Revolution World (32 page)

The car lurched again as one of the tanks at the roadblock fired at them. Seth got a face full of Pomeranian.

"So how close are we?" she asked.

"Clio!"

"Look, I'm not asking just to annoy you. I have a plan. But we need to get past this roadblock and make it to the border in the next fifteen minutes," she replied. "The hovercar doesn't need a road. Find us a way around."

Seth obliged, frantically programming an escape route. "Even if we get past the tanks, we can't outrun the helicopters," he growled at her.

"Are you sure? This thing is pretty fast," she said as they shot off the road and over the terrain.

"Not that fast," he replied. The helicopters were gaining on them. Team Pom expressed their feelings for the helicopters by snarling and chewing on the seat cushions.

They flew through a field and over a stream, then cut back to the road past the roadblock.

Seth whipped his head to look at the tanks that were now lumbering after them. "Here they come!"

Two helicopters blocked his view. They swooped so close to the hovercar, he was surprised they didn't bump it.

"Missile launcher?" screeched Clio. "Didn't you say you had a missile launcher?"

"I'm already on it," he yelled as the rear window cracked under a spattering of bullets. A missile shot out of the back of the car and hit one of the helicopters. It spun down to a fiery crash.

The hovercar raced down the road, bobbing and weaving like a heavyweight champ. Seth fired off two more missiles. Two more smoking helicopters were forced to land.

Seth was thankful that he hadn't let Max talk him out of putting in this missile launcher. His uncle had told him he was insane. Seth was glad he'd sprung for the guided missiles too. If you are going to be insane, you might as well commit to it. From his experiences in the last few days, sanity was highly over-rated anyway.

"The autopilot in this thing is amazing," gasped Clio as she held on to her seatbelt for dear life.

"It's got an AI. I didn't train it for military combat, but it's adapting remarkably well," replied Seth as he fired off the last rocket. "If we make it out of this alive, remind me to brag about that."

The last rocket missed.

"Never mind," he said.

"How close are we?" asked Clio, checking the time yet again.

Seth swallowed his irritation with visible effort. "Almost there. Two miles."

"Ye gods, this is going to be close," she cried. "Ok, stop here."

"Are you crazy?" he yelled.

"Use the EMP!" she yelled back.

He knew this was suicide, but he could see the border now. It was empty. There was no one there to help them. From the way Clio had been talking about getting to the border, he assumed there would be reinforcements there. Something. Anything. But he saw nothing.

"Oh well," he sighed. "It will be over soon. Why not go out with a bang?" The hovercar spun dramatically and screeched to a stop.

The remaining helicopters sped closer and closer. Clio found herself crawling back in her seat to get away from the sight of them.

"Now? Can you do it now?" cried Clio.

"Not yet," replied Seth.

"What if they blow us up before they are close enough?"

He turned to look at her.

"Did you just think of that NOW?"

Two helicopters hovered over them as the third landed next to the car. They could see the line of tanks approaching on the horizon. The sun had just passed over the horizon and they watched the military in the fading twilight.

Seth turned and traced the line of her jaw with his finger. "I love you," he said. He hit the button.

The pulse rocked the car. The landing helicopter sputtered and died.

"Go, go, go!" Seth screamed at the hovercar as a falling helicopter scraped along the side of it. The hovercar shot off, narrowly missing the other helicopter as it smashed to the ground.

They sped away with the line of tanks hot on their trail. As they crossed the border, Seth searched the horizon for some sign of help. There was nothing. They were doomed.

"Alright, stop here," said Clio cheerfully.

"Why not?" Seth replied quietly. The sun had gone down so at least he wouldn't burn again.

They got out of the car. Seth watched the approach of the military. Clio watched her handheld.

"I've got a connection again," she laughed. "It is 8:01 p.m. and we are on the right side of the border." She punched a fist in the air triumphantly. Seth wrapped her in his arms. Her brain had obviously cracked under the pressure.

"Now we'll just see if Jason can deliver," she said, snuggling in to Seth.

"What?" he asked, looking around. Then he saw tiny streaks in the air, like the smoke trails that follow jets. But the angle of their flight was all wrong.

He heard a high whistling noise. One of the tanks exploded. Shrapnel flew everywhere. They both stepped back even though they were far from the blast.

Clio laughed. More smoke trails shot through the sky. More tanks exploded. Clio crowed and danced around. Seth just stared. Team Pom filed out to form a hyperactive barrier between Seth and the explosions.

"What's happening?" he asked stupidly.

"Welcome to the revolution, baby!" laughed Clio, shoving her handheld in his fingers.

He looked at the device as if he had never seen one before. The tiny screen showed the governor of Texas on the capitol steps, giving some kind of press conference. Behind him were hundreds of people. Seth recognized a few faces and realized this must be almost everyone in the Texas government.

The governor was in rare form. "In the words of the great Thomas Jefferson: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. They are endowed with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.'"

Here the governor paused to clear his throat. "The greatest fear of the people of Texas is the government of America. That government should be protecting us and helping us. Instead they imprison and torture at their whim. They destroy our livelihoods and take our loved ones. Now they seek to remove the one last security and right we have--the right to defend ourselves. Enough! No more! America, we are done with you. Texas would like to officially tender their resignation from the United States."

Here he had to stop for the roaring of the crowd. Seth realized from the sound that there must be thousands of people around the capitol this night. The governor held up a hand for silence. "We have had enough. Quite simply, America, you do not get to oppress Texas. And if you care to object, I have only one thing to say to you. Come and pry it from my cold dead hands!" Here the mature and stoic members of the Texas government totally lost it. They roared their support and threw the governor on their shoulders.

"Um, Clio?" asked Seth. "What's going on?" He looked from the handheld to the smoking wreckage of the tanks.

"The border closed at eight p.m. for the revolution," she replied, like this was the most sensible thing in the world. "We made it to the right side. They didn't." She pointed at the smoking tanks.

"They waited this long to give us a chance to get back, but they had to do it tonight. They received intelligence that military convoys would be coming tomorrow to put Texas under martial law and start forcible de-armament. Speaking of which, I better let people know we made it," she took the handheld out of his limp fingers.

"They fired missiles at the tanks? How did they know?" asked Seth, still trying to make sense out of what just happened.

"Naw, it's the satellite swarm. Pretty cool, right? It's on remote for the next little bit. They warned everybody who lives along the border. I expect there will be some casualties until they get the kinks out, but you can't have a revolution without taking out a few cows, I guess," she said as she tapped away. Seth heard screaming and hooting from the handheld. He guessed she had called her sisters to let them know she was all right.

"A satellite swarm?"

"Yeah. Remember I told you that Jason was working with some guys on defense weapons? This is it. Apparently, one of his drinking buddies is the guy who runs SpaceTex," she replied. "The got their start cleaning up space junk. Originally, they slapped guidance systems on everything they found and just sent it into an orbital path so it can burn up in the atmosphere. Then, being rednecks, they started making a drinking game out of crashing space junk into targets on the ground. That's how they got the idea for a satellite defense system for Texas."

Seth looked back at the smoking tanks. He could see men milling around, loading things into the undamaged vehicles. "So they are pelting the border with space junk?"

"Yep. I guess they've been launching millions of these little satellites up there for the last couple years," Clio said. "They sent them up as communication satellites. Then they would tell the government, 'Gee, we must have screwed up. It broke into a bunch of little pieces that spread out above Texas. Guess we'll have to send up another one.' I can't believe they got away with that." Clio shook her head. "Those Yankees really do think we are a bunch of inbred idiots down here."

Seth thought that over. "So it's not like the United States can target your satellites because if they take out a few, there will still be thousands more. And they work on remote right? So they just target anything incoming?"

She nodded. "They can pick up anything larger than a dog, but they also track the way it moves and looks so the US can't send dogs with bombs strapped to them over the border. Also, I believe they already sent out a wave of drones to take out the US military tracking satellites. Your software helped them with that," she said, giving him a squeeze. "They are desperate to get you back. That SpaceTex guy is crazy smart, but they need your programming expertise."

"Did Jason program the tracking system?" asked Seth, looking up to the sky again. Clio nodded.

"Should we be standing this close to the border?" Seth asked, edging towards the car.

Clio's eyebrows shot up as she scanned the sky. "No, probably not. Let's get of here."

They sped home, holding hands the whole way. On the handheld, they watched the news as the governor pounded the senator on the back, both of them grinning like fools.

"Well, I hope this all gets sorted out in time for football season," laughed the senator.

"Joe, that don't matter," said the governor into the cameras. "We already got all the important teams on our side of the fence."

"Clio, darling," said Seth as they watched the impromptu street party on the handheld. "I hate to be a spoilsport, but this could all go horribly, terribly awry. From what you are telling me, they planned this revolution in three days. The satellite swarm is a really neat piece of technology, but I don't think that will win a war."

Clio kissed him gently. "Have a little faith, Seth. Everything will turn out the way it is supposed to turn out."

Seth kissed her back. "Well, I hope this mess is over in time for the wedding."

"What wedding?"

"Ours, of course. My parents will want to come."

Clio gave a very unladylike squeal as satellites streaked through the sky behind them.

And that's how love can start a revolution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katy Stauber has degrees in Biochemistry and Mathematics from Texas A&M University. She currently lives with her husband and two sons in Austin, TX. This is her first published novel.