit, or any vehicles, either.”
“Speaking of which, I have Giz in comm range,” Will told Rhea.
“Have Gizmo summon the SUVs, and the technicals,” Rhea said.
She was gazing toward the far horizon, toward an out-of-place smudge. She zoomed in; speeding away from the highlands, a semi hauled a wide trailer.
“You’re not going to get away, Warden Killer,” she said softly.
15
Rhea sat in the passenger seat of the SUV; Will and the others had returned to their previous positions, while Jairlin and his team sped alongside in the second SUV. The technicals kept pace all around them.
She glanced at the righthand rear-view mirror. So far, the rock cobras hadn’t emerged from the highlands to pursue, but even if they had, the plodding creatures wouldn’t have been able to keep pace with the vehicles.
Gizmo led the way ahead, traveling at an altitude well above the visual range of the enemy. The convoy was gradually overtaking the slower semi.
“What do you think they’re carrying in that trailer?” Will asked.
“Probably her belongings,” Rhea said. “Or her quarters. A crime lord as powerful as Veil would want to bring some of the city’s luxury with her whenever she visited her men in the Outlands. I somehow doubt she’d be familiar with the term ‘roughing it.’”
“But why not stick to virtual furniture?” Will said.
“Why don’t the rich ever stick to virtual furniture?” Rhea replied. “Because they don’t have to. The
