Foster, Alan Dean – Aliens Vs Predator – War

Jess and Lara were both silent for a beat, Ellis-Max standing mute and unmoving, only the hissing pops of the ebbing fire to be heard—and then Jess grinned, a tired, sweet smile.

“Well, yeah. Pretty much,” he said, and Lara nod­ded.

Noguchi wanted to protest, but realized that they’d decided—and that in their position, she would do the same. The realization didn’t lessen the feelings of warmth and gratitude that filled her; whatever hap­pened, she knew now that she’d made the right choice.

My own kind.

“Let’s go, then,” she said, slipping on her mask and turning away, relieved that she could cover her face. She wasn’t ashamed of her tears, but now wasn’t the time for emotion; if these good people meant to stay with her, they were going to have to be ready for any­thing.

They moved into the wooded jungle, Noguchi in the lead, Ellis bringing up the rear. Jess stumbled along be­hind Lara, aching and bone weary, but with enough determination to hold himself together. Finding Ellis— or Ellis finding them—had provided Jess with another reason to keep going; he owed Ellis, and the kid had put his life on the line to help them. Again.

We gotta get him out of Max, ASAP. For as shitty as I feel, I didn’t lobotomize myself. And if he could do that for us, I can at least get my sorry ass through a couple klicks of jungle.

They walked in silence, or as much as they could manage with a ton-plus of metal stomping behind them. The going wasn’t too bad, although there was a lot of climbing over rotting logs and skirting trees, slowing them up. It would have been easier to let Max go first, clear them a path, but Lara had pointed out that he’d be more effective, better able to sense move­ment to either side, if he stayed in back. Ellis seemed to understand, although he’d said nothing when they’d

explained it to them. Jess was afraid for him—the fear mixed with guilt, that they hadn’t pulled him out of Max immediately.

He’s right, though, we need him . . . The Hunters had been something to see, and Jess didn’t know that defeating an alien queen was even possible without the kind of firepower Max possessed.

They’d just reached a clearing, a grassy area that Noguchi started to edge around, when Ellis stopped, the rumbling crunch of his steps cut off. They all froze, Jess feeling new fear for the kid, wondering if this was it, not even halfway to the alien transport. Ellis’s weak, stuttering voice let Jess breathe again, but inspired a .different kind of fear.

“Sssomeone coming,” Ellis said, and raised both arms, aiming one o’clock.

Noguchi had already dropped into a crouch, weapon ready, and Jess and Lara followed suit, new adrenaline humming through his body as thoughts raced through his mind.

Hunter or drone, how many burner shots can Max take? The suit’s solid but it wasn’t built for those and what if this is a distraction, a trap—

Jess clamped down, had to keep his shit wired. He held the burner and waited. Noguchi held one of her hands up in a fist and twisted it back and forth; Jess didn’t know the signal, but she seemed to realize that, whispering back at them a second later.

“Get ready.”

A crashing, rustling sound, whatever it was getting closer, coming through the trees from across the small clearing. It was big, could be anything—

The shadowy figure stepped out into the starlight a second later and Jess almost fired, there was something wrong with it, the shape of its head strange, its torso deformed—

“Oh, God,” Lara whispered, and Jess saw what it was, and felt a kind of vindication rise up inside, feel-

ings of gratification that he recognized as petty and mean. And deeply satisfying.

It was Nirasawa, his face mutilated, the now obvi­ous synthetic skin hanging in melted shreds from an exposed carbon-fiber cheekbone. And he was carrying Lucas Briggs, the exec’s limp body in his arms, a face-hugger wrapped tightly around the bastard’s head.

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Don’t shoot,” Nirasawa said, a thick, wet quality to his voice, as if he were speaking through a mouthful of soup. He stepped toward them, holding out Briggs’s body as if it were some token of surrender. What was left of the synthetic’s face was held in an expression of unhappiness, almost sorrow.

An android. Thank God Keene wasn’t, we never would have made it off that shuttle . . .

Lara shook her head. Considering where they were now, what Ellis had done to himself, maybe she shouldn’t be so thankful.

Nirasawa came closer and Lara stood up, Jess and Noguchi following suit, though neither of them low­ered their weapons. Lara tucked hers into her belt, stepping toward the damaged android. Ellis was the robotics expert, but she knew enough about synth pro­gramming to know that it was unlikely this was some trick. Synthetics didn’t generally work that way, they had to be directed to be misleading, and it was obvious that Briggs wasn’t capable of redesigning a program, not at the moment.

Nirasawa looked terrible, the right side of his face clawed to ribbons. The right eye had drooled out of its socket, lying across the ruptured mass of his cheek in a seeping, oozing bath of creamy lubricant. The white liq­uid had almost completely covered the front of his suit, and part of Briggs’s. He looked at Lara with his good eye and she saw that his unhappiness was real, or as real as his synthesized emotional makeup would allow.

“Please, you must help Mr. Briggs,” he gurgled.

Lara sighed, a little surprised at her feeling of pity for the bodyguard, although she supposed she knew where it came from. It wasn’t his fault that he’d been created to protect assholes like Briggs; it was probably his primary function, and with Briggs as good as dead, Nirasawa was now obsolete.

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Jess muttered, stepping forward to join them. Noguchi stood watch, scanning the trees, Max as still as a statue. Lara hoped he was resting, or at least not in any pain.

“When I tried to pull it off of him, he started to choke,” Nirasawa said. “I’m afraid that part of my con­tingency awareness has been damaged. I don’t know what to do.”

Jess leaned down, reaching out to tap at the shell of the embryo carrier. It wobbled, and Lara saw its tail slide from around Briggs’s neck, loosening. Jess put his burner down and grabbed two of its multijointed legs with each hand, the face-hugger coming away easily. A thin fluid dribbled out of Briggs’s slack mouth; still un­conscious, he moaned, turning his head as Jess dropped the dead carrier into the grass.

“Too late,” Lara said, unable to muster any sympa­thy for the executive. Jess was right—if anyone de­served such a death, it was Lucas Briggs.

Nirasawa blinked, his unsocketed eye twitching on his face with a tiny wet smacking noise. “It is my job to protect him.”

Even Jess seemed to feel bad for the synthetic. “Look, your boss is beyond help,” he said. “He’s been

implanted with a parasitic embryo that will kill him. There’s nothing that anyone can do, and probably nothing you could have done to stop it. You’ll have to—”

“Quiet,” Noguchi whispered, and Lara tensed, pull­ing her nine-millimeter, glancing back to see that Ellis had both of Max’s arms raised again. Jess scooped up his burner and stepped closer to Lara.

Silence for a moment—and then there was the faintest sound of movement in the trees ahead of them, a sound like some stealthy creature might make, sliding through the dark. Lara saw a branch move, then an­other, meters away, but couldn’t see what was making them rustle.

Noguchi took off her mask and dropped it, speak­ing softly, her shoulders set, her gaze unwavering.

“We’re splitting up,” she said, and Lara knew from the sound of her voice that this time, there wasn’t go­ing to be any discussion.

Five Hunters stepped out from the cover of the jungle, cloaked, armed only with blades. When Noguchi saw who was with them, she understood, not for the first time, that there were some fates that couldn’t be avoided. Shouldn’t be.

“We’re splitting up,” Noguchi said, dropping her burner next to her mask. If they’d been armed with heavier weapons, she probably would have passed— but as it was, the situation felt too much like an oppor­tunity, the circumstances too perfect for coincidence.

There was a Blooded she didn’t know, three nov­ices—and Shorty. When they saw her throw her weapon down, Shorty clattered to his Leader, Noguchi too far away to hear the exchange, but knowing what it was about all the same.

Challenge. Honor.

Ellis would see Jess and Lara to the ship, they’d be fine . . . except there was the problem of the rest of the Hunters. Noguchi felt a twinge of doubt, evaluating

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