It had been a long and tiring drive across half of the country. The truck had suffered multiple breakdowns, and they'd been stopped several times by the Reliance cops. Sometimes they could bluff their way out. But when they couldn't, there was always RJ's special way of dealing with people who became annoying.
Now, it was just him and RJ. Getting ready to face God-only-knew what, armed only with blasters and a cock-and-bull story. David didn't really understand why they were here or why what they were doing was important. RJ said do this, do that, she explained what to do and how to act, but what she had never explained was why.
"I don't know. It doesn't seem right waiting for them . . . tricking them like this," David said.
"Right shmight," RJ said, checking to make sure her uniform was straight. "You wanted to do something that everyone would notice, and this can't go unnoticed, David. After today, they're going to know we mean business. Don't get squeamish on me." She straightened her uniform yet again.
"I don't know why you're bothering so much with looking just right when you refuse to take that damned chain off," David said, then added in an exasperated tone. "Reliance cops don't wear chains around their waists."
"I'm not a cop. I'm a freedom fighter," RJ said with mock fervor, hands on hips, chin up staring into the distance.
"It's not funny, RJ," David said in disgust.
"Chill out, will you? I only have to look like a cop for a few minutes. It just so happens that I'm not worried about my disguise. I just want to look my very best when I assassinate a governor. I've never done that before, you know."
"You're sick, RJ. I swear, sometimes I think you're really as warped as you make out to be." He gave RJ a contemptuous look.
She just grinned."What can I say, David?" She shrugged and the grin left her face. "I am what the Reliance made me, and I love my work."
Jack Bristol was the governor in charge of military affairs for the area that was known by the Reliance as Zone 2-A. As such, he lived and traveled in luxury with an armed escort.
Four first-class soldiers armed with swords and riding motorbikes surrounded his armor-plated limo. He shared the limo with four laser-carrying Elites. And the driver, who was a second-class soldier, was carrying a projectile weapon. Because of this—and because Jack Bristol had never seen real combat in his life—the governor felt as safe as if he were in his mother's womb.
Jack was the first to see the barricade. "What the hell is that?" He didn't like to be delayed. As governor, he hardly ever was.
"It appears to be a barricade, sir," the driver informed him helpfully.
"I can see that, you fool," the Governor blasted. "What's it doing there?"
"I don't know, Your Worship," the driver replied, and stopped himself from saying. No doubt it's there to annoy asshole bureaucrats in armor-plated limos. He smiled at his thoughts and said over his shoulder, "No reports have come in over the radio, sir."
The entourage came to a halt. The only alternative would have been to turn around and go back the other way. That would have served no purpose. There was no reason for them to think that they were in any danger because there wasn't anything particularly strange about surprise road-blocks in the middle of Reliance territory.
The woman—obviously the commanding officer—walked purposefully over to the lead motorcycle.
"See what's going on," Jack ordered one of the Elites. The man got out, making sure that the door was closed securely behind him. He walked over to the woman, they spoke, and he returned to the limo.
"Well?" Jack demanded.
"There was a threat made that someone would try to assassinate your person on the stretch of road ahead," the Elite said. "They are checking the road for mines or ambush parties. It should only take them a few minutes."
"This is ridiculous! How could any rebel know our travel route?" the governor asked hotly.
"It was on the viewscreen that you would be arriving at Greenside base to do an inspection. This is the only route to Greenside Base . . ."
"Stupid PR people. They really don't understand the importance of security." Jack pulled a face. "Why didn't they contact us by radio?"
"They said that their equipment is acting up."
"Oh, that's par, isn't it? The viewscreen work, but our radios don't." Jack pulled a face. "All this talk of rebels makes me tired. Tell them to move. We can take care of any trouble we come up against."
"Sir, the threat came from RJ," the Elite warned.
"So? She scares me no more than any other rebel. Tell them to move their stupid barricade. I'm in a hurry. I've wasted enough time already," Jack ordered.
The Elite nodded and got out of the limo again.
As the Elite reached RJ, David joined her.
"The Governor says to move the barricade," the Elite informed them.
"Sorry," RJ said, and added on a final note. "My orders came down from Jago. We were told to keep this road blocked till they've made their sweep. I'm keeping it blocked."
"Between you and me, Jack Bristol is a real prick, " the Elite informed her. "If you don't move that barricade, your butt's going to be in a sling."
"If I move it, and the Governor gets killed, I can put my head between my legs and kiss my ass goodbye," RJ said hotly."You know Jago's policy. If it fucks up, kill it . . . I'll take my chances with Bristol any day."
"It will only be a few more minutes," David said calmly."Surely, it's worth a few minutes of time to make sure that he arrives at Greenside Base in one piece."
The man looked at David and smiled. "I know that, and you know that. But the governor is in his armor plated limo, his god is in his heaven, and you would be hard-pressed to prove to him that he is anything but perfectly safe. Truth is, I doubt Ole Ironguts Bristol has ever seen open combat."
RJ and David both laughed.
"If you could just see fit to let us through . . ."
"Sorry," RJ said flatly.
The Elite mumbled a curse and returned to the limo.
"Well?" Jack demanded when the Elite returned.
"They refuse to move the barricade," he reported. "They are under orders from Jago."
"I can see I'm going to have to handle this myself. Oh, why must Jessy surround me with idiots?" Jack got out of the limo, ignoring the Elite's protests, and marched up to RJ.
"I want this barricade moved immediately!"
"Sorry, sir," RJ said.
The governor stopped just inches from RJ. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you're going to be in . . ."
"I don't think you are aware of just how dangerous these rebels can be." RJ posed purposefully. "Why, they could even pose as Reliance police officers and set up a barricade to stop impatient governors."
The look on Jack Bristol's face told her that he was only too aware of the laser pressed against his stomach.
"Keep your hand away from your gun, and I might, might being the operative word, let you keep your mid-section."
"This is an outrage," the Governor sputtered in an angry whisper.
"I'm a rebel. Outrages are my specialty."
She nodded at David. He moved into position, pulled the pin on the gas canister and lobbed it into the open door of the limo. Then he ran and kicked the door closed to keep the gas in.
One of the first-class soldiers pulled a projectile weapon he shouldn't have had, and RJ blasted him. A second went after David with his sword, and she bored him through the head. The other two fell before they even knew what was happening.
Governor Bristol stood there in stunned silence.
RJ smiled, removed his laser, tucked it into the folds of her chain, and put her own sidearm away.
"What is all this?" Bristol was scared. This bitch meant business.
"This is rebellion, Governor," RJ announced.
She looked at David. "Get it."
David nodded and went to the stolen police car. He emerged with a silver briefcase. The governor knew what they wanted now, and he shook with the magnitude of their crime.
"You can't open it without my help, and I won't help you," the governor announced.
"Oh, I think you will." RJ pulled the laser and pressed it against his head.
"You're going to kill me anyway," he scoffed.
"Use your brains. As long as you have hostage value, you're safe," she said. "As long as you don't give me any trouble, you're worth more to me alive than dead."
"The gas should have dissipated by now." She motioned towards the limo. "Of course, if you're not going to be cooperative . . ."
The governor moved over to the limo. The door was geared to his finger prints, and those of his entourage. No one else was going to be able to get in. He opened the door, and RJ smiled broadly. "Very good."
She motioned David towards the open door.
David threw in the dummy case, and pulled out a similar one. He coughed. "Damned shit! Damn you, RJ," he coughed again.
"Don't be such a wimp, David. A little sleeping gas never hurt anyone." She took the case, smiled, walked over to the hood of the limo and set the case down. Then she looked at the governor expectantly.
"Open it."
"And if I won't?" he asked.
"Then I kill you and take my chances. And yes, I know that the wrong combination sets off a charge that can blow up everything for a ten-foot radius. Therefore, my friend and I are going to stand way back here while you open it. Just in case I've read you wrong, and you are the hero type." She held the laser on him.
Jack hesitated. He looked at the combination buttons. He was a loyal Reliance man. Press the wrong buttons and he did them out of their trophy. Of course, he also blew himself up. Damn it, if he opened this case for them, he was putting a Pandora's box in their hands that would take the Reliance months to close, and they might kill him anyway. He keyed the first sequence of numbers.
If he opened this box, he was betraying the Reliance. He did the second sequence of numbers. Again he paused. He keyed in the third and final sequence and the lid flew open to reveal his personal computer. RJ smiled, walked over and closed the lid. The combination was now a permanent part of her memory. She picked up the case and smiled at the Governor.
"I thank you and the people thank you," she said.
She looked at David, and he came over took the case, and started for the police car.
She grabbed Bristol and started pulling him along.
He was surprised at the direction they were suddenly going in—not towards the stolen police car, but back towards his limo. She had no intention of using him as a hostage or for ransom purposes. Bristol's attention was captured by the body of one of the first-class soldiers that had fallen across the hood, his sword still clutched in his hand. If he could just stall her, there was a chance.
"Why me? What have I done to you? What have any of us done to you?"
"It's not what you've done to me, Bristol," she spat, stopping and turning to face him. "It's what you asked me to do to others. I was sent on a 'cleansing' mission. The order for the authorized slaughter of unarmed civilians came across your desk. You ordered it."
"The thinning of the population is necessary . . ."
"Then you should understand everything I do." There was a noise in the brush; nothing dangerous, probably a rabbit, and she turned only for a second, but it was long enough for him to pick up the sword and sling it into her side. Apart from a nasty tear in her shirt, nothing happened. She slung off the face shield and helmet in anger, and when she did a look of total shock crossed Bristol's face.
"You . . . But why? Why?" Total confusion. He obviously knew too much, so she shot him in the head before he could say anything else.
David came running up. He had seen the sword hit her. "RJ . . . !"
"And you didn't want me to wear the chain," she said lightly.
"Why'd you kill him? I thought you said he was insurance . . ."
"That's what I told him. I knew he'd consider himself to be too important to kill," RJ said grinning smugly.
"You planned to kill him all along!" David shouted in disbelief.
"It's not like I didn't tell you that I was going to assassinate him. If it makes you feel better, he did try to kill me," she said. "Think of it as reflexive. When someone tries to kill me, I kill them back."
David threw up his hands and stomped back to the car as RJ dragged Bristol's body over and loaded it into the limo.
She flung in a grenade and closed the door. She was in the police car before the grenade detonated. She looked back and grimaced.
"Yuck! What a mess."
David refused to look back. Just the thought of blood and various body parts thrown against unbreakable glass was enough to make him sick.
"Was that really necessary?" David protested.
"Dead people don't talk," RJ said, by way of an explanation.
RJ hit the siren, and they roared off. She patted the case and smiled.
"Now there will be no stopping us. We will be invincible." She let out a stream of maniacal laughter just to mock his moral concern, but the fanatical gleam in her eyes was real enough.
"I don't know, RJ," David said in a troubled voice as he shoved the case into a backpack to conceal it from view. "I'm beginning to wonder if the end justifies the means."
"Always! Always, if the end is freedom," RJ said sternly.
"What gives us the right to kill?" David asked hotly. "What makes us any different from the Reliance?"
"We are right, and they are wrong. That is all the difference I need." RJ was beginning to lose patience with him. David was the poop at every victory party.
David looked at the bag that held the case. "I just find it revolting that this little box is worth nine lives."
"Ten, but who's counting? Sit there and condemn me, David. I really couldn't care less. You talk like it's a game, at which you believe I'm cheating. This is not a game, David. It's a war. In war, people die. Whoever kills the most people wins. That's the only rule that counts."
She took the news of Governor Jack Bristol's death very hard.
Jessica Kirk was senator of Zone 2-A, but it wasn't because she had lost the head of her military that she ordered Reliance flags to be flown at half-mast. That wasn't why she had locked herself in her room and refused all visitors. Nor was it why she had flung herself across her bed and broken into tears.
Jack Bristol had been her lover, and she had loved him. She hadn't believed he was truly dead till she'd seen the body. Or, rather, what was left of the body. It had been all she could do to keep her composure intact till she got back to her room. Now she cried.
She cried for the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach, for wasted time and nights spent alone that could have been spent with him, and she cried for all the things she should have said, and never quite got around to. When she had finished crying, she decided to go after RJ.
She dried her eyes and went to her terminal. She punched up every bit of data on RJ, and then she called her new temporary head of the military.
"Fools, you are looking for the out-of-the-ordinary. Look for the ordinary. Look for a military or police vehicle. I want everyone checked out. If one of them doesn't belong, then you've found RJ. She couldn't have gotten more than a hundred miles away by now. Don't fuck up this time. I want her, and I want her dead. If anyone spots her, they are to wait for backup. I don't want her to get away. Do you understand, Perkins?"
"Yes, Senator," he said, "but . . . we have no idea what she looks like or . . ."
"She looks like someone tough enough to kick the asses of several Reliance soldiers at once. She looks like someone smart enough to make elaborate plans and carry them out successfully!" Senator Kirk yelled."She looks like an Elite. Find a female Elite in that sector who isn't supposed to be there, and you've found her. Now get your asses in gear. If she gets away, heads will roll." she turned off her terminal.
She fought the tears.
"Fat, incompetent fool!" she screamed in rage. This was all Jago's fault. All her requests had been denied or overlooked. She talked daily with Right, and he was trying to do his best for her, but getting Jago to take any action more exerting then scratching his own ass was close to impossible. Now Jack was dead. Was it her fault? Was there anything that she could have done that she hadn't? She could think of no stone she had left unturned.
Till now, Jessica Kirk the senator had let the chain of command deal with this. In fact, Jack had more to do with the RJ thing than she had. But now, Jessica Kirk the lover wanted revenge. Suddenly it had become personal.
"Oh, you are clever, RJ. Very clever. But this time you have met your match. You cannot fight me and hope to win," Jessica muttered into the emptiness of her office.
Jago and his band of fools had more or less ignored RJ, hoping that she would go away. RJ hadn't gone away, and now Jack was dead. Eventually, they would all pay, even that malignant tumor they called a sector leader. Yes, even Jago. They'd all pay for her grief—for Jack's death. But first she had to deal with the main perpetrator of the crime. First, she had to kill RJ.
She stood up. "I can be clever, too." She walked over to the mirror. "Let's see you match wits with a master." She stared at the image in the mirror. Her eyes were bluer than blue, and already clear of any signs that she'd been crying. She ran a comb through her platinum blonde hair and checked the makeup on her dark skin.
RJ was humming in her usual tuneless fashion. David was chewing his nails. He had quickly joined that group of people who firmly believed that people who couldn't carry a tune shouldn't try to sing, whistle, or hum. Especially hum. He was about to lose his cool and scream rather loudly at her, when she abruptly stopped. He immediately wished that she would start up again. The lack of humming no doubt meant that there was something a lot worse about to take place. His fear was confirmed when he saw RJ looking in the rear-view mirror.
"Don't look now, but we've picked up a military patrol," RJ announced cheerfully.
David turned to look, and a laser blast hit one of their tires.
RJ managed to put the vehicle into a controlled skid, and they stopped. "Damn! I told you not to look." She grabbed the pack that held the case. "Let's move!"
David didn't wait around for further instructions. He got out of the car and rushed to catch up with RJ.
"They're going to kill us," David whined.
"They're not going to kill us," RJ said. "Just keep your head, and do what I tell you. Here, take this." She handed him the pack, and he put it on his back. She started to unwind the chain.
The damned patrol was almost on them, and she was playing games. It wasn't a small patrol, either; a topless vehicle, three motorbikes and a three-wheeled ATV. The ATV was in front, and that turned out to be a bad place. As the three-wheeled contraption roared in for the kill, its driver met with the killing end of RJ's chain. The driver fell, but the vehicle kept going.
RJ jumped on the trike, and ordered it to stop. She quickly slung the chain around herself as David boarded, and she was off before the rest of the patrol realized what had happened. They recovered quickly, however, and the chase was on.
The trike wallowed like a pregnant cow. It had never been designed for more than one rider. Their pursuers were closing in, and the laser blasts they fired were getting closer and closer to their mark.
"They're going to kill us!" David moaned, close to hysteria."They're going to kill us. You shouldn't have killed our hostage!"
"They're not going to kill us," RJ stated flatly, gunning the machine for all it was worth. She knew there was only one place that this beast was going to be able to stay ahead of the patrol: off the road. The problem being that there was no place to get off the road right here. RJ took a quick shot at their pursuers. Surprisingly, it hit one of the motorcyclists square in the chest and sent him flying.
Fortunately, RJ had driven these things before. On some of the outer planets, three-wheeled ATVs were the most popular mode of transportation. David had never been particularly happy with RJ's driving, and at this moment it seemed to him that if the patrol didn't kill them, RJ would.
"They're going to kill us! They're going to kill us!" David's whine was beginning to sound like a chant.
"They're not going to kill us!" RJ shouted over her shoulder, as she finally swung off the pavement and onto a dirt road. This gave her an edge. She still couldn't find a place to get into the woods. If she could find a small trail they wouldn't be able to follow. A laser blast clipped the trike's fender and showered David with sparks. RJ jerked the trike sideways and swung it down an even more primitive road.
One of the bikes skidded out in the gravel. The rider was thrown into a tree, and the bike slid on down the road.
RJ nearly lost it on a sharp corner, and the patrol gained precious ground.
"They're going to kill us . . . they're going to kill us . . . they . . ."
"They're not going to kill us!" RJ didn't need his pessimism. Just then, something tugged at her leg. She glanced down quickly. Nothing serious. Still, even a glancing shot from a laser hurt like hell. Now she was pissed.
The last bike made a bad move, slipped just a bit, and the car hit it. RJ sighed with relief and satisfaction. The ATV could easily outrun the car on this terrain. No sooner had this happy thought flashed by than the engine started to cough. A glance at the fuel gauge showed why.
"They're going to kill us . . . they're going to kill us . . . they're go . . ."
"David." RJ's voice was dangerously calm. "If you don't shut up, you won't have to worry about them, because I'm going to kill you. I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
The ATV uttered a final splutter and died. RJ jumped off the bike. "Someday you'll laugh about this." She gave his neck a quick, precise chop and caught him as he went limp. As she lay his unconscious form on the ground, the vehicle was almost on them.
"That's right, come on." She fingered the chain and smiled smugly. "Come on, motherfuckers. Let's get this over with, once and for all."
The soldiers stopped firing. One of the rebels was dead, and the other was obviously giving up. Live rebels were valuable. But suddenly, the woman wasn't standing still anymore.
"What the hell . . . open fire!" the captain screamed.
RJ ran at them full speed. Just as it seemed sure that she would make impact with the vehicle, she jumped and landed in the vehicle with them. The chain lashed out. In seconds, all five men were dead. RJ stopped the car and unceremoniously tossed the bodies out. Then she walked over to David.
"David."
No response.
She slapped him lightly on the face."David. David, come on."
He stirred. "Ugh, what happened?" He opened his eyes slowly. "Was I hit?" Then he remembered. He jerked into a sitting position. "I was hit. By you," he accused.
"You were hysterical," RJ explained.
"I most certainly was not!" David said indignantly.
RJ raised her eyebrows.
"OK, so I was a little on edge. Couldn't you just slap me?"
"Not nearly as effective," RJ said with a crooked grin.
David gave her a hard look.
"I'm sorry, OK? I lost my cool. It was the first thing that popped into my head."
"Knocking me out! That was the first thing that 'popped into your head?'" David screeched.
RJ walked over and got into the car. "Are you coming?"
He hesitated, so she started to leave without him. He ran to catch up.
"Why are we going back this way?" he asked.
"To pick up one of those bikes. They must have been on the road looking for us a long time, and this damn thing's almost out of fuel, too. We ought to be able to siphon out enough to get us a full tank on a bike."
"Why did they just start shooting at us? I mean, they didn't even pull us over and question us!"
"Well, like I said, they had been on patrol for awhile. They were probably hot to shoot at something, and when we couldn't be reached over the radio . . . when we weren't on their frequency . . ." she shrugged.
"But what if our radio was broken, or . . ."
"The Reliance deals in statistics, David, not people. Odds were that we were their target. They were right."
"But what if they hadn't been?"
"I thought that was what the war was all about."
"Lost them?" Jessica screamed. "Lost them?" Her eyes blazed fire. She checked the map. "They've taken one of the bikes, but they still can't have gotten far." She drew a circle on the map. "Concentrate the search here."
"First thing in the morning, Senator," Perkins confirmed, saluting.
"Now, fool. Bring in fresh troops. They're running, but they'll try to rest. They'll have to. Now is the time to find them, and we're not going to stop till we do."
"As you wish, Senator." He bowed and left her office, happy to escape her presence.
RJ threw David a carton of the K-rations she'd found on the bike.
"I'm not eating. Not this crap, anyway." He set it on the ground beside him and lay back on his bed of leaves.
"It's all we have and could be all we have for awhile," RJ said. She sat on a pile of leaves she'd raked up and started to eat. "They weren't planning to be out long. No camp gear, no extra ammo. They didn't pack much food, either."
David sat up and watched RJ eat in disbelief.
"You're eating a dead man's food," David said with a note of disgust in his voice.
"Well, then he can't bitch, can he?" she asked with a smile.
"If you hadn't killed that man, he'd be eating that food right now," David said in a faraway voice. A shiver went up his spine.
"God, I hate it when you're morbid. It's just food. Peel off the foil top, pick up the fork on the left and eat," RJ said.
"I can't." David lay back down.
After a few minutes he sat up, picked up the tray, peeled off the top and started to eat.
RJ smiled smugly, but said nothing.
"I'm hungry," David growled defensively. "So, what's next? Satis?"
"God no!" She tapped the pack with the case in it. "This should tell us our next move." She'd finished eating and tossed her tray aside. She took the case out and started to hammer out the code.
"Careful, careful!" David said, flinching.
RJ just grinned as she opened the case.
"Damn it, RJ, why don't you write the combination down somewhere? One wrong number and you blow us both into tiny, bite-sized David and RJ pieces."
RJ just continued smiling as her fingers flew across the keys. "You worry about the damnedest things." She looked away from the screen just long enough to see that David was not at all happy with her cavalier attitude. "David, do you know what 'total recall' means?"
"I don't know, and I don't give a . . ."
"It means that I remember everything I ever saw, everything I've ever heard." She went back to the keyboard. "I don't forget anything. I'm certainly not likely to forget something as simple as the combination to this case."
"That must be great!" David said, impressed in spite of himself. "Hell, I can't remember my name half the time."
"Most of the time it's more a curse than a blessing." RJ's voice dragged. She didn't stop working with the computer, but she wasn't smiling any more. "There are some things that are better off forgotten. It can be real hell being able to remember in detail something you would just as soon forget." She smiled then. "A wise man once told me, 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.'"
David finished eating. His curiosity aroused, he moved to sit behind RJ. He looked in awe at the print out screen. It was like the viewscreen in his village, except much smaller. Instead of pictures, there was a steady stream of letters and numbers. He understood that by hitting the keys, RJ was making the numbers and letters appear. Beyond that, he was lost.
"What do all those letters and numbers mean? Are they important?" he asked.
"Yes," RJ replied shortly.
"Well, what do they mean?" he asked again.
RJ sighed, then said in the most patient voice she could muster. "It's computer lingo. This computer is tied into Zone 2-A's military computer. All the data on military operations in the zone are stored there. With this portable model, I can access the main computer and extract any information I deem necessary. Because it is tied into the system, it won't show a break-in. It can tell us about any shipment of arms or anything else in detail. How many troops are in the convoy, how many vehicles, what sort of material they are transporting, et cetera., et cetera."
David understood now why the box was so important, and why they had gone to so much trouble to get it.
RJ stopped the scrolling on the screen. "Hum."
"Hum, what?" David asked.
"That's very interesting."
"What is?" These letters and numbers didn't look any more interesting to David than the others had.
"Most of the more important shipments are being accompanied by GSHs. Still, with this we ought to be able to avoid those. I wish I knew where we were. I could see if there are any troops close to us," she added thoughtfully.
"You mean you don't know where we are?" David asked in disbelief.
"Haven't the vaguest," RJ answered, obviously unconcerned.
"I thought you said you had total recall," he said.
"I do. I also have a lousy sense of direction. I can tell you this: we are somewhere north of the point where the patrol started chasing us." She shrugged. "There are no road markers on these pig trails we took. I know where we are in relation to where we were, but I can't put it into anything that I can use in the computer. I'm not too worried. They won't try anything till morning." Suddenly, she looked up and seemed to be listening. "Of course, I could be wrong." She packed the computer back into the pack, jumped up and ran for the bike.
David had learned to trust RJ's instincts. He got on as she started the bike. "What is it?" he asked.
"I hear bikes." She roared off into the woods, choosing not to return to the road. She also didn't bother to turn on the headlight. This was none too safe considering that it was now pitch black.
"RJ, the lights," David reminded her, thinking that perhaps it had slipped her mind.
"No!" was all she said.
David didn't argue. Actually, considering the way RJ drove, he'd just as soon not be able to see.
The Elite Captain got off his bike. The infrared scan showed where the bike had left the road. He got on his comlink. "Senator Kirk, this is Captain Sikes."
"Here, Captain," she said, but made him look at the back of her head.
"We've found where a cycle left the road."
Now he had her attention. She turned to face him. "Then don't stand there, imbecile. Get after them! I want those rebels dead!" she almost screamed.
"Yes, Senator."
"And Captain . . ." she added.
"Yes, Senator?"
"If you fail, I will not feel very charitable towards you."
Her tone made Sikes shiver."I won't fail, Senator." He cut the link. "Let's move out." He started out with his four men on the trail of the bike. He had to kill these rebels or face the wrath of Senator Kirk. For some reason he didn't feel confident. He shouldn't be feeling uneasy. He had the scan, and with that he couldn't lose them. Surely, four secondaries armed with projectile weapons and an Elite with a laser ought to be able to overpower two tired rebels who'd been on the run all afternoon with no food and no rest. If nothing else, their bike should be running low on fuel.
They drove up on RJ and David's rough camp. Gone—damn it! Sikes saw an empty food tray and the piles of leaves. Damn! They'd eaten and probably rested—so much for that part of his fairy tale. He got off the bike, retrieved the food tray and looked around quickly. There was nothing to indicate that he was dealing with any more than two rebels. Good, he didn't need any more surprises. He stuck the tray in his pack and took off again, following the heat trail the rebels had left.
The bike lugged up the hill. It hadn't been designed for the kind of abuse it had endured since RJ seized it. The patrol was closing in on them. She now not only heard them, but she could see their lights. The bike reached the top of the hill, sputtered and died. RJ's attempts to start it were futile. She quickly jerked the battery off the bike and stuck it in the pack.
David just sat there.
"Come on, get off and let's go."
"What's the use, RJ?" David said. "Couldn't we just accept defeat gracefully?"
"I am a six-foot-two-inch woman. I don't do anything gracefully." She took a timed charge from her pocket, set the timer and stuck it to the bike's fuel tank. "Coming?"
David jumped off the bike and ran after her. They heard the explosion, and turned just in time to see one of the Reliance bikers thrown through the air. A split second, later the newly damaged bike exploded.
"One," RJ said in a satisfied tone. She started to run again, and David followed, shaking his head. RJ's sense of timing never ceased to amaze him. Somehow, she had calculated to the second when the patrol would come even with their abandoned bike.
Captain Sikes stopped just short of catching the blast. Now they were four. Sikes' illogical sense of doom mounted. He looked at the picture on his comlink—once again he was privileged to view the back of Senator Kirk's head.
"Senator."
She turned.
"Senator, I . . ."
"I take it that you do not have good news for me, Sikes," she said angrily.
"I've lost a man," he said. "But the rebels are on foot now, and we should have them shortly."
"How did the man die?" she asked curiously.
"An explosive device was set up on the bike. I see no tripwires, so I assume that it was a timed charge. They must have estimated how long it would take us to arrive at this point."
"She must know that you're tracking her with infrared," Jessica thought for a second. "OK. Stay to one side of their trail and be careful. She'll no doubt set more traps. You can't kill them if you're all dead. This RJ is no one's fool. From the data we have on her, it is more than likely that she used to be a high-ranking Elite. So, Sikes, help is on the way. All you have to do is keep a bead on them. In a few minutes, that whole area will be so full of troops that a fart couldn't get out. Just don't lose track of them."
"I won't, Senator," Sikes said. Communication ended.
He looked at his men. Two of them were busy with the body of their fallen comrade. "Leave him. If we don't catch RJ, what happened to him will seem like child's play."
They started off, but without their former enthusiasm, and using much more caution.
Sikes' lower lip trembled. His hands inside his gloves were unnaturally sweaty. He was an Elite. He'd seen combat before. Hell, the odds were in his favor, and more troops were on the way. The rebels were on foot now. The odds were all in his favor. Still . . .
He wondered how well they were armed. Hell, they had to be pretty well armed. They had killed the governor and his entire entourage, not to mention the patrol that had first spotted them. Another charge went off on the trail beside them. One of the men was startled and almost went down. This explosion wasn't as spectacular as the first, because it didn't have the added attraction of the alcohol tank exploding, but it still scared the shit out of them.
Sikes bit his lip to stop the trembling. He knew now that he was fighting something the likes of which he had never fought before. These two fanatics were fighting for a cause. How could men who fought for a paycheck and the dubious glory of plastic medals match their spirit?
Sikes was a Reliance man. He had a Reliance wife and two lovely Reliance children. All his loyalty belonged to the Reliance. After all, he had been raised Elite. He knew in his heart that the Reliance protected and nurtured the people it served. But he couldn't help but respect the people he hunted. They fought with a fervor that he didn't have now, and probably never had possessed.
The thought of a rebel Elite intrigued him. He knew he had never had the inclination. He really couldn't conceive of any Elite rebelling. Elites had it made in the Reliance. They got the best of everything.
He did know one thing. For whatever reason, she had to believe that she was right. Just like Sikes knew he was right. After all, that was the way wars got started, and this was war.
"Damn! I missed!" RJ stopped, and David tried to catch his breath. "They must have figured out what I did, and started to follow the trail to one side." She thought about it for a second, then grinned. "OK, assholes, try this." She took more charges out of her pocket and planted one on either side of the trail, taking care not to disturb the ground too much. After all, she didn't want the infrared to detect that they had done any more than walk by.
"I can't . . . believe it! You're actually . . . enjoying . . . all of this!" David gasped, exhausted. RJ grabbed his hand and started to drag him along. "I . . . don't know . . . if I can . . . go on," David said between gasps.
"Of course you can," RJ said. "You have to. That was the last of the charges."
"Great! No cycle . . . no charges . . . What do . . . we do . . . now?" he puffed. This had all ceased to be fun for him about two miles back.
"Now we improvise, David," she said simply. "Now we use our heads."
Sikes got on the comlink again. This time, Kirk was facing him, and he decided that this was worse.
"Well?"
"I've lost another man, and yet another needs medical attention. Two bikes were destroyed," Sikes informed her. He didn't know how he managed to sound so cool with his heart stuck somewhere in his throat. The wounded man was screaming in the background.
"What happened this time?" Jessica demanded.
"She must have figured out what we were doing. The second charge missed us—it was on the trail, we weren't. She set charges on both sides of the trail this time."
"Imbecile! You should have known that she would change her tactics to match yours. She's obviously timing you. Change your pace. Set no patterns. Go back and forth, on and off the trail. That should throw her off. If she had mines, she'd have used them by now. I will not tolerate failure, Sikes."
"Yes, of course, Senator." This time, it was Sikes that cut the link. He looked at the smoldering remains of the bikes and the rider.
"You, ride with him."
The man did as ordered, in spite of his barely functional leg.
"What can you do to me, Senator?" Sikes mumbled. "If we fail, there won't be any of us left to punish."
Sikes was following the other bike, so it was that bike's driver who screamed out in pain. Not Sikes.
The lead bike fell. Sikes stopped short and jumped off, laser in hand. He scanned the area, but saw nothing. The man held his upper arm. It was a nasty wound, and the blood flowed freely. Sikes helped him to bind the wound then he looked at the trap.
The limb of a small tree had been sharpened into a spear. The top of the tree had been tied down, and a rope wrapped half way around the base of another tree. The rope was then stretched across their trail at chest height, and carefully placed on the small limb of another tree. Crude, but obviously effective. The secondary was lucky. If he'd been any further away, the spear would have struck him in the head. Any closer, and it would have hit him with enough force to penetrate a limb or his body cavity.
Sikes once again called the Senator. This time, he was in no mood for pleasantries. "I've got good news and bad news." Was that hysteria in his voice? He couldn't be sure, and he didn't really care.
"What do you mean?" Kirk asked.
"The good news is that she's out of charges. The bad news is that she doesn't need them." Sikes moved his arm in an arc, so that Jessica could see the trap. "So, tell me how I plan for that. I don't have enough men to go on."
This attitude did not please Jessica. "They are only two people on foot in the dark . . ."
"And I am the only one in this troop that isn't badly wounded. We can't go on. If you send us on, you send us to our deaths, Kirk."
"If you come back here without their heads, Sikes, I will kill you myself. Now quit wasting time. Don't you realize that you are giving her time to set another trap?"
Sikes moved out. This time he took the lead. He moved cautiously, slowly. He was resigned that he was riding to his death. He had no doubt now. That was why he had felt strangely from the first. That was the reason for his dread. He was going to die. It's true, he thought, foresight is real. Too bad I'll be dead before I can tell anyone.
She'd set another trap. This one took even less time. They really couldn't afford to rest, but David's labored breathing told her that they must. She was tired, and she knew that this meant that David must be on the brink of total collapse. The fact that he had held up this long was a credit to his strength and his force of will.
The Reliance would be deploying more troops. At any moment, their running could shove them right into another patrol. These men were just the dogs sent in to tire them out. To bark until the others were in position, and then point the way.
Plans formed in her mind, and were discarded. She needed to know more about the situation to make any real plans. If she had had time to fiddle with the computer, she could figure out what they were sending in. She would have been able to call up maps and try to figure out where they were in relation to the troops, but that could take as much as thirty minutes. That was thirty minutes they didn't have. She was running out of tricks, and they were running out of time.
Sikes barely saw the rope in time to stop. If he hadn't been looking so carefully, he wouldn't have seen it at all. This time, the rope was just inches above the ground. Sikes got off the bike. He picked up a rock, slung it at the rope and watched in horror as the area he would have occupied burst into flame. The stench of battery acid bit his nostrils, his eyes teared, and he retreated to a safer distance, coughing. It was clear, now. She was a devil. This trap was the worst thing Sikes had encountered in all his years with the Reliance. Apparently, she had rigged a tree as before. Instead of a spear, however, she'd attached the opened battery in the improvised catapult. When the rope was tripped, the highly volatile acid was slung over the target area.
Sikes was old enough to remember a time when batteries contained a much more stable acid, but like everything else, the Reliance had been forced to start using a cheaper and less stable alternative. This stuff was less efficient in some ways, but much more lethal. Instant combustion—what a horrible death!
Slowly, it dawned on Sikes that this trap was even more subtle. The recent drought made the forest a tinderbox. Already the fire raged out of control. In a few hours, it would successfully block the deployment of troops from the east, and that was where the roads were. He got on his bike quickly and passed the flames before he, too, was blocked off. Sikes called Jessica on the move. "She's set the forest on fire," he reported calmly."You'd better send in some extinguisher planes, or we'll be completely cut off."
"Immediately. Just get after her," Jessica ordered.
Damn it, they were going to fart around and let her get away! She quickly checked her map. She already had troops deployed in the area. A quick check of wind direction and velocity told a story she didn't like.
"Damn!" She checked again to be sure. "They're heading right into the fire." She got on her communicator. "Captain Fry, the rebels have started a fire and it's headed your way."
"We see it, Senator," the Captain said. "I think we can beat it and join Sikes."
"No, you don't have time. If you don't retreat, you will be stuck in that box canyon. You have to go west," Jessica ordered urgently.
Captain Fry beat his wrist communicator against a tree. "What's that, Senator? Can't hear you." He hit it again, "We've got a bad link—must be the fire."
"Damn it, man . . ."
"You're fading, Senator," Captain Fry hit his wrist unit hard enough to break it. He looked up at the secondary soldier who stood beside him.
"Oh, dear! My wrist com seems to have broken." He nudged the man, and said jokingly, "Give a woman a title, and she right away thinks she knows everything. Come on, let's go give Sikes a hand."
The extinguisher planes didn't arrive in time to save Captain Fry and his troop. Seventeen soldiers burned to death in the box canyon. Death by fire was terrible. Terrible to hear, terrible to see, but the most terrible thing of all was the smell.
It was an even more terrible thing to live through.
Alexi pulled himself through the flames. How he had escaped with no more than the equivalent of a bad sunburn was nothing short of a miracle. His sleeve was on fire. He stopped, dropped and rolled, then jumped up and ran again. He couldn't stop long. To stop was to die.
The smoke made him cough, and his brain was a blur. Too much horror. Dead, all dead. He'd been with some of those people since he'd made it to third class. They hadn't died like soldiers. They hadn't died in battle. They had died screaming like terrified children as the flames engulfed them.
He'd worked hard to make it to third class. He'd seen quite a bit of action. But none of his experience or training had prepared him for this.
Alexi was ambitious. He wanted to make it to Elite, then on to governor—maybe even Senator. It was a wild dream, a dream of power. He'd worked hard.
Then he'd almost died in a fire.
Till now, he had never seen how intangible his dream was. Now he realized the absurdity of it. He'd been third class for six years. He'd been passed over for promotion to Elite twelve times.
Who was he kidding? He was forty-five years old. At his age, if he hadn't been promoted to Elite, it wasn't likely that he would be. Hell, they hadn't even offered him a wife yet. Governor Alexi, Senator Alexi, what a fool he'd been.
He'd seen how the high-rankers lived. They had everything a man could dream of. He had nothing. He had busted his hump for the Reliance, and they sent him to die. No reward in that. And if he'd died, who would have cared? Who would even notice?
Well, 1-Z-2678-11 bit the big one today.
Anyone to claim his ashes?
No.
No? What a shame.
Yes, what a waste. Do you have any idea how much energy it takes to reduce a body to ash?
Oh, this one was mostly done when it got here.
No one to claim the ashes?
That's right.
Well, then put him with the others on the public gardens.
"No!" Alexi screamed out loud and doubled his pace. He wasn't going to die in this damned fire and become fertilizer. He wasn't going to die a nobody.
RJ and David came to a river. The water ran hard and fast. RJ stepped in and David followed. At this point, he was too exhausted to do anything but follow dumbly. The current was strong, and the rocks were slippery, but worst of all, the water was frigid.
"The infrared won't be able to track us in the water," RJ told David, though for once he didn't ask.
The water got deep, up to David's waist. The current was strong, and David no longer had the strength to fight it. He collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
David had been holding on to her for the past three hours, so she felt his grip on to her chain loosen. She turned just in time to see David go under. She didn't think; she just dove in after him. It wasn't easy, but she caught hold of him and pulled his head out of the water. He was OK, or at least he was still breathing. She wrestled him out onto the bank, caught her breath, and pulled her laser. She looked at it in a defeated sort of way, and poured the water out of it. It would be useless till it dried. She was sure she didn't have time to strip, dry and reassemble it now. She quickly checked the case to make sure it hadn't leaked. It would be the shits to have gone through all this for nothing. The case was tight, and the computer was dry.
She was exhausted; running on empty. No wonder David had collapsed. She couldn't afford the luxury of rest right now, however. That meant only one thing. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the leather pouch and extracted one of the pills. She swallowed it dry. As always, the effect was almost immediate. She took a deep breath; she'd be good for hours now. She began to replace the pills, but stopped. Smiling wickedly, she dumped one into her palm, replaced the cap and carefully stowed the pills in her kit. The she took a cup from the pack and filled it with water into which she crushed the pill. Using the knife from her kit, she cut several three-foot lengths of straight limbs from a nearby tree. Sharpening each stick, she dipped the sharpened end into the Pronuses solution and set them carefully aside to dry briefly. She poured the remaining solution over the sharpened spearheads for good measure, then tossed the cup across the river. She packed up quickly, tossed the pack over one shoulder, David over the other, picked up the spears and started off again.
"They went into the river. The infrared won't . . ." Sikes found himself on the defensive again.
"I don't want your excuses, Sikes." Jessica had lost any sign of patience hours ago. "All I asked was that you not lose them, and now you tell me some story about the water. Find them. Now!"
"Yes, Senator," Sikes grated out. Transmission ended.
"Captain, look!" The man pointed to something on the trail ahead of them.
They stopped beside the cup. A quick scan showed that the rebels had crossed the river at this point. Somehow, Sikes didn't share the secondary's enthusiasm. The people they hunted didn't make mistakes; she'd left the cup for a reason. Still, they crossed the river, leaving the man with the wounded leg behind. There was only one set of footprints on the other side, but the depth showed that one was no doubt carrying the other.
"One of them must be wounded," the secondary said.
"Or just exhausted. Remember that they have been on foot all night," Sikes said. "Come on, we should be able to catch them easily now."
They had traveled only a minute or two when the screaming started. They ran back, weapons pulled. But when they arrived it was obvious that the wounded man hadn't died of any direct attack. Even from across the river, they could see that the man's face was bubbled and misshapen. Sikes saw the cup in the man's hand. Only one thing could do that. Sikes looked away.
"God damn her! Is there nothing she can't get her hands on?" Sikes cursed.
"What happened to him?" the secondary asked, sickened.
"Pronuses poisoning. She must have laced the cup with it," Sikes said.
"Pronuses! But only freaks have Pronuses!" Obviously, the man was now terrified.
"Don't be a fool, man. Only Elites wear Elite boots, but she's got a pair of those, too. Come on. Let's go before the trail gets cold."
RJ found a clump of brush and put David into it. She covered him with leaves, partly to keep him warm, and partly to hide him. It was time to get rid of the dogs. They were following her footprints. If that told them where to find her, it also told her where to find them. She walked back down her own trail then crawled into a tree with her spears to wait.
Sikes stopped. He held up a hand, and the secondary stopped, too. He could feel it. She was watching him. The spear hurled through the air to land with a pounding thud in the secondary's chest. Death came so instantly that he didn't have a chance to scream. He fell backwards, his body arched once, and then he was still. The boiling of his flesh told Sikes that such a direct hit was unnecessary.
"Go ahead! Kill me! I can't see you, I can't stop you! Go ahead!" Sikes screamed. He spread his arms wide."Come on, kill me! But at least have the guts to show your face."
RJ was never one to deny a man his last wish. She jumped down from the tree.
Sikes' reaction to her appearance wasn't quite what she'd expected.
He stared at her in horror and confusion, mouthing words he couldn't get out. His reason, already stretched tightly, snapped.
RJ raised the spear.
"How? Why?" Sikes gasped.
"The answer to 'how' is easy," she smiled broadly. "I'm a freak. 'Why?' Because I want to topple the Reliance. Is that all? May I kill you now?" Actually, she didn't wait for his answer.
He fell to the ground and rolled. The spear missed, but his blast hit her square in the chest and sent her reeling. He took the opportunity to run, but he knew that a blast to the chest wasn't going to slow the freak down for long. He turned on his comlink, and there was Kirk.
"You're not killing me!" he laughed maniacally.
"Sikes, what's going on?" Jessica demanded.
"They're all dead. But not me. You're not going to kill me, you freak!" He threw his comlink against a tree, where it shattered. He'd lost her for the time being, but she'd heal. Then she'd come to kill him. He laughed hysterically. "You won't kill me!"
RJ had taken the full blast in her chest. She stopped and leaned against a tree. She tried to catch her breath, but ended up slumping down to the ground. She had to catch him, but it would have to wait. Hell, she could see her breastbone through the hole in her chest.
"Oh, bother." She took another Pronuses and waited for the effects. "Pride goeth before a fall. Father always said that." She felt better. Glancing down, she saw the damage rapidly repairing itself, so she got up and continued the chase.
The hunter had become the hunted, and as was so often the case, the hunter couldn't handle the role reversal. RJ found her quarry hanging limply in a tree with a rope around his snapped neck. She quickly took his jacket—he'd ruined hers, after all. She took his shirt and sidearm, too.
Addressing the corpse, RJ commented dryly, "You know, if you start killing yourselves, you're going to take all the fun out of this little war."
On the way back to get David she stopped just long enough to take the dead secondary's clothes and weapon. Then after she uncovered him, RJ traded David's wet clothes for the dry ones. Oh, the pants were a little wet from wading the river, but nothing compared to the wet, muddy mess that David had been wearing. David groaned as she changed his clothes.
"Oh, just shut up and go back to sleep. A lot of help you are." She picked David up and started out again. Right now, her only plan was to keep moving.
Jessica tried desperately to reach Sikes. She couldn't. She played back his last communication. The word "freak" echoed through Jessica's brain. She quickly erased the communication from the terminal's main memory.
She was tired of playing. It was time to get serious. She put on her combat fatigues. If you wanted killing done right, you had to do it yourself. She wanted RJ dead, and if Sikes wasn't dead already, she had to kill him, too.
It took all of RJ's skill to continue dodging the ever-increasing number of patrols in the area. Now there were helicopters, and that made it decidedly more difficult.
After two hours of carrying David, she sat down for a rest. She slapped him a bit. Till then, all the bouncing and trouncing and tossing from one shoulder to the other like a feed sack hadn't made him so much as stir and mutter. Therefore, RJ was surprised that the gentle slap had any effect at all.
David stirred.
"Yes, it would be nice if you woke up now," RJ commented sarcastically. She rubbed her Pronuses-dry eyes as David rubbed the sleep from his.
He was awake, and he looked around in a disoriented way.
"Have a nice nap?"
"What happened?" David asked. He felt nauseous and his ribs and stomach hurt.
"You passed out." She got up and helped him to his feet. "Can you walk now? We've got to keep moving, and I'm tired of carrying you."
He nodded, although he held his head when he did so, and looked a little green.
"The water," he mumbled. It was like he was remembering some horrible nightmare. "Under the water . . ." He remembered hands grabbing him, pulling him out, a gasp for air, and then all was dark. He knew only that RJ had pulled him out of the river. If she hadn't, he'd have surely drowned. "Thanks, RJ."
"Don't thank me yet. We've just been spotted." It wasn't her imagination, either. The helicopter flying just above the tree tops tossed out two brightly colored smoke bombs.
"What the hell did they do that for?" David coughed out. "Now they can't see us."
"Now every troop in the area knows where we are. By the time the smoke clears, we'll be surrounded. Come on." She ran, pulling him after her.
Alexi saw the colored smoke, but he went towards it for a different reason than his fellows. If RJ died, almost everyone would know, and everyone who knew would care. Pro or con, no one would be indifferent.
#
RJ and David broke into the clearing. "Hit the ground and stay there."
"Why?" David wanted to know. "What are you going to do? What can you do?"
"Just stay down." She didn't have time to explain.
She ran into the clearing. As she had expected, the helicopter spotted her. It swooped down for the kill. RJ waited till the runners were dangerously close. Then she jumped for all she was worth and caught hold of one of them.
"Where'd she go?" the gunner asked the pilot.
The pilot shrugged.
"Where did who go?"
Both men turned to look at the woman standing on the runner. Their mouths hung open in disbelief.
"Oh, you meant me." She grabbed the gunner and jerked him out of the helicopter.
The pilot drew his gun and fired point-blank.
RJ looked from the hole in her jacket to the stunned pilot and frowned. "Damn it, I just got this jacket."
The man screamed as she grabbed the front of his shirt in one hand. His scream rose to a shrill soprano as he was hurled out of the chopper, and didn't stop till he hit the ground with a wet thud.
RJ finished climbing in, took the controls, turned the chopper around and set it down close to David.
David didn't have to be told twice. He ran and jumped in, thinking that RJ would take off immediately.
She just sat there.
"What are you waiting . . ." then he saw the Elite with the rocket launcher.
"Turn the bird off, and get out—slowly."
There were three others with him, all holding lasers pointed directly at them.
RJ turned off the helicopter.
"OK, get out. Hands up!"
RJ and David did as they were told. They stood before the group, arms held high.
"So, you're the great RJ. You don't look so tough to me." He raised the rocket launcher, and aimed it at her.
"In all fairness, you're not seeing me at my best," RJ replied dryly.
RJ was probably the only one there to notice the badly battered trooper stumble into the clearing. One part of her mind processed his presence, and decided that he had come in for the kill.
"Die, traitor!" The Elite's finger tightened on the trigger.
RJ prepared to throw herself to the ground. Her laser should be dry by now, and with it, she could give these four a run for their money.
Then two unexpected things happened. First, David flung himself on her, knocking her to the ground. Second, the soldier who had stumbled into the clearing shot the Elite before his finger could close on the trigger.
In the pandemonium that followed, two of the remaining Elites fell to RJ's laser, and the third to a second bullet from the stranger's gun.
The three looked at each other for only a second. No word was spoken.
RJ grabbed the rocket launcher, slung it into the chopper, jumped in and started the engine.
David grabbed up RJ's spears and got to the chopper only seconds after the stranger got into the back and sat behind RJ.
They lifted off just as troops started pouring into the clearing.
David had never flown before. He found the feeling exhilarating.
"We're flying, RJ! Flying like a fucking bird!" He jerked on her shoulder in an excited fashion.
"If you don't quit pulling on her, we're going to be dropping like a fucking turd." Alexi had flown before; he'd even had a few chopper lessons once upon a time, but he still didn't like it.
RJ saw the chopper coming up on their tail. "Buckle in."
For once, David complied without question. Alexi fastened himself into the gunner's harness. RJ swerved, but the blast came so close that it shook the chopper.
"That was fucking close," Alexi said.
"Hang on." RJ flipped the chopper upside down and came in behind the other bird.
"All right!" David said, like a kid on a carnival ride.
"Fire," RJ ordered.
Alexi hesitated. That was a Reliance chopper. The chopper opened fire on them. One bullet shattered the windshield in front of RJ. She kicked the safety glass out all the way so that she could see.
"Fire! Fire, or I'll kick your ass out of this chopper," RJ said with a hiss.
Alexi had no doubt that she meant it, nor did he doubt that she could do it. He took careful aim and fired. Then he watched as the chopper exploded in flames, and knew that there was no going back now.
The next chopper to come in pursuit was newer and better equipped. Their first rocket missed. RJ was a superb pilot, but she couldn't outmaneuver the super-chopper indefinitely.
"Can you fly?" RJ asked Alexi.
He nodded reluctantly. "A little."
"Take over." She didn't give him much choice. She unstrapped herself, grabbed the rocket launcher, and stepped out on the runner.
"Are you nuts?" Alexi asked, taking the controls.
"She's nuts, but she's OK," David assured him.
RJ braced herself and prepared to fire. The pursuit had the same idea, and the two rockets hit simultaneously. RJ's rocket hit them squarely, and there was no more pursuit. Their rocket hit the tail of the rebels' chopper, and blew off a piece. It rocked and spun the chopper violently, and RJ fell.
"RJ!" David shrieked. He unbuckled himself, and moved quickly to the door. RJ was hanging on the runner. David hung on to his safety belt and with his other hand reached out and grabbed RJ. "No sense hanging around down there." He pulled her back inside as she cursed his sense of humor.
RJ took the control seat, throwing the rocket launcher off her arm.
"Out of rockets," she said as Alexi started to grab it.
"So, now what? Here comes another one." Alexi pointed. He was beginning to wish he'd stayed on the other side.
"Hand me one of those spears, David. Be careful not to nick yourself; I've poisoned the tips." He handed her one. She took firm hold, positioned the spear and slowed the chopper.
"What the hell are you doing!" Alexi screamed in disbelief and terror. "We've got half our tail shot off. That means that we have damn little sideways motion. They've got a fully operational bird. Machine guns, rockets . . ."
RJ slung the spear.
"Yes, but they don't have a pilot." RJ said smugly, as the other chopper raced towards the ground.
Alexi just sat there with his mouth hanging open.
"Isn't she neat?" David asked lightly.
RJ fled as another chopper came in. She was beginning to lose her cool. Enough was fucking enough. She was strung out on Pronuses. Her eyes felt like her lids were made of sandpaper, and her arm was jerking so much it was becoming increasingly hard to control. It had been a hard couple of days on the front, and she was starting to take this all very personally.
"I want a bath," she said longingly.
"What?" David asked.
"Nothing," RJ said with a smile. She looked at David. "Ever wish we'd gone into another line of work?"
David smiled and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Know what you mean, partner. The hours are a bitch, and the pay sucks."
RJ patted his hand.
"We can't outrun them, can we?"
"No," she said. "But we're not going to give up, either."
"Never crossed my mind." David looked at the rocket launcher, then he saw the smoke bombs. He was so excited, he couldn't speak. He picked both up. "RJ?"
She smiled. "Find the rest."
"It could work," Alexi said.
"Of course it will. You load and prepare to fire. Get it in the cockpit."
Alexi nodded grimly.
David dumped eight smoke bombs on the floor between RJ and Alexi.
"Fire on my command," RJ ordered.
Alexi nodded.
RJ slowed and dropped so low that it looked like they would crash into the treetops. As she maneuvered, she took time to be grateful that Earth had no War Birds. They would have been dead long since on one of the outer planets where the equipment was all-new and lethal.
The chopper swooped in for the kill.
"Fire!"
Alexi's aim was right on the money. The first smoke bomb landed in the cockpit of the attacker, which immediately filled with smoke. The pilot was flying blind, and was too close to the trees. It crashed, and RJ pulled up.
"Reload."
The order was unnecessary, as Alexi was already doing so. There was one chopper left that they could see. They could run, but then they would be chased.
"Fuck you," RJ swung around, heading straight for the last chopper.
"What the hell . . ." Alexi was as shocked as the pilot of the other chopper.
The chopper pilot couldn't believe it. Hell! Their tail was shot off, and they were coming after him. He didn't know whether to attack or to run away. While he was wondering, a smoke bomb landed in his gunner's lap. Suddenly he couldn't see.
"Get rid of it!" he screamed.
The gunner was trying to do just that, but it rolled off his lap and got lost on the floor. The pilot knew of only one thing to do. He went up. There shouldn't be anything to hit up there. The smoke was choking him and making him dizzy, sick. Something hit his gunner. He never knew what. The gunner fell from the craft screaming, still tied to the chopper by his half-fastened safety harness. The pilot's head was pounding. Who would have believed this shit could fuck you up so badly? No sense calling for help, there wouldn't be any. The rebels were getting away. Well, he thought, at least he wouldn't have to face Senator Kirk's wrath. He passed out, and the chopper went down, making him just one more of the casualties.