Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(35)

Well, then half a dozen red-eyed Metals showed up and started handing them their collective asses.

Now he and the crew of the Dossier were sitting ducks behind stacks of cargo crates.

Beside him, Riggs murmured a prayer to the Goddess and kissed the silver locket around his neck. His mechanical leg hummed loudly. “Didn’t come to the stars to die for this,” Riggs said. “Didn’t come to die this way.”

“What, not up for a little firefight in the morning?” Robb asked, and the old man gave him a long, wide-eyed look.

“Goddess save us, I’m gonna die beside a smart-ass.”

On the other side of Robb sat the Cercian, Wick, muttering to himself in his native tongue as he checked his bullets. The words were sharp like knives. When he caught Robb staring, he kissed the tip of his gun.

“I live for this,” he said, spun, and shot over the top of the crate.

Nailed a Metal square in the chest—bull’s-eye.

He whooped, but the Metal simply shook off the gunshot and fired back. Wick dropped back again. “Cecous!” he cursed.

The Metal should’ve dropped like a rock. But it kept going.

“It doesn’t have a memory core,” Robb realized. Metals without cores? So they weren’t sentient at all. Something must be controlling them. He shouted to the crew, “Aim for the head!”

“The head?” asked Wick.

“Just do it!” He turned to Siege, shielded by a crate on the other side of the cargo hold. “Captain, aim for its head!”

Captain Siege nodded, rose from cover, and finished off the wounded android. Its face crumpled in with a bullet, and it slumped to the ground, red eyes dying. But another one came through the door to replace it.

Cursing, she reloaded her gun. “Goddess’s blasted spark, where’re they all coming from? It’s getting back up!”

Robb glanced over the side of the crate to see for himself.

The headless android twitched and began to rise. If he believed in the Moon Goddess, he’d be praying right now. He’d be praying really, really hard.

And he’d be praying something like, Merciful Goddess, if you exist, please hand my ass to me some other day. I don’t want to die. I haven’t kissed Jax yet.

That last revelation sent a cold chill down his spine.

He wanted to kiss Jax. He wanted to taste the starlight on his skin and press his lips against the cool curve of his collarbone—

“Screw this!” Barger shouted, and abandoned cover. He turned tail and ran back into the air lock where they’d boarded. He reached to press the button to open the hatch—and the override to open the outer air lock.

The captain roared at him to stop—he’d kill them all, suck them out into space.

Barger didn’t care. He reached for the button.

Robb pulled his gun—Goddess damn him later—when a bullet pierced Barger’s chest. A flower of blood bloomed on the grease-stained back of his space suit. He began to reach for the wound, confused, before melting to the floor.

It was the first time Robb had ever seen anyone die. Even at the Academy, when Aran Umbal let go from the window, Robb hadn’t been able to watch—but now he couldn’t look away. Barger was staring at him, mouth half open, as the light dimmed from his eyes until they were nothing but marbles.

Finally, Robb pulled his eyes away, wanting to vomit. The captain lowered her smoking gun and gave him a dangerous look. She had . . . she had killed one of her own crew. If he hadn’t seen it firsthand, he would have thought it was a stray bullet—but it was her.

Captain Siege had saved them by killing one of her own.

Robb didn’t want to die, too, so he definitely wouldn’t tell.

He cocked his Metroid and glanced over the steel crates. A bullet bit into the steel inches from his face. He ducked for cover again.

“We need to retreat, sir!” Riggs shouted. “This ain’t worth—”

“You can’t.” Jax’s voice came through the comm-link. “Ana’s onboard.”

“What?” the captain snapped.

“I told her and Di to use the emergency air lock, and then I lost connection with them. I can’t get a signal through. The ship’s going haywire and I can’t do anything because the Dossier’s losing solar power on the dark side—I’m sorry.”

The captain sent out another string of expletives, checking the ammunition in her gun again. “What d’you propose we do?”

“We need to shut down this ship’s solar core. We cut that, we likely cut the power to the ship and whatever’s controlling these androids—but you’re gonna run into those Metals. They’re everywhere. It’d be suicide.”

Robb watched Siege debate, as another bullet slammed against the top of the cargo she huddled behind. They were all going to die. Including him.

But not before he found his father.

Robb swallowed his fear. “Captain, I’ll go. Take the rest of the crew back.”

“Not a chance,” Siege snapped. “We stick together.”

“We’re dead if someone doesn’t shut down the power,” he argued, and the captain pressed her red lips together because she knew he was right. He pressed the comm-link. “Jax, can you lead me?”

“It’s suicide—”