Chapter Twenty-One: [Illium]

Ford Llewellyn heard something crunch as he threw himself to the trading room floor.

Upon further inspection, he was reassured by the discovery that it had, in fact, been a credit shit. The gunfire rattling around the stock exchange brought his mood back down to resolutely foul.

As Mattock rounds crashed into the machinery and walls around them, Ford turned to Harry Quinn, who was slumped beside him, hands clasped over his head. "We need to get the fuck out of here Bach! Too many civvies here!"

"You're right," Harry nodded quickly, wincing as a trickle of blood squirmed its way down his temple, "I'm having anyone else dying because of me."

"Well look at that Bach, you're improving eh?"

"It'd be more due to a guilty conscience than altruism Ford, but yeah – the morals are essentially the same. Besides, the police are bound to get here eventually... "

Ford nodded back, then ducked as a heavy rifle round punched through an ad for Cirta Foundation shares. His quick eyes darted across the trading floor, settling on a cab bank on the right.

"Over there!" he pointed with his Carnifex, grasping Harry's upper arm, "Can you do us a barrier then?"

Harry groaned quietly, "My head's still rattled," he touched a wound at his skull tenderly, "But I reckon it'll hold now."

As his friend spoke, Ford popped up, chancing a look out of cover.

Almost immediately, he was crouched again. Ten, maybe even a dozen Cerberus troopers clustered around the stock exchange, firing mercilessly on their position.

God they were brazen. Ford was beginning to realise just how much they'd underestimated the organisation's determination.

He'd seen bodies, too. Many of the Illium traders that had been gathered about when he and Harry had entered were now dead. Victims of circumstance – not that Harry needed to know.

"Not good out there, is it?" Harry asked rhetorically, "Ready to g?" His hands bristled with biotic energy, a sheen rippling over his skin and suit, before spreading out to encompass his stocky bodyguard.

Ford grasped Harry's elbow, hauling him away from their improvised cover. A multitude of shots smacked into the biotic barrier, dissipating on impact. They dashed towards the stationary sky cars, Harry's teeth gritted in pain, as the bullet impacts whittled away at his biotic reserve.

He saw the troopers already starting to move forwards, heading after them, the cleverest ones conserving their ammo, knowing the barrier would drop before long, and that their quarries would be unable to return fire until that time.

But then they were at the cab bank, and with a grunted curse, Harry shifted into an ovaloid shield. Ford dropped to his knees, and waved his omni-tool over the nearest car's lock.

Moments later, he had it open, and dived in, hacking the internal security and gunning the engine.

"Harry – get in!"

Even as Harry turned, one of the Cerberus soldiers broke into a run, charging towards the smaller man, shoulders braced for a tackle.

Ford scrambled to react, fumbling his pistol, which dropped to the cab floor. He needn't have bothered.

Shifting his biotic shield, Harry's hand dropped to his hip. He held his Predator pistol lazily, adopting a gunslinger's stance, and peppering the charging trooper with rounds.

As the man crumpled to the ground, Quinn released his biotic energy, and stepped lightly into the waiting car.

"Never miss a chance to show off do you?" Ford affected an air of irritation, his broad grin somewhat at odds with that, "Who taught you that move? Robert Redford?"

"You know me so well." Harry winked in reply.

Ford span the car out of the parking lot and into the Illium sky lanes. Back and below, several of the Cerberus troopers made to continue their chase, piling into a pair of cars. But as they did, the urban battleground was flooded by the lights of a Police Gunship. As the remaining troopers scrambled for cover, Harry rolled his eyes.

"About bloody time, it's no wonder Lis gave up on the cops."

Ford grunted, and the sky car sped away.