Juliet ran. Her breathing was shallow, her body drained, and her brain dulled by fog, but she kept her eyes on Honey and Lilia and called out whenever they veered off the course Angel had plotted. She fought to keep moving, to keep upright, though she was down to one exhausted arm for balance, and, despite her nanites’ efforts, her body hurt. She knew it was bad that she felt so much pain—it meant she was hurt in places the nanites couldn’t turn off her nerve signals, places inside her. Was it from the punch to her kidney? The one to her stomach? Her violent, hormone and electricity-fueled attack on the deadly security agent, Rutger?
“It doesn’t matter,” she wheezed, jumping a fallen, moss-covered log, almost slipping and falling onto her butt as she came down. Honey paused, looking back as Juliet stumbled and braced herself against the damp trunk of another tree.
“You good?”
“Not really.” Juliet wiped at her brow, straining to listen, wondering if she could pick up the sound of drones or stomping pursuers. She didn’t hear anything, but that didn’t mean much; her breathing and the pounding of her heart in her ears were all she could focus on. “We gotta keep moving.” She broke into a jog, brushing past Honey and the oddly quiet little girl on her back, and continued to follow the path Angel had plotted.
“The drones are still above, circling,” Angel said, perhaps guessing what Juliet had been trying to do.
“Any sign of the security team?”
“No sounds of pursuit yet.”
“What’s the story?” Honey called, guessing that Juliet was getting an update from Angel.
“Drones are circling; no sound of the security team yet.”
“How much further? God, I miss my PAI!”
“Two point seven klicks,” Juliet replied. Then she buckled down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. She was too tired to try to work her way around every bit of undergrowth, stomping through damp ferns and the springy branches of smaller trees. She caught herself leading with her right arm and shoulder, both completely numb, so she was oblivious to any further damage she might be doing. She could hear Honey breathing heavily behind her, keeping up despite the rough terrain and the fact that she wore thin slippers and had a twenty-kilogram child on her back.
“I hear the sounds of pursuit!” Angel announced after another twenty minutes of hiking. “I picked up a human voice approximately one hundred meters behind you.”
“They’re on us,” Juliet wheezed softly. “A hundred meters back. We’re still a klick from the tunnel.”
“You want me to slow ‘em down?”
“No, Honey!” Juliet said, grunting as she climbed a slight rise—were they moving out of the forest into the hills where the old train tracks emerged? “There are some very dangerous people on that security team. One of them, for sure, has a heavy weapon; it’ll shoot through these trees.”
“Then we need to pick up the pace. Come on, J,” Honey said, passing her on the left side. “Hold onto my jumper if you need to. Let me help you up this hillside.”
“I’m sorry,” Juliet said, and she might have sobbed in frustration if she weren’t so tired. “My body just feels like it’s running on empty. My legs feel weak . . .”
“Just put that pistol in your pocket and hold on!”
Juliet didn’t reply, just did as Honey suggested, slipping the sweaty nine-millimeter into her pocket and grabbing a fistful of Honey’s jumper right above her butt. Honey started to motor uphill, and Juliet followed, hardly believing how much it helped to have her friend taking some of the weight off her poor legs. While they moved, Juliet trying hard not to imagine a high-powered rifle round exploding into her back, she stared at her AUI, using her eye movements to select a private comm channel with Bennet.
Angel initiated the connection, and Bennet almost immediately answered, “Yeah?”
“Did you make it?”
“Yep! We’re here, but the door is locked. You don’t want me to cut through it, do you? There’s a camera here, but Shiro says you said you had that under control. I didn’t remember you saying that, so we . . .”
“We’re getting close,” Juliet huffed, interrupting him. “Shit went sideways. You know that duffel I sent with you?”
“Yeah . . .”
“There are five concussion grenades in there. They’re modular and chainable. Can you get them all hooked together and program the IR tripwire? We’re being chased. Use the guns in the bag if you want.” Juliet paused to gasp several breaths; she and Honey had crested the wooded hill and ran flat out between tall trees with little undergrowth. According to Angel’s map, they were only half a kilometer from the old tracks. “We’ll be there soon, probably with company.”
She didn’t bother cutting the line; it was fine if Bennet wanted to listen to her huffing and puffing. At least he’d know what was going on. Honey, having listened to her half of the conversation, looked back, pausing to shift Lilia’s weight on her back, and asked, “You have help waiting?”
“Friends. Yeah.” Juliet didn’t dare stop or slow down; she was afraid she’d struggle to get started again. She could see ahead where a rocky outcropping stretched up from the forest floor. Angel’s path led to the right around it. “Come on; I think the hill up to the old station is around that outcropping." Honey didn’t reply, still standing still, looking back the way they’d come. Juliet didn’t wait; Honey was far fresher than she was.
She’d made it halfway to the outcropping when Honey’s footsteps sounded behind her, and her friend, trying to keep her voice low, said, “They’re coming. I saw two. They saw me and didn’t shoot. Juliet, just keep running. Let me and Lilia stay between you and them; they won’t hurt her.”
“Right,” Juliet panted, “Just don’t let ‘em catch us.” Just then, a thunderous crack sounded behind them, and with a zipping whir, a projectile exploded through the trunk of a nearby tree, showering Juliet and Honey with splinters and steam as the moisture in the tree was instantly boiled. With a groan, the huge tree began to fall, and Juliet felt her poor, exhausted adrenal glands do their work again; her legs suddenly had strength, and she began to sprint forward. She glanced over her shoulder, trying to gauge where the trunk would tip. It looked like she was good; it seemed to be leaning to the right, away from her and down the gentle grade.
Shouts sounded, garbled in the noise of the collapsing tree, and more shots rang out, but only a few, then more frenzied yelling, and they ceased. Juliet was about to ask Angel to analyze the audio to determine what had been said, but then the trunk came down with a ground-shaking crash, and she rounded the outcropping. “You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’re good,” Honey said, coming around behind her. They ran straight toward the cleared slope where, sure enough, the old, abandoned rail tracks came out of the big, walled-off tunnel in the side of the hill.
“I got your bomb rigged,” Bennet said, startling Juliet—she’d forgotten they were still on an open comm connection.
“Tell him . . .” Angel started to say, but then Juliet’s comms lit up, and Angel spoke directly through the channel. “Bennet, this is Lucky’s PAI. She’s breathless and running. Please input the override code 7455917 into the keypad. We’ll be coming through in approximately ninety seconds.”
“Got it . . .”
“Please prop the door open and then take cover. There’s a hostile with a gauss rifle, and they might snipe you if they see your silhouette in the open door.” Angel was clearly trying to protect Bennet, and Juliet appreciated her stepping in, but she also knew she would get blasted to red mist if she slipped outside the cover Lilia was providing. If she went too slow or too fast, or if the concrete steps or angle of the hill provided a shot at her without the risk of hitting Lilia, she was a goner.
“Actually,” she huffed, climbing the grassy, brush-covered slope, hoping to get to the door nearly two hundred meters up its slope before the security team came around the outcropping, “Bennet, can you lay prone, aim at the outcropping at the base of the hill that will be to your right. We need cover fire if I’m going to get up there alive. Like, right now.”
“I will do it,” Shiro said into the comms. Juliet hadn’t even realized Angel had patched him in. “I’m a better shot.”
“Use the rail gun. The Glimmer Tech model. Set it to full auto and just spray the shit out of that outcropping when you see someone come around it. We’re close.” Nobody spoke, but Juliet knew Shiro was a man of few words, and he’d probably only speak if he needed more information. She, meanwhile, was out of breath, heaving and panting as she pushed her worn-out body up that hillside toward the little concrete landing with the now-open security door.
Juliet felt Honey right behind her, hugging close with Lilia on her back, providing a sick sort of cover for the two of them. She hoped whoever was back there with the gauss rifle wouldn’t risk a low shot, hoping to blow Honey’s leg off. They were about fifty meters from the doorway when she heard her railgun begin to whine, firing a stream of dense ferromagnetic rounds at supersonic speeds. With each heaving exhalation, Juliet began to count, “One . . . two . . . three . . .” She knew the gun would drain its battery and magazine after thirty seconds.
“We got this,” Honey said. “Come on, J. We’re close!”
“Eleven . . .” Juliet knew her count wasn’t accurate; she wasn’t breathing once a second, not at her level of exhaustion. Still, she could see the door looming much larger ahead, saw the concrete pad, and could still hear the rail gun’s high-pitched screaming discharge as the ribbon of hot metal flew out of its barrel downslope. She’d gotten to twenty-four when she finally stepped onto the concrete pad and barreled ahead to the door.
Shiro lay in the doorway, her gun in his hands, still firing, sending out a cloud of hot gasses. Juliet turned to yank Honey in behind her and caught a glimpse of the downslope. A thick cloud of dust obscured the trees at the edge of the grass; little fires were burning here and there, and she saw broken trunks where Shiro had blasted through them, dropping tree tops all around the edge of the clearing—that gun was a force of nature. She cut off her view by slamming the door shut just as Shiro stopped shooting and rolled back, standing up with her smoking, ticking rail gun in his hands.
“Battery’s almost gone,” he said.
“It did the job. Get away from the door!” Juliet pushed him and Honey, who was just unslinging Lilia from her back, away from the door and around the concrete corner. “Bennet! Set the grenade mine here, around the corner!”
“Chill, chill,” Honey said, gently grasping her shoulder, the one Juliet couldn’t feel. “They won’t shoot that door when Lilia’s in here. It’s too risky.”
“Even so, we need to get moving. Bennet?” Juliet looked past Shiro to see Bennet rifling through her big duffel.
“You didn’t pack a med kit, Lucky?”
“We don’t have time for that anyway!” Juliet’s voice rose with near hysteria, and when she heard it, she forced herself to slow down and breathe. “I’m at my limit, guys, but we need to move.” She couldn’t stop picturing the people White had erased with his gauss rifle and then imagining the same thing happening to her friends. While Bennet hurried past her with the tube of chained-together concussion grenades, Juliet said, “Honey, these are two good friends of mine, Shiro and Bennet.”
“Uh, good to meet you guys.” Honey shifted Lilia on her back and gestured toward her with one hand. “This is Lilia. She doesn’t talk much, but we’re super grateful for all you’re risking to help us out.”
“Right, let’s roll,” Bennet said, straightening up. He’d placed the grenade booby trap right around the corner from the door, and she knew, from the specs the sales guy had given her, that it would detonate as soon as something larger than a mouse moved inside the arc of its IR sensor.
As they hurried out of the corridor and down the concrete steps to the old railway in the vast tunnel, Shiro asked, “What exactly are we risking, Lucky? How bad did things go back there?”
“You guys are good. Nobody saw you . . .” Juliet started to say, but then a tremendous boom shook the ground, even the steps she was traversing, causing her to lurch down the last few and stagger onto the tunnel floor. “God! That was loud!”
“Do you think it closed off the tunnel?” Bennet asked.
“It seems likely,” Angel replied for Juliet’s ears. “I heard distinct sounds of collapse, not just the concussion.”
“I hope so. Let’s jog.” Juliet led by example, lurching into a sort of stagger-jog, wincing with each step as it jostled her shoulder and her insides. “God, I’m sore.”
“You look like hell, and I see your arm is totally fried,” Bennet offered.
“Anyway,” Juliet said, glancing over her shoulder to see Honey keeping pace with Lilia still on her back. Shiro and Bennet were close behind, the big man carrying her duffel and Shiro still clutching her rail gun. “Shiro, swap that out for my SMG.”
“Where the heck are we?” Honey asked as they slowed so Shiro could change guns.
“We’re under the domes. Under the surface of Titan. We’ll come out in a place called Old Atlas.” Despite her body’s reluctance, Juliet ran and trusted the others to follow. “I wish I had my helmet,” she panted, “so I could see behind us. Or, I mean, so Angel could.”
“I’m watching,” Honey said.
“Me too,” Bennet chimed in, a bit further back.
“If we closed off that tunnel, can they even find us?” Shiro asked, easily keeping pace with Juliet.
“I don’t know. The guy who was holding them,” Juliet jerked her head toward Honey and Lilia, “has a lot of resources. He’s closed down the roads to the Xanadu Dome, and I’m sure his team has alerted him that we’re in here.”
“Nearly three dozen entrances to the Old Atlas tunnel system are listed on the public net. There are likely more than that. It won’t be easy to pinpoint us,” Angel helpfully informed her.
“We might be able to slip through without getting caught. We have a good head start, but let’s keep frosty.” Juliet had a memory of Houston saying that to her—keep frosty. As his face flashed through her mind, she growled and pushed herself harder; she didn’t want to lose any more friends. “Not today,” she muttered, sucking in breath.
“Where’s your pal?” Bennet asked.
“Dead. Same guy who messed me up killed him. He wasn’t my pal, Bennet; you know that!”
“Uh, sorry.” Bennet sounded chagrined, and Juliet knew how he felt, eating that big hunk of shoe.
“Don’t worry about it. We just need to get out of here.” That was the end of any conversation for a while as they all buckled down and focused on running. When they exited the big rail tunnel and ran through the section of corridors leading through the spot where Juliet had found Cel and Rissa, she saw where Bennet had cut her welds, but it barely registered as she pounded through and retraced her old steps, following Angel’s map.
They weren’t quiet, and Juliet felt reckless charging through those tunnels, especially remembering the ambush she’d dealt with on her first trip through, but she had backup now, and they were in a hurry—people far worse than those random thugs were looking for her. It was with a sense of something almost like surprise when they finally climbed the steps up to the water treatment plant. She’d felt sure someone would get ahead of them or intercept them en route, but no such nightmare resolved, no hidden snipers or shadowy assassins.
When they worked their way through the plant, Angel guiding them using her earlier-gained access to the cameras, Bennet asked, “Should we all ride together? Should we take more than one cab?”
“One is better,” Juliet replied, “The people chasing us think we’re just two women and a child.”
“I’ve ordered you a cab, and the streets are quite busy with traffic and congestion—the workers are marching again.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” Juliet replied. In minutes, they were sitting outside the metal door leading into the water treatment plant, waiting for the cab. Not a single car was on the dark street. “Hunker down, everyone. No sense standing out while we wait. Don’t worry about the camera; I have control of it.”
“Where are we running?” Honey asked, sitting down next to Juliet, her back to the door. She pulled Lilia close, having her sit on her lap.
“My ship,” Shiro grunted, squatting low, facing Honey and Juliet. Bennet sat at the edge of the steps, looking out over the street.
“Your ship? So, we have a ride home?” Honey’s voice rose with excitement.
“Hai.”
“These are good people, Honey. You can trust them.”
“I can’t tell you how happy I am, Ju . . . Lucky. I thought we were going to die in there. Once Levkin got what he wanted from Lilia, I was sure we’d be turned into compost or something.”
Juliet saw Shiro’s eyes dart toward her as Honey fumbled her name. She tried to steer his thinking away from it, “Honey, what is it about her? What were they watching her for?”
Honey looked at Juliet, then let her eyes wander to Shiro and Bennet and asked, “You’re sure I can speak freely? This is some heavy, heavy stuff.”
Juliet locked eyes with Shiro, stared into them, and then, very deliberately, she nodded and said, “We can trust them.”
“Lilia is . . . she’s not Voronov’s daughter.” While she spoke, Juliet looked at Lilia, wondering how she’d react to being the subject of their conversation. The girl continued to stare ahead, a pleasant expression on her face.
“Is she Levkin’s?” Juliet asked, remembering what the squints had said.
“Hah! Hell no. She’s not Voronov’s daughter; she’s his clone! She has a specialized PAI, new tech; it has a copy of Voronov’s entire brain, and it’s slowly mapping it to his clone here. This girl,” Honey hugged her close, clearly affectionate toward the child, “is a miracle of science. If it works, she’s going to remember everything Voronov knew when his brain was mapped and downloaded. I really don’t know how it works, but it’s all stored in Lilia’s data port, and the PAI is somehow recreating it in her brain.”
“Hey, I’m just a dumb engineer, but didn’t you say Voronov was a guy?” Bennet asked, looking at the little girl skeptically.
“Yeah, I don’t know the whole story there. I don’t know why he made his clone a female, but . . . he did.” Honey shrugged.
“So, he’s cheating death?” Shiro asked, voice hushed. “Does the clone know it’s being erased?”
“It’s not!” Honey laughed, shaking her head. “The PAI was installed at birth! It’s part of her, and the PAI is what’s driving her right now. She’s basically a fully biological synth until her brain matures enough and the program finishes writing Voronov’s image.”
“You’re a synth?” Juliet asked softly, touching Lilia’s hand.
“May I answer?” Lilia looked at Honey.
“You can answer questions Lucky asks you.” Honey nodded to the girl.
“Essentially,” Lilia said, turning to Juliet. “Not for long, though—maybe another few years until this brain is ready for the full image.”
“Cab’s here,” Bennet said, standing up.
“We need to get on the ship before the docks are shut down.” Juliet stood up and started, painfully, stiffly, walking down the long flight of concrete steps. As they drew near the sleek, silver cab, a thought occurred to her, and she asked, “Lilia, do you have recordings of Levkin doing anything illegal?”
“Yes. I have him engaged in the act of interrogating kidnapping victims—myself and Honey—and admitting to conspiring with Luna Constabulary in the murder of Alexander Voronov.”
“Oh, hell yes,” Juliet said, sliding into the cab. “Shiro, let’s talk about my investment into the gunship when we get back.”