Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(120)

FORTY-FIVE

LATE

James saw the battle from kilometers away. At least half a dozen collies hovered above the city. Pillars of smoke billowed up from the area where the Farming Towers were located. His concern rose as he pulled in closer. This was a major attack.

“Black abyss, there’s so many,” he said, fear gripping his throat. The scope of the attack still amazed James. Levin must want him pretty badly to commit such a large force just for him. He was surprised to realize that his worry extended not just to Grace, but to the rest of the Elfreth as well.

This was a large operation by ChronoCom standards. Between the six ships he saw floating in the air, the two burning wrecks—one on the ground and one that had crashed into a skyscraper—and at least forty or so monitors with flight bands he saw flitting around, not to mention who knows how many on the ground. ChronoCom must have committed nearly a hundred operatives to this attack. All for a wasteland tribe of a couple hundred ill fed, badly armed men, women, and children. And him and Elise. That’s who they were really after. Maybe he could lead them away and buy the Elfreth time to escape.

He desperately wanted to call out to Elise through his comm band, but it was far too risky. He wasn’t sure how many of their channels were compromised. Still, there had to be a way he could reach out to her and let her know that he was here, that he was coming for her. Even if he was too late to rescue her, at least she would know that he had tried.

He decided to take a risk. He activated his comm band to every channel in his spectrum. “To all tribes monitoring this, stay off channels. You will be tracked. Emergency ping only.”

Only Elise and Grace had comm bands, so they would be the only ones to receive it. Well, those two and everyone in ChronoCom monitoring the channels. Hopefully, they were smart enough to understand his message.

His plan worked. He saw all six of those collies peel off their positions and move to intercept him. Now, he had to worry about surviving the next minute. His collie wasn’t armed, and he had little doubt that that wasn’t case with those approaching him.

Bright beams shot out of the lead ships and streaked toward him. His collie didn’t stand a chance against ship weaponry. It would be torn to shreds and his exo wouldn’t hold against weaponry of that level. He opened the door and dove out a second before Collie exploded, the blast tossing him out of control as he plummeted to the ground.

James watched his ship of fifteen years explode into a ball of flames, and for a brief moment, he mourned its loss. While he had always thought of Collie as the vehicle that took him to the jobs that he hated, the truth was that she had never failed him, even when everything and everyone around him did. Aside from Smitt, she was the most reliable part of his life. Seeing her destruction hurt. Then he remembered that he had left the netherstore attached to her as well.

He slapped his forehead even as he plummeted to Earth. “Fuck me.”

James took another second to mourn and then turned his attention back to the battle. He had to manage his levels carefully if he was going to win this fight. Who was he kidding? The odds of him dying today were high. They were assured if Elise didn’t make it. His only solace was knowing that Valta and ChronoCom intended to capture her alive. If that were the case, he had to stay alive long enough to rescue her.

James landed hard on the ground two kilometers away from the Farming Towers and took a tumble, sliding and rolling on broken pavement. He was swarmed right away by fourteen monitors, who dropped down from the sky after him. One of them carried an exo-chain and tried to lock James down. James batted him away with a kinetic coil. He grew ten more as they came at him from all sides. Nine were in the air and a squad of five came in on the ground from the east.

James continued moving, pushing himself and sliding in all directions to minimize the stream of wrist beams from burning his shields down. He struck, lashing at monitors unfortunate enough to be within range of his kinetic coil or ramming into others who gave him a direct line of sight.

He was already fighting with eleven kinetic coils, the most he had ever controlled. Because his energies were so spread out, each coil lacked the power and strength to be completely effective. Yet it wasn’t enough. At one point, all the coils were in use and he was still fighting hand-to-hand, grappling with the arm of a young monitor and struggling to keep from getting a hole blown in his head.

He looked over just in time to see another monitor charge him from the side. He sidestepped and used the weight of the monitor he was struggling with to throw the second off balance. Two bursts struck the monitor while the third grazed James on the shoulder. Pain flared through his body, and he dropped to one knee, momentarily losing control of all his coils. He looked up just in time to see the monitor aim another shot. Then the man fell as a white beam tore him apart.

James looked up at a window where the white beam had come from and saw a wasteland warrior he did not recognize wave at him. “You are known, Chronman No More,” the man shouted out. “Oldest Qawol calls you worthy.”

James waved a quick thanks. Now he wished he had spent some time making an alliance with these warriors. They could be a formidable force if organized. It was too late now. No, it wasn’t too late. If James and the tribe survived this fight, he could still gather these people together. They had already shown that they were efficient and resilient. They just needed direction and a purpose. His thoughts wandered back to Elise. Right now, James had to fight, or he’d lose his purpose.