Tara The Great [Nuworld 2] (25 page)

“I just had part of my vision come back to me.”

“Is that why you almost hit that tree?” Darius teased.

She saw fire in his eyes again.

He and Patha chuckled, and Tara imagined they’d been joking behind her back

about her driving abilities. She ignored them. “I know where the Lunian campsite is.”

The two men looked at her and their smiles vanished.

“It’s on the other side of the eastern mountain range.”

* * * * *

The landlink room was crowded, but Tara didn’t notice the confined space as she

leaned over to look around Patha.

Hilda was speaking to the group and no one responded to her.

Tara noticed her frustration. “We’ll be down in just a minute,” she reassured the

older woman, who was trying to let them know food sat waiting on the table.

“My servant girl told me you said those same words to her ten minutes ago, she

did,” Hilda mumbled as she surveyed the cluttered room.

Printouts covered both desks, and Patha and Darius hovered over a stack of papers.

“Runners have never been across the mountains, and we won’t go about it blindly.”

Patha straightened and faced Darius.

“Gothman don’t enter a battle blindly either, no.” Darius cleared space on one of

the desks and laid several pieces of paper next to each other.

“I daresay you’ll be eating cold meat and potatoes.” Hilda raised her arms in a

frustrated gesture and left the group.

“And this is all the chartered area we show on the computer?” Tara had already

turned her attention from the older woman and pushed her way between the two men

to see what Darius had spread before them. “These maps go as far as the base of the

mountains.”

“We will need a lot of gliders to enable an army to fly over them without worrying

about which parts of the mountains are passable.” Patha stroked his chin with his

fingers and studied his daughter’s face.

“And we need to have those gliders immediately,” Tara said, feeling she spoke

aloud what her papa was thinking.

Darius placed his hands on Tara’s shoulders and she turned to face him. “I’ll

organize men to learn about this glider and see how quickly we can make others like

it.” He looked over her shoulder at Patha.

“And I can prepare a route based on what we know to send our armies on ground

over the mountains,” Patha added.

“Okay, I’ll contact the leaders and have them prepare for departure.” Tara moved

to the empty desk and sat in front of the landlink.

Two of the troops, one Runner and one Gothman, began the journey immediately.

It would take several days for them to drive through the mountain range.

After two hours of driving at the highest speed they dared, communication was still

intact. Tara prayed Torgo’s new program would prove its worthiness throughout the

entire range, as well as once they reached the other side.

* * * * *

In the meantime, Darius set about the task of organizing the best mechanics,

electricians and scientists the two nations had to offer. They formed a team to discover

how the glider worked and to see if they could duplicate it.

Darius honored their abilities. While he knew how his motorcycle worked and

could maintain it when necessary, he couldn’t presume to consider himself

mechanically inclined. He was a warrior. He knew how to fight. He knew how to kill.

He knew how to run a nation.

And he knew how to handle women.

Thoughts of how he would handle his claim later that evening sprang into his

mind, sending blood rushing to certain parts of his body. Would she fight him? He

imagined forcing her down, tearing her clothes from her body, and demanding her

submission. Or would she still be as aroused as she’d been after they had sparred?

Possibly once they were alone, she would pretend indifference, fight to maintain the

charade, then aggressively take him on in lovemaking.

He wouldn’t think about that, now. He couldn’t think about that. Blood had quickly

left his brain and his thoughts had clouded. He needed a clear head in order to give

orders to the group working with the glider.

The assemblage proved to be an interesting mix of people. His best mechanics were

not necessarily known for their manners, even for Gothman. The three he picked were

crude, cut rough around the collar. And, they weren’t accustomed to working with

women. Of course, two of the top Runner scientists he wanted on the team were

women. Good-looking women. They weren’t impressed by his mechanics and talked

down to them, which created tension among them. He’d also selected an inventor—a

large older Runner—who’d created a motor found on many Runner bikes.

He found the insults tossed back and forth between the mechanics and the scientists

amusing as they walked through the yard. None of them appeared willing to

acknowledge the others’ credentials, yet they all needed each other to complete the task.

Each of the five had test-driven the glider. Now, they stood in one of the garages at

the side of the house, huddled around the contraption, arguing over possible

explanations about how it worked.

“I want answers,” Darius barked, and the group silenced and gave him their

attention. “I don’t want theories. You will make our motorcycles fly, and you will have

results today.”

He still had the picture of the five them staring at him as he walked out of the

garage. As if they’d just been condemned to death.

* * * * *

Upstairs in the house, Patha worked on a landlink next to Tara. They needed more

information about the eastern mountain range. To this end, he’d contacted several clan

leaders, but like most clans, they had not traveled east. While they seemed to know

everything about the area west of the mountains, they had no idea what lay on the other

side. Quite simply, the land east of the mountains remained unexplored.

As Patha continued to reach out to all those who could provide them information,

he realized his connections with the cave people had been severed and wondered if the

Lunians had destroyed them. He accessed Lunian transmissions, however, and

gathered bits and pieces of information. Such as, the mountains were very rocky and

snow lingered at higher altitudes year round. He was never able to find any indication

that the cave people had bothered to map them. It made sense; they were more

interested in the interior of the mountains than the exterior.

Patha also investigated several Neurian messages. This was tricky, since he

understood Neurians to be paranoid people. Their communiqués contained traps. If an

unauthorized user was discovered, a program infiltrated the trespasser’s landlink and

rendered it useless. Patha knew Torgo had devised a counter-program believed to

prevent this detection and damage, but Patha still felt nervous whenever he opened one

of their screens.

While the Neurians didn’t have much information on land north of their continent,

Patha did stumble upon something that interested him. “Look at this,” he said, and

Tara glanced over at his screen. “It appears to be the schematics of an engine. An engine

belonging to a Lunian glider.”

“Fascinating.” Tara leaned forward and studied the screen. “It appears our

southern friends have done a fair amount of research on the Lunians.”

* * * * *

Patha rubbed his forehead, and Tara noticed his exhaustion. There was so much to

do, and they had no idea if they were headed in the right direction. All they had to go

on was a vision she’d had. “Patha, why don’t you take a break and get yourself

something to eat?”

“Not a bad idea, Tara-girl.” Patha pushed his chair away from the desk and smiled

at her. “You should come down, too.”

“I’ll be down shortly.” She stood with her papa. “Let me poke around here a little

bit and see what the Neurians can tell us about the Lunians.”

“Be careful of their traps.” Patha pointed to the landlink.

“I will.” She remained standing until Patha left the room, then slumped back down

in front of the landlink and printed the current screen.

Several hours later, Darius appeared in the doorway of the landlink room with a

tray of food. He placed it next to her landlink on the desk.

“You’ll need your energy.” His voice was quiet and loving.

Tara noticed the look in his eyes didn’t appear quiet and loving. It was hungry,

animalistic, and possessive. She ignored it.

Torgo entered the room with one of the teenage Runners who assisted with

transmissions from time to time. The two of them moved behind Darius, and Torgo

pulled the chair from underneath the other desk and gestured for the Runner girl to sit.

“Torgo, I’m glad you are here,” Tara said, popping a grape in her mouth and

turned back to the landlink. “I have something to show you, all of you.” She leaned

forward to grab papers at the back of the desk.

Darius stood close, dangerously close.

She had to maintain her cool demeanor. He had to be thoroughly punished.

“I know you have something to show me,” Darius whispered so only she could

hear.

Warning bells went off in Tara’s head. She realized at that moment that one way or

another, he would not take “no” for an answer this evening. Tara turned to him. “Look,

the Neurians have a schematic of the glider’s engine.”

Darius was so busy devouring her breasts with his eyes, it took him a minute to

reorganize his thoughts and hear her words. He slowly shifted his gaze and looked at

the papers.

“I also found this.” She held up another printout from one of the Neurian screens.

“It’s the complete design for several different styles of gliders.”

“The Neurians have been busy.” Darius looked at the different sets of plans as well

as the written directions on how to build the gliders. “How did you get these?”

“Well, I didn’t ask for them, if that’s what you’re thinking.” She crossed her arms

across her chest and leaned against the desk. He still stood way too close to her. She

could smell his body. He smelled clean, like soap, but there was that sensual odor about

him, too, and it was doing strange things to her insides.

Finally, Darius moved away.