I pulled the wires again. Still no give.
“We’re headed to the old campsite,” Pol said. “We’ll use almost all the fuel cells just getting there if we keep this up.”
I yanked the wires again. Not surprisingly, I still couldn’t get them closer together. “I need more length here.”
“Don’t you have extra wire just sitting around?” Melisa asked.
“Oh, sure, I have some right here in my pocket.” Gripping the blasted and stripped wire ends, I looked around the pod. “Anybody see extra wire anywhere?”
Lily shook her head. She was sitting at James’s feet, one hand keeping him steady. “I’ve been through the pod. Nothing like that.”
I thought of the spoke from my old cycle. That thing had come in handy. It might have even been the perfect length for this. Did anyone ever find my bashed up cycle? I pushed the other frayed wires around, trying to see if the door wires were caught or tied up somewhere in the frame of the pod. Wires. If most of them were already blasted to bits, that meant I could use them without messing anything else up, right?
“I’m going to splice some of these blasted ones in to replace the destroyed length,” I said to Melisa.
“What if that makes something else not wo—” She smiled. “Right, it already doesn’t work. Good idea.”
I pulled out the knife Lily had given me and had Melisa hold some blasted wires out. We had them cut and stripped within a minute. I twisted them into one end of the destroyed wires. “Hold the close button down!”
“Got it,” Melisa said. She leaned on the green button.
I grinned at her. “Knock me over if I start vibrating?”
“Only after it shocks part of your brain into working better,” Melisa said. She was close enough I could hear her over the wind coming through the open pod door without a problem.
“That’ll work,” I said. I touched the spliced wires to the other green wires. The pod door screeched and started to roll back in to fill the open space. We tilted suddenly and Melisa fell into me. The wires came apart. The door stopped.
“You should have warned me that you were going to try it!” Pol yelled. “Everybody okay?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Fine,” Melisa said.
We took our positions again. “Closing now!” I shouted. I touched the wire ends. The door closed more, screeching the entire way. “Why’s it doing that?”
“Must have been bent during the fight,” Melisa said.
The screech got higher in pitch, then stopped. The noise of the wind was somehow even louder now.
“Touch the wires together,” Melisa said.
“I am!” I took the wires away, then put them back. The door still had at least a meter before it was closed all the way. I touched the stripped wire ends to the metal bulkhead of the pod; they sparked. “I’ve got power, but the door isn’t closing anymore.”
“Must have bent too much,” Melisa said. She had to shout every word.
“We could try opening and closing it again,” I yelled.
“Too much chance of it not closing even this much! We’re already low on power,” Melisa said.
Lily showed up. “I’ll grab it and pull. Make sure I don’t fall out.”
“No,” Melisa said. “That might get it stuck so bad it doesn’t open again.”
I shouted as loud as I could. “Pol, did that help?”
“Yes!” Pol called out. “The pull’s a lot better. Down to using about twice the power.”
“Do we have enough fuel to get to the projectors and then Edwards Air?”
“How far is it?”
I tried to remember the map. “Maybe three or four hundred kilometers?”
“You don’t know exactly where it is?” Pol shouted.
“Well not right now, but I will when I look at the map!” I dropped the wires and all three of us went to the front.
“Maybe,” Pol said. “I think so.”
“How sure are you?” I said.
He jerked around, surprised to see us right behind him. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Oh come on,” Melisa said. “It’s loud. And fly the pod!”
“So? Are you sure?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Pol said. “Are you sure about how far it is?”
“Fine,” I said. I turned to find my pack with the map.
“Wait, what’s the rest of your plan?” Pol said. He kept turning to see us.
“Fly the pod,” I said. “I told you my whole plan. I’ll use the nano gel to morph my face to look like Holland’s, then I’ll find a way to call off the Ranjers from the cavern.”
“That’s it?” Lily said.
“Well, if we can capture Holland’s voice from a projector and reproduce it, that would help,” I said.
“I can do that!” Pol twisted again. “I can use the input from one of the EarComs and a speaker from the system on the pod to broadcast it.”
“Pol, turn around,” I said. “Can we generate new words in his voice? Or at least cut up parts of what he says in the message to say something else?”
“No to the first, at least not with what I’ve got here.” Pol glanced over his shoulder. “But I bet we can do the second if we’re careful.”
“Pol, don’t crash,” Melisa said. She caught my eyes. “That’s insane. It’s really clever, but it only works if everyone there is a complete idiot. You’re tall, but not as tall as Holland. They’ll know.”
“Not to mention your hair’s a different color,” Pol said.
“Fly the pod!” Melisa and I shouted back together.
“Fine!” Pol said, slumping in the copilot chair.
“It’s a fine plan,” Melisa said as we walked to the sitting area of the pod. “More or less. The problem, of course, is that it’s all you.”
“What do you mean?” I stopped and faced her. “Pol’s way too short and I’m the only upright male here.”
“That’s not the problem,” Melisa said. “You’re leaving us out of it. It’s all on you. And the only way we find out it didn’t work is that you don’t come back because you’re dead.” Her voice got softer as she spoke. Her dark eyes seemed to get bigger as we stood there.
“I—I’m not going to die,” I said. I had to do this. He had my parents and he had killed Bren and David and so many others. He had to be stopped.
“But you probably will. Plans always go wrong,” Melisa said. “And you’re seriously banking on way too many things happening too perfectly. Like that the nano gel will actually work the way you think.”
“Evum said it will work,” I said. I couldn’t tear my eyes from her face. We’d been through so much together. It was strange to think the fight might really end in the next few hours. Would we still be able to spend so much time together? “And we have to try.”
“Of course we do!” Melisa said. “But we have to find a way to do it where you don’t end up dead.”
“I told you, I’m not going to die.” Better me than her, though. I tried to imagine going a day, even a few hours, without talking to Melisa. She had to stay alive, too. “I have to do this. I started it. I have to finish it.”
“Stop it,” she said. “You’re not everyone’s protector.”
Was she reading my mind again? “I know that,” I said. “But can you think of a better plan?”
Melisa got silent. “I’ll think of something. Besides, by the time we go 400 or so kilometers it’ll be daylight. Which means they’ll be able to see your face perfectly fine. So, again, your plan’s clever and all, but not enough.”
“It’s a good plan.”
“It’s an incomplete plan,” she said.
“Storms!” Lily shouted. “Just kiss and be done with it!”
I froze. How red was my face getting? It felt like it was on fire. Melisa’s cheeks were definitely pink too. I swallowed, remembering kissing Jan. That seemed like a lifetime ago. It also seemed like a totally different Nik had kissed her, like I’d chan
ged completely. Had it only been a few days? How could I feel so differently about Melisa now than I did back then?
No. That wasn’t it. I just didn’t feel what I thought I did about Jan. Melisa was always there. She would always be there.
“We’ve got a bit of time,” Melisa said. “I’ll think of a better plan.”
“Good,” I said, a little lamely. I crossed back over to Pol. “How far are we from the old campsite?”
“Less than an hour,” Pol said.
“What’s our top speed?”
“We’re not there yet since power is an issue,” he said. “Right now we’re maxing at eighty kilometers an hour.”
I pictured my parents, held somewhere by Holland. The fires and Ranjers closing in on all of the other Pushers—although maybe we were already too late. And the Outcasts. Reinforcements had to have shown up. Were the Outcasts going to survive the night?
Patting Pol lightly on the head, I said, “Good job. Go faster.”
Chapter 40
Scanning Holland’s projected face and capturing his voice was a tricky thing. We’d landed at the old campsite, seeing smoke columns far to the north, and gotten right to work. No time to waste. Lily held the projector while I pointed my little wrist computer at it. At the same time, Pol manned his audio capture setup. Melisa checked on the pod and James while we recorded.
I did my best to tune out Holland’s grating voice as I pointed the wrist computer toward the projected face.
“Mr. Granjer. If you’re seeing this, you somehow survived the attack.” Holland’s holographic face needed a serious punch.
Luckily, the scan completed quickly.
“Get rid of it,” I told Lily. “It’s going to blow up.”
She watched the projection for another few seconds. “What a mud-brain.”
She flung the projector bomb at a tree. We stepped back and I yelled a warning to those in the pod. It exploded.
“Bloody storms,” Lily said, wincing at the bright light of the fire blazing on the tree. “How many projectors did he send you?”
I pointed at the pile. “Every Ranjer who attacked had one.”
“He really wanted you to get the message,” Lily said.
“We got it.”
“Spamming drek piece of Bug-eaten garbage!” Pol’s voice cracked on the last word. A crash came from the pod. I found Pol crouching next to a bench, using it as a work table.
“What’s going on?”
“The audio’s not going to work,” Pol said. “Not compatible.” He grimaced and pushed himself to his feet.
“That’s all right. We’ll figure it out.” I looked around the pod. “Where’s Melisa?”
“Dunno,” Pol said.
We called for her and she came running from around the hills that had been pockmarked by the Ranjers’ attack.
“Sorry,” she said. “I thought of something.” She held up several fuel cells. “I remembered the pods we shot down on the other side of that hill and thought they might have some power to spare.”
I just about hugged her. “You’re a genius.”
“Probably.”
We hurried to get the pod ready. I pulled out the map and we gathered around it. “Okay, if we can determine exactly where we are on the map right now, our navigation system should be able to get us to Edwards Air, right?”
“Yeah, what little there is left of it,” Pol said. “It got us back here at least.”
“Here’s old San Francisco, and here’s where I think old Mento is,” Melisa said. “So that means New Frisko’s probably here. Making this, I think, where the cavern is.” She pointed to a spot in a faint green area.
“And Edwards Air is here,” I put a finger on the faded red circle. “Pol, can we input this into the nav?”
“Should work,” he said.
“Nik,” Melisa said, “I have an idea.” I followed her out of the pod. We’d had to force the door open when we first landed. She grabbed an armful of the projector bombs. “They might be useful.”
“Sure, until we accidentally turn one on. Then it’s Holland’s irritating voice and boom, we’re dead,” I said.
“Then we’ll be careful,” Melisa said. “Now get the rest.”
I picked up the last few projector bombs and we got back on the pod. Pol already had the propulsion units spinning up.
“Do we know where we’re going?” I asked Pol.
“I think we’re good,” Pol said. “It’s really a matter of relative distance and setting up the right algorithms to calculate—” He stopped himself. “Yeah. We’re fine. He’d just better be there.”
“He will be.” I said. Where else could he be?
As Pol had lifted us off the ground, I reconnected the green wires to close the pod door. It screamed at me, moved maybe a half meter, and stopped.
“Bugging drek, it’s stuck again,” I said.
“We need that thing closed or the wind resistance slows us down enough that there’s no way we get there this century,” Pol yelled from the front.
Melisa joined me and we tried opening and closing it a few times. It didn’t help.
“No good,” I called to Pol.
“Figure it out,” he said.
Lily left James’s side. He’d woken up a few times and we’d given him food and water. His vitals were strong, so we figured he was best served by sleeping through the pain of two broken legs.
Lily lifted her keeper. “We could blow the door off, you know, remove the air resistance.”
Melisa and I exchanged a glance. “Think we can do it without destroying the entire pod?” I asked.
“Actually, yes,” she said. “They’re timed explosives. If we jam one in the right spot, it should work.”
“Should work,” I repeated. “And we die if it doesn’t.”
“That’s pretty much all we have left right now,” Melisa said.
“And we’re running out of time,” Lily said. “Remember? Fires? Ranjers after the Outcasts? We have to hurry up.”
We took the idea to Pol.
“You people are completely insane.”
“We would land first,” Lily said.
“Obviously,” Pol said.
He didn’t say anything else, but we immediately started descending. By the time we were on the ground, I had the pod door all the way open. Lily had pulled two grenades out of one of the ammunition drums, handling the cylinders very carefully.
“I think we start with one,” Melisa said. “We’ll use another if we have to.”
All four of us examined the door, trying to figure out the best place to stuff the grenade. We finally settled on a bent and torn section on one side; the explosion might be able to finish the big tear and just shear the door right off.
“Let’s maybe find a big tree to get behind,” Pol said. “Metal is likely to go flying.”
“What about James?” I asked, but Melisa was already ahead of me. She had pulled a few body armor uniforms out of one of the intact lockers and draped them over James’s body. She piled the uniforms a few layers deep.
“You three get behind a tree,” Melisa said. “The bulkhead of the pod will mostly protect the inside from the explosion, so I’ll set the timer and get behind James and all the body armor.”
“No,” I said. “No way. Let’s get James out of there. If the whole thing blows, you’ll both die.”
“No time,” she said. She took a grenade from Lily and slid it into place. “Run.” She pressed something on the grenade and dove inside the pod.
We shouted and took off. The force of the explosion slapped huge hands across our bodies, but we had made it behind a row of trees, so we were fine except for some ringing in our ears. I raced back to the pod. A huge piece of door rested, blackened and smoking, a few meters from the pod. Which was now filled with smoke.
“Melisa!”
A figure stood, coughing. “We’re fine. Did it work?”
Pol and Lily showed up. “Most of the door’s off,” Po
l reported. “Might be enough.”
As we got back on the pod, I gave Melisa my best glare. “Maybe a little more discussion next time? Or a better warning?”
She grinned. “Maybe.”
I rolled my eyes as we took off again.
Pol called back from the pilot’s seat. “It’s definitely better. You want to try closing it again?”
“There’s nothing left,” I said.
“There’s enough to be causing some pull and wind resistance,” Pol shouted over the wind. “We need to go fast! Anything helps.”
I connected the green wires. The section of door that was left slid perfectly into place. “You have got to be kidding me!”
Lily and Melisa burst out laughing.
“Precision work!” Lily said.
“Nice!” Pol called out. The pod’s propulsion units built from a whine to a scream. Wind still poured through the pod, but not as loudly as before.
“Pol,” I said, shaking my head a little at the exhaustion threatening to knock me over. “How fast are we going?”
“Almost at max speed, I think,” he said. “120 kilometers per hour.”
“Bug me,” I said. I watched the ground blur by in rough swath of green, brown, and gray. “And we can go faster?”
“I think so. Maybe 150,” Pol said.
“Do it,” I said. I found Melisa and Lily tightening the splints on James’s legs and reported our speed. “But we still have a few hours. Maybe we should try to rest?”
“Good idea,” Lily said.
We’d taken off for the second time as the sun, rising behind a cloud-filled sky, scrubbed away the last of the night. Pol announced that we’d reached our max speed of 150 kilometers per hour. When was the last time humans had gone so fast? I found a corner with a lot less wind, put my head on a spare Ranjer suit, and grabbed a nap. Despite the noise, sleep welcomed me with open arms.
Nowhere near enough sleeping later, Lily kicked Melisa and me awake and said we were less than an hour away.
“Let’s try the stuff out,” Melisa said.
I rooted through my pack and found the nano gel and injector. “I can’t try it out,” I said, holding up the nano gel injector, “because I don’t think I have enough.”
“There’s a lot there,” Melisa said. “You could experiment a little.”
Push (Beat series Book 2) Page 24
