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.Keeping an eye on their pursuit was the only reason he saw her.Bex was running impossibly quickly to catch up.Her feet were a blur across the roadand it seemed like what he was seeing should have only happened in a dream.Hiseyebrows ticked up a fraction as she easily came up on the van despite the fact thatEmilio was driving fast.They hadn't gotten terribly far but even so there was no waya person would normally be able to catch them.He continued to exchange gunfire, covering her until he heard a thump on the backfollowed by one of the back doors opening.Bex slid into the van and shut the doorbehind her.The sound of gunfire pinging off the back of the van continued and Boydconcentrated on returning fire.Bex used her XM8 to knock out the windows on the back doors and beganunloading at their pursuers, looking completely calm and not fatigued at al despitethe fact that she had just run through hostiles and narrowly escaped explosions withnot more than two seconds to spare.She pumped her shotgun efficiently, aiming attires and blowing them out of the pursuing vehicle.The pursuing car screeched to the side, then overturned and rol ed.Boyd paused,watching to see if anyone survived and who would be determined enough tocontinue pursuit.No one immediately crawled out of the wreckage and as Emiliocontinued to drive, taking them around a corner where they were no longer in sightof the Janus node, Boyd finally shut the door fully and turned to sit normally in hisseat.He replaced the empty magazine and then slid the gun into his holster.He lookeddown, seeing that the strap on the holster was damaged in the fight and likely hadbeen what had al owed the gun to fall out.His lips thinned and he determined to getthat fixed as soon as he returned."I figured you died," Emilio said flatly, green eyes flicking to the mirror so that hecould see Bex behind him.She shrugged her sinewy shoulders and stripped off the flak jacket, revealing thethin, tough body beneath.At times her looks went far beyond androgyny-- at themoment, the mix of her bodysuit flattening her already meager chest and theseverely intense expression on her face made her appear very much like a man."Nah," she replied, not appearing very hurt by the fact that they'd left her.Her facewas difficult to read so it wasn't clear exactly what she was thinking when shedrawled soon after, "I'm quite hard to kill.They wasn't playing when they said I wasthe new Sin."Emilio's gaze flashed to the mirror again and his expression could only be describedas frozen.His full mouth thinned, lashes lowering over his eyes before they flickedback to the road.Boyd's eyes narrowed and his back stiffened at her comment.He didn't look back ather but he turned a cold glare out the window as anger moved through him.He didn't say anything; he knew better than to respond verbally or physical y toanything related to Sin.That didn't, however, stop the vitriolic response in his mind;that she wasn't the new Sin.No one could replace Sin.His expression was stony ashis fingers tightened against the familiar lines of the gun."Maybe you should shut the fuck up for the next thirty hours or I'l show you just howeasy to kil you can be," Emilio said in a soft, dangerous voice, his gaze straightahead and fingers clenched around the wheel as if it were the only thing preventinghim from acting on his threat.Tension held his entire frame tight and every outline ofmuscle stood out from beneath his clothing.Bex looked at him for a long moment, the corner of her thin lips twisting up."I forgethow sensitive you lot can be.So sorry.""What did I just say?" the senior Vega asked in the same low tone.He looked at herin the rear view mirror again and for a moment their gazes locked.Whether Bex backed down because he was her superior or if it was something shesaw in his eyes was unknown.But she shrugged again, scoffed quietly anddisappeared to the back of the van to begin stripping off her gear.Boyd glanced coldly back through the mirror when he heard her move out of theway.He entertained images of Emilio following through with his threat.He himselfwould never be able to get away with any actions against Bex but maybe Emiliowould.Maybe.Maybe Bex would lose her attitude once she saw she wasn'timpervious.It wasn't going to happen but it was a nice thought nonetheless.Boyd didn't keep his gaze on the back for long; he didn't want her to see.Bexalready knew that Sin was a touchy subject for him but he hadn't reacted to anythingsince that fateful first meeting.He was determined to keep it that way and the bestway to do that was to not give her more fodder.She general y didn't bother withpointless prodding but when she knew a person had a weakness, she had nocompunctions with striking at it when the person least expected.When it came to Sin, he cared too much and still felt too bitter and depressed whenhe let himself think about it.If he started engaging now he would likely end up in arapid downward spiral with a final destination of the barrel of an Agency-issued gunand a date with the incinerator.When Boyd started to look away he glanced past Emilio and for a moment, theireyes met.Emilio's face was hard and angry.For al that he and his son had been similar, hedidn't have Sin's gift for masking his feelings with a neutral expression and asarcastically cutting reply.When Emilio felt something, it was written al over his faceand now he looked murderous.He had changed a lot in the past year; the death ofhis son had taken an obvious toll on him.Perhaps other things had too-- the deathof his friendship with General Carhart as well.Whatever was weighing more heavily on the older man's shoulders, there was nodenying that he didn't seem as interested in playing the joker card anymore.Hedidn't seem as amused by things or as wil ing to entertain by acting like the hornyformer street kid that everyone had always seen him as.Now he seemed dark,dangerous and impatient.There were still glimmers of the old Emilio here and therebut now they seemed like pieces of a real personality instead of just a flamboyantact.When Emilio's eyes returned to the road, some of the tension seemed to haveeased from his body.Boyd didn't know why but he suspected that like himself,Emilio found comfort in being in the proximity of someone who understood.Boyd looked away, returning his attention out the window.His hand lingered on thegun, his fingers brushing against the familiar lines comfortingly.Neither of them spoke and with Bex still in back, the van fell into silence.Even whenshe came toward the front again Boyd didn't look away from the window.Towns andcities flashed by in islands of pale light and when the three of them got back on theplane, his view of the world below was similar.Black expanses of land broken up bysmall planes of scattered light, almost like a reflection of the night sky above [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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