The Dying of the Light: Interval (45 page)

AEGIS Rescue Two
Over the Pacific Ocean

I was dozing in my seat on
Rescue Two
when Myers came to wake me, a thousand miles or so southwest of Los Angeles.

“Sir, thought you’d wanna know: we’ve got signal from the NORPAC satellite now.”

NORPAC,
I thought, my brain not quite to full functioning capacity that soon after sleep.
Northern Pacific. Kim!
I sat up, throwing off the thin blanket and stumbling out of the bunk into the corridor. The groans and growls of disturbed sleepers echoed behind me, including the coughing of Myers, who I’d accidentally elbowed in the gut. I raced to his position, yanking on my headset and dialing in Bunker One. Or, at least, trying.

“Bunker One, Bunker One,
AEGIS
Rescue Two
. Come in, Bunker One.” When there was no response, I repeated the phrase again, and again, and was starting on a fourth repetition when Myers shoved me out of the way and resumed his seat. He adjusted a dial on the console and then pointed to me, glaring. I reiterated, “Bunker One, this is
Rescue Two
. Please respond.”

This time, the low tones of Captain Marcus Potter answered me. “This is Bunker One, Captain Potter. Good to hear from you,
Rescue
. Say again,
Rescue Two
?”

I cheered, uncaring that I woke those sleeping nearby. My only thoughts now were for Kim. “That’s right, Mr. Potter.
Rescue
Two. Where’s Kim? Is she OK? Put her on, please.”

Potter chuckled. “Hold on, Turbo, I’ll patch you through. Just a sec.”

The wait seemed interminable as I listened to a series of clicks, then finally I heard the sleepy voice of the one person I wanted to see most at that moment. “David?”

“Hi, babe,” I said, and it took everything I had not to break down crying. I didn’t even notice Shaw ushering everyone off the flight deck until he was closing the door leading aft. I glanced his way and whispered thanks. He just nodded and shut the door. “Are you all right, babe?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, her words a bit slurred with drowsiness. “We’re fine. Are you?”

“So much better now, you can’t possibly realize. God, I missed you.”

I could hear her smile over the radio. “I missed you, too. What about everyone else?” Suddenly, everything clicked into place, and her voice lost the sleepiness as she finally woke all the way up. “Did you get him? Atkins?”

“Of course we did,” I said, laughing, and heard her relieved sigh.

“Thank God.”

“Him, and about a thousand other folks.”

“Wait, what?”

I brought her up to speed on everything that had happened, up until the planes had gone their separate ways. “So Anderson and the rest diverted to Samoa, and we haven’t been in touch with them. Anderson ordered us to continue on, and Shaw followed the order. Have you heard from them? Have they already made it back?”

“No, David, we haven’t heard from them at all,” she said, worry evident in her voice. “I’ve spoken with Morena, Mary, and George several times, though. You need to call them as soon as we’re done.”

“I will, babe. Count on it. What about you, though? It sounded bad when we got cut off. I’ve been worried for nearly two weeks straight.”

“I wish I’d been able to contact you. That first attack was just a feint, testing our defenses again, seeing if they’re still as formidable as they were.” She sounded confused, and I wondered what else was going on. “I don’t get it. He’s throwing these people away for nothing. Feints and little attacks, making no progress toward us at all, and he doesn’t seem to care how many he loses.”

“I can only think of two reasons to do this,” I said, mentally superimposing her description of the attacks over another map of the bunker and the surrounding terrain. “It sounds like he’s looking for weaknesses, especially along the flanks and from above.”

“That’s what Daniel, Angela, and the Board think, too. The problem is, what isn’t weak now will be
if he keeps this up. Our ammo supplies are dwindling fast, and I’m not sure how many more of these attacks we can take before they run out completely.”

“What about the airbase?”

“JBLM? It’s secure, or at least as secure as we can make it without drawing attention to it. Our guys do everything they can at night or dusk, and we’ve got some of Gunny Rains’ people out as scouts. You should see them, David. They’re practically invisible. We found some old gilly suits designed for urban combat—with heat shielding, even—and these boys and girls… well, one of them crawled up and grabbed my leg during a demonstration. She’d started a hundred yards away. I never saw her.” She laughed. “We call ‘em Gunny’s Ghosts. He cackled—actually
cackled
—the first time he heard it.”

I laughed, too, picturing the gnarled old gunnery sergeant getting the news. “I’m glad to hear he’s as useful as Tom thought he would be. I’ll pass on the story.”

“Do, and tell them all I said hello. I can’t wait to meet them.” She paused for a second, and I could tell she was debating whether to tell me something.

“What is it, Kim?”

“Oh, nothing that won’t wait,” she said, and though I didn’t believe her, I decided not to press the issue. “Oh! We’ve managed to get a fair number of Humvees working over at the base, and we even snuck out the Stryker in between attacks. Our guys lost the crazies that Beoshane had following them in the rubble and made it over to the base. The scouts took out the few who got too close.”

“That’s amazing. What about the runway?”

“We patched a few holes, but it’s in reasonably decent shape. We had to get out there with some wrecking crews though, to clear it first. Made us all more than a bit nervous that Beoshane would find out, but he was too busy attacking to notice, we think.”

“So it’s ready for us, then.”

“As it’ll ever be. When will you be here? We want to see you.”

“ASAP, babe. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon from Anderson, but the primary mission is to get Atkins to Mary. Once that’s done, I’ll head home.” Sometimes it still amazed me that I considered a massive underground bunker as
home
. “Call it two, three days, tops.”

Suddenly, there was a loud alert sound through the radio. Kim yelled to talk over it. “It’s another attack, David. I’ve gotta go. Get Atkins to Mary safe and sound, whatever you have to do, but come home to us. Love you.”

“Love you too, babe.”

And then she was gone. I laid my head on the arms I’d folded onto the console while talking to her, and closed my eyes. A moment later, Reynolds opened the door, knocking on the inside panel.

“OK to come in, boss?” he asked, smiling tentatively.

“You bet, Tom. Kim says hi, sends her love. She’s OK.” I could see Reynolds’s relief as he sat down hard on a chair opposite me, and the others began to filter through, returning to their various stations. I continued, my voice taking a darker tone. “Things are getting bad, Tom. She said the attacks are almost constant now, and I could tell she was exhausted. Her voice was strained; whatever that bastard Beoshane is up to, he’s keeping it going night and day.” I filled him in on the latest, and watched his reactions mirror my own from earlier.

Atkins glanced back and forth at us, swallowing nervously. “I never meant for any of this to distract—” he said, and I waved him off.

“It’s not your fault, Doc,” I replied. “Just make sure it was worth it.”

He nodded once, firmly, and I knew he would take those words to heart. For now, though, I had another call to make. “Myers,” I said, “get me Bunker Seven. They’re gonna wanna know we’re on our way.”

A few hours later, Reynolds was looking out the forward windows as we approached LAX and got ready for landing. Myers was in the co-pilot seat for this one, getting used to the big planes now that his arm had healed enough to at least move some. He still winced once in a while when he thought no one was looking, but he soldiered on, earning the respect of all of us.

I know I couldn’t have done it two weeks after being shot in the shoulder
.

I was observing from the flight engineer’s console. Observing the pilots, that is, because I had no clue how to work the engineering systems. Myers had all but ordered me to leave them alone, and I was complying wholeheartedly.

“Looks like there’s not many down there,” said Reynolds. “Lots less than before, at any rate.”

“Are we safe to land, Captain?” asked Shaw. “I’m on fumes here.,”

“Engine one is out, Colonel,” said Myers as warning lights and alarms flashed and buzzed. Only seconds later, the alarms went off again. “And there’s three, sir.”

“Yes, sir, Colonel,” replied Reynolds.

“Good. Taking her in. This… this is gonna be close.”

Jennifer came forward from the passenger compartment, standing near my console. “Some people… well, OK, a
lot
of people are asking me if we’re going to be able to get off the plane when we land.”

I looked over at Shaw, who had operational command of the plane, and I shrugged as I turned back to his wife. “I don’t know. He hasn’t specifically mentioned it, but if it’s safe, I don’t see why we couldn’t get out to stretch our legs. It’s been one helluva flight, and it’s going to be another hour or so before we land in New Mexico, once we’ve refueled, which will be at least another couple hours with the damaged pumps.”

She nodded. “Thanks, I’ll go let everyone know. If you get a chance… let’s just say it’s getting pretty ripe back there.”

I chuckled. “So noted. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks.”

“Landing in thirty seconds,” said Shaw, loud enough for us all to hear. I punched the one sequence I knew into the console in front of me, and the landing alarm that we’d rigged sounded throughout the plane.
Not pretty
, I thought.
But it gets the job done.
The impact of the landing gear wasn’t as bad this time. I didn’t even feel the walkers hitting the plane, or, rather, the plane hitting the walkers, but I did notice the change in engine pitch when a few of them inevitably got sucked through.
Good thing we’re not going to need this thing much longer
, I thought.

We had slowed down and were almost at our refueling spot when the fourth engine cut out, causing us to swerve briefly before Shaw could bring the huge plane back under control. Eventually, we rolled to an easy stop just where we were supposed to, and we all relaxed. There was a spontaneous cheer from the cargo and passenger decks, and we laughed as the tension eased considerably.

The scientists and other survivors of McMurdo had good reason to cheer. Despite ten years of isolation and deprivation, despite hardships the likes of which most people had never dreamed, and through thousands of miles of travel, they had made it back. As several people came forward to congratulate the flight crew, I asked Tom to restore order and give our exhausted pilots some space. As they crawled out of their seats, having been in them for nearly twelve hours, I clapped both men on the back and shook their hands firmly.

“Well done, Colonels,” I said. “Now how about we go clear out some walkers so these folks can stretch their legs?”

“Sounds good to me, Mr. Blake,” said Shaw. “I could use some target practice, anyway.”

I laughed, and we grabbed our gear, heading up onto the roof and wings once more. It wasn’t long before Reynolds and the rest of the soldiers had secured a perimeter around the plane, and Shaw had opened the fore and aft cargo doors, turning the plane into a big hollow cylinder with only two ladders to block the way through. The breeze blowing in from the ocean felt good, and circulated rapidly through the plane. The mass of survivors milled around the cargo deck and just outside the plane, but didn’t venture far. More than a few took the opportunity to circumspectly answer calls of nature, and I laughed. It
had
been a long flight, after all.

Shaw and his wife came up to me as I stretched, with Atkins and Sabrina joining us.

“So, you radioed ahead, and they’re expecting us at Bunker Seven?” asked Atkins.

I nodded. “Yep! Mary is
very
excited to meet you,” I said, and noticed Sabrina glowering. “Don’t worry, Dr. Tanner, she’s married, and happily.”

Sabrina sniffed, pretending not to know what I was talking about. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,
Mister
Blake.” The twinkle in her eye as she said it caught my funny bone and we all shared a laugh.

“God, it’s good to laugh again,” Shaw said. “It seems like it’s been forever since any of us had anything to laugh
about
.” I saw Jennifer reach down to take his hand with a squeeze, and he turned to her, smiling as he put an arm around her.

I guess things are moving forward, after all
.
Who knows when they had time to work things out, but it’s none of my business.
I missed Kim more than ever in that moment, and I coughed hard to cover wiping a tear from my eye. I’m not normally a crier, but
damn
, did I miss my wife.

There was a crack from the perimeter, and we all reflexively glanced that way, but whoever had shot was on the other side of the plane. Shaw turned back and sighed. “Well, suppose we should get started fueling her up.” The others nodded, and we all started back to the plane.

Almost there
, I thought.
Just a few more hours, and I’ll be back home. Where all I have to deal with is a madman trying to kill everyone in the greater Seattle area, including my wife and nearly everyone I know in the world.
I shook my head. Now was not the time for dark thoughts, but I knew, as sure I’d ever known anything, that the worst was yet to come.

About fifty miles northeast of the ghost town of Santa Fe, the solitary airstrip that comprised the Angel Fire Airport lay baking under the unrelenting New Mexico sun. In November, it wasn’t too bad, averaging around fifty-two degrees. Today was a bit warmer, around sixty-five. We didn’t even have to change our jackets, as the temp was nearly the same as L.A. had been, though much drier.