In the cold rain, Ryan watched Miranda fall. The bear-man brought her down across his knee, and the crack of her back as she landed ripped through the clearing.
Miranda's scream held a note of agony, and for a moment, the gray world around Ryan went still. He felt rain on his face, pain in his shoulder and gut, but it all seemed so distant.
Focus returned with Miranda's second scream, snapping Ryan back to reality. He clicked into full alert, senses heightened, reflexes as taut as mono wire. He ran at the bear-man, easily ducking inside the nature spirit.
Once close, Ryan fired his Ingram and prepared to close the final meters.
No spirits manifested to block the barrage of bullets, and the man came apart, erupting in a spray of crimson that painted the trees. The bear-man began to turn, but only made it halfway around when Ryan's burst took out his knees and he crumpled into a heap. Freed, the spirits vanished into astral space.
Dead.
Then Ryan was on him, pushing around him to get to Miranda.
She lay like a broken doll, her legs jutting away from the rest of her torso in an impossible position. Her face was streaked with blood and grime; her hair, where it hadn't been burned off, was plastered to her head, like a dirty helmet.
Blood came from her mouth, and she was missing several teeth.
Ryan almost couldn't bear the sight. There was a sharp pain in his heart, and he accepted responsibility. "Dhin, I'm bringing Miranda in. Get ready to take her for emergency medical treatment."
"On it."
"Axler?"
"I'm here, Quicksilver," came Axler's voice. "Chewed up but not spit out."
"You going to make it?"
Axler chuckled. "It's nothing a few hundred kay nuyen won't fix."
"Glad to hear it," Ryan said. "Sit tight and keep your Nikons peeled for Burnout. He's still out there."
Miranda opened her eyes and looked at him. Her voice was like that of a child, soft and breathless. "Ryan."
Ryan knelt. "I'm here, Miranda."
"No… invasive treatment."
Ryan nodded. For a mage, putting metal into the body, any kind of invasive treatment, meant losing power.
She swallowed, and more blood escaped her lips. "Fragger dead?"
Ryan turned and rolled the huge form over, and stared in surprise. Huge, the destroyed face was still ringed by dirty white whiskers. The top of the man's head was completely gone. "He's dead," Ryan said.
Miranda smiled and closed her eyes.
Ryan's vision shifted to the astral. She still lived, but her grasp on this world was becoming more tenuous by the moment.
"Jane, contact DocWagon and give me an estimate on how soon we can rendezvous with one of their paramedical teams."
"Already on it, Quicksilver. There's a small branch clinic in Poison. Ten minutes away in the Phoenix."
"Let's do it," he said. "And get me an on-line first-aid program, one of those virtual doctors."
"You want me to talk you through patching her up?"
"Yeah, she's not gonna make ten minutes like this."
Grind came limping over.
Ryan looked up at him. "You okay?"
Grind nodded.
"Tend to Axler," Ryan said. "Help her to the LAV."
"On it."
"Dhin, bring the stretcher. I'm pretty sure her back is broken."
"Coming, Bossman."
First, stop the bleeding, Ryan thought. He pulled a huge combat knife from his boot and cut several strips from his nightsuit. He used them to tie over her wounds.
Dhin returned with the stretcher and helped Ryan slide it under Miranda. They carried her the fifty meters to the Phoenix II and laid her gently on the floor. Ryan gritted his teeth and continued patching the wounds, following instructions from Jane.
Grind and Axler hobbled in, the dwarf supporting Axler's weight since her right leg seemed to be broken just below the knee. Her bad arm hung strangely askew, broken off at the elbow. She was a mess, but seemed to be in minimal pain.
"Ryan." It was Miranda again, her voice even more faint.
"I'm still here, Miranda."
She looked at him, her eyes going in and out of focus. "You get the cyborg?"
Ryan looked at her for a moment, and considered lying. Then he shook his head. "Sorry. But we will."
She tried to speak again, but clenched up as pain from her back shot through her..
Dhin shot her full of Syndorphin.
Her body went slack and she passed out.
"All right, Dhin. You go wheels up. Now."
"What about you, Bossman?"
"I'm staying to finish it with Burnout," he said.
Grind made an effort to stand. "If you're staying, then I'm staying."
From the corner of his eye, Ryan caught movement. So fast it was a blur, streaked by rain. He turned, pulling his Ingram, but even as he raised the weapon, he knew it was too late.
A hulking form disappeared into the darkness. Burnout, but he was carrying something. The shaman. Burnout had stole the shaman's body out from under their noses.
Grind was already down the ramp, running.
"Dhin! Get Miranda and Axler to the clinic." Then Ryan was running as well.
He and Grind came barreling around the grove of pines, and found themselves running along the second cliff face. A steep slope of loose shale. Utterly impossible to traverse because the rock was so slippery, and small landslides of shale sheets continued to slip down the mountain.
They careened around an outcropping of rock to find Burnout in front of them. The cyberzombie had jammed his now useless third arm around the dead man's waist, and was using him as a shield of sorts. He fired his Predators at Grind, catching the dwarf in the shoulder. Knocking Grind back.
Lightning flashed, close. The thunderclap completely drowned out the barrage of fire from Ryan's Ingram as he opened up.
The shaman's body absorbed the bulk of the burst, but Burnout took two rounds to the thigh and staggered backward.
Then Burnout's Predator barked again, and Ryan dodged to the side. He hit the ground, and came to a rolling crouch, his Ingram spraying the space where Burnout had stood a moment before.
The cyberzombie was gone. Disappeared again, and for a moment Ryan wondered if Lethe had hidden him. But after the crash of thunder faded from Ryan's ears, he heard the distinct sound of a rock slide. Burnout thrashing as he plummeted down the cliff face.
Ryan jumped to his feet and ran the few meters to the cliff's edge. When he looked down, there was nothing but a steep shale cliff, reaching all the way down to a small dark lake, hundreds of meters below. A wash of stones fell all across the face of the mountain, but the thick rain made it hard to see Burnout, if he was even down there.
Frag, he thought. Not again.