Sucker Punch (8 page)

“I'm jammed over here. I'll have to evac your side, Joe.”

Lucky for them, his hatch responded to emergency command and flew off. Joe scrambled out, then turned, holding out his hand to her. She let him pull her clear, only then turning back to check on their passengers.

Benson looked dazed, but her eyes were open. Jack, well, Jack looked like Jack. At least he was moving. He'd released his straps and was working on Benson's. Vi triggered the rear emergency hatch. Jack pushed Benson toward Vi, who grabbed her arm and pulled her clear of the skimmer. Jack passed over one of the rear emergency long guns to them, grabbed his and scrambled out.

She heard a sound and looked up. “Run! Get clear of the skimmer! Incoming!”

They scattered. Vi raced away, looking for any cover higher than a blade of grass with the whine building from above. She dropped, trying to push herself deep into the thin muddy surface soil.

The whine was replaced by a boom. It shook the ground. Dirt and debris hit all around her. Some pelted her back. Some of that painfully, but Wynken was on that, too.

She lifted her head a few inches. Looked around. Smaller bits of stuff were still making landfall. The skimmer, well, she wasn't looking forward to explaining to Captain Uncle that she'd lost another one. If she lived long enough to offer explanations. Odds of that weren't great.

She rose to crouch, spotted Benson and scrambled over to her. Checked her pulse. Alive. Nasty cut on her forehead. Where—she spotted Joe checking the skimmer, also keeping low. She joined him, but with her long gun out, scanning the immediate area before turning to him. “That was military ordinance.”

Joe leaned over and pointed at the center—dead center— of the crater. Vi peered in. She could see the ground below through the hole. She looked a Joe. “I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, that we're in a
crapeau
load of trouble.”

J
ack paused
by them long enough to stare down the hole. His eyes widened a bit, then he moved over to help Benson into a sitting position.

“I'm okay,” she said, though she didn't look it.

Vi looked more than unusually unhappy, even when he factored in the situation. “We should move.”

Joe didn't argue, but… “It will take them time to shift position—”

“I'm not so sure. The first shots were probably shoulder mounted, but that last one? That was a heat seeker, or I'm my mother's aunt. It would have to have been fired from some kind of fixed setup, at least fixed as in something bigger than a skimmer. Which means it could have been set up and then fired by remote.” She looked around like she expected trouble to burst from the too sparse bushes.

“They could not know I would be able to land it.”

“It didn't hit until we were on the ground,” Vi pointed out. “Someone wants us isolated and without transport.”

Joe could see no flaw in her reasoning. “I fear you are correct.” He glanced toward Benson. “How is she?”

“She'll be fine,” Jack said, pulling her upright and giving her a “get fine” look.

“Can she keep up?” Vi asked.

Joe considered their location, based on a map Lurch provided. The realities of their situation were not…encouraging. There was little cover, since most of the park was, of necessity, holographic. “There are not enough structures to provide cover.”

“If I'm remembering right, the lake and bayous were built as channels so that pleasure craft could use them without straying off course.” She looked around. “I think Little Lake is behind us. It connects to Big Lake, if we need to keep moving, and I think it also connects to the bayou if help is slow arriving.”

“Do you think our distress signal got through?” He had not seen signs of signal blocking, but that was because the skimmer lacked the technology to know if its signal was being blocked. “We must assume we are on our own, until assistance does arrive.”

Vi made a grimace he assumed was agreement. She glanced at Benson, then lowered her voice to say, “If this a move by you know who, at least it has reduced the collateral damage to our two uniforms.”

Joe was not so sure. “It seems unlike it to be so altruistic.” But who else would attack them so brazenly? Afoniki? The MITSC? “Whoever it is, they will not wish to leave behind witnesses.”

“But they don't seem to be concerned about questions,” Vi pointed out, looking at the smoking hole that had been the skimmer.

“No.” Joe scanned the seemingly empty landscape. If their attackers went airborne—which he had to assume they would—Vi was right. They needed to move. “In any case, this location is what you would call hot. Let us move to this little lake and reassess.”

“
C
ouldn't we wait there
?” Benson asked, as they drew level with the Pavilion of the Two Sisters.

Vi felt the same pull. But it had been thoroughly locked down ahead of WTF. Those hurricane shutters hadn't moved for the storm. Had a feeling they'd resist them to their last bolt. They could probably shoot their way in—and announce where they were as loudly as possible while doing it. Besides, she'd gone to a wedding there. Once inside there weren't that many places to hide.

“First place I'd look,” she said, rather than waste energy on a list of bad reasons to try it. Would the bad whoever-it-was after them think of Little Lake? Hard to know what an unknown assailant would do. So all they could do was try to keep moving and thinking. If the search for them did go airborne, which it would, it would up their level of difficulty by quite a bit. Though their attackers had to know they'd be armed. Wasn't that hard to find out the standard armament for a police skimmer.

Speaking of standard, Vi kinda wished she'd grabbed the parachutes. Though she wasn't sure there'd been time. And if that would have been a good move or piling on stupid. They were pretty old school, and she hadn't used one since her police training. Of course, whoever was after them could probably pick them off as they drifted down to—Vi considered dirt side and decided she'd rather die up here. At least there weren't gators up here—there had been critters here in the old days, but they were also holograms—and the suicide oak was offline. Was that symbolic or ironic? She wouldn't have minded a few more real bushes to hide behind.

Even though it was an illusion, it was relief to drop down into the shallow base of the lake. The water wasn't deep, but it did cover her boots. Mud sucked at the soles, then her knees as she crouched next to Joe, with Jack on her other side. She couldn't decide if it smelled better or worse than her last adventure in mud. Stagnant water went bad so fast, but it seemed like this smell predated the storm. The city probably didn't clean them that often when it was all hidden by holograms anyway. She tried to tell herself that no critters would have been able to move up and in, but herself wasn't entirely convinced.

So far there'd been no sign of pursuit, either on the ground or in the air. That was a puzzler. At least it gave them time to regroup, consider their options.

That didn't take long.

Beside her, Joe dug his hand into the mud and let it slide off his fingers, his expression thoughtful. He must have sensed her gaze, because he met it, one brow lifted a bit.

“It couldn't hurt,” Vi answered the unspoken question. Kept her sigh to herself. Hadn't they just been to the covered-in-smelly-mud party? Her post-storm shower was a highlight of the week, right after getting kissed by Joe.

“What couldn't hurt?” Benson asked. She looked like she'd replaced awe for shock. And some wary.

But not enough wary yet. Clearly Benson hadn't clued into how deep in the
crapeau
they were. Vi was gonna go out on a limb and declare the girl crush over. She extracted a handful of mud and held it up. “Mud facials. They're supposed to be great for your skin.”

Jack allowed himself to look thoughtful. Dude would be breaking out in half a smile if he wasn't careful.

“It should mute our heat signatures.” Without losing any laconic, he placed his weapons on the lake bank, lay down and rolled in the mud. And while on his stomach, smeared the stuff liberally over his face and head.

“You missed a spot,” Vi said, slapping some on his crown. It dripped down over his face, which made him blink. And yup, there it was. The half smile. He was out of control.

“We should expedite mud application,” Joe said, a bit of something in his voice, that turned Vi his way.

Could a purple dude turn green? She grinned at him, then threw a handful of mud at him. Before he could retaliate, assuming he would, she took off her weapons and went down in the mud. If she'd been a pig, she'd have been as happy as one. She wasn't, but it did help to know she'd blend into the scant landscape better. And it made the armpit odor moot. One had to find ones positives where one could.

Benson was the last one to do the mud application. Her reluctance was interesting, but ultimately irrelevant. Jack might have been a little too helpful there. A little friction in the partnership? If she was annoying, Captain Uncle had picked her a good partner.

The mud might have helped, but they needed to keep moving. To where? And then what? She wanted to believe that help was on the way, but what if the call had been a fake? What if their transmissions had been blocked? Someone out there could have seen the fireworks over the Park. Might even have called it in. What priority would it get? Hard to say on that one. Would depend on who took the call and how it was reported. Which left her with a possible worst-case scenario that they were on their own for an unspecified amount of time. Now if the shooting ramped up into a firefight, that bumped up chances that lots of someones around the Park would notice and report. Eventually there would be a tipping point that would trigger official attention.

They just needed to live that long. And make enough noise to make it happen. Which would expose their position and put them at higher risk of not living that long.

Yeah, more worst-case scenarios than not.

“We should split up.” Jack's voice sounded as calm as if he were talking about picking where to eat lunch. He carefully holstered his hand weapon and picked up his long gun. Checked it for power pack and then assumed a defensive posture.

Clearly he'd been thinking, too. And not about lunch. Which Vi wished she hadn't missed. She'd even take an MRE right now.

“I concur,” Joe said.

Not a surprise.

“The idea has…merit,” she admitted reluctantly, pretty sure she knew where he was going to go with this. To head him off, she pointed out, “If whoever is after us didn't see us leave the councilman's place, they won't know we picked up these two,” Vi pointed. “That might give us an advantage?” They needed the thin edges of even thin wedges, since that seemed like that's all they had. “You and I could go one way, these two could go another….”

Joe frowned. Also not a surprise. He was cut out of the heroic mold, and his people still had a “protect the women and children at all costs” code of conduct. The truth was, she and Joe were probably hosed, but it was possible that Benson and Jack could get clear. Tell their sad tale. It was easy to think noble thoughts, much harder to do noble things. Not that she minded Jack and Benson surviving. She just wanted to survive, too, if only to kiss the boy once more. When Joe didn't speak, she went on making her case like he had objected.

“We could draw pursuit off these two.” She tried to sound, if not enthusiastic, at least wise. “Jack and Benson could make their way to one of the buildings and just lie low until help comes.”

Benson looked horrified. Jack looked like, well, Jack.

“If you followed the lake bed, you could could head for the stadium. Might even get high enough to see something.” Give us some cover fire, she almost said, but it undermined her “they don't know you're here” point.

“We won't leave you,” Benson said stubbornly.

“Well, that's not your call, now is it? I kind of outrank you.” Vi softened the rank pulling with a smile.

“You won't stand a chance.” The line of her mouth was mutinous.

“If we stick together, no one will have a chance. Jack's right about that,” Vi said. “We have to split up. And Joe and I seem to be the problem, the target, if you will. You can be collateral damage, or you can be witnesses for the prosecution.”

There was a short silence.

“Yes, ma'am.” She sounded subdued. As she should.

Funny how quick the “wow, it's so amazing to be a cop,” turned into “holy freaking
crapeau.
”

“Joe?” He'd been quiet, even by his standards.

“I believe that Jack and I should attempt to draw off the pursuit, while you and Benson make for the stadium. You can provide us cover when you have achieved the high ground.”

He didn't seem to mind outing the witnesses. His people were also eminently practical.

“They are after us,” Vi pointed out again.

“It is possible they know were are four, not two. We do not know what they know, why they have not acted.” He blew out his breath. “We must balance our strengths, minimize our weaknesses. You and I both have experience.”

In wallowing around in the mud? He was right about that. And he was hoping she wouldn't notice he'd put the girls together.

“They'll be looking for a guy and a girl, Joe.”

He held up a muddy hand. “They are looking for a purple alien and someone with him. In our uniforms were are not gender specific. Identification will require close range. And covered in mud? Even close range will take time. Jack will provide, we can hope, an element of surprise if they do get close enough to ascertain our gender.”

“It is the best configuration for success,” Jack agreed. Maybe he liked the idea of being an element of surprise. Or he was cut out the heroic mold, too.