The Outskirts: Thé Crystal Keepers (Jace x OC)

The Crystal Keepers: 16

Four hours later, I sat alone atop a three story building, dressed in full battle gear, and a warboard at my side. Replacements hadn't shown up.
I had reached the building, a food-processing plant, with help from Roulette, traveling through a network of underground tunnels. After coming to the surface not far from the building, it only took a jump for them to reach the top, warboards tucked under their arms. She had positioned me, made sure I grasped the plan, and slipped away.
Over my battle suit I wore gray coveralls. Trickster had explained that the outfit was the type worn by maintenance workers. I sat on the flat roof beside the ventilation system with a toolbox handy, in case anybody noticed me from some of the taller buildings in the vicinity.
For now, my assignment was to lay low, stay quiet, and await the signal. To my right sat a large canister full of quick-hardening freeze foam, attached to a gun by a pliable hose. On the other side, beneath the toolbox, the warboard waited for action.
Roughly the size of a snowboard, the warboard qualified as the most exciting piece of equipment I had used so far in this kingdom. Its complicated magnetic system enabled the board to hover above just about any metallic surface, which included most of Zeropolis, since through the years tinkers had used metal alloys in the underpinnings of almost every part of the city.
The warboard looked simple, with no evidence of electronics. But I knew the board linked to the battle suit in such a way that enabled it to use momentum and magnetics to actively keep the rider aboard.
The test runs had gone really well. I had hardly believed how easy the warboard was to ride. Invisible magnetics kept my feet affixed to the surface and helped my body remain upright and centered even through complex maneuvers. Since the propulsion was also magnetic, all I had to do was point the warboard in the direction I wanted to go and adjust the speed with buttons built in to my left glove.
Of course, the test runs had occurred in a controlled environment. This afternoon it would be a different kind of ride, trying to evade patrolmen down alleys and streets with my freedom and maybe my life on the line. Roulette had taught me several places where I could get underground.
Much of the escape plan depended on using the abandoned tunnels under Zeropolis. Access to those tunnels was the main reason this site had been selected to rescue Joe.
I hated the suspense of waiting for the signal. At any moment my communicator could come to life, and I would have to start blocking off the street with freeze-foam.
Although the rescue was a team effort, my part in it would leave me alone throughout. My part wasn't too hard, but I had no backup. Whether I succeeded or failed was entirely up to me.
Relatively large, low buildings dominated this area. I knew Jace was stationed alone on a nearby building, a beverage-canning facility that also stood three stories tall, about a block up Flag Street on the other side.
The communicator strapped to my forearm could put me in touch with Jace instantly, but I had been warned to keep silent unless there was an emergency. I wondered how Jace was handling the solitude. We still hadn't really talked about what had happened, but as long as things weren't awkward between us, I didn't care. I couldn't get his words out of my head.
You look gorgeous.
I was almost certain that Jace knew how I felt about him, and I think he felt the same way about me, but I couldn't be sure until he confirmed it.
As the minutes passed, I grappled with a mix of boredom and anxiety. There was no way to know how long we would wait for the transfer vehicle. We had gotten into position well ahead of schedule in case it came early.
If the vehicle showed up late, the wait could drag on for hours. And of course, if the patrolmen transferring Joe took another route, there would be no rescue attempt. Everything depended on the vehicle coming down this section of Flag Street on the way to the holding area.
The communicator came to life without warning. "It's a go," a hushed voice said. "Target confirmed. It's a go."
Flustered, I grabbed the canister of freeze-foam and ran the few steps to the edge of the roof overlooking the magroad. Below me, traffic flowed along like normal, levcars darting and weaving. I released the safety on the foam gun.
Suddenly all the levcars along one section of the street dropped to the magroad in a grating discord of metallic screeches. Sparks flew and undercarriages howled as the wheelless cars ground to a halt, jostling against one another before groaning to a stop. Forge had come through as planned an entire block of the magroad had been deactivated.
I squeezed the trigger, and the foam gun bucked in my hands as a high-pressure jet of freeze-foam streaked down to the road. Upon striking the surface of the magroad, the focused stream swelled into smooth drifts of foam. I kept my finger on the trigger, pouring on more foam until a white, puffy wall took shape.
From the top of the building, I felt somewhat removed from the chaos below. People down on the street were pointing and shouting to each other. To the left of my wall, where the magroad remained functional, levcars coasted to a halt. That section of the road swiftly became a tightly packed parking lot, creating an enormous backup as new levcars continued to arrive. Within seconds of me starting to form my wall, Trickster and Roulette shot into view on their warboards, weaving between the grounded levcars.
The wall of foam took shape quickly. Not more than fifteen seconds could have passed before the foamy barricade was complete, perhaps a little sloppier and wider than necessary. Looking up Flag Street, I could see the barrier Jace had created swelling above the grounded levcars
like heaps of whipped cream.
Checking the gauge on my canister, I found I had used a little more than 60 percent of the freeze-foam. Not bad, since the big job was done. Next I had to protect the area from incoming patrolmen.
A hasty survey up and down the street revealed no threats at the moment. Nobody was exiting the grounded levears.
Along with taking out the magroad, Forge had promised that he would lock down all of the affected vehicles. I noticed that none of the grounded vehicles had overturned or flipped onto their sides. Apparently they were designed to fall flat in emergencies.
Trickster and Roulette stopped at a black vehicle in the midst of the other grounded levcars. It looked a little larger than the other cars. Forge had wondered whether City Patrol would use an official prison transport vehicle or hide Joe inside an ordinary levcar. Apparently they had opted for the armored version.
Trickster hopped down from his warboard and used a handheld canister to spray a side window. Roulette stayed on her warboard, trapgun ready. Trickster repeatedly banged a short, black rod against the window he had sprayed.
'It's not working," Trickster said over the communicator. "This is some kind of high-grade crystal."
"Outlaw, move in," Googol's voice ordered.
"So soon?" Forge's voice asked.
"Speed is everything today," Googol answered.
The yellow robot rushed into view, dashing between the grounded levcars like a running back. Remembering to check the area, I saw a pair of patrolmen racing down the far side of Flag Street on foot, trapguns in hand. My attention had been on Outlaw and the others, so the patrolmen were already closer than I should have allowed. As they neared the creamy barrier I had raised, I fired freeze-foam, shooting a little ahead of them at first, but guiding the stream into them.
Googol had assured me that although freeze-foam became solid when it hardened, the porous substance allowed enough air flow for those trapped inside of it to breathe. I piled a generous mound over my targets. They flailed a bit, but the foam soon hardened, ending their movements.
I checked the gauge on the canister and found I hadn't quite used 70 percent of the freeze-foam yet. Scanning the street, I saw no other patrolmen approaching.
Outlaw reached Joe's transport vehicle and started pounding one of the darkly tinted windows with a large drill attached to my arm. The drill whined, the pitch changing with each impact. With every blow, the black vehicle slid sideways until it pressed up against a neighboring levcar.
"The window keeps holding," Trickster said over the communicator."
"It's weakening," Outlaw said. "Almost there."
His blows sped up, the drill screaming as his robotic arm worked like a piston. Finally the window shattered.
Googol whistled softly over the communicator. "I'd like to know how they bonded that crystal."
Outlaw staggered back, coated in black sludge. Trickster fired his trapgun into the car and then flopped back to the street, his entire upper body sheathed in quick tar well. It looked like he had been dipped in molten chocolate. His legs jerked and kicked. Wherever the black covered, Trickster remained still as a statue.
Roulette sprang past the broken window, firing into the car. She leaped by it a second time, shooting again. Then she peered into the window. Nobody returned fire.
Extending one arm, Roulette sprayed Outlaw withapink ish mist, and the tarlike sludge melted off the robot. Outlaw then bathed Trickster with a similar mist, and the black stuff drained away from him as well. Outlaw approached the levear again and reached through the broken window.
After a moment grasping and wrangling, the robot reached deeper and then pulled Joe out of the window. Dressed in all pale blue denim, Joe had some freeze-foam clinging to him, and appeared to be unconscious. Outlaw sprayed him with lavender mist, and the foam dissipated.
More patrolmen were coming not just along Flag
Street, but down some of the alleys across the way. I shot freeze-foam at the patrolmen on Flag Street, but they did a better job this time diving for cover among the many levears stuck at a standstill. Changing tactics, I sealed up the mouths of the alleys across the way before the oncoming patrolmen could emerge. If I couldn't trap them, at least I could slow them.
"Target acquired," Roulette said over the communicator. "Our stun gas knocked him out, but Outlaw is reviving him."
"Good work," Googol said. "Get out of there. Abandon all posts. City Patrol is closing in from all quarters. Local building security is being notified as well. Move, people."
The gauge showed that I had used more than 90 percent of my freeze-foam. Down below, Outlaw had draped Joe over one shoulder and was running away. Roulette and Trickster fled in opposite directions on their warboards.
Patrolmen were climbing the barriers in the alleys and approaching the larger barricade on Flag Street.
"Jace, drop off the south side of your building and head east," Forge said over the communicator. "Kendal, your best bet is to go west off the back of your building and keep heading west. Hurry."
A rooftop hatch opened forty feet away from me, and a man with a trapgun hurried out. By his uniform, he appeared to be a security guard rather than a member of City Patrol.
When the man spotted me, he raised his trapgun to fire, but I let loose a long burst of freeze-foam.
At the relatively close range, the high-pressure stream knocked the guard off his feet. I buried the man beneath a creamy mass of foam, feeling a little like I was using a fire hose to snuff out a candle. Then I covered up the three nearest hatches as well, using up the last of the foam.
Crouching, I hit the self-destruct button on the freeze-foam canister as I had been instructed to do and picked up the warboard. I sprinted across the roof of the food-processing plant to the side opposite the street, the battle suit allowing him to move in swift, bounding strides.
I paused at the edge of the roof. A narrow greenbelt with a walkway separated this building from the next one. Thanks to the availability of levears, I had yet to see building in Zeropolis with a parking lot. Only the spaces and walkways throughout the city kept the building from being constructed directly adjacent to one another.
I had accessed the roof of the plant from back here and knew the short route to the point where me and Roulette had come aboveground. The greenbelt looked clear, so I jumped down, my battle suit helping me land on the lawn without difficulty, though my boots left impressions an inch or two deep.
Tapping a button on my wrist, I issued the command "Board on" and dropped the warboard. Instead of landing on the grass, it hovered just over a foot in the air, still and stable. There had to be metal under the turf somewhere.
Stepping onto the board, I felt the magnetics take hold of me, sealing my feet in place and stabilizing my posture. I tilted forward and used my forefinger to press the accelerator built into the palm of my glove. The warboard surged forward, and magnetics kept me in a comfortable forward crouch. Air rushed over me as I leaned forward a little more, my finger firmly on the accelerator.
I tilted to one side, and the warboard banked, turning onto a walkway heading west. A good distance down the walkway, three men dressed in black gear tromped around a corner. Their outfits were similar to what the patrolmen wore, but with more padding and armor, as if they might be members of an elite unit. Did City Patrol have a SWAT team?
As the men knelt and raised trapguns, I slowed and leaned hard to the side, U-turning abruptly to head back toward the greenbelt. Something whizzed past me close enough for the wind of it to tickle my cheek. Up ahead, a sticky mass of gray webs appeared where the projectile landed.
Crouching low, I avoided the webs and turned hard at the end of the walkway to zoom along the greenbelt. The elite patrolmen had been pretty far away and on foot. It would take them some time to get into position for another shot.
"Jace, veer north, patrolmen are cutting off your eastward escape," Forge advised over the communicator.
I pressed the button to talk. "Where were you for me?"
"I told you to go west," Forge said.
"I did and three guys almost took me out," I complained, glancing over my shoulder. I guided the warboard to keep trees between myself and the mouth of the walkway.
"I don't have City Patrol west of you for some distance," Forge said.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"We're overhearing their comms and I hacked into their tracking program," Forge replied.
"These guys looked a little different," I said. "In all black. Extra armor."
"You may have run into Enforcers," Googol said urgently. "Stay well away from them."
"Jace, head west up the next walkway," Forge said. "It's getting ugly north and east of you. Looks like you'll have to cross Flag. Kendal, try the next westward walkway. If those Enforcers saw you head north, you need to take some turns."
I fought the temptation to panic. It sounded lots of patrolmen were converging on the area. Forge and Googol both had a flustered edge to their voices. I was going fast on the warboard but knew that wouldn't help me if I got hit by a bunch of webs or drenched in quicktar. I had a couple of the smaller freeze-foam tubes, but those were only for emergencies. If I resorted to fighting, I was going to get caught. My best chance was to run.
Heeding Forge's advice, I started to turn onto the next westward walkway but pulled out when I saw another trio of Enforcers running toward me. I left the walkway behind before they could shoot at me, continuing north along the greenbelt.
"More Enforcers on that walkway," I reported into my communicator.
"You've seen too many," Googol said. "That means there are many more Enforcers that you haven't seen. It's a major operation.
"Slow down, Kendal," Forge said. "If you keep going north, you'll reach a big mob of patrolmen."
"I'm running out of options," I said, frustrated.
"I'm clear," Trickster reported. "Underground and unfollowed."
"Me too," Roulette said. "Need me to go back for them?"
"Negative, Roulette," Forge said. "By the time you found them it would be over. Kendal, Trickster said you're good with the battle suit. It opens up options. You can take to the rooftops and escape by jumping. If you ditch the warboard, I can destroy it remotely. Your call."
I decelerated. The building to my west had a low enough roof to jump up to. The battle suit wouldn't let me travel as quickly as with the warboard, but it would enable me to move like I used to with the Jumping Sword. If the walkways were getting sealed off, it might be my best option.
"I'm in trouble," Jace said. "Enforcers."
"He's just east of you, Kendal," Forge said. "With Enforcers on both sides and behind you, now might be a good time to hit the rooftops."
Jace screamed briefly and went silent.
"Jace?" I asked. "Jace?"
Speeding up, I peered down the next eastward walkway. It ran between two buildings on the way to Flag Street. About a hundred yards down the walkway, a figure leaned against a wall encased in freeze-foam. Two Enforcers approached Jace, who lay motionless on the ground, looking like a statue of himself dipped in dark chocolate. His warboard idled nearby.
There was no way I was going to leave Jace behind. The Enforcers were facing away from me as they approached Jace.
After readying a freeze-foam tube in one hand, I leaned forward on my warboard and hit the accelerator.