The Reckoning: Quantum Prophecy Book 3 (22 page)

“Identify the make and model of the craft,” the Trutopian mission analyst said over the radio.

“Let’s see…It’s got the letters JSF on the side, near the pointy end.”

“Joint Strike Fighter. That’s an F-35 Lightning, Colin.”

“Are they dangerous?”

“Very. Anything else moving?”

“A lot of activity on the ground, but nothing close. How goes our completely illegal and immoral war? How many innocent people have we killed so far?”

Yvonne’s voice said, “Colin, I’m listening to everything you say.
Do not speak about the war like that again.
”

Automatically, Colin answered, “Understood.”

He closed his eyes and listened. This high above the ground, it seemed that every sound reached him: He could hear gunfire, screaming, the rumble of tanks and the roar of helicopters and jets.

A new sound appeared and Colin opened his eyes to see that the F-35 had changed course, banking toward him.

“Uh-oh. The fighter’s seen me…”

“Get out of there, Colin!” Yvonne said. “F-35s have got HPMs.”

“What?”

“Directed-energy weapons—high-powered microwaves that could fry your insides. Move! Do
not
let him get a direct line on you.”

Colin zoomed up and out of the path of the aircraft.

“Destroy the fighter, Colin!”

Colin pitched himself up and forward, and increased his speed, aiming to come down on top of the F-35. The noise of its engines was almost deafening and Colin had to almost completely shut down his hearing to be able to concentrate.

The pilot saw him coming and sharply banked the jet away from him; Colin increased his speed to match.

The F-35 went into a sudden three-hundred-and-sixty degree roll, and pitched up sharply as it emerged.

Colin streaked past it, unable to slow himself in time.
This guy’s good…. But he can’t keep it up forever.

Colin darted after it, but again the jet managed to shift its course, throwing him off.
He’s probably been flying for years—I’ve only been doing it since yesterday.

He swooped down behind the craft, then came up directly beneath it. His fingertips brushed the fuselage just as the jet pulled up once more.
I’m going about this the wrong way,
Colin thought.

He hovered in place as he watched the jet zoom away, flip over and resume its attack. Colin dropped, plunging feetfirst toward the ground, then reversed direction just as the F-35 passed overhead. He smashed through the rear of the plane, shattering its engines.

The F-35 began to drop like a stone.

He watched it for a moment, then launched himself after it, catching up, coming close enough to see the pilot frantically grabbing for the ejection seat’s lever.

The fighter’s canopy was blown off, and the seat was launched. Almost instantly, its parachute was deployed.

Colin and the pilot both watched the F-35 crash into the
ground and break into thousands of pieces. Colin drifted toward the pilot and floated down alongside him, only a few meters away.

The pilot removed his oxygen mask. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing. As soon as you land you’re free to go.”

For a moment, the pilot just looked at him, then he grabbed his handgun and aimed it at Colin’s face. “
You’re
not. You’re under arrest. You attacked a U.S. Air Force plane, endangering the life of the pilot and threatening the security of the nation.”

“But you attacked me first!” Colin looked at the gun. He’d never actually been shot before. His father had been bulletproof, but Colin still didn’t know whether he’d inherited that trait, and wasn’t too anxious to find out. “All right. Arrest me. It’s going to take your people hours to get here. Do you really believe that you can hold the gun on me all that time? I mean, just one lapse in concentration and I’m out of here.”

“Why are you people doing this?”

“I’m doing it because I’m being controlled by a superhuman who can make anybody do anything she wants.
She’s
doing it because she wants to destroy our civilization so she can start a new one.”

“You know what you’re doing is wrong, but you’re doing it anyway?”

Colin nodded. “Yeah. On the positive side, for some reason she can’t order me to kill. But pretty much anything else she tells me, I have to do.”

The pilot lowered his gun. “Man, that
sucks
.”

“I know.”

A gust of wind caught the parachute, and the ejection seat began to drift. Colin moved to keep pace with it.

“So this girl…” the pilot said. “How are you going to stop her?”

“I don’t think I can. But there are others, the New Heroes. Trouble is, if they get anywhere near her, she’ll order me to fight them.”

“Where is she?”

“The Trutopian base in northeast Wyoming. The new town.”

Yvonne’s voice came in over Colin’s radio. “Colin? You dealt with that fighter yet?”

“Yes, it’s been destroyed.”

“Good. Then get back here. I have another job for you.”

“OK.” Colin turned to the pilot. “I’ve got to go.” He pointed to the east. “Nearest road is that way. There’s nothing around here, so you’ll be safe until your people come to pick you up. I hope they don’t make you pay for the fighter.”

“We’ll send the Trutopians a bill.”

Colin smiled and rose into the air.
God, I hope they win.

Carrying two steaming mugs of coffee in his gloved hands, Evan Laurie nudged the door open with his shoulder and walked into the dark, freezing room.

The room had been carved out of solid ice. Even through his boots, thick socks and the rubber matting on the floor Laurie’s feet were aching with the cold.

He stepped over a bundle of cables that snaked across the floor and carried the mugs over to Victor Cross’s workstation.
“I hate this place,” Laurie said, as he handed one of the mugs to Cross.

“So you keep telling me,” Cross said. He nodded toward the monitor. “The U.S. Army is moving on the Trutopian HQ.”

Laurie dragged over a chair and sat down next to Cross. “You know that this could be the biggest mistake of your life, don’t you?”

“You should know by now that I don’t make mistakes,” Cross said. “Everything is going according to the plan. With Colin on her side, Yvonne will win this war.”

“Right. And then she’s going to figure out that we’re not dead. She’ll come looking for us.”

“She won’t figure it out. The DNA analysis of the bodies confirms that we died in the crash.”

Laurie said, “You should arrange for the bodies to go missing in case she wants to examine them herself. Because if she does she’ll spot that they’re not real bodies, just charred lumps of cloned flesh and bone.”

A message popped up on the screen. Cross frowned. “That’s not right…”

“What?”

“Danny Cooper and Renata Soliz have left Sakkara. They’ve stolen the StratoTruck.”

“They could be going after Yvonne,” Laurie said. “Renata’s immune to Yvonne’s mind-control, and if Danny’s moving fast enough he won’t be able to hear her. She won’t be able to control him either. What’s their trajectory?”

“Uncertain. The StratoTruck’s transponder has been disabled. But it doesn’t look like they’re heading for Wyoming.”
Cross leaned back in his chair, staring at the monitor. “I don’t get this. I’ve taken everything into consideration. I know these New Heroes better than they know themselves. I know their strengths and their weaknesses. I know how they think and how they react. Right now, they
should
still be trying to work out a way to stop Colin.”

“Then that means…” Laurie paused for a moment. “Victor, it means that they’ve thought of something that you haven’t.”

Cross shook his head. “That’s impossible. The plan…”

“It looks to me like they’ve got plans of their own.”

I
N
S
AKKARA
, B
UTLER
R
EDMOND STOOD
at attention in Impervia’s office as she interrogated him.

“You don’t know where they’ve gone?”

“No, sir.”

“Are you lying to me, Butler?”

“No, sir.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

“Sakkara is a likely target for the Trutopians. There are civilians here. I stayed to help defend them.”

“What did Renata and Danny take with them?”

“Unknown, sir.”

Impervia nodded slowly. “You understand that I cannot possibly trust you, Butler?”

“Sir?”

“You sided against a commanding officer. That’s a court-martial offense. The only reason you’re not in irons right now is that we might have need of your talents. When this is over, you
will
face a full investigation.”

Butler swallowed. “I understand that, sir.”

“Now get out of here.”

Butler saluted, turned on his heel and marched out of the office. He made his way down to the machine room, where Razor was working at his bench.

“She didn’t ask me if I knew what they were doing,” Butler
said. “That’s good. I didn’t want to have to lie to her. You know that there’s no going back from all this, don’t you? No matter what happens, our lives as we knew them are over.”

“What choice do we have? Sit back and let the Trutopians take over the world?”

“But this plan of yours, Razor…. Danny could be killed.”

“I know that.”

“Steph? Wake up.”

Stephanie Cord turned over in the bed and mumbled. “Just another five minutes.”

“
Now,
Stephanie!”

She opened her eyes.
I know that voice!
She sat up and stared at the young man standing next to her bed. “Danny?”

“Razor told us where to find you,” Danny said. “Your sister let me in.”

“What do you want? Shouldn’t you be out there fighting the Trutopians?”

“That’s where we’re going. And that’s why we need you. You can fight.”

Vienna Cord leaned in through the doorway. “Daniel Cooper. I hope you have a good explanation for this!”

“Mrs. Cord…Hi. I was just—”

“Come with me. Now.”

Danny followed Mrs. Cord outside, and Stephanie quickly pulled on her T-shirt and jeans, trying not to listen to her mother shouting at Danny.

She picked up her boots and went out into the sitting room,
where Alia was sitting on the couch, her legs tucked under her, as she ate a bowl of cereal. Grant Paramjeet was asleep in an armchair, snoring quietly.

“They’re in the kitchen,” Alia whispered. “So what does he want?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Alia shrugged and turned her attention back to the cartoons playing on the TV.

In the kitchen, Mrs. Cord was still giving Danny hell while at the same time she was putting a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of him. “We saw it on the news, Danny! If you had just gone to the UN without threatening them, then…Well, I don’t know. But that would have been the better thing to do.”

“I know that now. But…We were annoyed.” Danny picked up a fork.

Stephanie sat down and pulled on her left boot, then glanced up to see that Danny had already finished eating and was putting his fork down on the empty plate.

“Thanks. Who’s the guy in the other room?” Danny asked.

“A would-be superhero,” Stephanie said. “Long story. But he can’t go home yet because of the curfew.”

“Superhuman?”

“No.”

“Then he’s no good to us,” Danny said. “Renata’s waiting in the StratoTruck. For all we know, they might have a tracking device on it that Razor wasn’t able to detect, so they could be coming for us. We have to get out of here as fast as we can.”

Mrs. Cord said, “Stephanie is
not
going with you.”

“They need me, Mom! I can’t just turn my back on them.”

“I promise we’ll keep her safe,” Danny said.

Vienna stared at him coldly. “No. Do not make promises like that. Stephanie, I
forbid
you to do this.”

“I know, Mom. But I have to do…I have to do the right thing.”

As the StratoTruck soared into the air, Renata glanced over her shoulder at Stephanie. “Good to see you, Steph. Are you ready for this?”

“I don’t know that I’ll be any help.”

Danny said, “Yes, you will. Follow me.” Steadying himself by grabbing on to the backs of the seats, Danny led Stephanie to the rear of the StratoTruck, where two large crates had been stored. “Can you open those? You need two hands to do it.”

“Sure.” Stephanie unclipped the nearest crate, and pulled the lid off. “Oh.”

“Yeah…. Try the other one.”

The second crate contained a helmet, a large object wrapped in canvas and one of the New Heroes’ black uniforms.

“It’s your size, I think,” Danny said as Stephanie held up the uniform. “Bulletproof, fireproof, insulated…Everything you’ll need. The helmet has an audio filter that will strip out the controlling frequencies from Yvonne’s voice. Just don’t forget that she’s still very smart and incredibly strong.”

Stephanie dropped the uniform and stepped back. “You’re kidding. You want me to go up against Yvonne?”

“Not alone. But the more people we have the better. Butler’s
stayed behind in Sakkara, because he has the best chance of protecting the others. So it’s just the three of us.” He pointed to the canvas-wrapped object. “You’ll need that too.”

Stephanie reached into the crate, removed the object and unwrapped it.

“Razor gave it a complete shakedown; it’s in perfect working order. You know how to use it, don’t you?”

“Yeah…. Where did you find it?”

“Some guy picked it up off the street in Topeka, tried to sell it on eBay a couple of months back. General Piers’s men tracked him down and made him an offer.”

“What, they threatened to break his legs or something?”

“No, I mean a real offer. Like, they gave him twenty thousand dollars for it.”

Stephanie paused. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”

“You’re more ready than anyone else. Your father trained you for years. I think he’d be pleased to know that his daughter was using his jetpack.”

Y
VONNE STARED AT THE GIANT MONITOR
in the Trutopian control room. It showed a map of the Earth overlaid with thousands of blue, red and green dots.