Numbers Ignite (34 page)

This time
,
I decided with all the determination my body could hold,
I will not fail.

I expected my mom to head for some kind of tunnel, but instead she pulled me into a house. It looked like all the others—a wooden structure that jutted out from the rocky mountain wall. The front room was full of colorful NORA furniture, too soft and oversized to be practical for a mountain settlement. Mom lifted her finger to her lips and motioned for us to turn the corner. I lifted my rifle in front of me, knowing full well that it would be practically useless if we ran into Chinese soldiers.

“The opening is right around there,” Mom said, pointing to the corner. I put a finger to my lips and stuck the rifle out first, then peered around. The room was empty.

Mom strode out and motioned to the far wall. I still didn’t see anything. I followed, looking for a crack or a doorknob or anything to suggest that this was a door. I placed my palm against the rock. It was smooth like wax. A dusty residue coated my fingers.

“It goes all the way through the mountain,” she said. “We have to block it before their reinforcements come.”

“Maybe they already have. There are hundreds of Asian soldiers down there.”

“Those are the ones he’s been hiding for weeks. There are thousands of them out there, Vance. When the rest of them come, we’ll be decimated.”

Thousands of Chinese soldiers. The sheer magnitude of it—the amount of food they’d need, how much space they would require—was unbelievable. And Mills had hidden them inside the mountain, accessed through a hole in his dining room. “So the door swings open or something?”

“The door is fake. It’s not real rock. Can’t you tell the difference?”

I was about to speak when a thump sounded on the other side of the wall.

Mom stiffened. “We’re too late,” she whispered.

“No, we’re not,” I said, darting around the corner. I grabbed the expensive couch and dragged it over. It was heavier than it looked. My mom darted over to help, then we positioned it in front of the wall. No matter how I placed it, there was a small gap between the couch and the rock. With a little leverage, they’d be able to get it open in minutes. I glanced around the corner for something else, but this was the heaviest object by far.

“You go warn the others,” I told my mother, who wrung her hands together in worry. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.” I picked up my rifle.

“No, you won’t,” Ju-Long said from behind us. I turned.

His weapon was trained on me.

My mother’s face twisted in rage. “How dare you lie to these people and then betray them. We came here for peace. It wouldn’t hurt you to leave us alone.”

“Our honored president has plans for this wreck of a nation,” Ju-Long said simply. “You destroyed yourselves long ago. We are just finishing the job.” He started to pull the trigger.

Just as his finger moved, my mother leaped. I realized what she was doing and tried to throw her aside, but it was too late. There was a faint buzz, and then my mother arched her back and screamed.

Lightning shot down my body where we touched. I instinctively jerked away from her as she sank to the floor, and my pain instantly ceased. But it my mother still writhed on the ground, her eyes wide in horror, body contorted. Her hands clawed at the air.

“Mom!” I grabbed her shoulder, but lightning shot up my arm, and I recoiled again with a growl.

Her eyes met mine, desperate and horrified, as her body convulsed one final time. Then she sank to the ground with a sigh.

My mother—widow, mother of three, and the strongest woman I knew—stared at the ceiling, never to see again.

I wrapped my arms around her again as if trying to hold her together, to take the pain into myself so she could be whole again. But whatever current had passed through her was gone, and her life with it.

Ju-Long aimed his weapon at me again, but the thumping behind me intensified. Ju-Long frowned and glanced at the wall. With a curse in Chinese, he ran to move the sofa.

I lunged. Ju-Long turned right as I reached him and tried to sidestep, but I was ready this time. I sent a punch to his face, forcing him to block it. It was exactly what I wanted him to do. The stunner in his hand clattered to the ground. I kicked it behind me, noting where it landed.

Another curse. Ju-Long leaped back and sent a kick to my ribs, the still-healing side. I moved to block it, but he redirected it at my solar plexus. I doubled over from the force of it, the breath knocked out of me. Idiot. I’d learned from a young age to regulate my breathing during a fight.

“My soldiers and I have trained since age two,” he said. “This is not a wise course of action for you, Hawking.”

I met his words with a fist to his mouth. He rocked backward, a trickle of blood escaping his lips, and then smiled.

He attacked then, the pounding and shouting of his comrades accompanying us like a strange orchestra. He moved forward, a whirlwind of motion. I blocked and countered and parried, feeling my body settle into a rhythm. I’d fought like this with my father while my mom looked on.

My mom. For a second I glanced at her twisted body lying there on the floor. Anguish exploded in my stomach, and I growled and attacked harder. Ju-Long’s eyes widened a bit, then narrowed in determination. His attack grew more intense, more focused. I barely blocked a series of disorienting shots to the face when he swept my leg from under me and sent me to the floor.

Ju-Long’s foot on my injured shoulder stopped me from rolling away. I filled my lungs with air and held my breath, refusing to scream, not letting myself acknowledge the pain.

A scraping sound drew my eye. The soldiers had managed to get enough leverage to move the couch. It wouldn’t be long before they succeeded. I had to take out Ju-Long
now.

“You have a strange determination,” Ju-Long said, applying more pressure. “Even when sentenced to die, you still fought off my assassin. Such stubbornness is not the way of your people.”

“I think you’ll find that it is,” I said breathlessly. My hurt shoulder sent blinding pain through my body. If only I could reach Ju-Long’s weapon—but it had landed too far away.

“Ready,” a voice whispered from behind me. I could barely hear it, but I knew it instantly.

I forced my mind to focus. Anton was there, hiding in the shadows near where the weapon had disappeared.

Our trigger sequence.

“Set,” I gasped.

“Go,” the voice hissed, and the weapon slid across the floor. I caught it in my hand. Ju-Long’s eyes widened in surprise as I swung the weapon up and aimed it at his chest.

“This is the part where you beg for mercy,” I said.

“Not today,” Ju-Long said. He leaped to the side, executed a perfect roll, and rose at a run, headed for the tunnel entrance, where the couch had been pushed forward several inches.

I slid my thumb onto the button, and an invisible current buzzed through the weapon and caught him before he’d made it two steps.

It slammed him backward several feet and sent him writhing to the floor.

He flopped around like my mother had done, the electricity setting his body afire. Each second was an eternity. Then he arched his back and sank into the ground.

I didn’t realize I was still aiming the weapon until a hand gripped my shoulder.

“He’s gone,” Anton said. “He won’t be hurting anyone again.”

I tore my gaze away and rushed to my mother’s side, feeling her pulse. Nothing. Her skin was cool and soft.

“I’m sorry about your mom,” Anton said softly, and I turned to look at him. “She was a good woman.”

Was. She only existed in the past now.

Anton folded his arms. “I still think you’re a traitor, but it seems we’re on the same side for now.”

I forced a grim smile, feeling numb. “We were always on the same side. I just got distracted for a while.”

The scraping sound got louder, and then the sofa tipped over.

Anton dove behind a chair, and I took a position across the room where I had a clear view. The first soldier appeared. I aimed Ju-Long’s weapon and shot. One, then two, then five. It only took a second of exposure and each man was on the ground, gasping and moaning.

After the twelfth soldier, the sounds coming from the corner stopped. If they came out
en masse
, Anton and I were toast. Time to get out.

With one last, wistful look at my mother, I sprinted outside and started down the trail, Anton following closely behind.

“Try to get our clan together, away from the fighting,” I called to him. “Actually, help all the settlers find shelter, our clan or not. I’m going to take down as many of these guys as I can.”

“You got it.” Anton sprinted away.

I looked downward at the clearing where I’d stood trial. The battle continued. Bodies with silver NORA uniforms littered the ground. Only occasionally did I see a fallen Chinese soldier.

But the sight that stopped me was the group near the bottom of the trail. Their clothes were just a little different, and none of them looked familiar. Treena’s new settlers, probably. They had barricaded the trail, preventing NORA and Chinese soldiers alike from going up. The strange thing was that they held no weapons. One lifted a box and yelled something. Those with him ducked and covered their faces. The group of Chinese soldiers in front of them aimed their weapons at the settlers.

A white light exploded from the box. Pain slammed into my head. I wrenched my eyes away, blinking quickly. When my vision cleared, I looked down at the settlers again. The group of Asian soldiers were rubbing their eyes. They spoke to each other, reached for their weapons again, and looked angrily at the settler blockade.

I searched the area for Treena. She wasn’t near the platform anymore. Hopefully she was safe, along with my little sisters. I’d have to find the twins soon and tell them what had happened to Mom. The image of my mother on the floor, staring at nothing, returned unbidden.

The sound of pounding footsteps on the trail above sent dread through my body. The Chinese reinforcements had broken through. They’d come upon me any second. I started down the trail, looking for a boulder, anything to cover me. I didn’t know whether Ju-Long’s weapon could run out of juice, but until it did, I’d put it to good use.

As one, the soldiers at the bottom of the trail leaped over the barricade of rocks and packs to surround the new group of settlers. Slowly the cornered men raised their arms to the sky.

With a curse, I ran down the trail, aiming Ju-Long’s weapon at the group. It was time to see how far this thing could shoot. I pulled the trigger. A man fell to the ground and started to shake. I aimed again. One more, then two at once.

Their comrades jumped into action, running up the trail toward me. A few turned in my direction and aimed. I swore and looked around. If my weapon could cross that distance, so could theirs.

I dove behind a rock just in time. The shot slammed into the side of the rock, and my weapon slipped out of my hand, skidding across the ground. I cursed again. There were no other rocks or potential blockades for another several meters. If I left this spot to retrieve the weapon, they had plenty of time to take me out.