His feet landed on the skyway, and in the next moment he was blown to the ground as the walkway beneath him gave way to phase-fire. Dade shifted to avoid the debris, stumbling to his feet. He tripped forward to run, disoriented as to which direction he should head.
In the distance, he saw Saben drop and roll behind a metal sign to avoid being hit with a sudden volley of incoming blasts. Phase-fire littered the area, tearing up the walls of the buildings and anything else in its path. The shots came in from all sides, blocking where Saben had holed up. He peeked out, looking for an escape while returning fire.
Dade couldn’t identify who was shooting at them or from where. The phase-fire seemed to be everywhere at once. The blasts along with the growing pile of debris made it impossible to distinguish any sort of a pattern, cutting off Dade’s ability to see much beyond where he was currently crouched.
There was nowhere for Saben to gain cover going forward. He slipped out and sprinted back toward Dade. Another volley of fire hit the street behind him as he ran. Though Saben was too quick to get caught.
Dade looked at the space between the buildings behind them and knew that Saben was headed there. He tried to head there as well, but phase-fire cut him off, sending him sliding behind several parked hovercars to take a better tactical position. His adrenaline kicked in. This he could do. Real danger had been the missing piece in his chase with Saben. For some reason, when his life was on the line, he didn’t stop to think, and helping Saben was high on his priority list.
He leaned out and shot, clearing a path for Saben, who switched directions and ran to where Dade sheltered. Dade could see them now, govies closing in on their position. They were being boxed in by swarms of them, too many to have been called in via the emergency comm system. They were geared up and ready for a fight.
Somehow Dade and Saben had wandered into a trap. It must have been logical, to the govies at least, that if the Ghost was prevented from stealing VitD, he’d make a public appearance eventually. It frustrated Dade that he’d been so shortsighted.
Saben slid in next to Dade. Covered in sweat, he gulped huge pockets of air, coughing them back out. He yelled over the sound of exploding phase-fire, “Who’s shooting at us?”
Dade shot off three more rounds, pulling back as the hovercars were blasted, shaking against their backs. They’d taken a lot of damage and wouldn’t last much longer. Dade could hear the ping-ping-ping as the hot beam melted the metal on the other side. “Govies.”
Saben made a rude comment.
Dade grunted in agreement.
The govies had to know that it was Dade who crouched behind the hovercar, and yet they still continued to shoot. There were no thunks of sleeping gas as the spheres hit the ground, no flash grenades. The govies weren’t trying to capture the Ghost. They were trying to execute him, and anyone who happened to be around him would get killed as well.
“Were you trying to kill me with your crazy acrobatic stunts?” Dade asked while leaning out to return fire.
Saben gave a short, amused laugh. “I had to make it look good.”
“I almost died a dozen times.”
“I thought that was the point.”
Dade pulled back to yell at him. “Not real dying.”
Saben grinned while leaning around the hovercar to pick off the govies who’d started to crawl closer. “I taught you well enough, you were never in danger.”
That was a matter of opinion. Dade glared at him before returning his attention to the fight. The tension that had coiled in Dade’s body now focused him, making his shots precise.
The hovercar was taking too much damage, though, melting in on itself. They needed to move.
Saben gestured to the building across from where they hid. It was mangled, the windows blown out and the doors blasted through. “We have company.”
Looking up, Dade realized that a person inside the building was waving at them. He did a double take when he saw it was Clarissa. She had her phaser out, shooting at the govies from the depths of the building’s carnage.
“Go,” Saben shouted, already moving.
Dade followed, knowing Clarissa would cover their backs. He ran in a low crouch, following Saben. They crashed through the open door of the building, rolling across what was once a luxurious lobby while taking fire. Things exploded around them: glass from the front doors, floor tiles, chunks of concrete. Dade could barely see. He kept one arm crooked up over his face, his nose tucked into the bend of his elbow as he hacked and ran. Tears streamed from his eyes as they flushed out the smoke and dirt so that he could see.
As soon as they were close enough, Clarissa also turned and ran, leading them into the blackness beyond.
Shooting and running, Saben and Dade followed, jumping over anything in their path and fully trusting her to get them out of there.
Hitting the doors open to an industrial stairwell, she slid to a stop on the landing. She signaled for Saben to take the stairs up, while pulling Dade in the other direction. “We have to separate. You can’t be caught together.”
Saben nodded once, already moving up the stairs, which he took two at a time.
“No,” Dade shouted, but neither responded. He watched Saben get farther away from him with every second.
Clarissa pulled on him with a surprisingly strong grip, getting him to move. He ran beside her, going double time down the stairwell.
“You can’t be caught with me either,” he said. The repercussions at this point would be just as bad for her. He regretted putting both Saben and Clarissa in this situation.
“I’m not going to leave you.”
Dade cursed and muttered under his breath. They didn’t have time to argue.
Three Levels down, they checked the exit to the skyway. He peered out the door, phaser at the ready. But everything looked ordinary. People were walking along, going about their everyday life, seemingly oblivious to the chaos several Levels above. There were no incoming blasts. He checked above, looking for snipers. Deciding it was clear, he nodded at Clarissa before tucking his phaser away and exiting the building.
Dade brushed his hair out of his face, pushing his way into the crowd. He felt Clarissa behind him, knew she followed close. They couldn’t run. The point was to blend in. They moved faster than normal, though, as quickly as the crowd allowed them.
A single shot sizzled through the air. He heard it a second too late, realizing when it was close enough that he could feel the pulsing energy as it spread through his body that he couldn’t avoid it. Dade felt the burning in his chest as it thunked into the center of his vest. It burned white-hot, sending out searing agony and pain. The vest’s fibers felt like they were melting into his skin.
“Dade,” Clarissa screamed.
He was going to die. The reality of the moment slammed into him. He hadn’t meant for this to happen.
Another shot hit him dead center again, sending him off balance. Dade careened over the side of the walkway, going limp and numb as his pain receptors shut down.