The Ramal Extraction (34 page)

“Rama didn’t strike me as that serpentine a thinker,” Gunny said.

“Nor me,” Wink said. “Smarter than he acted.”

“Maybe” Jo said.

They looked at her.

“We can talk about that later,” she said. “First, we fetch our quarry.”

“If she’s actually there,” Gramps said.

“Either she is in there, or she left a noticeable amount of
her scent there,” Kay said. “The smell matches that of the clothing we obtained.”

Jo’s own olfactories were enhanced, but even so, she couldn’t keep up with Kay when it came to scent. Only so much you could do with a human nose, and the Vastalimi were still superior to the best human augmentation in that realm.

The target dome was small, no more than six meters in diameter, a camo-projector keeping it vaguely forest-colored. It was made of memory foam, probably weighed less than ten kilos, essentially half a bubble. It would be enough to keep heat or cold in or out if properly conditioned, protect occupants from rain or wind or sun, and once it was empty, activation of a simple vacuum canister the size of a small pail would suck it in for storage and transport.

Rama’s, of course, was thrice the size of the others.

Not that he was going to need it anymore.

“So, what?” Gunny said. “We gonna just waltz right in and kick in the door?”

“Nope. You and Gramps will create a diversion, loud enough to draw attention, and bright enough to screw up spookeyes. Kay and Wink and I will take out the guards, grab Indira, and meet Rags. Now that he has a scooter, he’ll haul her back to the hopper, we meet him there, and everybody goes home and lives happily ever after.”

Maybe…

“You think it’ll be that easy?” Gunny said.

“Why, of course. Isn’t it always?”

They all grinned at that.

Kay whickered.

Gunny looked at her chrono. “About time to get on it,” she said.

“Amazing. You can tell that by looking at that itty-bitty
thing on your wrist? We use hourglasses where I come from.”

“I thought you were born before there was time.”

“That’s true. My sister invented it. Had a bunch of sand she needed to use.”

“Ah hope you don’t forget the plan between here and where you are supposed to go.”

“I’m sorry, who are you again? What are we talking about here?”

Gunny shook her head.

“I’ll take care of the sentry,” he said. “You just make sure you get the ammo bin lit properly.”

“Don’t you worry about me,” she said.

“I mean, once it starts, you need to
leave
, and not watch the pretty shiny sparks and all.”

“How did you get to be this old? Must have some bored god watchin’ out for you, Ah can’t imagine why somebody hasn’t kilt you yet.”

“They try. I’m tougher than I look.”

“Pretty much have to be, just to walk around.”

“Five minutes, on my mark.”

Gunny held a finger over her chronometer.

“And…now.”

Gunny triggered her timer.

Gramps moved off.

Four minutes and forty seconds later:

“Heyho, Roscoe, howzu do’?”

The sentry frowned at Gramps. His transponder sig matched that of the sentry’s, but still: “What are you doing here?”

“Hawkeye sent me.”

“Who?”

“You know, Hawkeye, the new assistant brewmaster?
They got in a shipment of that Hemani Rum, the good, high-proof stuff? I’m supposed to give the sentries each a little bottle. The bottles are shaped like little pistols.”

“Yeah? Where is it?”

“Right here, in my back pocket.”

Gramps drew his pistol, slowly, no sudden moves, that was the key. By the time the sentry registered that it wasn’t the small pistol-shaped bottle of liquor he was expecting to see but a real pistol, it was too late: Gramps shot him in the face.

The sentry spasmed and fell.

That
was
pretty clever, wasn’t it?

He toggled his com: “How come I don’t see you skulking toward the bin yet, Chocolatte?”

“Well, Ah could say it’s because it’s dark and you are old and half-blind, but the fact is, Ah am already
in
the bin, slow-eyes.”

“I knew that.”

“Hell you did. Hold on a second…”

The door slid open, and Gunny ambled out of the bin. “Probably we want to be goin’, we need some distance, and slow as you are, we likely to get blown up, we don’t start now.”

“Yeah, well, behold my ass and elbows. Try and keep pace, Gunny.”

Jo glanced at her timer. “Fifteen seconds,” she said.

“Fifteen seconds,” Kay echoed.

There were three guards outside the target iglu, and nobody was going to do anything fancy, just dart them and hit the door, as soon as the—

—BOOM!

The explosion shook the ground like a mild earthquake, then there was a fireball rising behind them, casting long and flickery shadows…

The guards turned to look at the flare, and Jo and Kay
both shot before Wink could even squeeze his trigger—
pap-pap-pap
—and all three were down.

But as they ran toward the iglu’s door, a quad of soldiers came into view to their left, a hundred meters away, carbines held at low ready, jogging toward them.

Wink didn’t think it was a coincidence. Must be some kind of backup. Set to head for Indira if there was any kind of commotion.

“I got them,” Jo said. “Go get her.”

Kay and Wink kept going.

Jo sprinted inhumanly fast toward the approaching four soldiers—

Jo knew what field of fire these soldiers would try, and she was already angled out to make sure the ones on her left would get in the way of the ones on her right.

Her faked transponder sig wasn’t going to do the trick now—

She jinked and stutter-stepped, and was within twenty meters before the first shots in her direction, loud, dragon-tongued muzzle flashes.

She swung her own carbine around to cover them, triggered one long AP burst sweeping from left to right, then indexed the targets coming back from the opposite side, squeezing off three-round bursts, not looking to see whether she hit or not, just keeping her weapon moving—

—two of them were down from the first sweep, and she tapped the other two in just under a second on the return—

Too easy. Four up, four down—

Whups. Not done. Here came a second quad. And, look! a
third
—

She let go of the carbine, which wound up on its retractable sling and stuck to her chest. Banged her under the chin as it hit. Fucking piece of shit wasn’t supposed to do that—

She pulled two grenades from her belt, right, left, thumbed the caps off, and pressed the red buttons.

One…two…three…

She threw the right one first, still running, then the left grenade.

The right one actually hit one of the soldiers square in the helmet, knocking him backward and ricocheting up two meters before it went off—

The second throw wasn’t as accurate, but it was still in the air three meters in front of the lead soldier when it exploded—

Her optic filters shielded, and when her vision cleared, she saw there were only two of the eight still standing.

Grenade shadow, the shrapnel stopped by their fellow soldiers.

No time to regrip her carbine, and a waste of time to draw her pistol—it was a darter and no good against the face shields and armor they wore, so she picked up her speed. Deep into oxygen debt, even with the enhanced hemoglobin, but fast was what she had to have—

They were dazed, but coming back online—

She barreled into the first one shoulder first and knocked him sprawling, leaped at the second as he swung his weapon around to bear—

Hit him with her hip in his midsection and knocked him down, too.

She rolled, pulled her knife, lifted the second one’s face shield, and stabbed him in the right eye.

The other one was on his hands and knees, trying to get up, and now she had time to get her carbine back in hand. She shot him in the back as he stood.

Twelve up. Twelve down. Now
that
was pretty good…

Kay fired at the door’s jamb, tearing the foam away and making the lock useless. Wink was slow to catch up, and she was already through the door when he got there.

Inside, a quick glance showed an armed man holding a gun at a woman’s head.

“Stop, or I’ll—”

Kay fired her carbine and the round went into the man’s mouth. Blew the back of his head out as he spasmed away from his captive. Not as satisfying as a claw, but the best option.

“Wh-who are you?”

Wink came into the room. “That’s
Kluth
fem, but you can call her ‘Kay.’ Your father sent us to collect you.”

“Thank the gods!”

“You might spare a few prayers for Cutter Force Initiative, too,” Wink said. “We sometimes do the gods’ light fighting for them.

“Come on, we have to leave. We are about to be in the middle of a war zone.”