Jono turned to Paige. “You ever see Batch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?'
“No, Butch, but I’ve seen Flubber.”
Leather squinted against the rising sun and wished that he’d taken the time to wash the windshield at his last gas stop. As his van roared down the freeway, he was at least thankful that he didn’t have Black as a passenger this time. The “old man” had flown into Raleigh, and was with the group that was closing in from the south.
He growled and slammed the wheel with one hand as he thought about it. What business did that fossil have putting himself in the middle of a field operation? “If I wanted a ball and chain,” he muttered, “I know a club in Manhattan—” Thanks to Black’s interference, he’d lost these—these kids, twice already.
“It’s because of his little pet, Espeth,” he said. Leather had heard how he’d found her on the streets of Seattle, guided her into the public Genogoths, then groomed her for membership in the inner circle. “Nobody made it easy for me,” he said. “I worked my way up through the ranks. Didn’t let anyone stand in my way.” He wasn’t going to let anyone stand in his way this time, either. Maybe it was time for the Genogoths to have a new leader. Maybe it was time to see how that would work out.
He carefully leaned down and pulled out the machine-pis-tol stuffed under his seat. He held the gun between his knees while he slapped in a magazine one-handed, then hefted it. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “this one is going down Leather style.”
Paige dragged Jono by the arm up the slope and onto the little wooden bridge, “husking” as she ran into a metallic form. “I don’t want to get a splinter,” she yelled. They ran out onto the bridge deck, wooden planks thumping under their feet until
Paige stopped them near the middle. “I’ve got the plan,” she said, “but you’re the man.” She pointed at the beaver dam which although it was deteriorating, still held back a sizable pond. “Blast it,” she said, “give it everything you’ve got.”
He looked at her doubtfully.
“A busted beaver dam once flooded out two acres of our garden back home. That should be enough water to cover the Xabago’s tracks. Even if they figure it out, it should slow them down a little.”
Jono reached up and hooked his index fingers over the wraps that covered what used to be the bottom of his face. He tugged them down, and tendrils of scarlet colored energy danced through the air, seeking escape. He granted their wish, clenching his fists as he focused all that energy into a column of sheer, destructive power.
What took beavers years to build simply ceased to exist, instantly transformed into an expanding ball of debris that enveloped the little bridge. Paige jumped in front of Jono, using herself as a human shield, chunks of wood and rock bouncing harmlessly off her metal skin. Jono ducked low, arms crossed over his head.
Then a roar, a blast of air, and the little bridge shook as though in the grip of a giant hand. He looked up to see the wall of water as it lashed through the little stream’s channel, pounding the bridge abutments and surging just a meter or so under their feet.
Paige yelled something, but he couldn’t hear her over the din. He could see her pointing though. A dozen black cars and trucks were sliding to a stop near where the Xabago had only moments before rested.
Leather slid to a stop just in time to watch the huge mass of water and debris swallow the culvert below the roadway and sweep up the bank toward him, lapping at the edges of the pavement before slowly withdrawing.
“What was that?” it was Black’s voice in his ear-piece. He and his group had pulled up just shortly after Leather. He saw them on the other side of the median strip, several of the off-road-capable vehicles poised to cross the median strip if so ordered.
“They’ve slipped away again,” he answered. “Maybe they took that thing airborne again. We should have helicopters—•”
“Out in the country like this helicopters draw attention,” Black snapped back, “but I’ll take it under advisement.”
“The main groups should head north and south and fan out from the next couple of exits.” He looked at the surging water. He still didn’t see how that piece of the puzzle fit. “I’ll stay here and see if I can pick up any clues.”
“Sounds reasonable. Keep in touch.” Black’s car accelerated north and the rest of his group followed. The rest of Leather’s group headed out as well.
Leather pulled off onto the shoulder. He could see a bridge through the trees. Railroad? No, there was a narrow gravel frack hidden back there. He pulled forward for a better look at the bridge. Then he saw two figures run out from behind a bridge support, one a boy with some kind of energy flaming from his chest, the other a girl who seemed to be made out of quicksilver. Two of the Xavier mutants!
He looked desperately for a way across to the road, but even with four wheel-drive, the overflowing stream and thick trees had every obvious route blocked. They were going to get away. Unless .. .
He pulled forward about twenty yards and hit the button that opened the sunroof. Setting the brake, he grabbed the machine pistol and climbed up to stand straddling the two front seats.
He took aim, then hesitated for a moment. These were mutants he was shooting at. But he reminded himself that they were Xavier’s pups, public mutants that put all others in jeopardy. They knew secrets that could destroy the Genogoths, and they were his only lead to capturing the rogue Espeth. They had to be stopped.
His finger tightened on the trigger.
Paige and Jono hid themselves behind the narrow metal support beams of the bridge. They tried to make themselves very small. Unfortunately, that was a mutant power that neither of them possessed.
“Oh, Gel,” Jono projected his telepathic voice into Paige’s head, so there was no danger of being overheard, “you take me to the best parties.”
Paige, who was standing with her back pressed against the next beam, gave him a nasty look, but said nothing. Carefully she balled her left hand into a fist, held it out, back toward her, and stared at it intently. It took him a moment to realize that she was using her own metallic skin as a crude minror to check on the Genogoths.
He could hear a mass of idling motors stopped along the freeway. Jono wished he’d remember to put the wraps back over his face after blasting the dam. It would be difficult to do ri<5w without waving his elbows around where they could be seen. He was trying to figure out another way when he heard, first one, then more of the vehicles drive away.
He made eye contact with Paige, who nodded. They were leaving! Finally, there was only one motor, and Jono waited for it to leave. And waited.
Paige was frowning. They could wait here all day, but eventually, the straggler was going to spot them. “I say we make a run for it. The Xabago went that way,” he nodded toward the road to their right, “so we go left. If he sees us, we lead him away from the others. If not, we can find a place to hide and double back.”
Paige nodded, held up three fingers, and began a countdown. Three. Two. One. Go!
They sprinted, and Jono immediately groaned to himself. He’d forgotten how much noise their feet made on the bridge timbers. The watcher was sure to hear them.
He heard the vehicle suddenly start moving. It rolled along the highway only a few car lengths, then slid to a stop. Paige was just in front of him. Jono pushed his pace, and pulled up even with her.
He risked a glance over at the watcher. Somebody was poking out through a hole in the roof. He wanted to look again, see what he’d been holding.
Something zinged around them like angry bees. It hit Paige hard enough to make her stumble, and cause her metal body to ring like a bell.
“Bloody hell, what was that?”
Suddenly she grabbed him and pushed him to the side of the road, shielding her with his body. “They’re shooting at us,” she yelled.
Jono was suddenly very, very conscious of how small she was. Then he heard a pair of whistling noises coming out of the sky. His eyes went wide.
He s
aid, “Artillery—”
Then a cruise missile hit him in the back. He was instantly flying through the air at blinding speed, air ripping through his hair.
When Jono recovered from the shock, he realized the cruise missile’s name was Everett Thomas and he was being carried through the air at fantastic speed. He looked over to see that Monet was likewise carrying a startled Paige.
“Welcome to Air Monet,” yelled Ev, “this is your co-pilot Synch, and I hope you enjoy today’s flight. We’ll be traveling at an altitude of—,” suddenly they all dived through a hole in the tree canopy and were zooming along under the trees, their speed not having diminished a bit. “—and altitude of about two feet!”
“You know,” yelled Paige, “the first time I saw this part of Return of the Jedi, I ralphed.” She held her hand over her mouth. “But I’m a big girl now. I think.”
Suddenly they hooked a sharp U-tum around a large oak tree and were headed back the way they came.
“Lead the blighters off track and then double back,” said Jono. “That was our plan!”
“We do it quicker,” said Ev.
“Do we have to go this fast?” complained Paige, as they zigzagged through an especially dense stand of trees.
Monet smiled. “When you’ve been a piece of auxiliary equipment on a motor home as long as we have, it’s good to finally cut loose.”
Quickly they sailed over the top of an overgrown, split-rail fence, across a weedy field free of trees, past a burned-out farm house, and toward an old bam. Suddenly they swooped skyward, traveling straight up for a hundred feet or so, slowing until they seemed to be in free-fall. Then they went down, through the open top of the barn’s silo. As they touched down gently at the bottom, they could see the Xabago through a rectangular opening to their right.
Jono shook himself free of Ev’s grasp. “We left my bloody stomach about two klicks back.”
Ev grinned. “We could go back for it.”
“Hell, no,” said Jono.
Ev shrugged. “Suit yourself. Me and Monet have to go back out anyway. We’ve got some tracks to cover.” The two of them disappeared back into the silo.
“Hey,” Jono called after Ev, “is there any reason we couldn’t have come in through the front door?” Then he noticed Paige inspecting her arm. “You okay, luv?”
She looked up and nodded. “Just a few dents. Nothing fatal.”
They walked into the bam, and Jubilee and Angelo trotted out to meet them.
Angelo held his arms wide and grinned broadly. “Jono, Paige! Our heroes have returned!”
Jono and Paige looked at each other. “Just call me Butch,” he said. “That okay with you, Sundance?”
She grinned and nodded.
Angelo looked puzzled. “What’s up with that?”
Jono and Paige laughed.
Leather parked his van in the middle of the little bridge and climbed out. The flood had run its course, and he looked down on the debris-littered creek bed and the remains of what looked like a beaver dam. It had taken him forty-five minutes to find his way off the freeway, double back across country, and return to this spot.
He saw now that the flood had been a ruse to cover their escape onto the back roads. He’d hoped there might be tire tracks or some other useful clue, but a dead tree, pulled up by the roots, now lay by the stream under the bridge. It hadn’t been there when he left, and it didn’t appear to have been pulled up anywhere nearby. From the looks of it, somebody had used it as a giant whisk broom, dragging it down the road to erase any tracks.
Leather slammed the van’s door in anger and kicked the tire. They could be a mile from here, or all the way in South Carolina by now. Even the satisfaction of shooting off a few rounds had been fleeting. What this situation needed was not a little more firepower, it was a lot more firepower.
He climbed back into the van, plucked his phone from its pocket on the dash, and dialed. “Jet,” he said, “round up as many of the chieftains as you can for a conference call. In one hour. Just the ones that are loyal to me. Yeah. Pick them carefully. It’s time to make some changes, and Black’s in the way.”
Jono found Paige sitting alone in the barn’s hayloft, sitting on a pile of baled hay. She’d husked back to her normal form and was dressed in her training uniform. Jono looked at her shyly. “Wassup,” he said.
“Pull up a bale,” she said, “sit a spell.” She leaned back against a beam and sighed. “This reminds me so much of home. Just for a minute, anyway, I can forget what a mess we’re in.”
Jono sat on a hay bale. It was harder than it looked, smelled funny, and the ends of the straw poked him in the butt. It didn’t feel near as comfortable as Paige made it look. It was all a matter of perspective, he guessed. “I guess that’s no small part my fault.”
She waved a hand at him in annoyance. “Could we not talk about it? Give me my five minutes of vacation here.”
She was quiet for a while, then a faint smile crossed her face. She looked at him, a little wicked glint in her eye. “You know, for a girl from Kentucky, a hayloft is a seriously romantic setting.”
Jono blinked. “What?”
She laughed at him. “I wasn’t trying to start anything, Jono. It’s just that, well, I think there are some Kentucky counties where being alone in a hayloft with a guy is just about as legally binding as a ring and a preacher.”
Jono squirmed. “Meaning?”
She laughed again, just thinking about it. “Meaning, if you value your life, you will never tell my brother Cannonball about this.”
The humor of it finally hit him, and he laughed too, or as close as he could come in his present condition. “I’ll keep that in mind next time I see him. Guess that gives you some pretty
good blackmail on me.” His humor faded. “I hope you’re not going to want to use it.”
Her smile dimmed. “Uh, oh. Why do I have the feeling that that patented Starsmore cloud-o-doom is going to descend on us both?”
He looked away. “Don’t be like that, luv. It’s just, I have a confession to make. Last night, when we ran off the road, well—it’s just that—I harbored just a little suspicion that you might have done it on purpose.”
She stood and looked at him in amazement. “What? Jono, how could you?”
He shrugged. “I was tired. It was a moment of weakness. Like that.” He met her eyes. “And it made sense. You don’t like the mission. A little sabotage. Nobody gets hurt. Maybe Espeth sees things your way and we call in the big leagues.” She glared at him. “Is that still what you think?”
'' “No,” he said weakly.
She put her hands on her hips. “Good, because listen up. We are a team here. We might disagree, but I would never sabotage you or anybody else on that team. Not you, not anybody, not even M, much as I might like to introduce her face to my boot some days.”
“But,” he said, “that doesn’t extend to Espeth.”
She looked thoughtful. “No,” she said, “it doesn’t. But this isn’t Espeth’s mission, its yours, it’s the team’s. I’m not calling the shots this time, but I can be a good little soldier if you’ll let me.”
Jono looked down at the bam floor, where Espeth was helping Angelo roll one of the flat tires over to a workbench. “Yeah, well, it’s just sometimes hard to know who to trust.” Paige looked indignant and tapped her finger over her heart. “Trust me, Jono.”
He nodded.
Just then, a roar of rage and frustration came from below. It was Espeth.
Jono looked at Paige, who nodded, and the two of them climbed down from the loft to join the others who gathered from various comers of the bam and the Xabago to see what the commotion was about.
The tire was lying on its side on a rickety bench half covered with pieces of old farm machinery. A spot on the bench had been cleared next to the tire. There, Espeth had spread a tire patch kit she’d found in one of the Xabago’s dustier storage compartments, obviously left over from some previous owner.
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Jubilee leaned over and made eye contact with her. “You growled, O gothic one?”
“This isn’t going to work,” she snapped back. She pounded her fist against the bench repeatedly. “This just isn’t going to work. What was I thinking? I know. I was thinking you’d have Blackbirds or pogo-planes or quinjets or something.” She spotted a com cob on the floor of the barn, grabbed it and flung it at the Xabago. “This is hopeless. Even if we can fix it, it’ll jilst break again, or they’ll catch us again. They just keep finding us. It’s a miracle they haven’t gotten us yet, and the closer we get, the easier it gets for them to find us. We can’t even begin to worry about what we’ll find when we get there, because odds are, we’ll never make it that far!”
Angelo stepped in, his face angry. “Listen, chica, we aren’t the X-Men or the Avengers. We aren’t super heroes. We’re just a bunch of students with funny genes doing what we can do. I told you that when you first showed up at the school, but it went in one body piercing and out the other! We’re going to bust our amigos out of the slam.” He turned and stomped away to the Xabago. “You do what you want,” he said.
Espeth watched him go, her mouth open.
“Man-o,” sneered Paige, “and I thought Jonothan was negative! We’ll cope. They’ll throw things in our way, and we’ll cope with it. We have so far, haven’t we?”
“Plan B,” said Jubilee, giving Paige a high five.
“Plan B,” said Paige.
Espeth glared at them. “They’ve been coddling us so far. Time and space have been on their side, but we keep raising the stakes. Somebody is going to get hurt.”
“Then,” said Paige evenly, “somebody gets hurt. Those are the risks.” She stepped closer to the bench. “Now, how do we fix this thing?”
Espeth sighed. “I can patch the tires, but we can’t inflate them without an air compressor.”
“I,” volunteered Monet, “can blow up a tire.”
Ev’s eyes narrowed. “I am not even going to go near that one.”
“You’d better not,” said Jubilee.
Generation X - Genogoths Page 10
