‘Awesome work, Six,’ says Ella.
‘Yippee-ki-yay, and all that,’ I reply with a grim smile.
‘Do you think they’ll leave us alone now?’ asks Marina.
‘I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,’ says Commander Sharma.
‘She has all the same type of powers as the boy you call Vishnu,’ says Crayton, motioning towards me. ‘Will that be enough to dissuade them? Do you think they’d still try to fight him?’
‘They would if they could find him,’ says the commander.
‘How many are there in the Lord’s Resistance Front?’ I ask Commander Sharma.
‘In total? Thousands. And they have wealthy donors who support them in any way they need.’
‘Hence the helicopters,’ Crayton says.
‘They have worse than that,’ the commander adds.
‘The best plan for us is to outrun them,’ Crayton says to the commander. ‘I’ll drive as fast as I can. If we have to fight, we’ll fight; but I’d like to avoid it.’
Five minutes pass in tense silence. Marina and I monitor the brigade in the distance, and whenever we pass something large enough, we use our telekinesis to drop it in the path behind us. The tall trees that have begun to dot the sides of the road quickly form a thick line of defense. The car dips into an extremely narrow valley before beginning to ascend the mountain. We have just come to the base when Commander Sharma tells Crayton to stop. I lean forward in my seat and see dozens of small mounds in the dirt.
‘Land mines?’ I ask.
‘I’m not sure,’ the commander says. ‘But they weren’t there two days ago.’
‘Is there another route to wherever we’re going?’ Crayton asks.
‘No, this is the only path,’ Commander Sharma says.
Suddenly, we hear the sound of helicopter blades, but I don’t see them yet. They’re hidden behind the tall trees. Of course, that means they can’t see us, either, though it sounds like they aren’t very far off anymore.
‘We’re sitting ducks if we stay here,’ I say, my mind racing to figure out our next best move.
Crayton opens his door and steps out with a machine gun under his arm. ‘Okay, this is it.’ He points up and to our right. ‘We either go up there and get behind a line of trees and fight, or we keep running straight up the mountain.’
I follow him out. ‘I’m not running.’
‘Neither am I,’ says Marina, standing next to me.
‘Then we fight,’ says Commander Sharma. He points into the hills. ‘Half of us set up on the left while the other half takes position on the right. I will take these two with me.’ He indicates Ella and me.
Crayton and I look at each other and nod.
Ella turns to Crayton. ‘You okay without me, Papa?’
Crayton smiles. ‘Marina’s legacy will make sure whatever they do to me won’t last long. I think I’ll be okay.’
‘I’ll keep an eye on him, Ella,’ Marina adds.
‘Are you sure we should do this, Commander?’ the soldier asks. ‘I can go to fetch Vishnu, bring him back to help.’
‘No, Lord Vishnu should stay where he’s safe.’
Crayton turns to Ella. ‘Keep those glasses on. Maybe you can be our eyes up there in the trees. I’m still not sure how they work, but let’s hope they’ll help now.’
I hug Marina and whisper into her ear. ‘Be confident in your abilities.’
‘I should heal Commander Sharma before you go,’ she says.
‘No,’ I whisper. ‘I don’t trust him yet and he’s less dangerous to us if he’s injured.’
‘You sure?’
‘For now.’
Marina nods. Crayton taps her arm and beckons her to join him and the young soldier. The three of them scramble up the left wall of the valley, disappearing behind a boulder.
Commander Sharma, Ella, and I move up the right side of the hills, carefully avoiding the bumps on the ground as we move. We find a position behind some massive boulders, and settle in to wait for the brigade to arrive.
I turn to Commander Sharma. I feel slightly guilty about not letting Marina heal him, but for all I know, he’s set this up as an elaborate trap. ‘How’s your arm?’ I whisper to him.
With a grunt, Commander Sharma lies down and sets the barrel of his gun on a flat rock. He looks up and winks. ‘I only need the one.’
Out of the corner of my eye I can see a helicopter buzz overhead but it leaves almost immediately. Either Marina took care of it, or the pilot couldn’t penetrate the thick canopy of the valley. I look through the trees, hoping to manipulate the clouds surrounding the peaks of the mountains, but the afternoon sun has burned them off. With no wind, and no clouds, there aren’t any elements to control. I can turn invisible if I need to, but I prefer to keep that hidden from the commander for now.
‘What do you see?’ Ella asks.
‘A whole lot of nothing,’ I whisper. ‘Commander, how far away is Number Eight?’
‘You mean Vishnu? Not far. A half day’s walk, maybe.’
I’m about to ask him to tell me where, exactly. We should know in case something happens to the commander and we need to move forward without him. But I’m distracted when a rusty pickup truck swings into the narrow valley at full speed with a man standing in the open bed. Even from a distance, I can see he’s nervous as well as armed. He jerks his gun from side to side, frantically trying to be everywhere at once. As soon as our SUV comes into view, the pickup skids to a stop and the soldier in the back hops out. More vehicles appear and pull up behind the pickup. A soldier drops out of a red van and sets a rocket launcher onto his shoulder. I see an opportunity.
I nudge the commander with my foot. ‘I’ll be right back.’
I don’t give him a chance to argue as I run quickly into the woods. When he can’t see me any longer, I use my invisibility Legacy to disappear and sprint down into the valley. The soldier has our truck in his crosshairs, but before he can pull the trigger I rip the rocket launcher off his shoulder and slam one end into his belly. He doubles over and goes down with a scream. Hearing the commotion, the driver of the truck rushes over with a pistol in his hand. I point the rocket launcher at his face. The soldier takes a split second to decide if the free-floating launcher is about to do its thing, then turns and runs away with his arms above his head.
I aim at the now empty, rusty pickup and pull the trigger. The rocket flies out of my launcher and a wave of fire explodes under the pickup, blowing it thirty feet into the air. The burning truck lands hard, and bounces and rolls quickly forward, the momentum sending it into the back of our SUV with a crash. I watch it lurch forward, rolling slowly over the small mounds in the road that had stopped us from advancing. The next thirty seconds are filled with ear-splitting, rapid detonations, as soldiers fire blindly around them and the mounds in the road explode. Thousands of birds burst out from the trees all around us, their sounds quickly drowned out by the snap, crackle and pop of munitions doing their thing. I was right; they were land mines. And now our SUV is nothing more than a smoldering pile of metal.
Evidently, this was just the opening act. The main attraction – armored vehicles, small tanks, mobile missile units – is closing in on the mountain. There have to be a couple of thousand soldiers on foot. Five or six attack helicopters hover overhead. I hear a whirring and turn to see a missile launcher rising and rotating, going into operational mode. The tips of five white missiles turn up and towards the area where Marina and Crayton have taken cover. There’s movement in the tree line, and the commander’s young soldier runs down into the valley. He’s unarmed and headed right for the missile launcher. At first I think he’s going to sacrifice himself somehow to save my friends, but no one fires at him. He stops when he reaches the launcher and starts pointing higher up the side of the mountain, to where Crayton and Marina are hiding. The launcher rises another few feet and adjusts its aim.