Part 6 (2/2)
”Sophie, Barb's great, but you know that she's not for this stuff. Turn her loose on the computer or research side though, and she's a whiz.”
”She can still help Riley, you know,” Sophie replied. ”You guys didn't get those nicknames for no reason. The streets gave them to you.”
”Okay, point taken. But still . . . ”
I shouldn't have been talking. I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings, but that's one of my weak points. The guy hit me from the side, knocking me to the ground and I rolled, getting to my knees. ”Well, a playmate.”
”What's going on?” Sophie asked.
”I have some new friends to play with,” I said, looking as the man who knocked me down was joined by another. They were pretty average-sized, and the guy must have just caught me at the right off-balance point in order to knock me down the way he did. I grinned, and focused on my opponents.
”Come on guys, two of you against one of me? You don't stand a chance,” I said, pulling out a carryover from Dad's gear that I liked, the escrima stick. Instead of Dad's aluminum version, mine was a little more high tech, using polycarbonate and carbon fiber to make it as strong as steel but as light as a feather, and it was one of my favorite hand-to-hand weapons. Neither of these guys were carrying firearms from what I could see in the dim light, and they didn't have suits on that would give them my abilities either. Actually, they just looked like two somewhat athletic guys wearing cargo pants and t-s.h.i.+rts.
”You gon' find out, hero boy,” one of them said, his voice already panting. Seriously, they both sounded like they'd just gotten done running a four hundred meter sprint after about a thousand pushups. I was worried they'd have a heart attack instead of being able to fight me. ”You gon' find out.”
The one on the left, who hadn't been talking, attacked, and I was surprised at how fast the guy moved. I mean, I've trained with Mark and Riley, who are both fast, but this guy was fast. I barely had the chance to get my stick around in front of me before the guy's right arm shot out in a punch, catching me in the chest.
”f.u.c.k!” I swore. That hurt. How in the blue h.e.l.l does a guy with nothing but his bare fist hurt me through my suit? I'd taken nine millimeter pistol shots at relatively close range and barely felt them. What the h.e.l.l was this?
”Told you,” the other one said, jumping in with his attack. Both of them were sloppy attackers, barely more than street thugs who could throw hands, but with the power and speed both of them were showing, I was stunned. They drove me back, out from between the buildings I'd been moving in and out onto a side flight line.
I caught the first guy, who hadn't said anything yet, as he threw a huge looping overhand right. Using my stick I turned, letting his own momentum throw him over my hip before falling to the pavement hard. He could have been stunned, but I didn't want to give him a chance, and nailed him in the top of the head with my stick. The stick was designed so that an actual killing blow is very difficult in one shot, but a knockout isn't. Still, the guy tried to get up, so I hit him again, this time in the back of the neck near the base of the skull, dropping him.
I didn't know if he was knocked out or possibly killed, but I couldn't waste time checking. His partner attacked again, this time with a punch that I blocked, but a sharp flare of pain went through me as it did. Somehow, someway, my shoulder had just been dislocated. Groaning, I kicked out, playing dirty. Sure, it's not the most warrior-like of maneuvers, but everyone drops from a kick to the b.a.l.l.s, especially when it's enhanced by my suit which would let me kick hundred yard field goals if I wanted.
He dropped as well, and I staggered off. I heard more footsteps approaching from out of the darkness, and I decided discretion was the better part of valor. My chest hurt like h.e.l.l, my left shoulder was on fire, and I didn't know what the h.e.l.l was going on. So I did what I had to do, and ran.
Sophie held her tongue until I was at least a little ways away. ”Report.”
That's something about Sophie that I can appreciate. She'll joke and smile, allow a bit more of my personality than Mark or Dad does on coms, but when things are tense, she's all business. She'd heard at least some of what had gone down, and knew I was in trouble. ”Two unarmed attackers, I disabled them both. Retreating, more coming, don't know how many.”
”Do you need backup?” She asked. I knew Mark would make his own decision, but I didn't want him there. Not with as fast as those guys moved.
”No. I'll need medical treatment when I get home.”
”What kind of injuries?”
”Dislocated shoulder, maybe bruised some ribs,” I said. Fire coursed through my chest, and I thought that perhaps I had a bit more than just some bruising to my ribs, but if I told Sophie or Mark over the line that I'd possibly fractured something, he'd be on the road before I could tell him not to. ”I can ride.”
”We'll be ready when you get home.”
One of the reasons that the gym portion of Mount Zion takes up so much s.p.a.ce is that, in addition to the weight training equipment, martial arts equipment, and gymnastics equipment that each demand their own s.p.a.ce, but a third of the building, not visible to anyone who might come by and be invited into the facility, was a condensed medical clinic. Sophie had continued with her medical training as the years went on, and had even gotten Mom to become a pretty decent ad-hoc a.s.sistant when s.h.i.+t really hit the fan. By the time I got back, steering my motorcycle half drunkenly due to the pain in my shoulder, the two of them had the clinic ready to go. Mom's eyes were filled with worry, but she was a lot more composed than she had been the first time she saw Dad with a bullet hole, at least according to her story.
”Sweetie,” Mom said before getting control of herself. ”All right, let's get that suit off.”
I felt strange, letting my own mother help me off with my clothes. I hadn't needed Mom's help with my clothes since I was about four, but there was no way I could lift my arm up above my head to get my outfit off. Thankfully, the sleeves had zips that ran down the inside of the elbow for just this sort of incident. Mark planned for a lot of contingencies. After unzipping up my torso and along the underside of my arms, the front half peeled off while the back half sagged down, exposing me to the waist. ”Glad I don't have a suit like Andi,” I said, s.h.i.+vering in the air conditioned chill. ”That one-piece body suit wouldn't be good in a time like this.”
Mom and Sophie said nothing, easing me up against a diagnostic panel. Using a couple of blind drop businesses, MJT had acquired a lot of the same stuff used on the International s.p.a.ce Station and aboard US Navy aircraft carriers. While Sophie couldn't do an MRI in the s.p.a.ce we had, she could do a lot. ”Hold still,” she said, going over across the room. ”Let's take a look inside.”
The system Sophie used wasn't X-rays, I knew that much, but other than that, I'm pretty much clueless. I'm trained in field medical techniques, but I let the details on the medicine go to those who were interested in it. In my opinion, I thought that Riley was the one most likely to follow in his mother's footsteps. In five seconds, a complete body scan of my upper body appeared on screen. ”Jesus.”
”What?” I asked, stepping away from the bed. I wasn't bleeding, and moving wasn't making the pain in my shoulder any worse. ”What do you see?”
Mom looked up at me from the screen she and Sophie were studying, concern back in her eyes. ”On the bed,” she said, stepping around. ”You've got some fractures.”
”No,” Sophie said, holding up her hand. ”Let's get that shoulder back into place first, and then we can worry about the fractures. It'll be easier if he's sitting up.”
I let Mom help me sit down, and Sophie came over, taking my arm in her hands. ”This is going to hurt.”
She pulled, and before I pa.s.sed out, I heard a satisfying thunk. Still, the pain was enough that I embraced the darkness, and let it wash over me for a while.
Chapter Eleven.
Riley
I helped Andi out mostly by following behind her, making sure things were tidied up. ”Give me your sidearms,” I said as we came in. ”I can store them in the Bell Tower for the night.”
Andi stopped, startled. She nodded, and unsnapped her weapons from their hard-points on her costume. Peeling off her cowl, she ran through the house to the gym and medical facility. I went upstairs to the Bell Tower, making sure to put things away.
I was just finis.h.i.+ng my breakdown of my sidearm when Dad came in, his face tight. ”How's Carter?” I asked, trying to put my fears aside. ”Andi's with him?”
”She is,” Dad said, popping the clip on his Glock and clearing the weapon. He put it away, then put his hands on the table. ”What the h.e.l.l happened?”
”I don't know, Dad,” I said, finis.h.i.+ng my last weapon. I went over to the rack and peeled off my costume, plugging it into the computer port that would do a diagnostic on the systems as well as recharge it. ”Didn't Carter say anything?”
He shook his head. ”He pa.s.sed out when Sophie put his shoulder back into socket, and she's kept him lightly sedated since. Riley, he's got two broken ribs and ma.s.sive bruising over his entire chest. How the h.e.l.l does that happen with those suits you guys wear? They're designed to take a sledge hammer blow without a second glance.”
I shook my head. ”We'll find out when Carter wakes up. Did you download his cowl's camera feed yet?”
Dad shook his head. ”Tabby is doing that now. Riley, did you see anything out there that can give us a lead on this?”
<script>