Earth Cry

by Nick Cook

  ‘But that’s an even smaller target than the engine bay. It’s a big ask, especially with a fast-moving target.’

  ‘I know it is, but we have to try.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess we do.’ A smile filled Jack’s face.

  ‘We should wait until we see the whites of their eyes.’ I unslung my carbine and rested it in the crook of a tree.

  Jack did the same. The roar of the helicopter grew louder as it wound itself up for take-off.

  ‘Let’s just hope Lady Luck is with us when we take the shot,’ Jack said.

  ‘You are doing nothing for my confidence here,’ I complained.

  ‘Yeah, sorry, my bad.’

  My jaw tightened as the Raven lifted from the ground. As it rose into the air, it took in the slack connecting it to the micro mind’s harness. Soon that was airborne too, slowly spinning beneath the helicopter as it was lifted from the ground.

  ‘Damn it, the crystal gyrating like that will make it even friggin’ harder to hit,’ Jack muttered.

  ‘Tell me about it.’

  The Raven turned on its axis, dipped its nose and headed over the jungle – straight towards us.

  As I was down to my last ten bullets, I flicked my carbine’s selector to single-shot mode. Through its scope I could see the antigravity pad gyrating as the Raven raced towards us.

  Jack took the first shot, his suppressor doing its job to minimise the muzzle flash as well as the sound of his bullet. He grimaced. ‘Damn it, nowhere near.’

  I did my best to steady my breathing. I waited, anticipating where the antigravity pad was going to be rather than where it currently was. I breathed out as I squeezed the trigger and fired. At the same moment the Raven moved a fraction to the right and I lost sight of the crystal in the scope. When I reacquired it, there was no sign of any damage to the metal device.

  Then the helicopter was on top of us, beginning to race away. We had seconds left at most.

  Jack flicked his carbine’s selector to automatic mode and grimaced as his shots went wide again.

  The Raven had already reached the next ridge and was climbing to clear it.

  Desperation blazed through me as I braced my legs. Through the scope the ring of lights on the device was barely visible as it gyrated back into view.

  Please, god, let me pull this off…

  I channelled all my concentration, ignoring the wound in my leg, everything, and fired…

  Sparks blazed out from the antigravity plate and its lights blinked out. The micro mind lurched downwards and the Raven’s engine screamed as it battled to maintain height against the sudden dead weight of the crystal dragging it down towards the jungle canopy.

  Jack stared at me. ‘How the hell did you pull that shot off?’

  ‘Lady Luck obviously adores me,’ I replied.

  The helicopter bucked and weaved, snaking its way through the air towards the SUVs in the car park at the bottom of the trail.

  ‘Crap, it looks as if the pilot might be able to make it to those vehicles,’ Jack said.

  ‘Let’s get a move on then,’ I told him. I stowed my weapon and raced towards my bike, pulling my helmet back on.

  ‘You mean we’re going after them?’ Jack asked.

  ‘Of course we bloody are.’

  ‘You do remember what just happened to Mike when he tried to get down the mountain on a motorbike?’

  ‘Let’s just pray that Lady Luck hasn’t gone for a tea break then.’

  Jack shook his head at me as he leapt on his bike, fastening his helmet on. Together we sped away through the jungle and out on to the trail.

  Luckily, no bullets hissed passed us as we sped away. I would take any break that came our way right now, but what about that damned Reaper drone still up in the sky?

  Without even discussing it, we dived off the track at the first opportunity, exactly as we’d seen Mike do.

  Skidding down the steep mountain had to be the most frightening thing I’d ever done in my life. Not only was the slope almost vertical, but our Zero bikes were so steeply angled downwards that we were both in danger of being pitched over the handlebars. The only thing that kept me going was the threat pressing down on us from that unseen eye in the sky.

  We drew closer to the blackened patch of ground where Mike had been taken out, wisps of smoke still rising from it. There was no sign of the wreckage from his Zero motorbike and my heart lifted for a moment. But then I spotted burnt lumps of blackened flesh scattered across the mountain and bile filled my mouth. The bike must have pitched over the nearby cliff and was lying in a mangled heap at the bottom of the mountain. A searing pain far worse than my bullet wound swirled inside me.

  ‘Jesus, the poor guy,’ Jack muttered over the intercom.

  The stench of burnt flesh filled my nose as we passed the impact crater. I tried to ignore it as our motorbikes slid over loose shale and we continued our breakneck journey downwards.

  I managed to glance up to see what was happening with the Raven. Across the other side of the valley, smoke billowed from the police helicopter’s engine and was dropping rapidly towards the treeline.

  ‘Shit, they are going in harder than I expected,’ Jack said.

  ‘But what about Cristina?’

  ‘Just pray that Lady Luck is looking after her too.’

  I couldn’t imagine her terror right now. However I tried to justify it in my mind, this was my doing.

  Hope surged in me as the pilot somehow found something left in the dying helicopter. We heard a final scream from the Raven’s engine as it made a slow, spiralling descent and disappeared into the jungle about a mile away from the parked SUVs. A moment later a distant thud reached us and black smoke billowed from the crash site.

  Please be OK, Cristina—

  ‘Watch out, Lauren!’ Jack’s voice came through my helmet’s speakers.

  I snapped back just in time to see another cliff edge rushing up towards me. I gripped the brakes so hard I was surprised the handles didn’t come off in my hands. With a stomach-churning judder, my Zero came to a stop right at the lip of the cliff, a sheer drop of at least a hundred metres beyond it, jagged boulders below. Jack just avoided cannonballing into me as he skidded to a stop to my right.

  He peered over the edge. ‘Holy fuck!’

  ‘Yeah, that.’ Before my brain had a chance to catch up with the fact we’d both just nearly plummeted to our death, I opened up the throttle and sped away along the edge of the cliff.

  We were once more hurtling down the mountain on a small goat track towards a thicket of jungle dead ahead of us.

  A sixth sense kicked in that something was wrong. I glanced over my shoulder to see the thing I’d been dreading – a white flash of light in the sky.

  ‘Missile launch!’ I shouted into my mic. ‘Make for the treeline – it’s our only chance!’

  I opened the throttle wide, ducked my head down over the handlebars and raced towards the jungle below us. Jack became a blur next to me as he kept pace, both our Zeros bouncing hard over the uneven ground. Stones flew up from our wheels as we sped across the scrub-covered mountainside, the safety of the trees’ shadows just ahead.

  I didn’t even attempt to brake as we hurtled into them at full speed, hitting several low branches that bounced off my helmet and bruised my arms and chest.

  A shape blurred overhead.

  ‘Get down!’ Jack shouted through the intercom. He reached out and grabbed hold of my Zero. We both toppled sideways, our bikes skidding away from us as we slid to a stop.

  A heartbeat later a wave blast smashed into us with a roar. Overloaded by the deafening noise, my ears hummed into silence as the explosion roared over us with a wall of heat. With a stutter of static, my night vision failed and darkness clamped in around me. I struggled to breathe as the blast rolled away through the jungle. Between the cracks spidering my visor, I saw trees on fire around us.

  Jack’s face, silhouetted against the flames, loomed into view over me, his mouth mov
ing silently. Gradually the silence was replaced by a ringing noise, which then became a muffled version of his voice.

  ‘We have to get out of here,’ I heard him saying at last through my helmet’s intercom.

  I managed a nod as my night vision stuttered back into life.

  My body felt as if I’d been run over by a rampaging elephant as I managed to stand, my leg wound stinging like a bitch. Nearby, our Zeros were partly covered with earth, but otherwise looked intact.

  We worked together as quickly as we could to dig them out, my body trembling as a trickle of blood ran down inside my helmet from my right ear. We climbed back on to the bikes. I was going to need a lot of plasters when this was all over.

  Then, impossibly, we were heading down the mountain again, through the jungle, leaving the burning trees far behind.

  It might have been minutes or even hours; I wasn’t aware of much else until the slope began to level out as the river came into view.

  We crossed the bridge and saw smoke rising from the jungle where the Raven had gone down. As we set off on the trail back into the jungle, the gloom began to give way to the copper tones of the building sunrise starting to tint the mountain peaks in the distance.

  I barely registered any of this. All I could picture was Cristina’s twisted body in the wreckage. I knew right then that if I saw her dead, especially after what had happened to Mike, it would be the end of me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I collected no end of additional bruises as we rode through the jungle, thanks to being body-slammed by countless more branches as we sped between them. The occasional one caught at my leg wound, making spots dance in front of my eyes. We weren’t the only things being battered. Both Zero motorbikes were looking pretty dented too, but to their credit neither bike had missed a beat. It wasn’t my physical injuries that were the problem, more the utter mess my head was in. Losing Mike had tipped me into a dark place and Cristina’s fate was weighing heavily on my soul. I had their blood on my hands.

  Ahead of us the rising column of smoke was only a few hundred metres away.

  ‘Time to get ready for whatever is waiting for us,’ I said into my mic as my insides hollowed out.

  ‘Be ready for anything,’ Jack replied.

  That was exactly the problem. My imagination had conjured up a terrible nightmare. I unclipped the strap holding my LRS in its holster, ready to draw it quickly if necessary.

  We both slowed to a crawl and nausea crept up the back of my throat as I prepared myself to see Cristina’s mangled body.

  Just ahead through the trees, I saw flames licking around the canopy of the crashed Raven. It hung from the branches of a tree, its metal fuselage bent like a deflated balloon. My gaze swept to the cockpit. The pilot and Villca had been thrown through the canopy and their bodies lay still on the ground. I felt nothing at seeing the police commandant dead. He’d had everything coming to him. But there was no sign of Cristina’s body, nor Alvarez’s – and no sign of the micro mind either.

  Jack pointed at the ground as we stopped next to Villca. ‘Look, there are footprints heading out from the wreckage. So the good news is that Cristina may have survived the crash. The bad news is it’s likely so did Alvarez.’

  ‘But Cristina could still be badly injured.’

  ‘Yes, I realise that, but at least she’s probably alive.’

  In the dim light of the growing sunrise I could make out tyre marks leading away through the jungle with a large groove between them.

  Jack was gazing at the indentations in the ground too. ‘These suggest a search party found them and dragged the micro mind away. Which means they can’t be that far ahead of us.’

  Fresh determination filled me. ‘Come on, we still have a chance to catch them. This one is for Mike.’

  We raced away, following the track that had been helpfully cleared for us. Within moments we’d reached the main trail, also chewed up by the dragged micro mind.

  As we rode along it, sweat poured down my back, despite the deep chill inside me. It seemed my body had joined my mind in being a bundle of contradictions. I wasn’t sure how to feel both physically and emotionally. Hard soldier or grieving civilian who’d lost her friend. I certainly had no idea where my reserves of energy to carry on were coming from.

  Thanks to the Zeros’ silent motors, we heard voices just ahead above the chatter of the jungle. A moment later we saw the glow of vehicle headlights between the tree trunks.

  ‘Looks as if they’ve already made it back to the car park,’ Jack said.

  ‘So let’s do this last bit on foot,’ I said into my mic.

  ‘Roger that.’

  We pulled up and dismounted, hiding our bikes with leaves. Both armed, and with the Empyrean Key stowed safely in my rucksack, we crept through the trees towards the SUVs, where at least twenty Overseers soldiers had gathered. A big truck at the rear drew my attention.

  A harness from a crane mounted on its flatbed was being attached to the now mud-covered micro mind. Alvarez, who I was disappointed to see looked fine apart from a bandage to his head, was directing the loading of the micro mind on to the truck. My whole being lifted as Cristina appeared from behind another vehicle, her arm in a sling. She headed up to Alvarez. I was expecting her to lash out, or at least shout at the man. I wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

  Alvarez reached out for her gently and squeezed her shoulder with the tenderness of someone greeting an old friend. Cristina nodded and smiled back at him.

  ‘What the hell? She should be spitting in his face,’ Jack said.

  ‘God knows how, but he seems to have her wrapped round his little finger. We’ll just have to put her straight when we rescue her.’

  ‘Damned right,’ Jack replied.

  I looked at the micro mind as it was slowly raised by the crane on to the back of the truck. ‘OK, have you got any smoke grenades or flash bangs left? I’m out.’

  ‘Two smoke grenades, one flash bang. Why, what are you thinking?’

  ‘You set them off back on the trail to draw the attention of Alvarez and his mercs. Then I’ll try to hijack that truck – right after I rescue Cristina.’

  ‘There are so many holes in that plan it’s not even funny. And even if we manage to pull this off, what’s to stop the Overseers firing another Reaper missile right up our tailpipe?’

  ‘They won’t risk destroying the micro mind.’

  Jack pulled off his helmet and gazed at me. ‘Right, you’re the boss.’

  I couldn’t help but notice the lack of conviction in his voice. But I already knew what I would have to do if it came to it.

  ‘I’ll circle back and help you the moment I have their attention,’ Jack said.

  His eyes slid away from mine and he headed off into the jungle towards the trail. Whatever was going on with him, I had to ignore it. I didn’t have the head space for that right now.

  I checked the last clip for my carbine. Only three rounds left. My LRS wasn’t much better – just a few bullets. But if this went to plan, I wouldn’t need either weapon.

  I watched the micro mind being lowered on to the truck and detached from its harness. Then a flash of light came from the trail, followed by several rounds of bullets that pinged off the vehicles.

  Alvarez began shouting orders and the Overseers raced forward to return fire into the smoke billowing across the track. But Alvarez himself wasn’t going anywhere and he ushered Cristina into the safety of an SUV. He grabbed a merc hurrying past him and pointed to the vehicle she was sitting in. The guy nodded and he and his two colleagues took up defensive positions round the SUV. Alvarez drew his pistol and began scanning the treeline around him.

  Fuck. The guy was a mind reader, or more likely that we’d used this stunt one too many times on his soldiers.

  OK, so I needed an instant plan B. I made sure I had the carbine set to single-shot mode and fired my remaining rounds straight at Alvarez.

  Maybe it was instinct that made hi
m duck, and my bullets hissed harmlessly over his head. A split second later, his mercs returned fire and I threw myself sideways as bullets sliced the air. I discarded the carbine and grabbed my LRS from its holster as the guards moved forward, shooting as they came. But then two small black shapes arced towards them from the jungle.

  ‘Grenade!’ the guy at the head of the mercs shouted.

  I aimed my LRS and winged one of three soldiers. He wheeled away, clutching his shoulder.

  The other two threw themselves flat as the grenades struck the ground and billowed smoke over them.

  Jack burst out of the jungle and sprinted towards me. ‘Time to get the hell out of here.’

  ‘But Cristina—’

  ‘Take them out!’ Alvarez shouted, cutting me off.

  Bullets whistled out of the pall of smoke that obscured the Overseers and their vehicles.

  ‘But we still have to grab that truck with the micro mind.’

  ‘Then let’s do exactly that.’

  Together, at a run, we circled round towards the front of the vehicle as gunfire crackled, the mercs shooting up the surrounding jungle.

  Jack and I kept low as we darted across the road beneath the level of the cab.

  The driver was peering into his rear-view mirror at the smoke billowing over the rest of the vehicles.

  I tightened my grip on my LRS, aiming it at the door, as Jack grabbed hold of the handle and yanked it open.

  The female soldier in the driver’s seat stared first at me and then at my gun pointed straight at her head.

  I started to pull the trigger when I thought of Mike and stopped. No, I had to be better than this. Instead, I put my finger to my lips and gestured for her to get out of the cab. She quickly nodded and climbed down. I waited until she had her back to me and aimed a sharp hand chop at the pressure point on the back of her neck – a move that Tom had shown us. The woman crumpled to the ground unconscious.

  Jack raised his eyebrows at me, but without a word dragged her into the undergrowth. He helped himself to her peaked cap as I jumped into the cab and pulled off my crash helmet.