Numbers Raging (Numbers Game Saga Book 3)

by Rebecca Rode

  I swung the loudspeaker to my mouth. “Stay where you are! We’ll get you through. Just stay in line.” It was like holding out a hand to stop a train. The entire street had erupted in shouting and screaming. Bodies began to appear under their feet, trampled and kicked aside. The gate had become a swollen mass of panicked people.

  I cursed as the thunder overhead got louder. Dread hit my stomach like a lead weight. ECA fighters had already penetrated our formations and made their way toward the city. I squinted. No, not fighters. Bombers.

  The people at the gate noticed too. Their frenzy reached a new level, and then fighting broke out as people pushed through, climbing over bodies and the wall and anything in their path.

  I switched back to the radio to address the giant gunner crews. “If they come within range, fire at will. Just make sure they aren’t our guys.”

  A low rumble sounded from the outskirts of the city, far away. A dark plume of smoke appeared in the distance. The first bombs had hit.

  The massive antiaircraft guns tick-tick-ticked their way about as the crew maneuvered the beasts, preparing for the onslaught to come.

  The second wave of bombs came through, then the third. The explosions were a little closer each time. Fourth, fifth, sixth. I continued to yell orders from my loudspeaker, giving up on the techband communication completely, but it was no use. NORA’s citizens were in panic mode, every man for himself.

  Smoke lay heavy in the air now, making my mouth gritty. That last blast had been less than two miles away. Strange that they’d start with the outskirts, but I wasn’t complaining about the extra time.

  “Hawking,” Denoux’s voice said over my radio. I could barely hear him over the noise of the crowd.

  “Where’s Treena?” I asked, shouting into the radio.

  “She’s fine. Listen. Those bombers are swinging around and coming in for another pass. I think this next one will be intended for the gate. You need to get the people out of the way.”

  I stared at the swollen mass of people climbing over each other in their haste to escape, and groaned. “Not possible.”

  “Then you’d better hope those gunners can protect you, because they’re coming.”

  He was right. The next wave was on its way.

  “Everyone take cover!” I shouted into the loudspeaker, but even if they could hear, nobody was listening.

  The bomb hit the street dead center, rocking the ground and sending bodies and debris flying through the air. I flinched and covered my eyes.

  That was all it took. Frantic people began wailing and screaming as they headed for the mass at the gate. So much for organized groups of a thousand. The entire city seemed determined to storm the gate now.

  I caught sight of movement above and groaned. Another formation of bombers.

  “Ready?” I yelled into the radio to the gunners.

  “Ready, captain,” a strained voice called back.

  The bombers’ hatches were open. I could see them from where I stood. The screaming at the gate reached a fevered pitch now.

  “Fire!”

  The gunners initiated their sequence and the giant weapons discharged. The sound tore through the air just as the aircraft released their bombs.

  One bomber took a hit, recoiling and spinning sharply to the right. The other missed.

  The enemy’s bombs, however, hit the buildings many of our refugees had just flooded into. One hit the street itself, flinging bodies and sending smoking chunks of pavement in every direction. The unaffected bombers overhead circled around for another pass.

  I had to get these people out. Anton’s underground tunnel to the rendezvous point could fit most of them, and it was deep enough to be secure. Right now the citizens were sitting ducks, completely exposed, unarmed, and helpless. My father would be throwing a fit.

  The gunners frantically readied their giant weapons for the second pass.

  “Fire!” I shouted again.

  One managed to get a thundering shot off but missed. And then the bombers struck again, dropping their deadly cargo right above us.

  The gunner crews didn’t even have time to run. The first huge machine exploded, sending up a chunk of the street with it, throwing more bodies. The bombers circled again, wider this time. A few remaining NORA fighters rushed to engage them, but they were quickly taken out.

  People sat in the street weeping and screaming. Helpless. This aerial attack had already removed two of our four defenses, and it was obvious our ground troops would be useless. That left a single antiaircraft gun and our fourth defense—an angry outlander.

  As I racked my brain trying to remember any other advice from my dad, another voice came to mind. Your father was far from perfect. He trusted the wrong people, punished the innocent, and made terrible mistakes.

  In other words, he was just like me.

  Maybe I was asking the wrong question. Maybe it wasn’t about what old Iron Belt would do, but rather what Vance Hawking would do. I was here not because of my father’s legacy, but for my own. I wasn’t one to give up during a fight. There was always, always a way out.

  The idea came almost too late. I fumbled for my radio as the bombers completed their pass and started in on us again.

  “Gunners!” I shouted to the remaining gun crew, who watched the sky like mice eyeing an owl. “This time I don’t want you to aim for those bombers. There are too many of them. I want you to aim for the border wall and send all you’ve got at it. We need to punch a hole in this thing so people can escape. Aim for that support beam about a hundred feet north of the gate. Less people there.”

  There was silence on the other end as they realized what I was asking. I half expected them to drop the radio and run. But a soft voice finally responded. “They’ll be targeting us this time, sir. You expect us not to shoot back?”

  “You’re saving thousands, maybe millions of lives.” My voice was firm, but my insides were churning. I had no right to ask this of them.

  “Yes, sir.” His voice was more sure now.

  This time I shouted into the loudspeaker as I ran toward the wall, shoving people aside. “Move back! We’re blowing the wall. Everybody step aside!”

  The bewildered crowd, stunned out of their panic by my wild sprint, began to back away. I pushed them a little farther and told them to hit the ground and cover their heads.

  The bombers were almost here.

  “Now!” I shouted into the radio.

  The gunners’ shot punctured the wall like a fiery arrow, tearing away an entire section of metal and exposing the wires and stones and mortar underneath. The blast was more powerful than I’d expected, and even though the closest citizens had obeyed and huddled on the ground, the sound wave itself swept dozens off their feet and sent them flying. I’d covered my ears and crouched as well, my body shaking from the massive impact.

  “One more to clear the wires,” I said into the radio. They’d turned off the electric current this morning, but I wasn’t about to take any chances with this many lives at stake.

  The gun crew had already begun to reload. There were only three of them now, I noticed. The others had fled.

  “Stand back for a second shot, everyone,” I called into the loudspeaker, then brought the radio to my mouth. “Now.”

  The second powerful shot hit to the right of the first, but it did the job. Desert floor and dark gray sky could be seen through the gaping hole in the wall. People removed their hands from their ears and stormed the downed section of wall, sliding through the smoking remains. The echo of the gun’s raw power rolled like thunder.

  Within seconds, the speed of NORA’s exodus had increased by four times. I hoped Anton was ready for them.

  The bombers reached us then, diving lower to ensure they hit their target. In an instant, the street next to our last giant gun exploded, sending bodies to the ground and churning up concrete and dust. I could barely see the gun’s outline in the cloud of dirt and debris. The gun still stood, battered and cru
sted with dirt, but its crew was down.

  Two more bombs hit the buildings around us, and one just outside the wall as a shout went up from the refugees over there. I tried to remember what Anton had said about his tunnel entrances, hoping they were truly not visible from the air. Selia and her family and my sisters were supposed to meet me there. They had to be safe.

  Another clap of thunder sounded overhead, and green lightning forked through the sky. When the thunder ceased, Denoux’s voice was shrieking through the radio.

  “—huge wave of them coming from both sides! They’re going to clash right above you. Hawking, do you hear me? Clear the streets!”

  I glanced at the sky, but I had to turn to see them. A dark cloud of aircraft was coming from the opposite direction. Not six dots like in previous runs, but dozens. A hundred. And on the other side, a horde of black aircraft approached.

  Black? They certainly weren’t NORA fighters. Were those the Russians? It couldn’t be. They were engaging the ECA fighters in the air.

  Denoux was screaming again. “Hawking! Get them—”

  He cut off as someone shouted in the background, followed by a huge rush of sound. Then the radio went dead.

  “Denoux,” I said. “You copy?”

  There was no answer.

  As we crept along the quiet city, ducking between buildings, I watched my companions. Mom, Jasper, Maizel, and Coltrane had been among the first to volunteer. Well, after my parents had argued about whether I should be going at all, considering Chiu was here to kill our leaders. I reminded them that nobody else in the room could identify the man. If he were disguised as one of his soldiers, which was very possible, our mission would fail without me. Mom had grudgingly agreed to let me go, but only if she came along. Three NORA soldiers were here as well—some of Maizel’s guards. Eight nervous people with a desperate plan and a strange gun.

  I fingered the unique weapon Denoux had given me. I recognized it as one of the items he’d taken from his office this morning. It was small and lightweight, although slightly too big for my hand. My pocket held a bag of tiny pellets that went with it.

  He had explained how to throw the pellets, then shoot at them, and the pellets would explode within three seconds. At my puzzled look, he’d rolled his eyes. “So you can destroy his ship, of course.”

  I didn’t know how to explain my recent aversion to killing to a military commander, so I had taken the weapon anyway. But now it made me nervous. Would the pellets explode if they knocked together too much? Was I supposed to keep them apart? Was my pocket too warm?

  A black object whistled by overhead, then a second.

  “Did you see that?” I asked. Those weren’t ECA jets, and they definitely weren’t NORA.

  “British fighters,” Jasper muttered. “I saw images of them in Liverpool. What in the fates are they doing here?”

  Maizel bounced on her toes and grabbed my arm. “Do you know what this means? You did it! You convinced them to help us after all.”

  Some of the tension left the group, but I kept my eye on the sky. The jets didn’t reappear. Something wasn’t right. If Augustus had anything to do with this, it didn’t necessarily mean they were on our side.

  I knew that better than anyone.

  “What does that mean for us?” Mom asked.

  I shook my head. “We continue on. Denoux will notify us if something changes.”

  Four more black jets and a swarm of drones flew by before we’d reached the next block. If the British had sent their flying killer robots to war, Augustus had to be behind it somehow.

  “Corner,” Jasper said. He’d taken upon himself the role of protector, and every time we approached an intersection, he dashed up to make sure it was safe despite the trained soldiers surrounding us. My mother scowled, unimpressed by his heroics.

  Jasper peered around the corner as he’d done several times. But this time, instead of waving us forward, he gave a little gasp and pushed us back.

  “What is it?” I hissed.

  “Found it.” He waved me closer. I pushed through the group and craned my head to see.

  It was definitely Chiu’s ship. The pilot had wedged it into an alley, making for a tight but perfect cover. Our biggest problem would be the pairs of soldiers patrolling the street. We’d been lucky not to encounter any of them yet.

  Jasper realized the same thing and ducked into a building, motioning for us to follow. We crammed into the empty lobby of what looked to be an upscale apartment building.

  “We’re outnumbered,” Jasper whispered. “At least three to one, assuming all he has with him are those guards. And we don’t know for sure where Chiu is. He could be wandering the Council Building as we speak, looking for Dresden. Maybe we should have headed there first.”

  I shook my head. “Even if that’s the case, he’ll wander for a while, try unsuccessfully—or maybe successfully—to find Dresden and kill him, then come back here. This is where we need to be.”

  “Why not just blow that EMP?” Maizel asked, eyeing the box Coltrane clutched to his chest. “That’ll disable all their communications, right? Maybe even take down their fighters.”

  Coltrane frowned. “We have to assume they’ve protected their electronics by now. And if those British jets are trying to help us and they haven’t shielded their tech—which I almost guarantee—you definitely don’t want me to trigger this thing. It’ll down their whole fleet and leave the ECA’s air force intact.”

  “Can’t we just blow the ship?” Mom asked, turning to Maizel’s guards. “One of you must have grenades, right?”

  “There’s a chance Chiu may not have left yet,” I insisted. “I don’t want him dead.”

  “Besides,” Maizel broke in. “Chan might be in there.”

  Jasper sighed. “Kidnapping the man will be infinitely harder. It’s not like we can skip in there and introduce ourselves. Maybe if we created a diversion, something to distract the guards so a group can slip through.”

  “They’ll be expecting that,” I said, looking out the front window at the row of high-density residential buildings. Those guards were everywhere, which made simply walking up to the airship impossible. “But I have an idea.”

  It took a few minutes to make our way down the street with Chiu’s guards patrolling the area. We finally reached a building that would work—eight floors high, with balconies jutting out along one side. The door was locked, but Jasper broke us in.

  “Technology background,” he explained to the group, who looked at him quizzically as we climbed the staircase. “Electric locks are pretty easy. I can show you if you want—I bet anybody here could do it.”

  “This isn’t the best time,” Mom muttered.

  I chose an apartment on the sixth floor. Not too high but still out of sight unless they looked up. Perfect. The balcony overlooked the main street, but we could still see the ship below through a bedroom window.

  “Good idea, Treena,” Jasper said. “We’ll wait till their patrols pass by, then descend down the balcony side and rush the ship.”

  Now we just had to make our way down without falling to our deaths or being seen. If only Chan were here. “Coltrane, stay here with that EMP. It’s too valuable to risk losing. I’ll signal you when it’s time to hit the switch.”

  Coltrane opened his mouth to argue, but my mother interrupted him. “You want me to climb down that?”

  I smiled and gave her a sideways hug. “Maybe you should stay here too.”

  “Not a chance.” She looked down. “How does this work?”

  “Each balcony has a hatch that leads to the one below it, like a fire-escape ladder. The palace uses them too. We’ll just climb down and then jump to the ground.”

  “Soldiers first, to clear the way,” Jasper said, nodding to the NORA guards. “I’ll go next. Let’s keep these ladies safe at all costs.”

  Maizel scoffed. “Lady, indeed.”

  We waited until Chiu’s soldiers passed and our guards
descended, then Jasper followed. He glanced at the street every time he reached a new balcony, watching for soldiers. Mom insisted on going next—I think she saw my father’s show of bravado as a personal challenge. But her face was white, and she kept her eyes riveted on the sky. I lowered myself down close to last, grateful we could do it this way rather than leaping off the roof with wing suits.

  I’d survived, but that didn’t mean I ever wanted to do it again.

  More fighters whistled by, and there was a low rumble. The bombers still at work. I pushed away a rising frustration at not knowing what was going on out there. The British jets bothered me. Either Augustus had sent them, or he’d convinced his mother to send them. But why? To defend NORA after they had made it clear they didn’t care?

  Jasper jumped the last two meters down, landing in a silent crouch next to the NORA soldiers watching the street. He stood and shook out his legs, then gestured for us to follow.

  My mother was next, then me. We climbed down quietly enough, but then Mom paused at the bottom. The gap between the bottom of the ladder and the ground must have been greater than she’d expected. Jasper made his way to the bottom and held out his arms. “Jump, Lanah,” he whispered.

  “I can’t.” The sound barely came through gritted teeth.

  “I’ll catch you.”

  “Liar.”

  “Look,” he began. “I know you can’t trust me. But I’m here now, and I swear to you I’m not letting you go again.”

  She looked at the ground again and squeezed her eyes shut. “Only because your girlfriend is dead.”

  “Jump, Lanah, and you’ll see I mean it.”

  I watched the street, blood pulsing loudly in my ears. We didn’t have time for this. The patrol would come back through any second.

  She closed her eyes again, muttered something to herself, and let go with a whimper. Her body arced backward, arms outstretched.

  Jasper’s eyes widened, and he positioned himself under her. A moment later, she was in his arms. They stared at each other with equal amounts of surprise. It seemed neither had actually expected her to jump.