Aegis Rising (51 page)

Her muffled voice shouted back. “That’ll be tough! Who do I link with?”

“Whoever is the closest that you can sense.”

Hearing Aari’s voice, the beast left the cabinet and jumped back onto the counter. Aari groaned. “The thing’s coming for me again. I’ll keep it distracted. Link now!”

As the beast moved along the counter, it met Aari’s gaze, making the boy quiver from its intimidating expression. Aari silently pleaded for assistance as the animal slithered closer. It lowered itself, pausing, then lunged up at Aari. He pulled back just in time. Just before the beast’s large head shot through the trap door, a shadow flitted across Aari’s sight. Both the boy and the beast heard a screech echo in the kitchen.

The creature dropped to the ground and looked around suspiciously. It heard the powerful flap of wings and growled in pain as the talons of an enormous golden eagle sank into its muzzle and ripped upward, tearing the flesh, barely missing the beast’s eyes. Reacting instinctively, it leapt at the bird as she took off through a large opening in the damaged roof.

Shaking off the pain from its fresh wounds, the animal faced Aari once more. Before it could climb onto the counter again, the stealthy bird of prey reappeared and struck the beast on its face one more time. Instead of fleeing through the roof again, the eagle glided low, taunting the beast as it flew through the dining area and out through the demolished main entrance. The ploy worked. The beast left its quarries in the kitchen and took off after the eagle.

Aari sat back, pulling his head to his knees and sighing with relief. Once he’d caught his breath, he peeked down to make sure the beast was truly gone before lowering his legs through the ceiling and jumping down. He ran to the toppled cabinet and struggled with it for a bit before turning it onto its side. He pulled open the door and Tegan crawled out. He crouched beside her and slowly helped her up, hugging her tight.

She pulled back after a few moments and wiped her cheeks dry. “We’re still alive?” she asked, half-whispering, half-laughing.

Aari laughed as well, letting out his pent-up fear. “Yes, we are.”

“You did good back there.”

“Yeah. You too.” He stopped to listen to the sounds of gunfire and shouting. He glanced at Tegan and she nodded. They climbed over the broken wall and cautiously made their way out of the building.

Standing in the shadow of the big man, Tayoka irked his beefy opponent simply with his mischievous appearance. The head of security detested the Elder’s brazen look and sought to wipe it off his face. He threw a straight punch, but Tayoka was ready and he bent over backwards until his back was parallel with the ground. The giant took in the older man’s elasticity with disbelief.

As Tayoka unbent himself, the big man threw several rapid left-and-right blows. The Elder dodged them with ease as well, swiftly swinging from side to side. The head of security stepped back, face as dark as a thunderstorm, then performed a spinning back kick. Tayoka bent back once again but this time into a bridge position. As the giant’s leg swung past, swaying his body around, Tayoka tucked his legs toward his chest. Using his arms like loaded springs, he kicked out and caught the bigger man in the back, sending him tumbling a few feet away. The giant lumbered back up and turned to look at Tayoka. The Elder could see the look of sheer incredulity on the man’s face.

The giant then looked past Tayoka at the pistol several yards behind the Elder. Tayoka sensed his intent and steadied himself. The giant charged at the Elder as if the other man was a matador and he was the bull. Tayoka didn’t blink as the big man came closer. Balancing his stance, the Elder waited until his rival was close enough before stooping low. As the other man’s legs connected with Tayoka’s shoulder, the Elder quickly straightened, and using the bigger man’s momentum, flipped him far over his shoulder.

The giant crash-landed beside his pistol, looking up at the sky and groaning as pain shot up his back. He slowly sat up. When he saw the Elder approaching him, he snatched the gun and rose to his feet, pointing the weapon at Tayoka. Tayoka froze, eyes trained on the barrel. The big man fired a round. The Elder dropped down as the bullet shot over his head, then to the giant’s surprise, sprinted toward him. Another two rounds were fired but Tayoka deftly sidestepped those bullets, never once breaking his stride.

Eyes wide, the big man began to back up, unable to comprehend how any human being could dodge what should have been direct hits. He continued to shoot, flabbergasted but unyielding.

At the speed he was moving, the world seemed to have slowed down for Tayoka. He could see the bigger man firing his weapon. The projectiles that were rocketing toward him appeared to travel at a fraction of their actual velocity and he easily avoided them. Upon reaching his opponent he grabbed the man’s neck and, leveraging the momentum he had built, lifted and hurled the titan off the ground. The head of security was airborne, flipping in midflight and crashing through the window of the medical building. There was a moment of stillness. Tayoka watched, wondering if the big man would come charging at him again. He cautiously walked toward the building and, as he approached, he could see part of the other man’s limp body on the floor. Noting that his foe was out cold, he pulled an active vine from his belt to tie him up.

A movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention and he halted. He looked up and saw a large, jagged piece of glass precariously attached to the top of the windowpane. It was beginning to come loose from the frame. Tayoka tried to reach the man to pull him to safety but was too late and the glass plummeted toward the giant.

The Elder turned away, swinging the rope in his hand. Suspecting that there would be no need for the active vine any longer, he left the scene.

Nageau and his team were steadily picking off the workers; most were down for the count while a few others were still tromping around, brandishing weapons they took from their immobilized comrades. The Elder rubbed his forehead. The villagers were in a position to win—if only the beasts could be taken out of the picture. Nageau watched in pain as two of the animals tore a woman apart. Sitting next to him, Kody looked away, unable to bear the sight. Although the team shot a few arrows at them, the creatures did not fall, nor were they weakened.

Kody clucked his tongue and turned to his mentor. Just as he was about to ask if the beasts would ever be brought down, the sound of an aircraft in the distance reached his ears. Sharing questioning looks with Nageau, he tilted his head toward the direction of the sound. Understandably, the others didn’t seem to notice anything and continued loading their crossbows.

Nageau tilted his head as well. He asked Kody, “Tell me where you think the sound is coming from.” Kody concentrated, and then pointed to his right, toward the east. Nageau nodded. “Good.”

“It sounds like a plane,” Kody said, shielding his eyes from the rising sun.

The sound steadily grew louder and less than a minute later a large aircraft rose into view, turning from the east to approach the mining site. It hovered a hundred feet below the team’s vantage point and about three hundred feet above the landing pad. Kody gasped at the aircraft as it appeared to magically hang in midair, his dread growing.

The co-pilot in the cockpit took in the devastation below. “What the—it looks like a war zone down there!” he exclaimed.

“You got that right.” The pilot was equally surprised by the scene. “I guess the guy really wasn’t exaggerating when he said his operation was in trouble.”

“There’s only one reason anyone would want to hire people with our kind of record.” The co-pilot inspected the site. “I wonder how this started.”

“It doesn’t matter how it started, we’re going to finish it.” The pilot turned around and yelled for the third crewmember to get into position. The man nodded and gripped the .50 caliber M2 machine gun attached to the loading ramp as the ramp was lowered. The pilot turned the Osprey around to give the gunner a view of the site. The gunner was clearly intrigued by the fray below.

“You see ’em?” the pilot asked.

“Swing around a little more to gimme a better angle!”

“Roger that. Turning around.”

The gunner looked around, picking out potential targets as the pilot unwittingly flew the plane closer to where Nageau’s team was situated and hovered at that spot. He settled for mowing down three natives who were grappling with a couple of workers just outside the entrance to the mine tunnel.

Up at the top of the mountain, one of Nageau’s men dropped his crossbow in shock as he watched the three villagers being gunned down. “Brother!” he screamed as the second man was obliterated by the massive rounds from the weapon. “
Brother!
”

Kody quailed at the uncontrollable torment in the man’s voice. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, rocking back and forth.
I want to get out of here, I want to get out of here, I want to get out of here.

Had he looked behind him, he would have noticed rage distorting the villager’s face. Something had snapped in him as he watched his brother’s final moments. The man retreated as far back as he could, and with a burst of power sprinted with incredible speed toward the edge of the peak and leapt off before anyone could stop him. Soaring through the air with the velocity he’d gained, he closed in on the plane and landed on the large horizontal stabilizer before falling onto the ramp. Whipping out his hunting knife, he charged at the gunner like a madman.

The gunner turned his weapon and instinctively fired at the man. He watched him collapse and roll down the ramp out of the plane. The gunner released his grip on the trigger. He was speechless. How anyone could have gotten onto the plane was beyond him. He scanned around the site and shook his head in disbelief.

The pilot called back to the gunner. “Hey, bozo! Keep that thing going! They’re all running for cover!”

As the gunner placed his hands on the machine gun again, he could hear a series of clink-clanking sounds. He frowned. What on earth was going on? Then an arrow whizzed past him, nearly embedding itself into his shoulder.

“I can’t believe it!” the co-pilot exclaimed. “Tenacious bunch, aren’t they?”

“Tenacious bunch of lunatics, you mean,” shouted the gunner when a couple of arrows whipped past him and clanked inside the aircraft. When a third nearly struck him, he yelled, “I’m in their line of fire! I need some cover!”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than an arrow was shot clear through his neck. The gunner fell over, writhing. The co-pilot looked back, wondering why the firing had stopped again, then saw the gunner. “
Ay dios mio
,” he seethed. He quickly unbuckled himself and left his seat. “Ron’s down! I’m gonna go check on him!”

“Get on the gun!” the pilot shouted. “I’ll reduce our altitude to give you better firing solution.”

“Copy that!” his counterpart answered as he checked on the gunner. Realizing it was too late to save him, the co-pilot took up his post at the machine gun with resolve to avenge his fallen colleague.

56

J
ag tied up the last of the three men he and Tayoka had fought with. Too heavy for him to carry, he laid the man down and rolled him to the side of the miners’ barracks with the others. He stepped back to observe his work when he heard a clicking sound and felt something press against the back of his head. “Don’t try anything funny,” a voice said.

As Jag slowly raised his hands, he said, “Please don’t shoot. I’m just a kid.”

“You sure don’t fight like any kid I know. Who are you people?”

Jag said nothing. Then, in the blink of an eye, he whirled around and socked his aggressor’s wrist. The pistol fell from the man’s grip as he let out a cry and clutched his hand. Jag stooped down, picked up the gun and pointed it at the man. He backed off to a safe distance, keeping his eyes on the worker. He was surprised to see that it was a lanky young man, probably only twenty years old, with a dyed high-and-tight haircut and a sunken face.

While Jag took stock of the man’s scrawny build, the worker stared down his nose at Jag and sneered. Looking with bloodshot eyes, he started to walk toward Jag.

“Don’t move!” Jag shouted, keeping the weapon aimed at the worker. He was tempted to pull the trigger and end it right there. He tried to convince himself that this was no different from when he’d shot the deranged wolves with the flare gun. But something deep inside him held him back and he eased his finger from the trigger. “Hit the ground,” he snapped.

The worker continued to advance. Jag fired at the ground right in front of the man’s feet. The man stopped and jumped back. “Hit the ground,” Jag repeated, glaring.

Seeing the steely look in the teenager’s eyes, the man complied and slowly knelt. Jag approached the man, gun in one hand, and removed the last immobilizing dart he had from his pocket. Keeping the pistol pointed at the worker’s head, he plunged the dart into the man’s back. The man went limp and collapsed face-down on the dirt. Jag tossed the gun aside and pulled out an active vine from his belt. He slapped it on the workers hands and watched as the vine curled around and locked itself on his wrists.

Jag took a deep breath. He remembered the words of wisdom from the Elders regarding the responsibility that came with power, and was thankful that he’d gotten through the encounter without losing his humanity.

His thoughts were broken by the resumption of airborne gunfire. Jag dove for cover behind the miners’ barracks and looked from around the corner. He could see the huge rotors of the aircraft in a vertical position as the plane hovered like a helicopter. A spray of bullets hailed down from the open ramp at the back of the plane.
What are they shooting at?
Jag thought as he lowered his gaze to the ground. He halted when he saw Tayoka sprinting amidst the rubble toward him, ducking and weaving to avoid the projectiles. Jag yelled and waved his arms, urging his mentor to hurry to safety next to him.

As the Elder closed in on Jag’s location, gouts of earth erupted behind him as bullets struck the ground. With unbelieving eyes Jag watched as Tayoka lurched forward, stumbling for a few paces before landing on the dirt. Jag shoved his knuckles into his mouth to keep from crying out as he watched. He forced himself to hold his position until the ramp-end of the plane swung away, then sprinted out of cover toward the Elder.