Zero by J. S. Collyer

tongue on the automatic response, taking a breath. “It wasn’t your fault, Hugo. Well, it was a little bit. If you'd listened to me when I said we should abort we'd be out and away right now.” Webb saw him bristle and swiftly continued. “But it was messed up from the start, the whole thing. I should have guessed. It was all too easy.”
    All the captain did in response to this was raise one bloody eyebrow.
    “Well, not the getting out,” Webb conceded. “But the getting in.”
    The captain raised both eyebrows this time.
    “Come on, Captain, think about it. Apart from our friend in the booth, did you even see a patrol before we got to the lab? And then they checked the security network and didn't fix it? And the minute we're out in the lab corridor lead is flying and I've got half of Albion Integrated's security force up my ass. If the bikes hadn't been so close we'd be dead by now. Or worse.”
    The captain grimaced and his glance slid away.
    Webb was already pulling up a map of the immediate area on his wrist panel and shifting back to the bunker entrance before the captain grunted another order to wait. Webb ground his teeth but bit off the retort before it made it out his mouth.
    “ Commander,” Hugo repeated, voice stronger. “What's your status?”
    “ Huh?”
    “ You heard me. I'm relying on you too and you don’t look so good, either. What happened?”
    Webb glanced away. “Urm...I blew myself up.” It might have been the dark but Webb almost swore he saw a twist of humour in the captain's face when he looked back.
    “ That's even stupider than jumping out a window.”
    “ Debatable,” Webb countered and moved again to leave.
    “ Status, commander,” the captain barked.
    Webb exhaled and clenched his eyes shut, lowering his walls to allow the pain to seep back into his awareness. “Burns and scrapes. Superficial. Sprained ankle. Bruised ribs...probably cracked,” he relented as another shoot of red pain rode up through him. “Oh, and dislocated shoulder,” he flashed the captain a quick grin. “But I fixed that. Sit tight, captain. I'll be right back.”
    “ Commander “
    Webb hauled together his remaining patience and hunkered back down next to Hugo. “Here, look,” he punched a couple of commands into the captain's and then his own wrist panel. A little green light started blinking in the corner of each. “You have my heartbeat and I have yours. You can monitor me, that will have to do. I'll be back.” He clambered back over the log before the captain could protest further.
    He moved west, parallel to but out of sight of the road. He clung to the hope that the security forces were too busy sifting through Sin 's blast site to worry about extending the search but he also knew what he told the captain was the truth. Breaking in had been too easy, the escape too hard and the pursuit too desperate for Webb to believe that AI would just count their losses and let them slip away without hard proof that they were gone or dead.
    It had clouded over, making night draw in quickly, making him feel a little easier about the impact his twisted ankle was having on his ability to move stealthily. When he reached his destination he halted out of sight of the road to allow his pained breathing to calm before he dared to approach the break in the trees.
    There was no traffic, no sounds and nothing moving. The tourist car park across the road had four vehicles pulled up in it. It only took a few minutes to break into and hotwire one of the little civilian cars. The engine coughed to life and he offered up silent thanks to the unfortunate tourist and hoped they had comm units with a good range this far up the mountain.
    He ignored the panic that rose in him at the sound the engine made as he roared back down the road. He turned a corner and slowed, swallowing as he saw the AI four-by-fours and a couple of motorbikes pulled up on the north side of the road. But there was no one around. He wasted no time