The Architect Codex

Tobias' hand scrabbled to his midsection. He felt a large hole on the right side of his stomach where the bullet had exited—it had gone straight through. He twitched in pain and heard the sound of his blood splashing as it pooled underneath him. He'd dropped the Flatline next to him, and Dimitri hastily stepped forward to kick it away.

"Oh, shit!"

Tobias watched as Dimitri raised the Wingman up to take aim at McFarlane, but the latter was already in motion. Ducking down to avoid the first shot, he sprinted forward and tackled the 6-4 Pilot to the ground. They rolled across the floor, each of them struggling to gain an advantage over the other.

He looked around blearily for his gun. He spotted it a few meters away, close to Gates' foot, and reached a hand out towards it. Gates noticed his movement, followed his gaze to the rifle, and understood what he was trying to do. Grunting as she struggled against the cuffs binding her to the pipe, she tried to grab it with her free hand—but it was too far away.

Changing positions for a different approach, she straightened out as far as she could with her leg. Once fully stretched, she was just barely able to touch it. Moving the tip of her boot next to its stock, she nudged it as hard as she could towards Tobias. It skidded to within arm's reach of him, and he extended one hand out to grab it—

McFarlane gave a sharp cry of pain as Dimitri kicked him away and sent him tumbling to the floor. He rolled right into the gun's path, pushing it away from Tobias once again. Dimitri closed the gap between himself and McFarlane, bringing the revolver up to his opponent's temple. McFarlane managed to grab Dee's hand that was holding the gun, and jerked it upwards right as it fired. He took the opportunity to throw a punch of his own that managed to connect with the freelancer's faceplate.

Dimitri staggered back just enough to allow McFarlane to roll backwards and onto his feet. Pressing his newfound dominance, he brought his foot back and swung it forward to collide with the traitor's jaw. Dimitri's helmet went flying off, and he stumbled backwards. McFarlane leapt into the air, readied his fist, and used his jump-kit to thrust downward—

With the reflexes of a snake, Dimitri side-stepped and caught McFarlane's outstretched arm in his grasp. Then, he brought it down over his rising knee and snapped it at the elbow.

"AAHH!"

McFarlane's guttural scream of pain didn't last long before Dimitri shoved him away and held the Wingman up again.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Blood sprayed outwards from McFarlane's back. Slowly, the Pilot looked down to stare at the newly created orifices in his chest, then collapsed on the ground with a pained gasp.

His chest heaving with exertion, Dimitri lowered the weapon and ran a hand through his buzzed hair, wiping away the sweat that had collected from his fight. "Damn, you gave me a good run for my money. Had me worried for a minute there." Leaning down, he collected his helmet off the ground and slipped it back onto his head.

"Blisk, I've taken care of the situation. I'll be heading back to base shortly."

After a moment, he looked over at Tobias' sprawled form on the floor, then to the data-knife lying next to him. "Sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't let you keep this." Lifting his foot up, he brought it down with no small amount of force. A metallic twang could be heard as the blade snapped in half, and he admired his handiwork.

Still losing blood, it was taking every ounce of strength Tobias had left to not pass out. "Wh ... w-why?"

He shrugged. "Same reason most people do anything, really—someone paid me a lot of money."