The Huntsman and the Nix Ch. 05

The "safe place" near the institute had turned out to be a large cement outlet tunnel set at the top of a slope for diverting runoff, water trickling from its mouth and a massive door lock wheel for opening and closing it. It was covered with brush and hadn't been serviced and the door was rusted and wouldn't turn, but it was difficult to see from the outside. Forgotten. Inside the tunnel, the air was cool and damp and there were ledges to the sides once you got in that were wide enough to sleep on.

They were ready. They would get Isobet into Block Eight in the early morning.

Sutter put his bedroll down, pulling her into his arms and smelling her. She found her spot, riding his leg, wrapping around his arm, his other for a pillow, and her body relaxed in front of him.

"Goodnight, Jaunt," Sutter said.

"Goodnight, Jaunt," seven Nix said.

"Screw all of you," Jaunt muttered.

After a time, everyone was asleep. In front of him, Isobet's breathing was deep, the little Nix curled around his arm. Sutter nuzzled her. His jaw clenched, putting his forehead against her hair.

#

Sutter woke her early, before he and Jaunt left. Isobet was sleepy and blinking, the sky barely light, early dawn. He took her hand and brought her away from everyone else. Facing her, he looked into her eyes "Don't hesitate. Don't half-ass this. Get in and then get out. Don't fight if you can run. If you have to fight, fight like hell."

"Okay," she said, nodding, looking at him closely. "Are you scared?"

"Fuck's sake, be careful," he said.

"Okay."

"Be more careful."

"Okay."

He bent and kissed her.

"Get your ass moving, Sutter," Jaunt called.

"Prick," Sutter said under his breath. He looked down at her for a long moment. "I'll see you soon, killer."

#

It was about two hours later. The sun was well up, already getting warm, although there had been a nice breeze. Sutter was running.

The thing about plans, even simple plans, was that you needed to prepare for things to happen in unexpected ways. But the problem with preparing for the unexpected was the simple fact that, by definition, the unexpected was something you just didn't see coming.

A groundshake, for instance, while you were running from a handro. It wasn't easy to expect something like that, as he and Jaunt went from running to trying to stay on their feet, all while the handro behind them, in a blind rage, was fighting to get to them like it faced a brisk wind, clacking and reeling as if it were drunk, its eyes all crazy.

It wasn't very bright, but that animal persevered.

Sutter went down on one hand and got his feet under him and tried to go in a general direction, wobbly, Jaunt as wrong-footed, but they managed increasingly steady forward movement. At times like this, it wasn't worth looking back. You didn't want to know beforehand anyway.

"Son of a bitch," Sutter said, running faster, his inner ear all messed up, swiping leaves out of his way.

It wasn't far, but the unexpected had just made it seem so.

He and Jaunt had worried the handro between them until the animal was in a fine fury. You'd think the groundshake would have made it think of something else, but it was pissed.

"You made," Sutter said between breaths to Jaunt as they ran, "it angry."

Isobet would have gone with Hops by now. She and Hops would have waited in cover, keeping their heads down. When the Nix in front of the gate had drawn enough of the institute guards to present a distraction without getting themselves caught, she and Hops would have climbed the walls on the northeast side, the quickest way to Block Eight.

Hops would have gotten her there and into the ventilation ducting, where she would have crawled her way to the medical lab and retrieved the data ring, reversing and getting out of there. The handro was about to cover her exit.

The guards would have opened the gates and come out to investigate, at which time Sutter and Jaunt would show up with a handro and let that big badass do their work for them. A simple, straightforward plan.

"Close," Sutter called to Jaunt.

Neither he nor Jaunt were armed. They'd given Rab and Cope their pistols, since the two Nix would be hiding in the field in front of the gate, keeping the guards interested, and because the pistols might as well be foul language against that animal, useless in the face of what was coming for them.

From in front of them, an alarm went off, a siren sound.

Another thing that hadn't been in their plans. That alarm was coming from Forsyte Institute. It was unanticipated.

This was how bad things happened, how they fucked up. One unexpected event tended to cause another event that was unanticipated, and the unanticipated became the unprepared for, and everything fell apart in your hands.

"I don't care...how close...the handro is...as long," Jaunt got out, his arms pumping, "as I'm in front of you."

"Fucker," Sutter said, putting on speed.

It was still early morning. Almost there. The alarm was still going, and then it cut out abruptly.

They burst into the clear area in front of the gates. There was a yell ahead of them, he and Jaunt running straight toward the gates. They'd been seen. The grass was still damp with dew, their lower pant legs wet as they whipped through it. Sutter didn't see the Nix, but there were about twelve armed guards in front of them, their guns coming up, aiming at them.

Sutter heard—practically felt—the handro burst from the treeline behind them, roaring. It made a dramatic entrance and was far closer than either he or Jaunt had ever wanted.

Jaunt threw himself down feet-first, sliding, recovering and flipping the grass mat lid, going around to get in. Sutter hit him, both of them tumbling into their hole, Sutter grabbing the door on the way down because that was what there was time for and Jaunt always wanted to make it look fancy. Sutter didnot want to be killed by something that stupid-looking.

"Fucking prick," Jaunt spat, getting himself righted. "Are you trying to get us both killed?"

The handro arrived over them, he and Jaunt holding their shoulders against it, a grass mat the only thing between them and the animal. It clacked and raged, he and Jaunt braced, crammed together in the tiny space.

Both of them coughed as dirt came down and then there was the sound of a gun going off and the animal gave a squeal and was gone.

Screams followed. The guards still in the field in front of the gate had not spent their nights digging holes in which to hide from a handro. Their unexpected event had turned very quickly into an unanticipated event and gotten just plain ugly from there. The firing and yelling and screaming continued.

"Time to go," Jaunt said, both of them evacuating their shelter, Sutter seeing two big Nix pop out of their hole as well, all of them retreating to the tree line.

Sutter looked back as he went, facing forward, looking back again, seeing the rest of them doing the same. Eight guards were firing at the creature. The rest of the twelve were a scattering of body parts. The handro was bellowing, its body jerking with rounds, and then it went completely crazy, rushing and catching a man in its jaws, his gun flung out, his shots going wild, a spray of bullets taking his buddy out next to him.

The animal tore at him, the man's arm going one way and his body another, the handro getting his claws into the action. The guards backed away now toward the gate, still firing. The animal staggered, and then it fell on its side, crying out. It lurched to its feet and found a direction, northwest, and took it, running. Poor bastard.

They were at the treeline, Sutter getting his body slowed, his legs jelly, panting hard. Jaunt was doing the same. Sutter's hands went to his knees, waiting to see if he would vomit. Evidently not. He looked up, counting. Four big Nix were there. Rab and Cope arrived. Six big Nix. He straightened. All the big Nix were accounted for except for one.

Rab came and handed him his pistol, Cope doing the same with Jaunt. Sutter's eyes never shifted from the direction she would come as he holstered it and his gut fell out from under him, forgetting to breathe. His panting stopped.

Hops was coming. Sutter looked at his face and knew right away. Because the unexpected could proliferate and become something so very bad. "Where the fuck is she?" Sutter demanded, advancing on Hops, getting in his face, breathing hard again.

"She was in the ducting when the groundshake hit," Hops said. "I heard a crash. I couldn't go after her. I couldn't fit, Sutter. It was quiet until right before the handro showed up, and then an alarm went off. She triggered something in there. I waited as long as I could."

It wasn't the man's fault, but it didn't make Sutter want to hit him less. "Son of abitch," Sutter said, pacing once. He went still, and then he turned and looked. The gates were still open. He shrugged off his pack and set it down. "I'm going to the control room at central to see if I can open the doors to Block Eight."

"Not without me you're not, fuck you very much," Jaunt said.

"The guards the handro killed in front of the gate had rifles," Rab said. "Let us help, Sutter. We know how to do this. We'll get the guns on the way and take the institute."

Storming the gates, fuck's sake. They were going to have to explain that to SCA. Those guards wouldn't stand a chance. The Nix had never attacked simply because it would have alerted system authorities that they existed.

Setting down his pack, Sutter went back the way they'd come, running.

The Nix were faster. All of the sudden, Sutter was in the footage he'd watched, seeing the Nix do what they'd been engineered to do. He and Jaunt had unleashed them, and Sutter didn't care at this moment. They rushed from behind he and Jaunt and passed them, running across the field, taking the rifles and they were through the gate before the guards knew they were even there. The sound of firing came.

Then he and Jaunt were through the gates and a body landed in front of them, flung out from one of the two guard towers at the gate, one on each side.

He and Jaunt vaulted over the body and found themselves facing four guards with guns, Sutter deciding storming the gates was an idea that was, in fact, just as stupid as it sounded. One aiming at Sutter went down, spinning.

"Go!" Rab yelled, taking out another guard, firing from the high tower as Miter fired from the other. He and Jaunt sprinted, Sutter looking back. Ero's large form appeared with a rifle on his shoulder swinging around. Ero's shoulder took the kickback and then Sutter faced forward, hearing the report, a guard to Jaunt's left flying backward. The Nix took two more out. The rest of the guards took cover.

He and Jaunt cut in, still running, Jaunt yielding to him since Sutter knew the layout, on their way to the security offices and the control room.

The institute was quiet where they went, staff probably hiding and most of the guards where the action was. They met people in lab coats around a corner, he and Jaunt ignoring them, the two men getting out of their way.

Then they were at the central building, making their way to the control room, Sutter mentally reviewing the map of the compound. Hitting the door with his shoulder, Sutter went into the security building with Jaunt behind him. He took a guard out on the second floor with a crack that echoed and they were running upstairs.

They burst into the control room. Sutter raised his pistol, aiming it at Bruja laReine, who was by the communications panel, her hand on the controls.

"Step back," Sutter said, advancing on her, breathing fast.

"Of course," she said. Bruja walked a small distance toward the far exit door and stopped, facing them and cocking her head. "I was surprised to see you on the security cameras by the gate. I didn't know you were still alive, Huntsman."

"I imagine not, since you tried to blow me up," Sutter said, stopping.

"There are all sorts of people still alive. When the alarm sounded, I came here to find a group of Nix attacking the institute. And then I saw Nivea-1 on the security cameras. You told me she was dead."

"I lied. Open Block Eight," Sutter said.

"I would," Bruja said, mild regret in her tone, "but I'm afraid it's already too late. I've released the poison gas into Block Eight. If you leave now, you should get there just in time to find her body." Bruja turned, cool as you please, and walked to the other door, opening it and going through it.

Sutter let her go because she was not the most important thing, as she'd intended. That was why she'd said it.

Jaunt ran to the console panel as Sutter went back the way he'd come, down the stairs. There were no guards and the sounds of a firefight in the distance. He reached Block Eight and tried the doors. Nothing. Jaunt would get them open. He turned as a man came around the corner, Sutter's pistol coming up.

Sutter brought his pistol down again. "What's going on?" Sutter demanded.

"We did it," Hops said, panting. "Most of the guards surrendered. Miter and Rab have them locked in holding cells and Init has gone to hide all the weapons from the armory in the tunnel. Did you get the doors open?"

"Jaunt is still working on it. Bruja was in the control room. She got away." Sutter didn't mention what Bruja had said about the gas. Bruja was a liar.

The doors behind them released with a loud clang, Sutter hitting them with his shoulder. They flew open, Hops on his heels. Sutter was halfway down the hall when he felt big arms come around him from behind, lifting him and dragging him backward, Sutter beginning to cough.

"Poison! Someone's released the poison gas, Sutter," Hops said, also coughing.

Sutter's elbow hit his face, and then there was a time Sutter didn't remember, trying to get somewhere, battling and not making any progress.

#

"...Sutter. Sutter," Jaunt was saying.

Sutter focused on him, looking up. He was on the ground outside, on his back. "Jaunt?" Sutter said, looking around and then rolling onto his side and gagging, waiting. Not going to puke, evidently. Looking around again, he saw he was outside Block Eight. He had no memory of getting here.

Hops wasn't far, panting, his mouth bleeding, his face red in several places. He was holding his shoulder. Sutter's knuckles were stinging and his jaw was sore. That Nix fucker had finally just knocked him out and probably carried him here.

The rest of the Nix arrived.

Dragging himself up into a sitting position and then scooting backward, finding the exterior wall and leaning against it, Sutter let his head rest back, his knee coming up, his hand hanging off of it. Jaunt came, squatting in front of him.

Sutter raised his head from the wall, looking at him. "Isobet was in there," Sutter told him, his voice dull. "Bruja released the poison gas and I let her go in there."

He felt Jaunt's hand slip behind his neck, bringing their foreheads together.

Sutter suddenly felt all of it. "Son of a bitch," he said, his voice thin, resting against him.