Titan Base (18 page)

It was a wasp.

His
wasp!

   
20
   
WHAT ETHAN LEFT BEHIND

“THAT HAS TO BE STERLING SQUADRON DOWN
there,” Ethan told Emma. “Let’s go.”

Emma grabbed the note from his hands. She gazed at the page as if it were the most precious thing in the world. She smoothed and folded it and then tucked it into her flight suit.

Ethan wanted to tell her not to bother, that it would be best to forget their parents and their past and the lies they used to live in Santa Blanca. They had work to do. Part of him, though, was glad she had the courage to keep the note. It was the last bit of their parents left.

They ran downstairs and burst out the back door.

Ethan felt his wasp before he got a good look at it. That connection with the beast’s mind snapped into place. It was fueled and clean and ready for action. Hungry.

The wasp crouched under the maple tree. Its black and gold stripes seemed to ripple, making it hard to see in the moon shadows. Its stinger laser, though, gave it away as it smoldered in anticipation of combat.

The abdomen armor section hinged open with a hiss, inviting Ethan into the cockpit.

Tremors shook the ground as a huge rhinoceros beetle landed in the backyard. Emma’s ladybug joined it, flattening a rose hedge, and in rapid succession, more bugs crunched the fences and toppled over trees and sheds in the neighbors’ yard. Paul’s praying mantis, Angel’s wasp, Kristov’s locust, Oliver’s cockroach, Lee’s housefly, and Madison’s whisper-quiet dragonfly lit upon the roof of the house.

Sterling Squadron.

Ethan had never been so happy to see a swarm of bloodthirsty bugs!

Madison climbed out of her dragonfly and dropped to ground level off the roof. She covered her mouth as she saw Ethan in the hospital gown, but then saluted. She turned and scanned the surrounding neighborhood, looking for threats.

Ethan’s face burned with embarrassment. He tried to close the back of the open gown. How ridiculous.

He wished there was time to talk to Madison alone. Ethan wanted to explain more about what was going on with his and Emma’s minds. He wanted to ask what in the world she had meant by that kiss back on Pine Street, too.

Felix’s beetle seemed to melt into the blue-black shadows. The cockpit opened and the sergeant eased out and strode toward Ethan. There was a giant smile on his face. He looked like he was about to hug Ethan, but stopped and smartly saluted.

Ethan felt as if he was going to die in front of his squad in that half-open hospital gown. He saluted back.

“Report,” Ethan said.

“Squadron I.C.E.s are cleaned and scrubbed, Lieutenant,” Felix said. “No trouble … except a dozen crashed cars, one totaled trash truck, and Laurel Street is flooded from burst fire hydrants. No injuries. We set the autopilots in your wasp, Emma’s ladybug, and Angel’s wasp to ‘follow-me mode.’ ”

“Fill me in on the details later,” Ethan said. “I’m just glad to be back in business. How’s Angel?”

The smile on Felix’s face faded. “Worse. She has a high fever that we can’t bring down.”

“We have something that might help,” Ethan told him. “Where is she?”

Felix waved at the mantis and the black wasp. Paul’s ghostly green I.C.E. opened, and he dropped out, then dragged Angel from her cockpit. Paul looped one of her arms around his neck and marched her closer. Felix and Paul eased the unconscious Angel onto the lawn.

She was pale and covered in sweat. The neck of her flight suit had been torn and scratched as if she’d tried to claw the thing off.

Ethan knelt and felt her forehead. She was burning up. It was the kind of fever they should bring her to the hospital for (except the nearest hospital was actually an alien-controlled prison).

Emma knelt by them, too. She produced the small box they’d liberated from the Ch’zar repair bay. In a businesslike manner, she opened it. The glowing vials inside illuminated her grim face.

“What’s that?” Felix asked, studying Emma’s features.

She didn’t answer. She attached a vial to the syringe, cleared the instrument of air bubbles, and without hesitation plunged the needle into Angel’s neck.

Angel, even semi-comatose, gasped in pain.

“It’s medicine,” Emma explained. She didn’t meet Felix’s gaze.

After a second, Angel’s breathing slowed and deepened.

Ethan decided not to clarify that this was Ch’zar medicine … at least,
Emma
thought it might be medicine. Okay, it was fifty-fifty that this was either medicine or
more
radiation. But what choice was there?

Ethan also chose not to mention that he and Emma could sort of read Ch’zar icons. Just like Emma could hear the Collective’s song in her brain.

There was no time to get into those things now, not when one fact took priority over everything else—even Angel’s life.

“The Seed Bank,” Ethan whispered. “We found out something.”

Emma felt Angel’s forehead. “Wait. She’s getting hotter.” She took one of Angel’s hands.

Paul, surprisingly, took Angel’s other hand.

Angel groaned and started to thrash on the lawn. Emma held her as best she could, and then Angel stopped moving altogether.

“Is she …”

Ethan tried to say, “Is she okay?” but he was thinking,
Is she dead?
What if they’d made a terrible mistake by injecting her with that stuff?

Seconds ticked away.

“Her fever’s breaking,” Emma finally said. “She’s
breathing normally. Pulse is high but dropping to close to normal.”

Ethan exhaled, relieved that the medicine
might
be working. He didn’t especially like Angel. She was trouble, but she was also part of the squad and, he had to admit, a natural combat pilot.

Paul’s face was tight with worry, making the scar on his cheek all the more visible. He relaxed a tiny bit. “Good work, Blackwood,” he said.

There was something new in Paul’s voice, something personal, like Angel was more than just a wingmate to him. It was a surprise to see Paul care about someone other than himself for once.

“The Seed Bank. You were about to say something about it?” Felix asked.

“There’s no easy way to tell you guys this,” Ethan said. “Emma and I think the Ch’zar know where it is.”

Felix stared blankly at Ethan, too shocked to say anything.

“That can’t be,” Paul said. “They’d have wiped it out.”

“Not necessarily,” Felix whispered, and looked over his shoulder. “It might explain why we’ve seen massive civilian movement and no I.C.E. activity in the area.”

“A buildup?” Paul said, his eyes glazing over.

“A sudden preemptive strike,” Felix replied.

“Get Angel into her wasp,” Ethan ordered. “We’re flying out. Now that the I.C.E.s are cleaned, we have a chance to avoid Ch’zar detection. Our priority is to get back to Colonel Winter and report.”

At the mention of his mother, Felix turned pale in the moonlight. “Yes, sir,” he said, and helped Paul carry Angel back to her wasp.

Emma stood, closed the box of Ch’zar antiradiation treatment, and went to Ethan’s wasp. The side cargo panel opened at her approach.

How had she ordered his I.C.E. to do that? It annoyed Ethan that
she
was giving
his
wasp orders.

She rummaged inside, pulled out a spare flight suit, and marched back to Ethan.

“Here you go, Lieutenant,” she said, thrusting the suit into his arms. “There should only be
one
full moon out tonight.”

Ethan awkwardly tried to cover his back in the hospital gown. Failed.

He flushed again, this time from his toes to the tips of his ears, and then gave up trying to be modest and stepped into the high-g combat flight suit. The self-fitting pressure cuffs cinched tight around his ankles, hips, chest, and wrists.

A perfect fit. He felt like a Resister pilot once more instead of an escaped mental patient.

“Wait, Felix,” he said, jogging over to Angel’s black wasp I.C.E. “I don’t understand how you knew that Emma and I would be at our old house.”

Felix positioned Angel in her cockpit. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully now. Paul patted her cheek and sealed her inside.

“Oh, that,” Felix said. He pointed to the corner of the backyard. “Them.”

There were a dozen kids in the shadows. Bobby stepped forth, his lips set in a grim straight line.

Ethan smiled and went to him. “You guys made it,” he said, and extended his hand to shake.

Bobby looked at Ethan’s extended hand but didn’t take it.

“We got here,” he whispered, “just like you told us to, Ethan. Picked up a few along the way.” He nodded over his shoulder.

Some of the kids behind Bobby were members of the Grizzlies soccer team. But some Ethan didn’t recognize. They had torn clothes, bloody knuckles, and one had a broken arm in a sling.

“It was pretty rough,” Bobby said. He shook his head and his dark curly hair fell over his eyes. “We lost a few.”

Ethan set a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He knew
what it was like. He also knew that nothing he could say would make Bobby feel any better.

“We found your team,” Bobby continued. “We helped them get those things”—he gestured at the I.C.E.s—“cleaned up. I told them you said to meet here.”

Ethan was glad to see Bobby alive, but he had a growing feeling of unease.

He remembered how he and Bobby had parted in the tunnels. He’d told Bobby to meet him in his backyard by the old maple tree.

Bobby had said he’d rescue as many kids getting shipped out by the Ch’zar as he could … and told Ethan they’d all get out
together
.

Ethan withdrew his hand from Bobby’s shoulder.

That last part had been entirely Bobby’s idea.

Ethan hadn’t had the heart to say it at the time, but he hadn’t thought Bobby would be coming back.

“You can’t come with us,” Ethan whispered.

Bobby’s head snapped up. “What do you mean? That was the plan. We can’t make it out of here on our own. You’ve got to help us!”

“Our cockpits are too small. There’s room for just one person,” Ethan told him. It killed Ethan to admit that, but it was the truth.

“I don’t care!” Bobby shouted. “Just carry us, then.”

“We’ve got to get back to our base,” Ethan continued. “There’s going to be trouble on the way. Probably combat. You guys would be in too much danger.”

Bobby laughed. “And how much danger do you think we’ll be in if we stay here?”

“I don’t know. I only know that I have a mission to finish. Once I do that, I’ll come back and—”

“Save your breath,” Bobby said. “I don’t believe you. Once you’re gone, we’ll never see you again, you coward.”

He turned his back on Ethan.

Ethan stepped toward him.

Bobby spun around and socked Ethan on the chin.

A month ago, a strike like that would’ve knocked Ethan over. Now Ethan just took the punch, and his head snapped to one side. With a busted lip, he stood his ground and stared back at his former teammate and friend.

Felix and Paul took a step closer, hands forming into fists, ready to pound Bobby.

Ethan held up a hand, warning them to stay back.

“Make for the tunnels,” he told Bobby. “The Ch’zar are moving out. They won’t look for you there. Keep one person posted by your house. We’ll try and meet you there
if
we’re alive at the end of the day.”

The rage drained from Bobby’s face as it dawned on him that
he
really wasn’t the only one in trouble.

Ethan turned and left him there. He felt like a traitor. Like a murderer.

He also knew he was doing the only thing he could.

A month ago, he would have gathered the Santa Blanca refugees in a bus and carried it off with I.C.E.s.

A big metal bus, though, would light up Ch’zar radar. They’d have a fight on their hands. Not only would that compromise his mission but also it’d very likely get the civilians killed.

His duty to the Resistance was more important.

If he was right that the Ch’zar knew about the Seed Bank, Sterling Squadron would have to fly fast and low and probably still fight through enemy lines to get back to the base.