Breaking Sky(25)

“Sylph will be here in five minutes,” Pippin announced.

“This’ll be over in two.” Chase bit back anger. Sylph should be faster. JAFA shouldn’t be burning. She should do something. Chase eyed the hangar door. A blue fiery blast lit up the inside. Chase knew that color. Jet engine flashes. She dropped even closer, peering through the smoke-blackened windows.

Faces peered back. Dozens of them.

“There are people stuck in there!” Chase set down on the runway before Pippin could object, taxiing toward the hangar door too fast.

“What’re you…Nyx!” He knew her too well. “We’re not a battering ram!”

“Dragon is fortified titanium. She’s stronger than whatever that is, right?” Chase didn’t wait for a response. People were dying a few yards away. The least she could do was try. She hit the throttle and drove at the sealed door, crossing her fingers that the people inside saw her coming.

That they moved back.

She smashed into it, screeching metal on metal, and pushed all the way to the front edge of the cockpit. When she rolled back, a frame of wreckage hung from Dragon’s nose, but the door was punctured. Smoke chugged out of the gaping hole.

“Come on!” she whispered.

The platform of ramp stairs appeared on the other side of the hangar door. People began to jump from the stairs and through the hole, helping each other down. They were young. Cadets just like at the Star.

“Nyx, we won’t be able to take off with that scrap stuck to us. And we need to get out of here.”

“I have to help them.” She hit the canopy switch and leaped out, hitting the pavement hard enough to fall and mangle her knees through her G-suit. She shook out the stinging pain and ran.

Older airmen and officers appeared among the survivors, directing everyone toward the woods beside the runway. Chase helped a few cadets out of the fiery hangar, all the while searching for a sign of Streaker Team Phoenix.

Arrow was among the last. She met his eyes with soft shock—relief and something else. He stood on the ramp stairs, helping an elderly woman in a white lab coat through the hole. When the woman was through, he leaned out and yelled to Chase. “I’m going to get my bird out. Clear back.”

The last of the survivors ran into the woods beyond the runway.

Chase headed to Dragon, tugging at the metal frame on her jet’s nose. It was too heavy. She pulled, only budging it a few inches. Any second, Phoenix was going to slam blindly out of the hangar doors—and right into her. They’d all be dead in a flash of scorching jet fuel.

“Pippin! Help!” Her words were lost in the roaring collapse of a nearby building. Chase went back to the scrap and pulled with everything she had. This was going to end badly. Both Streakers would be blown up. Both teams would die because she had to break orders. Had to land.

She yanked harder, choking on swears, but suddenly, her hands weren’t alone. Her arms were a pair among many as shoulders pushed into her own. The group pulled as one, and the piece screeched as it slid off Dragon and smashed on the ground.

Before anyone could speak, Pegasus flew by with a shriek of furious speed. Arrow threw out a protective arm that slammed into Chase’s chest.

“That’s just Sylph,” Chase yelled over the fire’s destruction. She loosened his grip on her chest and pushed him away with both hands. “She’s on our side.”

“Mostly,” Pippin croaked. Arrow’s RIO laughed at that—a desperate sound amid the chaos.

“Come on. I’ll lead you—” she started, but Arrow cut her off.

“We’re forgetting something.” His eyes searched the runway, his demeanor slightly frozen. Black smears ran down his face and into his long hair. Finally he pointed.

The fuel truck was mere feet from one of the burning buildings. Chase watched as the ground underneath it began to burn.

“Down!” Arrow yelled. He was on top of her so fast, over Pippin and his RIO too, shielding them with his body.

The sky lit up like daylight.

The explosion shook the air and speared his hearing.

Moments later, they were all standing, staring. Dazed. Pegasus flew by again, but this time Arrow was struck still. Chase gripped the shoulders of his T-shirt and yelled his call sign into his face. The orange blare of fire danced over his blue eyes, but they were static.

She shouted at his RIO. “Help him!”

The RIO smacked Arrow. Hard. “Tristan!” he yelled. “Snap to. We’ve got to get out of here.”

Arrow pulled at his ears and worked his jaw like the blast had taken out his hearing.

She took hold of his shirt again. “Tristan.” His eyes locked on hers. Unlike his call sign, his name was a link straight through to him. “Get in your bird. Follow me home.”

He nodded.

Chase and Pippin climbed into their Streaker while Phoenix’s team returned through the hole in the smoking hangar. In a few rasping breaths, she’d flung Dragon up into the night. Pippin held on to her shoulder while they circled what was left of JAFA.

“You think they’ll make it?” His question was barely out when the hangar roof began to collapse.

“Come on,” Chase whispered.

As if he didn’t want to make her wait, the rest of the building flew apart as Phoenix broke through the flames and into her sky.