Episode 124. Part 2
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Even as Nika speaks, a Blue Sun Soda van drives up to the curb opposite the clinic. The back of it opens and four men in Blue Sun coveralls and baseball caps get out, armed with carbines. From her position on the roof, Rina calls it in to the team inside.
Rina: (murmuring) Okay, we’ve got four bogies out front. With guns. Rifles. Move the hell out the back way, now.
Nika: (via earmike) I’ve got no weapons.
Rina: We’ll cover you. Just get out the back. Now.
In the alley, Rick moves closer to the back door opposite its hinges, the better to shoot any hostiles that might emerge, or provide cover for our team.
Rina: Get out the back. Grab your shit and go.
Nika: There ain’t no grabbin’ my shit. The guard has my gun.
Rina: I’ll buy you another one.
Rina sizes the bogies up. They have carbines and coveralls loose enough to hide body armor. No telling what they’ve got underneath. It’s for damn sure it’s nothing her pistol can match outside a head shot. Rina decides to get her boots on the ground and evac with the team. She grabs the fire escape ladder rails by her palms and boots, and clenching them tight, slides the rails down to the ground. Through her earmike, she hears Nika’s warning.
Nika: It’s two miles from the ship, people.
Rina: So it’s duck and cover, cat and mouse all the way home. We have a better chance if they don’t see us. Let’s go.
Back in the fancier part of town, Christian has arrived at the Parliamentary offices of Memphis to meet his client. Deanna Hill is waiting for him in her office. The second the door is closed, she makes it clear she’s not interested in small talk or other such inanities. She sweeps her desk clear of everything on it and pulls Christian down to her.
He gives the lady what she wants.
At the Helwon Free Clinic, events are heating up apace as well. Arden and Nika grab what weapons they can find in the exam room they can. Scalpels come to hand and thus armed, they exit for the rear fire door.
There is brief debate as to what to do with Valerie Sampson.
Nika: Are you just going to leave her here?
Arden: She gets to die a horrible death. We’re leaving.
Nika gives him a hard look. He doesn’t feel responsible for Valerie getting drawn into this at all? Really?
Arden: If we take her with us we’ll have to deal with her being around.
Nika: Is this a personal issue or professional one.
Arden: This is….(sighs) Okay, fine.
Nika: I’m not saying ‘take her’, I’m asking you if you’re leaving her because it’s a personal issue between the two of you or are you leaving her because of the practicalities of the situation? Because if it’s the former, we need to rethink it. If it’s the latter, then we’re leaving her here. I’m good either way.
Arden: A little of both.
They’re wasting time. Arden grabs Valerie unresisting by the arm and pulls her along. Nika gets her attention and says firmly:
Nika: When we run, you run as fast as you can in the same direction we’re going. If you don’t keep up, we leave you behind. Keep up with us. We’re gonna run. Keep up.
Valerie: (slowly comprehending) You want me to run with you?
Nika: Yes.
Back at the Parliamentary offices, Christian’s keeping up in a race of his own. The desk has been abandoned and Ms. Hill has fetched them up against the wall. She’s still raring to go and Christian keeps up with her.
In the clinic, Nika is through explaining the situation. She pulls open the door to the exam room and eyes the hallway beyond. It’s empty for the moment. They run for the exit door.
Nika: (via earmike) Rina.
Rina: Ma’am.
Nika: Two out the back, plus one.
Rina: All right. Rick, they’re coming out and they’re taking someone with them. You take point and I’ll take rear.
Rick goes to the head of the alley as Rina replaces him at the door. Inside the clinic, Nika and Arden find the fire door locked—against code regulations—and Nika turns from the keypad for Valerie.
Nika: Open it.
Arden: What’s the combination?
Valerie: (confused) It used to just open from here…but the combination on the other side is…
Valerie gives them the code, and Nika relays the combination to Rick. He leaves point and punches it in. It doesn’t work.
Rick: Shoot the door.
Nika: Hang on. Hack it first.
Rina: Gonna try a hack. Sit tight.
Arden works on a hack from his side and Nika stands with her back to him, watching their rear. A door squeaks behind them and the door guard sticks his head in. Nika is momentarily distracted by what Arden’s doing and doesn’t see the guard immediately.
Guard: (deadpan) Stop that.
They look and see the guard has his gun on them.
Nika: (to Arden) Keep working.
Arden goes back to the lock. Nika calls to the guard.
Nika: Why don’t you come down here and make me?
The guard doesn’t appear to hear her.
Guard: Stop or I’ll shoot.
And he shoots! Nika shoves Valerie out of the way and yells to Arden:
Nika: DUCK!
The bullet goes wild, sparking off the doorframe. Arden flinches but stays focused and keeps working. In the alley, Rick hears the shot and comms the team inside.
Rick: What’s going on?
Arden: The guard’s shooting at us.
Rina’s at the door with her tools and comms Arden.
Rina: Do you want me to start on it at my end?
Arden: No, I think I can get it.
Rina puts her back to the door and covers the alley entrance with her gun, backing Rick up as he peers around the corner to check for bad guys. Two men with carbines and Blue Sun jumpsuits round the front corner of the clinic. Rick relays what he sees to Rina via his earmike. Inside, Nika advances on the guard. Beyond him she can make out two people in Blue Sun jumpsuits outside the glass doors to the clinic.
Rick fires at the foremost of the advancing Blue Sun goons and the bullet goes right through the man’s eye, instantly killing him. His compatriot doesn’t pause but keeps on coming. Rick notices that the Blue Sun guys are looking a bit scruffy looking, a little less clean-cut than the usual for security types in the Core.
Rick: There’s something not right about these guys.
Rina: Of course, there’s something not right about ‘em—they’re shooting at us.
Meanwhile, inside, Nika’s in the guard’s face and she tries disarming him, grabbing his gun.
Nika: (irritated) Give me that!
She’s unsuccessful, but at least he’s not pointing it at her anymore. Behind her, Arden plugs away at the lock.
Back at the Parliamentary offices, Christian is momentarily distracted in his work by Ms. Hill’s databook lying open on the floor. His eye catches the words “The Miranda Case”. A master of multitasking, Christian continues his course with Ms. Hill while figuring out how to get a better look at the files on that databook. Perhaps if he tired her out sufficiently….
In the alley behind the clinic Rina mans the door as Rick shoots at the advancing goons. Inside, the other newcomers are trying to get in through the front door—the guard has to buzz them in and Nika’s keeping him busy. The guard is putting up a resistance, of a sort, but Nika can tell that the man is definitely drugged and unable to adapt his behavior to the situation effectively. It makes fighting him less easy than one would think, and Nika has no real way of anticipating his movements because of it. She throws a punch at him and dodges his countermove. Back to square one.
Outside, Rick scores a hit on the last of the goons, but it doesn’t stop him. Maybe the man’s wearing some kind of armor. Rick lines up another shot and scores another hit. His target is still up and advancing. He shoots again and this time when his shot hits his target, Rick hears the distinct sound of bullet hitting armor.
Great.
Inside, Nika attempts to disarm the guard again, mindful of the Slue Sun reinforcements just outside the vestibule. She doesn’t manage to get the gun away from the guard but the weapon does drop to the floor. Good enough—the guard is no longer armed.
Nika: Arden. Hurry the hell up.
Rick takes fire from the goons but the building provides enough cover to duck behind. The goons bullets spark off the bricks but miss Rick completely. Inside, Nika hears a high-pitched whine coming from—of all places—the guard’s earmike. His eyes roll back in his head. Nika doesn’t question it, she just runs for Arden.
Nika: Run! Now!
Arden finally hacks that lock and outside in the alley, Rina sees the door open a crack. The hinges are on her side and she quickly ducks around and brings her gun up to bear on whoever’s on the other side, just in case, and—Stop! It’s Arden.
Rina: Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go…
Nika and Arden emerge pulling Valerie Sampson along with them. Nika warns Rina to keep an eye on the woman—the guards were effectively booby-trapped. No telling if Sampson is as well. Even as the words sink in, the Blue Sun goon reaches the entrance to the alley behind us. Rick has the rear and he shoots. The goon finally falls and another avenue of escape opens up. It’s a shorter haul to the spaceport.
We take it and Rick takes point. Rina covers our rear and we book the hell out of there. We plan to run a jinking path out of the general vicinity and after about a quarter mile we’ll slow down and walk like there’s nothing wrong. Rina keeps an eye on our backtrail as does Nika. We only get about a block away when the remaining Blue Sun goons round the corner and give chase. They haven’t any guns out and they’re running kinda…..weird. It’s like a lupine lope, an somewhat odd feral pursuit. Arden and Rick grab Valerie by an arm and hustle her along. Nika and Rina fall back to delay the goons. Nika tells the men to meet up with us at the abandoned steel mill we saw on the walk in to the clinic and meet us next to the forge.
Nika: (points at Valerie) And pat her down for any sort of weapons. (points at the goons) Because how are they tracking us?
Nika and Rina take an oblique position to the men chasing us, the better to ambush them. The women divvy up which side they’ll aim for, left and right, and get ready. They’ve got one free shot by surprise and then it’ll be a firefight in earnest. Both men round the corner, Nika takes the one on the outside of the turn, Rina takes the one on the inside. Both their shots connect and both barely slow the bastards down. They’re wearing armor just like the two Rick killed.
Great.
The Blue Sun Goons split up, a man to a woman each. Amazingly enough they aren’t armed. Nika and Rina trade a grim look and aim…and shoot.
Nika’s shot misses. Rina nails the one approaching her and the bullet grazes the man’s jaw. Skin slices, blood spurts. It doesn’t even slow him down. If anything, it makes him more violent. He’s roaring and making a beeline for Rina. Has he been dosed with the Reaver version of Chempliance? Either way, Rina figures her ass is toast. She takes a fist to the gut, surprisingly powerful and it puts her on the pavement. Her mesh vest saves her internal organs, however, and she manages to stay in the fight. She brings her pistol up again and shoots.
Nika takes damage as well and the next round begins. Nika’s man is on her and she brings her gun up in his face and fires. It’s a freak shot—it hits but it misses everything vital. Everyone’s fully engaged and combat goes back and forth, both fists and gunplay, and damage is dealt and taken. Somewhere in the middle of this Nika yells.
Nika: I’m out!
Rina tosses her a spare clip and then has to beat Mr. Bloody back. He haymakers her flat to the ground and she shoots him from the asphalt. Nika lands a terrific blow to her opponent’s head, bone crunches and the man falls, twitching.
Rina’s got all she can handle—she’s got an incoherent madman on her. She manages to bring her gun against his gut and shoots him. He finally goes limp and Nika stalks over and pulls his body off her friend, sees Rina is still alive.
Nika: Thank God. Come on.
They both get the hell out of there to join the others.
The others make it as far as the crane outside the steel mill when a car pulls up. Two figures slide out of the cab, a man and a woman. Arden thinks he’s seen them before—they look like the Blue Hands team from the hospital the previous November. A glance at their hands confirms it.
They’ve got the blue gloves.
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