Zero's Heart - Mina Carter Page 0,15
he looked like he wanted to say something but then just turned toward the door, recovering a weapon from one of the fallen bodies before they moved out into the corridor.
Not allowing herself to look down at the corpses, she followed him. They moved automatically as a team, covering each other and firing arcs as though they’d been operating in combat together for years. Even though she was years removed from live combat situations and wasn’t in her armored suit, she fell right back into old habits. It was like sliding into a comfortable pair of slippers.
Her leg ached, but she ignored it in favor of focusing on her surroundings as they moved through the corridors. She had no idea where they were going, but it really didn’t matter. Anywhere away from the security department and the central area was good. The first because they could easily be bottle-necked and trapped there and the second because any shoot-out would cause massive loss of civilian life. As station security chief, she wanted to avoid that at all costs… even if people were trying to kill her.
She wouldn’t have civilians in danger, not on her watch.
The corridors were mostly deserted. Like rats, the station occupants had a sixth sense when shit was going down and had fled the main areas. The few people they encountered ran as soon as they spotted the pair, hightailing it down corridors or through doors before she could warn them to get out of the public areas.
The emergency lighting had come on, rendering the corridors dark with low-level light. Better for them, but she couldn’t help the shiver that stole along her spine. The atmosphere had turned the station from the semi-friendly place she knew to something ominous and foreboding, harboring potential enemies around each corner.
“If we head down to the storage bays,” she said in a low voice, moving past Zero as he covered the corridor, “there’s a small unused office down there and we can access the security logs from there. Find out what the fuck is going on.”
She took up the next position and he replied when he moved past her. “Clear space coming up ahead. We’ll need to cross it then drop down a level.”
She nodded in assent, knowing the section he meant. One of the larger lounges, it was occasionally used as an arrivals lounge. In other words, it was a large area they needed to cross without any cover available.
Her heart thundered in her ears as they reached the end of the corridor and stepped out into the clear. Regulating her breathing, she kept in step with Zero, noting he’d shortened his stride to match hers. Approval filled her. He wasn’t at all the hoo-rah and gung-ho type she’d assumed.
He was definitely a soldier, though. Her gaze flicked to the hand cannons he carried like they were nothing. They weren’t a design she recognized. Perhaps something experimental… which raised the question as to who the fuck he was? A spec ops soldier undercover? That would account for the fantastical story he’d given her about being from Lathar Prime. As if she’d fall for crap like that.
Halfway across the hall, the automated screens flicked from the usual colonization ads.
“Breaking news…” Red banners screamed across the screens, followed by an image of her face. “An alert has gone out for Terran First Terrorist Eris Archer. Archer… accused of the mass murder of civilians during the Krath-Seven campaign… has recently been sighted in the Tarantus system, where it is believed she was posing as security personnel.”
She almost stopped dead, the blood draining from her face. “What the fuck? I was never anywhere near Krath-Seven.”
Zero shoulder-bumped her to keep her moving. “Answers the question as to who they’re after,” he rumbled in a deep voice as he covered their rear. “Someone’s gone to a shit-load of trouble to frame you. Any idea why?”
“Not a clue,” she growled, ignoring the screens as they blared about the price on her head. “But that’s a fucking fortune. Every bounty hunter on the base will be out looking for me.”
“Yeah… kinda think that’s the point.”
Zero’s face was grim as they reached the corridor on the other side of the hall. She felt the presence of that ticking clock like a sword hanging over her head.
They were both silent as they moved through the corridors. Down here, the “luxury” smooth paneling of the main areas gave way to bare metal. She made sure to roll her feet as she placed