Read Online Cates 05 - The Final Evolution by Jeff Somers - Free Book Online Page A

bad record when it came to keeping people alive—I’d been put on the world to kill people. But I kept trying to pick up strays and teach them, and it kept ending badly.
    “Where should I drop you?”
    I glanced at Adora and blinked. “Slow down,” I said. As we slowed to a rumbling crawl, I toggled the window in the door down and leaned out.
    “ Zocalo? ” I said, trying to remember how Morales had pronounced it.
    An old man with dark brown skin like mud that had hardened fast in the sun and bright white hair in a cloud on top of his head stared at me as I drifted past and extended an arm, pointing northeast.
    When the buildings melted away a few minutes later and the sun hit us from the side like a bomb going off on the hoizon, I first thought we’d hit a crater, some void in the city created by a bombing run, but the pavement was too regular, and I realized we were in a huge square, a vast empty space bordered on all sides by buildings.
    “Shit!” Adora cursed, throwing the four-wheeler into a skidding turn to avoid the crowds gathered everywhere. The whole area was filled with people—some minding makeshift storefronts like I’d seen in Potosí, carts and wagons, walls of fabric, sometimes just marked out on the ground in chalk, others milling this way and that. Some were obviously living in the square, huddled under more blue tarp in front of messy, smoky cooking fires. Screams rippled away from us as we smashed through it all, everything lurching this way and that as we spun, finally smacking into a large metal pole that stuck up from the ground in the center of it all. For a few seconds I could feel the whole chassis vibrating under me.
    “Shit,” Remy said quietly over the dim ticking of the hot engine. “I thought you said this was safer than a hover flight.”
    I laughed, and then Adora and Remy laughed, too. “I’ve still crashed more often in a hover,” I said, struggling with the safety netting.
    Something smacked into the side of the four-wheeler, making a dull thud. A second later, two more impacts, and then a volley of smaller ones.
    “Rocks,” Remy said, yawning. “Guess we made some enemies by rolling over everyone.”
    I nodded as something big and heavy starred the rear windshield. “Up and out,” I said. “We let them crowd around and pin the doors and we’re fucking dead. Up and out!”
    Adora was struggling with the door on her side, which was undamaged. “We can’t just leave it here!” she shouted as she pushed the door open. “Do you know what this is worth?”
    I put my hands on her ass and gave her a shove to get her moving. “I do not give a shit how much this rolling box is worth,” I snapped, then looked at Remy, who appeared to be almost back to sleep. “Hang back half a minute,” I said, thinking again I almost missed the fucking cops. “If you see a reason to do something creative, take it.”
    He gestured vaguely at me, keeping his eyes closed. I stared at him for a second, wanting to take a moment to educate him a little, but there wasn’t time, and with a grunt I pushed myself out of the ruined car.
    I stood up in the weak sunlight and drew my Roon, glancing down as I checked the chamber and slid the safety off. A crowd had already formed in a loose ring around us, angry locals shouting and brandishing some sticks and other impromptu weapons. A rock sailed past my head as I took in the crowd, looking for talent. I didn’t see any, and forced myself to stand still and not flinch as another pair of fist-sized rocks came my way, missing me by inches. Nothing ruined the impression like a good flinch. It made the shitheads think they’d put the fear of them into you.
    I picked one of them at random, just a guy in the front with an old table leg in his hand, raised up over his head. It wasn’t far; I raised the Roon and before the crowd could even notice it and get upset, I squeezed the trigger and blew a hole in le Leg’s chest, knocking him wetly back into