Chaos Theory (30 page)

The Host scattered.

Airborne, stalked by tumbling metal, Blue felt Lara nudge. Bad
timing. With nanoseconds to decide, Blue closed his eyes, gathered
his power, and braced.

25.

Valiant and Zeke stayed low. They peeked around the building
to the glowing spaceship. Creighton stood in the shadows nervously
with the FetchMes pacing around him, their sides still heaving from
the mad dash away from the Crimzon.

“
How you want to play this?” Zeke asked.

“
This is the best attack position I see,” Valiant replied,
checking the charge on his weapon. “We go in hard and fast.” He
scanned the outlay of the buildings again. “Creighton and the
FetchMes from the right, you hit them from the left, and I’ll
plough straight through the middle. Watch the blowback on your
rifle, I’ve seen you choking on that shit when you should be
focusing on firing.”

“
Copy that. And the woman?”

“
Keep Push out of it. Wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I
got a female killed. The concealment here will keep her safe…
oi!”

Push strolled from their hiding place and walked up to the
spaceship. The constant nattering between the men was giving her a
headache. “I want that,” she told the Host as she pointed to the
spaceship. “Leave.”

The Host ambled away silently.

Gawping, Valiant and Zeke left their hiding place.

Push walked up to the spaceship and stared at it. She moved to
the left and placed her hand on the crystal. The outline of a
control panel appeared. She drummed her fingers over it and a
doorway appeared, a ramp sliding down next to her.

“
Easy,” Zeke cheered.

Valiant scowled. “Don’t jinx–”

He raised his weapon at the Hybrids that rounded the
spaceship. They took in the scene and turned to look at Push who
now sat on the ramp, silently watching them all,
unsurprised.

“
Sister-Sigma,” they questioned, confused.

Push looked at Valiant and Zeke. “Is there a reason you are
not shooting them?”

There was a deafening explosion and an earth-shattering boom
as something collided with one of the buildings behind
them.

The Hybrids
realised something suspicious was happening and wove force fields
around themselves.

Gliding off the ramp to meet their attack, Push sighed.
“MainLanders.”

26.

Kali blinked. Smoke burned her lungs and clogged her nose. She
coughed up speckles of ash, her whole body shaking from the force
of it.

Small fires kindled close by, spitting and popping violently.
Rubble burned. The regularly immaculate boulevard was in ruins. The
scene warped gruesomely, automatic emergency lights flaring
brightly. Beeping robots appeared and bumbled about trying to clear
the chaos.

Kali closed her eyes to keep from being sick.

Belted into her seat, she was scrunched, and her neck was bent
at a spectacular angle. Fate must have been on her side to forgo
the extra degrees that would have snapped it. Blood dribbled across
her forehead and dripped off the end of her nose. A gash on her
upper arm bled freely. Her knees were jammed into her stomach, and
one of her arms was trapped behind her back. The other was wrenched
to the side, a heavy body crushing it to the floor. She curled her
fingers, and was happy to find they responded. Kali shrugged her
shoulders, flexed her hips, and tipped her feet back and forth. She
tested the various parts of her body and was gratified nothing was
broken. Her position was uncomfortable, and she didn’t want to bend
that way.

She grunted and shifted.

Remembering she was strapped to the chair, she undid the
harness anchoring her in. Her butt was dislodged from the seat, and
she twisted to avoid from folding over double.

She wiggled her arm out from under Kenshin and put her fingers
to his throat. His pulse was strong, and he was already coming to.
Almond shaped eyes blinked open to regard her hazily. He grinned
dopily and his pupils did crazy things. One was dilated, and the
other contracted to a pinprick.

The FloVe was upside-down and tilted at an angle. The side
touching the ground had been thoroughly torn and smashed, as if it
had taken the brunt of the impact then been whittled as it grazed
along the road.

How her brain was not splattered all over the sidewalk was a
mystery, and Kali suspected it had something to do with one of the
Hybrids. She shimmied out of the craft and stood, leaning on the
fibreglass frame heavily.

Pieces of the FloVe littered the street, as did glinting glass
fragments and chunks of concrete from one of the buildings they’d
apparently clipped whilst going down.

The robots dutifully put out the fires with bursts of foam,
swept, and picked up bits of rubble. Kali knew they weren’t
designed for such destruction. Not that you could tell the robots
that. They would keep cleaning until there was nothing left, even
if that meant they cleaned until the end of the world. She grimaced
when a red hydrant model with blinking blue lights caught fire and
spun circles as its circuitry melted.

Hoots of joy louder than the beeps broke her pointless
thoughts. Zeke and Valiant ran towards them, heavily armed, and
grinning madly in victory. Zeke stopped when he reached Kali.
Valiant continued until he came to a stop over the bodies thrown
twenty feet from the wreckage.

Igor was flat on his back, his arms out by his sides where
they had fallen from holding Christabella to his chest. She was
unconscious and sprawled over him.

Valiant knelt and checked their pulses. He let out a sigh of
relief and held a thumb up.

Slapping Igor on the cheek, he got no response, but
Christabella came around slowly, letting the S.O. set her onto her
feet.

“
You’re a little bit gorgeous,” Valiant drawled.

“
I’m not interested.”

“
But–”

“
No.” Christabella straightened her clothes.

Valiant scowled at her. “You don’t even–”

“
It’s still no.”

“
Had a better offer?”

Christabella sized up Valiant in a glance, tossing her hair
over her shoulder. He was her type. Charming, muscled,
stubble-chinned, and solar-hot, and she’d have been all over it
before the planet had been invaded.

“
Would you have protected my body with your own in the crash?”
she asked.

“
No … wait a minute.” He narrowed his eyes. “This is a trick
question.”

She knelt to dab at a cut on Igor’s brow. “He hasn’t said
anything, but I’m learning to him actions speak louder than words.
He took the brunt of the fall so I wouldn’t be hurt.” She made a
moue at the road rash swelling his cheek. “His poor
face.”

Valiant studied the Hybrid’s colossal size and conceded
defeat. “I swear by the Cosmic Virgin I’ll never touch you
again.”

“
You
have
faith?”

“
I do if it keeps that alien from finding out I hit on
you.”

Amused by the exchange, Kali’s smile died when she remembered
Madeleine was on the FloVe with them.

She ducked her head to look into the vehicle, but couldn’t see
past the seats. “Max? Maddie?”

“
Over here,” Max rasped.

Kali walked around the wreck, trusting Zeke to help Kenshin
out safely.

A bloodied Max held a squirming Maddie over his shoulder. The
child was flustered, had a nasty lump on her forehead, but was
otherwise unscathed.

Lara ignored Max’s attempt to assist her. “You smell nasty.”
Her hair was crazy, her clothes torn, and she was covered in
bruises. Those cold eyes were focused though. “We’re all accounted
for?” she asked the moment she cleared the twisted
wreckage.

“
Yes. Igor is out of it, and Kenshin got knocked on the head,
but otherwise we’re cosmic.” Kali exhaled to keep herself calm so
that her next question wouldn’t come out accusing. “What happened?
One minute I’m talking to Blue, and the next I’m waking up with two
tons of FloVe on my head.”

“
He knocked you out before we all had to suffer the clichéd
dramatics of an unreasonable female. We were pursued by Hybrid, and
Christabella managed to blow their bosons, but Max lost focus and
ploughed us into the street.” She gave him a disgusted look.
“Thanks for that.”

“
You try riding out an explosion in an enclosed space on a
weighed down hovercraft,” he spat. “If I hadn’t crashed right we’d
be dead.”

“
Wrong. If I hadn’t wrapped the FloVe in a cushion of
telekinetic energy we’d all be dead.” Lara scanned the ruin and
spotted one of her rifles. She picked it up, rubbed it down, and
checked the charge. It was half empty. “It’s time to get moving.
We’re almost home free. Zeke, Creighton and Push are with
you?”

“
Affirmative. Worn emotionally but in tact. The FetchMes
arrived unharmed too. We encountered unfriendlies guarding the
ship, but Push handled it.” He scowled, snapped a crick in his
neck. “Handled it so well there was nothing left for the rest of
us,” he grumbled.

Lara tucked the rifle under her arm and winced when she
stretched the skin around a laceration on her shoulder. She’d do a
patch job with a SkinAid when she had a moment to spare. She’d
live. “The spaceship is good to go?”

“
Switch the boat on and we’re gone. Where’s Blue?”

She closed her eyes briefly, and her face darkened before she
masked it with cold indifference. “The Omicron is busy. We have
orders to haul ass.”

Zeke nodded and jogged over to Valiant to help him carry
Igor.

Max glared at Christabella when she slinked over. The pulse
rifle she used to take down the enemy Hybrid was tucked into the
crook of her arm. She brandished it with a flourish and cocked her
hip. “I did
good
.”

“
Stellar.” Lara nodded towards the weapon. “Keep shooting like
that and it’s all yours. I’ll make adjustments for you once we get
clear of this.”

“
Where did you learn to shoot like that?” Max demanded. “At the
range you couldn’t hit a thing three feet from you.”

Christabella wrinkled her nose. “Um, it was a date,” she
replied as if it was obvious. “I wanted you to get close. I might
not be a genius, but I’m not totally clueless. Stars, who can’t
shoot nowadays?”

Kali thought back to the shooting range, when Blue had looked
away and said he didn’t know how to shoot.

Lara sauntered past. Her gaze trawled over Max in disgust. “I
can think of someone.”

*

Panic took hold of Kali
. Standing on
the ramp of the spaceship, they prepared to leave without
Blue.

Igor remained unconscious as Zeke and Valiant carried him
onboard. They set him down inside, and he sprawled out on the
floor.

“
He’s built like a fuxing tank,” Valiant wheezed.

Zeke snorted the affirmative as he worked out a kink in his
lower back.

They all did their bit whilst she stood on the lowest part of
the ramp, torn with indecision. She was too afraid to take the
steps that would put her directly in harms way. She liked Blue, and
there were times when emotion overflowed within her when she looked
at him, but did she want to die for him?

As if some external force took over her body, she was moving
away from the group, and stepping off the ramp.

Kali had taken a handful of tentative steps into the street
when Christabella gave her away.

“
What’s Kali doing?” she asked innocently. “Isn’t it dangerous
out there with the red smoke headed this way?”

Creighton wheezed. On hands and knees, he crawled towards the
ramp. He’d taken a beating when they’d secured the spaceship.
“Princess?”

Kali’s heart thumped. Her body swayed in fear, and
determination from that unknown source set her feet. Unable to
watch and await her possible death, she closed her eyes. Slender
fingers curled in empty air, seeking even though she could see he
was not there.

“
He’ll make it.” The words fell from her lips though she never
thought about saying them. Feeling as disorientated as she was, in
the complete darkness she was even more frightened, so her lashes
fluttered open.

“
Kali
,” Max
bellowed. He tried to set Madeleine down and staggered when she
held him tighter. He couldn’t take her back out there into danger.
“Howl, go get her.”

Instead of obeying the instruction, the wolf sat and watched
Kali with curious eyes.

Max gaped at the FetchMe in disbelief before turning to his
own. “Baby, drag Kali onto the ship.”

The tiger got up to do as commanded, but Howl’s ears
swivelled. The ruff on the back of his neck stood on end, and his
claws sprung out. He spun on the female Bengal, growling
menacingly, a warning rumble that vibrated in his throat as he
advanced. Baby hissed. Her whiskers quivered as she and the wolf
circled each other.