Fifty-Three
“I’m beginning to worry we got stood up,” Rui said into his radio. A moment later, a bullet struck the wall behind him, sending flecks of wood and paint into his hair. “Crap, I’ve been spotted.”
“I got you,” Ben said, shaking the agent with the rifle off his feet. “Maybe they got spooked. We made a lot more noise than we intended.”
“I hope not,” Rui said. “Otherwise we’re all going to spend the rest of our lives doped up in Guantanamo- and not even the fun kind of doped up.”
“Why so moody? We can just run away again. I think I might prefer life on the road.”
“You just enjoy subsisting on a diet that’s 90% burrito.”
“I do.”
“Yeah, but it’s not kind to those who live downwind of you,” Sonya said.
“And I’m moody because I can fly, you yutz,” the barrier around the lawn collapsed under the tread of a tank, “and knew that was coming.”
“Apparently he got his parade of tanks after all,” Ben said, swallowing hard as two more tanks rolled up beside it. “Why does it always have to be tanks?”
“I hate to sound defeatist but we might- just might– have bit off more than we can chew this time,” Sonya said.
“Okay, we needs to stop talking,” Rui said, “because the more we talk the worse it gets.”
“I know you’re going to blame me for this, but I could hear it even before you said anything,” Ben said. Then they heard it, too, the sound of an attack helicopter in the air. “I assume we’re still not willing to use lethal force, right? Cause if not, our options are becoming surrender or run- and that second window is shutting quickly.”
“I-”
“Down!” Sonya yelled, and tackled Rui to the ground as a rocket flew overhead, striking the side of the tank.
“You do know that he can turn to a gas, and the rocket would have passed through him, right?” Ben asked. “Meanwhile here I am, all distressedly damsely.”
“I might as well just run myself into a brick wall, for all the good I’d have done,” she said, pushing herself off Rui.
“Hey, it’s the thought that counts,” he said, as Ben helped him off the ground. The sound of gunfire brought them back to the seriousness of the situation. “They, uh, don’t seem to be shooting at us.”
“They’re not shooting, period,” Ben said.
“No,” Raif said, emerging from a stand of trees. “They’re being shot at.”
“I’m a little conflicted,” Ben said.
“He’s not,” Sonya said, pointing at Raif’s crotch. “In fact, he seems downright thrilled to see you.” There was a noticeable- and growing- bulge in his pants.
“Oh, shit, Sonya,” Ben said, and hit him with a concentrated vibration that sent him rolling backward. He came to a violent stop, and the explosive shredded his pants.
Sonya doubled over, chortling. “What? That was a scream.”
“It wasn’t funny when you did it to me, either,” Ben said. “Though it still hurt less than waxing; after the first day, anyway.”
“It was a tiny amount of anti-matter. It just wasn’t a small force field.”
“You bitch,” Raif said, struggling to his feet.
“Maybe I should have used more boom boom,” Sonya said.
Raif sprayed a burst of fire over their heads. “Little help,” Ben asked.
Rui set fire to the stand of trees Raif was near, forcing him to leap out of the way of a burning branch as it fell. He kept firing prone. Ben sent more shockwaves through the ground, but ducked when a round flecked him with bark.
“Okay, now the Secret Service is shooting at us,” Sonya said.
“They’re shooting at us from both sides,” Rui said. “Maybe we didn’t think this through.”