Out of the Black - Lee Doty [172]
***
"Have I said enough that this is a bad idea?" Ping said as their party pulled to a halt in the middle of the lowest level of the hospital's parking structure.
"Nope, but we don't have enough time for you to really do that job right." Anne said.
If Kaspari he, he didn't respond. He was talking to Alex. "You've got to keep them away long enough for me to finish. If they make it within three meters or so, they'll shred my Cast and this is all for nothing."
"Sure. Maybe we can buy you a few seconds if they slip on our blood..." Rae's face didn't match her light tone.
Alex nodded, "I won't be able to Cast when they get close and we don't have a working gun between us."
"You haven't seen her work yet, have you?" Kaspari inclined his head toward where Anne and Ping were moving up the ramp. They stopped about twenty meters away and were engaged in some easy pre-death banter.
Alex thought for a few seconds, then shook his head. Kaspari continued, "You ever see Dek or Roy work?" Alex's head kept shaking.
"We've actually got a really good chance, unless we get attacked by an army. Now, pay attention, if this doesn't work, I'm going to need you to kill me."
"Your confidence is contagious." Alex shook his head.
Kaspari looked distracted for a moment, like a particularly troublesome thought had occurred to him. "They're coming... you feel it?"
Alex closed his eyes. He stretched down, then outward from the Loom. Around him, he could see the complexities of a large and intricate Cast that Kaspari was in the process of configuring. It was like nothing he'd seen before in terms of subtlety and sheer ambition. This was his final Cast.
Reluctantly, he pulled his mind away from the study of Kaspari's work and pressed his Vision outward. He felt them almost immediately, like angry blurred hornets through the arteries of the Underworld. Though he couldn't focus to see them through all of their chaotic noise, he could fix their position by the location of the gaps in his Vision. "Three minutes?"
"Two, more likely." Kaspari said from behind closed eyes. This is going to be close."
"Two minutes what?" Anne shouted toward them with a look of great concern.
"Two minutes to live probably." Issak yelled back, "They're inbound fast."
"How many?" Ping waved his collapsed sword through small circles, warming the tendons of his wrists.
"I lost count around seventy." Alex looked from Rae to Kaspari.
"I got to a hundred and twenty before I gave up." Kaspari said with a shrug.
They waited in silence for the moment.
Ping glanced sideways at Anne. Her face was set with determination. Her eyes scanned the expanse of the garage ahead. Ping knew the ground they needed to hold was indefensible. There were no choke points that could be more easily defended against a superior force. Their task was hopeless and they both knew it.
Anne was smiling.
Ping had been taught the value of such smiles from his early youth. He'd been taught to value the courage they implied. Her blue eyes shifted to regard him then jerked away when she saw he was looking at her. Probably childhood issues. He smiled, laughing softly.
"What?" she asked, becoming more flustered.
"You are without a doubt the most bashful killing machine I've ever met." That got him a smile and a small shake of her head.
"You know," he said gesturing with his collapsed sword, "I was just about to ask you how you could keep it together in the face of our impending horrible death... but I suppose I'm really more interested to know why you're having trouble with the banter."
He spent a second in an open smile to help her realize he wasn't all that serious before continuing. "You know, it's really standard procedure for folks in our position to exchange a few polite jabs at each other- you know, to brace our courage up, laugh in the