“First I’m going to the exercise room,” I told Rawling. “You have no idea how badly I want to get these legs ready to walk.”
Rawling smiled. “Maybe not. But I can guess. Go exercise. Then sleep. It will help your body.”
Sleep. That would be good. But I knew I wouldn’t sleep much. The headaches would hit me like clockwork, just like every night since leaving Earth.
And the next one, I guessed, would be on me in about two hours.
CHAPTER 18
From Rawling’s office, I wheeled toward the exercise area to spend time with the weights. Even in the reduced gravity of Mars, Rawling had said I’d only be able to move five-pound weights a total of one inch with the leg machine.
But for me, that was incredible.
My legs were responding to my brain’s commands. In that aspect, the operation had been successful. Now I needed to add muscle to legs that had never had muscle before. And then—I finally dared hope for it—I could teach those legs to walk.
If it weren’t for my killer headaches and the approach of the Manchurian fleet, I would have been bouncing around for joy 24 hours a day.
For now, I was only going to approach everything one day at a time, knowing the Manchurians wouldn’t be here for a while. And that included my weight program.
Just as I rounded the corner to the exercise area, someone in a regular jumpsuit uniform stepped out. I barely glimpsed his face as he walked away and told myself it was just my imagination.
That was not Luke Daab. As if I were going to go running to Rawling again. But maybe someone in the exercise area could tell me who it was.
Except it was empty when I rolled into it.
I headed straight to the leg machine. On it was taped an envelope with my name. I opened it, puzzled.
Tyce,
Those headaches can kill you if you don’t take it easy and stop looking for me. You haven’t felt the worst of it yet. Expect a sample of how bad it can get within the next minute.
In the next minute?
Someone was controlling my headaches?
Then I realized something. The man who had just stepped out of the exercise area had been in a standard blue jumpsuit. Not exercise gear. Why else had he been here, except to leave this note? But how had he known I would be coming here right now?
And how was he controlling the head—
I heard a scream. Dimly knew it was mine. I fell out of my wheelchair, flailing my arms at the pain. This headache was much worse than anything I’d felt before.
Even death would be better than this agony, a part of my mind thought.
The pain continued and continued until it hurt so bad I couldn’t even scream.
I waited for a blackout to give me mercy, but it didn’t come.
And finally, when the headache stopped pinching my brain, I gasped for breath. My body was shaking and sweating.
I had to find that person. If only to beg him never to do that to me again.
CHAPTER 19
“Tyce?”
The voice came from outside the doorway of my bedroom. I was just about to roll out of my wheelchair and get into bed. After that headache attack, there was no way I could exercise. Half an hour had passed before I could even get back to our minidome. I was still trembling, and I’d thrown up twice from the aftereffects of the pain.
It was now 8:30 p.m. Mom and Dad had been so concerned about me that they’d gone to get Rawling.
“Yes, Rawling,” I said. My voice was a croak. “Come in.”
He did, carrying the lead-wrapped belt that he’d used to shield me during the X-ray process.
“Great,” I groaned. “More medical work. Got some needles for painkillers? Those pills you gave me haven’t done a thing.”
“I think I know why.”
I glanced at my watch. “Speak quickly. If it follows the schedule, the next headache is due in less than a minute.”
That was the worst of it. Knowing and anticipating when the headaches would arrive. Like getting up in the morning and knowing you had a dentist appointment. Except this was like three or four dentist appointments a day. Without the freezing.
“I thought it was strange that there were no medical notes about the implant in your spine,” Rawling said.
“So I went to your father this afternoon just before he took the shuttle up. The communications link between Mars and Earth might be down, but he still has his Terrataker database.”
I knew exactly what Rawling meant. I’d been surprised to find out on Earth that my dad had been working against the Terratakers for years. He and Rawling were special agents who’d trained together in New York, even before the Mars Project was launched. And Dad had a list of every person with a known or suspected link to the Terratakers.
“Sure enough,” Rawling said. “Far, far down the list, I spotted the name of one of the doctors on your medical team. His background shows him listed as a potential supporter of the Terratakers.”
“But why would a Terrataker be allowed to—?”
“The Terratakers have plenty of spies and connections in the World United Federation. I imagine that someone somewhere pulled a string.”
“Rawling, the operation was successful.”
“More successful than you think. I scanned your spinal X-ray into the computer and zoomed in. That implant—”
I interrupted him with a low scream. The headache had arrived. I clenched my teeth against the pain and made no more noise.
“Tyce! Is it always this bad?”
I groaned.
“You should have told someone earlier.”
I groaned again.
Rawling rushed forward with the lead belt. He wrapped it around my belly, then slid it down so that it rested on my hips.
And the pain stopped!
“That better?” Rawling asked.
I found myself panting with relief.
“Thought so.”
“What is it?” I asked, amazed at the peace and calm I felt.
“The implant has tiny, tiny pincers. The nerves to your spinal column have grown in and around the pincers. I think someone is squeezing those nerves whenever they want to put you in agony. Spinal nerves are funny. Even though they’re pinched in your back, the pain can be anywhere in your body.”
“And the lead belt?” I queried. “Not that I’m complaining …”
“Shields you from whatever signals that person is using to activate the implant from a remote source.”
I lifted the belt slightly. The pain returned in full force.
I lowered the belt. The pain stopped.
“Rawling.” I was still panting. “It’s the kind of relief that comes when someone finally quits hitting your thumb with a hammer.”
“You’ll get some sleep?”
“Yes!”
“Good. In the morning, come talk to me.”
He left. Or at least I think he did.
I was so exhausted from fighting the pain that I was asleep before he could shut the door on his way out.
CHAPTER 20
A dream woke me. When I rubbed my eyes, the thought was still there.
Hunt the hunter.
I was still half asleep.
Hunt the hunter.
Why was I having that thought? Was my subconscious trying to tell me something? I tried to recall the details of the dream… .
I was swimming in the ocean. Luke Daab cast a lure from his fishing rod. He hooked me below the spine and began to reel me in. Except in my dream I grew bigger and stronger and turned into a half shark. Instead of letting Luke Daab reel me in like a helpless fish, I turned and swam hard. He was pulled into the water, and I turned around and opened my big shark mouth and was just about to chomp on his head—
Weird dream. I remembered I had woken up just as Luke screamed. With the same scream of pain that this implant had given me time after time over the last months.
I rubbed my eyes more.
Hunt the hunter.
&n
bsp; I thought more about the dream. I realized that Luke had used the fishing rod to reel me in, but in the end, it became the weapon used on him.
Hunt the hunter.
When I realized what that meant, I tried to sit bolt upright.
It didn’t work. I was still too weak, especially with the weight of the lead belt around my waist. I was only able to roll over and look at the clock. Eleven thirty at night.
I’d slept nearly three hours straight, my longest stretch in months.
Hunt the hunter. Turn his weapon against him.
I was about to call out to Dad in our shared living area, but then I remembered. Dad had just left in the shuttle to pick up the rest of the cargo. Mom was most likely still in the lab.
But there was still plenty of time to find Rawling. He always tended to work late, so with luck, he’d still be in his office.
“Rawling!” I called out frantically.
It had been a struggle to get into my jumpsuit by myself, but at least with all the weight I’d lost in the body cast, my clothing was so loose it easily fit over the lead belt.
Rawling looked up from his desk as I rolled in. He had been writing on a pad of paper. “I expected you to sleep through the night.”
“I think I know how to find him,” I answered. “Use his weapon against him.”
“Slow down. Him?”
“The person we think broke into the dome. The person I think is Luke Daab. Who put a virus in the computer software. Who stole the triggers we need to launch our defense system against the Manchurian invasion. That him. Let’s use his weapon against him.”
Rawling gave me a smile. “Again. Slow down. His weapon?”
“Whatever device he’s been using to activate the implant in my spinal column.”
Rawling set his pen down. “How do you know it’s the same person?”
“I’ve had those headaches all through the journey here,” I explained quickly.
Rawling scratched his head, looking dubious.
“Remote activation technology is great,” I continued, trying to follow my own reasoning, “but the most range I’ve heard of is 10,000 miles. It couldn’t be someone from Earth, then, or someone from Mars. It had to be someone traveling with the fleet. But everyone who was part of the fleet was cleared by security checks. So it has to be the one person who hitchhiked along and landed his own space shuttle. That person didn’t go through security clearance; I can guarantee you that.”
An image flashed through my mind. Of my robot going up to the man in the space suit. Of the man pulling his arm out of his space-suit sleeve.
“And, Rawling,” I finished, “when this guy entered the dome, he reached inside his space suit. It had to be for the remote. He wanted a headache to shut me and my robot control down. That tells me he’s very familiar with the situation around here.”
Rawling spun around in his chair a few times. It was a habit he had when he was thinking. I’d learned not to interrupt.
“I’ll give you this,” he said slowly. “Your hitchhiker theory was right. Your dad just radioed me from orbit. The unmanned spaceship that was carrying the surface-to-space missile system has marks on the outer hull where a space shuttle docked. And a close inspection of the interior showed that someone had been living in it. Which explains how the triggers to the missile system were stolen before they even reached Mars.”
“So you’ll agree it’s possible the same person was zapping the implant in my spinal cord.”
“Say I do agree … ,” he began.
“Then we track him,” I said, “by scanning for whatever wave technology his remote uses. I’m guessing X-ray. That’s what we use for robot control. Find the frequency that triggers my implant, and then we can follow the same frequency right to its source. He’ll never know we’re looking for him, right up to the second we get him.”
Rawling spun in his chair some more. After a few minutes he stared at me, his jaw set. “It’s going to hurt you.”
“So will a Manchurian fleet that lands when we don’t have missiles to scare them away.”
“We’ll do it then,” Rawling said.
“No, you won’t.” It was a voice behind us.
I turned just in time to see a face I recognized. Luke Daab’s.
He held a neuron gun pointed at Rawling’s head. If set on stun, the voltage of just one neuron gun could cripple him with the pain of an electrical jolt through the nerve pathways of his body. Although it didn’t do permanent damage, it would temporarily paralyze his muscles and render him unconscious. But if on a different setting … I’d never seen those results, and I didn’t want to.
Without warning, Daab pulled the trigger.
Rawling screamed briefly, then fell straight back over his chair. He twitched once on the floor, then made no movement at all.
“Hello, Tyce,” Luke said. “So glad we could finally get together again.”
CHAPTER 21
Luke Daab shut the door to Rawling’s office and locked it. Keeping the neuron gun trained at my head, he moved to Rawling’s desk and ripped the computer wires loose. He did the same with the phone line.
I was trapped.
“Just in case you had thoughts of trying to reach anyone when I left,” Daab said casually. “I have no intention of letting you stop me ever again.”
He was still as redheaded, mousy, and skinny as ever. The only change seemed to be that his beach-ball belly was a bit larger.
I couldn’t speak. Was Rawling unconscious … or dead?
“Cat got your tongue?” Daab asked with a slight, twisted smile and that nervous laugh of his. He yanked off my wrist buzzer and then pulled a small device from his pocket. He dangled the device just out of my reach. “Or is it a headache?”
I groaned. I didn’t want him to realize that the lead wrap was shielding me from his remote. “Why?” I said between clenched teeth. Although I didn’t have a headache, I still felt enough anguish that I didn’t have to act out any pain.
Luke moved around behind my wheelchair. He spoke to my back. “Why the implant? Or why am I here?”
My world tilted. He had lifted the handles of my wheelchair. He gave a violent jerk, and I tumbled helplessly forward. My elbows crashed into the floor. I groaned again and slowly rolled over.
Daab sat in my wheelchair, smiling down on me. “I’m here in this office because you and Rawling have suddenly become a danger. This is a little earlier than I had planned to set everything in motion, but fortunately all the pieces are in place.”
I said nothing.
“Why am I here on Mars?” he asked. “Oh, you’ve already figured that out. To get the dome ready for my friends. You’re going to be a big help to me, Tyce. I’ve always known you were smart, but listening in on your conversations with Rawling confirmed it for me.”
His catlike smile widened. “Oh yes, the first thing I did once I got inside was plant a simple bug under Rawling’s desk. I wanted to know what was happening. It was great entertainment, listening to how you came to your conclusions. I was amazed at how accurate they were. That only proves it was a good choice to enlist you for our side.”
“Never help,” I said between clenched teeth. I tried to rise.
Daab stood from the wheelchair and kicked me back onto the floor. I was surprised at how strong a skinny guy like him could be.
As he turned around, I quickly shifted the lead belt, lifting it slightly upward. I couldn’t depend on him announcing when he shut off the pain activator. I didn’t want him to find out I had a shield, or he’d take away my only protection.
Immediately pain flooded my head. This time my groan of agony was real.
Daab sat back in the wheelchair, smiled, and dangled the remote again. “So far, on a scale of 1 to 10, I’ve kept this down to 4. Today in the exercise room, I raised it to six. There’s still a lot higher pain ahead for you. Unless you cooperate.” He hit the remote. “Feel better now?”
The pain stopped. I let out a big sigh of
relief.
“Perhaps you can concentrate now,” Daab said. “So listen closely. Very soon, the only people living under the dome will be you, me, and all the other kids with robot-control capabilities. I know you are considered their leader. And you’re going to make sure they continue assembling the generators so that everything is ready by the time Dr. Jordan and my other Terrataker and Manchurian friends arrive. If you don’t help, the headaches will return—and you’ll wish you were dead.”
I remembered how bad it was in the exercise room, thinking that I would have begged to have the pain end.
“The fleet is two months away,” I said. “I can’t keep 50 kids from finding a way to stop you.”
“I won’t be in the dome.” He sneered. “I’ll be orbiting safely in space while I monitor the progress of the generator assembly. That’s why you’ll be in charge. And if you don’t help, I’ll shuttle back down once a week to execute kids until they finally get the message I’m serious.”
Daab looked at his watch, as if it weren’t a big deal to talk about killing people in cold blood. “Eleven forty-five. Good, all the robot-control kids should now be asleep in their nice little airtight, oxygen-filled dorm. When they wake up, they’ll have the whole planet to themselves. Except, of course, for you and me.”
Daab stood again, moved to the wall, and took down one of the two emergency oxygen tubes from beside a fire extinguisher. He dropped it on the floor in front of my face. “Ten minutes, give or take,” he said. “Then it will do you a lot of good to wear this until the oxygen runs out.”
He moved back to the wall and grabbed the other oxygen tube for himself. “I guess from your point of view it’s a shame that Rawling didn’t pay closer attention to those huge tanks labeled oxygen. You know, the ones that you thought were explosive devices?”
Daab kicked Rawling, who had not yet moved. Then Daab made himself comfortable again in my wheelchair. “I can give you the whole story later, of course, but here’s the short of it. As you know, the upper levels of the World United Federation are riddled with Manchurian supporters. So it was very simple for them to arrange the emergency backup system. Seal the dorm. Add those oxygen tanks. No one questioned it. Only the tanks don’t have oxygen. They hold a highly poisonous gas. The robot-control kids are safe, but all the adults will be dead as soon as I hook the tanks up to the ventilation system.”
Final Battle Page 16