CHAPTER 19
I left the hood up and moved around to the driver’s side. He chose to open his door, marking him as an idiot. But that was good. I’d been planning to kick in the back window and drag Slinkie out before we crashed. Not the greatest plan in the world. A door open made things much simpler.
He fired, I dodged. Wasn’t hard. His aim was poor—apparently it was hard to drive an out-of-control ’floater and shoot the good guy at the same time.
I grabbed the door before he could close it, pulled my laser gun, and fired. Missed the driver, got the passenger. In the head. One down, three goons to go. From what I could tell, Slinkie was still out.
The driver flipped the car while he and I continued to fire at each other. He missed again, possibly because I’d lost my footing and was holding onto the car via the door handle. He leaned out to aim better. I holstered my gun, flung my arm up, and grabbed his arm just before he fired. His shot missed and he was off-balance enough that I pulled him out of the ’floater.
I heard male voices shouting, but couldn’t pay much attention. The driver still had a hold of the wheel, meaning the ’floater was spinning in the air while heading, from the quick flash I saw, straight for the main sewage vat. I could smell it now, and I knew we’d land in it—it was just the way the cosmos worked.
I had the worse position, so I decided to try reckless as my next option. I grabbed the driver and climbed up his body. He tried to stop me, but I landed a good kick on his hand and his laser gun went flying off. He was bigger than me, weren’t they all here, but I was more agile and I had the desire to sleep with Slinkie spurring me on. Can’t sleep with dead girls—well, some can, but I’d never been one of them and didn’t plan on starting now.
Grabbed the wheel, made sure I had a firm hold, and then I slammed my elbow into the driver’s face. It took a couple of hits, but fighting fair wasn’t something I’d ever believed in. So I kneed his groin—hard—while I hit him with my elbow again. He lost his hold on the wheel and started to slide down. My elbow hit the top of his head while my knee met his nose. He let go and I stopped worrying about him.
Climbed in when the car spun around to help me. The positive about the car spinning was that the two remaining goons were too busy flipping around the car to shoot at me. I turned the wheel the other direction, took the laser gun the dead passenger wasn’t using any more, and waited for the goons to settle for a second. Two shots to the head, two dead goons. It was a cheerful afternoon for me.
I heard Slinkie groan. Good, she was coming around. We were almost to the sewage plant. I couldn’t see it, but damn could I smell it. I cranked the wheel hard to the left and we slammed into the side of the tank. The outer side. It didn’t break and I thanked whatever god was active on Herion right now as well as Lord Avian. I figured He had to love Slinkie, so maybe had a wing in the assist.
We hit the ground, hard, but on the tires. I didn’t hesitate. Reached over the seat, grabbed Slinkie, dragged her out, flung her over my shoulder, and took off. I knew the kind of reception waiting for someone who crashed a ’floater into the reclamation plant, especially a ’floater with three dead goons in it.
“Nap?” Slinkie sounded confused and bleary. “Nap, what’s going on?”
“Goon attack. I saved you. It was impressive. Tell you later.”
“Where in the egg are we? The smell is awful.”
I heard the sound of metal groaning. Risked a look up. The tank had held when the ’floater hit it, but it had been damaged. And it clearly wasn’t going to hold all that much longer.
“Ah, Slink? You up to running?”
“I think so.”
I put her down and grabbed her hand. “Good. Run. Or die under a mountain of Herion excrement.”
One of the things I loved about Slinkie was that she didn’t question statements like this. She just ran. I had no idea of where we should run to, of course, but away from the tank seemed the best idea.
“There!” Slinkie pointed. A door in what looked like the exterior plant wall. Sounded good to me.
We headed for it. Locked, of course. I was great at picking locks and considered it—it looked like a standard Bulldog, meaning it would take me about thirty seconds. But it didn’t sound like we had long enough. Pulled my trusty laser and shot the lock out. Kicked the door open and we ran through.
There was an impressive array of Herion Military there, guns pointed at us. But I knew what to say in this situation. “The sewage tank’s gonna break!”