David Williams - The Burning Skies

“ The one that the second generation became. The one that Marlowe and I were shorn from.”

“ The one you detected traces of at the Europa Platform.”

“ And that I killed every last member of.”

“ You sure about that?”

She stares at him. “What do you mean?”

“ You sure you got them all?”

“ Are you saying that—”

“ You know exactly what I’m saying.”

“ Don’t—fucking do this —”

But he’s already pulling more levers somewhere deep within the canyons of her skull. Everything blurs around her—

“ For the love of Christ, stop fucking with my—”

And suddenly her vision’s burning white.

Let’s get this show on the road,” says Lynx. He emerges from an open hatch in one of the mainframes, wires trailing from it to multiple places in his skull. He looks at Szilard.

“ Kill him,” he tells Linehan—but Linehan’s already opening up on Szilard, even as his target dives away, starts rolling across the floor. But he’s got no chance against a suit of armor. Linehan turns, catches up with Szilard in a single stride. Laughs.

And stops. For a moment he’s balanced on one foot. And then he topples over. His armor hits the floor with a crash. Szilard’s on his feet, leaping Linehan’s toppled suit, running straight at Lynx. Who’s fumbling for his pistols, raising them, opening up as Szilard hurls himself to one side once more and darts behind the mainframe to which Lynx is attached. Just as the back of the armor that’s sprawled on the floor opens and a very pissed off Linehan climbs out.

“ What the hell’s your problem?” he screams at Lynx.

“ What the fuck’s yours?”

“ My armor just got hacked, and you didn’t stop it!”

“ I never even saw it! For fuck’s sake, this is a live situation! He’s behind this console! He’s fucking with it and I’m losing control!”

“ Give me that,” snarls Linehan, snatching one of the pistols from Lynx’s grasp. He turns toward the consoles, starts firing, advancing on the place where Szilard vanished.

“ Does he have a way out of this room?” he yells.

“ Back there? There’s nothing.”

“ You hear that?” shrieks Linehan. “Szilard! This is it! You’re dead!”

“ Don’t just tell me about it,” screams Szilard, “come over here and fucking do it ! ”

With an unearthly cry, Linehan starts forward.

You lose, Leo.”

“ What?”

“ I just lost the Manilishi.”

“ She’s—”

“ Not calling the shots anymore. And neither’s Carson.”

“ Where the fuck did they go?”

“ How the fuck should I know? I’m my own man now.”

And he is. The waters of his life roar around him and he lets himself get caught in the rush. His mind’s still ablaze with static, but now it’s all insight that he’s gathering into himself. He focuses on Sarmax, wonders whether he should pull the trigger.

“ One last chance,” says Sarmax.

“ You’re one to talk.”

“ I’m serious. Join us.”

“ What?”

“ Fuck man, we’re inside the Eurasian superweapon. No reason you can’t have it once I’m ruling bigger empires.”

“ You’d put one through me as soon as you saw an opening. I’m not one of your fucking trinity.”

“ I hate both those fucks, Spencer. Don’t—”

One of the doors slides open. A suitless Russian soldier enters the room. His eyes go wide with astonishment.

“ It’s not what it looks like,” says Spencer.

“ Drop your weapon,” says the soldier—and tries to signal backup. But Spencer’s hacking the signal. The soldier’s backing up through the door, but Spencer gets his mind around the door, slides it shut with full force, smashing the soldier against the doorway, crushing his rib cage—but not before the man’s gotten off a shot. Spencer leaps aside as the projectile sears past him—even as Sarmax whirls to face him. Their guns are right up against each other’s visors.

“ Shoot and you’ll lose your zone coverage,” says Spencer. “Shoot and you’d better believe I’ll get a shot off,” says Sarmax.

“ I’m your only hope to crack the handler’s files.”

“ I’ve done more runs against the East than anyone alive.”

“ So? You still need me more than I need you—”

“ To do what?” yells Sarmax. “To do fucking what? Are you going to try to take down this place or are you going to take this all the fucking way? Don’t you get it? The secret of the Rain is out there and whoever finds it can build more of them . And you really think you can get to the next level of this fucking game when you’re flying solo?”

“ I think we should see what the hell’s in here with us.”

“ I can think of worse ideas,” says Sarmax. Spencer nods.

What the fuck,” says Haskell. “What are you seeing?” says Carson. “You just overwrote half of Lynx’s hacks! And God knows what you just did with my link to Spencer!”

“ Never mind that,” snarls Carson, “tell me what you’re fucking seeing!”

She knows damn well what he means even though she doesn’t know how the fuck it’s happening. All she knows is that there’s a new light burning out on the edges of her awareness—a light that’s like a cross between a star and fire, that can only be one thing—

“ Another mind,” she whispers.

“ Not Spencer’s either.”

“ Rain—”

“ Yes,” he says. “Go on.”

“ It’s—Autumn Rain—someone—”

“ Who?”

“ I—can’t tell—”

“ Who? How many?”

“ I can’t tell—it’s blurring—”

“ Location,” he says, and his voice is very calm.

“ L5,” she answers without hesitation. Vast mental geographies loom around her. “But—that’s where Sinclair—”

“ That’s no coincidence.”

“ But it’s not him—”

“ Of course not.”

“ He’s got someone else up there.”

“ Maybe more than that.”

“ Not all the original batch went rogue,” she mutters.