A man rushed into the open zone and Leo dropped him.
He hoped that would stop it. It didn’t. The others hit the dirt but they didn’t open fire. One of the men not in the group ran into the perimeter, pulled something from his cloak, and hurled it at the compound. Steve McGuire, closest, pulled a gun and fired, but someone else shot him in the back.
A bomb—the fucker had hurled a bomb. He would find out soon enough that a Molotov wasn’t going to stop anything. These people had no idea what ordnance was, they couldn’t make anything that could—
It wasn’t a Molotov. A huge explosion at the east door blew out the wall of the compound, knocking Leo off the roof. He fell eight feet and landed hard, but a second later was on his feet, still clutching his rifle. Smoke thick as cotton filled the air. Leo coughed and stumbled, unable to see anything. Gunfire from above—Zoe was still firing. Kandiss and Owen, they’d been right in front of the east door….
Figures rushed past him in the smoke and flying debris. The compound was breached and enemy flowed inside in search of more vaccine… was there any more? Incongruously, Leo realized he didn’t know.
All this took only a nanosecond. Then some of the smoke cleared and Leo was firing at the enemy still running toward the compound. When they either were dead or had turned tail, he turned toward the east door. Kandiss lay there, his huge body still, and an insurgent was raising a pipe gun to fire. Leo swung his weapon around. But before he could shoot, a crack! came from his right and the enemy fell. Leo spun around. Isabelle stood there, blackened from smoke and dirt, holding Steve McGuire’s gun.
“Get down!” Leo yelled, at the same moment that Zoe’s voice crackled over the radio, “No more enemy approaching!”
“Fire if they do,” Owen said. “Brodie, Kandiss, room clearing!”
“Kandiss is hit,” Leo said. “I’m coming in.”
Half the east wall was gone off the compound. Injured or dead lay on the floor of the Big Lab. Screams came from the clinic. Leo and Owen ran down the walkway.
In the first room, three Kindred scientists stood backed against the far wall. Two men stood in front of them, spinning around as Leo and Owen entered. The men both fired, but Leo and Owen were faster. The pipe guns sprayed the ceiling as the men fell.
Other rooms held more Kindred, one actually on his knees peering under a pallet for vaccine. All of them dropped their pathetic weapons and raised their hands. Leo kicked away the guns and Kindred scientists rushed in to tie them up.
In the last room, at the far end of the clinic, a Kindred held Noah Jenner’s little girl, a knife at her throat. Marianne Jenner lay on the floor where he had flung her.
Leo didn’t even hesitate. He had a clear shot, he had surprise on his side, he had the man’s stupidity—the fucker didn’t even hold the kid to cover his own face. Leo fired and the man’s brains splattered on the wall behind him. He dropped Lily, who screamed and screamed.
Marianne Jenner moved, moaned, raised her head, and crawled toward her granddaughter.
Owen said, “Brodie, bring in Kandiss, then take the roof with Berman. I’ll take the east door.”
There was no east door anymore, but Leo got the point. He sprinted back down the covered walkway. The vaccinators rushed into Big Lab, including Isabelle and Bourgiba. But not enough vaccinators—who had been killed? Leo heard Salah say, “Isabelle, triage… where is Claire? Somebody find her—”
Kandiss was moving feebly on the ground. Alive, then. Leo dragged him through the nonexistent wall and over to Bourgiba. “Doctor!”
Bourgiba looked up from a Kindred that even Leo could see was too far gone to survive and ran to Kandiss. “Ranger, can you hear me?”
Kandiss moaned.
“Open your eyes and look at me.”
Kandiss’s eyelids twitched, then slowly opened.
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“T-two.”
“Excellent.” Bourgiba asked a few more questions, peered into Kandiss’s eyes with a tiny flashlight, removed his helmet and ran his hands over Kandiss’s head. “You’ve probably got a concussion—there’s a nasty bump on your head—but I think you’ll be fine. Any other injuries?”
“No,” Kandiss said, although Leo suspected there were. But he had seen Special Forces compensate for all kinds of serious wounds, just putting the pain and damage on hold until the mission was over. Airborne troops with injuries from a hard landing went on the assault anyway; soldiers bleeding enough to turn pant legs dripping red nonetheless took the objective.
Kandiss staggered to his feet. Leo said, “Join Lamont outside.”
Bourgiba had moved on to the next body. People moaned and tried to move. Glassware, belatedly, fell along with its shattered shelf and smashed on the floor. Bourgiba yelled, “Somebody find Claire!”
Isabelle said, “I’ll look.”
Leo climbed back onto what was left of the roof beside Zoe. Nothing to the west or north. To the east and south, the camp was emptying as people ran, carrying kids and who-the-fuck-knew what else. It was chaos.
Thunder rumbled, and it started to rain.
Rain was good. Rain was wonderful. This planet wanted Austin to succeed. Proof: When the bomb exploded, Dr. Patel was standing in the Big Lab, and a piece of flying something hit her and knocked her down but didn’t really hurt her! It couldn’t have been better if Austin had planned it himself.
He had planned everything else. You had to be ready, be alert, so that when your chance came, you could grab it. Leo had told him that. Austin wore his Terran clothes, the jacket pocket bulging. In the smoke and confusion and gunfire, he’d grabbed Dr. Patel—Claire—under the armpits and dragged her away from the east wall, just like he was keeping her safe from any more explosions. Well, he was.
He dragged her into the kitchen of the clinic, tied her hands behind her back, and gagged her. Quick, quick, not much time, someone might come…. But everyone out there was shooting and screaming and nobody watched the kitchen. The door, which led to the vegetable garden, had finally been boarded up and locked because Lieutenant Lamont had insisted. Just before dawn, Austin had loosened the boards, leaving just enough nails to hold the karthwood in place, and stolen one of the multiple keys—easy job! Now he pried off the boards, unlocked the door, and peered out. Refugees might have circled around the building….
But there was no one here. They were assaulting the east side, or maybe that and the south door, and the Rangers were busy stopping them. Everybody else was either hurt or tending to hurt people. Austin couldn’t relock the doors or replace the karthwood, but he didn’t have to. Noah would know where he was going, so no use trying to cover up his tracks. He just needed to get there with Claire before anybody came after them.
Her eyes opened. She looked around, tried to scream and couldn’t, and began to kick him.
But he was prepared for that, too. He fished the bioplast box from his pocket, drew in a huge breath, and held the fluid-soaked cloth to her face. She struggled for a minute and then she was out again.
He dragged her away and gasped for breath.
This was the hardest part. He could be seen from the roof of the compound until he reached the karthwood grove fifty meters away. Ranger Berman was on the roof, firing—Austin could just see the top of her head from this angle—and might turn around. Austin dragged Claire as fast as he could across the stony field. Two grazing pel^aks, impervious to rain, raised their heads and stared, chewing. He was astonished that Claire was so light. Tiny, light, so pretty…. And it was a good thing he was so big and strong, not like that wimp Graa^lok. There were things Austin could do that Graa^lok, for all his brains, could not!