Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1)(101)

Taking a knee, I aimed and fired, nailing an intruder in the back. But it only whirled and raced at me in an awful, arachnid crawl. This thing was like if a lizard had a spider’s babies, and then ate them and then threw up and wrapped the vomit up in knives and then—hell, I ran out of ideas. Awful. That was the only word for what was trying to kill me. How many eyes were there? Instead of counting, I shot it.

That made the others turn, and I picked a couple more off while Marko settled enough to take one. Typhon’s training was supposed to harden him, but he only looked worn to the bone. There was only so much wax in the candle, after all, and burning it at both ends for too long was a bad idea.

I took out every intruder between us and skidded to a stop next to where he crouched.

“Zara! What’re you doing here?”

“Dumb question. I’m saving your ass, obviously. Where’s Chao-Xing?”

“I’m not sure. I lost track of her.” He tried to stand and his knee buckled.

Belatedly, I caught sight of the dark blood trickling from beneath his torn uniform. I threw his arm over my shoulder and hefted him. He wasn’t a small guy, but I was motivated. We needed to get the hell off Typhon and trust that his automated defenses would take care of any creatures that had burrowed through.

I was about to suggest the comm when he activated it on his own. “Chao-Xing, are you there? Do you copy?”

“Busy!” she shouted.

The sound of weapon fire rattled the air, along with the bizarre clicks and hisses that seemed to pass for speech among the attackers. I took the comm away from Marko. “Can you get to the docking bay? We’ll help you clear a path.”

“I’ll get there or die trying.”

Pulling Marko along with me, I got moving. “Either’s okay with me, C-X.”

“Call me that again, and I’m going to kick your ass!”

“Yeah, right.” I wasn’t scared of her at all anymore. Compared to these . . . creatures, she was a huggable bunny.

“Do we have to worry about these things hacking Typhon’s nav system?” I asked Marko. If they took over, it would be bad. Even if we saved these two Honors, we might not be able to save the Elder.

He shook his head. “Not until they’ve destroyed us. Then they’d have to burrow into his brain and take it over. They have built-in imperatives.”

“Say what?”

“First, destroy organic resistance. Then infest and occupy the vessel. Then core out the host’s mind.”

“Shit,” I said. “So, we’re the organic resistance?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I’ve been called worse. Let’s move.”

That explained why they were so focused, though, running at us like machines. They didn’t show fear or hesitation, no matter how many we killed. If they’d had greater numbers, if we hadn’t smashed so many outside with operation Scylla and Charybdis, we would’ve been overrun. As it was, I used all my energy packs and had to holster both lethal guns. We left a trail of stinking corpses behind us, easy enough for Chao-Xing to follow.

By then, Marko was dragging his leg like it was dead, and his weight slowed me down. I didn’t consider leaving him. But as if he sensed the slant of my thoughts, he asked, “Why did you come back? You were clear to run.”

“Nadim,” I said. “He’s not the type to abandon his friends.”

Marko smiled. “And you are?”

As we neared the docking bay, we hit one last pocket of resistance. From the other side, I heard the sound of Chao-Xing’s weapons firing and the explosions from automated defenses, bots and drones working hard to purge the invaders.

Typhon boomed with frustration, anguish, and fury. Then he managed to force his message into words. “Go. When you’re clear, I can vent atmosphere.”

“Copy,” I said.

With a ferocious cry, I charged into the knot of aliens and scattered them with wild stunner shots because that was all I had left. A few twitched and fell down, others shook it off. It didn’t matter because I wasn’t trying to kill them, just clear a path. It took all my strength to push through with Marko leaning on me, and my skinsuit tore in three places, claws or fangs or I didn’t know what. The stunner vibrated and died. Now it was down to knives and street fighting.

I grabbed the nearest limb and twisted; horror nearly drowned me when it snapped off in my hand and the creature didn’t even slow down. It latched on to my arm, about to bite, and I dislocated my shoulder in the maneuver that had saved my ass more than once. That gave me the time I needed to kick it away and slash. The knife didn’t do much harm; it skidded off the armored skin of the thing. As the rest lunged at me in mindless unison, Chao-Xing unloaded on them with a viciously accurate salvo from behind and a wicked battle cry in Mandarin.

Alien goo splattered Marko and me. I hurt in so many places, but I still got a happy chill when I turned to look at her because she stood with her weapon cocked, scanning for additional threats while covered in the blood of her enemies.

“You’ll never know how cool you just were.”

Somehow, she didn’t even crack a smile. “Trust me, xiao Zara. I know.”

With her help, I got Marko on board the Hopper. Chao-Xing took the wheel since she was the more experienced pilot. He was drifting in and out, maybe poisoned? I didn’t know if he’d been bitten or if those creatures had venom. The way they looked, I could believe it. I had their blood on me. It felt unnaturally cold, contrasting with the fire in my dislocated shoulder.