I reset my armor and picked up the shorter guy. Carried him toward the destroyed door.
The cats rushed in and started feasting on the dead guy, saying “Kkkkk.”
To cats, humans were servants or protein, nothing much else.
???
Spangled totes hanging off my left arm and shoulder, I set my armor to assist weightbearing and hefted the shorter guy over my right shoulder, my arm around his butt to hold him in place. As if I carried one kilo instead of seventy or eighty, I jogged to Mateo and Bengal who were standing under the cover of the shrubbery where I’d hidden Cupcake’s Quadro and weapon.
Mentally, I checked in with my VP, finding her out cold. “Jolene. Cupcake?” I asked.
“She is undergoing surgery to repair broken bones and fix her lung.”
It was damage that would have taken her out had she not been mine. My stomach went sour at the thought of losing my friend. If I hadn’t transitioned her away from Warhammer’s control she would have died of her injuries or returned to the queen to die later. Either way Cupcake would now be dead. She never would have stuck around long enough to become a friend. Was her friendship dependent solely on the nanos tying us together? I had asked. She said no, that she was my friend because of who I was. But. Nanos.
I dumped the guy into the back of the quad, stripped him of anything resembling a tracker or hidden weapon. Secured him with heavy duty zips. Slinging the cute totes into the quad and securing them as well, I watched the last part of the battle in the street. We’d had eighteen dark riders to deal with instead of the expected twelve maximum. I counted ten down in the streets without searching the shadows. Mina had somehow overridden her armor-prison and was standing over a guy, staring into his face. She put a single shot into him. Stalked to another. Stared. Shot him.
“Jolene? Mina—”
“I got no idea how she did that, Sugah. Working to freeze her suit again.”
Mina was the best killing machine I had ever seen. With Jacopo beside her, the kid never missing a shot, they were unstoppable. But I watched Jacopo, as his sister finished off their enemies, his expression hard behind his helmet’s face shield. Sometimes the best killing machine wasn’t the wisest weapon. One day, Mina would kill Jacopo. From all the way across the intersection I could see that knowledge on his face.
Mina’s father had to put her some place safe. Or addict her to Devil Milk so she could be controlled. Or end her. I couldn’t imagine Marconi doing any of those things.
From up the road came sounds of vehicles. The diesel truck. An HD. The lights bounced down the road.
I glanced back at Mina. The girl was staring at me, her Italian black eyes considering. Wondering if she could take me. I stared back. Ready. I wasn’t human. I was faster than she was. She knew it. I was a challenge.
So maybe Marconi wouldn’t have to put his rabid child down. Maybe I’d have to.
Her hand twitched as if to draw her weapon.
Jacopo aimed his weapon at his sister’s head.
“Shining?” Mateo asked, his gravely metallic voice managing to sound shocked.
“I see it,” I said. Waiting.
Mina’s hands relaxed. Jacopo holstered his weapon and walked away at an angle that kept Mina in his peripheral vision.
“Jolene?” I asked on our private channel.
“Got her,” Jolene said.
Mina wasn’t fighting her hardened suit this time, but her eyes were still on me.
“You don’t happen to know where Marconi is, do you?” I asked, referring to Mina’s and Jacopo’s father.
“At his home.”
It wasn’t surprising that the AI knew that. She kept tabs on everyone.
“Did you send him video of Mina shooting the injured?”
Jolene was silent as the HD being ridden by Amos swung into view, the box truck behind it, both at a crawling pace, headlights illuminating the bodies and bikes in the street. Amos stared around the battle scene, his face hard, his beard flowing in the breeze created by his passage.
“Jolene?” I asked.
