It told Maddox Star Watch was still on his side, just as the microwave beam attack told him the enemy was definitely up to something sinister.
Soon, Keith leveled out. The shaking stopped, so did the sounds of shrieking wind. They were over the Pacific Ocean, heading northeast toward Hawaii.
Maddox released his death grip on the straps, finding his fingers stiff from the intensity of the strain.
“You said microwave beams?” the captain asked.
“Aye, sir,” Keith said. “That’s my best bet. We should be okay now, I think.”
“Someone on Earth—”
“That’s right,” Keith said, as he adjusted their flight path. “Someone down there wanted to make our deaths look accidental. They beamed a microwave ray at the engine port, burning it out. They tried to do the same thing to the other one, but I wouldn’t let them.”
“That’s why you practiced that insanity?” Maddox asked.
Keith laughed. “Any time they can hit a fighter I’m flying, when I know what’s going on, I deserve to die. They didn’t realize who piloted our shuttle. You’re lucky I came, sir,” the ace said with a grin. “Without me beside you, you’d be a goner.”
“Indeed,” Maddox said. “And the interceptor missiles…?”
“I was tracking the enemy as he tried to beam us. I gave the coordinates to the interceptors.”
Maddox found it amazing Keith had been doing all that while he—the captain—had been hanging on for his life.
The rest of the flight proved uneventful. Keith took them over Central America, the Atlantic Ocean and brought the shuttle down in Geneva Spaceport in the Alps Mountain Range.
Maddox watched several hovers rush out of a terminal building. There was something off about them. He wasn’t sure what, but he felt it in his gut.
“Let’s not go over there,” Maddox said, pointing at the hovers. “Head to the terminal over there,” he said, pointing at a large, square building in the distance.
Keith glanced at the captain, giving him a look that said the others were expecting them at the first location.
“Something feels wrong about this,” Maddox said. He’d been doing some heavy thinking during the flight. The enemy wasn’t going to let them reach the Lord High Admiral so easily. The Pluto Command quarantine and the microwave attack showed that.
“Got it, sir,” Keith said. He turned the shuttle, using repeller rays to float them to the new destination.
In seconds, a hard-faced man in space marine greens appeared on the screen. “Where are you headed?” the marine asked.
“You can send the hovers away,” Maddox said. “We don’t need them.”
The grim-faced marine hesitated just a moment. Then, he shook his head. “Sorry, Captain, I can’t do that. You’re under emergency orders. I have to take you in myself. I’m supposed to guard you and your packages.”
Maddox tapped his board, making the man’s image disappear. He called Cook’s office. A secretary answered. Before she could speak, the screen went blank.
“What the heck?” Keith asked. He’d been watching the exchange.
Maddox made a quick check. Someone used ultra-advanced jamming equipment against the shuttle.
“It appears the attack against us isn’t over,” Maddox said. “The enemy must want us dead pretty badly if they’re willing to burn an asset embedded in Star Watch space marines.”
The captain unbuckled. In three strides, he reached the weapons locker, opening it.
“The hovers have speeded up,” Keith said. “They’re not going to let us get away, sir.”
Maddox turned toward the ace. A premonition of greater danger touched the captain. The marines coming to escort them weren’t going to stop in the face of a grenade launcher. If he simply took them all out, though, without the enemy first showing his hand, there might be hell to pay.
He was playing with the end of the world at stake. Who was his hidden foe? It couldn’t be Strand himself, right? The man was far away in space. It might be Strand’s second-in-command then. It was possible Kane had returned to Earth. Or had some other New Man gotten here, sent by the space pyramid in New Men territory?
A hard knot of certainty filled Maddox. “Turn the shuttle around,” he told Keith. “Then use a missile. Take out the hovers.”
For once, Keith looked surprised. “Are you sure, sir? They’ll court martial us for doing that.”
“Turn the shuttle,” Maddox ordered, leaving the grenade launcher in the locker. He sat back in his seat as Keith caused the shuttle to rotate on its repellers.
The three hovers flew across the tarmac toward them.
“Could you be wrong about them, sir?” Keith asked.
Maddox didn’t answer. Instead, the captain leaned forward, engaging a missile. The space weapon wasn’t meant to use like this on the ground, but it should work.
Tapping the screen a second time launched the missile. The shuttle shook as the missile ignited its engine. Through the blast window, Maddox watched the streaking thing. It struck the lead hover and exploded into a giant fireball. One hover flew into the air, its dome a splintered shell as it tumbled end-over-end. There was no sign of the other two hovers. Heat and debris smashed against the shuttle, causing the craft to tremble as hard as it had during the flight down.
Seconds later, the shuttle stopped shaking. The airborne hover smashed against the tarmac. Pieces went everywhere, some rattling against the shuttle. The other hovers were smoking debris.
Maddox slouched in his seat. At the same moment, sirens began to blare. Just how many more attempts was the enemy going to make against him?
-30-
“Sir,” Keith said. “Look over there. Combat cars are coming.”
The ace pointed out the blast window. Three dots in the sky floated down, rapidly gaining size.
Maddox stood and drew his gun.
Keith tried the radio. It worked. The ace asked for confirmation regarding the air-cars. He told Maddox, “They’re from Intelligence, straight from headquarters.”
Maddox eyed the growing combat cars, finally putting the gun into its holster. He waited until they landed, dust puffing outward from their armored skirts.
Opening a hatch, the captain watched soldiers bound out of the cars, racing into a circular formation around the shuttle, facing outward with rifles leveled. A major exited the lead combat car. He marched near the shuttle, studying Maddox.
It was Major Stokes, one of O’Hara’s chief aides. Maddox was relieved to recognize someone.
Stokes glanced at the smoking, hover wreckages before shaking his head. “Never can leave things as they are, can you, Captain? You went and ruined the welcoming committee.”
“The more things change,” Maddox said, dryly.
“You have a knack,” Stokes said. “There’s no denying it. Wherever you go, people learn to love you.”
“What’s the next step?” Maddox asked.
“In a hurry, are you?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
“Good,” Stokes said. “You’re to come with me.”
“To see the admiral?”
“In time,” Stokes said. “First, The Iron Lady wants an explanation for all this mayhem.”
Stokes had never been a fan of his, but the man was solid. The enemy wouldn’t have been able to corrupt him, and the major was too logical to fall easily for a trick.
In three minutes, Maddox found himself secure in a combat-car, flying nape-of-the-earth to headquarters. They landed on the roof of a squat fortress-style building. Stokes marched them through every security check. Underground, Keith left them, no doubt heading to a different debriefing.
“Why the silent treatment?” Maddox asked.
Stokes cocked an eyebrow. “Orders, my fine fellow. The brigadier doesn’t want you tainted before she sinks her claws into you. This time—well, never mind. We’re almost there.”