Page 51 of Synnr's Ride

"Sarah, you can come out. It's Hanna, and I have Jori with me." They made it to the top of the steps, and Hanna guided him to a row stacked high with long crates.

A young human woman who had a tarp wrapped around her shoulders huddled, half in shadow, and looked at Hanna like she might disappear if she blinked too hard.

"I don't feel so good." Sarah clutched at her stomach, her face going a bit green.

"Cryo-sickness," Jori guessed. He'd never seen it himself, but he'd heard of it. "We need to get you some food."

"We need to get out of here first." Hanna gently let go of him and crossed to Sarah. "We'll get you somewhere safe, I promise. Can you hold on for a bit longer?"

The girl nodded and then gagged, pulling away from Sarah and bending in half to puke her guts out on the floor at Hanna's feet. After a few heaving hurls, she stood back up and wiped the back of her hand against her mouth. "I'll hold on."

Hanna shot Jori a silent look, one he understood perfectly. Cryo-sickness could turn deadly, and if they didn't get Sarah food soon, she might not make it. "We'll take you to our place and then call in our boss."

Jori eyed the crates. If Sarah had been in one, there was no telling how many were also filled with other humans slowly waking from cryo-sleep.

"No time," Hanna said, keeping her words vague enough that Sarah might not understand.

It killed a part of Jori, but he nodded. It would only be an hour or two until they could get a proper team to the building.

Outside, an engine roared, and Jori looked out the window. He recognized Kark's bike, along with Maisum and Mardoz. The other two bikes had to belong to other members of Kark's crew.

Kark slid off his bike, took his helmet off, and strutted towards the building, his men following behind him.

It wouldn't take long for him or his guys to spot Rexx and Jursor's bodies.

And Jori, Hanna, and Sarah were trapped on the second floor.

17

"You've gotto be fucking kidding me!" The outburst from Sarah had Hanna jolting in shock. The human woman was glaring out the window as Kark and his men made their way towards the entrance.

Hanna understood the sentiment and agreed. Jori was standing up straighter, wings taut and ready for a fight. But he was injured, and they had a non-combatant to protect.

"We can't fight him," she told Jori. "We need to get out of here. Fast."

He looked back toward the stairs, but Hanna only had eyes for the window. She looked back to Sarah and judged her weight. She was a bit shorter than Hanna and had the emaciated look that tended to happen to cryo-sleepers.

Her crazy idea just might work.

"Are they all inside yet?" she asked, joining Jori by the window and looking with her own eyes.

"Just about."

One of the men took up the rear and moved slower, eyes crawling over every speck of the parking lot. But after another moment, he was in. Hanna strained to hear, but the building was too big.

"We've only got a minute to do this, maybe less." Given the state of Jori's injuries, there was no way he could run for their bike and neither could Sarah. But there were plenty of nice fusion cycles sitting right there. "Can you hack one of them?" she asked.

"Not fast enough." Jori spat out a curse.

"That's fine." She thought she heard a sound inside, but she forced herself to ignore it. "I'll carry Sarah down," she said, shooting the girl a sympathetic look. "It'll be a rough landing, but we'll make it. You follow and stand guard. I'll hack two bikes. We ride for HQ."

Sarah needed treatment, but with Kark at the warehouse, they were out of time.

Jori nodded grimly.

Getting the window open was the hardest part. Jori glided down with the grace of a dancer while Sarah held onto her so tight that Hanna feared she wouldn't be able to spread her wings. She managed, barely, and felt the impact of the jump all the way to her teeth.

Sarah threw up again, but that might have had something to do with the jump.

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