Nakasi was doing well. On any other day, she would be torturing herself over whether or not these kills were ethical-- over what it was doing to her karma. But now she had put her karma worries aside, and it felt magnificent. She was a goddess of death, invisible, invulnerable, striking back against the frothing red horde.
She stood in a greenhouse on the roof of a one-story shop. Here, her jungle camouflage hid her perfectly, and she had a good view of three different roads.
There was action on each one. A male spotter called out targets over the radio, but he was wasting his breath. Already, Nakasi had more targets than she had arrows.
It had looked as if the Mauves would come from the north, but their real push was from the west, directly in front of her, and the defenders were retreating fast from the northern blocks. Nakasi chose her target, a well-armed but young-looking Mauve who had split from her group. Nakasi drew back the string, feeling the muscles in her back contract. Her arms held stiff as tree branches, holding back her eager arrow, as she watched her target skitter down the street, unaware of the crosshairs lined up on the base of her neck. The young Mauve stopped and knelt beside a wounded comrade.
It was her last mistake. Nakasi squeezed her trigger, releasing the string. The arrow snapped away, and the Mauve reared back with an arrow buried in her chest. Nakasi did not watch her bleed. Instead, she picked another arrow and sought her next target.
A mighty-looking Mauve stepped into view, armored from head to toe and with her shoulder-length hair spilling out from beneath a face-covering helmet. She smacked one of her women on the shoulder and gestured forcefully to the south. The Mauves began to pull back, flowing off to the sides.
Nakasi considered a shot at the long-haired Mauve, but decided against it. Most likely, the arrow would be useless against her armor. For the first time since the start of the battle, Nakasi began listening to the spotter.
"They're on the corner of Monza and Main," said the spotter, in his inappropriately bored voice. "Watch it, there's another group sneaking in through the buildings. I think they're going for the autocannons."
The autocannons were Bonde Wakulima's secret weapon. Instead of lining the border with them, authorities had used a strategy Nakasi liked much better. They had hidden the guns in storefronts, where they could reveal themselves and punish the Mauves for overextending themselves.
The Mauves were getting too close to Nakasi. A pack of police gunners stood their ground on the street before her, guarding line of sandbags, but they wouldn't last if the Mauves came this way again.
Grabbing onto the edge of the greenhouse window, she swung herself out onto the roof, her feet thudding onto the clear plastic. The rooftops were clean of enemies for one block in every direction, which was as far as the Mauves could shoot straight, so Nakasi didn't bother to conceal herself as she ran to the T-intersection where the fighting was thickest.
The street looked like a beehive that had been slashed open. Gunfire crackled out from house windows, and an autocannon roared inside a kiosk. Mauves crawled up onto rooftops, forcing Nakasi to crouch behind a sign to stay out of their sight.
Nakasi's sharp eyes spotted an older Mauve carrying what looked like a rocket launcher. Standing as far up as she dared to, Nakasi drew back her arrow and refined her focus. But it wouldn't work. The target was moving too fast.
Now Nakasi understood why the police had so badly wanted her to use a rifle. Stationary targets were rare on the battlefield.
Backing away from the fight, she stood up straight and focused on the tide of humanity that surged in from the west, swallowing an entire block. In eight heartbeats, she sent two arrows into the mass, then saw a gun aimed at her and ducked down, vaulting into the streets behind the slaughter. As soon as she was on the ground, she regretted it. Now her sight was limited, leaving her as helpless as one of her targets.
