by Rebecca Rode
A yell from the direction of the aircraft turned our heads. An ECA soldier raised her weapon and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed in the small alley. Gunfire. Not a stunner.
The NORA soldiers returned fire, cutting her down, but it was too late. Jasper jerked and stumbled to one knee, still holding my mother in his arms. She clambered to her feet and knelt beside him as I scrambled down. The NORA guards fanned out to cover our descent. That loud gunshot would bring others for sure.
My father lay on his side, blood soaking his lower back. Definitely a bullet.
“They’ll be here any second,” Maizel said. “We need to get to the aircraft or get out of here.”
“Aircraft it is,” I said, wrapping my father’s arm around my shoulder. Maizel took the other arm. “We’ll make a run for it on three, two, one.”
Jasper gasped in pain as we sprinted through the alleyway. My lungs immediately started to burn with my father’s extra weight, and Maizel looked winded as well. The NORA soldiers encountered the door guards first and sent two to the ground before they returned fire. The oldest soldier of my group went down, and another grunted and stumbled but stayed on his feet.
We reached the open door of the aircraft just as the patrols caught sight of us. They sprinted down the street, shouting, but we shoved our way inside.
I slammed my fist down on a red button, and the door whooshed shut with a gust of air.
Jasper groaned as we set him down. Mom knelt beside him again and ripped the fabric of her pant leg, then applied it to the wound. He was in good hands for the moment. I felt bad for the downed guard outside, hoping his death had been swift and painless.
The other two guards looked unhurt, although they seemed a little rattled.
“We need to know if Chiu is here,” I said. “He’ll probably be near the cockpit. And Chan will be in a cell in the engine room below if he’s here at all. Let’s pair up.”
Maizel nodded and motioned to the guards. “You check out the cockpit, then. Treena—I mean, the empress—and I will look downstairs.”
They strode down the hall and out of sight. Maizel headed for the ladder that led downward, but I turned to my parents questioningly.
“Jasper’s not going anywhere,” Mom said. “I’ll stay here with him.”
“Just . . . leave me here,” my father said. “I’ll guard . . . the door.”
“Oh, don’t be stupid,” Lanah said.
“Good advice,” a smooth, accented voice said.
I turned to see the barrel of a huge gun just centimeters from my face. Guard Lady sneered. She slid Denoux’s strange gun out of my belt and examined it in fascination. Then she shoved it in her pocket. My parents watched with wide, horrified eyes from near the door.
“Our Honored Dragon is wise,” she said. “He knew you would come to him.” She barked something in Chinese. Footsteps pounded down the hall. Before I knew what had happened, the room was full of ECA soldiers, and my companions were back. Well, not all of them. Maizel was missing. I scanned the room, but she was nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, my mind was racing. Chiu was expecting me. That meant he knew I was NORA’s leader now.
This was a trap.
My group was quickly stripped of their weapons and lined up in front of the door, arms raised. The ECA soldiers jerked my mother to her feet. My father lay on his side facing us now, his skin ashen.
Guard Lady noticed me watching my parents. “Your cooperation may keep those two alive awhile longer. Your soldiers, not so much.” She turned to her guards and delivered an order, then translated it for me with a cruel smile. “They’ll do it outside. Our Honored Dragon does not like messes.”
Soldiers shouted to the team outside, and then began pulling my frightened NORA guards out the door.
Realization hit and I lurched forward. “No, don’t hurt them!”
Guard Lady slammed her fist into the side of my head. The world flickered. I stumbled to stay upright as she yanked me back. “You stay.”
Fates. No, no, no—I tried to fight my way free again, but the woman swung a stunner at my face and yelled a single command to her soldiers.
Gunfire echoed outside, punctuated by shrieks of terror. Then there was silence.
My mom, still standing next to me inside the aircraft, let out a sob. Jasper remained sideways on the floor, covering his face with one hand. I noticed a streak of blood on the white floor beneath him.
“The Dragon comes,” Guard Lady told me. “Now you go.” She motioned to the other soldiers, who shoved us through the door into the hot desert afternoon. They kicked aside the slumped bodies of my guards and placed us in the same spot. Two ECA soldiers dragged my father outside last and dumped him on the ground at Mom’s feet, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
The street patrols had all gathered now and stood before us in neat rows, waiting expectantly. Guard Lady locked my wrists behind my back and stepped aside. Chiu had his next victim, secured and ready for her execution. Where was Maizel? Had she escaped somehow?
Chiu emerged from the aircraft and descended with a smile. “There she is, the new empress of NORA.” He reached me and examined my face. “You should have listened to me and fled with the rest of your government officials.”
How did he know about that? Had Dresden told him that our entire council had fled to the desert, or . . . but no, he couldn’t have passed along my transition to power from prison. It had to have been someone else.
Oh, fates. Chan’s mom. I had completely forgotten about her. Chan had even tried to warn me in Liverpool, but I was too intent on killing President Chiu to listen.
“The British know of your plans,” I said, testing the strength of my bonds. They held. “They’re probably sending footage of this attack to the convention right now. Your reasons for taking our city don’t matter anymore. They know you’re coming, Chiu, and they’ll be ready regardless of where you set up your military base.”
He chuckled. “If the British were here to help you, they would have sent more forces and tried to protect your city. Yet they’ve spent the past hour bombing it instead. They are just trying to render it uninhabitable for my troops. It’s a pitiful plan thought up by a rash and thoughtless prince.”
They were bombing us, and Augustus was behind it. My mind refused to accept any more revelations right now—I felt completely numb. Chiu seemed to sense it. He pulled a pistol out of his pocket and cocked it.
A pistol. They’d brought weapons that wouldn’t be affected by the EMP, just as Coltrane had predicted.
I swept the crowd and caught my mother’s gaze. Her face was drained of color, and she covered her mouth, eyes round and horrified as she realized what was about to happen.
I’d seen that look on her face before, just as I jumped into an underground tunnel that was about to be blown into the atmosphere by Denoux. I’d made it through thanks to Coltrane, but I didn’t see any way to cheat death this time. I raised the corner of my lips in what I hoped was a smile and not a grimace.
Jasper’s face was twisted in pain as he struggled to a kneeling position. Even that much seemed too painful for him, and he sank back to the ground again.
Thank you, Jasper. Please find a medic and get better. And take care of Mom.
Guard Lady barked an order to some of the soldiers, and they whipped out a small, rectangular object. One held it in front of his face and nodded. I’d seen that thing before. A camera?
Chiu lifted the gun to my head.
“My death won’t change anything,” I told him loudly so my parents could hear. “They’ll keep fighting to live because that’s who they are. They made that decision a century ago, and they’ll still be here tomorrow.”
“Some of them may be,” Chiu said. I felt the barrel move slightly against my head as he adjusted his finger. “But you won’t.”
A gentle peace calmed the turmoil inside. Vance. He would be devastated, but at least he still had the twins. I had to cling to that.
Guard Lady cried out and fell to the ground, unconscious.
President Chiu turned, keeping the gun to my head. I turned to look as well.
Maizel and Chan stood inside the doorway of the airship. They leveled their weapons and began to shoot. Chaos took over as soldiers shouted and ran for cover, some leaping at Chiu to form a protective wall around him. The man kept his gun solidly against my head, yelling at everyone in sight.
The line of street soldiers fired back toward the airship. Chan and Maizel dove out of the way, then Chan reappeared long enough to take aim at our little group with a pistol similar to Chiu’s. He squinted and pulled the trigger.
He must have found a gap in the Chinese president’s protection, because Chiu gasped and fell back. The cold barrel against my temple pulled back and I allowed myself to take a deep breath, scurrying backward. Chiu sat on the ground, blood blossoming on one pant leg. His gun lay on the ground beside him.
A mass of Chinese soldiers had reached the aircraft now, but Chan and Maizel were no longer in the doorway. Two guards hurried to their president’s side as the rest filed inside the airship. Chiu snapped at them as they tried to examine his wound.
Only five soldiers remained outside to guard my parents and I. As I watched, one man jerked and fell backward, then a second. The remaining soldiers looked around wildly, but there was nobody in sight.
Confused, I searched the area as well and saw a figure in a window six stories up. Coltrane. I’d forgotten he had a stunner.
This was our chance. My arms were locked, but I had to do something. I dashed toward the guards nearest my parents. The soldiers watched me approach warily, panic crossing their faces. They raised their guns then hesitated. Killing me was Chiu’s right, not theirs.
Just as they lowered their weapons and came forward to intercept me, Mom extended her leg. A soldier tripped and tumbled to the ground. Mom stripped him of his weapon and shot him, then a second. The third was so surprised he wasn’t ready when I reached him. I sent a knee into his groin and threw him sideways with my shoulder. He landed on his back.
Meanwhile, Coltrane had turned his weapon on President Chiu. The two soldiers attending him were downed in seconds. Chiu, however, had finally looked up and found Coltrane’s location. He retrieved his gun and began firing. Coltrane ducked inside.
Maizel and Chan appeared again, wriggling out from a grate on the underside of the aircraft. Maizel sent a stunner blast at President Chiu, who ducked and fumbled for his pistol, shouting.
Chan scooped Jasper off the ground and began to drag him, but Jasper shook him off. “Help the women get away,” he said, wrapping his arms around himself.
“Actually,” I said, “help my mom. I’ll take care of Jasper.”
Maizel tossed a stunner to Jasper, grabbed Mom’s arms, and began to pull her away. Chan put a strong hand on her back and guided her forward. She sent a concerned look over her shoulder at us, but I had already reached Jasper’s side.
“Let me see your hands,” he said, struggling to kneel again. “I’ll stun those cuffs off you.” Some of the color was back in his face, although he still swayed as if he would fall over.
I turned sideways for him and felt a surge of power in the metal around my wrists. Then the clasp fell to the ground.
“There,” Jasper said. “Now don’t worry about me. Just go and get everyone out—” He cut off as hands grabbed me roughly from behind.
Chiu whirled me around and aimed his pistol at my heart. “No more waiting.”
Suddenly, someone leaped between us, a large dark blur. It tackled Chiu, sending him to the ground as the gun discharged. Once, twice. Then several times more. The body on top of Chiu was limp, but it recoiled with every shot.
The man had a massive blood stain at his lower back.
Chiu dumped the body aside and sat up, leveling his pistol at me again. I was too busy staring at the dead man’s face to react. I was barely aware of the empty clicking of the gun and Chiu’s angry muttering.
Jasper.
Dad.
President Chiu threw the gun aside and climbed heavily to his feet.
“Run, Treena!” Coltrane shouted from overhead.
I don’t remember running away. There were footsteps pounding out of the aircraft, men pouring out after me, but they didn’t quite register. I just ran.
My father’s lifeless face hovered in my mind, driving me on, faster, as if I could escape the truth if I never stopped. The ground shook as another bomb hit somewhere, but I almost didn’t care.
Just go and get everyone out. My father’s last words.
The city was dying, helped along by Augustus’s forces. Ironically, Chiu hadn’t seemed bothered by the fact that the British were destroying the city. There was little here he needed, after all. Just the basic infrastructure of a city, enough for his men to live on. As long as the most important sites were standing by the end—
Wait. Important sites.
What was it Augustus had said at the ball?
I just wonder why you haven’t considered what all of us already see—that destroying your land, making it undesirable, is the only way to save it.
Augustus was helping us along, but so far their bombs had been randomly placed. They didn’t understand NORA’s most precious resource, the one thing that would be almost impossible to replace.
The water-treatment plant.
I hit the wall of a building and turned around, breathing hard.
“Fates,” I whispered. “I know what to do.”
I sent a prayer to the stormy sky just in case something was listening and ran like I’d never run before.
The people on the ground cheered at the newcomers’ arrival. Their euphoria increased as the black fighters absorbed the ECA bombers, sending a host of the silver jets crashing to the ground. I just stood there and squinted, trying to identify the coloring below the jets’ black wings. It hit me all at once. Those were British fighters.
I didn’t have time to wonder why they’d come to our defense after their prince’s assassination attempt, but it soon became clear. The moment the ECA’s formation had been scattered and broken, the horde of jets swooped in on our city.
And released their bombs.
A roar went up from the crowd as they realized what was happening, and the frenzy began again, only this time nobody seemed to know where to go. Were they friend or foe? Neither, it seemed, since they were attacking both sides. NORA was now caught in a three-way battle.
The yelling rose into a frantic hysteria as people climbed over each other and headed for the remaining buildings looming behind us. Most wouldn’t make it.
Another mass of silver aircraft gathered to the west. No formation this time. They headed straight for the British ships, probably intending to quickly obliterate them so they could continue their objective here. To the east, the British moved into a tight formation of deadly aircraft. As Denoux had predicted, they would meet in the center, right above us. The winner would turn and bomb the city, and the losers would fall to their deaths right where we stood.
This was it—our last chance.
I sprinted across the street to the giant gun, hoping it still worked, shouting into the loudspeaker for everyone who was left to either cross the wall or find shelter. The NORA soldiers and my armed settlers responded instantly, repeating my word and enforcing them. It still wouldn’t be sufficient. There were just too many people and not enough places to hide. As long as the bombers seemed focused on the gate and its surrounding buildings, we’d be in danger. I had to buy them enough time to get to the underground tunnels outside the city.
When I reached the gun, I was surprised to find one member of the crew still alive. He sat against the base, his face bloodied and one eye swollen shut. A pair of ear guards lay curled around his neck.
“You need to get to safety,” I told him, examining the gun’s giant barrel.
“She’s got a few shots left in her,” he said. I recognized his voice
as the soldier who’d answered on the radio. He pointed to the panel near my hand and pushed slowly to his feet. “Look, I’ll show you. This turns it, and you look through the scope to aim. Then push this button.”
The fleet of aircraft began to close in. This was it.
The soldier looked at the sky and stumbled away. He wouldn’t make it in time.
Time slowed down. Screaming swelled in my ears, accompanied by a thundering from the sky as the two waves of fighters clashed.
With a massive yell, I hit the trigger.
My lungs screamed in protest, singed with burning heat as I leaped over a pile of rubble in the street. I nearly landed on a bloody arm jutting out from beneath it; I gritted my teeth and sprinted on. Twisted bicycles lay scattered about, their wheels spinning lazily with the floating dust.
A brilliant light flashed, far brighter than the lightning overhead, and a burst of sound hit a moment later. Distant screams swelled in the distance. This city didn’t know what that light was, but I did. Coltrane had triggered his EMP.
The bombers overhead still whistled by, but there was a different sound now. Their wings dipped, swinging downward. Then they began to go down. The screams rising up from the half-destroyed city rose to a fevered pitch as Augustus’s air corps slowed and plunged to the earth. Tiny figures ejected from their aircraft and fell through the air, most of them activating their parachutes within seconds. Some of the figures simply continued to fall.
My breathing felt ragged, a mixture of sobs and desperation.
A whistling sounded overhead, and I ducked into a building just before a British aircraft slammed into a skyscraper nearby. The explosion sent a shockwave several streets over. I flattened myself against the wall, but I couldn’t avoid the chunks of concrete and drywall that rained from the sky. They pelted my eyes, my hair. Shielding my eyes from the worst of it, I burst into the street and into the cloud of dust and continued on my way.
More shouting and screaming came from the streets ahead of me, and the sound of bullets echoed like claps of thunder. I turned to go around them, but some of the shouts were in Chinese. I paused to peek around the corner instead, wishing I still had Denoux’s gun for protection.
