Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,110

fighting the retreat and run. Turn and sprint through the chamber ahead and keep going until you’re past us. Don’t ask questions—just do it. Now!”

A double click of acknowledgment came over the comm. “Not long now,” Shay muttered.

I posted up along one bulkhead, putting my body between the compartment we’d just left and Shay, making sure that she, too, was making herself small against the wall. I trained my subgun toward the portal ten meters away, trigger finger on the receiver, and waited.

It wasn’t a long wait.

A handful of heartbeats passed and then the first of the Genetechnic security guards burst through the open hatch and into the corridor, moving at a dead sprint. His weapon twitched as he caught sight of us, but recognition dawned and he kept running, coming to a sliding, twisting halt that left him positioned against the opposite side of the corridor from me. I couldn’t hear his panting, but I could see his heaving chest and the shakiness with which he held his own firearm. His vacc suit was stained with blood and worse, mute testament that the fighting had come down to point-blank range at some point.

Then the others were through. Five more security personnel followed by the unmistakable form of Korben, guns once more discarded in favor of his blades. They left a small splattering of red in their wake with each pump of the arms as the killer ran. “They’re right behind us,” he said over the comm. “A few seconds. No more.” Even now, despite the shortness of breath from his sprint, he didn’t sound particularly worried. The infected horde is hot on our heels. We’re running out of milk. Either statement would have sounded the same coming from Korben’s lips. “No one else is coming,” he added in the same tone.

Christ. Eighteen Genetechnic personnel had left the bridge with us. Only a half-dozen remained. I had no doubt they’d left a mountain of bodies in their wake, but Bliss could soak the losses with ease. We, on the other hand, were at a hundred to one disadvantage. A dozen lost—not dead, not really, given that Genetechnic probably had fresh new coils waiting for their backups at home—jeopardized the mission to the point where I started to wonder if we had any chance at all of doing whatever the hell it was Genetechnic had sent Korben here to do. Still, even if we had only the slightest possibility of getting off this ship in one piece, might as well fight for it. Rolling over and giving up had never been my style.

“Whatever you’re going to do, now might be a good time,” I told Shay.

“Not yet,” she said. “We need to let some of them through.” She broadcast the words over the general channel, and I felt as much as saw the stiffening of the men and women around me. They might not fear death, not in the traditional sense of the word, but our minds and bodies were hardwired by countless generations of evolution to at least want to avoid the process of dying. And even if you knew they’d be stuffed into new bodies before the week was out, watching your friends ripped to pieces took a toll on the psyche.

“Very well, Ms. Chan,” Korben replied, also over the general channel. “If we must receive guests again then that is what we shall do. I do hope that your plan is sound.” With that, he stepped into the center of the corridor, knives once more sheathed and a pistol in each hand. I muttered a curse and broke away from the bulkhead to take up a kneeling firing position at his side. One by one, the others followed suit, the faintest reluctance in their movements as they prepared, once more, to go into the breach.

It wasn’t a long wait. Within moments the first of the Bliss-infected made his way to the hatch, a long piece of composite conduit with a jagged and broken end clutched in both fists like an ancient pike. At least four of us pulled the trigger and his head simply disappeared. A woman came next, a claw hammer held aloft. She too, fell in a hail of projectiles. I had a vague sense of unease—we were putting bullets downrange into a room full of potentially volatile substances. We didn’t have much choice. Besides, from the press of bodies pushing through the hatch, any wild rounds would be caught by another coil long before hitting