Haywire (28 page)

After catching his breath, he focused his mind on the channel Artemis had opened and said, “Okay, I’m on my way. This is getting–”

A sudden series of beeps caught his attention. The beeps got loud in a hurry, and he barely had time to see a fist-sized metal canister flying his way before it exploded.

In the fraction of a second Shawn had had to prepare himself, he thickened his armor out of instinct and ducked his head. He’d expected a wave of fire to hit him, along with a storm of metal debris and a concussion wave, and he knew that – while it would hurt – he’d be able to survive it. What he hadn’t expected was the white-hot flash and then for his nanites to scream in his head like a banshee. As he flew backward he sensed his armor skittering and jumping, no longer in control of itself. His claws retracted, grew again, and then shifted into a single long blade before dissolving again. The pain of it nearly undid his mind.

“
That got him, Sir!” a voice called out.

Anger boiled in Shawn’s stomach, and as he got to his feet he wrestled himself together. His nanites were frazzled, but they were adaptive little things and settled down quickly. A threat indicator window opened, telling him he’d been hit with an EMP grenade. His nanites swiftly formed a shielding layer of hardened but inactivated nanites to protect against another blast. On the down side, his armor was stuck in its present configuration until he could get away.

“
Are you al-alright?” Artemis asked. “I felt… something.”

Shawn backed up quickly, putting distance between himself and the soldiers. “Yeah, they hit me with an electro-magnetic pulse. Hurt like hell.”

“
That didn’t take long,” Artemis replied. “Took the Hezrin a year to try that one. We found a way to counter it quick enough, but we lost good people too. Has your–”

“
Yeah, I’ve got it.”

Shawn could detect a strained feeling in Artemis’s channel. Apparently their internal radios sent more than just voice data.

“
Okay,” she said. “The way ahead looks clear. Try and block up your end and then catch up.”

He’d already thought of the same thing. Four soldiers appeared around the corner, one of them with another grenade in their hand. They drew their arm back to throw it, but he dashed to the right, tore an advertising display panel from the wall, and threw it at them first. The one holding the grenade caught it in the face and went cartwheeling backward while the rest scattered.

Before they could regroup, Shawn looked around for something to block the corridor with. There were several vending machines, a newsfilm dispenser, and an abandoned food cart. With every bit of speed and strength he could muster Shawn smashed them all together, folding metal around metal until he had a thick block of scrap filling the corridor. He then drove his hands into the plating that made up the walls, deck, and ceiling. Within seconds the barrier was complete. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.

A bundle of green dots littered the top of his map as he hustled to catch up. A minute later his mother and Artemis were in sight, two dead soldiers at the Titan’s feet.

Agent Hutchins dropped to his haunches and removed their dead soldiers’ helmets, but their faces revealed nothing. He then rolled them over and examined their armor. It was all black on black. They wore no name patches, no insignia, no flags. “This stinks of covert ops.”

Shawn’s mother drifted over and took Alex’s hand. It warmed Shawn’s heart to see her reach out to someone, to find strength in affection. He only wished she’d done it with him, and done it years ago.

“
Then let’s find-find out what’s really going on,” Artemis said. “Do any of you have a data tablet with authorization to access Alliance records?”

Alex nodded and pulled a palm-sized computer from one of his pants pockets. Artemis opened her right hand, and from her fingers grew needle-thin claws. When she took the computer she pushed the claws into access ports. She then glanced around for a moment before walking to a large metal box labeled NETWORK JUNCTION B-09D and placing her other hand against it.

The SWAT team and security personnel looked at each other in astonishment as she glared down at the dead soldiers with softly glowing eyes, but Shawn and his mother were past being surprised at what the Titan was capable of. Half a minute later her eyes returned to normal and she tossed the computer back to Alex.

“
They’re Marines,” she said. “Alliance Marines.”

Alex caught the computer and looked down at its display. Hutchins shuffled over and joined him.

“
But this says that guy is stationed at Fort Ermey as a cook,” Alex said, pointing at a blond soldier with blood splashed across his neck. He then shifted his hand at a red-head with close-cropped hair and a face full of freckles. “And he’s a mechanic at Fort Sutherland.”

Hutchins grunted and shook his head. “Damn. These guys are way beyond covert ops. It’s a spook hit team. This just got very very bad.”

“
What… what does that mean?” Shawn’s mother asked. The skin between her eyes was crinkled as she looked at her boyfriend in puzzlement.

Alex reached over and laid an arm across her shoulder to hold her close. “It means someone very high up in the Alliance government wants what happened beneath the museum to be covered up, and everyone involved with it silenced, even it if means killing Alliance citizens and agents.”

“
Is that why the Promenade was so empty?” Shawn asked.

Hutchins shook his head again. “No, we did that. We didn’t know if you were going to put up a fight, so we had security get as many people as we could clear of the area before you left the restaurant.”

“
Now what do we do?” his mother asked. “Who can we contact?”

“
No one,” Artemis replied as she leaned against a wall and slid down it to sit against her ankles.

Shawn’s mother turned a worried look at Alex, but the agent didn’t have anything comforting to say. “She’s right. Our own government has marked us for death. If we pop our heads up, they’ll get shot off and no one will be the wiser.”

Pushing against the floor, Artemis stood up and said, “Then we do what we were already going to do. We go to Mars.”

“
But they know about that,” Alex said. “I found out you were headed there when I questioned some of the people you asked for transport back on Callisto.”

Shawn’s mother closed her eyes and sighed. “Great. I never thought…”

“
And I passed that information along to my boss,” Alex continued, rubbing her shoulder and giving her a comforting squeeze. “That means they know too.”

“
Then we are well and truly screwed,” Hutchins said. The man looked ready to chew on the metal deck plates and spit screws.

Artemis twitched for a moment, but then said, “Not necessarily. They know about Mars, but they don’t know exactly where on Mars. A planet is a large place. It’s also a Union planet, and that could help.”

“
Considering we don’t have a lot of alternatives,” Alex said, “okay, but why–”

A shot rumbled through the corridor, and then a voice cried out in pain. When Shawn saw his mother spin around and fall, rage lit his insides on fire. As another shot hit him in the back, he sped down the corridor they’d just traversed and threw himself at the two soldiers who’d manage to find them. The first died within moments, his chest torn open like a strange fruit. The second one drew his knife and plunged it forward, but even with strength enhanced by powered armor he couldn’t penetrate Shawn’s hide. Shawn took the knife from him and returned it by shoving it under his jaw. The soldier’s head nearly tore off from the force of the blow.

The threat momentarily gone, he turned to check on his mother, but the SWAT agents were already carrying her away.

“
Is she going to be okay?” he asked when he caught up.

Alex, his eyes wide and his skin pasty white, said, “I don’t know. One of these agents has medic training, but we need to get her somewhere safe. Once we get aboard the shuttle and blast away from this rock, we’ll know more. For now, just hope. Hope, pray, whatever it takes.”

They turned a corner, and ten meters away on the left was a hatch guarded by two men with guns. Their outfits were similar to the SWAT team, but on their chests were winged pins. Shawn was happier to see them than he’d ever been to see anyone in his life.

It took every ounce of willpower Townsend had to not drum his fingers on the arm of his chair. His crew was tense enough. They didn’t need him making it worse. He just wished Major Hill would report in. The Marine had issued regular reports as they worked their way through Hygeia toward their targets, but once the battle started the radio had gone silent save for various distress calls pulsing from the mining colony and all the escape pods and emergency shuttles that launched from it.

“
Anything?” he asked his communications operator.

Petty Officer Sanchez shook his head. “No, Sir.”

A curse rose to his lips, but he swallowed it and rubbed his back against his chair. The tension made him itch. His relief was minor, but at least it was something.

“
Sir, Major Hill is reporting in!”

The knot in Townsend’s middle tightened. It was do or die time. “Hill, what’s your status?”

The blaring of distant alarms filtered through the comm channel, but when Hill spoke his voice was clear enough. “Captain, things have gone tits up over here. We had them, had them dead to rights, but… damn are they something. The old vids just don’t do them justice. We weren’t ready for how strong and fast the Titans would be. Not even close.”

Townsend twitched, sure he hadn’t heard what he’d thought he heard. “Say again, Major? Titans?”

“
Yes, Sir. Two of them. Like one wasn’t fucking enough.”

“
What about the EM grenades? Didn’t those work?”

A bitter laugh punched through the bridge speakers. “Two dead soldiers say negatory on that one. We’re giving them everything we’ve got, but it’s just not making a difference. They’ve managed to block us and move to another location. I suspect they’re heading back to their shuttle. I’ve got several teams searching for a way around.”

As if that was her cue, Petty Officer Roberts turned her head from her radar screen and said, “Captain, our Birdseye satellite reports that the federal shuttle is powering up.”

The knot in Townsend’s stomach snapped, and he hit his chair arm. “Damn it, Hill, they’re getting away.”

The major swore a blue streak. “Acknowledged. Heading back to the
Culper
.”

“
You’d better make it quick, Marine, because if they launch and you’re not here, I will have no choice but to pursue without you.”

A response didn’t immediately come through, but then Hill said, “Understood. We’re on our way.” The huffing and puffing that accompanied his words made it clear how much he understood the situation.

Unable to resist any longer, Townsend drummed the pads of his fingers on his chair, feeling every second as it crept past him. He looked at his comms station, then at his radar operator, and then back again like it was a sporting event.

“
Captain, the shuttle is launching!” Roberts said.

Nearly cracking a tooth from gnashing his jaws together, Townsend turned to Sanchez, but before he could open a line, it opened for him.

“
We’re nearly back aboard, Sir!” Major Hill said, each word surrounded by gasps. “One minute!” The hammering of his powered armor as the distant soldier dashed down corridors was like engine pistons forced into overdrive.

“
You have forty-five seconds, Major.”

Townsend took a small measure of delight in hearing the major’s grunts increase and his gasping deepen. Hill had failed him, and because of that he was going to have to finish the job. Once a jarhead, always a jarhead.

“
Helm, launch us from this rock as soon as that airlock closes,” he ordered, “and I want every ounce of speed we have to run them down. We’re finishing this.”

The young woman at the helm control station nodded just as a loud burst of static tore through the bridge.

“
We’re in!” Hill said, barely able to form the words.

A second later Townsend felt his ship shift beneath his feet, and through the forward viewscreens he saw the rocky surface of Hygeia pull away. Things were going exactly as ordered. Finally.

“
Sir?” the radar operator said, her voice lilted in confusion. “I’ve got four new contacts bearing one-eight-two mark zero-two-six, distance one-thousand kilometers. They just came out of the asteroid’s sensor shadow.”

The last thing the captain needed was another complication. “Are they emergency response vessels?”

Roberts shook her head. “They’re not broadcasting an IFF, and… Sir, the computer’s analyzed the hull profile of the lead ship. It’s the
Dieu Le Veut
.”

Townsend sighed. Pirates were the last thing he needed. As if the situation hadn’t been bad enough already.

“
I don’t like this, Crowe,” Gimble said as he checked their speed and heading. “Not one bit.”

“
The captain doesn’t seem to care over much how we feel about it,” Crowe replied. His face was covered in a layer of sweat that glimmered sickly in the low light of the cockpit of the
Lady Godiva
. His hands shook as he tightened their radar array.