Exile to Hell

Domi said cheerfully, “Mebbe so, but I can make it hard for them.” She yanked the wheel sharply to the right, down into the gully.

The Sandcat nosed up beside the rambling wall of a depression, so close that the far edges of the right tread assembly sheared off rock knobs and projections. Domi narrowly missed colliding with a jutting finger of stone, but she kept rolling the wag beneath overhanging stone shelves, and Kane understood her strategy, even though it was doomed to fail.

Hugging the sides of the gully and keeping under the rock overhangs might temporarily hide them from aerial eyes, but the tactic wouldn’t conceal the engine-heat signature from the infrared scanners on the Deathbirds.

Kane didn’t tell her that. He kept listening to the comm-link transmissions. The hash of static faded with every passing second. A check of his chron and a simple calculation told him that the helicopters would be within visual range very shortly, probably within a minute.

“Point Bird to Bird Two, registering an infratrace. Do you copy?” Pollard’s voice was flat, almost bored.

The answering voice sounded young, but very crisp and professional. Probably Zack. “Acknowledged, Point Bird. Reading the same trace. Vector six-six-zero-niner. Adjusting course and altitude.”

There was more comm chatter, mainly about craft altitude and terrain features. Kane kept listening, kept gazing out of the windshield. It would be close, uncomfortably close, but it was very possible they would reach the mouth of Mesa Verde before a visual fix was acquired. With a prolonged, nerve-stinging screech, the roof of the Sandcat shaved an eighth of an inch from the underside of a rock overhang.

Ahead of them, the gully wall bulged outward several feet, and Domi was forced to swerve to prevent a collision. They were out in the open again, and a moment later, Pollard’s triumphant tones crowed into Kane’s ear. “A fix! Got ’em in sight, Bird Two. Just like the wall sentry said, an old all-terrain wag, looks like a roamer junk-trap.”

“Coordinates,” came Zack’s unruffled response.

“Twelve-two-niner-twelve. Copy?”

“Copy, Point Bird. Lock and load.”

Covering his helmet transceiver with a finger, Kane said to Domi, “Give me your blaster.”

Domi pulled the mini-Uzi from beneath her thigh and handed it to him without so much as a questioning look. Grant demanded, “What are you going to do?”

Kane kept his finger over the transceiver so the voice-activated carrier frequency wouldn’t be picked up by the crew of the Deathbirds. “Somebody has to make a recce. I’m the only one in armor, so I guess I’m elected.”

Anxiety glinted in Brigid’s emerald eyes. “What if they see you?”

“They’ve already spotted the Sandcat, so they know I’m on board.”

Reaching up over his head, he undid the latches on the roof hatch. To Domi, he said, “Try to keep this beast steady.”

“Will try, but no promises.”

The mini-Uzi felt strange in Kane’s hand, almost like a toy. He kept his Sin Eater leathered as he pushed the square of metal up and over, then he cautiously stood up in the seat. The fresh air was a relief after the stifling atmosphere inside. Above the banks of the gully, the sky was a clear, clean azure, not a cloud anywhere. The noon sun was so bright, it stung his eyes despite the tinted visor.

He scanned the sky in every direction, having a hard time keeping his balance as the Sandcat bumped and jumped along its course. Over the clanking and rattling of the diesel engine and the treads came another sound. It was a faint swishing whisper for a handful of seconds, followed by a violent downdraft that scoured the unprotected part of his face with an abrasive combination of sand and gravel. His visor was temporarily clouded by the wind-borne debris, and he cleared it with a swipe of his left hand.

A Deathbird had made a low, high-speed pass, diving out of the sun so rapidly and unexpectedly he didn’t see it until the black craft had completed its flyover. In his ear, Pollard said jovially, “Kane, me old cock of the walk. Good to see you. I guess Grant and your personal piece of history are with you.”

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