“Wait, who is ‘we’?” Arlo asked.
Les tilted his helmet. “The rest of us.”
Arlo snorted but didn’t protest.
“You’re with Michael,” Les said. “I’ll take Sofia. We’ll scramble up the rocks to get over the walls by those smokestacks. Once we’re inside, we split up and find a way into the mountain.”
“You good to go?” Michael asked Arlo.
“Sure,” Arlo said.
“You don’t sound like it,” Les said.
“’Cause I just tumbled down a goddamn hill after nearly getting turned into swiss cheese, and now we’re walking into a slaughterhouse.”
The divers lapsed into silence in the dark cave. A drop of water spattered on the floor.
“If that is true, it’s another reason we have to do this,” Les said. “Don’t forget why we came here. I need you now more than ever.”
Arlo’s cracked helmet nodded. “I won’t let you down, sir. I’m sorry, I’m just…”
“You survived Rio,” Sofia said. “You’ll survive this.” She gave him a pat on the back.
“It’s settled, then,” Michael said. “Let’s get moving. We don’t have much time.”
The divers left the cave and climbed back into the rocks. Storm clouds swollen with rain were passing overhead. The drones blasted in and out of them, uninterested in looking for the divers. Discovery was the threat. Once again the machines were making a mistake that Michael would use to his advantage.
He led the divers by climbing carefully, keeping three points of contact on the unstable rock. The first drops of rain fell when he got to the next bluff.
Les, Arlo, and Sofia took cover there with him while Edgar and Lena moved to a higher vantage.
The slope below stretched into a valley, then up to the fortress walls. Rocks the size of a man and bigger covered the dry terrain in between.
Orange and red crust grew on the fractured surfaces of the boulders. But they weren’t the only organic life. Purple blades grew out of the dirt, blowing in the wind.
He also spotted a strange new grain with a corncob head attached to a long, curving stem. Patches of the odd plant grew all the way to the twenty-foot-high fortress wall.
Michael didn’t spot any guard towers along the top, but that didn’t mean there were no defectors or cameras up there.
Les stayed with him a moment, then signaled to advance, but Michael suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
“What?” Les asked quietly.
Michael stared at something on the ground near the base of the wall. He zoomed his laser-rifle scope in on a patch of the plants.
A pinheaded metallic object jutted out of the end of the corncob-shaped grain head.
These weren’t just plants. They were sensors.
Michael whispered his discovery to Les, who twisted back toward the bluff where Edgar and Lena were moving into position.
“What are you thinking?” Michael said quietly.
“Either we need Timothy to come back in for another bombing run, or we use our boosters with the eastern wind,” Les said. “If we launch from the bluffs, it should be powerful enough to take us over that wall.”
“Discovery won’t survive another run,” Michael said.
“I know.”
“Boosters it is, then.”
Michael again led them back through the cliffs, following the tracks Edgar and Lena had left in the narrow passages between the jagged walls. The two divers were around the next bend, perched on an outcropping with a perfect view of the factories.
Edgar swung his rifle around at Michael before realizing who it was.
“Shit, Commander, you about lost your head,” he muttered.
“Change of plans,” Michael said. “There are sensors down there. We’ll deploy our boosters and let the wind take us over the walls.”
“Risky as hell,” Edgar said, “but I’ve got your backs from up here.” He set his magazines down on the rock and chambered an armor-piercing round. Lena got down on one knee beside him, laser rifle clutched like a baby against her chest armor.
“Okay, let’s do it,” Les said. “I’ll head east to the factories with Sofia; you start west and work your way back toward us.”
“This is nuts,” Arlo muttered.
Michael spotted the perfect place to land on the western side of the compound. Several warehouses with industrial equipment on top provided cover and a long, flat roof to land on. The bombardment hadn’t damaged any of those buildings.
“We aim for that one,” Michael said, pointing.
“Listo, jefe,” Arlo said. “I mean yeah, boss…”
Michael scanned the base once more. The roof of a three-story building near the factories opened, disgorging a drone. The spike on the tallest tower flashed orange, then went dark, and the drone zipped away.
The spike had to be some sort of signal. Michael searched for more drones but didn’t see any. He didn’t see any defectors or their human slaves, either—only the tanks at the shattered walls, and the drones patrolling the sky. So why the lack of interior defenses?
Time to find out.
The closest drone flew back into the base and hovered over the building where the last had emerged. The roof opened, and the drone descended inside.
From a bluff to the east, Les gave the signal to deploy their boosters.
“We fly so humanity survives,” Arlo whispered.
He punched his booster first, maybe trying to prove he wasn’t scared. Michael followed immediately. His balloon burst from the cannister and filled with helium, yanking him off the bluff.
As he expected, the wind pushed him toward the walls. Rain pattered his visor as he rose into the sky. For the first several seconds, he anticipated lasers riddling his body.
They were floating targets—known in the Old World as “sitting ducks.” But their black armor and suits made them hard to see.
Les and Sofia took off from the bluffs farther east, toward the factories on the opposite side of the compound.
Michael headed for the warehouse, twisting slightly to look at the metallic tower centered in the base. The spire on top made it one of the oddest old-world towers he had ever seen.
Ten defectors cleared debris from a destroyed building abutting the tower. None seemed to pay attention to the sky.
The balloon carried him higher as the wind pushed him toward the walls. A patrol of defectors, visors forward, walked down the main road on the south side of the base.
By the time Michael’s boots cleared the wall, he was already two stories up. Arlo was even higher and rising. They both let helium out of their balloons to descend.
East of them, Sofia and Les were also lowering. They vanished from view a moment later, and Michael focused on the DZ. He checked for contacts on the ground again, but the western side looked clear of machines.
The flat roof rose up to meet his boots.
Arlo landed first. Pulling his balloon down, he took cover behind a block of industrial units. Michael joined him there after carefully deflating his balloon. They each had only one, and it was their ride back to Discovery.
Michael motioned for Arlo to follow him. As they crept across the rooftop, a drone blasted across the horizon, forcing them down.
Once it had passed, Michael glanced over the building’s edge. Below were several windows and a closed door. He had a feeling his wrist computer couldn’t hack in as easily as on ITC facilities. He would do this the old-fashioned way.
Hunching down out of sight, he explained his idea to Arlo. The answer was predictable.
“That’s crazy, man.”
“That’s why it’s going to work,” Michael replied.
He scanned the sky for enemy contacts, then the ground. Seeing none, he swung his legs off the roof, placing his boots on a narrow ledge.