Reckoners 01 - Steelheart

hold it, which threw me off balance and nearly sent me tumbling to the ground.
    “Be careful,” Megan said with a curse.
    “Right,” I said, confused. In that jumbled moment, I
thought
I’d seen another green cycle like our own, following us close behind.
    I looked again. The Enforcement cycles seemed to have taken the bait and were following us and not Abraham. Their headlights were a wave of light on the street, helmets reflecting streetlights. Of the phantom cycle I’d thought I’d seen, there was no sign.
    “Sparks,” Tia said. “Megan, they’ve got blockades going up all around you, particularly in places that lead to the understreets. They seem to have guessed that’s where we’re trying to run.”
    In the distance I saw the flash of an explosion in the sky, and another copter began trailing smoke. There was yet another heading our way, however—a black form with blinking lights against the dark sky.
    Megan sped up.
    “Megan?”
Tia said, her voice laced with urgency.
“You’re heading straight for a blockade.”
    Megan gave no response. I could feel her body growing moreand more rigid in my grip. She leaned forward, and intensity seemed to
stream
off her.
    “Megan!” I said, noticing the lights flashing ahead as Enforcement set up their blockade. Cars, vans, trucks. A dozen or more soldiers, a mechanized unit.
    “MEGAN!” I screamed.
    She seemed to shake for a moment, then cursed and punched us to the side as gunfire pelted the street around us. We tore down an alleyway, the wall an inch from my elbow, then hit the next street and went down in a long turn, throwing sparks as we took the corner.
    “I’m out,” Abraham said softly, grunting. “Abandoning the cycle. I can make it to one of the bolt-holes. They didn’t spot me, but some soldiers came down and started setting up in the stairway after I passed.”
    “Sparks,” Cody murmured. “Are you monitoring the Enforcement audio lines, Tia?”
    “Yeah,” Tia said. “They’re confused. They think this is a full-out assault on the city. Prof keeps blasting copters out of the air, and we all went different directions. Enforcement seems to think they’re fighting dozens, maybe hundreds of insurgents.”
    “Good,” Prof said. “Cody, are you clear?”
    “I’m still dodging a few cycles,” he said. “I’ve ended up looping around.” He hesitated. “Tia, where’s the limo? Is it still out?”
    “It’s breaking for Steelheart’s palace,” she said.
    “I’m heading along that way too,” Cody said. “What street?”
    “Cody …,” Prof said.
    Gunfire from behind distracted me from the rest of the conversation. I caught a glimpse of cycles, their drivers holding out SMGs and firing. We were going more slowly now; Megan had driven us into a slum neighborhood where the streets were smaller, and she was weaving us through lots of twists and turns.
    “Megan, that’s dangerous,” Tia said. “There are a lot of dead ends in there.”
    “The other way is all dead ends,” Megan answered. She seemed to have recovered from whatever lapse had almost led her to drive us right into a blockade.
    “I’m going to have trouble leading you,” Tia said. “Try to take the next right.”
    Megan started to break that direction, but an approaching cycle moved to cut us off, the soldier firing an SMG one-handed toward us in a spray. Megan cursed and slowed, sending the soldier on ahead, then she broke left down an alleyway. We nearly slammed into a large garbage bin, but she managed to weave around it. I guessed that we were barely going twenty.
    Barely going twenty
, I thought. Twenty mph down narrow alleys while being shot at. It was still insane, just a different kind of insane.
    I could hold on pretty well with one arm at these speeds, Cody’s pack thumping against my back. I probably should have dropped that by now. I didn’t even know what was …
    I felt at the pack, realizing something. I carefully slung it down in front of me, between Megan and myself. I gripped the cycle between my knees, let go of Megan, and unzipped the pack.
    The gauss gun lay inside. Shaped like a regular assault rifle, perhaps a little longer, it had one of the power cells we’d recovered hooked up at the side. I pulled it out. With the power cell it was heavy, but I could still maneuver it.
    “Megan!” Tia said. “Blockade ahead.”
    We turned into another alley, and I nearly lost the gun as I grabbed onto Megan with one arm.
    “No!” Tia