“One of us needs to paddle your rear,” Seven responded, his fingers tweaking the thrust controls and backing off on the throttle as the craft began to lose altitude and drop toward the clouds.
“I guess you got that job now,” she said with a twisted smile.
“And don’t think I won’t,” he replied flatly.
“No power to the BOA Tower strobe, of course. But you should see it soon. Let us know,” the Commander said over the radio’s circuit.
“Roger that. On vector. No visual. 18 miles inbound.”
“Roger.”
Serea rose out of her seat and began to strain her eyes along with Seven to see the huge building’s tower rise out of the clouds. The craft was still flying in level flight just at the top of the clouds. In minutes, Serea saw it first.
“There!” she exclaimed, pointing out the window.
“Yes, I see it now,” Seven responded, keying the mic and announcing, “We have visual on tower.”
“Roger that. Stay on your vector all the way in. Reduce your altitude to the cloud tops. Land vertically on top of coordinates. If you stray you’re likely to clip another building on the way down.”
“Roger,” Seven replied, lowering their altitude until they were skimming the cloud tops.
The tower was racing toward them. For the first time, Seven could also see that the sky was beginning to lighten around them. Once again, they would have but minutes to spare.
“I’m going to raise my altitude, fly a loop around the tower and drop vertically in,” Seven explained to Serea.
She just nodded, obviously understanding that the crossover from horizontal to vertical flight was going to require an increase in altitude to stay out of the clouds.
“Approaching tower now,” Seven said into his microphone. “I’m looping around and crossing over to vertical flight. Go ahead and pop the flare. Be down shortly.”
“Roger. Report the color when you see it,” the Commander answered, following landing zone procedures for a hot spot with possible enemy intervention. He would never announce the color of the flare in the un-secure radio transmission or else the unfriendly forces could light a matching flare of their own to misdirect the flight.
Seven’s hand pulled back on the throttle as he adjusted his nose to gain altitude. He swept around the tower’s top sticking through the clouds, then sharply increased the wing’s angle and jammed the power all the way open. The aircraft screamed and pushed them against their harnesses. Seven judged his motion perfectly as the craft dropped vertically down into the clouds and suddenly plunged into near total darkness.
Again, Seven’s mind demanded answers his eyes and inner ears could not give and he felt a sense of impending vertigo. His eyes fixed themselves on the glowing instruments, watching the target coordinates, his altitude, throttle and flight attitude all at once. He allowed himself to look outside his canopy only as carefully measured events, just looking for the light of the flare. Eventually he saw a white glow beneath them.
“Now slowing. I have a white flare.”
“Go on white! We hear your engines,” the Commander said. “How’s your fuel?”
“Good. Down five, down five… hold.”
“We see your tail strobe now. On target.”
“Roger, down three, down two.”
“Six feet off the deck now. You’re clear. Set her down.”
The light of the flickering flare now lit up the interior of the aircraft. It illuminated the thick fog of the Seattle streets and caused there to be a eerie and surreal glow inside the VTOL. In three seconds, they felt the thump of touchdown, and Seven cut the engines as silence engulfed them.
“Thank-you, my dear, thank-you,” Serea said to him, just before a fist thumped on the canopy outside. There, in front of them, was the smiling, bearded face of the Commander. Serea popped the canopy open and leapt outside into the open arms of the Commander who caught her in the air and set her down. Standing just three feet away was Professor Desmond and another figure.
Seven climbed out of the aircraft and slid onto the ground beside the Commander and Serea, just as she broke away and leapt toward her father, embracing him. To their right, across the plaza through the fog, Seven could see another aircraft, much like their own. He shook hands with the Commander who had already lost his smile.
“The old man’s pissed,” he said stoically, motioning his eyes toward Desmond.
Seven walked over to Desmond just as Serea released him.
“You allowed her to come along when you knew this to be specifically against my express wishes?” Desmond asked him sharply.
Seven regarded him with surprise. “And, being her father, you really think I had anything to say about that?”
Desmond looked stern and provoked. He glanced from Seven to Serea and back again, then shook his head in resignation.
Seven gazed at the Commander and saw Karl Leighter, the brilliant young programmer from Middlearth, standing alongside of him. “I thought you said everybody died,” Seven stated in astonishment, staring at Leighter.
“Leighter was taking an ‘unauthorized field trip’ to the aircraft hangar when the cave collapsed. We found him there waiting for us.”
Seven extended his hand to the young, fresh faced programmer. “Good to hear of your escape, young Karl. Welcome to the flying circus.”
“Glad to be here. More than you know,” he responded sincerely.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Seven could see other figures in the shadows around them, hiding in the fog of the Seattle streets.
“So, where’s the nearest shelter?” Serea asked.
“Follow me,” the Commander responded. “We’ll all look for it together.”
“Wait,” Seven replied, his eyes darting about in the gathering brightness that represented the next onrushing quantum storm.
They all paused.
“How much time do we have?” he asked.
“No more than 10 to 12 minutes,” the Commander responded.
“What about gas?” Seven asked the obvious. “When and how are we getting out of here?”
“Can we talk about this under shelter?” the Commander retorted, obviously put out.
“Do you know exactly where shelter is?” Seven asked.
“No, that’s why we have to hurry,” Desmond responded.
“Wait,” Seven repeated, then slipped behind the aircraft out of view.
“What’s he doing?” the Commander asked Serea, looking impatiently at his watch.
She just shrugged, but with a confident smile.
Half a minute later there was a scream out of the fog and Seven came walking back to the group with a filthy, struggling young teen tucked under his arm. “He obviously knows where shelter is, so why don’t we ask him?” Seven inquired.
The young boy of about fourteen or fifteen looked terrified. He was dirty, his clothes hung off his frame in rags and he was very scared.
“Where’s your hiding place?” the Commander demanded roughly.
The boy said nothing.
“Okay then, lad, I’m going to tie you to this aircraft and you can spend the day outside.”
The young boy, still held in the firm grip of Seven, spit in the direction of the Commander.
Serea walked over to the boy and embraced him, then kissed his forehead. “I promise that none of us will hurt you, but please help us get out of the sun. Please show us where we can go to be safe. We have some good food we’ll share with you,” she cajoled sincerely in a sweet voice of comfort and reassurance.
He looked at her as though he had just been slapped, then lowered his head as he pondered his response before looking back into her eyes. Finally he nodded.
“Let him go,” she said gently to Seven as she took his hand in hers. “Lead me, okay? You lead me.”
“What about the aircraft?” Leighter asked. “The locals will destroy them or strip them before we get back!”
“Not and live to tell about it,” th
e Commander responded dryly. “Anybody not inside in ten minutes’ll be dead.” He cleared his throat and shouted loudly, “The booby traps are set. Anybody getting within ten feet of these aircraft will be incinerated or blown in half.
“It’s safe now,” the Commander then said. “Let the boy lead the way.” With that he pulled a M15 fully automatic rifle out of a black bag and offered a handgun to Seven.
“No thanks, got my own,” Seven responded, pulling the .45 caliber Colt Combat Commander out of his flight suit.
The street boy led Seven and party quickly to the base of the towering Bank of America Building. Looking in both directions, he speedily pulled a tattered tarp away from a gaping hole in one wall and slipped inside into the darkness followed by Serea.
Seven stepped between the wall and the Commander. “I’m next,” he said, sliding quickly behind Serea who he did not want to lose track of in the gloom.
The darkness inside was nearly complete until a shaft of light appeared from a small flashlight carried in the right hand of the boy.
“This way,” he whispered. “Be quiet. Everyone be quiet.”
Seven turned and faced the Commander who had just squeezed in behind them. “Pass the word – absolute silence – no talking,” he whispered, then turned and touched Serea. “Let me lead, please,” he requested firmly, now gripping the handgun before him with both hands.
She backed away as Seven followed the boy along a dark, damp concrete passageway. Soon it led to an open pit in the floor. It was obvious this was a sewer drain. The boy slipped quickly inside and disappeared. Seven followed him, but not quickly enough.
The boy had vanished.
gh
Luci’s light was dying, along with her mind. Even with all the stores in the world, the appetite for light consumed her mental frame with all the ravages of physical hunger. She lived not with a famine of food but within a famine of light.
Luci’s diminutive frame was clothed in a ragged, filthy t-shirt, torn in nearly a dozen places, and she wore a pair of stained cotton panties. Her thin, dishwater blond hair was a hopeless, matted tangle and her skin was layered with grime. The warmth of the streets easily seeped into the subterranean catacombs and, at her depth, caused the temperature to hover in the high eighties all the time. Although she had no knowledge of it, in her deep concrete cocoon she was not exposed to the quantum storms or the passing layering of the nuclear wastes. While filthy, with the help of Mr. Lee’s food, she was able to eat enough to stay physically healthy.
The last excursion away from the safety of her hiding place to find light nearly cost her everything. And now the precious flashlight lay practically useless in her trembling fingers. With luck and careful conservation, she was able to eke out less than fifteen minutes per day of illumination, and its beam was now nearly totally ineffectual. Luci knew she was going to have to go in search of more light today, even if it meant crawling back out onto the streets during the daylight itself. Whatever it took - however long it took - she would have to find more light or she knew she would perish under the crushing weight of her own fears in the ever deepening darkness.
Luci crawled through her tiny access hole deep within the sewer and dropped down into the murk. Her flashlight emitted the feeblest of beams, but it was enough light so that she could find her way up. She had no idea where she was going or what she expected to find, but she knew she could not return without more light.
Luci walked slowly and carefully, rounding each well known corner with a racing heart as she held her breath. Then she began to make her way up toward the level of the street. It occurred to her as she walked that she had no idea whether she would find daylight or darkness when she arrived, but she secretly hoped for daylight and fresh sunlight to wash over her mind, even if only for a few hours.
Luci did not have to wait long to find activity. Before she rounded the first corner on the level just above hers, she heard voices. She froze where she stood and switched her meager beam off, her heart racing.
“I took him down with my bare hands. I killed him with one punch, just like this…” said one voice.
Luci could tell it was not the deep and resonant voice of a man, but that of a boy. She could also see the reflection of light bouncing off the concrete walls. It was an odd sort of light - a deep amber that flashed on and off, on and off, rapidly.
“Oh, yeah,” said another boy’s voice. “I killed five in one day with my bare hands!”
“Oh, shut up. You did not! You’re a lying jerk!”
“No way, man, I did! And if you don’t believe me, then I’ll kill you and show you…”
Luci slid alongside the concrete wall toward the rapidly flashing amber glow, her mind more hungry for the light than afraid of the danger. She convinced herself that all she would do was peek around the corner, see the light for just a second, and then come up with a plan. She just needed to see the light, if only for a moment.
Luci reached the intersection of the huge concrete tunnels. Carefully, she peered around the corner toward the flashing light. What she saw amazed her and arrested her eyes. There before her was a bank of at least a dozen flashing amber caution lights she had seen atop road and street barriers. They were placed along the walls and provided the illumination for the chamber which contained four boys.
“So go ahead, butthead, kill me. Show me…” the largest of the four boys taunted a smaller one facing him. Luci could see they were all much larger than she, yet they did not appear to be fully grown men.
The two boys faced one another in a stand-off, neither moving. The other two boys sat back with smirks watching the scene unfold in the continuous randomly strobing illumination of the brilliant yellow lights.
Finally the smaller of the boys said, “Well, I could, but I don’t feel like it right now. But I could, you know, real easy and real fast.”
“Yeah, like you really had me scared!” the older boy taunted, pushing the younger boy down into the filthy stream of water that trickled over the curved floor of the chamber as the other boys laughed and howled loudly.
Luci’s eyes flashed about the surroundings and fixed themselves on the nearest flashing light. She knew that just a single of these lights would be more that sufficient for her tiny chamber. She was sure that she would get used to its flashing and even come to love it. It was light, and light was precious no matter what.
Her eyes subconsciously triangulated the distance between her, the strobe, and the boys. She began to calculate the distance and the number of steps and fix in her mind how she would silently remove the light from behind their backs.
But her calculations were cut short when a pair of arms gripped her from behind and lifted her off her feet. Without any warning or notice, she was thrust into the room.
“Looky here what I found me, guys!” said the voice of the boy that held her tightly.
Luci immediately began to thrash and kick, but it was of no use. The boy was much stronger than she and he held her expertly so that no amount of kicking would dislodge her from his grip.
“Bring her here,” said the oldest and tallest boy.
The one who held her complied and walked to him.
“Put her down,” he ordered.
The moment Luci’s feet touched the concrete, she began to run away. But the boy who had captured her quickly stuck his foot out and tripped her. Luci fell face down into the stream of dark murk in the floor of the cavern. Instantly, his hand gripped the back of her t-shirt and pulled her up. He turned her to face the older boy as she spat out the vile fluid that ran down her face and stung her eyes and nose.
“Let’s teach this little spyin’ brat a lesson…”
gh
Seven backed out of the damp, dark concrete passageway and sat on the lip of the drain. “He’s gone,” he said of their indentured guide. Without the flashlight from the boy, they were in total darkness. Seven fished in the large zippered pocket of his flight suit and found a small pencil sized light. With one
twist of its front lens, a brilliant, thin beam sliced through the darkness. When the Commander arrived he turned on his own huge flashlight.
“Trade ya,” Seven said, offering the Commander his tiny beam.
“Where’s the boy?” the Commander asked.
“Gone. Escaped.”
“Great,” he snarled, handing Seven his light. Seven pointed the light at the feet of the assembled group. “Follow me. We’re going deep and going down fast. Please don’t get separated and make no more noise than absolutely necessary. I get the feeling it may be crowded down here. We don’t have much time.”
With that he looked at Serea, winked, and then disappeared down the drain. There were metal ladder steps protruding from the wall as he descended and he merely climbed down a ladder of some 10 feet until it opened up into a cavernous sewer pipe that ran in both directions. It was filled with a terrible smelling layer of water some five inches in depth. He waited for everyone to descend together and while they assembled, he flashed his light down the passageway. He could clearly see from splash-marks which way the boy had gone. When the last one of their party arrived, Seven turned and followed the boy’s path until it stopped at a horizontal pipe much smaller than the main pipe.
Seven immediately inserted himself in the tight pipe and inched his way along it to another vertical pipe, again, outfitted with ladder rungs and headed down. He stood on the rungs and flashed the light so he could see Serea’s face.
“I bring you all the way to Seattle for a romantic stroll in the sewers. What competition could I possibly have now?”
“Go, go on!” she urged him, trying in vain to suppress a smile.
Seven ducked away down the pipe which descended for at least 20 feet before terminating into yet another horizontal sewer pipe. This one was totally dry. Unfortunately, without splash-marks, there was now no way of determining which way the boy had gone. But without the water, the smell had also leveled off to somewhere around just nauseating.
Once they had all assembled, Seven questioned the Commander, “Deep enough? What do you think?”
Quantum Storms - Aaron Seven Page 42
