by Jake Elwood
You can't actually reach through the grill and shake her. Patience, Cassie. Control. "Well?"
"He's putting the laser together." Kira lapsed into silence, frowning into empty air beside Cassie's head.
"Laser? What laser?"
Kira's eyes focussed on Cassie again. "Huh? Oh. Right. He has this massive industrial laser. He plans to knock Skyland right out of orbit. He kind of forgot about it after they got Jacob. He wasn't going to shoot down the station with his own son on board, right?" When Cassie didn't reply, just made an impatient gesture, Kira continued. "Well, now he's got nothing left. So he might as well finish building the laser. He's got this base out in the wild with the laser and about fifty battle robots. He's been stealing them for years. Wanted to march on the parliament building and force the government to banish Skylanders from Zemoth." She shook her head. "As if that would have worked."
"Where," said Cassie as patiently as she could, "is this base?"
"It's on this little hill at the top of a valley about a thousand kilometers past the edge of the plateau. It's actually down below the toxic layer. Just a little way below, but enough to kill you. That's why no one's ever found the place." She looked smug. "Also why he never finished building the laser. It's a pain in the ass to get there, and to get any work done."
"How do we find this place?"
"I can give you the coordinates." Kira glared through the glass. "But you have to promise me you'll kill him."
Cassie was thoroughly sick of having lunatics tell her to kill people. However, she had no compunctions at all about lying to an assassin. And the odds of Hearne surviving Lark's rescue weren't really all that high. "Yes," she said. "We'll kill him."
"Don't tell the cops," Kira said. "They'll tell Skyland. Skyland will blast the place from orbit."
A cold fist tightened in Cassie's stomach. "They wouldn't."
"I'd give it a fifty-fifty chance," Kira said. "You want your kid back? Go in and get her yourselves." Her face went cold and ugly. "Go in, find Hearne, and kill him. Kill him slow."
"Deal," said Cassie. "Now give me those coordinates."
"The hill hasn't got a name. They call the valley 'Valley of Heroes'." Talin snorted. "Valley of assholes is more like it. Here's the coordinates." She closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating, then rattled off a series of numbers.
"Got it," Jerry said. Cassie glanced at him. He had a PAD in his hand. He tapped the screen, then turned it so Cassie could see a map of Aristotle Plateau with a blinking dot off to one side in the toxic lowlands.
Kira, it turned out, had been there only twice, once during construction and once to help install the laser in the dark days right after Jacob's arrest. When the boy started his sentence on Skyland Hearne had abandoned the laser, focussing on stealing and scrounging robots instead.
"Most of them are junk," Kira said. "Some of them work, though, and he has ammo. He keeps them on the lowest level. There's three levels. We just dropped in pre-fab containers, one on top of the other. Robots on the bottom. Then living quarters. Then the laser and the workshop and stuff. The whole gang might be there." She made a face. "Whoever's left."
"What kind of containers?" Jerry asked.
"Ell-Nine Prefabs."
He nodded.
"That's all I really know," she said. "I haven't been there in over a year. Things will have changed. But you better hurry. I don't know how much time he needs to get the laser working. Once he starts shooting, that's it." She mimed bombs falling from on high. "Goodbye to your kid. Goodbye to Hearne, too. He'll take off and go into hiding."
Cassie stood. "Thank you, Kali."
The woman shrugged. "Just step on that greasy little worm. That's all the thanks I need."
They returned to the corridor, walking in a thoughtful silence. Rao caught their mood and didn’t speak as he led them to the elevator. As the doors slid shut, Cassie knew what they had to do. It wasn't fair to Rao, but they were going to need his handprint against some scanners if they were going to make it out of the building. There was only one way to get it.
The elevator doors slid shut. Cassie looked at Jerry, and he gave her a tiny nod.
"Rao," she said, and the old man turned to look at her. "I owe you an apology."
He lifted a bushy gray eyebrow. "For what?"
Jerry swung from behind, his fist lancing toward Rao's jaw. The old man's head twitched back at the last instant, and Jerry's fist hit his cheek, snapping his head around. Cassie started a palm strike at Rao's solar plexus, but his elbow came out of nowhere, slamming into her jaw, knocking her back so her head thumped against the elevator wall. By the time her head cleared she was sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up.
Jerry and Rao were exchanging blows at close range, knees and elbows flying almost too fast for Cassie to follow. She would have bet on Jerry in hand to hand combat against just about anyone, but the old top sergeant was unbelievably fast. He blocked every strike Jerry threw at him, then used his artificial leg as a solid platform as he brought his good knee up in a strike that sank into the nerve bundle on the outside of Jerry's thigh.
As Jerry doubled over he met Rao's rising fist. His head snapped back, and Cassie lashed out with both legs, kicking at Rao's artificial leg.
Rao fell, somehow managing to land elbow-first on her left thigh. Blinding pain washed through her. His fist thumped into her solar plexus, she gasped for air, and he drove a palm against her forehead, snapping her head back against the elevator wall.
The elevator doors slid open. Cassie could see the hallway leading to their little apartment. After a moment the doors slid shut again.
Jerry started to rise, hands braced on his knees. Rao caught one of his wrists, twisted and turned, then rose to his own feet. Jerry sank back down, his arm extended at an awkward angle, Rao's thumb jammed between the small bones in the back of Jerry's hand.
Cassie drew her legs back, preparing another kick. Rao pivoted, pushing Jerry around in a circle until Jerry's legs were against Cassie's shoulders. She couldn't kick Rao without going through Jerry.
"Now," said Rao, sounding cheerful, "What's this all about, then?"
She ran through every desperate gambit she could think of and came up with nothing. She sighed. "Sorry, Rao. The Nightingale told us where to find Hearne."
"And you didn't pass this little gem of intelligence on to me because …?"
"He has Lark. I'm afraid Skyland will bomb his base and kill her. He's a dangerous terrorist, after all. What's Lark to them?"
"Let me guess," Rao said. "You thought you'd overpower me, make your getaway, and go rescue the kid?"
It sounded preposterous when he said it like that. She nodded. He couldn't see her through Jerry's legs, so she said, "Yes. Of course."
"It's what I would do," Rao said. He released Jerry, who stepped to the back wall of the elevator, massaging his arm. "I have a granddaughter about that age. I wouldn’t trust her welfare to a bunch of Skylanders."
Cassie rubbed the back of her head, then reached up and took Jerry's hand. He hauled her to her feet.
"Anyone else," Rao said, "I'd tell 'em to smarten up before someone gets hurt. You two, though." He rubbed his chin and grinned. "I've heard about you two. Not all of us think you're a couple of dangerous criminals. I heard about what you did in that gambling club. And when you shot the Highstar girl." He chuckled. "Totally insane, but you kept Hearne and his lot off balance, and you kept the kid safe."
Jerry shifted slightly. Rao said, "Don't even think about it, son."
"You have to let us go," Cassie said. "We're the only chance Lark has. You can say we overpowered you."
That brought a derisive snort from the top sergeant. "Like hell will I say that." He turned and pressed a hand to the control panel beside him.
"But Lark is –" Cassie fell silent.
The elevator was rising. Away from the fourth floor and their detention facility.
"You're getting yourself into a lot of trouble," Jerr
y said.
Rao made a rude sound. "What'll they do, fire me? Do you know how long I've been thinking about quitting?" He reached down and slapped his artificial leg. "Ever since I got this, it's been babysitting jobs and make-work. Well, maybe I can finally be good for something again." He glared at them. "Besides, it was Hearne and his lot that gave me this leg. I've been wanting a little payback for quite a while now."
Chapter 23
The elevator opened on the seventh floor, the top of the building. Rao led the way to a stairwell door that opened when he pressed his palm against another scanner. Cassie and Jerry followed him up a staircase to the roof, both of them limping badly.
"Come on, hurry up," the old man said smugly. "I didn't hit you that hard."
"The hell you didn't," Jerry muttered. That made the old man chuckle.
The roof of the building was a landing pad with skimmers and flitters scattered all around. Jerry headed for a sleek machine with police markings. "Can you unlock this, Rao?"
"Forget that." Rao led them in a winding path among the parked machines. Some of the fliers he passed over looked pretty fast to Cassie. She was about to argue when Rao said, "This is our ride."
He pressed his palm against the scanner on the side of a tactical skimmer. The machine was bulky and heavy-looking, the sides armored. Gun barrels bristled from the nose. It looked lethal, and Cassie smiled.
"No gawking. All aboard. The alarm will be going up soon. Come on, step lively."
They followed him aboard the skimmer. Benches lined the sides, with safety harnesses dangling, ready to strap in a team of commandos. There were weapons racks and mysterious bins labelled in incomprehensible acronyms. Rao ignored all of it, hurrying to the cockpit. "Come along. Both of you."
He dropped into the pilot's seat, took hold of a couple of control handles, and waited as the dash displays came to life. A moment later the skimmer rose from the roof. He flew forward and up, rising well above the highest rooftops, and said, "Now where?"
"East north-east," Jerry told him. "Let me get the coordinates."
"Put your palm there," Rao said, gesturing at a scanner between the seats. Jerry dropped into the co-pilot's seat and pressed his hand to the scanner. "Ship recognizes you now. Okay, Marx, your turn."
Jerry stood, Cassie squeezed past him, and she scanned her palm.
"Unlocks all the weapons and the lockers in back," Rao announced. "Pick your gear. But first, tell me where we're going."
Jerry handed Cassie his PAD and she fed coordinates into the skimmer's AI. She told Rao all she knew about the base.
"We'll do a HALO," he told her. "High-altitude jump. I'll fly past, real casual, like I'm on my way to, let me see …" He glanced at the map projected on the dash controls. "Hansen Mountain. They'll be able to see the ship, but not something small like a person. Especially in tactical harness." Tactical suits could absorb a certain amount of radar. "Don’t hit the antigrav until the last moment. You'll have to go in on foot. But he'll never see you coming."
As plans went it was certainly lacking in specifics, but it was all they had. She got up and moved to the back of the skimmer, where Jerry was tightening straps on a gray and black tactical bodysuit with "POLICE" stencilled across the chest and back. He gestured at an open locker and she rummaged through a pile of suits until she found one in her size.
When she pulled on a hardened helmet he said, "Do you copy?" through the built-in radio.
"I copy," she told him.
"I read you," Rao added.
"What do you suppose the penalty is for impersonating a police officer?" she muttered.
"Nothing compared to what you'll get for shooting Kaia Highstar," Jerry said cheerfully. "So forget about it."
The air rack held a dozen bottles of compressed air, each good for ten to fifteen minutes. Cassie and Jerry took turns attaching bottles to the backs of each other's suits, three bottles each. That meant twenty to thirty minutes of air, plus two bottles for Lark. The suits would feed air directly to their helmets. Cassie found a set of air masks and hoses they could use for Lark, took one for herself, and gave one to Jerry.
She went through the weapons racks. The selection was impressive, pistols and shoulder guns of every variety. She ignored the stunners. This was no time to be delicate. Instead she belted on a tactical pistol with two modes, laser and blast. For combat against robots she chose a zap rifle. It fired an electric charge, the same as a zap pistol, but it used a laser-guided stream of ionized gas to give the spark greater range. It was still only good for twenty or thirty meters, but it was a big improvement over zap pistols.
"We're getting close now," Rao said. "I'm going to keep flying straight for a while before I circle back. That'll put me out of range of those little helmet radios. I'll give you, let's say, fifteen minutes before I circle back. By that time they'll know you're there. You'll be on your own until then."
"Roger," said Cassie. "Thanks for everything, Rao."
"I think of this as the best retirement party ever," he said. "One minute. We won't be over the base when you go out. It'll be three kilometers due east. That'll be to your right. The helmet display should guide you in."
Jerry handed her a web belt bulging with stun grenades. She strapped it around her waist and edged toward the back of the skimmer. Adrenalin and stress swirled through her brain as she tried to imagine everything that was about to happen and everything that might go wrong.
"Cass. Cassie, look at me."
She gave Jerry an irritated glance. He held a little metal clip in his left hand, and he waggled it at her. "Dead man's switch. For the antigrav."
For a long moment she stared at him blankly. Then realization came flooding in, and she flushed. These weren't the custom antigrav units she'd used in her days of crime. These were a bit less specialized. A good antigrav harness would activate itself the instant a person started to fall. The dead man's switch provided control and a failsafe. She would have to squeeze the handle to keep the harness from stopping her fall. As soon as she let go, the harness would turn itself on.
She scanned the front of her suit, searching for the dead man's switch. She was keenly aware of the passing of every second. In moments they would be at their closest approach to the base, and if she wasn't ready –
"Cassie. Hey. Look at me." Only when his hand caught her shoulder and shook her hard did she look up. He touched a spot just over his heart. "Here. The handle is here."
She checked her own suit and unsealed a small pocket over her heart. She took the handle out, squeezed, and saw a red light appear by the base of her thumb.
She looked at Jerry. He winked and said, "It'll be fine. We can do this."
No we can't, I've never been this jittery before a mission, we're going to splatter ourselves all over the –
The hatch at the back of the skimmer slid open, wind whipped the harnesses hanging from the benches on either side, and Cassie felt her nervous energy fade away. At last she was in a familiar place, that quiet moment at the start of a mission when anything at all might happen. It was life at its most intense, and she gave Jerry a relaxed, confident smile. He smiled back, looking comically relieved.
"Now," said Rao.
In three quick strides Cassie reached the back of the skimmer and flung herself out.
She fell. At first that was all she knew, the glorious, terrifying thrill of tumbling through the air with nothing beneath her but void. She laughed, and Jerry laughed in her ear.
Her old skills were already asserting themselves, though. She spread her arms and legs, and quickly stopped tumbling. She plunged planetward, face down, the wind pressing hard against her arms and legs. She was cold, but too giddy to notice it much.
The visor of her helmet showed a glowing grid over her vision in pale blue. A green triangle flashed in the corner of her eye, and she turned her head that way. She couldn't see the base itself, but when she looked in the right direction the helmet outlined the location in a green circle with l
ines radiating out from it.
A yellow square showed on the opposite side of her visor. She turned her head that way and caught a glimpse of Jerry, above and behind her, his arms tight to his sides, diving fast toward the distant base. The yellow square flashed red as he passed her, then yellow again as the distance between them grew.
Cassie mimicked him, pointing her body toward the base and bringing her arms back until her hands almost touched her hips. She felt her body tilt as the wind increased. With the ground so far below there was almost no sense of movement, but she knew she had to be whipping through the air at a fantastic speed.
She lost sight of Jerry, though the yellow square remained superimposed on her visor. The ground was a brown and green blur far below, featureless at this distance. If the base was down there she couldn't see it. The helmet told her she was passing directly over it, though. When she knew she'd overshot she turned, arcing her body so she looped around the base in a gentle curve.
Something glittered in the afternoon sunshine, something metallic far below. She kept circling, and the glitter came again. She could make out a pale rectangle, perpetually to her left as she circled. She was losing altitude rapidly, and the shape grew as she watched. It was Hearne's hideout, exactly where Kira had said it would be.
It would be a good joke on her, she reflected, if this was the assassin's revenge for shooting her and getting her arrested. If Hearne knew they were coming, this was going to be a very short rescue.
The base was a rectangular tower shape with walls that didn't line up. It made her think of a child's blocks, dumped in a haphazard stack. Well, they'd had to put it all together in an atmosphere with no breathable air. She could understand how they would have been rushed. The bottom block rested on a rounded hilltop. A little ways back from the walls the sides of the hills dropped sharply away.
Cassie tightened her turn. She would have to land fairly close to the walls or the hike up the hill would use up all her air.
A dark speck hovered above the base, and she felt a prickle run across her skin as she imagined a sentry with a hoverbelt keeping watch. That was silly, she decided a moment later. Most likely it was a fresh air intake attached to a hovering buoy, a simple machine using the same technology as hoverbelts. The buoy would float well above the hydrogen sulfide layer, while a hose piped air into the complex below. She was too far up to see the hose, though.
