Ormand grabbed Josué jaw, yanked it open and shoved the glove into his mouth. He slapped the boy with a backhand, knocking his head to the side.
The iron taste of blood dripped down his throat. Josué fought the feeling of panic and tried not to gag. The guard’s strong arms pulled him back to face Ormand.
He stared into the hateful eyes of the large man. If he could just reach with his foot, he might be able to land a kick before he died.
Ormand held up a wicked looking knife and smiled with glee. “Say your goodbye’s, boy.”
Josué braced for the pain, not sure if it would be his chest or his throat. He wondered how long he would remain conscious. Would he be forced to look into this wicked man’s eyes as he breathed his last?
But Ormand just stood there, his head to the side, listening. The large man’s eyes searched the tree line along the marsh.
Then Josué heard it too. It began with a whisper then increased to the volume of a thousand shouts. Something crashed through the clearing with the force of an ocean wave, punctuated by the sound of splintering wood and crushing metal. An Omri skimmers loaded with men flew to pieces.
The noise came again. Another skimmer blew apart. Multiple noises came at once. With each noise, a skimmer burst into pieces taking fifty men into oblivion.
The guard’s grip relaxed enough for Josué to rip his arm free. Throwing it up and back, his elbow connected with the trooper’s throat.
Thrusting forward and down, he aimed a chop Héctor would have been proud of at Ormand’s neck. It connected with a satisfying thump, but left Josué wishing he’d thrown it harder. The large man rolled his eyes upward, dropped his knife and collapsed.
Josué brought his forearm back into the guard’s face, knocking him to the ground. With a spin and a kick, Germán’s guard fell where he stood. Josué ripped the glove out of his mouth and threw it on Ormand.
Get down, Josué. The Elder John’s command came to him mentally.
Josué yanked Germán down by the shirt sleeve.
Laser fire erupted around them. In a matter of seconds, the jungle was empty of all but dead Omri soldiers, their bodies steaming with laser holes.
Josué and Germán stood to their feet and looked down at the spot where Ormand had fallen. “Where’d he go?”
Germán looked at Josué then at the woods behind them.
The high pitched whine of a hover bike flying at top speed buzzed over the stillness of the battle field. Josué caught sight of a laughing Ormand clutching viper handlebars, his tiger coat trailing in the wind. Then he arched into the jungle and disappeared.
“Where’d he get a viper?”
Germán shrugged.
Epilogue
Thetis sped through the underbrush as fast as her raptor would take her. Its neck glowed bright green against the dark leaves brushing her legs. She felt tears in the corners of her eyes. Her Josué had survived!
She had watched and yes, had even tried to help. As she’d hoped, Elder John had advanced his troops in time to overtake Ormand. It had been a rout.
Thetis smiled. Her son’s plan had come together in spite of it all. She wiped her cheek.
Felisa will be happy to hear, she told herself. The girl had looked so healthy that morning, her eyes glowing with renewed life. The skin on her face was back to a proper native hue. Jungle sleep had brought it back. And, she would be ready for her second anointing soon.
Thetis raised an eyebrow. She would miss having the girl around. Thetis’s brother, Elder John, had asked to adopt her. The look of excitement in Felisa’s eyes at the suggestion confirmed it would be the right choice.
John had also offered to take care of Josué, but that had been only a gesture. Everyone knew the work of the sacred sands in her son. It was unmistakable. He would play the part of a man and live in Trevino Manor. His leadership would bloom in the coming years. The war with Ormand would be nothing in comparison with what he would do next.
She thought about how he would change Parliament. With the title, ‘Master, Grandee,’ things would be different. He would give the natives a voice. He would confront the scourge of galactic self-interest personified by Apolino. Under Josué, Sonora IV would prosper.
Thetis smiled. Her other patient would be awake soon. The sands assured her of his survival. It would take time, but she wasn’t in a hurry.
The rescue had been the most difficult part for Porfirio. Thetis remembered the day she insisted Enrique build an escape tunnel into the bunker. At the time she hadn’t known why she had made the request. Enrique did it as a special favor to her. It had been built behind the control room holographic wall. Even that detail had worked out.
Porfirio lived, and that was what Josué needed. Though, if Thetis were honest, it was what she needed too.
Had she done right? She had done what she could – nothing more. She found herself as much a victim as Enrique. The sands had used her anger, she could see that now. How else could Josué have learned what he had? And he had learned it so well.
Was she happy? She had what she needed. She saw her husband with a new understanding. She knew how he felt about her, and found she was flattered by it. Divine, indeed!
She goaded her raptor on and ducked under a branch, angling toward the viper’s steady whine.
***
The cry of a raptor rose and fell alongside Ormand’s viper. Ormand drew his blaster and fired into the jungle. The light of the bolt revealed nothing more than roots and leaves. He shook himself. His nerves must be playing tricks on him. It felt like the beast had been following him. Ormand shuddered. Raptors didn’t chase vipers, everyone knew that. He was letting his imagination get the better of him. Considering the circumstances, that didn’t surprise him.
Ormand would fly back to the city, find Atlantos and tell him about the battle. They would get their hands on Josué’s weapon as soon as possible. He had mistakenly assumed it was destroyed in the missile strike on Hernan’s jail cell. But it had survived in spite of Apolino’s haste!
Everything Hernan had said about the weapon was true. Ormand would get it and use it to bring Apolino to his knees. He smiled at the things he could do with the power of Porfirio’s invention.
Ormand had to admit he had been lax. Sitting as ‘Master, Grandee’ had made him lazy. He would handle Josué and the Syndicate the way he should have from the beginning. Apolino had simply gotten in the way. It had cost Ormand, but he would start again with renewed vigor.
The raptor’s growl sounded closer this time. How many raptors were on this trail? Ormand thought he saw a flick of a tail between the leaves. He fired.
Something bumped him from behind. He turned and fired again.
The viper’s tail fin exploded, blowing sparks. The machine bucked and spun, slamming into the ground.
Ormand cursed and picked himself up from the mud. Kneeling there, he breathed heavily before kicking the fallen machine.
Feet slapped the mud to his left. Ormand wheeled toward the noise and fired his blaster. “Give up, beast!”
Another noise startled him to his right. He whipped his blaster around and fired again and again, but all he saw was empty jungle.
Ormand lifted the viper to a sitting position and tried to start it. It purred into life, but before he could rev the engine to take off, a whip-like tail knocked him backward. He fell off his seat and landed on his back in the damp mud.
His blaster landed under a large elephant leaf. A bug chirruped in his ear. He brushed at it and reached for his weapon. How he hated the jungle.
With the familiar handle of the blaster in his fist, he straightened, sat up and turned in time to see the gaping jaws of a bright green raptor fill his view. Ormand shrieked.
About G. F. Hellstern
G. F. Hellstern is a professional in the Aerospace Industry where he builds future concepts for air and space platforms. He has served in the Air Force and enjoys writing and thinking up new ideas through fiction.
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