Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4) (39 page)

Near sundown, Oleander stood in line outside the distillery,
waiting for the shower. She and Rachael took the day shift in armor, while
Yvette and Yuki were scheduled for the night. Neoprene underwear in the desert
felt like plastic wrap. No amount of bottled water made her feel cool. Oleander
left her helmet off because wearing it made her feel like a pot about to boil.

Risa came out of the airlock fresh
as a daisy, and Herk went in for his turn. The icy blast of air from the
airlock made Oleander close her eyes in anticipation.

Rachael arrived at the end of the
line soon after, red-faced and bitchy. She spoiled the perfect moment, as
always. “Oleander, you need to sort all your high tech into stacks—back to
Sanctuary
or destroy. Everybody inside the base already has their gear divided.”

“What are the rules of engagement?”
Oleander asked.

“Kid gloves. If at all possible, he
doesn’t want us to harm the race we came to uplift. Z wants us to warn the
rebels and escape. He’d like us to be gone before the attack comes.” Then the
leader snapped at Risa, “Have you finished the shuttle yet?”

Oleander closed her mouth and tried
to blend into the stonework. She wanted to push the power button for her sneak
suit, but that would’ve attracted attention.

“No,” said the engineer. “We have
about three hours of work left.”

“What? Your husband promised me
twelve hours,” Rachael griped.

“That was an
estimate
,
eleven hours ago.”

“What happened?”

“Other than waking me out of a
sound sleep to start this project? I had to guide the aqua sled back, eat, and
I also need natural light. You ordered no artificial sources on the mesa until
the conflict is over.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry,” Risa said. “We’re
tracking Toby’s bug. It says the throne shouldn’t be here till tomorrow night.
We’re fueled up, and all the critical stuff is ready.”

Seeing the line of weary crew
members in front of the showers, Johnny, the cook, rushed over with a tray of
iced lemonade and sandwiches. “This is all perishable, and we can’t take it
with us. Eat up.”

Johnny had been sucking up to
Rachael ever since the last time Oleander was nearly caught in the pantry with
him. Evidently, you
could
get
pregnant standing up. She hadn’t
told the father yet.

Ignoring Rachael’s show of placing
an arm around Johnny, Oleander stared at the closest canyon wall above her and
said, “Whatever his faults, Toby’s a solid scout. How far out is he?”

Risa replied, “Herk puts him at
about eight hours by rover, less if he jogs. He should make our departure
window either way. Yvette’s working next shift, so you could carry Toby’s
personal weight allowance up to the cargo area of the shuttle when you bring
yours up.”

“The hand cannot be seen,” Oleander
recited.

Risa grabbed several sandwiches for
herself and Herk. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to join Nadia to finish the last
gift, the trestle or triangular brace.”

“Unnecessary,” Rachael said.
“Snowflake said the epic poem can count as number twenty-seven.”

“That’s it? We’re done?” asked
Risa, dropping a sandwich.

Rachael bent over to pick up the
fallen food. “We officially passed our test as a species, and we can go home
heroes. There might be a few legal problems about our disobeying UN orders to
accomplish this, but success disinfects. Snowflake already told Mercy how to
refuel the ship, and they can do it as soon as we’re all on board.”

Johnny furrowed his brow. “Why are
you defending Toby? Why would you care about his gear? I mean, why would he
even let you touch it?”

Was that a glitter on the ridge?
Oleander thought, distracted. Sensors protected the astronauts five kilometers
in every direction. The camouflaged buildings on the mesa would only be visible
from the canyon walls at high magnification.
Does someone have stolen
binoculars up there, or is Toby back early?

Reeling from the news about their
mission being over, Risa blurted, “When Toby went AWOL, Herk read the security logs.
Oleander was the last person in Toby’s bedroom, and he left with her keycard.”

Dropping the tray, Johnny shouted
at Oleander. “You fucked him, too?”

“Too?” Rachael screamed, and then
punched Johnny in the face. The force of the blow knocked him back into the
wall. “I’m going to kill you.”

A pinkish-purple dot swept the mesa
in the corner of Oleander’s vision—tech the humans didn’t have.

Risa ran for the spaceport. The
last time she tried to make peace, she’d ended up with bruises.

“Wait,” Oleander begged, grabbing
Rachael’s arm. “There’s something—”

A bright light flashed, and they
all heard a loud, high-pitched
bleeoooo
sound . . . just before Johnny
collapsed, steam pouring out of his nostrils and mouth.

Somehow, the aborigines had
acquired a weapon that could target and kill from incredible distance.

“Sniper,” Oleander shouted,
tackling Rachael.

The Elysium leader stared in shock
at her former lover. His eyes were open and white like boiled eggs. Oleander
activated her own blending armor and said, “Go stealth. We need to get everyone
to cover.”

“Johnny?” Rachael sobbed.

“Feel later,” Oleander said,
slapping the woman. The act was less satisfying than she’d imagined, but the
bitch wasn’t at home now. “There are eleven more of us, and we’re all going to
die unless you lead.”

No response. Oleander turned on her
boss’s suit, and then reached inside her own shirt to punch the emergency
button on her badge. “All hands, sniper on the north ridge with a Magi energy
weapon. Stay inside. Repeat, stay inside. Rachael and I are by the distillery.
Johnny is dead. Is anyone but Herk trapped outside on the mesa?”

At the death notice, Rachael wailed
inconsolably.

Because of light restrictions,
everyone had moved indoors, but the pink-purple light swept the area again,
searching for victims.

Herk sent a private query to
Oleander’s suit. She had to put on her helmet to respond. She gave him the
unofficial situation report, including Rachael’s state. He replied, “As senior
security officer, you’re in charge. Drag Rachael to the spaceport office and
report in to Z. Damn Toby. If he’d stayed, I’d have a spare sneak suit in here
to use. Once Z has been informed, strip the zombie out of her shimmer armor and
bring it to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rachael staggered along with her,
but the open ground between buildings seemed to stretch forever. Oleander lived
in terror of hearing that sound again.

Risa already had Olympus on the
line when Oleander reached the control room. After they described the attack,
Lou said, “That solves one mystery. The pandas love words based on sounds. If
you cut out the ‘ee’ sound that’s not in their language, the blasters go
bloo—hence the name of the tribe. It all makes sense now: the elevated ones,
the thick stone construction, and hiding from anyone who might be on the canyon
rim.”

“How does this affect our rules of
engagement? Can we shoot back?” Oleander asked.

“Hell, yes,” Lou said. “Snowflake
puts the Bloo tribe on par with rabid animals. Z is busy establishing our
parameters now.”

“Why would anyone shoot Johnny?”
Risa asked. “He’s a damn cook.”

Lou cleared his throat. “My guess
is a cultural misunderstanding. By feeding three women at once, Johnny marked
himself as our tribe’s alpha male.”

Removing her helmet, Oleander wiped
sweat and tears away that prevented her from seeing clearly.

Nadia crawled into the crowded
control room and said, “The targeting device sounds like a hydrogen-band
laser.”

“Can you use it to spot him and hit
back with the COIL?” Oleander asked.

“No. He’s over the canyon rim. I
wouldn’t have line of sight, and he’s probably moved by now. I would have,” the
Russian high-energy physicist admitted.

“Damn,” Oleander complained. “He’s
just outside my astral-projection range.”

“Just as well, the moment we fire
at him, the enemy will shoot holes in the shuttle, and we’re stranded. The good
news is that the laser won’t work worth crap in fog or a dust storm.”

“Wonderful. Rachael has a bruise on
her forehead. I think she took some stone chips from the explosion,” Oleander
fibbed. Any bruising would be from the tackle, but she wanted to give her
former rival a chance to save face in the history books. “Risa, peel her out of
this armor. Until I bring back Officer Herkemer, he’s placed me in charge.”

“Then you have to send someone else
on the rescue,” Yvette interrupted.

“He’s waiting for me,” Oleander
said.

“Then you’ll have to delegate
fast,” Yvette countered, checking Rachael’s pupils and pulse, “or I’ll tell Lou
why someone else needs to go.”

Oleander wanted to scream. “Fine.
How about Park?”

“Negative,” Lou said over the
radio. “He’s your only way out of there. Get him into the cockpit as soon as
possible, and keep him under guard. Give Auckland one of the gauss guns. He
can’t run or move cargo like the rest of you anyway.”

“Right, those two should put on
spacesuits, and we’ll figure out how to sneak them into the shuttle once Herk
is safe,” Oleander said, refiguring. “Yuki, you’re an acrobat and run the fifty-meter
dash faster than anyone left. You wear the shorter set off Rachael. I’ll pack
mine up for Herk. How do we temporarily cover for the fact that the shimmer
armor won’t quite cover all of him and he’s too wide to fit in Toby’s camo
fatigues?”

“I have a wild idea,” said Yvette.
“Open the hydra deer pens and let them roam free. You hide behind the deer like
cowboys behind a horse.”

When they told him over the comm,
Herk said, “I like it. When you’re in a gunfight in the west, stick to the
classics.”

****

Yuki put the pile of sample
containers and the computer from Toby’s lockers down on the console in front of
Oleander. The Japanese woman tried to sound calm as she reported, “Everything
you asked for, sir. The only casualty was one of the deer close to the gate.
The noise and death panicked the rest, and the animals kicked up a little dust
cover for us.”

“Good,” the thin blonde said. “Are
the explosives set?”

Caked with sweat, dust, and
smelling like hydra spit, Herk dropped Johnny’s body just inside the control
room airlock. “Affirmative. How’s Rachael’s head injury?”

Risa hugged her husband the moment
his arms were free. “The doctor has her sedated. He analyzed Johnny’s body, and
his bet is that microwave energy killed him. He was cooked from the bone out.”

Oleander grimaced and turned her
head away at the explanation.

Herk said, “Z has authorized lethal
force
while invisible
on three missions: eliminating the snipers,
escorting Pear Blossom’s faction to safety, and holding the mesa until we’re
able to leave. I’ll handle the mesa wetwork myself with our long-range rifle.
I’ll wait till the Bloos attack en masse to blow the first bridge so it
inflicts maximum damage, but that means I’ll be too distracted to coordinate.”
The security chief pointed at Oleander when he said, “Specialist Dahlstrom,
you’ve got the clearest head in a crisis. You’re in charge here for the
duration. Commandeer whoever you need to work the camera or be your invisible
minions for the other missions.”

Oleander sighed. “I’ll scout the
perimeter every few minutes Out-of-body during the dark hours. I can let you
know if there are any probes. Yuki, you’re my best asset for stealth and
hand-to-hand. I’ll put you in charge of leading the rebels out of here. They
should be safe enough at the copper town to the north.”

Yuki nodded. “Glad to. It’s the
duty of the strong to protect the weak.”

“Do you need me to give you a
refresher class on fighting with a staff?” Herk offered. “You women will need
to keep those monsters out of arms’ reach, or they’ll beat you to death with
their bare hands.”

Waving the idea away, Yuki said,
“Relax. Z has been preparing me for this day for years. I just didn’t realize
it till now.”

Herk clapped her on the shoulder in
approval.

Indicating Yvette, Oleander said,
“Our nurse is the best at hiking and endurance, so I’ll have her take a shift
in the small scout armor after Yuki. Any allies we still have around by then
will probably need medical attention. Meanwhile, could you get Toby on the line
and sweet talk him into stabbing that sniper for us?”

“The Charter will allow him to
attack armed soldiers to save our lives, especially now that war has been
declared, but it will take at least another seven hours plus time for him to
sneak up. What do we do till then?”

Herk shrugged. “Eat, sleep, and
bury our dead.”

When Yvette left to speak to Toby
in private, Oleander whispered, “Sir, I want to take Johnny along with us on
Ascension
.”

“Why?” Herk asked. “Those pods
can’t bring back the dead.”

“These people are cannibals. I
don’t want them . . .” The rest stuck in her throat.

When Herk hesitated, Yuki added,
“The Magi would insist on no evidence left behind, sir.”

“Fine, I’ll have the doc bag Johnny
for transport,” he said, moving past them to the narrow staircase. “Choose your
team from the women while I grab coffee for my water bottle and food that will
fit in my pockets.”

Yuki resisted the urge to remind
him that the pandas would smell him coming. What did it matter at this point?

When the two women were alone,
Oleander mouthed a thank you to Yuki.

Yuki asked, “Who else should we
bring up here to help you? While you’re hopping around astrally, someone has to
guard your body and talk to us in the field.”