It also reminded her of Vakar, which she absolutely didn’t have time for. She wished he were there with her, but that was life. She hoped he and Min were fine. They had to be.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Eva said. She grabbed a cable pulley from one of the unmoving xana guards lying nearby and detached it from his harness. It was different from ones she’d used herself, but close enough that she was able to get it attached to the cable with little fuss. She yanked her anchor line from her belt and looped it through the carabiner-like hook for safety, then held Mala up so she could look the cat in her hazel eyes.
“Last chance to get in the backpack,” Eva said.
“Miau,” Mala replied, as if offended.
“Fucking cats,” Eva muttered. Tucking Mala back under her arm, she activated the pulley.
The device wrenched her up along the cable toward the next pod, and Eva was glad she’d used her anchor line because she almost lost her grip immediately. She moved more quickly than she expected, but still slow enough to attract the attention of guards and Pod Pals both. More than once she had to twist out of the way to avoid a shot or swipe, but by the time she reached the rooftop of the next pod, Pink had apparently convinced Nara to put her down long enough to take a few shots to cover Eva’s approach.
Jei and Sue, meanwhile, continued their own leisurely rise on Jei’s dog-bot. Interestingly, no robots were attacking them—Josh’s doing, perhaps? Which suggested he had some control over the Pod Pals being launched at the resistance. Eva filed that information away for a time when she wasn’t actively avoiding a fall to her death.
One cable at a time, one building at a time, Eva and her feline stowaway ascended the cliffside laboratory complex. The wind continued to whip at her when the robots didn’t, and her arm burned from the exertion, despite the anchor line helping offset some of her weight. She made another mental note to add more pull-ups to her workout routine.
I should start making actual notes, she thought, because I’m never going to remember all this shit.
Finally, Eva was only one cable away from the platform at the top. Jei and Sue hovered nearby, while Nara and Pink waited for Eva to detach the pulley mechanism and switch it to the new cable.
“The shield is still up,” Nara observed.
“It sure is,” Eva said, turning to Sue. The engineer’s expression was hidden by her opaque isohelmet, but her posture was nervous. “What’s up with Josh?” Eva asked over private comms.
“He’s worried,” Sue replied. “He says there are too many of us.”
Eva eyed Jei and Nara and sighed. “How many is too many?”
“He’ll let me in with one other person, but that’s it.”
And he couldn’t have said that five minutes ago? Eva thought. Madre de dios.
“Fine,” Eva said. She detached the pulley from her anchor line and gestured for Sue to come over. “Use this to get up, and Jei will stay here.”
“What are you doing?” Jei asked immediately.
“We can’t all go inside,” Eva said. “Not yet. But the rest of you can wait here and we’ll figure out how to get all the shields down for good.”
“Will you, now,” Nara said. She raised her arm cannon and aimed it at Eva, who froze. Another flashback threatened to overcome her, send her to her knees—the same gun, the same posture, Eva staring down that barrel with the certainty that it was the last thing she’d ever see.
Then Nara shifted to shoot a guard sneaking up behind Eva, his stun baton clattering against the roof of the pod as he fell. Eva exhaled so hard it gave her a brief pang of dizziness.
“This better not be a trick,” Jei said, but he made no move to stop her. That was about as much trust as Eva was likely to get from him in a lifetime, she figured, and hopefully it would be enough.
“Pink, stay with them, please,” Eva said, once she found her voice again. “We’ll be back.”
Pink held out her hand, and Eva took it. Several snaps, slaps and a hip-bump later, Eva climbed onto the top of the pulley mechanism and activated her gravboots, while Sue clung to the device’s grips with all her strength. Mala was uncharacteristically silent and still, but her pupils were fully dilated and she had extended her claws in a futile attempt to grip Eva’s puncture-proof spacesuit.
“Go,” Eva told Sue, and Sue activated the pulley. They shot up the cable, Eva fighting to stay vertical as the wind continued to blow. They came to a landing on a tiny extension of the platform, and without further ado, a hole in the shields opened to allow them access.
Unlike the other parts of the facility, which were entirely enclosed, this was a large, open area like a sports facility. There were markings on the floor, a combination of concentric circles and lines intersecting them, as well as a rectangle surrounding them, and platforms on either end like the kind that might hold referees or players. The whole place was partially covered by an arcing roof jutting out from the cliffside, with an array of holoscreens and electronics underneath, currently being monitored by a few xana. A wall of shelving held at least a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty capsules like the ones used to contain the Pod Pals.
That is a lot of damn robots, Eva thought.
A single, gray-haired human in a green lab coat and goggles stood nearby, and immediately started running toward them once they’d passed through the shield. Eva raised an eyebrow, then pulled out her pistol warily. The man slowed, raising his hands and smiling. It was a cocky smile, a dimple-cheeked asymmetrical smile, meant to be disarming and probably very successful at parties, but Eva was walking an emotional tightrope and too busy maintaining her balance to be charmed.
“I, uh, thought you weren’t with the rebels,” he said. He looked back and forth between her and Sue.
“Our goals aren’t mutually exclusive,” Eva said. “Joshua Zafone, I presume.”
“Guilty as charged,” Josh said. Now that he was closer, it was clear he was taller than Sue by at least a quarter meter, and younger than Eva despite his hair color. But their features were similar, and his fingers were twitching like Sue’s did when she was anxious, even if he seemed to be hiding it better otherwise.
“We’re here to ask for your help,” Eva said.
“Right, okay,” Josh replied. “But let me ask you something first: Why are you carrying a cat?”
Chapter 21
The Power That’s Inside
Eva resisted the urge to put Mala down, la muy cabrona, who purred at being acknowledged. “She insisted on coming. We don’t have time for long explanations. I’ve been hired to bring you to a secret project in another galaxy, and you’re the only one who can help it succeed, because you’re the only one with the skills and information they need.”
Josh laughed again, and again Eva was struck by how he was probably a hit with his fellow science types. He was certainly infinitely less punchable than Miles Erck so far.
“That’s very flattering,” Josh said. “But I already have a job, as you can see.” He gestured at the xana behind him, who were operating a bunch of equipment Eva didn’t recognize or understand. Then he turned to Sue, who had been standing as still as a statue since they arrived.