Xenofreak Nation, Book Three: XIA (12 page)

Scott didn’t think for a minute Chief Joe would pull the pin and lob the grenade back at them. The best use of it would be to disable the truck somehow – take out the engine or axle to prevent them from escaping – but Chief Joe wouldn’t attempt it as long as he might injure or kill Lupus, which was very much to Scott and the embattled XIA staff’s advantage.

Lupus had gone limp again, like a two hundred and fifty pound sack of rotten potatoes. Scott grabbed two handfuls of his coverall and boosted his torso up enough for Alton to wrap his arms around his chest from behind. As Scott lifted Lupus’ legs, he glanced into the truck, where Shasta was kneeling over Bob. Her body language and movements – one hand over the other in the middle of Bob’s chest, elbows locked, arms pumping up and down – told Scott all he needed to know about Bob’s condition.

He closed his eyes, just for an instant. Bob had asked if they would survive this and Scott had given him a pat answer: “We will if I can help it.” There would be time for regret and sadness later, but for now, he focused on the job.

He and Alton had moved Lupus all of two feet when a muffled boom sounded somewhere in the building. It was obviously the grenade. There were two stairwells in the building, and he was pretty sure Chief Joe had sent someone into the other stairwell to blow the door and gain access to the second floor. From there it would be a simple matter of walking across to the stairwell where Scott and company were holed up. They were about to be boxed in.

He looked up the stairwell shaft. From this angle, he could only see bottom of the second floor platform and the top portion of the door.

“They’re coming,” he said to Alton.

Lupus must have heard him, because he suddenly wrenched his leg out of Scott’s hand and kicked upward, narrowly missing his chin. Alton let out a wordless snarl of frustration and released his hold on Lupus’ upper body so he could reach for the rifle slung over his shoulder. With the butt facing downward, Alton jerked his arm back and smashed Lupus across the side of the head, shouting, “Hold
still
!”

Lupus finally stopped struggling, but it was too late. Scott heard the door bang open, and figured from the sound of the shoes drumming across the platform that several xenos were taking position to ambush them.

The platform creaked alarmingly under their weight, and someone cried out, “Get down! Get down!”

The barrel of a gun appeared over the edge. Alton took aim at the same time Scott reached for a grenade, but it was unnecessary. With a loud groaning
snap
, the edge of the platform broke away from the bottom of the stairs. Still attached to the wall, it crashed down, folding up against the wall and dumping its cargo of men. Two were hurled to the floor, one clung to the now vertical platform like a gecko, and the fourth managed to jump on top of the truck. Scott saw the man jump, his arms shooting out for balance as he attempted to stay upright on the wet surface, but he slipped and went down, sliding across the roof until his feet hung off the edge.

The man clinging to the wall had dropped his gun and wasn’t an immediate threat, and Alton was dealing with the men who’d hit the floor, so Scott ran over, leapt up onto the deck of the truck and grasped the fourth man’s ankles. He stepped back off the deck and hung his full body weight from the man’s lower legs, effectively pulling him from the roof.

Shasta was still giving Bob CPR, when one of the injured security guards stuck a pistol in the xeno’s face and said, “Hands in the air.”

Scott was fine letting the guard handle that one; there was still the matter of getting Lupus in the truck.

He started to go help Alton, but saw there was no need: the other three xenos were laid out on the floor around him. Alton, flexing his hands in satisfaction, began heading back towards him just as another xeno kicked the second floor door open again. The new xeno was armed with a rifle, and as the barrel lifted, Scott reached for his weapon. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but the xeno behind the rifle fired twice in rapid succession. Alton stopped cold, but didn’t fall. Confused, Scott noticed the angle of the xeno’s rifle barrel was off, as if he hadn’t been aiming for Alton at all.

Scott turned towards Lupus in what seemed like slow motion. Two rapidly growing stains on the wolf-faced xeno’s orange coverall revealed him as the target. When Scott spun back around, Alton had dropped flat to the ground and rolled to look up at the rifleman, who grinned and saluted before disappearing behind the door.

Bryn was still on her knees in the control room. The shotgun was much heavier than the other two guns she’d held. The first had been Carla’s little handgun, which she’d used to bluff her way out of a tight situation. The second had been a few days ago when she’d taken Jason’s gun and actually fired it at someone. On both of those occasions she’d used the guns as a last resort, aware each time that her impulsive decision to use them opened herself up to violent reprisal.

Dillo and Fournier had yet to notice she’d taken possession of the shotgun. It occurred to her that she still had time to set it back down, to relinquish the questionable control it gave her.

Her hand tightened on the cold barrel and she muttered, “I don’t think so.”

“What are you doing?” Mia whispered.

“Taking my life back.”

“You’re going to get us killed.”

Bryn glared at Fournier’s profile. “Not before I take someone with us.”

She shifted her gaze to the shotgun. There was a little switch near the trigger that had already been flipped to reveal a red dot. From what Scott told her, the red dot meant the safety was off and the shotgun was ready to fire, which made sense, since the bald xeno had been about to kill Fournier. She thought about how he’d been holding it before he fell, and lifted it, placing the heel of the stock against her shoulder.

Curtis the programmer made a triumphant little sound, and Bryn stood up in order to peer over his shoulder at the holoscreen. It looked as if he’d managed to connect to the live camera feeds. He raised a hand and swept it through the holo, scrolling through camera views until he stopped at one inside the main building but outside the prefab control room. The camera he accessed must have been located nearby; the view looked down on Dillo and Fournier. Curtis spread his fingers, zooming out. Maddy was crouched about ten feet away from Dillo, who was subtly gesturing to her with the hand sticking out of his sling, urging her towards the control room.

Dillo, Fournier and Maddy were not the only people the camera picked up, however. A shadowy figure was walking stealthily across the roof of the control room, zeroing in on Dillo. Bryn heard tiny creaking sounds above her head. Whoever it was, he hadn’t gotten close enough to the edge to see his targets – or to be seen by them.

Bryn was still watching the holoscreen when Maddy made a break for it, running the short distance to the control room door. As she burst into the room, Bryn swung her way, shotgun ready. Maddy skidded to a stop as soon as she saw the gun. If she was surprised that Bryn was armed, it didn’t show.

“Oh, please,” Maddy said, reaching for the barrel to push it away.

Bryn didn’t let her touch it. Instead, she raised the shotgun, aiming for the ceiling. The blast put a fist-sized hole in the roof and slammed the stock back against her shoulder. Maddy slapped her hands over her ears and Dillo looked furious, but his face changed when he heard footfalls drumming across the aluminum roof. Whoever it was, Bryn must not have hit him.

She caught Maddy’s eye and nodded towards Curtis’ holoscreen. Maddy turned in time to see the shadowy figure disappear from view before Curtis waved a hand to shut the screen down.

Maddy’s chin lifted as she gave Bryn an assessing look. “So you’ve chosen sides.”

“You mean between bad and worse? I suppose.”

Bryn looked around the control room. There were no other doors, even though the prefab structure seemed larger on the outside than the interior suggested. She swung the shotgun barrel so it was pointing at Curtis.

“How do we get out of here?”

He shrugged and answered evasively, “The door.”

She sighed, impatiently shifting her weight from one leg to the other. “I mean, where’s the escape tunnel? Fournier has them in all his buildings.”

Curtis’ eyes slid to where Dillo was still standing in the doorway, holding the gun to Fournier’s head. Curtis’ expression told her there was no way he was going to answer honestly with Fournier looking on. Bryn briefly debated whether to ask Fournier himself, but decided it would be a waste of time.

“Call Padme again,” she said to Maddy. “She’ll know.”

Maddy pulled her holophone from her pocket just as Bryn caught the sound of raised voices echoing from outside the prefab. Dillo forced Fournier across the threshold into the control room and shut the door, leaving it open a crack so he could look out.

“We got company,” he said.

Bryn figured either the rest of Fournier’s men had returned, or the six soldiers being held by the female xeno had somehow overpowered her. Either way, they were trapped.

When Padme didn’t answer her holophone, Maddy stomped over to Fournier and thrust a finger into his face. Shaking with anger, she said, “If your men hurt her, I will roast you over a slow fire. Do you understand?”

“You know she’s as valuable to me as she is to you,” he responded coldly.

“Oh, that’s right. The clone you forced her to carry. Whose is it? Yours? Or some rich fool who thinks it will help him live forever? If that’s the case, I’m sure you’re disappointed you won’t be able to deliver. Pun intended.”

“Have you aborted it?”

“Padme would never do such a thing. It’s not the child’s fault you like to play God – for money.”

“That…child…is worth more to humanity than money.”

Maddy let out a short laugh. “Of course it is.”

She continued to berate him, but Bryn tuned her out and looked around at the four walls. It struck her that this was the second time she’d been trapped in one of Padme’s control rooms. She’d escaped from the last one, but the circumstances had been vastly different. Now she wasn’t threatened by fire; she was caught between two opposing forces, neither of which considered her all that valuable.

Like Curtis said, there was only one door – one obvious way in and out. The control room didn’t have so much as a closet. Even though she’d asked him about an escape tunnel, an actual tunnel wasn’t possible because the prefab had been constructed on a raised platform. The sniper hadn’t come up the platform steps, so how had he gotten onto the roof? After she’d fired the shotgun, he’d run out of view of the camera towards the right end of the prefab.

The desk took up the wall to the left, and metal shelving had been installed along the back wall, but nothing marred the smooth surface of the wall to the right. Unlike the rest of the space, which was crowded with equipment, the only thing along that wall was a narrow cot with a blanket and pillow.

She carefully removed her finger from the trigger and nudged Curtis in the shoulder with the shotgun. “There’s a room on the other side of that wall, isn’t there?”

“No,” he said, but his voice was weak and he looked like he was about to burst into tears. Bryn was pretty sure he was lying.

Dillo had been keeping an eye on the situation outside the prefab, but he shut the door with a distinct
click
and turned his full attention to Fournier. “You’ve got three seconds to tell us how to get out of here, or I begin shooting off important body parts.”

Fournier waited until Dillo began counting before saying, “Bryn’s right. The wall opens onto an escape route.” He looked at Curtis and jerked his head towards the wall.

Curtis started to get up, but Bryn was suddenly not so sure. Fournier had to know Maddy would kill him as soon as she was free. He seemed almost eager for them to open the wall.

“Hold on,” Bryn said. “I think it’s a trap. They’re waiting on the other side.”

Maddy stared at her a moment and then nodded. “I agree. If it seems too good to be true, it generally is.”

She turned to Curtis. “You are extraneous unless you can come up with a solution to get us out of here safely. No, don’t look at your boss; he can’t help you.”

Bryn almost felt sorry for the man as he considered his options. He only had a few seconds to live if he didn’t cooperate with Maddy, but if he did and Maddy failed to escape, Fournier would certainly kill him for his betrayal. It all depended on whether Curtis knew of a surefire way for them to escape.

From the look on his face, he didn’t.

Maddy sighed, but before she gave Dillo the order to kill him, Bryn said, “Wait. I know what we can do.”

Alton came up alongside Scott as he placed two fingers against the carotid artery in Lupus’ throat. Under the blood-stained orange coverall, the big man’s chest was still.

“Who was that?” Scott asked.

“Mad Eye soldier.”

In the back of the truck, Shasta had finally given up on CPR efforts for Bob. She was still on her knees, looking exhausted and defeated. Scott met her eyes and shook his head.

“Leave him,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Scott had no compunctions about leaving Lupus where he lay, but there was the matter of the fourth xeno, who stood by the truck with his hands in the air.

Alton turned his rifle around and said, “I got this.” Scott watched impassively as Alton brought the barrel down alongside the xeno’s head. The man dropped like a stone. Scott wasn’t sure the blow was enough to knock him unconscious, but either way, he was smart enough to stay down.

Scott and Alton jumped into the back of the truck. After slamming the doors, Scott stepped over Bob’s legs and made his way through the people crowded inside until he reached the driver’s seat. Water from the sprinklers still rained down over the windshield. It prevented him from seeing very far into the lobby, but also kept the xenos from seeing that he and the others were about to make a break for it.

Shasta lifted the bird cage from the passenger seat and passed it to someone before sitting next to Scott. He shifted into gear, turned on the headlights, and pulled forward. He expected the xenos to open fire again, but they didn’t. When he flipped on the windshield wipers, he saw why they hadn’t bothered and slammed on the brakes. The truck skidded a little on the wet tile, but came to a stop about fifteen yards from the busted out front doors – and the human barrier there.

The xenos had lined up bodies from one end of the lobby to the other. To get the truck out of the building, Scott would have to drive over them.

“They’re dead,” Shasta said grimly. “Go!”

It was a deep moral outrage and the xenos must have been counting on it to at least slow them down, but Shasta had given him a direct order, so he grit his teeth and shifted into gear. Then Alton leaned between the seats, wearing Bob’s discarded vest. He thrust a hand over her shoulder and pointed. “That one’s not dead. She’s tied up.”

The woman in question lifted her head a little. She was gagged and her eye makeup was smeared, if not from the sprinklers then from her tears. It was the XIA receptionist. Scott found he couldn’t remember her name, but she’d always smiled and greeted him cheerfully.

“That one’s not dead either,” Alton said, pointing farther down the line.

“Damn it!” Shasta reached into the front of her suit jacket and removed her pistol from its holster. “We’ll to have to attempt a rescue. Harding, drive the truck up to the prisoners. Alton, you’re with me.”

“No, you drive,” Scott said. “I have a vest and I’m stronger than you.”

For a moment, it looked as if Shasta was going to rip into him for countermanding her order, but she said, “Go! Check all the bodies. I’ll pull forward slowly.”

She took the driver’s seat as soon as he vacated it and waited until he and Alton were at the back doors. Then she drove close to the line of bodies and turned parallel to the first of them.

Alton cracked one of the doors so Scott could reach around it and blindly lob the third of his four grenades towards the elevator alcove. Immediately after the blast, the fire sprinklers shut off. Scott didn’t stop to wonder why; he jumped out, and using the truck as cover, began to check the bodies for signs of life. After he and Alton verified the first two were dead, it occurred to him that the xenos hadn’t fired so much as a shot.

“Something’s wrong,” he said. “They aren’t doing anything.”

Alton squatted down next to the receptionist. The xenos hadn’t bothered to clear a space for her on the tile; she was soaking wet and lying on a thick layer of broken glass. She began making sounds like she wanted to say something. Scott tried to remove her gag, but it was too tight and the wet fabric was impossible to untie. He made eye contact with her, but when she immediately looked away and made an urgent, “Mm!” sound, he followed her gaze outside the building.

When the truck had crashed through the doors, it ripped away the central section of framing, leaving a wide open space and shattering the floor-to-ceiling windows. The empty window frames along the ceiling were intact, as were the frames closer to the walls on either side. Scott’s view into the street was nearly unobstructed. It was getting dark and there were no cars on the road; nothing moved in the cold air.

Just as it occurred to him that the receptionist was trying to tell him the xenos had repositioned themselves, Chief Joe appeared from around the exterior corner of the building to his right. Scott started to lift his weapon, but knew it was too late – Chief Joe had used the human barrier to get the drop on them. Scott stiffened in expectation of a bullet, but when the shot came, it was Chief Joe whose body jerked backwards as a bullet tore into his chest. His gun skittered across the top step and he slammed up against the wall and then slid into a sitting position. More xenos appeared and more shots followed in rapid succession. One of the xenos ran down the steps instead of attacking – Scott recognized her as Chief Joe’s girlfriend Liz. A few strides into her escape, she took a bullet in the leg that sent her rolling down the steps.

He looked around for the shooter. It wasn’t Shasta; she was still in the driver’s seat. Was it the same guy who’d taken out Lupus?

“There!” Alton pointed towards the street.

Scott squinted in that direction, seeing nothing at first. Then he caught a glimpse of something fluttering in the wind, but on second glance realized it was a hand waving, seemingly out of thin air.

He grinned. “It’s the UAAV!”

Lo and Boardman had arrived in the Urban Amphibious Armored Vehicle, and its adaptive camouflage panels were activated. The vehicle was nearly invisible to the naked eye.

With Lo and Boardman covering them, Scott and Alton rescued the three living prisoners and loaded them onto the crowded truck. By then it was obvious any remaining xenos had abandoned the cause and retreated. Lo left Boardman in the UAAV and cautiously approached.

Shasta leaned over and opened the passenger side door. “Where’s Unger?”

“Didn’t you get my message?” Lo asked.

Shasta made a face that clearly said, “Are you serious?”

“He wasn’t on the flight.”

“Awesome.” Shasta sounded anything but pleased. She climbed into the passenger seat and retrieved the 3D printer from the floor of the truck. Scott helped her out, but as soon as her delicate black pumps hit the glass-littered tile, she grimaced and lifted a foot. A shard was embedded in the sole. She scraped her shoe on the running board to dislodge it before gesturing irritably at the ground.

Scott swept his foot through the worst of it, using his boots to clear a path for her to the back of the truck. Once there, she pointed to Nicola. “You. Out. The rest of you, who can drive?”

The security guard who’d helped earlier raised a hand and Shasta told him, “I’ll need you to get these people to the hospital.”

Nicola, gripping the handle at the top of the bird cage, stepped gingerly over Bob’s body. She climbed out of the truck and stood near Shasta in the spot Scott had cleared, staring into the dark stairwell at the vague orange lump that was Lupus’ body.

Shasta nodded towards the xenos Lo and Boardman had taken out. “Get their firearms.”

As the truck rumbled down the shallow concrete steps in front of the building, Lo and Alton went out to search the fallen xenos. Scott knelt next to Chief Joe, who was sitting propped against the lobby wall with a wet, black hole dead center of his chest. Each intake of breath rattled and each exhale caused blood to bubble forth on his lower lip.

“The ringleader’s alive,” Scott called.

Shasta’s shoes prevented her from coming any closer. “Is he conscious?”

At a subtle fluttering of Chief Joe’s eyelashes, Scott replied, “I think so.”

“Secure him.”

Chief Joe opened his eyes as Scott pulled a zip tie from his utility belt. “Liz dead?”

“Nope.” Last he’d seen, Liz had been shot in the leg and fallen down the steps, but when he’d looked for her a moment ago, she was gone.

Chief Joe smiled. “Give her…message…”

“Give it yourself.” Scott’s words sounded cold, but he wasn’t unmoved. He took both of Chief Joe’s limp wrists in one hand.

“Not gonna make it. My heart…”

Scott threaded the zip tie and tightened it. “You’ll get a new one at the hospital.”

Chief Joe laughed and then choked as blood dribbled down his chin. “Won’t be any left…”

Scott started to tell him to save his energy, but Chief Joe closed his eyes and stopped breathing.