“So it’s easy to see who they are,” the commander added.
Bodhi looked back and forth between Glade and Taraji. “You know who they are and what they look like. How long can this go on? Who protects Selah? Who protects us against this threat?”
The commander leaned back in his chair. “Like always. The violence ends when this novarium cycle ends.”
Bodhi jerked from the wall. “You sound like you already know the outcome but aren’t willing to help us.”
Glade stood to grasp Bodhi’s shoulder. “This is why I need you. When you look at the Lander population of the north, it’s half splinter groups and half First Protocol Landers. Out of the Protocol group, about half of those are newer generation—”
“The newer generations, even of First Protocol Landers, are worthless,” Taraji said. “They don’t care about the old ways and ignore the novarium process whenever it starts. Their logic is, ignore it and it will go away and not ruin their perfect little lives, and that eventually happens. There are even Landers with head marks who hide them with makeup to fit in with everyone else.” She screwed up her nose in disgust.
The commander sighed and leaned forward on his desk. He looked at Bodhi. “I’m sorry I seem disinterested, but the facts of life for us are that both splinter groups want the code from novarium blood. They act like crazy savages whenever the process starts. People come. People go. Our lives stay the same. We have to preserve that, and make no apologies.”
Bodhi wanted to argue Selah’s worth and the need to protect her, but Taraji stepped forward. “We need a medic for Glade’s hand. He was—”
“Not to worry,” Glade said as he unwrapped the field bandage. “It’s just a scratch and nothing that would slow us down.” The end of the bandage slipped off to expose unmarked flesh. Glade turned his palm up and then down. Front and back clean. “Just a scratch. All better now.”
Taraji and Bodhi looked at his hand.
Bodhi looked hard into Glade’s eyes. “You still have all of your abilities.”
Glade averted his eyes.
The commander jumped to his feet and tapped his ear com. He held up a hand for quiet. “I think it’s time to get you on your way to the safety of your caravan. It seems someone has come looking for their missing comrades.”
Bodhi, Glade, and Taraji grabbed their weapons from the charging station.
“The only reason I allowed you three to stay armed in Wilmington is because you’re moving on right away. But when you get to Baltimore, they’ll confiscate those until you leave the city,” the commander said. He led the way to the waiting security unit transporting them to the depot.
Glade and Taraji took the right wall seat behind an armed agent, and Bodhi piled in on the left with the commander, who positioned himself right behind the driver. The security unit sped off to the west side of town down a dusty road laced with random trees and numerous industrial storage buildings.
Surprised that only two security agents were in the unit, and neither heavily armed, Bodhi questioned the move. “Commander, is another unit going to meet us? This isn’t much firepower if we encounter splinters.”
Glade and Taraji leaned over to hear his answer above the whine of the engine.
The commander grinned wryly and gave a shrug. “We don’t have the resources to protect every novarium-class offense—”
“How many cases are you talking?” Bodhi remained grim, counteracting the commander’s misplaced smile.
“Every Lander girl in any of the colonies, as she turns eighteen,” the commander said. “That could be as high as several dozen some years. I don’t know how the splinters keep track of them, but it reminds me of a shark feeding frenzy when they smell blood in the water.” He shook his head.
Bodhi blinked hard. Dozens? None of them made it to transitioning? What had happened to all of these girls?
The unit accelerated suddenly and jerked to the side to miss a stand of trees, causing them all to grab on for stability.
“Sir, we’ve got a surveillance pod following us, and communications caught several hostile units plotting an intercept course in the section on this side of the depot,” the driver said. He increased the speed again, watching the S-pod on his scanner.
The commander cursed under his breath and tapped his ear com. “Get me a tactical battle squad, and they’d better be at the section handoff when we get there.” He turned to the group. “Once I get you people to caravan security, my job is done. We were doing fine until you started this up again. I don’t need to be in the middle of this.”
“Middle of this?” Bodhi fumed as he held the side strap to keep from shifting into the commander’s lap. “You’re the head of Lander security for this city. I’d think you—”
“Don’t be mad at him.” Taraji shook her head. “It’s standard procedure coming directly from the Council bosses. I’ve contacted the caravan. They’re sending an extra unit to follow us.”
Bodhi balled his hands into fists. He wanted to rage, but he noticed Glade was often his most controlled and calm during hectic times like this. He reined himself in and tried to follow that example but wondered how Glade was doing it.
A pulse cannon fired at the road in front of the security unit. Rocking with the percussion, the unit veered to the left, scraped the ground, and bounced up to regain its two-foot hover height.
Bodhi and Glade steadied themselves and drew their weapons.
“We don’t have a pulse cannon to return fire. Our best course of action is to resist engaging.” The commander’s weapon remained holstered.
Taraji hadn’t drawn her weapon either. “We need to be out in the open before anyone engages in return fire so we know who or what we’re shooting. I want the three of us staying together.” She made a point of staring at Bodhi. He understood.
The unit bucked and sputtered, dipping to the ground again and back into the air after a glancing blow off a tree.
“Sir, I’ve got a problem with the forward thrusters. I think they sucked in debris. We need to set down,” the driver said.
The commander cursed again, and Bodhi flinched at the venom of his words.
Glade anchored himself using a side strap. “How far are we from the caravan?”
“We’re in for a sprint. It’s about a section and a half from here,” Taraji said as she took note of the landscape. Bodhi marveled at how she keyed her ComLink and maintained her balance at the same time with just her feet pressed to the floor.
“You’re actually much closer than that,” the commander said. “We wouldn’t leave you in the middle of nowhere. I’ll give you directions.”
Taraji kept her head low but moved her eyes toward Bodhi. He understood her look right away. The commander was lying. Bodhi passed the glance to Glade, who gave an imperceptible acknowledgment with his eyes.
Bodhi had readied himself to fight with splinters, not Lander security. “We’re supposed to be on the same side, but it seems you’re not offering any protections once we leave this vehicle. Is that correct?”
The commander’s eyes shifted rapidly before they calmed and he spoke. “I—we aren’t authorized for street skirmishes. We have the responsibility of transporting you from one venue to the other.” The security unit bucked again, threatening to put them all on the floor.
Bodhi felt his insides coil. “Where is your allegiance—”
“We’re glad that you helped us get this far, Commander,” Glade said. “Thank you for directions, but I think we have that taken care of—Taraji?”
Taraji nodded. The commander’s expression darkened.
The security unit dropped hard, skidding another hundred feet up the road. It came to a halting stop as the tail hooked on a low tree branch and spun them sideways.
The pilot and front seat agent had been knocked out by hitting the windscreen. The commander actually looked scared. There was nothing more for Bodhi to say.
He stepped out of the unit last this time, giving the lead to Taraj
i. She understood the way these people thought better than he did. He had expected all Landers to be on the same side. Why did he think that when he came here? Was it something he knew from before?
Taraji nudged his elbow and pointed back down the road behind them.
He saw it right away. The surveillance pod sent by the splinters was zooming closer. Bodhi stared at it, calculating the speed and wind. He withdrew his laser dart, dialed the setting for distance, reduced the beam width, raised his weapon with both hands, and fired.
The S-pod exploded into a hundred pieces.
Glade came forward slowly. “How did you do that?”
Bodhi stayed silent as he interpreted what just happened. He was an expert marksman. And neither the fierceness of the situation nor the enemy engagement had instilled fear in him. In fact, they had emboldened him.
He looked at Taraji. “You pointed the S-pod out. You knew I could do it. How?”
“I had the first clue watching the way you strapped on the laser dart. But when I saw you dial the load for distance I knew—the field assassin style,” Taraji said.
Bodhi looked to Glade, lifted his shoulders once. “I don’t know, but it felt natural.”
“Let’s get out of here before the other splinters catch up to the last location of that S-pod.” Taraji motioned in the direction of a two-story stone building up a slight incline on the right. “There’s an opening to the road on top of the hill behind that building. It cuts off a half mile of snaking around the hill and puts us mere buildings from the meeting spot.”
Bodhi and Glade scrambled to keep up with the six-foot woman. Her nimble frame seemed to bound over the landscape as though she wore springs. Bodhi envied her ease of movement through the brush and up the hill. He hoped his stamina might return someday, but at least he was keeping up with Glade.
They reached the ridge. Bodhi inhaled a great gulp of air, expanding his chest and stretching the muscles that had tightened on the climb.
A laser burst exploded at the edge of the road. All three of them dove back over the rise, sliding onto the hillside.
Laser fire shot up at them from the bottom of the hill. Two shots ricocheted off the top edge of the boulder below them. One shot went left, the other, right. Bodhi fired right, Glade fired left. They concealed themselves behind trees on the slope.
Taraji was far enough up the hill that she was covered in the treetops. She slid up to the edge of the road and fired off a couple of tracer shots to get the direction of the shooter.
Bodhi tried to watch for movement below him and analyze why he knew what defensive moves Taraji would make.
Movement in the bushes below. Bodhi aimed ahead of the object, waiting for it to move into his range. He fired. A loud thump. No further movement.
The other laser below started firing wildly. Glade engaged, moving down the hill tree by tree as the target moved away but still returned fire.
Bodhi, hearing more than one weapon firing at Taraji, scrambled up the hill to her position. Just as he reached her, she ducked. He ducked. Two shots. Opposite directions. Taraji looked at him. He nodded. Back to back, they rose firing at the same time. For Bodhi, it only took two shots for him to zero in on his target. The laser hit center mass on the man’s chest, and his feet jerked up as he sailed through the air and skidded to a stop in the center of the road.
Taraji hit her assailant, exploding the weapon in his hands. The dark-clad man held his arm and fled down the road toward the caravan depot.
“Clear,” Bodhi called as he stooped over the downed man.
“Clear,” Taraji yelled as she walked back up the road.
“Clear,” Glade shouted. His head appeared at the top of the hill.
Bodhi and Taraji swept the area around them. He watched Glade come over the hill just as Taraji whistled.
Bodhi and Glade turned. A bubble-topped security unit from the caravan depot hummed above the road. It pulled up beside them, lowering to the road. The side door swished open, and a female agent with close-cropped hair and wearing a beige flight suit and headset leaned out. “Would you folks be the Rishon party we’re supposed to escort away from these local malcontents?”
If Bodhi hadn’t felt so tired, that would have made him laugh out loud. As it was, he could just manage a smile and a nod. They piled into the well-shielded security unit, and the agent handed them each a water flask. Bodhi felt comfortable for the first time today.
“By the way, our second unit picked up the two wounded men trying to get away. I’ve called Wilmington security to pick up that body back there. At least they can do that much work, since they’ll just let the wounded guys go in a couple of days after you’ve cleared out.”
“They’ll be let go?” Glade seemed to lose his calm. “The Wilmington Lander Council won’t charge any of them for a capital offense against a novarium? That used to be against the law.”
“Any of them?” The agent pushed her headset off her ears.
“These two and the ones captured from the attack when we landed,” Taraji said. “I saw them drive away in the commander’s vehicle while we were talking. They were seated in the back, but they weren’t in restraints.”
“Hmm, forget them. They never got logged in at the Castle. And I’m sorry, sir, but novarium aren’t a protected class anymore. Any crime that could befall a novarium could befall a regular person, so those offenses were already covered by laws,” the agent said. She turned to speak to their driver in the secured front section, which contained a plascine-domed turret area for a laser cannon.
Bodhi looked at Taraji. “Did you actually see the commander call for backup?”
Taraji tilted her head for a moment, then looked up and smiled. “No, I didn’t. That’s a good catch. And I must say I’m impressed at your prowess with a weapon.”
“So am I,” Glade said. He patted Bodhi on the back. “You’ve surprised me.”
Bodhi jerked. His heart pounded. Acceptance at last.
The agent turned back to the group. “We’re all set to go. Could you imagine being stuck in this craziness all night?”
Bodhi wondered how bad it would be in Baltimore overnight tonight. They’d arrive there just about dark, and the caravan wouldn’t leave until five in the morning. It would head south to Richmond, and they’d get off in Stone Braide.
“So what’s the Castle?” Bodhi leaned back against the seat wall, the hum of the engines soothing.
“The Council building is one of those gothic castles from mythology. It’s a couple of hundred years old, a dark gray stone building. It’s massive. There are places inside that monstrosity that people are reported to have never seen,” the agent said. They pulled into the depot, and the security vehicle lowered to the ground.
Taraji stepped out and looked around before she let Glade or Bodhi descend. She nodded. Glade stepped out.
A barrel-chested man in a blue tunic rushed over. He had to huff and puff several times before he could get enough air to speak.
“Glade Rishon! We are so glad to see you again, old friend.” He and Glade clasped elbows, then pulled each other in for a back-slapping hug.
Bodhi was a little taken back by Glade’s display of camaraderie. Glade, always so tightly reserved, had even smiled at the man.
“Come, your accommodations are all prepared, and we leave right on time in fifteen minutes.” The man led the way.
Glade talked to their caravan master while Bodhi sidled up to Taraji, leery after the events of the day. “Is there any way for us to get a communication back to TicCity?”
Taraji shook her head. “No way unless someone travels there. They’ve been trying for years to get the towns along the route to band together and create a string communication for the whole line, but they could never get all of them to cooperate.”
“I’m seriously worried about Selah’s safety. These splinters seem deranged.” Bodhi felt helpless to keep her safe at this distance. Why had he let Glade talk him into coming?
; Taraji stopped walking and fisted a hand to her hip. “Selah is in the safest place she could possibly be. TicCity is a security fortress and I’m in charge of it, remember?”
Bodhi felt his face warm as he realized the words that had slipped from his mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. I’m just worried.”
Taraji smiled softly. “I understand your concern, but TicCity is the safest place for her to be while we’re gone. Jaenen Malik will ensure her safety.”
10
Selah tried to watch the scenery, but her mind kept drifting—to the people she loved, the earthquake she couldn’t explain, this new ability. As soon as she rationalized one situation, the next would take its place. If she could just—
Lightning burst, colored stars radiating before her eyes. Just what she needed right now. She needed to sleep—for days.
Cleon reduced speed and the magnetic force field kicked in to make for a pleasant ride. For as much as she could concentrate, the landscape intrigued her. At home in Dominion, large multi-acre sections were cleared to cultivate crops and to use for herds of livestock. Here the forests went on forever, with very few clearings and impossibly tall and wide-based trees. At the road edge she noticed wires strung between poles shaped like tall letter T’s. Her heartbeat quickened.
She pointed up to the wires. “What are those for? Is this another trap?”
“No, this land between the two waters is controlled by a regent who has embraced the old technologies from before the Sorrows. She has an energy source that generates electricity the old way,” Cleon said. “Those wires carry power to the homes. I’ve heard they’re even experimenting with communicating through the wires.”
“That sounds a little backward if you ask me,” Selah said.
“Yes, but you must remember your Borough always bought technology from the Mountain,” Treva said. “And the Lander communities—I’m not sure where they get their technology, because they’ve got applications far beyond Mountain capabilities.”
Lightning Page 9
