Puck picked it up and handed it to her. He had always been jealous of Lilly, but never truly hated her until now.
Lilly holstered her gun and added the revolver to her bag.
“That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
“You’re making a big mistake, Lil,’” Puck hissed as he wiped his mouth.
Wince pulled a knife and moved toward her. In one quick motion, she unlatched and swung the A9, knocking the knife from his hand. The sound of the A9 charging was now the only sound in the market. Everyone froze. The crowd backed up, creating as much distance from the boys as possible. They wanted nothing to do with a deadly dose of electricity.
“Stupid girl,” Wince whispered to himself as he stared at the rolling blue sparks on the A9’s barrel.
“What the hell, Lilly!” Gus bellowed as he broke through the crowd.
Gus was a large, round man, but somehow carried himself as if he were a fit, young soldier. His stray white hair and beard added just the right touch to the friendly insanity he embodied. In essence, he was the crazy, cuddly, teddy bear, favorite uncle type, that didn’t mind killing Fringers with his bare hands.
Gus looked at Puck’s face, then made a quick survey of the other boys and chuckled. “Pissed off the wrong girl, didn’t we, rats?” Gus looked back at the two soldiers making their way through the crowd and looked at Puck again. “As much as I want to watch this all play out…we gotta go Lil’, and I mean right now.”
Lilly turned and caught a glimpse of the soldiers coming right at them. She magnetically reattached the A9 to her vest, and followed Gus through the crowd to a side alley.
Tom and Jens disappeared into the crowd just as the soldiers got there, but Wince stayed with Puck.
Wince tried to help him get up, but Puck pushed his hand away.
“Don’t touch me,” Puck said as he dusted himself off. “You should’ve done something.”
Wince didn’t know how to respond to Puck sometimes so he just kept silent.
One soldier saw Lilly and Gus as they headed through the alley. “I’ve got them,” he said to his partner, annoyed at actually having to do his job.
“Copy.”
“Is there a problem?” the soldier asked Puck with an arrogant smirk on his face.
“No,” Puck said with disgust. He hated Nucrean soldiers.
“You sure? Because to me it looks like there might be a problem.”
“I told you there isn’t a problem,” Puck hissed.
Puck was almost as tall as the soldier was. After a moment, the soldier seemed to recognize who Puck was, or more importantly, who his father was, and felt the unease of making a life-threatening mistake.
“Get lost.”
Puck didn’t mind the dismissal. Any longer and he might have tried to kill the soldier, and would most likely succeeded. He would have gotten a good price for the gear, too, but would have become the subject of a manhunt.
As the soldier watched Puck and Wince disappear into the crowd, he noticed a young woman walking with tightly fitted clothing. He stared lustfully for a moment then walked over to introduce himself.
The soldier followed Lilly and Gus through the junk-filled back streets of the market. He covered his mouth with his sleeve in a futile attempt to hide the smell. He debated turning back, but he couldn’t. This was the most exciting thing that had happened in weeks.
Gus and Lilly turned a corner and came to a dead end. Gus scanned the buildings and saw a door that looked like it might open with some force.
It wasn’t Gus’s style to run from people, but they were in Nucrea, and Lilly’s altercation with Puck would warrant a seizure of their weapons and get her time in a holding cell. He wasn’t interested in having to explain any of that to Ripp.
“Lilly,” Gus whispered as loud as possible.
He pointed at a door in between two buildings, near the back of a small inlet. They ran over, hoping they had time to hide before the soldier caught up to them. The door gave way as Gus slammed a shoulder into it. Lilly ran in while Gus spread a couple of handfuls of dirt to help cover their footprints.
Luckily, the locking bolt above the door was still intact. Gus slid the metal bar into place and looked around for anything to block the door, but the room was empty.
“Why don’t you look in the back for anything we could block this door with, so you don’t get thrown in a holding cell?”
“Okay. Geesh.”
Lilly ran to the back room. Gus set his feet to brace against the door, gripping the handle with both hands.
“Empty,” Lilly said as she came out of the back room. Gus nodded for her to get ready in case he couldn’t hold the door. She drew her boot knife and crouched, ready to cut.
The soldier came around the corner and looked at the dead end. He looked for any sign of movement.
Gus and Lilly focused on the footsteps that were getting closer to the door. There was silence for a moment then they heard the faint brush of metal on metal. Gus checked his grip on the handle, hoping the soldier didn’t decide to just shoot through the door.
“Legs,” Gus mouthed to Lilly. She nodded that she understood.
Gus tightened his grip and braced as the guard slowly tried to turn the handle. Gus was able to hold the handle firmly in place but knew what was coming next. The handle jerked lightly, then was followed by the impact of the guard’s shoulder armor.
Bang!
After a few seconds of silence, the guard tried once more, but the door and Gus held. Lilly made a concerned face and shook her head in disagreement, as she slid the knife across her neck and mouthed “neck”. She mimicked opening the door to let the guard in and showed Gus that she would slit his throat.
Gus, hiding laughter as best he could, furled his brow and acted disgusted with the thought of Lilly having too much fun with the idea. Lilly was playfully saddened as Gus made it clear he wasn’t going to do that.
There was a thudding boom in the distance followed by muffled gunshots.
“Insurgents are at the armory,” a voice said over the soldier’s earpiece.
“Copy. Heading your way.” The soldier smashed the butt of his rifle on the door. “I know you’re in there!”
The guard took off running back to the market.
Lilly smirked as she watched him wipe his forehead with a sleeve. “You’re so dramatic,” Lilly said as she sheathed her knife.
“I’m dramatic?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Let’s talk about dramatic. You just knocked a kid on his ass, and pulled a gun on him in the middle of the day, and in front of the whole market, I might ad. Nice hit, by the way,” He said as he quickly patted her on the shoulder in approval.
He pulled back, folded his arms, and put on the most disappointed look he could. “And then, if that wasn’t enough you pulled an extremely illegal A9 on another boy, not fifty feet from two Nucrean soldiers.”
“They didn’t see anything.”
“I saw the whole market back up when you charged that A9, but whether they did or not, we almost had to kill one of them. And…I am positive that was Tooth’s boy, you hit. Ripp isn’t gonna be happy about that.”
“Yeah, well, he deserved it. He stole…”
She stopped there and went for the door, knowing she had said too much.
“Let’s go,” she said hoping he didn’t hear her.
Gus put his hand on the door, blocking her escape route.
“Whoa there, he stole your what?”
“Nothing, let’s just go.”
She tried to push past him again, but Gus swatted her hand away.
“Nope, you don’t get a pass on this one. Stole my, money? Pretty sure Ripp has all that under control. Stole my gun? No, that’s not it. Half the market saw you waving it around. What’s left?” Gus asked, with a thoughtful finger on his chin and staring intensely at her bag.