Free The Cold Light of Day by Michael Carroll Page B

crates, Judge Ruiz’s voice called out, “Aim high!”
    She’s on the ground , Joe told himself.
    He was about to launch a volley of shots through the crates when another voice called out, “No! Hostages here!”
    At the doorway, Rico was standing over Hieronymus Planter’s twitching body. Nearby, Gibson had taken down the other bullet-proof mutant by kicking him in the groin—the mutant was on his side now, groaning and clutching at himself.
    Rico was looking back out through the doorway. “More coming... Lots more. Me and Gibson will hold them off. Go find the boss, Joe!”
    Joe nodded and kept to the side as he approached the crates. There was no telling who or what else might be lurking. He guessed that Ruiz couldn’t see where she was—if she could, she’d have warned him about the other hostages.
    As he passed the nearest of the crates it erupted in a shower of wooden splinters and metal fragments. Joe threw himself to the side, automatically putting his arms up to shield his face. He hit the ground, rolled and landed in a half-crouch, to see Mayor Genesis Faulder aiming a shotgun at Judge Ruiz’s head.
    Ruiz was lying on her side, wrists and ankles tied, stripped of most of her uniform, a cloth sack over her head. Nearby, sitting up against the wall, was a chained man wearing the familiar coveralls of a Mega-City One scavenger. Beyond him, four other scavengers—two women, two men—were huddled together, being watched by three more mutants, all carrying automatic rifles.
    “I’ll puree her head and my men’ll kill the others if you take one more step , boy!” Faulder said. “Grud- damn , but you city-folk are a lot harder to kill than you look.”
    From the far side of the warehouse came the sound of heavy gunfire.
    “Tell your friends to stand down,” Faulder said. “Right now !”
    Joe lowered his weapon, but held onto it. “You haven’t shot Judge Ruiz yet. That tells me you need her alive for something...”
    Faulder viciously jabbed the muzzle of his shotgun into the side of Ruiz’s head. “Just drop your drokkin’ weapon!” He kept glancing past Joe toward the front of the warehouse. “And order your men to stand down!”
    “You don’t know where the rest of the squad are camped,” Joe said. “You can’t take the chance that there’s not a hundred of us.”
    “Gun on the floor, boy! Right now or—”
    Joe flipped his wrist and fired three shots. The first ripped through Mayor Faulder’s gun-hand, the others took out his lower knees.
    Faulder collapsed, screaming, on top of Judge Ruiz, and the remaining three mutants whirled around, swinging their guns in Joe’s direction.
    He put a bullet through the nearest one’s eye, another through the second one’s throat. The third, partly shielded behind the second, threw his gun aside. “I surrender!”
    Joe knew it was a feint—even before his rifle hit the ground, the mutant was reaching for the sidearm on his hip. Two shots through his chest, less than a centimetre apart, assured that the mutant’s pistol didn’t clear its holster.
    The man in the scavenger’s overalls sagged, visibly relieved. “Thank Grud ! They ambushed us and—”
    “Shut up and stay put,” Joe said. He crossed over to Ruiz, grabbed Faulder by the arm and hauled him off the Judge. He slapped a set of cuffs on Faulder’s wrists, then crouched next to Judge Ruiz and pulled the sack from her head.
    She blinked up at him through swollen eyes. “Good save, cadet.”
    “How many others?” Joe pulled out his boot knife and began to saw through the ropes around her wrists.
    Ruiz shook her head. “I’m not sure. Three, at least. One of them had a grip like steel —It was like being strangled by a robot. Small guy, mutant. Smells like warm garbage.”
    “Think I got him,” Joe said. With Ruiz’s wrists free, he flipped over the knife and handed it to her, hilt-first. “You’re injured. Stay down—I’ll see if the others require back-up.”
    He