Within days.
Drew didn’t have much time.
46
June 9th
St. George’s, Grenada
The elevator opened and they stared at a dark alleyway. It had been a while since Jaxx had been outside. He was glad it was dark.
He gripped the laptop as Rivkah shoved him forward by the barrel of her rifle.
Out of the elevator and into the warm heat of the night, Rivkah threw the rifle back into the elevator. A few seconds later, the elevator dinged and closed. A cement wall moved in front of it and hid the doors.
She was street-smart and could handle herself. That was a brilliant move. Walking around with a large weapon was a dead giveaway that something bad had happened, was currently happening, or was about to happen. She probably wanted as few eyes on her as possible.
“Move, Jaxx.”
Jaxx faced Rivkah. “Look, I’ll hand you the laptop and you can get going. I need to get back down there.” He attempted to step around her.
She blocked him. “Not a chance. You’re my ticket to safety and you’re going to…” She tilted her head, staring into Jaxx’s eyes. “I keep hearing your thoughts.” She put her hands in a fist. “No, I feel your thoughts. What are you feeling now?” She gave a humorless grin. “Right. You have no freaking clue what’s going to happen next. But you want to know more. You can’t help yourself. You want on this project because you think the entire Universe will reveal itself at your doorstep. The glyphs won’t decode themselves, and you’re the one who can.” She prodded him in the chest. Hard. It hurt. “You don’t know a lot, do you, Jaxx? There are gaps. Gaps in that little cranium of yours.” Her finger moved up to his forehead. She kept jabbing.
“There are gaps, you’re right. I’ve been trying to fill them, but Donny has been keeping me on a tight leash.”
“Who the hell ever had you on a leash?”
Jaxx shrugged. She knew a version of him he was only just getting to know.
Rivkah gasped. “Holy mother of all dogs. You really don’t know.” She fought to catch her breath. “If that isn’t the biggest, most cowardly way out I have ever heard of.” She got up in his face. “I don’t knoooooooooooow.” It was a whiny voice, meant to insult.
It did.
“Fine. Here’s what happened. You were supposed to have my back. But you left me for dead.” She paused.
“Sorry,” said Jaxx.
“It gets worse. You left me in a burning starfighter. Alone. To die. Only I didn’t die, did I? I survived. Crisped to the core.”
Jaxx scratched his temple. “I saved you. I risked my life to save you. I donated my blood to revive you. You’re not remembering things correctly.” He wanted to say he thought she was nuts, but that wouldn’t get him anywhere.
She spat on his foot. “That was the first time Jaxx. Yeah, you saved me.” She threw her hands in the air. “Whoopty-doo. The second time. When you up and defected. I went after you. You shot me down.”
He had no idea what she was talking about. She snagged the laptop bag out of his hand, not waiting for a reply. She bounced it a couple of times, gauging the weight. “Heavier than I imagined. Must be industrial strength.” She scrounged through the bag, ripping the inside Velcro compartments open. “What’s this?” She pulled out a fist full of US dollars, mostly twenties. “That’s not enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“To fly off Grenada.”
“I’m not going.”
She pulled out several credit cards. After reading the name inscribed on them, she gave Jaxx a wicked smile. “You’re coming with me.” She held up the credit cards. “Jon Shaughnessy’s name. You could pull off being a man, couldn’t you, Jaxx? If you really put your mind to it?” She pointed over his shoulder. “Now go, before I drag you to the airport.”
“No.” He folded his arms. He wasn’t moving. If she touched him, things would go bat shit crazy like they did last time, causing an uproar, waking up an entire city block. He knew it and because he knew it, she knew it.
The woosh of a craft overhead had them both crouching in seconds. The ground rumbled as the ship lowered.
An Oospor Class-9 Dropship hovered in front of the alleyway, a man in armor stepping down the short ramp. “Orders keep changing,” boomed the guy’s voice. “First, Slade, and then grab this pot-head piece of shit, and then to Jax. I like this order.”
“Cole,” said Jaxx.
“What the hell are you doing here, Agent?” Rivkah stepped up to him. The woman had no fear.
Cole went for his IP-9, demagnetizing it from his titanium armor and yanked it over his shoulder. He aimed it at Rivkah. “I’m here for Jaxx, not for you, Rivkah.”
Jaxx stepped forward, shielding Rivkah. “What’s this about?”
“I’m taking you back to the fleet, Jaxx. Though, I’d rather see your eyes rolled up in the back of your head and your shitty, little coward’s body laid out in a casket.”
On each side of the alleyway stood two-story buildings. Behind them, at the base of a steep Fort George hill, was a concrete wall. Cole was in front of them. They had nowhere to go.
Rivkah sized Cole up. “You should go back to the tin-shed you call Star Warden.”
Jaxx tried, again, to shield Rivkah. “Cole, please leave.”
Cole laughed.
Rivkah hissed, “Move out of the way, Jaxx.”
“No.”
“Move. Out. Of. The. Way. I can take him.”
Cole gave another hearty laugh. “I’d suggest you do as she says. I can kill two birds with one of these stones.” He patted his weapon.
Rivkah pushed Jaxx to the side.
Cole roared. “Bye, Rivkah.” He pulled the trigger, firing a cluster of plasma blasts.
Rivkah dropped to the ground, then lunged toward Cole. She kicked his chest, fast, strong.
It would have taken out anybody. Anybody not in a titanium exo-suit. Anyone not named S.A. Nick Cole.
Cole didn’t budge.
Rivkah fell back, slightly dazed.
Jaxx lurched froward and pushed Cole’s weapon as the man pulled the trigger. Chunks of concrete blasted from a building’s side wall.
Rivkah rolled to the side, kicking at his knee, which ought to have brought him to the ground. Again, he didn’t budge.
He slammed a forearm across Jaxx’s shoulder, taking Jaxx off his feet and to his back. Cole shifted away and magnetized the rifle to his back. “This thing just gets in the way.” He yelled and jumped toward Rivkah. She dodged as Cole came down with a crushing two-handed blow, taking a nice chunk of tarmac with him.
Rivkah lifted her fists in a Muay Thai stance. She gave Jaxx a side glance. “Jaxx, you pansy. Help me.”
Jaxx put up his hand. “Cole, if you don’t hurt Rivkah, I’ll come with you peacefully.” He had a plan and it had nothing to do with going back to the Secret Space Program. Hopefully, Rivkah could still read his mind.
“That I can do,” Cole responded. “We go now.” Hey threw an index finger at Rivkah. “Don’t move a hair, or Jaxx gets it.” He motioned toward the craft. “Get on board, Jaxx.”
As Cole gestured to the ramp, Rivkah jumped on his back. She pulled the rifle off and pushed off. Landing on her feet, she aimed at Cole. She hesitated. It was a powerful weapon. The kickback might knock her off her feet, if she wasn’t firmly planted.
Cole jerked away, swiping his arm outward. “You persistent little bitch.”
Rivkah pulled the trigger and bolts connected with Cole’s chest armor, spinning him on his side, sliding him across the pavement. Sparks flew and he left one hell of a skid mark. When he stopped, he didn’t move.
Rivkah ran up the ramp, stopping mid-stride. “Jaxx, what are you waiting for? He’s not dead. He’ll be up and at ’em in seconds. Let’s go.”
Jaxx held the laptop close to him and looked at the wall that shielded the secret elevator that went back to Shaughnessy’s room and, minus Slade and Fox, to his dream work.
His choice was made, not by Rivkah or himself, but by the man who might wreak havoc on him—Cole. The door shut airtight, and Rivkah keyed on the holographic display console and the dropship lifted into the sky.
47
June 10th
Over Wichita, Kansas
Rivkah was tired, her eyelids heavy. She did everything she could to keep them open.
She flew the Oospor Class-9 Dropship at near low orbit. To any star gazer, her highly-sophisticated technological ship would look like a passing satellite.
Even with Rivkah’s ability to master just about any ship, this ship was so sophisticated she and Jaxx couldn’t figure out how to make it fly any faster than a commercial airliner. It had too many holographic buttons and, without a ship manual, they were working with their knowledge from their experience flying SF-13 Air Wings. The Air Wings were easier to fly and that was saying something, because Air Wings were advanced. Or, maybe it was the powers that Jaxx gave her that dumbed her down.
Rivkah nodded off for a second, then woke with a start. She took a deep breath and thumbed over her shoulder. “I’m taking a nap on the hospital bed back there.”
She walked to the bed and lay down.
“I guess I’ll assume controls?” Jaxx was being a sarcastic ass. She wasn’t used to that type of tone from him, but she was being an ass herself and Jaxx was probably tired of people pushing him around—that’s if Underfoot Black treated Jaxx remotely close to how Rivkah was treated.
He moved over to her seat.
She lifted her head, giving him a deathly stare. “No shit, Sherlock.” She wanted to cut him like he cut her every single night. The same dream. Every night.
She couldn’t help it. Everything that came out of her mouth was fueled with hatred and fire. He’d left her to melt, to burn, to die. She wanted to strangle him on the spot, but something prevented her. Some deep, abiding drive; a drive so compelling, it felt like a mandate. Made no sense.
If I touch him—hands around his neck, squeezing the trachea, breaking his hyoid bone, cutting off his air supply—the powers come back. She flexed her shoulders, fighting off a yawn. She didn’t want to appear vulnerable in front of him. It was too much, the exhaustion was going to win out. Maybe I could just shoot him. Close range, but no physical touch.
She smiled. Her eyelids fell. She faded off to sleep.
Captain Fox stood next to Rivkah’s starfighter, several high-ranking pilots next to him. They saluted Rivkah as she inched the starfighter closer to the launch tube. She didn’t know if what she was doing was right, but she sure as hell knew that what the Secret Space Program was doing was wrong. They were destroying an entire civilization because they were greedy, power-hungry bastards, something she only thought corporations were capable of, not the military. Taiyo was chock full of gold, silver, crude oil, and minerals she’d never heard of that the Kelhoon and the Secret Space Program could profit from for hundreds of years.
You live and you learn. I signed up to a lie.
Rumor had it, Jaxx defected to the Taiyonian’s side. Rivkah convinced the admiral that she was the only one who could change his mind. Her lie worked, just like their lies worked on her for years. Their lies didn’t work anymore.
They trusted her to bring him back for court martial. They shouldn’t have. She had another plan up her well-armed sleeve.
The launch tube’s exit opened. Taiyo stood off in the distance, highlighted in a blueish-green hue. It was gorgeous, almost as beautiful as Earth.
She accelerated, burning down the tube and out into space.
In minutes, she’d enter Taiyo’s atmosphere. She’d hail them, using her callsign. She crossed her fingers, hoping she’d reach Jaxx and he would tell them to stand fast; that she could be trusted.
Her comm line beeped. “This is Richard.”
Rivkah’s heart beat faster. Fox didn’t drop his rank like that. The bastard was trying to be convincing. She didn’t flick her comm on. “I wasn’t born yesterday, you ballsack. You can’t schmooze me.”
“Rivkah, hear me out. He’s a deadly pilot and he’s changing the tide for them. You know the kind of damage he can do. Here’s what I’m thinking. When you’re alone with him, give him as much of you as you can. Then, when his guard is down, strike him dead.”
Rivkah stared at her console. Fox really was an asshole of the first order.
“You understand what I’m saying, soldier? When he’s his most vulnerable go in for the kill.”
“Are you asking me to seduce him, Captain?”
“If that’s what you’re hearing, sure. Go for it.”
“I’d be glad to. Out.” She gave Fox what he wanted to hear, but she had no intention of touching Jaxx in any sexual way. They were crew mates, buddies, friends. That shit was off-limits.
She nosed her craft at forty-five degrees and entered the wild Taiyo atmosphere, the flames grabbing for her starfighter’s nose. When the blaze died out, she leveled her craft. She clicked on her comm line to send a call out to Jaxx’s starfighter, but she’d dropped into a live dogfight, craft dodging and firing and blasting the almighty shit out of one another. Why hadn’t Fox warned her? Was it a set up? Were they trying to get rid of her, too? They had to have known as they gave her these exact coordinates to drop in. And why didn’t her radar pick it up? Something smelled fishy and she guessed that smell came from Fox. Unless he wanted her to join the fray. With Fox, she couldn’t rule anything out.
She pulled up, avoiding a Kelhoon fighter and spotted Jaxx immediately, flying like an expert dancer, downing Kelhoon pilots as if they were stationary targets. It was the same, every time she saw him in action. Both baffling and thrilling that he could be so fluid with his craft.
She targeted a Kelhoon and blasted it with her PC’s, barreling through the flames. Her craft shook, cannon fire zipped by her. She twisted and looped. The Taiyonians were on her six.
She opened her comm to Jaxx’s private channel, her breath fast. “This is Captain Rivkah Ravenwood. Lieutenant Kaden Jaxx, do you copy? Tell your guys to get off my ass. I’m with you and the Taiyonians now.” With those words, she officially defected. Her heart fell, her mind split between loyalty and doing the right thing. But screw Fox and those bureaucratic assholes acting as military officers, stealing from the Taiyonians for their own gain.
She came out of her loop, a Kelhoon craft in front of her. They still didn’t know she wasn’t on their side. She let loose two SSSRM-23 Slingers. Direct hit and the Kelhoon cracked into fiery debris.
Jaxx came around her six.
“This is Rivkah. Jaxx, do you copy?”
She banked wide, hoping Jaxx’s trajectory would cause him to swoop by her. He remained steadfast on her tail.
Her cockpit lit up with weapons lock and she gasped. He targeted her. “Jaxx, this is Rivkah. Don’t shoot. I repeat, hold your fire.”
He sent a slinger just as he came alive on her comm. “Rivkah? That’s you? Pull up! Pull up!”
She pulled back on her control stick, her bow toward the sky. Her starfighter shook and her holographic control panel blinked off. She flicked a look over her shoulder. Her ship’s tail was torn apart and smoke trailed out of the back.
Her craft bucked downward, then caught in a spin. She headed toward the heavy forest below. She pulled the ejection booster.
Nothing.
A second time.
It didn’t work.
She pulled it again and again. “Open!” She kicked at the control panel. “Turn on you piece of shit. Don’t do this to me.”
For a moment, the panel clicked on and her controls came back online. She pulled back on her stick. No movement. “The fire burned away the tail elevator.” She couldn’t get any downward flow to pull her Air Wing toward the sky.
Her craft shuddered, hitting the highest trees in the forest canopy.
She pulled the ejection booster and the cockpit window flew off, her seat following a second
later. The parachute caught a tree, ripping apart before it had a chance to open. She fell alongside her starfighter and crashed through tree limbs until she walloped onto the forest floor.
She bounced off the ground once, landing on her side. Her ribs cracked, her leg broke. With the air knocked out of her, she cringed in pain. Crawling away from her craft with her arms and one useful leg, a secondary explosion threw her Air Wing ten feet in the air.
The heat engulfed her as she dragged herself farther away. The craft came back down in a loud crunch. Yet, she moved farther, but the more she did, the more her skin burned. Bloodied, she realized the heat came from her, not the ship. Smoke swirled from her fingertips, her skin melted. Her clothes, her hair, her body was ablaze.
She fell face-first on dry, smoking grass, her cheek and ear singed to high hell. She rolled and rolled as the searing pain lashed across her body. She groaned in agony as the ground extinguished the fire—the fire trying to turn her to ash, trying to take her soul.
She crawled farther away from the crash, her left leg twisted in the wrong direction and the skin on her hands falling away like dripping glue, exposing tendons and muscles. Exhausted, the smoke in her lungs fought against every breath, her broken ribs making it nearly impossible to grab air.
She laid on her back, ready to die, but pressed her rescue beacon on her belt, doubting it even worked. Up above, through the broken canopy and in the blue sky, she could see Jaxx circling like a vulture.
Rivkah bolted to a sitting position. She gazed at her hands. They were normal. She touched her face. It was too smooth. She wasn’t this person, this normal-looking, unscarred person. She was a fighter, who’d earned her battle scars. She should have worn them like a badge of honor, rather than hiding herself away.
No more.
No more hiding, no more waiting. She was Rivkah Ravenwood and she was in charge of her destiny.
Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Page 24