The elevator dinged and stopped. The doorway opened and Jill bolted through it. She kicked a mech into a wall and the building shook. Not from her kick, but the tone of it matched the rumble from the antigravity train. The train, of course. Its path went out near the teleportation pad and likely went to a location where more teleportation pads could be found. Either way it was a way out of the building.

  Shilo moved up along the wall, taking cover and shooting his way out. The bots seemed to care about cutting off his escape over their own survival. Numbers of mech poured out from hallways cutting them off. Footsteps beating to a rhythm of relentless death approaching. Shilo nanites were dripping from him as their charges depleted into energy rounds. The key was in the center of the hallway in a display case like it was part of an art exhibit. Shilo smashed the display case and slipped the key into his pocket. “Jill! They make for easy picking, but we will never take enough of them.”

  Jill used the butt of her rifle to hit a bot across the face. Its eye popped loose, dangling from wires. After tossing the bot to the ground, she crushed the bot’s head with the heel of her boot. “Did you have a plan to escape?”

  “Well, yes, but that went out the window when I freed you.”

  “I fail to see how my circumstances have improved.”

  “I’m working on it. I think the train is our best bet.” Shilo pointed to a good old-fashioned staircase. Fire code? It could be a terrible mistake, but the train was one level up and he could see another one approaching. The bots outside and even a few of the mechs fighting them stopped to sway as the train pulled in. Shilo slammed the door shut after Jill took the first steps. He melted the door shut and followed her up the steps.

  The entire floor was taken over by train tracks, which merged into two bridges. Plenty of precious metals, the kinds Shilo thought would be used to make mech minds—true conscious minds, something to do with quantum mechanics and superconducting materials. The rare and sought after metals that also played crucial roles in FTL travel were overflowing from train cars.

  Simple mechs worked with the material, not a shock to Shilo. Expensive goods like this would be attractive for any person. It wasn’t without its security measures; the workforce might not be the brightest but the security mechs packed a punch. Holes the size of watermelons ripped across wall as a machine gun fired rounds in his direction. Jill tackled him and they had a moment on the floor untangling themselves. “Thanks.”

  “Your rescue has been very ill thought out.”

  “Do you have any suggestions?”

  “Don’t die.”

  “Right. Best I can think is the mechs won’t shoot the train cars.”

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  “Why is that?”

  “Trust me. The mechs want those metals more than they care for us,” Shilo shouted out. “Stop firing and terms can be negotiated!” He stood up when the shooting paused and, for good measure, he took a block of ore from the nearest train car and shot it. Chaos enveloped the room as mechs beeped and chirped in concerned tones. The shot had caused the metal piece to explode, leaving a good-sized portion of the floor missing. Shilo could easily level the whole floor. He pulled out a few detonators and tossed them on the train car.

  “I am here investigating the theft of intellectual property on the sowbu’s behave. I am sure that it was unknown to you that a key on display in your building was essential in uncovering the stolen design. This is a matter between the sowbu and their competitors. I would have used the usual slow methods of filing complaints, but there are moon settlements that require this technology today. All this to say, I am sure it doesn’t matter to you, but I am determined to fulfill my duties or blow up this entire shipment. There’s no need for this to escalate. I don’t desire your precious ore, but I will hold it hostage until such time as I have relocated to a safer location. If you will just exercise some restraint, my temporary presence on your planet will be a minor inconvenience.”

  To Jill he said, “Get on the ore cart and hold on tight.”

  She hopped up onto the train car and Shilo joined her. He did his best to keep a piece of ore visible or a detonator. A simple flip of a switch sent the train in reverse and the bot’s processing must have been stuck in a loop because it was working. The shooting had stopped, and the train flew across the landscape.

  The train buzzed with energy, and it was hard work to make it to the front of the maglev train without being blown off from hurricane level winds. Above the sound of the wind, was the rhythm of the train’s tracks humming. Shilo and Jill settled into the small cab of the engine car.

  Drones followed behind and took a shot at the last car of the train. It exploded.

  Shilo twisted on the knobs on the control panel. He had been looking for anything to make the train out run the drones, but he swept past a point on the controls where the ore vibrated, and a new pitch was emitted by the train. He found out how to crank this trains amp up to an eleven and waves of disrupting sounds echoed throughout the mechs city.

  The bots below which had been doing their usual chanting along with the train collapsed in pain. The drones flying around hated the screeching beats and Shilo spent the next five minutes working on the worse mix tape of heavy metal he could. Shilo’s taste in music wasn’t this, and he didn’t consider himself to be that talent. Jill, with her larger ears, must have a better sense of hearing because she hit the key notes and dragged them out longer. The drones fell away, and the train rolled up to a teleportation pad.

  Shilo flashed his coordinates and hoped that his spaceship was in orbit. “Take some deep breaths and don’t hold your breath. We may not teleport directly into the ship’s interior.” Truthfully, there was no chance of that. Jill seemed to understand, and Shilo would be well enough. It was a brief twelve seconds in space and Shilo moved fast to open his door and rush Jill inside. The cabin was filled first with nitrogen and Shilo was already at work, slipping a mask over Jill’s face. Shilo’s clothing and his mask protected him like his jaunt before.

  The Jolangus seemed to weather the vacuum of space well as Jill was busy cursing him out. Something about his recklessness and ill planning. Shilo ignored the obscenities and started his ship up, aiming for the FTL gate. He had overstayed his welcome.