I winced. Shit, they were rounding on Wren. Someone must have sighted a flicker of movement. That idiot TK panicked, for he began shooting a spray into the fray. I told the fuck not to fire! Except in an emergency as it gave away location.
A howling cry rose above the mayhem. Another black enemy fell on a knee, shin shattered by the shells.
Wren joined in the firefight. Two more gunmen groaned in anguish and fell face down in the rubble.
We were down to four plus change.
But three of them started firing, and like a death squad, rained a fury of inescapable green at Wren and TK. They were smart, those stalkers; they took out the pillar where Wren and TK had dug in and the ceiling collapsed on them. A ton of metal came crashing down and I heard Wren’s sharp cry echo in peaked anguish. The girders folded like a tent around them, offering them some small cocoon—I hoped. All I could see was a dull gleam of metal where she was. I swore silently and acted without hesitation. The explosion had left her pinned behind a mangled ceiling panel.
TK must have managed to wiggle free for I could hear his hoarse grunts and curses. I could vaguely make out a dark outline moving along the shadowy backdrop of the side wall. His or an enemy’s?
I scooted closer. Like a thief in the dark, I kept low. My itchy fingers hovered over the last of the detonators. But the enemy was nowhere in my sights, nowhere near my kill zone.
I think the last four heard Wren. I set off the last explosive, only serving as a costly diversion, and while they staggered back, wondering what next booby trap they’d step into, I raced forward, struggling to cover the area to their left side. She was gasping and cursing and banging on the metal that covered her.
I rapped hard, hissing at her to quiet down. I grabbed an old machine tool, a hammer or something, caked with eons of dust and launched it somewhere behind them. One of the stalkers whirled around at the clatter of metal and loosed a shot. I launched out like a cat to a new defensive position, but was forced to dodge around and confuse them before I could come back to her.
“Sh,” I hissed at her, trying to imagine the terror she felt trapped under that mangled mess. “Stay silent, you hurt?”
“Pinned, can’t get out,” her muffled voice came back. “Left arm is throbbing.”
I whispered, “Wren, listen to me. Stay put, no noise. Don’t try to move. I’ll get you out—but not now.” I couldn’t peel the metal back around her without alerting those fucks to my position.
They were returning. Shit! This was not going well. I backed off, my head in a quandary, a high buzzing in my ear.
“The old subterfuge trick,” Baer called out in the murk. “Nice job, Rusco. I expected more from you. Disappointing that you let your arm get blown up like mine. We’re two peas in a pod, you and me, two fools in a stew pot.”
That’s it, you dumb fuck. Keep talking. Draw yourself out like a fat fool and use up your energy.
An assassin had positioned himself between Baer and the tangle of metal. Now he was moving closer. Before long he’d clue in to where Wren was, trapped and helpless.
I slunk away, hoping to draw him away. No luck. The bugger kept sidling closer, weapon trained at the fallen mass of metal. Where the hell was TK? Why wasn’t the twit helping?
I sidewinded back and snuck up behind him while the gunman was focused on the debris, weapon aimed at the fallen ceiling. I hoped to neutralize him while he was preparing to take out the two of us whom he thought cowered behind that mound.
I dove at this hulking figure, meaning to kick him in the groin with my poison-tipped boot to avoid firing and giving away my position. But the stalker heard the crunch of glass under my boot and pivoted. I ducked, missing by a hair his stun beam, wrapped my arms about his waist and brought him crashing to the ground. I knocked his weapon away. The man was exceedingly strong and he bent me backward to the point I could feel my spine creaking under the pressure. I pummeled him with my fists and in a mad tangle of arms and legs, we grappled and hooked, grunted and cursed. My hard right lashed out and I caught him with my elbow in his teeth. He loosed a garbled cry. I scrambled to my feet, kicked out a foot while rising, and grazed him high on the thigh. He went down with a howl, shivering for an instant and was dead within seconds. An impressive fast-acting poison. I staggered over the body, panting as I saw his glassy eyes stare up. No time to get Wren. I stumbled away from the booted feet coming closer to my position as they set scarlet sights upon me—scarlet meant moderate to lethal.
Peeow. Peeow. Bright laser fire licked past my ribs, shredding consoles and metal.
I couldn’t find my weapon in the dim light. Fuck it. I’d lost it.
I saw the dead man’s firearm, a long fat rod of dark length in the shadows. I dove for it, snatching up his modified AK, then rolled flat to fire on the last moving shapes in the dark. But the damn thing jammed. I threw it away in disgust. Laser lines were sighting on me. With a hissing curse, I
