Carbine fire echoed over the deserted town.
"Amersy is still with us," Jacintha said dryly. "Those were depleted-uranium rounds. Careful, everyone."
Denise halted ten meters from the house. Eren appeared from an intersection opposite. He gave her a small wave.
"Cover the other side," she told him. "A Skin can walk through these walls like they're paper."
"Right." Eren jogged away to the back of the house.
Denise took the electron cluster pistol from her bag. The little unit melded snugly into her palm, giving her an aim alignment that was pure instinct.
More carbine fire sounded as Jacintha and Gangel started a running firefight five streets away. Ragged holes were punched clean through a house twenty meters behind Denise. Jacintha and Gangel shot back with e-c barbs. Sheets of flame roared into the sky as composite walls ignited.
"Ready," Eren said.
Denise swung a leg over the bike and stood facing the front door as it swung about in the slight gusts. This is wrong, she thought, it's too easy. Odel is a properly trained soldier. He won't allow himself to be cornered like this. She looked up at the house's roof.
The solar collector panels were hot from the sun. Infrared was useless. Then she saw scuff marks in the patina of ocher dust.
Denise spun around, her e-c pistol coming up. She was firing as she turned. Tiny sparks of light spurted out of the nozzle, twinkling as they shot away into the sky. Then one of them struck the Skin lying prone on the roof. It punched the bulky suit a couple of meters across the smooth solar collectors, ripping off a segment of the carapace. Two more e-c pulses hit, tearing the Skin apart.
Eren came round the side of the building. "Denise? What happened?"
"He jumped to another house. It was an ambush."
"Hell. Well done."
Carbine fire sounded again. Depleted-uranium rounds tore into the house, shredding huge sections of the paneling. A foundation pier burst apart in a wicked shrapnel cloud of concrete chips. Denise and Eren hit the ground together.
"Crap, I hate those carbines," Eren shouted as he lifted his head.
Denise risked looking back to where Amersy had fired from. "They never used depleted-uranium down in Memu Bay."
Eren grunted. "I wonder why."
Another house ignited from a deluge of e-c barbs. Carbine fire crackled again; buildings shivered and rocked as the rounds chopped through.
"Gangel, he's on your left," Jacintha cried. "Denise, we could use some help."
"On our way."
Eren gave her a reluctant grimace and started running. Denise paced him as they closed on her sister's position.
"He's under a house," Gangel said. "Damn, moving again."
A stream of e-c barbs poured out of an intersection ahead of Denise. She flinched. Carbine fire answered. Denise hit the ground again. Twenty meters away, a solar collector roof ruptured; black, glittering fragments rained down on the street.
"What was he shooting at?" Jacintha asked.
"Who cares?" Gangel said. "He can't have much ammunition left, not at this rate."
More depleted-uranium hammered through five houses. The last one sagged and slowly collapsed inward as its piers disintegrated. Denise had been ready to run forward again. Instead she buried her head in the ground.
"Shit!" Jacintha exclaimed. "He's got us pinned down."
"This is seriously crap tactics," Eren said in alarm. "If Newton comes up behind us, we're dead."
"They can't communicate," Denise told him. She wished she had more confidence. The platoon had worked together for years, decades even. And they were trained soldiers. If anybody could manage without a direct link, it would be Newton and Amersy.
The carbine fired. Her link with the Scarret went dead. "Shit!" She was aware of Jacintha hurrying forward again. Gangel started sprinting from the opposite direction. They were pouring e-c barbs into the house where Amersy was hidden. Denise began to race forward, holding her e-c pistol ahead, sending out a constant barrage of barbs. The house was an inferno, huge, violent flames roaring almost horizontally out of the shattered windows. Its solar collector roof was twisting and flexing as the heat lashed at it. Then flames were stabbing victoriously through the gullies as it juddered and began to sink down.
Another burst of carbine fire came from inside. Even as she flinched down yet again, Denise marveled at how the corporal could keep so cool in this situation. Skin suits might be heat resistant, but to stand at the heart of an inferno surrounded by enemies and still maintain a devastating fire pattern was enviable.
One of the walls collapsed amid a huge fireball. A Skin tumbled through the gap. It was hit by e-c barbs from three directions, bursting apart.
Denise squinted against the glare and fierce heat. There was something badly wrong about the way the Skin had ruptured. Jacintha must have thought the same. She was approaching the remnants, cautious yet urgent, covering it with her pistol.
The solar collector roof finally fell to the floor, throwing out a cascade of sparks. Jacintha raised one hand to ward them off. She bent over the tattered Skin. "Shit!" She was looking around wildly.
"What?" Denise asked. She was closing in, along with Gangel and Eren.
"It's empty. The bastard wasn't in it!"
Denise was suddenly swinging round, her heart thudding in fright as she attempted to cover half the town with her pistol.
Amersy crouched behind a foundation pier, watching intently as the young woman and her companion started running toward the firefight. His Skin AS was firing the carbine in random bursts, maintaining a suppressing-fire pattern. The two ambushers flung themselves flat. He grinned as he scuttled over to the shiny Scarret. Damn dumb amateurs, weren't even checking their asses. He used a power blade to slice through the dashboard, then waited until another carbine burst sounded before jabbing the tip straight into the electronics. He cut through the neurotronic pearls and fiberoptics that were connected to the compensators and brakes. Without AS management (or whatever program was loaded in) the bike would be sluggish. But he could accelerate, brake and steer manually. It was enough to get him back to Memu Bay. That would have to do.
He slung a leg over the saddle and twisted the throttle.
Five houses were on fire around the empty Skin suit, their composite panels hissing and melting as flames licked around them, exposing the steel skeleton. Thick black smoke billowed high into the plateau's calm air.
Still watching the empty streets, Denise went over and hugged her big sister. "I missed you," she whispered.
"We're together now. Everything will be all right"
"I hope so. We're making a complete mess of this."
"He's naked and alone, he won't get far."
"On my bike, he'll get clean away." She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid.
"It doesn't make any difference. He's not a part of Z-B anymore. They won't be sending in the cavalry. Not on this one."
"Okay. That just leaves us with Newton to deal with."
"And the other one."