“Taylor and I will go and start freeing prisoners,” I said to Jack. “We’ll send them back to you.” I lifted my radio. “Ostin, we’re going to start letting the prisoners out. Get ready.”
“Roger.”
Taylor and I ran down to the south cells. The door was locked. “Ostin, open the main door to the south cells.”
“Roger that.”
“Who’s Roger?” Taylor asked.
“It’s just a radio thing,” I said. I pushed open the door and walked into a dim, long, narrow hallway. There were about twenty doors on each side, each filled with GPs in various states of mental trauma. I walked up to the first door and looked in through its acrylic slot window. I counted five Tuvaluan men, all with electric collars and dressed in orange jumpsuits. They must have heard us coming, as they were huddled at the back of the room. “Open S-001.”
“Opening S-001.” The door unlocked. “Collars off.”
I opened the door. The GPs didn’t move.
“Déjà vu,” I said. “Just like the academy.” I looked at the men. “You can speak.”
No one did.
“Maybe they don’t speak English,” Taylor said.
“I speak English,” one of them said with a British accent.
“Good. We are here to free you. But we have to fight against the Elgen. Will you help?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your name?”
“I am Enele Saluni, grandson of the prime minister.”
“After we overthrow the Elgen, your grandfather will be free to rule again,” I said. “But right now the Elgen are coming and we need your men to fight.”
“The Elgen are coming here?”
“All of them. To destroy the prison.”
“Do we have weapons?”
“For everyone,” I said.
Enele turned and spoke in Tuvaluan, and the men immediately stood at attention.
“We will help,” Enele said.
“We’ve got to let everyone out,” I said. “We’ll need everyone.”
We walked out, then opened the first four doors on the south side of the hall, releasing twenty prisoners. I led them back to Jack, leaving Taylor with the radio and Enele. When I returned to the armory, Welch was standing there with J.D., another crew member, Quentin, Tara, Torstyn, and Cassy.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
“Where are we going?” J.D. asked defiantly. He must have figured out that he had nothing to lose, as he’d already lost his previous humility.
“There’s been a change of plans,” Welch said. “You’re going to sail back to Nike just as you told Hatch you would.”
J.D. scowled. “And if I refuse?”
Welch’s eyes narrowed. “Imagine what it would feel like to have your hand in a microwave oven for sixty seconds. Torstyn can show you how that feels. And then he will melt your eyes, your tongue, then your brain, in that order. Do you understand?”
J.D. swallowed. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Torstyn, these are Hatch’s friends and collaborators. If they make one wrong move, melt them. Slowly.”
“Just give the word,” Torstyn said, staring hatefully at J.D.
“Let’s go.” Welch lifted his radio. “Come in, Gervaso.”
“Gervaso, copy.”
“This is Welch. We’re headed down the tunnel. Just didn’t want you to shoot us.”
“I’m headed out now for the dock. Good luck.”
“Roger,” Welch said into his radio. Then he turned to his group and said, “Let’s go.”
I looked at Cassy. “Good luck.”
“I’ll make sure they come back, if I have to drive the boat myself,” she said.
As we were parting, our radios squelched. “This is Ian. We’ve got small rafts landing on the west side of the island. Three of them. Here they come.”
“Looks like some of our guests arrived early,” Welch said. “Let’s get this party started.” As the others began climbing down the ladder to the tunnel, Welch turned to me. “If we don’t come back, it’s because we failed or are dead. You can trust us.”
“I do,” I said. “Good luck.”
“Just hold out.” He turned and followed the rest of his group down the tunnel. Jack and his soldiers were standing quietly, sizing up the GPs.
“That’s all there is?” one of the guards asked.
“It’s just the first group,” I said. “We think there’s about two hundred. Not all of them speak English. Not all of them are fit to fight.”
Jack turned to the GPs and asked, “Who speaks English?”
Three of the men raised their hands.
“Get up here,” he said to the biggest. “You’re second-in-command of the squad.”
There was at least one English speaker for every ten natives, which was all we needed. While Taylor and I were releasing prisoners, Jack had established a chain of command with the guards and gone over the map of the installation, establishing their battle stations. He had also distributed radios to each Squad Captain.
With the guidance of a former Elgen Zone Captain, Jack created a plan to hold the outer wall.
The group of prisoners I had just brought were assigned a leader, and the man created the first squad, arming his men and leading them out to defend the west wall, where the Elgen had started landing.
By the time I returned to the south corridor, Taylor and Enele had released nearly a hundred prisoners.
“We better stop for now,” I said to Enele, a little nervous of so many unstable men roaming free. “We’ll need a little time to assign them to squads.”
“Do not worry,” Enele said. “They will follow directions.”
I led the men back to the armory, where Jack and the guards divided them up while Taylor and Enele freed the rest. There were more prisoners than we expected, two hundred and thirty-two in all, so Jack created an extra squad, with Enele in charge.
* * *
After all the men had been sent out in squads, Taylor and I climbed the stairs four stories to the central watchtower. As we entered the observation room, we saw Tanner sitting cross-legged on one of the shelves, looking out through binoculars. He was wet, and there was a pool of water beneath him. He had opened a window and rain was blowing in, drenching him.
He’s lost it, I thought.
Nichelle was on the west side of the tower, and Ian was on the east side talking into his radio. He didn’t need binoculars. It didn’t even matter what side he sat on.
He turned toward us. “Guys, this rock is starting to crawl. I’m having trouble keeping track of them all. The first major wave is about to hit the west shore. Did you get my message about the early rafts?”
“Yes, we heard it. Did you warn Gervaso?”
“I don’t know if he heard me. He didn’t answer.”
“If he saw them, he turned his radio off so he wouldn’t give himself away.”
Tanner spun around on the counter. “Hey, kidlings. There are more binoculars over there on that shelf. These things rock.”
“Thanks,” Taylor said warily.
We each took a pair. Then I walked over to Nichelle. “How are you?”
“You know, the sea scares me. I didn’t want to tell you that on the boat. Thought it might worry you. But I think the devil rides the waves.”
I looked out and saw the first flotilla of Elgen boats approaching the island.
“He definitely is today,” I said. “How’s Tanner?”
She just shook her head.
Just then, over the radio came, “Ian, this is Gervaso. Do you read me?”
After Gervaso had established his machine gun nest at the inside neck of the tunnel, he grabbed the backpack he’d filled with explosives and, carrying just a Beretta handgun, crawled out the outer end of the tunnel. Just as he was about to surface, his radio squawked.
“Come in, Gervaso.”
“Gervaso, copy.”
?
??This is Welch. We’re headed down the tunnel. Just didn’t want you to shoot us.”
“I’m headed out now for the dock,” Gervaso said. “Good luck.”
“Roger.”
Gervaso turned off his radio and climbed out of the tunnel. The rain was pouring down, and the ocean looked pitted from a million raindrops.
He didn’t see anyone, so he crossed the road to a row of charred bushes and began crawling toward the dock. When he got there, he waded into the water beneath the dock, carrying his backpack. To blow the dock he would have to link the explosives together, connecting them close enough to each other so they would trip each other, resulting in complete annihilation.
Because of the turbulence of the sea, the waves kept slamming him into the underside of the dock, and it took Gervaso nearly twenty minutes to set the explosives, ten minutes longer than he had planned. It made him nervous. He suspected that the Elgen would be landing soon—if they hadn’t already.
After he finished setting the detonator, he again looked around to make sure he was alone, tossed his backpack into the sea, and then climbed to the top of the dock. He stopped to look out toward the sea. Through the rain and darkness he could see the Faraday about eight hundred yards out. That meant serious trouble. The Faraday was capable of transporting more than thirty-five hundred soldiers. If they all were allowed to dock, men would pour out faster than they could handle. The prison would be overrun.
He looked around. The Risky Business was still where Welch had left it. He wondered where Welch was. He lifted his radio and turned it back on. “Ian, this is Gervaso. Come in.”
“This is Ian.”
“We’ve got Elgen to the north in the Faraday. They’re going to try to dock.”
“I can see it. Does the dock still stand?”
“I’m about to blow it. Did Welch get out?”
“They’re out of the tunnel. He shouldn’t be far from you now.”
“Roger. Over.”
“Over,” Ian said.
Gervaso returned the radio to his belt. He knelt down on the dock and hung over to check his wiring once more, then stood. As he turned to go, he saw the shadows of Welch and his team creeping beneath the cover of the wall.
Finally, he thought. Gervaso raised his hand and shouted in a muted yell, “Good luck.”
The shadows stopped. Then a gun opened fire, hitting Gervaso in the chest and knocking him back onto the dock.
Bleeding, Gervaso slowly pulled himself around to see who had fired on him. The men he’d mistaken for Welch’s group were Elgen guards. They walked toward him, their guns pointing at him.
“Expecting someone else?” a guard asked.
Gervaso feebly lifted his handgun but was hit two more times from Elgen bullets as the squad stepped up onto the dock. Gervaso gasped for breath as he reached into his pocket and rolled over to his stomach, bracing for the next round.
“Finish him,” the captain said to one of his men.
The front guard, barely older than twenty, walked on the blood-soaked dock until he was next to Gervaso. He pointed his gun at the back of Gervaso’s head. “Good-bye, man.”
Gervaso rolled over to look the young guard in the eyes. In his hand Gervaso held a grenade, its pin already pulled. “Yeah, good-bye.”
“Hit the deck!” the guard shouted, but it was too late. The grenade blew, igniting the chain of explosives. The entire dock exploded in a blinding flash. When the smoke cleared, the dock, the Elgen, and Gervaso were gone.
“Gervaso!” Ian shouted.
I turned around. Ian was paralyzed.
“What happened?”
His voice was strained. “The Elgen got him.”
“What do you mean, ‘got him’?”
“They . . . got him.”
“We’ve got to rescue him,” I said.
Ian just looked at me, his eyes welling up with tears. “He blew the dock. He’s gone.”
For a moment I couldn’t speak. Then I leaned over, resting my hands on my knees. “No!” Tears began to fill my eyes, then fall, spattering on the already wet floor. “No.”
“I’m sorry, Michael.” Taylor put her hand on my back. After a minute she said, “You’re in charge now.”
I stood back up. I caught my breath, then lifted the radio. In the strongest voice I could muster I said, “Everyone, this is Michael. Gervaso is gone, but he blew the dock. He gave his life for us. Remember that. Don’t let him die in vain.”
I could hear Jack scream out over a distant radio. The sound of it made me feel even sicker. Jack had already lost Wade, now Gervaso. Gervaso was his hero. His mentor. A second father. A better father than his real one.
I radioed Jack directly. “I’m sorry, man.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have left him,” he said. “I’m going to take them apart myself.”
“I know,” I said. “Just keep it together. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”
The radio snapped. “This is Ostin. We’re going to need someone to take the tunnel. Gervaso has the gun nest set up but it’s wide open. I’m detecting movement near its mouth.”
“I’ll take the tunnel,” Zeus said.
“Roger that,” I said. “Zeus has the tunnel. Don’t let anyone in!”
The Faraday docked as close as it could get to the island without hitting reef, about two hundred yards out to sea. I wished I had something to blow it up with. The Tesla, the Elgen’s landing tender, had begun transporting troops to the reef, dropping them in the water, then returning for more.
More guards came from the west, arriving on rafts and smaller boats. Within a half hour there were hundreds of troops surrounding the compound.
“They just keep coming,” Taylor said. “Like ants at a picnic.”
Suddenly Ian shouted, “We’ve got two helicopters inbound. They’ve got missiles.”
“Where?” Tanner asked.
“Three o’clock.”
Tanner lifted his binoculars. “There they are.”
“How far out can you bring them down?” I asked.
“Now,” he said. He reached out his hand.
“Lead helicopter is down,” Ian said.
“I’ll get the next.”
“You got it,” Ian said. A moment later he shouted, “Missile was launched!”
A fiery streak hit the outer wall of the compound, exploding loudly and throwing concrete and twisting rebar. When the smoke cleared, there was a hole in the wall the size of a truck.
“There’s a break in the west wall!” I shouted over the radio.
“We see it!” Jack shouted. “Concentrate fire at the hole. No one gets in.”
Through the haze I could see fire spewing through the hole from the mouths of Elgen machine gun barrels, answered by our own troops. Then Elgen guards began running in through the hole.
Dozens fell before Jack’s forces, but the Elgen kept pouring into the break. Even though the prisoners had stopped hundreds, they were soon overwhelmed, outnumbered, and outgunned. Jack’s men were forced to fall back behind the chain-link fences, which separated them from the guards but not their bullets.
Then the Elgen turned their guns on the towers. They couldn’t hit me, as I could repel everything they had, but I was concerned for the others.
“Everyone down!” I shouted. “I don’t want to deflect something into you.”
The number of Elgen in the yard just continued to grow. Our tower sounded like it was being chipped apart piece by piece, splinters and plaster and dust clouding the air.
I lifted the radio. “Jack, fall back!” I shouted. “Get your men into the buildings. The Elgen have taken the grounds.” I looked out over the flow of Elgen guards. “There’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
“They’re going to set explosives on the prison walls,” Ian said.
“We’re so dead,” Tanner said.
“Shut up!” I shouted. “Stop saying that!”
From the center of our fortress, Ostin and McKenna wa
tched the attack unfold around the compound on a panel of screens. If it wasn’t for the occasional sound of explosions rattling the room’s walls, it would have seemed more like a movie than an actual battle.
“They’ve breeched the wall,” Ostin said calmly. “Everyone’s falling back.”
McKenna looked at him. “What do we do?”
“In the movies this is when the cavalry rides in.”
“It’s not the movies. And we don’t have a cavalry.”
The monitors showed guards flooding into the complex by the tens, then hundreds. The prisoners who hadn’t made it behind the chain-link fence were shot down. The grounds were littered with bodies. Jack had already lost a third of his forces.
Ostin looked at the screens for a moment, then over at the central control panel. “Battery power at ninety-seven percent, estimated battery life thirty-six hours. That should be enough.” He examined the panel again, then said, “I have an idea.” He looked at McKenna. “Maybe there is a cavalry.”
The dark grounds below us were chaos. The screaming of fallen prisoners echoed amid the hellish landscape of rain, smoke, and fire. The Elgen forces flowed in like demon shadows, darkening a courtyard lit only by gunfire or grenades. Occasionally, lightning would strike, illuminating the grounds for a second, like a strobe, capturing the dying and killing in frozen, violent stances. That’s when we could see just how many there were of them. It seemed like thousands.
“They’re setting explosives on the outer fence,” Ian said.
“That’s the last thing keeping them from the building,” I said. “Once they reach the building, it’s over.”
“We could have used Cassy,” Taylor said.
“Jack!” I shouted. “Hit those guys on the south perimeter. They’ve got explosives.”
“Got them.”
Taylor said, “Michael, what’s going on over there?”
At the end of the north corridor, beneath the flume of the Starxource plant, a door opened, revealing an intense red glow that seemed to be growing brighter. Suddenly a steaming flow burst from the door. It was glowing orangish-red, like a stream of lava spewed from a volcano.