MiNRS (17 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Trap

Fatima went to fetch the
drivers. I told her not to call Therese. I was certain she was innocent, and the fewer diggers involved, the better for our plan. I stayed behind in the garage and leaned against my machine. My heart pounded against my ribs. I needed to calm down.

For our plan to work, I needed to look composed, not suspicious. I focused on the pain in my shoulder. It stung every time I moved my arm too quickly.

I heard footsteps approaching and stood up straight, nodding at everyone as they walked past me and took their positions by their machines.

“There’s been a change of plans,” I said. “Instead of moving right away, we are going to drive ahead to scout
out a new location. Then we will come back for the supplies.”

Jimmi looked at me, confused. “I thought you said there was a danger of a cave-in?”

I shook my head. “No. That was a lie. I needed Darcy and Alek, and maybe even Maria, to buy into the move without panicking. The truth is”—I paused and took a breath—“the truth is that the Landers have been tracking us.”

I raised my hands to calm the ensuing racket.

“We don’t have time to go over all the details. I hate to tell you this, but Finn was killed in an ambush and I know how it was done.”

I’d been hoping someone in the room would look scared or guilty at this point, but they all just looked angry. And so I had to go on to the next, trickier part of the plan.

“How was it done?” Pavel yelled. Did he look scared? Guilty?

I lied again.

“I believe the Landers were tracking us using the warning signals the grinders use. They send out an echolocation blip that gets answered back. The Landers were picking that up and were able to follow us with pinpoint accuracy.”

A lump rose in my throat, but I continued.

“The sensors are activated each time a digger is turned on. So the Landers could also use it to find us here. That’s why we need to move.”

Pavel slammed his fist against his digger. “The grinders must have known that! They’ve been working with the Landers!”

“I don’t think so, but it is a reason to scout a location for the camp without them. A location that we haven’t discussed before.”

There were some nods.

“Can’t they just track us again?” Mandeep asked.

Now we got to the meat of the plan, and the meat of my lie.

“No. I’ve gone through and disconnected all the sensors in the diggers.”

“How do we know where to go?” Pavel asked.

“We’ll be traveling through tunnels on the tracks, no disrupter. There are four of us. Each will go in a separate direction, one per tunnel. Then alternate right and left side-tunnels until you find a good location.”

They looked at me blankly. “I know it’s confusing. I’ve plotted the sequence into your guidance systems. It’s a closed system, so it doesn’t send a signal; it just puts a numerical sequence on your screen. When it says
third left, you take the third left and so on. It will also guide you back.”

“Why not go together?” Jimmi asked.

“This way we can cover way more ground. Each of us will be looking for a location where we can easily set up a camp, sleeping quarters, infirmary . . . all the stuff we have here. One hour out, one hour back. That should give us a new home far enough from here.”

There were some grumbles but mostly nods. They’d bought into the plan. Now to set the final piece of the trap.

“Maintain radio silence at all times. Keep your cameras on and be incredibly precise about following the variations on the screen. Is that clear?”

More nods, no grumbles.

“Good, then fire up your diggers, and good luck.”

One by one we got in and began to drive away. I followed slowly, dropping back bit by bit until I was sure they couldn’t see me. Then I turned on my disrupter and headed into the wall, navigating a path in the rock parallel to the other diggers.

I flicked on my screen. Three red beeps appeared to my left, moving in unison toward the intersection. We reached it in a few seconds, and then they separated.

I waited for a minute and then broke through into
the main tunnel. The red beeps grew brighter without the interference of the rock, and I watched as the diggers began to alternate their turns.

So far, so good. The sensors Fatima had placed in each digger were coming through loud and clear, and none of the drivers were doing anything weird.

Then one of the blips veered off course and dimmed.

One of the diggers had cut into the rock and was heading to the surface.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Surfacing

I fired up my digger
and was off like a shot. Whoever it was had waited just long enough to get clear of the others and then had sprinted for the surface.

Elena was still missing, as far as I knew, but there was no warning signal in her digger, so this couldn’t be her. I actually shook with the sense of relief.

The rogue digger was heading up slowly, on an angle away from the camp and toward the surface near the Landers’ base. I figured whoever it was, he or she was making sure to be as quiet as possible in case the vibrations could be picked up.

That gave me a short window to act.

I gunned my engine and charted a path a mile or
so ahead of the red beep. I flew in front of the digger’s path and cut a hole at a ninety-degree angle across the trajectory. I crisscrossed it again and again, leaving just a thin layer of rock between the different cuts. Then I tore down that wall with my borer. The end result was a giant air pocket, big enough to shut down the disrupter on the traitor’s digger, lying directly in its path.

I turned off my engine and waited in the darkness. I didn’t want to think about who it could be. I’d know soon enough.

Elena was innocent. Or was she? What if the traitor wasn’t acting alone? What if Elena was a partner? No. Definitely not. I was convinced of Fatima’s innocence, and she was convinced of Elena’s. If only I felt the same connection to Elena that I’d felt before the Blackout.

Then another thought hit me. What if the traitor were working with Fatima and she’d now set me up?

The warning sensor starting blinking again. The digger was getting closer. I reached back behind my seat and grabbed a wrench. Then I flipped open the hatch, stepped outside, flicked off my headlamp, and waited.

I heard a loud buzzing and humming sound. It traveled from my toes to my feet and then my legs as the rock around me vibrated to the disrupter. I took a step backward. I didn’t want to be close to the blistering nose cone
of the digger, especially not before the sensor turned it off.

The vibrations actually grew calmer as the digger approached the air pocket. Then there was a flash of brilliant blue and a loud pop as the air around the cone exploded. It stung my eyes.
Idiot
. I realized how dumb I was to wait in the pitch black, leaving my eyes unprepared for the sudden brightness.

I heard the digger screech to a halt as the disrupter shut off.

The borer continued to spin, and the driver tried to go on through the other side. He or she hadn’t seen me. I only had a short time before the border dug in deeply enough to reignite the disrupter.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the light, and I walked forward, the wrench raised. The glow of the panel illuminated the face of the driver, the traitor.

Jimmi.

He didn’t see me yet; he was concentrating on trying to cut through the wall.

I walked back to his engine block. It only took me a few seconds to loosen the two bolts I’d left intact to keep the hood closed. I reached in and yanked the power line, and the digger shut off.

I flicked on my headlamp and walked back to the cockpit.

I smashed the wrench down on the hatch.

Jimmi turned to face me, his eyes wide with panic.

“Get out!” I yelled.

He shook his head.

Coward,
I thought.

I got back in my digger and fired up the drill. I aimed it straight at Jimmi and gunned the engine.

He raised his hands in front of his face as my digger flew at him.

At the last second I slammed on my brakes. The end of the bit spun menacingly an inch away from the hull.

Jimmi lowered his hands. His eyes were still wide, and he was shaking.

“Get out!”

He nodded and opened his latch.

I turned off my digger and got out again, still holding the wrench.

“Hands on your head,” I said. I didn’t know if the Landers had given him any weapons, and I didn’t want to find out.

Jimmi put his hands on his head.

“Now, on your knees,” I said.

Jimmi got down on his knees.

“I didn’t mean for Finn to get killed,” he said, sobbing. “They wanted to capture him, capture you. It
must have been an accident. It was, wasn’t it?”

I didn’t say anything. Jimmi wanted to believe the Landers were his friends? I’d let him, for now. I kept the wrench ready in case he tried to escape.

“They said they would let us live if we’d stop attacking them.”

“And you believed them?” I said. “When did they tell you this?”

“The first day I was on lookout duty. I turned on my radio. I was bored. I flipped through the frequencies, and I heard them talking.” He began to sob. “Christopher . . . I heard the voice of my father.”

I lowered the wrench, shocked. “Your father?”

Jimmi nodded. “He was being ordered to talk over their radio, tell the Landers where the different ores were stored. He was alive!”

“So you tried to see him?”

“Not at first. I couldn’t believe it was true. But the next time I was on lookout duty, I heard his voice again. He was so weak, but I knew it was him.”

“What happened?”

“That day, when I was supposed to take the pictures, I wanted to see him so badly, and then Elena gave me a perfect excuse. I broke through the surface, and they started firing at me.”

“And you agreed to betray us to save your life.” I was so angry, I raised the wrench again, ready to strike.

He shook his head, more tears flowing. “No. It wasn’t like that.”

“How else could it be?”

He was now full-out sobbing. “They let me see him. He was in a cell, but he was alive. Then they said if I didn’t help them, they’d kill him.” He fell to the floor, his chest heaving uncontrollably.

My hand faltered. A few seconds before, I’d been looking at a spy, a traitor, a murderer. Now I saw myself. A kid. A kid whose father had been taken away from him, and then offered back. What would I have done? Would I have cooperated?

“Were there other survivors?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. My father was in a cell, alone. He was so beat-up, burned. But he recognized me! He told me he loved me. Then they dragged me away and told me they just wanted us to stop attacking until they were done. Then they said they’d let us all live.” He began crying again.

“Did you work alone?”

Jimmi nodded. “I gave them our radio frequency. I snuck away to my digger two nights ago and radioed them the plans for the attack, and about the radiation
bomb. That was all I told them. I didn’t say where the camp was or anything else.”

I ran my hand over my face. Now what was I supposed to do? The Landers had obviously lied to him. Maybe it wasn’t even his real father. Maybe it was. Maybe he’d wanted to believe so much that he convinced himself they were telling the truth.

Jimmi stared at me. He got back on his knees. “I’m so sorry, Christopher. Are you going to kill me?”

I held the wrench limply at my side. “No.”

He stared at me, wiping tears and snot on his sleeve. “Thank you, thank you.”

“Go join the Landers. Go be with your father.”

I could hear both Elena’s and Fatima’s voices in my head, as well as Pavel’s, yelling at me.
What are you doing? He’s going to betray us again! He’ll tell them everything! You’re giving them a digger!
I ignored the voices.

“I’m going to dismantle your disrupter first,” I said. “You can tell them it was damaged.”

Jimmi started to stand up, nodding. “Okay, okay. Thank you, Christopher.”

“Go stand over there, facing the wall, and put your hands back on your head.” I motioned with the wrench. Jimmi nodded and walked over.

I opened up the nose cone quickly and took out
the disrupter’s power source and drive mechanism. I doubted the Landers had the technology here on Perses to replicate a digger, but I wasn’t going to leave them anything they could use to try.

Jimmi stayed as still as stone, facing the wall. He’d stopped crying, but he hadn’t stopped shaking.

“One more minute,” I said. He nodded but didn’t turn around.

I took a seat in Jimmi’s digger and deleted all the data from the locator. I was about to tear out the radio, but then I stopped. Instead I changed the frequency.

Then I got out.

“Jimmi. It’s time to go.”

He turned around, white as a ghost, shivering as if he had a fever.

He took a step toward me and looked like he was going to shake my hand or maybe even hug me. I refused.

“No,” I said. “You didn’t see what they did to Finn.”

He lowered his head. “It had to be an accident,” he said to himself under his breath.

I pointed at the cockpit. “Get in.”

Jimmi was breathing quickly. He took his seat and strapped himself in. “I won’t tell them anything.”

I put my hand up and stopped him from lowering the hatch.

“You’re right. What you’re going to do is tell me everything you see.”

Jimmi started. “What? How?”

I pointed to his radio.

He shook again. “No, they’ll hear me, they’ll kill me. They’ll know!”

“No, they won’t. I changed the frequency of the radios. You’ll only be talking to me, and you are going to tell me everything you see. Every detail. How many people you see. Where the ship is. Keep talking until you have to get out, then shut off the radio. Do you understand?”

Jimmi nodded.

I let go of the hatch, and Jimmi lowered and locked it. He turned on the digger and waited. I got in my digger and switched on the radio. “Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” Jimmi said.

“Good. I’ll go ahead and use my disrupter to burn a hole. I’ll stop right before the surface, and you will dig the rest of the way.”

“Okay.”

I stopped my digger just below the ground and then reversed. I watched as Jimmi passed me and headed for the surface. He didn’t turn to look, but he started talking.

“I can see the surface. I’m breaking through. There’s light.”

I turned off my microphone and listened.

“Okay, there’s no one around. I’m going to level out.

“I’m not far from the ship. It’s a big ship, the one that attacked us. There’s just one. I don’t see any guards around, but there are a lot of small vehicles, kind of like little tanks. They are carrying containers and are in a circle around the base of the ship.

“Okay, I’m on the level ground now. Turning off my borer. I can see a few larger container vehicles way off to my right. You said be specific, so I’d say two hundred yards directly to my right. They seem to be moving toward the ship, so away from the storage area. They must have built a new road, or are just going off road. There is a lot of dust.

“I don’t see any lights on in the other buildings, but it’s bright out. A lot of the buildings are badly blasted, like they’ve been bombed.

“Okay, I’m now about a hundred yards from the ship and am slowing down. It’s straight ahead. I’m opening my hatch and waving so I might get quieter.”

I could hear Jimmi’s clothes rustling as he probably stood up and began waving. Then he yelled to the Landers. “They found out! I need help!”

I heard him sit back down. He began to whisper.

“Christopher. I’m not sure how much time I have before I have to stop talking. The ship is huge. It’s right
in the middle of the landing pad. It’s resting on legs, and the hull is only about a yard or so off the ground. I still don’t see anyone walking around . . . Wait, the gangplank is lowering. I’m about fifty yards away, so I’m going to stop. There are about five, no, ten Landers coming down.

“They’re carrying something, a bag? Maybe a . . .”

There was a long silence, and I heard Jimmi gasp. When he spoke again, his voice was shaking even more than before.

“It’s my father. Oh my g—Christopher, it’s my father. They’re dragging him down the gangplank. He’s not moving, he’s . . . no, no, no . . . They lied. Christopher, they lied. . . .”

I could hear Jimmi pounding his fists against the console. It sounded like thunder in my cockpit. I turned my microphone on.

“Jimmi, Jimmi. You’ve got to get out of there!”

He didn’t answer me. Instead he cursed and pounded the console again. I heard his engine roar.

“Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

I couldn’t see, but I could tell he was driving straight for the Landers.

There were loud cracks and explosions, and then there was nothing.