I didn’t want to tell him I suspected Olivia of being a Retro infiltrator. What was the point? She was dead. We would never know one way or the other. The time would come when we could talk about it, but it wasn’t then.
“I know,” was all I said.
We sat in silence for a few moments.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” Kent said as he gazed at the smoldering ruins of Area 51. “We are seriously badass.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Tori laughed too. It was a moment of pure joy and relief.
Victory had never been sweeter.
But the celebration ended quickly.
Kent’s eyes caught something and went wide. “Uh-oh,” he exclaimed.
“What?” Tori asked with surprise.
“We’re not alone.”
He pointed to the dark sky above the rise that surrounded the dry lakebed. There was a light. A moving light. Something was in the air and headed our way.
THIRTY
"What do we do?” Kent asked nervously.
We all watched with worry as the light flew closer. The telltale sound of the Retro planes wasn’t there. Instead, we heard the sound of a conventional engine.“It’s the helicopter,” Tori declared.
“With its lights on,” Kent added. “Now that we did all the dirty work, they’re not afraid to show themselves.”
“What do we do?” Tori asked.
“I’m tired of running,” I said. “If you guys want to take off, go.”
Nobody moved. They were as tired and as curious as I was.
Soon the dark silhouette of the helicopter sailed over us. It looked to be a military chopper like the kind SYLO used to drop commandos on Pemberwick Island. It circled around and touched down thirty yards from us, kicking up dust. As soon as it landed, the engines were killed, and the rotors slowed.
“Now what?” Kent asked.
“Whoever it is, I want to face them,” I declared.
“Then let’s go,” Tori said.
I helped her out of the buggy.
“What?” Kent exclaimed. “You got shot again?”
“It’s what I do,” Tori replied with a shrug.
Kent came around to her other side, and she draped her arms over both of our shoulders to keep weight off of her injured leg. Without another word, we approached the craft. The only sound coming from it was the ticking of its cooling engine. The three of us walked to within a few yards of the slowing rotors and stopped.
The helicopter had the markings of the United States Navy.
“SYLO,” I said.
A light shone from within, and the side door slid open. A soldier wearing red fatigues stepped out carrying a powerful flashlight. He was in silhouette, so it was hard to see who he was.
“If it ends here,” I said to the others, “we have to know we did everything we could.”
We all tightened our hold on each other, for whatever support it would offer.
The soldier strode toward us. He was a tall guy who had the bearing of a disciplined military man. I knew who it was. I didn’t need to see his face.
“Granger,” I muttered.
“No way,” Kent gasped.
Captain Granger marched up and stood facing us.
“Is anyone injured?” he asked, all business.
“I took a bullet in the leg,” Tori replied.
She lifted her leg to show how blood had soaked the entire upper portion of her jeans.
“We’ll take care of you,” he said. “What exactly happened here?”
“We destroyed the Retro fleet,” I said, matter of fact. “What does it look like?”
Granger looked toward the burning rubble… and chuckled. He actually chuckled.
None of us knew how to react to that.
“Incredible,” he finally said. “Absolutely incredible.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“We’ve got an ark on Catalina Island,” he replied. “We’ll take you there.”
“Aren’t you worried that we might be Retros?” I asked.
“Not after this,” he answered.
“He thinks we’re Retros?” Kent asked, incredulous. “That’s nuts.”
“I’m not going with you,” I said to Granger.
“Whoa, you’re not?” Kent asked, surprised. “I don’t like these guys any more than you do, but what else can we do?”
“You go, Kent,” I said. “Tori, you should too. I don’t want any part of them.”
“I’m not going without you,” Tori declared. “We’re not splitting up now.”
Kent was torn. He looked at Tori and I, hunting for a clue to help him decide what to do.
“If we don’t go,” he asked Granger, “will you shoot us?”
“No,” was Granger’s simple answer.
“Then I’ll stay with my friends. Jeez, I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
“I appreciate your reluctance,” Granger said. “There’s so much you don’t understand.”
“Then why don’t you explain it to us?” I said. “Start by telling us what you’re doing here.”
“We were observing your operation from the air,” he said. “The Retros aren’t the only ones with infiltration capabilities. We’ve been inside the group in Las Vegas from day one.”
Another soldier jumped from the plane. He was a stocky guy who was as wide as Granger was tall. I knew who he was too.
“Cutter,” Tori declared.
The Special Ops marine approached and stood next to Granger. It suddenly became clear how Cutter was able to come up with all of those explosive charges.
“I stand by what I said,” Cutter announced. “It’s an honor to serve with you guys.”
“You used those people,” I said to Cutter. “You had them do your dirty work.”
“This is war, son,” Cutter replied. “We don’t have the same firepower as the Retros. We’ve had some success with large-scale operations, like the one at Fenway, but eventually they’ll wear us down. It’s inevitable. Our only hope has been to incorporate less conventional methods. The survivors who gathered in Las Vegas weren’t coerced. They did exactly what they wanted to do. We just gave them some help.”
“Just one question,” Kent said. “Are you the good guys?”
Cutter chuckled. Granger didn’t.
“Yeah,” Cutter said. “I’d like to think we are.”
“That wasn’t a solid yes,” I pointed out.
Granger said, “Then maybe someone else can convince you.”
He turned to the chopper and made a motion for someone to join us.
Another person stepped out of the helicopter, a smaller person who didn’t appear to be a soldier. It looked like a woman. She approached tentatively.
“If you don’t want to take my advice,” Granger said, “you should really start taking hers.”
“Tucker?” the woman called.
My knees buckled.
It was my mother.
She ran to me and threw her arms around me. She was crying. Once I got over the shock, I cried too. The last time I had seen her was from the opposite side of a prison fence on Pemberwick Island. So many conflicting emotions were hammering at me, but the bottom line was that I suddenly felt like myself again: a fourteenyear-old kid. We hugged for a good long time as I did my best to pretend that everything was going to be okay.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she cried. “Then I got word you all were out here and… I had to come. I’m so sorry, Tucker. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
That brought me back to reality.
“Really?” I asked, pulling away. “How was it supposed to happen?”
“We wanted to protect you,” she said, wiping her eyes. “That’s all it was ever about.”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t work out that way, did it?”
She shook her head.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked.
“Still on Pemberwick. He’s fine. Your mother is too, Kent. They’re safe.”