“When do you want to activate this?” Garid asked Darck.
“We only have one Look Down, so we need to make it count,” Darck replied.
“How far outside of town are we now?” he asked.
Darck glanced down at the instrument panel, then looked at Garid in the rearview mirror. “About thirty-three miles,” he said.
“I think we should go another ten miles,” Garid said. “If they walk thirty miles a day, which might be pushing it, they still won’t be within thirty miles of town. I think we have a better chance of getting them in the unit’s scan range if we go another ten miles before sending up the Look Down.”
“I agree,” Darck said, relieved that Garid knew enough to figure this out because he sure as hell didn’t. He relaxed a little and hit the accelerator. The sooner they recaptured those women, the better.
***
Grace stood up and brushed herself off, keeping her eyes trained on the dust trail speeding away from her. She hitched her pack up a little higher, then turned back toward the airfield. What she hoped was an airfield. She felt a little nervous now, after that car had come up on her so quickly, so she kept looking around, checking for movement and dust trails. She was so focused on looking, that it took her a moment to realize that she was once again hearing something.
She instantly crouched down, her heart in her throat as she glanced quickly around her, searching for the source of the sound. She couldn’t see a thing and was beginning to panic when, finally, she looked up. There, heading in her direction from the west was a VTOL. She spent one indecisive moment worrying if the bad guys were in it before deciding it didn’t matter. She had to take the chance.
She got up and hurried toward an area free of brush and rocks and waited for the VTOL to get closer. It appeared to be headed straight for her, so perhaps it had infra-red or something like it, and already knew she was there. But she wasn’t going to take any chances. She lowered her pack to the ground and untied one of her blankets. She shrugged the pack back on, then shook out the blanket and began waving it in the air. She didn’t think it would be possible for anyone to miss a giant bright blue flag waving against the beige desert landscape, and she was right. A few minutes later the VTOL landed in a clear area twenty yards from her and the cabin door slid open. Grace jogged toward it, startled to see a very pregnant woman standing in the doorway, waving one arm, beckoning her forward.
Grace broke into a full out run, a sense of urgency communicating itself from the woman in the doorway. A huge man appeared beside the woman and held his hands out. Grace leapt up and the man caught her and lifted her easily into the cabin. The moment her feet touched the floor, the VTOL lifted off again.
***
“Set it down right there, on the roof,” Jarlek ordered the pilot, silently thanking Stalnek for purchasing Blind Sight from the Xanti. He had secretly disapproved of the exorbitant price tag, especially when he’d realized that Stalnek was purchasing dozens of units for use on ground-cars, VTOLs, and space yachts instead of the one unit he had initially announced he was buying for Redoubt. But now, as he exited the VTOL and hurried toward the stairs of Darck’s apartment building, he was glad of it. Without it, he never would have been able to set a VTOL down in Los Angeles on top of a residential building without attracting all sorts of unwelcome attention.
He used his pass key to enter the apartment and closed the door behind himself. He paused, looking around in shock at the mess. It looked as though there had been a brawl in the apartment. Furniture was knocked over, dishes lay broken, clothes, trash and other debris covered the floor.
He worked his way through the rubble to the bedroom, then the bathroom, but all he saw was more of the same. There was too much confusion for him to begin to assess what had happened. He stepped on something in the bathroom and when he picked his foot up, he saw that it was the remains of a vox.
Well, that explained why Darck hadn’t returned any of his calls. He turned around and went back into the living room, trying to identify the items strewn all over. He spotted the transfer machine and picked it up, turning it over so that it was right side up. Having nowhere to put it, he set it back on the floor. As he stood up, he noticed there was a sheet of paper in the feed tray. He bent down and retrieved it, realizing at once what it was. “Damn,” he said softly. “He went and pulled those potentials.”
He shoved the sheet of paper into his pocket and left the apartment, running for the stairs. He climbed into the VTOL out of breath, but that didn’t stop him from shouting at the pilot.
“Get us to the old compound as fast as this thing can go,” he ordered.
“Yes, Sir,” the pilot replied, lifting off before Jarlek even got his safety harness buckled.
***
Garid put the window down, checked the hand-held launcher for the Look Down infra-red sensor, then stuck his hand out the window, aimed straight up into the sky, and pulled the trigger. The tiny unit shot into the air and Garid pulled the launcher back in and raised the window. He pulled the unit onto his lap and waited for the sensor to begin sending an image. It didn’t take long.
“Got it,” he said a few moments later. “Hmm...got two of them, anyway,” he corrected. He reduced the image so he could see a larger area. “There’s a third one,” he said. “Looks like they split up for some reason. I don’t see a fourth though.”
“Damn,” Darck said. “All right, let’s go after the two, then the one.”
Garid would have suggested going after the one closer to town, but it was too late now that Darck had already expressed his preference. He gave Darck the compass bearing and range for the two, and went back to watching the screen. A few moments later he noticed that the two people on the screen, represented by two red dots, were not moving.
“Maybe one of them got hurt,” he suggested. “That would explain one being so far ahead of the others.”
“Hell,” Darck muttered. The idea of one of those women being seriously injured under his care, and the ramifications of that, made him break out in a sweat. Berezi were very rare, and therefore precious. His best hope was that if one was hurt, she would not be a berezi. But if one died, and they were never able to determine whether she’d been berezi or not....
“Are you sure they’re both alive?”
Garid glanced up in surprise at the nervousness in Darck’s voice. “Yeah, they’re both alive,” he said. “This unit picks up heat. If one was dead, she wouldn’t have any heat.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Darck said. “Good, that’s good.”
Garid started to add his thought that perhaps the reason there were only three women showing was that one of them had died, but he came to his senses in time and remained silent. If that was the case, he did not want to be the one to tell Darck about it.
He looked back at the screen and frowned. There was something very different, but it took him a moment to sort it all out. When he did, he was shocked. “Oh hell,” he swore.
“What?” Darck barked.
“A VTOL just landed near number three,” he said.
“What are we gonna do?” Lenny asked, his voice rising in panic.
“Shut up,” Darck snapped. “Let me think. Garid, let me know the second that VTOL lifts off. I want to know what direction it’s going in.”
“Yes, Sir,” Garid replied, his eyes glued to the screen. A few seconds later the VTOL began moving. “It’s coming toward us,” he said. “My guess is they’re going for the two left behind.”
“Lenny, plug the Blind Sight back in,” Darck ordered. “And hurry up about it.”
***
Grace turned to face the small pregnant woman. “Thanks,” she said.
“Are you the woman who was with Hope?” she asked.
Grace’s breath caught in her throat. How did this woman know that? She glanced out the doorway at the ground that was falling quickly away, wondering if she had a chance of jumping without serious injury. She didn’t think so.
“Listen
, I don’t have time to explain, but I promise, we’re the good guys. Just tell us where Hope is and I’ll explain on the way,” the woman said, speaking loudly so she could be heard over the VTOL’s engines.
Grace looked into the woman’s intense blue eyes and made up her mind.
“Yes, I’m with Hope,” she said. “She’s camped with another woman who broke her leg, and they’re waiting for me to bring help. But I saw a ground-car heading straight for them about half an hour ago.”
“How far away are they?” the woman asked.
“About thirty miles,” Grace replied. “Straight that way,” she added, pointing out the door to the southeast.
The big man came back from the cockpit and the pregnant woman repeated what Grace had told her. He turned around and went back to the front.
The woman turned to Grace. “My name is Ellicia,” she said. “What’s your name?”
“Grace,” she said. “Are you a friend of Hope’s?”
“No,” Ellicia replied. “I’m a Government Agent, and a friend of her cousin. It’s very important that I find her.”
Grace nodded in agreement. “It’s very important for me to get to her before those guys in the ground-car.”
***
“How far from them are we?” Darck asked.
“Less than a mile,” Garid replied as he watched the large, flashing yellow dot of the VTOL on the screen. “Damn, that thing is moving fast,” he said.
“It can’t see us, so it can’t know we’re here,” Darck said. “Not till we’re damn near on top of them after they land.”
“What are you planning?” Garid asked.
“I’m not letting them take those women from me,” Darck said. “Ain’t happening, no way. So long as they’re in the air, they can’t see this vehicle.”
Garid didn’t like the sound of that. “That VTOL is from the training base,” he said. “I’d bet on it. The heat will be intense if we knock off a couple of Air Force types.”
“Then I guess it’ll get hot, cause I’m not giving up those women,” Darck retorted.
Garid glanced back to the screen, a bad feeling growing inside of him. “Looks like the VTOL is getting ready to land,” he said.
“Good,” Darck said as he pressed harder on the accelerator pedal with his foot. He had it floored, but the damn thing wouldn’t go any faster because of the Blind Sight. And he needed the Blind Sight.
“Lenny, unplug this unit,” Garid said as he began gathering the infra red system up. If they were going to be taking three women back to the compound they’d need more room.
***
Jackson leaned in between the pilot and co-pilot’s seat in the cockpit of the VTOL and studied the view screen carefully. There was no sign of any vehicle anywhere. He believed Grace’s story about the ground-car. Her story was short, precise and without embellishment, all classic indicators of truth. Aside from that, he usually could sense when he was being lied to.
Yes, Grace had seen a ground-car heading south through the desert. A ground-car that they could find no sign of from the air. Could it be that the Brethren had the Blind Sight system? he wondered. The moment he asked himself the question, he knew the answer. It made sense. They already knew of one connection between the Xanti and the Brethren, why not this?
“Blind Sight,” he said to Rob who sat in the co-pilot seat.
“Yes, I thought that too,” Rob agreed. “What should we do?”
“We can’t fight what we can’t see,” Jackson said. “We’ll just have to get to those women first.”
Jackson looked at the pilot who smiled grimly. “No problem, Sir.”
***
Hope had everything ready to start the smoky fire. She had decided to wait until the sun was fully up because she wanted to increase the chances that someone would see it. She stood outside the enclosure and looked carefully into the distance all the way around, but she saw no sign of life anywhere. She was just going to have to take the chance that someone would see the smoke and come looking for them.
She removed the rocks holding down one of the sheets that was serving as a cover, checking to make sure that Karma was still shaded. Then she crawled into the enclosure and fished the lighter out of her pocket.
“Don’t do it,” Karma said. They were the first clear words Hope had heard from her in a couple of hours, so they got her attention.
“I have to,” she said. “You need help.”
“Help is coming,” Karma replied, her voice weak but firm. “Ellicia will be here in just a few minutes, but he says if you light the fire now, something really bad will happen.”
“Ellicia?” Hope asked in surprise. “How do you know about Ellicia?”
“He told me,” Karma said. “Do you know her?”
Hope was so surprised at what Karma had just said that it took her a moment to register the question. “No, I don’t,” she replied. “I know that she’s my cousin’s girlfriend. Or fiancé. Maybe wife, by now. Before I left for Jasan, Harlan told me they were going to get married, but I haven’t seen or spoken to my cousin since I returned.”
Hope frowned, wondering how in the heck Ellicia could possibly know where she was, or even who she was. Another thought occurred to her and she smiled.
“Karma, Ellicia’s an Agent,” she said excitedly.
“Yes, they’ll be here in just a minute, but you need to wait here with me,” Karma insisted.
“Why?” Hope asked.
“He said so,” Karma repeated with a little exasperation.
“Who is he?” Hope asked, just as the sound of a speeding VTOL invaded the tent. The sound grew so loud so quickly that Hope couldn’t hear Karma’s reply, but when she started to crawl out of the enclosure she had no problem hearing Karma scream “NO!”.
Hope was so startled that she instantly spun around to face Karma, her heart racing as she tried to discern why the woman had screamed. By the time she realized that there was nothing wrong, the sound of the VTOL began to change. It sounded as though it were landing very close by. The one remaining sheet covering them began to flutter and snap alarmingly and Hope knew that any moment it was going to pull loose and fly away. She started to reach up for the sheet when a gust of wind blew sand through their little enclosure and Karma began coughing.
Hope forgot about the sheet as she hunched over Karma in an effort to shield her from the worst of the sand. Within seconds the end of the sheet anchored to the incline pulled loose and a few seconds later, the other end went. The sheet lifted into the air like a sail and was gone.
***
“Not that one!” Darck screamed as the car suddenly shot forward at high speed. Lenny jumped and dropped the cable he had just unplugged. Darck started to lean down to grab the cable when he saw something big and white flying toward him. A second later, the big white...thing...plastered itself against the ground-car’s windshield, completely blocking his view. Startled, he froze for a moment, trying to understand what the thing was. By the time he thought to take his foot off the accelerator, it was far too late.
***
The wind increased the moment the sheet was gone and their little enclosure filled with even more blowing, choking sand. Hope reached behind her for the blanket she had used for her own bed, hoping that the weight of her pack lying on it had kept it from blowing away. She felt it beneath her fingers and tugged it hard. It pulled free and she dragged it up and over Karma, covering the other woman’s face to protect her while she held her own eyes shut to keep the sand out.
Suddenly there was a deafening explosion of sound. Hope instinctively lowered herself further over Karma, protecting Karma’s head with her body even as she covered her own head with her arms. She heard screams, and the high pitched screech of tearing metal, then an odd whistling sound growing louder and louder until it ended with a strange crunching noise somewhere above Hope’s head. Hope felt the sudden rush of sand and gravel pour over herself and Karma from the incline above them, but she remained motio
nless, afraid to move an inch.
It was only a few seconds before silence fell once more but to Hope it felt like forever. Only when there was no more sand falling on her, and no more sound, did she carefully raise her head and open her eyes. Both she and Karma were covered with sand and small rocks but neither of them seemed to be hurt.
“You okay?” she asked Karma.
“Yeah, I think so,” Karma replied breathlessly. “You?”
“I’m fine,” Hope replied. “But I need to know what happened so I’m going out there, okay?”
Karma nodded. “Sure,” she said.
Hope took a moment to shake the sand off the blanket covering Karma, and handed her a bottle of water before she stood up and looked around. The sight that greeted her was appalling. And confusing.
It took Hope a few moments to identify the mass of twisted metal that sat about twenty yards away from where she stood, but she finally realized that it was a mangled combination of VTOL and ground-car. As far as she could tell, the ground-car had run straight into the side of the VTOL, its front end entering through the cabin door. Hope tore her eyes from the wreckage, frowning again as she watched several large men crowd around something on the sand half way between herself and the wreck. Suddenly a familiar face popped up from between two of the men and turned toward her.
“Hope!” Grace yelled. “We need you! Hurry!”
Hope didn’t hesitate. She stepped over the remains of her makeshift rock wall and ran as fast as she could force her feet to move.
Chapter 41
“I love you, Harlan Hontza,” Ellicia said..
“Lucky me,” Harlan replied, giving her one last peck on the nose. “Now, let’s go attend our engagement party.”
“All right, but first, you owe me a secret,” she said.
“I was hoping you’d forgotten that,” he said with a grin.
“Not likely,” Ellicia replied archly.
“All right, I owe you a secret,” he agreed with a chuckle. “But later, all right?”
“All right,” she agreed. “But don’t think I’m going to forget, because I won’t. And it has to be a good one too.”
The Bearens' Hope: Book Four of the Soul-Linked Saga Page 26
