531

DaQi took a deep breath and tried to steady himself to move. He didn’t know where Sandus and Fulmer had gone, but there were definitely more people coming with that alarm still blaring overhead. He switched his heat sensing augmentation on - or whatever it was - and looked into the building. “We need to go now,” he said to Chan Yi. “They’re coming up the stairs.”

“You can see that?” the AI asked him.

“I have augmentations. Or I don’t know what it is anymore. But yes, I can see their heat signatures.”

“You can see that mine is different, right?” Chan Yi asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then make sure you don’t shoot me.”

DaQi snorted at that, but Chan Yi smiled at him and his heart skipped a beat. This felt familiar like nothing else in his life did.

Chan Yi looked over the wall they were hiding behind. “They took cover in the garden. Go now.”

They ran to the bridge of the small stream that meandered across the rooftop. DaQi could see Fulmer and Sandus’s heat signatures hidden in the garden. “He’s got to have something waiting for us,” DaQi said under his breath as they made it to the other side.

They passed a swimming pond before they made it to the other side where the chute was located. There was an opening for a stairwell and they descended quickly to get to the chute. There was a metal cover on the landing. DaQi went to grab it, but gunfire rang out and he threw himself behind the half-wall that offered the only protection.

“Looks like they did come prepared,” Chan Yi said.

“If we don’t do something, they’re going to catch us.”

Chan Yi looked at him but he was frowning and there was something sad in the set of his lips and eyes. “You really don’t remember.” A second later he shook his head and turned so that he was facing the shooter. “They don’t want us dead, which means they’re not going to take a headshot. If anything happens to me, get me to Atieno Obuo. She’ll know what to do.”

“What are you going to do?”

Chan Yi smiled at him, then grabbed him by the back of the neck. He pulled DaQi close and pressed their lips together. DaQi was too surprised to do anything about it. When Chan Yi let go and leaned back he was still smiling. “I’m going to save you this time.”

ThenChan Yi ran to the chute cover. Gunfire rained down, but he didn’t stop. When he reached the chute cover he pulled it back. It screeched open, but DaQi watched as a bullet ripped through Chan Yi’s hand. He pulled it back, but another struck his shoulder with enough impact to spin him off balance.

“Yi!” He darted forward and pulled the man back under cover. He reached for the zipper of his black hoodie to try to see the damage but Chan Yi pushed his hands away.

“All metal, remember? They didn’t hit anything important. Except my damn gun. She’s gonna be so pissed. Get ready to jump. I’ll take out the lights here so it’ll take them a minute to adjust and give you a chance to get down. I’ll be right behind you. You know the schematics, right?”

“Three chutes to the third floor, then stairs all the way down.”

“Right. When we get to the third floor, we go in and assess where they are.”

“That’s starting to sound like a plan, Yi,” DaQi said.

Chan Yi smiled. “You were always the planner, Two. I’m more the throw myself into trouble kind.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” He pressed his hand to Chan Yi’s shoulder and he watched the other man wince.

“Metal, but it still hurts,” Chan Yi reminded him.

“Yeah. Are you ready for this?”

Chan Yi nodded, but before he could say anything else, Chan Yi stood up and began shooting out the lights. DaQi ran to the chute and slid to a halt. He jumped down, feet first, using his arms to drag against the fabric tube to control his speed. The bottom had a soft glow and though DaQi couldn’t see the light source it let him know he was about to reach the end. When he landed on the soft bottom, he rolled out of the way and opened the gun on his forearm.

He followed Chan Yi’s example and shot out the lights to give them as much advantage as he could. When he grabbed the cover, there was no gunfire to greet him. He watched as Chan Yi made it down the chute and rolled out beside him. As much as he wanted to check on him, he jumped down the chute instead. He needed to be there first in case anything was waiting.

He rolled on landing but hit the wall hard. Pain flared in his head but he grit his teeth and got up. As soon as he stood, shots soared through the air beside him. Chan Yi was right. They were trying to stop them, but not kill them. He didn’t care what Chan Yi said though. He’d been shot before and it was painful. Maybe he wasn’t human, but he didn’t want to taste another bullet.

The shooter was across the street in the neighboring building. The gun he had wasn’t made for that distance but they didn’t know it. He took a shot at the shooter, then rushed forward and pulled the chute cover off again. DaQi barely managed to dive behind the wall before bullets slammed into the landing around him.

Chan Yi landed and rolled across the floor far more graceful than DaQi had. How he managed that with two bullet holes, DaQi couldn’t say. He was worried though. If Chan Yi wasn’t human, how was he supposed to take care of his injuries once they got clear of this?

“Are you alright?” Chan Yi asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Your head is okay?”

“Manageable.”

“Good.”

Before DaQi could say anything else, Chan Yi jumped for the chute. He cursed, only giving the other man a second before he followed. He could hear gunfire before he landed. He rolled towards the wall and landed against something much softer than metal. Chan Yi helped him right himself this time, but when DaQi sat up, he realized there was blood on his shirt where Chan Yi had touched him.

Instead of worrying about Chan Yi, he looked for heat signatures around them. They were on the third-floor landing. The third floor was a series of restaurants and boutique shops for the people who lived in the building. It should be mostly empty at that time of night, but DaQi could see a cluster of people coming from the south side.

“They’re coming from the front,” he told Chan Yi.

Chan Yi crouched down behind the wall and looked at him. “My car is just below us. Can you make the drop?”

“Three stories?”

“You can do this.”

“Three stories? No, I can’t!”

“DaQi!” Chan Yi’s use of his name stopped him from speaking again.

“You can do this. You were made to do this. Trust me, please.”

And he did. Whatever was wrong with his brain had apparently affected his judgment too. “This is fucking crazy, but I do.”

Chan Yi smiled at him, then let out a deep breath and turned serious. “Follow me.” Chan Yi didn’t hesitate as he ran and jumped over the ledge. DaQi followed, his heart pounding. He plummeted over the edge of the building and the ground rushed up faster than he thought it could. He landed hard and his legs buckled, but Chan Yi was there, pulling him up. Though DaQi stumbled, nothing was broken.

Chan Yi dragged him forward and DaQi saw the bike Chan Yi was headed for. As they got close, DaQi heard a whistling sound in the air above them. He dove at Chan Yi and tackled him to the ground as the bike exploded in front of them.

“Damn it!” Chan Yi cursed as he stumbled back up to his feet.

“My bike is this way! Come on!”

It was still parked where he’d left it. When he looked back he could see the swarm of bodies on the third floor running towards them. They’d apparently never anticipated Chan Yi leaping off the third floor. A lone agent ran towards them, gun drawn, but Chan Yi sped up, faster than a human could run. He slid when he reached the man and knocked his feet out from under him. Chan Yi was already back up and a single bullet stopped the other man.

DaQi got to the bike and started it. When Chan Yi climbed behind him he wasn’t sure where to go, but he sped away.

“Can you get us off their radar?” Chan Yi yelled into his ear.

DaQi nodded. The skylines had strong security measures, but he’d never had trouble getting around it when he needed to. He felt pressure around his wrist and saw Chan Yi trying to connect to the port on his left arm. He opened the access panel as he drove and the address to a safe house popped into his vision, along with the security measures he needed to know.

He took an alternate route there to make sure they weren’t being followed. Chan Yi hadn’t disengaged from the port so his thoughts filtered through to DaQi. Messages appeared in his vision in ways he’d never experienced before, but it wasn’t intrusive. Again, this felt familiar.

No drones following. No one behind us.

DaQi nodded. He didn’t know if he could use the link to exchange his thoughts as well, but it wasn’t the time to try.

We’re safe. Take us in.

It was a ten-minute drive once they decided they were safe. DaQi ignored the feel of the wet fabric against his back from Chan Yi’s wound. If his arms weren’t wrapped so strongly around DaQi’s waist he’d be worried. He had no idea if the wound was anything to worry about or not. He didn’t think fluid loss was good though, no matter what he was.

He parked the bike in a secure building and followed Chan Yi into a private lift. Neither spoke and Chan Yi had removed the port when they parked. He felt suddenly alone in his own mind and he hated it. And he didn’t understand why he hated it so much.

The apartment wasn’t at the top of the building, but the view was magnificent when DaQi stepped in. He walked to the window in the front room and stared at the dark clouds that hid the rest of the world from them. He heard Chan Yi behind him and he turned around to see him walking out of the room.

DaQi followed through the large, scarcely decorated front room. He passed a kitchen and office area before he walked into the bedroom. Chan Yi was already in the attached bathroom, stripping out of his hoodie.

“How can I help you?” he asked.

Chan Yi looked up; his eyes wide like DaQi had startled him. Considering what he knew Chan Yi was capable of, he wasn’t sure how he could sneak up on the other man.

“I just need to see if the bullet is stuck in there. It can wait until tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

“Because I need to take you to someone tomorrow. It’s too late tonight and I need to make sure she’s still safe for us.”

“Obuo.”

Chan Yi nodded as he struggled to get his shirt over his head. DaQi stepped in behind him and grabbed the edge of the shirt. He pulled it up over Chan Yi’s head and waited as he put his arms up. He carefully pulled it free and dropped the shirt onto the counter. Chan Yi was facing a mirror but looking at him through it. His gaze was intense and DaQi could hardly breath as he held his eyes. After a minute, DaQi swallowed against a lump in his throat and looked away.

“Do you need me to take the bullet out or something?”

Chan Yi shook his head. “Give me a minute to run my diagnostics. If I need it pulled out, I’ll call you. There are clean clothes in the closet if you want something I didn’t bleed all over.”

DaQi looked down at himself. “It’s not really blood, is it?”

Chan Yi turned and glared at him. “We might not be human. We might not have the same thing running through our veins, but it’s all the same. If I lose enough, I die. Call it bleeding out, or a fluid leak, it’s all the same.”

He was an idiot. The only thing he could rely on right now was Chan Yi and he was treating him like he wasn’t human. Like they weren’t … created together. “I didn’t mean to offend.”

Chan Yi dropped his eyes and turned back to the mirror, looking down at his hands. “Get some clean clothes. Relax. There’s food in the kitchen. Music, TV. Whatever. Just relax. When my diagnostic is done I’m going to take a shower, then we’ll talk.”

DaQi left the bathroom and did as he was told. He kicked off his shoes and found clean clothes in the closet. He found an old, worn hoodie in the back of the closet that looked like it had been well worn. It smelled vaguely familiar, but not like Chan Yi. He threw his clothes into a sanitizer and dressed in the borrowed clothes, a pair of clean black cotton joggers, a grey tee-shirt, and the black hoodie. He sat on the bed and let his mind wander over the revelations of the night.

His brain hurt and he thought, again, it must be the press of memories trying to return. Nothing in his life before tonight had felt familiar though, not the way Chan Yi did. He laid back on the bed and closed his eyes.

As messed up as his life had suddenly become, tonight, for the first time he could remember, he didn’t feel alone.