Chapter Three—Out and About

Kyle covered his face with the crook of his arm as John took off. Debris whirled about in the air, stinging Kyle’s exposed skin. The area was pretty damp from the rains, so there was no dust, just little bits of scree.

And to belie that thought, unfortunately Kyle’s Sky Rekkers were probably going to get muddy. He glanced down at his black shoes. They had red slashes and projected holo-emitted exhaust when he jumped.

Cool shit.

Gonna get wrecked out here, he thought. No pun intended.

“How’s it looking down there?” John asked over their wristlet coms.

In the background Kyle could hear the beeping.

“Pretty quiet, actually,” he said, as the thrust from the Corvo filled the sky.

“All right,” John said. “I’m sending you the scan data. Take that guy out. I’m going to try to evade this thing and then find a spot to lay low for a bit.”

“Got it.”

The coms went silent. Glancing about, Kyle could no longer see John or the missile pursuing him.

There were a lot of clouds and it was muggy as the hells out here.

He reached into his hoodie and un-holstered his pistol. He pulled back the slide to make sure a round was chambered. A round was always chambered, but a professional was excessive compulsive about checking his own firearms.

The pistol was small, in perfect condition, but considered an antique by many standards of the day. In fact, most ballistic weapons were no longer properly reacted against in the personal defense industry.

Since everything was energy weapons and laser shit these days, the corps focused mainly on personal body shields, or BD-S units that only reacted to the modern tech of the day.

Idiots, Kyle thought, wishing he had had the time to grab the Oma Repeater out of the trunk, and maybe some body armor.

“Doesn’t matter,” he muttered as he trudged up the slope in front of him. When he got to the top he looked around. The terrain here was vast, barren except for the old shells of some buildings from a long dead metropolis.

The horizon wasn’t clearly visible either. Not through the greyness of a day like this. With the uneven terrain, the rocks and all the shells of dead structures, it would be hard to get around.

In the distance to his east was a green forest—that much he could see.

At least the greenery was coming back.

Somewhat.

He glanced at his wristlet. The holo-display revealed May’s location via a yellow triangle. But it wasn’t moving. Normally an active scan would pulse, so the data was dead.

That Miles dude probably sent them dead data on purpose so the scan couldn’t be intercepted. Smart guy.

Too bad he was fuckin’ dead.

From his active telemetry, the last known coordinates from where the missiles were launched was directly north.

He moved across the hill toward the skeleton structures in the distance. It was going to be a hike to get there.

John switched off the Corvo’s thrusters, keeping the systems on standby except for the main engine in case he need to fire her up again on short notice.

“Do you think we’ll be safe here?” Lexa asked.

“We’re fine,” John said. “Just going to have to wait until Kyle contacts us.”

“What if he’s hurt?”

“What?”

“What if Kyle gets hurt? What if whoever he’s after takes him out?”

“That’s a risk we’re always willing to take,” John said. “But it won’t come to that.”

She smiled. “I like your optimism, John.”

“Thanks.”