She was doing that a lot lately.
‘You okay?’ he asked. ‘You look a little on edge.’
‘Yeah. Just don’t like being back here. You?’
His gaze swept the accommodation. ‘Yeah.’
Sharp movement from inside the block startled her. She stopped just as Rover growled low and deep. A dozen Copies streamed out of the building, all armed, all running at them.
‘This is an ambush!’ yelled Dom. ‘Fall back!’
But their trucks were a half a kilometre away.
Between them and the vehicles were four wolves that had not travelled with them.
6
Dom
Dom jerked back at the sight of the Copies. He didn’t remember much about this city. From the time he’d arrived to his departure, everything had been hazy. But one Copy had stuck in his mind. One of his guards, who’d not only treated him poorly, but also pretended his mother, Mariella, was still alive.
Yeah, he remembered him all right. And now that Copy was running at him. Not just one, but twelve of him. Each version of his prison guard wore the same sneer on his face.
‘Everyone, fan out!’ he ordered.
If they couldn’t get to the trucks, they’d have to fight.
The Copies fired at them.
Kaylie shouted to her team and they fired back, long enough for Rover to get into position and provide them with cover. The bullets bounced off his exterior. Jacob and Carissa cowered behind him. Rover’s mate did the same as him, facing off against Copies she’d once listened to. Charlie and Vanessa hid behind her. Dom didn’t have the firepower to help them. He hoped he wouldn’t need it.
Dom’s nemesis came running at him. He couldn’t tell which one was the Copy he’d battled with. Did it matter? In his eyes, they were all the same.
His gaze flicked to a cowering Carissa, eyes set wide, and Rover and his mate defending her. Okay, maybe not all the machines were the same. He checked for Anya. She and June had merged with the line of soldiers, their revolvers poised and ready. Sheila and Imogen, too. Thomas crouched low with the Atomiser, which was capable of punching a hole in Praesidium’s tech. Rebel soldiers hit the Copies with blasts from their Electro Guns. The electricity bounced off some kind of personal shield the Copies wore. But not all of them appeared to have one. Two went down.
Kaylie and her team were driving forward.
Thomas kept low as he shuffled closer to Dom. Dom raised the Disruptor, drawing the spent energy out of the air to charge it.
‘Use the Atomiser to punch a hole in their shields,’ he said to Thomas.
Sheila and Imogen slipped back behind the soldiers, who had fanned out. They were attempting to sneak up on the Copies, who were huddled in groups of three. One from each group appeared to hold what looked like a shield, while another fired around it. Anya popped off a shot at one of the Copies. It bounced off the front of the shield before hitting the Copy’s outstretched arm. Dom’s former guard jerked his arm back.
The purpose of the bullets wasn’t to kill; it was to distract. Thomas aimed the Atomiser at one shield and fired. A hole appeared in the shimmering, transparent barrier. Before the Copies could refocus, Dom fired the partial energy from the Disruptor at the shield; it hit the guard. He reversed the action on the gun and sucked the Copy’s energy plus that of the shield back inside the weapon.
Now, he had real power. The trio of guards regrouped and huddled behind the remaining shields. Dom wondered which one was his actual guard. Many Copies lived in this city. What was the purpose of replicating just one?
To create an infinite army, perhaps?
Kaylie and her team fired their Electro Guns at the enemy. It gave Sheila and Imogen time to pick up the discarded weapons belonging to the Copies. Kaylie and her team tossed their spent weapons on the ground and kept firing with active ones.
Dom took cover behind a tall, white tag station. Thomas stayed with him.
‘Hit their shields again and I’ll blast them with the Disruptor.’
Thomas nodded. His fingers were white from clutching the Atomiser too tight.
Electro Gun shots from the Copies hit a couple of soldiers who hadn’t moved fast enough. They went down. The enemy moved in, but Anya and June popped off shots at their heads to keep them back. Behind him, Dom heard an exchange of growls and a ‘Carissa, get back!’ from Jacob. He turned to see the wolves that had blocked their retreat to the trucks were moving in. Rover and his mate snapped and snarled at the unwelcome visitors. The wolves launched themselves at each other in a weird display of dominance.
He faced forwards. One of the Copy guards had broken off from the pack and was almost at him. A light shimmer from his personal shield distorted his face.
Rattled, Dom raised the Disruptor and set it to fire, but a blast of electricity near his fingers forced him to drop the gun. Thomas scrabbled back from the danger.
‘I thought it was you,’ the Copy said with a sneer.
His prison guard. It had to be.
The other Copies moved in on the others’ location. He heard a scream. Female. His eyes searched the crowd, but the guard blocked his view. Thomas raised the Atomiser.
The Copy flicked his gaze to him. ‘I wouldn’t do that. I’ve got a gun on him.’
Thomas lowered the Atomiser.
Dom clutched his arm, the one that the blast had hit. The one without the tech in it. ‘I didn’t expect you to still be here. Where is everyone?’
‘Gone.’
‘Really?’
‘Would I lie to you?’ he drawled.
Dom lunged for the spare gun in his waistband,
