Страница 108 из 118
“Oh my God,” Monica breathed.
“Yeah, it kind of sucks.”
“Whatc what are you going to do about it?”
A beam of light shone through the hatch in the floor. Tiny bits of dust and particulate metal glimmered in it like it was swirling in water. He watched it with a half smile on his face. It meant the bad guys were almost there, but it was pretty to look at. He remembered that Monica was on the line. She’d asked him something.
“Yeah,” Bull said. “So that thing where we power down the ship and save everyone? We’re probably not going to do that.”
“You can’t give up,” she said. “Please. There has to be a way.”
Doesn’t have to be, he thought, but didn’t say. A
“How bad is it in there?” he asked.
“It’sc it’s terrible. It’s like the catastrophe happened all over again.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Bull said.
“We can’t go on,” Monica said. “Oh God, what are we going to do?”
The light got stronger. Brighter. He couldn’t see the dust motes anymore from the shine of the light.
“Monica?” Bull said. “Look, I’m sorry, but I kind of got to go now, okay? You folks just do your best. Hold it together in there, all right? And hey, if it all works out?”
“Yes?”
“Tell Fred Johnson he fucking owes me one.”
He dropped the co
“Hey,” Bull said, even though the man couldn’t hear him. “Hold this for me.”
He tossed the two grenades, and watched the man’s expression as he understood what they were.
Chapter Forty-Nine: A
A
“What?” she tried to say, but it came out as a slushy “bluh” sound.
“Christ, Red, I thought you were cooked there,” a familiar voice replied. Rough but friendly. Amos. “I hated to think I broke my promise.”
A
More firecrackers went off in long, staccato bursts. It took A
“If you aren’t dead,” Amos said, then paused to lean around the corner and fire off a short burst. “Then you’ll probably want to get out of the middle of the room.”
“Okju,” A
Okju’s arm flopped bonelessly when she pulled it, and the woman started slowly rotating in the air. A
The sounds of gunfire didn’t stop. Amos and his small, mixed band of defenders were firing out through every opening in the office space, several of which had been cut as gun ports.
They were under attack. Ashford had sent his people to stop them. A
Ashford must have shut down the drum to stop them so that his gunmen could finish them off. But if Okju had been killed as a result of the sudden stoppage, then that same effect would have been repeated dozens, maybe hundreds of times throughout the makeshift community on the Behemoth. Ashford was willing to kill them all to get his own way. A
“Are we still broadcasting?” she yelled at Amos over the gunfire.
“Du
A
Monica gave a humorless laugh but didn’t turn around. “I thought you were dead.”
“No, but Okju is. I think she broke her neck. I’ll take the camera if you need me to. Where’s Clip?”
“Clip was helping Amos, and he was shot in the hip. He’s bleeding out in a side office. Tilly is helping him.”
A
Monica laughed again, then turned around and swatted A
A
“It got banged around some, but—”
“Does. It. Work.”
“Yes,” Monica said. It came out as a frightened squeak.
“Get me on the cha
“Fuck!” Amos yelled from the other room. When A
“We’re ru
Monica’s reply was to hand her a headset with a microphone.
“Hello? This is A
Someone replied, but they were impossible to hear over the nearby gunfire. A