Escape (Blackout Book 2), page 8
Yajak blinked at him with his mouth open. If this was an act, the kid was a born actor. “I…I didn’t know I was on the repair crew. No one told me. This…..The Zenith came to me and said he had orders to go to the southern base. He said you ordered that any of your people he needed to help him should do so. I took him at his word and brought him…”
Yajak trailed off under Tollin’s furious scowl. Yajak glanced around at the rest of the crew.
“This is all a big misunderstanding,” Liri went on. “We thought you would want the Zenith kept alive. We thought you would want them to explain to their people how generously you helped them so you could make allies of the Zenith against the other…the pretend Voteks.”
The slightest glance around the discharge ramp proved that Liri was right. The faces of Tollin’s entourage lit up. Their eyes widened, and they gazed at Tollin with new admiration. They really thought this was one of his strokes of genius.
Tollin’s cheek spasmed and his eyes flashed. He couldn’t possibly admit in front of Jackson and Roy, or his entourage for that matter, that he wanted these Zenith officers to die in the strike against the Community of Hinn. The twins had forced his hand. Now he would have no choice but to keep Jackson and Roy alive.
Tollin turned away. He grumbled over his shoulder. “Well…now that you’re here, you can join the army the way I said.”
“Do you still want us to repair the Blackout?” Liri called after him.
“You two take Yajak and go get the ship running. There isn’t time to bring Yayli, Suka, Varvis, and Itres from the camp, and we need the ship as soon as possible. Take one of the racers and whatever parts and fuel you need.”
“What about us?” Jackson chimed in.
Tollin turned around. Liri knew him well enough to recognize when Tollin was fighting to hide his rage. “I told you. We have places for you in the army.”
“Won’t that be too dangerous?” Yajak asked. “If you send the Zenith to the strike, something could go wrong. They could get hurt or killed.”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.” Tollin leveled the boy with a cold stare. “Don’t you have something better to do than stand around here questioning my directives, boy?”
Yajak shrank under the rebuke. He shuffled over to Liri and waited for the twins to take charge.
Tollin sliced his finger at the rest of the group. “The rest of you get back outside. The army is moving in. The division chiefs will be handing out arms and equipment.”
He walked away and left the friends surrounded by soldiers. Liri watched in silence as the New Cooperative troops herded Jackson, Roy, Quort, and Woolzi out of the Radical. Tollin’s entourage followed him off the discharge ramp and into the ship. That left Liri, Lana, and Yajak alone in the silent craft.
After they left, Liri crossed the discharge ramp to the door leading to the weapons storage stock. She opened the first cabinet and took out a collection of hand weapons. She checked their fuel cells and pocketed them.
Lana opened the cannon stock and selected something smaller than the piece she’d brought from the camp. Yajak lingered in the background and rubbed his fingers together. “What are we gonna do? We can’t let them join the strike. Tollin will find a way to kill them. You know he will!”
“Take it easy, kid,” Lana muttered over her shoulder. “Tollin won’t let anything happen to them.”
“How can you be so sure?” Yajak asked. “You embarrassed him in front of his people, but he could still find a way to put Captain Keogh and Roy in danger. You know what Tollin’s like. He won’t change his mind just because you threw a little obstacle in his path.”
“Captain Keogh!” Lana fired back. “Since when do you consider him your captain? You’re New Cooperative, Yajak. Your only loyalty should be to the Grand Votek.”
Yajak fidgeted and looked away. “That’s what Roy calls him. Captain Keogh”
“His name is Jackson,” Liri told him, “and he isn’t anybody’s captain. I don’t think he’s even Roy’s captain anymore.”
“It doesn’t matter, because Tollin will make sure he doesn’t survive the strike. If any of his people object, Tollin will say it was an unavoidable tragedy. He always comes up with some excuse.”
“Jackson and Roy will survive the strike,” Liri told him. “We’ll make certain of it.”
“How?” Yajak asked. “We can’t go against Tollin’s orders, or he’ll know for certain you two are traitors. I mean…not that everybody doesn’t already know.”
Lana burst out laughing. “Thanks for the compliment, kid. I’m glad to know we can still fool Tollin, if not anyone else.”
“How can you joke about this?” Yajak cried. “He can still order your executions, you know.”
“He won’t order our executions, because he still needs us to repair the Blackout and fly it. He won’t kill us before we do that.”
“He won’t get rid of Jackson and Roy, either,” Liri added. “We have something that will make sure he doesn’t.”
“What is it?” Yajak asked. “What could you possibly have that can counter Tollin’s orders? He has the whole New Cooperative hanging on his every word.”
“We have the Blackout. Now quit jawing and arm up. We have to move fast.”
Liri stepped aside. Yajak blinked at her for a second, and then attacked the weapons storage stock. He snatched a bunch of hand weapons, but he left the larger guns alone. The twins waited until he got a fresh hood from the uniform stock.
Once he was ready, the trio exited through the discharge ramp. They put their hoods on and stepped outside. They emerged into a scene of mass military mobilization unlike anything the New Cooperative had ever undertaken before.
Radicals crowded the landing strip, with racers buzzing all over the place. Soldiers, infantry, and assault miners scurried between vessels. They loaded the ships with fuel and supplies, finished last-minute adjustments, and collected goods from the base’s many buildings.
Liri watched Jackson, Roy, Quort, and Woolzi disappearing through the throng. Their New Cooperative escort hustled them away until Liri couldn’t see them anymore. Roy looked back once, but his expression registered no recognition. He wouldn’t be able to distinguish the twins and Yajak from the rest of the hooded crowd.
The next minute, they were gone. “Let’s go,” Lana murmured. “Let’s get ourselves a racer and go get the Blackout.”
The trio set off through the mob toward the nearest parts warehouse. “Can you remember what repairs the Blackout needs?” Yajak asked.
“Mostly hull damage,” Liri told him. “The landing gear was destroyed, and the tail was torn up pretty bad.”
The friends took off their hoods when they entered the warehouse. A few New Cooperative people worked inside taking supplies, but they paid no attention to the friends.
Yajak approached one of the shelves. “We can probably skip the landing gear—or at least delay it until we get the ship airborne. I’m bringing several reconstitution packs.”
“We’ll need fuel, too,” Lana remarked. “Enough to get the Blackout to the nearest fueling station.”
“Was the Skeeter damaged?” Yajak asked.
“No, only drained of fuel.”
Yajak took down a small metal square the size of a book. He set it on the floor and touched something on the thin edge. The thing sprang to life and unfolded on the floor. A controller lay in the center, where the sides concealed it from view.
The book opened into a mat five feet square. Yajak took the controller and put his reconstitution packs in its place. Liri and Lana went from rack to rack, taking down this and that. They added fuel cells to the collection, along with additional reconstitution packs and tools.
Lana stood back. “That should do it. If that doesn’t get the job done, we can just stop back here or at one of the interval bases.”
Yajak pointed his controller at the mat. He pushed a button, and the edges curved upward to hold everything inside. Then the mat lifted off the ground and hovered there.
He steered it out of the warehouse. “Now we gotta find a racer.”
Racers covered the base, but they all seemed to have people working on them or piloting them. Liri strode over to one with a mechanic working on its exhaust vent. She tapped the guy on the shoulder. “We’re commandeering your craft on Tollin’s orders.”
The guy lowered his welding torch in an instant. “Be my guest.”
He walked away, and the friends loaded their goods into the racer’s tiny compartment behind the flight deck. Yajak’s supplies took up almost the whole space. He had to sit on top of the stack while the twins took the flight deck.
Lana’s hands flew over the controls. “We’ll have to fly over the cursed-tongued zoots to get to the Blackout.”
“I’m extending the buffer guard, but it’ll still take some fancy flying,” Liri replied.
“Can you do it?” Yajak asked from behind.
Liri frowned at a chart of the Asibi Mountains. “Wait a second. I think we can do better by going around them.”
“Forget it,” Lana countered. “You’ll add more time to the journey, and we’re already in a rush.”
“Fighting the zoots will add time to our journey, and possibly end it when they shoot us down. We’ll save more time by going around them.”
Lana rolled her eyes. “Listen to the great military strategist.”
Yajak looked back and forth between them. “Is there anything you want me to do? I might not be the greatest pilot alive, but I might be able to…you know…help.”
Liri snorted. “You aren’t the greatest pilot alive because you aren’t even a pilot. You can help by sitting still and keeping your mouth shut.”
Lana made a face at her sister. “Did we have to bring him along?”
“He might not be a pilot, but he’s the best there is at repairing craft. If he’s really bothering you that much, we can leave him in the desert when we…”
“Hey!” Yajak yelled. “You can’t do that!”
“Keep your pants on, sonny,” Liri barked over her shoulder. “I’m just messing with you.”
Yajak glared at her. “I’ll get you back for that.”
Liri and Lana laughed at him, but right now, Liri had her hands full flying this racer. She’d flown hundreds of them, and the technique of manipulating the controls came back to her in a flash.
She lifted off, did one rotation around the base, and gunned the engine. The racer shot away over the mountains, toward where the crew had left the Blackout. The little craft whizzed over the peaks on a dead course for the zoots.
Long before they got near them, Lana pulled up long-range scans of whiplike vines lashing in the air. The racer’s engines disturbed the air and aggravated the zoots.
The racer catapulted straight for them, and the zoots turned their weapons on the craft. They fired several shots that whizzed around the racer.
Yajak shrieked and huddled under his arms. “What happened to flying around them? Huh? What happened to that?”
“We can’t dodge them too far, or we’d be flying around all day.” Liri wrenched the helm hard to starboard to avoid another sizzling shot.
“Can we cut the chit-chat and fly the ship?” Lana yelled as one of the zoots hit the racer’s underside. The craft jumped a dozen feet as the blast glanced off the buffer guard. “If you’re going to divert, you’d better do it before we get too close.”
Liri leaned over and grinned at her sister. “But that would spoil all the fun of playing this enjoyable game with our plant friends.”
Another dozen shots erupted from the trees almost directly beneath the ship. Liri spun forward and attacked the helm with renewed ferocity. She crammed it hard to port and dove into a spiral course. She wove between the shots, barely missing them in time.
“Get us out of here!” Yajak shrieked.
“Cut it out, Liri,” Lana chided. “He’ll wet himself all over the fuel cells.”
Liri peeled the racer back to starboard and punched the throttle. In a few seconds, she pelted out of the zoots’ territory and into the desert. Now came the boring flight to the Blackout.
Yajak whimpered in a fetal ball on top of his supplies. He might be the greatest engineer the New Cooperative ever had, but anyone would think from looking at him that he’d never flown in any aircraft before.
Now that she didn’t have to steer, Liri turned around and scrutinized him. He made a tent of his hands to partially cover his eyes, and peeked out from underneath them. He squinted toward the cockpit window and whined under his breath.
Liri glanced at her sister to find Lana scowling at Yajak, too. Then they both humphed and turned their backs on him. He’d spent far too long in that New Cooperative camp. It was high time he learned to fly, or at least ride as a passenger in an aircraft.
10
Jackson coughed the dust out of his throat as he and what was left of his crew followed their escort through the New Cooperative base. Until right this moment, he’d thought Tollin was exaggerating when he said he had an army.
Now, walking through the crowded landing strip, Jackson realized the truth. The New Cooperative’s façade of being a fanatical messianic cult was just that—a façade, a charade.
Liri had told him when he first asked that the New Cooperative was an army for hire, and now he understood why. She didn’t say they were fanatics until later because they really were an army—a real army with fighter craft, and plenty of weapons.
Most important, it had a complicated command system as sophisticated as the Zenith Militia. The only difference was that the New Cooperative had a nutcase like Tollin at the top, instead of a panel of highly trained professional generals and admirals.
Tollin wasn’t a nutcase if he put together an army like this. If anything, he was an opportunist who’d taken advantage of the Votek prophecy to put himself in power. No one could fault him for trying.
Jackson scanned the base to his right and caught Roy’s eye. Roy scowled in all directions, coming to the same conclusion, but the friends didn’t have time to discuss it now.
The soldiers led the party to one of the Radical Class battleships. Jackson’s guards said something to a group of hooded Keterans gathered there, and then the soldiers left.
One of the strangers addressed Jackson. “You’re the Zenith crew Tollin assigned to command us.”
Jackson did his best to hide his surprise. “He never said anything about commanding you. He said the division chiefs would take us under their command and issue us with—”
“No,” the guy interrupted. “He said you’d take command of the battalions during the strike.”
Jackson started to argue, but Roy laid a hand on his arm. Roy gave him a barely perceptible nod, and his expression shut Jackson’s mouth. Roy knew something. Tollin must have told him something.
The guy pointed at Roy. “You—you come with me, and I’ll introduce you to Gablin Company. He’ll take you to Meru Company. You—” He indicated Jackson. “Zeron will take you to Tradi Company. You know what to do with ‘em. We move out in an hour.”
“What about Quort and Woolzi?” Jackson asked.
The Keteran looked down at Woolzi and back up. Jackson could just imagine the sneer of derision on the guy’s face, and he didn’t even look at Quort. “We don’t include aliens in our ranks. Urval are slaves, and Silden are untrustworthy.” He started to walk away with Roy.
“What are you gonna do with them?” Jackson called after him. “You can’t just leave ‘em here!”
“I don’t see why not. Come on.”
Before Jackson could argue, the man walked away. Roy followed him, and the other division chiefs dispersed. Jackson’s chief waved him across the base. “I’ll show you where we can arm the battalion. They’re all waiting for you before they supply.”
He walked into the ship, but Jackson hung back. He turned to Quort and Woolzi. “You two stick close to me. If there’s any way we can get out of this, I don’t want to have to go looking for you once the shooting starts.”
“Perhaps…” Quort began, and broke off.
“If you have something to say, spit it out,” Jackson whispered. “We’re going into battle against some enemy I never heard of before. If you have an idea about how to get out of this, I’m all ears.”
Quort shrugged. “I was just saying…if they don’t need us or want us around, perhaps we could go to the Blackout and help repair it. Once we bring the ship to the battle, we can use it to lift off the rest of you.”
Jackson rubbed his chin. “That might work, but the only two that need lifting off are me and Roy. I would rather have you with me so I know where you are. Besides, Liri and Lana are working on the Blackout…” His head shot up and he eyed Quort. “Hold the phone. You think the twins plan to steal the ship.”
“Can you give me one reason why they shouldn’t? They have no one with them except that boy. They have access to all the New Cooperative’s fuel and supplies. They don’t need us.”
“I’m not listening to this anymore. We have a battle to fight, and hopefully an escape to make. Don’t talk to me about the twins or the Blackout anymore unless you have a plan to get us out of here. Understand?”
Quort only shrugged. Jackson spun away, and Quort and Woolzi tailed him after their new division chief. Jackson turned the situation over in his mind, but he didn’t much like what he came up with.
Quort drew level with him. Jackson braced himself to reprimand the Urval a second time, but Quort only said, “You really intend to fight this battle, don’t you?”
“Only if I can’t find a way to avoid it. If we’re deploying in an hour and the whole damn battalion is waiting for me to show up before they even arm, then we’ve got a problem.”
He wasn’t wrong. He overtook their division chief, trying unsuccessfully to drive his way into a throng outside one of the base’s many warehouses. Everyone in sight wore a hood. It was impossible to tell who was who, and they all talked at once, so Jackson couldn’t hear a thing.
