Cameron Stracher - The Water Wars

I hugged Ulysses and Will. Will gave me one last chance to change my mind, then made me promise I wouldn’t take any foolish risks.

“At least none you wouldn’t,” I said. Despite himself, he grinned back at me.

I stole one last look at the destabilizer, memorizing the location of the buttons, then I stepped from the hiding place out into the open. The guards turned to me in surprise, as if they had just seen a phantom.

“Kai!” I waved.

Sights raised, the guns bristled at me. I held my breath.

“Vera?” Kai’s face was as confused as the men’s around him.

The gun of the leading guard lowered slightly, and the man peered at me over his barrel. “Identify yourself!” he called.

“I’m a friend of Kai’s,” I said.

“The pirate’s daughter.” Torq pushed to the front of the group, his brown head glistening in the sun. “But where is your father? He can’t have gotten far.”

“You have him in your prison.”

“He’s gone. But I think you know that.” He turned to the nearest guard. “Search her.”

One of the guards swiftly approached and checked me for weapons, but he was young and nervous, and I could tell he felt uncomfortable running his hands over my body. He didn’t even think to inspect the timepiece on my wrist. The other guards lowered their guns. I’m sure they didn’t think I posed any threat. Torq signaled to two of them, and they escorted me back inside their circle.

“Hi, Kai,” I said, as if we were meeting on the road after school again.

“Hi, Vera.”

We grinned at each other like idiots. I couldn’t have been happier if someone had handed me a real orange with a glass of fresh water.

“This is not a game,” said Torq. “Whatever your father’s planned, it won’t succeed. We’ll be in the air before he or anyone else can stop us.”

The circle of guards pressed more tightly around me. Torq gave them their orders, and they marched us toward three waiting helicopters.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Silence!” thundered Torq.

My right hand touched my left wrist. I felt strangely calm. Even though I was surrounded, I felt no fear. “It’s going to be okay,” I said to Kai. “We’re here to rescue you.”

Torq turned to me at that moment, his arm raised as if to strike. His sudden motion caused me to stumble slightly backward, so that when I pressed the buttons on the destabilizer, my left foot was barely touching the ground. I felt a blow to my solar plexus like someone had tossed a hundred-kilo bag of sand at my stomach. My vision went wobbly, the way a wi-cast lost its rectangular shape and became blobbish when the transmission was interrupted. At first I didn’t even see the men crumpling around me, falling like their bones were broken. My feet went out from under me, and I collapsed too.

I was barely conscious when Ulysses lifted me to his shoulder and carried me at a full run toward the jets. This was a man with a piece of metal in his upper thigh, several cracked ribs, and contusions across his back and neck. But he ran like a pan-republic champion, hunched low and aerodynamic, his body shielding me while he emptied Nasri’s gun at the phalanx of guards by the runway. At his side Sula loosed a volley of harpoons while she kept Will safely behind her.

Although outnumbered, Ulysses and Sula had the advantage of surprise, speed, and deadly accuracy. The guards were soft from a life of easy water, while Ulysses and Sula were tempered by hardship and thirst. A half-dozen men were dead or wounded before the remaining guards even knew they were being attacked. The others scattered quickly, and only a few managed to return fire before they were shot down. One guard blocked the doorway to the nearest jet, but Sula quickly felled him with a second knife she kept sheathed at her ankle. Another guard stepped from behind a walkway, but Ulysses knocked him unconscious with the butt of the gun.

All this happened in a flash. The images of violence, explosions, and scattered gunshots barely registered. Later Will filled in the missing details. I was alert enough, however, to realize that we had left Kai and his father with Torq and his men.

“Kai!” I cried.

“We’re not done yet,” growled Ulysses.

Torq and his men twitched on the ground, but Sula had already climbed into the cockpit of the jet and started the engines. Ulysses lay me down in the small compartment meant for the pilot’s gear, and Will squeezed in next to me. Then Ulysses climbed into the copilot’s seat. The plane shook violently as Sula increased the power to the engines.

“You sure you know how to fly one of these?” Ulysses asked.

Sula glared at him. “Sure you know how to fasten your seat belt?”

The ping of bullets striking the wings cut short their spat. One hit the windshield, leaving an irregular star on the glass. Ulysses pulled the safety strap across his shoulder and buckled himself into his seat.

Sula maneuvered the jet across the runway. The engines roared loudly as she increased the thrust. Outside Torq had risen unsteadily to his feet; I could see him shouting orders at his men. Sula drove the plane directly toward him, accelerating quickly as his men scrambled for their weapons. She could have mowed them down or fired a rocket into their midst, but Kai was still unconscious on the ground, and his father stood shakily over him.

The end of the runway was just one hundred meters distant. Sula braked and swung the jet around. The engines sprayed hot exhaust at Torq and his men, and they dropped to the ground to avoid the burning fuel. Sula kept the engines roaring at full blast. The inferno of gas set the roof ablaze. “Thirty seconds,” she said to Ulysses.

“You better cover me.” He unlatched the door.

“I’m wasting fuel,” said Sula.

“I’m not kidding.” He stepped from the plane onto the concrete runway. The air crinkled around him, hot and dry, all the oxygen burned out of it. There was no way he could breathe in the heat. But he hunkered low and ran for the soldiers, as if he might try to take them all at once. The men struggled to grasp their weapons. Their arms tensed and flexed as they tried to make their muscles respond in their weakened state.

Driesen Smith rose to one knee, while Kai remained unconscious. Ulysses reached the father and slung the boy over one shoulder. Driesen could barely move, so Ulysses lifted him with one arm and half-dragged, half-carried him across the runway. The guards shouted for him to stop, but they couldn’t manage to squeeze off any shots. Several tried to run after him, staggering and weaving, buckling and then rising again. But Ulysses kept going, relentless and indestructible. At the door of the jet, Driesen Smith hesitated. His long blond lashes fluttered rapidly, and his jaw hung open. He seemed to be weighing the risks of jumping into a plane with a crazed pirate against staying on the ground with corporate assassins. Probable death versus certain death.

“Move it!” Ulysses yelled and tossed him in the jet like a sack of dry-crete. Then he tossed Kai on top of him.

“Careful!” I said.

“No time for careful. Fly,” Ulysses commanded.

Sula didn’t hesitate. She threw the engines into gear and blasted toward the edge of the runway. Bullets sang out harmlessly in the vapor trail behind us. In a moment we were airborne, with only the ocean and the sky between us and home.

We flew fast and silently. With our faces pressed to the window, we could barely feel the vibration from the powerful engines. Thin wisps of clouds spidered below us, delicate and fragile. The glass was cold to our cheeks. Inside the temperature dropped rapidly, but at least we had oxygen and blankets. Sula explained we were traveling at nearly twice the speed of sound, beyond the barrier where words could catch us.