A sudden pocket of turbulence shook the plane harshly. Lorin woke up and looked around sleepily. Seeing her awake, Luci smiled. “It’s a lot smoother at 75,000 feet.”
Lorin looked out the window and then at her watch. “We shouldn’t be descending yet.”
“Yeah, I wondered about that. Where is our escort?”
Lorin frowned and put a hand on General Zitor who was seated next to her.
The General sat up with a start. “What?”
“Sir. We may have a problem,” Lorin whispered.
“What sort of problem?”
“It seems our pilot is taking us off course.”
The General looked up to the cockpit. “Well, let’s find out what’s going on,” he said getting up quickly.
“Careful, General. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
The General nodded and proceeded to the cockpit. Before he made it there, however, one of the flight crew pulled a gun from his flight suit and stuck it in the General’s face.
“What the hell!” the General protested.
“Get back to your seat.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to, soldier?” the General spat.
The soldier hit the General hard with the butt of the revolver and pushed him back into his seat. Several of the command staff had now awakened and were up and starting to pull their weapons. From behind them another soldier brandishing a laser pistol said,“Sit back down! Put you weapons on the floor in the aisle!”
The General motioned for them to comply, so they all carefully drew their weapons and placed them on the carpet in the center aisle of the plane. After they’d returned to their places the soldier said, “Now sit down and relax for the duration of the flight. And don’t even think about trying anything.”
Lorin just looked at the soldier in shock. “What do you want?” she demanded.
“I want you to shut up!” He replied then turned to Luci and handed her a large cloth bag. “Gather up the weapons in this bag.”
Luci took the bag, quickly gathered the variety of weapons the command staff had surrendered, and handed it to the soldier. He refused it pointing instead to an empty seat behind where he was standing. Luci took the bag to the empty seat and dropped it there. When she tried to go back to her own seat the soldier grabbed her and wrestled her into the seat next to him.
After she quit resisting and was sitting quietly he said, “If anybody causes any more trouble we’ll kill this pretty thing here, and I don’t think the Liberator will like that much.”
Lorin let out a gasp. “Leave her alone! She’s not part of this.”
The soldier who’d just struck General Zitor pointed his gun at Lorin. “Sit down and shut up! I doubt the Councillor would like me to put a bullet in his daughter’s head.”
Lorin’s mouth dropped. She realized all this was a carefully orchestrated kidnaping. There was a traitor in their ranks and she knew who it was; Lt. Cystrom. Only he could have done this and these men pointing guns at them were his friends he’d brought from Pogo. As she was thinking this, the plane made a hard landing throwing the kidnapers off balance. She thought about trying to take one of the soldier’s guns, but knew if she did Luci might die. Could she live with that? Probably, she thought, but by thinking about it she lost her window of opportunity. It was too late now. The plane was gliding smoothly to a halt.
When Lt. Cystrom stepped out of the cockpit Lorin spat on him. “You traitor! I thought you hated Videl. He didn’t kill your father, did he?”
Lt. Cystrom laughed. “No. I never knew my father. He died when I was a child. But I’m not the traitor. You’re the ones who have rebelled against the lawful government of Tarizon. You’re the ones who have committed treason and you will all die for it.”
“You’re going to kill us without a trial?” General Zitor asked bitterly. “We have a right under the Supreme Mandate to a trial.”
“Well, since the rebellion certain rights and liberties have been temporarily suspended, in case you’ve been out of touch. One of them is the right to a public trial. You’ll be tried but it will be by a military tribunal and justice will be swift.”
“When will it happen?” Lorin asked.
“Just as soon as my father comes. He wants to see you all die for your crimes.”
“Your father?” Lorin repeated.
“Yes. Well, not my natural father. Chancellor Lai raised me as his son. He was very good to me, so when rumors of a conspiracy against him led by this so called Liberator began to circulate I asked my father how I could help stop him. He said I should find this Liberator and join his cause.”
“Leek thought you might be a traitor,” Luci said. “But Sgt. Baig vouched for you.”
“Yes, well Sgt. Baig’s a fool. He thought we didn’t know of his treasonous intentions, but we did, so we told him what we wanted the Liberator to believe.”
“What I don’t understand,” Lorin said. “is why you didn’t contact your father and give him our position. Had he known where LB1 was located the TGA could have destroyed us before the attack on Lortec.”
“My father loves me. He would not blow up the Island while I was on it, even though he probably should have for the good of Tarizon. But, I think he’ll be glad he didn’t, since I have captured the Councillor’s daughter, a traitorous general, and the Liberator’s mate?”
“You won’t get away with this,”Lorin said desperately. “Our plane was being tracked. Our soldiers will be here soon to rescue us.”
Lt. Cystrom laughed. “Sorry to crush your hopes but both your escorts were destroyed and there’s no rescue party on their way here to save you. Nobody knows where you are and there’s no one close enough to pick up the signal from your plane’s E-box. So, just as soon as Videl gets here you will die. You will all die for your treason to the people of Tarizon!”