Equinox (30 page)

When she was done she jogged back to Cassie, who was trying to find a spot for her final one.

“Hey–” She stopped as they both heard the sound of a door opening. For a second they stared at each other, then sprinted back towards the stack of shelving. They only just made it. A woman came in and headed towards the workstations. She was small, wearing a dark tunic with a Helios insignia, but she was too rumpled to be a guard. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail. She collapsed into a chair with a loud sigh, then muttered to herself as she powered up a com.

Rosie stared at her in frustration. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone in here at this time of night. What if they actually had to detonate? The woman didn’t look evil, just tired and stressed. Did she have a family? Cassie tugged at her sleeve. She still had a bomb in her hand and was shoving it in her bag and motioning fiercely back towards the vent. “Come on!” she mouthed.

There was nothing she could do for the woman that wouldn’t jeopardise them. Feeling terrible, Rosie followed Cassie back into the vent, both of them trying to make as little noise as they could, moving quicker now without the bombs.

They had just come to the last turn when they heard the first shots.

Loud whining explosions were happening outside. Pulse fire. And close. Cassie stared back at Rosie with wide eyes, shadowed by the small glow of the torch.

“Go!” Rosie whispered.

Cassie moved. Rosie was right on her heels.

They reached the outside vent, but the cover was back up. Cassie peered out. “I can’t see anyone.” Rosie wriggled the com from her pocket and pushed down on the receiver three times. Outside she heard shouts, men calling, most likely the guards, and the sound of running feet, then more gunfire. A scream. They waited, the only sound in the vent their quick breaths. There was no reply from the boys and Rosie was beginning to think they should just push off the grate, when there was a sudden movement outside.

Her heart tried to fight its way out her throat as fingers appeared through the wire. Then Cassie said fiercely, “Where the hell have you been?”

Pip and Dalton. She could breathe again. There was a sharp reply and then Cassie was pulled out. Rosie shuffled forwards and Pip hauled her out by the armpits. Dalton was a shadow watching around the corner of the hangar. Shouts and sporadic gunfire filled the night and bursts of light lit him up in relief as he turned to beckon them frantically. They all ran to the corner.

“What’s going on?” Cassie whispered.

“It’s the Yalgu Warriors,” Pip said.

“What?” Rosie stared at him.

“I know,” he said. “I don’t know what the hell they’re doing here so early. A squad of them just arrived and started attacking the base. Then more grunts came over the ridge, but they went after the base guards, not the warriors. Our plan’s shot to hell now.”

“Did you see Sulawayo?” Rosie said.

“Nope, but I reckon those ridge grunts are hers and she’s making her move.”

“And the Yalgu are working with her?” Cassie said.

“Not sure,” Pip said. “But this base is screwed either way.”

“Did you set the bombs?” Dalton asked.

“Most of them,” Cassie said. “We got interrupted. I’ve still got one in my bag, but what are we going to do with them now? Should we just get out of here?” There was no time to talk though as they heard the pounding of heavy feet close by.

Dalton jogged to the corner to check and came sprinting back. “Grunts. We gotta move.”

They all cast about frantically for somewhere to hide.

“This way.” Rosie spun around, the others following, running along the back of the hangar towards the habitats. She was desperately trying to recall everything she could about the layout of the base. There were two small storage domes between the hangar and the main habitats. Could they hide there? She paused at the corner, the others breathing hard behind her. Fifty badly lit metres separated them from the storage dome. She couldn’t see anyone. Most of the fighting seemed to be closer to the larger habitats. Bright flares of pulse weapons lit up the night and she could hear the whistling snick of bullets.

“Come on.” She ran, Cassie at her heels, the boys following.

They were halfway there when a whine of pulse fire split the air past her shoulder. Rosie’s insides turned to water. She ducked her head and looked back. Four men were sprinting after them along the back of the hangar. They fired again and dust leaped up around her as the shots hit dirt.

“Run!” Pip roared and he and Dalton shot back, running backwards.

More people suddenly came from their left and opened fire at the grunts.

“Get down!” Rosie pulled Cassie to the ground as a thunderous sound opened over their heads.

The boys were caught in the crossfire and Rosie turned in time to see Dalton fall. Pip was somehow still on his feet, but then a grunt grabbed him around the throat.

“Pip!” she screamed. But he was gone, pushed back behind the hangar.

Rosie tried to go to Dalton but pulse fire and bullets were ricocheting between the dome and the hangar. Cassie pulled her towards the storage dome. Together they lunged for the door, bursting through and slamming it shut as pulse fire hit. Rosie slid the lock across and they cowered on the floor. An automatic light came on and outside the thud and whistle of gunfire continued.

“God, Dalton.” Cassie’s eyes were huge. Rosie couldn’t speak.

“You’re hit,” Cassie said.

Rosie looked down and saw a rip in her shirt. She felt nothing. Her hands shook as she inspected it. There was a shallow slice on the left side of her abdomen, oozing blood.

“Let me see.” Cassie crawled to her, her pack still on her back, but Rosie pushed her hands away.

“It’s just a scratch.” She let her empty pack slide off. Dalton could be dead. Pip had been taken.

“We’re screwed,” Cassie said softly, then suddenly laughed, a high, rough squawk that seemed to frighten her. She closed her mouth hard.

Rosie pulled the com from her pocket and tried to contact Dalton. It didn’t even go through. She kept seeing him falling down, not moving. A terrible hollow in her chest was making it hard to breathe.
Don’t think about it
.

“They’ve got to stop fighting out there some time,” she said. “We wait, listen, then we go out and get him. Okay?”

Cassie didn’t reply. She sat silent, her knees pulled to her chest.

“Cassie!” she barked and the blond girl jumped. “Did you hear me?”

She stared at Rosie as if she didn’t know who she was, but then blinked and nodded. “I heard. We wait. Get Dalton when it stops.”

“Okay.” Rosie looked around, checking if there was anything they could use as a weapon, but it was all ordinary household stuff and random tech parts.

“Give me your pack.” Cassie let her take it and Rosie took out the bomb and inspected it closely, trying to figure it out. “Do you know anything about how this works?”

“No.”

Rosie sighed in frustration but then Cassie touched her arm. “Listen.”

The gunfire had stopped. Rosie shoved the bomb back into the bag and, hands shaking, eased the lock off the door and opened it a crack. She couldn’t see anyone. The area between the dome and the hangar was empty, apart from Dalton and a few other bodies. Sporadic bursts of gunfire were coming from further away now, and a dull explosion reverberated through the ground.

“Get your pack,” Rosie said to Cassie over her shoulder.

She ran out. Rosie’s heart was a jackhammer in her chest as she sprinted over to Dalton and skidded to her knees. He was lying on one side and there was blood on the ground and on his leg and ribs.
Oh, Jesus. Oh, God, please don’t be dead
. Her throat was tight.

“Dalton?” She touched his face. His cheek was streaked with blood, his hair covered in dust, but his eyes fluttered open and hope slammed right back into her.

“Rosie? I thought you’d left me,” he said.

A ridiculous, crazy smile stretched across her face. “Don’t be stupid.”

Then Cassie was there. She took one quick look at Dalton and, with strength Rosie didn’t think she had, Cassie tore Dalton’s shirt, ripping off a strip and tying it tightly around his wounded thigh. He gave a soft moan. The wound on his chest was a plasma shot. Rosie didn’t want to think what it might have done, but they couldn’t do anything about it now. Rosie got an arm under him and Cassie got on his other side, and between them they dragged him to his feet.

“Back to the dome?” Cassie said.

“No, the jets,” said Rosie.

Dalton was much taller than them both, and heavy. Rosie’s shoulders were aching by the time they made it to the shadows behind the hangar. The jets were on the other side. They shuffled to the next corner in darkness, Dalton breathing in short hitching gasps. On their left was a shadowy impression of high rocks. Ahead was a wide open area, well lit, and across from that were the helijets. There didn’t seem to be anyone around. Behind them the noise of fighting continued – muffled shots, cries and explosions. It sounded like the Yalgu Warriors had got into the habitats.

“Ready?” Rosie said. “The closest one.” She pulled them forwards.

It seemed to take forever to cross that wide exposed space. Every second Rosie expected to feel pulse fire or a bullet hit her back. She could hardly believe it when they made it. She leaned Dalton against the side of the jet and ignored the pulling ache in her back as she fumbled with the latch. It came open and Dalton swivelled and collapsed on the floor inside with a heavy groan, pulling his legs in. Cassie jumped in after him.

The jet had a small cockpit up front and a roomy cabin. Six flip seats hung from the roof and there was a gun rack alongside the hatch door. Cassie was already searching for a medikit. It rattled as she dropped it on the floor. Dalton’s breathing was scarily shallow. Cassie unwrapped an injector of something and pushed it against his neck, then shoved a wound paster at Rosie.

“Put this on,” she said.

Rosie held her shirt in her teeth and pressed the paster against the bullet graze. It moulded against her skin, flushing a layer of disinfectant and halting the bleeding.

“Can you fly this?” Cassie looked up from cleaning Dalton’s wounds, then frowned. But whatever she was going to say next was lost as the familiar high-pitched whine filled Rosie’s head and spiking pain pierced her skull.

She fell against the jet, staggered, then hit the ground. The pain built to a crescendo, short and sharp. There was a bright rainbow light, a spiral, and a single word jumped out at her.
Pantheon
. She was panting, her pulse going a million miles an hour. Names, a list of names. Five of them. Four she didn’t know, one she did. Then it was gone as soon as it had come.

Her eyes snapped open. She was on her back staring up at the night sky.

Pantheon. The names
.

“Rosie? Look at me.” Cassie was beside her. She grabbed her chin, peering into her face.

“I’m okay.” Rosie was sweating, her breath short.

“You can see?”

“Yes.” She pushed her away. “How’s Dalton?”

“Alive, but it’s not good, Rosie.”

“Can he fly the jet?”

“What?” Cassie stared at her. Rosie ignored her, getting up into the jet to kneel beside Dalton. Cassie had put pasters on his wounds. He still looked like shit, pale, washed out and scared, but he was focusing.

“What happened to you?” His voice was croaky and weak.

“Just a visit from my friendly parasite. I’m fine.”

Cassie pushed another injector against Dalton’s neck. He looked at her sideways, then back at Rosie.

“Can you fly?” she said.

His face filled with weary resignation. “You’re going back for Pip.”

“I can’t leave him there. He’d do the same for any of us.”

“For you, maybe.” Cassie’s tone was hard.

“I’ve got an idea of how I can do it,” she said. “I just saw the Pantheon list.”

Cassie’s mouth went tight. “You’re going to try to bargain with them?”

“Whose names were on it?” Dalton said.

“I’ll tell you later.” She tried not to show her fear. “You’ve still got the detonator?”

“In my pocket.”

“Okay. Cass, got your com?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll send you three clicks, and that’s the signal to blow the bombs,” she said. “If I don’t come back, you go.” She looked at Dalton. “You fly out of here.”

He glared at her. “Three clicks,” he said. “But we’re not leaving without you.”

His mouth was set. Why did he have to be so bloody noble?

“Dalton–”

He touched her hand. “Get going, Pilot Girl. We’ll be waiting.”

She shuffled back out of the jet, glowering at him, while her chest worked like there was something too heavy inside it.

“You keep him alive,” she said to Cassie.

Then she turned and ran without looking back.

She knew what she was doing was crazy. Her aunt would call it a tied-to-the-wall strategy, the kind you make when you’ve run out of choices, but sometimes you just had to take that leap. She made it back to the hangar and jogged along the rear to the corner opposite the storage dome. She’d pulled something getting Dalton up and a muscle along her spine ached with each step. The wound on her belly was starting to sting as well and it felt like every part of her had been pummelled. She fumbled under her shirt for the remaining threads of stim, chewed on one and felt the familiar rise of buzz as it hit her bloodstream. Pip wouldn’t be happy, but that was tough.