Memetic Drift - J.N. Chaney Page 0,66
me so much about Huxley?
I pushed the thought from my head and refocused on the task in front of me. As the proxies filed up the stairwell, I led Samara down. We moved faster than before, owing largely to the pressure I felt to support Raven and Vincenzo. The attackers may have prioritized the lab, but they had used explosives against me in an underground complex; they were clearly willing to go to extreme lengths even in a diversionary encounter.
The halls were quiet when we reached holding. “These are prison cells, but you’ll be safer in there than anywhere else,” I said as I unlocked the door. “I don’t know how long it’ll be, but the enemy can’t keep this up.”
“Prison cells? Are there prisoners?”
“Just one, but she’s locked up. Don’t worry.”
The maglock disengaged, and I pushed the door open. As I turned to hold the door for Samara, I caught a glimpse of a figure in motion. It had been pressed against the wall by the door and was now twisting through the air toward me. In an instant, my jaw clapped shut and bursts of light flooded my vision. Heat radiated from the side of my face and I came damn close to blacking out as I spun and the floor rose to meet me.
I felt a weight pressed on the back of my neck. My arm was wrenched back, and I realized that someone was trying to get control of my gun. They were applying pressure and torque in all the right ways, but a prosthetic doesn’t have pressure points or nerve bundles to exploit. I kept a grip on my weapon and steadied my arm against their efforts. I flexed my wrist and fired three shots toward what I guessed would be their head.
The weight on my neck fell away and my arm came free. I scrambled to my feet and watched Katerina Capanelli roll into a fighting stance. I raised my weapon and in the moment of pause before it all went to hell, I sent Andrea a message.
Katerina free
To tell the truth, I’m not really sure that’s how the message read on Andrea’s end. Dataspike messaging depends on subvocalization, not the most reliable or efficient way to send a message. I’d been getting better and better at it, but with the near-concussion I’d just experienced, there was every possibility that the message Andrea received was nothing but gibberish.
I could almost see the calculation in Katerina’s eyes. She had a choice: fight or flight. She could run through the open door, maybe find support from the Jovians, and escape the building, or she could attack me, take my weapon, and finish what she’d started over Europa. Would she be fast enough to do either with my gun in play? Her eyes darted to the door, then back to me.
She smiled and said, “who’s your friend, Tycho?” Then she ducked and took the first step toward the door.
I realized what she was thinking. Katerina knew her value to Section 9. She was going to use Samara as a hostage, and was counting on my hesitation to use lethal force. I thought about how arrogant that was as I fired. I didn’t immediately understand what happened next.
I’d shot twice, leading her movement and expecting to hit somewhere in her chest. Instead, my shots were wide to the left and she had closed half the distance to me on the right. I adjusted and fired twice more, this time aiming for her head, but the shots went over high as she slipped low and clipped my knee with a sweep of her legs.
The attack would have left me crumpled in pain had she hit flesh and bone. As it was, the force staggered me and I stumble-stepped back to regain my footing. It may not have been the result Katerina had expected, but it was enough. She sprang up, grabbed my right arm with one hand, and stepped in with a barrage of uppercuts to my armpit.
Electric pain surged down the length of my arm. My hand went slack, and the gun fell from my grip. She kicked the weapon away, pulled me down with her into a wide, deep stance, and used her hips to flip me over her shoulder onto the floor.
She didn’t release her grip, instead wrapping one leg around my arm and locking it in place with the other. She pulled my wrist into her chest and arched her back to hyperextend my elbow.