Rift Breaker (17 page)

‘What's this?' Luylla pushed forward and tried to wriggle free. ‘We had a deal.'

‘But, Ms Bounty Hunter, you're a wanted felon. I can't let you run unchecked.'

‘You wouldn't sell out one of your own,' said Luylla.

‘It's nothing personal. I need to strengthen ties with the Composite somehow. Business is business. I trust you understand.'

Tazman decided his boyish charms wouldn't work here. Frustrated, he swung around and moaned, ‘Oh! Repercussions ahoy! For a so-called hunter you don't think much of yourself, do you? Why would you even think of dealing with the Tyde in
your situation? Not to mention your complete and utter lack of experience.'

‘I had no choice,' Luylla snapped.

‘There's always another way if you bother to look, safety girl.'

He continued to criticise loud and sarcastically, twisting and kicking, driving his point.

Luylla turned to Adel, ‘Please put us in separate cells.'

Tazman paused, his muscles tensed. Tail was ready. ‘I take offence!' He twisted and dropped, ejecting himself from the sentinel's grip. The mechanical hands reached out. Tazman threw his weight forward and rolled into a crouch at Adel's feet.

She huffed and her boot heels stepped aside. ‘Get him!' she screeched.

With his newfound freedom, Tazman opted to do what he did best, the first thing that came to mind. He sprang to the door, hooked his cuffs over the emergency release lever and leaned back with all his weight.

‘Nooo!' Adel howled.

The lever clicked down. Something snapped inside the wall. A reverberating creak sounded through the hollow. Tazman landed on tail. Luylla looked down at him wide-eyed. He gave a little wink. The door blew out. The cabin was overcome with an intense suction that devoured every piece of dust. Adel's hair blasted forward unfashionably. She backed to the entrance from which she came.

Tazman backed along the floor, pushing against the cargo
grooves. The sentinel advanced on him. He looked to Luylla and she returned the glance. When the sentinel passed her she heaved forward, stomping a boot into its side, sending it flying out into the night. At last she was on his side. The remaining sentinel pulled her back. She twisted with the aid of her stronger metal arm and wrestled for freedom.

Adel fidgeted with a moving part on the side of her rifle and swung her aim onto Tazman. He launched to his feet and slammed into her. She pulled the trigger. The diverted blast shattered one of the light sources and the weapon flipped from her hands. Tazman flicked back his foot and kicked the gun away. He crouched and pushed her up and back through the entrance. The crime lordess hit the carpeted floor of the next carriage.

Tazman smiled and bowed with all the fake chivalry he could muster. Behind Adel, three sentinels entered. They spread in formation and flung their arms forward. Tri-barrelled cannons folded out from the bulky limbs.

Tazman ducked back through the doorway and hit the control panel. The sentinels opened fire; burning plasma pelted the closing door. Once the door sealed, a spuckon passed before its mechanisms buzzed again to open.

Tazman spotted Adel's rifle and dived. He wedged the weapon between the groove of the door's panel and the frame of the doorway. The door hummed at a higher pitch, struggling against the piece of metal.

Meanwhile, the remaining sentinel hurled Luylla into the
wall. She scrambled to her knees and reached across the crates for her gun belt. She grasped the leather band and was picked up again. The machine gripped her by the leg and upper arm and forced her through the open hatch. She reeled back through the frame and clutched its sides, paralysed by the cold vacuum. The sentinel's right arm flipped closed, and its tri-barrel raised level to her face.

Tazman slammed into the machine, knocking it off-centre. The wrist weapon fired off target, flashing past Luylla's head. The sentinel twisted to face Tazman. He backed away in an attempt to lure it. The sentinel's left arm extended from its wrist socket, snatching hold of his handcuffs.

Tail frenzied. Tazman pulled back. His feet slipped. The machine arm retracted, dragging him. He scrambled to his feet and slammed a foot on the sentinel's chest, pulling back with all his might. The machine's grip loosened and Tazman kicked off the chest plate, freeing himself and stumbling straight towards the magtrain exit. He fell into Luylla. She lost her grip.

He was halfway out when tail brushed against something. Instinctively, it wound on the object: the sentinel's ankle. Luylla snatched Tazman's leg. Their combined weight threw the machine off its feet and dragged it out with them. The plummet's delay provided enough time for Tazman to hook his elbows over the train's stability spoiler. The sentinel fell past; tail loosened and the machine was gone. Bright flashes of firepower exploded from its weapon as it spun uncontrollably into the city below.

Luylla's grip slipped down Tazman's ankle. He held her wrist in his opposable toes and hugged the spoiler tight. He could hear the sound of a beam laser above, coupled with the stench of heated metal.

‘Luylla, I think they're trying to cut through,' he yelled. ‘Take out the carriage link.'

‘Hold this!' she screamed back.

Luylla thrust her flapping gun belt into his other foot. She unsnapped the clasp and drew her pistol. Through the turbulence, he could make her out below. Swaying in the breeze, she took aim and pulled the trigger. The shot went way off target.

‘We're gunna die,' said Tazman.

‘Shut up,' she yelled.

She steadied her arm and fired blast after blast of heated energy, fighting recoil and wind. The shots riddled the carriage joints; chunks of metal chipped away in molten slag droplets. The link broke with a clang, and the metal whipped away. The skyway carriage separated and lagged behind the rest of the magtrain.

Luylla retrieved her gun belt and climbed up Tazman's stiff form, pulling herself inside the carriage.

‘Some help, please,' Tazman yelled.

She poked her head out.

‘Come on, I'm handcuffed,' he pleaded.

The chilled metal grip of her merciful hand hoisted him though the opening. Once in, he face-planted on the floor.

‘We have to get off this rig,' he said, picking himself up. ‘We're
going too fast to stop before the next platform. They'll be waiting for us down the line.'

Luylla fastened the buckle of her holster. ‘I can call the
Inhibitan
,' she said, raising her left wrist.

‘There's no time,' said Tazman.

‘Well what do you propose, jumping?' she yelled.

Tazman pushed onto his feet. ‘Calm down, will you? Uncuff me and I'll show you.'

She hesitated.

‘Come on, come on. We're on a schedule.' He walked towards her.

Sighing angrily, she pulled the key off her belt and scanned it over his restraints. They dropped to the floor.

With his tail whipping excitedly, he crossed the carriage and unwedged Adel's rifle.

‘That's not enough firepower to take them all,' Luylla argued.

He raised his finger to silence her. ‘In times like these, you need a bit of lateral thinking,' he said. He pressed the butt to the control panel and stood in the doorway. The emerging crosswind blasted his shaggy hair.

Tazman squinted and leaned out to examine the position of the surrounding buildings. The track curved to the right. He sank to one knee and cocked the rifle. While it heated he activated the zoom screen; it flipped up and lit with a grainy resolution. He pressed on the control buttons to zero in on his target.

The wind shook his view. With a steady hand he aligned the
on-screen crosshairs and pulled the trigger. The shot ejected. Way ahead, a bright yellow sphere fell from the gravi-track and blinked out. The rest of the nodes turned red.

‘Are you crazy?' yelled Luylla.

‘Don't even get me started on that debate,' he replied, still concentrating.

He fired again, dropping node after node before they had a chance to adjust themselves. He looked up at his handiwork. ‘That should do it.' He stood and placed the rifle in her hands.

‘Hold on to something,' he added, closing the exit door.

The skyway carriage hit the gap in the line and dropped. Tazman, Luylla and the cargo crates floated for three and a half spuckons before crashing onto the floor. Adhering to Tazman's calculations, the carriage slammed onto a rooftop traffic park. It scraped across the building and ploughed through a line of parked hover vehicles, sending them flipping in different directions, spraying a hail of glass and metal. The skyway carriage skidded horizontal and screeched to a halt.

Tazman stayed for a moment, happy with the position. He smiled up at Luylla who just happened to land on top of him. He sniffed at the curve of her neck. Fruity. The hard parts of her armour dug into him. The little he could feel of her flesh was firm and bouncy. ‘Well, hello there,' he said, deepening his voice. She scrunched her face and pushed off him, straightening her hair tie as she stormed outside.

Tazman slowly rolled to his feet and stumbled to the door.
Luylla stood across the rooftop with her back to him. He straightened his back and marched over. She studied a small screen that had flipped up from her fake arm, and fingered the adjacent controls.

‘Do I get a thank you?'

‘Shut up. I need to concentrate,' she snapped, keeping her head down.

‘I demand you thank me now.'

She turned. ‘Look what you did!' she said, waving at the magtrain wreck.

‘Me? You're blaming me?'

‘I had it under control before you screwed it up.' She pushed her index finger hard into his shoulder. ‘That was my only chance to get the Composite off my back.'

‘What are you talking about?' yelled Tazman. One of the hover vehicles near the wreck exploded into orange and purple flames. They both flinched. An invisible cloud of hot air wafted over them. Smoking debris rained down.

‘She had evidence that could clear my name, something about the Nova Corp ship.'

‘The
Reconotyre
?' he shouted. ‘If a Tyde pirate vessel found the wreckage … well the recovered intelligence could clear
all
our names. What else did she say?'

‘She said she had it stowed away at a nearby stronghold.'

‘Mayogen Tower!' Tazman cried.

‘What?'

‘It's a building in the business district, the major Tyde stronghold in these parts. That's where they store all the data, Luylla!'

‘How do you know?'

‘I used to work there.'

She turned back to her arm. Tazman looked at the display over her shoulder. The small point of view zoomed through a line of traffic. The markings on the display indicated a semi-autopilot sequence for the
Inhibitan
.

‘Then I'm going in there to get it,' she replied.

‘There's no way you'll survive,' said Tazman.

‘I'll manage.'

‘No you won't. You don't even know where the information is held. That building has a state-of-the-art defence grid.'

‘Thanks for the tip.'

‘I'm coming with you. Without me you're lost.'

She broke her gaze from the screen and looked him in the eye. She was trying to stare him down. Unfortunately for her, Tazman was experienced with this kind of stubbornness. He held his ground and returned the stiff gaze. Another vehicle exploded; neither of them blinked. Orange flames fed along spilt oil trails, lighting her face. She broke the silence.

‘Don't get in my way.'

Voids away, Milton was dead — or having an out of body experience at least. He looked down on his body. It was face-down on a padded operating table. Moments ago Reelai had applied a mask to Milton's face. The gas had tasted minty and had knocked him clean from his body. Was he dead? His body rose and fell with his breath. A glance at the life support display indicated everything was satisfactory and going to plan.

Over him an elaborate set of polished silver equipment hung from the ceiling. With an unbreakable concentration, a Xoeloid scientist positioned the rig carefully over the back of Milton's head where a small bald patch had been made. A thin drill extended from the device and whirred into a spin. Milton watched anxiously. The drill inched closer. His skin was pierced. Blood oozed out and dripped down his neck. His head gave resistance so the scientist applied more pressure. The drill cleared his skull and thrust into his brain. Everything went black.

His vision came back. As to how much time had passed Milton had no idea. He was not even sure if he was conscious. His body was encased in a cell. Not like a prison cell, but the kind of microscopic cell found in a living thing. The blobby wall rippled under his fingertips. A shadow brushed past on the other side. Without seeing, Milton already sensed who was there. He made a fist and pushed into the wall. It stretched out. The black eyes flashed in his head. He gasped. The wall spontaneously flexed against him and thrust his hand out, leaving indented grooves of his fingers. He looked up and around. The eyes were gone.