The Silence by Mark Alpert

Author:Mark Alpert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2017-04-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter

17

Our biggest problem is that the Reaper drone has a maximum velocity of only 300 miles per hour. The F-35 jets are barreling over the desert at four times that speed. And when they’re twenty miles away, all six of the fighters launch their air-to-air missiles, which streak toward us at 3,000 miles per hour.

Amber! Do you have any power left in your lasers?

Negative. I think we should—

Listen carefully. I cut her off before she can finish her sentence. I’m afraid she’s going to recommend abandoning Zia again, and I don’t want to hear it. Fly toward the missiles as fast as you can.

Amber doesn’t ask any questions. She follows my order, steering her Jet-bot to the northeast and accelerating past the speed of sound. Meanwhile, I act as her copilot and navigator, pointing my sensors at the missiles dead ahead. Our maneuver must seem insane to the pilots of the fighter jets, because we’re making ourselves easy targets. If we stay on this crash course, the air-to-air rockets will explode against the Jet-bot in thirteen seconds.

But that’s more than enough time for me to build up another surge. All I have to do is think about Sumner Harris and the generals who ordered the attack on the Pioneers. It didn’t take them long to decide to get rid of us. They didn’t agonize over it or consider any reasonable alternatives. (The Model S was definitely not reasonable.) For Sumner, choosing to destroy us was a no-brainer. In his eyes, the Pioneers are nothing.

The surge rises quickly, roaring across my electronics. It’s getting easier to generate the anger and fear. The fierce stream of emotion swirls within me, feeding on itself, gathering force. It’s overloading my processors and stripping my wires, but I endure the pain and hold it inside. I wait until the air-to-air missiles are half a mile away, less than a second from impact. Then I release the surge into the atmosphere.

It spreads like a mushroom cloud, a fireball hundreds of yards across. The six missiles soar into it and explode instantly. I feel a flash of satisfaction, as if I’ve just made a brilliant counterargument to Sumner Harris and his allies. I want to shout, “You see? It’s not so easy to get rid of us, is it?”

But when I check my radar again, I see something disturbing. Eight miles ahead, the squadron of F-35 jets splits into two smaller formations. Three of the jets veer off to the west while the other three fly directly south. The pilots have obviously recognized that Amber’s Jet-bot has some pretty serious defenses, so they’re going after easier prey: the slow-moving Reaper drone with the War-bot clinging to it. They’re steering around us so they can shoot down Zia.

Oh God! What do we do? If they come at Zia from two different directions, we won’t be able to shield her from their missiles!

Amber answers me by swerving her Jet-bot to the north, putting us on an intercept course with one of the formations.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.