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  Biren’s face twitched.

  “Biren, don’t.” It was the first time she heard fear in Giselle’s voice.

  “We surrender.” Cygni dropped her gun and raised her hands. There was no choice. Something clicked in the back of her mind, and she signaled Sanul.

  We’ve been betrayed. Run.

  There was no response.

  She wanted to cry, but giggles erupted from her mouth.

  The Praetor-Prime raised her pistol. Glossy, dark metal gleamed in the light.

  “We surrender,” she repeated, laughed, then gasped at what she did.

  “Cygni.” Biren’s muscles flexed and he clasped his hands into fists. “Hit the deck.”

  “What?” Her eyes widened.

  The drones and the Praetor opened fire. She felt something strike her shoulder. It spun her around as the air erupted in the cacophony of gunfire and the hum of laser weapons.

  [Hypervelocity impact detected. Emergency Armor Mode activated. Combat Mode activated. Charging defensive weaponry,] her PLIA said in rapid succession before she struck the back wall. She barely felt the bullets pounding away at the armacorium on her back as she watched her hand turn silver with glazed eyes. One struck her in the back of the head and she went down, blinking away the stars in her vision but otherwise unharmed. She was now wrapped in the armacorium’s protective embrace. It deflected the Praetor’s bullets and dissipated the drone’s laser-weapons as they struck her.

  Coming to her senses she rolled toward cover, an ornate love-seat being torn to shreds, and checked on her companions.

  Biren launched himself at the Praetor with a bellowing scream. They collided and went down together with the force of the impact. They wrestled on the ground as he bled from half-a-dozen bullet holes in his chest and one in his neck. Somehow amongst the tangle of limbs he dug a forearm into the Praetor’s throat and hammered away at her face with his free hand.

  The sight of the rivers of blood pouring from his wounds shook Cygni to her core. If he didn’t get medical attention he would be dead within minutes. Giselle was on the ground, crawling towards her while firing her gun at the DS-109s. They circled around the furniture burning up the floor with their energy weapons. In moments they would have a clear shot on both her and Giselle.

  The rug was on fire. Flames danced in a dozen different places around them.

  They had to move.

  “Can you hack them?” Giselle said in her head.

  Help Biren! Her thoughts screamed, but still she ordered her PLIA to infiltrate the DS-109s’ OS.

  [Attempting link…]

  “Help Biren!” She shouted with her voice this time. It would break her to watch him die.

  “We can’t without getting killed!” Giselle sent back.

  “He’s going to die!”

  “So are we—Wait, look at the wall!”

  Cygni frowned. What good was that going to do? The DS-109s’ laser-strikes were already heating her armacorium, and though its silvery surface deflected the worst of it, she could feel a searing pain begin deep in her flesh. Giselle took two hits in her leg and one in her back, the strikes started little fires in her clothes, but the armor she had on underneath held.

  “Dammit, Cygni! Look and run for it!”

  She looked.

  The bullets and laser-strikes had torn up the wall. She could see the hallway and the interior of the room across it. It was a small chamber with a few chairs and a short chess table in front of a large window with bullet holes radiating cracks in its surface.

  She turned back to Giselle.

  “I’ve signaled the heiress. She’s coming. Run!”

  [Connection failed, retrying…]

  “Not without Biren!” She looked back.

  With bloody teeth grinding together he sat on the Praetor’s chest, still hammering away at her face—but each blow was slower than the last.

  The Praetor dropped her gun and grabbed his wrist with a passive expression as he took his next swing. She squeezed, staring right into his face as though bored, and snapped the bones in his arm.

  He screamed.

  Cygni watched the Praetor’s legs come up behind him and hook around his shoulders. She flexed and slammed his head back against the floor with a sickening crunch.

  His body twitched and went limp.

  “BIREN!” Cygni screamed.

  “Goddess, Cygni. RUN!” Giselle scrambled to her feet and charged at the opening in the wall.

  Cygni felt her own body react to the woman’s command.

  Borrowed engrams activated in her brain. She curled up into a handspring that flipped her onto her feet and got her running in the same motion. Her armacorium deflected the lasers as the drones followed them with their shoulder turrets, but each hit became a flare of pain burning its way up her spine into her teeth; it was starting to fail.

  Giselle charged across the hallway and jumped over the ragged rim of the hole leading into the next room. Cygni’s foot caught on its edge as she tried to follow, but again her uploaded reflexes kicked in and turned the fall into a tumble that landed her on the floor in the next room.

  “When I say run, you charge that window and don’t you dare stop.” Giselle pointed at it with her gun and emptied the magazine. The polyglass cracked several more times, groaned, and exploded pouring razor-sharp shards a kilometer down to the park below.

  Perched on her knees, Cygni looked back and saw the Praetor rise over Biren a moment before she brought her foot down on his chest with the force of a hydraulic ram. Dark-crimson gore exploded outward from his sides as bones crackled and shattered.

  “BIREN!” She screamed, and screamed again. Giselle grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down to the ground.

  “Cygni, focus! Focus! Look at me! Look at me goddess dammit!”

  She blinked through the tears filling the space between her eyes and the armacorium, but did as she was told. Giselle’s black irises grew larger until the whites around them vanished in their darkness. Her voice resonated in her head.

  “Charge the window, Cygni. Don’t stop.”

  She felt detached from her body as it rose. She felt the lasers heat her back and sides moments before something else hit her and splashed across her back like boiling-hot water. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. All her brain allowed her to do was run—so she ran.

  The shattered window approached. It grew in her sight, until the hazy sight of the city lights before dawn was all she could see.

  Her body jumped. The air rushed around her as momentum and gravity drew her out and away from the tower. For a moment it was like she was flying—and then she fell.

  She blinked, coming back to herself. The pain in her back was excruciating and all consuming until the primitive part of her mind realized what was happening. She opened her mouth to scream and something hit her from behind hard enough to knock the air from her lungs and flare the pain in her back to new heights. It wrapped around her in a motion that sent them both spinning as they fell.

  It was Giselle. Her friend must have jumped right after her.

  At least we’ll die together, she thought.

  They were spinning too fast to see the ground coming up to meet them. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Biren was dead, Shkur wanted nothing more to do with her, and her attempt to expose Revenant to save the Confederation had failed. She could only hope that Boa, Sanul, and Ila would get away, though she admitted to herself it was a small hope for Sanul. They lost contact for a reason.

  At least when we hit the ground, it will all be over. Beats being in a prison colony, she thought. There was some strange consolation in th—

  She hit something and darkness wrapped tight around her. She came to a moment later and realized she wasn’t laying broken on the pavement.

  “Wha—” she started, but was cut off by the hiss of an air-seal. The pain in her back and a new one in her shoulder was so intense it blurred her vision.

  “Hold on! We’re under fire!”
Lina shouted.

  She blinked though it did little to stem the flow of tears. She was in the back seat of the air-car with Giselle sprawled across her. They raced away from the four columns of Intel-Sys Tower with engines pulsing like a mad dance beat.

  She levered herself up the caved-in seat and looked back through the rear of the cab.

  The Praetor stood in the shattered window. Her form shrank as they increased the distance between them, but not fast enough. The evil machine raised an arm towards them and a DS-109 drone appeared next to her.

  Something flashed over its shoulder.

  “Shit!” Lina yanked the controls. The car lurched to the side.

  Cygni lost sight of what was going on behind them as the car jerked onto a new course. Another tower loomed directly in their path. Lina cut the turn so close she could see the grainy-texture of the printed fastcrete walls as they shot past.

  Her head spun and she found herself struggling to remain conscious. Beside her Giselle pulled herself upright and gripped the top of the seat with white knuckles.

  “Cygni,” she said. “I’m sorry for all of this. I wish I’d turned on Sophi sooner. I wish things were different for us.”

  “What?” She followed the woman’s gaze and her eyes locked on the bright flare of the missile streaking towards them with a trail of thick smoke behind it.

  “Cygni, you are a true friend. I love you,” Giselle said.

  I don’t know how to respond. How sad is that? She thought.

  She heard the missile’s high-pitched whistle moments before it struck the back of the air-car.

  The muscles of Cylus’ face writhed. The air-car plummeted to the ground as he watched the feed from Intel-Sys’ external security sensors. It struck the side of the Groombridge Industries Tower, spun in the air, then slammed into the pavement with a flash of red from its ruptured dark energy generators. The back of the wreck was on fire, and it was spreading towards the mangled passenger cockpit.

  The Cronuses winced with him when the car hit but they did not look away from the hovering screen in the center of the room.

  “At least it’s over. Their accomplices are being arrested as we speak.” His body was numb. When he ordered the Gaian killed he hadn’t imagined it would be so brutal. He didn’t think he would ever get that image out of his head. The more he thought of it the harder his stomach churned.

  Beside him Sophi’s eyes gleamed.

  The sisters looked at each other and then the floor. Their hands tangled together in their laps. He felt he should say something but words failed him. All he could think about was how sick he felt.

  “Cylus—” Aurora started, her voice thick. She didn’t finish.

  Reika looked grim.

  “The Praetor didn’t even try to arrest them.” Hephestia’s eyes were wet.

  He opened and shut his mouth.

  The sisters shook their heads.

  Biren was dead and Pasqualina was finally his again. He thought he should feel happy, but here he was feeling sick and weak again. With Dorsky’s defeat only hours away he knew he had to concentrate on taking down the real enemy, Zalor Revenant. He couldn’t afford the sickness within him to interfere. His face contorted as he struggled to fight it down.

  “Do we have an ID on that driver yet?” His voice popped and ground in his ears.

  Reika licked her lips. Her tail twitched in the air behind her. She refused to meet his gaze.

  Meia had gone out with her machine to round up the rest of them. It wasn’t a task he trusted to the local authorities. Praetor-Prime Augusta agreed and authorized her to arrest Dorsky’s co-conspirators.

  The thought made Cylus miss Lina. He needed her at his side now more than ever.

  “No ID,” Ben answered when Reika did not. “I am analyzing the security feed now. I am sure Praetor-Prime Augusta will be able to identify the driver from the remains in the wreck.”

  “Of course,” he said. “I’d like to know as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, Master.” Ben nodded his head.

  The sisters sighed in unison.

  Aurora licked her lips. “Cylus, I think that we should return to our tower. The Praetor made something of a mess of things and I want to oversee the repairs.”

  “Repairs? Don’t you think there’ll be an investigation first? I mean, your living quarters are now a crime scene,” he responded.

  “Okay.” Hephestia looked haggard. “Maybe we’ll go and stay at the Hezxin.”

  “A hotel? Why? You’ve both have a place here in my tower,” he said.

  “We just need a change of scenery. This has all been a bit much,” Hephestia said.

  “I told you they don’t have the stomach for the real work of the Barony.” Sophi smirked.

  “You call this the real work? Murdering people without a trial?” Aurora snapped.

  “They are terrorists. They tried to kill you two, and they did it on Dorsky’s orders. Cy just saved your lives. How ungrateful can you be?” Sophi shouted.

  “It disgusts me that I ever gave birth to a creature like you. If I could, I’d go back in time and rip my own uterus out,” Aurora said.

  “You bitch!” Sophi snapped. Her pale eyes went wild and she leaped to her feet.

  Aurora stood up. “Are you going to do their work for them? Are you going to kill me? Go ahead. The future you and Cylus are making is not one I want to be a part of. This isn’t right, and it sure as hell isn’t justice. Cylus, it isn’t. I didn’t help you so you could do this. I’d rather be dead than do it again.”

  “That can be arranged!” Sophi shouted.

  “Can it, now?” Aurora cocked an eyebrow. “How like your father you are, except he’s not dumb enough to threaten my life in public.”

  That seemed to stop her. Sophi trembled, ground her teeth together, and sat down.

  “I spoke out of turn,” she mumbled. “I’m emotionally charged after this morning’s events.”

  “We all are. I didn’t mean for this… all of this… to happen. I’m sure you don’t mean what you said, Aurora.” Cylus sighed. How could she include him in her rebuke? Would she betray him, too? “Look, Starblood is arresting the other conspirators. She’ll bring them in alive and they’ll implicate Dorsky. We will have a trial just like you want.”

  “Like I want, Cy? You mean like justice demands,” Aurora said.

  “All citizens deserve fair treatment, Cylus,” Hephestia added.

  “Of course… Of course that’s what I meant. Like Sophi said, we’re all a bit worked up now.” He sighed, his insides threatened to boil over.

  “Master,” Ben said.

  “Yes?”

  “I have the identity of the driver, Master.”

  He turned to the hovering screen, grateful to retreat from Aurora’s gaze. “Put it up. Let’s see who it was.”

  “Master, you may wish to view this in private,” Ben said.

  “No, as might as well finish this here. Also, contact the Praetor. If they’re still alive in that car have them arrested. There’s been enough death today already.” With Biren dead he didn’t need the rest killed. Maybe his aunts would forgive him if he did what they desired.

  “As you wish, Master.”

  The screen blinked, showing a freeze-frame of the car as it turned on its side in mid-air to catch the falling Umbral agents. It was an impressive move and an amazing catch. If the driver hadn’t been one of his enemies, Cylus would have considered hiring him.

  The image zoomed in, focused, and zoomed in twice more. On the third focusing, the driver’s face came into view. She had curly blond hair, blue eyes, and—

  He stood up and the world felt like it fell away from him.

  “No.”

  “I’m afraid so, Master. That is Pasqualina Olivaar.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked, his gravel-laden voice cracking. “It can’t be. She’s in the Bazaar, or… No!”

  Silence clogged his ears.

  He felt a hand on his. He lo
oked down, noting its milky-pale skin, and followed it up the blue and white robe to Sophi’s face. She looked at him with kind eyes for the first time since he could remember and squeezed his hand.

  “I’m sorry, Cy. She chose her Gaians over you.” Sophi’s voice was barely above a whisper. “But it will be okay now. You have me.”

  The room spun, and the floor rushed up to meet him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ikuzlu City, Kosfanter

  J2400:3232

  Meia sat in the very broken and very uncomfortable seat of the rental hover truck with her eyes locked onto the van ahead of them. Iapetus’ weight made it ride low, but this was the only real option open to them if he was going to be with her for the mission. Its windowless walls hid him from prying eyes, and only someone looking very carefully through the windshield from the front had a chance of spotting him in the shadows between the seats.

  The target snaked through traffic, moving fast but not fast enough to catch the casual eye. Cargo vehicles and public transportation were relegated to ground-level in most cities, and the sight of such a vehicle was so ubiquitous that she was sure she wouldn’t have noticed the target’s behavior had she not been assigned to pursue and detain its occupants.

  “Whoever the driver is, niu is good,” she murmured as the truck dropped behind another vehicle, cut across the lane, and swerved into a right turn in one smooth motion.

  “It is a program,” Iapetus stated.

  “What?” She cocked her head to look at his translucent dome.

  “Analysis: The target’s position relative to the ground indicates only one 58-kilogram object occupies it. The amount of radio waves emitting from the target indicates heavy network traffic of the type expected for an individual hacking a complex system such as the electronic security of Intelligent Systems Incorporated. Conclusion: The target has a single occupant who is the hacker. Biological systems do not have the multitasking capacity to operate a vehicle in traffic and engage in such behavior. Conclusion: the pilot is a program.”

  She nodded and pulled up the dossiers the Praetor gave her before the mission. A window opened in her UI and the faces of Boadicea Euphrati, Aratiach’Ila’Anaeriae, and Sanul Mondu appeared. Disregarding the Luddite left either the Isinari or the Volgoth as the occupant of the target vehicle—So what were the other two doing? Were they on the mission in IntelSys Tower? The Praetor’s information indicated they would be in the truck.