CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
“Where did you come from?” Kira demanded.
“West,” said Samm. He kept his eyes on the road to the east and fired another short, controlled burst from his rifle.
“But how?” asked Kira. “Why? What about the Preserve? I thought I’d . . . never see you again.”
“Go ahead and kiss him,” said Marcus, throwing himself down behind the same car for cover. “He saved our lives—if you don’t kiss him, I’m going to.”
“Questions later,” said Samm. “Do you have any ammo left?”
“We’re out,” said Kira.
“I have a pistol in my side holster,” said Samm, firing another quick burst. “Take it, and get your people to safety. I’ll hold this line to give you and Heron more time.”
Kira took the gun. “Heron’s here too?”
“Planting explosives,” said Samm. “There’s a bridge two blocks behind me.”
Kira looked ahead, trying to spot it, but it was impossible to see anything that far through the snowfall. She looked back at Samm. “I won’t leave you here.”
“I’ll be right behind you,” said Samm, and Kira saw now that there were other soldiers with him, dug in across the width of the road. “Get your people to safety, and wait for my signal. Now go. And Kira?”
She looked at him, her heart still twisting at the confusion of seeing him here. “Yes?”
“I’m . . . glad you’re safe,” he said. It was a simple sentence, but the link data that came with it was so powerful it made her hands tremble. She nodded, trying to say the same thing back, but it came out as a confused mumble. She’d thought he was gone for good, trapped on the other side of the wasteland. She’d dealt with it. She glanced from Samm to Marcus and back to Samm again.
She didn’t know what to do now.
“Let’s go,” said Marcus, and Samm gave them another burst of covering fire as they helped Green to his feet and ran forward through the howling storm. Cars and buildings and lampposts loomed like ghosts on the edge of their vision. Bodies lay in the snow, already half-buried by the relentless storm. The close buildings gave way to a wide, empty parking lot, and then they reached the bridge—the ocean inlet it crossed was narrow, barely thirty feet wide at the most, and it wouldn’t hold the army for long. In this weather, though, removing it would buy Kira’s people a few precious hours.
Someone waved them forward to the bridge. “They came out of nowhere,” said the man; he was one of the humans Kira had sent ahead, though she couldn’t remember his name. He gestured to Heron, climbing up from under the bridge with Tomas, the demolitions tech. “She says they know you.”
“They do,” said Kira, looking at Heron’s eyes as she approached. “I’m starting to think I don’t know them, though.”
“Hey, girlfriend,” said Heron, though her tone was hardly playful. “You miss me?”
“You’re lucky I haven’t already shot you for selling me out to Morgan,” said Kira.
“I don’t think it counts as selling if I didn’t accept any payment,” said Heron.
“How am I supposed to trust you? Nothing you do makes sense.”
“Pay better attention,” said Heron, and looked at Tomas. “You ready?”
“Samm said to wait for his signal,” said Marcus. “He covered our retreat.”
“Then let’s shut up and cover his,” said Heron, and pointed back down the road to Samm and his men, dashing from car to car for cover as the Partial army surged forward behind them. Kira fell into position next to Heron, their differences temporarily forgotten as Heron handed her a new magazine and they began firing. Samm turned and raced toward them, his arm around a wounded companion.
“Get clear!” he shouted. “Are the other two set?”
“Ready to go,” said Heron calmly, and then their whole group fell back, racing away from the oncoming swarm of soldiers. Tomas unspooled a long roll of wire as he ran, and they threw themselves to the ground behind a snowbank. Kira felt the final commands race across the link:
CLEAR
READY
NOW
Tomas pressed the detonator, and the bridge exploded in a bright orange ball barely ten feet in front of the leading enemy runners. Kira turned her head away, covering her eyes against the blinding orange fireball, and felt the percussive thump of two more explosions, one and two blocks north on the same ocean inlet.
“That’s it,” said Samm. “Let’s get as much distance between us and here as we can before they cross that canal.”