Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(110)
James cursed. Between his initial jump here and the large ripples he was making, the auditors should be able to track him no matter which direction he fled. These ripples would continue until the time line self-healed from the city’s destruction. His best course of action was to grab the hood and just get out as soon as possible. He charged to the set of double doors and blew them off their hinges. He found himself in a garage armory.
“Other end of the room. Second door on the left,” Grace instructed.
James continued to the end of the room and went down a long flight of stairs where two guards tried to pin him down with small-arms fire. He reached out to both with kinetic coils and threw them into the walls.
A few minutes later, after having dispatched four more squads of guards and a small horde of rucks who fanatically threw themselves into his path, James found the stealth hood. It was a humongous machine, two stories tall and half as wide, with dozens of cables attached to it. He wasn’t sure if his netherstore could maintain a field this large. There was only one way to find out. James began to cut all the cables from the machine.
Suddenly, the entire room became whisper-quiet as, deep down in the recesses of Adonia, everything came to a standstill. The low, imperceptible hum of the stealth hood became noticeable in the silence. A new sound, sirens seemingly a world away, began to scream.
“Adonia has been detected,” Grace thought to him. “The Emirates have launched two warheads. They are up in the air now! Pakistan is showing four rockets! The ripples you’re causing are huge. You need to leave now!”
James gritted his teeth and sliced through the base of the hood, tearing it off its supports. He willed his exo to lift the massive contraption, but it was too heavy.
“Impact in forty-six seconds!” Grace barked to him. “Forty-five, forty-four…”
“I don’t need a f*cking countdown!” he growled, shooting himself into the air on top of the machine. There, he opened his netherstore wider than it was safe to do so, until it was large enough to cover the machine. Then, he jumped off and slowly lowered the netherstore over the stealth hood. It was slow going as the netherstore struggled to adjust and take in such a large item.
“Fifteen seconds, James.”
James ignored her and continued to float down slowly. If he dropped it too quickly, the netherstore might fail, either destroying the contents in its storage or containing the hood improperly, making it useless upon its retrieval.
The door below him burst open and another swarm of guards entered. They opened fire, striking him several times. James checked his levels: 31 percent and dropping by the second. Well, he had ten seconds to half a dozen warheads’ impact, or he would die by bullets once his levels failed. He gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to do anything about either scenario as long as he got this stealth hood. Elise and the tribe needed it.
The first cluster of warheads hit the city before the squad of soldiers’ bullets cut through his exo. Luckily for him, the city, suddenly tilting a sharp twenty degrees, threw the squad off more than it did him, sliding them toward the far wall. James reached the floor and tied the netherstore container closed. He checked his levels: 5 percent.
“Jump now!” he yelled.
The second set of warheads struck the city, this time cracking the city and shaking the ground so hard the squad of soldiers ricocheted off the walls and floor like rag dolls. An avalanche of fire rolled from the hallway and spilled into the room, eating everything inside in an instant, enveloping machinery and climbing up the dangling cables that whipped about the room. Within seconds, all life in the room, with one exception, had been snuffed out. And if James didn’t get out soon, it would be his life as well.
“Grace!” he yelled. “Levels at three percent. Container about to lose integrity!”
The familiar yellow flash came and he felt the pull of the jump suck him in, then everything went black. After the light faded, everything was still black.
FORTY-TWO
THE LONG SLUMBER
James found himself floating, the fiery light and the intense heat of the fire now replaced by pitch-black darkness and the feeling of crushing pressure pounding at his body and dragging him down. Then the lag sickness hit, and for a brief instant, he succumbed to the pain and passed out.
“James, are you there? James!” Grace’s voice screamed into his head.
He woke to her voice, and instantly choked on a mouthful of water, his lungs spasming as he swallowed another gulp of the ocean. In a panic, he threw on his shields and spewed what little he had in his stomach out of his body. He gagged and clutched his chest, heaving spittle and fluids that dripped down his chin and neck. The pain this time was overwhelming and he hunched over, incapacitated by the feeling of his entire body being shredded from the inside out.
“You’re under three percent, James. I’ve sent the collie toward you on the western edge of the city. Go!”
He wiped his mouth on his arm and saw a long red streak. His nose leaked blood. No, his mouth as well. Well, it didn’t really matter what he bled out of, as long as he got what he came for. James checked his AI band for orientation, found west, and shot through the wall of the now-submerged room, puncturing holes through this underwater coffin as he followed the pull of the collie’s signal out into open water. It was going to be close. The netherstore and exo were draining his levels too quickly. James sucked in one last breath and then turned his other bands off, including the atmos, and waited again for the ocean pressure to squeeze into him. He had no choice. He reached the edge of the city and saw the collie floating a quarter of a kilometer away. He was fortunate that Grace had had the foresight to summon it this close; otherwise, he would not have made it to where he had left it.