Ramez Naam - Nexus

Their guns went silent, Sam popped up, fired three rounds at one of them, saw two hit him in the chest, dropped back behind cover. One down. Three left. Sam popped her clip, checked the ammo again. Two rounds left. Fuck.

Could they jump from the roof into the alley? Would Kade survive?

The guns opened up again, aimed at their hiding place, pulverizing the last of their cover. More shrapnel sliced through her arm. Sam rolled, came up at a different spot, fired her last two rounds, took one of them in the gut. The others brought their guns around towards her. More shots fired out, pistol shots, six of them, and both men's heads exploded. Their lifeless bodies slumped to the ground.

Behind them, in an impeccable black chauffeur's suit, stood Feng, a smoking pistol in each hand. He raised an eyebrow at her in greeting. Sam breathed a sigh of relief. She'd never expected to be saved by one of these men, but she'd take it. By god she'd take it.

Feng strode over to the man she'd shot in the gut. He was still moving. The Confucian Fist put two rounds in his head, did the same to the first man she'd shot.

Sam crouched over Kade. He radiated pain. His skin felt charred from the flames, flayed from the shrapnel. He was alive, though. Cut up, broken, one of Suk's bullets in his arm, but still alive, still conscious. Feng joined them.

"Time to go, yeah?" the Chinese soldier said. He was smiling.

Kade tried to speak, coughed up blood for his troubles, nodded instead.

Feng bent to pick him up.

Sam raised a hand to stop him, crouched down herself.

"You're hurt," Feng said.

"I'll carry him," she replied.

Feng nodded silently, holding her eyes. He understood.

Sam hauled Kade over her shoulder, ignored his pain. They made their way down the stairs and to the black Opal, Sam limping painfully every step of the way.

"That's a Confucian Fist," Nichols said.

Williams and Kim both nodded.

"What the hell is one of them doing there?"

40

RUNNING

Feng reached the Opal ahead of Sam. The driver's side back door was open. Sam limped up to them, peered inside to find Su-Yong Shu in back. There was a massive first aid kit next to her.

"Give him to me," the Chinese woman said.

Sam tightened her grip on Kade.

"Come on, you ride up front with me," Feng told her.

"I'm sticking with him," Sam replied.

"Miss Cataranes," Shu said. "I'm medically competent."

"So am I." She held the older woman's gaze.

Shu stared back at her.

"We have to go," Feng said. "Can't stay."

"Fine," Shu said. She opened her door. "Get in back with Kade. I'll ride in front."

Sam eased herself and Kade into the back seat. He groaned in pain. Feng started moving as soon as the doors were closed, driving deeper into the maze.

Sam inspected the kit. Chinese special forces field medical issue. Top of the line. She'd trained on one of these. There, antiburn respirator, a mask and pressurized can loaded with growth factors for the lungs. She pulled it out, got it over Kade's face, felt him relax as the cool soothing mix flowed into him.

"You're bugged," Shu said from the front seat. "Your contacts, the bugs in Kade's clothes, both of your phones. They have to go."

Shit, Sam realized. She's right.

She rolled down the window, tossed her phone out, popped her contacts into her palm and flung them out as well. Kade was struggling to reach the phone in his pocket. His broken finger was in the way. Sam reached inside for him, pulled out his phone, tossed it out the window as well. There were bugs planted all over him…

"We need to cut his clothes off," she announced. "They're half melted to him anyway."

Feng held his hand up, eyes still on the road. A knife flicked open in his palm. Shu took it, passed it back to Sam. The woman did something with her mind, and Sam felt Kade's pain recede a bit, felt him relax into a more peaceful state.

Sam cut away most of Kade's shirt, tossed it out the window. Kade grasped something around his neck, the data fob Wats had given him.

"Not this," he mumbled weakly through the mask.

Sam skipped past it, cut away his ruined pants, tossed them out as well.

God, he was a mess. Melted fibers stuck to the skin of his lower leg where the burning beam had pinned him, across parts of his thighs where the pants had melted from the heat of the fire. The left side of his face was swollen, burnt, lacerated. One of his eyes wouldn't open. As his pain receded, she could get a clear view of his injuries. They were serious.

Sam squeezed anti-burn gel over his face, his chest, his thighs, his calves. She injected antibiotics and growth factors into his face, into the area around his swollen-shut eye. She taped the broken finger.

Sam looked up as she did so. They were still somewhere in the maze.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Bangkok Metro Police are all around us," Shu answered. "We're taking a roundabout route to avoid them."

"And after we get out of here?" Sam asked.

I'm in a car with the enemies I was trained to fight, she realized. With no weapon, on the run from the people who trained me. What the fuck am I doing?

"The Chinese Embassy," Shu said. "Political asylum for Kade. For you as well if you want it."

Alarm jolted through Sam. She reached for words. Kade was faster.

No!

He reached up, pulled Sam's hand and the mask away.

"No embassy," he said weakly.

We can keep you safe there,Shu sent, then get you out of the country.

Kade pulled the mask back, sucked at the cool healing mix, sent them his thoughts.

No. People just died because of me. They fucking died. I won't let that happen again. I won't be a slave. I won't be a killer.

Images leaked out of his mind, Narong pointing a gun at Ted Prat-Nung's head. Wats bleeding to death in the fire. Niran and Lalana being cut down in the crossfire.

Sam could feel his intense guilt, the failure, the betrayal, the burden of the deaths he'd caused. She understood, all too well.

What have I done? Sam thought. It happened so fast…

Shu tried again. Kade, the Americans will come for you. We need to get you someplace safe.

"She's right," Sam said. "They've got to be looking for us already. They won't just let us go. We have to move fast."

Hide, Kade sent. We need to hide.

"Where should I drive?" Feng asked.

Ananda, Kade sent.

Sam shook her head. "That guy in there, the dead one, he was one of Ananda's monks. He followed us Monday night."

"Tuksin," Shu said. "I saw some of his mind before he faded. He was operating on his own."

Kade nodded. He wanted out from Ananda. And Suk wanted out from Ted Prat-Nung.

"Thanom?" Shu asked sharply. "What does he have to do with this?"

Kade and Sam exchanged glances.

Sam answered, "He was there, tonight. That's why the ERD moved in, to get him."

Show me!Shu commanded.

Sam felt an alien presence in her mind. It burrowed deep. Sam couldn't have stopped her if she'd wanted to. What was this woman? The presence found her memories of the fight, sucked them up instantly.

Sam felt Kade open to Shu, felt Shu absorb his memories of the event as well. She caught an echo of Prat-Nung's death, bullets ripping through his body as he'd tried to rescue Chariya, tried to get her out of there.

Shu moaned then, a low-pitched sound. Her head fell into her hands. A sob escaped from between them. They felt it in their minds.

Thanom. Dead. Thanom. No…

Grief filled Sam. She wanted to weep with Shu's loss. She couldn't think, couldn't see, couldn't breathe. She felt the car begin to swerve.