“Sergeant, what are you doing?” Dante asked.

  “We can’t let them get their hands on those guns.”

  Caleb felt Dante’s hand grab his shoulder. “Sergeant, we’re on an alien world. A world we have to assume is hostile, considering we were supposed to fight a war here. You can’t keep our only means of defending ourselves out of our hands.”

  “I didn’t make that decision, Sheriff. Stone did. If we’re going to help Flores, if we’re going to help any of them, we can’t let him get his hands on the guns. He’ll use them to solidify his power before he uses them to defend the colony.”

  “That may be true, but at least he’ll be able to defend the colony. We can’t leave them standing out there like trees waiting to be cut down.”

  Caleb’s hand wrapped around the wire. He yanked the connectors away from one another, standing and reaching for the panel that covered the area.

  “If we give them these weapons, we’ll lose control. And we won’t be able to get it back. You know what that means, don’t you? Even if we save Flores, we can’t stay here. Not only will Stone be after us, but the whole damn colony will want our heads. And, it’ll make everything he said about the Guardians true.”

  Dante took a few seconds to respond. “I know, Sergeant. You’re on the right side of the truth, but the wrong side of reality. It’s already too late to convince the colonists otherwise. To be honest, you never had a chance.”

  Caleb turned his head back, glaring at her through his helmet. She was right. The people had a healthy fear of Governor Stone. They also trusted him. He kept them safe. He kept them in line. The Guardians were nothing to them. At least, they had been nothing. Now they were the wardens of a prison that had carried them forty light-years from home, with no way to return. He had been dependent on Stone doing the right thing for the people, and Stone had let him down.

  “Damn it,” he muttered. “This is getting uglier by the second.” He paused. “I know I asked you to pick a side a few minutes ago. I think you picked the wrong one. The colony needs you, Sheriff. More than I do.”

  “You can’t do this alone, Sergeant. And I’m not going to let Governor Stone kill an innocent person, no matter what that means for me. It’s against every sense of decency I have and every oath I took when I became a sheriff.”

  Caleb nodded. “Okay, and thank you.” He grabbed the panel and pressed it back into the wall, covering the disconnected wires. “Keep your helmet on, and try not to let anyone see that it’s you.”

  “Stone knows I was with you, Sergeant.”

  “I know. But he’ll forgive you for helping me in the end.”

  “What do you mean, forgive me? Aren’t I coming with you?”

  “No. Once we free Flores, I don’t just want you to stay here. I need you to stay here. Somebody who knows the truth has to have some pull inside the colony. You have to do your best to help them defend it.”

  “I’m not the only sheriff in Metro.”

  “But you’re the only one who knows everything about me, Riley, and the alien AI, and that could be important. You’re the only person here I trust, and that’s important too.”

  “Roger that. Okay. So how do I keep Governor Stone from killing me once we stop him from killing Flores, assuming he hasn’t already?”

  “You’re going to bring him here. You’re going to show him what we found. Tell him the truth. Tell him you couldn’t let him execute someone in good conscience. As long as he can maintain his lie and keep the anger focused on the Guardians unless he’s more of a monster than I think he is, that should be enough to satisfy him. Especially if he values your work as a sheriff.”

  “I think he does. Or did, before all this.” She hesitated. “Stone has a brother, Josh. He’s been interested in me for a while now, and I’m too old to be single. Maybe I can cut a deal if it comes to that.”

  “I would never ask you to do that.”

  “I know. But we’re cut from the same cloth, Sergeant. We both want to protect our own.”

  “Roger that,” Caleb replied. He put his hand out. Dante took it. They shook on it, sealing the deal.

  “So,” Dante said. “What do we do now?”

  Caleb opened his mouth to answer, but a sudden change in his helmet’s overlay showed a new connection joining the network. He couldn’t hold back his smile as he opened a comm channel.

  “Washington, it’s damn good to see you.”

  Chapter 14

  Washington replied by pinging the network, opening and closing his comm channel in a rapid succession of Morse Code clicks. Not only did it let him communicate at a distance, it also confirmed to Caleb that the big Marine was really the person he was speaking to.

  Jumped us. Took her. Escaped.

  “I know,” Caleb said. “I’m glad you did. Where are you?”

  Alley. South.

  “How close to Law?”

  No.

  The answer meant he didn’t know. He wouldn’t know where the Law Office was. Caleb checked his HUD. The signal was too weak to stream from Wash’s camera and get an idea where he was. The tactical was putting him about a klick away.

  “What about the hospital?”

  Close.

  “Do you know if Flores is still alive?”

  Yes.

  Caleb felt the relief flood through him. At least they weren’t too late to help her. “Do you know where she is?”

  Hospital.

  Caleb glanced at Dante. “Why would Stone bring her to the hospital?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe she was injured when he put her on display?”

  “So they’re going to patch her up to execute her?”

  “What if Doctor Valentine was lying about that? Maybe they aren’t going to killed her after all.”

  “Wash, did you catch any of Governor Stone’s address?”

  Yes.

  “Are we in trouble?”

  Yes.

  “Wash, Riley is alive. We ran into her. She told us what happened, but I wasn’t sure it was true.”

  Bitch.

  “Yeah, she is. But that doesn’t matter now. We need to get Flores out of there.”

  Where go?

  “Outside.”

  Dangerous.

  “No shit. It’s dangerous in here too.”

  LOL.

  “You better not be laughing out loud.” He turned toward Dante. ”We need to get closer to the hospital, to Washington’s position. Can you get us there without being seen?”

  “Affirmative. The splits are interconnected, and its illegal to use them to cross the city unless you’re Law. We may have to pass over a couple of quiet strands, but timing is everything. The hard part will be getting out of Law without Sheriff Zane noticing us.”

  “Roger that.” Caleb pointed to the doors to the garage. “Not that hard.”

  Dante smiled. “Right. I forgot you have a built-in can opener.”

  “Wash, sit tight. I’m on my way.”

  Yes.

  Caleb walked over to one of the outer doors of the garage. Its control panel was dead, the main power to the area cut off a long time ago. It didn’t matter. He dug the fingers of his replacement hand under the edge, getting a satisfactory grip. Then he pulled, using the strength of the augmentation to tug the door up just enough for them to crawl beneath.

  “Come on,” he said to Dante, dropping to his stomach and pulling himself through. She joined him on the other side, and he pushed the door closed again.

  The garage led out into one of the splits, wider than most to allow the drones and vehicles space to maneuver. The area was dim, the lights around it long dead. Metro was quiet, leaving Caleb wondering about the situation in the city. Had the colonists been ordered back to their homes? Or were they still assembled, waiting for Flores’ murder? Or was Governor Stone doing the smart thing and trying to organize some kind of defense?

  “Sergeant, this way,” Dante said, leading him down the split, away from where it emptied into the wide strand next to the Law Office.

  “Sheriff Dante. This is Zane. What’s your status?”

  The voice was muffled but still audible. Dante reached into one of the pockets of the SOS and removed her badge. The LED was green. She glanced questioningly at Caleb, who nodded.

  “Copy that, Zane. I’m still checking on that problem,” she replied. “Did I miss anything good?”

  “I’ve been trying to reach you for the last ten minutes. You just came back into range. Stone was looking for you and the soldier you were with. He wants you both back here immediately.”

  “How come?”

  “I don’t ask him questions, Sam. You know that.”

  “Copy that. We’re on our way. ETA, twenty minutes.”

  “Where are you that it’ll take twenty to get back here?”

  “It doesn’t matter. We’ll be there. Dante out.” She tapped the badge, disconnecting it. Then she looked at Caleb. “He’s going along with Stone, even though he knows the truth. Freaking idiot.”

  “Don’t blame him. He’s following orders.”

  “The wrong orders.”

  Caleb shrugged. “We have twenty minutes before things get tense.”

  “They aren’t tense already?”

  “They’re going to get more tense.”

  “Roger that.”

  Dante started moving again, jogging down the split. Caleb stayed close behind her, quickly getting lost in the maze of narrow alleys that passed around the dozens of city blocks. They stopped for the first time when they reached the end of one of the splits, having to cross the strand to the next. A pair of deputies were in the street with one of the engineers, still searching for the rogue alien AI. Caleb agreed with Riley. The enemy was long gone, on its way to completing whatever its mission was.

  They waited in the shadows for the deputies and engineer to move away, and then sprinted across the strand to the opposite split unseen. They continued through the maze to a second strand, crossing it without incident and diving back into the chaotic alleys. Caleb had no idea how Washington had managed to navigate the area on his own, making it from the open seal to the splits near the hospital without being seen. Calab was generally pretty good with directions, especially with the ATCS mapping his route, but all these left and righthand turns still left him confused.

  He checked his HUD as they closed on the hospital. Washington’s signal was at full strength, and the tactical showed him only a few dozen meters away. Dante could see the position too, and she led him around a few more of the splits until they were almost on top of Washington.

  They came around the corner. It took Caleb a moment to get a visual on Washington. He had packed himself into a corner, rifle up and ready to defend himself if Caleb wasn’t the first one to find him. He pulled himself out of the hiding place, raising his free hand in a wave before shifting it to a thumbs-up.

  Caleb looked him over. The ATCS said he was healthy, and he didn’t see any damage to the SOS. He could picture Washington throwing Governor Stone’s militia around like ragdolls. The idea of it made him smile.

  “Wash. You know Sheriff Dante.”

  Washington faced her and put his thumb up again. Then he turned his hand over, palm out. What now?

  Caleb moved to the end of the split. He could see the hospital a few blocks away. A squad of militiamen were on the steps keeping watch.

  “We need to get inside. Quietly. Let’s try not to hurt anyone too badly. Whether Governor Stone agrees or not, we’re still on the same side.” Caleb paused. “Dante, is there another entrance?”

  “Through the emergency bay,” she replied. “But I can guarantee they’ll have that covered too.”

  “There’s no way in without confronting the guards?”

  Dante hitched her lip on one side and smiled. “I wouldn’t say that. There is one way.”

  Chapter 15

  Caleb approached the edge of the block’s rooftop, leaning over and looking down. “It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights.”

  Washington pressed his finger into his chest.

  “You are not,” Caleb replied, drawing a smile. He raised his eyes, judging the distance from the roof of their current position to the roof of the hospital. It was a good three meters away, a decent distance but doable with the added strength of the SOS. “Dante, are you sure you’re okay with this?”

  “It was my idea,” she replied. “And it’s better than mixing it up with the guards and attracting way too much attention.”

  “I can’t argue with that. I’m talking about you making the jump. You aren’t that experienced with the SOS.”

  “SOS? Is that an acronym?”

  “Stormtrooper on steroids.”

  “What’s a Stormtrooper?”

  “Flores would faint if she heard you ask that. You’ve never heard of Star Wars?”

  “I have. We’re living it.”

  A small huff of air escaped from Washington, his best effort at laughter.

  “Maybe we’ll have a chance to check the datastores for it one day,” Caleb said.

  “Anyway, don’t worry about me, Sergeant. I’ve made the jump before without steroids.”

  “You leap tall buildings for fun?”

  “I have a reputation for chasing perps across rooftops.”

  “Roger that. Then it should be a piece of cake for you with the combat armor. Let’s go.”

  Caleb backed up a few meters and then took a running start toward the edge. He flexed his legs slightly and pushed off, the added strength of the SOS carrying him almost a meter over the rooftop on the other side. He landed smoothly, slowing to a stop and turning back in time to see Washington leap. He landed smoothly, though with less clearance than Caleb.

  Dante broke hard, rushing the edge. For a second, Caleb thought her pace was going to carry her too far forward, and she would slip off. Instead, she planted her foot against the corner and arced toward them, making the jump gracefully and landing well over the edge, tucking her shoulder and rolling , just like a gymnast. Washington clapped softly in response to the maneuver.

  “The stairwell is this way,” Dante said without breaking stride. Caleb and Washington followed her across the rooftop, circling the lift control unit and finding the stairs behind it. “It’s locked. If you use force to open it, it’ll trigger an alarm at the security checkpoint downstairs and in Law.”

  “I hope that means you have an alternate method?”

  “I have access. We have to hope nobody checks the logs.” She put her wrist against a flat pad beside the door. It beeped and clicked, and she pulled the door open.

  The part of the stairwell they could see was empty, but it wound around the lift shafts, vanishing around a corner a few meters away. Caleb took point, with Washington in the rear, and they started to descend.

  “How do we know where they’re keeping Flores?” Caleb said into the comm.

  “We’ll have to stop on one of the floors to check a terminal. They might not have officially checked her in, but then they’ll be bringing supplies to a room that’s supposed to be empty.”

  “Makes sense.”

  They dropped three floors before Dante tapped Caleb’s shoulder. “This one.” She moved ahead of him, opening the door to floor thirty-five.

  It opened into a pair of long corridors that branched forward and to their right. Dante went out first, scanning for occupants. She waved to signal the area was clear, which Caleb already knew from the tactical grid on his HUD, which he had set to register anything that wasn’t one of them as a threat.

  They moved into the hallway, hurrying straight ahead three doors, and stopping at a break in the wall where there was a larger desk with a terminal resting on it. Dante dropped into the chair behind it, sweeping her wrist over the control surface. The display turned on, and she quickly entered the hospital’s network.

  “You’ve done this before?” Caleb asked.

  “Not this specifically, but checking the database myself is usually quicker than asking a tech.” She navigated through the screens, leaning forward to examine the terminal. “Here we go. Damn. They have her downstairs.”

  “Do you know what they’re treating her for?”

  “Looks like either shock or dehydration. I think standing up there being screamed at was probably too much for her.”

  “It would be too much for anyone,” Caleb said, trying to hold back his anger. Flores was tough as nails when it came to fighting trife. The two things weren’t comparable. “What’s bad about downstairs?”

  “There’s only one way in or out.”

  “So he was expecting me not to take this lying down.”

  “It seems that way. It could be a trap.”

  “It‘s most likely a trap,” Caleb said. “It’s risky for him not to have us under control. But then, he should have thought about that before he turned on us. What do you think, Wash?”

  Washington made a walking motion with his fingers. Walk right in.

  Caleb nodded. “They don’t have guns, and arrows aren’t going to pierce the SOS. They have no idea who or what they’re dealing with.”

  Washington tapped the rifle on his back and then pointed at Dante.

  “They have Flores’ rifle,” Caleb said, interpreting his meaning for Dante. “We need to stay aware of that. How do we get to where they’re holding her?”

  “You need to take the main lift or the emergency stairs,” Dante said.

  “Can we open the lift doors without setting off an alarm?”

  “The shaft walls are smooth, Sergeant. You won’t be able to scale them.”

  “We’re Vultures, Sheriff,” Caleb said, glancing over at Washington. “We’ll fly down.”

  Chapter 16

  Caleb, Dante, and Washington didn’t stay on the thirty-fifth floor, retreating to the stairwell and taking it down a few more levels. They were nearly spotted as they descended to the thirtieth floor, coming to an abrupt spot when the stairwell door swung open and a pair of nurses entered. Fortunately, they went down instead of up, or they would have had a bigger problem.