Rangan blinked, tried to take in his surroundings. Dark. A damp smell. A cellar.
He was on a cot, under a blanket. His clothes were missing. He could feel a bandage around his abdomen. He was groggy and half numb.
Seated next to him, in an old-fashioned rocking chair, was an older man in boots and jeans and a checked shirt. His hair was damp, like he’d been out in the rain. An ancient-looking shotgun rested across the man’s knees.
“Where?” Rangan tried to speak. It came out weakly. His head ached. His mouth felt filled with cotton balls.
“You’re at my farm,” the man said. “My wife’s gettin’ ya some soup. I’m Earl Miller, friend of Father Levi’s.”
Rangan cleared his throat, tried to clear his head.
“Thank you, Mr Miller. The risk you’re taking…”
Earl waved that away.
“You took a risk, son,” he said. “Me? Those bastards took my grandson. This ain’t no risk at all.”
“So what now?” Rangan asked.
Earl Miller chuckled. “Now, you rest up. You got a bullet in your side, at least one broken rib, some burns you’re gonna feel when the pills wear off. We’ll hide ya here long as we need to, heal ya up. Then we’ll get ya out. And after that we’re gonna give these baby-stealin’ sons-a-bitches hell.”
Feng let the acceleration push him back into the co-pilot’s seat as the executive jet’s front wheels lifted off Shiva’s private airstrip. His left arm dangled uselessly in an improvised sling, sending up a deep aching pain. He was more qualified to fly this plane than Sam, but she had the advantage of two functional arms. He consigned himself to navigation, and to understanding and activating the defensive systems Shiva had installed in this jet.
Behind them, in the passenger compartment, Feng could feel the children. Twenty-five of them, their minds linked by Nexus, frightened, confused, crammed into a Falcon 9X meant to transport a dozen adults. They were buckled in two to a seat where possible. More crouched on the floor in the aisles, clutching flotation jackets and blankets for some rudimentary shock protection.
If anything went wrong…
Feng could feel Kade back there as well, in pain, bleeding internally from the punishment he’d suffered, his skin freshly burnt from Nakamura’s attempt to kill him, Shiva Prasad’s blood still crusting his face. Kade was back there coughing up blood, in pain, angry at Sam’s assassination of Prasad, in shock and horror from the bombing in Houston, from what it promised for the future. Yet he was suppressing that pain, suppressing his own raw emotions, exuding calm and peace, trying to keep the children’s terror under control.
He was acting like a soldier.
The codes Kade had taken from Shiva’s mind had unlocked this plane, had allowed them to steal it. They’d found it fueled, provisioned, clearly ready for a fast getaway. Kade had pleaded that they take Shiva’s scientists with them as well, rather than leave them to whatever treatment the Burmese might have in mind. But Sam’s face had gone murderous at that suggestion. And in the end, there was simply no room. They’d left them all there – all of Shiva’s staff, scientists and servants and security alike, waking up from the forced unconsciousness Kade had imposed on them – to fend for themselves.
The back wheels of the Falcon came up and they were airborne. Feng looked over at Sam. Her face was cold, hard, harder than he’d ever seen it. She looked older than just a day ago, lines of anger and loss etched into her visage. The Nexus was gone from her brain. Where previously he’d felt her mind there, could touch it if she’d let him, now there was nothing. She gripped the controls like a drowning woman, clinging tightly to her last chance of rescue.
“Course laid in,” Feng told her. “Flight time to Indian Andaman Islands… eighty-eight minutes.”
Sam nodded silently and flew them up and into the night sky, as Feng sat back and fretted about his friends.
89
TWO SCANDALS
Saturday November 3rd
Transcript: American News Network – Breaking News
Announcer: Two scandals rocked the election today. Fresh on the heels of this morning’s bombing in Houston, a bombing which killed Senator Daniel Chandler, the front runner in the race for Texas governor, documents and videos have surfaced that may change the presidential race dramatically. For more, we’re going to Brad MItchell in Washington. Brad?
Reporter: Diane, the Beltway is in chaos tonight with these new allegations. Around noon today, ANN and other networks received graphic video showing children being apparently tortured by Department of Homeland Security personnel – specifically part of the controversial Emerging Risks Directorate – as part of a crackdown on the street drug Nexus. Along with the video came documents that purportedly – if they’re real – showed plans to build long-term “residence centers” for children using Nexus that can only be compared to concentration camps.
Announcer: But that wasn’t all, was it, Brad?
Reporter: No, it wasn’t, Diane. Just an hour ago, the same anonymous group that sent us the first set of data sent another, even more inflammatory data package. This one contained documents purporting to show – and again, we’re not sure if these are real – purporting to show that the PLF, the Posthuman Liberation Front, the terrorist group that took credit for the bombing in Houston this morning, for the bombing in Chicago two weeks ago, and for the attempted assassination attempt on President Stockton – was actually created by the US Government.
Along with that came a video – a video whose authenticity we’re still verifying – that appears to show the Acting Director of the Emerging Risks Directorate inside the Department of Homeland Security admitting to the creation of the PLF, and forcing some sort of drug onto a subordinate.
Announcer: Brad, those are incredibly serious charges. What effect is this going to have on the race?
Reporter: Diane, we’re still trying to validate these files. They look valid, but we can’t be one hundred percent sure here. Proxies for President Stockton are already accusing Senator Kim’s campaign of an unethical “November Surprise” and of forging these documents. How voters respond will depend on whether or not they think these allegations are correct.
One thing is for certain. With the election only three days away, this has thrown the race – and US politics – into completely unknown territory.
Breece turned off the news with a press of a button. Well, well, well. May you live in interesting times.
90
MY DAUGHTER, MY SELF
Saturday November 3rd
Ling descended in the cavernous elevator car down to her mother, her father by her side. Her father’s mind was hers, now. Inside, he wept and moaned. He railed at her. But he was powerless. Only human.
He obeyed so well now. “Please,” he’d begged Sun Liu. “I would like to take Ling to see her mother one last time.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” the minister had asked. But he sounded distant, distracted.
“It will help her say goodbye,” Chen Pang had replied.
Ultimately, Sun Liu, consumed by his own problems, had agreed.
This will not work, her father sent to Ling as the elevator took them down. Your mother is insane. And even if she weren’t, there’s no way she could escape.
Ling allowed her father to speak to her, though he was wrong. He underestimated her mother, underestimated what she was capable of, once the restraints were loosed. He even underestimated Ling. Had he not scoffed when she’d told him that she could hide the nanodevices in their brains from the scanners?