Point Apocalypse (20 page)

"Did you see him?" the driver
leaned out of the hatch. The cables behind him drew taut but he didn't disconnect them, just cocked his head studying the cowl damaged by our shaped charge.

The
trooper kept looking at the trees without answering. He could be a cyber, too, judging by his clouded stare. Most likely, he was busy downloading data from the buggy's microprocessor and restoring his files damaged by the impact.

"Didn't you hear?
" the driver said. "It was him!"

"How can you be so sure, flat f
ace?" the trooper's eyes cleared as he looked at his partner. "You went blind as shit when they hit your fat mug!"

A branch crunched amid the trees. The
trooper shut his visor close and swung round raising his pulse gun. The driver disappeared inside and slid the hatches shut.

Kathy
raised her gun aiming at the trooper. I laid my hand on the barrel and jerked it down, unable to tell her that the cybers knew of Famba and his men taking cover in the grove. Now the soldiers played cat and mouse with the raiders. With their armor and guns, they thought nothing of the raiders' carbines. Nothing short of a grenade launcher could harm them.

Kathy
tried to pull her gun out of my grip, ready to spit abuse in my face. Georgie sniffed, exchanging glares between the cyber and the girl. Without me, these two could kill each other simply over the gun.

The hiding raiders were losing it. They opened fire.
The pulse gun clattered on the buggy's roof, followed by the trooper's rifle. A raider's bullet hit him in the shoulder striking sparks off his armored vest. For a moment, the soldier stepped back but he didn't stop shooting. A scream was cut short behind the trees.

A few seconds later, it was over. The grove thinned out as trees burned. Famba walked out into the
open - his clothes smoking, his hand clenching a gun, his eyes empty.

The
trooper raised his rifle. The barrel spat fire. Famba jerked. Boiling blood splashed out of his chest and back. He dropped to his knees and lowered his head, staring at the wound. Then he raised a vacant face and tumbled to his side.

The trooper lower
ed his visor and turned to the shrubs. Kathy tensed up. I clasped the barrel of her gun. Georgie stopped breathing.

The smoke from the fires started to cover the hollow.
The trooper started toward us. Then he pressed his fingers to his temple receiving a radio message. He stepped back, turned round and got back into the buggy.

The vehicle
backed up. The electric gear box clicked as the driver revved up the engine and the buggy whizzed off toward the hilltop.

For
about a minute we sat motionless. Then Kathy tried once again to tug her gun free but I wouldn't let her have it. I grabbed her arm, pulled the gun's stock and headbutted her in the face.

She raised her bleeding
forehead. I grasped Georgie's elbow and pulled him out of the thicket toward the foothill.

"
Wong! Wladas! Where are you?"

Kathy
spat obscenities to my back. Georgie swore too but at least he didn't resist me but limped obediently behind.

Branches rustled.
Wong and Wladas appeared from the brushwood followed by Jim.

All alive
, even though Wong and Georgie were slightly worse for wear. I slung the carbine over my shoulder and told Wladas to find his first-aid kit and take care of the wounded. Then I called Jim and headed for the grove to collect all the raiders' weapons.

Georgie screamed my name.
I looked round.

Kathy
attacked me and even managed to punch me in the face when Wong arrived and swept her off her feet. He clenched a pistol in one hand while the other dangled, lifeless, as he trained the gun on the girl and started pulling the trigger. His face showed no emotion.

"Wait!" I raised my hand
. "Don't."

Wong
glanced at me without lowering his aim.

I
touched my swollen cheekbone feeling for any loose teeth, and spat blood. The girl knew what she was doing. Without taking any notice of Wong, Kathy showered me with expletives. I really wanted to slap her face but stopped myself as her last phrase superseded my anger and cleared my mind.

Wong
and I exchanged glances. He put the gun down. I nodded to him to join the rest and held out my hand to Kathy.

She
knocked it away and hissed, glaring at me, "Quit gawking, you idiot! I was just going to set you all free back there at the coast! But you needed to play Superman, didn't you? And now..."

"You," I squatted in front of her.
"You knew about me. On the day when the ferry sunk. You are..."

"
Exactly! I'm your contact, you fucking idiot. Now people have died because of you. Johnny's dead now..."

"Keep it q
uiet," I pressed my hand to her mouth. "If you have something to say, stick to the point. Emotions won't help."

I removed my hand. She
gasped for air, her glare burning a hole right through me.

"Better now?"
I checked the others out, giving orders. Jim went to collect the raiders' weapons left in the grove. Wladas had to get out some bandages and antiseptics and start helping the wounded.

Wong
was already busy, his knife slicing through the tourniquet on his arm. Georgie stared at us in amazement, forgetting the gash on his hip.

"So?" I looked
down at Kathy.

She nodded and spoke in a quiet voice,

"When McLean realized the ferry was gone, I arranged it with him to be sent to the coast with the rest. I tried to tell you..."

"
Doesn't matter," I shook my head. "We can't change it now. What was your objective?"

"To meet you and provide
you with arms and transport."

"
I see. Get up then. You can go with us."

I offered her my hand.
After a moment's hesitation, she accepted it and rose.

We came
back to the dead Famba to retrieve our money. While I was frisking him, Jim reappeared from behind the trees, two shotguns on his shoulder. I took one and told him to give the other one to Wong. Having shoved the fabric tube with the coins into my pocket, I slid Famba's handgun into my belt and hurried after Jim. Georgie tried to tell me something; I waved him away and took my field glasses back from Wong, then ordered him to go up to the hilltop.

"Try to be quick," I told Wladas and followed the Chinese. I needed to have a good look around.
Kathy trailed behind.

The sun had nearly set flooding the desert with crimson.
Humpbacks slowly circled the dark waters by the bank. They'd finished Grunt off and were looking for more edibles.

"Did you sleep with any of them?" I asked inspecting the desert through my field glasses.

"Why would you want to know? It's history."

I
looked at her. Kathy was now her old self. Okay, her nose was swollen and she was growing two black eyes even as we spoke. Still, cold superiority shone in her glare. Even when Georgie and Grunt - may he rest in peace - had fished us out of the water, they hadn't given us this kind of eyeballing.

Apparently,
McLean valued her enough despite her character. Still I wondered how she'd convinced him to send the truck to the coast to get us out. The FSA, too, must have prized her enough to assign her as my contact. What had they promised her? An amnesty and safe return to Earth? No deportee would dare dream of more. She'd followed me all the way to the desert - no small feat...

I didn't like it. When you lay yourself out for a cause straining every sinew
, the cause had better be worth it. A mega cause, one you'd do anything to achieve, otherwise it wouldn't be worth her while tracking me down. She could have reported to the FSA that she'd lost me, end of story.

I
lowered the glasses.

"
I wonder why they left? The cyber troopers?" gingerly, she felt her broken nose. "They could easily have found and killed us all."

"
They could have received new orders."

How old was she?
Could be twenty-five or in her thirties, even. Fine crow's feet webbed her eyes, but she was fit and bronzed, her teeth white and straight. She definitely took good care of herself.

"
Could they?" again she felt her nose and winced as she touched a raw scratch. "I don't understand it."

"They were cybers - cyber
troopers. Their controller must have called them off. According to the Feds' data, Varlamov has three of them. Apparently, he needed them to do something else." I looked at the expanse of sand stretching to the horizon. "That's not what worries me. How did they know we would travel by boat?"

"
That's easy," Kathy chuckled. "King radioed the riggers about you."

"
King?" I turned to her. "That's Lars Swenson."

That's what he'd warned
Grunt about just before we left. I should have checked. But why had he done it? Did he mistrust me? Possible. For him, I was an infantry sergeant who could easily take the side of the escaped conspirators. Then he'd lose the booty I'd promised him. Wonder what he needed the weapons for?

"What was the radio about?" I
asked.

"
Just your names. The thunderstorm started, so they couldn't read beyond that, just that you were heading for the riggers' base. If we were able to intercept the message, they," she nodded at the desert, "could have done it just as easily. They're not stupid. These cyber troopers might've had better reception, too, which could explain why they found you first."

I nodded.
She went on, "Didn't it surprise you that the cybers recognized some of you?"

I tried to remember their conversation. At the time, their words hadn't rung any bells, but
on second thoughts...

"You think we have a mole?"

She shrugged.

"
All right then. Let's go."

Something rustled behind our backs. Sniff
ling and gasping for air, Georgie limped up the slope.

"What's
with all this shooting the breeze?" he croaked eyeing Kathy angrily.

"Go fuck yourself,"
Kathy suggested.

"
You bitch!" Georgie bared his knife. "I'll rip your guts out! I'll make you fuck clones!"

Wong
, returning from the recce, caught up with him and twisted his arm, leading him down the slope like a cop with an arrestee. We followed.

Biting his lip,
Jim watched us. Wladas touched his shoulder, "Help me to repack the bag, will you?"

"You fucking gook!" Georgie wriggled in
Wong's grip. "If I... If you.."

Finally,
Wong forced him onto the ground and strapped his hands with his belt.

"We need to find
somewhere to spend the night," I said to Kathy. "Know someplace safe?"

"Yeah," she waved south. "Past those hills, there's a cave
. We could go there."

"
Fine. You'll show us."

I gave the others five minutes'
grace to pack their stuff and freshen themselves up. After some consideration, I presented Wladas with the handgun and passed the shotgun to Jim. I kept Kathy's gun.

"Whatcha gonna do next?" she tried to conceal her disappointment
at not being trusted with a weapon. "We'll stay there for the night, and then what? Back to New Pang?"

"No. That's wasting our time. We need to go eastwa
rd to the swamps. I need to have a word with the farmers." I tightened my belt, checked the sheathed knife at my side, attached the water flask next to it, blew at the field glass lenses and looked up at her. "Know where we could get a car? Georgie said something about an oasis seven miles away or so. According to him, it's some raiders' base or other."

"I know,"
Kathy said after a pause.

"You think they have some wheels?"

"Used to," she frowned.

"Is it a big
detour from where we're going?"

She
shook her head.

"
All right, then. Tomorrow morning we start straight for the oasis. If we can't get a car, we'll have to follow the river until we find the riggers. They'll think of something car wise, I'm sure."

"Across the desert? Are you nuts?"

I sized her up and down grinning.

"God loves the infantry," I
rearranged the gun on my shoulder. "If we can't get the wheels at the oasis, then we'll work something out with the riggers."

"Why can't we go there straight away?"
Kathy stared at me, uncomprehending. "Wouldn't it be easier?"