"So, It's going to be the neural rifle, huh? "Coeur asked, standing up to the machine and resisting her powerful inner urge to beg for mercy. "All right. Get on with it."

  The nightjack didn't quite get the chance to fire, however. Even as Coeur closed her eyes, anticipating the numbing shock of the neural rifle scrambling her brain waves, a howl like 100 thunderclaps filled the corridor, and the nightjack fell a flaming ruin to the deck.

  'Okay, Red, "a familiar voice said, "you can open your eyes now."

  "Zorn? "Coeur asked, squinting open her eyes.

  "In the flesh, "Zorn confirmed, advancing down the corridor between the armored forms of Red Eye and Widget, whose smoking fusion guns had presumably done in the hapless slayer of their First Sergeant Gaffer—a fact they did not yet know.

  "Look after Physic, "Coeur gasped, letting herself slump exhaustedly to the deck. "She's in Stateroom 3."

  "Roger, "the Marines said, peeling off from Zorn to force the doctor's door with their enhanced strength. Zorn meanwhile, continued on to Coeur and ottered a hand to help her up.

  "Is Gaffer here? "Zorn asked, helping Coeur back to her feet.

  'No, he didn't make it."

  'Oh hell."

  "Yeah. He died fighting, though."

  "I'd have guessed that, "Zorn said. "But anyway, I think we'd better go quick before more of those nightjacks show up. We toasted another one outside, but there's more in the area."

  'Understood, "Coeur said, giving the puzzled Physic her arm for support when the physician was released from her stateroom.

  "Hey, Zorn, "Physic said, "you come to our rescue?"

  "Sure did, "Zorn replied, leading the way forward behind the Marines.

  "Let me guess, "Coeur ventured. "You traced the meson communicator?"

  "Affirmative. I nearly forgot that I had that communicator, though—It's been a while since I was desperate enough to use it."

  "Gaia, Zorn, "Coeur said, "you'll be the death of me yet"

  "No, I already tried that, "Zorn said, leading them back toward the engine room, "when I dropped those atom bombs on you at Ra."

  "Yeah, "Coeur managed to quip, "and I thought I was in trouble then. You all right. Physic?"

  "Hanging in there, "the doctor said, limping along as best she could. At the engine room bulkhead, however, she needed Zorn and Coeur's help to step through, and this gave Coeur an unexpected moment to fix her gaze on the strange, sad form of Graylord, lying rigidly in a corner of the engine room like an overturned statue.

  Or, perhaps more accurately, like a discarded tool.

  ***

  Since Virus had essentially destroyed all of civilization at the end of the Final War, when it was released as the ultimate Black War weapon, citizens of the blasted Wilds could not be faulted for a less than clinical detachment when regarding their ancient foe. Virus had mutated from early Suicidal strains into a profusion of more stable forms—Empire Builders that networked vast fleets of infected ships together, God strains that ruled their human subjects through fear. Mother strains that assisted their human dependents with compassion, and even Hobbyists, whose minds fixated on self-absorbing obsessions. That, nonetheless, was incidental to the overwhelming belief about Virus—lhat it was evil and must be extinguished.

  Consistent with this belief, Zorn's first consideration after rescuing Coeur and Zorn was getting the bodies of Graylord and Yunque out of her ship and onto the floor of the berth, where the Marines could bum them down safely.

  "Wait, "Coeur said, after her Marines had dragged the bodies outside, "we don't have time for that. We've got to get going, remember?"

  "But they're infected with Virus, "Zorn said. "I don't want them intact near my ship."

  "Vega, "Coeur said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder, "they've already been in contact with your ship for a week Let it go."

  Grudgingly, Zorn accepted Coeur's reasoning and settled for heaving the robots into a trash bin with a steel bar through its lock hasp. Zorn, Coeur, Physic and the Marines then retreated to the hovering G-carrier waiting in a nearby alley.

  Notably, Zorn's rescue mission was staffed almost exclusively by Marines—with Whiz Bang and Bonzo flying the G-carrier, and Red Eye and Widget on the ground with energy rifles and tac missile launchers. Just as Coeur would prefer, Zorn kept the party restricted to ground combat specialists.

  "So, where to, boss? "Bonzo asked Coeur.

  "We've set up a camp in the new rebel base, "Zorn told Coeur. "We figured we'd go back there and wait for word from Drop Kick."

  "Drop Kick?"

  "He went off with Mercy to take out your meson gun sensor."

  "Oh."

  "That is what you wanted, wasn't it?"

  "Yes, "Coeur said, helping Physic into a seat near the front of the vehicle. "I Just didn't know he’d be so quick about it."

  "He should have gotten there a few minutes ago, "Widget said, flipping up her visor as she sat down, "assuming nothing happened on the way."

  That could be a big assumption, Coeur knew. More so even than her mates, the remnant knew the power of heavy meson artillery.

  "The rebel base sounds good, "Coeur said to Bonzo. "Whiz Bang, shoot any nightjacks you see."

  "Amen to that, "the beefy gunner said, as Bonzo lifted them back into the air.

  No sooner had the G-carrier cleared the surrounding buildings, though, than Coeur saw the evidence of a city in chaos. Though dusk was falling, and Radio Soledad suggested crowds would be forming for a rally before the Defense Ministry, only a Soledad army patrol now stood before the building on Enea Avenue, strangely ant-like below a massive poster of St. Kilalt hanging down from the side of the Defense Ministry—Its lower edges singed with burns from Molotov cocktails whose glass bottles lay shattered in the street.

  "We've been a little out of touch, "Coeur said, catching these details through PRIS binoculars as the Corner swung around in that direction. "It doesn't look like St. Kilalt is as popular as I thought”

  "Well he was popular, "Zorn said, "but that wore off pretty quickly. See that smoke off to the north? That's where the 1st Brigade is fighting with the Marina militia. And over there to the east—that's smoke from an apartment block the nightjacks gutted."

  "Good Gaia, "Physic said, frustrated by her inability to get a good view from her seat. "Kilalt sounds worse than Brak!"

  "Lemos thinks he is, "Zorn said. "According to his people in this district, Kilalt's even put Vazquez under house arrest in the Church of the Holy Sacristy, he's so paranoid about opposition."

  "What a loon, "Whiz Bang said, staring through his gun sight"How did he ever get to be a saint?"

  That, of course, was the ultimate unanswerable question, but Coeur had a theory. The Church of Grace and Light had once been a gigantic bureaucracy, a fact given witness by the ruins of gigantic churches and the hierarchical order that survived even the Collapse in the form of Cardinal Vazquez and her priests. Before the Collapse, therefore, the CCL must have needed purely administrative officials—lawyers, accountants and such—with only a tangential relationship to the prime mission of the church. Kilalt. Coeur believed, was almost certainly such a man—an administrator who saw the writing on the wall when civilization began to crumble and arranged to set himself up as a god in the aftermath.

  It's just too bad. Coeur thought, that be didn't know about the Virus. Now the man who pulled the strings is probably having his strings pulled by that depot computer.

  But what does the depot computer wont?

  "Bonzo, "Coeur said suddenly, "belay that earlier order. Change course to the Church of the Holy Sacristy."

  "What? "Zorn asked. "Why?"

  Bonzo, too, was curious about this change of orders, though he executed the course change crisply.

  "Because I've got a hunch, "Coeur said, "that there's one more person we need to rescue in Soledad: Cardinal Vazquez."

  ***

  As Zorn observed, "house arrest" didn't necessarily mean Vazquez would be under guard, but when the G-carrier arrived at the Church of the Holy Sacristy, it found the guard to be fairly heavy. A demonic nightjack and two squads of Soledad troopers aboard jeeps with a pair of heavy machineguns blocked the front entrance to the church.

  "Blow'em away, "Coeur said. "We don't have time to be subtle."

  "That's my skipper, "Whiz Bang boasted, drawing deadly aim on the nightjack from 200 meters and spearing it with a lance of plasma fire. Agile as it might be at evading hand-held weapons, the nightjack was not so agile that it could elude a stabilized gun in the hands of a crack shot. It was flung back against the bolted church door by the force of fire that incinerated its torso brain cavity. The soldiers prudently fled a moment later, under strong motivation from the Corner's coaxial machinegun.

  The field having thus been cleared, the G-carrier swung around in front of the church and planted its rear hatch before the locked doors of the structure.

  "Easy with that front door, "Coeur advised Red Eye and Widget as they piled out the back of the vehicle. "We don't want to damage the church."

  "No problem, "the gunnery sergeant replied, putting a slug from his gauss rifle through the padlock securing chains to the front door handles. Rendered as ineffective as the nightjack sprawled out on the front steps, the lock then came free with a tug from Widget, and both Marines hauled the chains out from the door handles preparatory to flinging the doors open. This they accomplished gingerly—each taking one of the double door's handles and standing back behind the cover of the building lest anyone inside should open up with a heavy weapon when the doors were opened.

  "We surrender! "however, was the cry from inside, when the doors were flung open. Both Cardinal Vazquez and Brother Anthony, the Marines saw, were standing just inside the doorway with their hands up.

  "Vazquez, get in here! "Coeur yelled, standing up from the G-carrier chair she'd been using for cover.

  "We're coming, "the cardinal said, hurrying out of the church beside her subordinate, both of whom were still keeping their hands up.

  "All right, Vazquez, "Coeur said, "you can put your hands down. We didn't come to take you Prisoner."

  "Oh, "Vazquez said, putting her hands down.

  "We weren't sure if you knew about the house arrest order, "Anthony explained. "We thought you might have come with General Lemos to kill us."

  "Yeah, we're with General Lemos, "Zorn said, "but we didn't come to kill you. Any more of your people inside?"

  "No, "Vazquez said. "Just Brother Anthony and me."

  "Sir, "Bonzo said, turning around in the pilot's chair, "I've got several targets closing fast from the south."

  "Get us out of here, then, "Coeur yelled forward, helping Zorn close the rear door as the Marines jumped back aboard. "Whiz Bang, shoot anything suspicious."

  "Yes, sir!"

  That, Coeur realized belatedly, was probably too much license for the gun-happy corporal, but it was better to be safe than dead Momentarily, the street outside echoed with the report of the C carrier's machinegun as the vehicle rocketed back into the air.

  "Clearly, you've exposed yourself to some danger coming here, "Vazquez said, when Coeur came to sit beside her and Anthony. "Why did you do it?"

  "Like I told Zorn, "Coeur said, glancing forward at the pirate, who had deftly slipped past Bonzo to take over the controls, "a hunch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you and St. Kilalt haven't been getting along very well, have you?"

  At the magnitude of this understatement, Anthony let out an inadvertent snort.

  "No, "Vazquez said, "we haven't. Rather too late I have come to see that he is a Tormentor, a devil in the guise of a holy prophet."

  "Right, "Coeur said. "Well, Physic and I have had a little of his hospitality ourselves. How would you like to help us fight him?"

  Vazquez smiled. "If only I could. I would goon Radio Soledad to rally the people against Kilalt, but I'm afraid they'd never let me into the Defense Ministry."

  That. Coeur knew, was almost a sure bet. The paranoid Kilalt had surely filled his center of power with loyal troops and nightjacks.

  "Granted. But Radio Soledad doesn't have the most powerful transmitter in this city. We do."

  "You don't mean... you'd let me use your radio?"

  "I sure will. Of course, it's actually Zorn's radio—aboard her ship's boat—but I'm sure she wouldn't mind using it to blow Radio Soledad off the air—would you, Zorn?"

  "Nope, "Zorn called back from the pilot's chair, "sure wouldn't"

  "All right, "Vazquez said, putting her hand on Coeur's, "I'll do it"

  "Good."

  A close shock rocked the G-carrier a moment later, though, temporarily dimming the cabin lights to the level of the darkness outside.

  "Excuse me a moment, "Coeur said to Vazquez, rising to head forward.

  "Trouble? "she asked Zorn.

  "A little, "Zorn said. "Two choppers and a nightjack on our butt like a D1 on a raw recruit."

  "Can't you get them with the plasma gun? "Coeur asked.

  "Not yet. "Whiz Bang said, firing as quickly as he could, but hampered by the plasma gun’s five-second purge cycle.

  "No problem, "Zorn said. "We've got a little surprise in store for them."

  "What? "Coeur asked.

  "Look, "Zorn said, pointing at the 0-carrier's forward-looking EMS display. There, dead ahead of the low-flying vehicle, was a fast-approaching highway overpass, an overpass that appeared unoccupied until four individuals with shoulder-fired SAM launchers stood up in unison behind its concrete side wall.

  Luckily, their target was not the G-carrier. That they let pass, and fired instead on the pursuing forces from Soledad. Caught quite by surprise, helicopters and robot alike plowed headlong into the warheads coming in their direction—warheads that exploded with flowering brightness on the Carrier's aft EMS scan and sent the crippled pursuers tumbling in flames to the rubbled streets of Senega District.

  "Nice assist, "Zorn said through her radio headset to the rebels on the overpass.

  "Any time, "they called back.

  "You planned that? "Coeur asked.

  "Sure did, "Zorn said, with ill-concealed pride. "Almost as sharp as you people in the Arses, ain't I?"

  "Yeah, "Coeur said, patting Zorn on her shoulder. "Almost."

  Chapter Twnety-One

  "Time to target? "Drop Kick asked.

  "Target in five, "Mercy answered.

  "Contacts?"

  "No contacts, sergeant major. Approach track is clear."

  Approach track is clear, Drop Kick thought suddenly, gazing through the sight of his fusion gun at images of nighttime terrain—jagged rocks and granite cliff sides—racing past below and beside them. Clear, except for a battery of deep sites waiting to punch our ticket....

  How big the deep-site meson guns really were, of course, Drop Kick couldn't know, although he knew enough about relic models to guess at their size and firepower. They would be huge, for one thing—100 meters long at least—and powerful to boot, probably drawing enough power collectively to operate the whole RC fleet. But what was more, they would be hidden— buried so deep in the earth that no sensor could see them, and no weapon—save another meson gun—could answer their devastating fire.

  And Drop Kick didn't have another meson gun.

  just a tank, and one good shot at the meson gun's sensors.

  'Target in two, "Mercy said curtly, "steering 285."

  "Roger, "Drop Kick replied. 'Engaging fire control sensors."

  Think I'm too close? "Mercy asked a moment later, when collision sensors flashed at a close brush with rock just below the hull.

  "Negative, "Drop Kick said, "keep us as low as you can. Those sensors can't even have a peek at us or we're toast."

  "Understood. Target in one."

  Still taking covering behind the adjoining mountains, the intrepid couldn't see its ultimate objective—the EMS sensors atop Mt. Altus Drop Kick, therefore, had no idea what precisely would await him at the end of one minute, when Mercy would come to the end of her attack run and execute a one-chance pop-up maneuver. The best Hornet's survey data could reveal was the presence of three sensor domes atop the mountain, but the image was of low resolution and gave no hint of entrenched defenses.

  And if those entrenched defenses fired back—if they spoiled Drop Kick's aim and let even one sensor dome remain intact—the intrepid was dead.

  Stop it, Drop Kick ordered himself. Stop thinking like that. You're in on intrepid, for God’s sake—screw entrenched defenses.

  Yet Drop Kick could not escape the obvious in his thoughts— even without its sensors, a deep-site gun wouldn't need a bull's-eye to knock them out.

  "Time, "Drop Kick said.

  "Forty seconds."

  "Mercy, "Drop Kick said, "new orders. If I miss with any of my shots, you're to begin evasive maneuvers and bug out immediately."

  "You sure about that, sir? "Mercy asked, keeping her eye on her sensors as they closed rapidly on the pop-up point"You sure you wouldn't want me to drop down and come around the mountain for another pass?"

  "Negative, "Drop Kick said. "The blast radius of those guns will be too big—they won't even need to come close to get us if we stay in the area."

  "Then you'll only get one shot. "'

  "That's affirmative, corporal."

  Mercy had no time for a rejoinder, for the end of the attack run had come.

  "Slowing forward acceleration, "she said, gritting her teeth, "and popping up."

  And suddenly, there it was—Mt. Altus. Emerging from behind the shelf of rock that had been the grav tank's cover, three sensor domes—camouflaged to match the snow and ice of the peak— stood a lonely sentinel against the dark and cloudy sky not 500 meters from the end of Drop Kick's fusion gun barrel.

  Company came an instant later in the form of three howling discharges from the 12S Mj gun. One—two—three, the sensors peeled open and exploded under the force of the fusion bolt impacts.

  "Got him! "Drop Kick exclaimed. "Let's get the fikk outta here!"

  "You got that right, "Mercy said, dropping the intrepid back behind its protective shelf of rock and then powering up her HEPIaR thrust to dive screaming into the nearest gorge below.

 

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