Tailspin, page 52
I let myself flop back down again. Niko glanced behind him, and I caught sight of a man. No, not a man, an elf? Only the second one I’d ever seen after Lacy. Even from here, I could see how regal he was. His age, not a clue. His dark hair, shaved on one side, was held in a high topknot but was graying everywhere. I presumed that meant he was older. Maybe much older. Rumors were the oldest were a few thousand years of age. Yet there wasn’t a crease on his face. He was pale, maybe much paler than he should have been. It was almost a blue pale. Did he have any oxygenated blood in him at all? On the inside, my mind shrugged. Apex?
“He’s okay, too, thanks to us. To our squad,” Niko said.
The soft voice from before spoke to my left, and I turned to it. It was an elven woman. Her dark brown skin and long, all-white hair almost covered her sharp, pointed ears. It fell over her eyes for a moment. Her uniform was covered in blood, and she swiped her hair out of the way. “You did amazing, but thanks goes to all of us.”
“The wall?” I asked.
“We’ll repair it,” she said, silvery soothing tones calming any horrid thoughts. “He needs a day or two.”
“A day or two?” I asked.
“You don’t know our mages.” She laughed. “He might not have much magic to fight, but he knows tactics like no one I’ve ever known. If we can keep him down for two days, that would be a miracle.”
“Bit like this idiot,” Niko quipped.
“I’m not an idiot.”
“No, but you are heading straight to Rise,” the elf said. “They brought your operation forward.”
“We’ll land at the base, and you’re on the next helo straight out.” Niko added.
“What about you?”
“We’re staying. We’ll get through tomorrow, don’t worry. Mal’s got us well in hand. We can cope without you for one day.”
I let out a little chuckle, and although my head didn’t hurt quite as much, the rest of me did.
“Those guns have quite the recoil,” the elf said. “You’re not used to it.”
“Ouch,” I added.
“Ouch,” Niko repeated. “Close your eyes and rest if you need. We’ll be a while yet.”
“I need to speak with Silao,” I said. And Justin. But I didn’t say that.
“I’ll get you something to drink.” The elf smiled at us, dipped her head, and she moved away.
Niko sat on the end of my stretcher. “She’s fantastic.”
“I am sure you did great out there, too.”
He smiled. “I did. I followed everything she said when I got to Mage Baron.”
“Proud of you.”
“Thanks. When they landed, it was a whole different story, she has skills I can only dream of, but we kept him alive, Tapal and me.”
I didn’t need to see how much that meant to him. It really did. If Mage Baron had died…I wasn’t sure how he’d be right now. Luckily, we’d all done good.
“You, however—”
I groaned and felt my whole body ache with it. “We did what we had to do,” I replied. “Both Justin and I.”
“I’ve watched the replay,” he said. “You were fucking gunslingers. He and Malaki have a symmetry I’ve never seen anywhere in pilots before. And I’ve watched some tremendous replays over the years.”
That made me cringe slightly, and he saw it. “I don’t mean it in that way,” he said. “I mean…”
“Mal’s her own person,” I said. “Justin, well, he’s Justin.”
Niko frowned. “Yeah, I’m glad he was here, though. For you. For you both.”
“Me too.”
I got my drink off the young elf. This close I couldn’t tell if she were young or not.
She took my hand in hers. “You’ll survive. You were fortunate. Your pilot got you back in the air and to me within minutes.”
“She’s the best,” I admitted.
“She’s certainly something,” the elf said. “She demanded if Mage Baron was stable that I also see to you.”
“Demanded?”
“Not really her best moment,” Niko said. “Screaming at the soldiers holding her back as she tried her best to get near us.”
“Oh,” I said, then shook my head, taking a swig of the liquid. It was warm but had a lovely cinnamon and ginger flavor, which made my mouth tingle.
“She’d do anything for you,” Niko said. “That’s the kind of backup we all need.”
“Niko’s right. I only left Mage Baron’s side because I saw the sheer desperation on her face. She reminded me of someone I knew a few years ago, and I couldn’t let that go.”
“Thank you,” I said to her. “For helping me.”
“My priority was the mage, but Niko had made sure I had exactly what I needed to do my job when I landed. I wasn’t needed at that precise moment. A medic will always try to save any life.”
“I still owe you one.”
“You owe me nothing. You keep doing what you are as a squad. That is more thanks than I could ever ask for.”
“That’s a deal.”
Mage Baron groaned, and the blonde and Niko moved over faster than I could blink.
I drank more of the fluid, letting my throat feel better. I knocked for Malaki first.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“You’re awake?” she asked.
“No, just a figment of your imagination,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me,” she said. “Whatever codes you sent to Silao did it. Without those missiles…fuck. They’d have died, all of them.”
“What hit our helo?” I asked.
“Err,” she said. “Monster guts.”
“Gross.” I coughed.
“It was,” she said. “I had to get out and wipe it off the front windshield.”
“You still got us back in the air.”
“For you,” she said, “I’d have flown blind.”
“You could.” I swallowed and asked the question. I was hesitating. “My eye?”
“They’re doing it later tonight. Lacy spoke with Jim and Alba. They’re waiting for you with a full medical team.”
I blew out a breath. “Justin and Silao?”
“We need to debrief with Captain Kine, but they want you back here as soon as possible.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said. “DP out.”
I caught her “You better!” as the connection dropped.
I closed my eyes, and the next thing I knew, the helo bumped, and when I opened them again, we were powering down and on the runway at Rise Hospital, where the rain poured. I shivered at the thought of getting off the helo into it.
The medivac team got Mage Baron off first, and Niko moved to me. “I’ve got to go back with the medivac. I’ll see you out, though. If I didn’t say hello to my cousin, I’d get murdered on a different level.”
He moved the stretcher with one hand, and I cringed. “Can’t I walk?”
“No.”
“Ugh.” I sat back and waited while he and another wheeled me out into the rain. I was surprised that I didn’t get wet. Some kind of shield over it.
That was good. Instead, I waited while they wheeled me inside. A prominent figure at the other end of the landing zone also waited for us.
“Good to see you again,” the big man said. He’d been the one to take me from the car up for surgery the first time, and even now, I didn’t know his name.
“I’m not so sure about that.”
Niko moved to the doors and met Roe. They hugged, and she spoke to him briefly before they both came to me. “We’ll look after him,” she said to Niko.
“Best had. If he doesn’t come back to us fast, Malaki will murder us all.”
Roe laughed. “Girlfriend?”
I felt my face flush. “No,” I said. “Not at all.” I didn’t even know why I was protesting so much. Niko’s face paled. Shit. I didn’t fancy his cousin, did I? What was the term for falling for anyone…savior complex or something?
I looked away. “Get back,” I said to Niko. “Mal needs you, remember?”
Niko glanced between the two of us. “Will do. Hope it helps, fast.”
“So do I,” I said, and I meant it. I couldn’t do with the headaches, which essentially got in the way of my duties.
“Take me up,” I said, patting the big man’s arm. “I need that operation.”
Lieutenant General Michaels and First Lieutenant Bryd stood with Jim and Alba as I was wheeled onto the top floor.
Jim nodded at me. “I knew we wanted to see you, but not like this.”
Alba came to give me a hug and a kiss. “We will look after you. I promise.”
It was good to see her and feel her warmth. Thoughts of my mom flittered through my mind, and I almost teared up. Alba saw this and hugged me tighter. “I know,” she said. “We’re here for you.”
I had no doubts they would look after me. They had right from the start. I hadn’t expected these emotions, though, and I tried my best to push them away.
“See you on the other side.”
I squeezed Alba tight before finally letting go of her, and she left me to join Jim and Roe at the door.
“Quite the occupation keeping up with you,” Michaels said as he stepped closer.
“Sir.” I lowered my head, not really knowing what to expect to hear next. But knowing I was going to get some kind of telling off.
“Not in a bad way, even if you might think so, airman. You’re giving some of the higher-ups a headache, not me. I expected it. Jim and Alba will look after you.”
I knew this. He didn’t need to tell me that, but he was saying something more profound. “If I don’t ask you now, I never will.”
First Lieutenant Bryd almost choked. “He lands in the hospital for yet another unknown pricey operation and asks you for more.”
It was more than cheeky. I knew it felt my face flushing. I did glare at him, though. “Everyone thinks I’m something else,” I said honestly, and to Michaels’s raised eyebrow. “I don’t understand why, but I want to prove it to you all. Out there today, we made a difference.”
“You really did,” Michaels admitted. “Right place, right time are not just the words. Your medic Niko saved the life of someone very important not just to us, but to the Living Earth. You gave him that chance to be there, to do that.”
“So,” I said, feeling my face flush. “You’re here, you can pass the information up the chain of command, but I need the TAP now. We are needed out there. More than needed.”
I held out my hand and passed him the information I’d gotten from Frank, and he looked at it. “You’re serious. You’d go underground?”
“M-Corp aren’t willing to do both yet, even West said that. I have to have it as soon as possible though, I can’t wait. You need to sanction this now.”
He shook his head. “They didn’t want to put you at any more risk, at least not right now. Stopping ocular implosion and you getting the X16 is more important.”
“Why can’t they do both like they did after my accident?”
“It’s complicated,” Michaels said. “That really was life or death. Now they can’t and won’t risk your health. Besides, it takes time to recover from both operations. It would put you a few months back in training.”
“I’m way ahead in my training, and you know it, even without the TAP.”
They both exchanged a look. Michaels nodded. “I can’t deny that. You fit with your team better than anything we hoped for.”
“Then get M-Corp to sanction it,” I asked again.
Michaels sighed and rubbed his face. The clear scratching of stubble filtered across to me. He looked tired, as tired as I felt. “I’ll be honest with you: we had a budget, and you blew it. You’re blowing it even more now. I’ve pulled strings, funds, and—” He let out another sigh.
“We’ve got most of the money, pooled everything we have, we’ve saved and saved, every weekend job, night runs, every mission out we got paid.”
“You really have worked hard, all of you. But you won’t ever have enough money. They’ll stiff you for everything they can, now and before the operation.” Michaels shook his head.
I sank in my chair. “I need this now,” I said. “You can’t wait. They can’t wait.”
“He’s right,” Bryd admitted, to both our shock.
“Leave us,” Michaels said to Bryd.
Bryd didn’t argue; he turned and left. Michaels grabbed a chair and sat in front of me.
“The X series is something M-Corp’s been working on for some time,” he admitted. “You know it’s experimental.”
I nodded. “Yes, I do.”
“I’m going to tell you some truths,” he said. “It’s not just about funds. Through training, you are assessed on every angle. Your commitment to the program, your team, how hard you push. And in that sense you are everything M-Corp wants. But you are experimental.” I did know all of this. “Do you know how many DPs there are?”
I didn’t have a clue, no one probably did. “No,” I answered honestly.
“After I saw you with the Black Bears, you took to that gun instantly. At least with the help from your tech. You learn faster than anyone we’ve ever seen before, that’s why Lieutenant Onynx took you into see the helos in Sector One.”
“You dangled that helo and the DP position in front of me because you knew I’d take it?”
“There used to be a lot more taking those positions every year,” he said. “But word spread around about how painful being connected to metal on a daily basis was. Losing drones, the spinal upgrades. The rehab… Our drone pilots’ lifespans are even shorter than any others due to the strain on their bodies. The X series is our only hope to bring DPs back in. We need eyes in the sky. The highest we have is—”
“Sixteen drones,” I replied.
“And they want more than that, for every DP. At present, M-Corp has twenty-four drone pilots on duty. There are nine in the west, another twelve helps cover the south, two over the city itself, and only one in the—”
“East.” I swallowed. “How many here, in training?”
“Only four,” he admitted.
Fuck, that was…more than desperate.
“They’re building the wall out through the mountains, to stop creatures from getting to their farms. Fires break out every few months. The critters are getting smarter. That, you’ve seen; they’re as desperate to get in as some are to get out. We need you in the air where our men are the most vulnerable and as many eyes as we can get sometimes. That means more drones and that means everyone eventually will get the X series.”
“So you just want us east? Silao and me?”
“Yes, you are all we have.” He lowered his head. “But you need time. They need time to get the X TAP right before they install it.”
“We, you, don’t have time, sir. We proved that today. I’m willing to try anything; you’re in dire need of us out there. Any of us. Even something that might not work so well at first, is worth trying.”
“You’re too precious to them,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
He ran a hand over his face. Was I really going to get a straight answer out of him?
He looked directly at me, held my eyes for a brief moment, and then looked away.
“Why?” I asked again. “Look, I’m going in for some major surgery. Please tell me something. Anything.”
He looked back at me and nodded. “They are hoping once they get the X-series TAP to work correctly to match your system, your DNA, that it takes the pain away, not only from the operation, from the connection to the drones. So far, they haven’t been able to get the nodes to work the way they want. They’re not lining up; they’re not firing right. They’re failing you.”
“How long do you think till they will have it?”
“I don’t know.” He slumped in his chair. “Could be a few months, could be a year or more.”
“Then just get me the next best thing?”
“They won’t do it.” He sighed. “You almost died today.”
“But I didn’t,” I said. “Luck’s holding out.”
“Good or bad?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Because I see it from both sides.”
I smiled, mostly faking my confidence. “Good.”
“They still won’t do it.”
“Then at least you’ll know I’ll go underground and get it myself. When they’ve got the X-series ready for me, I’ll take it, but I need the practice, and you need me out there now.”
“I know. You’re as stubborn as your damn father was.”
“My father?”
A cough at the door made us both turn. “We need to get him in,” Alba said. “Before his pain meds wear off.”
“Okay, okay. You made your point, I’ve made mine. Let’s see what I can do from my side with General Canlas before you go sneaking off.”
“Deal,” I said, and I felt much better for talking to him even if there were still unanswered questions.
“Now let’s let these lovely people take you in and sort out those headaches.”
It will help your headaches, and it will help me, but it will hurt. Apex spoke up.
Wait, it will hurt? Why will it hurt?
Why are you worried about me?
Because…I paused as the big man came in. “They’re ready for you.”
I put my hand on his. “What’s your name?”
“Bobby.” He grinned at me. “Bobby.”
I smiled up at him and noted the scars, this time across his neck. “Thanks for being here, Bobby.”
I worry, I said back to Apex, because you’re a part of me. I don’t want you to be hurt as much as I get hurt.
Then you deserve honesty, Apex said. Yes, it will hurt. It will hurt me a lot.
When Bobby moved to the bed, about to wheel me out, I shouted, “Stop, wait. Give me a minute alone, please.”
Bobby frowned, and I saw figures move outside the door. He kept them there, though, as I sat on the bed alone.
It really hurts you that much?
There are no anesthetics that reach me, so when they cut my metal and break me, yes, it hurts.
That’s horrific.
It is what it is.
No, I said to him. It’s not good enough.
I will endure, he replied. You need this. As do I.
