by Nick Cook
Jack whistled as he turned round to take it all in. ‘All right, now we’re talking.’ He picked up a large rifle with a wide barrel. It looked as if it could have taken out a charging rhino – maybe even a battle tank. He caressed it with his hand. ‘Nice.’
‘There might be something more suitable for dealing with the Reaper,’ Lucy said. ‘If you’d like to follow me…’
We followed her to an adjacent aisle stacked with a selection of black tubular devices a couple of metres long.
Jack picked up one. ‘A Stinger missile?’
‘Indeed they are,’ Lucy replied.
‘I do love your weapons toyshop, but a Stinger only has a range of about fifteen thousand feet. The Reaper is flying way above that altitude.’
‘True, but there is something I can do to help you there. I’ve been monitoring its systems and I believe there is a way for me to bring the drone within the range of a Stinger. Unfortunately, because of my current limited functionality, I can’t get past the encryption protecting the Reaper’s critical flight systems. However, its non-critical systems are another matter. I can spoof the GPS signal it’s receiving to make the Reaper think it’s flying at a different altitude. Ideally, I would then just fly it into the mountain, but unfortunately its radar systems would stop that from happening. However, I can fool it to fly at a low enough height to put it within range of a Stinger missile.’
I gestured towards one of the tubes. ‘So you’re saying we could shoot it down with one of these?’
Lucy shrugged. ‘I believe so.’
‘OK, so say we bring down the Reaper, then what?’ Mike asked. ‘As far as I remember, that truck was totalled. And there is no way we can just carry off the micro mind between us. It weighs at least a ton.’
‘If we had the Overseers antigravity device, we could easily move it,’ Jack said.
‘A what?’ Mike asked.
‘Oh, you mean this.’ Lucy snapped her fingers and a smooth metal disc appeared in her hand, the lights round its edge unlit.
‘Hang on, that one doesn’t look shot up,’ Jack said.
‘That’s because I recreated it from the one clamped to the side of the micro mind. You can take this working version back with you.’
‘But what about your Angelus prime directive and all that?’ Mike asked.
‘It doesn’t apply in this instance,’ I said. ‘Humans have already built this – we saw it in Alice’s lab. Right, Lucy?’
‘Absolutely. Granted the Overseers only have this technology because they reverse-engineered downed alien craft, but they have it nonetheless. So you are free to take this back to your world and use it at your own discretion.’
‘So we can move the micro mind with this device, but where to? We don’t know when Niki and the security team will arrive.’
‘Ah, don’t worry,’ Lucy said. ‘I’ve been able to monitor traffic in the immediate area and located a pickup truck that will be driving on a road just below the crashed truck in the next ten minutes.’
‘The first of those Overseers reinforcements you mentioned?’ Mike asked.
Lucy shook her head. ‘No, just a local farmer heading towards Cachora.’
‘That’s where we wanted to get to,’ Mike said.
‘Perfect. In that case, once I return you to your world, you’ll have plenty of time to reach the road on foot with the micro mind and intercept the truck.’
I peered at others. ‘So to summarise our plan… We head back there, take out the bloody drone and temporarily blind the Overseers to our location. We hitch a lift with that local to the town with the micro mind on the pickup. How does that sound?’
‘Good to me,’ Jack replied.
‘But what if this farmer dude doesn’t want to help us?’ Mike asked.
Jack raised his eyebrows a fraction and gestured at the aisles lined with weapons.
Mike pulled a face at him. ‘We’re not holding up some poor local at gunpoint.’
‘If that’s what it takes to get his attention,’ Jack said.
‘Guys, that won’t be necessary, just leave it to me,’ I said. ‘I’m an expert when it comes to hitching lifts. Who can ignore a woman stranded after her vehicle has broken down? I’ll hit him with a sob story and if necessary we can also throw some cold hard cash at the guy for his troubles.’
Now Jack raised his eyebrows at me. ‘Just remind me, is this the same stranded woman who’s packing a LRS?’
‘What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,’ I replied with a grin.
‘In that case it sounds as if you’re all set,’ Lucy said. ‘I’ll transport you back once you’ve helped yourself to whatever you need from the armoury.’
Jack grinned at her. ‘Oh, trust me, we will.’
Mike blew his cheeks out and shook his head.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Back at the base of the mountain, Jack aimed the Stinger missile launch tube to the sky, his brow furrowing as he peered into the sight. ‘How can I shoot down what I can't even see?’
‘You must have missed Lucy's briefing on that whilst you were drooling over those guns,’ Mike said.
‘How many times must I tell you, never call them guns. Rifles, pistols, carbines, machine guns, but never just guns.’
I shook my head. ‘For a medical guy you do seem a bit fond of weapons.’
Jack shrugged. ‘Hey, everybody needs a hobby.’
‘I expect Jack is one of those guys who watches those dodgy YouTube videos where people get all sweaty over shooting guns,’ Mike said.
Jack glowered at him before returning his attention to the Stinger’s scope.
‘OK, chill, you two, we’ve got a job to do,’ I said.
A blinking white light appeared in the dawn sky. Through my binoculars I could see the Reaper was flying in a circular path, slowly descending towards us.
‘Nicely played, Lucy,’ I said.
Mike peered up at it. ‘Bonus points for a direct hit, Jack.’
‘I’d settle for a beer at the Rock Garden.’
‘That too.’
Jack stiffened his stance as he angled the Stinger towards the Reaper and squeezed the trigger.
There was a cracking sound like a large calibre bullet being fired and a thin missile burst out of the tube. A second later a flame lit the rear of the projectile and it hurtled away, almost straight up, trailing black smoke.
‘Fly, you beauty, fly,’ Jack whispered as he lowered the launcher to the ground.
We all watched as the Stinger ascended rapidly until it became a dwindling spec in the sky. The Reaper banked steeply to one side and veered away.
‘It looks as if the drone’s operator has just spotted the present we sent for him,’ Mike said.
‘Come on, come on…’ I said. I held my breath as the two points of lights converged.
A flash of light was followed by a billowing smoky explosion. A rumbling sound reached us as flaming specks of debris started to fall from the sky.
‘Splash one bird,’ Jack said.
‘Nice shooting, Tex,’ Mike told him. ‘I owe you that beer.’
‘I'm not from Texas.’
‘Yeah, Oklahoma, whatever.’
‘You’re going to have to make it two beers at this rate.’
‘Look, I hate to get in the way of your big bro romance here, but we need to shake a leg if we’re going to catch that lift Lucy mentioned,’ I said. ‘Let’s get the antigravity plate attached to the micro mind and then we’ll cut down through the jungle straight to the other road.’
Mike and Jack nodded and ducked into the trees, heading back towards the crashed truck with its all-important load.
I hung back and glanced up just in time to see a wing section of the Reaper crash down on the side of a mountain in the distance.
Take that, you bastard… I turned and followed the others into the jungle.
A short while later, we were rolling along a tarmac road in Stefano’s battered truck. The local farmer looked al
most biblical with his giant white bushy beard. If they ever needed somebody to be god in a movie – if Morgan Freeman couldn’t make it – I’d recommend they checked this guy out. Stefano had allowed us to load the micro mind on to his truck. Thanks to the antigravity plate, it only weighed about fifty kilos now. I say allow, but my powers of persuasion hadn’t had quite the effect I was hoping, so I’d had to pull my LRS on him. Thanks to that little stunt, the poor guy kept glowering at me and Jack riding up front with him. Who could blame him? At least it meant Stefano hadn’t asked too many questions about the ‘geological sample’ the westerners had dug up.
Mike was riding in the back, fighting a losing battle with a goat who seemed intent on eating the tarp that we’d covered the micro mind with. He had two holdalls of weapons and ammo back there that Jack had brought back to our world from Lucy’s all-you-can-eat armoury buffet.
With every mile we put between us and Choquequirao, I felt myself relax a bit more.
I turned in my seat towards Stefano, who was giving me a look like I was a particularly rancid bit of cheese. ‘We need to make things right with you.’
His eyes became slits. ‘Says the señora with a gun pointed at me.’
‘Sorry, we can do without that now.’ I slid my LRS back into my holster. ‘I only pulled that on you because you just wouldn’t listen. And as a sign of our gratitude…’ I dug into my rucksack. As I pulled out the wad of thirty thousand dollars, Stefano’s eyes widened. ‘This is for you – to apologise for any misunderstanding between us.’
He glanced at me and then back at the roll of hundred-dollar bills. ‘So what are you, smugglers?’
‘Yes, but not in the way you mean,’ Jack said.
I nodded. ‘It might not seem like it right now, but we really are the good guys.’
Stefano scratched his epic beard. ‘I suppose you didn’t leave me back on the roadside with a bullet in my head.’
I pulled a face at him. ‘We are so not those people.’
‘Maybe you’re not.’ More beard scratching.
I held the roll of money out to Stefano again. ‘Please, for your trouble.’
He took the money from me and it was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud as he smiled at me. ‘Maybe I was a bit hasty to judge you.’
‘No, I think I would have thought the same too. So let’s start over. What do you say?’
Stefano gave me a toothy grin. ‘Deal.’ He reached out and shook first my hand and then Jack’s.
‘Now that’s more like it,’ Jack said. ‘Sorry about before.’
‘Already forgotten. So what are your plans when you get to town?’
‘We have some friends coming to meet us, but we’ll need to be outside town to do that,’ I said, not adding the reason: because we didn’t want anyone to see the X101 coming in to land. It would cause way too many questions. I nodded at the roll of money. ‘I don’t suppose you can take us out somewhere?’
‘I have some errands to run in town first, but after that, sure. Meanwhile, you should try some tamales for breakfast.’
‘Tamales?’ I asked.
‘A corn dough filled with peppers, cheese, raisins, peanuts and olives.’ Stefano kissed his fingertips. ‘They are delicious, señora.’
‘Sound great. We’ll buy you breakfast too, of course.’
The sun was well and truly up when the town of Cachora appeared in the distance, nestling between the mountains. So far I’d managed to resist the temptation to check the Empyrean Key to see whether the micro mind had fully repaired itself. If it decided to fly up into the sky like Lucy had, it’d be tricky to explain that to Stefano.
The warmth of the morning bathed my face through the windshield and I felt a sense of lightness with it. If it wasn’t for the others, I wouldn’t have even seen this new sunrise. It was certainly hard not to see this new day for what it was – an enormous gift – in no small part thanks to the medical skills of the guy sitting next to me. If romance was off the cards between us, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be a damned good friend.
Jack chose that same moment to look my way and caught me staring at him.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘I’ll tell you later,’ I replied with a small smile. Like never, I thought to myself.
As we drew closer to Cachora, I started to make out white-stucco-walled buildings with terracotta-tiled roofs.
Other vehicles had appeared on the road too, all headed towards the town. Each was loaded up with an assortment of vegetables, cages of chickens or a few goats like Stefano’s vehicle. Thankfully there was no sign of any of the flash black pickups or SUVs that the Overseers seemed to favour. By contrast the vehicles the locals drove into town were battered and ancient. I didn’t need the life stories of the owners to know that these people weren’t particularly well off.
Jack looked at the clock on the dash. ‘There’s a lot of traffic for seven a.m.’
‘It’s market day, so it’s much busier than usual,’ Stefano replied.
‘Oh, right.’
I glanced over my shoulder at Mike, who was trying to pull a corner of tarp out of the goat’s mouth. He rolled his eyes at me.
We reached the outskirts of Cachora and joined the growing line of vehicles filing their way through the main cobbled street. It was already crowded with stalls with blue polythene roofs, selling everything from potatoes to pneumatic drills.
Stefano drove slowly through the packed pedestrians crowding the stalls and pulled up outside a small bar.
We were soon tucking into the famed tamales, Stefano too. I realised right away why he was so enthusiastic about them – they were hitting all the right taste buds. Even the black tea was great, despite Jack’s efforts to get me to try his coffee, which he told me was ‘a home run when it came to full-bodied flavour’.
After the excitement of downing the Reaper, I almost felt like a normal tourist in a bar, just eating breakfast and chilling out. The chart-topping pop song from some ancient boy band playing on the radio was briefly drowned out as a warble came from my bag.
I exchanged glances with Jack and Mike as I took out my Sky Wire. Niki’s name was displayed on the screen.
I took the call. ‘Hey, how’s it going, Niki?’ I said, trying to sound as casual as possible for Stefano’s benefit.
‘All good. I can see from your GPS marker that you’re in Cachora now. Is that correct? What happened?’
I glanced at the faces of the locals around me. Now wasn’t the time to give him a proper briefing. ‘Yeah, we have that geological sample we were after. A really kind local guy helped us out. We’re in a cafe eating breakfast with him right now.’
Stefano beamed across at me.
‘In other words, you can’t talk freely?’ Niki asked.
‘That’s right.’
‘OK, I just wanted to let you know we’ll be there within thirty minutes. I’ll send the coordinates of a suitable rendezvous point to your Sky Wire.’
I gazed at Jack and Mike. ‘That sounds great.’
‘Good. I look forward to seeing you,’ Niki said. The line clicked off.
‘Everything OK?’ Mike asked.
‘Yes, it seems our friend is going to be here quite soon.’ A message popped up on my screen containing a map link. I turned to Stefano. ‘Any chance you could run us out to meet them now?’
Stefano gave me a wolfish look and dropped his voice to a whisper. ‘Away from prying eyes?’
‘Something like that.’
Stefano wiped his mouth and gestured at his empty plate. ‘After this feast, it will be my pleasure. I’ll just use the restroom and then we shall go.’ He pushed his plate away, stood up and headed off to the loo.
Mike gestured with his chin towards the truck through the window. ‘The sooner we get out of town the better. If that micro mind reboots whilst we’re still here…’ His eyes flicked to the locals gathered round us.
‘The last time I checked it was OK, but I could do so again.’ Below
the counter I quietly took the Empyrean Key out of my bag and nestled it on my lap. The radio station had moved on to a Queen song, and when I struck the stone with my tuning fork, no one noticed the gentle chime ringing out.
I could still see only the reboot option; the other icons remained missing.
I shook my head. ‘It’s not there yet, but it can’t be much longer now.’
‘Good to hear,’ Jack said.
As the note from my tuning fork started to fade, a strobing multipointed star icon appeared. I stared at it.
‘Problem?’ Mike asked, reading my expression.
‘Not sure. Lucy’s E8 icon has appeared and it’s blinking.’
‘Maybe she needs to talk to you.’
‘OK, but not in here. If I suddenly disappear, that’ll draw attention for sure. I’ll just pop to the ladies and see what this is about.’
The other two nodded.
I hid the Empyrean Key back in my bag and headed for the loo, almost running into Stefano as he emerged from the solitary toilet. He gave me a guilty look as I passed him. When I entered the cubicle, I realised why – it smelled as if something had crawled out of someone’s bum and died in there. I flapped my hand in from of my face, trying to clear the stench, breathing through my nose as I slammed the loo seat shut.
Bloody men!
I sat on the seat and placed the stone orb in my lap again. With a fresh strike of the tuning fork, the starburst icon reappeared, still pulsing. I flicked my wrist forward. At once my surroundings faded, replaced by the glass room with the M42 nebula outside. It was now empty of shelves, but Lucy was standing before me.
‘Thank goodness you saw my message,’ she said.
‘Why, what’s the problem?’
‘The Overseers have sent in another Reaper drone and this one has been programmed to use just radar and its altimeter, rather than rely on GPS. They must have got wise to what I did to their last one. They’ve been able to track your position to Cachora. Within the next three minutes, a convoy of Overseers vehicles will be arriving in town.’