The man continued to speak as he shrugged. “But then, the Wild Man I knew never would have turned traitor. Who paid you and how much?”
“Why would I need to be paid to keep you from getting your hands on these kids?” Nate answered in a level voice.
“It’s obvious now that you’re the one who means them harm.”
“Me?”
“Give me a break, Cannon. These kids have robots. And they’re on the run from a Combat Force base and prison. That alone tells me they have something so valuable that they need help. Somehow I don’t think you represent official channels here. Otherwise there would be Combat Force soldiers with you and we’d already be outside and loaded into a military truck. You wouldn’t have come to me in the Everglades with your little plan to steal them as they escaped from that prison either.”
Nate paused.
“Ashley, Tyce, pardon my manners for beginning a conversation without letting you know who this is,” Nate said, spreading his arms wide, making a mockery of his elaborate introduction of the man with the neuron gun. “General Jeb McNamee. Known as Cannon, because when we were friends—when we were friends—I liked to call him a big shot. But I guess our friendship is now over, because I refuse to like anyone who would mean you two any harm.”
So this was Cannon, the general who had first approached Nate and given him the equipment and timetable to capture us from the swamp boat.
“Me mean them harm? I’m trying to rescue them from the Combat Force,” Cannon snapped. “Something that would have been a lot easier if you hadn’t run with them. So let me ask you again. Who paid you? The Terratakers? Because if I find out you had anything to do with my son being taken away from me—”
“General, somewhere you’ve been out in the sun too long without a hat.”
Without warning, the general pulled the trigger of his neuron gun.
I saw and heard nothing. Neuron guns don’t make noise. But Nate tilted in his chair and groaned slightly as he fell back into unconsciousness. The neuron blast would have paralyzed half his muscles. I doubted he’d wake for a while.
“You okay?” Cannon asked me.
“Yes, but—”
“Hang on.” He stepped past me and returned from the motel bathroom with a glass of water. In my thirst I reached for it, but he was already past me again. He knelt beside Ashley, who was struggling to sit up. He put his arm behind her back and helped her stand. “Sorry about the punch of that sleeping gas, but I couldn’t see any other way to neutralize Nate without putting you both in danger.”
Ashley gulped back the water.
“I trust you’re here because it’s close to the Institute?” Cannon asked. “I mean, when Nate stopped to refuel the airplane yesterday, he didn’t go to the trouble of buying a van like he did here.”
Like I was going to answer this man?
“I wouldn’t mind some water myself,” I said from the wheelchair. I had a plan. Not much of one. But the best I could think of.
The general walked into the bathroom again. I rolled forward to block the doorway and turned my head back to Ashley.
“Run!” I whispered to Ashley. “Get the motel manager to call for help!”
Ashley was groggy as she got to her feet. She took a step to the door as Cannon came out of the bathroom with a full glass of water.
“Hey!” he said from behind my wheelchair as she reached the door. He dropped the water and tried pushing my wheelchair out of his way.
I grabbed his belt. “Go!” I shouted at Ashley. “Go!”
She struggled to unbolt the door.
The general swept my hand and wheelchair aside and dived forward. He yanked her away from the door.
“Are you guys crazy?” he said, gently pushing her back toward the center of the room. “Why are you trying to escape when I finally managed to rescue you?”
“Rescue us? You sent Nate to kidnap us,” I pointed out. “He’s helping us run away from you.”
“What?”
“I doubt you have good intentions. There’s no way you should have known when and where we were leaving the prison,” I continued. “You must be working with Dr. Jordan.”
“Now you’re telling me you don’t even trust your own father.” When this man with the huge ugly face frowned, it was not a sight that would help little children sleep better.
“Of course we trust him.” Ashley put her hands on her hips in her trademark pose. It was clear she wasn’t scared by the general in his army fatigues.
“Then why run with Nate?” Cannon said. “You know that your father and the supreme governor set this up.”
Silence.
The general studied my face. Then Ashley’s. “I said,” he repeated, “you know that your father and the supreme governor set this up. Including the tracking device in your arm. And the money cards that would let us watch your progress if anything went wrong. It was in your father’s letter. It had instructions telling you that it was safe for Nate to deliver both of you to me. And I was to help you keep out of the hands of the Combat Force as we found the Institute.”
The letter.
“Nice try,” I said sarcastically. My dad’s cell had been wired. The Combat Force knew Dad had given me a letter. This man could easily be making this up.
“Nice try? Now I need to convince you that your father …” Cannon shook his head. “Kid, how else would I have known when you would be released? The supreme governor set all this up. Including insisting on visiting your father personally in his cell. That way he could quickly explain to your father what he needed to do, through a handwritten note that couldn’t be picked up on the audio, and then get your father’s help. The supreme governor allowed himself to be taken as your dad’s hostage, securing your release from the base.”
Is that why Dad had the dull edge of the blade pressed against the old man’s throat?
“And while you were in your dad’s cell, the supreme governor jabbed a tracking chip into your arm. That allowed me to pick up from there, once you were away from the base and in the boat.”
I remembered the old man grabbing my arm and the stabbing pain. I remembered wondering why Dad had pretended to be angry. All of that to plant a tracking chip? My face must have been an open book of confusion.
“Tracking chip. That’s how I found you,” Cannon explained. “I’ve been following you guys for two days, just waiting for the right time to move in. Come on. All of it was in the letter. You did read your dad’s letter, right?”
Only two people knew I hadn’t read that letter. Me. And Ashley, whom I had just told a few hours ago, while Nate was taking a shower and Ashley and I were watching TV.
Besides Ashley, only one person knew the letter had been destroyed by water. Me.
Which meant the general had no reason to bluff me. He really thought I had read the letter. He really thought I knew all the stuff he was telling us.
My words came out as if my tongue were a block of wood. “You mean that you were sent by my dad? And that Nate was sent by you?”
“Stop playing games. I had to send Nate because there are too many Terratakers in the Combat Force. If any of them found out I was behind this mission to rescue you, it was too possible for this information to reach the Terratakers. And with them holding my son hostage, there was too much danger he would die.”
He pointed at Nate, disgust on his face. “It was a good plan, until Nate turned traitor and took off with you both. That cost us a lot of time. Now we’re down to a few days before all of it happens.”
“All of what?”
Now it was Cannon’s turn to be confused. “That’s part of it. We don’t know quite what, just that Jordan has planned something big. And bad. You know that, too, otherwise—”
My face must have looked blank.
“You did read the letter, didn’t you?”
“It, um … fell into … the swamp when we were being chased.” I stopped. “No, I didn’t read it.”
Comprehension sm
oothed out the concerned wrinkles on the general’s face. “No wonder Nate believed he was rescuing you from me. No wonder you have no idea what is waiting for us.”
“Waiting for us?” I gave him a weak smile. “Is there any chance you can prove my father sent you?”
He nodded. “It’s about time you asked. Does the phrase ‘Twinkie Nose’ ring a bell?”
I winced. “Yes.”
“Twinkie Nose?” Ashley asked. “Isn’t a Twinkie a—?”
“Yes, yes,” I said quickly. “But that’s all I’m telling.”
When I was too little to remember, my mom said she’d catch me picking my nose so often it was like I was trying to eat a Twinkie, which she’d explained was an Earth snack. When I was old enough to be embarrassed about this, if I misbehaved in public, she would threaten to call me Twinkie Nose and explain why to everybody listening. That always settled me down.
“So now you know your father sent me, right?” Cannon said.
I nodded. “Do you think you could start from the beginning? With all the stuff in the letter that I didn’t get a chance to read?”
CHAPTER 20
A couple of hours later, dawn broke across the hills. The sky was rose colored, with a hint of orange growing brighter as the sun almost broke across the jagged lines of the horizon.
We drove on the main highway in a van that Nate had purchased from a used-car dealer. The small town of Parker and the motel were only a few minutes behind us, but already the desert was totally without any houses or signs or any other marks of human life. There was no other traffic. Because the sand was almost red, it felt like we were on Mars. The weight of gravity, however, and my tiredness told me otherwise.
“Let me get this straight,” Nate, now partially recovered from the neuron blast, said. He sat in the passenger seat. “The supreme governor set this up.”
Nate had only been awake for a few minutes. We’d left the motel quickly, taking time only to load up the van with all our gear and the robots and pay the bill.
“From the beginning,” Cannon said, not taking his eyes off the road as he drove. “We even planned it down to the tracking chip in Tyce’s arm. Without that, I’d have never found you.”
“Why is the supreme governor involved?” Nate asked, incredulous. “I mean, he’s the most powerful government person in the world. What does he—?”
“His grandson is in the Institute. Just like my son,” the general replied harshly.
Grandson? Son? I had a dozen questions of my own. But I kept my mouth shut and listened.
“We shouldn’t have been arrested when we arrived on Earth,” Ashley said. “It was Dr. Jordan who tried to kill us. He’s the one who should have been put in prison.”
“Some of us know that now,” Cannon answered. He didn’t turn his head as he drove. His neck seemed like chiseled granite.
“Who is ‘us’?” Nate interrupted.
“A group of the top World United Federation Combat Force generals. You see, as the Moon Racer approached Earth, the signals sent to the Combat Force informed us that the ship’s pilot and some of the crew had turned against two highlevel government passengers, including Dr. Jordan. They’d been killed and ejected into space.”
That was exactly what Dad had informed me in his note.
“A total lie,” I said indignantly. “It was the opposite. Dr. Jordan and Luke Daab had complete control of the ship’s computer. They must have secretly changed all of our regular transmissions.”
“We know that now, but how could we tell differently at the time? Furthermore, we had no way of knowing that Dr. Jordan was alive and on his way to Earth. Since then, we’ve confirmed that. Intelligence sources tell us a cargo ship returning from the Moon picked up his escape pod. From there, Dr. Jordan has disappeared.”
And now he’s somewhere on Earth, planning something we have to stop. Only we don’t quite know what.
“What changed?” Nate asked quietly. I could tell his old belief in his platoon commander was back. “How did you find out the truth and decide that the report was false?”
“Two things. The first was Tyce’s computer.”
My computer?
“Naturally we went through all the confiscated equipment. Including Tyce’s computer. A program broke his password code. It had a journal of the Moon Racer’s voyage. That gave us a different story of the space trip. We weren’t sure whether to believe it, but it cast enough doubt that when prisoner Blaine Steven asked for a private meeting with the supreme governor, we arranged it.”
“Blaine Steven …,” Nate prompted.
“Former director of the Mars Project. A man with plenty of political clout even though he hadn’t been on Earth for over a decade.”
Blaine Steven. The man who’d secretly been working for Dr. Jordan all those years he’d been on Mars. And yet, once aboard the Moon Racer, Steven had been worried that Dr. Jordan would try to kill him. For good reason.
“Blaine Steven,” Cannon continued, “didn’t know the details, only that Dr. Jordan intended some kind of Terrataker mission as soon as he got back to Earth. And with the rest of what Blaine Steven told us, things began to make sense. We are now trying our best to stop Jordan, but we’re working in the dark. That’s why we need Tyce and Ashley so badly. It goes way beyond trying to rescue my own son and the governor’s grandson.”
Cannon began to slow down. In the growing light of day, I could hardly recognize the upcoming turnoff as a road. It was more like a set of tire tracks leading into the desert hills. He drove off the highway onto the tracks.
“Cannon,” Nate said quietly, “where we need to go, this van doesn’t have a chance.”
“We’re not going there in the van. Remember, I do have a few military connections.”
“Which is why the supreme governor brought you into this?” Nate asked.
The van bounced and jolted. Dust began to film the windows.
“He brought me into this because he could trust me. As you well know, like most high levels of the Federation government, even the top levels of our Combat Force are infiltrated by Terrataker rebels. Just like Dr. Jordan. With crucial peace talks coming up in New York, the rebels are going out of their way to bring war. If any of the Terratakers found out about Tyce and Ashley and their robot connections, what we’re about to do next would have no chance. That’s why the supreme governor and I needed to privately arrange Tyce and Ashley’s escape. And why I brought you in to help. I wanted you to bring them to me before the Combat Force could track them down again. We figured with Tyce and Ashley’s help, we also might find the secret location of the Institute.”
“I think I’m with you,” Nate said slowly. “These kids have refused to tell me anything about these robots, but I can make my guesses.”
“As could the other generals who were about to arrive at the Combat Force prison. That was another reason for getting them out in a hurry.”
“Sir?” I broke in. “What exactly is happening? All I know is that we’re on a six-day countdown to find the Institute and then rescue my dad from the base. And today is day four.”
Cannon glanced at his watch. “A very tight countdown. In a little over 48 hours, the supreme governor and the assembled governors of all the nations of the world will have their annual meeting in New York. It’s a simple guess that if the Terratakers are going to try anything, this is the time. Especially if Dr. Jordan believes no one knows he’s on Earth and that no one knows about the Institute.”
“Impossible to do any damage,” Nate scoffed. “You of all people know how tightly secured the meeting will be. Nothing short of the world’s best army would be able to get in there.”
“Exactly,” Cannon returned. “And that’s exactly what Jordan has. From what Blaine Steven told us, his army can’t be stopped.”
The van rounded a corner into a tight canyon.
“Let me correct myself,” Cannon added. “Jordan’s army can’t be stopped without Tyce and Ashley.”
“How?” I asked. My knowledge of geography wasn’t great, but even I knew that Arizona was a long way from New York.
“I wish I could stop right now and explain it to you,” Cannon answered. “But if you look ahead, you’ll see our ride.” He pointed through the windshield.
We saw a helicopter, painted dull green. Machine guns were mounted on each side.
“I’ve had the pilot on standby,” Cannon said. “Right now every minute counts. You’ll learn more when we get to the Institute. I just hope no one tries to shoot us down when we land.”
CHAPTER 21
“There?” Cannon shouted a few minutes later.
“There!” Ashley said.
I focused a pair of binoculars where Cannon had pointed. Ahead and below was a box canyon, cut in a perfect square halfway up a mountain. It seemed empty. I truly hoped it was.
I briefly set the binoculars down and glanced around me in the helicopter. Nate squatted on one side, armed with a rocket launcher. Cannon guarded the other side with another rocket launcher. The pilot had his right hand on the trigger mechanisms of the helicopter’s machine guns. He was a skinny guy with dark glasses who called himself Grunt. Military people sure liked weird nicknames.
I watched the three of them, tense and ready. If someone attacked as we landed, would we have enough firepower to defend the helicopter?
The helicopter moved in closer, chasing its own shadow across the barren rocks of the desert hills. Slowly it began to take us down into the canyon of the Institute. “Are you sure this is the right place?” Nate asked Ashley.
No one had stepped out of the helicopter yet. We were parked squarely in the middle of the empty canyon. Although the pilot had shut down the helicopter, the roar of the motor echoed in my ears, making the silence around us seem loud.
Counterattack Page 7