Chapter 5 #3
She vaults onto the roof where the camera reveals the backs of two men scouring the roof opposite her. Behind her, COs snoop the top of the neighboring building.
She’s trapped.
A whisper comes through the headset. “Well, that is not ideal.”
“She says to meet her at rendezvous point C,” I repeat dumbly to Mason through the minuscule window behind his seat.
Sticking to shadows, she manages to creep behind the two nearby guards unheard.
Swiftly, she grabs the back of one of them by the shirt and plunges a syringe into his neck.
His companion is not fast enough. Taylor kicks in the back of his legs to force him to his knees, and then chokes him.
There is no struggle. His presumably superior strength is rendered useless by his panic as he claws at her hands, which press on his artery with calm precision.
Within seconds he’s asleep, as easy as throwing a blanket over a birdcage.
Turning on her heels, Taylor takes off in the direction of the adjoining building.
She vaults the space between them and tucks into a roll upon landing.
Snatching her gun from a calf holster, she picks off CO after CO while maintaining a steady jog until she halts at the roof’s edge.
She skips back a few steps, pausing only a split second before breaking into a run to launch herself onto the next rooftop.
She lands on her feet but the noise gives her away and she keeps running, full tilt.
COs fire at her and my heart skips as the camera pans forward and backward, showing enemies on all sides.
Taylor leaps to the next building. She whirls around midair and shoots back, taking down two more guards before landing on her back on the next roof.
Bullets pop and whiz past her as she breaks into another run, feet pounding against the cement.
I don’t know how much longer she thinks she can dodge bullets.
These agents are professionally trained and they’re not going to miss forever.
Her luck is bound to run out and it dawns on me, quite strikingly, that I’m genuinely frightened for her.
She jumps the next gap, arms out, grappling.
Time is as suspended as she is. Slow, sluggish, like running in a dream.
Her body slams into the side of the building, barely gripping the roof edge.
Swears fill my earpiece as she dangles precariously, sneakers desperately trying to gain traction against the smooth brick.
The camera swivels and reveals three more COs gunning for her from behind.
Just as they reach the edge of the roof, she swings her right leg up and propels her body onto the other side with a yelp.
“Are you okay?”
Taylor gets up, either maiming or killing the three guards pursuing her.
It must be important to her to get the bag to its destination, considering what a huge disadvantage it is to be carrying around pounds of stolen money.
Mason brings the car to a screeching halt, causing me to nearly fall on the floor.
Javier opens the back doors and reveals a desolate street.
The hummingbird camera returns to its original position, showing me a full view of where a bullet grazed her back and tore open her clothes.
Suddenly Taylor’s voice crackles in. “Ah, nuts.”
Her voice isn’t the only harbinger of bad news.
The piercing whine of feedback ominously cuts in on the radios.
Faint at first, but the noise rises at a steady clip until it’s almost unbearable.
It ceases abruptly when the tremors in the street start.
Out of the darkness at the end of the block, a Lightbringer steps into view.
“You…you have to get out of there,” I say in a desperate, trembling whisper.
Taylor’s voice contradicts mine with a low, even confidence. “Miss Piccolo, stay calm. Repeat these instructions out loud, exactly as I say them.”
“Okay.”
“Tell Mason to cut the engine.”
“Cut the engine.”
The van shudders off.
“Nobody moves. Radio silence.”
“Nobody moves. Radio silence.” The soldiers nod at my words. “Good. No matter what happens, nobody engages the Lightbringer. If I am unable to subdue it, you are to abandon mission and return to the pickup point, no questions asked. Am I understood?”
“Y—yeah.”
“Good. Repeat that.”
“She says if she’s unable to subdue the Lightbringer, we’re to abandon the mission and return to the pickup point.”
Javier clearly wants to object, but Alisa places a hand on his thigh and nods to me. “Tell her we copy.”
“They copy.”
Taylor sighs. “Okay. Going dark.”
The Lightbringer approaches with heavy steps; spindly, skeletal titanium legs stretch up almost a full story.
Much larger than I was told. Its sleek, steel-blue metal body catches the lights of the streetlamps.
Two burning eyes like panic buttons scan the mostly abandoned street.
It can’t quite see the tops of the roofs, but Taylor is in imminent danger.
So are we, out in the open like decoy ducks on a pond.
“Holy shit,” Javier hisses. “That Bringer is huge.”
The hummingbird camera feeds us the video of Taylor crawling across the roof of the building, out of sight.
She snatches the camera and flicks it off, and the van goes as quiet as a tomb.
Our only indication she is alive is the fact that the Lightbringer hasn’t seen her.
Streetlights flicker and tremble with each step, quaking the streets, forcing rats into the sewers.
“We have to get out there,” I whisper to them. “Provide distraction.”
Javier gives me a stern look. “It will take us out in seconds if it thinks we pose a threat.”
“So, we wait here and hope it doesn’t kill her?”
“Nobody is going to die,” Alisa says, trying to will her words true.
Together we watch the monstrous robot skeleton scour the street.
On its right, Taylor bounds across another roof.
She’s going behind it, I think. That would be the only option.
Coming at one straight on is suicide. I don’t know if it has any weaknesses, my father never told me.
It must, though. There is a weakness to all things.
“We can’t sit here.” My anxiety grows with every shake of the van, and I shimmy toward the exit.
Alisa grabs my arm. Her eyes are sympathetic, but firm. “We must. That is our order. She’ll be irritated if we disobey her orders.”
I shake her off. “Well, her orders are stupid. Rather her be mad than dead, right?”
As nimbly as I can, I snag one of their rifles and climb out, using the back door as cover. I keep my eyes on Taylor, who emerges at the top of a building behind the Lightbringer. She’s barely visible against the sky, but her figure blots out a star or two. Her gun is gone, and in its place, a bow.
Swiveling slowly, its head creaks as blood-red eyes move in the direction of Taylor. A low, metallic crackling sounds down the street. It raises its rifle at the ready, eerily human as it scans the roofs for an enemy. It’s going to see her. It’s going to kill her. There’s nowhere to hide.
A horrific noise emits from the rifles as it blindly sprays laser fire across the rooftops, pinging old satellite dishes, which quickly erupt into flames. It shoots directly over Taylor’s head, only barely missing her. I wouldn’t be surprised if it singed off her hood.
Steeling myself with three quick breaths, I sprint down the road and crouch against the backside of a sedan.
The Lightbringer snaps its head in my direction; a loud whir fills the streets when it lifts the rifle toward me.
An arrow whistles across the road and nicks a rusty metal pole.
The Lightbringer whips to its left and fires into the sky.
Taylor leaps off the roof from the right, bow and duffel bag around her back, arms and legs flailing.
She lands on its shoulders, dwarfed by its incredible size.
Awareness, agility, accuracy, and…whatever the other one is.
Take down any foe, no matter their size.
She’s exploiting a weakness I hadn’t considered: it isn’t sentient.
A Force member in a control room pilots the robot, confined to the scope of the eye lenses.
The Lightbringer stumbles back and forth, crashing into a lamppost and showering metal and live electricity to the street below.
Taylor is flung out in front of it, and her body skids across several feet of asphalt.
Injured but clearly determined, Taylor gets to her feet as the robot tries to recover.
She tears off her bandana, shrugs the duffel bag onto the ground, and cocks a pistol.
Finally, she sees me in her peripheral vision. I wave. “Hey.”
Taylor pushes me backward and takes cover with me behind the car. She doesn’t seem angry. Mostly exasperated, and, perhaps, worried. “What are you doing out here? Why do you have a gun?”
I look down at the rifle in my hands. “To…help?”
Taylor frowns. “To help what?”
“Take down the Lightbringer?” I suggest slowly. Her eyes grow wide and incredulous. “Okay, you know what? I’m hearing it. I sound insane. Well, I’m here. What do I do?”
My captor anxiously looks to the disoriented Lightbringer, then to me. She sighs, slaps her pistol into my hand and exchanges it for my rifle. “Run as fast as you can across the street, and take cover in that alleyway. On three.”
“Your big plan is to run? Good, now we both sound insane.”
“One.”
Slowly, she crawls around me to the sidewalk side of the car.
“Two.”
She crouches to the ground, back leg extended, fingertips scraping the ground.
“Three.”