Laura Jo Phillips (36 page)

“Are you the woman who was with Hope?” she asked.

Grace’s breath caught in her throat.  How did this woman know that?  She glanced out the doorway at the ground that was falling quickly away, wondering if she had a chance of jumping without serious injury.  She didn’t think so.

“Listen, I don’t have time to explain, but I promise, we’re the good guys.  Just tell us where Hope is and I’ll explain on the way,” the woman said, speaking loudly so she could be heard over the VTOL’s engines.

Grace looked into the woman’s intense blue eyes and made up her mind.

“Yes, I’m with Hope,” she said.  “She’s camped with another woman who broke her leg, and they’re waiting for me to bring help.  But I saw a ground-car heading straight for them about half an hour ago.”

“How far away are they?” the woman asked.

“About thirty miles,” Grace replied.  “Straight that way,” she added, pointing out the door to the southeast.

The big man came back from the cockpit and the pregnant woman repeated what Grace had told her.  He turned around and went back to the front.

The woman turned to Grace.  “My name is Ellicia,” she said.  “What’s your name?”

“Grace,” she said.  “Are you a friend of Hope’s?”

“No,” Ellicia replied.  “I’m a Government Agent, and a friend of her cousin.  It’s very important that I find her.”

Grace nodded in agreement.  “It’s very important for me to get to her before those guys in the ground-car.”

***

“How far from them are we?” Darck asked.

“Less than a mile,” Garid replied as he watched the large, flashing yellow dot of the VTOL on the screen.  “Damn, that thing is moving fast,” he said.

“It can’t see us, so it can’t know we’re here,” Darck said.  “Not till we’re damn near on top of them after they land.”

“What are you planning?” Garid asked.

“I’m not letting them take those women from me,” Darck said.  “Ain’t happening, no way.  So long as they’re in the air, they can’t see this vehicle.”

Garid didn’t like the sound of that.  “That VTOL is from the training base,” he said.  “I’d bet on it.  The heat will be intense if we knock off a couple of Air Force types.”

“Then I guess it’ll get hot, cause I’m not giving up those women,” Darck retorted.

Garid glanced back to the screen, a bad feeling growing inside of him.  “Looks like the VTOL is getting ready to land,” he said. 

“Good,” Darck said as he pressed harder on the accelerator pedal with his foot.  He had it floored, but the damn thing wouldn’t go any faster because of the Blind Sight.  And he needed the Blind Sight. 

“Lenny, unplug this unit,” Garid said as he began gathering the infra red system up.  If they were going to be taking three women back to the compound they’d need more room.

***

Jackson leaned in between the pilot and co-pilot’s seat in the cockpit of the VTOL and studied the view screen carefully.  There was no sign of any vehicle anywhere.  He believed Grace’s story about the ground-car.  Her story was short, precise and without embellishment, all classic indicators of truth.  Aside from that, he usually could sense when he was being lied to.

Yes, Grace had seen a ground-car heading south through the desert.  A ground-car that they could find no sign of from the air.  Could it be that the Brethren had the Blind Sight system? he wondered.  The moment he asked himself the question, he knew the answer.  It made sense.  They already knew of one connection between the Xanti and the Brethren, why not this?

“Blind Sight,” he said to Rob who sat in the co-pilot seat. 

“Yes, I thought that too,” Rob agreed.  “What should we do?”

“We can’t fight what we can’t see,” Jackson said.  “We’ll just have to get to those women first.”

Jackson looked at the pilot who smiled grimly.  “No problem, Sir.”

***

Hope had everything ready to start the smoky fire.  She had decided to wait until the sun was fully up because she wanted to increase the chances that someone would see it.  She stood outside the enclosure and looked carefully into the distance all the way around, but she saw no sign of life anywhere.  She was just going to have to take the chance that someone would see the smoke and come looking for them.

She removed the rocks holding down one of the sheets that was serving as a cover, checking to make sure that Karma was still shaded.  Then she crawled into the enclosure and fished the lighter out of her pocket.

“Don’t do it,” Karma said.  They were the first clear words Hope had heard from her in a couple of hours, so they got her attention.

“I have to,” she said.  “You need help.”

“Help is coming,” Karma replied, her voice weak but firm.  “Ellicia will be here in just a few minutes, but he says if you light the fire now, something really bad will happen.”

“Ellicia?” Hope asked in surprise.  “How do you know about Ellicia?”

“He told me,” Karma said.  “Do you know her?”

Hope was so surprised at what Karma had just said that it took her a moment to register the question.  “No, I don’t,” she replied.  “I know that she’s my cousin’s girlfriend.  Or fiancé.  Maybe wife, by now.  Before I left for Jasan, Harlan told me they were going to get married, but I haven’t seen or spoken to my cousin since I returned.” 

Hope frowned, wondering how in the heck Ellicia could possibly know where she was, or even who she was.  Another thought occurred to her and she smiled.

“Karma, Ellicia’s an Agent,” she said excitedly. 

“Yes, they’ll be here in just a minute, but you need to wait here with me,” Karma insisted.

“Why?” Hope asked.

“He said so,” Karma repeated with a little exasperation. 

“Who is
he
?” Hope asked, just as the sound of a speeding VTOL invaded the tent.  The sound grew so loud so quickly that Hope couldn’t hear Karma’s reply, but when she started to crawl out of the enclosure she had no problem hearing Karma scream “NO!”.

Hope was so startled that she instantly spun around to face Karma, her heart racing as she tried to discern why the woman had screamed.  By the time she realized that there was nothing wrong, the sound of the VTOL began to change.  It sounded as though it were landing very close by.  The one remaining sheet covering them began to flutter and snap alarmingly and Hope knew that any moment it was going to pull loose and fly away.  She started to reach up for the sheet when a gust of wind blew sand through their little enclosure and Karma began coughing. 

Hope forgot about the sheet as she hunched over Karma in an effort to shield her from the worst of the sand.  Within seconds the end of the sheet anchored to the incline pulled loose and a few seconds later, the other end went.  The sheet lifted into the air like a sail and was gone.

***

“Not that one!” Darck screamed as the car suddenly shot forward at high speed.  Lenny jumped and dropped the cable he had just unplugged.  Darck started to lean down to grab the cable when he saw something big and white flying toward him.  A second later, the big white...thing...plastered itself against the ground-car’s windshield, completely blocking his view.  Startled, he froze for a moment, trying to understand what the thing was.  By the time he thought to take his foot off the accelerator, it was far too late.

***

The wind increased the moment the sheet was gone and their little enclosure filled with even more blowing, choking sand.  Hope reached behind her for the blanket she had used for her own bed, hoping that the weight of her pack lying on it had kept it from blowing away.  She felt it beneath her fingers and tugged it hard.  It pulled free and she dragged it up and over Karma, covering the other woman’s face to protect her while she held her own eyes shut to keep the sand out. 

Suddenly there was a deafening explosion of sound.  Hope instinctively lowered herself further over Karma, protecting Karma’s head with her body even as she covered her own head with her arms.  She heard screams, and the high pitched screech of tearing metal, then an odd whistling sound growing louder and louder until it ended with a strange crunching noise somewhere above Hope’s head.  Hope felt the sudden rush of sand and gravel pour over herself and Karma from the incline above them, but she remained motionless, afraid to move an inch.

It was only a few seconds before silence fell once more but to Hope it felt like forever.  Only when there was no more sand falling on her, and no more sound, did she carefully raise her head and open her eyes.  Both she and Karma were covered with sand and small rocks but neither of them seemed to be hurt. 

“You okay?” she asked Karma.

“Yeah, I think so,” Karma replied breathlessly.  “You?”

“I’m fine,” Hope replied. “But I need to know what happened so I’m going out there, okay?”

Karma nodded.  “Sure,” she said.

Hope took a moment to shake the sand off the blanket covering Karma, and handed her a bottle of water before she stood up and looked around.  The sight that greeted her was appalling.  And confusing.

It took Hope a few moments to identify the mass of twisted metal that sat about twenty yards away from where she stood, but she finally realized that it was a mangled combination of VTOL and ground-car.  As far as she could tell, the ground-car had run straight into the side of the VTOL, its front end entering through the cabin door.  Hope tore her eyes from the wreckage, frowning again as she watched several large men crowd around something on the sand half way between herself and the wreck.  Suddenly a familiar face popped up from between two of the men and turned toward her.

“Hope!” Grace yelled.  “We need you!  Hurry!”

Hope didn’t hesitate.  She stepped over the remains of her makeshift rock wall and ran as fast as she could force her feet to move.

Chapter
41

“I love you, Harlan Hontza,” Ellicia said..

“Lucky me,” Harlan replied, giving her one last peck on the nose.  “Now, let’s go attend our engagement party.”

“All right, but first, you owe me a secret,” she said.

“I was hoping you’d forgotten that,” he said with a grin.

“Not likely,” Ellicia replied archly.

“All right, I owe you a secret,” he agreed with a chuckle.  “But later, all right?”

“All right,” she agreed.  “But don’t think I’m going to forget, because I won’t.  And it has to be a good one too.”

Harlan opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he had been about to say froze in his mouth at the sounds coming from the living room.  The breaking of glass.  A scream.  The distinctive buzz of an energy weapon. 

Before Harlan had a chance to react the bedroom door flew open to reveal the head caterer, a tall woman dressed in white, pointing a hand laser at them.  Just as she squeezed the trigger someone fell into her from behind.  The weapon’s beam hit Ellicia high on her left thigh as Harlan yelled “No!”.  He leapt forward but the woman was too fast.  She caught her balance and raised the weapon and fired again.  Harlan was only five feet from her, so there was no possibility that she would miss.  And she didn’t. 

Ellicia watched with horror as then narrow, but powerful, beam hit Harlan in the chest, then sliced down his abdomen leaving a blossoming trail of bright red behind it.  Harlan’s hands rose to his chest as he crumpled backward to the floor with no more than a soft grunt of surprise.  Ellicia tore her eyes from Harlan in time to see the woman step into the room and take aim at her.  Ellicia knew at once that there was nothing she could do.  Her life’s blood was pumping from her leg, and she had no chance of moving quickly enough to get out of the way.  She could only remain where she was and wait for death to come.

Suddenly the woman screamed and dropped her weapon to the floor, both hands flying to her head.  Ellicia glanced up with startled eyes, puzzled by what she was seeing.  The sight was so strange that it took her a moment to figure out what it was. 

The woman screamed again and began slapping at her head as she spun around in circles, trying to put out the fire that had appeared from nowhere.  Within seconds the woman’s hair was fully engulfed in flames which were beginning to spread down to her shoulders.  Ellicia forced herself to crawl forward enough to reach the weapon the woman had dropped only a few feet from her.  It took her a few moments to reach it, pain and weakness causing black spots to flash before her eyes.  She ignored them and gripped the hand laser, aiming carefully for the burning woman’s head before firing.  The woman’s screams stopped abruptly and she crumpled to the floor the same as Harlan had. 

Ellicia reached up and grabbed Harlan’s jacket which was lying on the edge of the bed and tossed it over the woman’s still burning head to smother the flames.  Once she was sure the fire was out, she turned and crawled painfully to Harlan. 

She focused on his face, refusing to let herself look at his wounds.  When she finally reached him and was able to raise herself up enough to look at him, she saw that he was still conscious, his eyes still open.