‘Go keep an eye on things from up there,’ Nicolai told Jo.

  ‘Trouble?’ she asked him over Local.

  ‘Most likely.’

  She nodded and headed up the stairs, and he turned to his next target.

  ‘Greetings,’ he said to Maxine, who was talking with Perro and Azure. She looked over at him, eyes bright.

  ‘Ah, the illustrious leader. Your friends have told me about you,’ she said.

  ‘Good things, I hope,’ he said, his eyes on Perro and Azure who wore innocent expressions.

  ‘Of course, of course. I heard the bird is dead.’

  ‘That’s right, so we can get you and your things out of here, to safety.’

  ‘Mmmm.’ She wore a light-blue jumpsuit. ‘Actually, I’ve been thinking I might just stay up here. The connection is better for my radio. Assuming you’re willing to keep providing me food.’

  Nicolai frowned. His initial reaction was that she’d realised she could have her cake and eat it, too. Free food, and maintain her risk-free position up her. But, so long as he could get a hold on her to ensure she started saying the kinds of things he wanted her to say over the radio, this didn’t bother him at all. Unfortunately, it was not so simple.

  ‘You’re not thinking,’ he told her. ‘The bird is dead. The Chosen are out there, right now. I talked to Vikrum.’

  They all gaped at him.

  ‘You talked to that bastard?’ Maxine frowned.

  ‘He wants you. He knows the bird is dead. Without it you are no longer protected from them. It isn’t safe here anymore.’

  Maxine’s eyes widened, a grimace forming on her features. ‘I… shit! Help me with all this crap!’ She started pulling wires from various audio devices, picking stuff up and dumping it in a messy pile on a sheet of cloth she’d laid out in the centre of the room.

  Then she sighed, her movements slowing, and turned to eye him. ‘I know we’re in a bit of a rush here, but there’s some stuff we need to get squared away.’

  Nicolai shrugged. ‘Such as? I assumed you were willing go join my group.’ He watched her curiously. As was often the case when meeting such a larger-than-life personality, a celebrity, she was smaller than he’d expected. Older. More real, more human. But even so, there was something about her. This was the voice on the radio.

  ‘If you’ve food and safety, and you’re willing to let me keep doing what I’m doing, then I’ll join. Perro told me you guys have a good thing going. And, uh, as you know, I’m pretty much out of food. Could you leave that alone?’

  Beth, who’d been poking curiously at some of the radio equipment, gave a guilty start. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘It’s alright, honey. I just don’t want the settings messed up, took me a while to get it all just right. I got their names,’ Maxine gestured to Nicolai, Perro and Azure, ‘but who would you be?’

  ‘I’m Beth,’ she replied, smiling. She hesitated then spoke again. ‘Thank you, for what you do. For a while I was bedridden. I listened to you on the radio a lot back then, the music and your voice. It was a big help to me.’

  Daksh also came forward, introducing himself as well, and soon they were all giving their thanks.

  Maxine grinned back. ‘That’s exactly why I do it. This world is harsh. Perhaps even harsher than the one we left, though I guess that’s debatable. I want to foster a little humanity in this place, a connection.’ She sighed. ‘It’s a shame, what’s going on out there. Everyone fighting. I’d hoped to stop that.’

  ‘All because of the Chosen,’ Nicolai was quick to interject, recognising his moment. ‘That’s something we’re working on. I intend to deal with Vikrum. Once that’s done this place will become safer.’

  ‘Oh?’ She looked him over. ‘You know he’s meant to be the most heavily augmented guy here? You don’t look like you have a lot of hardware.’

  ‘It won’t just be me. We need you. We need your help.’ He slipped towards her, radiating conviction. ‘I want to organise a resistance. You’ve heard of the traders, right? Selling guns and such from the Trade Link.’

  ‘I have, recently. The Chosen mentioned them. They’re giving big rewards for any who can provide information. I wish those guys luck, they’re doing good work. Or perhaps I should be wishing you luck?’ Her eyes narrowed at him, a gauging look.

  ‘That’s right. We’re the traders, giving out the guns and ammo people need to survive and fight back. We need a better way to advertise that to people—and if everyone is to take on the Chosen, we need someone helping to organise that. A voice all can hear.’

  ‘That’d be me, then,’ she said, quirking an eyebrow.

  ‘Who else?’

  ‘Well… I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. I see you’ve got some plans.’

  ‘So, will you help? Will you work with me—with us?’ asked Nicolai.

  She looked thoughtful. ‘What would you do once Vikrum is gone? What’s your plan then?’

  Nicolai shrugged. ‘Then people can do what they want, without the oppression of the Chosen. That’s all I want.’ He spread his arms like Christ on the cross.

  She raised her brows. ‘Alright… well. That all sounds good to me.’

  ‘You’re with us?’

  She nodded. ‘I’m with you.’ She extended a hand.

  ‘Good.’ He grasped it and shook with the optimal level of firmness based on her grip strength. He wore a determined—and now reasonable pleased expression—while maintaining steady eye contact with the measuring gaze she gave him. He made his own slightly measuring in turn.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  When she gave a faint smile and turned away to busy herself grabbing at wires, he knew that she felt that they had shared a moment of connection and understanding. As to what exactly she felt that understanding was, he had no idea. It didn’t matter. Maxine had been won on side.

  He eyed the hefty equipment, relaxing. How had she even gotten all this stuff?

  ‘I’m not sure we can carry quite all of this,’ he told her. ‘How much of it do you actually need? Remember, we have access to the Trade Link. I can definitely buy more solar panels like these for you.’

  ‘Okay,’ she muttered, moving quickly around the room. She took radios and stuffed them into a bag, joined by Perro and Azure and Daksh, then started disconnecting one larger unit from the panels and the rest. ‘Just this, this and my radios,’ she said.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, peering at the thing.

  She tapped the unit. ‘This is called a Radio Host. It’s what I use to lock-down channel two. I got it as a Quest reward. I got a quest to be an, uh, radio person. Now and then I get another quest in the same theme.’ She looked around at the others, then glanced him up and down. ‘You look strong enough. Think you can carry it?’

  Nicolai shifted his shotgun onto his back and moved over. In quick order he and the others had everything Maxine considered crucial wrapped up in a few separate bags of cloth.

  Maxine pronounced that was all she needed, and they carried the radio equipment up the stairs, he, Daksh and Beth handling the bulkier items.

  At the top he found Jo engaged in a staring contest with a familiar drone.

  ‘What’s all this?’ crackled the drone.

  ‘I know that voice,’ muttered Maxine, glaring at the drone.

  ‘Why are you moving all of this?’ Vikrum asked Nicolai.

  ‘It was dangerously stored. You know. Flooding.’

  ‘Flooding? It’s a tower! You—oh. I see. So you refuse my deal, then.’

  ‘I’m still deliberating. Like I said, this will take time. I really don’t think an hour is long enough.’

  ‘No, I think it’s too long already. You will die for this, Viper, you and all your people. Look at you, barely augmented, and I let you damage me… well, you won’t be able to pull anymore cheap tricks like that. I’d destroy you in a real fight! None of you stand a chance against even my weakest elite! And you, Maxine. You bitch. You—‘

  The drone exploded into chunks of metal and plastic, raining from the sky. Glancing to the side, Nicolai saw Beth lowering her shotgun.

  ‘He was getting a bit repetitive.’ She grinned.

  Nicolai snorted then glanced across at the distant Chosen, considering. Vikrum would definitely be sending something after him. The question was: What?

  Vikrum had a reputation to maintain. For a leader, it would not be a good look to abandon his people in the middle of a significant battle that—his eye lenses zoomed, giving him a better look at the source of massed gunfire—did not appear to be going well. On top of that, in spite of his words Vikrum should now hold significant wariness about the idea of coming after Nicolai alone. Therefore if he did come, he would want to bring backup. But abandoning his people while also taking a group—or even some of these elites—with him? Even worse.

  So Vikrum wouldn’t be coming himself. This was good. Vikrum wasn’t entirely wrong—the Cyborg would destroy Nicolai in a “real fight”—which presumably meant one where Nicolai wasn’t allowed to do things like run away and set up ambushes. Of course, he would do all of that, but now that Vikrum had fought him once he would be more aware of his weapons and strategies, and the ground also was not as conducive to fighting the Cyborg. The previous position—short corridors of solid stone—had made it easy for Nicolai to quickly move in and out of cover, and he’d been able to use Soul Sense to good effect. If they were to fight in say, the upper jungle, he would have a much harder time. The trees weren’t his idea of suitable cover from high calibre rounds.

  But Vikrum was very unlikely to come. He would send whichever of these “elites” he could spare and which he judged could deal with Nicolai and the others.

  Nicolai needed to come up with some kind of plan before they arrived. The castle was still too fraught for them to attempt to flee to the safe place, especially if they needed to carry Maxine’s bulky equipment; there were too many bugs and undead. Whoever Vikrum sent should be highly mobile, because he would want them to arrive quickly, and would thus be well setup to take them down while they were stuck fighting their way past skeletons and giant insects.

  He was glad that running was therefore a tactically incorrect move. It meant that fighting was the right move. The thought of the coming battle made his skin prickle, a tiny smile dancing over his lips. His feet tapped impatiently at the stone as he stared at the distant Chosen.

  Soon.

  ###

  ‘You four,’ said Vikrum, gazing at the four Tier 1 Cyborgs who stood before him. They stood with casualness and studied indifference he felt sure was a performance done just to annoy him. It did so regardless. ‘Go to Maxine’s Radio Tower, I’ve marked it on your map. Viper is there. I want you to kill him and his people. Capture Maxine, too. Make sure her radio stuff—or whatever she uses to control Channel 2—isn’t damaged. That’s your number one priority. Actually, no. Killing Viper is your number one priority. Then Maxine.’

  The lead Cyborg, a man named Jermaine, threw a salute that Vikrum judged sloppy.

  ‘Roger that, boss,’ said the man.

  Vikrum’s eyes narrowed, then he lunged forward, hand whipping out. It clutched tight around the neck of the Cyborg, who was human enough to gurgle.

  ‘If whatever she uses to control Channel 2 is damaged, I will be very upset,’ he pronounced. The other three of them had backed up, but they didn’t look as fearful as he’d hoped. They were just watching, holding their weapons ready. The four were all white-metal, with long legs that were always half bent, designed for powerful jumps. It gave them a look that put him in mind of artificial frogs.

  ‘Got it, boss,’ croaked the Cyborg.

  Vikrum resisted the urge to sigh, letting go and stepping back. He knew that really it was Viper’s throat he wanted in his hand. He probably hadn’t done himself any favours with that display. He glanced up, looking above the four. Over their heads shone the words: Undecided.

  He supposed it didn’t matter. The four mercs had been quite close with Gilvine recently, which was part of why he’d decided to send them. Gilvine would’ve been the ideal pick if it was just to kill Viper, but he didn’t trust her not to sabotage the radio equipment or something else. Borg and Katnin had to stay because they were Vikrum’s only truly loyal elites.

  That left these four. He wouldn’t mind if a few of them died in this mission. They should have simply been Loyal. But even if one or two died, he was confident in their ability to kill Viper and the rest of the traders.

  All four of them were almost entirely formed from upper level 1 augments; thus being what was known as a cyborg, an individual who was so augmented as to be more machine than human. Their design focused on speed over strength, and that was all that should be needed. They’d run Viper and his people down, and that would be that. If he was foolish enough to fight, he’d lose. Vikrum felt sure of that; without his tricks, Viper was no problem—and these four were well accustomed to ploys and tricks.

  They’d been mercenaries, back on Earth, and had come to this place all together. A little team that Vikrum had been very pleased to take under his wing, at least back before the issue of their flickering loyalty arose. As perhaps he should have expected, the mercenaries were allies of convenience only.

  ‘Go,’ he snapped, and the four slid into motion, loping away. They leapt off the edge of the roof and landed on tree branches, clawed feet digging in. He observed as the pistons in their legs extended, and the four began to leap from tree to tree, avoiding the ground which was still full of struggling bugs and undead.

  As they went, he wondered whether he ought to have mentioned that he’d personally encountered Viper, and that this encounter was the source of the damage he’d taken. He’d shared with them the details he’d learned; the blue lightning attack, the ability to seemingly move things from a distance, but no more.

  You have shared as much as you can, Cornwall assured him. In your current tenuous position it is not wise to show any signs of weakness. If people knew you were damaged so significantly by a man practically a Raw, the Chosen might grow anxious about your leadership.

  Vikrum nodded. It was fine, anyway. He’d told them not to underestimate Viper. They’d listen.

  Wouldn’t they?