Titan Base (13 page)

“When you woke your I.C.E. suit from hibernation that one day, Ethan …,” Madison said, picking her words with great care. “And, Emma, the way you
heard
the Ch’zar mental network back in the tunnel … I mean, sometimes I get a whisper in my mind from my dragonfly, but it’s nothing like
that
, and I’ve been training for years to make that strong a connection.” She halted. “How can you two
do
stuff like that?”

Ethan heard uncharacteristic fear in Madison’s voice. He got the feeling she wasn’t taking another step until she got some answers.

“I don’t know what it is,” Emma admitted. Her usual lightheartedness was gone. “But if you’re asking if we’re a danger to the mission or the Resistance, if the Ch’zar can read my thoughts as well, then relax. It’s not like the two-way communication with our I.C.E.s. With the Ch’zar it’s like listening to a radio broadcast. There’s no transmission back.”

Madison crossed her arms over her chest, and even in the dark, Ethan could sense her skepticism.

Then he did a mental double take.

His sister was
lying
.

When he’d connected on a deep level with his wasp I.C.E. before, it’d almost pulled him under, like he was drowning in a flood of primitive insect thoughts. That’s exactly how it’d been when he’d “eavesdropped” on that Ch’zar network back in the tunnel. The tide of thoughts had nearly pulled him in, smothered his personality, and made his mind part of theirs.

The
real
question was how they’d been able to resist the strength of that pull at all.

If he and Emma had the sensitivity to hear it … that meant they were somehow
interfacing
with the alien collective hive mind. Their individuality should have been destroyed by that contact.

It was definitely, absolutely
not
passive listening like Emma was telling Madison.

Emma’s hand fumbled in the dark and squeezed Ethan’s arm.

Was that a warning to keep his big mouth shut? Why?

Ethan remembered how even Dr. Irving had been uncomfortable with his abilities to connect with his I.C.E.—which was mostly Ch’zar-borrowed technology. When pressed, Dr. Irving had cautioned Ethan,
“When it comes to human–insect telepathic connections, we’ve learned to be cautious.”

Obviously a deep connection where a human mind was controlled had to be avoided at all costs, but what if humans could use the same technology to better control I.C.E.s … or even one day use it to influence the Ch’zar?

Ethan shrugged off Emma’s hand.

He’d keep quiet about this. He had the feeling it was important, no matter how much it freaked out Madison or the other Resisters. And he got the feeling this had something to do with his parents being able to live in Santa Blanca, to raise him and his sister to be independent, and to do it all without being mentally dominated by the alien collective mind.

“We’re okay,” Ethan told Madison. “Let’s just stay focused on the mission. When we get back to the Seed Bank, we’ll sit down with Dr. Irving and he’ll figure this all out.”

That seemed to mollify Madison, because after a moment, she uncrossed her arms and continued down the alley.

Ethan and Emma followed her and emerged onto Pine Street. Although there was light overhead from the crane lamps, a strange series of narrow shadows zigzagged across the street.

Ethan wasn’t comfortable withholding the truth from Madison. He wanted to reassure her that he was still the normal Ethan Blackwood she’d always known, that he and
Emma were still with the Resisters, that there wasn’t anything to worry about.

The words, though, evaporated from his lips before he got them out, and the air suddenly seemed to be missing from his lungs.

It was those weird shadows on the street—lines that slanted this way and that.

Ethan could’ve sworn they tilted to one side … and then back. Creaked, even.

Emma froze in place, her mouth wide open.

Something was
very
wrong. The hair on the back of his neck stirred.

Madison elbowed him and pointed straight up.

Ethan’s heart stopped as he followed those long shadows to their source.

An ant lion the size of a school bus stood directly over them. Its silver eyes locked onto their comparatively puny forms and its massive jaws opened.

   
14
   
MENTAL BLAST

“RUN,” ETHAN WHISPERED. “GET OUT OF HERE
, you two. I’ll distract it.”

“No way,” Madison whispered back. Her voice was choked with anger that he’d even suggest such a thing.

“That’s an order, Corporal,” he said.

The ant lion was the larval form of a lacewing. Under natural conditions, this minuscule insect was a formidable warrior that would lie in wait for an ant or similar bug to stumble near a slippery, unstable sand-filled pit it had created. The ant lion would quickly dig the side away, and the doomed insect would slide into the center … where the ant lion sat with open jaws.

That was under
normal
conditions—not when the Ch’zar had mutated the creature into a twenty-foot-tall, thirty-ton armored artillery platform with an anti-aircraft cannon mounted on its back and with hydraulically assisted jaws powerful enough to pick up and crush a train car.

The ant lion struck. Its huge jaws slashed down.

Madison rolled to one side. Emma threw herself flat against a brick wall near the alley. Ethan ducked and felt the air whoosh over his head, missing decapitation by inches.

“Sorry,” Madison grunted as she rolled to her feet. “I’m a little busy to run away … sir.” She jumped up and down, waving her arms. “Hey, tin foil!” she screamed. “Over here!”

The Ch’zar ant lion had a silver exoskeleton. It was so reflective that laser beams bounced off it, and the mirror-like quality let it blend in with any environment. It messed with your head, because one second you saw a giant monster in front of you, and the next it practically vanished right before your eyes.

It whirled to face Madison.

“No!” Ethan cried. “Over here! I’m the one you want:
Ethan Blackwood
.”

The ant lion halted as it seemed to consider this.

Ethan gulped. Saying that was
stupid
, but he had to do something to get it away from Madison.

He had the dubious honor of being known to the Ch’zar by name. If an alien collective hive mind could hold a grudge against a single person, it’d be him.

Ethan was the one who’d escaped Santa Blanca, come back and burned the school down, exposed the truth to the kids here, and turned their perfect neighborhood into a police state. He was also the one who’d trashed Sterling Reform School. And Ethan had then led the attack on the command carrier that had been searching for the Seed Bank … and possibly killed one of the Ch’zar leaders on board.

The ant lion turned on him—so fast and with such violence that it crashed through Tidy Laundry, crushed walls, and sent plumes of steam into the air. It accidentally brushed Madison aside and sent her flying and sprawling onto the asphalt, dazed.

The artillery mounted on the insect’s back ratcheted up and locked into firing position, aimed directly at Ethan.

Yeah, Ethan was definitely on their list.

No time to check on Madison. No time for ducking or dodging.

Ethan flat-out sprinted from the thing.

The ant lion fired its cannon.

The explosion rolled through Ethan. It was a wave of pressure and bone-crunching thunder that left his body
feeling like it was filled with mashed potatoes. He was distantly aware that he tumbled through the air, feet over head, hit the ground, and bounced to a stop.

The earth tilted and spun. Blood streamed from his nose. He tasted the stuff filling the back of his throat and spat it out. He couldn’t feel his lips. Couldn’t feel any part of his body … except a pulse-pounding thrum that held the promise of agonizing pain, maybe a broken bone or three, and raw cuts and scrapes through his shredded flight suit.

He ordered his body to stand.

It was like a dream, when you see yourself doing something, not fully in control, just watching it happen.

Ethan got to one knee, planted a boot on the broken road, and then pushed himself to a teetering upright position.

There was smoke, steam, and dust in the air. Shattered bricks lay scattered like a giant jigsaw puzzle. A five-foot-deep crater by the alley where he’d just been standing smoldered with boiling asphalt.

Ethan wanted to lie down and close his eyes, give in to the pulse pounding through his body.

He couldn’t.

He had to stay up. He had to distract the enemy long enough for Emma and Madison to escape. He had to fight—no, that was crazy.

There was no fighting a Ch’zar ant lion.

Oh sure, he’d “fought” one before. When he’d been put on the bus to Sterling, Felix and Madison had rescued him outside the Santa Blanca city limits. They’d battled and beaten an ant lion guarding the road. Ethan hadn’t really contributed to that fight. He’d stood around while Madison and Felix in their dragonfly and rhinoceros beetle I.C.E.s had engaged in the real combat—and even two against one, it’d been a close call with the Ch’zar mobile artillery.

Here and now, though, Ethan would be trying to fight a living tank with his bare hands.

Not his smartest move.

Through the smoke, Ethan spotted Madison lying facedown, struggling to get to her hands and knees. His first instinct was to go over and help her stand, but that’d only bring the monster closer to them both.

He looked up. There was too much dust and steam in the air to see where the ant lion had gone.

A leg the size of a telephone pole impacted the road next to Ethan. He almost yelped but miraculously kept his mouth shut.

The ant was moving around, searching. Ethan guessed it was confused—it thought it had blown up the tiny creature it had aimed for but couldn’t find any trace of it sizzling
on the pavement. The dust and smoke and steam weren’t making its search easier either.

If it had set that leg down a foot to the left, it would have simply skewered Ethan and ended all its problems.

The ant lion had caused massive damage. The walls of the nearby buildings had toppled over. The streetlight poles lay in the gutters. Electrical lines were down, and a few cables sparked and arced and thrashed on the road like angry snakes.

The adults and Ch’zar really must have had the town locked down not to worry about anyone seeing this.

The ant lion above him shifted once more, and Ethan had to quickly shuffle to one side or get crushed by the great beast’s legs.

He had to stay directly under it or risk being spotted.

That situation couldn’t last long, though.

The ant lion might see Emma and Madison and go after them. The Ch’zar would be in telepathic communication with this creature, so there had to be enemy backup on the way here. The Neighborhood Watches would get to them first. Maybe they’d even send locust I.C.E.s for air support. The Ch’zar wouldn’t take any chances this time on losing Ethan Blackwood.

Ethan didn’t think this situation could get much
worse—which was the absolute wrong thing to think, because the instant he thought that, a new wave of pain slammed into his skull.

It was like the blood music he’d heard in the tunnels near those Ch’zar organic conduits, only this was louder, like a hundred people standing next to him and shouting at him.

He shook his head to clear it.

That didn’t work, so he clapped his hands over his ears. But that didn’t muffle the noise either.

The sound was
inside
his mind.

Was he getting absorbed by the Collective? Or was it some new Ch’zar weapon being directed at him?

Ethan turned, trying to zero in on the origin of the mental blast.

He found it.

Standing in the mouth of the alley, Emma held up one hand toward the ant lion. The great insect took two steps forward, folded its front legs, and bowed down before her.

Ethan’s eyes widened. His mouth dropped open.

The source of the noise was
his sister
.