Page 54 of Only Cold Depths
The instant the cab stopped, I slid out of the operator’s seat and quickly climbed down the ladder to the ground. Then I plucked my stormsword off my belt and ran to the end of the crane, heading toward the spot where I’d last seen Esmina, Pollux, and their men.
I might be outnumbered, but I couldn’t let them escape. I wanted—needed—answers about why the mercenaries were here and what, if anything, stealing from House Collier had to do with me.
“Vesper!” a voice yelled.
I skidded to a halt and glanced to my right. Asterin was crouching down beside a metal bin. A small, compact silver blaster glinted in her right hand, and she was clutching a tablet in her left hand.
“Attack!” Asterin yelled into the tablet. “We are under attack at the shipping yard! At the back of the mineral exchange!”
She shoved the tablet into her pocket, then ran over to my position. A grim expression filled her face. “We have to keep the thieves in the shipping yard until Siya, Rigel, and the Hammers arrive. We can’t let the thieves escape into a public area and start targeting civilians.”
The two of us crept to the end of the metal crawler tracks. Asterin looked at me, and I nodded back. Together the two of us moved around the tracks and sprinted forward, heading toward the mercenaries.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Red blaster bolts zipped through the air as the mercenaries fired at us. Asterin returned fire with her own blaster, while I snapped up my stormsword and whipped it back and forth in the rapid patterns Kyrion and Leandra Ferrum had taught me. Using the lunarium blade, I managed to deflect some of the blaster bolts back at the mercenaries.
One of my rebound bolts punched into a merc’s chest, and he screamed and tumbled to the ground. Beside me, Asterin kept firing her blaster, and she dropped another merc. The others broke ranks and scrambled for cover.
I rushed forward, with Asterin running along beside me. We moved from one bin and stack of metal rods to another, using them for cover as we kept attacking the mercenaries.
Pollux backed up, firing his hand cannon at us, but his shots went wide. Esmina shook her head in disgust, then spun around on her bootheel and strode away.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Asterin fired her blaster at the psions. Pollux ducked one of the bolts, but Esmina never turned around. Instead, she stepped to one side, then the other, smoothly and easily avoiding the deadly bursts of electricity just as she had during the battle with the bounty hunters. Once again, she knewexactlywhere the bolts were going even before they were fired.
I snarled and gripped my sword even tighter, and hot blue sparks sizzled off the lunarium blade, mirroring my frustration. If I didn’t do something drastic, Esmina and Pollux were going to escape again, just like they had on Tropics 44.
“I’m going after the leaders!” I yelled at Asterin. “Cover me!”
She nodded, rose up from behind the bin, and fired her blaster. While the other mercenaries were distracted, I skirted around the far side of the container, then darted across an open space and behind another container. I hurried along the side and rounded the corner, still chasing after Esmina and Pollux—
A mercenary lunged forward, his fist whistling toward my head. I ducked the blow, then spun around and lashed out with my stormsword. The lunarium blade easily sheared through the merc’s polyplastic armor and ripped into his stomach, and he screamed and staggered back against the bin. I drove my sword into his chest, and he grunted and flopped to the ground, already more dead than alive.
The mercenary landed on his stomach, his bulging backpack sticking up into the air. I crouched down and used my sword to slice through the thick fabric. Several large chunks of blackish stone spilled out and landed at my feet. I grabbed one and held it up to the afternoon sunlight, and the warm rays brought out the stone’s true dark blue color.
“Sapphsidian?” I muttered.
Why would the mercenaries steal sapphsidian when far more valuable things were stored inside the mineral exchange? I didn’t know, but I shoved the stone into my pocket to study later. Then I eased up to the container and peered around the side.
Several mercs had taken cover behind some forklifts. Every few seconds, a merc would pop out and fire their blaster at Asterin, who returned fire, but I didn’t see Esmina or Pollux.
More frustration filled me, but I kept scanning the shipping yard. In the distance, a ripple of green caught my eye, and I spotted Esmina entering a building I hadn’t noticed before.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Asterin fired at the mercs again, making them duck down, then scurried over to me.
I stabbed my finger at the mystery building. “The leaders went that way. What’s in there?”
“The refinery,” she replied. “Where the raw ores are melted down and shaped for shipping.”
“Why would they go in there? The mercenaries should be trying to get out of the shipping yard, not moving deeper into it.”
Asterin let out a curse. “There’s an exit on the far side of the refinery that comes out close to the antiques emporium. If the mercs get into the emporium, they could go out several different exits and get lost in the city streets.” Worry creased her face. “Or they could start taking the emporium shoppers hostage and use them for human shields.”
My hand tightened around my stormsword, and the lunarium blade glowed a little brighter in response. “Then let’s stop them.”
