Logan stood up and found the table. He began feeling for the swords and bracers when there was a sudden intensely bright flash of light in the hallway, but he had been looking away so his eyes were unaffected by the flash. Then someone opened the door to the Great Hall, briefly illuminating the passageway with sunlight before it was suddenly closed, but it was enough for Logan to momentarily see the swords and bracers. He quickly gathered them together, and as he turned he heard Ravenwood’s voice from the doorway.
“This way, boy,” the old man urged. “No time to lose.”
He felt Ravenwood’s hand on his elbow, guiding him toward the Great Hall. Men were stumbling around shouting or lying on the ground moaning.
“What about Cap and Lena?” asked Logan. “Where are they?”
“We’re here,” said Cap from behind Ravenwood.
Ravenwood let go of Logan’s elbow and moved ahead a few steps. He heard Ravenwood push on the heavy doors leading to the Great Hall, but they wouldn’t open. He saw Ravenwood’s silhouette bend low as he seemed to be pressing his open palms against the wooden doors. There was a loud cracking sound then the doors flew open, flooding the hallway with light.
“Quickly!” said Ravenwood to Logan and the others. “They have the sphere and are headed toward the helicopter. They must not escape!”
Kane ran by Logan, grabbing his sword, dagger, and bracer as he passed. He slipped the bracer over his forearm and initiated the antiballistic shield, causing a light to momentarily shimmer around his body. Cap and Lena did the same and followed Kane out the Great Hall’s main door and into the morning sun.
Logan slipped on his bracer and gripped his sword. He turned to see if he could assist Ravenwood, but the big man was already gliding past him with the ease of a ten-point buck in an open field. Logan turned and followed, but not before he saw three Red Leg guards and several Greenspurs, including Tamara, emerging from the hallway. They stumbled and squinted their eyes in the light. They all started to run toward him, but Tamara signaled for her Greenspurs to hold back. One of the Red Legs fired a burst from his M-35 at Logan’s chest, but the bullets deflected off his shield.
Logan turned and raced after his companions. Once outside in the morning sun, he could see Dornicz, three Red Legs, and Linsky running up a trail, presumably toward a helicopter landing pad somewhere above. He ran with all his strength and soon overtook Lena and Cap, but he could not catch Ravenwood, who bounded up the hill and disappeared behind a cluster of trees and bushes.
He heard shots ringing out. When he reached the cluster of trees, he saw Ravenwood hiding behind a large oak tree. Another shot bounced off the tree’s bark, causing Ravenwood to cling closer to the trunk. Logan continued up the path, ignoring the bullets that whistled all around him. He found the source of the bullets, two Red Legs with M-35s. When they realized Logan had a shield, they engaged theirs and pulled out their swords.
Logan immediately attacked, swinging at one and blocking the other’s blade with his arm guard. He kicked one of them in the gut and slashed hard at the other but missed. Then Cap and Lena arrived. Cap side-stepped one Red Leg’s slashing blade and responded by cutting him across his stomach. Lena parried a flurry of attacks from the other Red Leg, who had the higher ground, but she drove him up the hill with her own attacks until she was able to slice into his right leg. The man collapsed in anguish, screaming and holding his leg.
Ravenwood caught up to them. “The Apollo Stone!” he yelled. “Get the Apollo Stone!”
Logan looked down the hill past Ravenwood and saw three Red Leg soldiers had emerged from the Great Hall and were running toward them. He and the others turned and raced to join Kane.
As he ran, Logan heard the sound of a turbine engine starting. He looked ahead to see a helicopter, its rotors beginning to turn. About fifty meters in front of him Kane was battling Colonel Dornicz and another Red Leg. Logan watched as Kane deflected Dornicz’s attack with his sword and countered with a thrust of his dagger, but Dornicz blocked it with his arm guard. The other Red Leg attacked from Kane’s right side but lost his footing, leaving him exposed. Kane plunged his sword into the man’s side. Dornicz saw Logan and the others approaching and swung at Kane, then retreated toward the helicopter. Kane immediately gave chase. Ahead of everyone was Colonel Linsky, who had nearly reached the helicopter.
Logan stopped running and picked up the M-35 from the Red Leg Kane had killed. He handed it to Cap, who had just arrived with Lena.
“Don’t let that helicopter take off,” he said. “Lena and I will protect your back.”
Cap took the gun and dropped to one knee. “No sweat,” he said. “Just shoot the one place the Berring T-85 transport helicopter doesn’t have armored plating, the tail rotor axle.” He squeezed off a shot but missed his target.
The three Red Legs coming up the hill were nearly upon them. Logan looked at Lena. She was standing with her sword and guard at the ready. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were intently focused on the approaching men.
Cap fired at the rotor again. “Damn it!” he said.
“Do you want me to take the shot?” Lena asked Cap.
“I got this,” replied Cap, irritated.
“Why did you give him the gun?” Lena asked Logan without looking at him.
“I thought he’d know best where to shoot the thing,” he responded, a bit defensively.
Another missed shot. Another expletive from Cap.
Logan took a quick look over his shoulder and saw Ravenwood had nearly caught up with Kane, who was once again fighting Dornicz at a spot just twenty meters away from the helicopter. Linsky was already at the helicopter yelling at the pilot to get it into the air. Then Linsky turned and fired his pistol several times at the onrushing Ravenwood, who ducked and swerved, sometimes holding his hands out as if he were pushing the air in front of him.
Logan returned his attention to the three charging Red Legs. Lena took three quick steps and met two of them. Her sword whistled through the air and sliced a Red Leg’s throat. Logan charged as well, fooling one of the Red Legs with a feint to the right. He drove his sword forward and pierced the middle soldier’s leg, causing him to drop to the ground screaming.
Another shot rang out, and Cap shouted in victory. He picked up his sword and joined Logan and Lena. The remaining Red Leg retreated down the slope several meters and assumed a defensive posture. Logan looked over his shoulder and saw the helicopter’s tail rotor was no longer spinning properly.
“Good job, Cap,” said Logan. “Now let’s go get the stone.”
Ignoring the remaining Red Leg, they turned and ran toward the helicopter. Logan saw Kane drive his sword into Dornicz’s shoulder then he cut the Red Leg officer’s thigh. Dornicz dropped to the ground.
Seeing Dornicz go down, Linsky engaged his arm guard and attacked Kane with a long thin rapier. To Linsky’s right, the helicopter pilot was swinging his sword at Ravenwood, who defended himself with a blade he had picked up from the ground, though he was clearly no swordsman.
Logan pointed at Ravenwood with his sword and yelled, “Help Ravenwood!”
Lena and Cap veered toward Ravenwood to assist. Logan stole a look over his shoulder and saw the remaining Red Leg they had left behind was pursuing, but was clearly disinclined to catch up to them.
As Logan approached the helicopter, Linsky was attacking Kane with combinations of feints and strikes, slashes and jabs. Kane retreated several steps, trying to adjust to Linsky’s graceful but deadly style of fighting. He raised his dagger to block Linsky’s sword but was caught off guard when Linsky shifted the angle of his attack with a slight wrist movement. Kane managed to block the attack, but was unable to block Linsky’s vicious kick to his ribs, sending him sprawling against the side of the helicopter.
Logan arrived and immediately slashed at Linsky’s exposed right flank, but the SPD officer easily sidestepped the assault. Logan blocked a counterattack from the grinning Linsky, but slipped in some loose gravel,
nearly falling to the ground. He regained his balance and barely fended off Linsky’s attempt to slit his throat. Then Kane swung for Linsky’s neck, but Linsky rolled into the helicopter’s open bay door and jumped out the opposite side.
Logan ran around the front of the helicopter in pursuit of Linsky while Kane ran around the back. Linsky was dashing for the tree line, but he stopped when he saw that a deep ravine separated him from his escape route. Logan looked to his right and saw that Lena had wounded the pilot, who sat with his back against the side of the helicopter with one hand holding his bleeding shoulder. Looking down the hill, he saw the remaining Red Leg had stopped and was tending to the wounded Colonel Dornicz.
Hopelessly outnumbered, Linsky dropped his sword and gun, and raised his hands above his head. “I surrender,” he said in a strangely amused tone. “Please do not hurt me. I am completely under your control.”
As they encircled Linsky, Ravenwood said, “The stone, please.” Breathing heavily from his exertions, he held out his hand.
Linsky reached into his inner coat pocket and retrieved the sphere. But instead of placing it in Ravenwood’s hand, he dropped it on the ground by Logan’s feet.
“And the medallion,” said Logan, gripping his sword tightly and pointing it toward the SPD colonel’s stomach.
Linsky looked at the blade and smiled. “Come now, Mr. Brandt. You’re not the type.”
“There’s a man in Williamsport who’d differ with you on that,” replied Logan.
“Ah. So now you are a killer. You’ve sipped the wine of ultimate power,” said Linsky as he reached his left hand into his breast pocket to retrieve the medallion.
As Linsky brought his hand out of his pocket, Logan heard a clicking sound and a blade shot out from the SPD officer’s right sleeve. Linsky quickly swung the blade toward Logan’s throat. Logan realized what was happening and tried to move, but he knew he was moving too slowly to avoid the weapon. Just as the knife was about strike home Lena’s blade flashed by and sliced off Linsky’s right hand at the wrist. Hand and knife fell to the ground.
Linsky screamed and fell to his knees. He dropped the medallion from his left hand and grabbed his right wrist, desperately trying to stop the blood from gushing forth. Then he pulled a handkerchief from his coat pocket and tried to tie it around his wrist using his remaining hand and his teeth.
Kane leaned down and picked up the medallion off the ground. He wiped some blood off of it and handed it to Logan. Ravenwood retrieved the sphere and also handed it to Logan, who put the items in separate pockets.
“What are we going to do with this guy?” asked Kane as he looked at Linsky. “Not the kind of man you want to leave hanging around.”
“We could let the Greenspurs hold on to him for a while until we can get away,” suggested Cap.
“They won’t hold him,” said Logan. “They hate the Guardians, but now they have a bunch of dead Red Legs, a wounded SPD officer, and a disabled Berring T-85 to account for. That won’t be good for relations, even if the PRA needs their coal.”
Logan knelt down and tightened the knot around the now semi-conscious Linsky.
“You all might want to have a look at this,” said Kane, who was looking down the hill.
Everyone but Logan stood next to Kane to see a large group of Greenspurs coming up the hill with Tamara in the front. In addition to guns, the Greenspurs were armed with spears, swords, knives, and axes.
Logan joined them a few moments later and they walked toward the Greenspurs.
“I underestimated you lowlanders,” said Tamara when the two groups were within ten meters of each other. “I thought them Red Legs would chew you up like hogs in a corn bin. Now look at the mess you made. How am I gonna explain all this?”
Ravenwood raised his hands, “Tamara. Queen Tamara. You can lay all the blame at our feet. Just let us pass through the Gap. We will be forever grateful.”
“Grateful?” she said. “Grateful! I don’t give a gatt damn how grateful you are! You put me in a bind here, Ravenwood. You know we need the trade with the lowlanders and we need the Guardians to stay out of our business. That means I gotta make up for this mess somehow.”
Ravenwood began to speak, but she held up a hand. “Time for talkin’ is past. Now drop yer swords. Turn off yer little shields and come with me peaceably. And hand over that ball. The way that SPD bastard grinned when he saw it tells me it’s gotta be of some kind of value.”
“Why not just ask him why he wants it?” asked Logan. “He’s right back there behind the helicopter.”
“Shit, he’s still alive?” she asked, craning her neck to get a better look at Linsky. “That is disappointin’!” she yelled. “Very disappointin’!”
“Disappointin’,” echoed a voice from the crowd of Greenspurs.
“Shut up, Evret!” she yelled. Returning her attention to Ravenwood, she repeated her earlier demand. “Drop yer weapons and drop the ball.”
No one moved. She looked at the sky as if to say why me?
“All right,” she said after a moment. She turned and addressed the Greenspurs gathered behind her. “Boys, shoot Ravenwood. Them others got shields, so you can knife ‘em now or shoot ‘em when their shields’ charges run out.”
Just as she spoke, Lena’s shield flickered a few times and disengaged. The Greenspurs started to walk toward them. Kane held his sword and dagger at the ready.
“Wait!” said Logan. “I’ll give you the sphere, but you have to let us go. We just want to live.”
The Greenspurs halted their advance and looked at Tamara, who replied, “Before I say yes or no, you gotta tell me what that ball is.”
“It’s a navigation orb for a big ship they built,” said Logan. “They can’t fly it without this thing, and that’s why they’re after us. We stole it and we were trying to get it to the free cites, but it’s not worth dying for.”
Tamara narrowed her eyes at Logan and said, “All right. It’s a deal.”
Ravenwood tried to stop Logan, but the young man had already tossed the sphere down the hill to Tamara. She picked it up and rolled it around in her hands. Then she looked up and smiled at Logan.
“Boys,” she said to her men. “Kill them sunsabitches. And bring me that pretty medallion.” She turned and walked down the hill toward the Great Hall, sphere in hand.
“We made a deal!” yelled Logan as the Greenspurs started walking toward them.
Tamara turned and said in a matter of fact tone, “But we didn’t spit and shake. Deal ain’t sealed ‘til ya spit and shake.” Then she continued down the hill. Logan heard a whistling sound as one of the Greenspurs fired his riffle at Ravenwood.
Ravenwood suddenly pushed the others toward the west side of the hill and yelled, “Run!”
They all dashed down the western slope toward the main trail with the Greenspurs close on their heels. Those with functioning shields ran in the rear in order to protect the group from bullets.
They were all quick runners, but the Greenspurs were quicker, having lived their entire lives climbing up and down mountain trails. They approached a narrow portion of the trail with a sharp bend. Kane, who was in the rear, suddenly turned and sliced at two of the Greenspurs who’d gotten ahead of the pack. They collapsed to the ground howling and clutching their wounds. Kane turned and resumed running. Other Greenspurs came upon their fallen kinsmen but simply leapt over them and continued the chase.
Kane yelled from behind the group, “Take the trail to the right.”
Ravenwood turned right when he reached a fork and found himself struggling through some tree branches and scrub brush that grew nearly sideways out of the mountainside.
“Down into the ravine,” said Kane.
Ravenwood and the others did as instructed and jumped down into a shallow dry ravine. Kane leapt over them and took the lead.
“In here,” he said after he’d run a few meters.
He slid through a narrow crevice in the mountain, barely wide enough to en
ter sideways. The others followed. Logan was last in line and slipped through just as the Greenspurs passed by on the trail.
No one moved or said anything for a few moments as they listened to their pursuers run down the trail past the ravine. Then Kane slid along the wall and indicated for the others to follow. Soon the narrow passage opened up into a rather large open cave. It was dimly light by the light filtering in through the narrow entrance.
“This cave is no secret to the Greenspurs,” said Kane once everyone was inside. “And I assume they’ll retrace their steps and come in here as soon as they realize we’re not on the trail.”
“Then why the hell are we in here?” asked Cap. “We’ll be trapped.”
“They know about this cave, but I’m hoping they don’t know everything about it,” replied Kane.
Lena grabbed Logan by the arm and spun him around to face her. “What the hell was that about back there?” she said angrily. “You gave the sphere to that crazy hillbilly? You know she’s going to hand it right over to the SPD. They’ll have that gunship fully operational in no time.”
Ravenwood stepped between them and put his hand on Logan’s shoulder. “You did exactly the right thing,” he said with a wink and a smile, patting Logan on his jacket’s breast pocket.
Logan reached into the pocket and retrieved the Apollo Stone. Lena and Cap stared wide-eyed at the little black orb resting in Logan’s palm. “I took it out of the case when we were at the helicopter, hoping the Greenspurs would let us go if they had the sphere.”
“It was a chance worth taking. But now we are exposed to a new danger,” said Ravenwood. “The sphere was protecting the Apollo Stone from harm, but I suspect it was also masking its signature. Without the sphere we may be considerably easier to find.”
“I thought you said it doesn’t emit any radiation?” asked Lena, concerned.
“And it doesn’t,” answered Ravenwood in a reassuring tone. “But recall what the Apollo Stone is. It is a mechanism for bending space-time, and even when it is not in use it affects the area around it in a very minute way. This minor effect is its signature, for lack of a better term.”
The Navigator (The Apollo Stone Trilogy Book 1) Page 22