Tori raised the gun.
“No,” I commanded sharply.
It was meant for both Kent and Tori.
I grabbed Olivia’s pack of charges.
“I’ll set her charges.” I then looked right at Tori and said, “Olivia will be here when we get back.” I looked at Olivia and added, “Right?”
“Where else would I be?” she asked innocently.
Tori gave me a grave look and returned her pistol to her belt.
I could only hope that I wasn’t making a horrible mistake. I wanted to believe that Olivia was exactly who she said she was, but I had to accept the fact that she could have been lying. But so what? What could I do about it? If I couldn’t pull the trigger on Granger, I sure as hell couldn’t pull it on Olivia. Or let Tori do it.
But what if I was wrong? No, I had to go with my gut and let her stay behind. I told myself that the operation was already too far along. Even if Olivia was an infiltrator, there wasn’t much she could do to stop it.
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 Olivia, 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 stop 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 am 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 I 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-totail 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 its 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 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 charge 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 it gave me 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,” 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 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.