Intro Chapter 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27
These rallies are not fast affairs. It was good we got Haslet out when we did because this place is wall-to-wall people now. The parking is jammed with, I would guess, five thousand people, and now the bigwigs are filling up the inside.
"Primaries are on a plane ride for home." announces Al.
"You're not with them?" I say.
"Gunter and I are on the bounce for the rally hall. Rufus reports it's a big rally, and once that plane left the ground we couldn't help the hostages anymore. We're ground pounders, Franky, and we're here to back you up."
".... Makes sense... In a really stupid sort of way." I chuckle. "OK Station yourselves in the big, dark field to the north. What's the secondary extraction plan?"
"That same field. Rufus is there. He has commandeered a chopper."
Finally, our man Marlet comes up to the lectern and starts his speech. He's good. The crowd is hot and he pumps them for all they are worth. It's ole time religion... really ole time religion!
"They've started the bond fire out front. There are three to toast." says Al.
"Anyone we know?"
"Locals, as best I can tell. Probably still burning traitors from the invasion."
"OK, my move comes up shortly. Folks, get ready to bounce."
".... And the fires of Ka-sharma will protect us and make us strong!" Marlet shouts to the ceiling. Clearly the media is moments from cutting outside to the burning in progress.
"It will?" I bellow back from the ceiling, just as loud as the loud speakers. The translator output is now set to maximum eloquent. To the crowd I should sound like a well-trained classical actor.
I rappel down fast on a rope. Marlet is standing there with his mouth open. Good. If it shuts and he starts looking round, I will drop instantly and grab him. But, his instinctual sense of drama is good. He stands while I land. I grab him by the throat, but I face the audience.
"Is Ka-sharma protecting you now?" I bellow. I shake him a little.
"Who am I?"
Someone in the crowd screams, "Kull the Conquer!"
I face Marlet and shake him again. "Who am I?"
This time it is Marlet who quietly answers, "You are Kull."
"Louder!" I bellow. This is classic drill sergeant stuff. I'm in his face and squeezing just a bit... and I almost forget where I am and follow "Louder" up with, "Trooper!"
"You are Kull... Kull the Conquer!" There is genuine fear in his eyes.
"Has your Ka-sharma protected you from me?" I'm still in his face.
"... no."
"LOUDER!"
"No."
"Louder! THEY can't hear you." I point to crowd. "Has your Ka-sharma protected you from me?"
"NO... NOOOO!" I let him go, and he slumps to the floor, sobbing. If he doesn't get the planet's top acting award this year, their entertainment industry is myopic.
I face the audience again. "PEOPLE OF THIS PLANET. YOUR 'PROPHET' HERE... " I kick him lightly, "IS FALSE."
"He will lead you to ruin. The Interstellar Age is upon you. If you turn you back on that fact. You will all surely burn in bondage.
"Open your hearts and open your minds. You are on the threshold of a golden era... IF YOU EMBRACE IT."
"LOOK TO THE STARS!" I point up for a dramatic moment, and then I start bouncing. I bounce off walls until I get into the rafters.
"Out the air conditioner, Chin!" My small lasers are starting to fire -- which means weapons are being brought to bear... Good, nothing but my lasers fire, and I'm now deep in the rafter rats nest. Maybe we won't get into revenge killing here.
Chin beats me to the air conditioner door by two seconds. She opens it, and finds a crush of six people on the other side. They seem to be coming down the stairs from the roof to witness the excitement. None seemed to be armed, so she simply climbs over them, and I follow. There will be some broken bones, but no bloodshed. Some may remember there were two of us, but they may not.
We are on the roof, and we bounce off in the loading ramp direction to rendezvous with Gunter and Al.
"Bad news: Rufus reports Smalet's car has been surrounded by police. It's at the other end of the field. He's powering up."
"Tell him to meet us halfway." I say.
We left headed north, now we curl west. The four of us rendezvous without incident, and find ourselves bouncing through a low-rise residential area. Our luck holds, all the residents seem to be inside watching the surprising turn of events at the rally. What people don't see, they won't report to the local police, and our rendezvous with Rufus becomes more probable.
"I'm off, and headed east. The police were driving my way as I lifted off, but they were still too far to interfere." Two minutes later he says, "I see a school yard I can land in. I'm flashing landing lights."
He's close enough now that we can see him, and we bounce his way. In another two minutes we are on board, and in flight.
"Where do we go now?" I ask.
"Well... That's a bit of a problem, now. Thanks to your performance at the rally, we are now in a sea of alert hostiles. Not that your performance was that bad...." he grinned, "But, it kind of took me by surprise to see you up on stage, there." He paused for a moment as he flew.
"Going to the secondary I planned on will kill that person now." he continues, "We are too hot."
I wait for the gears in his head to grind some more.
"OK... Here it is: We still have a coffin, right?"
I look back in the cargo section. "Yes."
"The closest fast jets to here are a major air cargo hub. It will be guarded, but, if they haven't shut it down, jets fly out of there all the time, and for everywhere. If we can stow away or hijack one of those... I see that as our best option.
"We are going to have to land a long way off, and move fast. Ideally, we can be on a plane before the military comes to full alert over news from the rally. To get there fast, you're going to have to carry me in a coffin."
"It won't be comfortable."
"It will beat getting caught."
"That's very true. So... we bounce in and scramble on one of these jets? Will you have any idea which one?"
"Not really... Except that given our time constraint, it's likely to have to be one taxiing. And if it's taxiing, it will already be sealed up. You're going to have to rip it open in some fashion. And once you do that, I'll have a hard time if we try to fly at normal cruise altitude.. Unless we can seal the rip up again pretty effectively.
"The other choice is to try and sneak on one being loaded, and wait for it to take off. The hazard with that is that the government may shut down flights, and start searching planes."
"Will they do that for a simple kidnapping?"
"... No, not likely.... It's your performance at the rally." The gears are still grinding in his head.
"... OK! Here's what we can do:" his hands start working over the command console at a furious rate. He talks as he enters orders.
"There's a military airfield sixty kilometers south of here... I'm giving the autopilot a course that will obliquely approach that field.... fly another ten kilometers... and descend to sea level. That will crash this beast, but it should get shot out of the sky before it gets that far.
"The military should make the connection between the craft and us, and concentrate on that base, and be slow to disturb the civilian field."
"Sounds good." I say.
"You still have to deal with civilian security, and they are habitually more alert. The shipping companies don't like stuff 'falling off the plane'.... If we are going to do this, we need to jump this ship now!
"Watch me," He says, "and flip this switch back when the back bay reaches full open." Sean flips a final switch, slips out of the seat and heads for the cargo area. The big back door starts opening.
"Coffin me, baby!" Sean says to Al as he hops into a coffin. Al puts a lid on him. The wind from the back is now rising to a roar. The bay door stops, I flip the switch back, and we all bounce out as the door rises.
Intro Chapter 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . 06 . 07 . 08 . 09 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 . 23 . 24 . 25 . 26 . 27