Against Gravity

He climbed out into the street and glanced back inside the car. "If we need you, we'll let you know. But, frankly, don't wait around."

He slammed the door shut on them. But Draeger just looked quietly serene, as if he held some precious secret that the rest of the world knew nothing about.

Kendrick walked quickly back to the compound, feeling the skin between his shoulder blades burning every step of the way. But no shots rang out.

Buddy stirred groggily from his cot. "You're sure about this?"

"Very sure."

Buddy pressed the palm of one hand against his forehead and swore softly, still half asleep.

"I don't know how rational Draeger is likely to be," Kendrick told him. "He's fighting for his survival."

Next he turned to Audrey, who stood, looking worried, in the doorway. "How long before we head off?"

"Took most of the night to take care of refuelling and maintenance. You've come a long way in that 'copter, so it's best to check everything twice so we don't have any nasty surprises after we're airborne." Her eyes half closed as she became momentarily deep in thought. "But give me twenty minutes, tops, and she'll be ready."

"Can you make it ten?"

Audrey nodded hesitantly, then slipped away, looking pale.

"Jesus. So Draeger really is here?" Buddy sounded more awake now. He started to pull on a pair of boots. "How long you think we got?"

"Hard to say. He has a small army with him back there."

Several minutes later they heard the steady drone of choppers approaching, fast.

Kendrick had stepped outside to see if anyone was trying to enter the compound. He turned in time to see Buddy emerge from the doorway, still zipping up his fly.

"The tarpaulin," Buddy urged him. "Help me get it off."

Kendrick nodded, and they unveiled the helicopter, its now-exposed skin gleaming black in the early-morning light. Kendrick saw Audrey staring off towards the east, and glanced in the same direction. Small shapes, rapidly growing larger, were heading towards them in a line across the sky.

Time's up.

Kendrick was surprised that the attack came from the air. Draeger's men, after all, had moved on foot. But then, he remembered, Draeger wasn't the only hostile force they had to deal with. The approaching aircraft could also belong to Los Muertos.

Buddy was now in the pilot's seat. The helicopter's rotors whined into life, producing a steady, deafening wail within seconds.

Audrey was nowhere to be seen as Kendrick pulled himself on board, the rotors beating at the air inches above his head. Buddy mouthed her name and Kendrick jabbed a finger towards the nearest building.

He saw Audrey emerge from a doorway. She was carrying some sort of weapon, a wicked-looking black thing with a snub nose. Kendrick started to climb back out of the 'copter, feeling that he should help her in some way.

Buddy placed a gloved hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Kendrick hesitated, realizing what Buddy was saying: it wasn't likely he'd be much use.

Audrey had slung the weapon over her shoulder on a strap before leaping up in an augmented blur to grab the lower edge of the building's roof with both hands. She pulled herself up effortlessly onto the sloping surface, ru

Buddy pulled back on the 'copter's stick until they were hovering several feet above the ground. There was a flash of light and the sound of gunfire. Buddy took the aircraft higher as bullets streaked through the air around them.

"We have to get Audrey inside," Kendrick yelled in Buddy's ear. "She'll get herself killed."

"You think I don't know that?" Buddy yelled back. "What am I supposed to do, jump out and get her?"

Audrey was returning fire now, her weapon spitting bullets at an astonishing rate. An enemy helicopter jerked up and away, swerving and ducking as she aimed for it.

Kendrick didn't allow himself the luxury of thinking about what he did next. He slammed open the door next to him and fell for several metres, hitting the ground rolling. Keeping low, he ran towards the shelter of a nearby shed.

Something hot zinged past his ear and he found himself taking cover behind a stack of concrete blocks, which looked like they'd been salvaged from nearby ruins. Puffs of dust suddenly spurted from the hard-packed dirt only inches away.

The attack was coming, Kendrick could see now, as a new helicopter appeared from an entirely different direction. He pulled himself up onto the roof, as he'd seen Audrey do. He watched in amazement as she jumped up onto one of the struts of the attacking helicopter and ripped open the door on the pilot's side.

The helicopter rapidly spiralled upwards. He saw a body tumble out, arms and legs flailing. Not Audrey -the pilot.

He saw her leap away from the craft as it spun end over end. Audrey landed back on the building roof, feet first, the movement almost ballet-like.

Kendrick started to move towards her, seeing what she hadn't yet spotted. As the helicopter twisted in the air above her, instinct made Kendrick roll away fast, dropping off the shed roof onto the ground.

The 'copter ploughed down on top of the building, and Audrey vanished in a great plume of flames and smoke that swallowed the structure, turning it into a huge pyre.

Kendrick turned, dumbstruck, just in time to see another helicopter sweeping over the burning roof towards him. He ducked away, ready to run, before he realized that it was Buddy.

He could see the fear etched on Buddy's face through the canopy. The aircraft dipped close enough to the ground to let Kendrick get on board.

He hurled himself back into the co-pilot's seat and, in the next instant, Buddy pulled back on the stick and they shot upwards.

Below them the ground fell away with alarming speed. "Can we make it?" Kendrick yelled.

"There's six other choppers coming this way fast. That's going to be a problem." Streets of broken buildings flashed by below.

To the east, the sun continued its slow climb into the sky, its rays reflecting off their pursuers and making them look like burning insects.

"They're keeping their distance," Buddy a

"You know," Kendrick said carefully, "that it's me they want, not just you. They seem to think I'm important."

Buddy looked straight ahead and nodded. "Yeah, you could say that."

"If I hadn't come along, if Erik Whitsett hadn't been able to find me – if I hadn't come to Loch Awe that time. Is there any reason why you might not have been able to go ahead with all of this, your launch to the Archimedes?"

Buddy sighed, his eyes flickering over the screens that displayed the pursuing helicopters. "Look, it was clear from the start that Los Muertos thought you were important. Maybe they knew something we didn't, something we'd missed somehow when the Bright showed us what they could give us. Then you went to visit Draeger and that made us think, yeah, maybe you were vital to the whole operation in some way that we couldn't figure."

"So really you were hedging your bets. That's why you wanted me here."

"Ken, you're one of us – that's why I wanted you here. So please don't write us off as a bunch of self-serving pricks like Draeger. Some of us are 'more' like the Bright than others, sure, but in the end I don't know if it makes any damn difference. Ask the Bright – maybe they know."

So much had changed. In the begi