Chapter 56
URSULA PICKED HERSELF up off the floor and spat blood.
Jäger laughed. “What’s the matter, slave?”
He jabbed his blade out. She parried it. He caught her across the
cheek a second time, sending her clattering into the wall, shoulder first.
Her blade dropped to the floor. She went to reach down. Jäger
slammed her back against the wall. His hands at her throat. His blade poised.
“Not so talkative now, slave. Where’s that wit now?”
He squeezed harder.
Her fingertips tingled.
“When will you slaves learn your place?”
Ursula spluttered. Her lungs burned.
“What was that?” He loosened his hold. “You want to apologize, beg
for me to take pity?”
“Never.” She gasped in a breath. Her vision darkened.
“What?” Jäger scowled. He squeezed harder.
“No . . . one . . . slave.” She gripped his hand. Hers were so
heavy.
Jäger laughed in her face. “What was that? I didn’t quite hear
you.”
A roaring sound filled her ears. Her hand fell from his. She
fumbled to her back. Strained to reach. “No . . . Sla . . . ve . . . Fr . . .
ee.”
Nearly there. So close.
His eyes bored into hers. “What did you say?” He stopped and
turned, distracted by the sound. “What the—?”
Got it.
Click.
Jäger met her eyes, his widened.
“I’m no one’s slave. I’m free, you son-of-a-bitch.” She pulled the
trigger.
Bam.
Jäger stared down at his stomach. He stumbled backward. She
dropped to her knees. She tucked her pistol and blade away. She held out her
hand. Aeron roared toward them on the most beautiful dirt bike she had ever
seen. She gripped hold of Aeron’s waist as she roared by and whipped around
onto the back.
“Helmet’s behind you.”
Ursula rammed the helmet on. They smashed through the main doors
out onto the gravel. The bike obeyed like it had been made for Aeron. One
powerful leg steadied it as she slid the bike around. Gunfire pinged off the
gravel beside them.
Full alert.
Ursula reached into her pocket and hit the button. Flames plumed
up from Sawyer’s building.
Aeron roared them down the driveway.
“Renee, you copy?” Ursula sighed. The link had been battered. She
pressed the switch in her helmet. Static filled her earpiece.
“Flash twice when you reach the airfield.”
Ping.
A bullet dinked off the guard hut at the gate as they whipped
past.
Ping.
Ping.
“They can shoot some, huh?” Aeron grunted as they roared blind
down the dust-fogged road.
“Just keep driving.” She glanced over her shoulder. The gunfire
faded. “Jäger had a vest on. They won’t be far behind.”
“I thought you took the cars out?”
Ursula winced at the static. “Not the academy. The buyers still
had phones.”
“Bummer.” Aeron grunted as the wind bounced them all over the
road.
“My thoughts exactly. Now drive.”
RENEE LOCKED THE doors, hoping to keep the kids calm as they sat
in the darkness. The plane was on approach. Her radio was silent and she’d left
Aeron and Frei back at the academy. Her heart screamed at her to go and find
them. Her logic told her to be calm. Wait. Do her job.
Aeron was right. She trusted that Aeron could do her job. Let her
do her job.
Renee looked behind her in the bus. Jed held his sister and
Miranda close. Every kid was terrified. She was terrified. The plane sank down.
The pale light of the moon bathed each face. The dust had settled. Her heart
was anything but. Miroslav gripped hold of Jessie. Ty, Jane, Ryan, Ian, and
Leigh-Anne all huddled together. Renee checked her pistol. Checked her radio.
“I don’t see Miss Samson,” Ryan mumbled. “They’ll be here, won’t
they?”
The plane glided, graceful like a swan. Landing gear out. It
touched down. The roar of the airbrake. What could she say?
“They’ll be here.”
Renee stared at the entrance.
No sign of them.
The plane pulled to a stop. The CIG plane. Relief warred with
worry.
“I hope Miss Locks is okay,” Jessie whispered. “Jäger is mean.”
Miroslav pulled her closer. “She’s a hero. She has Aeron with
her.”
Jessie nodded up at him.
Renee tried to take comfort from his words.
The plane’s door opened. Steps folded out from the side. Ewan
emerged, gun at the ready, with the other CIG agents. One half of the team
anyhow. The other half would be waiting to head into Caprock.
“Are they your team, Professor Worthington?” Jed asked. His voice
was clear, strong but she could feel how terrified he was.
“Yes.” They would need to be fast. Get the kids on board and
take-off. “Just call me Renee.”
Jed smiled and Miranda shook her head at him.
Renee glanced back at the horizon. “Come on . . . hurry up, hurry
up.”
Ewan tapped on the door. “Clear.”
CIG agents started hauling the luggage from the bus into the hold
of the plane.
Renee opened up the door and nodded to Jed. “Let’s get you to
safety.”
The kids got up in rows. Renee watched them off. Miroslav being
helped by a couple of agents.
“Where are the others?” Ewan asked.
Renee bit her lip. Jed turned at his question to watch her. She
forced herself to smile. “They’ll be here.”
Ewan’s eyes glinted with concern. “Lilia has a team ready to move
into the academy as soon as they get the signal from Frei.”
Renee nodded. “Just get ready for take-off.”
Jed lingered. The students, even those not in Aeron’s group,
looked to her. “They’ll be here. Go on.”
She glanced at the horizon once more. They needed to hurry.
Her heart wouldn’t quiet. She sighed. She couldn’t leave them
behind. She didn’t have it in her. “There a chopper close by?”
Ewan nodded. “Bravo team is going to circle the area.”
“Call them in.”
He frowned. “That’s not—”
“Do it.”
Ewan saluted and hurried off. Jed broke out in a grin. The
students nodded their support to her.
Renee bit her lip. Bravo team would have weapons. They may need
them.
I DIDN’T MUCH like driving in the dust so I was glad when the air
cleared like the storm had blown itself out. It was hard to keep my balance and
even harder to see where the road lay. A couple of times Frei had given me a
heads up when I was about to stick us off the edge.
“There, on your right.”
I turned, obeying the crackly order in my ear, flashed twice at
the guys on the gate and drove us up the dirt road. The plane was already on
the ground. The engines whirring. I skidded the bike to a stop and hoisted Frei
off it. She slumped against me. I knew she was hurt, wobbly, and dazed but she
was alive.
Renee sprinted over to us. “You kiss a wall?”
Frei pulled off her helmet and staggered. I caught her. “She needs
to get seen. She’s got a concussion.”
Renee nodded. “Ewan, put Frei on the plane. Get them in the air.
Now. I’ll buy you time. Just get them to safety.”
I squinted up at the sky as a chopper roared into view.
Ewan saluted and looked to me. I shook my
head. Frei was headed to the base, sure, but I weren’t leaving Renee behind.
Never.
“Aeron—”
“I ain’t leaving you. Quit whining and show me how to get in the
stupid thing.”
CIG guys hurried up from the gate. The men from the chopper ran
over to us.
They handed Renee and I helmets and then ran up the steps and
boarded the plane. The doors shut and the plane started to move.
I glanced at Renee who set her jaw as I climbed into the chopper
and buckled myself in.
“Lorelei, Black, what are you doing?” Frei was slurring but she
was mad.
“Covering your ass,” Renee shot back. She eased us into the air.
“Hold on,” she whispered my way and flew us in the direction of a load of dust
getting kicked up.
We had a lot of company.
I looked back at the plane heading down the runway.
“It’s taxiing,” I called to her.
She pressed the stick in front of her and gunfire erupted from the
front of the chopper. It rattled my teeth.
We soared over as trucks and cars split apart with her assault.
One rolled.
Gunfire pulsed back our way.
Renee responded with another blast. She whipped us out of the way
as something loud weee-ed past my side.
“RPGs?” She scowled. “Two can play at that game.” She turned us.
My stomach lurched.
Something next to me fizzed, detached itself, and flew at them as
Renee swung us to the right.
Bam.
I held on. I could see the plane lifting off. “It’s nearly there.”
Renee pulled us around and fired at a truck heading in the plane’s
direction. The side of it buckled. She swept us left, away from the returning
gunfire.
“It’s up!” I shouted like I was excited, terrified, crazy, or
maybe all three. “It’s in the air.”
“We’re free of the ground, Black, now get out of there before any
more arrive.” Frei was slurring still but sounded half-ready to throttle us and
half relieved.
I met Renee’s eyes, and she grinned. “Let’s see how fast she can
fly.”
I grinned back, more because we were zooming
away
from the
angry ants on the ground. “I’m glad you’re having fun,” I mumbled, my insides
rolling.
“We just saved children, shut down a
trafficking school, and . . . I got to fire my guns.” She was smiling wider
than I’d seen in a while. “That’s a great day at the office.”
“You still had to wine and dine Owens,” I muttered. She needed
pickle juice thrown at her too.
“Sleeping draughts are a girl’s best friend.” She winked at me.
“And you should know she wasn’t my type anyway.”
“She wasn’t?” I was thankful that there were no more signs of
whooshing or crackling gunfire from below. I’d had enough excitement.
“You saw her guns . . . you
know
me. I like big guns.”
I could see a twinkle in her eyes and laughed as the light dinged
on in my head. “Yeah, her muscles were pathetic.”
“They have nothing on yours.” She laughed.
I gripped on as she swept us to change the flight path.
“I’m not quite sure if anyone could beat you,” she said with a
grin.
That made me smile from ear-to-ear. I didn’t know why, but I had
tears in my eyes too. I think all the excitement had made me smushy. “You think
so?”
She nodded. “Who else would love my cooking as
much as you?”
My stomach rumbled. Enough that we heard it over the rotor blade.
Renee chuckled and flashed me a smile. “You and that stomach of yours, Lorelei,
you and that stomach.”
Chapter 57
RENEE FLEW US to a military base and the personnel drove us to the
nearest town. When we got there I was pretty keen on breakfast ’cause I was now
running on fumes.
Renee checked us into a motel and we headed to the diner for
something to ease my grumbling stomach. I wasn’t sure what the waitress thought
of us. Renee was covered in a layer of dust, her shirt ripped to reveal a black
lace bra. Her knees were muddy and she had a purple cheek and dried blood on
her jaw.
I was in suit pants and a shirt, the sleeve on my arm had ripped
off at one point. One side of my boot had been scuffed beyond recognition.
The waitress seemed pretty unfazed and took our order. Either it
was too early for her to care or she’d seen a lot of weird folk.
“So what happens now?” I asked. I was sure CIG would have some
kind of protocol.
“While Ursula gets treated, the only thing left for us to do is to
make it back to base.” She studied her menu. “I thought we could head to
Oppidum.”
I didn’t know how far that was but it sounded like a road trip. I
loved the idea. I rubbed my hand over my face, stifling a yawn. “I meant with
the kids.”
Renee cricked her neck to the side and let out a sigh of relief
when it cracked. “They’ll get checked out in our medical facility and then
debriefed before being placed into a protection program.”
“Is that safe?”
Renee met my eyes. She looked pretty beat herself. “You think we’d
do it if it wasn’t?”
“What about Miroslav?” I was worried about him. “What if they all
get separated?”
“They won’t.” She reached across the table and took my hand.
“They’ll be just fine now.”
I picked up my menu and keys clattered onto the work top. “Hey,
somebody must have left them.” I motioned to the waitress. “These ain’t ours.”
“Sure they are.” The lady looked at me like I was dumb. “Some guy
in a suit dropped them off and said they were for a giant and dusty.” She gave
us a cheeky smile. “You two fit that and then some.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Renee looked dusty to the point she
was three shades darker all over.
“Aeron, how do you cope with feeling so much all the time?” Renee
rubbed a hand over her brow. “The waitress has aching feet. My feet hurt enough
by themselves without me having her pain too.”
I smiled at the lady as she delivered our food. “Sometimes if you
don’t block it out, it gets overwhelming. You can be a bit . . . unstable
then.”
“So how do you?”
I leaned over and clasped the necklace glinting at me in the
morning sun. “Armor. It kinda helps if you believe.”
“I do . . .” She bit her lip. “I mean . . . in theory . . .”
I could see her battling her logic as she watched me rub my thumb
over the necklace.
“Maybe a bit . . .”
She met my
eyes and sighed. “Sometimes . . . It’s not easy.”
I smiled. “Then you got to work on visualizing it.”
“Will you teach me?” She gave me a shy smile. “It’s just that I
have this because you helped me and I think it’s so I can learn how to see more
of what’s in front of me.”
Having Renee ask me to share something with her felt like a warm
hug after all the uncertainty I’d felt. “Sure you don’t mind sharing?”
She smiled. “With you, never . . . well . . . in theory.”
I chuckled and tucked into my bacon. “Good, ’cause I’d love to.”