Borderlands: Gunsight by John Shirley Read Free Book Online

blood dripping from her claws and beak. Mordecai grabbed a couple of grenades off Volto’s body and followed Daphne down the hall.
    Mordecai and Daphne jumped over bodies, heading for the door at the end of the hall. Mordecai tried the sonic key on the door Ripper had locked behind him—and it clicked within itself, swung slightly open.
    “Hold tight,” he said. Daphne stepped back as he activated a grenade and tossed it neatly through the opening so it bounced off the wall beyond the door, and rattled down thehall that opened to their left. There was an explosion and the sound of men yelling in pain.
    Mordecai was already rushing through, reloading the Cobra. He fired from the hip, killing one Marauder, splashing his brains against the wall. Two others were dead, blown apart by the grenade that had left a bloodied burn spot on the walls and a pall of gray smoke. Down the hall, he saw the shadows of men coming from a cross-corridor. Commander Ripper’s backup had arrived.
    “Let’s try this way,” Daphne said, pointing at a closed door just past the explosion marks on the walls.
    They ran toward it, Bloodwing fluttering along behind, as Ripper led a group of gunmen into sight at the cross-corridor. Daphne fired with both hands, and her rounds sent men staggering, but unhurt—they were Nomads protected by shields. Mordecai was already tossing the other grenade.
    “Back— grenaaaade !” Ripper shouted, and the men scrambled almost atop one another to get back around the corner.
    Daphne was jerking the door on the right open as the grenade went off—shrapnel whined off the door as she and Mordecai and Bloodwing ducked through it, then started up a stone stairway.
    “Near as I can figure it,” Mordecai panted, taking the steps three at a time, “the Buzzard pad is up this way, this side of the building—so maybe luck’ll be with us.”
    They made it two flights up, coming out of the basement level, and then two Marauders pushed through the door at the next level, shouting obscenities and firing sloppily down the stairs. Bullets cracked and whizzed past Mordecai as he pushed Daphne back and rushed at the Marauders, the Cobra blazing, bullets flying.
    Bloodwing had flown on ahead of him, was flapping at their eyes, scratching and pecking, confusing them. Mordecai’s burst blew a Marauder’s knee out of his leg; the man went down, tumbling past Mordecai to be dispatched by Daphne. The other one was trying to shoot Bloodwing—he had a shield, but Mordecai was close enough to jam the gun muzzle through the Marauder’s relatively weak force-field. He pulled the trigger, aiming upward under the man’s chin—the Marauder’s face disappeared, along with the top of his head.
    Gasping, heart thudding, Mordecai found he was on a landing that opened onto another, narrower stairway. “Come on!”
    He ran through the door, Bloodwing flapping up ahead of him, Daphne close behind. There were shouts from below—he thought he heard Ripper’s voice issuing orders.
    But the spiral staircase suddenly came to an end at the helipad, where a double-rider Buzzard sat, guarded by only one Marauder.
    Bloodwing was tearing at the man’s face, so that the guard staggered backward and fell off the helipad platform, crashing heavily onto the street below.
    “Good girl!” Mordecai shouted, running toward the flying machine.
    “You talking to me or your real girlfriend with the wings?” Daphne asked as she rushed up to the small helicopter.
    “My escape plan,” Mordecai said, ignoring the gibe, “involves you being able to fly this damn thing! Can you do it?” He tossed the Cobra aside—no room for it in the Buzzard.
    Daphne was shrugging as she climbed into the chopper. “Um . . . probably I can fly it. It’s kind of like a Surikkian Tumble Flyer . . . I’m checked out on those . . . more or less.”
    They were both settling into the dual cockpit under the double rotors of the small open-air chopper. The seat