Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

32 - All Aboard for a Pleasant Journey

The revolver thundered in the shadows. Its muzzle flare illuminated Chloe Delgado's face, twisted with rage as she fired. Her first shot blew a hole in the chair beside the AmpCore operative, missing him by inches.

The second flew true.

But it didn't hit him.

She'd fired a third and forth shot before she realised. Without the bulky body armour of the corporate troopers the man should have been blown open by the heavy calibre rounds, but he pivoted toward her with the speed of a cobra, his wand flaring.

One shell simply vaporised maybe foot from him. The next two met similar fates, dissolving into sprays of orange sparks that showered the man harmlessly. In the light she got a better look at his face, his deeply tanned skin smooth like a sheet of bronze, grey eyes so bright they were almost silver. His expression was one of mild amusement.

Then he flicked his wrist.

She hurled herself aside in the nick of time, and a bolt of boiling, orange white death gored a hole clean through the pillar she'd been hiding behind. Bullets crackled all around her as the guards opened fire. One hit her in the thigh; another went clean through her shoulder while a third nicked the left side of her face, just grazing her temple.

Delgado rolled, screaming in pain. She managed to swing into a sitting position long enough to let off two more shots, aiming for the guards instead of the agent. Another corporate agent went down, his head whipping back as one of her bullets blew through the faceplate of his helmet.

Then she was shoving herself backward on uninjured leg, swearing and shooting in alternate motions, just thinking of the window she knew was only a few meters behind.

Section of the floor beside her suddenly buckled and cratered, almost tipping her in. With a howl of effort she heaved her body away from it. Some invisible force yanked at her ankles, and it took a moment for her to realise who was responsible.

Two more shots from her revolver were enough to break the operative's concentration, as he paused long enough to deflect the bullets away.

Long enough for her to stand and turn.

Long enough to shoot the glass out of the window.

With pain thundering through every piece of her, Chloe jumped awkwardly off of one leg, flinging her battered body through the narrow opening. Broken glass cut her arms and side as she tumbled through, before she slammed to the street outside.

Coughing up a mouthful of blood, she spat it out onto the street and took off, limping awkwardly towards the nearest alleyway. She coiled around unsteadily, long enough to empty the rest of the clip back the way she'd come to force a corporate trooper who'd reached the window to duck back inside.

Delgado lurched behind a car, just as a spray of bullets snapped at her heels. Glass shattered; the vehicle alarm blared. She heard the startled cries of civilians nearby, people brave or foolish enough to have poked their noses out into the night to see what all the noise was about.

She loosed off a wild shot, aiming blindly over the top of the car, before launching herself into a stumbling run into the narrow alley beyond. Warm liquid soaked her leg; she could feel jolts of agony with every step, but she forced herself on. Hadrian would have to work a little harder to finish her off.

Growling in pain, she blundered through the narrow space between the adjacent buildings and crashed out onto a main road. Even at the late hour there was plenty of traffic and footfall here, and startled people recoiled from her as through she was radioactive.