“They’re big and new and maybe the people who made them have a new way to repel bullets, too.”
“Here’s a belt of grenades for you,” said Rube, “and a belt for me. You take the Minimi if you want it so much. Just don’t load yourself down with too much weaponry.”
“Yes sir,” said Cole. “Look who’s talking, sir. Yours is ten pounds heavier than mine.”
“Where’s our friend?” asked Rube.
“From the sound, still shooting at the Chinese restaurant.”
“Or at something,” said Rube. “Us again in a minute.”
“What’s our objective, sir?” asked Cole.
Rube laughed. “Good point, Captain. No, we will not seek confrontation. Our objective is to get the hell out of New York City before the tunnels are sealed off.”
“My guess is that unless these guys are complete idiots, the tunnels were sealed off and emptied first thing.”
“They’d seal off the bridges, too,” said Rube. “And the tunnels are closer.”
“But there are buckets and buckets of water above them,” said Cole.
“And just as much water way, way, way below the bridges. And most of the bridges lead to Long Island.”
“On 24, Jack would find a helicopter he could commandeer.”
“On Smallville, Clark would take a mighty leap and jump over the Hudson River.” Rube clicked a clip into place on his pistol. “Ready to go?”
“Holland Tunnel, sir?” asked Cole.
“And we do stop and help local defense forces wherever it looks like we could make a difference,” said Rube. “My guess is that it’ll mostly be cops, and these things are going to tear them apart. Against this, New York isn’t prepared to defend itself.”
“Do you think it really is Americans attacking the city?”
“Yes,” said Rube. “Because I can’t think of any foreign country that would be dumb enough to try to attack the U.S. like this.”
“So Mingo’s weapons—we’re going to be shooting at Americans.”
“They’re shooting at uniforms,” said Rube. “That means they’re trying to destroy legal authority. And we’re sworn to defend it.”
“Plus, they shot at us first,” said Cole.
“So when you know you can’t win, you save your army,” said Rube. “Our proper course is to get as many fighters as possible out of this city to a place where they can fight again.”
“I think we can
do this and still get to church, don’t you?” said Cole.
They put their hands on opposite door handles. “Ready?” said Rube.
“Mingo is going to be so pissed we left so much of his arsenal behind,” said Cole.
“Mingo’s going to be happy he had what we needed. If this is what we needed.”
“Let’s find out,” said Cole.
They opened their doors and dashed for the buildings on the other side of the street. Even though no mech was in sight, they kept low as they moved along the sidewalk.
Cole was surprised to realize that he was more excited than scared. He knew what to do. He’d done it before. So much better than trying to figure out politics. Even though mistakes in a street battle did kill you faster. At least you knew at the end of the day whether you were alive or not.