Arriving at the park from all directions were dozens of yellow taxicabs.
“That’s how we’re moving those cannon things and the shooters,” Mark explained. “They’ll arrive on site before the crowd does.”
“Long before, I hope” was my response.
“We’ll get them there,” Mark said with confidence.
“Perfect. You did an incredible job, Mark.”
“Don’t go praising me yet,” he cautioned. “We’re just getting started.”
We hovered in the air over the park. Behind us the four helicopters settled in and hovered at the same altitude-one by one they came into formation. Mark watched to make sure they were all there. I took another look down to see the crowd moving farther up Fifth Avenue. It was an inspiring sight. In front, leading the way, was Uncle Press. Along with Loor, Alder, Spader, and Siry. Aron and Boon, the gar and the klee, were right behind them. This army had a long walk in front of them. That was okay. We had other business to attend to first.
Mark put the walkie-talkie to his lips. “Are we go?” he barked into it.
He got back four replies. “Go one.” “Go two.” “Go three.” “Go four.”
“Follow us, kids,” Mark replied. He clicked off his walkie and motioned for Kasha to kick it.
The gig shot forward, flying straight up Fifth Avenue. I looked down to see that the exiles and gars were waving and cheering us on. We flew over them with our gig in the lead, the point of an arrow, followed by the four black helicopters.
Attack helicopters.
The soldiers of Halla were on the move.
So far everything had gone according to plan, but it all felt so tenuous. Each new step was critical to the success of the following step. Right now, the next step was ours. If we were successful, the attack had a chance. If not, it could turn into a bloodbath before we even got close to the Conclave of Ravinia.
As we flew north, Courtney held my hand. We didn’t speak. What was there to say? Our heads were in the game. There would be time for talk later. I hoped.
We flew through the gray fog and swirling dust that was now a familiar aspect of Third Earth. I hoped that Mark could find his way through the muck. It was hard to see the ground, and the only thing in front of us was nothing. I trusted him, just as I had trusted him so many times before. Kasha dutifully followed his every instruction and made slight course adjustments when asked.
It was about ten miles from the park to the conclave. Not far in a helicopter. There wasn’t much time to kick back and get psyched for the challenges ahead. It seemed as if we had been flying for only a few minutes when Mark said to Kasha, “The bridge is our marker. When we clear the top, drop down fast. Like real fast. The fog will clear. As soon as we spot the target, break left and ascend. We don’t want to be in the way. That would hurt.”
Kasha nodded. She got it.
I hoped that the fog wasn’t covering the top of the bridge structure. It wouldn’t be smart to hit that thing.
“We’re close,” Mark announced.
I felt the tension in his voice. He was focused. He leaned forward, as if those extra few inches would help him to see a little better. Courtney squeezed my hand. Where was that bridge? All we saw was swirling gray.
Mark couldn’t take it anymore. “We’ve gotta be close,” he said to nobody, and toggled his walkie-talkie. “Go hot,” he barked.
The replies came back in seconds.
“One is armed.” “Two is armed.” “Three is armed.”
That was it. Ten seconds passed. I saw a bead of sweat slip down Mark’s temple. His jaw muscle worked furiously. He pulled the walkie back to his lips and was about to speak when…
“Four is armed. Sorry, Mark.”
“You’re killing me here, Tony. You ready?”
“Yes.”
“You sure?”
“Show us the way, boss.” “There!” Kasha announced.
The top of the bridge came into view, barely visible through the swirling fog.
“Got it,” Mark said, obviously relieved. “Little to the right… little more…”
We sailed by the left of the bridge with only a few yards to spare.
Mark lifted his walkie. “Stand by. This is it,” he announced.
He waited another two seconds, then shouted to Kasha, “Down! Now!”
Kasha pushed the stick forward. We dove to the deck. The four choppers were right on our tail. Suddenly the fog cleared, and the massive front wall of the conclave appeared before us.
“Oh, man,” Courtney gasped. It was her first view of the imposing structure.
I was more concerned about seeing something else. It was the next piece in the puzzle. If it wasn’t there, we’d be in trouble.
It was. Exactly where it had to be.
“On the money,” Mark called over the walkie. “Take it out!”
He motioned for Kasha to break off our run. “Go! Get outta here!” She throttled up and broke hard to the left. The choppers behind us didn’t. They stayed on line, headed right for the target.
Saint Dane’s flume.
Kasha pulled up and circled around so we could get a view of the attack. The stolen helicopters were armed with the same type of rocket that we had seen used to blast the zoo building. The first two choppers let them fly. Multiple white streaks shot from their bellies, headed for the mouth of the flume. They hit. Hard. The explosions were deafening. Right on target. The first two choppers broke off, left and right, barely missing the wall of the conclave. The way was clear for the second two choppers to make their attack run. They launched, again hitting the flume dead-on. Debris from the concussions flew high into the air. Smoke was everywhere. It was hard to see exactly what damage they had done. The second set of helicopters broke off. The first two had already come around for a second run. They launched again, pulverizing the ground around the flume.
“Hang on,” Mark ordered into the walkie. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
All four choppers circled away. We watched the ground, waiting for the smoke to clear. The plan we had devised to battle Saint Dane and his dado army was tricky. It relied totally on timing. Our success or failure in destroying this flume could easily mean the difference between victory and defeat. We knew that Saint Dane would send his army to Eelong, so we used that. We wanted him to use his power to build a flume. We wanted the dados to go. All of the dados. We just didn’t want him to be able to bring them back. At least, not quickly.
“They’re going to find the other flume,” Courtney said soberly.
“Eventually,” I said. “Hopefully, too late.”
“Why don’t we destroy the other one too?” Kasha asked.
Mark kept his eyes on the clearing smoke as he answered. “We put everything we had into this attack. There are no more rockets.”
We knew that from the beginning. We only had enough firepower to destroy one flume. Whether we liked it or not, we were going to have to face the army of dados. Our hope was that we would stand a better chance against them from behind the walls of the fortress. That was the thinking, anyway. There was still a very big hurdle to jump over before we got that far. We had to invade and control the fortress.
Right. That.
“I can see it,” Kasha exclaimed.
The smoke cleared, revealing a huge expanse of shattered rocks, dirt, and debris. The flume was sealed. “I’m thinking they know we’re here,” I said. “Yeah,” Mark concurred. “Now it gets scary.”
Chapter 39
We had come up with a bold plot for the conquest of Ravinia.
The exiles and gars had accepted the battle. We had successfully evacuated Black Water and brought them to Third Earth. Saint Dane had created a flume and used his dark spirit to send his dado army to Eelong, just as Nevva said he would.
Then we destroyed their flume, trapping the dados on Eelong.