Escape (Blackout Book 2), page 6
Yajak didn’t answer. He walked with his head down for a while.
“Listen, kid, like you said, we have eight charges. We can’t target the racers. They’d only bring in more of them. We could wait for the freighter to come in and blow that, but that would still leave the Smiasmiam available for the Hinn to steal at another time, when you and I aren’t around to stop them.”
“Fine!” Yajak fired back.
“Fine what? You’re okay with blowing it?”
“Yes,” the boy grumbled. “If we have to.”
“Do you see another way of stopping them from using it?”
Yajak paused to think. “No.”
They walked on in silence. Yajak led the way off the cliffs, and they entered the forests. The trees blocked out the rest of the light and darkness came early. Moonlight filtered through the canopy and gave just enough light to find their way.
Yajak rounded another mountain and started climbing again. He turned one corner after another until he came to a stream crossing the path. The moonlight entered the open space and lit up a waterfall falling into a clear pool.
Five bodies floated on the surface. Three stared up at the starry sky. “Hinn,” Yajak muttered. “The bastards! They’ll pay for this.”
“How could they get this far away from the base? It doesn’t make sense.”
Yajak didn’t answer. He stormed off up the path, making tracks for the base. He halted at a hilltop where he and Roy could look down right onto the landing strip. The Community of Hinn had evacuated the New Cooperative personnel and surrounded an enormous warehouse not far away. Hinn guards faced outward to defend the place against all comers.
Yajak and Roy hunkered behind the hill for another hour while all the light went out of the sky. The Hinn racers cast their floodlights over the landing strip. Four outward-facing lights shone around the warehouse. Other than that, the whole area slumbered in darkness.
When he judged it was dark enough, Roy poked his head above the hilltop and took stock of the situation. The woods extended all the way to the edge of the base. Roy didn’t see any Hinn going into the trees. They congregated around the base, and people went in and out of the buildings.
Roy motioned Yajak to his side. The kid had taken off his hood and gloves. Roy pointed to a patch of trees next to the landing strip, and Yajak nodded. The two friends took hold of their weapons and started the painstaking job of crawling down the hill.
Roy crouched in darkness and looked right out onto the landing strip. He could hear the guards talking now, but he still wasn’t close enough. He crept a hundred yards to his right and hid in a patch of bushes while he unstrung his charges.
Yajak tapped his elbow. Roy looked up to see the kid pointing at something on the opposite of the base. Roy shook his head. He was too intent on getting his cannon loaded. The warehouse was right in front of him. One shot, and the whole place would go up in smoke.
Yajak tugged Roy’s sleeve harder this time. Roy shook him off and worked even harder. He had to get this shot off. Then Tollin would let him and Captain Keogh repair the Blackout. Nothing else mattered.
Yajak stuck his mouth right near Roy’s ear and hissed low. “Hey, stop! You can’t! Don’t you see…?”
“Shut it, kid!” Roy snapped back. “This is no time to chicken out.”
“I’m telling you, Roy,” Yajak whispered. “You can’t—”
“Watch me.” Roy hefted the cannon to his shoulder and slotted the first charge into the tube.
Dead silence closed around his ears as he sighted on the warehouse. Easy pickings. He tightened his finger around the trigger, and everything went very still and quiet.
He tensed to fire when, out of nowhere, a deafening siren screeched through the night. A thousand lights flashed on, and people erupted from every building. They darted for the racers.
Blinding light burst over the landing strip, and Roy’s heart plummeted into his stomach when he saw an EM scanning module parked behind a different building. It pointed its dish in the same direction Yajak had been looking when he told Roy not to shoot.
Hinn officers waved toward the module and then pointed at Roy’s location. The warehouse guards left their positions and converged on Roy’s hiding place. He put the cannon down and fumbled to get the charge out in time to make a run for it.
The siren shrieked so loud it drove him out of his mind. He almost dropped the charge. Some of the racers launched and whistled over the base. Roy’s chest clenched so tightly he couldn’t breathe.
He almost abandoned his weapon and bolted when something screamed across the landing strip and blasted into one of the grounded racers. The craft plumed fire into the night, and all the guards whirled the other way.
Roy’s jaw dropped as Yajak stormed onto the landing strip, coming from the direction of the scanner. He crammed another charge into his weapon, swung it to his shoulder, and locked his sights on another racer.
The Hinn charged him in waves. Yajak released the charge, and another racer exploded as the enemy inundated the boy in dozens of bodies.
Roy froze, staring at the kid. Yajak thrashed against his captors’ grip as the Hinn started hauling him to the ground. “Shoot!” he shrieked. “Shoot now!”
Roy took a split second to understand. That crazy kid knew all along he couldn’t stop the invasion by shooting racers. He only wanted to distract the Hinn while Roy finished the job.
Roy yanked his cannon to his shoulder and stuffed the charge inside. He ignored Yajak’s panicked screeches and blocked out everything else while he aimed for the warehouse. One shot. He only needed one shot.
He squeezed the trigger, and the charge sailed out of the tube. It flew true and straight and pelted into the building with a withering boom. The warehouse detonated in a cloud of flame. The shockwave scorched Roy’s cheeks before he ducked. He’d done it. The Smiasmiam was safe.
He leaped to his feet and yanked out another charge. He barged onto the landing strip ready to blast anything that moved. He targeted one of the racers winging in to gun him down. The craft exploded, and the light of its burning fuel lit up the freighter descending to land.
Roy unwrapped his last two charges. He’d better make these count. He loaded one and tilted his weapon up to aim at the freighter’s underbelly. If he hit it, it would crash right on top of him.
He didn’t care. All he cared about was getting rid of the Hinn. The rest could take care of itself. He held his cannon steady and fired. At the same instant, another charge peeled off the landing strip and collided with the freighter at the same time as Roy’s.
The two missiles blew, and the freighter groaned. Roy didn’t wait an instant. He loaded his last charge and fired again for the same spot. The same thing happened. Another projectile launched at the same instant, and the two charges met against the freighter’s hull.
This time, a concussion split from the ship’s hull. The freighter started to list. Before Roy could move, Yajak tackled him from the side. He barreled Roy out of the way, and the two friends broke into a run. They dropped their guns and made for the woods, but they weren’t finished yet.
The Hinn guards still on the ground rushed after them. Several cut in front of them to block their escape. Roy dug in his pockets for his hand weapons, but these guards all carried cannons. They could shoot Roy and Yajak down in a second.
Roy darted left, and Yajak darted right. The guards corrected. Roy didn’t see any way out. He prepared himself for a fight to the death when the freighter smashed into the landing strip.
An unholy crash caught Roy across the back. It flung him headlong into the guards, so they didn’t have time to raise their weapons. He and Yajak collided with them, and the impact hurled everyone into the trees.
7
“What the hell are we doing here?” Lana sauntered through the house picking up random objects, grimacing at them, and then putting them back. “This is a colossal waste of time.”
“Maybe not,” Liri replied from her seat on the couch. “I’m sure Tollin has something interesting to say after his meeting with Roy.”
Lana guffawed out loud. “Interesting! The only interesting thing he could say after meeting Roy is that the muppet is dead and I don’t have to look at his ugly face ever again.”
“I like Roy. He has a certain blunt charm I find attractive.”
Lana spun around and gaped at her sister. “Attractive? You find that attractive? You really are losing your mind, Liri.”
Liri laughed. “The best part about Roy is saying things like that to get on your nerves.”
Lana’s features hardened. Liri knew that look only too well. Lana always looked like that when she was plotting revenge for one of Liri’s light-hearted pranks. Lana had no sense of humor at all.
Lana didn’t get a chance to make another cutting remark when the door opened. Tollin strolled in, and Liri caught a glimpse of that slouching worm Fora lurking outside. No doubt the scumbag would be pressing his ear to the door through Tollin’s whole meeting with the twins. He would hear everything this so-called Grand Votek said to them.
Tollin frowned when he saw Liri slouching on the couch normally reserved for His Grandness. Liri gave him her most winning smile and didn’t budge. If Tollin had figured out yet that the twins didn’t think of him as anything more than a pretentious street kid, he didn’t let on. “When are you going to learn to stand in the presence of the Grand Votek?”
“I’m standing, Tollin,” Lana sang out. “Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“You should be thanking us for bringing you the Zenith representatives,” Liri added. “If you play your cards right, adding a Zenith alliance to your claims to fame could really boost your legitimacy.”
“I don’t need my legitimacy boosted,” Tollin fired back.
“Then what are we doing here?” Lana asked. “You were talking about a strike against the Community of Hinn when we saw you last.”
Tollin gave up the show of caring that Liri still didn’t stand in his illustrious presence. He crossed the room and took a bottle of Oriel from under a cabinet against the wall. He poured himself a drink without offering any to the twins. He must be really hurting for resources if he held back on that.
“I am still planning a strike against the Community of Hinn. In fact, I already have the plan underway. In case you were wondering…” He turned all the way around and slouched against the cabinet while he sipped his drink. His eyes twinkled with mischief. “I sent your Zenith friends out there to make sure the strike was successful.”
Liri stared up at him in mounting horror. “You sent the Zenith to attack the Community of Hinn? Why?”
“To get them the hell out of the camp, of course. I couldn’t have them poking their noses in our business. That thug Rawlins was bad enough. I thought he was stupid, but it turns out he only pretends to be.”
“You mean, kind of like how Feiko and the others pretend to be Grand Votek?” Lana interrupted.
“He was dangerous,” Tollin went on, “and I never even got in the same room with that captain of his. They had to go, so I sent them to the southern base. They’ll join the strike, and hopefully they won’t come back.”
Liri glanced over at Lana to find her sister gaping at her with her mouth open. Liri’s brain went into a tailspin. Jackson and Roy—gone! Tollin had sent them to the southern base. He’d probably given orders to his people to get rid of Jackson and Roy, if the Hinn didn’t do it for him.
Lana recovered first. “I suppose you want us to join the strike, too. That’s what you said last time. You wanted us to coordinate the—”
“No,” Tollin interrupted. “I don’t want you on the strike.”
“What, then?” Liri asked.
“I want you two to take a team of mechanics and repair the Blackout.”
The twins’ mouths fell open all over again. Liri and Lana looked at each other, but they were both too surprised to speak.
Tollin chortled in triumph. “Isn’t it a perfect plan? It’s the most convenient pretext, and it just fell into my lap. Those four idiots are miles away. In the meantime, we’ll have a fully-powered Rebel Class Legion vessel at our fingertips. We’ll bombard the Community of Hinn to the next galaxy and then, if the Zenith are still alive, we’ll get rid of them, too. We won’t need them anymore.”
Lana gulped. “You want us to repair the Blackout?”
“Don’t tell me you can’t do it. I’m assigning our best mechanics and engineers to the job—and you don’t have to worry about the Zenith finding out. The Blackout will be airborne long before the strike ends.” He looked back and forth between the sisters. “What do you think? Pretty brilliant, if I do say so.”
Liri and Lana exchanged glances again. What could you say to a lunatic like this? Liri had always considered Tollin a useful idiot, but she’d never imagined his stupidity could reach these heights.
Lana cleared her throat. “All right, Tollin. We understand, and we think it’s a great idea. When can we get started?”
“Right away.” He set down his cup and rubbed his hands in glee. “I have my team standing by. All you need to do is show them where the Blackout is, and then fly it back here when it’s ready. You two are the only pilots in the whole Cooperative who are qualified to fly it.”
Liri didn’t mention Woolzi. Tollin must have sent him and Quort off to the southern base along with Jackson and Roy. Son of a bitch! Her smoldering hatred for Tollin threatened to overthrow her composure. The traitor!
“Who’s on the team?” Lana asked. “Yayli, I suppose—and Suka. Who else?”
“Yes, that’s right. Yayli’s in charge and then there’s Suka, Varvis, Itres, and Yajak.”
“Yajak!” Liri blurted out. “He’s just a kid.”
“He’s sixteen, and he’s a crackerjack engineer. He’ll do a good job.”
Liri shrugged and heaved herself to her feet. “Well, we better get going. The sooner we get the ship back here, the sooner you can start using it to clear the oppressor from the planet, right?”
Tollin burst into a brilliant grin. He looked like he’d just gotten away with something he shouldn’t have. He blushed and kept batting his eyelashes. “That’s right. If you need supplies, parts, fuel, or personnel, you can send one of the team back here.”
“The Cooperative has plenty of Smiasmiam at the southern base, too,” Lana added. “We’ll take just enough to fly the ship there, and then refill both the ship and the Skeeter.”
Tollin’s eyes flew open. “The Skeeter? The Blackout has a Skeeter?”
“Didn’t you know?” Lana asked. “It’s out of fuel too, though. We used it landing here.”
“Never mind. We can fuel it up easily enough. Let me know when you finish the ship. I can’t wait to use it!”
Liri and Lana left the house. Fora smirked at them from his usual place, leaning against the doorpost. The twins sauntered through the camp. Liri found herself scanning the familiar faces for the engineers.
They walked several hundred yards without saying anything. When they finally stopped, they were outside the house they just left. “This is beyond perfect!” Lana breathed. “This is more perfect than we ever could have hoped.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Liri hissed. “This is a disaster!”
“We got the Blackout!” Lana murmured back.
“What good does that do us?”
“Don’t you get it?” Lana whispered. “We’re the only pilots in the whole Cooperative who are qualified to fly it. We’ll get it repaired. We’ll fly it to the southern base and refuel it and the Skeeter. Then we’ll cut bait and blow town before anyone knows what happened.”
Liri rolled her eyes to Heaven. “Oh, for the love of…!”
“We’ll have the Blackout all to ourselves. We can go anywhere. We can take jobs we never dared to take before. We could even go out on our own and raid the Krakzid and the Legion and…and anyone. The galaxy will be ours!”
Liri blinked down at her sister’s face. She really had to think hard to believe what she was hearing.
Lana frowned. “What’s wrong? This is the best outcome we could have asked for.”
Liri whirled away. She stormed through the camp to a different house and kicked the door open. She stepped into a loaded armory lined with shelves and racks of weapons. She strode through the aisles, stuffing her pockets with every weapon she could lay her hands on.
Lana hustled after her. “What are you doing? You heard Tollin. We have a ship to repair.”
“Forget the ship,” Liri snapped over her shoulder. “I’m not going back to the Blackout.”
“Where are you going?” Lana tried to grab her and stop her from taking any more weapons. “Liri, you’re really starting to worry me.”
“I’m not repairing the damn Blackout, Lana. Jesus, how can you even think about that?”
Lana stopped in her tracks. “You aren’t? What are you going to do, then?”
“I’m going to get Jackson and Roy, of course. We can’t let them join the strike.”
“Why the hell not? If they come back from the strike, they’ll take the Blackout for themselves. Don’t you realize that? I mean, Christ, even Tollin knows that.”
Liri rounded on her. It took all her resolve not to shake her sister by the shoulders. “Don’t you realize what this means? Whoever makes an alliance with the Zenith will have the best chance of ridding Keter of the oppressors. If Tollin gets hold of the Blackout, he’ll use it to eliminate every other potential Votek on the planet, including Arlyane. You know Arlyane’s operation as well as I do. He’d never be able to defend himself against the Blackout in the wrong hands. He has to scrape and hide from the Legion as it is. Tollin has racers and personnel almost equal to the Legion. We have to stop him or anyone else getting their hands on the Blackout.”
“By that logic, we should let Tollin kill Jackson and Roy. Then the Zenith will come looking for the people who killed them. They’ll turn against the New Cooperative and ally with Arlyane.”
