Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

This was the most dangerous part of her plan. Her gravity sled was parked near the Tower. All she had to do was get to it, and she’d be off and gone before anyone could catch her. But she still had to get to it, past an army of guards who would quite rightly fear for their lives if they let her get away. So she urged Gregor on, mercilessly forcing the pace as he gasped and heaved for breath, constantly alert for any guard stupid enough to try to be a hero. The main door slowly grew closer. She hadn’t remembered the lobby being this big. The guards watched, unmoving but for the slow turning of their beetle heads. The only sounds were the slap of feet on concrete, and Gregor’s constant moaning and panting. The heads in their jars bumped against Evangeline’s bare back. Her nudity didn’t bother her. All that mattered was getting out alive. At last they came to the main door, which hissed open
    at Gregor’s approach. Evangeline could see daylight, hear everyday city noises. It was like another world. She carefully maneuvered herself and Gregor around so that they had their backs to the door, facing the guards. She could feel the tension building in them. She had to get out soon, before somebody cracked. “All right, Gregor,” she said breathlessly, fighting to keep her voice from shaking as sweat rolled down her face. “We’re going for a little walk now.” “Outside?” said Gregor. He seemed to recognize where he was for the first time, and panic shot through him. “No. Not outside. Not out of my Tower!
    No!” And with a burst of strength fueled by manic fear, he threw off her hold, ducked away from the knife at his throat, and stumbled toward the safety of his guards, who dived as one for their guns.
    Evangeline considered throwing her knife at Gregor’s fat back, decided she didn’t have time, and bolted through the open main door. She sprinted across the open ground to where she’d parked the gravity sled. Her bare back crawled in anticipation of the energy beams she’d probably never even have time to feel. And then behind her she heard Gregor screaming for them to take her alive, and her heart jumped.
    She had a chance, after all. She forced herself to run faster, bare feet pounding painfully on the harsh ground, the glass jars hammering against her back, the cool air rushing past her bare skin. People around stopped to look at her, but no one felt like interfering. Which was just as well. Evangeline had already decided quite coldly to cut down anyone who got between her and freedom. She’d gone through too much to be stopped now. Maybe there was some Shreck in her, after all. She could see the gravity sled now, still where she’d parked it, not too far away. She was beyond pain or tiredness now, buoyed up by hope. Then the sled was suddenly right there before her, and she skidded to a halt, stopping just short of slamming into its side. She dumped the heads in their sheet into the back of the sled, and only then heard the running footsteps behind her. Reason said they had to have been there for some time, but she’d been too busy with her own desperate thoughts to hear them. She spun around, knife in hand. Three armored guards were almost upon her, more coming behind them. Evangeline’s mouth widened into a death’s-head grin she’d learned from Finlay, and went to meet the first three guards with her monofilament knife at the ready.
    She had an advantage. They were under orders not to kill her; she had no such encumbrance. She cut off the head of the first guard with a casual flick of the wrist, the knife cutting through steel armor and flesh and bone as easily as air. The masked head tumbled almost slowly to the ground as she turned to the next guard and plunged the knife into his chest. He screamed shrilly inside his mask. While he was collapsing, she turned to the third guard. Blood was trickling down her bare flesh and had been spattered across her face, none of it hers. It felt warm in the cool air, almost comforting: the blood of her enemies.
    The third guard forgot or stopped caring about Gregor’s order to bring her back alive.
    He drew his disrupter and aimed it point-blank at her bare chest. Evangeline lashed out with her knife and cut the gun in two. The guard turned to run, and she cut him down too, the monofilament edge slicing easily in and out again. The other guards skidded to a halt as she bent down and picked up one of the other guards’ disrupters. Gregor was