"You can't shake us that easily," Kyle said.
Douglas smiled. "No, Captain Ravenheart said she thought you'd show up before kickoff. She's over here." He gestured toward what seemed to Kyle just another deteriorated building, this one a walkup with a long front stair.
"Kickoff?"
Douglas' face clouded and he looked away as he escorted them up the steps. "We've found the hive," he said quietly.
Kyle nodded and said, "I understand," as Douglas pushed open the battered front door and made way for them to enter. Inside, another trooper stood, weapon ready, covering me front door. The building had once held apartments, and Douglas directed them toward the partially open door of one just beyond the lobby.
Inside, Ravenheart and two other troopers were studying a small display Kyle recognized as a remote control deck, undoubtedly for the drone. Sergeant Vathoss stood nearby and frowned slightly as Kyle and Seeks-the-Moon entered.
"Glad you could make it," Ravenheart said. "Sorry we had to cut and run on you like that, but when the bus bolted I was afraid we'd lose it."
Kyle nodded and shrugged. "No harm done. Like I told Douglas-you can't shake us that easily."
For no reason Kyle could guess, Ravenheart glanced at Seeks-the-Moon. "I suspect you're right."
"What's the plan?"
She turned back to the remote control deck. "Well once we get the reprogramming done, which shouldn't be much longer,"-she stressed the words for the benefit of the other two troopers working the display-"we're going to set it on autopilot, get it airborne, give us some time to get clear, and thread it like a needle through one of those windows over there. After that, we cut power, it loses altitude, drops as far as it can, and…" She let her voice trail off. "Well, then it explodes."
"How far off can you remote pilot it from?" Kyle asked her.
Ravenheart smiled and shook her head in mock disbelief. "You are sharp, Teller, I'll give you that. With the deck we have here, and with the minor damage to the drone-"
"It's damaged?"
"Slightly. It apparently hit something while Soaring Owl was trying to launch it. Probably the sides of the bay or the cover doors. Anyway, with that and everything else factored in, our guess is about a kilometer and a half for any reliability."
"Just at the edge of the blast radius."
She nodded. "Just beyond it, we hope."
"What's your timetable?"
She looked back at the display. "I hope to detonate within the hour."
“That is good,” Seeks-the-Moon said suddenly. "It is beginning."
Nearly everyone in the room turned their attention to him. He was staring off in the direction of the power plant, and to Kyle he looked wan and drawn.
"You feel something?" Kyle asked.
The spirit nodded. "Power is being drawn away from here, everywhere, into there," he said. "I can feel it; I am weaker."
"How soon?" asked Ravenheart.
"Soon."
"Then we have little time." Kyle turned to Ravenheart. "I want to get the people out."
"What?"
"As many as we can, just before the bomb goes off. There are buses there. We can use them to carry people away." Before Ravenheart could answer, he turned slightly and addressed the others in the room. "Any idea how quickly they're taking the buses inside?"
One of the troopers, a short woman with dirty-red hair, said, "There were three other buses here when the one we were following arrived. It got in line, and about a half-hour later, just before you got here, one pulled out from inside and the other pulled in to take its place."
"Going in is suicide," said Ravenheart angrily.
"I didn't say we'd go in," Kyle told her. "I don't like it, but from the look of things and from what Seeks-the-Moon senses now, and the fact that it seemed to him that there were many, many more spirits inside the building, I think you're right."
"Then what?"
"The buses outside. Few seem to be guarding them. If we hit them hard and fast we could gain control of the buses within the space of a few minutes. There's plenty of room to turn them around." Kyle shifted his attention to the others in the room. He noticed that the trooper who had been watching in the hall was standing in the doorway listening. "If we do this right, we could get us and the buses clear before the bomb goes off."
"They'll come after the buses," Ravenheart said. "And the bugs'll tear them apart."
"But what will they do?" Seeks-the-Moon asked. "What will happen when the bomb detonates?"
Ravenheart turned toward him, scowling. "The buses will be sardine cans in a microwave."
"No," said the spirit, evening his tone. "What will happen to the spirits when their queens are dead?"
Her face blanked. "I don't know."
"Nor do I."
"What have they done in the past?" Kyle asked Ravenheart.
"What do you mean?"
"You said you've destroyed hives and nests before. What happened to the spirits when the queen died?"
She frowned and looked away for a moment, thinking. "It depends on which kind they are. Roaches don't care. They really don't have queens. Same for flies and beetles and the others that have 'nests' rather than hives. The true hivers, with real queens, they usually go nuts and either mill around the queen's body or start attacking each other. I think the ants tend to do that"
Kyle nodded. "Then we have to hope it's true hivers chasing the buses."
"You're insane," she said. "I can't jeopardize the mission doing this."
"You won't be. The drone'll be airborne and the clock will be ticking. No matter what happens, the drone goes in and detonates. Freeing the buses and targeting the drone aren't related; the drone mission won't be compromised, no matter what happens to the bus mission."
"I can't give you any of my people," Ravenheart told him evenly. He could see, though, that she was fighting to control her anger.
"I'd like your help," he told her, "but I don't need it. I can do this alone."
Now her eyes widened and she shook her head. "You're truly insane. There's no way you can do it."
"I'll bet I can."
She pointed at him, and Kyle could hear the edge in her voice. "You aren't thinking clearly. The only reason you want to do this is because you think your wife and daughter were on that last bus. What about the other two buses, Kyle?
"Assuming you take out the guards quickly, assuming there aren't too many inside the buses that we can't see, and assuming that you don't immediately attract the attention of the billion or so bugs that are in the fraggin' building, what then? How are you going to drive all three buses?"
"You're right about me not thinking clearly, and I'm glad I'm not," Kyle retorted. "I'm glad I haven't become some emotionless robot ready to kill maybe thousands but too cowardly to save maybe a hundred."
Her eyes lit up and she stepped closer, jabbing at him with her finger. "Don't you dare tell me-"
Douglas' voice from the doorway cut her off. "I'll drive the other bus."
There was silence as Ravenheart, startled, turned toward the ork trooper who'd just entered the room. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"I'll drive the other bus," he said. "We know we can save those people. We have to do it."
Ravenheart was furious. "There's too much risk! I won't allow it. The destruction of the hives has to come first. There's no other alternative."
"I’ll drive the third bus," said Sergeant Vathoss from where he leaned against the wall.
Ravenheart spun to look at him. "What?" she all but screamed.