Strike (10 page)

There were murmurs as people looked around at each other, probably looking for us.

We didn’t move. Where would we go? If we ran we’d have every guard come down on us and probably a few prisoners as well. Our only hope was that nobody knew who we were.

I glanced to my right to see Scottie staring at me. Would she turn us in to get a work-free day?

She smiled and subtly shook her head. She wasn’t about to give us up.

“Very well,” Feit bellowed, the ragged edge of frustration creeping into his voice. “You are fools for not cooperating.”

Bova stepped forward and announced, “Do you understand the opportunity? The reward for compliance is a day free of work. The penalty for not cooperating will be harsh.”

“No,” Feit interrupted. “That won’t be necessary. I understand why they might not be willing to help us. They believe that by standing up to us, they are helping their own cause. They couldn’t be more wrong. We are here to help you! To save you! In time you will come to understand that.”

Nobody was buying what he was selling.

“Very well,” he continued. “If no one is willing to step forward, we will use another means to root out the traitors.”

Feit gestured to someone. A second later another Retro guard climbed up onto the truck, along with an orange-clad prisoner. A woman. She struggled against the guard but was no match for him. He pulled her up onto the flatbed of the vehicle with ease, as if she were nothing more than an annoying little child.

Tori gasped.

My knees went weak.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Kent said.

Standing next to Feit, holding her head up defiantly, was Stacy Pierce. My mother.

M
y mom looked more exhausted than I’d ever seen her. She squinted and held her hand up to block the bright sun as if she had been held in a dark cave up until that moment. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, making her look younger than her forty some odd years.

But she stood there courageously, with her eyes fixed on Feit.

Mom was alive. That was my first thought. The relief was so dramatic that for a moment I actually felt light-headed. The moment I saw her it was as if the thousands of other people in the clearing had suddenly disappeared. It was just me, my mother . . . and Feit.

That was my second thought.

Feit had her.

I took a step forward but Tori grabbed me.

“Don’t,” she whispered with urgency. “That’s exactly what he wants you to do.”

I had some vague understanding that by my revealing myself I’d also be putting Tori and Kent in danger. I wish I could say that it mattered to me but in that moment, it didn’t. All I could see was my mother being manhandled by my enemy, and that wasn’t going to fly.

“Feit!” I screamed.

It was like a gunshot in an empty auditorium. Every last person spun to look at me.

“And . . . we’re done,” Kent said with a sigh.

Tori let go of my arm.

For the first time since he had reappeared, Feit smiled. Even from that distance away I could see it and it made my blood boil.

My mother’s reaction was much different. She deflated and dropped her head. She must have been hoping that Feit was wrong and that I had somehow escaped from the grasp of the Retros.

“Let her go!” I screamed.

It was a lame demand. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it if he refused.

Bova leaned down to one of his soldiers and whispered something. Immediately after, several Retro soldiers started making their way around the perimeter of the mass of prisoners to close in on me. On us.

“Hello Tucker,” Feit called out with his familiar, casual voice. “Good to see you again.”

The guy must have been under some serious pressure from his superiors for having been outsmarted by a bunch of kids. It cost the Retros a thousand fighter planes. Having found me seemed to have instantly taken some of that pressure off.

“If you want me, leave her alone,” I shouted.

“How exactly do you figure that?” he called back. “I already have you! I trust my other good friends are close by.”

That’s when it fully hit me that by revealing myself, I had also doomed Kent and Tori.

“I’m sorry,” I said to them sheepishly.

Kent shrugged.

“This isn’t over,” Tori said with conviction. “We’ve gotten through worse.”

It may not have been over, but in that moment it sure felt like it.

There must have been over a thousand prisoners there, as well as dozens of armed Retro guards. They all stood silently, listening to our exchange. All but the handful of guards who were headed our way, that is.

“Get out of here,” I whispered to Kent and Tori, without taking my eyes off of Feit. “Blend into the crowd. He doesn’t know for sure that you’re here.”

Kent nodded quickly and started to move deeper into the crowd, but Tori stood still.

“Go,” I insisted.

She stood her ground.

Kent glanced back and saw that Tori wasn’t moving. He deflated, rolled his eyes, and pushed his way back to us.

“I don’t like being noble,” he grumbled.

“But you’re still here,” Tori said with a smile.

“Reluctantly,” he added.

The Retro soldiers moved toward us, pushing through the crowd from both sides. Most of the prisoners didn’t budge, making it tough going for them.

“Please,” Bova called out to the crowd. “Clear a path for my men. We don’t want to see anyone get hurt unnecessarily.”

“What do you think they’ll do to us?” Kent asked nervously.

I wished I had an answer to that.

The soldiers finally reached us. There were six of them who stood facing us as the nearby prisoners finally backed away.

One soldier raised his black baton weapon, ready to aim it at us.

“Is there going to be trouble?” he asked.

I wanted to say I planned on giving them as much trouble as humanly possible, but that wouldn’t have been wise.

“No,” I said flatly.

“Then walk,” he commanded.

I didn’t hesitate and walked straight at the six soldiers, who had to get out of our way to let us pass. The prisoners pushed back and gave us a wide opening so we could move out of the crowd. Once we left the mass of humanity and walked through the ring of guards that held the crowd together, we turned forward and began the long walk to Feit.

Kent and Tori stayed right behind me.

The Retro soldiers were close behind them.

There was no escaping this fate. Once again, we would have to face Feit. We had beaten this guy before. More than once. I had to hold on to the belief that we could do it again. It seemed impossible under the circumstances, but it was all I had.

As we walked, we passed several Retro soldiers, who glared at us, stone faced, as if we were lower than all the other primates they had so much disdain for. Each look made me stand a little straighter, as if to show them I wasn’t afraid or intimidated, though I was both.

We were in a situation that seemed totally hopeless . . . until I made eye contact with a soldier who was still a few steps away.

He lifted his hand and put it over his heart.

I was so surprised I stopped walking.

The soldier quickly dropped his hand, as if not wanting anyone else to see the gesture.

Kent and Tori bumped into me from behind.

“What?” Kent said, annoyed.

“Keep moving,” The guard commanded from the rear.

I started walking again but kept my eye on the soldier.

Without warning he lunged for me, grabbed me by the front of my coveralls, threw me on the ground, and put his face right in mine.

“Vermin!” he screamed with rage. “You animals don’t deserve our pity.”

I was too surprised to fight back.

Kent and Tori tried to pull the guy off of me but he was too strong.

He leaned down close to my ear and whispered, “Slow down. Help is on the way.”

“What?” I said, stunned.

The soldier pushed off of me and got back to his feet. He spit on the ground with disgust and walked away.

Tori and Kent quickly helped me to my feet.

“You all right?” Tori asked.

I wasn’t. My mind was spinning. What had just happened? Was that soldier a Sounder? I had to get my act together and come up with a way to deal with what he just told me. Was help really on the way? What kind of help? Was there actually hope?

I turned to the leader of the guards who were escorting us and walked boldly up to him.

“Can’t you control your people?” I asked, indignantly. “You call us animals? What was that all about?”

“Keep moving,” the guard growled without a hint of sympathy.

“Not until you guarantee to protect us.”

“Wha . . . ?” the soldier replied, stunned. “Protect you? You can all disappear for all I care.”

“What’s the delay?” Bova called from the truck, still fifty yards ahead.

I didn’t know if I could believe the soldier who attacked me or not, but if help was really on the way and I needed to slow down, I was going to slow down.

“We’re coming!” I shouted. “But you have to promise me you won’t hurt my mother.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd when they heard that the prisoner who stood next to Feit was my mother. There was a growing swell of sound that I could imagine turning into anger, and a thousand angry people would make a pretty powerful force.

“Quiet!” Bova ordered. “Discipline!”

He wasn’t talking to the crowd. The Retro soldiers that formed a ring around the crowd all turned inward, raised their batons, and fired.

Instantly, dozens of prisoners screamed and fell to their knees. They weren’t injured or even knocked unconscious, but a direct and violent message had been delivered. The crowd instantly went silent.

“You’re in no position to make demands, Tucker,” Feit called. “I have no issues with your mother, unless you continue to give me grief.”

“I think we better keep moving, Rook,” Kent said, his voice shaking.

He was right, but I wanted to take as much time as possible for . . . what? I walked right to the lead soldier with the baton, stared him square in the eye, and said, “Why don’t you have a couple of your robots walk in front of us so nothing stupid like that happens again.”

The idea of doing something that a lowly primate suggested probably made him nauseated. It definitely made him mad. I saw his jaw muscles tensing as he attempted to control his rage.

“Just a thought,” I added, snarky. “Your call.”

The guy swallowed hard, grabbed one of his men by the arm, and pushed him forward.

“Walk in front of these . . .”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

“Animals,” I said. “I think the word you’re looking for is animals.”

The soldier moved past us and waited.

“Now,” the lead soldier said. “Move.”

I smiled at him and politely said, “You got it. Thank you.”

I turned away and walked back to Kent and Tori.

“What was all that about?” Tori asked.

“I don’t know yet,” was my reply.

The three of us started walking again, this time with Retro escorts in front and back. I set the pace, deliberately walking slowly. As we drew closer to Feit and my mother, the reality began sinking in that help was not on the way. Whoever that soldier was, he didn’t know what he was talking about. Or maybe he did and it was just another form of torture by offering a faint glimmer of hope before crushing it. . . .

A shrill whistling sound tore through the sky and . . .
boom!

An explosion erupted on the surface of the steel dome.

Every last person spun to look as . . .
boom!

Another explosion followed, only this one hit the ground beyond the dome.

My first instinct was to look for my mother.

She was already gone. So were Feit and Bova.

Every last Retro soldier took off running, including our escorts. They ran with purpose, as if this was a drill they had practiced many times.

“What the hell?” Kent shouted.

His words were cut off by the shrieking sound of two gray fighter planes screaming by overhead.

“SYLO,” Tori called.

Help had arrived after all.

With the soldiers gone and an aerial attack underway, there was widespread panic among the prisoners. Unlike the soldiers who had run off to whatever post or shelter they were assigned to, the prisoners had no clue of what to do or where to go. The base may have been under attack, but that meant the prisoners were square in the line of fire. Many ran toward the barracks buildings and piled inside for whatever protection the flimsy wooden structures would provide.

Retro fighter planes soon appeared in the sky as they lifted off vertically from around the dome. They hovered around the steel structure, forming a protective perimeter. Others shot off to meet the intruders head on.

Four more Navy jets appeared over the mountains, headed for the dome. Within seconds they each unleashed two missiles that streaked for the towering structure. SYLO hadn’t come to help the prisoners. They were going after the gate to hell . . . and a Retro soldier knew the attack was coming.

A Sounder.

There really was hope.

Several black Retro fighter drones swooped in like angry wasps. The impulses of power they fired from their impossible weapons were invisible, but effective. Most every one of the SYLO missiles exploded in midair before getting close to their target.

The three of us hadn’t moved. We stood on the edge of the clearing, staring up in wide-eyed wonder as the aerial bombardment intensified.

Multiple SYLO fighters appeared, crossing paths with the screaming jets that had just fired their own missiles ineffectively. Unlike Fenway Park, where there was no Retro defense to protect the half-built dome, this monster in the desert was well defended. Not only were there ground-based antiaircraft weapons outside the desert base, but the Air Force drones weren’t solely in defense mode. While the ring of hovering craft stayed near the dome to protect it, dozens of other Retro fighters went on the attack.

“My God, look,” Tori said pointing to the horizon.

The air battle taking place beyond the borders of the camp was monstrous. It sounded like distant thunder as dozens of SYLO fighters streaked along the perimeter, looking for an opening to make an attack run on the dome. For every SYLO jet there were three or four Retro drones battling to keep them at bay. It was a depressing sight, especially since it had only been a few days since we had destroyed a thousand of those black monsters. This proved what Granger had said. The Retros weren’t even close to being finished. We may have set them back at Area 51, but their resources were deep. The Air Force must have been building these high-tech weapons for a very long time in order to have manufactured so many.

But how was that possible? Where had these new fighter drones come from? How could they have gotten to the desert so quickly?

“Move!” Kent shouted and pushed Tori and me away from the field.

“Look out!” Tori screamed, pointing skyward.

I heard it before I saw it. A Navy jet tumbled out of the sky in flames, and it was headed our way.

We ran for the nearest building, scrambling for whatever protection it might offer. We hit the side of the wall and crouched down just as the jet slammed into the open field at full throttle. There was a massive eruption that spewed flames, debris, and burning jet fuel.

There were no survivors.

I pulled Kent and Tori away from the building and made a desperate run to get around to the far side. The heat at our backs was so intense I feared our coveralls would ignite. The moment we rounded the corner of the building, the structure was hit with burning debris. The wooden barracks were peppered by pieces of flaming wreckage, large and small. The terrified screams of the people hiding inside could barely be heard above the roar of the fire that engulfed the downed jet.