D. MacHale - The Rivers of Zadaa

“No,” Teek answered. “The dygo will sink to the bottom. If they are alive and aware, they can drive it across the bottom. There is enough air inside for a short while.”

We were still trying to get our minds around what had just happened, when things got worse.

“Look!” one of the other Tiggen guards said.

We all looked up to see the points of six more drills poking through the roof of the cavern. The Batu were arriving in force-and were going to meet with the same fate as their friend in the lead.

“This is horrible!” I shouted. “Is the whole invasion going to crash?”

“No,” Loor said. “The plan is to come from many directions. Those Ghee have picked a most unfortunate route.”

One by one the dygos drilled through the ceiling and tumbled through the air to splash down into the sea. I couldn’t help but watch in horror and hope that the Ghee inside would survive. It was then that another horrible thought hit me.

“If the invasion is here,” I said, “we’re out of time.”

Teek led us into the small building that was the topside entrance to the master control room. Inside was an elevator that took us straight down.

“The doors will open directly onto the control-room floor,” Teek explained.

Loor added, “The moment they open, the surprise will be over. We have to move quickly and decisively.”

I grasped my wooden stave. This was it. My by standing days were over. I hoped I was ready. Loor had given us each a target. From the catwalk above, we counted five guards, two on one side, three on the other. If the guards were still at their same posts, we would come out on the side with the three guards. I was to take the first Tiggen guard to the right of the control platform. It was the easiest assignment. If we were fast, the guard wouldn’t know what hit him. It would be different with the others. Loor and Teek were to move past me to knock out the guards farther along the platform. Those guards would have more time to react and protect themselves. Alder and our other Tiggen friend would have the toughest job. They had to cross to the far side to take out those two guards. By the time they got there, those guards would know something was going on and be ready. A second, one way or the other, could mean the difference between success and failure.

My palms were sweating. I suddenly had the sick feeling that if my hands got too wet, I’d lose the stave. I wished I had a couple of batting gloves. There wasn’t time to stress about it, though. With a thump we hit the floor. The doors slid open. Without a second’s hesitation the five of us bolted from the elevator. We didn’t shout or scream out a war cry. Every extra second of surprise was precious.

My target’s back was to us. He didn’t have a clue as to what was about to happen. I ran up behind the guy…and hesitated. It was the exact wrong thing to do, but I couldn’t help myself. It wasn’t because of the whole “never make the first move” thing either. The first move was okay if your opponent was totally oblivious. In that case the first move would also be the last move. But I didn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to whack a totally defenseless guy across the head.

Big mistake. He wasn’t oblivious for long. As soon as he saw Loor and Teek sprint by, headed for the other guards, he got unoblivious real quick. The guy was good. He must have quickly realized that if the attackers were ignoring him, there had to be somebody else coming up who wouldn’t ignore him. Me. Without looking, the guy whipped out his steel baton and lashed back. It was so fast, he grazed the front of my leather armor. Another inch and I would have been hit with a jolt of electricity, and the show would be over before it even started. The adrenaline rush of the near miss shocked me into action. With my stave I knocked the back of his baton arm, forcing him to follow through and not backhand me. I spun, came around the backside, and cracked him across the back of his head with the end of the stave, sending him sprawling. He hit the floor and didn’t get up.

I stood there for a moment, bombarded with emotions. I had hit the guy, hard. When I fought the Tiggen assassin at Mooraj, I had been tentative. I whacked that guy a few times with the stave, but never did any damage. I blamed that on the fact that I was more used to fighting with a bamboo stick and not a heavy wooden stave. The truth was, the idea of cracking somebody in the head with force went against the nature of my being. I wasn’t a violent guy. As I stood there over the unconscious Tiggen guard, the realization came to me that maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was a violent guy after all. It wasn’t a good feeling.

“Pendragon!” Loor shouted.

Her voice pulled me back into the moment. I looked quickly to see that both of the other Tiggen guards on our side of the control platform had been knocked unconscious. Loor and Teek were already dragging them toward me, and the elevator. I saw that the Rokador elite had jumped out of their chairs and were cowering together, terrified. For all they knew, we were the first wave of the oncoming Ghee army and their murderous trap was sprung too late. I wasn’t about to tell them otherwise. The engineers stayed on the control platform, looking down on us in fear.

We were quickly joined by Alder and the other Tiggen ally. They too had triumphed. All five Tiggen guards were unconscious. I looked up to the catwalk high above, where Teek’s other friend was waiting and watching. I waved. He waved back to acknowledge and ran off to lock down the doors. So far, so good.

“We will bring them up in the elevator,” Teek said. “Once we have reached the surface, you can shut down the elevator from here.”

“You have done the right thing, Teek,” Loor said. “No matter what happens from here, you must know that.”

Teek nodded. I think he believed her, but he wasn’t happy about it.

“Good luck, my friends,” Teek said. “I hope we will meet again and-“

Teek suddenly stopped talking. An instant before, I heard a short, sharp hissing sound, but didn’t register what it was. Teek looked at us with wide eyes, then crumpled to the floor. Sticking out from his back was a silver arrow. We all quickly looked up toward the catwalk to see…

Another Tiggen guard. It wasn’t Teek’s friend. Teek’s friend was dead. He lay on the catwalk, a silver arrow in his chest. Standing over him with both feet planted was his killer. He held a crossbow to his shoulder. He was aiming at us. He fired.

We scattered, taking cover behind the vertical steel tanks. Loor and I jumped to one side, Alder and our Tiggen friend jumped the other way.

“It’s him!” I shouted to the others. “The assassin from Mooraj.”

It was Bokka’s killer. He was back. We were trapped. The instant one of us stuck our head out from behind the tank, the guy would fire another laserlike arrow.

“Open the southern gates!” the assassin called from the catwalk. He was yelling at the engineers on the control platform. The engineers weren’t sure what to do. They were frightened and confused. The same went for the Rokador elite. They stayed huddled together in fear.

“Alder?” I shouted across the floor. I made a shooting motion, as if to say, “Where is your crossbow?” Alder shrugged and pointed to the unconscious Tiggen guards we had attacked. Lying next to the pile of bodies was the crossbow.

“I will get it,” Loor said, and made a move to run into the open.

“No!” I shouted, and held her back. A nanosecond later another arrow shot by, barely missing her. If I hadn’t stopped her, she would have been skewered.

“We must do something, Pendragon,” she said. “The flood!”