Captured (The Prometheus Project Book 2) (9 page)

Ryan nodded. “That’s right.”

“So we’d have to go up against about the same number of soldiers to free Dad or to free the prisoners. But Dad is out in the open, making surprise almost impossible. The prisoners, on the other hand, are in a building that has a secret back-entrance the mercs don’t know about. And if we pull it off somehow, it should be easy to free Dad, because then we’ll have Carl and his men on our side.”

Ryan nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “You make a lot of sense. So do you have a plan for the rescue?”

“Come on, Ryan,” she said with a grin. “I’ve figured out
who
we should rescue. Just so you don’t feel left out, I’ll let you decide
how
we should do it.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“I don’t have any idea,” admitted Regan. “But I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out something.”

“Thanks,” said Ryan, rolling his eyes. “I appreciate the confidence,” he added miserably.

They tried for several minutes to come up with a rescue plan, but failed to think of any that would give them even a slight chance of success. Finally, they decided to go back to the alien school to see if they could activate the Teacher the way they had the first time. The Teacher had been restricted from helping them, or even speaking
with them, but surely in this situation the Qwervy would be willing to make an exception.

They made their way to the school building but were unable to activate the Teacher no matter what they tried. They were disappointed, but not entirely surprised.

They were also keenly aware that the clock was ticking.

They walked to a few solid cubes that were next to each other in the schoolroom and sat down. The instant they sat the cubes became liquid-like and surrounded their bodies in perfect comfort. They felt as if they were floating in warm water, only it was even more soothing, and they didn’t bob around or get wet.

“Remember when you sat down on one of these cubes our first day in this city?” said Ryan. “And how surprised you were they turned out to be chairs?”

“Yeah. How could I forget? It was right before we found the Teacher.”

Ryan nodded and thought back to that day. Their mother had been near death, the team had vanished, and they thought they might be trapped in the city forever. It had been hopeless. Almost as hopeless as their current situation. But they had never stopped fighting, even for an instant. They had never stopped thinking. They had never given up.

And they would not give up now, vowed Ryan. There had to be a way to rescue the captives.
Think
, he
ordered himself. He slapped the palm of his hand gently against his forehead several times in a futile effort to jump-start his brain.
Think!

He lowered his hand to a small table beside him in total frustration. He was getting nowhere.

But just a few seconds after his hand touched the table his eyes brightened and a smile came over his face. The answer was so simple he was embarrassed he had not thought of it sooner. But then again, answers always seemed obvious once you had found them.

“Regan,” he said, his voice more hopeful than it had been in some time now. “I have a plan. We just might be able to pull this off, after all.”

C
HAPTER
12
Globe Attack

R
egan crouched on one side of the hole that Major Manning had shot in the bright-orange ceramic wall. Carefully, she brought the razor-sharp, nine-inch knife she had retrieved from a supply cabinet sideways to her mouth. She clamped down on its blade with her teeth, with the sharp edge pointing away from her. Ryan did the same with an identical knife on the other side of the gap. They felt a slight tingle brushing at their brains, a residual trace of Tezoc’s telepathic mental energy still in the building.

“Ready?”
broadcast Ryan.

“Ready.”

They each carefully removed two fragile glass globes from a bag they had taken from the supply cabinet, holding one in each hand like a pair of giant softballs.

The glass globes had been on each of the tables in
the alien classroom. When Ryan had put his hand on the table he had spotted a globe and remembered the last time he had seen them. He had shattered one, causing the nanobots to swarm out from under the floor. At the time they had thought the tiny mechanics were alien insects intent on devouring them rather than a harmless repair crew.

Tezoc’s mercenaries were war-hardened soldiers, but Ryan had seen Carl’s reaction to the swarm when he hadn’t known they were harmless, and he was certain that the swarm would terrify even the bravest of men. All five mercs were now in the room. They must have felt so secure after Dan’s capture they were no longer even guarding the door.

“On three,”
broadcast Ryan. He took a deep breath and gripped the globes a bit tighter.
“One. Two. Three!”

They both stepped through the hole and lobbed their glass grenades in a high arc to different spots in the room. The instant their hands were free they removed the knives that were clamped between their teeth, ready to use them.

The four globes hit the floor one after another and exploded into fragments.

Reacting to the sudden sound of shattering glass around them, the mercs moved instantly, rolling away from the sound and coming up with their weapons at the ready. Finding no targets other than broken glass to
shoot at, they scanned the room rapidly, their feet and their weapons shifting along with their eyes.

The soldier closest to the siblings saw them immediately and rushed forward so quickly he had them in his sights, at point-blank range, before they were able to blink.

Major Manning snapped his fingers and pointed at the opening in the wall. Two men lined up on either side of it and plunged through, rifle-first, and then separated, walking rapidly in different directions through the corridor, their weapons pointing ahead of them and their fingers on the triggers. They reappeared about thirty seconds later. “All clear,” they reported.

Finally, the rapid-fire movements of the mercs stopped and the room became filled by an eerie silence.

One of the men crouched down and picked up a shard of glass, holding it up in front of his face and examining it carefully. He brought it to his nose and sniffed cautiously to determine if the globes had contained sleeping gas or any other substance that could prove dangerous. Detecting none, he looked up at his fellow soldiers and shook his head.

“Where did these kids come from?” demanded one of the soldiers. “How is it Tezoc didn’t know they were here? He gave the all clear. Maybe his telepathic powers aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.”

Ryan glanced over at the prisoners for the first time. They had recovered from their shock at the dramatic
appearance of the team’s two youngest members, and their eyes gleamed hopefully, all having guessed the kids’ plan. While their mother had guessed their plan as well, a tear was slowly sliding down her face and Ryan knew she was terrified for her children. She would have far preferred they stay away and protect themselves rather than try to be heroes.

The soldier holding them at gunpoint motioned with his head for them to move into the center of the room. Although their hands were raised in surrender, neither had let go of their knives. Their captor started laughing and shook his head at Regan in disbelief. “A knife, little girl?” he said mockingly. “You two were going up against us with some glass balls and a few
knives?”
he continued. “You have to be kidding me.”

“That is so cute,”
added another mercenary mockingly.

While four of the five men were laughing, one was decidedly not.

Major Manning maintained an expression that was deadly serious. Although short and thin, and still wearing a silly looking black ball-cap, Tezoc’s second in command radiated more menace than all of the other men combined.

“These aren’t just any kids, you idiots!” barked the major, his forceful voice cutting through the laughter like a knife. “These children are Ryan and Regan Resnick,”
he said icily. “And you would do well not to underestimate them.”

The laughter stopped immediately. The mercs knew that both Tezoc and Manning had spent long hours studying all Prometheus personnel. These two must be on the team. The Prometheus Project had resorted to recruiting kids. How
pathetic
. But what was even more pathetic was how seriously Major Manning was taking them.

And then, right on cue, the nanobots appeared!

They shot from the floor like black lava from a volcanic eruption. They each had six identical body segments and looked far fiercer and more deadly than the most savage collection of army ants. As they crossed pieces of the globe, the glass melted away under their gnashing jaws and ever-moving pincers. They continued pouring from the floor; a ravenous, unstoppable black wave of destruction.

The soldiers began to panic at what they thought was a deadly threat more horrible than any they had ever faced. They were in the soldiering business and were fully prepared to die, but not by having their flesh picked clean from their bones in seconds by thousands and thousands of razor-sharp teeth.

Ryan and Regan had been ready for this moment. With the appearance of the nanobots their captors forgot about them entirely. Ryan slid across the floor, completely
ignoring the tiny black machines, and stopped just behind Carl. Regan did the same, stopping behind Miguel. Using their knives, they immediately went to work on the prisoners’ plasticuffs, sawing away at the hardened plastic with all of their strength.

The mercenaries fired wildly into the swarm with no effect. The relentless insect army just kept coming, melting away every piece of glass in its path. After a few seconds, the shooting stopped as each soldier realized it was hopeless. They couldn’t possibly kill enough of these bugs to delay their advance for even an instant.

Panicked, the soldiers dropped their guns and began looking for an escape route.

Ryan continued to saw furiously through the plasticuffs around Carl’s wrists. In seconds Carl’s hands would be free, and while the intruders were panicked and distracted, Carl would have his choice of their abandoned weapons. While Regan wasn’t as strong as her brother, she was making great progress freeing Miguel.

The plan was working perfectly! Ryan was certain their victory was assured.

But then again, Ryan couldn’t have possibly predicted what was about to happen next.

C
HAPTER
13
Plan B

T
he nanobots began retreating!

Impossible. This had never happened before. But impossible or not, they began melting back into the floor with great speed, like oil pouring down a drain.

The mercenaries quickly regained their composure as the nanobot threat dissipated. In seconds the mercs had realized what the kids were up to and yanked them off the ground, effortlessly disarming them at the same time.

Two other mercs pulled zip-strips from their belts, and after two quick zipping sounds Carl and Miguel were bound as securely as they had been before the rescue attempt.

Ryan was furious!
How had this happened?

When the nanobots knew damage was being done
for experimental purposes, as when his father had cut holes in the orange ceramic wall, they would not emerge and they would not repair further damage to the object. This is why they didn’t repair the wall after Major Manning’s rifle shot had shattered a portion of it. But once they emerged—as long as they weren’t actively blocked from the object they were trying to repair—they had always finished the job. Why had they retreated halfway through? They had never done this before. Never! Ryan couldn’t believe it. His plan had been seconds away from success.

Even more unusual, about ten of the tiny mechanics had stopped dead in their tracks in the middle of the floor. What was going on?

Major Manning walked slowly to the motionless nanobots and knelt down. He picked up one of the tiny robots, held it up, and examined it. He then turned in disgust to his fellow soldiers.
“You men are pathetic,”
he roared. “You call yourselves professionals! These things were just here to repair the globes, you idiots. Am I the only one who remembered Tezoc’s briefing? Am I! Tezoc specifically warned us about this, remember? He told us that when something in the city is damaged it sends out a swarm of tiny robots to make repairs. Tezoc even told us they would look deadly but not to worry. Is this ringing a bell in any of your thick, worthless skulls?”

The expressions on the mercs’ faces made it clear
that they did now remember and were embarrassed by their reaction.

“This was their plan all along,” continued the major. “They counted on us all to panic while they went about freeing their people with those harmless knives you were laughing about,” he said in disgust. “The ones you were sure posed absolutely no threat to us. We were just lucky the bug-things decided to retreat when they did or the kids’ plan would have worked.”

Manning removed a small container from his pocket and scooped up the immobile nanobots in front of him. “I’ll show these to Tezoc later on,” he said, slipping the container back into his pocket.

He rose and walked over to the two kids. “Nice try,” he said sincerely. “You’re as capable as the information we have about you would suggest. I wish my men here had
half
your brains and courage.” He paused and leaned forward. “So tell me … how is it that Tezoc didn’t sense you in the city?” he asked with great interest.

Ryan shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he lied. “Maybe he can only sense adults.”

The major’s eyebrows came together in thought for just a moment, but then he shook his head ever so slightly, dismissing Ryan’s explanation. “Don’t worry,” he said, removing several black zip-strips to bind the newcomers and add them to his collection of prisoners. “I’m sure with a little experimentation, we’ll figure it out in no time.”