The Convoy

by Sebastien Acacia

  Tsss... Tsss...

  “Let me inform Ermy! We’re arriving in position in one minute. Over!” Trancavel finally concluded.

  “Uhh! This isn’t all, chief!” Raymond interrupted him from the command post. “We’ve identified two drones patrolling around your destination. We recommend you to bypass them by the South.”

  “I got them on the radar,” Jourdain immediately told him, after hearing this information.

  “Perfect, thanks for the advice, but we don’t have any more time to waste. Trancavel, over.”

  “The crew’s looks clearly expressed what they were expecting for the upcoming events. Trancavel didn’t wait to call Ermengarde.

  Tsss... Tsss...

  “Ermy? Trancavel here! Bad news, a MRU is coming toward you, at lightning speed. You will have to buy us some time. Over.”

  “Well received,” Ermengarde instantly answered. “How much time exactly? Over.”

  “What do you think about two dozen minutes? Over.”

  “Let me see if I’ve this in stock, and I come back to you! Over!” The firery-haired joked.

  “Just so you fully understand the situation, if you don’t keep them on the ground long enough, we will never be able to carry out our mission. Is that clear?”

  Tsss... Tsss...

  After several seconds of silence, Ermy added.

  “I’ve just checked, I’ve a box of 30 available! Over.”

  Trancavel shook his head from left to right, overly exhaling and whispering an almost inaudible this isn’t possible.

  “I will never understand him and his stupid jokes,” Jourdain declared.

  “Maybe, but right now he isn’t doing too badly, right?” Matilda angrily said from the rear.

  “Yes, not too bad,” Gaucelin repeated, a bit disillusioned.

  The engine roar suddenly stopped. Trancavel left his co-pilot seat and went to the rear. Crouched, he looked at each of his Kathar brothers and sisters.

  “No need to remind you, this mission is our last chance to, one day, overthrow Inosanto. We’re lacking time, but we aren’t lacking neither skill, nor willingness or fury. Be accurate, be strong in your assignments.”

  He paused for a moment, looked at Blanche then at Matilda, and finally took a deep breath.

  “Our destiny is in your hands,” he told them, rubbing their forearms.

  “Drones incoming!” Jourdain yelled from the cockpit.

  Trancavel didn’t seem to react. Still speaking to the two women of the crew, he added.

  “Be ready to jump as soon as we give you the order.”

  Matilda felt her heart beating more than normal. She swallowed so loudly that Blanche immediately looked at her.

  “Together we’re stronger,” she told her, laying her hand on her thigh.

  This kindness Blanche just showed her didn’t reassure much the young farmer, barely out of her teenage years. Two weeks ago, she was sowing Kang Kong in Kalia fields, she was dreaming of having twins and of meeting Inosanto. Barely two weeks. Today she was getting ready to place explosives in a railway tube and to risk her life to overthrow this same Inosanto. Life was unpredictable, especially when expected the least. Then, she whispered.

  “Happy the one living for science and improving the world...”

  “... and who will overcome darkness through science,” all her fellows added in unison.

  “Indeed, my friends!” Trancavel declared. “Indeed!”

  “Hang on!” Jourdain yelled again.

  The MRU dived almost vertically. Trancavel, who was holding a roll bar in one hand, ended up his two legs in the air, like if under zero gravity. Blanche grabbed his free hand, while Gaucelin grabbed his military harness so it didn’t end up flying into the ceiling.

  “Let us know, damn it!” He overreacted.

  Normally, Jourdain would make a quip. Something like you really have no reflex at all, haven’t you? This lack of reaction wasn’t a good sign, neither for Trancavel, nor for the rest of the team. Helped by his fellows, the Kathar general resumed a position allowing him to reach his co-pilot seat. Jourdain was trying a very risky escape move. He had waited to make eye contact with the drones to dive toward the huge forest in order to go around them from underneath. He immediately switched off the engine to save some atomic combustible. He was also hoping that this small trick would reduce enough the MRU heat signature to disturb the drones’ radars. In this way, they would be able to get the needed time to drop Blanche and Matilda and to go back to land without a trace, in a clearing, hidden in the vegetation.

  “I really don’t like when you do this!” Trancavel whispered after understanding the reason of this manoeuvre.

  Jourdain was staying stiff.

  “And also, I really don’t like when you don’t say anything!” Trancavel added, looking tense.

  One of his hands a few inches over the reactor starting button and the other one holding the yoke at its highest position between his thighs, Jourdain was completely silent. In front on them, there were only clouds, again and again. And this damn altimeter indicating a fast free fall, which was dropping down continuously, soon under three thousand feet.

  “Damn it, you’re going to kill us all!” Blanche raged from the rear.

  Matilda refrained from vomiting. Her eyes closed, she started to pray in a low voice.

  “Hep us! God, I’m begging you, helps us!”

  “Don’t worry, he knows what he’s doing,” Gaucelin quietly said, like if he were drinking some Gentian during a peaceful summer evening.

  Then, Jourdain activated the reactor rotation to direct them in the direction opposite to the fall. The operation lasted a few precious seconds. The atomic pile gauge was showing 3%. The altimeter had just dropped below 1,000 feet. The clouds had disappeared. The top of the trees wasn’t just a simple idea at the back of their head any more. They had just come back to be very real. Terribly real.

  “What are you waiting for? Damn!” Trancavel yelled.

  With two fingers on the touch screen, Jourdain directed all the remaining power toward the reactors. This manoeuvre brought back the MRU to the horizontal. Nevertheless, it seemed it was still dropping like before. Six hundred feet. Three hundred feet. Indeed, its speed was decreasing, but the impact with the top of the trees seemed inevitable and might be very violent. The gauge was showing 1.5% of energy. Trancavel was gritting his teeth so much that the crew could hear it from the rear.

  “Don’t worry, kid, he knows what he’s doing,” Gaucelin whispered to Matilda, who was still praying, loudly this time.

  Phoebus was always telling brilliance was probably the human feature closest to madness, and Jourdain was giving them a sharp demonstration. He increased the reactor power, putting them in post-combustion mode just a few yards before touching the top of the trees. They were literally carbonised when the big machine came closer. He deployed the landing gear. Quite shaken, the aircraft drop was smoothed by the extremely powerful reactors and also by the trunks of the calcined trees decomposing into ash under the pressure of the armoured shell. The shock with the ground was a bit more violent than planned but the landing gear took most of it. A few bags and equipment felt in the rear of the aircraft in a clatter of metals. The energy gauge was showing zero percent. Outside, fire was crackling over a few branches and trunks in the middle of a apocalyptical and desolate landscape. His hand lying in front of him on the aircraft controls, Trancavel was looking down on Jourdain.

  “No drone on the radar. I think my small move has completely covered our tracks,” he proudly affirmed without showing any tension at all.

  “Right, but we don’ t have any more combustible to get closer to the tube,” Trancavel cursed.

  “We will discuss about this later,” Blanche stood from the rear.

  Matilda and she were already getting ready to exit, carrying their backpack. Deftly slapping on a big red switch, she opened the door toward the forest.

  “Which direction do we need to follow?�
�� She asked, lost.

  Trancavel, who had just joined them, answered her while pointing at the forest.

  “Follow this way during approximately one mile. You will see the tunnel entrance.”

  “We hadn’t really planned to land here,” Blanche complained. “We will have a hard time carrying our long board.”

  “Hmm! Gaucelin, go with them. Then, you will join us at the extraction point.”

  “At your command, chief.”

  It didn’t take long for the three Kathars to sink into the dense vegetation. Gaucelin, with his massive body made of muscles only, was easily carrying the two long boards on his back. Trancavel, Aymeric, Jourdain, Gaston and Geoffroy were getting ready to get out to reach the expected pile extraction point.

  *

  * *

  Matilda had never scrambled over such a long way, carrying 30 pounds on her back. Her knees were suffering a bit because of the overweight of the auxiliary engine she was carrying. The watchword was absolute silence and Blanche wasn’t the kind to joke about the infiltration protocols. The vegetation was covering all the surrounding area, therefore they had to deviate from their way a bit. According to the satellite tracking the HQ had sent them, they should soon see something looking like an impressive concrete building with a watchtower at its top. Indeed, the clock was ticking, but it didn’t mean they had to rush into the lion’s den without being careful. The military robot dogs could definitely be nearby and drop on them at any time. Where were the two drones that Jourdain’s manoeuvre had skilfully helped to avoid. Had they spotted them? Did the Milicia Christi send another patrol on the premises because of the accumulation of anomalous events, starting with the aqueduct collapse. Blanche was reassuring herself, thinking the HQ would have warned them, if this would have been the case. However, there was no guarantee the satellite was working properly in this area. Too many questions, too many illusions, too much frustration, she thought. Go on! Whatever would happen, they must go on!

  Suddenly, Blanche, who was leading the way, raised her right fist on the side, putting her hand on the grip of the semi-automatic pistol hanging in her harness. Spontaneously, Gaucelin put a knee on the ground, grabbed his automatic rifles with rocket-propelled grenades, ready to fire. Surprised, Matilda instinctively imitated him. Blanche also knelt. She turned back toward her two fellows.

  “Building right ahead, 50 yards away,” she whispered as low as she could. “Low approach.”

  The three of them stood up again, but kept moving, squatting down, with their body slightly bent forward. Blanche pointed at Gaucelin and signalled him to go ahead, scouting, as his weapon was more powerful to retaliate in case they unexpectedly encountered the enemy. The leaves covering the forest floor were crackling under each step of the Kathar soldiers. A light wind started to blow, carrying the salty scent of the ocean up to their position. A first for Matilda. Hopefully, she would be able to see the ocean vastness, she liked to imagine. But only if everything would go as planned. Gaucelin stopped moving right being a big rock providing a strategic view on the building. He signalled the way was clear.

  “They probably didn’t expect any unannounced visitors,” he whispered to them after they had joined him.

  “Why do you say that?” Blanche asked him, taking the same precaution.

  “There is nobody in the watchtower, no drone is visible, neither robot dog nor militiaman.”

  “Hmm! I really don’t like this,” she retorted.

  “Right, me neither,” Gaucelin added.

  “Maybe they just left to intercept the MRU?” Matilda suggested.

  “Let’s not think about this more, we’ve a mission to carry out,” Blanche dictated, even if she wasn’t really fond of this idea.

  The building wasn’t as high as they had initially thought. The railway tube was piercing right through it to sink into the Earth, probably in its centre. When Matilda looked on her right, she immediately realised how big was the technological construction Blanche and she would infiltrate. The transparent tube with blueish reflections was unfolding until the horizon in the forest, crossing it completely, like a huge hole from where the trees had been removed. Nearing the ground, the concrete aqueduct supporting it was becoming a succession of metallic rings progressively sinking toward the ground until the building where the tube was disappearing. Approximately 200 yards long, the building had no opening, neither window, nor door. It was a simple parallelepiped in its purest way. Monolithic. Robust. Mysterious. Only a small access chamber isolated from the rest of the tube was providing a manual opening to gain access to it.

  “Let’s get closer!” Blanche said in a low voice.

  They barely stepped a bit toward this door, while a Christ’s militiaman appeared from nowhere, apparently patrolling around. Too far, he didn’t notice the three intruders. The Kathar infiltration team lied on the ground in a single motion. Gaucelin looked at his watch. The clock was ticking. The train should arrive at more than 370 miles per hour in approximately thirty minutes, and, even if Matilda’s strategy was perfectly followed, they would need five minutes to go down to the perfect area to place the explosives and 15 minutes to come back up so they had approximately 10 minutes to handle any unexpected events. Whatever, when the train would get closer, the aspiration it would exert would simply prevent them from running away. By creating void at the front, the locomotive was creating a suction phenomenon. The air drawn ended up evacuated at the back of the train, creating the propulsion. The two simultaneous forces allowed the train to reach tremendous speed very quickly. Therefore, three or four minutes before the train arrived, the vacuum would already start. Two minutes before arriving, it would already be too late. Like ants hunted by a vacuum cleaner, Blanche and Matilda would be spun around in every direction before being crushed in the freight train reactors.

  The militiaman was nonchalantly doing his patrol. Gaucelin silently dropped the long boards.

  “I will attract him in the forest! Don’t waste any time, run to the tube service entrance,” he told them in a low voice.

  The militiaman stopped, and, believing he had heard someone speaking, turned back toward them.

  Matilda’s entire body was shaking. Her googly eyes were reflecting stupor but also fear. Lying on the back, Gaucelin activated the grenade mode of his automatic rifle, selected a smoke ammunition and shot toward the forest, opposite to them. The projectile crossed approximately 150 yards before landing on the ground and releasing a thick white smoke. The militiaman’s attention was immediately attracted by the mild detonation. He brought his hand next to his full-face helmet, seemed to be pressing on a round and bright red apparatus on the side, and, after an inaudible message, moved toward the white smoke. Matilda, who was able to look at the manoeuvre, remembered the crazy chase that almost lead to her capture when she had been smuggled out of Kalia. She remembered how fear had frozen her entire body. This time again, the soldier with his mysterious powers reached a blazing speed in just a few seconds. Gun in hand, Gaucelin took opportunity of the diversion to stand and ran as fast as possible in the opposite direction from the militiaman. Blanche, even if moved by such courage, didn’t forget the mission purpose.

  “Come on! Let’s go,” she whispered to Matilda.

  She didn’t hear anything. She could just feel her breath, her heart beats, her stupefaction, like if she had just seen a ghost around.

  “Psssss! This isn’t the time to lose control... Let’s go,” Blanche insisted, pushing her a little.

  They grabbed their long board. Squatting, they got near the tube service door. At this moment, they heard another detonation, a bit deeper in the forest.

  “The brave Gaucelin, he’s buying us some time,” Blanche told Matilda in a low voice.

  “God helps him,” she simply answered, making the sign of the cross.

  Surprised, Blanche didn’t reply. After all, everything could be useful in the shitty situation Gaucelin had ventured. So, why not God, she thought! When they were fac
ing the door, both of them hidden by the huge tube, two drones flew over them at full speed without noticing them. Blanche immediately called Gaucelin on his intercom.

  “Two drones are chasing you, Gaucelin! Be careful!”

  “We’ve to go to help him, he’ll never succeed alone!” Matilda said, looking at the two flying crosses moving away, toward the white smoke.

  “Gaucelin hasn’t made a diversion, so we can be moved by his situation. He has done it, so we can fulfil our mission. And that’s what we’re going to do,” Blanche said, irritated.

  She managed to unlock the door of the tubular access chamber. Then, she added.

  “Would you do the honours?”

  Matilda, tormented, entered the railway tube. She wasn’t feeling comfortable, her legs seemed to be collapsing under her own weight.

  Lord, give me the strength...

  They didn’t directly put their long board on the cold glass of the railway tube which tilt was disturbing their perception of space. Blanche was tightening her backpack, telling Matilda to do the same.

  “Don’t forget your helmet,” she reminded her.

  At the speed they were supposed to reach, any fall could prove fatal. Also, nothing was ensuring an optimal air quality. In that event, Aymeric had designed helmets with an embedded oxygen mask. No precaution would be superfluous.

  The sensation of looking at the unfathomable depth of this tube was astonishing. They couldn’t see its end. It was regularly lighted, every ten yards, by luminous globes projecting a bluish and vibrating electrical glow. The slight transparency of the glass suggested the circular metallic structure completely surrounding it and making it sturdy. The contrast with the forest landscape was very sharp. The long boards were finally directed downhill, with locked brakes. At their destination, six miles below, the tube would be completely immersed into the ocean. If everything went as planned, the explosion would cause its complete flooding. Matilda was thinking about her mother, her dear Paul, her dear Tao she had entrusted in Ermessende during the time of the mission. Everything was mixed up in her mind. Kalia, the life she had left behind, her friends, her mother digging in the back of the garden to get the NASA beacon, the Legatee’s omnipotence, the wish to become a mother. A real slump of memories was disturbing her in this crucial time.