Chapter 66 Chapter Twelve

The hive is awake twenty-eight hours a day; but following certain traditions, the third floor is the quietest and least populated.We would have had a little better luck if we were on the first floor, walking on the sidewalk during rush hour.But if thugs and murderers are waiting for us, the death knell for civilians will ring deafeningly. It took us more than three hours to climb to the central plaza, not taking a single flight of stairs, but walking in an endless series of mechanic passages, climbing into the abandoned vertical entrances that had been opposed to raising eighty years ago The mechanized and automated Luddites swept through.At last I went up a staircase more rusty than its metal.Coming out of the stairs, we entered a transport corridor, less than half a kilometer away from the Shrike Temple.

"It's so effortless, I can't believe it," I whispered to him over the intercom. "It's likely that they're concentrating people on air ports and private teletransmitter groups." We walked in this rather hidden passage and came to the central square, which is located 30 meters below the first shopping floor and 400 meters below the roof.Now, the ornate, haphazard structure of the Shrike Shrike was within half a mile of us.A number of shoppers and joggers who missed the peak glanced at us, but walked away quickly.I was convinced in my heart that the mall police were called away, but I'd still be surprised if they showed up right away.

A gang of brightly-clad street assassins scatter from an elevator, yelling.They wear pulse knives, chains, power gloves.Startled, Johnny swung his Hell's Whip at them, sending dozens of shooting beams from the whip.My minigun whirred and spun there, moving from aim point to aim point as my eyes moved. The gang of seven guys stopped abruptly, raised their hands, and backed away with wide eyes.They fell into the elevator and disappeared. I looked at Johnny.Hei Yi's mirror image looked back at me.Neither of us laughed. We walked through the shopping alleys of the north.The few pedestrians scurrying into the open shop.We are now a hundred meters from the steps of the temple.Through the helmet headset of the military department, I can really hear the sound of my heartbeat.Fifty meters away from the stairs, it seemed that we were summoned, and an acolyte or priest or something appeared at the gate of the temple ten meters high, watching us approach.Thirty meters.If anyone was going to intercept us, they should have done so before then.

I turned to Johnny, about to say something funny.Suddenly, at least twenty beams and more than a dozen projectiles hit us in an instant.The outer layer of titanium polyethylene bursts outward, deflecting most of the energy of the projectile under the action of anti-air flow.The mirror below reflects most of the killing beams.most. Johnny fell under the impact.I got down on one knee and aimed the minigun at the laser source. On the tenth floor of the hive dwelling wall.My mask suddenly went dark.The armor evaporated and reflected water vapor.The minigun sounded exactly like some kind of chainsaw from a historical hologram.Above the tenth floor, a five-meter balcony and walls were torn apart, and a cloud of exploding steel spears poured out, making a sound of piercing armor.

Three heavy assassins hit me from behind. I put my hands on the ground, fell to the ground, suppressed the minigun, and spun around.There were at least a dozen of them on each floor, and they were moving fast, in a very elegant combat dance.Johnny got up, knelt there, and fired with the Hellwhip, sending out a series of laser beams, and he seemed to walk through the rainbow, knocking on the rebound defense. One of the running figures burst into flames, and the window behind him turned into a puddle of liquid glass, which splashed onto the central square fifteen meters away.Two more men appeared on the railing of the level ground, and I fired a burst of minigun rounds that sent them back.

An open skimmer descended from the rafters above, its seed wheels pitching and rolling, leaning over the side of the signpost.The rockets slammed into the concrete around me and Johnny.The front door of the store spit out countless pieces of broken glass, drowning us.I looked up, blinked twice, aimed, fired.The skimmer lurched sideways and hit the escalator, on which were a dozen or so timid civilians.Finally, it rolled in a mass of twisted metal.It exploded like an arsenal.Eighty meters below, on the floor of the hive, I saw a shopper dancing in flames. "Left!" Jonny yelled at me over the intercom of the dense beam.

Four men in combat armor dropped from above with personal lift packs.The converging chameleon armor struggles to keep up with the ever-changing backdrop, but only turns everyone into a kaleidoscope of sparkle.One of them came within range of my minigun and held me back, while the other three ran towards Johnny. This guy comes rushing, holding a pulse knife, Jewish style.I let it nibble at my armor, knowing it's going to bite into the muscle of my forearm, but I've got to buy time.There is.I raised my gloved hand, hacked the guy with the steel edge, and then lobbed the minigun at the three guys who were wrestling with Johnny.

Their armor is so tough that I've gunned them down like a hose down a sidewalk full of garbage.Only one guy got up before I knocked them all off the ledge on this level. Johnny fell to the ground again.Part of his breastplate was missing, melting away.I smelled burnt flesh, but saw no mortal wounds.I squatted down and picked him up. "Leave me alone, Braun. Run. Up the stairs." The dense light communication ended. "Fuck off," I yelled, wrapping my left arm around him, supporting his body while giving the minigun something to track, "I'm still the bodyguard you paid for."

They sniped us on both walls of the hive, in the rafters, on the shopping floors above our heads.There were at least twenty dead bodies on the sidewalk; half of them were civilians in bright clothes.The power booster on my left foot armor was crushed.With that leg straight, I clumsily dragged the two of us up the last ten meters of the temple steps.Now, several Shrike priests appeared on the steps, and they seemed oblivious to the gunfire around them. "above!" I turned around, aimed, and fired, all in an instant. After firing a shot, I heard the gun go empty, and then I saw the second skider launch a rocket. It immediately turned into a thousand pieces of rapidly flying, irrelevant metal and shattered flesh and blood.I slammed Johnny down the walkway and slammed into him, trying to cover his exposed flesh with my own body.

The rockets exploded at the same time, several exploded in the air, at least two of them dived into Johnny's body, and I was blasted into the air, falling fifteen to twenty meters down the inclined walkway.Good guy.The alloy-reinforced concrete sidewalk on which we stood a second ago is now scorched, boiled, limp, and rolled onto the blazing walkway below.There formed a natural moat, a moat, separating us from the rest of the ground forces. I stood up, slapped the useless minigun off, and started to climb, I pulled useless pieces of armor off my body, and picked Johnny up in my arms.His helmet was blown off, and his face was bloodied.Blood seeped from dozens of tiny cracks in his armor.Right hand and left foot were blown off.I turned around, hugged him, and climbed up the stairs of the Shrike Temple.

Sirens abounded now, and the skies above the central square were full of empty skimmers.The thugs are on the upper level, looking around for cover on the far side of the muddy hallway.There were two commandos, who had fallen using lift packs, and followed me up the stairs.I didn't turn around.With each step, I had to lift my stiff, limp left leg.I knew my back and ribs were badly burned, with shrapnel wounds everywhere. The skimmer roared and circled, but did not stop on the steps of the temple.The artillery fire echoed incessantly in the central square.I heard the footsteps of metal shoes behind me, rushing towards me quickly.I took three more steps with all my might.Twenty paces above, impossibly far away, Bishop Shrike was standing among a hundred temple priests. I took another step and looked down at Johnny.He opened one eye and looked up at me.The other eye was closed, bloody and swollen tissue. "It's okay," I said softly, before I realized my helmet was missing, too. "It's okay, we're almost there." I took another step with all my might. The two men in bright black battle armor blocked our way.Both of the visors they wore were lifted up, with deflection marks on them, and two iron and ruthless faces. "Bitch, put him down, maybe we'll give you a way out." I nodded tiredly, too tired to take another step, too tired to estimate anything, but I stood there with my arms around Johnny.His blood dripped on the white stone. "I said, put the son of a bitch down..." I shot them both.One in the left leg, one in the right eye, and I held my father's automatic pistol in my hand, which was always placed under Johnny's body and never raised. They fell down.I took another step.Then one more step.Take a short breath, lift your foot and take another step. At the top of the stairs, the group of people in black robes and red robes separated towards the two sides.The doorway was very high and very dark.I didn't look back, but I could hear the commotion behind me, and I knew the central square must be packed.The bishop was by my side and accompanied me through the gate and into the twilight. I put Jonny on cool flat ground.The robes rustled beside us.I pulled off my armor, then pulled Johnny's.The armor was glued to him in several places.I touched his hot cheek with my still-working arm. "Sorry……" Johnny's head moved slightly, he opened his eyes, raised his remaining left hand, and touched my cheek, my hair, the back of my head. "Fanny..." I felt he died at that moment.I also felt his hand touch the nerve shunt, a rush of electricity, and I felt the white warmth of that current as what John Keats had and would have slammed into me .It was almost...almost like his orgasm inside me two nights ago, the turbulence, the throbbing, the sudden warmth, the silence after that, with the emotional reverberations. I lowered him slowly to the ground and let the acolyte take his body away, take it outside, show it to the crowd, show it to the authorities, show it to people waiting to know the outcome. I let them take me.