by Anna Hackett
Noah gave a single, dissatisfied nod. “I’ve added extra flares to the Hawk’s arsenal. Even if the missiles do still pick up your heat signature, you can use the flares to confuse them, and give them other heat signatures to follow.”
This was it. “I’ll call Lia. Our mission is a go.”
Chapter Eight
Lia adjusted her flight suit and gripped her drone. She strode down the corridor toward the hangar. As she stepped inside, she watched people moving to and fro, working on Hawks, refueling equipment, moving spare parts. She spotted Finn’s damaged Hawk, and her stomach did a slow turn.
Then she spotted another Hawk in the center of the hangar. She could see Finn through the cockpit window.
She pulled in a deep breath, calming her nerves. The last time she’d been out on a mission, she’d ended up running across an alien battleship while being attacked by raptors. The last time she’d watched a mission on screen, she’d seen Finn go down in flames.
This was their life now. Heading into danger, taking enormous risks. She looked around at all the people. To keep the Enclave and its people safe, some people had to take risks. To fight off the Gizzida, some of those fighters would die.
She looked at Finn again. He looked almost normal, busy getting the Hawk ready. But she remembered what he’d looked like, how hurt he’d been, when Hell Squad had brought him home.
Her thoughts turned to their night together. She knew she shouldn’t think about it, about him. But she didn’t want to see him hurt again, and she wanted more. She wanted to touch him and taste him again. God, she was an idiot.
At that moment, he looked down and spotted her, then waved her inside.
Lia climbed into the Hawk and moved through to the cockpit. She settled into the co-pilot’s seat.
“We’re just about ready to leave,” he told her.
“I heard about the message from Groom Lake.”
He nodded. “Not enough info got through. No one’s sure what exactly happened, or if they are okay. We need a jet and we need it yesterday. We have to get the amplifier out there.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Finn moved through his preflight check with an ease and skill that proved he’d done it many times before. Soon, the Hawk was shooting upward, through the retracted hangar doors. The afternoon sunlight was almost blinding. Lia closed her eyes and absorbed the warmth of it. There were some days when she really missed the sunshine.
“Good luck, you two.” Elle’s voice came through the speakers. “I’ll stay with you as long as I can.”
“Thanks, Elle,” Finn replied. He tapped the controls, and the Hawk tilted and moved northwest.
Lia could see that Finn was moving them a long way to the west. He was avoiding the main part of Sydney, and the areas that had the most alien activity. Soon, she saw the dark purple shadow of the Blue Mountains.
“I wonder what’s left of the old base,” she said.
He shrugged. “No point thinking about it. We made it out, that’s all that matters.”
He said it so matter-of-factly. Lia nodded, but she wondered if it mattered more than that. After all, it had been their home for eighteen months.
But maybe he was right. It was another thing that she’d gotten attached to, and then had snatched away.
She turned her gaze downward. Every now and then, she spotted raptor patrols. And once, off in the distance, she saw the huge form of a rex lumbering along. The creature had gotten its name because it resembled a T-rex.
“Do you think many survivors are out there? Alone?” she asked.
“Probably,” Finn said.
It had to be horrible to be so alone and afraid. “I wonder what this new alien weapon is.”
“We won’t know until we get this amplifier out there, and can talk to Groom Lake. Or other bases. Someone else might have intel on it.”
Worry ate at her, as she imagined what else the Gizzida had up their scaly sleeves. But Lia pushed it aside. For the moment, she had to focus on this mission.
Soon, they were flying over the thick trees of a national park on the northern side of Sydney.
“Okay,” Finn said. “We’re coming up on the facility.”
“I’ve been there a couple of times.” Lia scanned the ground below, to see if she could spot Aeron’s buildings. “I went to take a look at some new aircraft designs they were working on. They did good work.”
“Look. There it is.” He pointed straight ahead.
Lia could see the white curved hangars in the distance. “Any alien signatures?”
“None. Factories are that way.” He nodded his head toward the east.
Lia looked in the direction he indicated. She couldn’t see the buildings Finn had described, but she could see the thick clouds of smoke hanging in the air on the horizon like ugly storm clouds. Her gut cramped. What the hell were the aliens doing?
“Shit.”
Finn’s curse made her look back. They were right over the Aeron facility. Oh, no. Despair stuck its sharp claws into her. She could see it clearly now. The hangars were all crumpled. One had been burned, and was now just a blackened husk.
The only thing that looked intact was the main office building. It was a three-story building with a large glass roof over the lobby.
Finn circled around the site. Lia could see the twisted remains of jets on the test runway. There was nothing left.
“Nothing here.” Finn’s voice was hard. “We’ll have to look somewhere else.”
Lia nodded dully. But she knew they might not have the time for that. Hell, she wasn’t even sure there was anywhere else to look.
She glanced down through the grimy glass into the lobby of the building. She remembered her last visit there. The company had pulled out all the stops to impress them. She’d loved their sleek, minimalist office building. In the lobby, an early version of their first supersonic jet had sat on display, suspended from the ceiling.
She froze. She could see the silhouette of the jet now.
“Finn, there might be something left.” She pointed downward.
He looked and frowned. “A display?”
“It’s the actual first Aeron Mark 1 supersonic jet. It’s old and hasn’t been flown for years, but it might still be operational.”
Finn’s frown deepened. “It’s a bit of a longshot.”
“I remember them saying it would still fly. They were proud of it. Let’s get the drone out and take a closer look.”
Within moments, Lia was operating her drone. She flew it down, and found a broken window. She maneuvered it carefully inside. The place was a mess. The formerly pristine offices were now in disarray. Ceiling panels and wires dangled down. Desks had been overturned, and cupboards lay open and ransacked. She made her way carefully through to the lobby. Lia was grateful that it was a large, open space that made it easy to fly. The last thing she wanted to do was to get her drone hooked up on something.
The Mark 1 hung in the center of the lobby. She circled around it.
“It still has engines.” She was feeling excited now, bouncing in her seat. “I think it’ll fly.”
“It looks in decent condition,” Finn conceded.
Suddenly, an alarm blared in the cockpit. She looked up.
Finn’s face turned hard as granite. “Get the drone back in. We have to go. Now!”
“What is it?”
“We have a heat-seeking missile incoming.”
***
Finn flew the Hawk southward, racing across the sky. He saw the missile incoming, and fired the first set of flares. Behind the quadcopter, several small flares streamed out.
Mentally, he cursed. Clearly, the work he and Noah had done hadn’t been enough to hide the Hawk’s heat signature.
Now, all he could rely on was his flying skills—and luck—to get them home.
He keyed in evasive maneuvers, and saw the missile go off after a flare.
Beside him, Lia was gripping onto the edge of her seat.
More lig
hts appeared on his screen. Damn. There were more missiles coming, and right behind them, a fleet of pteros.
“How can I help?” Lia asked.
“Ever fire an autocannon?”
“No. But I can try.”
She slid out of her seat and into the back of the Hawk. He pictured her sliding into the seat on the autocannon.
Another missile got close, and more alarms blared. He fired more flares. Again, the missile flew off in the wrong direction, and he let out a sharp breath.
But when another heat-seeking missile raced in, he knew he was going to run out of flares well before the aliens gave up.
Two pteros caught up with them, whizzing past the Hawk.
Lia started firing the cannon, the distinctive whine of the laser a welcome sound. She didn’t appear to be hitting anything, but she was keeping the pteros busy, and causing them to twist and turn through the sky.
He fired another set of flares and then noticed a bigger blip on the screen. A really big blip.
“Lia? You see any other alien ships out there?”
“No.” A pause, more firing. “Just these pteros.”
Finn glanced all around through the cockpit windshield. Then he turned the Hawk slightly, and spotted it.
What the fuck?
It was far larger than the pteros, but smaller than the alien mothership. A big, black ship looming off in the distance. Some sort of warship.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he yelled. “Stop firing, Lia, and get back in here. I need you strapped in. It’s time to run and hide.”
Seconds later, Lia was back. When she spotted the big alien ship, she gasped. “What the hell is that?”
“No idea. Whatever it is, we can’t take it on in the Hawk.”
Finn focused on flying. He pushed the Hawk for all the speed he could get. Making a choice, he flew up into the clouds, whizzing through the white fluff, trying to lose the last two pteros.
When he checked the screen again, he could see the larger ship wasn’t pursuing them. He let out the breath he’d been holding, and vowed to make time to be grateful later.
He ducked down out of the clouds and saw Sydney Harbor ahead.
Suddenly, an alarm started an annoying beep again. Fuck. Another heat-seeking missile was on their tail.
“I’m out of flares.” He scanned the water ahead of them, moving right to avoid the ruins of the Harbor Bridge. “We need to hide.”
Lia tapped on the screen in front of her, swiping her finger and scanning through maps.
“Lia? We need somewhere now!” he said.
“There!” She pointed straight ahead. “Cockatoo Island. The same island that was in our simulation. The old shipyards are full of large industrial buildings. We can hide in there. There’ll be enough room for the Hawk.”
Finn whizzed in and around the small islands dotting the harbor, zeroing in on Cockatoo Island. “It’s a good option. Plus, it’s an island. That means alien ground troops can’t sneak up on us.”
He spotted the shipyards on one side of the island. It looked near-identical to what he’d seen in the sim he’d run with Lia. There were long, narrow industrial warehouses beside some man-made marinas, where they’d built ships so long ago.
Finn zoomed in low, so close that the skids were almost touching the water. He flew into a large shipyard warehouse that was open at one end, and slowed down.
He looked up and through a hole in the roof, he saw the final missile shoot overhead. It had lost them.
“Over there.” Lia pointed.
The whole place had been turned into a museum. He could see lots of old bits of equipment, and models of Naval vessels lined up against the walls.
He found a spot and lowered the Hawk in for a tight landing.
“Look at that,” Lia said. “We should pull it over the Hawk to hide it.”
He saw what she was talking about. There was a huge canvas sign that had once hung on the wall, no doubt advertising some long-ago exhibit. Now it had half fallen down. The beige canvas would make a perfect cover for the Hawk to help conceal it.
The two of them raced out of the quadcopter. It took them a few minutes to wrangle the huge piece of canvas. Finn climbed up onto the Hawk, dragging the cover with him. With some pulling and shoving, the two of them got it pulled over the Hawk to hide the rotors.
When Finn stepped back, he thought his bird blended in nicely with the old bits of equipment.
Suddenly, there was a roar of sound.
They both looked up, and through a hole in the roof, saw a ptero speed overhead.
Finn hurried around the bird and grabbed Lia’s arm. “Come on. We need to hide.”
He pulled her far away from the Hawk, and back behind some bits of equipment. He tugged her into the dark space between a giant hunk of metal and the wall.
The space was tight, and they were jammed together. Finn’s heart was beating hard, and he could feel the tension in Lia’s body. They maneuvered a bit to fit in their hiding place, and ended up with Lia sitting on his lap.
Finn could think of far worse places to hide. It was damn nice to have her there.
Outside, he could tell that night was falling. The sky was darkening, and there was the faint glow of the sunset in the distance. Suddenly, lights appeared.
Finn craned his head and then froze. A ptero had stopped right outside the warehouse. A bright beam of white light strobed inside.
“Stay still,” Finn murmured.
Lia moved her hand to grip his. The light passed over the walls, and then streaked over their hiding place. It moved on, and when it hit the camouflaged Hawk, Finn held his breath.
He tightened his hold on Lia. Whatever happened, he’d do whatever he had to do to protect her.
The light shone back again, and a second later it was gone.
Finn pressed his mouth to her ear. “Don’t move. We need to make sure they’ve gone.”
Night had well and truly fallen on Sydney. They stayed in the darkness, neither of them moving.
“I think we’ll need to stay here on the island for at least a few hours,” he told her. “We’ll have to wait until they aren’t looking for us anymore, and sneak out.”
She nodded. Then she shivered.
Finn realized that since the sun had set, the temperature had dropped. Australian winters weren’t particularly harsh and didn’t last long, but they did have their cold nights.
He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight. They stayed there, huddled together in the darkness. They were so close he could hear the beat of her heart, felt his own beat in time with hers.
Finally, Finn decided it was safe enough for them to move. “We need to find some shelter.”
Lia turned her head. “The island was a popular tourist attraction. I think there was a hotel and glamping area here.”
Finn stood and helped her up. “Glamping?”
“Fancy camping. Tents with beds, bathrooms, and fine dining.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why bother going camping?”
He saw the flash of her white teeth in the darkness. “No bugs, no outdoor toilets, no hard ground to sleep on. Comfort and enjoyment.”
He shook his head. He headed over to the Hawk and took a second to pull out his emergency pack, and fished around until he found his flashlight.
“Well, I don’t think we can do any glamping, but can try some scavamping.”
“What’s that?”
He reached out and took hold of her hand. “Scavenging camping. We’ll take whatever we can find.” He led her through the darkened warehouse, winding through the bits of abandoned equipment. “I think scavamping could have been the next big thing. It would have really caught on.”
It was nice to hear Lia’s laugh. It made him forget their bad situation—trapped in the heart of alien territory.
Chapter Nine
It was so dark. Lia was working hard to keep up with Finn and not stumble over anything. She knew they couldn’t risk us
ing the flashlight. Again, she heard a ptero overhead, and saw lights swinging across the ground, occasionally coming through the holes in the roof.
As the lights got close to them, Finn pulled her down behind some hulking object that she couldn’t quite identify in the darkness. His arm came around her, holding her tight.
With her heart in her throat, she watched the searchlights from the alien ships moving in a pattern. Once the lights moved away, she and Finn started moving again.
God, it was so dark. She lost sight of Finn for a second and hurried to catch up.
She took a step forward, and realized there was no concrete beneath her. She bit down on her lip to stifle her scream as she fell.
She landed waist-deep in water.
“Lia.” Finn’s frantic whisper in the darkness.
She looked up and saw his big silhouette above her. “I fell in some sort of drain.”
He grabbed her arm and yanked her out. Lia stood there, dripping, coldness seeping in.
“Are you okay?” Finn ran his hands over her, patting her down.
“I’m okay.” Except her legs were going numb from the cold. “Just wet.”
“We need to get out of here, and then we’ll get you dried off.”
They reached a doorway to the outside. The door had fallen off one of its hinges. Finn pulled her to a stop and they cautiously peered outside.
From what Lia remembered about Cockatoo Island, she was pretty sure what the building down the street was. “There. That’s the hotel.”
It was a narrow building, three stories high, overlooking the harbor. She suspected it would have had lovely views of the water and city in the daytime. But right now, all she could see was darkness and the odd glimmer of the lights from the pteros on the water. Then she spotted something else. “There’s what’s left of the tents.”
She saw the faint silhouettes of a line of tents right near the water. Some had collapsed, and others were torn and ripped.
“No glamping for us,” Finn whispered.
White, glaring lights appeared again, streaking down the street in front of them. Finn yanked her back into the darkened doorway.
As soon as the lights were gone, he pulled her forward. “Let’s go.”
