I spread my arms and fought to keep my balance as the ship continued to rock from incoming fire while I hurried down the hall after him. As soon as Charlie and I quickly ducked into the armory at the end of the hall Charlie went straight to the back right corner and began digging through a tall black and grey weapons locker.
“Now Tango, when I say so you pull straight up just like last time, ya hear?” Charlie said as he withdrew a black and dark-grey RPG launcher from the locker.
“10-4,” Tango replied over the radio as Charlie turned and hurried towards the exit.
“Wait, Charlie! You only took one grenade!” I called after him as I stared down at the large pile of RPGs that he had left behind.
“I won’t need but one for this, Hoss. Now let’s move!” he called out without breaking his stride.
I let him lead the way as we dashed into the hall once again and hurried to the very back of our damaged spaceship. Once we reached the loading bay in the rear of the ship I watched in bewilderment as Charlie secured the bungee cord firmly to beam near the retractable doors in the rear of the large room.
“Why are you doing this, Charlie?” I asked as our ship still tried to evade the incoming fire from the smaller Anokian spaceship behind us.
“Cuz we ain’t got no more guns, Hoss. This is the only way to bring that sucker down,” Charlie replied as I grabbed the bungee cord and fastened it to the strap around his chest harness.
“No, I mean, all of this— why did you and Tango even agree to help us in the first place? It’s not like Director Wells is holding you at gun point. You could just run off and leave any time you want to,” I replied as I tested the cord to make sure it was secure.
“Well, for one thing ol’ Wellsy agreed to unfreeze the money that we were paid during our run with The Strangers, but that doesn’t happen until after the job is done. But truth be told, Hoss, it’s more than just the scratch that keeps me around though. I ain’t never done a dadgum thing to help nobody but myself before I got mixed up in all this. And my daddy, hell, he was the sheriff back where I come from. All he ever wanted was for me to be more like him, but I’ll be dog if I wasn’t the exact opposite. He’s been dead for Lord knows how long now but I can’t help but feel like he’d be proud if he knew what I was doing now, ya know?” Charlie continued while momentarily staring off into space.
“Absolutely,” I agreed as I patted him on the shoulder and flashed him a thumbs up to let him know that the bungee cord was secure.
“I hope so, Hoss,” Charlie said. “Alright, Tango, open her up!” he continued as he slapped his hand on the wall twice.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing with this RendeZook thing, Charlie?” I asked as the loading bay doors suddenly parted and a strong gust of wind blew in and fluttered my long black coattail behind me.
“Does a bear crap in the woods and wipe his butt with a fluffy white rabbit?!” Charlie quipped as he propped the RPG launcher on his left shoulder and grabbed the bungee cord that was fastened to his chest harness with his right hand.
I smirked at Charlie’s answer, but before I could reply my heart suddenly skipped a beat as the rear door opened even wider and revealed the smaller Anokian ship behind us, still pelting our ship with automatic cannon fire.
“Grab that seat and strap yourself in, Hoss,” Charlie said as he gestured to a row of seats lined against the right side of the room. “And make sure you keep a hold of that cord because I’ll need you to reel me back in once I drop that sucker, ya hear?!” Charlie yelled over the sound of the wind rushing in the bay doors.
“He’s locking missiles, Charlie! We’ve gotta make a move now!” Tango ordered over the radio as I zoomed into the row of chairs to the right and fastened the seat belts around me.
“Hang on to your britches, Hoss!” Charlie yelled to me as he wrapped a piece of the bungee cord around his hand. “Alright, Tango, straight up!”
“You go it!” Tango confirmed over the radio just as our spaceship suddenly jolted into a steep vertical climb.
Charlie clung to the bungee cord a few feet away from me as the room around us suddenly turned at a ninety-degree angle. My heartbeat quickened as his entire body dangled from the bungee cord in front of me and everything else in the room that wasn’t bolted to the floor slid downward and flew out of the gaping doors at the very end of the ship.
“His missiles are locked!” Tango shouted over the radio.
“Wait until he fires!” Charlie yelled back as the wailing of our ship’s missile lock alarms filled the room.
I gripped Charlie’s bungee cord tightly with both hands and watched him carefully as our ship continued to gain altitude while the smaller Anokian ship gave chase.
“There’s one more thing I need you to do for me, Hoss!” Charlie yelled to me as the Anokian ship began to gain on us.
“What’s up?” I yelled to him.
“I need you to git my hat off! That’s my daddy’s hat and I’ll be dog if I’m gone lose it taking this sucker down!” Charlie shouted as the missile lock sirens wailed on.
I stretched my right hand outward as Charlie swung towards me, but as soon as I loosened the stampede strings on Charlie’s hat, a strong gust of wind blew it from his head before I could secure it. Luckily my hand instinctively snapped outward and grabbed one of the strings before the hat could sail away for good.
“He’s firing!” Tango suddenly wailed over the radio as I pulled Charlie’s hat in and secured it behind me.
“That’s my queue, Hoss! You hang onto that hat now, ya hear?!” Charlie shouted before releasing the bungee cord and kicking off the wall to leap away.
My heart pounded with anticipation and the world around me seemed to go into slow motion as Charlie straightened his body and gripped the RPG launcher with his left hand as he sailed headfirst toward the gaping rear door below while our ship continued to climb.
“All right, Tango! Hit it!” Charlie screamed as three missiles rocketed out of the Anokian ship below and swirled toward us.
Charlie whipped out the massive revolver at his right hip and thrust it before him just as Tango accelerated and sent our ship rocketing upward at twice its previous speed. Still strapped to my seat in the loading bay, I watched as Charlie’s bungee cord grew tighter and tighter as our ship climbed farther away from him. I knew that he was technically still descending but the rest of the ship was climbing so fast that it looked like he was simply suspended in midair as he aimed his gigantic six shooter at the three missiles that were rocketing towards him from below.
With six lightning quick squeezes of his trigger, Charlie lit the skies on fire as the three missiles exploded into a massive fireball just as his bungee cord pulled as tightly as it would allow. In a flash he holstered the pistol on his hip and secured the RPG launcher onto his shoulder just as the bungee cord began to draw him upward.
“Bank right!” Charlie ordered over the radio just as the Anokian ship that was following us sprang through the fire and smoke that had filled the air when the missiles exploded.
Charlie gripped the rocket launcher on his shoulder with all his might as our ship suddenly veered to the right. He was once again seemingly suspended in midair as the smaller Anokian ship failed to mimic our turn and continued to rocket upward instead. The ship continued to climb as Charlie squinted one eagle eye and aimed his rocket launcher at the Anokian ship’s thrusters with deadly precision.
“Yeeeehaw!” Charlie bellowed as he unleashed an RPG that sailed directly into the defenseless ship’s fiery thrusters. The bungee cord that was fastened to Charlie’s harness quickly yanked him from the ensuing blast as Tango threw our ship into an instant nose dive just as fire and debris filled the sky around us. Blood and adrenaline rushed to my head as I gritted my teeth and pulled hard against the g-force of our supersonic descent in order to reel Charlie back in one meter at a time.
A FEW MINUTES LATER OUR CLUNKER OF A SPACESHIP FINALLY STEADIED ITS FLIGHT once more after I had s
uccessfully reeled Charlie back into the loading bay. Once he caught his breath, Charlie and I made our way back to the control room where we were greeted with thunderous applause as soon as we entered. I certainly appreciated any “Hero’s welcome” I could get but I quickly stepped aside and joined in on the cheering because there was no doubt that Charlie was the one who really deserved all the praises.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen… is a RendeZook,” Charlie boasted as he unstrapped the chest harness and dropped it to the floor.
“Nice one, Charlie,” I grinned as I tossed him his black cowboy hat.
“’Preciate it, Hoss,” he replied as he caught the hat with one hand then ran his fingers through his dark brown hair before he placed it back on his head.
“Show off,” Tango jokingly grumbled as he crossed his massive arms and shook his head at Charlie.
“Hoss, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re startin’ to sound like a hater,” Charlie grinned.
“And you’re starting to sound like a teenager,” Tango joked. “Hater? What are you, thirteen?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be flying the dadgum ship?” Charlie grinned.
“That’s what the auto pilot’s for, pal,” Tango shot back. “But seriously, you did some nice work out there, man. Nicely done,” he continued as he smiled and bumped fists with Charlie.
“Yeah, he did. I still can’t believe you actually pulled that off, Charlie!” Howie added over the radio.
“And there’s a lot more where that came from,” Charlie boasted as he popped a toothpick into his mouth and tipped his black hat forward.
“I hope so, because it’s still only going to get more difficult from here,” Howie said ominously.
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Well you know about the bomb in India but you should also know that it’s being guarded by the Lord Commander of the Knights of Eden. I don’t know if you’ve heard—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, Cyrus, The Godhand. I heard the name during my time on their mothership, but what’s so special about this guy?” I asked.
“Well he’s about five to ten times stronger than the average Anokian, which means he’s approximately twenty times stronger than you… so there’s that, but he’s also over nine feet tall and he weighs around two to three thousand pounds.”
“Pretty big boy, I see,” Charlie said.
“Yeah, but it’s not what you think. He weighs well over a ton but it’s all muscle, and believe it or not he’s just as quick as Ace and Tango. If everything goes as planned you guys will have him outnumbered, but we still can’t afford to go into this thing thinking it’s a cakewalk. I’m not saying I don’t think we can beat him but I don’t want us to go in with a false sense of security,” Howie warned.
“If it’s that dangerous then maybe I should go at it alone, Howie,” I proposed.
“Absolutely not, Reaper! You’re no match for him by yourself,” Howie protested.
“Hey, I fought The Greater to a standstill! You’re telling me this guy’s tougher than him?!” I demanded.
“From a physical stand point— Absolutely. The Godhand is the biggest, fastest and strongest full-blooded Anokian to have ever lived. You can argue that The Greater is more deadly due to the energy that he’s able to wield but The Godhand is by FAR the more physically powerful of the two.”
“How in the Sam Hell did that sucker get a name like The Godhand, Hoss?” Charlie asked.
“According to The Elder’s files, in order to become a Knight of Eden, Anokian cadets must pass an extremely demanding series of trials called The Ascension. Those who pass and ascend to Knighthood are given an official title that reflects their performance as it relates to their trials. Simply put, The Godhand was unstoppable during his Ascension. In the final trial the cadets have to test their might against an existing Knight of Eden and it was in this trial that The Godhand earned his name. Not only was he victorious but it was said that he defeated the opposing Knight with nothing more than a single punch.”
“So, what’s the plan, Howie? How do we take him down?” I asked begrudgingly.
“Taking him down is much easier said than done, Reaper. I think we’ll find that keeping him busy is a much better approach. Ace has the most technical expertise, therefore I’ll walk him through the process of deactivating the bomb while you and Tango focus on keeping The Godhand on his toes. His armor is comprised of an extremely rare brand of reinforced Anokian-Steel that even Ace’s sword will have difficulty cutting through, so I’ll need Charlie to use his eagle eyes to scan for any vulnerabilities,” Howie replied.
“Why can’t The Suspect simply deactivate the bomb, Howie? Isn’t he the one who activated it to begin with?” Ace asked.
“I wish I could answer that, Ace, but unfortunately we haven’t heard from him since he activated the device. Even Audrey hasn’t been able to get in touch with him,” Howie explained.
“Then I guess we have our work cut out for us,” I said.
“Indeed, but on the bright side, at least you’ll finally get to put those bats to work,” Howie replied.
“You got that right!” I smirked. “Got any more toys for me?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Howie answered. “In the inner pockets of your coat you’ll find several epinephrine autoinjectors. These injections are basically pure adrenaline and they should help to boost your strength if you need it during the fight. It won’t be quite the boost that you get during your fight-or-flight response but it should give you a pretty decent increase.”
“Nice!” I cheered as I reached into my inner coat pocket and withdrew one of the slender pen-shaped injectors.
“You’ll have to use them strategically, of course. If you take too many at once you could run the risk of stopping your heart,” Howie warned.
“Wouldn’t wanna do that,” I said sarcastically as I opened my coat and counted the rows of metal injectors that lined the inner pockets. I counted twelve injectors total— six on each side.
“So what’s The Godhand’s plan, Echo?” Ace asked. “Is this some kind of suicide mission for him?”
“I doubt it. It looks like they moved the bomb using an Equillian wormhole generator so my guess is that he plans to stay long enough to ensure that the bomb isn’t deactivated and then he’ll use the wormhole tech to jump back to the Pillar of Eden prior to the explosion.”
“So why don’t we just wait until he leaves and then swoop in and deactivate the bomb?” I asked.
“Chances are he won’t leave until he’s certain that there’s not enough time left to disarm the device. The deactivation process is quite complex and by my calculations it could take up to fifteen minutes. I wouldn’t expect The Godhand to jump back to The Pillar of Eden until there were only a few seconds to spare.”
“How much time do we have now?” Ace asked.
“Just over fifty minutes. At your current speed you’ll arrive in India with around forty minutes to spare.”
“That’s not a lot of time,” Ace said.
“Well, that’s all we have. Just stick to the plan and everything should be fine.”
Howie’s words echoed inside my head as our mangled spaceship rocketed through the skies in route to India. His attack plan was well thought out and due to the new gadgets that I had at my disposal I was pretty confident in our chances for success, but Howie had also warned us all about the dangers of over-confidence— and for the sakes of all the lives that we essentially held within our hands I wish that I would have listened to him.
23. SHOW TIME
REAPER:
ARGA, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
- 42 MINUTES TO DETONATION
“WE’VE GOT A MAJOR PROBLEM, ECHO,” WELLS SUDDENLY said over the radio as our ship zoomed toward the vast Indian city ahead.
“What kind of problem?” Howie answered over the radio.
“I just got word that the Russians are pulling out. Even with The Reaper on board they’re—�
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“You’ve got to be kidding me! They literally waited until the last second to bail out on us?!” Howie barked.
“This is exactly what The Righteous was counting on. He’s screwed with our geopolitics so much that even in the face of a global crisis we can’t seem to put aside our differences and work together,” Director Wells grumbled.
“I need to know if the Chinese are still willing to help, Sir. If not I have to pull the boys out,” Howie replied.
“The Chinese and The Strangers are still on board. Their combined units are linking up with the troops from the UK and pushing towards the Taj Mahal as we speak but I’m not sure how long they’ll hold up. We lost a lot of firepower with Russia pulling out,” Director Wells responded.
“We’ll be fine. The boys will just have to move faster,” Howie said. “Alright, Tango, slow your approach and activate the ship’s cloaking mode.”
“Done,” Tango replied as our ship decelerated as the magnificent Taj Mahal came into view in the distance.
“It’s show time, boys!” Charlie yelled as he strapped a duffle bag full of RPGs on his shoulder just as several Chinese fighter jets and a massive swarm of all-black Stranger attack helicopters suddenly zoomed past us. Our spaceship flickered from view as Tango activated the ship’s cloaking mode and as we sped towards the Taj Mahal the only parts that remained visible were a few panels on our ship’s hull that were so heavily damaged that the cloaking tech had stopped working. My heartbeat quickened as the enormous wave of Chinese fighter jets and Stranger helicopters leading us into the city abruptly opened fire and turned the sky around us into a warzone just as hundreds of triangle-shaped Anokian air ships suddenly rose from the city below.
“Tango, decrease your speed by about twenty percent. I’m still trying to disable the force field around the Taj Mahal and it’s taking a bit longer than I initially anticipated,” Howie said over the radio as several of the Chinese fighter jets in front of us were blown out of the sky by the much faster Anokian ships that were engaging them.
Savior Part 3: Legion of The Godhand (The Savior Series) Page 21
