Earth Shout: Book 3 in the Earth Song Series

by Nick Cook

‘Isn’t that the truth?’ Mike’s eyes widened as he spotted a rack of Zero motorbikes. ‘We’ve got to take those with us.’

  ‘Any excuse to be back on two wheels again, hey?’ Jack asked.

  Mike grinned. ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘Well, you won’t get any arguments from me,’ I said. ‘The Zeros more than proved their worth on our last mission.’

  We loaded four of the bikes on to the X101, along with the accompanying high-tech HUD helmets. We rummaged around the store further, and I had to do my best not to pack enough for a six-month expedition.

  Jack gave me a look when I picked up a cooking stove. ‘Lauren, seriously. This isn’t a camping trip. Or were you planning to make the alien a cup of your famous British tea when we meet him?’

  ‘There is no situation that a cup of tea isn’t perfect for,’ I said as I put the stove back. Instead, I settled for grabbing a box of energy bars and a crate of water bottles.

  I also discovered Tom’s disguise kits and loaded up with enough for all of us.

  By now, the rear loading bay of the X101 was almost groaning with kit. I was seriously starting to wonder if our craft would even be able to take off.

  Ruby appeared and stared at the mountain of stuff we’d managed to cram in. She shook her head.

  ‘Hey, it’s always good to be prepared,’ I said, reading her disapproving expression.

  ‘For you guys maybe, but all I need is a good sniper rifle and a ghillie suit and I’m gold.’

  ‘A ghillie what?’ Mike asked.

  ‘Basically it’s a camo suit that makes the person wearing it look like a walking bush,’ Jack explained.

  ‘Hey, buddy, don’t knock it,’ Ruby said. ‘With it on I’m almost impossible to spot.’

  I raised my eyebrows. ‘We’ll take your word for it.’

  ‘You should because your lives will probably depend on it at some point,’ Ruby said. She turned on her heel and headed for the cockpit.

  ‘Is it just me or is she really starting to give you some serious attitude, Lauren?’ Mike asked.

  ‘No, not just you,’ I replied with a sigh.

  ‘Like I said before, I wouldn’t stress about it,’ Jack said. ‘She’ll come round soon enough. Ruby’s the sort of soldier you need to win the respect of, that’s all.’

  ‘I just hope that’s actually humanly possible for anyone.’

  ‘Hey, we believe in you, and so will Ruby.’

  ‘Thanks for the vote of confidence.’

  Jack smiled at me. ‘Any time—’ His gaze snapped past me to a door opening.

  I spun round, expecting to see a team of security guards heading towards us. Much to my relief it was just Jodie carrying a small case.

  She walked over and handed it to me. ‘Can you make sure Ruby gets this?’

  ‘Yes, no problem.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She turned to Mike. ‘Hey, can we have a quick word?’

  ‘Of course…’

  He unclipped his mic before following her over to the store. He obviously didn’t want Lucy to listen into their conversation. Soon he and Jodie were out of earshot of us, facing each other, locked into what looked like an intense discussion.

  ‘What’s that’s about?’ Jack asked.

  ‘What do you think?’ I replied.

  I saw Mike drop his head, his shoulders sagging. But Jodie reached out and squeezed his arm, then give him a quick peck on the cheek.

  ‘Oh, thank god for that, it looks as if they’ve made peace at last,’ Jack said.

  ‘Hmmm,’ Lucy said over our earbuds.

  ‘Please just keep your nose out,’ I said to the AI.

  ‘Maybe I will, or maybe I won’t. We’ll just have to see.’

  Jack shook his head at me.

  ‘Oh hell, here we go,’ Lucy said.

  An instant sense of foreboding filled me. ‘What’s wrong this time, Lucy?’

  ‘Niki, along with those two security guards you ran into, are heading this way. They must have reported back to Niki and he’s realised what we’re doing.’

  ‘Then get that bloody launch door open already, Lucy.’

  ‘Sorry, Delphi is putting up quite a stiff fight and it’s taking longer than I expected to get past the door’s lockdown controls. But I should crack them any second now. The better news is that I’ve already managed to infiltrate the X101 systems and it’s ready for take-off.’

  Mike must have heard the exchange via his earbud and was already running back over towards the X101.

  A thumping sound came from the door and I looked to see Niki glaring at us through its round glass window. I shook my head at him and leapt with the others into the X101’s cabin. Next Ruby was hitting a button and the cabin door hissed closed behind us.

  The virtual cockpit was already up and running as we locked ourselves into our harnesses.

  I looked at the view of the launch bay projected on to the walls, past Jodie, who had her hand raised in farewell, and towards the door leading out to the corridor.

  ‘Delphi, get ready for immediate launch,’ Ruby said.

  ‘I can’t comply. Launch bay door is closed.’

  ‘Hurry up with that, Lucy – we’re running out of time,’ I said.

  ‘Nagging won’t help, but I’m nearly there…’

  On the virtual cockpit I saw a flicker of flame burst through the door.

  ‘Goddammit, Niki had the foresight to bring a cutting torch with him,’ Ruby muttered.

  I drummed my foot on the floor as the flame, flickering molten metal, reached the top of the door and started to move sideways.

  ‘Lucy?’ I said.

  ‘I know, I know.’

  The red line of melted metal reached the next corner and started downwards.

  ‘At this rate we’ll be caught on the ground before we’ve even had a chance to take off,’ Jack said.

  ‘Really not helping,’ Lucy said.

  The red line turned the final corner and sped back towards its starting point. I tapped my foot faster as the section of door toppled forward and crashed on to the hangar floor with a huge clang.

  Gloved hands appeared and the door was rolled away. Niki and the two guards came charging into the launch bay. Jodie headed straight towards them, waving her arms to try to stop them reaching our craft. But Niki pushed her aside, running now towards our X101.

  ‘Lucy, seriously!’ Mike said.

  ‘And I’ve cracked it, gorgeous,’ she replied.

  Above us the launch door started to slide open.

  ‘Prepare for an emergency launch, Delphi,’ Ruby said.

  ‘Launch procedure initiated,’ the X101’s inbuilt AI system replied.

  With a whir of electric motors the stubby wings pivoted to a vertical position.

  Niki had already reached our craft and was pounding on the door. ‘Don’t do this!’ his muffled voice shouted.

  ‘Cleared to launch,’ Ruby said without so much as blinking.

  ‘Launching now,’ Delphi replied.

  The electric motors whined and with a shudder our craft began to rise.

  On the cabin’s screens I saw Niki stumble back as the shrouded prop wind wash began to buffet him. One of the guards raised a pistol, but Niki slapped it down whilst shouting something. Niki pointed to the Armadillo on the launch pad and he and his guards raced to it just as our X101 rose quickly up the shaft towards the now open exit.

  Adrenaline tanged my mouth as Niki and the guards jumped into the other plane. Even as we cleared the exit and started to rise above the jungle, the Armadillo had already begun to lift into the air.

  ‘Jesus, they’re going to catch us,’ Mike said, staring at the pursuing craft as it rose fast beneath us.

  But then suddenly the other craft stopped and began to descend.

  ‘What, they’ve given up?’ Jack asked.

  ‘Actually, that will be down to me,’ Lucy said in a smug tone over the cabin’s speaker system. ‘I just overrode the Delphi AI controlling their ship –
and for good measure…’

  The landing bay door started to slide closed beneath us, shutting off the view of the launch bay. Over the jungle Lucy’s glowing micro mind craft appeared from another silo half a mile to the right, rising quickly into the sky.

  ‘I’ve completely hacked Delphi’s systems. Nobody will be able to open those bay doors for days,’ Lucy said.

  ‘Has anyone ever told you that you’re an utter superstar?’ I said.

  ‘Nothing like enough, but it’s good to hear even occasionally,’ she replied as her micro mind craft glided up alongside us. ‘Oh, and get ready for a head rush. I’m going to extend my antigravity field and give you a lift. That way we can get you there in about twenty minutes.’

  ‘You mean we could have stolen the Armadillo after all?’ Ruby said.

  ‘Whoops, sorry, my bad. Anyway, I thought this was meant to be a stealth mission…’

  ‘It is,’ I replied, giving Ruby a straight look before checking over my LRS pistol. But you could never be too prepared, especially when we were talking about one of our missions.

  Chapter Twelve

  A silvery lake was just coming into view ahead of us on the horizon. Jack, Mike, Ruby and I were strapped into our seats as Lucy controlled our craft to avoid Delphi attempting a mutiny. Her micro mind ship was flying alongside us, both craft having been fully cloaked since we’d fled Eden, including a fully operational chameleon cloak for the X101. For the first time I was able to fully appreciate the cloak’s abilities.

  ‘Lucy, are you absolutely sure there’s no sign of pursuit?’ I asked.

  Her face appeared in a window overlaid on the display of the landscape close to me.

  ‘For the hundredth time I’m still not detecting even a hint of anyone coming after us.’

  Ruby looked up from her Glock as she cleaned it with a barrel brush. ‘Even if they do manage to somehow launch a pursuit vehicle, we’ve got a major head start thanks to Lucy giving us a tow. They won’t catch us any time soon unless they decide to use Ariel, and we all know that’s not going to happen.’

  Mike nodded. ‘And don’t forget our last present to them. Quite a genius move on your part, Lucy.’

  This time her video window popped up on the wall next to Mike’s head. She beamed at him. ‘It’s going to take considerable time for them to get past the code I implemented to keep those launch bay doors locked.’ She finished by actually fluttering her eyelashes at him.

  Jack exchanged a knowing look with me. Lucy hadn’t stopped flirting with Mike from the moment we’d boarded the X101.

  Ruby blew down the length of her Glock’s barrel to clear it after her work with a cleaning brush. ‘Don’t forget that even if they do manage to launch anything, we’ve disabled our location beacon. We’re running dark for the duration of this mission.’

  Jack frowned. ‘They may not know where we are exactly, but they’ll have a damned good idea of the general area we’re heading towards.’

  ‘Maybe, but by the time they catch up with us we’ll hopefully have already rescued the Grey, which makes the rest academic,’ I said.

  Mike, who had finally mastered his airsickness from the magic carpet view, peered over at me. ‘I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but you really think we have a chance of pulling that off?’

  ‘We have more than a fighting chance with Lucy with us.’

  Lucy’s video window popped up next to me again. ‘Thank you for your vote of confidence, Lauren. Just remember that the next time I manage to upset you about something.’

  ‘I’ll do my best to keep it in mind.’

  I gazed out at the mountain ranges of cloud skimming past below us, blindingly white in the sunshine. An intense azure-blue sky surrounded us. It was eerily silent as Lucy had shut down our electric motors as she gave us a tow. They were pointless whilst we were enveloped in Lucy’s gravity field.

  Opposite me, Jack cracked open an eye. He’d been sleeping for most of the trip so far. ‘So what’s the plan when we arrive, Lauren?’

  ‘My instinct is to head to the Buck Ridge Campground near where the Grey was spotted,’ I replied.

  ‘But won’t that area be swarming with UFO hunters and the military by now?’

  ‘Probably, but that will hopefully mean no one will pay us too much attention. However, just in case we do run into an Overseer agent…’ I dragged out my bag from beneath my seat.

  Jack’s eyes immediately narrowed on it. ‘That’s a disguise kit, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes. As Niki said, if there are Overseers there already, we can’t risk being recognised.’

  ‘Makes sense to me,’ Ruby said. It sounded dangerously like a compliment. ‘So what look have you got in mind for me, boss?’

  I opened the bag and tossed her a spiky blonde wig. ‘I thought you might go for a sort of grunge-rock look. There’s a nose ring too if you want it.’

  That actually raised a smile from her. ‘No way. It’ll be the first thing an enemy would grab hold of and yank out. The hair will do just fine.’

  ‘Dare I ask what you were thinking for me?’ Jack asked. ‘Please tell me it doesn’t involve a ponytail!’

  I traded a grin with Lucy who was watching from her video window. She’d surreptitiously helped me work out everyone’s disguises during the flight, showing me mock ups on my Sky Wire. I’d had to bite back a laugh several times about the more hilarious ideas that she’d come up with.

  ‘Oh, Lucy and I thought you’d really rock a wild-man-of-the-woods look. It comes complete with a bushy beard and straggly hair.’ I tossed Jack the hairpieces and he caught them.

  He gave me and then Lucy a suspicious look. ‘Why do I get the feeling that you two are having fun at my expense?’

  ‘That’s pure paranoia,’ Lucy said, giving me a theatrical wink.

  Mike grimaced. ‘And what about me, or don’t I want to know?’

  ‘Oh, don’t you worry, handsome,’ Lucy said. ‘Your look is all down to me. I know it’s going to suit you as I ran several thousand combinations in a simulation so I would choose the right disguise.’

  I shrugged at Mike as I passed him a neat beard and slicked-back brown wig.

  ‘A hipster look, seriously?’ he said, examining them.

  ‘Oh, that is so you, buddy,’ Jack said, trying to suppress a smirk.

  ‘I’m not sure that’s a compliment,’ Mike replied.

  ‘Ignore him, he’s only jealous,’ Lucy said.

  Ruby shook her head as she slipped her Glock back into her shoulder holster. ‘You guys are a regular riot.’

  ‘So people keep telling me,’ I said, raising an eyebrow at her.

  I returned my attention to the view on the wall screens. Through breaks in the cloud far below, Lake Crest was now visible, clearly labelled by a useful overlay. The tag next to it indicated we were less than ten nautical miles away.

  ‘OK, as we’re not that far out now, time to get your disguises on,’ I said.

  The others nodded and we started to get ready. I raised my head towards Lucy’s pop-up window. ‘Have you managed to locate a landing site yet?’

  ‘Yes, I’ve been scouting suitable locations towards the southern end of the lake, near the campsite where the Grey was spotted. However, I’m picking up a lot of heat signatures from people crowding the immediate area, so we’ll have to land a couple of miles away in an isolated creek. Once we land, I’ll keep the X101 prepped so you can make a rapid escape if needed.’

  ‘Good. We should also have a backup plan in place in the event of anyone getting captured.’

  ‘We won’t if I have anything to do with it,’ Ruby said as she pulled on her spiky wig.

  ‘Without taking anything away from your skills, Ruby, we still need to cover every eventuality,’ I replied. ‘Lucy, if anything happens to us, you’re to head straight back to Eden. Ultimately, we’re expendable, but you absolutely aren’t. You need to keep yourself hidden and look after the X101. We don’t want you falling into the wrong h
ands.’

  ‘I don’t entirely agree with you, but I’ll play ball. I’ll patch in a secure channel on your Sky Wire phones, so if you need backup you can just whistle for me. I’ll also keep an eye out in case Alice somehow manages to send anyone after us.’

  Jack winced. ‘You do know there’s going to be hell to pay when we do get back?’

  ‘Yes, I know, but that’s just the cost of an essential mission – even if Alice doesn’t realise it.’

  Mike sucked the air through his teeth. ‘Maybe it is, but I do worry she’ll take us all off active missions after this.’

  ‘Don’t be so sure about that,’ Lucy said. ‘You’re all absolutely essential to helping me recover the rest of micro minds. Besides, if Alice is foolish enough to act out on this then I’ll simply go on strike until she sees sense.’

  ‘And if she calls your bluff?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘Who says I’m bluffing?’

  ‘Got it. Respect.’ Ruby made an OK symbol with her thumb and finger.

  We started to slow as the lake slid below us. A slight shudder passed through the craft as the wings rotated and we began to descend towards it.

  I could just about see that the lake was bounded by a small hamlet of houses towards its northern end. The southern tip was surrounded by woodland, meaning lots of cover for an alien to hide out.

  A number of small boats were out on the water. Pop-up windows appeared over each of them with a magnified view of the people in the boats. But none of the occupants even glanced towards the sky as we flew directly over them. Our chameleon camouflage was obviously doing a very effective job.

  ‘OK, guys, five minutes to touchdown,’ Lucy said.

  ‘Then let’s finish getting these disguises on,’ I said. ‘We’ll make this mission such a success that Alice will question why she ever doubted us.’

  ‘Amen to that, boss,’ Ruby said as she checked the ammo for her Glock in a spare clip. She slid it into a pocket in her hunting-style khaki trousers and looked through the rucksack containing her sniper rifle.

  We picked our way through a pine wood, ascending the slope. I was pretty happy with my disguise – I could have got used to my blonde hippie look. However, I was finding it hard not to laugh every time I caught sight of Jack in his wild man beard and checked shirt. I’d was sorely tempted to sing Monty Python’s ‘The Lumberjack Song’, but I suspected it might go right over his head, as it did for most people my age. I owed my cultural enlightenment to Steve – my old boss at Jodrell Bank. He’d been the one who’d first introduced me to the delights of Monty Python during our movie nights. Not for the first time I wondered what Steve would think if he could see me now.