“Because we don’t have time to look for it,” Spader answered quickly. “Less talking and more climbing, please.”
“Don’t climb directly under me,” Courtney warned. “Just in case.”
Spader knew what she meant. If she fell, there was a good chance she’d knock him off the face too.
“That’s three rules,” Spader said. “Now you’re getting bossy.” He stayed right under her. If she fell, he was going to do his best to save her . . . and the tank of antidote on her back.
• • •
“We’ve still got a shot,” Kasha said.
She dropped the gig so quickly, Bobby felt as if they were in a free fall. She clutched the joystick. Her eyes locked on her prey. The yellow gig was flying low over the lake, lining up for its killer run at the gars. Without the use of its side rotors, the yellow gig flew slowly. Kasha nosed their gig down and picked up even more speed. The force made the fragile craft shudder. Bobby nervously gripped the side of the cockpit, though he knew it was a worthless precaution.
“You can pull out of this dive, right?” he asked nervously.
“I think,” Kasha said. “I’ve never tried it before.”
Bobby swallowed hard.
Kasha continued, “The trickier part will be timing the drop. If we miss, we won’t get a second chance.”
“Then don’t miss,” Bobby said flatly.
Kasha gave him a quick sideways glance, then focused back on her quarry. The yellow gig with the poison was still over the lake, flying very low. The klee pilot kept looking back over his shoulder to see how close his pursuers were.
“If he dumps the poison at that level, he’ll kill thousands,” Bobby said.
“Hang on,” Kasha shouted.
She leveled out the gig, once again pushing them both back into their seats with the added g force. She jammed the throttle to its limit. They screamed over the lake, gaining quickly on the yellow gig. Bobby glanced down at Kasha’s furry hand on the joystick. It looked as if she were battling to keep it under control.
“Little more . . . little more . . .,” she coaxed.
The yellow gig was nearing the shore. In seconds it would be over land, and soon after, it would be in range of the gars.
“See that lever below the console?” Kasha asked between gritted teeth.
Bobby looked to see a dark, curved lever sticking up from the floor.
“Yeah,” Bobby answered.
“When I say pull . . . pull.”
Bobby reached down and grabbed hold. “Got it,” he said.
The klee in the yellow gig was focused on his deadly mission. Bobby glanced ahead to see they were getting so close to the gars, he could see their faces. He knew that in a few seconds, they could all be dead. Kasha pushed the joystick forward. The last bit of speed put them directly over the klee’s gig.
“Pull!” Kasha yelled.
Bobby yanked the handle and heard what sounded like a clatter of metal, followed by a horrifying, wrenching sound. Kasha pulled back on the stick and they climbed quickly. Bobby struggled against the force of the climb to turn around to see if they were on target.
They were. The rotors of the yellow gig were torn apart by the pile of tools that landed directly on them.
“Bull’s-eye!” Bobby shouted.
The net got wound up and caused two of the rotors to seize. It wasn’t total destruction, but enough to make the gig about as flight worthy as a watermelon. The klee struggled out of the cockpit and leapt for his life. Bobby figured he didn’t want to be anywhere near the spot where the poison landed. The klee plummeted straight down as the gig sailed forward. The klee hit the water first. Bobby saw him go under, then surface and swim frantically for shore. A few seconds later the gig splashed down. The damaged rotors continued to turn, frothing up the water like an outboard motor. The craft quickly flipped on its side and sank.
Kasha and Bobby sailed over the startled gars, who pointed up at them like they were some kind of prehistoric flying beast. The happy gars had no idea their journey had nearly ended in death. Kasha banked around and flew back over the spot where the gig sank. The only sign of it were the gentle ripples that spread out across the lake.
“Do you think the tank ruptured?” Bobby asked.
“Maybe not,” Kasha answered. “They’re pretty strong.”
Bobby finally took a deep, relieved breath and said, “You’re good.”
Kasha gave him a smug smile. “Do you think it’s over?” she asked. “Was that Saint Dane’s play?”
Bobby thought long and hard about the answer. “It could be,” he said. “But whenever I think Saint Dane is done, he isn’t.”
“So what should we do?” Kasha asked. “Back to Leeandra?”
“He’s still got nine tanks of that poison,” Bobby said somberly. “Back to Leeandra.”
Kasha banked the gig and set a course back to the jungle city.
“Let’s hope we don’t have to go through that nine more times,” she said as she gunned the throttle.
• • •
Mark was taking a crash course in learning how to ride a zenzen . . . self-taught. After struggling to figure out how to steer the animal and nearly hitting into more than one tree, he finally got the knack. It helped that the zenzen was too exhausted to put up much of a fight. Between riding in circles for a while, and not being sure of where he was in the first place, it took Mark a good half hour to find his way back to where they had been ambushed by the tang.
The only sign of the attack was a shredded piece of cloth lying on the jungle floor. There was no Gunny and no Boon. Mark sat on the zenzen, feeling more alone than he had felt in his entire life.
“This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be,” he said to himself.
Mark had dozens of different fantasies about what it would be like joining Bobby in the fight against Saint Dane. None of them involved being left alone, lost, fearing that Courtney was dead, with the last hope for saving a territory strapped to his back. As he sat on the zenzen, he truly didn’t know what he was going to do. He came dangerously close to crying.
That’s when he heard a sound. It had been there before; he just hadn’t registered it. It was a steady, white noise kind of sound. Mark looked to where it was coming from to see the top of a waterfall rising above the trees. The waterfall. Second from the right. Mark took a deep breath and blew it out to calm himself. He took hold of the reins and gave the zenzen a kick. Using his newly found expertise, he directed the animal to carry him on the final leg of his journey.
To Black Water.
EELONG
(CONTINUED)
Kasha and Bobby were cruising high over the jungle, headed back toward Leeandra when Kasha spotted something far in the distance, just above the horizon.
“Do you see that?” she asked.
Bobby strained to look and saw what appeared to be a dark line in the sky running parallel to the ground, headed toward them.
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Birds, maybe,” Kasha answered. “We’ll fly above it.” She pulled back on the control stick and the gig ascended quickly.
The dark line moved steadily forward. Kasha flew high above to make sure there was no danger of a collision. They both strained to look down at the mysterious line as it drew closer, trying to recognize what it might be.
“Could be a flock of rookers,” Kasha said. “But they look bigger than . . . uh-oh . . .”
“What uh-oh?” Bobby asked quickly.
“Those aren’t birds.”
They were close enough to the mysterious line to see that it wasn’t a straight line at all. It was a formation of gigs, with one in the lead and the others fanning out like an arrow behind it. They flew with military precision, equally spaced. As Bobby and Kasha flew high over them, they counted nine gigs. Light from the sunbelt reflected off the golden tanks that were attached to the front of each.
“Oh man,” Bobby said, stunned.
“Nine,” Kash
a said. “That’s not a good number.”
“It’s a bombing run,” Bobby uttered. “They’re going to unload on Black Water.”
“Pendragon, I can’t knock nine gigs out of the sky!”
Bobby thought fast. “Can we beat them to Black Water?” he asked.
“I think,” Kasha replied. “They’re loaded, so they’re flying pretty slow.”
“Then we gotta get there,” Bobby exclaimed.
“And do what?” Kasha asked.
“We’ve got to make sure the others get there with the antidote,” Bobby answered.
“I’m not sure how, but . . . okay,” Kasha said. She banked the gig into a one-eighty and set them on a course to Black Water.
• • •
Mark walked his zenzen toward the base of the towering waterfall, stopping close enough to feel the spray on his face. He was exhausted and sore and more than a little bit scared as he swung his leg over the zenzen and dropped to the ground for the last time.
“Thanks, guy,” he said to the animal, and rubbed its head. “I’m not gonna miss you.”
He tried to remember Bobby’s description of how to enter the hidden portal to Black Water. Walking around the pool of water at the base of the falls, he scanned the surface, looking for the stepping stones below. He didn’t see anything, until he thought to shade his eyes from the bright sunbelt. Instantly he saw a faint outline under the water about the size of a pizza. He tentatively stepped on it, put his weight down, and didn’t get wet. He found the path. A few cautious steps later he found himself walking across the water, behind the waterfall, and into a cave.
“Welcome!” a voice shouted from the dark.
Mark nearly peed in his pants. He stood rock still, fighting the urge to turn and run as a shadowy figure walked toward him. It was a gar who was so genuinely thrilled to see Mark, he held his arms out wide and hugged him.
“You are the first!” the gar exclaimed. “Where did you come from?” The gar spoke slowly and clearly, as if talking to a child. Mark realized the guy was expecting a slew of gars who weren’t used to normal conversation. He decided not to freak the gar out, so he spoke slowly and simply, pretending to have trouble finding the words.
“Uh, thank you,” Mark said slowly. “Need help. Must see Aron.”
The gar gave him a surprised look. “Aron? How could you know Aron?”
Mark had the answer, but didn’t want to give it. “Must see Aron,” he repeated.
The gar looked at Mark’s clothing and frowned. He was expecting the incoming gars to be wearing rags, not slick-looking swimskins.
“Please!” Mark begged. “Important!”
The gar nodded. “All right, come with me,” he said.
Score. Mark was on his way.
• • •
Courtney crested the summit of the rocky cliff and collapsed in exhaustion. Her arms were screaming from the exertion. Her hands had long ago gone numb from the constant climbing, and her legs were cramped, but she had made it. Spader followed soon after and fell down beside her.
“I suppose I should have offered to take the tank,” he said.
“Why?” Courtney asked. “Don’t you think I’m capable?”
“No, no,” Spader assured her. “Just thought it might be polite.”
The two sat together, catching their breaths.
“So you’ve got a thing for Pendragon, aye?” Spader asked.
Courtney shot Spader a look and said, “That’s a strange thing to ask now.”
Spader shrugged and said, “Just staying loose.”
Courtney said, “Define a ‘thing.’”
“Weren’t you two all lovey-do before Pendragon became a Traveler?”
“If you mean do we like each other, yes,” Courtney said. She thought for a moment and asked, “Does he talk about me?”
“All the time. He thinks you’re natty. I can see why.”
Courtney looked closely at Spader. She thought he looked pretty handsome sitting there in his black swimskin with no sleeves, his long dark hair blowing around in the wind. She shook the thought away. “Seems to me he’s got a thing for that other Traveler girl,” Courtney said coyly. “What’s her name? Oh, yeah. Loor.”
“Define a ‘thing,’” Spader said.
Courtney answered with a coy smile.
“Couldn’t say one way or the other,” Spader answered. “But if you ask me, he’d be crazy to bother with anybody else if he’s got a girl as spiff as you. I mean, you risked your life to help him. That’s special, it is.”
Courtney shrugged. “You’ve helped him more than once yourself.”
“And the other way ‘round. But that’s my job, being a Traveler and all.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not here just for Bobby. I kind of wouldn’t mind if Saint Dane were stopped before messing around with Second Earth.”
“I hear you, mate,” Spader said, and stood up. “Let’s get back on that.”
He looked in the direction they needed to go. Ahead was a long, flat mountaintop that could pass for the surface of the moon. It was barren and scattered with huge boulders.
Courtney said, “There could be tangs hiding behind any one of those rocks.”
“I suppose,” Spader answered. “But they’d have to be pretty desperate to be looking for food up here. I’ve got no worries.”
“Good,” Courtney said with a smile. “Then you go first.”
Spader gave her a wink, and started on his way.
• • •
Kasha and Bobby flew low over the barren valley on the last leg of their flight to Black Water. The idea was to keep a watchful eye out for Gunny and the others, in case they had run into trouble and needed help transporting the antidote. Every second was precious. They were able to fly much faster than the squadron of killer gigs and would arrive long before they made their lethal bombing run. The question was, would it be enough time to save the gar village? They were rapidly approaching the mountain range. Kasha took a quick look up to the sky to get her bearings.
“We’ve got a problem,” she announced.
Bobby didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “What do you mean?”
“I told you how the gigs are powered by the crystals, right?”
“Right.”
“I also told you the crystals couldn’t store power. They need constant light.”
Bobby took another look at the sky. The problem suddenly came clear. Thick, gray storm clouds formed a line across the sky. It was moving toward the sunbelt.
“Are you serious?” Bobby exclaimed. “What happens when the clouds cover the sunbelt?”
“First we lose light,” Kasha said. “Then we lose power.”
Bobby glanced ahead to the mountain range. It suddenly looked a lot farther away than it had a few seconds before.
“Can we make it?” he asked.
Kasha gunned the throttle. “We’re going to try.”
• • •
Mark was led by the gar through the tunnel into Black Water. After having read Bobby’s description of the village, he felt as if he knew the place. Still, seeing it firsthand was an incredible experience. He was brought to the vast building that was called the Center. The whole way he kept his eyes down, hoping that his gar guide wouldn’t ask him any questions. All he wanted to do was get to Aron and tell him what danger the village was in, so they could figure out how to use the antidote he had strapped to his back. The gar guide brought Mark into a giant room that was full of empty cots. Bobby had described this room. It was where many of the gars would spend their first night of freedom.
“Wait here,” the gar instructed. “I’ll get Aron.”
“Thank you,” Mark said, and sat on a cot. It was like heaven to finally get the chance to rest. He started to take off his harness with the tank, but decided against it. He wasn’t there to chill and get comfy. This was business. A few minutes later a door opened on the far side of the room. The gar had returned, along with another gar. Th
is new gar was short, with long black hair that fell to his shoulders and no trace of a beard—Bobby’s description of Aron.
“Hello,” the gar said. “I am Aron. How is it that you know me?”
Mark debated with himself about how honest to be. He quickly decided the time for being cagey was over.
“My n-name is Mark Dimond,” Mark began. “I’m a friend of Gunny’s.”
Aron and the other gar straightened up. Mark wasn’t sure if it was because he had mentioned Gunny’s name, or because they were surprised to hear a gar from the outside speak so fluently.
“You know him, right?” Mark asked.
Aron nodded tentatively.
“G-Gunny and me and some others were attacked by tangs, and I don’t know where anybody is now. There was a rockslide in the crevice leading into the mountains, and it’s totally blocked off. You’ve got to send some gars out there to clear it, or nobody’s gonna get through.”
Aron gave the other gar a quick look, and a nod. The gar hurried off. Hopefully, Mark thought, to get somebody on the job of clearing out the crevice.
“This is why you had to see me?” Aron asked.
“There’s more,” Mark answered. “Black Water is in danger. Big-time. The klees are going to attack as soon as the gars from the outside arrive.”
“We are prepared for that,” Aron said. “Black Water is well protected.”
“N-Not from this kind of attack, it isn’t! They’re going to unload a bunch of poison that will kill every living thing in Black Water.” Mark pulled off his tank and held it out to Aron. “But the chemical in this tank can stop it. We’ve come all this way to bring it to you and help you save Black Water.”
Aron looked at the tank curiously. Mark wished he could think of a better way to describe the danger to him. If he couldn’t convince Aron, Black Water was doomed.
“Gunny knows about this?” Aron asked.
“Yes, and two other friends of mine, and a klee.”
On hearing the word “klee,” Aron perked up.
“You brought a klee to Black Water?” he asked.
“Yes. His name’s Boon. He’s a friend. Gunny would tell you the same thing, but I don’t know where he is. I don’t know where anybody is! Please, I’m telling you the truth. We’ve g-got to figure out a way to use this antidote.”