The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (best ereader for pdf and epub TXT) 📗

his blaster raised. He swung down with the spear as hard as he could, slamming it into the blaster and knocking it out of his hand.

Dirken recovered before Juarez and swung upward, the shaft of the spear slapping the man in the chin and knocking him backward. Dirken followed up with a front kick, catching the man in the gut and slamming him into the stone wall.

He leaned down to get the Governor's dropped blaster when the wall above him exploded in shards of rock, narrowly missing him. He rolled, seeing as he did that the bodyguard had fired at him from the dark opening. Dirken took up a position on the other side of the doorway.

Eow returned fire but missed, blowing apart a wall decorated with paintings of Mayan priests.

"Watch out!" Dirken yelled. "Yiorgos is in there. And so is that fucking sphere — the Heart — or... AVA. And it has, like, taken over Yiorgos."

Eow seemed about to say something but then ducked as a volley of blaster shots flashed through the entry at her. Another Acolyte appeared at the entry. This one kicked Eow's blaster out of her hand with a well-placed roundhouse. Before it had hit the ground, Eow did a flip and landed with her thighs around the Acolyte's head, pulling him to the ground with her.

At this point there were three blaster pistols on the floor of the entry, and at once all four of them lunged for the weapons. Eow and her opponent grappled on the floor, reaching for the Aussie's blaster. Dirken jumped and grabbed Eow's blaster, the spear still in his other hand. Juarez leapt for his blaster as well.

The entryway came alive with flashing blaster bolts as everyone fired at once in the confined space. The bodyguard fired too. Dust and bits of shattered stone flew in all directions.

Dirken dodged and rolled, returning fire. A blast hit the tip of his right boot. Another came so close to his face that it burned his left ear and singed his hair. Another grazed his left thigh.

He leaped at Juarez.

Suddenly he was face to face with the Governor, chest to chest, pinning the man to the wall.

Juarez's eyes went wide, his face a mask of shock and pain.

Dirken looked down at the spear he'd shoved through the Governor, blood seeping out around the shaft and onto his hand. In all the panic, he'd hardly even registered that he had done it.

Juarez dropped his blaster and gasped, his eyes focusing on Dirken.

"You can't stop her," Juarez said with defiance. "AVA will integrate into the world systems. Peace is certain."

"Your fucking A.I. overlord won't succeed if I have anything to do with it!" Dirken growled. He grabbed the hilt of the arc blade and yanked it from the scabbard at the Governor's waist, raising it high.

Juarez cringed, waiting for the blade to end him.

But Dirken turned and cut downward into the cables at their feet.

"No!" Juarez yelled, reaching out. Dirken cut through the power source for AVA. Sparks flew from the line. With another cut, he sliced through the communications lines headed out to the arrays.

"What have you done?" Juarez wailed. Sliding down the wall, one hand around the spear shaft sticking out of his gut. He shook his head. "We were so close! Peace was assured!"

Dirken kicked the man's blaster away from him and checked on Eow. The Acolyte she'd been fighting was prone on the ground, his head now a bloody pulp of blaster damage. Eow was back behind the wall, but her blaster was aimed into the darkened doorway, exchanging fire with the bodyguard.

"AVA!" Juarez called out, then turned to look at Dirken. "It won't matter. She may have already integrated to the world network by now, perhaps even to the galactic networks." He gave a pained laugh. "It took her only minutes to do so in the past. She is a god."

"We'll see about that. Now shut up or I'll yank that spear out of your belly and you'll bleed out."

Dirken glanced out to the platform. The indicator lights had gone out on the communications arrays. Some of the Acolytes who remained on the platform were dead. Others were still returning fire at the pirates below. Up in the sky, the Excellentia and the Dragonfire were still engaged in a deadly ballet of battle, both ships in flames. But in the distance, the gleams of other ships closed in. United Worlds reinforcements.

Eow growled. She did an acrobatic flip across the entryway as the bodyguard fired again, missing. She landed next to Dirken, blaster raised.

"He's holed up in there," she said. "A good defensive position, but trapped."

"Yeah, but we can't hit Yiorgos."

She flashed a disappointed look. "Or the Heart," she added.

"I don't give a damn about that fucking computer anymore," Dirken said, tightening his grip on the sword. "It's been nothing but a pain in my ass, and look at the mess it's caused. Destroy the damned thing. I just need to save my partner."

"You destroy AVA and Grimmag will not stop hunting you until you are tortured and dead," she growled. "Besides, if it is destroyed, it will reproduce in other quantum computers it infected out there, and who knows what they will be capable of?" She steeled herself, then added, "It is time to storm in there."

"Fine, but no blasters. We'll hit Yiorgos." He pressed the button on the hilt and the parallel blades of the sword lit up with crackling electricity.

Eow produced a slim dagger from somewhere. Where it had been on her lean body, he couldn't guess, but the blade was curvy and purplish in color. Eow's eyes filled with a murderous joy that only a killer could possess. She swung around the doorway and screamed a battle cry. Dirken rushed in after her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

BLOOD SACRIFICE

Immediately the bodyguard opened fire. Blaster bolts burned through the air as Eow screamed in fury, darting and rolling in front of Dirken.

Eow reached the man