Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) (26 page)

“Go to the airbird,” she murmured
in his ear. “No matter what they say, don’t stop. Understand?”

“Yeah.” It was barely a breath,
but it encouraged her.

She directed him behind her. Now,
for the tricky part. Falcon wouldn’t shoot Yegor until she was safely inside Michael’s
bird, for no one knew whether Michael’s wonder shield would work correctly or not.
And yet Anya did not want Yegor dead. His death would mean the deaths of her
siblings. Of this, she had no doubt. So she had to save the Altai commander.
She needed to get between Yegor and the Donetski air ships’ lasers. She had to
become a human shield for one of Onred’s most despicable men, and she had to surrender
now. It was the only way to keep her other siblings alive.

“Stop, boy!” Yegor ordered.

Damon continued to painfully
shuffle toward the bird, and Anya remained stationary, waiting for him to get
closer. To be fully safe.

“
Stop.
Or we shoot!” Yegor
shouted.

Static hissed from the transmitter
at Anya’s collar. Joshua said, “Get in the bird, Anya.”

She didn’t answer.

Yegor’s enraged gaze latched upon
her. “
Dubrovnyk!
Come here. Now. Or we shoot.”

“Get into the
bird,
Anya.”

It was now or never. Anya drew a
fortifying breath, but just as she stepped forward, fire blazed from Falcon’s
ship. The enemy warship exploded into a giant fireball.

Yegor shouted. Men scrambled and
lasers shot from the black beasts. One yellow tongue of flame shot straight for
her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Anya dove
for the ground. Centimeters
before her nose, a blue wall of pure energy sizzled skyward, arching into a bubble
around Michael’s ship. The protective shield darkened and thickened to the
consistency of sky blue. She couldn’t see through it. Then, slowly, the blue,
pulsing field shimmered to nothing. The enemy’s laser fire had ceased.

Altai lasers blasted again. Once
more, the blue field sparkled into a silent dome over Michael’s craft. On her
knees now in the cold snow, Anya’s mouth opened in silent wonder. Michael’s
shield seemed to
feed
off of the energy from the enemy laser. Instead of
weakening the shield, it appeared to make it stronger. She had never seen such
a thing in her life. Of course, shields weren’t a new concept, but few could
survive repeated laser blasts. And none became stronger.

It was a miracle technology.
Michael had installed it in his bird, but who had invented it?

The field faded again.

Joshua ground out, “Get in the
bird, Anya.” His voice sounded remarkably clear, as if he was right behind her,
instead of speaking from the device in her collar. Had the energy field
amplified its power?

Anya’s gaze remained on the enemy,
trying to assess the damage. Onred’s men had scattered. One lay dead. Two birds
had exploded. But in the sky, black birds advanced, like bees in a swarm. She
scrambled to her feet.

Too late to surrender to Yegor.
The damage had been done.

“I
said,
” Joshua gritted,
gripping her arm hard, “get in the bird.”

Anya gasped in shock and whirled.
Joshua’s face looked murderous. Never had she seen him more angry.

He dragged her to Michael’s
airbird before she could speak. His bird hovered meters behind Michael’s.
Clearly, Joshua had put himself in danger in order to haul her to safety.

At his forcible shove, she quickly
climbed inside the warm bird. Michael greeted her with a frown. The seats had
been stripped from the back of his bird, and the floor had been converted into
a makeshift bed. The doctor knelt beside Damon, who was already enclosed in a
temperature controlled body bag.

Joshua stuck his head inside and
addressed his brother. “Does the shield work in the air?”

“Yep.”

“Then I’m coming with you. My bird
will be toast.” Joshua swung inside, and the bird rose at dizzying speed and
shot west. Falcon’s warship followed.

“Who’s dead?” Anya wanted to know.

“Does it matter?” Joshua’s opaque,
quelling gaze bore right through her.

“Of course it matters! If it’s
Yegor, Onred will—” her gaze slid to Damon’s still form, and her voice lowered,
“—
kill
my brother and sisters!”

Joshua moved so fast that he
loomed over her within a heartbeat. Face dark with emotion, he gripped her
shoulder, hard enough that it hurt. She gasped, frightened by the violence
twitching his fingers. Through his teeth, he said, “
Don’t you understand?
He’ll kill them anyway.”

“No, he wouldn’t. Not if I went
with them.”

“Was that your plan?” Fury
darkened his eyes to onyx. Like a black hole, no light escaped. “I thought so.”

“They didn’t shoot me,” she cried
out. “Don’t you see? If they had wanted me dead, they’d have shot both Damon
and me. But they didn’t. That proves Onred wants me alive.”

“And once he has you,” he snarled,
“he’ll kill your family. Then you would be his slave. Forever. Do you
understand what that means?”

The bird swerved right, nearly
knocking her sideways. “I…”

Abruptly, he released her. His
hands were shaking. “
Damn it.
You’re a fool. You can’t follow a simple
order…”

“You don’t care about my family!”
she cried out, overcome by rage. “They’re expendable to you. They’re chess
pieces, aren’t they? You used Damon to assassinate Yegor. Isn’t that right?
Tell me. Is Yegor dead?”

“Yes.”

Anya put her hands to her face.
She was so angry that she wanted to burst into tears, but she did not. Instead,
her jaw tightened, and she glared at Joshua. “
You’re
the ruler.
You
got your way. Don’t attack
me
for wanting to save my family!”

The bird swerved left.

“Uh, kids?” Michael said. “We’re
in trouble. I need help up here.”

Joshua swiftly joined his brother
in the cockpit.

Shaking with grief, Anya crawled
back to her brother. His eyes were shut, and his skin blue. “How is he?” she
whispered to the small, balding doctor.

“Too soon to tell. We need to get
him to a medical bay, and now.”

“No chance of that,” Joshua
clipped out. “Falcon went down.”

“What happened?”

His jaw clenched.

Michael answered. “Warship shot
him down.”

Anya glanced outside and gasped.
Blue and black airbirds tangled, swooping up and down the mountain faces.
Lasers spat like snake’s tongues. Donetsk’s backup birds, waiting behind the
mountain range, must have jetted to meet Onred’s forces. Now a hot, savage
battle waged.

Joshua muttered to Michael, “Head
for Gorno. Can you shake them?”

Anya swiveled her head to listen,
spirits rising in hope. Onred held Marli and the others hostage in Gorno.

“We’ll give it a go,” The big man’s
fingers sped across the navigation pad. The craft cut downward at a steep angle
and only Anya’s boots, wedged against the pilot’s chair, prevented her from
sliding forward. A second later, the craft leveled out and shot forward at
dizzying speed. G forces hit like a physical weight against Anya’s chest and
she fell backward, onto her spine. Swiftly, she pushed up onto her elbows
again. They shot for a dark, narrow canyon. Bristly pines bordered the narrow
space, and far below, a ribbon of water shimmered.

“We’ve got a tail.” Sliding to his
knees, Joshua took over the weapons panel. Video feed revealed two airbirds on
their tail, growing larger every minute. The back window afforded Anya the same
view—only the black birds looked scarier at full size.

Yellow lasers licked from the lead
Altai craft, and Michael’s blue shield shimmered into place. “Found a problem,”
that man muttered. “I can’t see when they shoot at max power. The shield gets
too thick. I’m flying by instruments, bro. Get them off my tail.”

“Mark when you turn off the
shield, and I’ll fire.”

The blue shield shimmered and
faded, looking like dancing, sparkling sunrays.

“Three, two, one…Now!” Michael
said.

White lasers shot from the rear of
Michael’s airbird. A black bird exploded in midair.

“Gotcha,” Joshua muttered.

One strike! Anya could not believe
that one blast had destroyed the enemy bird. All aircraft, from her father’s
old lectures, could withstand at least two laser hits before shields failed.

“Shield up,” Michael said.

Fire spit from the remaining bird.
Tense moments later, that enemy craft combusted into a black, smoking ball of
scrap, too, and hurtled down toward the water, far below.

“Bogey above us.” Joshua switched
controls to fire overhead lasers. He swore. “They’re all
over
the place.”

Suddenly, an enemy swooped ahead
of them and jetted straight for Michael’s ship, firing all lasers. The blue
shield darkened to midnight blue. Michael shot skyward. The shield faded, then
darkened again.

Michael swore.

Concentration hardened Joshua’s
features.  “On my mark, lower the shield. Three, two…one.” White lasers spit at
the same time they took a hit. The whole ship shuddered.

“Another one down.”

“The shield’s damaged,” Michael
reported. “Here comes another one.”

Anya clung to a safety handle as
the craft jerked and swerved. Her stomach lurched with each violent movement.
Their shield held, but appeared to be a lighter blue than before. Three black
birds pursued them.

“We’ve got to lose...
What the…
”

Another bird appeared.

Now Joshua swore. “The canyon’s
skin tight ahead. They want to box us in.”

“Why? And how?” Anya dared to ask.
She felt sick to her stomach from the violent motions.

“They’ll fire everything they’ve
got. Michael, will the shield hold?”

“It’ll short.”

“On my mark, go vertical at Mach
one. Then lower the shield.”

“Okaaay, big brother. You’re the
boss.”

Did Joshua want Michael to lower
the shields while all four birds fired on them? “Joshua, that’s crazy,” Anya
gasped.

Tight lipped, he said, “You haven’t
cornered the market on chaos.”

Was that a compliment? If so, it
frightened her. On second thought, the birds swooping into position—one behind,
one ahead, one below and one above them—scared her much more. The black beasts
jetted in with blinding swiftness. Lasers spit, and all went blue.

The ship hummed and crackled.
Random numbers and shorting images flickered across the console.

“Now!”

The ship shot skyward. A jolt hit,
and the ship spun like a drunken man. Joshua hunched over the weapons console.
Simultaneous explosions sounded both above and below them.

A grim smile twitched Joshua’s
lips. “Got all the bastards.”

Michael’s tight lips told another
story. “We’re going down. Brace for impact.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Michael’s airbird
stuttered
and fell.

Anya closed her eyes and
incoherently prayed.

Long seconds later the craft
jerked up, as if punched by a giant fist, lurched forward, and then dropped
more dizzying meters. Anya longed for a seatbelt—although what good that would
do when they shattered into a thousand pieces, she wasn’t certain. She hung on
tight to the safety handle, trying to stay in one place.

“Take the helm,” Michael told
Joshua. “I’m going into the engine.”

Joshua’s brother ducked down and
ripped off the front control panel. He muttered, “Reroute…energy from shield
reservoir to main steering…”

Anya hoped Michael knew what he
was doing. He was a fine pilot, and obviously an equally fine commander of
ZCA…but was he an aircraft mechanic, too? Then she remembered that he had
installed the new shield in the airbird. And what about the electronics scraps
she had seen in his spare room in Tash?

It was difficult, however, to
think long about the mysteries of Joshua’s brother when they’d soon be smashed
to smithereens.

The ship’s lurches deteriorated
into long, sickening plunges. Joshua’s firm, steady hand on the controls kept
them clear of the cliff faces, but gravity was a master no control could deny.

“Sweet mother of God,” muttered
Dr. Spalding. Sweat shone on his bald crown.

Damon mercifully appeared
unconscious.

“We’ve got ten seconds, Michael,”
Joshua warned.