Code Breakers: Alpha by Colin F. Barnes

Author:Colin F. Barnes [Barnes, Colin F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Anachron Press
Published: 2014-05-14T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The Jaguar rocked violently. Gerry woke with a start. Petal’s face stared just centimetres from him and reflected his own wide-eyed panic at the rapid changing of direction.

“We’re going down! They hacked our navigation.” Gabriel wrestled with the controls but couldn’t steer the Jaguar away from its descent towards a narrow valley carved between red, dusty, flat-topped mountains.

“Who’s hacked us?” Petal shouted above the wind and whining engines.

“Hell if I know.”

The sun was rising above the ridge, casting the chasm into a golden, scarlet glow.

Gerry accessed his VPN connection with Petal. He branched out through a secure port to the Jaguar, tried to monitor the data of the Jaguar’s system, but was instantly crashed out with a high-pitched screech in his communicator.

Involuntarily snapping his head away, Gerry slid across the bench seat, but the strapping held him before he could smash into the window as the aircraft lurched to its side, banking hard and down into a tight twist.

The ground spun and raced towards him. Amongst the movement, he noticed a number of black spots lined up aside a brown, sludgelike river at the bottom of the valley. Next to the black spots, a series of dust devils swarmed up into the sky. Ahead of the dust trails were heavy, four-and six-wheeled vehicles not dissimilar to those driven by the Bachians. Only these were far less jerry-rigged.

“We’re gonna crash, Gabe. Do something,” Petal said, her eyes growing wider still as she took in the scene.

“It’s useless. These damn things are on rails. It ain’t responding.” Gabe yanked at the yoke and flicked switches to no avail.

The Jaguar slowed its fall before landing on a wide patch of dirt next to the sludge river, which flowed on slow, fat currents.

Gerry breathed slowly and waited for his head to stop spinning. Outside, three flat-bed trucks approached, carrying groups of people shrouded in black cloth.

On the back of the middle truck, a flagpole rose three metres into the air. A red and yellow flag, tattered and dotted with holes, whipped behind in the warm air.

The flag-bearing truck pulled up right beside the Jaguar. One man, wearing a featureless chromed mask and carrying a HackSlate, stepped down and stood at Gabe’s door. Three more people appeared: two men and a woman. They wore cloth half-masks over their mouths and stood behind their apparent leader.

The two men both carried a pair of pistols, while the woman was armed with a long-barrelled rifle and scopes. She tapped the side of the gun, and a monopod extended to strike the dusty ground. She bent at the rifle and aimed it at Gerry.

Chrome Mask gestured on the HackSlate. The gull-wing doors of the Jaguar opened, and he beckoned them out.

“Get out. The vehicle’s ours now.”

“What the hell is this, Gabe?” Gerry asked, not moving. Scared to stay where he was, and scared to go out into the unknown.

“Hell knows. I ain’t ever been this way before! Probably just survivors looking for resources.”

They seemed far too professional for simple looters.

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