A strange expression crossed Michal's face as he slid slowly to his knees and slumped to the ground, his life fading away before my very eyes.
"No!" I shrieked as I reached for him. Michal glanced at me and then fell still.
I rolled to my knees, and with blood pouring down my face and into my eye, I crawled over to him while King went back to the bomb.
I checked Michal's pulse, but there was none. He was gone.
The enormity of what just happened crashed into me like a tidal wave. Michal, my best friend, had died trying to save me from King. A part of my heart withered and died along with him. I rested my hands and forehead on his shoulder and lamented the loss of a friend who had always been there for me. He had helped me in my moments of inexplicable melancholy, and I had comforted him when his family life sapped him of the will to live. No longer would he join us when we got together on the roof to goof around, no longer would he be the brawn behind our foraging efforts, and no longer could his younger brother and sister look up to him, as he set them a role model worth following.
I couldn't believe this had happened. Today was supposed to be a simple delivery run. The only potential danger was supposed to be from the person in Hamamachi who had shot me two years ago. We weren't supposed to be going up against our own Custodians!
Sitting back on my haunches, I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and pressed it against the bullet graze on my forehead in an attempt to staunch the blood flow. As I did, Leigh popped up from behind the G-Wagon's trailer, an arrow fitted to his bow. But before he could shoot at King, the gunner on the Bushmaster sent a hail of bullets at him. The arrow went wide and Leigh went down with blood spraying from his chest.
"No!" I screamed in horror at the sight of another close friend shot. A friend I dragged out of prison to come on this mission, thinking I was doing him a favour. It wasn’t supposed to lead to his death!
Hearing my shout, the Bushmaster’s machine gunner swivelled his weapon around and lined me up in his crosshairs. But before he could shoot, he clutched at his throat and then gurgling and choking, collapsed over his weapon, an arrow through his neck. By facing me he had exposed his back to my lads on the far side of the Bushmaster. It had cost him his life. Good riddance.
With the machine gunner out of the way, I rose and staggered over to King. I had to stop him changing the detonator's timer. But I was so feeble that he fended me off with his right arm, even though weakened by the knife wound. I watched him change the timer to five minutes and activate it. That done, he turned and sent me sprawling to the ground with a strong push.
He grabbed his pistol and aimed it at me. "You've no idea how much pleasure I'm going to get from killing you personally, Jones," he snarled.
"Nooooo!" Nanako shouted in rage as she leapt up from behind the forklift to come to my aide.
Distracted by her shout, King hesitated for only a moment, but it was a moment too long.
Armed with a Militia assault-rifle she had acquired, Nanako charged the lieutenant and unloaded the gun's entire clip into him.
King jerked about like a puppet on strings and collapsed, bleeding from a dozen places. Nanako dropped the gun, ran to my side and knelt down beside me, her eyes wide with horror as she took in the sight of my bloody head. "Oh no, Ethan, please, no, not again!"
I reached out and grabbed her hands. "I'm gonna be okay, Nanako. It looks worse than it is."
"But you've been shot in the head again!"
"It's not like last time, it's only a graze," I assured her. "But quickly, help me to my feet, we've got to deactivate the bomb or its lights out for us all in less than five minutes."
As my wife helped me to my feet, King grabbed my foot. "I win, Jones," he whispered, smiling feebly.
"Not yet," I replied as I kicked his hand away and staggered towards the bomb. And in dramatic contrast to the deafening clatter of the machine guns and ricocheting bullets, the dock had fallen deathly quiet. Another Custodian had an arrow through his throat, and the last one had been taken down by Militia gunfire.
"David! Grab your toolkit and get here pronto!" I shouted as loudly as I could manage as Nanako helped me to the bomb.
"I'm with Leigh, he's been hit," he shouted back.
"Sorry, but I need you here."
David left Leigh's side reluctantly and ran over to us carrying his toolkit.
"What just happened, Jones? Why did the Custodians go berserk?" he demanded.
I pointed to the fake refrigeration-maturation unit and said softly, "David, tell me you know how to deactivate a hydrogen bomb."
His eyes widened further than I thought humanly possible. "The Custodians brought a...?"
I clapped my hand over his mouth before he finished blurting out his question. The last thing we needed was mass hysteria. "David, we've got less than five minutes. How do we disarm it?"
"We can remove the IHE from the physics package or..."
"The what from the what?"
"Sorry, we can remove the insensitive high explosives from the warhead, or we can remove the exploding bridge-wire detonator from the IHE, sorry, the insensitive high explosives," he said with a shaky voice.
"I have no idea what you just said, but can you just do it already?"
David stuck his head in the box and looked inside, "Okay, okay, this is doable. They've put just the warhead and detonator in here. It shouldn't be too hard to get to the IHE if we work quickly." He pulled his head out of the box and reached for his bag.
"Don’t move!" commanded a very, very agitated Japanese Militia captain. "Drop your weapons, put your hands on your heads, and lie face down on the ground, or we will shoot!"
Looking up I saw that we were surrounded by several very irate squads of Japanese Militia, some of which had just arrived.
"We've got less than four minutes to deactivate this bomb or we all die!" I shouted back in Japanese.
"Do as I say or we shoot!" Several of them raised their guns, their fingers already beginning to depress their triggers.
"Stop, Captain! These men are on our side!" Nanako tried to explain, but a squad of Militia aimed their weapons at her as well.
I watched the detonator's timer counting down the seconds with an almost morbid fascination, barely aware of the Militia captain shouting at me to lie down.
It was over. For all of us. King had won.
Chapter Thirty
“Stand down!” Okada bellowed, rising from his place behind the G-Wagon.
With that single order, the militia complied.
“We need to hurry!” I cried as Okada quickly joined us.
"What happened – why did the Custodians attack us? What is in that box?" the councillor demanded.
"The Custodians brought a bomb," and I whispered the next part so that only he could hear me, "a nuclear bomb, and it's set to go off in less than four minutes. You have to let us disarm it right now."
"A what?" the councillor asked in sheer disbelief. And then, in seeing that our serious expressions didn't change, he added, "No, absolutely not. I will get in the bomb disposal unit. We will evacuate the town immediately!"
"There's no time to wait for your team, nor any point in evacuating. No one could get far enough away from the blast radius," David replied.
I grabbed the councillor’s arm with a bloody hand. "You cannot get a better bomb disposal team than David and I, Sir. Trust, me, we can disarm this."
He stared at me for what felt like eternity, but in reality was only a couple of seconds, and then reluctantly nodded his consent. All the same, as David and I rushed to the bomb, he instructed the Militia captain to call in the bomb disposal unit. The rest of the Militia and TTC personnel moved quickly back from us.
"Right! I reckon removing the exploding-bridge-wire detonator is the best bet," David said. Then, “Shoot! There's a lid screwed over the top. We have to take it off first, but we'll need to get the bomb out of the box so I can see where the screws are. Man, we don’t have time for this!"<
br />
“Wait!” I said as I leaned on the unit's casing and made a few ultrasonic shouts. I pulled David to me. "Don't argue, just listen. Put your fingers down here, and here. There are two screws there, and two on the other side. Remove them and the lid will come off."
"Three minutes," Nanako announced quietly with a calm I didn't feel.
David nodded and set to work quickly removing the four screws with a combination of touch and his electric screwdriver. That done, we lifted off the aluminium lid, exposing the exploding-bridge-wire detonator.
"Two minutes," came Nanako's countdown to doom.
Armed with the tools he needed, David lay half inside the refrigeration-maturation unit and attacked the detonator wires one by one. Using echolocation I watched him work and marvelled how his fingers could operate so deftly considering what was at stake if he failed.
Finally, he pushed himself off the bomb and slid to the ground, breathing heavily. "It's done."
"The clock's still counting down!" Nanako pointed out in a panic. Councillor Okada had noticed too, his face white with fear.
"Don't worry, the wires are no longer connected to the explosives or the timer, so it's counting down to a non-event," David assured us.
Nevertheless, we all held our breaths and watched the counter tick down to zero.
"Now do you believe me?" David asked.
I wanted to give him a crushing hug, but didn't have the strength. The throbbing pain from my head and chest wounds were taking their toll, so I just sat on the ground beside him and leaned against the trailer.
The councillor congratulated us for disarming the bomb, as did several of the Militia. None of them, however, knew what sort of bomb we had just disarmed.
"David, where on earth did you learn how to deactivate a thermonuclear bomb?" I asked, completely in awe of his abilities.
David stared at me as though it was the first time we had met. "From books and manuals I found in the ruins and smuggled home," he replied. "But Jones, you wanna tell me how you can see through metal?"
Nanako placed a finger against David's lips. "Such questions are best not answered, David."
He nodded and said no more.
The threat of the bomb gone, reality came crashing back to me. "Michal, Leigh!"
"I'll check on Leigh," Nanako said, and she darted away with David at her side.
I staggered over to Michal's prone form and checked for a pulse again. I knew it was a futile exercise. He was gone.
Nanako ran back and knelt beside me. "Leigh's pretty bad, but I think he's gonna make it. Shorty and two Militia are looking after him."
I nodded, despair that we had lost Leigh turning into a sliver of hope. I don't know what I would have done if I lost both of them.
We heard the approach of screeching sirens and several ambulances drove up to the loading dock. Paramedics swarmed out and rushed to treat the many wounded. I was struck by the thought that Hamamachi's peaceful trading centre had been turned into a battlefield. I would never forgive Newhome for this, not ever.
Chapter Thirty-One
Councillor Okada had stopped the militia shooting us while trying to disarm the bomb. However, once Militia Command found out there was a nuclear bomb involved, we foragers were whisked away to be questioned, or rather 'interrogated,' in Militia Headquarters' bleak interrogation rooms.
Paramedics had treated my wound at the Town Trade Centre. They washed it, covered it with a sterile gauze pad and wrapped my head in bandages. After that, they gave me painkillers and declared me fit for questioning. The bullet had apparently glanced off my skull, causing a rather painful flesh wound, a thumping headache, and blood loss, but that was all. And my chest was in so much pain from King’s brutal treatment that it hurt to breathe.
The room I was taken to was small, having two chairs, a flimsy wooden table between them, and a large one-way observation window. My interrogator was a stocky, middle-aged Militia major. To lend him some muscle should I become violent, an extremely well built private stood behind me.
The major thumped his fists on the flimsy wooden table that separated us. "Let's go back to the beginning – why were you trying to destroy Hamamachi, Ethan Jones?"
"As I’ve told you many times, Major, I didn't know about the bomb."
"That answer doesn't work for me. You see, I suggest it was you and your foragers who loaded it onto the trailer, knowing full well what it was and its intended purpose."
I looked into his scowling, darkly tanned face, and wished he would drop these pointless questions and let me lie down somewhere – even on the floor in here. "The Custodians loaded the trailer, Major. The G-Wagon and trailer are Custodian vehicles. We had nothing to do with them apart from driving them here."
"So you say. Okay, next question. Let us reconsider your claim that you didn't know about the bomb, yet expect us to believe you suddenly realised it was in the refrigeration unit because it seemed too heavy to you?"
"It's the truth. I’m a forager and therefore have a pretty good head for judging how much things weigh. That refrigeration unit clearly weighed over two-hundred kilos."
"Very well, let’s assume for a moment that you did realise the unit was heavier than it should have been. However, that could not have tipped you off that there was a thermonuclear device in it. So this in itself is proof that you knew the bomb was in the unit, and that you had a sudden change of heart when the enormity of what you Newhomers were about to do hit you."
"If I'd known the bomb was there beforehand, Major, I would have done everything I could have done to stop the Custodians bringing it here. And the proof of that is that my foraging team and my wife took down three of the Custodians and David and I disarmed the bomb," I said wearily. The mention of my foraging team instantly brought back the painful memories of Michal’s loss and Leigh's fearful injuries. I wanted to go somewhere quiet and mourn in peace, not sit here while they interrogated me for something I didn’t do.
"I find it interesting that you and David knew exactly how to disarm that bomb. I put it to you, Ethan Jones, that you knew how to disarm it because you were Lieutenant King's backup plan in case something went wrong – except your conscience got in the way, didn't it?"
"To be honest, we didn't actually disarm it. We had to dismantle the detonator to stop it going off. If I had been in cahoots with King I would have known the activation/deactivation codes, don't you think?" I shot back at him.
"You honestly expect me to believe a couple of middle-school dropouts knew how to dismantle a thermonuclear device?"
The throbbing pain in my head was becoming steadily worse. "Firstly, David and I deliberately dropped out of school because we didn't want our futures mapped out for us by pompous North End officials. Secondly, I have a gift for finding out how things are put together, and David is a genius when it comes to pulling them apart."
"You've been in Hamamachi before, haven't you, Ethan?" the major asked, suddenly changing tack.
"Yes."
"And you joined the Militia and then the Rangers, correct?"
"Yeah, so?"
"And during your last mission, your fellow Rangers were all mysteriously killed and you were badly injured. From that you apparently developed epilepsy and amnesia, and were consequently taken back to Newhome by your wife to be treated in their hospital," he continued.
"What are you trying to say?" I demanded irritably.
"I put it to you, Ethan Jones, that you are a Custodian spy and were sent here to infiltrate our military, learn everything you could, and then feigned the epilepsy and amnesia so you could be taken back to Newhome without suspicion. And today you came back, bringing with you a weapon with which to destroy us."
The pain was unbearable, so I put my right elbow on the table and rested my head in my hand. "Are you gonna claim I faked the gunshot wound too? And the operation?"
"Sit up, Ethan," the Major snapped.
"Have you forgotten I was shot in the head today trying to stop King d
etonate the nuke?" My voice came out as a whisper.
The major nodded to the private behind me, who reached forward and slammed me back against the chair. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out in pain as black spots danced in front of my eyes.
"Let me break it down for you, Ethan. Your entire defence is built upon your claim that you determined there was a nuclear bomb in the refrigeration-maturation unit when it was unloaded from the trailer, and immediately asked your wife to warn the Militia on duty. However, as what you claim is impossible, I accuse you of being a Custodian agent who knew the bomb was there. It is on these grounds that you and your foragers will be charged with acts of terrorism and be executed."
I considered telling him that I detected the hydrogen bomb using echolocation. If it came down to my mates and me facing execution or revealing my bio-engineered abilities to save them, then I would reveal them. I hoped I wouldn't have to. I still had no idea who in Hamamachi had shot me or why. Could it be because of my abilities? Had I overheard something I shouldn't have? Was I considered a threat?
The fact was Councillor Okada knew we were innocent, and I was hoping he could sway the Militia to stop this charade and let us go.
I sighed deeply and glanced at the one-way observation window. I wondered who was in there listening to this pointless interrogation. I turned back to the major. "Look Major, you can ask me questions and throw your ridiculous accusations at me all night, but I really, really need to lie down, or I'm gonna pass-out. Some more painkillers wouldn't go astray either."
Before the major could respond, he paused and listened to his earpiece. He nodded, and then turned back to me, scowling. "Looks like you get your wish. Private, escort Mr. Jones to his cell and have a doctor see to him."
I wondered if Councillor Okada was in the observation room and if this reprieve was thanks to him.
The private nodded and pulled me roughly from my chair, sending pain shooting through my chest. I was too sore and tired to walk, but the promise of a bed was so appealing that I somehow found the strength to put one foot in front of the other.
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 22
