The Burn Zone (58 page)

“
Halt!
”
an amplified voice boomed from back behind us.

A shot boomed over the racket, and the crowd around us cringed, ducking their heads as one. A big shirtless guy clipped me and I pitched forward and went down into a forest of legs and stomping feet.

“
Vamp!
”
I screamed.
“
Nix!
”

I tried to get up and got knocked down again. I couldn
’
t see anything, and as I turned, a knee thudded into my forehead.

“
Vamp!
”

I was woozy but forced myself to stand, grabbing the belt of the guy next to me and hauling myself up. I spun around but didn
’
t see Vamp or Nix anywhere. I
’
d lost them.

Another shot banged through the air, and a man standing next to me stumbled back. A plastic bag slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a glass pop as blood began to bloom through his T-shirt along his left side. He stared, confused, as the blood began to burble
down his side to stain the hip of his shorts red. His eyelids fluttered and he fell back onto his butt.

Through the crowd, I spotted Ligong aiming down the sights of a pistol while people scrambled to get out of the line of fire. I tried to push through, but the crowd had squished together to form a tight knot.

Vamp, where are you?

Sam, look out.

Red laser light flashed in the corner of my eye. I had turned to look for the source when I saw a glowing dot drift down to my chest.

Someone grabbed my wrist. I turned and caught a flash of pink and the ruffle of a suit jacket as Nix scooped me up in one arm just as the shot went off.

I
heard the bullet slam into him as his arm tightened around me, and one hand slipped down to cup me under the butt.

Hold on.

The next thing I knew, we were in the air. His leap took us up over the heads of the people piled up around us, and through the snapping tails of his jacket I saw some of them follow our arc, pointing and staring. Festival-goers on the other side of the mob scattered, one pitching off the curb and down between two parked cars, as Nix landed nimbly on his feet and skidded forward, grinding across a patch of street sand to where Vamp was waiting. He held me to his chest and I looked back through the crowd to see Ligong appear through a break in the crowd, her gun aimed in front of her.

The crowd panicked. All of them tried to run at once, spilling into the streets in a hail of honking car horns. I heard the shriek of tires followed by the crunch of plastic and fiberglass as the towering float next to us stopped too quickly and was struck from behind. The tiers of the float teetered, and something snapped inside its frame. A platform above gave way and several dancers fell, gold
tassels trailing as they went down into the rows of costumed marchers below. Ahead, people dove to get out of the way of the renegade haan who was barreling toward them with a human girl in his arms.

Up ahead, Vamp waved us forward. Nix dropped me onto my feet as Vamp whipped his arm around and threw something back behind me that caused a thump and a collective groan from the people there. When I turned I saw people spattered with bright red festival dye, some wiping at their faces. Ligong was there, her face looking like it had been covered in a mask of red war paint as she blinked, trying to clear her eyes. She forced one eyelid open and stared right at me as she took aim with the pistol.

Everyone ducked as the gun went off and the slug pounded into the wall next to me. I crouched low and scanned the side street ahead, thinking that if we could disappear into the sprawl we could lose her. At least long enough to get to the gate where, without the twistkey, she wouldn
’
t be able to follow.

I checked the map. Red pixels had begun to appear sprinkled up and down the parade route. Even with the incomplete data I could already see they were forming a net to close in on us with.

Where was the gate? I zeroed in on the GPS marker, and my heart dropped. I
’
d lost the bike too soon. The hub was three whole blocks from where we were.

“
Damn it! Come on!
”

Vamp and Nix followed as I bolted, into the alley, sprinting through the blanket of confetti that had accumulated between the buildings there. I darted between the alley shop fronts where shoppers were clustered under flapping canvas signs, then around the side of a metal trash bin where a second narrow alley branched farther into the maze of buildings.

The way opened up into a little blacktop cubby nest
l
ed between several buildings where three guys and two girls were hanging out zoning under a string of paper festival lamps. Two of the guys and one of the girls were leaning back against the graffiti-covered brick face passing around a hand-rolled cigarette, while the other girl stood bent over in front of a shirtless guy with her hands on her knees. Her skirt was hiked up and the little bit of rear-end padding she had rippled each time he thrust into her. They both looked bored until the moment a girl, a guy, and a haan all clomped to a stop in the middle of the group. The girl getting pounded went to stand up suddenly and cracked her head on the U-clamp of a rain gutter. She staggered and fell forward onto the pavement as the dude behind her stood there with his dick pointing due north.

A shot went off and I spun around to see that Ligong had entered from the alley behind us. The gang snapped out of it long enough to scatter, leaving the girl on the ground with her bare ass still sticking up.

“
Wait,
”
I said, holding out my hands. Ligong stalked closer while two more soldiers marched in behind her.
“
Just... wait!
”

Before she could pull the trigger, a gust of wind blew down hard from above, and the lights from an aircar filled the cubby. Everyone looked up as a siren chirped, echoing through the small space as a military police car dropped down toward us.

One of Ligong
’
s soldiers took aim with a Gauss rifle, but before he could get a shot off, heavy gunfire erupted from underneath the descending vehicle. His body jerked, and the front of his armor flashed hot red as the rounds bored through the plating there. His chest exploded in a shower of blood, muscle, and bone while his arm, carried by the weight of the weapon, slid right out of the armor
’
s sleeve. It tumbled across the pavement, his body thumping down after it. The girl had regained
consciousness and was back on her feet, staring in horror as she pulled her skirt back into place.

I looked up, shielding my eyes, and saw a face I recognized through the car window.

Kang.

The back door opened, hydraulics hissing over the sound of the engine as the car floated over the cracked pavement.

“
Come on!
”
Kang shouted. Ligong was signaling toward the vehicle while the girl turned tail and disappeared down the alley.

Kang had already screwed me once, and I didn
’
t like the look of the back of that car. There were no interior handles to open the doors again, and a metal grate separated it from the cab. It would be stepping into a cage, but right now the alternative was worse. I climbed in, the other two hot on my heels.

“
Stop!
”
Ligong barked over an amplifier.

Bullets thudded against the outer plating of the aircar as she fired at us, her aim following as we rose past the second floor of the buildings on either side. Pressed in the corner next to Vamp and Nix, I cringed as a round thumped into the safety glass right next to Kang
’
s head.

He leaned back and slid open a small window in the grate that separated us so he could look back.

“
You okay?
”
he called back.

“
Just go!
”

Kang looked down over the dome of his armored shoulder pad and spotted Ligong below as she gave up on the pistol and picked the heavy Gauss rifle up from the ground, shaking the severed arm away from it. I saw her aim it up toward us and squint through the scope.

Kang turned the stick and the aircar yawed just as the shot went off. A thin trail of smoke flashed past the window and I saw the round punch through the brick face of the building that appeared in front of us. His hand moved
to the console, gloved fingers dancing across the array of controls there while he kept one eye down on the street. A heads-up display flickered onto the windshield in front of him where a camera
’
s reticule locked on to Li-gong below and then zoomed in. A motor grumbled under the seat somewhere and I saw a gun turret
’
s long black barrel move into view as Ligong adjusted her aim.

“
Go!
”
I yelled.
“
Up!
Up!
”

The rail slug popped through the vehicle
’
s thick glass, and in a flash, Kang
’
s head exploded into a shower of gristle that painted the
cab
’
s
interior red.

The vehicle shuddered, threatening to stall, as his body slumped over in the seat. One lifeless hand slipped off the control stick, then flopped down as we began to list toward the building face to our left.

“
Shit!
”
Vamp spat.
“
Goddamn it!
”

“
Hang on!
”
I said.

I slipped my arms and head through the opening in the grate, almost getting stuck at the shoulders. I managed to grab the control stick and then wriggle the rest of my body through as another hole popped through the glass inches from my nose.

“
Sam!
”

I shoved Kang
’
s body out of the way as best I could and reached one foot down to the pedals underneath. When I found the emitter control, I stomped on it and cranked the stick.

We spun, veering toward the building until I saw myself reflected in the glass there, looking very small behind the wheel of the big vehicle. We hit, crunching against the glass until it exploded and crashed down over us.

“
Turn!
”
Vamp yelled from behind me.

“
I
’
m doing it!
”

The racket drowned both of us out as we scraped along the building side, plate glass buckling,
then
shattering as we went, until I managed to pull the nose around. I veered, and pointed us down the alley in the direction of the gate.

Something hit the undercarriage with a heavy thud, and red lights began to pop up on the dash.

I shoved the stick forward, and the buildings sheared past on either side as we accelerated back toward the main drag.

~ * ~

Chapter Twenty-five

03:35:00 BC

The car was going down. In the rearview mirror I saw red fluid spraying through a trail of black smoke, and even with the emitters cranked we were losing altitude fast. Two more vehicles had picked us up and were pursuing, but we were close. The
intersection, and the gate hub, were
just up ahead.

“
Hold on!
”
I called back.

There wasn
’
t any time to be delicate about it. I took us in, siren wailing the whole way as people scattered. We crashed onto the pavement right in the middle of the intersection, sparks spitting as we dug a short trench through the blacktop.

The car lurched to a stop, the tail coming up off the ground and threatening to take us end over end before it slammed back down again. As soon as we stopped moving, I found the door control and slammed my palm down on it. All four doors sprang open.

“
Move!
”
I barked.
“
Go, go!
”