MiNRS (19 page)

Chapter Thirty

Modifications

I wasn’t even sure it
was necessary to move camp, but everyone had already started, stopped, and then started moving again so many times, we needed to see it through. At least it kept everyone occupied.

We’d chosen a spot Pavel had found on his search. There was a break room down Tunnel 1 that still had some canned food and bottled water. There was even a large hallway a short walk away where we could park the diggers.

And since it was in Tunnel 1, we could spend some of our spare time looking for the beacon.

Maria helped Darcy pick out her new bed. In an odd way they seemed to be helping each other heal. Darcy wasn’t talking to me, which hurt. Maria did catch my
eye as she helped tuck Friendly into Darcy’s bed, and she gave me a weak smile.

Elena, however, seemed way more cheerful as she helped take over the unpacking of all the supplies, barking orders like a drill sergeant.

Talking together had helped, I thought. I knew it was helping me.

That felt kind of awesome.

At some point Alek slipped away. Fatima said she would take Julio and Nazeem and go look for him after we finished work.

We unloaded the food and stacked it in the break room, dug out a new set of bathrooms, and set up the infirmary.

It looked exactly the same as the last camp, with two beds missing.

Time was running out. We needed to find the beacon before the Landers left Perses. And all the evidence pointed to that being very soon, before the end of the Blackout.

Jimmi’s father had been the manager of the colony, and he would have been able to tell the Landers everything they needed about how to load the ore, where it was, and how to secure it and process it.

Getting rid of him meant they didn’t need him for that anymore.

Getting rid of Jimmi meant almost the same thing.
They didn’t need to worry about
us
anymore. They were close to finishing their own Great Mission. I didn’t tell anyone else this, although I suspect Fatima knew what was going on. Elena, too, maybe.

We had a map to find the beacon, but it would take time.

Fire the beacon too early, and they’d hear it and destroy it, and us.

Find it too late, and it wouldn’t matter. The Landers would already have destroyed the colony, the transmission equipment, and us along with it. The signal might tell Earth there’d been an attack up here, but that wouldn’t help us.

So, there were just days left to stop the Landers once and for all. And that meant destroying their ship with as many of them on it as possible.

Jimmi had given me the exact location. He said there were few other buildings left intact, so that meant the Landers most likely slept on the ship.

Of course, the ship had missiles and bombs that could wipe out a digger in one shot. We had nothing.

But I had a plan for all that.

And it was going to begin with another lie.

Everyone continued to set up camp. I snuck away to the garage.

As quietly as I could, I opened the dashboard in my
digger, revealing all the wires and computer chips that controlled the engine and the nose cone. I spotted the wire for the disrupter sensor, and cut it. Then I spliced the wire and pulled a microphone switch out from my pocket. I’d grabbed it from Jimmi’s wrecked digger.

I attached the sensor wires to the switch. I flicked it on and off. There was no real, or safe, way to test if this worked, but I just wanted to be sure the flicking didn’t loosen the wires.

It didn’t. I pulled out some surgical tape and taped the switch to the underside of the steering column. Then I began putting the dashboard back in place.

There was a cough from behind me.

I froze. Someone was in the room. How much had they seen? I hoped it was Darcy or even Pavel. I could lie to them, say that I was just cleaning.

Fatima or Elena would know exactly what I was up to.

I turned around slowly.

Alek was standing behind my digger, staring at the screwdriver in my hand.

“Christopher. I know you’re planning something. I’ve been watching you.”

“There are people out there looking for you.”

Alek nodded. “I know.”

I turned back to my work and finished putting the
dashboard back in place. There was no use hiding the rest of the job from Alek, but I didn’t want anyone else seeing my dashboard taken apart and asking questions.

I looked around the garage as I wiped my hands on my coveralls. Something was wrong.

“Alek, where’s Maria’s digger?”

Alek shuffled his feet and hung his head. “I said before that I wanted to fight. I want to know how to drive one.”

“Where is the digger?”

Alek nodded back over his shoulder. “I crashed it in Tunnel Three. It stalled out, and then I went into the wall too fast and smashed the front.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. We were starting to get dangerously low on diggers. “I think I can salvage the digger if we can get it back. Does it drive?”

He nodded. “I think so. I was just a little too rattled to try.”

“We’ll go get it in a few.”

“Then we’ll fix it, and you can give me some lessons.”

I shook my head. “There’s no time. We need to do more raids to slow the Landers down some more.”

“Christopher. I’m not an idiot. I know I haven’t been doing a lot of talking, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. The Landers killed Jimmi. That means they didn’t need a spy anymore, which means they are almost done.”

This was exactly the conversation I didn’t want to have. But Alek was right.

“This isn’t going to be a normal raid, is it?” he said.

“No. It’s not.”

“You’re planning something final. I think I know what it is. I know what you did to your digger in the elevator shaft.”

I gritted my teeth. “My job is to keep everyone safe, everyone alive. I’m going to do that. If you tell anyone what I’m doing, they’ll either try to stop me or they’ll try to join in. In either case we’ll all get ourselves killed.”

Alek stood there, staring at me silently, hardly blinking. Finally he nodded. “I’ll promise not to tell anyone, but you have to promise me one thing back.”

I knew what was coming, but I asked anyway. “What?”

“You take me with you.”

I sighed and didn’t answer right away, and then I nodded.

He reached out his hand. I shook it.

“The first thing you can do is to keep watch and make sure nobody else comes in here. I just have a couple of more things to do, and then we’ll be ready.”

“When do we leave?” Alek asked.

“First thing tomorrow.”

Alek nodded and then went to stand by the door.

I had no intention of bringing Alek along.

Chapter Thirty-One

Beacon

“So it’s agreed,” I said,
counting the raised hands. “And it’s unanimous. Tonight, after dinner, we will send out two search parties to look for the beacon. Fatima will lead one using yards as the distance. Pavel will drive that digger.”

Pavel nodded.

“Elena will use miles.”

I felt a twinge of sadness and fought to hide it. I hoped it was miles. That would keep Fatima busy on four fruitless searches and Elena far from danger.

Elena was back at her place by my side. She had her arms crossed and a severe look on her face as she said, “If you find the beacon, do not touch it. We cannot set it off until the Blackout is over.”

Everyone nodded.

“And Therese has proven she can drive, so I suggest she follow me with Nazeem and Julio in the cockpit,” Elena said.

“It’ll be tight,” Nazeem said.

“Not with your skinny butt,” Julio said.

“Or both of your big heads,” Therese said. “But if you agree to keep quiet, I can show you how a digger works.”

Julio and Nazeem closed their lips tightly.

I made eye contact with Alek. He was keeping quiet and nodding along. Good.

The meeting broke up.

“That went pretty well,” Elena said. “Nice job.” She gave me a very light tap on the arm.

“Ouch,” I said.

She laughed, and it was nice to hear that sound echo in the room.

“I had another great idea,” she said. “I’m going to take Darcy along with me. She’s been so sad since Finn died.”

“That’s a great idea. Don’t forget to talk to Friendly, too. She gets mad if you ignore him.”

She nodded.

I had to fight the urge to say good-bye to Elena, to hold her hand again, to feel her head on my shoulder
one last time. But I needed everything to appear normal. Or as normal as anything could be.

“So, I guess we are back to being a pretty good team,” I said.

She nodded.

“Can we go for a walk?” she asked.

My radar went off. Had I done something, tipped her off in any way? I did actually promise to give Alek one more quick lesson in digger driving, but I just couldn’t leave Elena with the memory of me saying no to her.

“Um, okay. I’d love to.” As soon as I even said the word
love
, I felt a lump rise in my throat. I gulped and steadied myself.

She slipped her arm in mine, and we stepped down the tunnel.

“I’m feeling better, Christopher,” she said. “I want to thank you for that.”

I didn’t say anything right away. I was worried I’d start tearing up.

“And you don’t suspect me of being a spy anymore, so that’s good,” she said.

“I know. I’m so sorry. I didn’t actually think you were; it’s more that I needed to weigh the evidence without letting my emotions get in the way. I couldn’t let the safety of the whole camp be compromised because my
gir— Because we’re friends. If there’s anything I can do to make it up . . .”

She smiled again and gave a little laugh as she pushed away from me. “Christopher Nichols, you are still so easy to wind up!”

She took my arm again, and we continued down the tunnel. Elena had certainly recovered her ability to leave me feeling flustered.

“I wonder what will happen after this is all over?” she said.

“I have no idea.” I looked at her dark beautiful hair, which was starting to grow back, except for the places where her skin was too badly burned.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to even think about the future yet,” she said.

“I think about it sometimes. You need to have hope. Hope that things can get better.”

She was silent for a bit as we walked. “We’re still not old enough to live on our own,” she said, frowning a little.

I was taken aback again. “You mean, together?”

She frowned. “Oh, brother. I mean, without adults. It’s like that book you’re reading.
Oliver Twisted
or whatever. The kids end up in orphanages or on the streets.”

“I’d like to think Melming Mining would take care of us after what we’ve been through.”

“Do you think that includes the grinders?”

I wasn’t sure about that. “If you or I have any say about it,” I said.

“Adults don’t always listen to what kids have to say,” she said.

I nodded.

We walked in silence a little longer. “I have a plan,” Elena said at last.

Uh-oh.

“I’ve been thinking about what we can do next.”

“Yes?” I said, my voice sounding way too nervous in my own ears.

“We should send up a couple of diggers to the surface.”

I gulped but managed to squeak out, “Okay.”

“Not to attack, but to dismantle the bombs the Landers set outside the core-scraper.”

Whew
. “That’s interesting.”

“I have a pretty good idea where they are. They didn’t spend a lot of time trying to conceal them, and I did a walk around before I snuck back into the building.”

“You think if we can dismantle those bombs, it doesn’t matter if the Landers leave?” I said.

“Exactly. They can’t reach us underground. They might be able to drop bombs on the reservoirs and some of the
buildings, but they won’t totally destroy the infrastructure that way. We can survive and then fire the beacon.”

It was actually a pretty good plan, but for one obvious thing—none of us could defuse a bomb.

But I didn’t want to argue with Elena.

“I think it’s a good plan. We’ll call a meeting for tomorrow to map it out with the others, after your team and Fatima’s find the beacon.”

“You mean after
my
team finds the beacon.” She smiled.

“I wasn’t aware it was a competition.”

She gave me a grin and poked me in the chest. “I think she and I compete for everything.”

I gave a nervous laugh. “I guess at the very least it would be nice to be on the surface.”

She nodded. “I’ll lead the team. I’d like to see the sky again.”

We reached the garage. Alek was already waiting there, sitting in the cockpit of his digger and trying to memorize each button and screen. He didn’t give away any sign of emotion, any sign he and I were planning to leave.

“I’m going to go prep for the great beacon search. See you later,” Elena said. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

Despite my best efforts to stay cool, my lip quivered, and I had to turn away. I coughed, hoping to cover the quaver in my voice.

“See you later,” I said, turning back to look at her.

She faced me and gave me a salute. “Fearless Leader,” she said.

I saluted back. I watched her walk away. This was the last time I’d be alone with her, ever, and I wanted to hold on to every last image to cherish on the final ride to the surface.

She turned a corner, and I walked into the garage.

Alek looked up at me.

“She hasn’t guessed?” he said. He seemed surprised.

“I don’t think so. I hope not. Let’s go practice.”

We spent the next hour driving through tunnels and firing up the disrupter to fly through the walls. Alek was a pretty capable, if not great, driver. Not that it would matter too much. I checked my watch. It was almost dinnertime.

After we ate, Fatima and Elena would start their search. I’d wait a few minutes and then start out on my own.

“Time to head back,” I said.

Alek turned the steering wheel, and we cut back through the rock toward camp.

We got out of the digger. “You go grab some food,” I said. “I need a few seconds to get myself together.”

Alek nodded. After he left, I waited a second, then I opened up the dashboard of his digger and cut the power line.

•   •   •

Dinner was canned beans and chocolate bars again. I didn’t want to eat anything, but I forced myself to. Fatima and Elena sat next to me and mostly talked about what the beacon might look like, and how they would keep in contact during the search.

“I think it will be a big computer with lots of colored lights and stuff,” Elena said.

“I imagine it will be very small, but shaped like an apple pie,” Fatima said.

“With whipped cream icing,” Elena said.

“Mmmmmmm,” they said, and laughed.

I stared at my beans.

The beacon was the last real connection I had to my parents. They’d helped set it in place. My father had told me to find it. I’d never see it now.

Finally it was time. Dinner ended.

“I walked over to Fatima and hugged her. “Good luck,” I said, smiling as cheerfully as I could.

“Thanks, rich boy. Make sure you do all the dishes while we’re out doing some real work.” She laughed. I rolled my eyes.

Elena was helping Darcy, and Friendly, settle into her cockpit. Darcy had helped save me. I also needed to say good-bye to her.

“See, Darcy,” I said, leaning down to hug her. “I told you this was a treasure hunt. I bet you find it first.”

She didn’t say anything, but looked past me to wave good-bye to Maria. Then she held Friendly’s bandaged paw and stared straight ahead.

I stood back up and smiled at Elena. “You stay safe,” I said.

“Um, okay. Looking for a beacon? I’ll try. You stay safe sitting back here, reading your book.”

“Will do.” I hugged Elena a little bit longer. I hoped she didn’t notice, but I couldn’t help myself.

She climbed into her digger, closed her hatch, and then led the mini-caravan of diggers out to the opening of Tunnel 1.

I waited a few minutes before I slipped away to the garage. I’d told Alek we wouldn’t be leaving for an hour, so the garage was empty when I got there. I slipped into my digger and fired it up.

I cut through the wall. I didn’t head for the Landers right away. I had one important errand to run first.