Page 70 of From the Noblest Motives
Blaze blew out a hard breath. "And that rat bastard, Fox, came after you."
"He did. I have never felt so stupid in all my life. I should have left the office first, packed up, left home, and done the data mining from a safer location. But I've become so accustomed to feeling safe in my little aerie at the top of the tower." She sighed. "He was polite, but he still held a firearm pointed in my direction. I don't think he expected me to put up any sort of resistance, since he looked rather, ah, shocked when the house zapped him."
Blaze couldn't help a laugh, though he cut it short for her sake. She wasn't finding any of this funny. "I'm sorry, Doc. I know it's hard. You trusted these people for years."
"I keep thinking of Fox as a child on my visits to the academy, pulling me by the hand to show me the rabbit warren he'd found by scent. He was so proud." Her voice wavered and she wiped at her eyes. "Yes, it's hard."
"Still feel like I'm missing something." Blaze crossed his arms over his chest, going back through everything she'd revealed. "If Cyril was working with Heller and Sledge on these drugs, why come after him?"
"If I'd been able to finish the data search, I suspect that we'd find certain items missing from inventory among the lab samples. Items that they didn't hand over voluntarily. Or someone in the organization did but not on Sledge's authority."
"That last one. I bet he—" Shudder cut himself off with a glance toward the kids. "Um, we should talk about it later."
Dr. Parma displayed her superpower of reading the room by changing the subject. "Thank you for riding to my rescue. I did my best, and evaded Fox for as long as I could. Though I suspect he tagged my runabout some time ago to keep track of me. My poor little vehicle is hidden deep in a thicket well east of where I met you, and still he tracked me."
"It's what he does," Damien said in his first contribution to the conversation.
"And he's always done it well. Though variant-enhancing drugs have expanded his abilities, it seems. Luckily, you came in time. Thank you."
"Any excuse for Blaze to show off his badassitude," Shudder tossed over his shoulder.
"Not a word," Damien murmured, which did Blaze's heart all sorts of good, since it signaled he was steadying.
They emerged from the tunnel into an open field and a twilight sky, maybe a mile or more from the house, Blaze judged. Damien turned west immediately, chasing the sun.
Always chasing something. Years and years of chasing the next bounty, the next job, the next quick lay. Time to stop, Emerson. Stop chasing the sun, plant your feet, and do something real and useful.Protect the things you love. Blaze Emerson—human fortress.
Quiet settled over the vehicle, broken only by the occasional whispered kid argument from the back and Shudder's ragged-edged voice telling Damien stories, probably to help him stay awake. Dr. Parma curled up small in her seat and went to sleep. The last couple of days couldn't have been easy on someone her age. It was all more soothing than it probably should've been, now that they were fugitives from just about everything, and Blaze soon dozed off, too.
He woke every couple of hours, expecting Damien to want him to take over, but like the lunatic he was, he drove through the night, finally calling a halt when the sun threatened the sky with crimson in the east.
Damien staggered from the pilot's seat and stared blearily toward the back of the skimmer bus.
Immediately, Blaze saw the problem. "Kids, you're gonna have to move up a row. Damien won't be able to sleep with people sitting behind him."
With apologies and lots of tripping over each other, Maia, Deshaun, and Danilo managed to rearrange themselves and let Damien have the back. He promptly collapsed in the corner seat and was out in a very un-Damienesque heap.
Didn't even get a kiss goodnight.Poor Twitch. Though it was no wonder, since Damien had been going longer than anyone else, had pushed himself farther than he should've to take care of everyone else.And once again, you failed him. You should've stopped him sooner. Need to do so fucking much better.
Blaze felt a little guilty over the thrill of climbing into the pilot's seat, but he couldn't help it. This thing was an absolutebeast. The impeller hummed under his feet as the skimmer lifted from the ground, the power telegraphing through the controls. He tamped down on a manic grin and eased it forward.
"Sure you can fly this?" Shudder had opened one eye.
"Yes. And fuck you." Blaze sighed as he thought of something else. "I should've made sure he ate before he went to sleep."
"I think he needed the sleep more. We'll just keep our fingers out of the way when he wakes up."
"Not funny, Shuds."
"Sorry. Guess I'm too worried to be funny."
Blaze gave him a sideways glance as he accelerated. "You wereneverfunny."
That got Blaze the little smile he'd been hoping for, and his heart settled a bit. The skimmer flight took the entire day, and evening was settling, blue and cool now that they'd reached higher elevations, before they caught sight of the cliff that led to McKenzie's Redoubt.
On approach, the expected squad of pocket bikes roared toward them and surrounded the skimmer, all the riders bristling with weapons, but when Shudder stuck his head out the window and waved, the ominous escort became a joyous one, with dark faceplates flipped up to reveal smiling, cheering faces and the bikes zipping around in gleeful circles.
Shudder wiped at his eyes and hiccupped a little sob. "Sorry, sorry. I've missed my kids."
