Hero of Metalhaven (Metal and Blood Book 1) by G J Ogden

Author:G J Ogden [Ogden, G J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ogden Media Ltd
Published: 2023-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

14

A BITTER MELODY

Finn drew his fingers across Parker’s eyes to close them then backed away from the body, conscious that Bloodletter or The Shadow could still be close. The bolt that had poisoned Parker could just as easily have hit Owen or himself, and he shuddered at how close he’d come to being shot. They’d survived the opening few minutes of the trial on pure luck, but luck alone wasn’t going to be enough to keep them alive.

“We have to keep moving and find the tools we need to remove the tracer bands,” Finn said, scouring the crucible for places to lay low and find the equipment they needed. “Until we’ve removed the tracers, we should avoid the launch towers. We don’t want to tip off the prosecutors to where we’re going, while they can still track us.”

“There’s a smaller launch pad toward the left edge of the crucible, where the tank-farm is being built,” Cora said. “There’s a cluster of pre-fab units there and some are being used as storage areas. They might have what we need.”

Finn nodded then took another look around, but the crucible was eerily quiet. Cinematic TVs hummed overhead, carried by heavy-duty flying drones, but they clung to the edge of the arena and pointed out toward the residential areas, so that offenders couldn’t use the broadcast to track the prosecutors. They didn’t even have their work loggers, which could have at least told them the time, and where they were inside the crucible. The gut-wrenching truth was that they were alone with the odds heavily stacked against them, but they still had their wits, and they still had each other, for as long as their fragile alliance lasted.

“Follow me,” Finn said, taking the lead only because someone had to. “We move fast and keep low, using the terrain for cover, and hope to God that the prosecutors stay focused on the others, not us.”

As soon as he’d spoken the words, he regretted them, and what the Authority had already forced him to become. Wishing that trained killers would hunt and murder other innocent men and women rather than his group was exactly the sort of us-versus-them mentality that Captain Withers had tried to instill within them. Finn didn’t want anyone to get hurt or killed but there was no escaping the fact they were in a fight for their lives. To survive, they would have to make difficult choices, Finn most of all.

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and stalked into the night, wincing at the sound of snow and gravel crunching underfoot. As a construction site, there was no shortage of places to hide but moving from one place to another constantly forced them out into plain sight. They were only exposed for a few seconds at a time but the fear of being shot by a shrieking explosive bolt or poison dart was more unbearable even than the T.E.S.A procedure he’d endured without anesthetic.

Finally, they reached the small

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