Silver Tongued Devils by Dawn Montgomery

the
recoil of the rifle. The first hydro line exploded. He adjusted his
sights for the other leg. The second shot nicked the line, spraying
viscous fluid out in a golden arc.
    Shots ricocheted around Brom and he
crawled back from his position, dragging the rifle with
him.
    The shouts rising from below told him
that he had limited time to get to a new cover zone. He moved
quickly, without thought, breaking down the different components of
his rifle: scope, butt, barrel, clip. He packed it away with
efficiency, and zipped up his case. He ran the strap across his
chest and settled the equipment against his spine.
    “Time to fly, kids.” Brom raced along
the building’s roof and launched across the gap to the next
building. He hated leaving Na’varr and Raesa exposed.
    “The bastard’s up here.” They were
still going after his original position.
    Brom grinned and pulled two flash
bangs from his belt. He yanked out the pins and tossed them over
the side. Several bellows followed and he leapt to a rickety tower
ladder. He caught his balance and then dropped, landing silently on
the balls of his feet.
    He took a split second to eye the
office Raesa had taken over. Shadows moved in the room and a slice
of fear cut through his heart. “Raesa, that sweet little ass of
yours had better be moving.”
    “On my way.” Her quiet tone told him
she was skirting past security the same way she’d snuck in. “Get
the ship ready.”
    It was his job to ready their way out,
and hers to release the dome security. Na’varr’s to keep the
foreman busy. This plan sucked more and more. Brom raced through
the compound while keeping to the shadows. What felt like eternity
was likely only a few minutes. He jumped on the back of a hover
bike and broke the lock.
    “Still alive, boss?” Brom asked and
turned on the machine. The motor revved to life with a thunderous
roar, almost drowning out the sound of his captain’s
response.
    “Get to the ship. We’ll need a quick
evac.”
    Brom put on his goggles. In seconds he
connected his oxygen breather and covered the rest of his face with
his cloth mask to keep the dust at bay. With desperation riding his
ass, he raced across the barren landscape to their ship’s
location.
     
    ***
     
    A piercing alarm blared through the
speakers and people scrambled for cover.
    Attention. Attention. The
dome will open in less than five minutes. Seek shelter or don your
breathing apparatus.
    The foreman’s face paled and then
flushed angry red. “You bastards. You wouldn’t dare kill off these
good folk just earning a living.”
    Good folk, my ass. They’d been screaming for Na’varr’s
blood.
    The cyborg’s armored exoskeleton
shuddered and teetered forward. Yates bellowed his anger but the
thing toppled over, crashing against the tarmac and sending up
puffs of ice dust.
    “I’m pirate scum, remember?” His skin
crawled with the bluff he’d thrown at Yates. The giant cyborg had
no idea they were in a limited crew. A crew he was desperately
missing the hell out of.
    He had to trust Brom to get the ship
to them.
    Na’varr jumped up on the exoskeleton
and tore open the face shield. His side screamed in agony, but his
anger pushed him through it. A quick inspection told him that Yates
was trapped in the wreckage.
    “You’re dead meat, pirate
scum.”
    “I hardly think an Andovian
sympathizer should call others scum. How much did they pay you to
turn the other way while they took ore out from under your
nose?”
    “I don’t work for nobody but
myself.”
    He leaned close to the bastard’s face.
Yates had one eye glaring at him while the other twitched and
dilated. “I’ve got everything on your operation, Foreman. We could
have played nice, but you had to go and do something stupid. What
were you going to do, deliver my dead body to the
Andovians?”
    Foreman spat and glared at Na’varr.
“You’re dead now or later. Doesn’t matter to me. All that matters
is the payout.”
    Ice-cold rage