“I didn’t do anything. Who shot you?” She peeled the girl’s hands away from her bloody chest, looking for a bullet hole, and found that the wound was in her hand itself. The excess blood came from a second hole in the girl’s thigh. “You keep pressure on this,” she said, folding the girl’s hands back into her chest. “Samm, I need your help with this leg.”
“Who shot her?” asked Samm, holding Calix’s shoulders to keep her still.
“Who do you think?” asked Heron. Kira wheeled around to see her running in from the ruined street. “It was long range and this handgun isn’t as accurate as it could be. Get out of the way so I can finish her off.”
“We don’t want you to finish her off,” said Kira, throwing herself in front of Heron’s gun. “Where have you been?”
“I’ve been doing my job,” said Heron. “You’ve seen the spire?”
“Of course,” said Kira, “and the lab in the basement.”
“I couldn’t get close enough,” said Heron. “There’s some sort of sedative that works on the link. But I’ve been tracking a man named Vale for the last two days, and I’m reasonably certain he’s part of the Trust. There are also some Partials here, somewhere. Is that building what I think it is?”
“Do you think it’s a pheromone farm of ten brain-dead Partial coma patients?”
“Actually no,” said Heron, looking surprised, “that’s . . . I knew it was bad, but that’s . . . surprisingly bad. Either way, I hate being right.” She looked at Calix, still groaning in pain and thrashing on the floor. “Seriously, let me put her out of her misery.”
“No more killing!” said Samm forcefully, and Kira and Heron both looked at him. He’d muscled past the pain from his wound and stood up. Kira nodded. “Absolutely, no more killing. Help me hold Calix down so I can look at that wound.”
“Why do you want to save—this human?” asked Heron. She looked at Samm. “I suppose I don’t even have to ask you anymore, though, do I?”
“She’s a hunter,” said Samm. “She’s not an enemy combatant. They don’t have soldiers—until we showed up, they didn’t even know war still existed. And no one but their leader knew about the Partials in the basement; I won’t punish Calix for something Vale did.”
Kira felt a surge of emotion in her chest. “Exactly.”
“Then we won’t kill any of them,” said Heron. “We can slip in at night, when their guard is down, and Samm and I will cover you while you get the prisoners. You’re the only one of us that’s immune to the sedative.”
Samm spoke before Kira could. “We’ll free them,” he said firmly, “but we’re not leaving—or at least I’m not.”
“What?” asked Kira and Heron at the same time.
He looked at Kira. “That’s the answer to the impossible choice. I’m doing what you said: I’m staying with them.”
“That’s stupid,” said Heron.
“I can’t sacrifice anyone’s life,” said Samm, “anyone’s freedom, if I’m not willing to sacrifice my own. We’ll free the Partials who have been imprisoned, and the humans can get the pheromone from me.”
“You . . .” Kira was stunned. She cast about for some way, any way, to argue with him. “You only have a year,” she said. “You can only help them for a year before you expire.”
“Then you have one year to solve it,” said Samm. “Better get to work.”
“This is all very heartwarming,” said Heron, “but it’s meaningless. You’re not staying here, Samm.”
Kira opened her mouth to argue, but stopped when she saw the look on Samm’s face. He must have sensed something over the link. Heron wasn’t disagreeing with him. She was stating a fact.
“Heron,” Samm said slowly. “What did you do?”
“What I should have done a month ago,” said Heron, her expression dark and penetrating. “I reported back in.”
Utter silence fell over the room. Even Calix was quiet, gritting her teeth as she clutched her wounds.
Kira looked at Samm, but she already knew exactly what he was thinking. His confusion, heavily mixed with anger, burned so brightly on the link Kira could feel it clearly.
Calix hissed through her teeth, “What report is she talking about?”
“You called Morgan?” asked Kira. “You betrayed us?”
“If that’s what you want to call it,” said Heron. “I’ve put up with your emotional self-discovery long enough, and it’s time to stop shut up and get things done. If Dr. Morgan can use your biology to solve expiration, then I’m giving it to her.”
“When are you going to understand this?” asked Kira. “This is what Samm just said—we can’t pick sides anymore!”
“And he was very impassioned,” said Heron.
“What did you do?” Samm demanded. “Specifically.”
“I located a working broadband radio and called back to D Company on the repeaters we had set up,” said Heron. She looked at Kira. “I gave you your chance, and I did everything I could to help you, but the answers you’re looking for aren’t here. I’m done screwing around.”
“This is a peaceful community,” pleaded Calix. “If you bring a Partial army here, they’ll destroy us.”
“There it is,” said Samm, looking up. Kira looked at the ceiling, saw nothing, and looked back at Samm to see him tilting his head. He wasn’t looking, he was listening. She frowned and did the same, trying to hear what he’d heard.
“What is it?” asked Calix.
“I don’t hear anything,” said Kira, “just a—a droning sound, like a buzz. It’s very faint.”
“That used to be one of the most recognizable sounds on the planet,” said Heron, “but you haven’t heard one in almost twelve years.”
“What is it?” Kira demanded.
“A turbine engine,” said Heron. “On a cargo plane. Morgan’s army is already here.”
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Kira ran for the pile of strips she’d torn up for Samm’s arm. “Sorry, Samm, you’re going to have to wait a little longer for that bandage.”
“The meds were enough,” he said, through clenched teeth.
Kira dove back to Calix’s side, pressing a wadded sleeve of the suit coat against her leg wound and wrapping it as quickly as she could with the makeshift bandages.
“Why bother?” asked Heron. “You don’t even know—”
“Shut up,” said Kira. She tied the strips firmly, putting as much pressure on the bleeding hole as she dared without turning the bandage into a tourniquet. “How does that feel?”
“Fine,” said Calix. “How long before I can kick this Partial girl in the ass?”
Heron raised her eyebrow.
“Stay here,” said Kira, wrapping another bandage around Calix’s hand. “I have painkillers in my bag—don’t take too many. Someone will be back to find you.”
“Where are you going?” asked Calix.
“Out to meet them.” Kira shook her head. “If no one comes, look for antibiotics, and get as strong as you can before trying to cross the wasteland. It isn’t kind to people with leg wounds.”
“Please,” said Calix. “Please, don’t let them hurt anyone.”
Kira took the girl’s rifle and ran for the street, Samm and Heron close behind.
“What are you expecting to accomplish?” asked Heron, catching up to her.
Kira scanned the sky for any sign of the plane.
“There,” said Samm, pointing to the east. Kira followed the line of his finger and found it, a small black cross in the pale gray sky. “It looks far away, but it’s moving fast.”