“Go!” Dancer pushed her. “Go!”
Salvi scrambled to her feet, but fell once more, as Travis stabbed his finger on the data pane. Dancer grabbed the taser from her hand and aimed it at Travis. It hit, his body locked up, he dropped the data pane and fell to the ground.
“Salvi! Run!” Kara yelled, taking aim at the other guards with her taser.
Salvi moved to get to her feet again, fighting the urge to vomit. Dancer suddenly grabbed her, pulled her close and whispered desperately in her ear.
“Remember Bacchus,” he said. “Anything to do with Bacchus or Bacchanalia. Find that and you’ll end the whole system.”
Salvi looked at him, confused.
“Go!” he yelled waving her away. “Go! Before they get up!”
Salvi grabbed him. “No! You’re coming with me!”
She grabbed Dancer’s arm and dragged him around the air vent, while Travis and the guards recovered from their tasering.
Salvi slumped down on the other side of Bronte to where Kara was, back to the air vent, pulling Dancer beside her. She looked at Bronte’s bleeding body. He was sweating and panting, but holding it together well; the Fyte doing its job.
“They’re getting up,” Kara said, pulling herself back behind the cover of the air vent. “My taser’s finished,” she said, eyeing its battery pack. “What do we do?”
“We just have to hold them off,” Salvi said, taking the taser in Dancer’s hand and throwing it to her. Kara caught it, then peered around the corner and fired again.
Salvi turned her eyes to the skies. “Where are you Riverton? Where are you?”
The world turned again and Salvi moaned in pain, falling onto Dancer.
“We’re not gonna make it,” Kara said, throwing the used taser away, panting and dripping with sweat and blood. “They’re gonna kill us.”
“No,” Salvi said, pulling herself back up and looking at Kara. “They’re going to keep us alive…”
Kara stared at her. “I’d rather death.”
“They’re too powerful,” Dancer whispered, as his eyes filled with tears again.
“No,” Salvi said shaking her head, swallowing, breathless. “We won’t let them win. We can’t!” She glanced around hopelessly, saw Dancer’s broken ankle, saw Kara’s bleeding arm, saw the blood spilling out from Bronte’s wounded side.
“Fuck,” Salvi said, pressing her hands against Bronte’s wound. As she did, she looked up into the sky, searching again. “Goddamit Riverton!” she yelled. “Where the fuck are you?”
Tears streamed down her face.
“Maybe they’re still blocking the beacon somehow?” Kara said, tears filling her eyes too.
Travis appeared with the guards, stepping casually around the air vent. He knew their prisoners had no more weapons. He smiled as he came to a stop in front of them, tapping his fingers on the side of the data pane like he was tapping along to a happy tune.
“You are going to regret the day you did this,” he said.
And then Salvi saw it.
Over Travis’ shoulder in the sky beyond.
Something in the distance.
Something small, and black, and hurtling toward them at great speed.
“Salvi!” Kara said, pointing, seeing it too.
“You think I’m going to fall for that?” Travis said to her.
“It’s a goddamn drone!” Kara said, eyes popping.
Travis looked around at it.
“Hey!” Salvi yelled, waving her arms at the drone. “Hey! Over here!”
“Shit…” Travis said, moving backwards from them.
“SFPD mother fucker,” Bronte said through gritted, bloodied teeth.
Salvi smiled venomously at Travis. “You’re the one who is going to regret what you did here.”
Travis glanced at Dancer nervously, before he looked back to his data pane and stabbed it. Then he ran back toward the stairs.
“No, no, no, no…!” Dancer whispered. Salvia looked back to him to see the cuff around his neck light up and the alarm sound. He looked at her wide-eyed in fear.
“No!” she reached out to him, as his neck suddenly snapped loudly, and he fell motionless against her. “No! No! No!”
The drone hurtled toward them so fast Salvi wasn’t sure it was going to stop, but it did, abruptly, a few feet from Bronte. She stiffened as a green light emanated from it, tracing over his face, confirming his identity.
Gunfire from the two guards suddenly ricocheted off it, forcing them all to cower.
The drone suddenly rose as a compartment in its belly slid back and the muzzle of its weapon lowered. Its digital voice projected toward the firing guards.
“This is the San Francisco Police Department. Drop your weapons. I repeat–”
More gunfire bounced off the drone as they curled themselves into balls once again to avoid being hit. Cracks appeared in the drone’s shell, but no internal damage had been sustained.
Then the drone fired back at the guards, hurtling toward them.
Salvi peered over the air vent to see the guards’ bodies riddled with bullets as they fell to the ground, and Travis disappeared inside the doorway, data pane still in hand.
“More!” Kara said pointing in the distance. Salvi looked to where she was pointing as more drones zoomed toward them.
Bronte’s beacon had been detected and Riverton was sending in the cavalry.
“Oh, thank god..,” Salvi breathed with utter relief. “Thank you, Riverton. Thank you…”
Bronte groaned again and Salvi turned to him. She thrust her hand out to his wounds to stem the bleeding.
“Help is coming,” she said. “Hold on, Bron–”
An incredibly intense pain suddenly shot through her skull, more intense than anything she had felt so far. She screamed as her whole body arched and seemed to lock up in agony.
“Salvi!” Kara yelled in panic.
She let go of Bronte’s wounds and fell onto her back, clasping at the neural devices attached either side of her face. Kara’s blurred face came into view, but she couldn’t hear anything she said for the screaming.
And as the world spun and pain shot though her, a cacophony of sound and sensations clouded her mind and she instantly fell into blackness.
17: PERMANENT SCAR
Salvi heard the digital beeping. Her eyes shot open. She was in a bed, in another strange room, and scrambled back against the pillows, pulling her legs in defensively, and fighting the dizzy
