SLAM (13 page)

She squints through the rain, torn between
action and inaction. She could put him down now, hard, but if he’s
got a team with him and someone radios off that there’re
telekinetics in town, the Institute will be on them in minutes. Her
mind runs through possibilities, even as she watches him, waiting
for a movement, hoping for something to change. It feels like
inertia has settled into her muscles, freezing her usually
lightning-quick reactions. Fear has its fist around her spine, and
she can’t force herself to move.

“What are you doing? All Citizens were cleared
from this area. Never mind. Put your hands up, you can answer some
questions at the Watchhouse.” His tone is firm, hands steady, and
now another soldier is blurrily visible through the rain behind
him.

Feeling Abial questing out with her power
shocks her into doing the same, and she wafts out mental feelers,
looking for information and preparing to attack or defend. She
knows the soldiers will have zaps. If they get shot from this
close, even with the vests, their insides will be minced.
Thankfully, her scan lets her know that there’re only the two of
them in immediate range. Not a full patrol. Either they’re catching
up or scouting ahead.

If she and Abial can take them
down simultaneously, they might not get a chance to warn the rest
of their pack. Then more information comes to her: The second man
doesn’t have any Talent worth mentioning, but Gav Belias, hero of
the City Watch, flinches slightly at her mental touch, implying
that
he
has some
reading ability, at least. He’s almost certainly not a telekinetic
– he wouldn’t be in the Watch if he was – but if he can read, even
at a low level, that might account for some of his brilliant
tactical decisions and incredible reaction speed. It’s not hard to
react fast when you know something is going to happen before it
does ...

She catches his intention to shoot and reacts
automatically; thrusting her hand out in a psionic attack at the
same moment he fires his zap. The energy blast from the gun smashes
into her surge of power. The noise crashes into her eardrums at the
same time the punch of the weapon hits her in the sternum, but her
telekinetic push outward, combined with the shock armour, do their
jobs.

She’s not knocked over, anyway, and there’s no
time to catalogue her injuries now.

She sends her power toward him and twists his
arm up before he realizes what’s happening, freezing his finger on
the trigger so he can’t fire again. Even if he doesn’t hit her, the
sound will bring others. Out of the corner of her eye she sees
Abial physically grappling with the second soldier, and in that
moment of distraction Gav Belias pulls a knife with his left
hand.

Idiot!
she screams at herself. Immobilization should have been her
first call, but she was flustered and winded, and only grabbed his
gun hand. Now he throws so fast that it looks like chain
lightening, the knife flying suddenly through the air, and she
can’t move quickly enough. She throws more power out, desperate,
but it’s too slow, and her telekinetic block misses the spinning
blade. Fire slices into her cheek as she surges forward,
Talent-slamming Gav against the wall behind him with the force of
fury, fear, and pain.

He crumples like a rag doll, and
she looks to Abial, frantic. She’s breathing too fast, on the verge
of hyperventilating, and can’t remember her training. What should
she do? Hot blood is streaming down her cheek; she can taste the
iron.
No, no, no. It can’t all go to shit
this fast.
She claps a hand to her face
and moves toward her partner, but Abial already has the man, now
unconscious, in her arms, dragging him to a smaller road. Shaken
and shaking, Serena half jogs back to the still form of Gav Belias
and slides terror-numb hands under his armpits.

She’s dragged him almost halfway
to the place Abial has chosen to stash the soldiers before she
looks down and sees the huge depression in the back of his skull.
Time slows.
Dead. I killed him. I didn’t
mean to, I just ... I just had to make him stop.
A small cry escapes her throat, and she runs the
rest of the way, using her telekinesis to take the man ... the body
with her. Abial hauls her into the alley and they wait, breathless,
for drawn-out minutes, Serena’s hand clasped against her face,
ignoring the pain from the large cut as she tries to stem the flow
of blood.

It feels like forever before Leaf
sidles up to them. When he arrives, they tie the unconscious man
up, and leave him and the body of Gav Belias, hero, on a handy low
roof, stoically hauling them up in silence. Serena determinedly
shoves down the choking feeling in her chest.
Jue is gonna kill me. Why’d I hit him so hard?
She has to stop thinking about it, has to
focus
.

Abial gently takes her chin, shaking her out
of the moment, as she inspects the knife wound. She sucks air
through her teeth and shrugs. “Well, it’s hard to tell how bad it
is in the rain, but you definitely need gluing. You’re bleeding
like crazy. Hold still and be quiet.”

The brutal tone is at odds with her light
touch, and Serena misses the contact when Abial removes her hand to
find the liquid sutures. The small tube is fiddly, and she can feel
warm blood puddling inside the neck of her body armour before Abial
gets the lid off. She tilts her head back, balling her hands into
fists. This is not her first time being stuck back together, but it
might be the worst. She can’t see, and it feels horribly like her
cheek’s been laid open to the bone, unnervingly close to her eye.
The glue burns like she’s being cut all over again in slow motion
as Abial fills the wound with it, pressing hard fingers around the
damaged flesh to ensure that it seals properly.

The fire only lasts for a few moments, though
Serena has nail marks in her palms by the time Abial nods,
satisfied that the bleeding has stopped.

Knee jerk reactions are gonna get
people killed. They told me. Kion was right. The Watch are mostly
good guys. Misled, sure, but ... not bad. And I killed
him.

Leaf shuffles awkwardly, avoiding their eyes.
“So, this’d be the way, if we’re still goin’?”

Serena glowers and pads her
fingers over the freshly sealed but still painful cut, much to
Abial’s clear disapproval. “Yeah, we’re still going. It’s just a
scratch.”
Nothing that’s gonna stop me
from finishing this mission.
She looks up
at the roof where they stowed Gav again.
His face was so slack and pale
...
But then she clenches her jaw.
Deal with
it later. Put it away.

“Time to go.” Without further ado, they lope
down an adjoining street, and Leaf pulls them to a halt before they
rejoin the main road.

“Looky.” He points upward at a towering
six-story building. “That’s the badger.”

Abial furrows her eyebrows in confusion.
“What’s a badger?”

Serena elbows her and jerks her chin at the
building. “First target, right? So this could be the place? Guess
we should figure out where the boys in black’ve gone. And get in
there. Run a sweep.”

Determinedly not dealing with the earlier
events, she puts the mission in her sights, her senses tingling
with the adrenaline pumping through her system. She’s ready to
move. To get it over with.

“Just out of interest, why do ya think yer
target’ll stay put instead’ve running like he’s been doin’? I mean,
if he’s even ‘ere,” Leaf inquires, scraping his hair off his face
with difficulty and plastering it firmly to one side.

Focus. The team needs your head in
the game.
She manages a half-grin and
lifts a shoulder. “Do we look like the bad guys? Look how cute we
are! Would he run from
us
?” She flutters her eyelashes at
him, placing her hand under her chin like a city girl mooning after
a handsome boy, and he snorts.

“Seems likely, especially with that blood all
over yer face. Ya reckon ya can find the next buildin’ if he’s not
‘ere, or shall I stick around?” He obviously doesn’t want to stay,
uncomfortable with the turn of events, and the idea of waiting
where the Watch could pick him up.

She rolls her eyes and shakes her
head slightly.
He’s done more than enough.
He’s not a security blanket. You’re a soldier, he’s not. Act like
it. Let him go.
“Nah, you bounce. We’ll
see you outside. You’ve done your bit. Now go sort out some
explosions. I’ll comm you when we’re clear. Good luck.” She’s
pleased that she sounds strong, not desperate for him to disagree
with her, to stay for just a little longer and help carry the
weight that seems to be crushing her.

Leaf smiles slowly – a broad smile that shows
his crooked teeth. “Nah, luck’s for suckers. I’ve got skills on my
side. Be seein’ yah.” And he disappears into the murk without
seeming to move.

Abial shivers. “See. Creeeeeepy. I wish I
could do that, though.”

Serena shrugs, puffing out a
lungful of air and wiping water off her forehead. In this rain,
it’s a losing battle, and the water is starting to drive her nuts.
It’s dulling her instincts.
I hope he
keeps his word. We’ll need a diversion if we hope to get
clear.

“Folks in the townships’d say he’s
touched. No one should move that sneaky.” Cracking her neck from
side to side, she adjusts the pack on her back and checks that she
can still reach her altered zap, without exposing it.
Not that that matters if anyone sees the gun, at
this point. I bet I look a sight.

“D’ya reckon zaps are waterproof?”
She carries on, speaking without waiting for a reply. “Right, so,
set to low, yeah? We don’t want a boom loud enough to put the Watch
on to us. Actually, we should probably keep them holstered, unless
we’re about to die, thinking about it. Stick to smashing people’s
heads against the walls?”
Just get on with
it.
She knows she’s talking too much –
more than necessary – but she can’t seem to stop
herself.

Abial smirks, her lip curling sardonically.
“Yeah, you’re good at that.”

It sounds like an accusation, and
Serena flinches at her tone, tugging her shirt straight and
bouncing in place for a moment to check her shoes. They squelch.
“So’re you. We’re a good team.”
We were a
good team. Maybe not any more.

To her surprise, Abial looks awkward, hunching
her shoulders like a child who’s been caught doing something
naughty. She pauses for a moment, and then nods. “Yeah. I guess we
are. Look. I’m sorry about your test. That wasn’t
scorch.”

Serena blinks, taken aback, then quirks her
mouth, reminded of her injury when it stings. “Nah, it wasn’t. You
can tell me why that went down after we do our job. I’m bored of
being wet. Let’s go.”

Besides,
I murdered a man today. There are bigger things on our plate
right now.
She almost doesn’t care about
what Abial did anymore; the reality of their mission has made her
feel like all the tests, cheating, and passing in the world don’t
matter a jot. She just wants to get in and find out what the
Institute’s after.
I hope it’s something
worth killing for.

Abial accepts the dismissal with a frown and
glances around, pulling out the datapad and running a program that
displays the blueprints of the building. “Six stories is a lot to
search. One at each side and work our way up?”

“’
S the best way to cover the
ground. Keep our powers in tight but use them to scan, I reckon.
The Watch isn’t here, anyway. They must have been headed somewhere
else.”
So this might well be a dead end.
Only one way to find out.

With a last glance at the building and each
other, they inch toward the main street. At least it’s dark, the
strip lighting on the roof edges only illuminating a small section
of rain; as long as they avoid them, they’ll be basically
invisible.

On Serena’s mental count of three, they waft
their powers out and sprint toward the waiting building.

The lashing rain drives into her eyes even
with her head lowered, and she relies on tendrils of power to
steady her feet and read her surroundings. She ducks into the niche
between the corner of the building and the next, glancing around to
make sure she’s drawn no attention to herself. On the opposite
side, she feels Abial do the same. With the ease of practice, they
link their Talents together, meshing their awareness in a way that
allows them to keep track of each other. Then they push that power
into the building. It only takes a few minutes for them to agree
that it seems empty, with no signs of movement. Of course, the
target could be shielded and sitting perfectly still, and therefore
come across as invisible.

It would be useful if powers could
be used to read heat
, Serena muses,
passing the thought to Abial, who sends a silent agreement back.
She makes a mental note to hand the thought over to one of the
geeks back at base.

Frustrated, they trot around the building, and
Abial checks her datapad for the next location. This journey is
just as hellish as the first, but only takes ten minutes. Then they
see two Watch patrols, the second of which is waiting outside the
next building on their hit list. There’s also an ElecCar with a
cadaverous teenage boy flanked by two granite-faced soldiers in the
centre of the group of Watch personnel.