Paladin 2: Chapter 8

Kira cut through the water with grace and ease. It was a wonderful feeling, this sense of immersion and free movement, and at the same time an incredibly odd sensation. She couldn’t remember ever swimming in water before, although the way she took to it, the way her muscles all remembered what they were supposed to do, told her that she certainly had. Kira was enjoying a swim for the first time while tackling the water with the skills of a professional athlete.

It was more than a little cool, and she allowed herself a wide grin as she slashed through the water at high speed, racing from one side of the long pool to the other, and then back again. She was enjoying herself more doing this than she had in quite a while.

The distraction almost made her miss it when the elevator doors hissed open; they were a good distance away, up the stairs, and fairly quiet as well, but her enhanced hearing picked up the noise anyway. For a moment she thought Tristan had returned for her already, that it was time to head up to the banquet, but her internal clock told her it had only been a short while since he’d left. She ought to still have another hour or so.

Then her ears picked up the booted steps of multiple men coming across the mezzanine. She couldn’t tell for sure from the sounds, but none of those footsteps sounded much like Tristan. Maybe some of his security detail?

Kira reached the far side of the pool and stopped, treading water to hold herself afloat while she peered back toward the elevators. There were three men there, all of them heavily muscled. These weren’t office workers. They all wore tactical gear. Two of them had pistols in their hands, the third a rifle.

Something about the way they moved bothered her. They didn’t act like they were part of Tristan’s security detail, like they belonged there and knew the space.

“Hey, you!” one of the men shouted to her as they descended the stairs. “Time to go.”

“There ought to be another hour or so before the banquet,” Kira replied. She hauled herself out of the pool, using her arms to lever herself into a sitting position on the edge.

“Situation changed,” the rifleman said. “We need everyone up on the forty-second floor right away, miss. We’re sorry to cut your swim short, but we need your cooperation now, please.”

That one was nicer in his manners than the first one had been, anyway, but the whole thing still felt weird and awkward. Something was seriously not right here, but Kira decided to play along, at least for the moment. “Okay, can do.”

She hauled herself the rest of the way up out of the pool just as the men stepped off the stairs onto the pool deck. They continued toward her, and while they didn’t exactly aim their weapons at her, they were holding them in a way that would let them open fire on her in seconds, if they wanted to.

“Let me just go into the changing room and put my outfit back on for the banquet,” Kira said.

She turned to head in that direction, but kept all her attention trained on the three men anyway. She needed to know how they’d react. Sure enough, one of the men with pistols, the bearded one, grabbed her upper arm.

“No time for that. You’re coming with us right now,” Beard Guy said.

Like hell she was. It was pretty obvious at this point these people weren’t with Tristan, but she wanted to be absolutely certain, before she took any actions that couldn’t be undone.

“You sure? Your head of security is a good friend of mine,” Kira said. She didn’t pull her arm away from the guy, but braced herself to do so in a flash. “Lucas will be very mad if you bring me up there in a bathing suit.”

“I doubt Lucas will mind,” Beard Guy said, leering at her a little.

That was what she needed to know. If these men were actually part of the building’s security, they’d know the security lead was named Tristan, not Lucas. The fact they didn’t know that meant they weren’t supposed to be there at all. Armed men in the Government Center who weren’t part of the security detail? That could only mean trouble.

And of course she’d left her damned pistol in her bag, down in the car. That tore it; Kira vowed to never go anywhere without a weapon, ever again. Didn’t matter how safe the place was supposed to be, trouble seemed to have a way of tracking her down, so she’d be ready for it.

More annoyed with herself than with the three gunmen, she turned toward them. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Do what?” Beard Guy said. He yanked on her arm. “You’re coming with us, right now. No more questions or talking. Let’s go!”

Now all three of them did have their weapons aimed at her. For any typical civilian that would be more than enough to cow them into compliance. Fortunately, Kira was anything but typical or civilian.

She whipped her hand out, covering Beard Guy’s hand on her arm. He started moving, but he was just too slow to do anything to stop her next moves.

With a twist, she had his hand in hers, her fingers locking the palm back into a painful compliance hold. Beard Guy was forced to lean forward as she bent his arm at an unnatural angle. The other two were moving now as well, but that was fine—she’d maneuvered the one gunman so that he was blocking their line of fire.

“Gah! Get her!” Beard Guy yelled.

Kira fired off a front snap kick to his face that knocked him out cold. She knew even before she dropped her hold on his wrist that he was unconscious, so she just let him tumble to the ground. That distraction let her leap over his body, launching a jumping round kick that took the second pistol-carrier in the hip hard enough Kira heard bones shatter.

That one dropped to the ground with a scream. His attention was going to be on anything but her for a little while. Good, because the third man, the one holding a rifle, had some skills. He’d taken a step back the moment she started moving, but hadn’t been able to fire for fear of hitting his own people.

Now they were both down, so he opened up on her. Slugs tore through her suit and her body, hitting Kira in the gut and upper right chest. She knew without thinking about it that the wounds were severe; definitely enough that even her nanites would struggle to heal the damage quickly. She needed to end this, fast, or she was done for.

Kira closed the gap between her and the rifleman in a flash, her hands moving in a pattern she’d memorized and then forgotten she’d even known. She whipped the muzzle of the rifle upward, at the same time dropping her left hand down near the base of the stock. The effect threw the gun entirely out of alignment; the rifleman barely managed to hang on to his weapon.

The mental and physical effort required to keep hold of the gun was enough that Rifleman made the key, critical mistake of letting her get even closer. Kira darted in, elbows like scalpels as she drove them into his chest and neck, then followed up with a punch to the throat that dropped the man to his knees.

But she was fading fast. She’d heal, but she needed time and space to dress those wounds and let the nanite suite do its work.

When Kira first arrived on the level, she’d scouted it for ways out. It was a habit she’d picked up somewhere in her past, and it served her well today. There was an air vent not far away, middle of the wall. It was a big one, easily enough to accommodate her, although she’d have to crouch. The Rifleman still had a firm grip on his weapon, and she didn’t have time to play tug of war, so she reached down and scooped up the pistol from where Beard Guy dropped it instead.

Then Kira took off like a shot toward the vent, moving as fast as her enhanced body could push her. She aimed the blaster at the vent as she ran toward it, firing off six careful shots. Each blast blew out one of the bolts holding the vent cover in place.

The steel cover fell forward with a bang as it smacked into the floor tiles. Her path was clear! Kira jumped as she came up on the vent, flying inside feet first. She let the momentum carry her into the shaft and then tried to hit the brakes—but it was too late! Kira’s speed sent her crashing into the far side of the shaft.

There was a brief moment where she knew she’d screwed this up badly, where she realized she should have used more caution entering the shaft, and slowed herself down more quickly.

Then she was falling.