For the first time in hours, he finally felt safe.
25
THE OLD TROJAN PRISONER ROUTINE
The top floors of the shopping centre looked like an abandoned war zone. Broken glass and spent shell casings littered the marble tiles, leftovers from the battle between the aliens and Dreyfus’s soldiers. A few clamshell-shaped energy shields stood here and there, flickering as their battery packs dwindled to empty. The balcony railings had been melted by plasma fire, leaving a cliff-edge drop into the atrium below. The Ghost Reapers stayed well away from the edge.
“How long do you think we’ve got before they take off?” Casey asked her teammates.
“I’m not sure,” Brain said. “I guess they’ll need to prep the ship first. But who knows how long that takes. They’ve rounded up all the gamers they wanted. It can’t be long until they’re gone.”
Aware that time was running out, the group hurried through the devastation. They crouched low as they ran, trying not to let the rubber soles of their trainers squeak on the polished marble floors in case any Red Eyes lurked in the shadows.
When they reached the purple supply crates, Casey tapped the glyphs on the touchscreen control panel of the first one she came to, just as she would if she was playing SkyWake. It unlocked and slid open with a swish and a futuristic bleep.
“I want an energy shield,” Fish said elbowing his way to the front of the group. He was still carrying the yellow detonator under his arm. His face fell as he peered inside.
“It’s empty!”
Brain joined him. “They must have cleared it out before they left,” he groaned. Elite ran to the other crates and opened them. They were empty too.
Casey leaned against the first crate. Her head was spinning. Pete was upstairs on that strange alien craft. Alone, without her. Any minute now she would feel the building shake as the dropship took off, heading who knew where with her little brother on board. She stared into the empty supply crate, realizing what it meant.
It was over.
“We can’t do anything without weapons,” Brain said, voicing her thoughts. The rest of the boys shifted uncomfortably, waiting for someone to argue with him. But they all knew it was hopeless.
“Casey?” Elite asked.
She shook her head, unable to speak.
“We tried,” Fish said. “We did that at least…” His voice trailed off into silence.
There was a heavy tread of footsteps behind them. Casey looked over the ruined balcony and saw a lone Red Eye heading up the escalators towards them. He hadn’t seen them yet but it would only be a matter of time. She felt her body tense.
“Find some cover,” she whispered to the boys, looking around for somewhere to conceal herself. There wasn’t time to run across the balcony.
“There’s nowhere to hide, yo,” Elite whispered.
“Every man for himself!” Fish hissed, and dived into the empty supply crate, still cradling the detonator box. The lid bleeped and shut over him.
“Get behind the crate,” Casey told the others, crouching behind it – although it was barely wide enough for the three of them.
The Red Eye clattered up the stairs. His movements were slightly jerky, as if his power suit wasn’t working properly. He crossed the floor, his heavy combat boots crushing glass shards and metal shell casings from the earlier fire-fight.
Casey poked her head around the side of the supply crate as he approached. There was something strange about his armour. As he got closer, she could see that it was covered in strips of some kind, silver strips. They almost looked like duct tape. At least, she noted, he wasn’t carrying a weapon. Maybe they still had a chance. She checked her plasma rifle was charged and lifted it to her shoulder in readiness.
The Red Eye headed across the balcony and stopped in front of the crate, his red mechanical eyes burning bright in his helmet. The boys behind the crate squirmed and wriggled in panic, trying to make themselves as small as possible. Elite’s scuffed trainers were sticking out on one side of the crate and the top of Brain’s head was visible above it. Casey’s finger curled around the trigger of her rifle.
The Red Eye cocked his head on one side. “That’s the worst hiding place ever,” he said in his deep voice. It took Casey a second to realize what was so strange about it.
He was speaking English!
She stuck her head out and stared at the alien. His armour was badly battered and, now that he was up close, she could see it really was held together by duct tape.
It was, she realized with a jolt, Scratch’s armour. But Scratch had been stretchered upstairs…
“I guess you’re wondering who I am,” the Red Eye said. He put his black-gloved hands to his head and pulled his dented helmet off to reveal a face they all recognized.
“Cheeze!” Casey yelled in surprise and delight.
“I always hate it when you guys play without me,” the boy said with a grin.
Elite and Brain popped up from behind the supply crate and ran towards him, whooping and hollering with excitement. Casey stared in astonishment before joining them in a group hug.
“What’s going on?” a muffled voice asked from inside the crate. “Are you being murdered? Guys? Are you there? I’m stuck. There aren’t any buttons on the inside.”
“Someone should let Fish out,” Casey said.
“Do we have to?” Cheeze asked with a smile.
“After you got away, the Red Eyes stormed the control room,” Cheeze told them a few moments later, as he brought them up to speed with everything that had happened. “They took the lieutenant. But they left me alone when they saw I couldn’t stand without my wheelchair. I guess the Red Eye army doesn’t believe in equal opportunities.”
“What about Wilson and Tucker?”
“Last I saw, they were still knocked out by the tarantulas’ venom. After the Red Eyes left, I patched this suit together and hacked into it. It’s controlled by my nervous system, so even though I can’t move my legs, I can use it to get around and – ta-dah! – alien mobility aid.”
He did a little shimmy in celebration then quickly stopped, his face creased in pain.
“Are you OK?” Casey asked, grabbing his arm.
“It hurts a bit. I’ve been in my wheelchair so long, my body’s not used to standing upright. It feels really weird to be up here at your height. But also cool! And I couldn’t just leave you guys out here.”
“Hashtag impressed.” Brain nodded.
“So,” Cheeze asked, “what’s the game plan?”
“There isn’t one,” Fish admitted. “We came up here looking for weapons but all the supply crates are empty. There’s nothing except for these things.”
He pulled a couple of neck shackles from the supply crate he’d been hiding in and held them aloft, despairing.
“What you going to do, make yourselves into prisoners and save the Red Eyes the trouble?” Cheeze snorted.
There was a pause. Then Casey’s eyes lit up. “Actually,” she said, “that’s exactly what we should do.”
The boys all turned to look at her in surprise. She had clearly had an idea. If she’d been a cartoon character, she would have had a light bulb hanging over her head.
“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like this one bit?” Fish muttered.
“Trust me, Fish,” Casey told him, “you’re going to love this plan.”
By the time they reached the top of the escalator, Casey and the boys were shuffling along in a line with shackles around their necks. Cheeze, with his helmet back on and Casey’s plasma rifle in his hands, guarded them as they stepped out onto the rooftop.
“I hate this plan,” Fish whined, tugging the shackle around his neck. Before they set off, Cheeze had opened up the devices and worked out what they were for and how to deactivate them. Even so, the Ghost Reapers still felt apprehensive about wearing them. Fortunately, they’d only need to fool the Red Eyes long enough to get on board. Once they were on the ship, they could get rid of them.
<
br /> Crossing the roof towards the waiting dropship, the boys stared up at it in wonder. Casey, however, peered over the side of the building to the car park below. Tanks and artillery guns were lining up on the other side of the force field. It looked like everyone in charge was convinced this was an invasion. By the time the authorities worked out what was really happening, the dropship would have dusted off with its prisoners.
They’d decided to leave the detonator they’d taken from Dreyfus inside the supply crate. Cheeze had scrambled the lock to keep it safe. It gave her some small comfort to know that, whatever happened next, no one would be blowing up the shopping centre today.
She thought of her mum down there in the crowd, terrified and anxious. She longed to be able to tell her what was happening. But there was no way she could face her without Pete. She had to get him back. She balled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms. She would find a way to stop the ship from taking off.
She had to.
* * *
At the ramp, the Red Eyes had just finished loading Scratch’s gurney, rushing her inside. Dreyfus, still a prisoner, was next in line to board the ship. Casey wondered why they’d bothered taking him. Perhaps they were planning an intricate act of revenge. What would be more cruel than sending this human soldier to fight on Hosin? Placing the proud military man on an alien battlefield, where he didn’t know the weapons or the enemy, would be his worst nightmare.
The Red Eye grunts stopped and stared when they saw Cheeze approaching them with his captives. He raised his hand, holding it sideways across his chest in the clenched fist greeting that the Arcturians used as a salute.
“Whar hef gecht?” one of the alien soldiers demanded.
Cheeze tapped his helmet’s mouthpiece and shook his head as if it wasn’t working.
“Pran imboci,” the other Red Eye said to his buddy as they looked Cheeze’s battered, duct-taped armour up and down in a mocking manner. They seemed highly amused by the state of it. They stepped forwards and scanned the teams’ badges with their lasers.
Casey, wearing Cheeze’s COMPETITOR badge, tried not to panic as the laser flashed over her. There was a bleep as the badge was accepted.
The alien soldiers hesitated a moment, looking at the group uncertainly. At first, Casey thought it was because they were so late to arrive. All the other gamers were already inside. But then she realized the flaw in her plan.
A full SkyWake squad should be five players.
But there were only four.
There was a pause as the two Red Eyes conferred in their strange language. The boys exchanged frightened glances. Fish looked like he might be about to make a run for it, but Casey gripped his elbow and shook her head. The last thing they could afford to do now was break cover. They had to play it cool.
Cheeze stepped forward. His step was jerky and awkward. He raised his arm and pointed across at Dreyfus, who was waiting to go up the ramp. The soldier stared back at them, pulling defiantly at the shock shackle around his neck.
The Red Eyes looked at Dreyfus then back at Cheeze, who jabbed his finger at Dreyfus again. Casey realized what he was doing. He was telling them to make Dreyfus part of their squad. The Red Eyes talked amongst themselves, clearly discussing the merits of this plan. Finally, one of the aliens nodded and ushered Casey and the others over to where Dreyfus was standing.
“I might have known you’d be captured too,” the lieutenant muttered as the Ghost Reapers drew near. “What have you done with my detonator?”
“It’s gone,” Casey whispered, keeping her voice low. Dreyfus’s body stiffened with anger.
“You stupid girl!” he hissed. “You’ve damned us all.”
A Red Eye shoved the butt of his plasma rifle between Dreyfus’s shoulder blades, pushing him up the ramp into the dropship. The teammates were led behind him. As they stepped up the ramp, it started to close. There was a hiss as it sealed itself shut.
Casey felt a sense of dread creeping up her spine.
What if Dreyfus was right?
What if she’d just made the worst mistake of her life?
26
IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
The interior of the dropship was gloomy and unwelcoming. Strange alien glyphs glowed on control consoles on the walls and, now and then, thin clouds of green plasma gas burst from the vents in the floor. It was like being inside a strange, toxic factory.
Casey knew the layout well. In SkyWake, the dropship map was the backdrop for a last man standing mode. One team was a squad of Red Eyes trapped on board a grounded ship. The other team played the Squids storming the stricken vessel to capture it. With limited ammo and no respawns, the map encouraged both teams to play tactically, hiding and sneaking through the different levels of the ship until they had eliminated all of the enemy team. But there was a twist: the Red Eyes had to protect the engine’s cooling systems from the Squid attackers. If the four cooling pumps went offline, the dropship wouldn’t be able to take off.
The guards escorting them paused a moment. Casey took the opportunity to look around. She never liked the map much. It was too claustrophobic; too enclosed. But Pete had always adored it. In the early days, when SkyWake was first released, he’d discovered a hidden engineering vent that crisscrossed the ship. He loved to crawl in there, holding a psi grenade, and drop it onto the Squids as they slithered beneath him. After a while, the hidden vent became common knowledge and the tactic lost its effectiveness.
Remembering the map, though, had given Casey a plan. If they could get to the cooling pumps, they could disable the dropship and stop it from taking off. All they needed was to get inside and then overpower their guards. With Cheeze in disguise, they had a decent chance. It was just a matter of timing.
As they were marched through the ship, Casey told the others her idea. She made sure to keep her voice to a whisper, even though she knew the Red Eyes couldn’t speak English.
“You know,” Brain said, after he’d digested her plan, “you’re making a huge assumption…”
“What do you mean?” Casey asked, her voice low.
“Who says the real dropship’s layout is the same as in SkyWake?” her friend asked. “Maybe there aren’t even any cooling pumps.”
It was a good question, although it was one Casey wished he hadn’t asked. “Everything else has been the same so far,” Casey said, trying to soothe his fears. “The weapons, the Red Eyes…”
“Who even designed the game, anyway?” Fish hissed beside her.
“It must be someone snatched by the Red Eyes,” Brain said.
Elite looked around nervously, not really listening. “This is taking too long.”
“Just stick to the plan,” Casey told them. “As soon as we get to the loadout bay, we’ll make a break for it and grab some weapons. Then we’ll head for the engine room and take the cooling pumps offline. It’s going to work.”
PSSSH-FSSH!
The Ghost Reapers jumped as a thin green cloud of plasma billowed out of a nearby vent, enveloping them in its bitter smell. It made Casey’s throat sting and her eyes water. They all coughed, except Cheeze and the Red Eyes, who were protected from the noxious gas in their powered armour. Casey stumbled forwards, dabbing her face on her sleeve and blinking hard, momentarily blinded.
That was why she didn’t see the danger ahead until it was too late.
Outside the entrance to the loadout bay stood an overseer commander and two Red Eye grunts in white armour. Casey recognized them as medics. The three of them were standing around the gurney, which was now parked in the middle of the corridor.
Lying on it was Scratch.
The alien screeched in pain, tubes and drips hanging out of her body. Her condition must have worsened on the way to the medical bay, because they seemed to be performing some kind of emergency procedure in the corridor to keep her alive. They were encasing her in sections of new armour as quickly as possible.
The medics worked furiously, paying the Ghost
Reapers little attention. But Scratch saw them coming. Her lips curled into a sneer as they approached. Casey prayed that she wouldn’t notice Cheeze’s battered armour – her armour – and raise the alarm.
The boys passed the gurney one by one. When it was Casey’s turn, she swallowed hard and kept her head down, careful not to look in the direction of the injured alien. She counted the floor vents beneath her feet as she walked. One, two, three, four… She was almost at the loadout bay door when she felt something cold and scaly against her wrist.
She let out a yelp as Scratch’s talon-like hand grabbed her arm and turned her to face the gurney. Panicked, Casey tried to pull herself free. But Scratch tightened her grip, refusing to let go. They stared at each other for a moment and Casey felt a chill run through her. It wasn’t the hatred in Scratch’s eyes, nor the way her talons dug into her wrist that terrified her. It was the sound the alien made.
Her strange mouth moved jerkily as she struggled to voice English syllables she’d never spoken before.
“Game over,” she hissed awkwardly in English, repeating the words Casey had said to her in Starbucks earlier that day. Then she made a horrid croaking noise.
It was, Casey realized in horror, the Arcturian equivalent of mocking laughter.
27
I HEAR YOU KNOCKING, BUT YOU CAN’T COME IN
What happened next was something of a blur. Casey yanked her wrist free from Scratch’s grip, ignoring the pain as the alien’s black talons ripped the skin on her arm and drew blood.
“Run!” she yelled to the boys.
At the same moment, the overseer leading them reached for the clicker on his belt, ready to shock the teammates into submission. But the only person who got shocked was Dreyfus. The overseer stared in surprise as the Ghost Reapers, in deactivated shackles, remained completely unharmed.
Panicked, the Red Eye escorts brought their plasma rifles up. Cheeze opened fire on them first, catching them off guard thanks to his alien suit. As the gunfire erupted, the medics dived for cover and Scratch fell to the floor, writhing and thrashing in fury.
SkyWake Invasion Page 15
