slumber. He had no helmet, and his eyes were bleary in the low light as he stared straight at Najima.
He had enough time to raise his gun before Najima threw the bottom of her boot directly into his nose with a powerful side-kick. But the blow of her kick forced his finger on the trigger of his laser rifle, and a shot sparked off the roof.
"Najima!" Otto said, above a whisper. "You okay?"
"Otto, guard. Boxes over here!" Najima raised her hands to the boxes, but was too short to reach. "I can't get them. Get over here." She heard the clacking of his boots as a commotion came from across the room - more boots stomping into the room as a door slid open on the far side of the warehouse. "Hurry," Najima said as she skirted out of the dead-end aisle and ran toward the open door, where orange light from the streets streamed in.
"There's someone in here!" A guard said through their helmet. "I heard a gunshot."
"Listen, footsteps!" another yelled as Najima drew her pistol before shooting a wall. The flash of laser light was enough to light the room for a second, to reveal four guards in the doorway. The guards raced toward Najima's location, screaming orders, as she jumped upon the shelves and climbed them like a ladder. As the guards came from both sides of the aisle, they aimed their guns at each other.
Najima knew she had to do something to make sure they didn’t see Otto, only a few aisles over. She could easily have shot them from above, and they wouldn’t have known a thing. But she thought back to what they had said earlier: no killing. And she knew this was right. These soldiers lived Nanda. Shooting them wouldn’t help anyone. They were innocent - merely caught up in Otto’s plan. She had to think of another way.
"Where did they go?" one hollered as Najima tossed her pistol to the wall. It slapped along the concrete and clattered madly as all the guards turned their attention, firing several shots blindly at the wall. In their confusion, Najima took out her plasma daggers, splitting them into their two parts, and lighting them til their faint glow of magenta lit her face.
As the guards approached the thrown gun, she dropped from the darkness above. Her whole weight was brought upon an unsuspecting guard, who screamed in pain, before toppling to the ground. As the guards spun around, Najima swung a dagger along the first guard's shooting arm, burning straight through his suit. He screamed and threw his own gun in the air before Najima's second blade cut across his shin, searing through skin, and dropping him to the ground.
The second guard took two shots at her as she ducked quickly in the dark, slicing the guard’s ankle, sending the rest of his wild shots around the room. When she rose to her feet, she threw a cut, her blade skirted across the man's shoulder, before her second blade cut at his other wrist, wobbling in pain where he stood.
Seeing the final soldier was prepared to fire, Najima tackled the pained guard in front of her, sending him stumbling back into his companion. The guards and Najima fumbled into a pile, arms and legs flailing until Najima rolled away. The other guard freed herself by pushing her screaming companion away. She recovered her gun and aimed, but could not pull off a shot before Najima kicked high, knocking the guard’s aim away. Najima swung her first blade to cut the guard’s arm, the second along her waist, before Najima spun, and with a side-kick, knocked the guard to the ground.
Then Najima felt her feet rise off the ground until she was pushed hard into the wall beside her.
The first guard, who she had not struck with her knives, had recovered, and wrapped his hands around Najima's throat. She lost all her breath after hitting the wall and was gagging for air as the soldier pinned her, banging Najima's head against the wall.
The guard dropped Najima to the ground where she choked, desperately scanning the floor for her dropped daggers. The soldier retrieved one of the many guns upon the ground, and aimed it at Najima's head.
But the room was deafened by the shot of a ballistic assault rifle. TUT! A metal bullet's slug struck the CP in the shooting arm, blood splattering with the shot, sending the CP into a screaming fit before a second shot rang out, and the soldier's thigh exploded. TUT! He dropped to the ground as Najima, still gasping for breath, felt two arms wrap around her shoulders and lift her up from the ground.
Otto looked at her sternly, the barrel of his gun still smoking. "Get your things, time to go."
"Too late," said Priya's voice in their ears. Najima had forgotten in the chaos that Priya, Anna, and Bri could hear them. "You have 20 seconds before the alarms sound. 17... 16..."
"I got the boxes. Help me get them out," Otto said. Najima fumbled around the pained bodies on the floor and recovered her knives and gun, and hurried to Otto, who was already lugging a box. She grabbed her own box and realized how immensely heavy it was. While Najima was athletic, most of her strength was in her legs, not her upper body, and she struggled to lift the cumbersome crate as Priya continued his countdown: 10... 9...
She eventually lifted it and hobbled like a penguin toward the door. Otto came back for her, and grabbed the box from her hands. But before they could make their escape, the alarms sounded, a red light flashing like a quasar in the room. The siren was more deafening than the gunshot.
"Keep your head down! Don't let the cameras see!" With that, Otto took the box and the two hurried out of the building. Outside Otto tossed the box back into Najima's hands, the box banging hard against her breasts, retrieving his own contraband, and led the way out of the building, toward the sidewalk where they could load their boxes into the Trogan.
Except Brat and the Trogan were not waiting for them.
"Brat, where are you?!" Otto screamed as Civil Protection sirens began ringing from across the town. Najima and Otto stood aimlessly in place as Otto cursed.
"This way," he hollered, leading Najima into the alleys once more. "Brat, you better get here soon. Meet us around the corner - we're going through the back way." The two hurried between the buildings and around the intersection of the alleyways.
Najima did her best to peak around the large box and attempt to watch where she was going when she saw Otto stumble. He wobbled in circles, attempting to keep his balance, before growling loudly. He set the box down in an oddly gentle manner, before fumbling with his rifle while looking down.
Only then did Najima see the cause for disturbance: there was a woman was in the alley. She was not a CP nor with the army - just a citizen, dressed in a sleek dress. Otto had ran into her while not looking. She began screaming wildly as Otto suddenly aimed his rifle at her.
Before he could get his aim, Najima dropped the box to the ground, ran to Otto, and threw a kick at his gun, knocking away his aim. He shot, a bullet ricocheting off the wall.
Furious, he attempted to throw the butt of his gun at Najima, but she parried, grabbed the gun, and ripped his rifle from his hands, throwing it toward the boxes.
"Otto, what are you doing?"
"She's a witness!" he yelled.
"She's a civilian."
"She saw us!"
"You're..." mumbled the woman in a deep Imperial accent, all lofty tones, "You're Otto al-Kara. You're the one that's been causing all the problems here."
"Shut up!" he screamed. He attempted to dart for his gun, but Najima pushed him by the chest, and produced her gun from her holster, and aimed it at her friend, the terrorist.
"Stop, Otto!"
"She has to be dealt with!"
"You're supposed to be helping her!"
"She's going to tell every CP that we did this!"
Najima wrapped her second hand around her pistol's hilt. "I will not let you murder this woman, Otto."
Otto growled at her as Najima aimed the gun at Otto's chest. One shot of her laser would send a charge straight through his heart, and out the other end. He would be dead in an instant. Every part of her instinct told her not to pull the trigger; it was like two magnets repelling against each other. As the two stared each other down, the sirens only becoming louder around them, a Trogan appeared at the end of the alley.
"What
are you two doing?!" screamed Brat as the doors of the Trogan opened. "Get in! We've got to go!"
Both Otto and Najima looked to the terrified woman, then back at each other. Najima holstered her pistol, and grabbed Otto's gun, putting it over her own shoulder. He leered at her before turning to pick up his box. "Don't drop that box. Fragile."
He wobbled toward the Trogan and Najima lifted the remarkably heavy crate. Najima glanced at the woman one last time, where she sat petrified on the ground. She was bawling, but seemed to understand what Najima had just done. Najima noticed something familiar about her, something about the way her ritzy blue dress matched her blue necklace. But Najima grabbed her box before she bumbled down the alley.
Otto helped Najima place the crate inside the Trogan. She jumped into the vehicle with the boxes, the doors closed, and the Trogan accelerated from zero to two hundred kilometres in less than a second, lurching the three back as they sped out of the town.
∞∞∞
The ride back to Otto's base was excruciatingly quiet. First it was due to Bratindra's tardiness, Otto berating him for not being in position on time. "It wasn't my fault," Brat whined, explaining that he couldn't find a safe way to enter the town.
But it didn't matter, because Otto was venting frustration, and only part of that frustration was directed at Brat. The rest was squarely on Najima, and when Otto's tirade ended, she caught