Seconds later a massive fireball smashed into the DUV III. Haon’s ship had exploded.
“What happened?” Adina said.
“I don’t know. That shouldn’t have been enough to destroy the ship.”
I banked left and looked out the window.
Burning debris plummeted toward the earth.
From her seat beside me Mom looked at the field of burning debris below. I flew in a slow circle around what was left of Haon’s ship.
“Computer,” she said. “Run a chemical analysis of the air outside the ship.” She looked at me. “The nano-virus should have been released in the explosion. It probably wasn’t high enough to cause worldwide destruction, but most of North America won’t support animal life for centuries, if ever.”
“Chemical analysis complete. Seventy-eight percent nitrogen. Twenty point one percent oxygen. Point nine percent argon. Point seven percent carbon dioxide. Point three percent sulfur.”
“There should be a sharp spike in carbon molecules,” Mom said.
“Negative.”
She shook her head. “But the nano-bots wouldn’t have been destroyed, even in an explosion of that magnitude.” She frowned. “Unless Haon never had the virus with him in the first place.”
“What if he dropped it somewhere before the ship exploded?” Adina said.
We both looked at her.
“Just before Haon turned toward the sky, he slowed almost to a stop. What if he dropped the nano-bots then?”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Mom said. “Unless—” She whipped around. “Noah, take us down. To the point where Haon’s ship slowed.”
I grabbed the yoke and pushed forward, scanning the ground below.
“I think it was right there—see? That small clearing just north of the debris field.”
Minutes later, we were on the ground.
“What are we looking for?” I said once we were all outside the ship.
“I’m not sure.” Mom’s hands parted vegetation around her.
Adina bent over and moved back and forth, scanning the ground.
“Here!” Mom and I ran over. In the soft ground was the perfect imprint of a boot.
Mom looked at Adina.
“He jumped out of the ship?” I tried getting my mind around what I was seeing. “It can’t be him,” I said. “Adina and I both saw Haon in the XB Class seconds before it blew up.”
“That’s true, Mrs. Zarc,” Adina said. “He was definitely flying the ship.”
Mom threw her hands up. “Then whose footprints are these? This doesn’t make any sense.”
“Unless…” I shook my head. “No, that’s impossible.”
“What?” Mom said.
“Back in the twelfth century, when we tried to rescue you, I fought Haon. I found out his arm wasn’t real. It was mechanical, like—”
“Like a robot,” Mom said. “So that’s how he’s been able to time-travel. I couldn’t figure out how he was always there, no matter when we went, how he was able to defeat all the Poligarchy’s scanners.”
“It was never really him?” I said.
“Exactly.”
“So we just blew up this robot?” Adina said.
“It’s possible,” Mom said. Her voice held a tinge of awe. No one had robots so advanced, completely indistinguishable from their human counterparts.
“If true, that means these footprints could be the real Haon’s,” Adina said.
“Do you think you can follow him?” Mom said.
“No problem,” said Adina.
I turned toward the volcano. “Let’s go.”
“Not so fast,” Mom said. “We need to get suited up. The closer we get to that volcano, the more toxic the air will get.”
“Fine, but let’s hurry.” Haon could be kilometers away by now.
We rushed back to the DUV III and helped one another into our suits. Ten minutes later, we were back outside. Obadiah wanted to come, but I had to make him stay. His sad eyes tore at me as the hatch closed.
Once more I felt the rush of being able to walk in the EV suit. The mechanical legs whirred as we ran back to the field.
It was hard not to run ahead of them, but I knew it wouldn’t do us any good. Luckily Adina lost no time picking up Haon’s trail. We all jogged after him into the woods.
It was much warmer than back on Mars when I last wore the suit. Sweat rolled between my shoulder blades. Mom allowed us to keep our visors up for the time being, though, so at least I had fresh air.
Adina wove back and forth but steadily moved toward the dense smoke ahead.
“He makes a trail easier to follow than a cave bear.”
The air began to stink of burning sulfur. I tried to stifle a cough, but Mom heard me and stopped.
“Okay. Visors down.”
“Aw, Mom. Just a little further.”
She didn’t have to say anything. One look and I dropped my visor.
Soon visibility worsened. The woods around us darkened to an eerie twilight. Smoke rolled along the forest floor.
“It seems Haon picked a good time to visit the Yellowstone volcano—it hasn’t been this active in years.” Mom peered around. “Keep your eyes out, he could be anywhere in this smoke.”
The forest thinned around us until we broke into a bleak landscape of burnt tree trunks that stood like broken sentinels.
Haon’s footprints were now easy to see in the blanket of ash. The three of us ran side by side, darting in and out of burnt trees. Finally, the blackened trunks thinned and disappeared, leaving only a tumbled mess of boulders and smooth obsidian lava flows.
We climbed upwards along a rocky ridge. When we reached the top, a wall of heat and smoke hit us. I thrust my hands in front of my face and looked down.
A crater the size of a small city opened up before us, its walls curving off into the shadows. Black smoke poured from a central cone. Slow rolling lava oozed down the cone’s side in several places.
“There he is!” Adina pointed down and to the right.
Hopping atop black boulders, avoiding steaming jets and molten lava, was a figure in a silver EV suit. He was nearly to the base of the cone.
I scampered down the ridge into the crater, my mechanical legs pumping. The floor of the crater was pocked with debris and potholes, and Mom fell behind.
“We can’t let him reach the top of the cone!” she shouted. “You two are the only chance we have. I’ll catch up.”
Adina, who’d lived most of her life chasing down game, dashed off. I followed. Haon was now climbing the cone, using both hands to scramble up the steep sides.
Adina reached the base of the cone and started climbing really fast. Haon turned and saw her. I couldn’t actually hear him, but I was sure he swore.
He started grabbing loose rocks and rolling them down at her. I darted to his right and climbed as fast as I could. He continued to scramble up the slope, but Adina was getting so close he stopped long enough to rock a nasty boulder loose.
“Look out!” I yelled.
She glanced up in time to get out of the way as Haon turned and started climbing again. I was now even with him, only two meters or so below the volcano’s top. Lava flowed over the lip of the cone to my right. The heat was so intense I knew I’d be dead without my EV suit. I looked over to see Haon reaching into a pocket on his chest. He pulled out a gleaming vial.
I lunged when he cocked his arm and threw. I got hold of his boot, but it was too late—the vial flew end over end through the air toward the mouth of the cone. It disappeared in a belch of smoke.
“Tough luck, kid.” He kicked me in the shoulder and rolled away.
No—we couldn’t have failed, not after everything we’d been through, we couldn’t—
A white-suited figure outfitted in a highly customized EV suit emerged from the churning smoke above us. In his hand was the vial!
“No!” Haon shouted. “Where’d you come from?”
Jets were strapped to the
figure’s feet and back. Haon scrambled forward.
“It’s not possible! Give me that vial.” His eyes darted around frantically.
Without warning, Haon lunged and grabbed me around the neck, knocking me over. We rolled several times, then stopped. Haon pressed his knee down on my chest.
“Give me that vial or the boy dies.”
A rolling rivulet of lava flowed just centimeters from the visor protecting my face. Haon pushed my head toward the magma.
“Give me that vial. Now!”
I tried to talk but Haon’s weight on my chest was too much.
Lying there helpless, moments from death, I knew the truth. This man wasn’t my father. He could never be my father. My father was Noah Zarc Sr.
The newcomer flew down the side of the cone and landed a few meters away. He held the vial toward Haon.
“No tricks.” Haon climbed to his feet and pulled me with him.
Keeping me between himself and the suited figure, Haon inched forward, his hand outstretched. He grabbed the vial, then thrust me forward so hard I fell over, knocking the figure down with me.
Haon immediately turned and scrambled back up the slope. He climbed to the top and pulled his arm back to throw the vial again.
Adina lunged from behind a boulder and knocked him backwards, landing on top of him. He kicked her off, and she tumbled down the cone’s slope, landing hard then not moving. He stood and lifted the vial.
The suited figure next to me ignited the rockets on his suit and flew straight at Haon—an odd-looking pistol in his outstretched hand. A faint whirring sound filled the air as a jet of white gas erupted from the gun. A cloud engulfed Haon’s arm, then ice crystals formed from shoulder to wrist—his arm was frozen solid.
Haon bellowed and swung around, smashing his free fist into the visor of his attacker. The pistol skidded across the ground and stopped a few centimeters from Adina’s motionless body.
I heard a loud crunch and the suited figure dropped to the side of the crater with a thud. His body began to slide into the boiling black smoke. In a second I was at his side, grabbing for a hold.
My EV suit struggled to keep up with the commands I was sending through my neuro-implant, but I was able to get my footing and grab his arm before he disappeared over the edge. In my chair, I’d never have been able to hold him.
His facemask was shattered. I was surprised to see an old man with a white bushy mustache and beard spilling out of his visor. He looked familiar.
He didn’t move.
“Enough of this!” Haon screamed.
He turned his frozen arm toward the crater. The vial in his hand flickered with a green glow as light caught the liquid inside.
“No!” I struggled to keep the old man from falling into the crater. Adina was unconscious. Mom had just reached the foot of the crater—she’d never make it in time to help.
“You’re not looking so good, brother,” Haon said.
Brother? I looked down at the old man.
He groaned. Dark brown eyes opened and looked up at me, filled with sadness.
“Dad?”
“Good, you’re awake,” Haon said. “I’d hate for you to miss the demise of everything you’ve worked so hard for.”
He moved the vial over the crater.
Time seemed to slow. I thought of the people on Venus, living in terrible conditions. Would Haon's plan really work? Would the Poligarchy allow the Venusians to populate Earth?
I pictured Obadiah back on the DUV III, only a few kilometers away. He’d be the first to die if Haon released the nano-virus.
“This is not the answer!” I was still straining to keep Dad from sliding into the crater.
Haon just shook his head.
I looked at Dad, then at the pistol lying near Adina. No way I could get to the gun without letting go of Dad.
The choice was clear.
I pushed the EV suit’s legs upright and yanked as hard as I could. My arms felt like they were going to tear off. Little by little I pulled him out of the crater. Finally I fell back and Dad landed next to me.
“Bravo!” Haon said.
He squeezed the vial. It shattered.
“NO!”
The liquid inside vaporized. The green gas dispersed into the broiling black cloud of the volcano, churning toward the upper atmosphere.
He really did it.
“Noah, catch!”
I turned in time to see Dad’s pistol sliding toward me. Adina smiled, then slumped back to the ground.
Grabbing the gun, I spun around and fired.
A white cloud of gas engulfed the giant of a man who stood over us.
I couldn’t see anything but kept squeezing the trigger until the stream of gas stopped. The white smoke burned away in the heat. Haon stood for a moment, a scream etched on his face, then toppled over and slid down the slope. His frozen body stopped a meter from the lava he’d held my head to only moments before.
“We need to get out of this crater.” Dad shook his head. “Noah, help me.”
I glanced at Mom. Even through her visor I could see how pale she was.
I helped lift Adina into Dad’s arms. She groaned.
“Meet me back at the DUV III. I need to make sure she’s all right.” Dad fired the rockets on his suit and flew over the ridge of the crater and out of sight.
Mom reached for me. I squeezed her gloved hand, turned, and looked at the frozen figure of Haon lying at the base of the crater.
“What about him?”
“Haon should be stable for a while.” She glanced up at the churning smoke. “It’s more than he deserves. The nano-virus has probably spread a hundred kilometers already.”
“So that’s it? We failed?” I couldn’t believe that after all we’d been through, this was how it would end.
“It looks like it.” Tears slid down her face. “Even though you got Haon with that freeze-ray, it wouldn’t have stopped the virus after it was dispersed. Besides, the heat of the volcano would instantly thaw any of the nano-bots that might have been frozen.”
She looked off in the direction Dad and Adina had gone.
“Let’s go make sure your friend is okay.”
We hiked back to the ship. I felt like I was moving through ten times Earth’s gravity. What had happened to Dad? Why was he so old? Was Adina okay?
What about Obadiah? Well, I knew he wasn’t okay. No animal was.
I watched Mom as we worked our way through the blackened terrain. I could tell she was just as sad as me.
“What happened?” I said when we were clear of the volcano.
She didn’t seem to hear me at first.
“With Dad?”
She sighed. “I think your father went back in time—a long way back—and waited for Haon to appear. It’s just the kind of thing he’d do.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense.” We reached the DUV III and entered the ship’s airlock. “Why would he go back so far?”
“Because I had to.”
We looked up to see Dad walking down the stairs from the cockpit. He wore a white jumpsuit with tubes, wires, and pistons running along his arms and legs. Small servos whined when his legs bent and straightened. Out of the EV suit, his hair looked even whiter. His face had deep lines and his eyes were droopy. But when he smiled at Mom, I saw the dad I knew. And when Mom stared at him, her eyes filled with tears.
“How long?” Her voice cracked when Dad reached the bottom of the stairs and moved toward us.
“Nearly a hundred years.” He pulled Mom to his chest with hands spotted by age. His fingers didn’t quite open all the way as he caressed her hair.
“No.” She sobbed. “There had to be another way.”
“I don’t understand, Dad. What do you mean a hundred years?”
Dad looked at me, his brow wrinkled.
“It was something your mom said. Something she didn’t even mean for me to hear.”
Mom pulled back and looked up into his face.
> “During your transmission to me, Hannah. You said to yourself if you had a hundred years, you might be able to come up with an antivirus.” He smiled at her. “Of course, time is something I had plenty of. We also knew Haon was somewhere between the present and a hundred years ago. I thought maybe I could catch him in the past, stop him before he had a chance to do any harm.”
He continued to stroke Mom’s hair. I was trying hard to understand.
“I travelled to the year 2932. For the past ninety-two years, I’ve waited to do what I could to stop Haon.”
“But it was all for nothing,” I said. “He never went back in time, did he?”
“We did see him a couple of times. Exactly ten years ago, he appeared not far from Earth. We scrambled some ships after him. I joined the chase on the prototype of the new DUV VI. When we reached him, he was already in battle with other ships just like the one I was on. It was eerie, seeing ships I knew hadn’t been built yet. Now I know I was actually on one of them.”
“Wait,” I said. “You were fighting alongside yourself?”
He smiled. “I know it’s hard to get your mind around. But when you were chasing Haon this morning and he jumped while entering the atmosphere, I knew exactly where and when he’d jumped to. I knew it was futile to follow, because I’d already witnessed the outcome of the battle, but I jumped anyway.”
Again his face filled with sadness.
“I still hoped I could stop him from destroying two of our ships. Maybe, just maybe, everyone had been wrong, and the future can be changed in the past.” He shook his head. “But of course it can’t. We damaged Haon’s ship, but he still got away, and two of our ships were destroyed, just like it happened ten years ago.
“Those men were the bravest pilots I’ve ever known. None of us knew who was going to get killed, only that two wouldn’t make it back.” He paused for a moment, his eyes filling. “I didn’t know about the other two who died this morning before Haon jumped back in time.”
He wiped his eyes and managed a weak smile.
“But it wasn’t for nothing, Noah. We stopped him. You’re safe.”
“But we didn’t stop him.” I had a painful lump in my throat. “The virus is covering the planet.” And Obadiah, my best friend, was dead.
Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble (Noah Zarc, #1) Page 17