Storm

TWENTY-SEVEN

Driving across the desert floor was exciting… and terrifying.

It was a breakneck dash across wide-open terrain that left us totally exposed as we moved closer to the death machines that had changed our lives and forever altered the natural course of human events.

I was glad to be behind the wheel. It helped me stay focused. There were too many conflicting thoughts racing through my head. For the longest time, I had put a face on the enemy. Captain Granger. He had held us prisoner on Pemberwick Island and coldly murdered those who crossed him, including Tori’s father. But as the scope of the conflict revealed itself, it seemed possible that Captain Granger and SYLO might have been using their extreme tactics to battle an even greater enemy: the Retros.

I had come close to murdering Granger. That’s how deep my rage went. It was confusing to try to refocus that anger onto a fleet of faceless machines. I needed to hold someone responsible. But who? Was it Feit? I didn’t think so. He was just a cog in the machine, like Chris Campbell or Jon Purcell. I wanted to know who was behind the heinous plan. Was it an individual? A rogue group of Air Force officers? An extremist arm of the government that took control of the Air Force and its most advanced, lethal technology? It might even be a foreign government that was intent on bringing down the United States.

Or was Kent’s theory the truth? Were we battling an invasion from another planet? As strange as it sounds, that would be the easiest explanation to accept, based on the impossible technology they had. It went back to what the old Paiute man said. He couldn’t believe that anyone of this earth could commit such horrible crimes against their own people. We might be battling an advanced civilization from another world that considered the people of earth to be primitive and expendable.

I wanted to hate somebody. I wanted a villain. I wanted somebody to suffer for what was happening. I would have to settle for putting the villains out of business and hope that someday, somehow, the guilty would be brought to justice.

I scanned the desert to both sides, looking for signs of the other teams that were doing the same thing we were. The Chiefs’ plan called for the base to be surrounded by dozens of teams that would converge on Area 51 like a tightening noose. I thought I saw a couple of kicked-up dust clouds in the distance, which would mean that other teams were racing for the planes. We would need every one of the teams to get through, because after seeing all those black planes, I worried that we wouldn’t have enough charges to damage them all.

As we drew dangerously close to the base, I realized that there wasn’t a fence surrounding it. I guess it wasn’t needed. Nobody got this far when it was officially in operation.

I wanted to get close enough to our targets to avoid a long walk but didn’t want to get so close that we might alert someone. It was a strange game of chicken. I finally couldn’t take it anymore and waved to Kent that we were stopping. I gradually slowed as Kent pulled up next to me. We both killed our engines, and the silence of the desert returned.

I pulled off my helmet and listened for any signs of life from the base. There was nothing. I did hear what could have been the engines of other dune buggies off in the distance. Or was it the mysterious helicopter that had checked us out? I couldn’t tell, but it made me realize that as much as we hadn’t seen a single soul since the Paiute man and were in the middle of nowhere, we definitely weren’t alone. But there were no alarms. No counterattack. No defensive move from the base whatsoever.It was looking as though the base was truly unmanned.

I got out of the buggy, tossed off my helmet, and grabbed the pack with the charges.

“Rest of the way on foot,” I announced.

Kent and Tori joined me, ready to go.

Olivia didn’t move.

Uh-oh.

“We gotta go, Olivia,” I commanded.

She took off her helmet but stayed curled in the fetal position.

“I can’t,” she replied in a small voice.

“We can’t leave you here,” Tori scolded.

“Yes, you can,” she whined. “One less person won’t make any difference. Take my stupid bombs. You can still use them.”

Tori gave me a concerned look. “We’re not leaving you alone,” she said more forcefully. “It’s too dangerous.”

“More dangerous than going into that place?” she cried. “I don’t think so.”

She could have been telling the truth and was too scared to move—or she could have been stubbornly pretending to be scared so we’d leave her alone so she could warn the Retros. Either way, I didn’t know how to force her to come.

“Jeez, enough, Tucker,” Kent said. “You already bullied her into coming this far. What’s the difference if she stays here or not? I’ll take her charges and set them.”

“Thank you, Kent,” Olivia said.

I looked to Tori for help.

She had an idea, but it was a drastic one.

She had taken out her pistol.

If Olivia was an infiltrator, she could jeopardize the entire mission. If she refused to come with us, there was one thing we could do to make sure she wouldn’t give us up.

Tori raised the gun.

“No,” I commanded sharply.

It was meant for both Kent and Tori.

I grabbed Olivia’s pack of charges.

“I’ll set her charges.” I then looked right at Tori and said, “Olivia will be here when we get back.” I looked at Olivia and added, “Right?”

“Where else would I be?” she asked innocently.

Tori gave me a grave look and returned her pistol to her belt.

I could only hope that I wasn’t making a horrible mistake. I wanted to believe that Olivia was exactly who she said she was, but I had to accept the fact that she could have been lying. But so what? What could I do about it? If I couldn’t pull the trigger on Granger, I sure as hell couldn’t pull it on Olivia. Or let Tori do it.

But what if I was wrong? No, I had to go with my gut and let her stay behind. I told myself that the operation was already too far along. Even if Olivia was an infiltrator, there wasn’t much she could do to stop it.

That’s what I told myself, anyway.

Kent knelt down next to Olivia and smoothed her hair.

“We won’t be long,” he said soothingly. “You’ll be fine here.”

He really did care about Olivia, in spite of the fact that he kept trying to hook up with Tori. Kent may have been a dog, but he had genuine affection for the girl who had saved his life.

“Thank you,” Olivia said. “I’m sorry. I just can’t.”

“Olivia,” I said and waited until she looked at me before continuing. “You’re a good person. I know you are. We don’t have to leave you here, but we will because you’re our friend and we care about you. Please remember that.”

She closed her eyes, as if trying to stop from crying.

“I’ll be here,” she said softly.

I believed her. I didn’t think she would do anything to hurt us.

Either that or I am an incredibly bad judge of character.

“Let’s go,” I said while hoisting the second pack of charges onto my shoulder.

Kent kissed her on the cheek. “Be right back.” He joined Tori and I and declared, “Now or never.”

The three of us strode toward the base.

“You sure about this?” Tori asked me.

“No,” was my honest reply.

“I am,” Kent said. “We are taking this place down.”

We had stopped driving a few hundred yards from the edge of the first taxiway where several black planes were lined up, nose-totail and wing-to-wing. Until then, we had only seen them in flight, or crashed. Now they were sitting on landing gear. Each had a tripod base that kept the craft a few feet off the ground. They didn’t need wheels since they were able to take off and land vertically.”I feel like we’re entering a den of sleeping lions,” Tori said with an uncharacteristic quiver in her voice.

I raised my hand, and we stopped fifty yards from the first plane.

“They’re in perfect rows,” I said. “We’ll each take one row and work our way in. Kent, you take the middle row. We’ll be to either side of you.”

I wanted Kent between us so that Tori and I could keep an eye on him to make sure he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. Unlike with Olivia, I didn’t trust Kent.

“What about the extra charges?” Tori asked.

“You two wait for me at the last plane Kent sets. I’ll keep going and meet you back there.”

“Fine,” Kent said. His voice was shaky too. “Let’s just get this done.”

We moved quickly, covering the last empty stretch in silence. We went directly to one plane and stopped.

Being so close to the sleeping beast made my stomach twist— and there were hundreds of them. The plane was a machine designed for killing. There was no other way to put it. Moonlight reflected off of its slick, dark logo of the United States Air Force. All the questions as to why our own military would try to overthrow and control the world came roaring back.

But it wasn’t time to theorize.

It was time to fight back.

I pointed to the first plane, then to Kent. He nodded. That was his row. I pointed to the plane to its right, then to Tori. She got it. I pointed to myself and then to the plane that began the row to the left. That was mine. I clapped Kent on the back to get him moving. He hesitated a second, took a deep breath, and sprinted for the plane. I looked at Tori, pointed to my eyes, and then to Kent.

She knew what I meant. We had to watch him.

I then leaned over… and kissed her.

She touched my cheek, gave me a small smile, and took off running for her plane.

The faster we could get this done, the faster we could get out of there. In the back of my mind I felt that even if Olivia surprised me and betrayed us, we could get in and out before any Retros showed up… assuming there were any Retros around. This seemed like a fully automated operation that was controlled from somewhere else.

I sprinted for my plane while pulling the first pack of charges from my shoulder. I tried not to think of the destructive power each of these little bombs contained. If one went off in my hand, I’d be dead. I had to have faith in Cutter and his toys.

I reached the first plane, knelt down, and quickly pulled out one of the charges. Without stopping to think about anything that might go wrong, I peeled back the protective plastic sheet on the bottom and pressed the disk against the underbelly of the plane as close to the center as I could get. Having the planes up on their tripods made it easier to place the charge in what I hoped was a vulnerable spot. Once the charge was secure, I entered the code, 4-3-2-1, and the green light flashed on.

I clicked my watch into stopwatch mode and hit start.

We had thirty minutes to get out of there.

I looked over to the next row of planes, which was twenty yards away. Kent was under the plane on his back, setting his own charge. He finished, then crawled and headed for the next plane in line. So far, so good.

I did the same.

Cutter was right. It was simple. I moved to the next plane and repeated the process. I imagined the same thing happening all over the base. Hundreds of survivors were crawling on their bellies, dropping off little packages of revenge… and hope. The action meant we weren’t powerless after all. Did it mean we could win our old lives back? That might have been too optimistic. But it gave me hope that we had a shot.

I kept looking over at Kent and caught glimpses of him repeating the same process. It gave me confidence that Kent was legit… and even more concern about Olivia.

I soon planted the last of my ten charges. Once I had set the timer, I looked to see Kent and Tori waiting for me beneath Kent’s last plane. I hurried over to join them.

“I’ll make this quick,” I said.

“Give me half,” Kent demanded.

“No,” I shot back, maybe too quickly. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

I didn’t give him a chance to argue and took off for the next plane in the row where he had been working. I dug into Olivia’s bag and found the first charge. Setting the next set was as easy as the first. However, when I set the eighth charge, I found myself at the edge of an empty stretch of taxiway. At the far end, maybe a hundred yards away, sat an enormous hangar… that was coming to life.

I stayed under the eighth plane for whatever cover it would give me and watched with growing fear as bright light seeped from the edges of the gigantic single door. It was the first sign of activity at the base.

My hope was that whatever was inside was being controlled from somewhere far away and whoever was at the console would have no idea that hundreds of saboteurs were swarming the place.

But my fear was that Olivia had sounded the alarm. I was about to scramble to the next planes to set the final charges when I saw movement near the hangar. A soldier wearing black-and-gray camouflage fatigues and a black beret walked around from the far side and crossed in front of the door.

Hanging from his belt was a black baton weapon.

The base wasn’t empty after all. There were Retro soldiers here.

Still, there was only one, and if he knew the base was infested with enemies, he didn’t show it. He was far enough away that I felt I could still set the last two charges and get out of there, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to draw his attention to my movement. I lay flat on my belly and crawled toward the next line of planes, trying my best to be invisible. I slipped under the plane and got up on my knees to set the next charge… when I heard a sharp crack sound and was suddenly thrown back onto my butt by a powerful blast from… I didn’t know what.

Had the charge gone off? That wasn’t likely, because there was no bang, and I was still in one piece.

“Get out from there!” a man yelled.

Guess I hadn’t tried hard enough to be invisible.

I saw a hole in the side of the plane that could easily have been in my head. The shot had barely missed me, but its charge was still powerful enough to knock me down as it flew by. This guy was shooting to kill. I looked up to see the soldier from the hangar charging my way.

I ducked underneath the plane, scrambled to the far side, got back to my feet, and started to run…

…as I heard the low crack of another weapon being fired. I felt the surge of energy blow past my head, making my hair stand up. It missed me by inches and nailed another plane. This guy was way more concerned about stopping me than avoiding damage to the aircraft. I took a sharp turn around the plane, away from where I knew Tori and Kent were hiding… only to come face-to-face with the pursuer.

It wasn’t the guy from the hangar. It was a second soldier, and he was only a few yards away from me, with his black weapon up and leveled at me.

I froze.

“Who the hell are you?” he called.

I had the brief thought that he had no idea that anybody else was in the base. Maybe the alarm hadn’t been sounded after all. I was just stupid enough to have been spotted.

“Uh…,” I stammered. “I wanted to see what was going on here.”

“Now you see,” he called back. “And now you’re dead.”

He tightened up, ready to fire. My brain locked. All I could do was brace myself for the end. I wondered how badly it would hurt.

There was a gunshot—but I wasn’t hit.

Can’t say the same for the soldier. He fell to the deck, dropping his weapon.

“Come on!” Tori shouted.

She and Kent had come running as soon as the shooting started.

Tori held her pistol.

“Come on!” Kent whisper-yelled.

I was still too stunned to think quickly. I turned their way, ready to run when—

“Stop right there!”

The soldier from the hangar had arrived, and he wasn’t waiting for an introduction. Tori lifted her pistol and fired, but he was too far away for her to be accurate.

The soldier didn’t have the same challenge. He stood only a few yards from me. Point-blank range. I had nowhere to go. No place to take cover.

He took aim at me.

It was all going to end right there.

The soldier fired…

…as someone jumped out in front of me.

Olivia.

“What?” I screamed in stunned wonder.

She took the lethal charge square in the chest and, with an anguished cry, fell to the ground.

Olivia had saved my life.

The soldier stood there as stunned as I was, but not for long. He raised the baton again…

…too late. Tori had closed the distance and unloaded her clip, firing wildly at the soldier. He turned to fire at her but was thrown back from the impact of more than one bullet.

I knelt down over Olivia and was yanked away forcefully… by Kent. As I fell back, he huddled down next to her and lifted her head into his lap.

“You’re okay,” he cried in panic. “We’ll get you back. They’ll fix you.”

There was no obvious wound or blood. Whatever weapons these guys used acted differently on living beings, much like their light weapons. Still, even without any obvious wound, it was clear that Olivia was hurt. Badly.

She looked up at Kent with surprisingly focused eyes and said, “It’s okay.”

Kent was in tears. He tried to lift her, but Olivia cried out in pain, so he eased her back to the tarmac.

“No, no, you are not going to die,” he wept. “I’m not going to let you die.”

Tori and I knelt over her, opposite Kent.

Olivia grasped Kent’s hand and squeezed weakly.

She looked up at me and said, “I’m sorry. For everything.”

“You saved my life,” I said, choking back my own tears. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I don’t know what to say to thank you.”

She smiled. For a brief moment I saw the beautiful, flirty girl in the red bikini that I had an instant crush on the moment she arrived on Pemberwick Island.

“Just say you’ll forgive me,” she said.

“I forgive you,” I said, though I wasn’t sure for what.

She gave me a weak smile and said, “You’re right, Tucker. I really am a good person.”

“Hang on, Olivia,” Kent cried. “We’ll carry you to—”

Olivia’s eyes closed.

“No… no…,” Kent cried.

He caressed her hair, willing her to come back.

Tori put a hand on Kent’s arm to quiet him.

He looked at Tori with an expression of stunned anguish like I had never seen before and hope I never will again.

Tori put a finger on Olivia’s neck to check her pulse. Those few seconds felt like a lifetime.

“She’s gone,” Tori whispered.

The girl in the red bikini, the girl I had spent my last normal summer with before fleeing together from untold dangers, was dead.

I was numb.

Kent wasn’t. I felt his rage growlike heat that pulsed from his body. He gently eased Olivia’s head to the ground, then lashed out and pushed me to the ground.

“You killed her,” he growled through gritted teeth. “You forced her to come here, and she died to save you.”

He wound up, ready to hit me, but Tori tackled him, knocking him to the ground.

“Stop!” she commanded.

Tori was strong. Maybe stronger than Kent. She wrestled with him and wrapped him up with a bear hug.

“I told her I’d protect her,” Kent wailed as he fought to get to me, “and he killed her.”

I jumped to my feet and pinned Kent to the ground. Between the two of us, he couldn’t move.

“Get a grip!” I commanded with a stern whisper. “Or we’re all dead! There have to be more soldiers around.”

“I’ll kill you,” he growled. “I swear I’ll kill you.”

Tori stuck her nose right in Kent’s face and spoke in an intense whisper. “If we don’t get out of here right now, we’ll all die.”

“I want to die,” he said, crying. “And I’m taking him with me.”

A loud horn sounded that echoed across the desert floor. Was it an alarm? Would more soldiers come running?

The huge hangar door began to open. The intermittent horn was an alert, like the beeping of a truck backing up.

Kent stopped struggling as we all focused on the event.

What was in that hangar? We should have run, but none of us made a move. We wanted to know.

Bright light blasted out from within, making me squint. I released Kent and shaded my eyes from the intense blast.

Kent didn’t run or attack me. He was as mesmerized by the sight as Tori and I were.

“There’s something in there,” I said. “Something big.”

The door continued to open, revealing what at first appeared to be a black shadow. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized the truth.

“Oh my God,” Tori said, breathless.

“Is that what I think it is?” Kent asked, stunned.

It was.

It was a black Retro plane.

A giant one.

It had to be ten times the size of the others. It was the exact same design, looking like a giant manta ray, but the tips of its curved wings stretched out so wide that I wasn’t sure if it would fit through the huge hangar door.

“That’s how they’re going to do it,” I said, my head swimming.

“Do what?” Tori asked.

“Wipe out Las Vegas,” I said. “It took three of those smaller planes working together to create the beams of light that destroyed buildings. That thing has got to have the power to do it alone.”

“And it won’t stop there,” Tori said, dazed.

“No,” I added. “Los Angeles.”

“So all this was for nothing?” she asked with more than a touch of desperation.

“No,” I replied. “We’re not done yet.”

I stood up and started running for the hangar.