Janson was no exception to this rule. He had a fancy-ass fountain in the middle of his private quarters. Three dragonheads, all spouting in different directions into a big steel bowl at the bottom. It looked like someone had crafted the thing out of scavenged parts from Arabella. Copper tubing, hammered into the vague shape of dragons. That steel bowl—was it the dish from some old parabolic antenna? That’s what it looked like.

  The water was the key. I saw my chance and I took it. When he got back to his feet, cursing, I grappled with him again. He tried to sneak his knife home, and it tickled my ribs a little. Blood oozed.

  I grabbed Janson by the arms and swept a foot behind his right ankle. Then, I heaved with all my strength. He fought me, but I had leverage. My limbs were powered by desperation. I slammed him into the fountain. Water sloshed everywhere.

  Janson thrashed and sputtered. His shield flickered and died with an electric sizzle. Finally, the playing field was level. No more hiding behind his tech. Just two men, one fountain, and a score to settle.

  As he climbed out of the fountain, I picked up my buzzblade from where I’d dropped it. The handle hummed in my grip again.

  This was it, the end of the line for Janson. I gave him a murderer’s grin.

  Janson’s eyes went wide with real fear for the first time. We both knew I had him now, but he wasn’t out of tricks, yet. He lunged at me, making wild slashes. I backpedaled, looking for an opening—but instead of continuing to press his attack—he ran for it.

  A hatch opened in the floor. The coward was bailing out.

  I reversed directions, howling for his blood. I slashed with my blade—but it was too late. My buzzblade scratched and clattered on the closing hatch, sending up a single yellow spark.

  Janson vanished down the chute with a final mocking laugh. The hatch snapped shut behind him. I hauled on it, but it was no use. The hatch was sealed tight.

  I remembered Hammer and lost it, stabbing at the metal hatch with my buzzblade. Once. Twice. The vibrating metal screeched against the hatch, but it wouldn’t give. I bashed it in frustration until my arm ached. Still no good.

  Janson was gone. Escaped to who knows where. All my efforts, all the fighting—I’d been so close. Shit…

  It was enough to make a man want to put his fist through a wall.

  But I couldn’t afford to wallow. I was still deep in the heart of Arabella. There were alarms blaring, now. There had to be guards on my tail. I had to move. I had to get out of here.

  I burst out of Janson’s quarters, still dripping wet and seething with rage. I could now see how this Techborn had managed to make it to the status of an overlord and keep his head for years. He was as frigging slippery as hell.

  Now wasn’t the time to worry about Janson, however. I had to get out of this ship before the whole Techborn army came down on my head. I ran out of the place, and to say I looked red-handed would have been an understatement. I was pretty well bathed in blood by now.

  Alarms blared and yellow lights flashed in the corridors. Boots pounded on every metal deck. They were coming for me. How the fuck was I going to get out?

  I retraced my steps, barreling through the twisting passageways of Arabella. I made it back to Callista’s quarters. She was where I’d left her, tied to her soft couch. She glared daggers at me. If looks could kill, I’d have been a dead man seven times over.

  Then, she seemed to take note of my blood-spattered state. Her eyes flew wide. I loosened her gag.

  “You actually did it?” she said. “You killed Janson?”

  She said this almost in a whisper. Was her tone one of hunger—of hope? I thought that it was…

  Right then, I wondered about some things. Had she wanted me to go off on a wild tirade? Was I being allowed to assassinate her overlord?

  Who was playing who, here?

  “Well?” she demanded, raising her voice. “Did you do it or not?”

  “I tried—but he got away.”

  “You crazy fool,” she spat, wriggling in her bonds. “Don’t you know even the basics of intrigue? If you try to kill a tyrant, you must finish him! Janson will hunt you to the ends of Haven-7 for this.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “What now, Tanner? What’s your next move?”

  “What do you care?”

  “I want to know how a true genius operates,” she said with a sarcastic glare.

  I hesitated. Part of me wanted to leave her trussed up for Janson to find. But I needed her. Needed her connections, her knowledge of Arabella’s secrets.

  “Yeah?” I growled. “Maybe I’ll tell him you put me up to this. The assassination—that was all your idea. He’ll believe it. He’ll figure that’s why I used your code-key on his door about ten times.”

  Callista didn’t like that idea. She hissed and wriggled like a cat in heat.

  “Settle down,” I told her. “Let’s make a deal. If I get caught, I’ll keep your name out of this—if you help me get off this wreck and back out into the desert.”

  Callista glared. “You’ll keep quiet about our… involvement? Never breathe a word of it—even under torment?”

  “That’s what I’m saying. You had nothing to do with any of this—as long as you do your part to help me slip away.”

  She bared her teeth and breathed through them for a bit, considering. I had her all tied up. I had all the cards. I think she knew, she pretty much had to play ball—or at least, pretend to.

  “All right,” she said. “I agree—under duress.”

  Using my blade, I slashed her bonds away. When she was free, she rubbed her wrists where the ropes had bit into them. Her eyes were cold, calculating.

  Shouts echoed from the corridor outside. I could hear them getting closer. We were out of time.

  I grabbed Callista’s arm and hauled her to her feet. “Move. We’re leaving.”

  She didn’t argue. We slipped out into the corridor, sealing the door behind us. There was no point making it easy for them.

  We ran, plunging into the bowels of the ship as the sounds of pursuit grew louder behind us. I didn’t know if we’d make it out. Didn’t know what waited for us even if we did.

  We were stopped twice. Each time, her status and my torc got us past guards with pig-like, suspicious eyes. We had to keep moving though.

  The alarms were still blaring, but I tuned them out, and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Down low, when we were close to the exit, the decks vibrated under my boots. They must be running the nuclear turbines to produce electrical power at night. I could feel it in my bones.

  Callista helped me bluff my way past the robots at the main entrance. They were dumb—but they didn’t want to let us go. She had to throw a fit and threaten them with being dismantled in Riven’s workshop.

  That seemed to do the trick. We stumbled out into the night. The cool desert air slapped me in the face. The Red Desert stretched out before us, an ocean of shadows broken only by the looming silhouette of the crashed Arabella. I could see the crater it had gouged into the earth, a wound that would never heal. Just like the ones Janson had carved into this world.

  Callista tugged at my hands. “Let go of me. This is far enough.”

  I stopped, and I looked at her speculatively. She felt a flash of fear. I could see it run through her body like an involuntary shiver.

  Here we were, in the desert at night. I had all the cards, now. If the Techborn caught us, I could claim her as an accomplice. The records had been made, after all, back at Janson’s door. I’d used her code-key to gain access to his apartments.

  On the other hand, if I simply dragged her off right now into the night with me, taking her as my prisoner—she couldn’t stop me.

  In short, I had several ways I could betray this lovely snake of a woman. I have to admit, I was tempted—especially with that last idea. She owed me some more time serving as the captive. Maybe I’d have her be a slave to my whims—the way she’d done when the roles had been reversed.

  Callista was anything but dumb. She was watching my thoughts, reading them in my face with the dim light from Arabella glowing behind us. She didn’t speak.

  I wondered if she was hoping I’d take her. Could she be secretly wishing for a new, simpler life?

  Searchlights stabbed through the darkness, crisscrossing the sands. The Techborn were slow, but they were catching up. Hunting us.

  I grabbed Callista’s shoulders, pulled her close, and kissed her hard. She answered in kind.

  A few seconds passed, then I cursed under my breath and let her go. Without explaining anything, I turned and raced off into the darkness.

  She didn’t say anything, either. She knew the score just as I did. We had a thing—an admittedly weird thing—going on between us, but that would have to wait.

  Perhaps, it would have to wait forever.

  Chapter 29

  I kept moving, keeping low to the ground. Distance had to be put between me and that metal tomb before they caught my scent.

  My mind wandered as I hustled through the night. My brain kept circling back to Callista, the way a dog probably dreams of porkchops it can’t have.

  The way she’d looked, tied up on her couch in her quarters. The look of hate in her eyes—then lust. I couldn’t get the picture out of my head.

  She shouldn’t have bothered me, but she did. There was something about that woman. A pull she had that I couldn’t quite shake.

  I chided myself for being an idiot. Getting tangled up with a bitch like that was asking for trouble. I had a bad habit of falling for the wrong women. The dangerous ones. The kind that would kill you with a smile and make you beg for more.

  But I couldn’t afford to dwell on that now. I had bigger problems. Like the small army of Techborn currently scouring the desert, searching for my ass. I needed to find cover, someplace to lay low until the heat died down.

  Scanning the horizon, I looked for anything that might offer a hiding place. A rocky outcropping, a stand of those twisted trees, anything. There were farms and outbuildings, but none of them looked unguarded. Beyond those, there was nothing but an endless expanse of sand and starlight.

  The searchlights were still behind me, but they were spreading out and falling farther behind. I could hear the hum of engines now—walkers? Or drones? I wasn’t sure.

  Lifting my feet higher, I pounded as I ran. I gritted my teeth and pushed on into the night, letting the darkness swallow me whole. They could hunt me all they wanted. I’d just keep running, and if they found me, I would kill a few for spite.

  The night wrapped around me like a shroud as I stumbled through the desert. Sand filled my boots, and after hours of being on the run, each step became a struggle.

  My lungs burned with every ragged breath. But I couldn’t stop moving. Stopping meant dying, and I wasn’t ready to die—not yet.

  After all, I had an ungrateful planet to save. Right?

  I thought of Hammer—poor, brave, dumb-ass, Hammer. What a fuck-nut. He’d bought me the time I needed to infiltrate the Techborn stronghold, but he’d sacrificed himself in the process. I swore to myself that I’d make that sacrifice count someday.

  By morning, the great ship was too far behind me to be seen. The funny thing was, I felt like I’d left a piece of myself back there in those twisted corridors—along with my walker.

  A damn shame that, I could’ve used the speed. I was on foot now—just me and the desert. I was a lone madman against the world.

  The open civil war I’d been trying to prevent… it seemed even more likely to come now. The Techborn had dicked the Duster rebels, despite my best efforts. Flint was dead, but a new rebel leader would probably arise.

  I’d tried to take out Janson, in trade for Flint, but that had resulted in nothing but an angry, warned overlord. He had known I’d come in gunning for him, and I’d failed to take him out. He was certain to take a dim view of that.

  The obvious result of these actions had to be bad. Both sides were feeling wronged. They both had to be planning to escalate.

  I was no diplomat. I was a killer. XCU really shouldn’t have sent me.

  Gritting my teeth, I kept walking. Just put one foot down in front of the other, Tanner. I marched into the dawn light—into the unknown.

  * * *

  A few days later, I stumbled into Cinder Hollow. It should be no surprise that I was half-dead from thirst and exhaustion. The guards on the walls eyed me warily, but they let me pass. I guess I looked too pathetic to be a threat.

  That was fine by me. I wasn’t here to cause trouble. Not this time.

  The town sprawled out before me, a jumble of ramshackle buildings and narrow streets. I could hear the hum of generators, the clank of machinery. Life went on despite the Techborn and their iron grip on this world.

  The Dusters struggled through their day. At least, they had something to hold onto. Something to fight for. I envied them, in a way.

  Me? I was just a man with a grudge and a buzzblade. A walking dead man, as Janson had been fond of saying.

  My first thought—beside getting rehydrated—was to look for Megan. I had to tell her about Hammer. I had to confess to her that I’d pretty much failed at everything I’d tried to do. That wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation.

  But before I could walk more than a dozen steps past the gates, a shout rang out behind me.

  I spun around, hand dropping to my blade. One of the guards was pointing out into the desert. His face was twisted with fear.

  Turning to look, I couldn’t believe my eyes. A group of figures were moving out there, far off in the desert. A full company of Techborn soldiers—maybe more than that. They were regulars, armed to the teeth and out for blood.

  My blood, of course.

  I cursed under my breath. Had they followed me here? Had they hung back, letting me think I’d evaded them, then swept forward when they’d realized where my tracks had to be going?

  It looked like Janson wasn’t going to let me lick my wounds in peace. He wanted to finish the job. His ultimate plan had to be to put me in the ground for good.

  The Techborn—there had to be a whole damn army of them, from the looks of it. More and more kept appearing on the horizon. They’d been following me. Tracking me. They probably wanted to see where I was going, where I’d lead them—and I’d led them straight to Cinder Hollow.

  Damn.

  I’d brought death and destruction to these people, this small, hidden sanctuary town. They’d taken me in, given me shelter. How had I repaid them? By drawing the Techborn right to their doorstep.

  Some savior I was turning out to be.

  I gripped my buzzblade tighter. Felt the familiar weight of it in my hand. It was clear what I had to do. It’s what I always did when things went south: Fight.

  My mind swirled with possible plans. I had to give these people a chance. Maybe, if I left town and kept on going out into the desert, I could buy them some time to get away. To disappear before the Techborn could slaughter them all.

  The word was getting out by this time. It was an hour past noon, but the people of Cinder Hollow were just becoming aware of this new nightmare. Bells rang out, a warning and a call to arms. Dusters raced around and armed themselves. Slowly, a rabble of locals gathered on the ramshackle walls that nominally protected this town.

  The people of Cinder Hollow were springing into action. They’d been preparing for this, waiting for this fateful day to come.

  A sand cannon was wheeled out of a shed. That was impressive. The old gun had to be from the earliest colonial days. I wondered if it would still fire…

  The colonists struggled to move it. They rolled it toward the main gates and aimed the six rotating barrels in the direction of the approaching horde. It was obvious what their plan had to be. Once the gate went down, the Techborn would be faced with this aging machine of death. They’d be cut down at point blank range.

  While the sand cannon was positioned and power cables were run up to it from generators in the back of town, the people came to answer the call of the bells. Scruffy Duster men took up positions on the rickety walls, rifles at the ready.

  The town was going to be surrounded and besieged—everyone knew it by now. I watched their eyes. There was some fear, there—a reasonable enough response, but there was a resolve too. These people knew what was at stake. They knew what they were up against. But they weren’t all running off for the hills.

  Chapter 30

  Once it was clear the Techborn planned to organize their troops carefully, I figured we had a little time to prepare.

  I shoved my face into a bucket of water from the automated well in the center of town. I gulped the cold stuff down like a man dying of thirst—which I was. The desert had a way of sucking the life out of you, leaving nothing but a dried-out husk.

  Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I headed toward the crude walls of Cinder Hollow. It was time to take my place among the defenders of this town. It was the least I could do.

  The Duster rebels manning the ramparts eyed me with contempt as I approached. I could feel their hatred boring into my skull.

  “There he is!” one shouted.

  “See that big fucker—right there!” said another.

  It was no mystery who the Techborn had been following, and Cinder Hollow was blaming me for bringing their enemy down on their heads.

  The bad part was—they were right. I hadn’t followed their rules, I hadn’t kept the secret of this place. After trying to commit an assassination, I’d led the enemy right up to their gates. How could the Techborn do anything other than blame these people for my actions?

  I tried to explain, but my words fell on deaf ears. These were hardened fighters, men who had seen too much death and destruction to care about excuses.

  The crack of thunderbolt rifles split the air now and then, making me flinch. The Dusters were taking potshots at the Techborn forces encircling the encampment. They were already trying to keep the enemy troops at bay.