Cloye snarled. “Try it, fucker, see what happens to your nuts. I’ll squeeze ’em off like cherries from a tree.”
Regers burst out laughing. He doubled over, slapping his thigh. “Oh, you know how to pick ’em, Yul! My kind of lady, foul-tongued and sweet-assed. Sexy as hell, even grimed and blooded up. Woo wee! This day has certainly picked up considerably.” He piked his rifle to the sky. “Captain Regers on the prowl! Bags one spirited wench and a surly boy toy all in one go. All the better. Might save this vixen for a special day. Blood, guts, burnt-out cities, squids and bugs getting their asses kicked. Mayhem left and right and some fine tail to go.” He shot off a few rounds in the sky.
“Settle down, Regers,” warned Deakes. “You out of your mind? Don’t want to attract any more squids and bugs than’s necessary.”
“Enough noise and guts to go around a hundred lifetimes, Deakes, so don’t matter what I do.”
Deakes looked around with nervous eyes.
“Aw, don’t be such a pussy,” Regers snorted. “Let ’em come, Deakes. Place is infested with bugs as it is. Kill ’em, crush ’em under our heels.”
Yul stared. Seems as if Uncle Regers had gone a little off the deep end.
Deakes scowled and twisted about. He made a wide sweep with his rifle back the way they’d come. “Think we better get back to the ship, Regers, even if it is screwed. Safer there. What you going to do with Yul? Slice his nuts off? Take him back as prisoner? Don’t know about you, but I’d feel safer with armor around us. Think about looking for a new ride out of here. NOA could pick us up as looters and opportunists.”
“That’s an awful lot of babble from you, Deakes. Ramra’s dead face staring up at you back there got you spooked?”
“Just cautious.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m just savoring this precious moment. Treasure it, Vincent.” He put an arm around the younger thug’s shoulders. “There won’t be any better time or place here and now to enjoy this moment of triumph.”
Vincent’s lips curled in a sanguine grin.
Blaster fire licked out from the rubble. Regers instinctively swept his rifle barrel back and forth. Yul tensed, his metal fist flexing.
“What the fuck?…Vincent, go check it out.”
Vincent scrambled off into the shadows of the wall breasting the rubble-choked sidewalk. More fire echoed off the twisted mortar and leaning buildings. Vincent came back, hissing air between his teeth. “It’s that smarmy fucker. The one we gunned down earlier. He’s out there running loose, must have alerted the bugs and squids.”
“Your friend,” Regers snapped at Yul. “He was tailing us, one we shot out of the sky. Must’ve gotten sentimental and came back looking for you after crawling out of his downed copter. Should have dropped a bomb on his ass while we had the chance. But we were too busy chasing you.”
“Squids coming at four o’clock,” grunted Deakes. Six sets of eyes lifted to the sky. “We can’t get back to the ship without a major firefight.”
“Ain’t that a pickle. Another shootout.”
“Told you not to fire those shots.” Deakes groaned. “Regers, doesn’t anything faze you? I mean, anything?”
“Nope. Reckon I died a hundred deaths back in that fucking bug tank. Don’t feel an ounce of fear. How you feeling, Deakes? You’re looking a little pale. Old man fear giving you the shakes?” He laughed. “Killing the old geyser named ‘fear’ makes a man invincible, you know.”
“Or stupid. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Regers motioned the two prisoners on. “Move, you two, if you want to live a little longer.”
Yul gave a surly grunt. He heaved himself up through the rubble. Jennings took up the rear, as if resigned to death.
As they loped away from the incoming fire, Regers hitched himself closer to Yul. “Had Vincent go easy on shooting your ship down. Boy’s a regular marksman. Deakes here, boxy-faced badger’s a little heavier on the trigger.”
“Let the woman go, Regers,” Yul rasped. “She’s innocent. You and I have our beef. Let’s have it out.”
“Mighty brave of you, Yul. As I see it, so brave of you to leave me dying back in the trenches in that shithole Orb too.”
“Let’s put it this way, Regers, if you were in my shoes, would you do any different? Just can’t picture you stopping to pick up and carry a dying Yul Vrean a mile or so to the ship. Frue was hurting. I left you with the last bit of suit adhesive. I could only save one of you. At least Frue had a suit.”
Regers gave a grim laugh. “You got a way with words, Yul. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I’m thinking I deserved as much dignity as chirpy little Frue.”
“Yeah, so did Greer.”
Regers snarled. “Greer was a mistake. I was flying high on Devirol. Offing him…was a mistake.”
“All fine and nice to say after the fact.”
Chests heaving, they hoofed it down an alley, half covered with twisted beams, girders, broken piping, then down a water-slicked patch of torn-up asphalt to what looked like a muddy canal. A stone pedestrian bridge, clumped with bodies, gave access to the far side, cluttered with fallout, where more grim tenements stood huddled together.
“You going to try to lose them down there?” Yul snapped at Regers. “Doesn’t look promising.”
“Not seeing too many other options.”
“How’d you make it out of the tank room?”
Regers showed a mouthful of teeth. “I’m the cockroach that doesn’t die. Don’t have time to swap war stories with you. Let’s move our sorry—”
Yul struck like a sledgehammer. He smashed into Regers’ right side, sending him reeling back. He twisted his torso to latch vengeful hands on his weapon.
Regers’ rifle
