A/N Last week we finished the book ( we like to be a few chapters ahead to let us review/fix/read the text. ) it was quite a bleak moment for us. Ending a book always is. We like Zoe and hope to have another adventure with her again. Thanks again for all the positive vibes for the last chapter, if last weeks chapter was full of shocks this should amaze you. Hugs RK&Reb.
This chapter is dedicated to Oonai101's mum.
The Styles Family Lodge: Twilight zone.
While the Styles family and friends began to argue over Harry's dramatic attempts at suiticde. Zoe went to her room. Jeeves it was there and she expertly switched boot disks and switched him into combat mode. He had pulled out all the camouflaged weapons he was carrying. Zoe loaded up.
"Jeeves program one of the house robots left to flee on my command I will need a distraction." She said. Zoe felt in her element now, all the uncertainty of the last weeks had gone. This was kill or be killed and this time she knew what to do.
"Yes Miss," said Jeeves handing another clip of ammunition to her.
Jeeves turned to her"Warning. You are carrying nothing with the range of the rail gun sniper that Raven is using."
Zoe finished loading up.
"I have enough ammunition for one attack. I guess I will have to make this count." She said while she pulled the laces on her snow boots tight.
Jeeves left and returns a few minutes later with a neatly folded bed sheet.
"The white sheet you wanted to use for camouflage." Jeeve's said presenting it.
"OK. I also want a warm skiing jacket, I think there were some thermal blankets - the chemical ones which heat you while you ski. Oh, Some flatbread to eat and a tube of pasta sauce, a broom handle if one is available, and a soccer ball." Zoe ordered.
Soon she was walking down the corridor from the bedrooms two living rooms. Blocking it was Jericho.
"I'm not letting you do this on your own, I'm coming up with you," he said firmly.
Before he could move, Zoe had lifted her had on him, easily pushed him back with her leg and he was on the floor, the look of shock covering his face with a knife edge to his neck.
"Wow you are fast" Jericho said.
Zoe paused knife to his throat, perhaps her knife was kinder? Zoe thought she still had a chance.
"Sorry. I work alone." Zoe said pulling the knife away. "It's going to be a free fire zone out there. If I see you out there I will kill you. If I don't kill you then Raven's lot will. I have a fifty fifty chance of killing Raven. So I would think about how you could survive an attack. Look after Cathy. "
***********
A few minutes later, the back door lodge opened and a figure wrapped in a white cloth ran out carrying a rifle made from a walking stick. It looked like a cheap Halloween ghost costume. As the ghost rushed one way, a robot rushed the other way, to take a message to the police. Before the white sheet ghost could get to cover, a shot rang out and the red dot appeared on the head of the ghost. The figure dropped to the ground while more shots went after the house robot fleeing like a message in a bottle. The robot exploded like a fire work display when it's battery got hit.
Zoe watched. She had bailed out of a window opposite. Carrying only a knife and a small handgun she hid in the snow. She looked at Jeeves over in the far side of the lodge . He had taken the rifle. It looked good but it only really had one shot and was nothing compared the 2 m long Railgun that Raven was probably looking through. She wasn't even sure where Raven was. So the handgun would be the best tool. Using the snow as cover she crawled along trying to create as much space between her and the lodge as possible. Her guess was that Raven would be using a thermal optical camera for targeting. He would see heat, because everything else here would be white. Everything here would be freezing cold, the heating pad Jeeves wore would make him stand out in the thermal camera like a streaker at a football match.
There was another shot at the ghost. Raven was getting bored. He knew better than to give away his cover by moving. Jeeves squirted some more pasta sauce, in the new hole. Zoe searched the horizon. She couldn't see him but there was a point which looked like the one she could choose. She crawled along the snow trying to move like something natural, something driven by the random currents of the wind. The route to Raven's kill point wasn't easy. He could have spotter drones, she wasn't sure if he had accomplices.
A rocket was fired - it shot from another position, leaving a huge trail of smoke. It went over to the lodge and exploded near the door. Someone wasn't taking chances or Zoe thought. It also meant he had company. Zoe got to a point where there was a large pillar of ice. It created good cover and she could stand up to get a better view. She stood up and hid behind the pillar. Apart from occasional potshots Raven still wasn't sure if the person he had shot was Zoe or not. Sensibly he wasn't taking chances. He would keep the pressure up for hours, then once the psychological warfare was done he will come and kill everyone very slowly.
Zoe blew on her hands trying to warm them up. It felt like she had small blocks of ice on the ends of arms. Normally a skier would just turn up the heating on their suit. Here she needed to look as cold as possible to blend in with the white background. Zoe looked carefully, in the hours since they had arrived the sun had moved giving a richer palette of colours with which to paint the sky. The ground by comparison was dull white. For an hour she moved from one point of cover to another working her way out and around to the back of Rave's position. He was on some snow outcrop.
She continued slowly until she was out of site of the lodge. The landscape was a long hilly ravine which provided good cover. There was a place up ahead which would be where a smart assassin would lay in wait for her. Zoe got down and began crawling along out of site.
Half way down snow shot up and a large cyborg shot out of the ground. Someone had been lying in wait for. Zoe instinctively let out three shots. They bounced off. The cyborg was mostly metal and just laughed off Zoe's shots. Zoe pulled her hunting knife out ready to defend herself. The cyborg didn't seem interested in playing with her. He pointed his weapon at her then did the mechanical equivalent of smiling in satisfaction.
Then a huge hole was blasted through the chest of the cyborg. He dropped to the ground like a tree being felled. The mechanical body crashed into the ground smirk still on the machine's face.
"Type 38" said a voice from behind the machine. "no armour on the back . Dumb shit move."
Even in the cold crisp air of the snow-filled landscape, the voice was familiar. Standing behind the machine in Snow camouflage was a man.
"Ryder?" Said Zoe in disbelief.
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