Read Online Under His Guard by Rie Warren - Free Book Online Page B

climbing inside after Leon.
    â€œDepends on the artillery. It sure as hell isn’t RPG proof.” Darwin hit a button and the engine revved.
    *  *  *
    We made it through the two checkpoints, our cover holding solid. Past the danger zone of the gun towers, we let out whoops and hollers, speeding to Omega city proper. Across the flat horizon shimmering in the sun-soaked heat, the city of bazaars rose up like a glittering gold oasis.
    â€œWe’ve gotta be at the meet point in Sector Five in forty minutes. Think we can make it, Darwin?” Linc pulled up the coordinates on his D-P and held it in front of her face.
    The last comms we’d had from Denver instructed us to locate one of his insiders in Omega, a man who could set us on the path for the cure.
    â€œDoes a bull have two balls, Commander?”
    Farrow laughed and turned to Sebastian. “Well, ain’t our new sister a sweet talker?”
    A glimmer appeared in Darwin’s eyes through the rearview mirror. The read I got from her was steady, unwavering, and mission-oriented. She earned my immediate respect.
    â€œLose the threads, folks.” She unzipped her suit with one hand, wriggling out of the dark blue jumpsuit while keeping a foot on the gas.
    We dressed down to our normal garb as Omega filled our sights. At the first and second gates into the city, Darwin simply had to flash her badge to get us through. The Territory opened her walls for us. Up close the buildings jumbled together in an ad hoc fashion so unlike the gridded streets of Beta and Alpha. The old-looking structures were gold instead of our bland silver and steel. The color reflected, making Leon’s skin gleam more than ever.
    Language was standardized in all the Territories, just like scrip. We could hear people haggling by the roadsides as we drove past. The discord in the area was evident from the graffiti on the sides of buildings and in the soldiers roaming the streets. The strong Corps presence stood out amid the flamboyant surrounds, injecting fear onto the faces of people hounded here and there at rifle point.
    Poverty, affluence, and anarchy made the air electric.
    I couldn’t tell the Freelanders from the regulation Territorian stock—both factions inhabited this city side by side with the CO’s consent. Yellow, black, tan-skinned, the citizens were a mishmash of heritage from different continents. I felt an aching kinship with these people, something unknown and unrecognized that pulled from deep inside me…until a bullet hit our tire, jarring me from my thoughts.
    â€œWe’ve got heat,” Darwin muttered.
    There was another screaming whistle, and the second tire on our right side blew out. People who’d been hawking their wares alongside the road fell to the ground as if this was a drill common to their daily life.
    Cannon drew his gun. “How the hell have we been made already?”
    Darwin took a hard swerve to the left, clipping the corner of a building. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I’ve got a vehicle filled with the Company’s most wanted?”
    â€œThe cameras can’t possibly see inside,” I said, pulling out my guns. In every Territory, indestructible cameras were mounted right next to the huge public D-Ps on each street.
    â€œEver heard of spyware and a little something called zoom?” Darwin sped down the alley.
    Sparks flew off the sides of the Rover, which was too big for the narrow breach between two tall buildings. The brakes squealed.
    â€œWe’re ditching the vehicle!”
    No shit, Darwin.
    We raced on foot. I stayed beside Leon as we hurried away from the center of the city, worried he might be feeling the effects of the Plague injection. He kept pace with me, hurdling over the spreading squalor from a Territory under siege.
    Omega was a maze, allowing us to lose our pursuers. Sectors One and Two fell away, and with them the harsh rebound of boots at our