The Far Bank of the Rubicon (The Pax Imperium Wars: Volume 1) (40 page)

“No! I won’t stay here unless you tell me what is happening. Who do you think I am? You don’t get to give orders to me, Jonas.”

In his ear, Summers could hear the Athenian rear guard on the stairs. The next wave of palace troops had been spotted. They were going to have to engage them in a moment.

He decided to intervene. “Sir! We must leave. We don’t have time, sir.” He started to grab Jonas’ arm and take him to the shuttle.

Sophia came behind them.

He pulled out his firearm and raised it at her. “I am going to have to ask you to step back.”

Everyone froze. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that even Anna Prindle had stopped on the steps of the shuttle.

Summers wondered if he had just blown cover. It was clearly close to the line, but whether or not his behavior was a step too far was hard for Summers to tell. He didn’t have any idea how much authority these guards truly wielded, but basic intel on Athenian security forces said that if the life of a royal was deemed threatened, the security forces had a carte blanche authority they didn’t have at other times.

The Prince tensed.

The girl looked terrified.

For a moment, Summers wondered if he would get reprimanded.

Then Athena turned toward the shuttle and started to walk away.

Desperate, Malek shouted after him. “But we’re family! I made you my family! I gave myself to you! You can’t just walk away from that! You don’t get to decide for me!”

The Prince halted, halfway up the stairs. He looked down at the ground and sighed, tears on his cheeks. He turned back to the girl. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Then why are you running away from me?”

“Because I’m not going home. I’m going on the run.”

That news came as a shock to Summers. Apparently Athena wasn’t as defeated as his superiors assumed. It made his mission all the more vital. They certainly didn’t need the ‘mighty’ Jonas Athena running around the galaxy causing trouble.

Malek responded. “Then let me come with you.”

Summers could now hear the sounds of gunfire on the stairs leading to the roof. He grabbed the Prince in a tight grip, ready to throw him on board, if necessary.

“But I don’t have a home to go to. I don’t have anywhere to go.”

Malek looked around at the roof she was standing on, and said just loud enough to be heard over the whine of the shuttle. “Neither do I, unless I’m with you.”

Through the grip on his arm, Summers could tell the Prince had softened. He would let the girl come.
So much the better
, he thought.
She could prove useful in getting him to cooperate
.

Across the aisle, Anna cradled Sophia in her arms. Sophia leaned against the woman, burying her head in her shoulder as she sobbed. The shuttle took off under fire. The pings on the side made Anna jump.

Sophia whimpered, clearly traumatized by her day.

Jonas cringed inside.

Anna leaned down. “Shhh. It will be all right. You’re safe. Nothing’s going to happen now.”

He should have been the one to comfort her. Instead, a gulf now existed between them. Jonas put his head in his hands, distraught but unable to find any tears.

Jack sat next to him.

Further up the line, Alex Gomez and the other remaining bodyguards, along with the intelligence staff, sat strapped in their seats. There were too many missing. No one was in the mood to celebrate their escape or the success of their mission. It didn’t feel like a victory.

For Jonas, it felt like a total failure as a leader. He had needed to communicate something to Sophia, and he hadn’t had the time to do so.
That’s not true
, thought Jonas.
I hadn’t made the time, and when I had the opportunity, I didn’t.
Because of his delay, people were dead—including Dmitri. Jonas felt hollowed out, like his emotions had all fled his body.

He realized just how still the cabin had become when Alex startled him as he unstrapped himself and walked crisply toward the cockpit. In the seat next to him, he heard Jack stir.

With a loud click, Alex locked the cockpit behind him.

Something bothered Jonas about that. His trance broken, he turned toward Jack, who was already staring at the door.

Jack scowled. When the shuttle banked hard to the right a moment later, he stood and removed the sidearm from its holster under his jacket.

Anna spoke first. “Jack!”

Without taking his eyes off the cockpit, Jack said, “I know!”

Anna unbuckled her seatbelt and stood.

As Jack moved up the aisle, those in the cabin came to life, one by one, eyes following him. The air became electric.

Jonas stood and slowly started walking forward. Unsure of what to think, he kept his weapon pointed at the ground.

Jack knocked on the cockpit door. There was no answer. He paused. The silence in the cabin was so thick Jonas thought the staff must have been holding their breath.

Jack pounded. No one responded.

He hurried to one of the portholes, gun still in his hand. “We aren’t climbing! We’re staying in the atmosphere.”

Turning to the now-alert cabin, he said, “Gear up!”

Jonas now stood near him at the front of the cabin. “What’s going on?”

Lieutenant Revek Fay, now the ranking member of Jonas’ security detail, stood with him, just over his right shoulder. He had his hand on his side arm. He felt edgy to Jonas, like he might draw his gun on Jack.

Jack looked seriously at the Prince. “I don’t think that’s Gomez.”

Jonas thought back to the way Alex had acted toward Sophia on the stairs, and the way he had handled Jonas during the firefight. Things fell into place. Jonas felt the color drain from his face. “Shit!” He was convinced, but some part of him held back. He wanted confirmation before he attacked the head of his security team. “What do you think, Fay? You’ve been around Alex Gomez more than any of us.”

Fay looked between the two, and his posture seemed to change. He drew his gun and aimed it at the door. “Yeah. He’s been just a little off all day. Nothing you could put your finger on, but something isn’t right.”

Jack joined him, and both he and Fay fired at the locking mechanism. The repeat of their weapons echoed loudly in the small cabin. Jack tried to kick in the door. It didn’t move. Jonas and Fay tried as well, with no better result.

Panting, Jonas said, “He must have activated the cockpit door shield.”

Jack asked him, “What can we do to get in there?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think much. The cabin’s designed to be secure in case of trouble in the back.”

Anna came up behind them. “Do we have pressure suits?”

Jonas looked around, making a quick count. “Not enough for all of us.”

“Then we better get something done fast. If he decides to climb…”

Jack looked out one of the windows again. “I don’t think he’s going to climb. He’s flying quite low now.” Suddenly he jumped back. “Holy shit! He’s down at traffic levels!”

Jonas looked out just in time to see a skyscraper from downtown Tourgout zip by, much too close for comfort.

Jack turned back to the cabin. “All of you, strap in. I don’t think this flight will take very long. We need to be ready for what comes next. Fay, you’re the ranking member of the security team, right?”

Fay nodded.

That was enough for Jonas. People had been making decisions for him all day, mostly the asshole now in their cockpit. Jonas decided he wasn’t of the mind to let anyone else be in control. Angry, he interrupted. “No! That would be me. Gomez was a Colonel. I am a Captain. Fay is a Lieutenant, and you are a really smart civilian contractor who works for the MoD—not to mention, I am second in line to the throne. Since this is a military operation, we’re going to do this in order of actual rank.”

Pulled up short, the older man took a step back and raised his hands in surrender, giving way to protocol.

Now that he had momentum on his side, Jonas decided not to wait. He didn’t want a debate. He started giving Fay orders while he hunted in the closet for anything which might help him get the cockpit open.“Get everyone organized, even the civvies! Their lives are on the line, too. Most of these guys know what they’re doing with a weapon. We need a plan to get off this thing as quickly as possible when we land.”

Having found something to act as a pry bar, Jonas turned back around and started ripping a panel off the wall to get at the wiring behind it. Over his shoulder, he said, “And go through the cabin and make sure everyone has a full readout of ammunition and supplies. Load up from the locker in the back.”

He was just about to return to his work when he thought of something. “And someone let the fleet know what’s going on. Have Brennen get us some help!”

Anna turned and headed back to her seat. “On it!”

It took Jack and Jonas working together to get the panel pried loose. They had just gained access when someone in the cabin started to scream. Jonas about jumped out of his skin.

“Stop it! Stop! Stop!” The voice was Anna’s. Jack sprang away from their work and sprinted to the back of the cabin where Anna was flailing at some invisible enemy, terrorized.

Jonas stood.

When Jack reached her, he grabbed the heads-up off the top of her head and swept the woman into his arms. For a moment she continued to struggle, and then realizing who it was that held her, she clung to him, weeping.

Jonas made his way back to where they sat. He had never seen a mind-jack before, but he had heard about them. As he approached, Anna wiped her tears and sat up. In all sincerity, she said, “I won’t let them do that to me again. I’ll die first.”

Jack returned the seriousness of her gaze. “I promise they won’t. If it comes to it, I’ll make sure.”

Anna closed her eyes for a moment and nodded, as another tear escaped. Then she shook her shoulders, cleared her throat, and said, “I don’t want to think about it.”

Jonas spoke up. “Did you talk to anyone at the fleet?”

Anna looked at him, clear-eyed and present. “Sort of. I was able to tell them we were hijacked and that was all before I got cut off. I never was able to verify my identity.”

Jonas turned and was already starting to head up back up the aisle when he answered. “We better hope that’s enough!” He comforted himself by remembering he had Brennen at the helm of the fleet. Anna’s message would probably get through.

Sophia, who was sitting nearby, interrupted. “Jonas, we’re stopping!”

Jonas looked out the round window next to her. They were now hovering a few hundred meters over what looked like an abandoned spaceport. Jonas ran back up the aisle toward the front of the cabin, ducking to look out the windows as he went.

As soon as he had passed by, Fay stood and started barking orders, placing the remains of the Athenian team around the exits, as he and another guard hurried to finish handing out ammunition.

Jonas began a mad attempt to rewire the door so it would open.

From the back, Sophia yelled, “We’re coming in to land!”

When he felt the shuttle touch down a few minutes later, Jonas lay on his stomach near the front of the cabin. He was just about to give up when he found something among the wires. It looked to him like he could cut the power to the cockpit. It was a matter of cutting through a rather thick and ugly-looking wire which controlled the flow of current from the power plant. It was a risky choice and irreversible. He wouldn’t be able to fly the shuttle away, even if they got into the cockpit. He wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. The thump of the landing skids hitting the ground sounded especially loud underneath him.

Whoever was at the controls of the shuttle immediately shut off the engines. They wound down with their signature wail.

At the same moment, his heads-up started to bleat at him from his pocket, as did several others on the shuttle. Jonas fumbled for his, slow to find it because he was lying on it. He got it out and looked at the screen which was meant to go over his eye but could also display text when folded closed.

A message scrolled by. “Don’t put this on for any reason.”

Then another. “Defend the ship. Do not exit until the time is right. You’ll know.”

And finally, “Help is on the way. ETA 8 minutes. —Brennen”

Jonas put down the device, and continued his work.

In the back, Fay was the first to move. “You saw her message. Get set up, and guard those exits. We have eight minutes.” Even as he was speaking, one of the intelligence staff crouching near the main door shouted, “They’re coming at the door with some kind of robotic ram! It’s got treads and is moving fast!”

The small shuttle had three ways in or out. There was the main exit near the front of the cabin. Then there was the emergency exit at the back, and a small escape hatch in the cockpit for the pilot. None of these could be opened from the outside. Jonas panicked when he realized they only controlled two of the three entrances to the craft.

The shuttle bucked from the hit of the ram. For a moment, Jonas stopped searching for the wire which had been obvious the moment before and glanced over his shoulder back at the door. It had held, but it had warped somewhat.

As others behind him scrambled to position themselves to hold the main cabin door, Jonas turned back to the cables. He decided that cutting the power to gain access to the cockpit was a fair trade.

In front of him, he felt, as much as he heard, the pop of the escape hatch in the cockpit. The pilot’s escape hatch used a small charge to blow open an emergency door in the floor located just in front of the landing skid. Once it was opened, there was no way to close it again.

Jack, who had been standing nearby, must have recognized the danger of their situation, because he turned around and yelled at Jonas, “We’ve got to get in there!”

“I know! I’m cutting the power to the cockpit now. I think that should disable the force field.”

Jonas cut the cable, causing sparks to fly. He received a jolt in the process. His arm felt numb, and he yelled as his hand sprung away. Holding his arm, he said, “Kick it in, Jack!”

Standing over him, Jack kicked in the cockpit door, which gave way easily. He stepped in, yelling, “Don’t move!”