Chapters (41)
- Title
- Indicia
- Steel Frame
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Acknowledgements
- About The Author
- 'Ironclads' by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- 'NineFox Gambit' by Yoon Ha Lee
- 'Grunt Life' by Weston Ochse
A few minutes further out, and I’m not so sure. They’re starting to trail, jogging every so often so they can keep us in line of sight. They slack a little more after that, only drawing level when Hail gives us a minute to breathe. Even then, they spend the time picking at their boots and staring into nothing, looking at everything but the three of us. I keep waiting for Hail to tread on a couple of toes, maybe get in their faces a little bit. She’s seeing it just as well as I am, but she doesn’t seem to care.
“Hop to,” she says, but it’s only aimed at us. “We’re a long way from our birds.”
She starts along the same path that brought us in, through the loading yards and across the huge rails again, but the familiarity doesn’t last long. She turns without warning. The three of us follow, but we can’t help trading glances. This place is full of blinds and gulleys, and NorCol’s jackets haven’t turned the corner yet.
It would be so easy to get ourselves lost, and hard to get found again. Or it would be, if we all had shit for brains.
We turn as one and run to catch her heel. We’re jockeys, after all. We can put our hands up if we have to, but none of us like the idea of fighting on our own two feet. Even if we did, it would be just a matter of time before NorCol ran us down and stretched us out where all the other cons could see.
We find Hail waiting for us, a couple of turns ahead, with arms crossed and half a grin. The jackets roll up a moment later, hands on their weapons and easy on their feet. Two more edge out of the shadows, carbines ready.
She waves them off. “It’s all right. We’re clear.”
It takes them a moment to relax. “Understood,” says the one with rank. The carbines turn away, leaving us with the original two. Now, they keep right on our heels. This isn’t like the wardens from before. Relaxed but awake, and here because the company wants the certainty, rather than because Hail thinks she’s in for a fight.
She’d asked us if this was where we meant to be, and we’d said it was, but that wasn’t enough. She had to give us the chance to run, to throw it all away.
Looks like we’ve passed the test. The first one, anyway.
And so she takes us deeper.