"What's wrong?" Wash asks and I jump slightly. Somehow he managed to sneak up next to me without me noticing.
"Spore's ratting us out" I answer. My attention is drawn back to the crack in the door when the alien in question lets out a cry of protest. The soldiers place electrified restraints on Spore's wrists. Spore tugs against the restraints for a second, causing the device to send a shock through his hands. He shouts and then holds very still. The two soldiers mutter something and start slowly moving through the store toward the hidden room.
I turn and walk back down the hall, Wash following behind me. "We need to see if there's a back way out of here" I say. I walk around the room quickly, glancing behind shelves and feeling along bare patches of wall. Nothing obvious jumps to my attention.
"How about this?" Wash asks. I walk over to where he's standing by a pile of boxes. He points to a vent in the ceiling. The boxes underneath the vent are stacked in a stairway pattern. "It would be a tight fit for a human" he explains, "but for someone like Spore…"
I nod. Wash is right; this is probably Spore's emergency exit. Unfortunately, it's too small for either of us.
"No good" I say. "There's no way either of us would fit in there." I remember something and smile suddenly, climbing onto the boxes.
"What are you doing?" Wash asks.
"I've got a plan" I say. There's a small device holstered next to my gun which I grab. I flip a switch on the device and six metal legs sprout from the side, making it look like a hand-sized spider. I place the thing in the vent and drop back to the floor.
"What was that?" Wash asks.
"You might want to turn on your suit's air supply" I say in lieu of an answer. Rho activates mine as I speak and I get a tingly sensation in the back of my head that lets me know she's laughing. She's always wanted to use this plan.
"Why?" Wash asks as he complies.
Before I have a chance to answer we hear an explosion from the other room, followed by shouting and coughing. I sprint down the hall toward the door, waving for Wash to follow me. The two soldiers are in the middle of the store, one crouched on his knees coughing while the other rubs at his eyes. Spore is standing between them, trying his best to cough without moving to avoid being zapped again. I stop in front of Spore and Wash continues to the door.
"We'd better hurry" he says, looking through the dusty windows. "It looks like there are more of them out there."
"Okay" I say. I focus my attention on Spore's restraints. I've read about this type before but have never seen one. I know they're tricky, and can cause serious harm to whoever's wearing them if they're tampered with. With Rho's direction, I manage to deactivate the restraints and get them off of Spore. I grab his wrist and pull him with me as I move toward the exit. Spore struggles, dragging his feet in an attempt to stop me. "If you don't want to go to jail then you'd better come with us" I hiss. Spore seems to consider this for a moment before ceasing his struggles, though he by no means makes it easy for me to drag him along.
We duck out of the building as inconspicuously as possible, which is difficult considering that the sound of the explosion carried out to the street and Spore is still coughing uncontrollably. Still, we manage to avoid too much attention as we sneak a few blocks away and hide in an alley.
"What was that?" Wash asks after a moment.
"A little thing Yttri made," I explain. "It tracks body heat to find the highest concentration of people then detonates a flashbang and releases tear gas into the air."
"You are insane," Spore spits out between coughs.
I glare at the alien. "So says the man who tried to sell us out."
"Don't even give me that" Spore says angrily. "They told me who you are, what you've done. You and your family are all terrorists!"
"That's not-" I start to argue, but he keeps talking.
"I had family living in those colonies!" he shouts. "My cousin almost died because of you!"
I clamp a hand over his snout, holding his jaws shut. Soldiers are patrolling up and down the streets and we need to be quiet if we don't want to get caught. "Listen" I order, staring in his eyes. Spore's eyes narrow, but he stops trying to talk. "It's not like they made it sound" I whisper. "We were tricked. All we want is to find the person responsible for all of this." I release Spore's mouth, still holding his arm in case he tries to run.
"Why should I believe you?" Spore whispers back contemptuously.
"Have I ever lied to you?" I ask jokingly.
A smile tugs at Spore's lips. "Only every day we've ever spoken."
"So you know how bad I am at it" I conclude. I'm trying to use the smiling, joking style of negotiating that I'm used to with Spore, but he's not falling for it. This is too serious for that. So I drop the act and let some of my guilt show through. "I hate what we've done" I say seriously. "I never meant for this to happen and now, I'm just trying to make it right." Spore's eyes turn accusing at these words. We both know it can never be made right. "I know I can never undo what's been done, but I can bring the person responsible to justice."
Spore seems to think about this for a while. "That's why you're looking for this woman?" he asks eventually.
"We think she can help us" Wash says.
Spore looks between us for a moment. Then he half sighs, half growls. "I'm going to regret this" he mutters, pulling something out of a concealed pocket. He hands me a data chip. "I was gathering information on this woman already, planning on hiring someone to deal with her. Considering that Covenant soldiers are all over my shop now, though, I guess I'm already out of business anyway."
I thank Spore and push the chip into a slot on my helmet, letting Rho download all the information. "What will you do now?" I ask.
Spore smiles. "Oh, don't worry about me. I've got money stashed all over this world, and there are plenty of people here who owe me favors. I'll be off planet and setting up shop somewhere new before you know it."
I glance toward the end of the alley. "You'll probably want to get going, then" I say. "Don't want to be seen with us."
Spore nods and heads to the end of the alley. Before he turns the corner out of sight, he glances back at me. "When you find the person responsible for this, whoever it is, make them pay" he says, and then disappears.
Wash and I head to the other end of the alley where it opens into a narrow street. This road doesn't get a lot of traffic, and most of the buildings lining it look abandoned. I don't see any soldiers. We head toward the side of town where the pelican is. "Rho, tell Nick and Tinu to get back to the ship. We need to leave as soon as possible. And tell them to watch out for soldiers."
"Consider it done" Rho says. I feel a slight buzzing in the base of my skull when she activates my radio.
"We may end up fighting our way out of here" I tell Wash as we sprint down the street.
"Yeah, I kind of had the same feeling" he admits, pointing to the gun on his back.
"Try to avoid shooting if you can help it" I say. "And avoid lethal shots. We're already wanted for enough murders as it is." Wash nods his acknowledgement.
Suddenly, I hear a buzzing noise behind us and turn to see what it is. A pack of flying, insect like beings swarms around Wash and I. They grab at my arms and legs but I punch and kick them away. I've read about this tactic before. The Yanme'e love to lift their victims into the air where they can't fight back before killing them. They fly away from me and I think that this was too easy before I see a group of them carrying Wash away.
I shout his name and run toward him. He continues to struggle against the aliens until they get so high that he knows the fall will kill him. I have to do something. I remember the speed unit I picked up earlier, still clutched in my hand and almost completely forgotten. I put the chip in my armor's helmet. "Rho."
"I'm on it" she says before I have a chance to give her any instruction. Within moments I feel a shift in my metabolism and my legs begin to move faster. The feeling isn't new to me. I've trained with a speed unit once before. Still, that doesn't make the feeling any less disorienting. If it weren't for Rho accessing my HUD and showing me what to do and where to place my feet, I would have stumbled and crashed multiple times already.
I catch up to the drones but they're still high above me. Rho directs me to climb to the roof of one of the buildings, showing me where to place my hands as I move faster than my mind can think. If I didn't trust Rho, if I wasn't willing to follow her instructions with blind faith, this would never work. Once on the roof I continue to chase after Wash. I jump the gap between buildings and barely land on my feet. Even with Rho's help, I know I won't be able to keep this up for long.
Once I'm nearly underneath the swarm I pull out my pistol. I know I have to be careful. I don't want to hit Wash and I don't want to kill any of the drones. I halt my pursuit for a second, aim, and fire. One of the aliens holding Wash screams and releases him as the bullet tears through its arm. The extra weight is too much for the other drones to handle and they begin to sink in the air for a moment before dropping their captive.
I run forward, the speed unit kicking into overdrive. I tackle Wash as I leap between two buildings, causing him to roll to a stop on the roof rather than falling to the ground below. I sit for a second and allow myself to just breathe. Rho quietly deactivates the speed unit as I lay sprawled on the rooftop.
I blink slowly. By the time my eyes open Wash is standing over me and reaching out a hand to help me up. "Thanks" he says as he hauls me to my feet.
I nod, not quite trusting my voice yet. My limbs feel jittery and I think I might throw up. As the hunger sets in, I remember that these are all normal after effects of the speed unit. I do my best to ignore these feelings. There's no time to wait for them to pass.
"Come on" I say, words slurring together slightly. I walk to the edge of the roof and start looking for a way down. I begin to feel dizzy partway to the ground but push past it. It's not like this is anything new to me. I drop the last ten feet to the ground, bending my knees to absorb the impact. Wash does the same.
The Yanme'e circle back to attack again. One of them tries to grab me and I snap its leg off. The alien flies away screaming.
"What happened to non-lethal attacks?" Washington asks as the swarm backs off.
"Its leg will grow back in a few days" I explain, ducking into another alley.
Wash and I sprint through the side roads and alleys of the town, trying to lose the swarm as we head to the ship. I glance up and behind me. The swarm appears to be keeping its distance for now, tracking us rather than attacking. I certainly have no problem with them holding back. It's not like they can track us off planet.
We reach the edge of town and do our best to stay under the cover of the trees on the way to the clearing. I see the pelican up ahead. Tinu's armor shines brightly in the sun near the back. I don't see Nick and assume he's already waiting in the cockpit. At least, I assume this until sniper shots begin firing from one of the trees. The swarm scatters to avoid the bullets and Nick drops to the ground next to us.
"You never could figure out how to stay out of trouble" Nick remarks, slinging the sniper rifle onto his back and running alongside me.
"Hit any of them?" I ask, glancing back at the once again reforming swarm.
"Nothing but warning shots" Nick assures.
I laugh at this. "Your idea of a warning shot is anything that isn't fatal."
"It's a good warning" he says defensively as we step into the ship. Nick sprints to the front and starts the engines as Tinu closes the door.
"Anything following us?" I ask once we're in the air.
Nick takes a moment to check the ship's radar. "Nope" he finally answers. "No tracers on the ship, either. We're clear."
"Good", I nod before pulling my helmet off. I'm still shaky from using the speed unit and my armor's starting to feel stuffy. My stomach growls loudly, reminding me that I didn't eat all of my breakfast. "Rho, remind me to never again use a speed unit" I whisper, pulling the chip out of my helmet.
Wash looks at me. "Is that how all your easy missions go?" he asks sarcastically.
"Yeah, pretty much!" Nick calls from the front of the ship.
"But, hey," I say cheerily, "there's no better way to get to know someone than by getting shot at together." Wash doesn't answer, but I suspect he's smiling under the helmet.