Eye of the Storm (23 page)

From what he could see, Sam and the others were all fine. He counted seven raptor bodies unmoving on the ground. Was that all of the guards down? Nathan and Sherri in particular still looked
very alert. They were both scanning the hangar for signs of movement. Sam’s attention was fixed on the glowing images of the holo-projection. It wasn’t hard to work out what was being
shown. Had Nipper made it to the capital in time to make his challenge? It was no good. No matter how hard he tried, Callum couldn’t see the glimmering image clearly enough to see any
detail.

David had crawled into the harness of the other machine and was busy adjusting the straps. Callum shivered as he watched. In a few minutes, he was going to take off and fly solo for the first
time in a machine that was nothing like any aircraft he had ever seen before. Would his gliding experience be enough to keep him from crashing? Suddenly, he didn’t feel so sure. He moved the
control bar around, trying to get a feeling for how sensitive it was, but there was no way of telling until he got into the air. All he could do was wait until David gave the signal for them to
go.

Callum didn’t hear David tell Nathan to open the doors, but he did see the bearded rebel suddenly get up from where he had been kneeling next to the other flying machine and run across to
a panel to the left of the main doors. Throwing the large lever on the wall there, Nathan raised his gun back to his shoulder as electricity surged through the motors and with a loud rumble, the
doors began to slide open.

‘Switches on!’ David called to Callum, reaching up and turning on his magnetic converters.

Callum flicked the two switches and felt the thrum of power surge through his machine as electricity began to flow. David’s machine was already moving, accelerating slowly towards the
opening doors. A few seconds later, Callum’s began to creep forward as well.

‘OK, steering this thing in the air I understand,’ he muttered. ‘But how the heck do I control it on the ground?’

It was one of the many questions he had neglected to ask and unless he changed direction soon, he would crash into the left door before it had a chance to open fully. Callum felt his heart begin
to pound still harder, but he didn’t panic. Instead, he looked to see what David was doing and began experimenting by shifting his weight around. He quickly realised that David was a clever
designer. The control bar didn’t do anything to change his direction, but the foot supports had somehow been linked to a nose-wheel steering mechanism, making directional control on the
ground as instinctive as he knew it would be in the air. Stretch back with the left foot and he went left. Stretch back with the right and he went right. Easy.

He steered right until he was directly behind David’s machine and followed him out through the doors and on to the grass meadow outside. The field was long and wide with the great wall of
the city to the right, woodland to the left and scattered trees some distance ahead opening into another meadow beyond. As he left the building and trundled across the grass, the machine began to
bounce and shake on the uneven ground, making his sling-like harness rock, twist and bounce uncomfortably.

Callum heard the shout behind him and another rattle of gunfire. He tried to look round, but it proved impossible. It was all he could do now to try to keep the flying machine accelerating in a
straight line. Ahead, David’s machine was picking up speed, fast. It bounced once, twice into the air only to drop back to earth. Then with a final skip, it pulled free of the ground more
smoothly and eased skyward in a smooth, shallow climb.

A movement in the corner of Callum’s eye caught his attention and he realised what the shouting had been about. Two raptors were racing towards him from the right. There was another
distant rattle of gunfire, but if the shots were aimed at the incoming raptors, they did not find their targets. The airspeed indicator needle had fluttered into life and was climbing in unsteady
leaps towards the green zone. He looked across at the closing raptors. Could he get airborne before they intercepted him? It was going to be close.

Come on! Come on!
he urged, willing his machine onward. Applying a gentle back pressure to the control bar, he attempted to ease it into the air. The whirr of the fan and the thrum of
energy from the magnetic converters were reaching fever pitch. He was out of time. The nearest raptor was closing fast. The other was losing ground and no longer a threat.

The needle on the airspeed indicator surged up into the bottom of the green zone and Callum hauled back on the bar even as he saw the raptor launch into a flying leap towards him. The machine
lurched about two metres into the air and the airspeed needle dipped back below the green. At the same time, the diving raptor caught hold of an undercarriage strut. The combination of the sudden
impact from the right, the substantial increase in weight and drag, and the lack of speed caused the right wing to dip and the aircraft to drop back to the ground.

Wrenching the control bar to the left, Callum managed to prevent a crash, instead touching back down on to the meadow with the wings level. But despite being dragged along the ground, bouncing
and flipping under the aircraft, the raptor clung on, stubbornly refusing to let go of its prey.

With a roar that sounded distinctly like a challenge the raptor twisted its body so that it could kick upward at Callum with its feet. Its first blow erupted through the silver fabric of the
lower wing and caught Callum in the stomach, but fortunately, its power was severely limited by its awkward position, and the thick leather of the harness protected him from the creature’s
sharp claws.

‘Let go you ugly son of a. . .’

Callum could do nothing to protect himself, nor reach to fight back in any way. All he could do was to concentrate on trying to get into the air. Again, the raptor kicked upward, tearing the
hole still wider. This time the blow struck Callum in the groin. He groaned and writhed in pain. Snarling at the raptor, he spat at it, though his wad of spittle was whipped away by the wind.

In defiance of the extra drag of the raptor and the tattered hole in the lower wing, somehow the fan produced enough thrust to notch the aircraft’s airspeed up into the green again. Callum
pulled back on the control bar, lifting first the aircraft and then the determined raptor into the air. Gaining height was a problem. Having lifted the dangling raptor about three metres from the
ground, the aircraft seemed to reach a barrier. It could no longer accelerate and it could no longer climb.

‘Let go, damn you!’ Callum yelled again. ‘You’re going to kill us both.’

It was unclear if the raptor understood him. However, the open meadow space was fast running out. Scattered trees loomed ahead. Without some very fancy flying, or a significant altitude gain,
they were going to hit one of them very soon and there was no chance of climbing so long as the raptor remained clinging to the underside of the aircraft. Ahead, David was already safely above the
treetops and soaring away in a turn to the east.

Callum turned left towards the biggest gap he could see between the trees, but he could not sustain a turn for long because the pendulum effect of the raptor dragged the wings back level.

He tried again, rolling the aircraft harder this time in an effort to throw the raptor clear. To no avail; the raptor clung on with the determination of a limpet and the pendulum effect simply
became more violent. It was at this moment that Callum realised what he had to do.

He had no choice.

He would have to deliberately fly into a tree.

At the Voice of the Imperium’s starting order, Scar immediately took the offensive. His leaping attack was fast and vicious, forcing Nipper to evade. What surprised
Nipper was not the power or the speed of Scar’s attack. It was his ability to move without telegraphing his intention through his body. There was no coiling preparation for the leap.
Scar’s muscles barely seemed to bunch at all before he was flying in at Nipper, claws poised to slash.

There was no time to prepare a counter-strategy. All Nipper could do was attempt to sidestep and deflect Scar’s attack. He dodged left, swinging his right arm out in a defensive block that
impacted the side of his attacker’s upper body with a satisfying thud. Scar’s momentum carried him clear, but Nipper felt the burn of a raking cut open across his side as Scar slashed
at him in passing.

Nipper spun, hoping to take advantage of any momentary imbalance Scar might have on landing, but the big raptor rolled and twisted to his feet with effortless ease. The crowd roared around them,
excited by the first lightning-fast exchange.

‘I hope you’re ready to die, youngling,’ Scar snarled, baring his teeth in a vicious grin. ‘I’ve killed many who were stronger, more experienced fighters than you.
You cannot hope to win here.’

Nipper knew better than to rise to the taunt. He kept his focus on trying to read his opponent’s body movements.

‘What is it that you like about the humans?’ Scar asked, beginning to circle again. ‘They are soft and weak. They care nothing for raptor traditions.’

There was little warning of Scar’s second attack, but Nipper read it better this time. Instead of shying away, he leapt to intercept and the two raptors clashed in mid-air. The change of
tactic surprised the bigger raptor. He had been expecting Nipper to evade again, because his greater mass was always going to give him the advantage in any head-on collision. As it was, the clash
came more quickly than he anticipated.

Nipper felt another slashing cut open across his back as one of Scar’s claws raked him again, but in the moment of brutal collision, he gained the satisfaction of sinking his teeth into
Scar’s right shoulder, biting deep into the flesh. Blood spurted into his mouth and as his momentum spun him clear, he raked the hooked central claw on his left hand across Scar’s
chest, while the claw on his right tore a hole in Scar’s back. The bigger raptor roared in a mixture of pain and anger.

With the element of surprise gone, Nipper knew better than to try to repeat this tactic. Scar was unlikely to be caught off guard twice in the same way. All Nipper could do was to keep him
guessing and hope that by being unpredictable, his opponent would leave openings he could exploit.

He leapt clear again, and the two protagonists resumed their stalking circles. What Nipper had to avoid at all costs was grappling. Scar was too big and strong for him to wrestle effectively.
He’d need to use speed and cunning if he was going to survive. His best chance for a clean kill would be to open one of Scar’s major arteries or to crush his windpipe. A raptor’s
vital organs were too well protected by bone and muscle to be easily damaged without some sort of heavy weapon. And Scar was clearly no stranger to injury. Nipper judged that the big raptor would
not succumb to the pain of any number of minor injuries. It was going to take something much more substantial to take him down permanently.

Baring his bloodied teeth at Scar in a silent grin, Nipper tried a subtle taunt of his own. The bigger raptor snarled in reply. All around them the crowd was roaring and chanting for their
favourite, but as far as the two fighters were concerned, they were alone. Everything else was blanked out as irrelevant.

The femoral artery in Scar’s thigh was another possible target, Nipper realised. But the only point where it was close enough to the surface to present a realistic chance of severing it
was at the groin. Neither the groin nor the throat were an easy target. Of the two, the throat was more open, but that’s where Scar would be expecting him to focus his attacks. He would
protect his throat at all costs, so what other options were there?

Scar attacked again. Not leaping this time, but charging. Nipper tried to dodge, but Scar was too fast. The big raptor cannoned into him and they both went down in a rolling frenzy of claws and
teeth. Somehow, Nipper managed to scrabble clear before Scar gained enough purchase on him to bring his greater bulk to bear, but the exchange was costly. As he regained his distance, it became
clear that the bigger raptor had inflicted more nasty cuts to Nipper’s body and arms. Blood was running freely from multiple wounds now, but more telling was the wave of fatigue that suddenly
enveloped him. The initial pulsating energy that he had felt before the fight had passed and his body was now feeling the effects of his exertions earlier in the day.

All of Nipper’s pre-fight confidence left him. The realisation that he was facing a superior foe who had the measure of him sent a cold shockwave through his chest. Was this the fear of
which the humans spoke? It was not something he had ever felt before. At the Reserve he had always been the strongest, the fastest and most audacious of hunters. But fighting between raptors there
was uncommon, and for all his experience at hunting other prey, this was not the Reserve and Scar was unlike any foe that Nipper had fought before.

Scar was back on his feet, his wide grin confident. Nipper looked the bigger raptor in the eye and could see the expectation of imminent victory in his expression. For an instant, he allowed his
focus to shift on to the three prisoners nearby. The desperate hope in their eyes shot a bolt of renewed strength through him, but even such a brief glance away from his opponent was a mistake.
Scar saw the opening and seized it. Before Nipper knew what had hit him, he was down and rolling. He lashed out wildly, but ineffectually, as Scar tore at him with teeth and claws. Pain erupted in
Nipper’s chest, his arms, across his back and the side of his head. For a moment, there seemed nothing he could do. The dark raptor was slicing him to pieces and it seemed only a matter of
time before he struck a mortal blow.