Zoe would not object. She was a Ranger: superbly trained, completely loyal to her unit, honed for just this kind of quick raid. I will complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor. A good creed—except when somebody’s mission wasn’t what everyone else’s was.
Was that why Owen had pulled strings to get Leo on this mission? It had never really made sense to transfer Leo to the Friendship at the last minute; the Rangers had their own snipers. Had Owen thought that Leo wouldn’t cross him, no more than Zoe or Kandiss would? If Leo was right and Owen was some kind of Army infiltrator from a xenophobic cult, if Owen had kept his hatred of the Kindred secret for years, then Owen was even smarter than Leo thought. Smarter than Leo, who’d spent years not thinking.
He would have to think now.
Owen had more knowledge, popbite, fanaticism, Zoe.
Leo had surprise.
They were moving again, hiking toward the mountains. As the terrain got rougher, it was easier for Leo to get closer to them and still stay hidden. If they talked, he couldn’t hear it. Well, duh—they had left their wristers behind. One of the Terrans who’d designed this survivalist bunker was a physicist; who knew what he could detect with monitors inside.
Leo buried his wrister. He began to scan carefully for cameras, motion detectors, maybe drones.
At least nobody here had surveillance satellites in orbit.
In Brazil, Leo had shot Sullivan straight in the face.
* * *
Austin slept on a pallet in the middle of the central cave, along with Graa^lok, Tony, and Beyon-mak. The nine women had taken all the curtains and strung them together to make a new alcove, with all the best pallets. Austin had been pleased to see that Kayla had perked up a little with the arrival of Claire and the other women, even though she could talk only to Claire.
A noise woke him. At first he thought it was part of a dream, but then he came fully awake and the loud pinging continued. Graa^lok snored loudly. Beyon-mak was shaking Tony’s shoulder.
“Get up, Tony. They’re here.”
Tony was on his feet so fast that his knees cracked. Austin sat up in the dim biotorch light. “Who’s here?”
Neither man answered him. They went to the “monitor”; Beyon-mak did something; the pinging stopped. Austin moved quietly—maybe they wouldn’t notice him—to stand behind them.
The screen, normally a flat blank rectangle set into a big wooden box, showed a picture . It was… it was the outside of the cave! Austin blurted out, “How did you do that?”
They ignored him. Beyon-mak was fiddling with knobs and muttering, “Fucking primitive system…”
Austin stared, fascinated. A word from his mother’s laments for Terra jumped into his mind: television . But Kayla had described moving stories on television, not something real, right outside Haven. Austin looked at Beyon-mak with awe, which immediately changed to anger. Did Graa^lok understand this technology but not tell Austin that it even existed?
The picture went away in a flurry of white dots and another appeared: two Rangers walking toward Haven. The images were blurry, but Austin recognized both their walks: Lieutenant Lamont and Ranger Berman.
He said, “They want Claire!”
Tony half turned. To Austin’s surprise, Tony grinned. “They won’t get her.”
“But… they’re Rangers!”
“Who have no idea what we have here. Nada. Zilch. Haven is both impregnable and weaponized. Now be a good kid and go wake Graylock in case Nate needs him. And then keep the women away from here; they’ll only get in the way.”
“How do I—”
The grin vanished. “Any way you can!”
“Okay, yes,” Austin said, although he didn’t think he could keep Claire away from anywhere she wanted to go. And maybe not Graa^lok’s oldest sister, either. He remembered her from when he’d played at their lahk as a child. Sher^llaa was sort of an Isabelle, and she had never seemed to like Austin much.
He went to wake Graa^lok.
* * *
Leo lay flat, camouflaged with brush he’d cut with his knife, studying the situation. He had circled around Owen and Zoe, moving faster, and was now between them and an abruptly rising, big, forty-five-degree hill. Or maybe it was a small mountain. It was where the tracks stopped, in front of dense brush fringing the base of the mountain. Through his scope, Leo could see the churned-up mud where people had gone into the brush and, he presumed, into a cave. Austin’s “fort.” Leo lay above the entrance and to the south.
Zoe and Owen had stopped to confer five hundred yards from the mountain base. No pipe gun could reach that far. But the two rogue Terrans had been inside for a long time, bringing in all kinds of equipment, and Beyon was some sort of fucking genius or something. They could have anything in there. Owen would know that. Also, the cave entrance would be fortified and maybe small. Zoe could maybe breach it, but not enter without being picked off like a rat in a barrel.
They were moving again. Zoe went south, Owen north, and they began to climb. Scoping out the terrain, or searching for a second entrance… No. Leo knew what they were doing.
Zoe climbed toward him. Silently, Leo slid in the other direction, careful not to dislodge any small stones. A few yards away was a shallow crevasse. Leo wriggled into it, pulling brush over him. He held his breath, rifle pointed upward between twigs, and waited.
He heard her boots on the rock.
She muttered, “Fuck.”
Her shadow fell over him. If she looked down carefully enough, she’d see him. If she stepped wrong, her foot would go through the brush and she’d land on top of him. But she was testing each step carefully with her boot before shifting her weight, not taking her eyes off the terrain but not looking down, either…
Shit! Her boot felt the edge of the crevasse and her head swiveled…
Leo leaped up from his crouch and grabbed her. She wasn’t ready, and he was. She yelled, “Enemy here!” which was right because now Leo was the enemy, but she had no radio and Owen was too far away to hear her. Zoe fought like the warrior she was, but Leo was stronger and he had the advantage of surprise. Still, no way he was going to win this quickly unless he either killed her or…
When he had the chance, he kicked her in the belly and she slumped to the ground, eyes rolled back in her head. He cuffed her hands behind her and barely had time to tie her ankles together before she was bucking and kicking with both legs together, her eyes furious and accusatory. She shouted loud enough to wake the dead.
He sat on her long enough to tape her mouth. Then, much more gently, he rolled her into the crevasse.
“Sorry, Zo. I have to stop Owen. He’s going to destroy the planet.”
Zoe shook her head, her mouth working under the tape. Leo could imagine what she was calling him. But there was no time to explain, and his nose ached and shed blood from where she’d gotten in a good blow. He dumped the brush on top of Zoe and stalked Owen, on the other side of the mountain.
Something exploded.
* * *
“Tony Schrupp. This is Lieutenant Lamont, US Army. Can you hear me?”
Austin stood ten feet from the flat TV window. He held out his arms on both sides to keep anyone else from going closer, but not only would this have been futile, it wasn’t necessary. Austin’s mother and the women of Graa^lok’s lahk stood in a semicircle behind him, still as rocks, watching. Graa^lok stood beside Beyon-mak and Tony. Claire had circled to the side, and only Austin noticed that she had a kitchen knife in her hand. But what was she going to do with it? Austin had no idea, and he suspected Claire didn’t, either.
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