Charlie shook his head. “How did you guys get here?”
“We’ve got the catamaran waiting outside,” Layla said.
“Fine then. Vingo, lead the way to your village; then we’ll talk about how you’re going to get us home… otherwise… well, let’s just say that the Amalgam will have to settle for receiving your corpse.”
Vingo helped Charlie into his suit before putting his own back on.
Denver led them out of the prison toward the stolen craft.
THE CATAMARAN HUMMED through the air, leaving a cloudy trail of sand behind it. Vingo sat next to Layla at the controls, directing her along the coastline toward his village. Gazing out to sea as the first signs of dawn appeared in the sky, Charlie thought it looked like Earth, until the distant black prism came into view—a symbol of the tredeyans’ doom, hovering high in the sky. They must have had the same helpless feeling as him during the initial croatoan assault on Earth.
“Do you think we can trust him?” Denver said.
“Vingo? I don’t know, but we haven’t got any better ideas.”
“I can hear you,” Vingo rasped through the intercom.
“I know you can,” Denver said and turned toward him. “But I’m past caring about that.”
Small white bolts shot from the bottom of the black prism toward the surface. Explosions brightened the royal blue sky. The battle had raged for hours so far, and Charlie wondered what key parts of infrastructure were left.
“Vingo, what happens if we lose the wireless power?” Charlie said.
“I don’t think the scion will destroy the power. They will want quick access to our networks and databases.”
“But if they do,” Denver said, picking up on Charlie’s concern, “what happens to our suits and breathing systems?”
“You don’t need to worry. They have enough battery life to comfortably reach my village. We have recharging facilities and spares.”
Denver shot Charlie a suspicious glance. Charlie also found it hard to believe a word he said. Vingo’s ever-evolving story made sure of that.
Layla steered off the coast and cruised up the side of a hill. Grass swayed beneath them as they powered to the top. The catamaran must have had an altitude sensor because it always maintained a steady height of five meters above the ground.
“Nearly there,” Vingo said and leaned forward in anticipation.
THE CATAMARAN SWEPT over the brow and headed down. A square space had been cleared at the bottom. In the middle sat a charred skeleton of a ship. Layla slowed as they reached it and they gently bumped against the dirt.
Vingo jumped off and hobbled toward it. He gazed at two burned corpses on the ground and rubbed his hand along the twisted frame.
“Doesn’t look like a village to me,” Denver said.
“I take it that’s his escape screwed?” Layla said.
Charlie hopped off the side, pleased to have power-assisted movement in the heavy atmosphere again. He approached Vingo while surveying the scene.
The forty-meter remains listed into a large crater by the side of it. Most likely a direct hit from the scion prism. Charlie spotted two more twisted figures in the blackened internal wreckage.
“Where’s your village?” Charlie said.
Vingo slowly turned and dropped a burned piece of debris. “There is no village.”
Taking a deep breath, Charlie fought the urge to punch him in the face. Right from the start, up until the cave, Vingo claimed it as his motivation and played them along. The bargain he was attempting to strike with the Amalgam didn’t seem a bad thing to hide, it sounded like he was trying to look after his people. Now the people didn’t actually exist, it changed everything.
Charlie stepped toward him.
“Get back. Now,” Denver shouted, piercing Charlie’s ear.
A dark shadow crept over the makeshift landing strip. A twenty-meter-high croatoan war mech, with thick robotic legs, a sleek black angular body in proportion and a cannon on each side, stood on the opposite hill. A laser shot from the top of it and swept across the ground between Charlie, Vingo and the catamaran.
“Why the fuck is that shooting at us?” Charlie yelled. “I thought you and the turtles were tight?”
Vingo ran past him and into the catamaran, firing up the engines. “I’m a traitor, remember; they don’t take kindly to that behavior. Are you coming or staying?”
Charlie, Denver, and Layla jumped into the moving catamaran as Vingo swung it around and headed back down toward the sea as cannon fire flew over their heads.
Chapter 23
THE COLD AFTERNOON AIR, wafting through an open window, made the skin on Mike’s exposed arms goose bump. He shivered and moaned as he moved up from his chair, pushing up with his good arm, the other now in a sling after Mai had removed the bullet and treated the wound with the now-familiar root poultice.
He checked his watch; it was four hours since the advanced party of croatoans had attacked. The pain in his elbow still throbbed when he tried to move his arm. The painkilling properties of the root, along with a supply of codeine Unity had salvaged from a nearby hospital, had given him enough pain suppression. He wanted to get on with the job at hand.
Mai entered the small room at the rear of Aimee’s residence. When Mike fell from his wounds, they brought him here to treat him while Unity’s defense force destroyed the advance attackers.
“Any news?” Mike said. He was waiting for Aimee’s response to his failure.
“Khan and Baliska returned from their scouting,” Mai said, sitting beside him on the bed and placing the palm of her hand against his shoulder with light tenderness.
“What did they say?”
“Augustus’ forces are less than an hour away.”
“And the radio weapon?” Mike asked, resisting a painful cringe at the answer. He felt bad for leaving Mai to deal with his failure. He had assured Aimee and the others at Unity that they would have the radio weapon working in time and staked his reputation on it—which now lay in tatters, like Unity’s chances of survival.
“I tried to diagnose what went wrong, but it all seems fine to me. The connections are solid, the power source is perfectly fine, and the dish responds to other stimulation.”
Mike used his free hand to scratch his nose. “Okay… it’s got to be something simple, then. The design makes sense, the parts are good, and the wiring as you say is fine, so what could it be? Must be a bug in a part somewhere in the chain. We need to start right from the beginning…” He sighed at the thought.
“There isn’t time,” Mai said. “Aimee is working with Ryan and the others to get fighters into defensive positions. Khan and Baliska managed to take out a couple of Augustus’ scouts, but… I think this might be it.” Mai dropped her head onto his shoulder and wrapped her arm around his neck.
“Damn it, Mai, we’ve survived worse than this. I’m not giving up now. Think of what Charlie, Denver, and Layla have done for us. We can’t just stand back and let this place go down, least of all to someone like Augustus.”
He hugged her back with his good arm, wincing as he reached round. He kissed her on the head and stood up from the bed, swaying slightly, still groggy from his wound and the medication. “I’ve an idea,” he said. “I need your help, though, to get back up to the platform.”
WITH MAI and Gib’s help, Mike got to the top of the town and clambered up to the platform in order to inspect the hardware again. The sun was dipping down behind the pines to the west of their position, casting long shadows across the clearing and lush root field.