The idea had been to force any watching Lao Hu to split their forces to follow. They also each held cloaks to confuse who traveled with which group, in the hopes that the Lao Hu infiltrators might hesitate before openly attacking one of the telekinetics.
They also hoped that Neela ––
"Quiet, Jon," Revik warned him. "Your thoughts are too loud."
Despite the wind, Revik's subvocalized words were loud in Jon's headset. He glanced at the tall seer, who remained a good thirty feet away, and nodded.
"Remember," Revik added, his voice subdued. "We don't have Allie shielding us anymore."
"I thought she taught you all of that stuff," Jon ventured to ask, glancing back at the other segment of wall, where Revik remained, scouring the nearby buildings with high-powered binoculars.
"She did," Revik said, his eyes still on the horizon with the binoculars. "But I'm not as good at it as she is. And Jon...you need to start acting like an infiltrator. Stop fucking around and watch the ocean...I need you to look for the signal. Use your sight, but don't go outside the shield. And don't think about anything, goddamn it. I can't afford to babysit you out here..."
Jon didn't answer, but bit his lip, embarrassed, but also borderline angry. He was tired of reminding them he wasn't like them, though. Hell, he wasn't even a seer. None of them seemed to care anymore, though...and maybe they were right.
"The boat is here," Jon said a few seconds later.
"Where?" Revik glanced at him, but only briefly before his eyes returned to the windows of the nearby buildings.
"Near the baths...they don't want to come in the open until they know we're here."
"Are they in range of the headsets?"
Jon hesitated. "I don't know. The baths are about a half-mile up the shore, if that helps."
Revik nodded. "It does. We'll head to the cliffs."
Jon nodded and within minutes found himself running after Revik, with Illeg controlling the humans to run behind them in a straight line. All six of them ran at a crouch, but Revik moved so quickly that Jon found himself panting in seconds, fighting to keep his breathing quiet when Revik slammed him with his light for making noise. They'd made it most of the way to where the sea wall ended, when Revik came to a sudden stop, once again pressed against the wall. Jon stopped with him...nearly crashed into him, in fact, and might have, if Revik hadn't had a pretty good lead on him already. While he crouched there, Jon fought both to breathe quietly and to get enough air that he would be able to run again, when Revik demanded it.
He was beginning to understand why Wreg laughed at him when Jon told him that training under Revik would be easier.
Jon peered ahead as best as he could, and Revik slammed him again, that time for coming off the wall, especially with his head. Jon looked up, and saw why Revik had hesitated. He hadn't stopped there only because the sea wall had ended, but because above them stood Balboa Park, which housed enough trees to provide cover for anyone with a high-powered rifle. The wall gave way to a slope of gravel, sand and rock that protected them (mostly) from sight from the highway above...but not from that higher hill of the park.
If anyone waited for them there, they'd be walking into a turkey shoot.
Jon still hadn't seen a single car, not since they'd left the park.
He'd heard a few while they were running through the trees of the park itself, and saw one or two going down Fulton, most with radios blaring and enough metal coming out the side that they had to be carrying serious firepower. Revik said they hadn't been Lao Hu, SCARB or one of the other seer factions, so likely human gangs had taken over the area when the military pulled out. Jon even thought he heard a few cars cruising the park roads themselves, either JFK Drive or one of the smaller roads that popped off on the Richmond side, like the one on 43rd Avenue. He watched Revik carefully each time the sound of an engine reached his ears, but apart from a few minor reactions, Revik seemed mostly indifferent to them.
Far more than those few bouts of sub-woofer stereos and trucks crammed with cranked up kids, Jon found himself unnerved by the silence. He'd lived in this city most of his life, and never had he ever heard it as quiet as this. Gunshots sounded in the distance, here and there...in what sounded like the more northern part of the Richmond District, as well as further south in the park itself. He heard the murmur of louder sounds further south, and saw smoke coming from several different directions, including what looked like the Marina, the downtown area and the rough direction of the Mission District.
But the overbearing quiet overlay even those rumblings. Somehow, Jon found that silence more eerie than the few sounds of conflict he could make out. Now, on the beach, the waves created a white noise that somehow deepened that quiet more.
Jon understood why Revik might be nervous.
Hell, he was nervous, and he didn't even really know why.
"I'll go first," Revik said through the headset. "If nothing happens, I'll signal for you to follow." He pointed at the cliffs, maybe a hundred yards north of that last segment of wall. "We'll meet up there..."
For the first time, Jon found himself disagreeing, shaking his head.
"No, man."
Revik gave him a hard look.
"As in no, you're not going first," Jon added. "...In case that wasn't clear."
"Someone has to go." Revik's voice grew dismissive. He turned, looking back up at the trees of Balboa Park. "Once we get to the cliffs, we can call the boat in to get us."
"Can't you call them from here?" Jon said. "If they're already there, we can make a run for it...have them cover us."
Revik gave him a half-smile. Clicking softly, he nodded. "All right." He looked at Jon, his eyes narrow. "It's risky though, Jon. It'll make the boat a target. If there's anyone on those cliffs over the water, they could sink our only transport out of here..."
Jon shrugged, his words uncompromising. "So we'll go to the Marina. Find a different boat. We're not using you as shooting gallery bait, man...you're a lot more valuable than the rest of us, and don't pretend you aren't..."
Revik shrugged, one-handed. Jon could tell he didn't fully agree with him by the way he did it, but he seemed willing to compromise, which had been more than Jon expected. He waited while Revik appeared to be contacting the boat.
A few seconds later, he glanced at Jon.
"Okay. They agree...we do it your way." He glanced down the line at Illeg, who seemed to have heard everything, too.
"I agree with Jon," she said, adding, "...For the record, boss."
"Noted," he said.
His eyes were back on the forested cliffs though, and likely his sight as well. Jon kept his own eyes trained on the sandier cliffs over the ocean and the water beyond, looking for the boat.
It seemed like forever that they held in that position, with Revik's focus on the park and the road, and Jon watching the sea. When he first saw the dark shape of the boat, Jon almost didn't make it out from the rocks and the dark water itself.
"It's there," he said, a few seconds later. "I see it." He looked at Revik, then glanced apologetically at Illeg. "Let Illeg go first," he said. "Cover her with the telekinesis..."
Illeg immediately jumped to his defense, before Revik could open his mouth.
"Agreed," she said. "He's right, boss...I'll run scout. You cover me."
Revik looked between the two of them, frowning. After a longish pause where he seemed to be thinking, he nodded, once. "Agreed."
Without waiting, maybe because she worried he'd change his mind, Illeg took off across the sand between the cement wall and the cliffs.
Immediately, shots rang out, kicking up tufts of dirt and sand.
Jon pressed his back into the wall, glancing at Jaden, Angeline and Tina to make sure they were doing the same. He only noticed then that Angeline was wearing sandals, and that her feet looked pretty cut up. But he didn't have time to think about that, either. He heard another pattering of shots, then what sounded like a mini-explosion.
Jon glanced at Revik, his back still crushed against the wall. He half-expected to see Illeg dead, but she seemed to have made it across. He saw her holding her shoulder though, from where she crouched behind the cliff, and she was balancing her weight strangely on one leg. Jon glanced at Revik then, and saw that his eyes were glowing. His irises were bright enough to startle Jon, in fact, and he flinched back involuntarily.
"Relax," Revik said, giving him a warning look. "I got three of them...the ones shooting. No way did they use all of their numbers though..." He paused then, his eyes narrow once more. "...They're moving. Heading to the opposite cliff..."
Jon looked up and realized what Revik meant. If they crossed the road from the park, they would be able to shoot down on Illeg where she stood under the cliffs. Another turkey shoot, but one they wouldn't be able to escape as easily.
"I'm going to send the humans across, Jon," Revik said, giving him a hard look.
Jon hesitated, even as a sick feeling rose in his gut.
He glanced back at Jaden and the others, and the feeling worsened. Even so, he understood the logic, so he only nodded.
Revik appeared relieved that he wasn't going to argue.
Seconds later, presumably from a prompt fed to them by Revik's mind, Jaden, Angeline and Tina burst out of cover in a flat-out run, heading for the cliffs and for Illeg. Jon couldn't tear his eyes off the runners that time, partly because he no longer had anywhere else to look. He heard the guns, the sound coming to his ears seemingly after the puffs of sand rose along the same stretch of beach...and even after the ricochets as bullets hit rock and harder targets.
Then Tina stumbled, thrown face-first into the sand, still about ten yards from the cliffs. From the way she writhed on the ground, holding her leg, she'd apparently been hit in the thigh. Jaden stopped to grab her arm and pull her up...then he got hit somewhere in the upper body, hard enough that he stumbled, falling into her. Angeline, who ran the fastest of the three by far, streaked across the sand and seemed to make it to the cliff on the other side unharmed. She didn't even appear to notice what had happened until Illeg had her under the shadow of the rocks.
Jon found himself staring at Jaden and Tina.
The shots had lessened, enough that Jon knew they probably weren't aiming to kill, or the two of them would be dead already.
Even so, looking at them there, they seemed like animals caught in a snare.
He didn't know he was going to do it until he'd already done it.
He heard Revik cry out, felt him grab for his arm, but Jon was already running, his booted feet pounding across the sand, feeling like he was wading through Jello, despite the rocks dotting his path. He heard another explosion in the trees above him, even as air whizzed by from bullets. He reached Jaden and Tina and grabbed Tina on the other side, where Jaden had been once more trying to hoist her to her feet. Between them, they got her moving again, half-carrying her across the sand while she fought to hop on her remaining leg.
Tears were running down her cheeks, Jon noticed. He seemed to notice a lot of details right then, actually, which didn't strike him as strange until later. He felt pretty sure he'd just committed suicide, but couldn't quite make himself regret it either.
Somehow they were still moving though, half jogging with her...and with each pound of their feet in the sand, the cliffs loomed closer. Jon heard another booming sound behind him, and then he saw Revik running across the sand too, even as a curl of black smoke came off the mountain above. Jon heard another, louder explosion then, seemingly from directly overhead.
He didn't connect the dots until he found himself with Illeg and Angeline, safe under the cliffs. Then his mind clicked back on, and he understood the source of the second set of explosions. There had been cars parked up there, just below the Cliff House and overlooking the sea. Revik must have ignited their fuel tanks.
Feeling a giddy sort of optimism, Jon half-dragged Jaden along with him under the shelter of the rocks, supporting him almost as much as they supported Tina. They'd already reached the safety of the cliffs when another hand caught him by his left arm, dragging him off Tina and Jaden and half-throwing him under the deeper protection of the cliff wall.
"You ever do something like that again, and I'll collar you, I swear it!" Revik hissed at him, not bothering with the headset. He shoved Jon against the wall, hard enough that Jon knocked into a protrusion with his back. The pain forced a gasp to Jon's lips, but Revik didn't seem to notice. "You hear me, goddamn it? You fucking disobeyed me in the middle of a live op! I swear to the gods, Jon...this isn't an idle threat. I'll beat the living hell out of you if you do it again!"
Jon just stared up at him, wide-eyed, but when Revik still seemed to be waiting for an answer, he nodded.
"Okay, man. Sure."
"Sure my ass. I should have pushed you...turned you into a puppet like the other worms!"
"I'm sorry, man," Jon said. "Seriously. I don't know why I did it..."
"Bullshit! You know exactly why!" Some of the fire dimmed in Revik's eyes, but his jaw remained hard. "You're just like your fucking sister..."
Jon didn't answer that, but continued to watch Revik's eyes glow, the sparks of current sliding through the veins in his irises. They were dimming already, and briefly, Jon felt a surge of fatigue off the seer. Along with fear, and not for himself.
"Hey," Jon said. "You all right, man?"
Revik didn't seem to hear him. Gripping his arm tighter in his hand, he began dragging Jon down the line of the cliff to the water. He paused by Illeg only long enough to look at her injuries, laying a hand on the one that seemed to have grazed her thigh. There was a lot of blood, but Jon found himself relieved when Revik pronounced the wound to be mostly superficial.
"Can you get to the boat?" Revik asked her. "I can come back to help you..."
"No, I've got it, sir."
"What about the others?" Revik glanced at Angeline, Jaden and Tina, his eyes still narrow, and still holding a faint glow. He didn't let go of Jon's arm, but he didn't look at him, either.
"The girl is hurt...but it missed the artery," Illeg said, as she scanned the three of them. "The male has a shoulder wound. Again, it is not particularly dangerous...it will slow them down, is all. They do not appear to have been shooting to kill..."
"Fine," Revik said with a curt nod. He was already walking away, bringing Jon with him. "...Move them as best you can," he called back to Illeg. "Try to get them to the rocks...I'll be back if you need help."
He marched Jon with him as he strode across the sand, keeping him firmly to his right, so that Jon remained primarily under the edge of the cliff. Revik's long legs moved fast, though...fast enough that Jon had to struggle to keep up, even though he wasn't hurt at all, and not even all that out of breath, considering the shot of adrenaline now pumping through his veins. They reached the edge of the water and Revik simply plunged in, still walking fast as he forced his feet and then his legs through the surf. He brought Jon with him, seemingly oblivious to the waves smacking against them on their way to meet the rocks of the cliff. He held Jon tightly enough that Jon found himself getting tense, watching the force of the waves increase as they approached the larger rocks closer to where the boat was coming around the small jetty.
"Are there more of them? More seers with guns, I mean?" Jon managed, panting as he fought to keep up with Revik through the freezing cold water. He gasped when a wave hit him hard in the crotch and thighs, and remembered it was November.
"Yes," Revik said gruffly, not looking at him. "The fire should slow them down...it'll fuck up their visibility, if nothing else. We have to move before the smoke dissipates..."
Jon nodded, more to himself than Revik, who wasn't really looking at him, but only at the boat and occasionally up at the cliffs themselves. The seer seemed to be waiting for something...or looking for something perhaps. Whatever it was, it felt like something specific, but Jon didn't really have time to think about that, either. He chanced a glance backwards a
t the cliffs himself, but nearly fell when the next wave hit him, soaking his jeans up to his ass and making him gasp aloud as his scrotum and balls climbed back up into his body. He glimpsed black smoke behind him, blooming up from the three or so cars Revik had exploded with the telekinesis. He found he understood the preoccupied look on the Elaerian's face, too; despite his words, he must still be scanning for another attack.
They were waist-deep in freezing cold salt water when Revik nudged Jon sharply towards a flat outcropping of rock, one that rose a good few feet above the highest edge of the water. Even so, the rock was covered in moss and spray, and slippery. Revik caught hold of his waist, and Jon realized the seer planned to hoist him on top of the flat section of rock.
"Can you get up there?" Revik said, no longer bothering with the headset.
In the wind, with the crashing waves, it was doubtful anyone would hear them anyway, and Jon could feel Revik's worry about time. He understood, too, when he glanced up at the cliffs again. The smoke continued to cover most of the back part of the cliff, but they were already mostly past that section of cliff, and potentially visible from the Cliff House Restaurant as well as the wall of rock around the Camera Obscura. Jon felt another jolt of fear when a larger wave slammed into him, making him cough salt and water, even as it threw him against the outcropping of rock. Revik held him to minimize the impact, but as soon as the wave hit the rocks, he was pushing at Jon again, shoving him towards the rocks.
"Climb up!" he said. "Before the next wave, Jon!"
Jon nodded, and did his best to grab onto the slippery, seaweed-covered rocks.
Barnacles hurt his hands and he found himself wishing he wore gloves even as he dug his boots into the underground portion of rock. With a boost from Revik, he managed to pull himself on top of the rock less than a minute later, shivering and gasping like a dunked cat.
He didn't have time to look around before he was gripping Revik's jacketed arm, helping him make the final jump up to the rock beside him. Only after he let go of Revik and saw the smear of blood on his jacket did Jon realized he'd opened one of his hands on the rock. The cut bled at first, in a seeping kind of pulse, but Jon's fingers and palm were so cold he barely noticed. More distractingly, the salt water burned on the cut, as well as a smaller one on his other hand. The cold numbed the pain of that too, and seemed to close up the wound faster as it whitened against his skin. Revik looked at Jon's hands briefly, frowning at the larger cut, then glanced at the boat approaching the other side of the rock.
Allie's War Season Three Page 64
