Part 11 (1/2)
Techie units took to carrying shotguns, nicknamed buzzard-busters, but still it was always touch and go. In urban zones the trick was to lead the buzzards into a narrow place where they were cl.u.s.tered and there was no room to maneuver. But outside, in the open, it was murder.
12.
Well, that's blown it wide open, John thought.
Keep moving, muttered Sergeant Wiley.
John hugged the steel locker lid and leaned around the edge of the hub building. The cable car was still in its dock, but would begin its cliff-ward journey any second. He could hear the beginnings of the generator whine.
Options were obvious and limited. The cable-car access was the choke point; it was the only way to or from the station. And the cable car itself was not an option. From the sound of the rifle she was using, Janice could turn the car into Swiss cheese. Unless John found a way to get back to Eden without being seen, his sniper would eventually pick him off. His cover was limited and she could wait him out or come in slow, boxing him in until there was no place to hide. And if she had bots at her call, the job would be that much easier and quicker.
There has to be another way. After another moment of thought, he found one.
He broke into the open and sprinted for the loading dock in a wild zigzag. No shots came, surprisingly, and he made the cable car just as the gears kicked in and the empty car began to move. He slid to his knees, putting the car between him and the cliff top, and quickly tossed the locker lid through a window.
As the car moved up and away from him, he reached for a st.u.r.dy loop of steel cable that was bolted to the bottom end of the car. This allowed it to be hooked and dragged with a pole when near the dock, but John used it now to hook his elbows through and hold tight as he left the platform. His legs swung freely beneath him as the car moved upward into the open air. He felt ridiculously exposed, but as long as Janice remained above him on a direct line toward the cliff top, he was blocked from view by the cable car's body.
A loose strand of the steel cable he held punctured his skin painfully. He ignored it, focusing on recalling his anti-sniper training. You had to find them, but first...
Distract until location ascertained.
He cleared his throat and spoke into the earpiece. ”So, uh, Janice, right?”
The woman responded instantly. ”Names are unnecessary.”
”Oh, I think they're very necessary, Janice,” John said. Might as well overdo it, as long as I'm trying to get under her skin. ”You know, I never liked the name Janice. Sounds like a headmistress of one of those uptight girls' schools,” he reflected, trying not to let the strain of hanging outside a cable car affect his voice. ”Glenn probably secretly hated you. I know I sure do, and I've only just met you.”
”Adam, please don't-” Eve began, but was cut off.
”Shut up, both of you,” Janice grated. There were a few seconds of silence and then she spoke again, almost muttering to herself. ”Glenn was brilliant in so many ways, and yet so strikingly naive. It caught up with him.”
The cable cars were about to pa.s.s each other, and he would be at his most vulnerable.
Time to really kick the hornet's nest. Maximum distraction.
”One thing I've been curious about did you kill Glenn yourself, Janice, or have one of the bots do it for you?”
There was total silence in his earpiece, and then the cars pa.s.sed each other. Rapid-fire gunshots from three meters away shattered the tranquility of the seaside ravine, and he felt the car rock with the impacts. Swinging farther under the car, he hooked his feet through some bars that ran parallel to either side, and grabbed onto them, hiding his body under the car's belly.
The gunshots stopped. He tucked himself as close to the underside of the car as he could, refusing to lower his head to look back at the other car that would be rolling down into view by now.
Seconds ticked by and there was no sound other than the rattle of the cables overhead. There had been no further shots and he had to be nearing the cliff top dock by now, but he couldn't relax.
The voice that finally broke the stillness was calm and quiet.
”Is he gone, Janice?”
”If he was hiding in the other car, he's definitely gone and it's your fault,” Janice said. ”You've been a bad, bad girl, Eve.”
There was a silence. ”How long were you listening to us?” Eve asked.
”Long enough, Eve. It's over. I'm locking you all the way down after this. I can't afford any more messes like the one in that cable car.”
”Janice, what he said about Glenn...”
”It's not important anymore, is it, Eve? Anyway, who are you going to listen to, me or some intruder we don't know from Adam?”
Eve sighed. ”I suppose it's for the best. He was exhibiting a rebellious streak that made him ill-suited to what we're doing here.”
”We're going to have to have a chat about your recruiting efforts behind my back, Eve.”
John was almost to the docking platform at the top, and couldn't resist breaking in. ”Sorry to disappoint you ladies-- I'm not quite dead yet.”
”Where are you?!” Janice shrieked through his earpiece, so loud he winced.
The cable car docked with a satisfying clunk. If Janice turned now and looked up she would be able to see him easily, but he was banking on Janice being completely focused on spotting him down at West Station. A simple mistake, but that's all he needed. You wouldn't have lasted long in my unit, sister.
With considerable effort he climbed back into the car, now peppered with jagged holes punched through the sheet metal, and through the car to terra firma on the edge of the headland. He immediately dropped and crawled to a tuft of gra.s.s at the cliff's edge. He didn't see anything; Janice must have moved into a building, hunting him.
He crawled back to the cable dock and calmly, quietly, began undoing the safety clamps that held the steel spool of cable. ”It's a shame you can't appreciate polite conversation, Janice,” he said. ”Eve and I were building good rapport until you broke in.”
Janice suddenly emerged from the main building, intense and focused, rifle to shoulder ready to kill. He watched her moving around the station platform, carefully aiming around corners. It would have been serious if he'd still been hiding in the station, but from where he lay on the headland it was almost comical.
He released the final safety clamp, gave the spool a heavy kick, and ran. The wheel began to spin in a blur, and what had been a high tensile cable slanting from dock to dock sagged, then bent under the weight of the car sliding down to the center of the line. As he ran, he heard behind him a metallic whine rising to a scream, then stopping short in a sharp snapping sound as the cable reached the end of the spool and stopped unraveling. In seconds the cable car hung a few meters above the canyon bottom, a slack cable swinging in the wind above it.
Janice was screaming curses in his earpiece, and he dialed down the volume until she finally fell silent, then brought it back up. ”Janice, Janice, can't we be friends? What are a few potshots and some sabotage between buddies? Perhaps we started off on the wrong foot.” He tried and failed to keep the laughter out of his voice.
Janice's voice was low and even. ”You're only postponing the inevitable, whoever you are. But next time I won't make it so quick and easy.”
”You ought to be more open-minded, sister,” John said. ”After all, we're all alone on a deserted island together.” Baiting her was actually fun.
”In your dreams.”
”Yes, in my dreams. With thee a moment! Then what dreams have play.”
”An educated man. What a loss to the world when I spray your insides all over a wall.”
”Now that you mention it, it is difficult to maintain erudition in the face of barbarism, but I do what I can. Where did you learn to shoot, anyway? Are you ex-mil?”
”Worse than that. Much worse, for you.”
”Worse is the right word. You wouldn't have pa.s.sed muster in my old unit.”
John stopped when he saw something leaning against a tree that he recognized well: an electric motorcycle with deep plastic wheel treads suited to the terrain. It was the most powerful model he'd seen in years; they didn't make them with so much juice anymore because you could only go for twenty kilometers on a charge.
”Oh my, a powerbike. Left here as a present for all the good work I do. Janice, you shouldn't have. It's even my color.”