They finish up and return to their positions. Elkante, Draton, The Wise Soul and The Watcher start from their current position and look at the first planet. Just by extending the search area to the side means that great distances are involved and these would be added to their journey of course. But there is no alternative.
George and Cassie return to their screen. As soon as they get there, they realize that the screen is not as they left it. George questions The Watcher, to ask if he has been over to their screen, while trying to set up the new search area. The answer is that he has, but as far as he is aware, he set it back to the place they were, when he used it. George returns his attention to the screen. Cassie is looking intently too. The place the screen is at is not quite at the last planet they investigated. George decides that they had better go back, until they find where they were. He does that, but immediately finds that they are already behind where they were up to and not ahead, as he had first thought. He double-checks off the planet that comes up in front of him and then moves forward again; to the place where they found the screen on their return after the break. It looks like a planet on there, but when they check the list The Watcher has given them, it is not listed. They move on to the next planet and find that one is the next one on the list. They are about five planets behind the point they were up to before the break.
George feels a surge of excitement well up inside of him. This planet was not there when they first looked at this area, so why has it suddenly appeared now? He is not going to say anything yet to The Watcher. He is not going to say anything at all, until he has a chance to look a little bit more into this planet. Cassie is with him all the way. She comes in closer to him as they press some buttons, to try to get some information on this planet.
The first problem they find is that it has no listing. It is not known to the system. Another surge of excitement takes them to press a few more buttons. Nothing shows at all. There is not only no listing, therefore no name, but also there is not any scrap of information on it either. There is nothing about its size, its atmosphere, or anything at all in fact. They can’t even see if the planet is inhabited. George has been pressing the buttons more in earnest than he has done before. He stops and looks up. The Watcher, Elkante, Draton and The Wise Soul are all looking over at him. He smiles and looks back at the screen.
‘Did you find the place you were up to?’ The Watcher asks him.
‘We have, but it is very strange. Take a look at this!’
The quartet moves over to where George and Cassie are. Bluechen and Marlitta feel the need to come over too. George shows them what they have found. The planet is showing up on their screen, but that is all there is. The Watcher moves back to his screen. He takes a few minutes to get his screen onto the same area that George is on. The rest of them move over there too. It is a bigger screen, but he also has more equipment he can use to direct the search. He cannot find the planet that George and Cassie have found.
‘That isn’t there.’ He announces.
He moves back over to George’s screen.
The other three who have been working with him nod their assent to that. It is hard to get that many people round the screen, but they all find a position where they can see what is happening, without crowding in on The Watcher. There is a buzz of excitement. That is not because they have anything concrete to go on as yet. It is because this is something that has appeared out of nothing. That sort of thing just does not happen in this quadrant of space. The Watcher starts to tap the keyboard, to try to discover a little bit more.
Chapter 13 Vee & Bar
Joe and Franz are ready to launch their assault. They move out of their positions and make towards the city center. The streets are almost totally devoid of people. They have heard about the curfews that have been put in place, but they are not going to deter them from their mission. They have decided to take the lead of their forces in separate parts of the city, but are keeping in touch with each other. This is the only communication that is being relayed to any of the forces. They have decided that due to the hacking on social media and the resulting curfews, that their attacks will be more effective if they stay in larger groups. The problem with that is, that already their numbers have been reduced as a result of the social media comments, put on by Vee and Bar.
They make their way to their individual starting places, in their respective area of the city. They wait for the right time to come around. The assault is planned to start at two o’clock.
There is no way that Vee & Bar can be everywhere at once. They are not even certain exactly where Joe and Franz are going to be. They also don’t know how many others will just step up to the plate, even if they do remove Joe and Franz from the equation. They have given it some thought, about how they are going to go about their task. The problem is that they need to try to keep out of sight as much as possible. The authorities will not know that they are on their side and so will be hostile towards them. In an area as built up as a city, it will be hard for them to do much to them though. What anyone will make of them is the big question. They are small and their craft is small, but it is still visible. The best they can hope for; is that people think they are some kind of drone. The question they need to decide the answer to most, is whether they should come in high or low?
They decide to come in low. In many ways that makes it harder for them, but on the other hand, they are less likely to be detected. It is five minutes to two o’clock when they reach the city and are upon the first bank of attack vehicles. There are police and army out on the street, but they are under armed in the case of the police, and not in the right positions, as far as the army goes.
It is easy for Vee and Bar to locate the lead vehicle of the attacking force. They weave their way between and underneath the vehicles, until they arrive underneath the lead jeep. Vee wastes no time before blasting at the two offside tires, with the Air Micro Compounder weapon. Another blast up through the engine compartment throws the occupants into panic. They cannot see who has attacked them. Neither can the occupants of any of the other vehicles. No sooner than the underside of the vehicle has been dealt with, than Bar guides the craft out in front and rises up to just above the bonnet level. The occupants can’t see them, because the engine department is on fire. Vee takes out the weapons on the back of the jeep, while Bar takes them back down and under the jeep to a few vehicles back. Everyone is looking forward to the lead jeep. This armored vehicle Vee and Bar are now under, suddenly suffers an explosion underneath. That disables it totally. Again in the confusion, Bar takes them up, so Vee can take out the weaponry. They are spotted this time, but they can’t fire on them, as they would hit their own people. Bar takes them down and whizzes them back through the convoy to the last vehicle. That is another jeep. They take that one out, as they did the first one. It in effect stops the other vehicles from being able to turn round and make a run for it.
Bar is back down the convoy and chooses the most dangerous vehicle to tackle next, a Second World War tank. He brings their craft up, right in front of the long barrel. Vee takes a shot down it. The barrel explodes, at the point it meets the turret. They may still be able to drive the tank, but it is useless as fighting machine. Vee asks Bar to take them down, so that she can make sure the vehicle is totally disabled. They totally destroy the left track. That tank is going nowhere. The crew start to come out of the tank. They have machine guns and as they catch a glimpse of Vee and Bar in their craft, they let off a volley of shots in their direction. But the problems with that being, by the time they have let of their shots Vee and Bar have dived away to ground level once more. The shots that have been fired at them go towards one of their own vehicles. The people in that one don’t initially realize they are being shot at by their own people, and so they open fire on some of the buildings in the direction the shots have come from. That causes more of their numbers to start shooting at what they can see, anything they can see that is.
Vee and Bar take to the skies. They
will find it much easier to operate up there, than flitting in between the wheels of all the vehicles. The biggest positive about taking to the skies, is that they will be able to attack more vehicles, more quickly than when they were going round under the vehicles. The downside, of course, is that they are going to be visible. But they are extremely fast. That is going to make it very difficult for anyone to get a sight on them. Although it doesn’t appear that they are too bothered about shooting in the direction some of their own people are in. Vee goes for the vehicles that look as if they have the most fire power, for the initial targets, now they are in the air. Her aim is not as precise as it had been when under the vehicles. Now she is just concerned with putting the vehicles out of action, in the quickest possible time. If that means the vehicles are destroyed and lives are lost, then so be it. Lives of the perpetrator that is! Bar weaves through the skies. They are moving so fast, that no one can really see them. When they do think they see something, they don’t get the time to actually focus in on it, because it is already somewhere else. It is somewhere else, taking out another vehicle. Some are trying to remove their vehicles from the column, but Vee and Bar take them out as they do so. Soon they have taken out that many strategic vehicles that, even if they wanted to, the other vehicles could not make an escape. They soon realize this and intensify their weapons fire, on trying to shoot at Vee and Bar and when they can’t do that, they turn their fire onto the buildings.
Vee and Bar have taken out about two thirds of the vehicles by the time the army rolls into position. After being initially taken aback by the sight in front of them, with so many destroyed vehicles, they return the fire that has now been directed upon them. Vee and Bar can see that this battle is almost over. There is no way the attackers can retreat. They are either going to keep on fighting and die, or they are going to have to surrender. They don’t wait to see the outcome. They are off to the next place.
When they get there, the army is already involved with this group. The attackers are well armed in this one and much better organized. Part of that, is because the place they are launching their assault from, is in a square. They have set out their vehicles in a much better defensive position. The army is not as well armed and it is telling. They are resorting to trying to defend the corner they are in. It is only a matter of time, until the attackers advance and squashes them. The situation all changes the moment Vee and Bar arrive there. It is not so obvious which of the attackers’ vehicles is the one in charge. The way they are sat in the square, doesn’t make that at all obvious. They take out the vehicle that is giving the army the most problems. There is no time for any subtleties. They dive in from the sky and with a continuous line of fire; they obliterate the tank as it stands. No one had seen them coming and no one saw it was them who have scored the direct hit. They are off over the other side of the square before they know it. They dive in again and another vehicle receives the same treatment. No one has spotted what is causing this huge change in fortunes yet. This time they stay at ground level and blast the undersides of two vehicles, before they swoop up into the sky again. With incredibly sharp turns, they are aiming down again and are onto the next vehicle, before they can see it coming. There are some important targets that need to be taken out, before things are anywhere near under control. Some of the vehicles are by now starting to break ranks. Somehow they believe that this assault has come from the army forces in the corner. The attackers have decided that they need to move forward and crush out this attack on them. The army obviously have more fire power than they gave them credit for.
The lead tank is attacked by Vee next and totally crippled, before she moves onto the next one in line. By now they have been spotted and various people are now trying to train their weapons on them. They do that with disastrous results, for them. They are firing across their own lines and inevitably they take out some of their own people, who are in jeeps and open vehicles. Vee and Bar continue with their destruction. One or two of the attackers decide that they are going to try to leave the scene. Vee takes them out. They shouldn’t have been involved, if they were going to run away from the fight. She has no qualms about the people she is killing.
Chapter 14 Mario & TZ
Buzz walks around the garage, looking at the vehicles in there. Most of them are in some state of having work done on them. Unless they are simply put back together, then these are not going to be a possibility. That doesn’t leave them with much choice, unless they keep the vehicle they already have.
‘I’m going to go out and have a look at the front yard’ TZ declares, when Buzz comes back to where she is standing. He has a gloomy look on his face. ‘The guys that worked here might have had their own wheels. I didn’t notice any as we came in, but there might be something out there we can use.’
‘That’s a good idea’ he comes back with. ‘The other thing I was thinking, is that at some stage I reckon the people these ones belong to, will be turning up to collect them. We don’t want to be caught in here, if things get nasty then. I mean, if they can’t get in, then they might call the police. If they find those three back there, then we are in trouble again.’
‘That’s a good point.’
TZ goes to the door and carefully opens it. Just as she steps out, a police car passes her. It doesn’t slow down or stop, but the officer inside does turn to look at her. It’s a good job it wasn’t Buzz coming out at that precise moment. She sees a couple of cars on the forecourt and walks over to them to check them out. Now she is there, she knows that these are the type of cars the guys inside would own. They are old, but have been done up. All she needs to do now, is to get some keys for them. They will either be in the office, or on the bodies. She hopes they will be in the office with their things.
A quick search of the office brings them the keys. They slip outside quickly, so Buzz can get a look at the choice of cars available to them. He selects an old Ford and then while TZ goes to open the doors, he gets in and starts it up. A minute later and they are inside again, with the door down. They decide to risk taking most of their arsenal with them. They won’t be nearly as effective without it. The danger of course will be, if they come across a road block. What they could really do with is a place to hole up, to give them time to regroup. The radio has gone dead. It is working, but no one is responding. To all intents and purposes they are alone now.
They put some of their weapons in the trunk. The bigger ones have to go in there. It wouldn’t be clever to have them just sitting on the back seat of the car. They could be seen when they stop at lights. The smaller handguns, they put in bags and then on the floor well in the front of the car. The rifles they put on the floor in the back of the car. They find a couple of blankets that they can use to cover them.
They think that the sooner they get on their way the better. Things might get closed up even more, the longer the day goes on. On the other hand, they might just be diving out into a cauldron. They both want to be out of this place though and so they get ready to leave.
They are no more than three blocks from the garage, when they see that they might have made the wrong decision. There aren’t exactly road blocks, but there are police cars parked at the edges of the streets. The officers are out of their cars and pulling some of them over, to have a chat and peer in thru the windows. The only way to avoid going past the first one, would be to dive down the alley just before they reach them. That surely would only bring the heat right down on them. They decide not to do that and when they pass the entrance to the alley, they are glad they have taken this decision. The alley is blocked off by some big bins.
They are just about to pass the police vehicles and are even starting to think they might be getting away with this, when one of the policemen blows his whistle and points for them to pull over.
TZ has a pistol on her lap, hidden by a top. She tightens her grip, ready to shoot her way out of this situation, if the need arises.
They have been driving for 3 hours, when Maria turns off the h
ighway onto a dirt track. Mario does not know what he is expecting, but somehow this is not it. The track is not a good one and Maria struggles to find a path through the potholes, so that the underneath of the car doesn’t scrape on the ground. It is impossible to drive along this track at anything other than a crawl. To do any more, would be to write off the vehicle.
‘It’s not exactly welcoming’ is the comment he makes to her first.
‘It isn’t supposed to be welcoming. In fact it is kept this way to keep people out.’
Mario thinks about this for a minute. Surely these people have to get in and out, to get the things they need. It appears that Maria has already thought about his thinking this.
‘This isn’t the only way in and out. It is the only way that I would be expected to use, coming back to the tribe after all this time. They will find out I am there when I get there. If I used the main road in, then they would have stopped me and escorted me in. I don’t want that to happen. I want them to know I am there just as I get there, not have the guys radio it in.’
‘Is there going to trouble?’
‘There won’t be anything physical, if that is what you are thinking. It will just be a case of some noses being put out of joint. There is an order of things and some people will not be in the position they thought they were in, before they knew I was coming back. Saying all that, it could go really well and there might be no problems at all. I can’t say I am expecting that.’
The Watcher Page 6