‘General Torrek won’t blame you for this.’
Colonel Leveque shook his head. ‘General Torrek is normally a patient and understanding man, but he’s going to react strongly to the news that a girl he regards as his granddaughter is undergoing a procedure that has a 32 per cent chance of killing her. I confidently expect his first action after resuming command of Alien Contact will be to demote myself and Colonel Stone to the rank of Lieutenant.’
33
Fian can be incredibly stubborn. I knew he wanted to be stubborn about this, argue against me doing it, but he just accepted my decision. I don’t think I could have done that if I was in his place, but Fian is totally zan and a much better person than I will ever be.
So Fian held my hand while some doctors gave me the stage 1 injection and waved scanners at me. After that, Raven appeared, and the three of us portalled to our class dome on the California Land Raft to visit Lecturer Playdon.
Raven was grimly silent, and the expression on his face told me he was suffering his own personal hell over what was happening. He wasn’t just our bodyguard, he was our friend, and given he’d been the one who arrested me …
‘You mustn’t blame yourself, Raven,’ I said.
‘I put you in that prison cell.’
‘Which stopped me killing myself in a hopeless attempt to activate the pedestal.’ I tried to sound cheerful and optimistic. ‘There’s every chance this cure will work.’
We headed out of the portal room and walked down the corridor towards the hall. It was early evening, so I expected the whole class to be there, but it was deserted.
‘Where is everyone?’ asked Fian. ‘They surely can’t still be out on the dig site. Playdon’s a slave driver sometimes, but …’
I frowned as I saw something burgundy red and silver on the hall floor, and stooped to pick it up. ‘Why is one of Dalmora’s scarves lying …?’
I broke off and exchanged startled looks with Fian. He’d obviously had the same thought as me, because he led the way out of the hall and opened the nearest room door. All the storage spaces were open and empty.
‘They’ve packed and evacuated!’ he said.
‘But why?’ asked Raven.
‘There must have been a quake warning.’ I turned to head back to the portal. ‘We’ve got to get out of here. I don’t understand why …’
I broke off my sentence because a figure in a sealed Military impact suit was coming out of the portal room. The glowing name and rank markings on the front of the suit said that it was Major Rayne Tar Cameron, but she wasn’t that tall. Something was horribly wrong here.
If that fact was obvious to me, it was even more obvious to Raven. By the time I was reaching for my gun, Raven already had his aimed and was firing, or trying to fire. The gun did nothing. He gave it a single angry shake and shouted.
‘Guns are disabled. Run! Nuke it, run!’
Fian and I turned and ran for the dome exit at the far end of the corridor. Fian operated the door controls, while I glanced behind us for Raven. I’d expected him to be following us, but he’d stopped, turned, and was launching himself at the advancing anonymous person in the impact suit. He’d know there was no chance he could injure them when they were protected by the suit, but he was buying us time to get the door open.
It was then that I saw the blinding line of light appear from something in the intruder’s right hand. A laser cutter! It was pointless yelling warnings. Raven must have seen the laser when he told us to run. That was why an Adonis Knight had used the nuke word.
Raven sent the intruder flying against the corridor wall. I saw the material in the flailing left arm trigger, freezing it at a ludicrous angle, but the flexiplas wall wasn’t hard enough to trigger a whole impact suit. The laser cutter in the right hand swung round and went straight through Raven just above the waist.
Raven didn’t even cry out, just toppled apart in two, hideously gory, separate pieces. I forced my eyes away, saw the dome door was opening, grabbed Fian’s hand and ran. Raven had given his life to buy us precious seconds. We couldn’t waste them.
We sprinted down the path past the swimming pool. I was on the edge of tears, but fought them back. I had to be practical now, or Fian and I would soon be dead too. I let go of Fian’s hand so I could check my gun, and saw the red light warning it was disabled. I tried to use the lookup on my left forearm to send an emergency call, but that was dead too. They’d both been remotely disabled. Nuke it, what was going on here?
I desperately tried to think, to plan. Fian and I didn’t have impact suits. The intruder chasing us did. There was a good side to that. Impact suits wouldn’t protect us against a laser cutter, and we could run faster without them.
If I had a tag gun, I could fire tags at our pursuer, keep triggering their impact suit so we could grab the laser cutter. There were tag guns in the store rooms of both our dome and that of Cassandra 2, but we’d have to go back past the laser cutter to reach them. Nuke that!
‘We’re running out of path,’ said Fian. ‘We’ll have to go into the ruins.’
‘Chaos! I suppose we’ve no other choice, but we’ll have to stay between the safety lines or we’ll get killed by concraz blocks falling on our heads. That means we’ll be easy targets for a gun.’
‘If whoever is in that suit had a gun,’ said Fian, ‘they’d surely have shot at us by now.’
We ran out of the park and along Gap 15, careful to keep safely in the centre and away from the buildings. I took another glance over my shoulder, saw the Military impact suit was well behind us now, and slowed to a safer speed. We couldn’t afford a fall or a trip because an injury would kill both of us. I wouldn’t leave Fian and I knew he’d never leave me.
Fian was looking behind us too. ‘They’re still chasing us. Where’s Raven?’
I realized Fian had been concentrating on opening the dome door. He hadn’t looked behind us, and there’d been no scream to tell him what had happened.
‘Raven’s dead,’ I said. ‘Whoever is in that suit has a laser cutter.’
Fian made the sound of someone trying not to be sick. I’d be sick myself when I had time. If I had time.
‘I didn’t see …’ Fian looked over his shoulder again. ‘I still can’t see a laser beam.’
‘They’re obviously not stupid enough to run along with it turned on.’ I looked back at the figure myself. ‘They aren’t very fast. An impact suit always slows you down, but it looks like they aren’t used to wearing one.’
‘Who do you think is inside the suit?’ Fian asked. ‘It’s not Rayne Tar Cameron, because the shape looks like a man.’
‘It’s not Rayne in the suit, but if she’s involved then it would explain how our guns and lookups got disabled, and why we didn’t get a mail from Playdon about the class evacuating. You know how paranoid he is about safety. He’d have sent us a mail message to warn us not to come back here.’
‘You’re right. Rayne’s the Command Support team leader. She’s got the authority to remotely disable guns and lookups. She’s filtering our mail messages. She’s authorizing portal access to …’ Fian broke off his sentence as the ground suddenly rocked under our feet, and the buildings on either side of us rained heavy lumps of concraz.
I gave a laugh of pure despair. This was utter nightmare.
The instant the ground stabilized, we started moving again, but a glance over my shoulder told me the figure behind us was moving as well. ‘I think it’s Qwin Marston in that suit,’ I said. ‘He’s a supply clerk, so he wouldn’t have a gun, but he could get access to a laser cutter.’
‘That would explain why he’s slow in an impact suit,’ said Fian. ‘Supply clerks wouldn’t wear them very often. It’s a good job he didn’t think of bringing a hover belt or we’d be in real trouble.’
‘You don’t think we’re in real trouble already?’ I asked.
‘At least we know help is coming,’ said Fian. ‘Raven’s implant will have sent a signal to SECOP when he d
ied.’
I’d forgotten about that. I did some hasty mental calculations. ‘Military Security must be on their way, but they can’t possibly catch us up before we reach the edge of the island.’
We jogged on in silence for a few minutes. We were running out of time. When we reached the edge of the island, we’d be trapped.
‘Qwin Marston doesn’t know this place,’ I said. ‘We do. It’s our only advantage, so we have to use it.’
‘Hiding inside the buildings would be far too dangerous,’ said Fian.
I had a truly mad idea. ‘Playdon brought the class down Gap 15 to show us the view from the edge of the Land Raft. Remember seeing all the birds? Qwin doesn’t know about them. We’ll collect a few rocks as we go along. When we get to the edge of the island, we wait for Qwin to get close and then throw rocks at nests.’
‘The birds will mob all of us,’ said Fian. ‘Qwin’s got a suit to protect him, but we haven’t.’
‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Those beaks and claws are nasty. They’ll hurt us, they won’t hurt Qwin, but they will keep triggering the material of his impact suit. If his right arm locks up, we may get a chance to grab the laser cutter.’
Fian groaned. ‘That’s a fast way to lose a hand, but … At least it’s a chance, and losing a hand wouldn’t be fatal if we made a tourniquet with something.’
We ran on. The edge of our Land Raft island was in sight now, so I paused to grab a few rocks.
‘Why?’ Fian loaded up with rocks as well. ‘Why would Rayne help him do this? She always seemed such a perfect Military officer.’
‘Plenty of people who’ve never even met me want to kill me. Why shouldn’t Rayne want to kill me too? I always had the impression she didn’t approve of us being recruited.’
‘It’s a bit of a leap from not approving to committing murder,’ said Fian.
We were getting close to the crumbling remains of the wall that guarded the edge of the Land Raft island. I looked up at the buildings, looking for nests on windowsills, then turned to face our attacker. There was a flash of light as he triggered the laser beam. He must have seen us gathering rocks, but he’d naturally expect us to throw them at him.
I waited until he was less than thirty paces away, then whirled round and started hurling rocks at the windows of the nearest building. Fian was throwing rocks too. For a couple of seconds there was no reaction, and I was panicking because the beam of the laser cutter was too close and we’d nowhere left to run, then a dark shape suddenly plummeted down at us, followed by another, and then a whole flock of smaller birds.
The first bird went for me, hitting me far harder than I’d expected, gouging the side of my head painfully with its claws. I staggered, used my hands to protect my face, and peered through my fingers to watch our attacker. He could have reached me and killed me then, but he made the mistake of stopping. Perhaps he wasn’t sure whether to go for me, or for where Fian was battling with the second large bird.
Whatever the reason, he hesitated, and the smaller birds started mobbing him. He lashed out blindly with the laser cutter, and I risked a brief glance upwards. At least a dozen large birds had been circling high above in the thermals, and were now joining the attack, their height translating into speed as they dived at us.
I saw the leading bird hit Fian, knocking him to the ground, and took a desperate gamble, dropping to the ground myself and curling into a defensive ball. My hope was most of the birds would go for the only remaining upright figure, conspicuously holding the dazzlingly bright line of the active laser cutter.
I was lucky, most of them did, and I saw the right arm of our attacker’s impact suit lock up. It was the moment I’d hoped for, our chance to grab his weapon, but Fian and I each had three or four birds attacking us. I tried to get back to my feet, but the weight of the birds and the stabbing beaks kept me down. Blood was running down my face into my eyes.
Fian had somehow got to his feet, but our attacker had worked out what we were trying to do now. His right arm was still frozen, but he could move his legs, and he backed away from Fian, getting dangerously close to the buildings. If he was fool enough to use the treacherous buildings to shelter from the birds, then falling rubble might solve our problem by burying both him and his laser cutter.
I finally managed to stand up. The figure in the Military blue impact suit was flailing the white laser beam at the birds, and gradually getting closer to the buildings. My hopes were growing, but then a block of concraz fell from above. The figure glanced at it and moved further away from the buildings. Nuke it, he’d realized their dangers. We’d have to go for the laser cutter after all.
Claws suddenly dug deep into my right arm, and huge wings beat against my head. I had to fight off the bird before I could see or move again. Our attacker was heading towards Fian now, brandishing the laser cutter. I tried to run towards them, but the ground shook under my feet and I fell. Chaos take the idiots who’d built San Angeles across an earthquake fault line!
When I got up again, I saw the earth tremor had sent the birds flying upwards. Fian was cornered now, trapped against the edge of the island, caught between lethal laser and lethal drop. I couldn’t possibly reach him in time to help, and I’d run out of rocks. I grabbed my useless gun to try throwing it, and was shocked to see its green light glowing.
‘Tell Morrath confirmed,’ said the gun. ‘Active power 3. Single …’
I didn’t pause to wonder how or why it was working now, just turned off the safety and fired. I saw the figure in the impact suit topple forwards, the active laser still in his hand. Its glowing beam was heading straight for Fian!
I screamed a warning, but Fian was already diving to one side. The laser beam skimmed terrifyingly close to his blond hair, cutting through the wall behind him instead of his head.
The wall had already been crumbling before the laser cut through it. Now a whole section of it broke away, falling over the sheer drop at the edge of the island, and an impact suit clad figure tumbled after it.
I ran towards the edge, terrified Fian had fallen too, but he was scrabbling his way clear on hands and knees. I thrust my gun back in its holster, pulled him to his feet, and hugged him. We were safe!
Then the ground shook, reminding me we weren’t safe at all. There was still the minor problem of the earthquake. We had to reach the dig site domes and portal out of here.
Fian and I turned to run back towards the centre of the island, but there was a sudden huge jolt that sent us tumbling sideways, grabbing at the ground with our hands to stop us rolling into the buildings that were shedding concraz blocks.
I waited for the ground to steady and right itself, but it didn’t. ‘Nuke it!’ I yelled at Fian above the screaming sound of metal reinforcement wires snapping. ‘The island’s legs are giving way.’
His reply was drowned out by a sound like a clap of thunder. Drop portal! It was followed by a roaring sound growing deafeningly loud, and I lifted my head to see an aircraft flying insanely low and fast between the tilting buildings, heading straight for me.
I instinctively covered my head as it went over, and then skidded round to look after it. The pilot must have engaged maximum reverse thrusters in a stomach-churning manoeuvre, because it came to a standstill for a moment, hovering just above the ground. Two figures in Military blue impact suits jumped from it, and the aircraft soared off into the air again.
The two figures staggered as they landed, then started running towards Fian and me. For a moment, I stayed there on my hands and knees like a nardle, just watching them come, then I came to my senses, grabbed my gun, and aimed it at them.
‘Jarra, it’s me, Drago,’ said one of the figures.
‘You’re lying,’ I said. ‘Drago would be flying the aircraft.’
He unsealed the front of his impact suit hood and tugged it down, showing tangled black hair and an outrageously handsome face. ‘Marlise is flying the aircraft.’
I’d hardly noticed my wounds from the attacki
ng birds before, but now they suddenly started hurting like chaos, and I couldn’t seem to think properly. ‘Marlise wouldn’t fly like a lunatic.’
‘Of course she would, and she does.’ Drago laughed. ‘Why do you think I fell in love with her? If it helps convince you I’m me, I could take my clothes off, but we really need to get out of here before this crazy place falls apart.’
It really was him. Only Drago Tell Dramis would joke about stripping in the middle of an earthquake. I put my gun in its holster. ‘Sorry, Drago.’
‘You naturally weren’t sure who to trust,’ said Drago. ‘Let me put this harness on you.’
He put straps round my waist and over my shoulders. I glanced across at Fian, and saw he was wearing a harness too.
‘What’s this for?’ I asked.
‘You don’t have suits, so we’re getting tagged out in tandem.’ He grinned at me. ‘Hug me, cousin!’
The ground picked this moment to start shaking again, so I didn’t argue, just hugged him. Drago clipped my harness onto his suit, put one arm round me, and spoke to thin air. ‘Marlise, we’re ready to leave.’
‘Coming in,’ Marlise’s voice responded.
I stood there, hugging Drago and feeling embarrassed, then the island gave another huge lurch and I quit being embarrassed in favour of being scared stiff. A moment later, there was the roar of an aircraft overhead, and a beam locked on to the tag point of Drago’s suit and yanked him upwards, taking me along with him. I twisted my head round, urgently looking for Fian, and saw another aircraft with a beam that dangled two more figures. I gave a small sobbing sound of relief.
‘Is Lorin still down there?’ Drago shouted over the wind and aircraft noise. ‘He’s disabled his impact suit telemetry so we can’t use it to track him.’
‘What?’ I screamed back. ‘Who’s Lorin?’
‘The man attacking you. Captain Lorin.’
‘He’s probably dead. I shot him and he fell off the edge of the island. My gun had been disabled, so I don’t know why it started working again.’