She looked at Tori but had no comforting words for her.
“I’m so sorry about your father.”
Tori shot a steely look at Granger.
“How do you feel about that, Captain?” she asked coldly.
Granger stiffened. “It’s a tragedy when innocent civilians become victims of war. Make no mistake: We are at war, and I am deeply sorry for your father’s death and for whatever role I played in that.”
“What about all the other innocent civilians you killed?” she asked. “Are you sorry about them too?”
“No, because they weren’t innocent,” Granger replied. “My mission was to root out the Retro infiltrators on Pemberwick Island in order to protect the remaining population. I have no regrets about that. Your father was being used by them, Miss Sleeper, as were several of his friends. I’m sorry to have to say that, because he was fighting for what he thought was a noble cause. You should be proud of him.”
“You don’t have to tell me that,” Tori said bitterly.
“You sorry for trying to kill us too?” Kent asked accusingly. “If we hadn’t gotten away from you, the Retros would still be in business.”
“They are still very much in business, young man,” Granger said coldly.
“They are?” Kent said, sounding less cocky.
“Please come with us,” Mom said. “I know you have trouble believing me after all you’ve been through, and I don’t know how else to say it, but we really are the good guys.”
I glanced at Tori and Kent. They looked as confused as I felt.
“You told me not to trust anybody,” I said to my mom. “Turned out to be good advice. But you haven’t been telling me the truth for a long time. Why should I put my trust in you?”
My mother winced, as if the words stung her. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but it was how I felt.
“Because your father and I have been working with SYLO for a very long time, and we know that they are our only hope for the future. And because I’m your mother.”
I wanted to believe her, maybe more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.
“You kids have seen a lot,” Granger added. “More than most. You know what we’re up against.”
“But we just blew away the entire Air Force,” Kent argued with a hint of desperation. “It’s over, right?”
“This was an impressive operation,” Cutter said. “There’s no denying that. But wars aren’t determined by a single battle. The Retros aren’t done. Not even close.”
“Please, Tucker,” Mom said, pleading. “Come with me. All of you. Please.”
I looked at Kent and Tori and said, “I’ll do whatever you want. I just don’t want us to split up.”
“I say we go with them,” Kent said quickly. “It can’t be any worse than being lost in the desert.”
I turned to Tori. “What do you think?”
Tori looked at Granger. I saw the hatred she held for him. But I also saw that she was torn. And injured. There was so much that still didn’t make sense. So much we didn’t know. We had already decided that despite his cruel tactics, Granger and SYLO had been protecting Pemberwick Island from the Retros. Was that enough to trust him, in spite of his deadly tactics?
“I guess we have to play the odds,” Tori said. “If you’re willing to go with them, Tucker, I’ll go too.”
“Oh, thank God,” Mom said with total relief.
“Good. Let’s not waste any more time,” Cutter commanded. “Load up.”
Granger made a move to help Tori, but she pulled away. She wanted nothing to do with him.
Kent and I took her arms and helped her toward the helicopter.
“Find a seat and buckle in,” Granger ordered as he took his place up front next to the Cutter, who locked into the pilot’s seat. “Put on headsets,” Cutter called to us. “It’ll be about an hour to Catalina.”
We helped Tori climb aboard and saw that seats lined both sides of the chopper, facing the center. Mom sat on one side. I chose the opposite side. Tori sat next to me, and Kent sat next to my mom. We all buckled in and put on headphones.
“Everybody set?” Cutter asked through the intercom.
We all gave him thumbs-up. The engines whined, and the rotor began to turn. The blades quickly picked up speed, and in minutes we were airborne. The chopper gained altitude quickly, and we got our first good view of the ruins of Area 51.
The destruction was complete. Every last building was either on fire or a charred wreck. There wasn’t a single fighter plane left intact.
I had to agree with Kent. We were seriously badass.
Only one thing disturbed me. It was the shadow I saw launch from the monstrous plane. What exactly was that?
“I don’t care what anybody says,” Kent said through the headphones. “It sure looks over to me. They’re done.”
“You need to see something,” Granger said.
I didn’t like the tone of his voice.
We flew north for maybe five minutes, traveling over barren wasteland.
“Bring us a little lower,” Granger ordered Cutter. “Once around quickly. Keep your wits about you.”
The helicopter dropped fast and banked to the right.
“Take a good look,” Granger said.
We all strained to look out of the small windows.
Once my eyes adjusted, I was able to make out detail on the ground.
“Oh my God,” Tori exclaimed.
The desert was littered with the wreckage of a battle. A huge battle. There were downed jet fighters as well as wrecked Retro jets. Hundreds of them. We had seen the aftermath of battles before, but nothing like this. Not only were there untold numbers of downed planes, but also the burned-out remains of tanks and assault vehicles. The ground itself was torn apart from the impact of multiple explosions. The carnage seemed to stretch out for miles in every direction.
We were flying over the physical remains of a nightmare.
“What happened?” were the only words I managed to croak out.
“I’ve seen a lot in my time,” Granger said. “But nothing remotely like this. It was the greatest battle of all time… if you could use a word like ‘great’ to describe something this horrible. It’s the night it all began. Hard to believe it was only a few weeks ago.”
I thought I actually detected a hint of emotion in his voice. The steely soldier had a conscience.
“Who won?” Kent asked, cutting right to the chase.
Granger turned around to look at us and said, “That’s yet to be decided. Like Cutter said, wars aren’t determined by a single battle.”
“Look!” Tori shouted. “Is that what I think it is?”
Tucked near the foot of a mountain was another air base. It wasn’t as large as Area 51, and there were no fighter planes on the runways. What was there instead was a massive steel structure that looked like a colossal igloo.
“It is,” I exclaimed. “It’s the same thing they were building in Fenway Park.”
To me it looked like a giant beehive: innocent looking from the outside but hiding danger.
“Look at the base of that thing!” Kent declared frantically. “The big door! Oh man.”
Like the structure being built in Fenway, there was an immense door built into the dome. It was open, and bright light shone from within. A shadow moved through the light. Something was coming out from the depths of the dome.
It was a black fighter plane.
“What is that thing?” I asked.
“That,” Granger replied, “is the gate to hell.”
“Incoming!” Cutter yelled.
The chopper was hit. It shuttered and began to spin. The rotors whined as the craft counter-rotated, desperately clawing at the air to try to maintain altitude. I glanced out of the window to see the ground approaching quickly. We wouldn’t be in the air much longer.
Kent screamed in panic. Tori grabbed my arm.