The Soldiers of Halla (15 page)

“Pendragon?” she gasped, stunned.

“We gotta stop him!” I yelled to her. No time for reunion talk.

Yenza took off toward the edge of the dock and the line of skimmers. I was right after her. As she ran she yelled, “By the time we power up a skimmer and take off it may be too late!”

The loud hum of a fully powered skimmer suddenly echoed through the dock area. Yenza and I both looked to see a skimmer flying in at full throttle. I thought for sure that it was going to crash into the dock.

I shouldn't have been worried. The driver spun the watercraft, making an impossibly tight turn that threw up a wave of water. The craft side-slipped forward until it kissed the edge of the dock with a safe, gentle thump. At the controls was a smiling Vo Spader.

“Good to be back on the water, mates,” he called to us.

I had to smile. “You've got your wish, Spader.”

“What wish is that?”

“You're back in the game.”

He gave me a huge smile and said, “You have no idea how badly I've wanted to hear those words, Pendragon.”

Yenza and I leaped onto the skimmer and barely had time to grab on to something before Spader gunned the engine and launched from the dock. If anybody could catch this guy, it was Spader.

The Traveler from Cloral was going to have another wish come true.

We were about to get dangerous.

T
he Ravinian aquaneer was nearly halfway to the nearest gunboat.

We had some catching up to do. Spader stood at the motorcycle-like controls of the skimmer and opened up the double-pontoon engines. The small craft lurched forward and seemed to fly over the water. Yenza and I knelt on either side of Spader, holding on to the rails. We knew that if we so much as hit a small swell, we'd be launched.

“When's the last time you drove one of these?” I called to my friend above the whine of the engines.

“No worries, mate,” he said while staying focused ahead. “What is it you say on First Earth? It's like riding a bike.” He gave me a quick look back and a sly smile. “I like riding bikes.”

I knew that. If the aquaneer was catchable, Spader would catch him. His long dark hair flew back in the wind. His almond-shaped eyes were focused dead ahead. It was good to be back together.

Yenza called to me, “Spader says the exiles are fugitives from another territory.”

Her words surprised me at first. The last time I was with Wu Yenza, she didn't know anything about anything. But since then she had become Spader's acolyte. She had read his journals. She was up to speed. It still felt weird, but it also felt good. We needed as many people on our side as possible.

“Are they worth risking Grallion for?” she asked.

I looked her straight in the eye. How could I answer that? I didn't want to see Grallion sunk. That would be a catastrophe beyond imagining. But I had also seen the horror of what Earth had become. I had no doubt that the same kind of fate would hit Cloral.

“Yes” was my simple answer.

Yenza nodded. She accepted my word.

“I told them to navigate the hauler out beyond the raiders' ships and to wait for us to join them,” she explained. “I thought we'd hide them in Panger City. If the raiders learn they're in a hauler, they'll hunt them down for sure.”

“Let's make sure that doesn't happen,” I said.

“We will,” Spader called back. “We're almost on this woggly.”

I looked ahead to see that we were catching up to the Ravinian spy. He kept glancing back like a runner who was nearly out of gas and desperate to get to the finish line before his nearest challenger caught up. Our skimmer had much more power. We were going to get him.

“Who is he?” Spader called back to Yenza.

“Never seen him before,” she replied. “He isn't one of my aquaneers.”

I added, “Then you won't mind if he gets hurt.”

Both Spader and Yenza gave me a quick, surprised look.

“Bold words, mate,” Spader said. “You've changed a might.”

“You have no idea.”

At the rate we were closing, I figured we'd reach him with a hundred yards to spare. Spader was that good. I stood up next to Spader and yelled, “Pull up next to him, so I can jump aboard!”

Spader gave me another smile. “You really have changed.”

I shrugged. If he was surprised at my words, he was going to be totally shocked when he saw me lay into that renegade aquaneer. Unfortunately, our plans quickly changed. We were suddenly bathed in bright, blinding light from the closest gunship. They had trained high-intensity spotlights on us. It got worse. I shielded my eyes in time to see that the aquaneer had stopped his skimmer and had grabbed a long, silver water rifle. He had decided to make a stand on the water.

We weren't ready for that.

“He's gonna shoot!” I shouted just as the first blast erupted.

The shot hit our skimmer square in front, nailing the steering column. The force pulled the handles out of Spader's grasp, and we spun sharply to our right. Yenza didn't hesitate. With an impossible sense of balance that could only have come from spending years on the water, she pulled up the floor panel to grab for her own weapon. It was going to be a shoot-out.

Spader grabbed the handles back and started maneuvering evasively. I crouched down, trying to make a smaller target. While Spader spun us every which way, I caught glimpses of the aquaneer who was our quarry. His skimmer was dead in the water, his back was braced against the steering column, his rifle was up and aimed at us.

He was no longer our quarry. We were
his
quarry.

Boom. Boom.

I remembered the sound of those sleek, silver water guns from the last time I was on Cloral. They were no water pistols. They fired highly compressed rockets of water that could tear somebody in two. Spader kept us moving and spinning. I heard and felt the water projectiles fly by. Yenza had her rifle up and ready. She took to one knee and fired back. Her aim wasn't great, which didn't surprise me, considering we were randomly spinning one way and then the other. It also didn't help that the guy was in silhouette because of the bright spotlights from the gunboat behind him.

Which also meant we were lit up like ducks in a shooting gallery.

“You still want on that skimmer?” Spader asked.

“Can you get me there?” I called back.

“I'll take that as a challenge.” He laughed.

Unbelievable. We were in the midst of a deadly water fight and Spader was as calm as if we were playing Marco Polo.

“Need a couple of shots to his left,” Spader called calmly to Yenza.

“Done,” she called back calmly and started squeezing off a series of shots that forced the aquaneer to dive down and take cover on the right side of his skimmer. But he wasn't done shooting. He lay flat on his stomach like a sharpshooter and took aim back at us.

“Stand by, mate,” Spader called to me. “I'll swing around his bow.”

Spader gunned the skimmer and launched forward. The aquaneer saw what was happening and tried to swing his rifle toward us, but Yenza let loose with a volley of shots
that made him duck down below the rails of his small craft. Spader was now flying on a straight line, which made it easier for Yenza to take aim.

“If he pokes his head up,” she growled without taking her eye away from the barrel of the gun, “he's done.”

“Right,” Spader announced. “Off you go, mate.”

He swung our skimmer around the bow of the enemy. The aquaneer tried to sit up and raise his rifle, but Yenza nailed his gun with a shot of her own. His silver rifle clattered to the deck of his skimmer. I had my window. Spader barely slowed as we crossed the bow. I sprang forward, launching toward where I hoped the skimmer would be when I landed. I left our moving boat and landed with both feet on the deck of the aquaneer's skimmer.

The guy scrambled for his rifle. There was no way he'd be able to get it up to aim and fire, but that wasn't his plan. He used the long rifle like a bat and swung it at me, nailing my right knee. Ow. It didn't cripple me, but it sure hurt. I lashed out with a backhand to his head. I really nailed him but the guy didn't react.

Bad news.

It was a dado.

There were dados on Cloral.

Swell.

He swung his rifle back, trying to hit my other leg. This time I was ready. I grabbed the rifle with both hands before it made contact and yanked him to his feet. I didn't know how strong this dado was, so I wasn't sure if I had a chance against him. I couldn't knock him out, that much was for sure. My best hope was to throw him over the side, where Yenza could finish him off with a couple of shots.

The two of us struggled, both with two hands on the
rifle. The dado was strong, but not superhuman. On the other hand, he fought dirty. He lifted his knee to nail me where it hurts. I saw it coming and pivoted to my left, catching his knee with the back of my leg. It hurt, but at least he didn't jangle anything. What it mostly did was make me mad. I drove my right elbow back into his chest. Again the guy didn't flinch. He drove the palm of his left hand forward, hitting me square in the chest. It threw me off my feet. Yeow. It was like he bruised my heart. I lay on my back on the deck, looking up at him as he lifted his leg to kick me in the head. I had to fight through the pain to protect myself. I caught his foot, twisted, and brought the guy down to the deck with me. I leaped onto his back like a wrestler. I wanted to roll him off the skimmer and into the water. The guy was flat on his stomach, making it impossible for me to get leverage. I snaked my arm under his, trying to get my hand up and onto the back of his neck for a half-nelson wrestling hold. As I struggled to get control, I looked up to see Yenza on the skimmer, with her rifle up and aimed…at us. I didn't care how good of a shot she was, she could easily have hit me instead of the dado. I opened my mouth to yell at her to stop. Too late. She fired. I flung myself off the dado to protect myself.

It was the wrong move. Yenza wasn't shooting at the dado. Behind me I heard an explosion, and one of the big spotlights from the gunship went dark. Yenza was shooting out their eyes. Of course, I didn't know that and had let go of the dado. Oops. He was now coming at me. He launched, I spun away, but kept my arms out in front of me. I grabbed the guy by his bogus aquaneer uniform and kept him moving forward and right over the edge.

“Shoot him!” I shouted before he even hit the water.

The result was way more dramatic than I had expected.

BOOM!

A shot was fired that was bigger than anything that had come from either rifle. A second later the water erupted not five feet from me. A wave hit the skimmer and nearly knocked me off my feet. What the heck was that?

“Hobey, Pendragon! Jump!” Spader shouted.

He had finally lost his cool. That meant trouble. A quick glance toward the gunboat told me why. The shot hadn't come from a water rifle. We were in the sights of the ship's big guns. I dove off the skimmer as one of them fired again. I was still in the air when the little skimmer exploded. I ducked under the water to protect myself as sharp pieces of destroyed skimmer flew all around me. I felt the sting as they hit me, even underwater. Then I felt somebody grab my ankle from below.

The dado was back.

He held me underwater, pulling me farther down. Did dados need to breathe air? Could this guy stay under, holding me down until I drowned? I didn't take any chances. I coiled my other leg and kicked down on his arm. Hard. The force made him lose his grip, and I swam for my life.

“He's pulling me down!” I yelled as soon as my head broke the surface.

I looked about frantically, trying to sight Spader and Yenza. The sea had turned violent. Explosions kicked up everywhere. There was so much smoke I couldn't see my friends.

“Hey!” I shouted.

No response. Had they taken off? Worse, had they been hit?

I heard one smaller pop, after which another light went
out. My heart raced. Though I couldn't see them, Yenza was still shooting. A few seconds later another pop came and another light was out. The last one. We were in the dark, but that didn't stop the raiders from trying to blow us out of the water. They knew where we were, more or less. I didn't know which way to swim, because I didn't know where my friends were. I decided to tread water and let them find me….

And got pulled under again. This time the dado yanked on my Second Earth khaki's, pulling himself up. Or me down. Whatever. He had me in a bear hug several feet below the surface. There was nothing skillful or clever about his attack. He was going to hold me down until I ran out of air. I struggled to get free, but it was no use. He held me tight from behind, with his hands locked in front of me. There was nothing I could do but drown.

I felt a short, violent lurch, as if the dado's body had been hit by something. He instantly released his grip. I pushed myself away from him, kicked for the surface and spun around, ready for the robot to come after me again. He didn't. He couldn't. He no longer had a head. The thing floated there with its arms out. Dead. Or turned off. Or incapacitated. Or whatever it is that happens to a dado when the lights go out. It may have been a mechanical device, but it was still a gruesome sight.

I felt a strong arm grab the back of my sweatshirt. A second later I was lifted out of the water onto the deck of Spader's skimmer. Spader stood over me. Yenza was next to him, holding her rifle, smiling.

I guess she was a better shot than I thought.

“He won't be talking to the raiders anytime soon,” she confirmed.

Explosions continued to churn the water around us. Spader dropped to his knees and opened up the hatch of the skimmer. He pulled out three round air globes.

“We'll have a better chance in the water than on the skimmer,” he said.

I hadn't put on an air globe in a very long time, but I knew how they worked. The clear shell made a form-fit over your head. The small silver device at the top took oxygen in from the sea and allowed you to breathe. And speak. It was an amazing device. It looked as if we were going to have to rely on them to save us.

“We'll swim back to Grallion,” he said. “Let them keep pumping shots at the skimmer. We'll be long gone.”

We barely had time to put the globes on when the water next to the skimmer began to boil. All three of us looked in wonder at what could be causing it.

“That's not from the guns,” I declared.

Yenza realized the truth first. “No,” she bellowed. “No! No!”

I didn't know what she was getting all bent about, until I saw a large, clear dome break the surface of the water. If we were anywhere else in Halla, I would have been panic stricken, thinking it was some kind of sea beast. But we were on Cloral. I knew what it was.

“They shouldn't be here!” Yenza shouted.

It was a hauler submarine. Inside the dome I saw the faces of three scared individuals. It looked to be a family. A man, a woman, and a little girl that couldn't have been more than four years old. The man was at the controls. He waved frantically, motioning for us to get inside the sub.

The barrage of water-cannon fire stopped. There was a strange calm.

“Did they give up?” I asked.