Sucker Punch by Pauline Baird Jones

around. Smaller bits of stuff were still making landfall. The skimmer, well, she wasn’t looking forward to explaining to Captain Uncle that she’d lost another one. If she lived long enough to offer explanations. Odds of that weren’t great.
    She rose to crouch, spotted Benson and scrambled over to her. Checked her pulse. Alive. Nasty cut on her forehead. Where—she spotted Joe checking the skimmer, also keeping low. She joined him, but with her long gun out, scanning the immediate area before turning to him. “That was military ordinance.”
    Joe leaned over and pointed at the center—dead center— of the crater. Vi peered in. She could see the ground below through the hole. She looked a Joe. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, that we’re in a crapeau load of trouble.”
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    J ack paused by them long enough to stare down the hole. His eyes widened a bit, then he moved over to help Benson into a sitting position.
    â€œI’m okay,” she said, though she didn’t look it.
    Vi looked more than unusually unhappy, even when he factored in the situation. “We should move.”
    Joe didn’t argue, but… “It will take them time to shift position—”
    â€œI’m not so sure. The first shots were probably shoulder mounted, but that last one? That was a heat seeker, or I’m my mother’s aunt. It would have to have been fired from some kind of fixed setup, at least fixed as in something bigger than a skimmer. Which means it could have been set up and then fired by remote.” She looked around like she expected trouble to burst from the too sparse bushes.
    â€œThey could not know I would be able to land it.”
    â€œIt didn’t hit until we were on the ground,” Vi pointed out. “Someone wants us isolated and without transport.”
    Joe could see no flaw in her reasoning. “I fear you are correct.” He glanced toward Benson. “How is she?”
    â€œShe’ll be fine,” Jack said, pulling her upright and giving her a “get fine” look.
    â€œCan she keep up?” Vi asked.
    Joe considered their location, based on a map Lurch provided. The realities of their situation were not…encouraging. There was little cover, since most of the park was, of necessity, holographic. “There are not enough structures to provide cover.”
    â€œIf I’m remembering right, the lake and bayous were built as channels so that pleasure craft could use them without straying off course.” She looked around. “I think Little Lake is behind us. It connects to Big Lake, if we need to keep moving, and I think it also connects to the bayou if help is slow arriving.”
    â€œDo you think our distress signal got through?” He had not seen signs of signal blocking, but that was because the skimmer lacked the technology to know if its signal was being blocked. “We must assume we are on our own, until assistance does arrive.”
    Vi made a grimace he assumed was agreement. She glanced at Benson, then lowered her voice to say, “If this a move by you know who, at least it has reduced the collateral damage to our two uniforms.”
    Joe was not so sure. “It seems unlike it to be so altruistic.” But who else would attack them so brazenly? Afoniki? The MITSC? “Whoever it is, they will not wish to leave behind witnesses.”
    â€œBut they don’t seem to be concerned about questions,” Vi pointed out, looking at the smoking hole that had been the skimmer.
    â€œNo.” Joe scanned the seemingly empty landscape. If their attackers went airborne—which he had to assume they would—Vi was right. They needed to move. “In any case, this location is what you would call hot. Let us move to this little lake and reassess.”
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    â€œ C ouldn’t we wait there ?” Benson asked, as they drew level with the Pavilion of the Two