Page 150 of Sky Song
“She’s one of the damaged ones,” Kim proclaimed. “But the doctor is coming with us.”
Dr. Ragberg blinked myopically behind his glasses and sputtered, “Wh… Where? I’m not going anywhere with you. You’ve lost your mind!”
As he was saying it, the man that came with Kim was already in motion, hopping over the overturned console and lunging toward Dr. Ragberg.
“Watch out!”
But Dr. Ragberg had caught on by now. Shoving a chair toward his attacker, he ran. Scrambling, Cricket took off after him.
“Shoot her!”
A charge blasted the side of the door frame as she ran through.
You’re as bad of a shot as I am.
It was a small consolation.
She slammed the door into her pursuers faces, barricading herself and her doctor in the bedroom.
“You think you can hide out behind this rickety door?” someone snarled. Shots zapped the wood and the burning smell started to fill the air. A heavy shoulder rammed into the door, making it bow. A flimsy door. Cheap. One hard kick and it would splinter. Lyle would have taken it off the hinges with one hand.
Lyle.
She turned on Dr. Ragberg and shoved her little gun under his chin. “How can I help my Rix?”
“Christ, Emma, don’t shoot,” he uttered tightly.
She pressed the stunner firmly against the underside of his jaw, fully cognizant that she could never shoot him. At least, not shoot him dead. “Spill! We don’t have time.”
The door bowed again under the force of someone’s persistent shoulder.
“There isn’t anything!”
She pushed him against the wall, hard, those Rix genes boosting her physical power. “Liar.”
“No, listen to me. His system’s already damaged but he’s made it this far, so now he’ll either survive or he won’t,” his hot rapid rasping smelled faintly sour. “Nothing you can do. No human medicine can help. Just keep him sedated and…”
“And what?”
“Pray,” he finished quietly.
The door splintered.
Cricket grabbed a lamp from the nightstand and hurled it, its brass base making a satisfying thump as it hit. Someone groaned, fell down - it was too dark to see.
“Shoot that bionic bitch! End the alien plague!” Kim, for certain.
Cricket dove toward the other side of the bed, groped for her wooden arts case stored underneath and threw it at the window to break it. Now she only had to climb out.
There was a commotion in the room, people cursing, and another buzzing shot went into the wall. She fired at the ceiling to keep her attackers at bay as she stealthily crawled to the window hiding behind the slim protection of her narrow bed frame. And then someone shouted, “Peacekeepers!”
Galvanized, Cricket sprung for the window like she was merging into a one-hundred miles per hour traffic from a dead stop. She braced herself against the window frame, slicing her hands of broken glass. Ignoring the pain, not even feeling it fully, she was almost out of the window when someone grabbed her by the leg.
“Emma, where are the records?”
“Let go or I’ll shoot,” she hissed.
Immediately, Dr. Ragberg released her. “You said you’d bring back Yanet’s tablet. You promised!”
