Becoming Zodiak

by Craig Jones

  “Sure thing,” Jimmy said, his excitement almost boiling over. Leo caught him by the arm.

  “Do as you’re told, all right? Stay close to Sagittarius. And don’t do anything stupid.”

  For a moment, Jimmy thought he was going to get another kiss, but she dragged him towards the upper part of the ship instead.

  They were the last to arrive on the bridge, and Jimmy immediately noticed Aries shaking her head. As Libra carefully guided the hovership towards the gates sliding open at the end of the hangar, Lord Crabbe pushed his wheelchair up next to Virgo. Jimmy, like the rest of the team, could not fail to notice that she didn’t look any better.

  “It’s the prison train,” Crabbe began. “One car has been breached, but as of yet, no one has escaped. Five prisoners, all highest security. The warden has informed me that the train driver has maintained maximum speed but that they’re going to have to slow in the next fifteen minutes…just as the train runs along the banks of a lake.”

  “That’s where they’ll look to bail out,” Scorpio said.

  “Exactly,” Crabbe confirmed. “But we’ll be waiting for them. To either stop them escaping or to recapture them if they do. Either way, all five will be back on board by tonight.”

  “What’s the plan?” Pisces asked.

  “We’ll deposit the water team into the lake, and Leo and Scorpio will track the train via the nearest roads. Libra has already transmitted the route to your vehicles. The hovership will catch up with the train and an assault team will be dropped down to take out the prisoners, one at a time. Sagittarius, you’ll be leading the team of Gemini, Aries and Bull’s Eye.”

  “I take it we drop down while the train’s still moving?” Sagittarius asked, and Crabbe nodded. “Sweet.”

  Jimmy’s heart soared and lurched inside his rib cage. He took a moment to look around. He was stood in the middle of the greatest crime-fighting force the world had ever seen. He was part of that force. And for the first time, he felt confident he could deliver.

  “Use whatever means possible to subdue the prisoners. Are we all clear?”

  “No, not really,” Aries retorted. “I thought I was part of the road team now.”

  “Your skills and equipment make you perfect for this particular ‘up close and personal’ mission,” Crabbe told her.

  “Don’t think for one second I’m going to babysit your new little puppy. I—”

  “I don’t need anyone to babysit me!” Jimmy snapped before he could help himself.

  “Oh, the puppy’s found his bark,” Aries teased.

  “Enough!” Crabbe bellowed.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Libra’s deep Scottish lilt filled the room through the loudspeakers. “If you could please take your seats, fasten your seatbelts and ensure your tray tables are stowed.”

  Zodiak moved to their chairs and buckled in. Leo pointed for Jimmy to take the chair next to hers. Magnetic seals locked Lord Crabbe’s wheelchair into place, and Virgo’s seat seemed to glide into position across the floor; she sat just as it reached her.

  The ship’s vibration began to reach a crescendo, and Leo gave Jimmy a startlingly eager look.

  “Hold tight, rookie.”

  38

  Jimmy followed the lead of Sagittarius and buckled his harness onto the abseil rope.

  “Make sure it’s locked on there,” she shouted, her voice almost drowned out by the whistling of the wind. “The last thing you want to happen on your first mission is to fall off the train. Leo would kill me!”

  Jimmy, Sagittarius, Gemini and Aries were balanced precariously on the end of the open exit ramp of the hovership. They had already dropped the water team off into the lake and landed briefly while Scorpio and Leo had sped off in their vehicles. Now they raced through the clouds to catch up with the prison train.

  “How did we get here so fast?” Jimmy hollered. With his helmet pulled tight over his ears, it was hard to hear his own voice.

  “Do not worry about that now,” Gemini said. “Think about what we do next!”

  Jimmy nodded and tugged hard on the rope to make sure it was firmly in place. Suddenly, the hovership lurched hard to the left and Gemini staggered to the edge of the ramp. Jimmy threw out a hand and grabbed the back of Gemini’s harness, pulling his teammate back onto steadier ground.

  “What the—” the Frenchman yelled before Libra’s voice came through their headphones.

  “Sorry, guys, but you’re not going to believe this,” he explained. “The WWW News helicopter is already here… I nearly hit it!”

  Aries shot Jimmy a withering look.

  The clouds dissipated and Jimmy could see the train tracks below him.

  “Over the train in thirty seconds. Get ready, team,” Libra commanded in a much steadier voice. “Optical lenses in place.”

  The amber glass fell into place and Jimmy could see the train even through the hovership’s ramp. It was ten cars long, and the coach three from the back had been blown open on one side. The roof was a tangled mess of charred metal. He could see the heads of the prisoners bobbing in and out, looking ahead—checking, he guessed, where they were in relation to the upcoming lake. The hovership matched pace with the train, well in excess of eighty miles an hour. Jimmy realized that the prisoners weren’t looking backwards, so disguised were Zodiak by the noise of the rushing air.

  “They don’t even know we’re coming,” he whispered to himself.

  “That’s the plan,” said Sagittarius, causing Jimmy to jump with a start. Gemini tapped his helmet with a smile. Jimmy hadn’t realized how sensitive the microphones were.

  “Jimmy, this is Libra,” said a voice in his ear. “I’ve set us up a one-to-one comm system. Listen to my advice and you’ll be fine… And don’t say thanks, or everyone will think you’ve gone mental.”

  Instead, Jimmy looked up and the holographic projection on his lens showed him the WWW News chopper circling ahead. It was the same helicopter Walsh had taken him to the Dome in, but now there was a cameraman hanging out the passenger door, filming the scene below.

  “Assault team, three seconds,” Libra told them all. “Zodiak! Go!”

  Aries leapt off the ramp, followed by Gemini and then Sagittarius. Jimmy counted to three in his head as instructed before he jumped. The sudden feeling of weightlessness made his stomach flip, but he managed to focus on a single spot below like Leo had told him to: on the roof of the rearmost car. Now it felt less like he was leaping onto a moving train and more like he was just jumping ten feet straight down. The zip of his harness down the rope was high-pitched and fleeting. His feet hit the roof of the train and he bent his knees to take the impact, almost slipped, then regained his balance.

  “Hold your position, assault team. We’re just hitting the lake,” Libra advised.

  Aries had advanced the farthest, with Gemini and Sagittarius flanking her, weapons at the ready. Looking over his shoulder, Gemini pointed for Jimmy to slot in behind them and to ready his rifle. Jimmy reached over and unclipped his gun from his back. He gave another pull on the rope, making sure it was still attached to the hovership and not twisted. He felt ready.

  He felt like Zodiak.

  Up ahead, the amphibian popped up on the surface of the lake and matched the speed of the train as it careered across the top of the water. The top hatch slid aside, allowing Aquarius access to the water cannon. As the train powered past, he opened fire on the damaged car just as one of the prisoners attempted a jump to escape. The man, dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, was picked up by the water and blasted backwards into the cell with a brief, but bloodcurdling, scream. Aquarius maintained his barrage until the point where the train swung off to the right, away from the water, cutting off that route of escape for the prisoners.

  “One down, out cold,” Aquarius announced. “Still four more in there, and they look like they’re headed for the roof.”

  “Assault team, they’re all yours!” Lord Crabbe directed.

  Two heads app
eared out of the blown-out hole in the car. Although they were facing the members of Zodiak, they were concentrating more on their hand and footholds and what was waiting for them up on top of the train.

  “Select 002,” Libra said to Jimmy. “Be on the front foot.”

  Jimmy typed the numbers into the rifle keypad and tracked the movement of one of the prisoners. He stepped around Gemini and Aries, moving to the front of the group.

  “I have the one on the left,” he said with confidence, taking aim as the man carefully stood up.

  “I have the one on the right,” Sagittarius confirmed as she selected a dart for her crossbow. “Firing on zero... Three… Two... One...”

  Already unbalanced by the swaying train, the two prisoners finally looked up and nearly fell off when they saw who was waiting for them.

  “Zero,” said Sagittarius, and she and Jimmy opened fire.

  Her dart was aimed at the foot of her target and just before it made contact, it split, transforming into a magnetic horseshoe that pinned the prisoner to the metal hull of the train. He pulled and tugged, grunted and groaned, but was going nowhere.

  Jimmy unleashed a capture net that wrapped itself around his quarry and sent the man tumbling back down into the shattered cell.

  “Yes!” Jimmy roared, delighted with his aim.

  “Good shots!” Lord Crabbe celebrated. “Two more down.”

  The train passed through a dense wood, and when it emerged, a road was running parallel to its right. Leo’s car and Scorpio, on his motorcycle, swept in alongside.

  “Road team in position,” Leo called.

  “Three down, two to go,” Libra said.

  Up above, the WWW News helicopter veered in to get a closer view.

  “Lord Crabbe?” Scorpio asked. “Can you ask Libra to swat that little fly?”

  “I think not,” Crabbe replied, his tone not matching his words.

  The final two prisoners made their break just as Sagittarius slapped Jimmy across the back.

  “Well done, kid! Great shot,” she said while the orange-clad villains clambered onto the roof of the train.

  “Get out of my way!” Aries shouted. “These ones are mine.” She bulldozed her way past Jimmy, Sagittarius and Gemini and prepared to leap across the gap. She gave the prisoner Sagittarius had snagged a push as she went, and he fell to the ground with a yelp.

  That was when Libra’s alarmed shout broke in over the comm. “Road team, you have company!”

  Jimmy glanced to his right and noticed a massive black car rapidly catching up to the train.

  “I’ll slow it down,” Leo responded, the red brake lights on her car glowing as she swerved from side to side, trying to keep the car back.

  Aries, in full body armor, took off across the shattered car and landed on the other side. Her legs kept pumping as she advanced upon the two prisoners.

  The black car refused to be slowed by Leo and ploughed into the back of her hypercar, sending it into a spin.

  Aries dived and wrapped her arms around the shoulders of one of the criminals, dragging him to the floor.

  Leo’s car flipped into the air, spun, hit the tarmac and bounced—a thunderous sound echoed inside Jimmy’s helmet with every collision. Finally, it landed on its roof and slid along the road, the metal screeching like nails down a chalkboard.

  “No, no, no, no,” Jimmy babbled, finding himself almost unable to breathe.

  “Focus, Jimmy,” Libra told him.

  “Scorpio! To Leo!” Crabbe commanded, and the motorcycle ducked out of the way of the black car and spun back towards the stricken Leo. Both were rapidly left behind as the train hammered on.

  Jimmy watched helplessly as the sunroof of the black car peeled open and it tucked itself in close to the side of the train. The final prisoner, tall, thin and shaven, tipped Zodiak a salute and then threw himself off the train, straight into the safety of the car below.

  “Jimmy, 109!”

  Jimmy snapped himself out of his despair and punched the code just as the black car pulled away from the train and began to turn off to the right.

  “You’re not getting away!” he shouted and ran for the car’s edge before leaping off into the air. He felt the harness grip him as the rope linked to the hovership went taut, pulling him in an arc back towards the train. At the midpoint of his swing, he aimed his rifle at the disappearing rear of the car and fired.

  “Homing beacon deployed!” Libra said to Jimmy alone. “Great shot.”

  Jimmy landed back on the train. “I did it,” he breathed. “I hit it with a tracking device!”

  “Leo’s fine,” Scorpio announced.

  “Bull’s Eye got the car with a reconnaissance device,” Crabbe told Zodiak. “Patching data through to you, Scorpio. We’ll get to Leo. By any means possible, you get that car!”

  39

  With the train halted and the four prisoners back under lock and key, Zodiak had rushed back to check on Leo before Libra had flown the hovership, with Virgo and the water team on board, off to support Scorpio. Leo was fine; a little dazed, but above all else, she was proud of Jimmy’s achievements.

  “Looks like Bull’s Eye is living up to his name,” she said as Gemini inspected her injuries.

  “No major damage here, but I suggest you rest for the next… Oh, who am I kidding?” Gemini asked. “If I tell you to rest, are you going to?”

  “No.” Leo, like the rest of the team, was worried that crime had once again returned.

  “So I won’t bother.” Gemini backed away. “Lord Crabbe?”

  “I know better than you not to argue with one of the ladies of this team,” Crabbe conceded.

  Leo was more concerned about the wreck that was her hypercar. Most of the red and white paint had been shredded off the body, and it had more dented panels than whole parts. Although Zodiak had rolled it back onto its tires, it sat at a lopsided angle in an ever-widening pool of oil.

  “Good. So, Jimmy, how did it feel to—?” Leo was cut off by Scorpio’s voice.

  “We’ve found the tracking device, but no car,” he informed them.

  “How could they have known what I hit them with?” Jimmy asked, dumbfounded.

  “Don’t worry, Jimmy,” Crabbe said. “You did the right thing.”

  “Really?” Aries asked. She turned to Jimmy, her face furious under her short blond hair. “As far as I’m concerned, you just got in the way. I’d have had them both if you’d not been celebrating one lucky shot!”

  “Hey,” Sagittarius said defensively. “If he was in the way, then so was I.”

  The return of the hovership and Scorpio’s motorcycle cut the rising tempers short. Scorpio removed his helmet as he jogged over to Leo.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

  “I am, I swear.”

  The noise of the helicopter filled the air as it skimmed low over Zodiak, still filming. Scorpio reached for his sidearm.

  “Arnold!” Crabbe ordered, and the Russian paused.

  “They seem so quick to film us, but why do they not help us when they can? They could have followed that car—“

  “Let’s get Leo’s car and ourselves back onto the ship and get out of here,” Crabbe said. “Let’s not give them any more to film.”

  Sagittarius, hurt by Aries’ accusations, could not help herself. “Maybe it’s Martin Bull up there,” she said, gesturing at the helicopter. “Commentating on behalf of WWW again.”

  “You’d better watch what you say next, Sag,” Aries snarled.

  “Or what?”

  “This is no way to behave, both of you!” Crabbe reprimanded. He huffed sharply in disbelief. “We didn’t find ourselves a new twelfth member just to tear ourselves apart from the inside out. Stop this now!”

  “Twelve to make Virgo well again?” Aries said bitterly. “That’s working.”

  She strode off and into the ship before anyone had a chance to respond.

  “Anyone else feeling the need to vent?” Lo
rd Crabbe asked, running his fingers through his red hair.

  Zodiak stood in silence.

  “Good. Now, the car. On the hovership. Pronto.”

  The team went about the task quickly and efficiently.

  Once on board, Libra called Jimmy over to his control desk.

  “Well done, kid,” he whispered. “My first mission? I hit this thing off two buildings and forgot to lower the landing struts. Left the biggest scrape ever across the floor of the hangar. Not my best day.”

  Jimmy grinned. “I did okay?”

  “You did great.” Libra flipped one of his screens up and replayed some of the footage from Leo’s accident.

  “No number plates on the car… No markings of any sort… Did you spot anything that the cameras didn’t?”

  Jimmy watched as the prisoner saluted and dived through the sunroof just before the car made its escape.

  “Sorry, Libra. It looks like just a regular car. I guess that’s why they chose it.”

  “You are not going to believe this!” Capricorn shouted as she walked onto the flight deck, followed by Aquarius and Aries. “We’re all they’re showing on WWW News. That helicopter was waiting for us!”

  Lord Crabbe rolled himself over to her. “I will discuss things with William Walsh. After the day we have had, the main thing is that Leo is okay.”

  “You know what it seems like to me?” Aries asked. She was addressing Crabbe, but her eyes bore into Jimmy. “Seems to me like they know where we’re going to be before we do.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Crabbe asked.

  She narrowed her eyes at Jimmy before storming off the flight deck. “I don’t need to say it,” she called over her shoulder. “It’s what we’re all thinking.”

  After a few seconds of silence, her voice echoed up the corridor.

  “William Walsh is pulling somebody’s strings in this so-called ‘team!’”

  40