Freedom Forged by Alan Austin

Author:Alan Austin
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

He’s Alive

Even with the modifications that were last minute and hardly a part of DaVinci’s intended design, the carrier handled well. Worries about the others were much more nerve wracking for her than flying this machine was at the moment. The train was scarred with gunfire and holes from explosions and she could see that one of the divers was missing. She feared the worst, but when she’d passed over the final car before the engine, she could see one of the landing struts was still attached to the top of the train, telling her that Sam and Rosalyn had at least landed. If Rosalyn ended up in the ocean, that would be just fine with Grease, but losing Sam would be devastating.

The only man she cared about more than Sam was Ticks. Seeing his diver set on the car was a relief, and she was shocked at how much more she had been worried about him after the night before. She’d known she cared deeply for him for a long time, but something about finally acting on those feelings had stirred them up even stronger and the thought of anything getting in the way of that was almost unbearable. She eased the struts down onto the engine and felt herself lock down to the train with a slight jolt. She was in position.

Unlike the last time, she would not be deploying the carrier’s full wings on this mission. In fact, she pulled the base wings back in to give the others more room to work on either side of the ship once they were ready.

Boomer ran up along her ship’s right side almost immediately, but Sam wasn’t in position yet. That wasn’t good. Grease popped the canopy open and slid it back to talk with Boomer.

“Where’s Sam?” she asked.

“No clue,” Boomer replied and then immediately added, “Oh, there he is.”

Grease leaned over the side of the ship and looked back to see Sam walking, not running, with Navada at his side. That wasn’t right. She was supposed to be down with Ticks to cover for Sam. As Grease was thinking through what that could mean, she noticed the pain on both their faces and the tears streaming down Navada’s cheeks. Sam’s eyes met Grease’s and she knew. Ticks was gone.

Her heart felt like it shriveled up right inside her chest and she couldn’t breathe for a moment as she gasped for oxygen.

“Oh shit,” Boomer said solemnly.

Tears came before her breath finally returned and Grease buried her face into her hands as Boomer reached up and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Grease,” he offered weakly.

Sam finally arrived and could see that Grease had figured it out. Nothing needed to be said.

“What are we going to do now?” Boomer asked.

“I don’t know,” Sam admitted.

Without coverage on the platform below, he was all but sure to get shot on his way down with the cable.

“It will take longer, but you’ll have to go first and then have the others cover my side,” Sam finally suggested, thinking that it might still work.

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