Nick James - The Pearl wars

I stare at the desolate landscape, trying to slow my breathing. Avery straightens us out again.

“Wait.” I grip the control panel. “Where are we going?”

“Where do you think?” she answers. “Down.”

“But that’s where Cassius wanted to take me!”

“Well, he’s not in this shuttle, is he?” She lays on the accelerator.

“But… but we could go to another Skyship!”

Her eyes close and her head jolts to the side. Her fingers tense up on the wheel.

“Avery?”

“Seattle.” She grits her teeth and glances over to me. “They found you in Seattle, not in ‘another Skyship.’”

I stare at her face. She’s trying to control her expression, I can tell. “Is something wrong?”

She blinks. Her mouth relaxes. “A killer chased you from the Academy. I’d say something’s wrong.”

“No. I mean, with you.”

She keeps her eyes on the scenery in front of her. “Right as rain. Now I can turn around and head to Atlas if you want. You can file this all with the Tribunal, but you’re better off investigating things yourself. Trust me.”

“Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Avery opens her mouth to speak. Before she can get a word out, our shuttle rocks violently back and forth. I grip onto my seat to avoid falling.

“What was that?” I cock my head around the cabin.

Avery frowns. “Unified Party.”

“No way.” I scan the radar screen, ignoring the meaningless lines and numbers and focusing on the two red dots closing in on our shuttle.

“It’s Madame.” Avery sighs.

I crane my neck to see out the rear window. Two government cruisers cut through the sky behind us like a pair of enormous bats.

Avery shakes her head. “They were waiting, ready to pounce as soon as we crossed the Skyline.”

I wince. “It couldn’t be Madame. Madame wouldn’t care about us.”

“The hell she wouldn’t,” Avery mutters as she guns it.

The cruisers barrel down with insane speed, equipped with enough firepower to blow our shuttle apart. They blot out the sun behind us. A missile whizzes by above us, missing the roof by inches.

“What do we do?” I spin back to the control panel, wishing I had my flying permit. It’s lucky Avery’s here. She may not have graduated, but at least she knows what the shuttle’s buttons do.

“Buckle up,” she starts. “We’re changing course.”

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.” Our shuttle lurches to the side as a second missile scrapes the bottom.

“Hold onto something, Jesse.” Avery pulls back on the wheel. The shuttle does a ninety-degree turn and rockets up into the cloudbank. We disappear into a puff of white.

My whole body’s thrown against the back of the seat. My stomach feels like it’s about to pour out of my mouth.

Struggling to move my head, I glance at the radar. “They followed us into the clouds.”

“So much for losing them in Skyship Territory.” Avery frowns. “Is your seatbelt on?”

I nod, but double check anyway. We pierce the top layer of clouds and Avery flips the shuttle upside down.

The belt cuts into my chest and waist, but the centrifugal force keeps me from falling onto the ceiling and splatting like a bug. My stomach spins in circles. My neck feels like it’s about to snap.

We make a tight U-turn and plunge down through the clouds with reckless speed. Whiteness overtakes the windows until two dark shapes cut through beside us, devouring the clouds as they head up. Our shuttle wobbles in their wake.

Avery steers us straight down. I wait for the shuttle to break apart and disintegrate in the air. These things are not made for maneuvers like this.

Avery scowls. “We’ve gotta get to the Surface while we can.”

“What if Cassius follows us?”

“One problem at a time.”

Our first problem comes back big time. Both cruisers emerge from the cloudbank, splitting apart to surround us.

“Frag it!” Avery pounds her fist against the console and makes a sharp dive. The Surface blots out the window again. Only this time it’s not barren and brown. This time we’re heading straight into a Chosen City. Portland, from the looks of our coordinates.

Two massive black crosses float into view on either side of our shuttle. Bio-Net connectors, affixed to their positions in the air by a system of magnets. Together with their thousand or so companions, they form an upside-down butterfly net around the city-a man-made ozone layer responsible for filtering sunlight, absorbing Fringe chemicals, and programming weather inside. All powered by Pearls.

“You’ve gotta pull up!” I shout.

Avery shakes her head. “They won’t fire if we’re in range of a city. It’s our only chance.”

“But we can’t go through the Bio-Net.”

“Who says?”

I look out my window at the nearest connector. A double-barreled cannon rests on the side, waiting to destroy anything that threatens the city below. I open my mouth to warn Avery, but before I know it we shoot past. A monstrous, x-shaped shadow blankets our shuttle. No explosions.

The government cruisers split off course and shoot away from the city in opposite directions.

Our shuttle shakes as we pass through the invisible Bio-Net field. Avery speeds up, even though we’re about to crash in the middle of a Chosen. A yellow light flashes maniacally above her head, sounding a dull alarm through the cockpit.

“The solar panels are failing,” I say.

She presses a button to the side of the steering console. “Filtered sunlight. Guess I forgot.”

“Do we have any reserve power left?”

She frowns. “I burned it up trying to get away from those cruisers. We’ve got twenty-five minutes left, tops. The Net’s freaking this old junker out.”

My eyes dart from window to window, watching as the tops of skyscrapers reach out all around us. This isn’t like the Fringes, where there’d be plenty of open space to attempt a crash landing. This is a mousetrap, an endless labyrinth of arches, sky bridges, balconies, and towers. And we’re heading down. Fast.

“Jesse?”

I break away from the window. “Yeah?”

“You know how you survived that fall back in Syracuse? Now would be the time to pull something like that out of your hat.”

I take a deep breath, shaking my head. “I’ve got nothing.”

She grits her teeth, gripping the wheel tight. “Then brace yourself for impact. This isn’t going to be pretty.”

Skyship Territory, 800 feet above the Skyline.

After taking over the chartered sky taxi, Cassius blasted off from the docking bay. Reinforcements barged in to stop him, but they were too late.

Piloting such a lengthy ship felt unnatural, but he’d always been a quick study. Though his trajectory was wobbly, he dipped beneath the clouds until the Surface came into view. No sign of Fisher’s shuttle. He cursed. They’d gotten a head start.

Fisher was off the Skyship, but he could have headed anywhere… even to Atlas. He could have alerted the Tribunal.

Cassius fumbled with the control deck, searching for a radar or tracer or anything that would allow him to pinpoint the shuttle.

The com-pad on his belt beeped. He removed it and held it before his face, grimacing as he read the code on the screen. It was Madame.

He toyed with the idea of ignoring it. A failure like this could derail him entirely, and he couldn’t afford disappointing her. She knew more than she was letting on. She knew about his parents.

Still, ignoring her would be worse. She’d be angry. Anger was more dangerous than disappointment.

As much as it pained him to do it, he pressed the touch screen. “Hello?” His hand shook as he waited for her response.