Page 146 of Javier

All we had was each other. Bekker and his fuckers had managed to make a stand. If Bekker got his hands on Missy, she was gonna die a miserable death. I felt like shit, but I forced the old brain to work.

“Omega,” I said as loud as I could. “We need to go back. It’s the only escape route available to us, and the only surprise move we have left. They know I got bit. They know we’re going to the hospital. They’re waiting to mow us down. The tangos won’t be expecting a U-turn from us.”

“Don’t turn around,” Missy shouted over the rattling van’s racket. “We need to get Javier to the hospital.”

In the rearview mirror, Dagger’s stare met mine. We both knew what was at stake. We knew our probabilities of getting to the hospital alive were low at the moment. We also understood that Missy and Thena’s safety was our priority.

“I don’t need antivenom to send Bekker to hell,” I informed Omega.

“The hell you don’t,” Dagger muttered angrily.

The pain.Fuck. The carbine fell out of my hand. Missy took it from my lap and set it on the floor. With Thena’s help, they slid me down to the floor and sat me up with my back against the seat. I felt faint, much weaker than before. The air didn’t reach the bottom of my lungs.

Missy’s face came in and out of focus before me. “How are you doing?”

“Peachy.” My lame attempt at a thumbs up didn’t work.

“Dash!” Missy’s shout came from some distant place. “He’s running out of time!”

“We’re gonna get him there,” came Omega’s brisk reply. “Hang on, Guzman. Bozeman, ETA?”

“Twelve minutes to the hospital if we can get through.”

“We’ll get through,” Dagger pledged to the screech of brakes. “Bozeman, take control of the surveillance droneoverhead. King, you’re up!”

“Hang on, bro.” He patted my shoulder before he slid open the side door.

I opened my eyes to see King outside the van. He and Ferranti dragged a trio of large black boxes from under the seats and began to tinker with them. Fingering his tablet at top speed, King activated one of the boxes.

A green light blinked on. Bogie wheels expanded from the bottom of the box. It elongated upward by almost four feet. Four arm-like metal appendages whirred out of the sides. I scrubbed my hazy eyes. Two of the extensions looked like machine guns. The other two looked like RPG launchers. King hit another icon on his tablet, and with aclank, the RPGs loaded.

“What the fuck?” I rasped.

“Shiny new toys, fresh from BB’s labs,” King explained while fingering the controls.

“We flew them down with us.” Ferranti looked down on his own controller and activated the second box.

“Do you know how to drive those things?” I asked.

“We’ve been training during our time off.” King tapped a series of icons and muttered, “Fingers crossed.”

So the land drones hadn’t been tested in battle yet. Tracker Team was pulling a Hail Mary on my account.

“Armed,” King called out.

“Ready,” Ferranti reported.

“Engage,” Dash returned.

King and Ferranti fingered their respective controls. The bogie wheels turned and the land drones began rolling down the road, gaining speed as they went.

“I’m launching this one on automation mode,” K-man announced. “Here we go.”

Small blades popped out of the top of the third drone and gained speed right before it took flight. I blinked several timeswhen a frame expanded from the side. I spotted a compliment of grenades attached to the mechanism.

“The new age.” An indolent grin curved my lips before I closed my eyes against the pain. “The time of the good old-fashioned warrior is coming to an end.”

“Don’t say that,” Missy begged in my ear. “Please?”

---