Which would be he and Lana walking boldly up to the convoy, posing as part of the landing zone crew, which Drake and the other Sentinels would be busy distracting. Their disguises need only hold for a minute, long enough for Lana to begin. Her part was the biggest, the most crucial, but he had utter and complete faith in her. Be she the icon of Ziem or the Spirit of the Edge.
Or the woman he loved.
Drake and Kye flew them down to within reach of the zone. In the cover of a stand of mistbreakers, they got out of the rover. Kye gave Lana a swift fierce hug and then, to his surprise, gave him the same.
“You are ours now,” she said simply.
He did not have time to pull his words together for a reply. Instead, he looked at the Raider, drew himself up, and gave the most heartfelt salute of his life to a leader who had earned it.
“What she said is true,” the man he’d once fought answered. “And I do not care to lose any of my fighters . . . or my family.”
And then they were gone. Lana looked at him as if she understood completely the wrenching effect of those simple declarations. As she no doubt did.
They made it to the edge of the landing zone and waited. It was not long before Lana said, “The flare is up!”
He couldn’t help glancing, but saw nothing but the usual mist, no trace of the green many Ziemites could see. “Amazing,” he muttered.
In the next moment he heard shouts and the rumble of engines as the troopers guarding the zone rushed to respond to the sudden, unexpected Sentinel attack. He heard someone yell, “It’s the Raider!” and knew they would redouble their efforts. And at the yell, the last of the troops at the zone spun around, and as he’d hoped, were unable to resist joining this unforeseen chance to take down the man the Coalition wanted most.
“Now,” he whispered, and started toward the zone. Lana followed him a half pace behind, like any good trooper behind a superior.
The crew of the ship was coming down the gangway as they reached the bottom of it. The convoy was yet a few yards away. Caze could tell by their slightly broken ranks that they had indeed been harassed on the way down from the mines; he could hear the mutterings even from here.
The ship’s crew seemed torn, sensing something amiss with the convoy they’d been awaiting, but curious about the two unfamilars at the bottom of the gangway.
Just a little further.
Caze pulled out his handheld device. It no longer accessed the Coalition system, since it would send a signature they would no doubt be looking for, but the men above didn’t know that. He pretended to study the screen as if he were simply the sergeant in charge awaiting an expected delivery.
Almost here . . .
He sensed rather than saw Lana move, her slender hand reaching for the pouch at her belt and removing the stone.
“The second line should do it,” she whispered so that only he could hear.
He did not ask if she was certain she could hold it that widely. She knew what was at stake, and she would not attempt what she was not sure of. But he knew also, because she had explained carefully, that for this to work, the men above had to be on the ground. Their feet must be on Ziem herself, for the Stone of Ziem to hold them.
When the advancing convoy was mere steps away from that line that marked the ship’s space, he barked out a command to the men above, putting every bit of command presence Major Paledan had ever had into it.
“They’re late! Get down here so we can hasten the loading and get back on schedule, or we’ll all pay the price!”
The last booted foot hit the ground in the same moment the convoy crossed the line. Lana instantly put her other hand over the stone. He swore he could feel the sudden burst of energy radiating out from it, could almost hear the hum Ziemites could hear.
Every man of the crew and convoy froze in place, with blank expressions. Lana moved slightly, and closed her eyes. Nothing changed to his own eyes except he could now see a slight shimmering in the air around them and the ship. But he knew that if anyone looked from outside the circle she cast they would see only what had been there all morning; a Coalition cargo ship, quietly waiting.
Caze raised his arm and gave the sign. And mere seconds later more Sentinels came out of the trees at the edge of the landing zone. They ran, even Grim, and there was no hesitation in any of them. Even the one he knew as Teal Harkin, whose brother had died in the ambush, simply did as planned, ignoring those representatives of his brother’s killers and going for the cargo pallets that held the planium. Before they had even begun their task, Brander was there, still in his miner’s garb, he and Kade lugging between them a large box.
He was loathe to leave Lana alone, but it was the plan. He ran up the gangway into the ship. It was one he had flown on before, and nothing had changed. He made the necessary entries; not for nothing had he overseen this process before. He finished just as Teal, Grim, and the others raised the load of planium up to the hold with the lift. They slid it into place as he directed. He set the scanners, directed them at the pallets, and set it to run.
For three full minutes they waited. He tried not to think of Lana having to hold this massive illusion. Told himself if she could hold the image of a towering cliff by the river, she could do this. And when the memory of exactly how she had lost the focus required to hold that image, of that day in the peaceful green glade when he had first learned what could truly be between a man and woman when it was real, swept through his mind he used it to steel himself, to bolster his strength.
It worked, for when the scan was at last done, showing nothing but what was truly there, a load of pure planium, he began to move quickly with the others, shifting with ease the heavy chunks of the softly gleaming metal. Then Brander and Kade were there, with the nearly identical-appearing, yet very different pieces, they slipped into each full crate, and covered back up with the normal product of the mines.
When it was done they secured the pallets as they had been. He signed off on the ship’s scan logs, using the ID Lana called up to him, that she had drawn from the crewmaster’s still-frozen mind.
They hastened down the gangway.
“Caze, I need you.”
Lana’s quiet words spun him around. He ran to her. Put his arms around her, as she had told him in their dry runs had helped. He felt a shiver go through her, but then she steadied. He knew what she was doing now, holding the men frozen and simultaneously planting the images in their minds, memories of what had never happened, memories of themselves doing exactly as they always did, loading and scanning their cargo. The stone was glowing now, and he feared she was pushing too hard.
But then she nodded, and they began to move back, toward the trees. He gestured to the others to go, while he stayed with her as she slowly backed up step by step. When they were at the edge of the trees, they stopped. He knew this was the hardest part for her, holding the illusion at this distance, but the timing was critical now. He reached for the flare gun at his waist. Readied it. Watched as the stone she held grew brighter, until he was certain it had to be burning her hands. He wanted to take it from her, but knew he could not.
“Now,” she whispered at last.
He fired the flare. Before it had died away the Coalition troopers jolted awake. Within two seconds the Sentinel rovers roared overhead, dangerously low. The troopers looked up, distracted, too startled to fire.
And Lana collapsed. He swept her up into his arms and ran.
It was done.
Chapter 63
CAZE WONDERED which of these new emotions had destroyed his patience. There had been a time when he would have been able to wait with equanimity, no matter how long a certain action took to bear fruit. Now it had been but a short time since their effort at sabotage, but he was as edgy as if he were fighting blind.
But they were fighting. That, at least, helped.
“There,” Caze said from their spot in the trees near the compound fence, “the vent above the turbine.”
Brander nodded. He glanced at the man beside them. “Teal? Can you do it?”
“Watch me,” Harkin said.
“There is a bend,” Caze warned, “and the pipe narrows slightly after it, so your device can be no bigger than three units across.”
“Might take two, then.” He looked at Caze. “Any reason that wouldn’t work?”
“Not as long as they are enough apart to clear the bend separately.”
For a moment Harkin held his gaze, then nodded. “I can do that.”
“Take care, Teal,” Brander said. “Remember what happened to me when I didn’t get clear of that superheated glowmist.”
The man flashed a smile. “Yes, but I’m better at this than you are at flying.”
Speaking thus to a Coalition commander would get a man blasted on the spot, but Brander only laughed. “Contention valid,” he said.
Caze watched the man vanish into the trees, headed for the target. They had reached an accord, he and Harkin, somewhat to his surprise.
I am sorry about your brother.
At least I had him for most of my life.
Harkin’s gruff response had startled him, and he realized word had apparently spread about his own loss to Coalition cruelty.
Will I need to ever watch my back if you are present?
If your plan works, I will ever have your back, Paledan.
If my plan works I will take the life offered to me. The life I covet more than anything I have ever wanted. For I will feel as if in some small way I have atoned and have earned it.
He reined in his impatience again. Even if his plan did work, he had no control at all over when it would. All they knew for certain was if the maximum time Brander had calculated passed with no results, it had failed. And then . . .
He did not know what would happen, or what he would do then.
The mist was so thick that he—and the troopers casually guarding the power plant—could not see more than twenty feet. But Brander obviously could, and at some signal Caze could not see, he fired the flare from the weapon he drew from his belt.
“Green,” he muttered as he tried to envision what those who had the knack could see.
“Very,” Pryl, the old woodsman said cheerfully.
You’re very accepting.
Because the Spirit wills it. But if you betray us I will slit your throat, and even you will never see me coming.
That I do not doubt, sir.
The old man had smiled at the respectful term. But Caze had said it without hesitation, for he had now seen the man at work often enough to know that much of the Sentinels’ success had likely come because of his skills.
He heard the sound of weapons firing at a distance, as two of the Sentinel rovers—flown, he knew, by young Kade and the pilot Tuari—made a strafing run over the western guard tower, drawing attention away from the compound. Less than two minutes later he heard the explosion as Harkin’s devices took out the main turbine of the power plant. And less than a minute after that, Harkin came silently out of the trees to rejoin them, looking immensely satisfied.
“That’ll have ’em in the dark for a while.”
The words were barely out before another, more distant explosion echoed through the mist.
“And out of touch,” Brander said with obvious satisfaction, “because the Raider just took out the comm array.”
As they drew back through the trees, Caze looked at the man who had made that possible. “You promised you would show me how you managed that, giving rovers that kind of altitude capacity.”
“Maybe it’s just magic,” Brander said with a reckless grin.
Pryl gave a short, amused laugh. “Magic of your brain, maybe,” he said, and Brander laughed in turn.
“Contention valid,” Caze said.
Brander gave him a startled look. Then he jerked his head back to where they’d secreted their own rover. “Come on. I’ll show you now. We’ve done enough for one day.”
“Enough to keep them from looking too close at what they’ve carted back to their headquarters, anyway,” Harkin said with satisfaction.
That they would continue raids had also been part of the plan, for it would not do to act any differently after that load of planium had left for High Command.
“You’re risking a bit, coming with us,” Harkin to Caze said as they reached the waiting craft he was piloting.
Caze shrugged.
“He’s right,” Brander put in. “They’re hunting for you as hard as they hunt for the Raider.”
“Harder,” Pryl said. “I’m guessing you’ve truly hacked them off.”
“I’m aiming for the highest price ever put on a Coalition head,” he said lightly. Brander burst out laughing, which set the others off as well.
“If your plan works, you’ll likely hit that target,” Harkin said as he settled into the pilot’s seat.
Pryl scrambled nimbly up behind him. Brander held back, and with a hand on his arm held Caze back as well.
“I am very, very glad we did not have to fight you,” he said, too quietly for the others to hear.
“As am I,” Caze said. Then, with the lighthearted feeling he was still not accustomed to, he added, “We’ll keep it to the chaser table, shall we?”
They were both laughing as they boarded the rover and headed for home.
Home.
He had no words for the feeling that simple concept gave him.
“YOU MUST COME! Quickly!”
They turned to look at the twins, who had chorused the words and looked more excited than Iolana had ever seen them. Since they had the lookout tonight, her heart quickened. When the duo turned and raced back outside the cavern, they followed, and gradually the others in the main cavern realized and came as well.
“Look!” Two young hands pointed upward, to the east. “It’s happening!”
Iolana’s breath caught at the new, unusual star that hung in the heavens. An odd color, more orange than white. And even as they looked, it blossomed into a roiling orange cloud of burning gas. And she knew Caze’s idea, and Brander’s inventiveness, coming up with the triggers they’d buried in the altered planium, had worked.
If it works, the explosion and fire in the storage room will spread to the core of the station.
A second cloud exploded into the darkness, combined with the first. Together it grew, expanded until it was a small sun in the night sky above the Edge. And then, as Caze had predicted, the oxygen from the station was used up, and the glow vanished in the cold vastness of the space around it.
“It worked,” Brander breathed beside her.
“Of course it did,” Eirlys said with a grin at her mate.
“Of course,” Drake agreed.
And then they all turned to look at Caze, who stood still watching where what had once been the seat of Coalition power in an entire quadrant had gone dead.
“Regrets?” Brander asked him quietly.
Caze snapped around to look at him, and then the others. “Not a bedamned one,” he said, and the truth of it rang in his voice. And then he grinned at Brander and clapped him on the shoulder. And they laughed, a triumphant sound that buoyed her heart.
There would be much to do now, but it would all be handled. Right now, for this moment, the Sentinels of Ziem stood above the Edge, the home of the Spirit, and watched a sky that was theirs once more.
Chapter 64
“HOW DOES IT feel, my brother, to have a fleet of Coalition fighters and cargo ships at your command?” Brander asked Drake as they looked out at the landing zone, now empty of Coalition personnel, the last of whom had grabbed at the chance the Raider had given them
to evacuate. Except for Sorkost, who had seemingly vanished. Caze suspected he’d been first aboard, likely in disguise to protect himself from any retribution either from the Sentinels or the Coalition.
“A little short of pilots,” Drake admitted ruefully.
“We’ll fix that,” Kye said airily. “Kade’s first in line for one of the fighters, and more will soon follow. We’ve got an expert”—she glanced at Caze with a grin—“charged with building our forces. We’ll have a full contingent before long.”
Caze looked at the Raider’s mate. She was even more beautiful now, and he realized it was the absence of the strain she had lived with for so long, loving a man who led the most dangerous life of them all.
“We can only start where we stand,” he said. “But this is enough to hold for now.”
“And we’ll have an actual fusion cannon!” Kade’s excitement took his voice up a notch, to his obvious embarrassment.
“Well, not quite done with that yet,” Brander cautioned.
“But you will be,” Eirlys said with utter faith.
Brander also looked at Caze. “With help, yes.”
“It will be done,” Caze said easily. He saw Kade glance at him, and in the boy’s gaze and shy smile, he saw acceptance. The success of his plan had changed many minds among the Ziemites. Drake had made it clear to all that they owed their freedom to two people above all, their beloved Spirit and . . . her chosen mate.
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