The Water Knife Read Free Page B

started dropping and jigging, keeping their movement random, waiting to see if the ground tried to light them up.
    Off on the far horizon, he could see the orange glow of Carver City. Houses and businesses bright and shining, a halo of urbanity blazing against the night sky. All those electric lights. All that A/C.
    All that life.
    Gupta fired a couple rounds. Something lit up below, a fountain of flames. Their gunships swept over the leading edge of the pumping and water-treatment facilities. Pools and pipes running all over the place.
    Black Apaches settled on rooftops and parking lots, dropped to pavement, and belched forth troops. More gunships thudded down like giant dragonflies alighting. Rotor wash kicked up quartz sands, scouring Angel’s face.
    “Showtime!” Reyes motioned at Angel. Angel checked his flak jacket a final time and snapped the chin strap of his helmet.
    Gupta watched, smiling. “You want a gun, old man?”
    “Why?” Angel asked as he jumped out. “That’s why I got you coming in with me.”
    Guardies formed around him. Together they dashed for the plant’s main doors.
    Floodlights were coming up, workers rushing out, knowing what was coming. Camel Corps had their rifles up and ready, keeping sights on the targets ahead. Amplified orders blasted from Gupta’s comm.
    “Everyone on the ground. Down! Get DOWN!”
    Civilians hit the deck.
    Angel jogged up to a huddled and terrified woman, waved his papers. “You got a Simon Yu in there somewhere?” he shouted over the shriek of the choppers.
    She was too scared to speak. Sort of pudgy white lady with brown hair. Angel grinned. “Hey, lady, I’m just serving papers.”
    “Inside,” she finally gasped.
    “Thanks.” Angel slapped her on the back. “Why don’t you run all your coworkers out of here? In case things get hot.”
    He and the soldiers rammed through the treatment plant’s doors, a wedge of weaponry with Angel striding at its heart. Civvies slapped themselves up against the walls as Camel Corps stampeded past.
    “Vegas in the house!” Angel crowed. “Grab your ankles, boys and girls!”
    Gupta’s amplified orders drowned him out.
“Clear out! All of you! You got thirty minutes to evacuate this facility. After that you’re obstructing!”
    Angel and his team hit the main control rooms: flat-screen computers monitoring effluence, water quality, chemical inputs, pump efficiency—along with a whole pack of water-quality engineers, looking like surprised gophers as they popped up from their workstations.
    “Where’s me some supervisor?” Angel demanded. “I want me some Simon Yu.”
    A man straightened. “I’m Yu.” Slim and tanned, balding. Comb-over. Scars of old acne on his cheeks.
    Angel tossed papers at him as Camel Corps spread out and secured the control room. “You’re shut down.”
    Yu caught the papers clumsily. “The hell we are! This is on appeal.”
    “Appeal all you want, tomorrow,” Angel said. “Tonight you got an order to shut down. Check the signatures.”
    “We’re supplying a hundred thousand people! You can’t just turn off their water.”
    “Judges say we’ve got senior rights,” Angel said. “You should be glad we’re letting you keep what you already got in your pipes. If your people are careful, they can live on buckets for a couple days, till they clear out.”
    Yu was riffling through the papers. “But this ruling is a farce! We’re getting a stay, and this is going to be overturned. This ruling—it barely exists! Tomorrow it’s gone!”
    “Knew you’d say something like that. Problem is, it’s not tomorrow right now. It’s today. And today the judges say you got to stop stealing the state of Nevada’s water.”
    “You’re going to be liable, though!” Yu sputtered. He made a heroic effort to calm himself. “We both know how serious this is. Whatever happens to Carver City is on you. We have security cams. All of this is going to be public record. You can’t want this