My Ninja Girl 4 by Gideon Caldwell (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

well, but they simply blended in, and weren’t discovered as they reached the transport sling that dropped down to Thunderhama, where they would transfer to another that would rise into the sky again to bring them to the floating district of Uyanga.

They weren’t quite clear yet, but Micah felt like they were closer than ever.

Everything seemed to be going to plan, and it wasn’t long before they reached Thunderhama, Micah ignoring a hint of nostalgia, where they transferred to a different transport sling, one heading back up into the sky. They were going to make it, and they’d be able to regroup with the ninjas once they arrived in the floating district.

But then Micah spotted something that troubled him to no end. A swarm of drones were heading in their direction, more than he’d ever seen before. To make matters worse, they all had energy weapons aimed at their transport sling.

It wasn’t unusual for there to be drones in Neo-Hokkaido. Oftentimes, they provided lighting and advertising. They were also useful during pandemics, the Society of Monks using them to publicize information. But Micah had never seen them actually attack people before, and he didn’t know it was even a possibility. But it made sense now, especially as energy weapons began firing on the transport sling that they were currently riding in.

There was no time to question how the monks would later cover this up, or what would happen to the innocent bystanders if Micah and Liza didn’t do something. Now was the time for action. The craft shook as one of the energy beams shattered the window, another sparking off its side.

“You have to do something,” Micah told Liza as he got in front of the people that were also on the transport sling, women and children all huddled together now, men as well as the elderly. It wasn’t quite full, but there were a good twenty people inside, and they were high enough that a fall from their current altitude of two hundred feet would spell instant death.

Liza stepped toward the shattered window, just as the three drones grew nearer to the rising transport sling. She lowered her head slightly and latched onto one of them as if it were a brick being hurtled by Youseg.

The middle drone collided with the one right beside it, which threw its attack off balance, and sent its lime green blast passing just beside the transport sling. Lurching forward, the transport sling continued its rise into the sky, the conductor also huddled with the group behind Micah. There was no telling what the masked citizens thought. Perhaps they would later say that the drones had malfunctioned, that they’d actually been protected by the Society of Monks.

Liza flew backward when one of the blasts struck her directly in the chest, Micah returning fire but missing. The front of her robes were blackened now, but the armor beneath them had held strong, protecting her from much of the attack.

The drones, now humming in unison, got in position to fire again.

Liza thrust a single hand to the air, and clenched it into a fist. One of the drones sparked and exploded, pieces of it hitting its two counterparts and throwing them off their trajectory, one of them actually firing upon its counterpart. The explosion that followed would have caused a rush of smoke to fill the cabin of the transport sling, but by this point it had already moved further up into the air.

Micah reached her and quickly helped Liza stand, momentarily ignoring the murmuring and the crying of children behind him.

“Are you all right?” Bobi asked in Micah’s bucket.

“They’re sending freaking drones?” came Choro’s voice.

“We’ll make it,” Micah said as he checked Liza for any damage.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“I was going to heal you…”

“You’re sweet, and I can heal myself,” she reminded him.

“It’s sort of my specialty.”

“You’re too sweet.”

“I try.”

“Yes, you really do. Let me see what I can do here.” Liza turned to the innocent bystanders and cleared her throat. “The attack you just witnessed was from the Society of Monks. It was not a malfunction.”

“Why would they attack their own kind?” a burly man asked as a troubled look took shape on his face.

“That’s something that will probably come to light over the next few days,” she said as the transport sling neared its docking station in the floating district of Uganda. “Please be safe going forward, and I would suggest sheltering in place until everything passes over, if you can. Once you reach the station, which,” Liza looked out the broken window, “should be any moment now, we will head out first. All of you should remain in the transport sling until the Society of Monks comes to clear the area.”

“How do we know they won’t try to kill us?” the same man asked. “For what we have witnessed?”

Liza and Micah exchange glances.

“You may be right,” she finally said. “The strategy then should be to overwhelm the exit terminal once we are docked. Everyone move onto the platform at once and cause as much of a disruption as you can. While I wouldn’t put it past them to destroy a single transport sling…” This statement caused a masked woman holding an infant girl to gasp. “We do have strength in numbers. And we need to remember that. Here we go.”

The transport sling docked, and after a few seconds of uncertainty, the doors opened.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Micah said, both Liza and him gesturing the crowd out the open doorway. The people all moved out at once akin to cattle, Micah and Liza with them, and as they reached the platform, he noticed a rapid-fire weapon with a shield in front of it, two monks standing behind it.

His reaction was instinctual. Micah lit into the stationary weapon with his prosthetic