Eli gasped and flailed, holding onto Tyler’s hand, trying to pry his grip free.
I rose from the seat. “Let him go!”
If Tyler heard me, he didn’t act as though he had. He brought Eli around and slammed his body into the glass, holding him pressed against the surface. His other fist impacted next to Eli’s head. The ballistic glass spider-webbed. Impossible. Or it should have been, given it had a thickness of about four inches. The glass would be tough to chip with an axe and was designed to withstand volcanic bombs.
Tyler would kill him.
I took several steps back, looking for anything I could use as a weapon. There was nothing. “Stop!” I screamed as Tyler pulled him away and then shoved him back into the window. This time clear chunks dropped off the outside, falling away into the sky, headed for earth where Eli would be soon if I didn’t stop Tyler.
Tyler made the glass look as thin as eggshells. What was that thing? Certainly not the boy I’d once known.
Tyler glanced back at me, a smile on his face. “It takes seventy-six pounds of pressure to crush a human trachea. I can apply over ten thousand. Want a demonstration?”
“No. Please stop.” Nothing I knew could apply that much pressure with one hand, or even in a bite. No matter how impossible his claim sounded, I didn’t doubt him one bit. I stepped forward and put my palms up. Forget crush, Tyler would pulverize Eli’s windpipe, and it wouldn’t be because of me. “Let him go. I will do what you ask.”
He dropped Eli, who gasped and wheezed as he curled into a ball on the floor.
“Sit down in the chair and shut the uplink down.”
I nodded and ran for the chair, sitting down. I spread the fingers of my uninjured hand over the console, watching as they began to glow again. My pack beeped, reminding me I still had one card up my sleeve, a hacker I’d forgotten. Max.
“I’m waiting.”
“I need my pad out of my bag.”
“Then grab it. One wrong move and I shove lover-boy through this window, and unless he can grow wings, he’s going to hit the ground hard.”
I jumped up and grabbed my bag, reaching inside as Tyler turned back to Eli. I pulled out the pad and typed a quick message to Max. Hopefully the kid was as good as he said, because in the game of draw at high noon where computers were the weapon, if he didn’t seize control of the tower before Tyler had access, Sententia would see a whole lot more of destruction coming its way. I shoved it back in my pack and sat down again, putting my hands over the holo keys appearing out of nowhere.
It took me seconds to recognize the programming my great-great-grandfather had used, something I’d studied extensively, even though considered antique. Three keystrokes, and lines of code began to scroll through the air before me.
“Five minutes to shut down,” a computerized voice chimed in.
Tyler left Eli’s side and came up behind me. “Move.”
I scrambled out of the chair and made my way toward Eli, who staggered to his feet. I slipped my arm around him, helping him to the exit.
Eli shook his head.
“I’ve got this,” I whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”
Tyler spun the chair around. “Go ahead. You can’t outrun the bees.”
We could if Max took control like I told him. My pad had uplinked to the database, and at this very minute, the kid hopefully slipped through the back door. If he failed, we were all dead. If he didn’t, he’d set the towers to auto destruct.
I walked Eli into the hallway and onto the lift. The woman and her children had already fled, leaving the elevator to us alone.
Eli collapsed against the wall as the lift started down. It was then I noticed it, the red stain spreading across the front of his chest.
“You’re hurt.” I reached for his shirt. He held his hand out, shaking his head.
Not only was he bleeding, Tyler had hurt him enough he couldn’t talk. I ignored his gesture to stay away and lifted his shirt to find his torso purple from the blood leaking internally. Lumps under the skin could only be broken ribs. But the worst, the source of the blood on his shirt, a broken rib poked through his skin in one spot. “We’ve got to get you to a hospital.”
“No,” Eli said and coughed, his voice a deep rasp.
“You need medical attention.”
“No, I have to get you to the field.” He hacked and covered his mouth. Though he tried to hide it, I saw the blood as he pulled his hand away.
“I’m not leaving you like this.”
“No choice. If you stay, you die. I won’t let that happen.”
“No. Max will trigger the self-destruct.”
“They can rebuild the towers, but the uplink to the satellite, you’ve got it. Even if Tyler takes control of the system, you still have the override for it and can stop him. And if he doesn’t, you are too big a threat to the people making money off the grid to leave you alive.”
The lift came to a stop, and the doors opened. The lobby sat empty. It seemed as if everyone knew all hell was about to break loose and evacuated while they could. Eli swung his arm over my shoulder, and I limped him to the exit. “This way.” He nodded to a side street. “The field isn’t far.”
All daylight faded, blocked out by the black cloud dropping from the sky straight at us.
“Run, Iia. Run south.”
“I’m not leaving you!” I yelled and doubted he could hear me over the roar of the ento mass. Streaks of lightning crackled through the cloud, drawing closer. Death imminent.
“You have to go,” Eli pressed his lips to my ear.
“I can’t. I won’t.” I turned to face him, determined to stand my ground. “I’ll die here with you.”
The world went silent around us. I looked up at the tower. A bright flash, followed by an explosion. The nightmare was over.
All around us bees rained down, falling from the sky, and where they’d perched on buildings. Some fell like missiles. Eli grabbed my wrist and pulled me under the concrete awning over the entrance to the tower. He reached up and gave one of my curls a tug. “You did it.”
“Yeah.” I flinched as hovering street lamps crashed around us, bursting into flames at impact. The world fell apart before our eyes, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Even though we’d managed to take the technology down, skilled doctors could still help Eli.
It wasn’t too late. He could be saved.
“I’m going to take you to the hospital.” I spotted a tall building in the distance. Maybe a mile, certainly closer than where he wanted to go.
“I’ll go when you’re safe,” Eli said, steering me in the opposite direction of the surgical center.
“We’ll go now.”
Eli turned to face me. “No. It’s too late. I’m sure I’ve damaged more than my lung.”
“They can help you.”
He shook his head. “If they had the equipment to fix the mess my insides are in, without the Net, they don’t. My injuries are bad, Iia. I felt something rupture the second time he put me against the glass.” He gasped and coughed again. “I’m not going to make it through the night, but you can still get out of this alive.” He spit up more blood. “I know enough about battle wounds to know I’m dying.”
“Stop talking like that. You will make it.” I reached for him, and he jerked back.
“No, I won’t—but you will.” I registered his hand coming up with the damn tranq gun in it. Snap. It popped against my neck, and my vision blurred. “I intend to keep my promise, even if it kills me.” He caught me as I slumped, tossing me onto his shoulder and walking toward an abandoned vehicle. The bees’ metal bodies crunched under his boots.
I remember thinking, someone in your shape shouldn’t do this. And then nothing. I woke up on the raft, floating in the open ocean, no land in sight.
Epilogue
“So, he might still be alive.” Axel leans in, his eyes intense. “He carried you to the vehicle and then on to the field with the injuries he claimed to have?”
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br /> I shake my head. “I doubt it. Right before he knocked me out, I got a good look at his face. He meant what he said. His skin was so white and his lips blue. The bruising on his belly was more than bruised muscle, but blood pooling under the skin with nowhere else to go. How he got me to the field, I don’t know, but I’m sure he did it with his last breath.” I look away, no longer able to talk about Eli’s death.
“You’d be surprised what the human body can survive.” He holds his hand up. “I survived this.”
“What happened?”
“A very long tale, best left for another day. I think you were manipulated and tricked into taking the tower down. I don’t believe this Eli was ever your friend, and I think he didn’t put you on the raft to save you, but deliver you. And who is his brother? He’s still there. Are you sure Max wasn’t on his side, working for the rebels?”
“Why?”
“Because my friends and I came here to stop a very bad man from getting his hands on a dangerous weapon I believe I’ve just found,” Axel says.
“My bees?” My heart staggers, and my stomach sinks. I should have listened to my instincts and destroyed them instead of giving them a second chance.
“Not quite. You.”
I launch to my feet as Axel stands. “You have a satellite uplink in your head. Very few people can access the satellites anymore. I know of two. Now, I know of another.” He points at me.
I back toward the door, glance down, and realize my wrist processor is gone. I can’t use my bees without it. While I’d slept, Axel had rendered me defenseless. How foolish not to notice. “I’m not a weapon.”
“If you fall into the wrong hands, you are. Not only because of the access codes, but because of your knowledge.” He tapped his head with two fingers. “You can resurrect a desolated country from the ashes, or bring it to its knees. I don’t think the man you pine away for is dead, because he intended to put you here on this shore to meet a bastard named Pilot Axis.”
“That can’t be true.”
“Don’t you think it a little convenient he could use a vehicle without power? And where were the people? By bringing the towers down, you disarmed an army and helped to overthrow a government. Where were the citizens? The soldiers? The rebels?”
“Ash? I don’t know.”
Axel steps closer and holds up my band for me to see he indeed took it. “What about the kid? You let him in the back door to set the towers to self-destruct, but know next to nothing about him. A little odd he happened to be there when you needed him most, and he was the one person who could fix what had to be fixed. And the floating field, outfitted with everything a girl like you might want to survive the trip, and the technology conveniently left lying around. Not to mention this Eli had a tranq-gun handy to knock you out when you resisted leaving the islands. Where did he get it?”
“I… I don’t know.” I retreat further. “None of what you say can be true. I saw his injuries.”
“Did you? You mentioned Tyler used the cosmetic nanites to make you see him as a ghost. Are you sure you saw what you thought you did, or perhaps in your blindness, you played into a strategic game to oust a government? They wrapped you up like a pretty gift and set you afloat to do what you do best. You are a tech. It’s what you know. They knew you couldn’t live without it. Did you have plans to bring the towers up here on the coast, bring this city back to life?”
I had. I wanted the primitives to have more and knew I could give it to them. But I didn’t, because there were possible repercussions. I don’t like the way Axel is making me feel. I’m not a bad person, and helping the people here wouldn’t be a horrible thing. I swallow and lift my chin. “No.”
“Right. Look around you, you’ve already started to adapt. You would not have been satisfied with this, and they counted on it.” He pins me with a glare. “More than one government will fall if Pilot gets his hands on the bees and the army on your islands. My country will be destroyed. The satellites control weapons of mass destruction, left unused during the war. There is so much damage you could do. You are a queen on a chessboard, Iia, and you are either on my side or against me.” He takes another step toward me. Reaching out, he uses his fingertips to lift my gaze to his. I realize how tall he is now that we stand chest to chin, barely a scant inch between us. “Believe me when I say this, the last thing you want to be is my enemy.”
I nod. “Yes, I have no doubt that’s true.”
“So Iia Danner, which are you?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. Until an hour ago, I didn’t know there was a side.” The lines are drawn, but I still don’t have a clue who the good guys are. I only know I better be on the right side when it starts. If what he says is true, we are already on countdown. Once the long range tower comes back online, all hell will break loose.
“You better decide and quick.” He reaches out and grabs a hank of my hair, lifting it before my eyes.
I gasp. Turquoise. “It’s too late.”
He catches my wrist, stopping me, staring into my eyes. “It’s only too late when you’re dead.” He points at his chest. “I’m still breathing, and so are you. There are two armies here right now with enough armament to flatten what’s left of this city if they can use their weapons.” He frowns. “They can use their weapons.”
Boom! As if on cue, an explosion rocks the ground. The entire building shakes. Dust and sand, which has accumulated on the beams for years, rains down, hitting the ground and billowing out into a cloud. I cough and blink the silt from my eyes. Axel lets go of my arm and looks up. “How solid is this structure.”
“Not solid enough to take a direct hit.” The roar of the engines of several ships growls overhead, growing louder with each second. Boom! More shaking, harder this time. Closer. I swallow. “You’re right. I don’t want to see a war. I don’t want to see anymore death, and I sure as hell don’t want to get caught between two opposing forces, which I suspect is a little too late to worry about.”
I walk over and grab my gear bag, slipping it onto my shoulders. “But what I don’t want even more, is rolling toward the coast right now, and if we don’t shut the tower down and fast, the armies flattening this city will be the least of our worries. So I guess it makes me your friend. Question is, are we on the same side?” I approach him with his bag in my hand
“I believe we are.” Axel says and presses the wrist processor into my other hand. He grabs his pack and shrugs into it. “Let’s take that tower down.”
About the Author
Paxton Summers loves to incorporate crazy plot twists, comedy and the unexpected into her worlds. As a U.S. Army veteran, she naturally adores men in uniform and feels the world could always use more. She does her part by incorporating as many sexy soldiers in her novels as she can. When she isn't writing or running the roads, you can often find her online chatting with her peers and readers. Grab a cup of iced coffee, pull up your virtual chair and say hi. She loves emails and blog visits from her readers. http://www.paxtonsummers.com
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