Archon's Queen (42 page)

ord Thompson crawled away from the wall, moving on his own as much as she pulled him “Bugger it all, where the hell is the security team?”

“Sorry about them, Milord.” Anna pulled her sleeves down.

The men lying on the rug moaned as if in reply.

Another shot nipped the back of his coat, leaving a tear in a suit worth more credits than Anna had ever seen in one place. She pounced and held him as low to the ground as possible until the plaster stopped flying. The last two shots landed too close, as if they’d been going for her. Shouting came from outside as security teams converged toward the front gate.

“Guess they’re pissed at me for not offing you.”

He flashed a grim look. “If they kill us both, they can make up any story they damn well care to.”

“Bastards.” Anna froze for a moment. “They were gonna say a psionic killed you and kill me anyway. Even if I’d done what they asked, they’d have done the dirty on me.”

“I do so enjoy politics,” he said, holding up a finger.

The silence made her think the sniper was either repositioning or fleeing. She hauled Lord Thompson to his feet and made to run with him. One of the security men had recovered and lunged at her. He stiff-armed her across the chest, knocking her back over the marble desk. Unable to breathe, she slid through a landslide of office supplies and small gold statues, and hit the ground on her front. He seized her from behind in a bear hug, crushing the rest of the air out of her lungs.

“Get ‘er!” he shouted to his partner.

The other bodyguard flipped a collapsible truncheon out to length and took aim at the side of her head.

Lord Thompson barreled forward, putting his hands on the massive arms around her chest. “Stop it, she’s not the threat.”

The security man’s anger continued to flow through his great biceps into her ribs. Hot breath fell over her head from behind. She squirmed but could not move.

“Dammit Ben, let her down this instant.”

The goliath released his grip and she stumbled forward, sprawled over the desk, breathless and fighting to avoid passing out. Between getting pounded in the chest and squeezed, the room spun. Realizing she lay draped with her ass in the air, in perfect view of the sniper, Anna let her weight take her down until she knelt against the cold marble.

She wheezed, gesturing at the wrecked terminal. “Holodisk―”

Thompson had been ushered out of the room already by the other man. The one who remained glared at her as if he wanted to finish the job. His surface thoughts focused on anger at being made the fool by such a tiny woman. After a momentary stalemate, he shoved her out of the way and almost tore the desk apart in his effort to retrieve the disk. He smashed his fist into the desk several times until finding the right spot to hit to open the reader. With the disk in his pocket, he grabbed her by the shirt and hauled her to her feet.

“Look… Ben, is it? We’re on the same team right now, please don’t make me kill you. You’re huge and I’m tiny. My only chance is to toast your bollocks off and I’d really rather not.”

He squinted.

“Ben…” That same eerie voice emanated from the speakers. “Would you be a dear and turn ninety degrees to the right?”

For no particular reason, he complied. As soon as he stopped moving, a bullet came through the broken window and lodged in his cybernetic left arm with a sparking clank, rather than his heart.

“Thank you Ben.” The vid call hung up.

He grunted and ran through the door, dragging Anna despite her pounding on his natural arm. Once in the hallway, he set her on her feet where a number of other, much smaller, security personnel gathered around Lord Thompson.

Before she could take a step away, he pushed her into the wall and gathered her arms behind her back. Anna sighed as hands patted her down.

“No weapons sir,” said a voice above the back of her head.

Lord Thompson moved closer, waving off the man reaching for handcuffs. “That won’t be necessary, Clive. She could’ve killed me easily if she’d wanted to. What’s going on?”

“Everything is on that disc. The CSB wanted a psionic to kill you to stir up paranoia.” She waited while the guard removed the restraints. “They’re terrified at the thought you might regard us as actual people.”

“Sir, we’ve got reports of hostiles outside. It’s not safe here,” said another man, grabbing at Thompson’s shoulder.

Anna adjusted her shirt back into place. “Seems your security can take it from here, Milord. It would be healthier for everyone concerned if I was nowhere near you. Am I free to go?”

“I never did get your name, miss…”

There was no time to debate the thought. The CSB already knew who she was. Having an ally in Parliament couldn’t hurt. “Anna Morgan, Milord.”

Having little need for stealth, she ran for the stairwell and followed it around a graceful sweeping arc to the ground floor. Tall bay windows offered a view of the utter chaos that reigned outside. Security forces swarmed the grounds in search of the shooter, trading shots with unseen assailants. Anna headed for the main entrance, crashing to an abrupt halt with a fleshy thud against unmoving white doors. A quick psionic tug drew the power out of the magnetic locks and she shoved one side open. When she released her control of the electrical system, the magnet pulled it closed with such a noise some of the men whipped around thinking a shot had been fired.

Two bullets bounced off the porch near her boots, sending her into a panicky sprint toward a row of security vehicles collected in the roundabout by the door. A van, two cars, and three motorbikes sat unmanned in the glare of floodlights. Anna leapt onto one of the bikes and got it moving forward from the force of her impact.

Another shot nicked the left side mirror as she accelerated through the grounds and ducked through the half-closed gate. Hitting the street, she fishtailed her way through a turn and gunned it. High-pitched whining came from both hollow wheels as electric motors spun the treaded rings that served as tires. She picked up speed, and the frame extended. The bike grew longer and lower. Anna leaned forward and tried to remember how to ride; the last time she touched one of these was before she knew what zoom felt like.

“Like riding a bike, right?” she muttered.

Light flashed in the remaining mirror, making her look back and up. A small military VTOL craft, only large enough to carry two people, swerved around a tall building and bore down on her. Black stealth coating ate the light, making the parts that were not windows or weapons seem like a hole in reality. It resembled an abbreviated fighter craft, short and stubby with a fat central body. The side door was open, through which a man leaned with a rifle. Red lights winked from both tips of the ‘V’ shaped tail, and the downward canted wings bristled with rocket pods.

Sweet mother…

Anna wrenched the bike into a hard left around a corner a second before the man fired. Glass shattered out of sight behind her as she whipped around a building. The VTOL lumbered after, skidding through a turn, almost gouging the windows from office skyrises. She screamed as her balance faltered around another corner, a shot skipped off the road behind her. Unable to maneuver so low to the ground, the pilot climbed out of the canyon of office towers where a small mistake would cause a crash.

She accelerated through a straightaway, believing she had lost the plane. A near miss sprayed her in the face with fragments of paving. Too scared to speed up, she hit the brake. Another shot hit the road in front of her. The VTOL vanished behind a glittering tower up ahead as she leaned into a right turn and twisted the handgrip. A sudden burst of speed drilled her into the seat and came close to throwing her through a pack of shrubberies along a central island in the road.

Above, the whine of ion thrusters roared as the plane zipped into view. Two missiles leapt from the wings, riding smoking spirals. Reacting on instinct, she pinned the accelerator. Heat and light splashed over her from an explosion. She gasped, glancing at the mirror as the wreckage of a parked car spun, flaming, into the street.

They’ve lost their bloody minds.

Buildings and streetlamps shot past in a blur of color and shrapnel. Turn after turn, the damnable thing managed to follow. Not brave enough to push the bike farther than she had done already, she searched with wild eyes for anything she could do in order to get away. A couple of blocks ahead, an old red sign beckoned her to an ancient stairway boarded up longer than she had been alive.

Anna aimed for it and ducked her head. The bike shattered through splintering planking as the VTOL swung around into view between two buildings. She feathered the throttle and bounced down stairs into the old abandoned Tube system.

The pavement behind her erupted into a fireball.

Debris blew past her, laced with flames driven by the downblast from the VTOL as it lurched to a halt above the subway entrance. Scraps of false wood clattered on the stairs. Not looking back, Anna focused on the small patch of headlight offering a glimpse into the darkness of another world.

nseen drips broke the silent dark with intermittent chirps. At a standstill, the electric bike made little noise other than emanating a faint presence that made one feel as if they were not alone. Anna turned the headlights over cobwebs, decay, and the dust covering everything on the old train platform. With the advent of autocabs and the maglev trams, the old tube system had been left to the use of whoever was desperate enough to venture down there.