Time Salvager (47 page)
A streak of red flew up from the ground near her toward one of the fast-moving specks and trailed a ship that tried to zigzag left and right to shake it. Their chase ended with the ship exploding and crashing into one of the derelict buildings, shaking the ground as chunks of the building rained down nearby. Fortunately, none of the Farming Towers, where dozens of Elfreth were hiding, was hit.
It then began to rain men, and not in the good way. Dozens of the same black-armored men who had attacked her at the plaza jumped out of the collies, landing around the edge of the communal fields and forming a perimeter around the Farming Towers’ grounds. Scratch that; some of the attackers were women as well, and they were every bit as aggressive and dangerous as the men. All of them looked dangerous and seemed to be shooting at anyone who moved, the remaining women and children included.
The dried-up water fountain in the center of the common area exploded, sending chunks of concrete and debris flying into the air, tearing through the closest group of tribesmen. Another explosion followed. Then a chain of explosions erupted, a line of earth and rocks cutting through the camp as four attackers flew by overhead. She didn’t know they could do that. Elise saw two more groups of black-armored people charge in from opposite sides. Six more dropped in from the sky. Within seconds, the entire encampment was a battlefield.
The tribesmen returned fire, pulling together their awaiting barricades, forming small squads of twos and threes, and retreating to cover from the clearing in a surprisingly orderly and tactical fashion. Well, no. Nothing the Elfreth did surprised Elise that much anymore. They even fought as a cohesive unit. Still, they were outgunned. Several of the tribe, if not all, would fall before the night was over.
Elise was in a dangerous spot and stayed huddled behind one of the broken columns, too terrified to move. Instead of retreating underground with the children, she had stupidly stayed above and watched the attackers sweep over them. Now, she was caught in the cross fire as the advancing attackers moved in on all sides while the members of the Elfreth defended from assorted barricades, desperately trying to keep them out of the communal fields.
Rough hands pawed at her and lifted her off the ground. Elise screamed for a second until she realized that it was Chawr dragging her toward the first tower. She looked up and saw dozens of the Elfreth shooting from all levels, either at the air, at the ships buzzing about, or at the encroaching invaders at the ground level. It was chaotic. People were dying everywhere. One thing was clear, though; the tribe was slowly losing ground.
Chawr half-dragged, half-carried her back to one of the larger barricades and dumped her at Qawol’s feet. The Oldest looked as calm in the midst of this battle as if he were just going out on a stroll. He was studying the enemy and giving orders like a seasoned general, every once in a while pointing at certain places he wanted his people to be.
“Qawol,” she urged, “You shouldn’t be here.”
He smiled. “There is nowhere else I should be. You, child, should be with the children. You are too important to be wasted as weapon fodder.” He was interrupted by one of the younger guardians—barely fourteen by the looks of him—reporting in from the far side. Qawol gave him a few orders and then looked at Chawr standing next to Elise. He tilted his head toward the Farming Towers entrance. The young Elfreth grabbed her by the arm and dragged her from the battle.
A line of black-armored soldiers stormed the clearing, overrunning some of the outer barricades. Several more of the Elfreth charged out of the Farming Towers and met them in the center of the fields, using their primitive spears and rifles in whatever ways they could. Before Elise realized what had happened, the guardians were fighting close with them on every side. While they still outnumbered the enemy, the guardians’ ranks were falling. Everywhere she looked, she saw the brave guardians taking on the chronmen, their weapons often ineffectual. But still, they fought.
It soon became apparent to Elise that several if not all of these attackers were looking for something. Someone. Without a doubt, it was her; she was their objective. Part of Elise wanted to give herself up to end the fighting. Another part of her knew her surrender would do nothing for the Elfreth.
Elise and Chawr reached Farming Tower One’s entrance and ran across the lobby toward the stairwell. It was a large building with many floors. If they could find a place to hide, they could wait out the attack. She felt ashamed for fleeing, but she knew she wasn’t worth a damn fighting. The few shots she had fired with the wrist beam were well off their marks. She was a scientist, not a fighter, and her nerves were not prepared for the cacophony and chaos of the battlefield.
Just as they reached the stairwell, something smashed into the lobby with such force, a cloud of dust blew Elise and Chawr off their feet. She spit the grit out of her mouth and looked behind her, and for a moment, hope sprung up. She saw a dark figure with a glow surrounding him. James had returned! He would know what to do.
Then she noticed that something was wrong. Every time James used his exo, it was yellow; this one was orange. The figure, nothing more than a silhouette against the blinding lights of the fires and explosions outside, stood up and walked toward her. She realized then that there were others with James’s sort of powers, and they were on the enemy’s side.
“Oh no! Oh no!” she gasped, scrambling on all fours and crab-walking toward the stairwell. He was coming for her.
“Run, Elder Elise,” said Chawr. “I will take care of this man.”
“No,” she cried, grabbing for his arm. “He’ll kill you.”
He picked her up off the ground and grinned. “No one can kill Chawr. Just you see. Now, go! You run. Hide!” He pushed her into the stairwell, turned, and then charged at the black silhouette, armed with only a hatchet.
Elise helplessly watched as the figure casually swept the young man aside with a gesture of his hand. Chawr picked himself up and attacked again, hacking at the shield, cursing at the top of his lungs. The figure stopped and faced him, shaking his head. There was a burst of light and Chawr flew into one of the walls and crumpled in a heap to the floor. She saw him rise one more time. Their eyes locked and he waved her away. Then Chawr raised his hatchet and charged at the glowing man once more.
Tears streaming down her face, Elise turned and sprinted up the stairs two a time. Now, she had to get away, not for herself, but for that boy—that young man who decided that her life was worth more than his.
She scrambled up the stairs, her steps echoing through the long hollow vertical corridors. As always, the Farming Towers were nearly pitch-black, save for the natural light from the outside that shone through the exits on each floor. Fortunately, there was just a sliver of sun left, which offered enough light for her not to stumble through complete darkness.
Thirty floors up, Elise tired and slowed her pace. As she stopped to rest for a moment, she heard another set of steps. She paused and listened. Elise had missed hearing those steps earlier because, she now realized, they had been matching hers.
“Damn it,” she cursed under her breath.
She tried to take a few soft steps, but their faint echoes betrayed her, and she soon heard the second set of footsteps follow suit. He was stalking her to see which floor she got off on. She changed up her pacing, going up three steps at a time or alternating loud and quiet steps to throw off her pursuer. It didn’t matter; every time she rounded a stairwell corner, it gave her position away. The bastard stayed on her, and he was getting closer.
Finally, at around the fiftieth level, she decided to hell with it and ran has hard as she could. If she could reach the sky bridge, she could try to lose him in one of the other buildings. Elise scrambled up the remaining flights to the seventieth floor as fast as she could.
Once there, she rounded the corner and ran directly toward Farming Tower Two. No matter what, she had to stay away from the lab where Grace was hiding with all their research and equipment. If these guys got ahold of that, then everything would be lost. Elise sprinted across the sky bridge connecting the two towers and entered the ruins of an old office, where a maze of cubicles and small rooms made for good hiding spots.
She sped down the hallway and jumped into a side corridor, where she found a small closet whose door was mostly obstructed by a ceiling cave-in. It was a tight fit even for her small body. She climbed inside and passed through to an adjacent room. She huddled in the corner and tried to steady her hard breathing. A moment later, she heard approaching footsteps, and a deliberate
tap, tap, tap.
Then a pause, and then another
tap, tap, tap.
“Wrong move, little mouse,” a voice said. “You think hiding here will keep you out of my hands?” There were two loud crashes that sounded very close by, and then metal groaned as a cloud of dust swept past her hiding place.
“If you were wondering what that was, little mouse,” the voice continued, “it was the bridge and stairwell. I guess it’s just you and me all cozy-like now, eh?”
Elise’s nose itched and she pinched it as hard as she could. Sneezing now was certain death. If she made any noise, it was over. She aimed her wrist beam at the small hole she had crawled through, where a sliver of light from the outside beamed in. She was grateful that the sun would soon set. The Farming Towers’ exterior walls were all windows, though more than two-thirds of the panes were long gone.
She wouldn’t be hard to find then. This guy didn’t know about the remaining bridge on the other side. Maybe once it was dark she could sneak off this floor.
“Hide if you like; it makes the hunt more enjoyable,” the voice continued. “You’re lucky the dust kicked up, little mouse, or this hunt would be over right quick. No matter, though. It’ll only be a small matter of time before old Shizzu gets ahold of you.”
James saw the battle from kilometers away. At least half a dozen collies hovered above the city. Pillars of smoke billowed up from the area where the Farming Towers were located. His concern rose as he pulled in closer. This was a major attack.
“Black abyss, there’s so many,” he said, fear gripping his throat. The scope of the attack still amazed James. Levin must want him pretty badly to commit such a large force just for him. He was surprised to realize that his worry extended not just to Grace, but to the rest of the Elfreth as well.
This was a large operation by ChronoCom standards. Between the six ships he saw floating in the air, the two burning wrecks—one on the ground and one that had crashed into a skyscraper—and at least forty or so monitors with flight bands he saw flitting around, not to mention who knows how many on the ground. ChronoCom must have committed nearly a hundred operatives to this attack. All for a wasteland tribe of a couple hundred ill fed, badly armed men, women, and children. And him and Elise. That’s who they were really after. Maybe he could lead them away and buy the Elfreth time to escape.
He desperately wanted to call out to Elise through his comm band, but it was far too risky. He wasn’t sure how many of their channels were compromised. Still, there had to be a way he could reach out to her and let her know that he was here, that he was coming for her. Even if he was too late to rescue her, at least she would know that he had tried.
He decided to take a risk. He activated his comm band to every channel in his spectrum. “To all tribes monitoring this, stay off channels. You will be tracked. Emergency ping only.”
Only Elise and Grace had comm bands, so they would be the only ones to receive it. Well, those two and everyone in ChronoCom monitoring the channels. Hopefully, they were smart enough to understand his message.
His plan worked. He saw all six of those collies peel off their positions and move to intercept him. Now, he had to worry about surviving the next minute. His collie wasn’t armed, and he had little doubt that that wasn’t case with those approaching him.
Bright beams shot out of the lead ships and streaked toward him. His collie didn’t stand a chance against ship weaponry. It would be torn to shreds and his exo wouldn’t hold against weaponry of that level. He opened the door and dove out a second before
Collie
exploded, the blast tossing him out of control as he plummeted to the ground.
James watched his ship of fifteen years explode into a ball of flames, and for a brief moment, he mourned its loss. While he had always thought of
Collie
as the vehicle that took him to the jobs that he hated, the truth was that she had never failed him, even when everything and everyone around him did. Aside from Smitt, she was the most reliable part of his life. Seeing her destruction hurt. Then he remembered that he had left the netherstore attached to her as well.
He slapped his forehead even as he plummeted to Earth. “Fuck me.”
James took another second to mourn and then turned his attention back to the battle. He had to manage his levels carefully if he was going to win this fight. Who was he kidding? The odds of him dying today were high. They were assured if Elise didn’t make it. His only solace was knowing that Valta and ChronoCom intended to capture her alive. If that were the case, he had to stay alive long enough to rescue her.
James landed hard on the ground two kilometers away from the Farming Towers and took a tumble, sliding and rolling on broken pavement. He was swarmed right away by fourteen monitors, who dropped down from the sky after him. One of them carried an exo-chain and tried to lock James down. James batted him away with a kinetic coil. He grew ten more as they came at him from all sides. Nine were in the air and a squad of five came in on the ground from the east.
James continued moving, pushing himself and sliding in all directions to minimize the stream of wrist beams from burning his shields down. He struck, lashing at monitors unfortunate enough to be within range of his kinetic coil or ramming into others who gave him a direct line of sight.
