Tally Road Original Story- Chapter 11

It was Dene who broke the silence. Unable to watch Siertes trapped between hostiles on all sides, she burst out awkwardly, "No! Don't hurt her! She's not so bad- I don't know what she wants but she let me go!"

Rairate, his eyes not leaving the Tompar assassin, hissed, "I don't think you quite understand. Get back!"

Siertes blinked lazily. "I wouldn't hurt the crazy wolfess." she said.

The police blocking the door were not so lucky.

The small police surveillance bug cracked loudly against the doorframe beside them, and heads turned in startlement. Before they could register what had happened, Siertes was on them. Two died right then, bitten by the Tompar's poisonous fangs, one yelping as he dropped. There were shouts from the corridor outside, redoubled as Siertes dove through the door and made her escape.

One policeman had instinctively ducked into the room when he saw Siertes coming. He escaped her onslaught, began to cover her with his gun as she flew out the door- remembered there were also people still in the room- and died before he knew what was happening, nerves and arteries cut by Rairate's claws.

Rai made a face. "That was bad. We must get away from here. Chos! Do you have a vehicle in that hangar?"

Hals looked at him. "Yeah. You up for getting us there? You're Hse-Nerre. I saw metal when you did that. I take it you're on our side?"

Rairate earflattened. "No. I believe I'm on theirs. Chos! We must get away from here NOW. Before I am forced into worse dishonor." Hals stared- and nodded.

"I saw which way that Tompar went- she's heading for the hangar too. Must have a ship there. If we hurry, maybe we can take advantage of her clearing the way for us."

Siertes was an untidy way-clearer. Bodies littered the corridor. Traces of paler blood showed that she had been harmed in turn- and gone on anyhow, in the typically stoic Tompar way, probably cursing "Is!" under her breath. Most of the dead Runge had been shot. She'd wrested a weapon from her attackers. Dene realised with a start that she'd been expecting Siertes to bite everyone- a deadly close-quarters weapon, but not much good against guns.

The hangar was darker than before- some of the overhead lights had been shot out, and one was sputtering and flickering with a edgy actinic sound. Now and then it would throw off sparks, which gave a better impression of its size- these had been large lights, high against the ceiling, drawing a lot of power that now arced futilely half the time. Beneath this nerve-racking canopy, an unexpected drama played out.

Magarce Kinstrsse Tentrsery was holding Siertes at bay, a gun in each hand, and raging in her shrill little voice, sounding like some mockery of a dainty Nerre catgirl voice that had been dragged through all the harshest bars and dives of every Runge homeworld. Siertes was frozen, watching the furious Magarce shriek at her, watching for an opening. Behind Magarce, Benseln Jens stood, pitiably ill at ease and desperately worried.

"What's the matter with you people? You said this would be a decent place to stay! That nothing would go wrong! Does this look like nothing to you? Does it?"

"Uh," said Benseln, "she's not one of them, hon. Keep her covered and let's go..."

"She's not? She's shooting cops, Benjen love, otherwise I'd have snuffed her already. Shall I?"

"No!" yelped Benseln. "Our ship is right over here, come on..."

Siertes stood, totally motionless, her gun on the ground beside her where she'd dropped it. She was too good to misread the intentions of the crazed Magarce, and hadn't said a word. Her eyes remained locked with Magarce's in a haughty coolness very characteristic of a Tompar assassin- they sold their lives dearly, but unflinchingly. This wasn't lost on the tiny Nerre.

"I don't like her, Benjen! I don't like the way she's looking at me! It'll only take one shot, you keep complaining when I use too many..."

"No, Mags, honey! Look, I'll cover her, you go to the ship..."

Hals, Rairate, Dene and Boodins watched, fascinated, and Hals whispered, "If anything happens, use the distraction to make for my truck- it's the gray one like a bus with..."

"FREEZE!"

In three separate places, police popped into view- two ground level, facing Magarce, and one bay overlooking the hangar and off to the side. All were armed.

Siertes didn't even blink. She just stared into Magarce's eyes, which had gone scary and wild. The tiny Nerre's tail bristled slightly, and began flickering a tiny distance back and forth, some dreadful flood of nervous energy welling up. Magarce gave a tiny, almost unnoticable nod.

"You're that good?" breathed Siertes softly.

Magarce sneered, baring her teeth with tension. "Yeah..."

"...go."

In a single move, Siertes dropped and rolled, very fast, grabbing her gun and firing up at the second-floor bay. Magarce was shrieking a high keening cry as she fired from where she stood, taking advantage of the cops' tendency to fire at the more obviously threatening, fast-moving target. Benseln was halfway to his ship as Hals, Rai, Dene and Boodins made it to Hals' truck, diving in, slamming the door behind them just as Magarce turned to run, whirled and dropped.

Hals flung himself at the driver's seat as Boodins yelped, "They got her!" and Rai retorted "Good!" fiercely.

"Be quiet! I need to reach the others!" growled Hals.

Heedless, Boodins pressed himself against the window, while Dene more sensibly hid flat on the floor. A stray bullet clanged off the roof of the vehicle.

"No- she's up again, but she's hurt! That guy's with her- now they're in their ship..."

"Quiet!" snapped Hals, a radio mike in his hands. He turned to it. "Anyone monitoring this channel, get to the hangar, we're going to have to make a break for it and scatter once we reach Verss..."

Boodins wouldn't look away, or be quiet. "There's some more cops, they're rushing the... yiii!"

It could almost have been Magarce at the controls- but more likely it was just a desperate Benseln, getting his injured feline lover away at any cost. The landing jets fired, and a gun turret under the ship whirled madly and mowed down the attackers, whose guns weren't achieving anything against the medium-sized, well-armored spacecraft.

Then, the ship's main guns cut loose, and Benseln blasted a great hole straight through the ceiling, and with a thunder that rocked Hals' truck, the ship was gone, leaving nothing moving in the hangar.

"Damn..." said Hals, forgetting to turn the mike off. Then he remembered, and barked into the mike, "Repeat, make for the hangar! We're going to have army coming down on us in minutes after this! Everybody get to your vehicles NOW and we're getting out of here in ONE minute! If you have more than one kind of vehicle, give us air cover!"

Runge started pouring into the hangar, some injured, some armed, all scrambling for their vehicles as fast as they could.

"Dige, what's the situation outside?" said Hals, as he started the truck's engine, a massive turbine. A voice came over a speaker- "We have a military formation deviating from their flight pattern, but they're following- no, they have scouts coming here, estimated three minutes at present speed..."

The turbine howled quietly. Dene, her head pressed to the floor, noticed the floor panel getting warmer. Then, her ears perked- she thought she heard a voice under there.

It had said "Is!", and she thought she heard a handhold being shifted. Dene's eyes became very wide. She rapped twice on the floor. For a moment there was no response...

Very faintly, Dene heard two raps from under the truck.

She lifted her head. "You've got to..."

"Now!" barked Hals, over the mike, and with a roaring of engines, Ungovernment hit the road. A wall of the hangar fell in, and there were explosions outside, not from military attack- the vast complex had no more secrecy to it, and instead of the camouflaged freight elevator, there was a giant ramp before them. Dene winced as the truck slammed into the ramp, charging up the steep incline, surrounded by the roars and screams of countless engines. It was devil take the hindmost- there was no specific order for the vehicles. A hovering thing shot overhead, blasting the truck with its downdraft- and then they were out into the sunlight, heading across rough terrain for the high-speed conduit, aircraft clawing for the sky around them, all different types and sizes.

With a bruising thump, Hals reached the conduit, and the truck's engine bellowed as Ungovernment's desperate flight got underway.