Page 28

CHAPTER 28

“N o!” Rona shouted.

Aeron didn’t shout, but he shared her pain.

Those weren’t just his friends down there.

They were his comrades, his brothers-in-arms, and right now they were in trouble, buried under a pile of rocks.

“Murdok,” he said. “Zeth. Do you copy?”

No answer.

Damn.

He needed to get down there to check on them, but there were still a few dozen enemies to take care of first. He jerked the controls, causing the ship to bank to the right, then he opened fire again, strafing the remaining raiders with the underwing guns.

The mutants burst apart in explosions of gore.

In a matter of seconds, they were all dead.

The only movement down below was the drifting dust left over from where the bullets had impacted the ground.

Aeron tried to raise his teammates again.

“Murdok. Zeth. Come in. Can you hear me?”

Still nothing.

Beside him, in the copilot’s seat, Rona was shaking.

Her eyes were wet with tears that had not yet started to spill.

“Are they…?”

“They’re alive,” Aeron said, and he tried his best to mean it.

He turned the controls, more gently this time, and aimed the nose of the ship at the mine entrance.

What was left of it, anyway.

He stared through the windshield at the collapsed pile of boulders.

“I’ll never be able to move that stuff on my own…”

He pulled back on the control stick and hit the throttle.

The Talionis aimed itself skyward and shot straight up into the air.

Within a matter of seconds, they were a mile up.

He switched the visualizer back on and studied the image.

It was the same bird’s-eye-view he’d used to guide Murdok and Zeth during the mission.

He could see the dark network of the mine tunnels spotted with the bright figures of the spiderlike raknids.

He could also see the dimmer forms of the dead mutants, their heat-signatures gradually fading as their bodies cooled.

And there, at the western terminus, were two very large, sprawled-out humanoid shapes.

“There they are,” Rona blurted, pointing.

“That’s right,” Aeron said, nodding.

“And their bodies are still nice and bright. That means they’re still alive.”

But they weren’t moving.

Aeron leaned in and took a closer look.

“It’s hard to be sure from this angle,” he said, “but it looks like there’s less rubble on the inside. I might be able to dig them out, but I’ll need to go in through the east entrance. That’s the only way that isn’t blocked now.”

He stared at the tangled mess of tunnels that lay between the east entrance and his friends.

There was no way he was going to be able to navigate that on his own.

Not fast enough, anyway.

He turned to Rona.

“If I go down there, can you guide me through, the same way I did for Zeth and Murdok?”

She wiped away her tears and nodded.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Absolutely.”

He liked the conviction in her voice.

“Alright,” he said, retrieving an earpiece from a compartment under the control panel and placing it in his ear.

“As long as you’re in the cockpit, I’ll be able to hear anything you say. Just make sure to speak clearly…”

He checked the overhead view, then typed some coordinates into the console.

“…Once I’ve got Murdok and Zeth, I want you to press this button. That’ll bring the ship in for a landing over here by the east entrance.”

“A landing?” Rona asked.

“That’s right. I need the ship to stay up here in the air while I’m completing the mission. That’s the only way for you to keep an eye on things from above.”

It also meant she would be safer than on the ground.

It looked like all the raiders had been killed, but one could never be too careful.

Rona gave him a worried look.

“But, how will you…?”

“I’ll jump.”

Aeron surged up out of the pilot’s seat and rushed out of the cockpit.

He could hear Rona following right behind him, her little bare feet pattering on the hard floor of the corridor.

“You’re going to jump? ” she exclaimed.

“Affirmative.”

He swung into the armory and started gathering what he needed.

An auto shotgun with a drum magazine, a pair of sidearms, and a parachute.

He secured the harness around his torso and legs, then turned and went back into the corridor.

Rona was standing there watching with a worried expression.

Aeron pressed the button to open the ship’s hatch, and the boarding ramp lowered amid a whistle of high-altitude wind.

The stink of polluted air filled the ship.

“Aeron,” Rona said, raising her voice to make herself heard over the noise.

“Be careful down there… please.”

“I will.”

He gathered her small, soft body against his own and kissed her hard and rough on the lips.

Then he turned, ran down the open boarding ramp, and dove out into the morning sky.