Ranger

by William Stacey

  Alex's heart leapt into his throat. "Shield us!" he yelled, turning away from Leela to throw himself atop Cassie and Lizzy, bearing both mother and child into the footrests between the seats.

  A fireball blossomed outward from the QRF, followed by a flash of intense heat.

  The detonation sent everyone flying, including Alex. He fell away from Cassie and Lizzy and landed atop the concrete floor at the base of the stands, his hearing ringing. Still alive, he climbed to his hands and knees and shook his head. People lay about, most still dazed, some bleeding. The acrid stench of explosive residue and charred flesh filled his nostrils, and black smoke obscured his vision. Someone was screaming.

  Lizzy and the women!

  Fear splintered in his heart as he staggered to his feet. He saw Lizzy first, hiding under the stands, sitting cross-legged, her eyes wide with terror, but uninjured. Had Leela managed a shield in time? Then he saw Cassie on her hands and knees only a few feet away from her daughter, shaking her head. Leela staggered to her and helped her stand upright. Relief coursed through him so hard his hands shook. Thank God. They're alive. He stumbled toward the stands and the women.

  And then the gunfire started, long bursts of automatic fire. The screaming came a moment later.

  He burst into action, herding Leela and Cassie under the stands. "Stay with Lizzy. Stay together. We'll head for the exit." He scanned the pandemonium, seeking the shooters but seeing only terrified spectators running in all directions.

  Leela, her eyes wide, nodded. "What's happening?"

  "Terrorist attack."

  Cassie was scrambling beneath the stands, pulling Lizzy into her arms. Terrified men and women careened off Alex. He heard more shots echo about the chamber. He guessed at least two active shooters, but it was hard to be certain as the MPs were probably shooting as well. Then he saw a young man with dark hair and a beard, also wearing a padded down jacket and carrying a submachine gun. The man was shooting at people at random, his eyes lit with joy. Had he a weapon, Alex could have put him down in a heartbeat, but instead, he scrambled beneath the benches to protect the women and Lizzy.

  "We need to break for the exits," he said as he scanned about.

  "I'll shield us," said Leela.

  The young man moved closer. He fired a burst of rounds into the chest of an elderly man on his knees, begging for his life. Lizzy screamed, and the bearded man turned and looked directly at them.

  "Leela—"

  "On it." She raised her hand toward the gunman.

  Alex grabbed her hand. "He's wearing an explosive vest. Don't detonate it."

  Leela glared at him but wrenched her hand away, nodding her understanding.

  Two MPs appeared and engaged the gunman, their bullets sending him flying but detonating his suicide vest. The second explosion erupted in a wave of fire and heat, but Leela must have shielded them again because the flames washed over the stands—all the stands and out at least thirty feet, avoiding dozens of civilians and the two MPs, both of whom stared at each other in shock to find themselves still alive.

  "Lizzy!" Cassie yelled in panic.

  The little girl had broken away from her mother and scrambled out from under the stands, running for the Jump Tube. "Daddy!" she yelled.

  A third MP appeared through the smoke, caught her, and carried her beneath his arm. In his other hand, he held a 9mm pistol near his leg—Andy, Alex's drinking buddy from last night.

  Thank God. Relief coursed through Alex, and he gripped Cassie's arm, stopping her from getting in the way. "It's okay. He's got her."

  Andy approached the other MPs and said something to them. They turned and stared in the other direction, their eyes seeking something. Andy lifted his pistol and shot them both in the back of the head.

  Alex stared in confusion, his relief replaced by a wave of cold terror. Andy tossed the pistol atop one of the corpses then turned, with Lizzy still under his arm, and strode for the Jump Tube. On his back, its handle sticking out behind his head, Andy had stuffed Witch-Bane beneath what appeared to be yet another suicide vest.

  Andy was one of the terrorists.

  Alex released Cassie and darted out from beneath the stand to go after Andy and Lizzy. He paused only long enough to pick up the discarded 9mm pistol. He pounded across the wreckage, almost tripping over bodies and parts of bodies of the QRF platoon. Just behind, he heard Cassie and Leela running after him, but Alex was much faster and reached the Jump Tube first, launching himself up the metal steps just as Andy and Lizzy reached the tube opening.

  "Freeze!" Alex yelled, holding the pistol in a double-grip, the sight fixed on the back of Andy's head. "Drop her, or I'll kill you."

  Andy turned and stared at Alex with dead, uncaring eyes. Lizzy struggled, but she was too little to break free. At the far end of the still-active Jump Tube, Alex saw stone ruins surrounded by jungle.

  "Lizzy!" screamed Cassie. "Let her go, please!"

  "Alex," said Leela from just behind him, her voice low, breathless from running. "I tried to use telekinesis, but…"

  "He has Witch-Bane." He kept his weapon steady on Andy's face.

  Andy lifted his free hand so Alex could see what he held. A kill switch! The moment Andy released the kill switch, the vest would detonate. He grinned when he recognized Alex, shaking his head as if it were a great joke. "So here we both are. What are the chances, Alex?"

  "Put her down, Andy. You don't want to hurt a child."

  "Hurt her?" said Andy in puzzlement. "You think I grabbed her to hurt her? Don't be an idiot. I'm no monster. Sara was about the same age. I watched her die by degrees, in constant pain. It was… horrible beyond words. Ghost-sickness? It's a punishment by God for our sins, for our selfish abuse of this world. No, better this way. No pain, nothing. She won't hurt anymore, not like my Sara."

  "Please," begged Cassie. She tried to run up the stairs, but Leela held her back.

  "Just let her go, Andy. Whatever this is, let her go."

  Andy shook his head, his eyes lit with the fervor of the committed. "I'm doing her a kindness. Can't you see that?"

  Alex lowered his weapon and set it on the metal flooring before standing again, extending his empty palms toward Andy. "Come on, man. Not this. Please."

  Andy rolled his eyes then glanced behind him at the alien world on the other end of the tube. "Look at that, Alex. Just look at it. We've ruined our own world, yet we think we get to destroy someone else's? You of all people don't see how wrong that is? Haven't you lost enough?"

  "They attacked us."

  Andy scowled. "Don't give me that shit. We screwed up this world so badly it can't get by without us anymore. What a cosmic fucking joke."

  Alex met Lizzy's terrified eyes. "Lizzy, honey. Do you remember the octopus?"

  The girl nodded.

  Spit flew from Andy's mouth. "The world-class hubris of people like Oscar McKnight who think we can just take someone else's planet and make it our own. No wonder Mother Nature is erasing our asses."

  "Go to your mother," Alex said calmly to Lizzy, ignoring Andy.

  "Not allowed outside the house," Lizzy cried, shaking her head.

  Andy's tirade increased in volume. "Maybe the cockroaches should take over. Maybe intelligent fish will evolve. Anything but our twisted species."

  "This time it's okay," Alex said.

  "Alex, what are you doing?" Leela asked.

  "No." Lizzy shook her head.

  "Maybe," Andy continued, "in a million years, the dinosaurs can have another go. They can't do any worse."

  "Cassie," said Alex, "tell Lizzy it's okay this one time."

  "Alex, I don't—"

  "Tell her and get ready!"

  Andy's grip on Lizzy altered as she slipped under his arm. He waved the kill switch about, using it to punch at the air and emphasize each point. "Maybe this world will be better off with nothing, no life at all. Not even fucking microbes. Maybe little girls won't die in their mothers' arms that way. Maybe—"

 
; "Lizzy," urged Cassie, her voice breaking. "It's okay. Do as Uncle Alex says."

  The little girl reached out with both arms for her mother. A second later, she flew straight for her, popping out from under Andy's arm, like a cork from a champagne bottle. Andy stared in confusion as the little girl flew into her mother, knocking her down, then he turned and darted inside the Jump Tube and sprinted down its length.

  Alex shoved Leela atop Cassie and Lizzy, covering all three with his body.

  The Jump Tube detonated in a fiery inferno.

  17

  Healing energy coursed through Alex, beginning in his head and flushing to his toes. He gasped, filling his lungs with air and bolting upright in bed. Cassie stood at his side, her Brace-enclosed hand still on his forehead, utter exhaustion in her red-rimmed eyes. The last thing he remembered had been fire washing over him. But he felt no pain, nor could he see any burns. I'm okay. Relief shuddered through him.

  Leela and Ylra stood behind Cassie, worry on their features. Dr. Sharon Ireland, a woman in her forties with glasses and a short bob haircut, stood on the other side of his bed. She had been Cassie's physician in the hospital in Fort St. John before the basilisk attack. Behind the women, standing upright in the corner of the room, was Witch-Bane, looking undamaged despite being at the epicentre of an explosion.

  Cassie pushed him onto his back. He was in a hospital room, the lighting subdued. An intercom announcement echoed outside the room.

  "How do you feel?" Cassie asked as she peeled the Brace from her arm and stuffed it in her belt.

  "I… I feel okay… good, even." He ran his hands over his limbs then his face. Nothing hurt. There were no burns. "How is Lizzy?"

  "Good, she's good. Thanks to you," Cassie said.

  "It's true, baby." Leela wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "You saved all three of us, protected us with your body."

  Confusion rushed through him, and once again, he saw the flames and knew, as close as they had been, they should be dead. "How?"

  "When that man, the MP—"

  "Andy," Alex said. "Andy Miller."

  "When Miller ran into the Jump Tube to detonate his vest, he moved just far enough away with Witch-Bane so I could channel. I shielded us—mostly. But it was a close thing, and you were hurt."

  "You were closest to the blast wave," said Dr. Ireland. "It produced traumatic brain injury, considerable brain swelling, and intracranial hemorrhage. Cassie saved you from a coma or even a vegetative state."

  Alex stared at her for several moments then ran his fingers over his skull. "I'm fine—groggy but fine."

  "You are fine," said Cassie wearily. "Now."

  "The grogginess should pass shortly," said Dr. Ireland. "Normally, I'd recommend several days of bed rest, but I'm well acquainted with what Cassie can do, and you're probably the healthiest you've ever been."

  He swung his legs over the side of the bed and realized he was wearing a hospital gown. She was right. Even now, the grogginess was fading. "What happened? Why did Miller…"

  Dr. Ireland sighed, closed her eyes, and shook her head. "Miller and his wife refused Cassie's treatment for their child, believing prayer and homeopathy could heal her. It didn't."

  "She died of the ghost-sickness," said Cassie.

  "Sara," he whispered. "Her name was Sara."

  "Grief twisted him," said Ylra. "We don't know if he was always part of the Children of Gaia or if his daughter's death pushed him to them. Either way, he used his position as an MP to sneak the bombers and their weapons onto the base and into the proving grounds."

  Alex squinted at her. "How? Even for an MP, that'd be difficult. This base has serious security."

  "Don't know yet," said Ylra. "But there'll be an investigation. Thirty-seven people died, including most of the QRF and some VIPs."

  Alex groaned. "Oh Christ, what a disaster."

  "It's much worse," Cassie said so softly Alex almost didn't hear her.

  He reached out and held her hand. "What? What is it?"

  "Lee," she answered, her voice breaking.

  "There was a problem with the contact team, just before the attack," said Ylra.

  "I remember something was wrong."

  Ylra sighed. "The contact team reported an attack within moments of arriving on Faerum."

  "Ambush?"

  Ylra nodded. "Looks that way. Lee's last message stated Snow White was down. If the attackers went after her first, then they must have known she was a magic-user, which means they had their own mages there."

  "How?"

  "McKnight thinks they found the UAV we sent over and were waiting for us to come. No way of knowing now. We were about to launch the QRF when the first bomber struck…"

  "Goddamn it!" Alex said, letting go of Cassie's hand as his anger surged. "We can't catch a break. What now? How badly damaged was the Jump Tube?"

  "It's gone," said Ylra. "Not that anyone would even try to fix it now. McKnight's enemies on the council are using the terrorist attack to mount a coup. They're calling for a vote of no confidence on his leadership. I think they'll win. Two days, maybe a week, and we'll have a new First Councilman. After that, well… we can forget Faerum."

  His stomach clenched as a sense of dread threatened to swallow him whole. He looked at them and found the same hopeless resignation in their eyes. "What about the children, the ghost-sickness?"

  Dr. Ireland ran her fingers over her face and shook her head. "I heard a rumor of forced fertility treatments, passing a law requiring women of a certain age to bear as many children as possible while they seek a cure."

  "There is no cure," Cassie said, her voice raw with emotion. "There's no cure, and there won't be a cure. I can only prolong their lives, with or without the Brace. The children are going to die, Alex… even Lizzy." Her voice trembled. "A year or two is all I can manage, maybe not even that long."

  "Cassie, I wish there was something I could—"

  She placed her hand on Alex's forearm. "You can, Alex. But only you can. Please. Save my husband. Save my daughter."

  He watched her in confusion, his throat tightening. "Cassie, the Jump Tube is gone. There's no way to get—" He froze, realization coursing through him like a jolt of electricity. "The rift," he whispered, "in northern British Columbia. It's still open, isn't it?"

  Cassie bobbed her head. "Please, Alex. Please save my family."

  He looked at her then the others. Ylra's eyes pleaded with his, and he remembered with shame the promise he'd made to Kargin, the promise he'd broken. His eyes rested on those of his wife. She brought her fist to her mouth, her eyes wide with fear, but she nodded. He had failed Elizabeth, failed Noah, failed Kargin, and even failed his own wife.

  Could he fail Cassie and Lizzy as well?

  No.

  He forced a false smile on his lips but felt hollow within. "Get me something to wear, then get me to McKnight."

  Cassie wrapped her arms around his neck, sobbing.

  Alex found McKnight at the site of the terrorist attack, now cordoned off with even more armed guards than before. Inside the complex, the air reeked of smoke and ruin. The Jump Tube was a twisted, burned shell. Broken glass and chunks of metal, wiring, and circuits lay scattered across the floor—amid pools of drying blood.

  With Ylra accompanying them, Dr. Ireland had sped them to the proving grounds. Cassie was far too exhausted from healing the injured to come and had instead said a final farewell to Leela, hugging the other woman and speaking to her in private. At the site, Ylra had bullied her way past the MPs, insisting they needed to see McKnight and Helena Simmons right now. Alex was surprised at how quickly the MPs acquiesced, waving them through. Clearly, Ylra and Kargin had become more important than he had realized in McKnight's North American Council.

  McKnight and Helena stood among a crowd of about a dozen officials and military officers, including Huck. Alex rushed over to see McKnight, but a pair of MPs stopped him, both looking far too ready to use their submachine g
uns.

  "It's all right," Huck yelled out. "Let them pass."

  A tall, gray-haired senior First Sergeant stood next to Huck. He looked far too old to be in uniform but every bit as tough as old leather. The MPs stepped aside, and the crowd around McKnight parted.

  "Alex, Leela," said McKnight with a puzzled look on his face. "And Ylra and Dr. Sharon Ireland." His eyes betrayed his weariness. "What else has gone wrong?"

  "There isn't much time, Oscar," Alex said. "But I'll do it. I'll go."

  McKnight's eyes narrowed. "Go where? What are you—"

  "Oh my god," said Helena, understanding lighting up her face. "The rift up north is still open."

  Recognition flashed through McKnight's eyes. He might be a politician now, but he was a veteran of the old Special Forces community and had an ingrained "get it done" mindset. "For how much longer, Helena?"

  She bit her lip. "Hours. Maybe only minutes. None of the other rifts have stayed open longer than thirty-five hours. We're running out of time now."

  McKnight turned to Huck. "Major, if I gave you three, maybe four hours, what could you roll with?"

  Huck's expression was like a deer caught in headlights, but to her credit, she recovered within a heartbeat. "You're talking about a one-way trip, sir."

  "I am," McKnight admitted. "But it's the end of humanity if we can't pull this off."

  Huck thought for a moment. "3 Platoon is combat ineffective, and I've lost two of the war rigs. That leaves me six war rigs and Long Bow's gateway rig." She glanced at her first sergeant. "What do you think?"

  The name tag on the man's uniform read Martinez. The older soldier grimaced and sighed but said, "1, 2, and 4 Platoons are at full strength and resupplied with forty-eight hours' combat load. 1 Platoon is on high-readiness, so they're on fifteen minutes' notice to move, but the other two platoons will need at least an hour, probably two to be recalled and prepped. Same goes for HQ section. The problem, ma'am, is combat services support, medical, S2, and engineers. This could be a clusterfuck."

  "When isn't it?" Huck asked.