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Then accelerated toward them.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The Retrieval Drone

The drone ignored everyone except Kesta. It crossed the ridge at impossible speed, passed over Keth’s raised weapon, and stopped three meters in front of her face. A blue scan line opened across its black shell.

“Down!” Dreven roared.

He struck Kesta sideways as Keth fired. The pulse bolt hit the drone’s outer shield and scattered into the rocks. The machine pivoted, maintaining its line of sight on Kesta even as she fell.

The claim band burned and text flashed across its surface: SUBJECT CONFIRMED. Kesta felt the words as a verdict rather than an identification. Kesta tore at the clasp. It would not open. The drone extended a needle-thin probe.

Dreven’s tail swept Kesta behind a stone outcrop. He planted himself between her and the machine. Blue light passed over his body.

PAIR RESPONSE DETECTED.

The words appeared not on the band but in the air, projected large enough for everyone to see. Dreven hurled his blade. The weapon struck the probe and broke it. Jessa fired from the left. Keth from the right. The drone’s shield flickered.

“Kesta!” Sera shouted. “Its underside!”

Kesta saw the narrow intake vent exposed each time the machine stabilized. She grabbed the alkaline concentrate from her condenser kit, twisted off the pressure cap, and rolled from cover. Dreven caught her coat.

“No.”

“I can blind it.”

“I said—”

“Choose with me.”

The drone rotated toward the sound of her voice. Dreven’s grip tightened for one fraction of a second. Then he released her.

“Keth, drive it low,” he ordered. “Jessa, break the left stabilizer. Kesta—three breaths.”

They moved together. Keth’s shots forced the drone toward the ground. Jessa shattered a control fin. The machine lurched, shield collapsing around the damaged side.

Kesta ran, counting breaths instead of seconds. On the first, the scan line found her chest. On the second, the drone opened a second probe. On the third, she jammed the concentrate canister into the exposed intake and struck the release. Foam exploded through the machine.

Dreven reached her before it detonated. He wrapped his body around hers and drove them both behind the rock. Heat punched across the ridge. Metal fragments rang against stone. For several seconds Kesta heard nothing but his heartbeat. Dreven lifted his head. Blood ran from a cut along his temple.

“Are you injured?”

“No.”

He checked her face with his eyes, not his hands. “Certain?”

“Yes.”

His relief appeared as anger. “That was reckless.”

“It worked.”

“That does not make it wise.”

“You let me choose.”

His mouth closed. Behind them, Keth kicked the smoking wreckage. “It attempted transmission.” Kesta pushed herself upright. “Did it succeed?” Tavi’s sister crouched beside the core, scanner in hand. “A partial burst. Less than two seconds.”