Jet felt her jaw harden. “Richter thinks that?”
“He’s not the only one, Jet. Look around you!” At Jet’s angry look, Alice exhaled then turned, motioning for one of the other soldiers to bring something to her, using sign language that looked military.
Jet even vaguely recognized a few signs from her Uncle Draven and Aunt Lara.
“Jet,” Alice said. “Don’t fight me on this. You are too important to fight...this time, at least. And your family is waiting for you.”
“My family?” Jet felt that hope spike in her chest, even as a human ran up to her, holding out a long flak jacket for her. Jet held out her arms, letting him slide it up onto her shoulders without looking away from Alice’s face. “Then my family really is okay?”
“Yes,” Alice said. “We just got confirmation. They are waiting for you.”
“My brother? My mom?”
Alice nodded, pursing her lips. “Yes. Your uncle and aunt, too.”
Jet fought with the anger that wanted to rise, realizing that it was relief as much as true anger, confusion about what had just happened...along with what was probably a delayed reaction to everything she’d already been through that day.
“Go, Jet,” Alice said, her voice a growl. “Let us do this part. Go take care of your family. I won’t let anyone kill your pet Nirreth...”
That time, Jet only nodded.
The same human male who brought her the jacket was now winding a dark blue cloth expertly around her head while she stood there. By the time he finished, the cloth covered Jet’s hair and most of her lower face, so that only her eyes showed above where the material covered her nose and neck. The sense-suit had mostly disappeared under the flak jacket, leaving only her sense-boots visible below, and the lower part of the leggings.
From a distance, no one would recognize them as being from the Rings.
Alice looked her over, holding the gun up.
It occurred to Jet only then that Alice was in charge. She was leading this part of the army. The thought didn’t surprise Jet exactly, but it made her wonder what Alice’s role really was in all of this. It also made her wonder about Alice’s real relationship with Richter, which was something that had bugged Jet off and on for awhile.
But it was hard to care about any of that now.
Her family was alive. Biggs and her mother were alive.
For the same reason, Jet had decided to go with them, wherever they wanted to take her. As long as it meant she could see her brother and her mother again.
Somewhere in that, Alice must have decided Jet’s disguise would do.
“All right,” she said, giving a satisfied nod. “Take her. Go. Now.”
Jet didn’t have time to think about what to say to Alice.
She didn’t know if she would have thanked her, gotten angry with her, tried to ask her more questions, or given her a hug.
In any case, by the time she’d untangled any of that in her mind, Jet was already running down the dark ramp, surrounded on all sides by humans and Nirreth in military uniforms. They passed bodies crumpled on the ramp floor, some of them gasping and moaning from where they bled. Jet winced as those in her party shot some of those as they passed, even knowing they were probably mercy killings.
She glanced around at her new protective detail as they ran. She didn’t recognize any of them. Moreover, she couldn’t help marveling at just how many of them there were, or how respectfully and protectively they treated her, even now. The humans wore colors Jet recognized from the old history recordings about the war. She also recognized those colors from her first run in the Rings, when she’d worn a variation of the same uniform herself.
The Nirreth uniforms were more immediately familiar.
The six Nirreth Jet counted, half of them male and half female, all wore Laksri’s colors from his brief stint as First Son.
All of them, human and Nirreth, wore armbands around their upper arms. Given that they were running and it was dark, it took Jet a moment to recognize the symbol there.
Once she did, she almost smiled.
It was a small figure of a samurai, sword raised under the Nirreth sun.
Remembering Alice’s words about being the face to unite the Nirreth and the human rebels, Jet looked back up the ramp, gazing into that rectangle of light without slowing her pace.
Alice no longer stood by the opening.
No one stood there, in fact. Jet assumed the troops who had been standing there previously had already moved elsewhere to continue the fight.
The war of the Rebellion against Nirreth Royals had really begun.
And despite everyone wearing her symbol on their arms like some ancient mythological animal, it looked like Jet would miss the war this time around, too.
Nirreth and humans saluted her as Jet climbed the steps into a culler ship.
Jet didn’t recognize any of them, but she saluted back, almost in rote. She got smiles from a few of the younger humans, especially the women and girls, and a few careful touches from Nirreth who expressed their approval in more tactile ways.
All of it was a blur.
She walked up the ramp with her head held high, the scarf down below her chin now but still covering her hair.
It wasn’t until she entered the darkness of the hold that someone grabbed her for real.
Jet reached back, gripping the hilt of Black in rote as she stepped back, halfway into a fighting stance, but the person holding her broke out into a happy laugh, disarming her completely. She was still holding the hilt of Black but her fingers loosened when Anaze pulled her into a rough bear hug, still laughing.
“JET! I’m so happy to see you! So damned happy!” Squeezing her, he let out another laugh, what sounded like pure joy. “You have no idea, Jet! God above, you are amazing!”
He gripped her tighter, swinging her around in a half-circle and laughing louder when he made her gasp. The strength in his arms caught her completely off-guard. When did Anaze get so tall? Why did he suddenly seem three times the size she remembered him?
Realizing the last time she’d seen him at all, even from a distance, had been in the Retribution arena on Astet, Jet fought a sudden rush of emotion.
She’d known he was alive. Trazen told her he was alive.
So did Laksri...and Richter.
Even so, some part of her hadn’t really believed it.
Or maybe she’d just thought him dead for so long, the information that he’d survived the ordeal on Astet hadn’t become fully real to her, whatever her mind knew. It felt real now, even before she saw his green eyes smiling down at her. Her eyes had adjusted by then to the dimmer hold of the culler ship, so she could see every part of him.
She found herself focusing on scars on his neck and arms visible around his uniform shirt, remembering some of those from Astet, when they’d been fresher marks. Shaking that from her mind, she looked back at his face, fingering his dark hair and skin almost without realizing she’d done it. He caught hold of her hand, squeezing her fingers. His narrow face, still partly in shadow, was broken by white teeth as he grinned.
“Jet,” he said, softer. Tears came to his eyes. “I’m so glad to see you. I’m so glad you’re okay. I thought I was going to have a heart attack during that damned run...and seeing you on the floor before that monster, Isreti...” He swallowed, squeezing her hand again. “You were amazing. You were absolutely amazing...I could have killed you for doing something so risky, with all of those guards there...but damn. It worked! You killed that evil bastard right in front of his own guard!”
He let out a short laugh, half-choked by tears.
More than anything, she heard that happiness in his voice. She could see it in his eyes, practically feel it through his skin...as if he were Nirreth, too.
Before she could hold them back, tears sprang to her eyes. She remembered her friend from the pits, the talks they used to have about this very day, this very possibility. She fought to blink her tears away, then to wipe th
em with her hands when they started running down her cheeks. She let go of Black’s hilt, clinging to Anaze’s shoulders instead.
When she looked up next, he kissed her on the cheek.
“You look like shit,” she told him, her voice gruffer than usual.
He laughed again, squeezing her around the waist. “So do you...raccoon girl.”
He let her weight drop through his hands, setting her easily back on her feet. Letting go of him almost reluctantly, she stepped back. When he just grinned at her, his hands on his hips, she wiped her face again, clearing her throat before she looked up at him.
“So who’s running this crazy thing?” she said, her voice still gruff as she forced a smile. “You? Your crazy ass of a father? Laks?”
Anaze grinned, catching hold of her hand.
“Come with me, Jet,” he said. “I can finally tell you everything.”
Strangely, given everything that had happened, there wasn’t as much to tell as Jet would have expected. Not as much as she needed to hear maybe, to give her any real sense of closure...or even to make it all make sense in the less-rational parts of her mind.
Some of it, she already knew from Trazen.
Some of it she’d guessed, but hadn’t been completely sure.
Anaze and Laksri had been working together from the beginning, like Laksri told her...so that fell into the bucket of things Jet already knew. Of course, given everything that had happened, she’d no longer been entirely sure it was true...or if anything Anaze or Richter or Laksri has ever told her was true...but it hadn’t been new information.
According to Anaze, that part was true.
Anaze also said he was pretty sure Richter figured out that he and Laksri were more loyal to one another than they were to him. Anaze hadn’t given up on his father entirely, but he’d grown to be wary of him, particularly when Richter started getting more and more secretive about what he was doing in the northern settlements. Anaze knew how manipulative Richter could be––Anaze’s own mother had warned him about his father in that respect––but Anaze also knew Richter genuinely wanted freedom for all humans. As Anaze phrased it, Richter was just “a little less reliable” when it came to what he was willing to do to secure those ends.
In the end, Anaze said, Richter surprised all of them.
Mostly because he hadn’t actually betrayed them.
Not overtly, anyway.
He’d taken Jet’s family for safekeeping...that part was true.
He’d also taken them for leverage...so that part was true, too. Richter had wanted insurance for Laksri and Anaze, as well as Jet herself.
So he’d picked up Jet’s mother and brother not long after Jet’s first Rings match, when it became abundantly clear to Richter that Jet had received some military training of her own. In the beginning he’d only intended to pick up her Uncle Draven and Aunt Lara. But when he caught some of Isreti’s people sniffing around the skag pits, he’d decided to take her mother and Biggs too, before the Nirreth figured out who they were.
Richter still had Jet’s family in hiding when he’d gotten wind of Isreti’s coup back on Earth. They’d already been on their way to Astet when Isreti’s people reached out to Richter personally, and asked him to get rid of Laksri in return for giving Richter and his people immunity in the coming purges. Supposedly, they’d offered him Alaska.
Or maybe they offered him what used to be called Hawaii...Anaze was a bit fuzzy on the specifics.
In any case, Richter knew it was a bullshit deal, and that they’d all end up dead. So he did the only thing still open to him.
He faked Laksri’s death.
He shot him with a drugged dart that made a hell of a mess, knocking him unconscious in a way that feigned his death, then used the pretext of the assassination to get both Laksri and Anaze off Astet using his human military.
Jet, he’d left behind.
Anaze was more fuzzy about that part, which is maybe why Jet still struggled to wrap her head around the rest of the story. According to Anaze, he and Laksri hadn’t been there when Jet’s fate got decided.
They’d also both been furious when they found out Richter left Jet behind.
According to Richter however, it was his only option. Isreti had been adamant that Jet not be a part of their deal. He’d taken her into custody within minutes, and kept her under armed guard before he threw her into the prison below the Retribution arena. Isreti hadn’t cared about Anaze...and he hadn’t known about Laksri...but the new Nirreth King-To-Be had very definite plans around how to dispose of Jet.
As a kind of Plan B, Richter assured them that he’d “made arrangements” to ensure Jet would be in a safe house while she remained with the Nirreth.
Laksri about blew his lid when he found out that safe house had been with Trazen. Of course, by then, Laksri had been warned by Trazen about Isreti personally, so they were all less sure that Trazen was an enemy per se. Even so, according to Anaze, Laksri contacted Trazen at once, making him vow on everything Nirreth hold sacred that he wouldn’t violate Jet in any way.
Anaze seemed to think Laksri was suprised when Trazen agreed.
Funnily enough, Trazen had no idea that Richter had been behind him gaining custody over Jet. He’d made a bid of his own, but really, Richter made that happen, too. According to Anaze, Richter made that part of the deal with Isreti while they negotiated Laksri’s assassination...a compromise of sorts, which Richter phrased as a personal favor to the Ringmaster.
He only told Laksri and Anaze about Trazen’s ties to the Shinkara later.
How Richter had even known about Trazen’s ties to the Shinkara was too baffling for Jet to contemplate. Anaze didn’t know how Richter found out about that, either. When Jet asked, Anaze just held up his hands in a familiar shrug, smiling as if to say, “He’s Richter.”
It was pretty difficult to argue with that.
As Anaze finished talking, Jet found herself curled up on a wide, Nirreth-made bench in the cargo area of the culler ship, staring out a round viewport at a sky that no longer had the blue wash of color she’d gotten accustomed to inside the Green Zone.
This sky was a dirty brown instead, filled with dust and smoke, with no clouds discernible apart from the haze that obscured most of the ground below the culler.
They’d left the protective bubble of the city about thirty minutes before––maybe ten minutes after they lifted off the landing pad outside the Rings stadium.
The culler hadn’t flown to the edge of the city to exit the dome, like Jet expected, but straight up and out, as if they were leaving the planet altogether. Once it popped out of the open door, the ship’s ascent abruptly stopped. They’d fallen back towards the curve of the protective shield only to shift direction and skim over the outer surface and then out over the landscape of the “real” Earth that lived past the Green Zone’s thick walls.
Leaning her forehead against the transparent pane of the round viewport, Jet sighed, fighting back and forth in her head about how much longer she wanted to go over this. Anaze stopped talking a few minutes before...and Jet found that, more than anything, she was tired now.
Maybe more than tired. Her mind had fallen into a near static.
Even so, she kept one ear on the radio signals that echoed through the hollow-feeling cabin, a mish-mash of reports from different military forces operating around the city.
“...Casualties high in the Old City and Kabasi, mainly from cross-fire from the organized crime sector and a holed up squadron of Isreti’s armed forces. We have Nirreth on the ground, trying to reason with the crime side, but they’ve heard about the coup and they’ve got a split inside their own ranks. Some were loyal, due to promises Isreti made, and some––”
A different voice, female and human from the skag accent, broke in from another channel:
“Rings arena is secure. Live prisoners are currently being located to an indoor holding center in Station 10. The human cells there have already been emptied, as well a
s those holding political prisoners from the last regime, and––”
A male voice cut in from the other side, probably Nirreth:
“Fighting still hot by the Palace. We’re no where near to breaching those walls tonight, not even with bombs. Lakrsi’s people are trying to get in through the canals, using humans to swim up into central water processing. Risk is high. Repeat, risk is high that the Stone will not be secured. We have word that Isreti’s people have already sent for reinforcements specifically to retrieve it. ETA nine hours for the nearest...any unencumbered forces please report.”
Jet looked away from the viewport, sitting up taller on the bench.
She’d been to that water processing plant with Laksri and Richter. She knew exactly where it was. Moreover, they’d just said the mission was in danger. She didn’t understand the reference to a “stone” but she got the gist. There was something in the Royal Palace that both sides needed, and Isreti’s followers were coming for it.
Jet turned to Anaze.
“Take me back,” she told him.
Anaze frowned. “Back? Don’t you want to see your family?”
She shook her head, even though his words brought another pain to her chest. “It can wait. You should really take me back...to the compound of the Royals.”
Anaze’s confusion worsened. “Why, Jet?” He hesitated, his voice growing more cautious. “Laksri will be all right, you know...he’s got a military background...”
She felt her teeth grit. “This has nothing to do with Laks, Anaze.”
Anaze frowned. “Trazen, then.”
In spite of her irritation, Jet raised an eyebrow, realizing that Anaze was telling her something, not just being an ass. “They’re together? At the Palace, I mean?”
Anaze nodded, tapping the headset he wore in his ear. “They’ve just combined forces, now that the Rings stadium and the surrounding areas are secure. The Palace is the priority now.”
Jet exhaled. “I got that much from the radio. That’s why you need to take me back.”
Alien Apocalypse: The Complete Series (Parts I-IV) Page 83