That’s what I told myself, anyway.
Kent knelt down next to Olivia and smoothed her hair.
“We won’t be long,” he said soothingly. “You’ll be fine here.”
He really did care about her, in spite of the fact that he kept trying to hook up with Tori. Kent may have been a dog, but he had genuine affection for the girl who had saved his life.
“Thank you,” Olivia said. “I’m sorry. I just can’t.”
“Olivia,” I said and waited until she looked at me before continuing. “You’re a good person. I know you are. We don’t have to leave you here, but we will because you’re our friend and we care about you. Please remember that.”
She closed her eyes, as if trying to keep from crying.
“I’ll be here,” she said softly.
I believed her. I didn’t think she would do anything to hurt us.
Either that or I was an incredibly bad judge of character.
“Let’s go,” I said while hoisting the second pack of charges onto my shoulder.
Kent kissed her on the cheek. “Be right back.” He joined Tori and me and declared, “Now or never.”
The three of us strode toward the base.
“You sure about this?” Tori asked me.
“No,” was my honest reply.
“I am,” Kent said. “We are taking this place down.”
We had stopped driving a few hundred yards from the edge of the first taxiway where several black planes were lined up, nose-to-tail and wing-to-wing. Until then, we had only seen them in flight, or crashed. Now they were sitting on landing gear. Each had a tripod base that kept the craft a few feet off the ground. They didn’t need wheels since they were able to take off and land vertically.
“I feel like we’re entering a den of sleeping lions,” Tori said with an uncharacteristic quiver in her voice.
I raised my hand, and we stopped fifty yards from the first plane.
“They’re in perfect rows,” I said. “We’ll each take one row and work our way in. Kent, you take the middle row. We’ll be to either side of you.”
I wanted Kent between us so that Tori and I could keep an eye on him to make sure he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. Unlike with Olivia, I didn’t trust Kent.
“What about the extra charges?” Tori asked.
“You two wait for me at the last plane Kent sets. I’ll keep going and meet you back there.”
“Fine,” Kent said. His voice was shaky too. “Let’s just get this done.”
We moved quickly, covering the last empty stretch in silence. We went directly to one plane and stopped.
Being so close to the sleeping beast made my stomach twist—and there were hundreds of them. The plane was a machine designed for killing. There was no other way to put it. Moonlight reflected off of the slick, dark logo of the United States Air Force. All the questions as to why our own military would try to overthrow and control the world came roaring back.
But it wasn’t time to theorize.
It was time to fight back.
I pointed to the first plane, then to Kent. He nodded. That was his row. I pointed to the plane to its right, then to Tori. She got it. I pointed to myself and then to the plane that began the row to the left. That was mine. I clapped Kent on the back to get him moving. He hesitated a second, took a deep breath, and sprinted for the plane. I looked at Tori, pointed to my eyes, and then to Kent.
She knew what I meant. We had to watch him.
I then leaned over . . . and kissed her.
She touched my cheek, gave me a small smile, and took off running for her plane.
The faster we could get this done, the faster we could get out of there. In the back of my mind I felt that even if Olivia surprised me and betrayed us, we could get in and out before any Retros showed up . . . assuming there were any Retros around. This seemed like a fully automated operation that was controlled from somewhere else.
I sprinted for my plane while pulling the first pack of charges from my shoulder. I tried not to think of the destructive power each of these little bombs contained. If one went off in my hand, I’d be dead. I had to have faith in Cutter and his lethal toys.
I reached the first plane, knelt down, and quickly pulled out one of the charges. Without stopping to think about anything that might go wrong, I peeled back the protective plastic sheet on the bottom and pressed the disk against the underbelly of the plane as close to the center as I could get. Having the planes up on their tripods made it easier to place the charges in what I hoped was a vulnerable spot. Once the charge was secure, I entered the code, 4-3-2-1, and the green light flashed on.
I clicked my watch into stopwatch mode and hit start.
We had thirty minutes to get out of there.
I looked over to the next row of planes, which was twenty yards away. Kent was under the plane on his back, setting his own charge. He finished, then crawled and headed for the next plane in line. So far, so good.
I did the same.
Cutter was right. It was simple. I moved to the next plane and repeated the process. I imagined the same thing happening all over the base. Hundreds of survivors were crawling on their bellies, dropping off little packages of revenge . . . and hope. The action meant we weren’t powerless after all. Did it mean we could win our old lives back? That might have been too optimistic. But at least it offered some hope that we had a shot.
I kept looking over at Kent and caught glimpses of him repeating the same process. It gave me confidence that Kent was legit . . . and even more concern about Olivia.
I soon planted the last of my ten charges. Once I had set the timer, I looked to see Kent and Tori waiting for me beneath Kent’s last plane. I hurried over to join them.
“I’ll make this quick,” I said.
“Give me half of them,” Kent demanded.
“No,” I shot back, maybe too quickly. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t give him a chance to argue and took off for the next plane in the row where he had been working. I dug into Olivia’s bag and found the first charge. Setting the next set was as easy as the first. However, when I set the eighth charge, I found myself at the edge of an empty stretch of taxiway. At the far end, maybe a hundred yards away, sat an enormous hangar . . . that was coming to life.
I stayed under the eighth plane for whatever cover it would give me and watched with growing fear as bright light seeped from the edges of the gigantic single door. It was the first sign of activity at the base.
My hope was that whatever was inside was being controlled from somewhere far away and whoever was at the console would have no idea that hundreds of saboteurs were silently swarming the place.
But my fear was that Olivia had sounded the alarm. I was about to scramble to the next planes to set the final charges when I saw movement near the hangar. A soldier wearing black-and-gray camouflage fatigues and a black beret walked around from the far side and crossed in front of the door.
Hanging from his belt was a black baton weapon.
The base wasn’t empty after all. There were Retro soldiers here.
Still, there was only one, and if he knew the base was infested with enemies, he didn’t show it. He was far enough away that I felt I could still set the last two charges and get out of there, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to draw his attention to my movement. I lay flat on my belly and crawled toward the next line of planes, trying my best to be invisible. I slipped under the plane and got up on my knees to set the next charge . . . when I heard a sharp crack sound and was suddenly thrown back onto my butt by a powerful blast from . . . I didn’t know what.
Had the charge gone off? That wasn’t likely, because there was no bang, and I was still in one piece.
“Get out from there!” a man yelled.
Guess I hadn’t tried hard enough to be invisible.
I saw a hole in the side of the plane that could easily have been in my head. The shot had barely missed me,
but its charge was still powerful enough to knock me down as it flew by. This guy was shooting to kill. I looked up to see the soldier from the hangar charging my way.
I ducked underneath the plane, scrambled to the far side, got back to my feet, and started to run . . .
. . . as I heard the low crack of another weapon being fired. I felt the surge of energy blow past my head, making my hair stand up. It missed me by inches and nailed another plane. This guy was way more concerned about stopping me than avoiding damage to the aircraft. I took a sharp turn around the plane, away from where I knew Tori and Kent were hiding . . . only to come face-to-face with the pursuer.
It wasn’t the guy from the hangar. It was a second soldier, and he was only a few yards away from me, with his black weapon up and leveled at me.
I froze.
“Who the hell are you?” he called.
I had the brief thought that he had no idea that anybody else was on the base. Maybe the alarm hadn’t been sounded after all. I was just stupid enough to have been spotted.
“Uh . . . ,” I stammered. “I wanted to see what was going on here.”
“Now you see,” he called back. “And now you’re dead.”
He tightened up, ready to fire. My brain locked. All I could do was brace myself for the end. I wondered how badly it would hurt.
There was a gunshot—but I wasn’t hit.
Can’t say the same for the soldier. He fell to the deck, dropping his weapon.
“Come on!” Tori shouted.
She and Kent had come running as soon as the shooting started.
Tori held her pistol.
“Come on!” Kent whisper-yelled.
I was still too stunned to think quickly. I turned their way, ready to run, when—
“Stop right there!”
The soldier from the hangar had arrived, and he wasn’t waiting for an introduction. Tori lifted her pistol and fired, but he was too far away for her to be accurate.
The soldier didn’t have the same challenge. He stood only a few yards from me. Point-blank range. I had nowhere to go. No place to take cover.
He took aim at me.
It was all going to end right there.
The soldier fired . . .
. . . as someone jumped out in front of me.
Olivia.
“What?” I screamed in stunned wonder.
She took the lethal charge square in the chest and, with an anguished cry, fell to the ground.
The soldier stood there as stunned as I was, but not for long. He raised the baton again . . .
. . . too late. Tori had closed the distance and unloaded her clip, firing wildly at the soldier. He turned to fire at her but was thrown back from the impact of more than one bullet.
I knelt down over Olivia and was yanked away forcefully . . . by Kent. As I fell back, he huddled down next to her and lifted her head into his lap.
“You’re okay,” he cried in panic. “We’ll get you back. They’ll fix you.”
There was no obvious wound or blood. Whatever weapons these guys used acted differently on living beings, much like their light weapons. Still, even without any obvious wound, it was clear that Olivia was hurt. Badly.
She looked up at Kent with surprisingly focused eyes and said, “It’s okay.”
Kent was in tears. He tried to lift her, but Olivia cried out in pain, so he eased her back to the tarmac.
“No, no, you are not going to die,” he wept. “I’m not going to let you die.”
Tori and I knelt over her, opposite Kent.
Olivia grasped Kent’s hand and squeezed weakly.
She looked up at me and said, “I’m sorry. For everything.”
“You saved my life,” I said, choking back my own tears. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I don’t know what to say to thank you.”
She smiled. For a brief moment I saw the beautiful, flirty girl in the red bikini who I had an instant crush on the moment she arrived on Pemberwick Island.
“Just say you’ll forgive me,” she said.
“I forgive you,” I said, though I wasn’t sure for what.
She gave me a weak smile and said, “You’re right, Tucker. I really am a good person.”
“Hang on, Olivia,” Kent cried. “We’ll carry you to—”
Olivia’s eyes closed.
“No . . . no . . . ,” Kent cried.
He caressed her hair, willing her to come back.
Tori put a hand on Kent’s arm to quiet him.
He looked at Tori with an expression of stunned anguish like I had never seen before and hope I never will again.
Tori put a finger on Olivia’s neck to check her pulse. Those few seconds felt like a lifetime.
“She’s gone,” Tori whispered.
The girl in the red bikini, the girl I had spent my last normal summer with before fleeing together from untold dangers, was dead.
I was numb.
Kent wasn’t. I felt his rage grow like heat that pulsed from his body. He gently eased Olivia’s head to the ground, then lashed out and pushed me to the ground.
“You killed her,” he growled through gritted teeth. “You forced her to come here, and she died to save you.”
He wound up, ready to hit me, but Tori tackled him, knocking him to the ground.
“Stop!” she commanded.
Tori was strong. Maybe stronger than Kent. She wrestled with him and wrapped him up with a bear hug.
“I told her I’d protect her,” Kent wailed as he fought to get to me, “and he killed her.”
I jumped to my feet and pinned Kent to the ground. Between the two of us, he couldn’t move.
“Get a grip!” I commanded with a stern whisper. “Or we’re all dead. There have to be more soldiers around.”
“I’ll kill you,” he growled. “I swear I’ll kill you.”
Tori stuck her nose right in Kent’s face and spoke in an intense whisper. “If we don’t get out of here right now, we’ll all die.”
“I want to die,” he said, crying. He pointed at me and added, “And I’m taking him with me.”
A loud horn sounded that echoed across the desert floor. Was it an alarm? Would more soldiers come running?
The huge hangar door began to open. The intermittent horn was an alert, like the beeping of a truck backing up.
Kent stopped struggling as we all focused on the event.
What was in that hangar? We should have run, but none of us made a move. We wanted to know.
Bright light blasted out from within, making me squint. I released Kent and shaded my eyes from the intense blast.
Kent didn’t run or attack me. He was as mesmerized by the sight as Tori and I were.
“There’s something in there,” I said. “Something big.”
The door continued to open, revealing what at first appeared to be a black shadow. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized the truth.
“Oh my God,” Tori said, breathless.
“Is that what I think it is?” Kent asked, stunned.
It was.
It was a black Retro plane.
A giant one.
It had to be ten times the size of the others. It was the exact same design, looking like a giant stingray, but the tips of its curved wings stretched out so wide that I wasn’t sure if it would fit through the huge hangar door.
“That’s how they’re going to do it,” I said, my head swimming.
“Do what?” Tori asked.
“Wipe out Las Vegas,” I said. “It took three of those smaller planes working together to create the beams of light that destroyed buildings. That thing has got to have the power to do it alone.”
“And it won’t stop there,” Tori said, dazed.
“No,” I added. “Los Angeles.”
“So all this was for nothing?” she asked with more than a touch of desperation.
“No,” I replied. “We’re not done yet.”
I stood up and started running for the hangar.<
br />
TWENTY-EIGHT
It was my turn to get tackled.
Tori grabbed me from behind and, with incredible strength for someone so small, held me in place.
“No,” she barked. “It’s suicide.”
“So what?” I said. “We’re all going to die anyway.”
“What do you think you’re going to do?”
I held up the pack with the last two charges.
“It may not be enough to bring down something that big, but they’ll definitely do some damage. Maybe enough to keep it from taking off.”
“No, not again. You’re not going alone!”
She was scared, and I didn’t blame her. Tori was tough. Heck, she’d just gunned down two soldiers. But when it came to losing someone close to her, she broke down.
“It’ll be okay,” I said softly, trying to sound as though I was in control enough to be making smart decisions. “I’ll set the charges and be right back.”
“This isn’t your show, Tucker,” she scolded. “You think you can do everything on your own, but you can’t. If there’s anything I learned about myself, it’s that. I told you how much we needed you. How much I needed you. Well, you need me too.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” was all I could think of saying, because it was the absolute truth.
Tori smiled and said, “I think we’re way beyond that. Give me one of the charges. With two of us planting them, there’s a better chance of one of them having some meaning.”
Her moment of weakness was over. I knew her well enough to know that it was impossible to talk her out of something once her mind was set.
Besides, she was right. I needed her.
A loud hum came from the hangar. The giant craft stood eight feet off the ground on the same kind of tripod as the smaller fighters. Light appeared beneath the plane as a section of its belly dropped down to create a ramp. A guy wearing a gray Air Force flight suit appeared from inside and walked down.
“This one’s not a drone,” Tori declared.
The pilot, or whatever he was, left the plane and casually walked deeper into the hangar. He had no idea that a gun battle had taken place outside and three people lay dead on the tarmac.
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