Excerpt: OtherSpace: No Son of Hekayt

Starko waited until they walked out of the repository before jabbing the gun against the small of Dira’s back and clutching her right shoulder with his nanogloved hand. He spun her so that he could press her between himself and the dark glass wall of the bank.

“What are you doing?” Dira shouted. “You’re supposed to be protecting us!”

“Yes, well, I’ve got a weak spot for valuables like the one you’re carrying,” he said. “Drop it on the ground.”

“No,” she said, trembling as she realized this wouldn’t end without her death. “No, please. If I drop it, you’re going to kill me.”

“Honestly, Dira, you’re going to drop it one way or another,” Starko replied. “You’re going to die, though. Yes. I’m very sorry about that.”

Her eyes caught sight of a reflection in the wall glass: The hovercar making a three-point turn in the street so that it could start ascending the steps, accelerating. She hoped with all her heart that Aldur was driving, otherwise her next trick would end rather pointlessly. Dira chucked the cloth-wrapped cylinder to her left. It arced through the air and landed with a thud about five feet away.

“Stupid,” Starko grunted, keeping the gun trained on Dira but releasing her and moving backward toward the relic just the same. He raised the nanoglove, palm out, and said, “I don’t know what you think that accomplished.” He stopped next to the cylinder, holstering the gun so he could free up the ungloved hand to grab the artifact. That’s when he noticed the car in the corner of his eye, growing closer and larger. Starko spun, firing off a cloud of nanomodules from his glove, which disintegrated the windshield and followed momentum that should have allowed them to chew Aldur’s grizzled head into a pink mist. Instead, Aldur flung himself flat on the front seat so that the expanding cloud of nanocritters just kept eating their way through the back of the car – and he jammed his foot hard on the accelerator. The sloped hood slammed into Starko’s chest, crushing him against the blast-proof glass with an eruption of blood and bowels. The hovercar’s engine, located in the back chassis, dissolved under the last moments of the withering nanoassault. The bank alarms blared. Bright spotlights blinked on, bathing the area in a bright blue-white glow.

Dira suddenly realized that the dead hulk of the hovercar was about to collapse onto the Kamir artifact, either crushing it or making it virtually impossible to recover without seeking help. She ran toward the vehicle, dropped, rolled under the creaking belly past a puddle of something vile that had come from the dying Toveil turncoat, and snatched the cloth-wrapped bundle before coming out on the other side. The hovercar hit the concrete with a thud, snapping the bottom half of Starko loose from the top half, which sprawled lifelessly across the hood.

Aldur climbed out of the car through the busted windshield, now that the doors no longer responded. He pushed the corpse aside, then slid over the smeared blood to stand on the concrete next to Dira.

“The Grand Moot wants us dead,” Aldur said, taking Dira by the arm. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she said. “He lied to us!”

“Yes,” the old Hekayti agreed. “Now he’s dead. Good message to send to our enemies, don’t you think?” A feral smile crept onto his lips. “Let’s go.”