Sonic lingered just the other side of office door, his ears pricked for any noise that would indicate Knuckles had failed to keep his temper after all.
He could hear Knuckles' growl and the human's nervous chatter without being able to make out the words. So far it seemed to be going more or less okay.
"Uh," Lee taped him on the shoulder. "We've got that room wired for sound. We could..." he gestured vaguely. "If you're worried."
"No," Sonic said firmly.
Quite aside from the fact the Knuckles would in all probability rip all of them limb from limb if he found them eavesdropping, Sonic found he had no desire to hear it. The scattered snatches he'd overhead as Knuckles slept through the days after the escape had been more than enough.
Knuckles' voice rose and Sonic was halfway to the door before it subsided.
Things quietened after that.
For about half a minute.
Then the relative calm was broken by an almighty crash and the staccato of weapons fire.
Sonic spun back into the room without bothering to open the door first. He saw Knuckles drop onto an armed soldier who was halfway through the door. The man behind him hesitated, both his comrade and Knuckles in his line of fire and Sonic leapt at him before he made up his mind whether or not to shoot. The weapon clattered under a table across the room.
"More behind him!" Knuckles dragged the next man through and slammed him against the door jamb.
"I've got it covered." Sonic zipped around the doorway, which was acting as a bottleneck, felling anyone who stepped through. Unfortunately there seemed to be a near endless supply. "You want to arrange another exit, Knux? These guys seem to have a lot of friends."
Knuckles dropped the unconscious soldier and sprinted through the offices to the back of the building. "Where does this come out?" he demanded of Lee and Frankie as he passed them.
"Just some alley."
"It'll do." Knuckles raised both fists and smashed the requested extra exit out of the wall.
"Sonic!" he called over his shoulder. "Let's move it!"
"Fielding." The doctor was lying face down behind the couch. Sonic turned from the door. "Time to go."
A drumming roar filled the room.
"Chopper on the roof!" Fielding jumped to his feet in alarm and turned to run.
"Keep your head down!" Sonic yelled. Gunfire filled the room as Sonic left the door untended. He vaulted the couch. "Get down!"
Fielding dropped, and it Sonic a moment to realise that it wasn't in response to his instruction. Blood spread across the grubby carpet. Far too much to even question whether he'd survived it.
Sonic cast a glance back at the troops swarming through the door and ran for the back room.
Knuckles was standing in the alley the other side of the gaping hole in the wall. Lee and Frankie hovered beside him looking undecided whether to run for it or not.
He quirked his head sideways at seeing Sonic alone. Sonic shook his head shortly.
"They've got airborne troops on the roof," he said. "And a dozen more on their way through. We'll be followed."
"We won't be." Knuckles scrambled up the wall and smashed out half an upstairs wall. The rumble cascaded down, blocking the hole they'd fled through. Without looking back, he continued his climb upwards.
"Let's go." Sonic told Lee and Frankie.
"What about Fielding?" Lee asked.
Sonic shook his head again. Then he took both Lee and Frankie by the arm.
"Just try and keep up okay? I'll do the rest."
Lee looked up towards the roof.
"Knuckles'll follow," Sonic assured him. "But we need to be away from here before the local police turn up as well. Few minutes time this place is going to be teeming."
Behind and above them a series of bangs and the sudden orange light of flames indicated that Knuckles had seen to the rest of the pursuit.
"Ready?" Sonic asked.
"What are you going to--"
Sonic's acceleration left the rest of the question behind.
When he came to a halt several streets away the humans collapsed in a heap.
"What the hell was that?" Frankie managed.
Sonic gave a tiny smirk. "That was me going slow enough for you two to still be in one piece."
"Jeez-louise," Lee said. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"They killed Fielding." Frankie said flatly. "Didn't they?"
"Yeah," Sonic said, sobering.
Lee shook his head. "He was so afraid. He expected something like this."
"Do you have somewhere safe you can go?" Sonic asked.
"Yes," Frankie said, though he looked shaken, and Lee was white faced. "We know a few people who can keep quiet."
"Good. I suggest you sit on this particular story for a while. Lay low."
"We'll be careful," Frankie said. Which wasn't quite agreement, Sonic noticed.
"Do that," he settled for.
The two humans walked away, heading for the more populated streets to lose themselves among the evening drinkers.
After a moment watching them, Sonic turned, as Knuckles landed, almost silently, behind him.
"Getting sharper, hedgehog."
Sonic ignored the remark.
"Fielding's dead," he said instead.
"So I gather." Knuckles' expression was unreadable. "One of their own." He looked about. "We need to get out of sight."
"We need to get out of town," Sonic corrected. "I'm not having anyone else getting killed 'cause we're around."
"They didn't expect to find us there," Knuckles said. "They'd have come in more numbers if they had. We handled more than that back at the base. They'd followed Fielding."
"That's what worries me. Why go to all trouble that to keep him quiet?" Sonic pointed at some empty buildings at the end of the alley and started towards them.
Knuckles followed him inside. "He didn't have to talk to anyone about it."
"He's not the only one who did though. What about your breakfast waiter friend?"
Knuckles scowled. "I'm not running round playing bodyguard to a gossipy human, Sonic. In case you haven't noticed Robotnik is still out there!"
Sonic whirled to face him. "And in case you haven't noticed, we're no closer to finding him. And in the meantime one person's already dead because of us!"
Knuckles flared instantly, "He--"
"He what?" Sonic cut him off. "Go ahead and finish. He what? Deserved it? For having a boss who roughed you up a bit and hurt your precious pride? And does the cop deserve it too--for being unlucky enough to meet you on his patrol? Do Chuck and Terry deserve it for getting roped in? Does Chris?"
"That's not the same and you know it!"
"Do I? Well I'll tell you something else I know. I know that I sat awake the whole time you were delirious there because I was afraid you were going to smash their heads in for just being the same species."
Sonic paused.
"And I know that you owe me for getting you out of that base. And I know that you know it."
Even as the words left his mouth, Sonic felt a guilty twist in his stomach at so abusing Knuckles' innate sense of honour. His second thought was to duck for cover as he'd clearly pushed him too far. Knuckles looked on the very brink of hitting him. Then he lowered his fists.
"I see." He limped towards the building. "We keep the cop alive. We find Robotnik. Then we're even. Then we're through."
"Knuckles--" Sonic started, not certain whether he meant to apologise or argue further. In either case, the look the echidna turned on him was so cold that he changed it to, "--I checked up with the magazine guys where to find him."
Knuckles nodded brusquely but didn't comment.
---End Part 8---