Landfall (The Reach, Book 2) (20 page)

“I said put the gun down,” Zoe said quietly.  “I won’t say it again.”

“Duran?” the man said, ignoring her.  He seemed nonplussed.

Duran took a step forward.  “Sergeant Tunks?  What’s going on?”

Tunks stood edgy and wild-eyed, his gaze flicking from Zoe to the man on the floor and back to Duran again.  He licked his lips and pulled the crying child closer against him.  In his right hand was a gun, and now he rested its muzzle against the boy’s chest, making his intentions clear.

In all of the times Duran had worked with Tunks, he’d never seen him act like this, not even during the most harrowing moments on the job.  Not even during the Deimona takedown
, when the whole thing went to hell.

He seemed spooked, crazed.  Unhinged.

“I uh… I tracked down a felon,” Tunks said, his voice unconvincing.  He pointed to the man on the floor.  “This guy right here.”

“Who is he?” Duran said.  “What did he do?”

“Bad shit, man.”  He glanced at Zoe.  “Who the hell is this?  What’s she doing here?”

Duran ignored him.  “Where’s your partner, Sergeant?  If this is a takedown, where’s the rest of your team?”

Tunks shook his head slightly, that crazy look in his eyes undiminished.

“Nah, it’s just me.  Going it alone.”  He licked his lips again.  “Thank… thank god you came by when you did, buddy.”

Zoe cocked the hammer on the .38 and brought it up at Tunks.

“Hey, stop that bitch!” Tunks wailed, taking a step backward.  “Duran, don’t just stand there, man!  She’s pointing a gun at an Enforcer.”

“You better start talking, Tunks,” Duran said.  “Tell me what’s going on.”

Tunks took another step back, then abruptly bolted through a doorway that led to the back of the apartment, leaving his hostage to sprawl on the tiled kitchen floor.  Zoe responded instantly, bounding over the man lying on the floor and charging toward the door in pursuit.

“Help, please help!” the woman on the sofa screamed.  “My husband!”

Zoe stopped and turned to look at her, then down at the man on the floor, evidently torn between chasing Tunks and trying to save the bleeding man’s life.  Duran stepped forward and knelt at the man’s side, feeling for a pulse at his neck, and a moment later Zoe was by his side.

“We need to get pressure on the wounds,” she said.  One of the children shuffled forward, bawling, and Zoe gently pushed him back.  “Please keep the children away,” she told the woman on the sofa.

“Pulse is incredibly weak,” Duran noted.  “Entry wound in the chest and one in the neck.”  He glanced over his shoulder at the woman.  “A lot of blood loss.  Get some towels!” he practically shouted.

The woman hustled over to a cupboard and brought back a stack of white bath towels.  Zoe placed her hands on the man’s chest wound and began to apply pressure, but the blood seeped through her fingers and continued to pool on the floor.

“What did he want?” Duran said as he shook out the first towel and pressed it against the man’s neck.  “Tunks.  What was he here for?”

“I don’t know,” the woman sobbed.  “That piece of crap
hong-eh
came here every month and forced Jonnie to give him creds.  I don’t know why.”

Zoe glanced at Duran.  “Shakedown,” she said.

Duran nodded.  “Yeah.”  Looking back at the woman, he said, “Call the Infirmary.”

The woman regarded him helplessly.  “They won’t come here.  We don’t have the creds.  Jonnie lost his job–”

“Just do it.”

The woman stepped away and did as she was told, taking a holophone from the table and making the call.  She spoke briefly to someone on the other end as Duran and Zoe attempted to stop the bleeding, then returned and sat on the sofa, shaking, the children cradled in her arms.  Zoe and Duran crouched over the man for a minute or two longer before Zoe eased back, a defeated look on her face.

“We lost him.”

“No,” the woman wailed, dropping down beside her husband.  “No-no-no…”  She circled her arms around his head and lowered her face to his, sobbing.  “Jonnie!”

Zoe watched the woman helplessly for a moment, then her expression hardened and she reached out and gripped Duran by the collar, hauling him to his feet and pushing him away.

“Are you happy now?” she snarled.

Duran was taken aback.  “What?”

“This man’s blood is on your hands, Alec.”

He took a step back, surprised by her ferocity.

“What the hell are you talking about, Zoe?”

She followed him, a look of fury on her face.  “This is your fault.  If you hadn’t tried to stop me, if you hadn’t delayed me, this could have all been prevented.  I would have made it here in time to stop him.”

“You don’t know that.”

“An innocent man is dead because of you.”

“That’s bullshit–”

She shoved him angrily in the chest.  “How many more of these assholes are you going to let walk away, Alec?  How many more like Tunks?”

“I didn’t let anyone walk–”

“How many more like Knile Oberend?”

Duran’s jaw dropped and he looked at her, speechless.

“Yeah, I know about him, too,” Zoe said.  “Saw the video feed with my own eyes while you were out to it.  You had him dead to rights and you let him walk away.  Another scumbag set free.”  She smiled without mirth.  “Good for you.”

Duran tried to respond, but couldn’t find the words to refute what she was saying.  He thought of Knile falling through the Stormgates as the bullets from Duran’s pistol had dropped harmlessly to the ground, how Knile had made it through to the other side and escaped the Reach.

A horrible thought occurred to him.

She’s right.  She’d dead on.  Knile would be dead and buried right now instead of enjoying the good life off-world if only I’d had the courage to follow through on my convictions.

Zoe shook her head in disgust, then attempted to shove him in the chest again.  He caught her hand before it reached him.

“All right!”  He held her wrist tight and glared back at her.  “All right.  Stop.  I’ll go with you.”

She scowled.  “Huh?”

He released her wrist.  “I’ll go with you.  I’ll do what you want.”

Zoe’s fury seemed to melt away as quickly as it had arrived.

“Do you mean that?” she said.

“Yeah, I mean it.”  He sighed.  “Take me back to the hideout.”

20

Talia checked the time on her holophone once more and then stepped out into the sunlight that fell across the crowded street.

Ahead, the Reach loomed vast and ominous in the orange glare of the afternoon sun.

You made it
, she thought. 
Somehow you got here.

It hadn’t been easy.  Crumb and his men had been prowling around through the night and the morning as well, sniffing at her trail like hungry dogs.  She’d seen them several times but managed to stay one step ahead of them on each occasion.  Her knowledge of the streets had undoubtedly been the main contributor to keeping her
self
out of their grasp.  Through her younger years she had been involved in many games of cat and mouse throughout the city, and she had developed some good instincts around avoiding capture.  Usually the pursuers had been Enforcers, which was a somewhat different proposition to Crumb and company, but the rudiments of the game were still the same.

The problem was, these guys were not giving up.  They were relentless, and no matter how much caution Talia used, no matter how well she planned out her movements, the time would soon come when she made a mistake.  She would either slip up or her luck would run out.  It was simple probability.

But now she only needed her good fortune to hold for another fifteen minutes or so, long enough for her to arrive at the safety of the Reach.

Glancing up and down the street and finding no sign of her pursuers, she got moving.

She figured that her destination probably had a lot to do with her ability to stay ahead of Crumb.  The Reach would not necessarily be the first place they would have expected her to go.  Given their false impression that she was Giroux’s whore, they probably would have considered Grove to be a more likely target in which she would seek sanctuary.  Even now as she moved further away from the white domes of Grove, they were
perhaps expecting her to double back at some point.

Once she was inside the gates of the Reach, back with Knile and Roman, she hoped this ordeal would be over.  More than that, she
needed
it to be over.  She was exhausted and her limbs ached, and she wasn’t sure how much more running was left in her.  She’d caught a few moments of restless sleep in one of her hiding places during the night, but it hadn’t been nearly enough.

She continued to scan the faces of those who approached her, those headed away from the Reach as they departed for the day, but to her tired eyes they were now beginning to look like one big blur.  She reached behind her, where the revolver was tucked into her belt, and traced a finger along the stock through her blouse.

She hoped like hell she wouldn’t have to use that thing.

There was a sudden ringing noise and she was instantly alert again.  She snatched the holophone out of her pocket.

“Talia?”

Knile waited breathlessly for an answer.  On the other end of the line he could hear shuffling footsteps, a rustling sound and the chatter of voices, but no Talia.

There was a close, breathy noise, then finally she spoke.

“I’m here.  Sorry.  Fingers aren’t working right at the moment.  Almost dropped the damn phone.”

“You okay?” Knile said.

“Yeah.  Just feeling the pinch.  I’ll make it.”

“Are those bastards still on your tail?”

“Last I checked, yeah.  How are things at your end?”

“We’re fine.  Roman and I are on the ground floor right now.”  He glanced across to where Roman stood in
a white hazmat suit with a full-
face gas mask covering his head.  His face was unrecognisable beneath it.

“Are you ready for me?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be.  I came up with a plan.”

“Oh god.  Why do I get nervous every time I hear you say something like that?”

“Trust me.  This is bulletproof.”

“Yeah?  So hit me with your genius.  How’s it going down?”

“Roman and I will be wearing hazmat suits.  You should be able to spot us pretty easy.  Look for the puffy white guys.”

“Right.  That won’t attract attention at all.”

“Let them look.  I don’t think anyone’s going to stop us with the load we’re carrying.”

“Shit.  This is sounding worse by the minute.”

“Have faith, Talia,” Knile said, shooting a grin at Roman.  “Now, you need to head toward Gate Twelve.  That’s important.  That’s where we’ll be.”

“Gate Twelve, got it.”

“We’ve found ourselves a few radioactive waste barrels that they use over in the reactor,” Knile said, slapping one of four bright yellow containers they had mounted on a cart.  “We’ll wheel those over to Gate Twelve–”

“What the hell, Knile!  You’re not endangering anyone, are you?”

“Relax, there’s nothing but water inside.”

“Okay.  Good.”

“So we’re going to wheel these suckers over to Gate Twelve on the pretence of taking them outside.  Listen carefully to this part, Talia,” he said pointedly.  “When you see us talking to the Enforcers, you have to be close.  Be ready to move.”

“What are you going to do?”

“The Enforcers will have to reconfigure the gate to make it wide enough for us to get through.  While they’re doing that, Roman and I will create a diversion – say, pretending to almost spill one of the barrels, and that’s when you come through.  You understand that you’ll have to force your way to the front of the line when this happens?”