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“I need to give the government something,” I tell Adam. “Setrákus Ra has set a deadline for their surrender and if they don’t see a way to defeat his armada they aren’t going to help us.”
“John, those warships were designed before the invasion of Lorien,” Adam replies. “The shields are meant to sustain attacks from a planet full of Garde. There’s no weapon on Earth short of a nuclear bomb that could even potentially break through them and attempting such an attack over a major population center would be catastrophic.” Adam pauses, and I can hear dirt crunching. He’s moving towards something. “Although . . .”
“What? I’ll take anything you can give me, Adam.”
“Maybe brute force isn’t the answer. I’m staring at an airstrip of disabled Skimmers,” he says. “It occurs to me that there are a hundred or so assigned to each warship. They act as scouts and transport squads of ground troops. They come and go from the warships quite a bit, which makes lowering the warship’s force field each time impractical. So, the Skimmers are outfitted with an electromagnetic field generator that masks them from the warship’s shield, allowing them to pass through unharmed.”
I should’ve thought of that. Now that Adam’s jogged my memory, I realize that I saw this technology at work back at the West Virginia mountain base. When Setrákus Ra first arrived on Earth, his ship moved through the base’s force field like it wasn’t even there. When I tried to chase him down, the shield totally fried me.
“Would it be possible to strip that technology out of the Skimmers and put it into something else?” I ask Adam. “Like, for instance, a fighter jet?”
Adam considers this. “Possible, yes. But while it wouldn’t have to worry about the warship’s shields, it would still be targeted by the cannons.”
I remember what Ella showed me during our shared dream—the docking bay where she and Five tried to escape. Maybe we can use the Mogs’ own technology against them.
“We could get like ten people onto one of those Skimmers, right?” I ask next, considering a new plan of attack.
“Twelve, plus two pilots,” Adam answers quickly. “You’re considering a less obvious assault.”
“Yeah. If we could board one of those warships, how many people do you think we’d need to overtake it?”
There’s a bit of excitement in Adam’s voice now. “That would depend on how many of those people had Legacies. Have I mentioned, John, that when I was a child I dreamed about flying one of those warships?”
I smirk at that. “You might just get your chance, Adam. Thanks for the info. Can you put Six back on?”
Adam says good-bye and hands the phone back to Six.
“You think we should try boarding the Anubis?” Six asks me. “Sam was just encouraging me and the others to run as fast and as far from that thing as possible.”
“I’m not sure what we should do yet, but I want to know our options,” I reply. I look at Sam and can’t help frowning. He’s not going to like what I have to say next. “Stay put, Six. Help is on the way.”
A short time later, Sam and I walk along the pier, looking for Agent Walker. Wherever she went with those two army guys and their civilian, it’s taking longer than expected. Up ahead, there’s a large military presence on the concrete dock that juts into the East River. When we arrive, a small group of soldiers are hard at work pulling empty kayaks from the water and dumping them in a pile out of the way so that the military ships have a clear place to dock. This place wasn’t exactly designed for battleships. In the last twenty-four hours, it’s been turned into something of a staging area, with a bunch of navy destroyers floating ominously in the narrow waterway, their guns pointed at the smoking remains of downtown Manhattan.
“How’s Malcolm doing?” I ask Sam. He made a short call to his dad after we got off the phone with Six.
“Mostly relieved that we’re alive. And very excited about my new . . . thing,” Sam replies, glancing around to make sure no one’s listening. “He and the FBI agents Walker left behind got scooped up by the government during the evacuation of Washington. I guess he’s getting the VIP bunker treatment. They’ve got him in the same underground complex as the president.”
“Maybe he could put a good word in for us.”
“I told him,” Sam says. “Right now, he says they think he’s some crazy scientist that specializes in aliens with a lot of pets.”
“The Chimærae.”
“Dad thinks it’s best if they pass as normal animals for now. I know we’ve decided to trust Agent Walker’s little group of rebels, but there’s more than just her crew in Washington. Some of the scientists down there, well, Dad thinks they might be a little too curious about alien biology.”
I think about how Adam rescued the Chimærae from Mogadorian experimentation. Much as I want to trust that the U.S. government is better than that, I don’t. “That’s smart,” I reply. “Keep them from getting dissected or something until we need them. In the meantime, they can look after your dad.”
“Yeah . . .” Sam trails off. I can tell there’s something else he’d rather be talking about, mostly because he hasn’t let up since we got off the phone with Six. “John, I still can’t believe you told them to stay down there.”
I’m planning to call Six back once I figure out how much support I can drum up from Walker and the government. At least until then, they’re staying put at the Sanctuary. They’ve got some time until Setrákus Ra shows up. “You honestly think Six would’ve retreated if I told her to?” I reply. “I don’t like putting them in danger either, Sam, but . . .”
“John, come on. The Anubis almost killed us yesterday! We were like ants against that thing. Not even there. What chance do they have?”
“Ella told me Setrákus Ra wants what’s inside the Sanctuary, which I’m assuming is this Loric Entity Six told us about. We can’t just let him go there unopposed. Nothing good can come of him getting what he wants.”
“But how are they going to fight him off? What good is going to come of them staying down there?” Sam asks, raising his voice. “They can’t even hurt him. Not without—”
“I know what the situation is, Sam,” I snap, losing my cool. “We’re going to find a way to get down there and help them, all right? Ella showed me—she showed me the Sanctuary, she told me to warn Six and the others and she also told me that we can win. That she’s seen a way. It all starts there.”
I leave out the parts where Ella told me that there would be sacrifices and where she implied that I might be the one to kill her. That part of her prophecy I’m going to be working my ass off to change. I know Sam is only pressing me because he’s worried about the others and Six in particular. I’m worried about them, too. But I also trust Six to keep her head and make her own decisions.
Before Sam can put together a rebuttal, I spot Walker ahead of us and pick up my pace. The FBI agent is surrounded by a huddle of high-ranking military officials. I have to nudge my way through a crowd of soldiers to get close. I get some disgruntled looks at first, dressed as I am like a civilian who just survived a natural disaster. When they start to realize who I am, a path clears real quick. I’m not so surprised by this treatment anymore, and I try not to let it make me feel uncomfortable. One of the soldiers even salutes me, although his buddy standing beside him elbows him hard and rolls his eyes.
Walker sees me coming and breaks away from the military brass. I notice them noticing me, but it seems like Walker was right about the higher-ups wanting to avoid direct contact with us dangerous Loric rebels. They move away and gather again farther down the pier, many of the soldiers going along with them. Once there, they start pointing towards the East River and exchanging words. Something about the water’s definitely alarming them. I start to amp up my hearing to eavesdrop on what’s got them so spooked, but Walker is already right in front of me and talking.
“Good, you’re here. I was just coming back to get you,” Walker says. She’s holding the tablet computer belonging to
the civilian who showed up at her tent earlier, although that guy’s no longer anywhere to be seen. Walker must have commandeered his tablet and sent him on his way.
“I know the weakness of the warship shields. I know how we can beat them,” I tell Walker, cutting to the chase.
Her eyebrows shoot up. “Damn, John. That was quick. That’s definitely something the army boys will be interested in.”
“Good.” I make a pointed glance at the officers gathered down the pier. “I need to get to Mexico, Walker. We’re talking in the next couple hours. There’s going to be a battle down there that I can’t miss. I need whatever support they’re willing to give me.”
“Is there an ‘or else’ you’re waiting to drop on me?” Walker asks, her expression darkening. “I’ll do what I can, but I already told you the military’s position. That comes direct from the commander in chief.”
“Yeah, well, tell them the parts they need to beat the shields? They’re sitting on a runway in Mexico. So they better scramble some damn jets and get me down there.”
Walker holds up her hand, letting me know she’s heard me. “All right, all right. I’ll do my best. But we’ve got other crap to deal with before we go jetting off to your special Loric safe zone or whatever the hell it is.”
“Whoa,” Sam says. He’s wandered closer to the railing and is staring into the water. “They’ve got a submarine out there.”
“Yeah,” Walker replies. “Before you go anywhere. John, I want you to take a look at this.”
She slides up next to me and clicks play on the tablet, starting a video. It’s shaky footage from earlier this morning, when the Anubis left Manhattan and glided over the Brooklyn Bridge. The camerawork is jittery and the audio is convoluted with screams and soldiers shouting orders to each other. Eventually, the sinister warship passes out of sight.
