Blade ducked and dodged through the streets of Doimar to the vehicle building. When it finally came in sight, he stopped and felt like cursing. At the entrance to one of the ramps from the vehicle rooms, four guards sat around a small fire. Four guards, where normally there was only one sentry walking back and forth.
Maybe it was Nungor's suspicions, maybe it was just a precaution now that war was so close. Either way it was bad news for Blade. He wasn't going to be able to bluff his way through four guards. If anything went wrong it would be almost impossible to deal with all of them before either he or Kareena got badly hurt.
Fortunately there was a simpler method of dealing with the guards. Blade put Kareena down, unslung the rifle, put a fresh power cell into it, then lay down in the shadow of a building. The moment all four guards were properly grouped, he opened fire. His first shot took the leader in the face and he fell sideways into the fire with his mouth still open. The fire's going out made the other guards harder to see, but not that much harder to hit. Laser weapons light up their own targets. Blade killed all three before any of them could give the alarm, although he had to use three shots to do away with the last man. Then he snatched up Kareena, sprinted across the open ground, and plunged down the ramp.
Halfway down the ramp Blade felt Kareena starting to wriggle. Without breaking stride he whispered savagely, «Keep still, you crazy bitch! We're halfway done already! If you bugger things up now-!» She understood the tone if not the words and went limp again. She stayed that way until Blade reached his chosen Hovercraft. As he laid her down in one of the two couches in front of the control panel, she opened her eyes.
For the moment Blade had no time for her. He darted through the interior of the Hovercraft, inspecting his cached supplies. The bottled water and emergency rations were still there, although in a pinch he'd have been prepared to leave without them and take his chances on living off the land. The crate of hand grenades and the extra power cells were another matter. Without the first they might not be able to fight their way clear of Doimar, and without the second they certainly couldn't hope to reach Kaldakan territory.
Everything was in place. Blade brought the grenades forward and put the open crate on the floor between the two control couches. As he straightened up, he felt Kareena's eyes on him. For the first time in months, he was able to meet them.
After a moment she licked her lips. «Blade-are those men back there-dead?»
He snorted. «If they aren't, it's not my fault.»
«You-killed them?»
«You don't tickle people with a laser rifle!»
She shook her head as if stinging insects were swarming around her face and blinked. «Then-we are escaping?»
«Of course.» Blade resisted the temptation to add, «And we'd have been on our way long before this if you hadn't made me put you to sleep!» He had a fairly good idea of what she'd been through, and more harsh words were the last thing she needed now. Instead he held out a grenade to her. «You know how to use these?»
«Yes. Pull the ring on top, then throw it.»
«Yes. Or hold it against yourself, if you're about to be captured. That way you'll die quickly and maybe take a few Doimari with you as well.» He pulled out one of the maps of Kaldak and handed it to Kareena. «Take this, too, in case we get separated. It's a map showing all the rooms full of Oltec under Kaldak.»
Kareena stared. «Thank you, Blade-I think. I'm beginning to believe this isn't a dream.» She squeezed her eyes shut, obviously fighting back tears. He patted her hand, saw her flinch, and decided not to touch her again. It might be years before a man's touch didn't repel her, and if so this would be partly his fault.
However, feeling guilty never won any battles and might lose this one. Their escape was no longer a dream, but it might easily turn into a nightmare if he didn't get the Hovercraft moving soon.
Blade took several deep breaths, then sent his hands dancing over the controls without bothering to turn on the cabin lights. He'd memorized all the essential controls until he could use them in the dark. The motor started, then the fans whined into life. The Hovercraft started to shudder, then Blade fed more power to the fans at the same time as he cut in the propeller. In a single smooth movement the Hovercraft rose from the concrete and slid forward into the aisle.
Blade immediately learned that he wasn't as calm as he'd thought. He nearly ran the Hovercraft into an armored personnel carrier across the aisle before he could get it turned around. Slow and steady, Blade, slow and steady, he told himself. This isn't the place to use the Hovercraft's speed. He knew that most of his unusual nervousness came from the woman sitting beside him. He also knew that nervousness would do her no good at all. He took more deep breaths.
Then the Hovercraft was heading straight down the aisle. They passed through the doorway into the next room and down its aisle, until the ramp to the surface appeared ahead. Blade gave the propeller more power as they hit the ramp. Then five more guards appeared at the top of the ramp, two of them with their lasers already raised.
«Down, Kareena!» Blade roared. He flung the Hovercraft up the ramp straight at the guards, wishing he had a machine gun mounted in the bow. He needn't have worried. The sight of the Hovercraft charging them was enough to defeat the guards. They scattered without firing, although not before one pulled the pin out of a grenade and dropped it on the concrete. It rolled down the ramp and went off abreast of the Hovercraft. The machine leaped and the roof of the cabin struck the roof of the vehicle building so violently that the top hatch was torn away.
Blade fought the machine back under control as the roar of the wind and the whine of the propeller and fans filled the cabin. Then he saw Kareena pulling herself painfully up to the open hatch with one hand, holding the grenade in the other. In the best war-movie tradition she pulled the pin with her teeth, then pitched the grenade into the middle of the fleeing guards. As the explosion cut them down she practically fell back into the cabin, her face pale but her teeth bared in a positively devilish grin.
«That was a foolish thing to do,» said Blade. He would have said something stronger, but he needed all his concentration to steer the Hovercraft past the mangled remains of the guards. If a large piece got caught in the lift fans-!
«You wouldn't think so, if you'd been stinking and hurt down where I was as long as I was,» she said sharply. «And I won't take any more orders from you. You can't knock me out again, either.»
«Then what are you going to do, Kareena?» The last of the guards' remains was behind them now, but they were still a good distance from the open streets, let alone the open countryside.
She laughed grimly. «I won't kill you. I promise you that. Or at least I won't kill you until you've helped me kill at least a few more Doimari.»
«All right,» said Blade. He steered for a moment with one hand, while handing her the laser rifle with the other. «Just don't shoot off our own propeller. I don't particularly want to get killed at all, but I'd rather be killed by you than by the Doimari!»
She laughed again. At least they seemed to agree on something. Blade concentrated on getting the Hovercraft onto a main street. The moment he found one leading the right way, he gave the Hovercraft almost full power. The staring faces of the few people abroad at night turned into white blurs. Gravel rattled like shotgun blasts on the hull and once Blade heard the whipcrack of a laser. The fans and propeller still whined as steadily as if they were fresh from the factory.