He spotted the air vent above mother and child. He waved a hand in front of it but no air was circulating. They had been spared death by the bombs only to die asphyxiated in the very place that had saved their lives.
He sighed and dropped the blue cover back over the bodies.
Argos yelped. A slight tremor made the bunker walls vibrate. The cans on the metal rack rattled.
Fuck. The place is going to collapse soon.
Nothing he could do about the mother and child, but Argos, back on ground level, was still alive. And so am I, he thought, grabbing as many water bottles as he could hold. He crawled back out of the hole, uncapped the first bottle and poured it in Argos’ mouth. The second one he gulped down in huge mouthfuls, splashing the last of it on his dust-caked face. He put the rest of the bottles on his jacket, knotted the sleeves together, and swung it over his shoulder.
He then inhaled, gazed back at Argos, and bobbed his head. “This is going to hurt, buddy,” he said, leaning over to pick up the dog. “But believe me, you don’t want to be left here either.”
Argos yelped as Hyleesh snuggled him against his chest, careful to tuck the stumps of his injured legs underneath. He moaned, then leaned his face against Hyleesh’s chest and closed his eyes. For the rest of the hike back out of the building, the dog didn’t make another sound.
“Your job is done, buddy,” Hyleesh said, patting him. “You didn’t save their lives but you saved mine. Your job is done.”
The shore was deserted. Tire tracks and trenches of sand were still visible where the men had set their portable labs to test the water.
Hyleesh set Argos on the sand and uncapped the last bottle of water for the two of them to share. He squinted at the sky, still orange and overcast with smoke from the cliffs. If he was right, Zika had moved his men to the opposite coast, eight thousand miles away. If he was wrong, he and Argos were dead. He swished lukewarm water in his mouth and considered the odds.
Even if Zika and his men were indeed eight thousand miles away, the moment Hyleesh pulled his ship out of her hiding spot, it would take seconds—minutes at most—for the soldiers to pick up the new signal in Yulia’s atmosphere.
No chance if they were closer than that, still on this side of the ocean.
On the other hand, sitting here waiting for death to come wasn’t going to help much either. He watched Argos’s ribcage steadily rise and lower with labored breathing, his auburn coat tight over his bones. The poor thing needed food and medication. Hyleesh’s stomach growled. Hell, he needed food too!
He stuck the empty water bottle in the sand, smacked his lips and said, “Ready to roll, pup?”
Argos flicked an ear but didn’t reply. Hyleesh didn’t think he would, he was just happy to finally have somebody he could talk to. And even without words, the dog’s eyes alone told a million tales.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Hyleesh said, pulling his left boot off. He’d been wearing them for so long, for a moment the mildew smell of his dirty socks covered the fishy stink of the kelp and the bodies rotting on the shore.
“Don’t complain, buddy,” he told Argos. “It’s part of my infallible plan to keep this secret. And unreachable.” He pushed a hand inside the boot and pressed his finger pads against the inner sole. A light blinked to the side of the boot. “Recognition successful,” an electronic voice said. “Initiating request.”
Hyleesh grinned. “That’s how I talk to the Orion. Through my boot. And I have to be close enough, it wouldn’t hear me back there in the city. Short-range radio waves. Primitive, I know, but safe. Had I kept the signal going throughout we wouldn’t be here to tell the story, buddy.”
Argos agreed with a soft bark. He would’ve wagged his tail if he’d still had one. Hyleesh patted him then stared eagerly at the horizon, his jaw tense. It was always a gamble. This exact moment of waiting, of nothing happening and yet about to happen, the notion that something could go wrong and he’d be stranded on a dead planet waiting for his own death.
A black wave swelled, making the horizon curve up. Half a smile tugged at Hyleesh’s lips. And then it happened. The wave burst open and the ship surged out of the sea, streams of water washing down its hull and back into the ocean. She turned her sleek, pointed bow to the shore and lowered her lateral pylons. A small impulse and she was drifting elegantly over the surface of the water.
“Ha!” Hyleesh shouted. “There she is!” He slid his left boot back on, scooped Argos into his arms, and sprang to his feet. “Argos, meet Orion,” he said as the ship glided to shore. “She can be quite stubborn at times, but she’s undoubtedly the most beautiful ship you’ll ever board.”
A flash at the horizon caught his eye, bringing him back to the urgency of the moment. As soon as the ship reached them, he prompted the bridge to lower, jumped, and activated the lift.
“Emergency take off,” Hyleesh shouted, cutting off the AI navigator’s automated greeting. He set Argos in the cot closest the cockpit, hastily promised to take care of his wounds once out in space, and then slumped in the pilot’s seat. “We have exactly eight minutes to leave Yulia’s atmosphere unharmed.” He engaged the drive and flipped it to max. “I want you to reach flank speed in sixty seconds,” he told the navigator.
“This will cause a significant use of fuel and—”
“Just do it!”
“Yes, Captain. Calculating fastest route...”
The 3D rendition of the surface of Yulia assembled itself over the dashboard. A sound blared and a red dot started flashing behind the ship’s avatar inside the hologram.
“A tracker,” Hyleesh said. A metal shell equipped with tracking software installed and designed to explode once it reached its destination. “Damn it. How fast is it moving?”
“Approaching the sound barrier,” the navigator replied.
“Then be faster!” Hyleesh snapped. He grabbed the helm and slewed the ship around. The red dot on the screen replicated the Orion’s movements almost to the inch. The navigator calculated the new route.
“Keep it second guessing our direction until we have a better plan,” he told the navigator. No chance to lose the sucker, the only way was to destroy it.
Think quickly! Trackers were not only incredibly fast, but they were able to fool self-aiming software, too. As tempting as it was to try the Orion’s sophisticated artillery, right now it was more important to use his ammunition wisely.
He pulled up a new screen, rotated the 3D image, and assessed the planet’s surface.
“About to break the sound barrier,” the navigator warned. “Requesting permission to go over four g’s.”
“Permission granted,” Hyleesh replied. Back in his cot, Argos yelped.
“I’m sorry buddy, hang in there!” Hyleesh called.
The tracker was still at their heels. He had to lose the sucker and get out of Yulia’s atmosphere before the signal reached Zika’s men.
He spotted something on the 3D screen and tapped it. The image enlarged. “What am I looking at?” he asked, the rattling of the ship under the high g’s making his voice shake.
“Haimai volcano,” the navigator replied. “Active. Last week’s Quarium bombs caused a new eruption.”
A new eruption, Hyleesh thought. Perfect.
He balled his fists around the helm and pulled, overriding the current route. “That’s where we’re going.” Hyleesh highlighted the coordinates of the volcano’s mouth and copied them into the new route.