by Gail Daley
"Look at those other doors, they’re thick. I bet they wouldn’t get hurt too bad if they lock themselves in one of the other rooms,” Rupert argued.
Zack had been examining the schematics of the tunnel just outside the Safe rooms. "Okay, that’s one strategy that might be tried, can you think of any others?” he asked.
Lucinda had been looking at the map too. "They only left about six of them. Why don’t we open the door?” she inquired.
"What?” squalled the boys. "You can’t do that! I bet they’ve got weapons and explosive charges! If we let them in, they can set them off in here. People will get hurt. Our people.”
Lucinda made a rude noise and pointed to two access tunnels beside the door. "You don’t listen! I didn’t say let them come down into the cavern. If we open the door pretending we’ve come to get them, they should let us in. If they don’t we can wait there for when they come out. Like we did that time Grouter sent us in to get—” she stopped and looked guiltily at her parents."—Stuff. And we got trapped in that alley, remember?”
"We could ambush them!” Rupert and Roderick said in unison.
Zack looked over at Katherine and grinned. "Good little strategy session, huh?”
She punched him playfully in the arm. "They have a good teacher.”
"Do you think they’ll try anything right away, sir?” Lolli asked.
"No, my guess is they’ll want to coordinate any attack with Lister’s crew. Lister will need to wait for a lull in this storm before her crew can operate up top, so we have plenty of time to get our men in place.”
"Um, Zack?” Katherine asked. "I think that it would be just like Lister to use those fishers as hostages when the fight starts. Most of the fishers are already in the infirmary, so when the attack starts, we could isolate them by closing the infirmary door from here.”
"Can you handle that?” Zack asked the screen operator.
"Sure,” the boy replied. "I have auxiliary control from here. I can override any command they input.”
"How soon will there be a break in the weather,” Zack asked the meteorologist.
Joyce frowned. "From the size of this one, I’d say we’ve got about twenty-four hours before the eye gets here.”
Zack nodded. "Okay, Lolli assemble a security team to meet me in those tunnels just outside the safe room door. Do we have gas masks?”
"Yes,” Lolli answered. "Do you think they are planning to gas us?”
"It’s been done and we don’t know for sure what is in that knapsack,” he replied. "I'm thinking better safe than sorry. I also want two teams to guard the access tunnels to the Lodge and the animal shelter.”
"While we have time,” Vernal who had not yet gone to bed suggested, "I think we might cut down our casualties by setting a few traps inside the Lodge and at the tunnel entrances.”
He looked over at the boys. "I think you can help with that. We will need pressure plates and some netting. And I think maybe a quick release trigger on some of the animal pens. Particularly those feisty birds.”
Twenty-four hours later Corrine and Katherine sat tensely in the command center watching their men prepare to go to battle. On screens the two women could glimpse the various groups moving into positions of defense. For safety, everyone who had stayed in the Lodge had been temporarily moved into the dorm section of the Barn Dome. Vernal commanded the squad protecting the access from the Lodge and had already met with his team. Zack would join the clan fighters in the Tunnels after he had given his final instructions. Lolli and more security were guarding the doors to the Barn Dome.
Rupert and Roderick had put up a fuss at not being able to accompany Zack and his fighters.
“No,” Zack had said quietly. "Much as I would enjoy your company everyone has an important part to play, including you two. I want you boys in the second defense. Report to Security Spec Nigel and he will give you instructions. Lucinda, I need you to take a weapon, go down and wait with Violet and Jelli. You're in charge of you and Violet. Report to Master Drover Brinna who is in command down there for orders.”
"Take a weapon for Violet, also,” Katherine instructed. "Juliette, Corrine and I will need you up here. Go to the armory and draw weapons for everyone here, including yourself and bring them back here. Joseph, go with her.”
“The eye of the storm is making landfall,” Joyce warned quietly. "We've got about twenty minutes left.”
As the group disbursed, Katherine reached for Corrine’s hand, squeezing it for comfort.
Juliette and Joseph had barely arrived back with weapons for the command center crew when Noreen, the tech monitoring the Top Side Landing Room exclaimed. "My screen’s dark!”
"They’ve found the console. I wondered if they would,” Katherine said. "Do you still have audio Noreen?”
At the woman’s nod, she instructed, "keep monitoring it. We may get some inkling as to their immediate intentions.”
"Mia,” she said to the Clanswoman who was acting as com coordinator for the entire dome area defense, "notify everyone about losing the visual on the screen in the Top Side Landing Room.”
"I can’t see how attacking us can be a part of Lewiston’s plot,” she murmured to Corrine. "She has to be doing this on her own.”
“I wonder,” Corrine said thoughtfully. "I wonder if Lewiston expected us to recognize her and refuse to give her group refuge. He could claim we violated maritime law by our refusal. It would be a lever to use against us in Parliament.”
"Lewiston has no voice in Parliament. The complaint would have to come from the DeMedicis and Donna DeMedici wouldn’t start something like that unless she was ready to go to war,” Katherine objected.
"They’ve opened the tunnel door, Mi’Ladies,” Mia informed them, diverting Katherine’s attention from Parliamentary plotting to more immediate concerns. She covered her mouth with her fist to keep from crying out as she watched Zack approach the open doorway. At least no one shot at him right away. His fighters were lined up on either side of the door so they couldn’t be seen by the rooms’ occupants.
“We’ve got an open door in the Lodge,” Joseph said. "I read ten heat signatures.”
“I’ll notify Lord Vernal,” Mia replied.
When Zack joined the fighters waiting at the tunnel mouth, he signaled for the door to be opened.
“Sorry for the delay, folks,” Zack said, attempting to look as harmless as possible. "If you’ll gather up your stuff, we’ll get you into more comfortable quarters as soon as we can.”
As he spoke, he moved slowly toward the infirmary door. The six men gathered on the other side of the room eyed him suspiciously before one of them spoke.
"Hey!” he exclaimed, "I know you. You were on Loki with the unit that saved our butts when the weasels had us pinned down. Jackson, isn’t it?”
"Yes, I was on Loki. Weren’t you with Lewiston’s unit?”
"Yeah, that’s right. I’m Thompson.” He swapped looks with the others and a decision seemed to pass between them. "This here wasn’t our idea, sir. When we took service with the DeMedici’s we thought we were mustering out and becoming civilians. Then we hear Lewiston’s taking over and suddenly we’re back in service again, only there’s no uniforms and we’re attacking civilians. We don’t like it. Do you know what’s going on, sir?”
"Yeah, I do soldier. If you six will give me your word not to take any further action, I will explain it to you.”
They swapped looks again. "You've got it sir,” Thompson, who seemed to have made himself spokesman, replied.
Zack nodded. "Okay, give me a minute.” At the other’s nod, he spoke into his com. "Stand down guys, we’re okay here. You can come in and move out the fishers in the infirmary.” He touched his com again. "Katherine, Vernal, we have a truce here, but it’s only for these six. I have to settle a few things here, and then I’ll join Vernal. In the meantime, tell Cora to get beds ready for some of the injured fishers.”
"Okay. Stay safe, love,” she responded. His
com beeped Vernal’s acknowledgement.
Zack turned to the waiting ex-soldiers. "Well boys you were right to suspect a rat in the woodpile. First, the DeMedici’s really were looking for immigrants to replace the males who were lost or sterilized during the war. I don’t know what kind of deal they offered you, but whatever it was may not be what Lewiston told you, because he has a different agenda. From what we learned, he apparently has a worldwide coup planned. I suspect it’s like that failed coup on Janus just as the war ended. Michaels, our Colonel told me he suspected Lewiston was a part of that. We also discovered that Lewiston is using some kind of drug on Donna Sabina to make her compliant. When this is over, you have my word I will ask O’Teague to speak for you to your Dona.”
"What if she won’t take us back?” Thompson asked.
"Then I’ll speak for you to the O’Teague about switching clans,” Zack promised. "You understand I can’t guarantee anything, because it isn’t really my decision, but the Laird’s a reasonable woman. In the meantime though, I will have to ask you to leave your weapons behind and we need to put you under guard until this is finished.”
The men exchanged looks again and then removed weapons. "Thank you, sir,” Thompson said.
In the command center, Katherine breathed a sigh of relief.
“I do like a man who can talk his way out of a fight,” Corrine said approvingly. "Now, if only Vernal can be as successful...”
"That may depend on which group Lister is in,” Katherine reminded her. "Somehow I don’t see her as being willing to give up world dominance.”
"We’ve got more heat signatures, this time on the front and back doors to the barn dome,” Mia reported. "I've notified Lolli and Lord Vernal.”
"Do we have any visuals yet?” Katherine asked.
"No. No audio either. They seem to have been able to jam the vid signals,” Mia reported.
Corrine nodded. "I'm afraid we will have to send out some scouts and have them report back. Mia, while we still have internal communications, notify Lord Zack, Lord Vernal, Master Drover Brinna and Security Spec Nigel that the coms will probably go down as soon as the attackers enter an area. They’ll need scouts and messengers. We will need a few messengers here too.”
"Yes, Mi’Lady,” Mia responded and began give low-voiced instructions on her com and shortly thereafter, Rupert, Roderick and two other teenagers appeared in the Command Center.
"Reporting for messenger duty ma’am,” the oldest of the girls told Mia who nodded acknowledgement.
Corrine turned to Juliette. "First Daughter Juliette,” she said. Juliette jumped and looked at her. "You will be giving instructions to our messengers. Please see they have a place to wait until we need them. You can also make sure that everyone here has food and something to drink. The robochef is over there,” she said pointing to the back wall.
Zack saw to the disposal of the six DeMedici solders before touching bases with Vernal, who reported that before they lost touch in the Lodge, he heard two of the traps set in the doorways go off. Since the net traps were designed to be non-lethal, there was no way to know if those they had caught had been released when their comrades had entered behind them.
"Whatever group Lister is in probably won’t stand down,” Zack told Vernal grimly. "She seemed to be high up in Lewiston’s plans, but maybe the others will. Take no chances though. If you have to shoot, use deadly force. We’ve got heat signatures at the other doorways in this dome, so I’ll be handling the other side. We’ll coordinate through Katherine in Command since she's in the central position. Remember, the only easy day was yesterday,” they repeated together.
Darla Lister had instigated a quick but through search of the Lodge, which to her surprise had turned up no people but had sprung several of Vernal’s traps. However, they had discovered the three tunnels to the Barn Dome. "itch must be over there,” she muttered to herself, before splitting up her team into three groups. After rescuing the four men who had as she told them ‘been stupid enough to fall into a trap’, she elected to take one of the end tunnels herself.
Unfortunately, the tunnel Lister chose opened out onto the lowest level. She was in no mood to admire the beautiful warm lake with its blue sand beach. To her disgust one of her ex-solders tripped a net trap as they exited the tunnel. Lister left her hanging there in the net to cut herself free. She headed for the screened door leading up a lighted stairway. The pressure plate that triggered the net trap also unlocked the Ostamu pen and a loud bang startled the birds into charging into the area where they attacked anything that got in the way. Two of Lister’s men were taken out of the fight by the birds’ talons and beaks. A third only saved himself by running back into the tunnel toward the Lodge. The one she left in the net wisely decided not to free herself.
Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Lister slashed out with her knife cutting off the heads on a couple of too-aggressive birds causing them to run all over with blood spurting from their necks. While this was distracting the other birds and the Drovers, she slipped over to the wall behind the pens where she hid in the shadows. From her vantage point, she could see a lighted doorway leading up to the next level. As she watched, the Master Drover and her crew drove the angry birds away from the base of the stairs and the wounded attackers and took the woman caught in the net prisoner.
"Is this all of them?” she asked.
"Brinna, I think I saw one of them running back down the tunnel,” a boy about sixteen told her.
"Well, tie up these guys and lock them in the veterinary compound. Joel, I need you to run upstairs and report our catch. Be careful, there may be more bad guys on that floor too. This isn’t the only access tunnel.”
Lister smiled to herself as she watched the young messenger key in the code to unlock the gate before heading up the stairs to report.
Once the fierce birds had calmed down they ignored the dead birds and wandered around their new space. Brinna ordered a couple of her crew to keep an eye on the live ones, clean up the dead birds, and sent most of the rest to search for any escapees. She left one boy to keep an eye on the tunnel.
The guard securing the tunnel access could also see the door to the upper level. Lister waited until everyone else had left before slipping around behind him. Lister had been a trained recon soldier during the war. The young guard was alternately watching the tunnel mouth and the birds and didn’t hear her behind him until her knife drove into his back, piercing his heart. She hauled him back into the tunnel mouth and casually cleaned it on his clothes before shoving it back into the sheath.
Peering around the door, she could hear the noise of fighting on the floor above her. Silently she coded the gate to open and slipped up the stairs. Luck was with her. Only one man was guarding the top entrance, and he was looking off towards where the noise of the fight was coming from. Like the man below, he never knew Lister was near until she stabbed him.
Vernal was exchanging pulse blasts with the invaders pinned down in the tunnel entrance. Briefly, Lister debated helping the attackers by taking a shot at Vernal’s crew from the rear, but changed her mind. She had her own reasons for leading this raid. She had convinced Lewiston the primary purpose of this raid was to take out Katherine and Corrine. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him; he didn’t need to know she also wanted Juliette. Murdering the child would look bad with the other clans, but it was necessary. With Katherine and Corrine gone, the rest of the clan would have no clear leader on the Island. They should surrender and then Lewiston would have a base to from which to attack Glass City. Then they would have two clans under their sway.
Upstairs in the command room, Katherine reminded herself not to show outwardly how tense she was. She repeated the mantra silently ‘A good leader must seem calm and in control or her fear could infect her people’. She looked over at Juliette, who met her eyes and gave her a tight smile, as she made sure that everyone had food and drinks. Katherine nodded back at her and turned back to the screens.
"Hey,” Joseph exclaimed, "we've got visual back in the Lodge. Look there’s someone coming back down the tunnel from the Animal pens.”
"Not one of us,” Corrine said, after looking at the screen. "We need to warn Brinna and the others. Juliette how many messengers do we have left?”
"We have three—and me,” she replied. "Uncle Vernal is closest. If I take the one to him, the others can go to Papa, Brinna and Lolli since they know the barn better.”
Katherine frowned. She would have to let her go. Juliette had cleverly cut off her objection about not being familiar enough with the Barn to sneak around.
"All right, but take this with you along with your Force Wand.” Katherine pulled a short knife out of her boot and showed her how to attach the sheath to her belt. Juliette nodded and slipped down the stairs with the other messengers.
"You have to let her go, Katherine,” Corrine commiserated. "I know it’s hard but she can handle it.”
“How did you do it? You didn’t have you to say it was time to let go.”
"Sometimes I didn’t,” Corrine retorted, "when I should have, I suppose. You will too.”
Suddenly all the screens came back to life, and a cheer went up from those watching them. "Somebody's found the jammer!” cried Mia and everyone’s attention became riveted on the various battles going on.
Lolli and Zack were trussing up the attackers that had come in at the ground level barn entrances. Vernal and his group were chasing the invaders back down the tunnel to the Lodge.
Katherine was watching Juliette move toward the tunnel after Vernal when she unexpectedly spotted the dead guard by the door to the living quarters and watched in horror as a shadow flitted after Juliette.
“It’s Lister!” she said. "She's going for Juliette! Corrine I’m going down. She’s tried twice before. I told her there wouldn’t be a third time.”
“Katherine!” Corrine called, tossing her own knife to her. "Take her down girl.”
By the time Katherine reached the tunnel, both Lister and Juliette had disappeared. She forced herself to take a deep breath to calm down, and sent her third eye outward. There! She could feel both of them ahead of her. Juliette’s anger and fear and Lister's hate and contempt as they faced each other were clear.