Escape From Zulaire (30 page)

As Mitch gave Andi yet another one of his endless supply of drugs, Rahuna and Abukawal rushed around the end of the restaurant building, the cleric carrying a drowsy Sadu, the Shenti warrior towing a vacant-eyed Lysanda.
 

Waving the newcomers toward the cargo hauler, Tom pulled Andi toward the car. She had to wait while Rogers squeezed himself into the back. He’d have to ride in a half-crouching position, so he could work the weapon rigged on a crude turntable in the rear of the much-revamped speedster.

Handing Andi into the driver’s seat, Tom shut the door. “Start the motor and be ready.” He ran over to the cargo hauler to confer with Mitch and Abukawal.
 

Once she got the car’s engine idling, she craned awkwardly to check on Rogers. “Will you be okay back there for two hours?” She eyed the very small space and the gigantic gun. The soldier was built on the husky side.
 

“I’ll be fine, thanks. I’ll sure be glad to get back to the city, ma’am.” Rogers was shoving extra charge capsules into the side of the weapon, feeding them into the magazine. “This has been one hell of a patrol.” Pausing for a second, he flashed a crooked smile. “Wish we had the APC instead of an old truck, though.”

“You and me both.”
I’d also like a clear road back to the capital, please.
The trip so far had been nerve-racking and often terrifying, but the idea of driving on the center line of the transportway, visible to any pursuers, gave Andi the shakes. But there were no other viable routes left to them.

Tom opened the passenger door and jumped in, slamming the door shut. “Let’s go. Accelerate when you hit the on-ramp. The truck will follow.”

Automatically, she reached for the controls, then had a second thought. “Should I use the lights?”
 

He checked the sky above. “Can you manage with just the moonlight?”

She nodded.

“All right, no lights then,” Tom said. “Now punch it.”

Doing as she was told, revving the engine, Andi wasted no time. Her passengers were both jolted back by her rapid acceleration out of the yard. At the controls of this fast groundcar, she felt good, more in charge of her own fate.

“Don’t get too far ahead of Mitch.” Tom checked behind to see how the cargo hauler fared. “We worked on the truck for hours. I guarantee it’s never been so babied in its life span, but the thing’s still a damn mud crawler compared to this beauty.”

“Can’t get eight people in here, sir,” Rogers said.

 
“Not if they’re all as big as you, soldier.” Tom laughed.

Andi found a speed at which she wouldn’t pull too far ahead of the massive truck and set the cruise control.
I just want to push the engine to the manufacturer’s limit and then some. Mitch could never keep up, though.
She eyed the readouts, checking the fuel levels before her gaze drifted to the badly dented com console. “Do you think the com will work after you beat it up? Maybe someone else is on duty, someone with more sense.”

Tom’s smile was sheepish.

 
Probably regretting that earlier loss of control
.

“We can try,” he said. “For as many credits as Tonkiln spent on this car, it should be able to take abuse and still function.” He checked the time. “Shift change would’ve been a little while ago. Here goes nothing.” Activating the com, he reset to the military frequency and the unit produced a reassuring hum. “Patrol KJ123, calling Command.” Tom repeated the call sign twice before a powerful return broadcast cut across his words.

“Captain Deverane, it is so good to hear from you. Give us your coordinates, and we’ll send an extraction team. Is Miss Markriss with you?”

Quietly, Tom thumbed the comlink closed.

Surprised and annoyed, Andi stared at him, not the road, for a second. “Why didn’t you answer him, tell him where we are?”

“Because it wasn’t Sectors Command on the link. The Betang like to play tricks. You were right. They must be close to come in so clear. Damn, I wish the truck could go faster.” Tom twisted in his seat to stare behind them at the cargo hauler. “Accelerate a bit. Let’s see if Mitch can coax anymore out of the old girl.”

But when Andi sped up by a few more miles per hour, she drew away from their companion vehicle.
 

“Never mind, slow down, come even with them on the passenger side,” Tom said. “I need to talk to Mitch.”

“I’ll try.”
Slow down?
Andi concentrated on her driving for the next few minutes. The entire transportway stretched eerily empty on both sides, except for their two vehicles. The last medinject had numbed the blaster sear, leaving her calm and loose but clear headed.
How long do I have before the effect wears off? Mitch said he couldn’t give me anymore for forty-eight hours.
Remembering the crippling pain she’d been suffering, she blew her breath out through her teeth.
Make me an addict—I don’t care! I’ll detox later.

Tom leaned across her, shouting out the window at Mitch across the nerve-rackingly small gap between the two vehicles as they barreled down the transportway. “The Betang tried to decoy us into giving away our position on the com a few minutes ago. I figure they must be following us.”

Mitch grimaced, keeping his eyes on the road. “Not too hard to guess where we’re headed.”
 

Tom jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the rear. “We’ll drop back and see if anyone’s coming. You keep going as fast as the hunk of junk will motor, okay?”

“Got it, sir. Good hunting.” Mitch waved as Andi slowed even further and fell behind the cargo hauler, looping the car around in a big U-turn to return the way she’d come. She had to grit her teeth to make herself drive
into
the possible pursuit. Her hands were shaking on the wheel, so she tightened her grip till her knuckles went white.

 
Tom reached over and pried one of her hands loose from the wheel, rubbing it softly. “Take us five miles in this direction.” He looked at her face, eyes narrowed. “You’re doing a great job.”

She frowned at him. “I hate this, you know. Every instinct I have is telling me I’m crazy to go back toward South Amri.”

“I have to see if there’s any sign of pursuit,” he said patiently.

“Oh, I know. I’m just telling you—”

Searing pain stabbed across her skull. Raising both hands instinctively to her forehead as the mind touch of the Betang drilled its way into her consciousness, Andi forgot all about driving. The contact was stronger than when she’d awakened from her nap in the South Amri vehicle servicing bay. Her chest constricted, and she heard herself wheeze. Veering sharply to the left, the car decelerated.

“
Andi
, snap out of it! Take the controls.” Tom’s voice sounded as if it was coming from a long distance.

 
Her vision narrowed. The pressure and buzzing flooded her mind, further inhibiting each strained breath and fluttering heartbeat.
 

Speaking right next to her ear, Tom said, “You have to drive this thing. Breathe.”

Andi squinted her eyes open but was still in too much pain to move, other than to hit the brakes. She watched, paralyzed as the vehicle slewed across the transportway and bumped over the edge of the road, coming to a stop about three feet onto the shoulder, just short of the drop-off to the drainage canal running alongside. Hunching over in the driver’s seat, she clutched her temples, her whole body trembling. She had to fight to get any air into her lungs.

“Now what?” Rogers yelled.

“Keep your eyes open, soldier. Watch your tracker readout.” Andi heard the passenger door lock disengage, then cool air brushed over her as Tom popped her own door open. Awkwardly, he embraced her in the confined space. “Sweetheart, you’ve got to fight this off. You’re the only one who can drive us out of here.”

She opened her eyes but blinked them shut again as even the faint moonlight sent stabbing pain through her eyeballs. Stomach heaving, she leaned around him and retched. “I can’t breathe. My head hurts like it’s going to explode.”

“The Betang must be coming—we have a narrow window of time to escape. Try to hold it off, concentrate,” Tom said.

Moaning, she let her head fall forward onto his shoulder. Stroking her hair, he kissed her cheek.

Andi leaned on him for a minute, trying to absorb his strength. Her chest loosened up a little as she breathed in the spice and musk of his scent. Pulling in more oxygen reduced the headache slightly. Moving as if her head might fall off, she straightened. “I’ll try.”
 

“That’s the Andi I know,” Tom said, patting her on the shoulder before sprinting around the car back to his seat.

Fumbling, vision full of blank spots and squiggly lightning bolts, Andi managed to get the car into reverse, bumping onto the transportway again. Turning in fits and starts, she pointed the nose away from South Amri.

“
Punch it
,” Tom said in Andi’s right ear.

She slammed on the acceleration, trusting him to steer. The little sports vehicle responded in an instant, pinning her into her seat and probably leaving poor Rogers jammed against the rough edge of his makeshift moon roof.

“Tracker readout shows targets, sir,” Rogers shouted.
 

She thought her heart was going to pound its way right out of her chest.
“Distance?”

“Fifteen miles out, coming steadily.”

Gritting her teeth, Andi put her head down and activated the final power reserves. The car hurtled along the dark transportway.
 

“Are you still under attack or has it eased?” Tom stroked her cheek. “Vision improving, I gather.”

“Some. My eyesight is clearing. I can breathe again. I still have a hell of a headache, though.”
 
She checked the rearview mirror. “Rogers, are the targets gaining?”

“Not on this baby.” Rogers’ admiration for Gul’s expensive car was clear in his voice. “Wish I could drive it, ma’am.”

“So do I.”

“Watch for the cargo hauler.” Tom pushed at the phantom brake on his side of the car. “We’ll overtake it faster than you think at this speed. When we do rejoin them, I’m going to transfer Rahuna and the boy into this vehicle then I want you to head straight for the capital.”

“I’m not going to leave you.” She whipped her head to stare at him in shock. He might as well have doused her with cold water. “
I won’t
.”

“Eyes on the road. You
have
to go on ahead. Those targets are going to catch up with us once we’re traveling with the clunker cargo hauler. As soon as the Betang gets within mind-scan distance again, it
will
kill you.”

“How? How can it sense me from so far away, let alone kill me? It touched me at Iraku’s compound, before it tried to kill me. Did it get my DNA then?” Andi strove to make sense of the danger.

“I didn’t want to scare you unnecessarily before, but yes, the Betang was sampling your DNA when it touched you. Remember I said earlier, once it’s tasted a human’s genetic makeup, it has the power to kill that person when it gets close enough,” Tom said. “Even if we manage to fight the rebels off with our heavy weapons, you’ll die. I won’t take the chance.” His gaze was steady, unblinking. “Don’t argue. You hightail it to the capital. Between you and Rahuna, you can persuade Command to send us a rescue team.”

“I don’t want to cut and run.” Stubborn as she felt at the moment, she could see his logic. A little.
 

“But you know I’m right, don’t you?” He sounded relieved, probably because she’d implicitly accepted his argument.

She drove at frantic speed for another minute before sighting the cargo hauler ahead.

Stopped on the side of the road.

“
What the hell?
” Tom put a clenched fist on the dashboard and stared ahead with narrowed eyes.

“Maybe their engine’s slagging, sir.” Rogers’ voice held resignation.
 

Fuming, impatient, hand on the door, Tom was poised to move, as soon as Andi brought them to a halt beside the cargo hauler.

“Keep the engine running. I’ll get Rahuna and Sadu over here in a minute.” Tom bolted from the car, striding across the transportway to meet Mitch as he walked around the front of the stopped cargo hauler. The two men talked, easily visible now in the gray predawn light. Tom’s shoulders slumped the longer the sergeant went on.

Not a good sign.

Rogers leaned over the seat. “Doesn’t look promising, ma’am. That cargo-hauler engine’s still running. Wonder what’s going on?”

A wave of cold dread washed through Andi. “Corporal, can you please take another reading on your tracker?”

“Targets still approaching, ma’am.” Rogers looked up from the tracker and pulled his shirt collar away from his neck.

“Try taking a reading ahead of us,
toward
the capital.”
Oh, I hope I’m wrong…

 
Flipping his device, the soldier scanned in the direction she’d requested. He whistled, eyes opening wide. He showed her the readout while talking so fast he was spitting. “Big target, stationary, multiple vehicles. Roadblock. You called it, ma’am.”

“How far?”