Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (6 page)

She started to turn away again, but this time it was Barbie's voice that stopped her. "Nikki? I can't thank you enough for saving me."

"You kidding me?" Nikki said with a half smile of genuine confusion. "You came to my rescue back there. I should be thanking you, killer."

"Becca. And if you hadn't stepped in when you did—"

"Don't sweat it," Nikki cut her off. "You kicked ass back there. All I did was get slapped around and run like a—"

I believe the words you're looking for are "you're welcome,"
Michael cut in.

"But anyway, yeah, you're welcome, Barbie."

Close enough.

Nikki hopped over the counter back to the sidewalk, wincing at the multiple flares of pain as she landed. This hero stuff sucked, hard.

She crouched and crept to the back of the stand. The goons were still on the other side of the street, but they were closing.

“Your change, little Nikki,” Milos called. “I am honest man.”
 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she whispered to the shadows as she eased back out of the goons’ line of sight. “You’re killing me here, Milos,” she snapped as she swung back to the counter. “Keep it. Call it payment for that call to the cops you'd better be making." She started to turn away but turned right back. "And shut up already.”

She stepped to the back again, but his voice stopped her before she could peek around.

"Little Nikki—"

"Are you shitting me?" She barely stopped her voice from going full shout. "I swear to God, Milos—"

"—be careful."

"Oh. Yeah. Will do."

Nikki

Nikki's first throw was a little off. The apple hit the ground behind the trailing Runner and rolled harmlessly into the alley they were leaving. The sound distracted them for a second, but not the way she intended. They were on their way to the alley Nikki and Becca had left moments ago. Once they cleared it, their next stop would be the fruit stand. One of them was already eyeing it.
 

Crouched in the deep shadows of an alcove twenty meters uphill from the fruit stand, Nikki bounced her remaining apple on her palm and waited for her opening. She'd missed the first shot because her targets were moving.
 

Was that the problem? Looked to me like you just missed.

Shut up
, she thought back at Michael's faint voice. He was slipping away from her again, his voice fading. That must be why he wasn't seeing things properly. She hadn't missed. She was good at throwing things at people. Really good. In fact, if she had a CV, "Hitting people with stuff, thrown or otherwise" would be right at the top.

If you say so.
Michael's voice was so faint she had to stop breathing to make out the rest.
But I wouldn't have missed.

She started breathing again, mainly so she could give voice to the chain of curses her brain was angrily linking together. She stood and stepped out of the shadows. The Runners had reached the alley across from the fruit stand and stopped to check it out.
 

"Watch this miss, jackwagon,"
 

Her second throw was dead on, or so she thought at first. It became infuriatingly clear by the time the apple arced halfway across the street that this throw was going wide too. She'd overcompensated. "Son of a—"

At the last second, the taller Runner up front turned away from the alley and stepped toward the fruit stand, and right into her throw. The apple smacked off the side of his head with a wet thump.

"Ho-ho!" Nikki cheered. "What's up now?"

She meant the taunt for Michael, but it was the Runners who responded. Apple Face rubbed an arm across his cheek and pulled out a pricey looking com unit. The other guy ran straight for Nikki.

She was so proud of herself she almost forgot to run. Almost.

She ran uphill toward the call point just long enough to make sure both guys took the bait. Once Apple Face joined the chase, Nikki turned right down the next alley, slipped past the row of garbage cans taking up most of the narrow entrance, and ran for the short fence at the far end.
 

The clouds stretching across the moon thinned, letting Nikki make out just enough of the piles and puddles under her feet to know she’d rather not be running through them, but she didn’t slow down. At least, not until something big passed between her and the moon, casting a fleeting shadow across the alley and making Nikki’s heart do a triple-take in her throat.

She slid to a stop and looked up. She saw nothing but a few stray pieces of crushed brick or gravel raining down where the shadow had passed. Whoever was up there, they’d jumped from one roof to the other and moved on, fast.

Some of Apple Face’s buddies were up there trying to cut her off, she told herself, but her stomach wasn’t convinced. She’d only caught a quick glimpse of that shadow, but something about it had felt…wrong.

The Runners behind her hit the trash cans, crumpling at least one as they bulled through them and jolting Nikki out of her paralysis.

She ran for the fence, nudged on by the shouts of her pursuers. Her vault over the fence was half jump, half scrambling climb when her jump fell short, and all pain in her shoulder and hand. On the upside, her roll over the top and smooth landing must have looked badass. On the downside, she lost so much time the Runners hit the fence as soon as she landed.

Nikki darted across the empty street and through a gap between two buildings that was too small to even call an alley. Her shoulders brushed either wall as she ran. As soon as she reached the far end, she turned right again, heading back downhill.

She was close to the free zone, which meant she was close to the rendezvous point where she’d left Coop, which meant she was close to escaping these goons for good. All she had to do was outrun them long enough, and hope Coop was armed and alert when she showed up.

The sound of heavy footfalls behind her spurred Nikki on as she raced down the dark street, her breath coming faster and heavier with every few meters she covered. When she’d come up with this plan, the thought that she might not be able to outrun the Runners hadn’t occurred to her. Why would it? She and Michael had never gotten caught when they’d run from the cops. If they started to get tired, a punch or two was all it took to shake off the exhaustion and fire them back up. But tonight Nikki was fading fast. Her lungs were burning with each labored breath of cold air, her legs were going numb, and her heart felt like it was going to pound its way up out of her ears.
 

She could see the moon reflecting off the water beyond the buildings at the bottom of the hill, which meant she was only a couple blocks from Coop, assuming, of course, that Coop was actually there.

Call him, Nikki. Get him to come to you.

Michael’s brain shout made Nikki’s heart lurch again, so much so she stumbled and almost went down. She wished he’d make up his mind tonight. Here or not here. One or the other. His sudden brain-numbing shouts after getting all whispery were going to give her a heart attack. She needed to put a bell on him.

Nikki risked a quick glance behind her. The Runners were less than twenty meters back and closing. Not even calling for help was going to make a difference if she didn't put some distance, or something solid, between the Runners and herself.

Breathing heavily, she turned sharply toward the first doorway in sight. Without breaking stride she charged up the handful of steps, shouldered aside the thin, crooked door, and ran down the dark hallway beyond.

This close to the free zone, few if any of these buildings were occupied. This one, at one time a stack of apartments by the looks of it, hadn't seen human residents in what smelled like decades. She ran past the first two doors and ducked through the third before she heard the goons enter the building.

Nikki briefly considered hiding, but she knew they'd find her sooner or later, and as much as it hurt to accept it, she also knew she was no match for two Runners, not on her own, not anymore. So she didn't bother with stealth. She ran from room to room in the small apartment until she found what she was looking for.
 

The window in the back bedroom was boarded up like the rest, but this one had two boards hanging slightly askew—what the zoners lovingly referred to as a bum hole, a discreet way in and out that wouldn't tip off the cops to squatters.

She rotated the boards up and wriggled through feet-first as quickly as she could. As soon as her boots hit the wet pavement outside, an arm punched through the hole and made a grab for her, but she twisted clear and out into the narrow lane that ran behind the apartments toward the rendezvous point.

Harried by the sound of splintering wood and heavy boots dropping to the pavement, Nikki tried to wrestle her com unit out of her jacket on the run, which was no mean feat. The unit the team had given her was blockier than the flashy little disk the cursing Runner behind her had used. She was so intent on freeing the blasted thing from her pocket, she didn’t notice the shadows moving ahead of her until Michael shouted a warning. By then, it was too late.

Something big and dark streaked from between the houses right in front of Nikki. She tried to stop, but she and whatever it was were moving too fast. It clipped her legs and sent her rolling to the damp pavement in a flailing heap.

When the world stopped spinning, Nikki was on her back looking up between the buildings at the cloud-streaked moon, or what she could see of it before Apple Face blocked it out.

With a snarl, he grabbed her by the jacket and hauled her to her tiptoes like she weighed nothing. He was pissed, and not in the fun British way.

"You're just a little sack o' trouble, ain'tcha?" he snarled in her face. “Tell Angel we got one,” he said to his partner, his breath blowing Nikki’s hair back from her face as he lifted her off her toes completely.

Nikki felt helpless dangling there, but at least it gave her a clear view of what was happening. Over Apple’s right shoulder she saw the other Runner, the one not calling Angel as ordered. His face was pale and slack, his eyes as wide as they would go, like he was one loud noise away from needing new pants. Over Apple’s other shoulder Nikki saw what had the guy spooked.

The hunched figure in the inky shadows between the buildings was hard to make out, except for one of its hands resting on the ground in a strip of moonlight. The glossy black claw curled and flexed and its chitinous talons dug into the pavement like it was loose gravel. The thing’s head was turned toward the pale Runner, but Nikki could still see a red eye glowing out of the darkness.

The pale guy stumbled back a step, shaking his head. “Holy Mary Mother of—”

“Gideon?” Nikki whispered.

Nikki, I don’t think he’s—

“What’s your problem?” Apple shouted. He looked back at his buddy, who took another weak step backward, then he turned his head the other way just in time to meet the red stare from the shadows.

Nikki’s boots slapped down as Apple let her go and stumbled back, putting Nikki between him and the thing—the…Gideon.

Run, Nikki
. Michael begged.
Please, listen to me. Run
.

Nikki met the red-eyed stare and saw not the slightest hint of recognition. All she saw was hunger followed by a look she knew better than just about anybody. She saw the decision to attack.

She dropped as the creature pounced. The thing was insanely fast, but for once luck smiled on Nikki. The creature’s powerful leap took it right over her as she dropped, and right into Apple.

Nikki hit the ground hard, hard enough that for a second she couldn’t see a thing except little bursts of light. There was nothing wrong with her hearing though. The rumbling and tearing sounds coming from the other side of the alley made Nikki want to curl up and hide. But as bad as they were, they were nothing compared to the high-pitched wail that had to be coming from Apple.

Nikki pushed up to her hands and knees to see the other Runner already sprinting for all he was worth back the way they’d come. He had the right idea. Nikki staggered to her feet on bloodless legs and fled.

A minute before, Nikki would have sworn she couldn’t run another step. Now, she didn’t think she’d ever stop, no matter how much her lungs burned. She sent a heartfelt thank-you to every god she'd ever heard of for the gift of adrenaline. When an ear-tearing roar shook the air behind her, followed by the sound of claws on brick or pavement, Nikki prayed she’d have enough adrenaline to get her to Coop.

She’d lost her com unit when the creature first hit her, so there was nothing she could do besides hope Coop was there. If he wasn’t…

She knew the creature was closing on her. She could feel it behind her. She could hear its every growling, huffing breath, unless that was her. Nikki focused on the narrow alley in front of her, on the opening ahead where she hoped her ride was waiting, and tried to block out everything else.

Just run, dammit
, she growled in her head.
You can still do that at least
.

Michael didn’t come down on her for being hard on herself this time. He didn’t say a word. She tried hard to believe that wasn’t a bad sign.

The opening rushed closer and closer, and for a shaky second Nikki thought she’d make it. She actually felt the surge of relief start before a dark figure stepped into her path.

Nikki flung herself to the side with an embarrassing shout that ate up what little air she had left in her lungs. She tumbled and rolled out of the alley, adding dizziness and road rash as answers to the question of how this night could get worse. She finally stopped moving, in body at least. From flat on her back, she forced her eyes to focus on the slightly spinning figure above her.

When she realized who it was, she almost passed out from relief, or maybe lack of oxygen.

It was Sam. Praise the sweet Buddha Moses, it was Mr. Perfect Timing Sam standing between her and whatever was coming, his pistol trained on the dark alley.

She was breathing like a Saturday-market bellows, but she dragged in enough air to force out, “Shoot already!”