Grimspace by Ann Aguirre Read Free Book Online Page B

sputters, turbines dying. Our velocity decreases, then we’re hit hard. I feel their grapplers lock down, and they pull back, towing us to a halt.
    â€œAnything I fire’s going to hit us, too. The rover can’t take any more damage and still carry us out of here.” Mair snarls a word that I didn’t think old ladies knew. “We’ll have to defend,” she continues. “If they want us, make them work for it.”
    Jor simply nods and metal shutters come down over all the windows and I see reinforced steel plating shoot up, covering the doors. The only opening’s the roof, and I don’t completely understand why they’re not sealing that, too.
    â€œAir,” March tells me quietly. “The rover doesn’t have life support. There are too many of us in here. If we did that, all the Gunnars need to do is wait. We pass out; they cut their way in. Take you, kill the rest of us.”
    I’m not sure that’s a bad solution, actually. March narrows his eyes, and I offer him a very sweet smile. Okay, not Saul. I like Saul. I can’t see anything, but I hear the sound of feet tramping over the rocky ground. There’s at least six of them, presumably combat trained. I hear the thunk of climbing feet.
    March pushes Keri toward the back, and Saul makes room between himself and Loras. Somehow, that pisses me off as much as anything that’s happened. “She’s bleeding ,” the girl repeats, looking between Saul and Loras as if expecting them to do something. “For Mary’s sake, keep her out of the wind.”
    â€œI hope you can fight,” Dina calls from the back. “Seeing as they’re going to hit you first.”
    She’s right. I’m in the second row of seats, right below the gap.
    â€œYou better,” I tell her. “Because I’m between you and what’s coming. When I die, guess who’s next, bitch?”
    Mair laughs; it’s an ugly, grating sound, and I’m not glad I caused it. When she regards me with an approving eye, that’s somehow worse. Wordlessly, she hands me a weapon, seeming to assume I’ll know how to use it. I turn it over in my hands. I was expecting something more Wild West out of these crazy mudsiders, but this is a standard shockstick—basic principle, hit the bad guy as hard as you can while simultaneously administering a powerful charge that will short his brain pan.
    Only one person climbing—why would that be? I heard others approaching…that doesn’t make sense. Send one at a time to a small opening that’s easy to defend? My internal alarms are all going off even before—
    There’s a low whine as the Gunnar lobs something down between the open panel, and just an instant before it detonates, I hear Keri screaming. Instinctively I put my face beneath Saul’s heavy overcoat, as I identify…gas grenade. Shit, I didn’t even know they made these anymore. Frag this, my eyes stream with tears as I pull myself out of the rover. They don’t want me dead; I know that.
    That’s the one thing I’m sure of, these Gunnars, they’re not going to kill me, whatever they do to the rest of this motley bunch. I land hard on the hood of the rover, roll off onto the dirt, and the thud takes the wind right out of me. I can still hear Keri moaning, and Mair curses with a fluency that I’ve only heard in starports on the rim.
    Jor is ominously silent, and the rest of the crew scrambles out after me. Except for March. He’s shepherding the girl with an excessive tenderness that makes me want to bury my foot in his balls. Was I ever like her? I don’t think so. Life…never gave me a chance to be soft. And maybe, if I’m honest, I’m a little jealous—not of March, he’s an asshole, but because nobody ever tried to take care of me like that. Not even Kai.
    Outside the vehicle, Carl talks quietly with the Gunnars,