Breaking Sky(89)

Chase hooked her arm in Riot’s and dragged him back up the stairs. She popped on Sylph’s helmet. “Hope you had a nice catnap because we’re going back out.”

“What are you doing?” Riot asked.

“Skipping the hard work.” She pushed him back in the cockpit and slid into the pilot’s chair. The deck officer had come back yelling at her to get down, but she ignored him.

“How in the world do you expect to get Kale’s permission?” Riot asked.

“Easy. I’ll go higher.” She flipped on the shortwave. Tourn might not want her as a daughter—that she’d learn to accept somehow—but he wanted her as a cadet. A pilot. “Tower, this is Nyx in Pegasus requesting to speak with General Tourn.”

A long pause. Too long. Followed by a grunt.

“Cadet, what are you doing in that bird?”

“Trying to fly, General, but I need gas.”

“What makes you think you can get off the ground?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know, but I have to try.”

Another silence, but then she heard an order in the background for Pegasus to be refueled.

Tourn came back commanding. “Things are getting hot along the d-line. I want you to give it everything you got, but if the sky starts to break apart, you use that Streaker speed to get the hell out. Get back here. That’s an order. Understood?”

“Understood, General Tourn.” She was holding on to the throttle and stick as if they were her lifelines. “You’re…you’re really going to let me try?”

“No one so determined fails.” It was one of his mottos, which she might have dismissed if it didn’t feel like he was trying to tell her he had faith in her.

There were other words she wanted to say, but she chose the simplest ones. “Thank you.”

When he spoke again, his voice was closer, as though he’d leaned into the mic. “Cadet, there are few people who can say what I’m about to say and know exactly what it means, but I am one of those people.”

She waited.

“I’m sorry about your RIO.”





40


    DOWNTOWN


   Enemy Territory


Chase shot Pegasus onto the runway. Her heart hammered at her chest and her doubts slid in. Could she do it?

She had to.

But how? Her mind slipped to Pippin’s swelling, bleeding head, and their speed died out.

Riot began to ask questions. “You okay? What’s happening?”

“I need a second,” she snapped. “I’m getting my focus together.”

The silence came with snow settling on the cockpit glass. She couldn’t do it. Oh God, she couldn’t…

“What do you think you’re doing, Harcourt?” Kale’s voice came over the shortwave. Despite the panic in his tone, his voice brought calm.

“I’m more stubborn than you are,” Chase responded. “And I’m going to fly.”

“This is almost over,” he said, defeated. Resigned. “Harcourt, Donnet’s death affected us all, but right now we don’t need you to be suicidal.”

“This isn’t about Pippin. At least, it’s not about his death. I have to get up there. For the other Streaker teams. For the Star.” She was trying to convince herself as well as Kale. “I might not be able to do anything other than relieve Phoenix, but that in itself is important.”

Kale sighed like he might relent, but an alarm went off in the tower, bleeding through the radio. Chase heard chaos erupt. “Everyone to the bunkers. That’s an order!” Kale yelled at someone in the tower.

“Brigadier General? What’s happening?” Chase’s panic crested. “Kale?!”

“The drones have crossed the line. Phoenix is under attack!”

A blaring alarm sounded throughout the Star. Chase could hear it coming through the open hangar door. The lights were already going off.

Chase yelled above the racket on the radio. “Kale, what do I do?”

“Phoenix is beyond help. It looks like they’re trying to bring him down over China. To collect the Streaker. Arrow doesn’t have the fuel or energy to outfly them for long.”

Her heart slammed around as she imagined Tristan taken as hostage. Tortured. Killed. “I’ll get to him.”

“You can’t, Harcourt. You can’t, and I don’t want you taking his death on yourself.”

“His death?” This time it was Riot.

“You can’t help this time. I wish you could.”

“What do you mean his death?” she yelled.

“If they succeed in getting Phoenix down, we’re going to bomb the area. Ri Xiong Di cannot have a Streaker. You know that.”

Chase fired up the jet’s engines.

“Stand down, Dragon. That’s an order.”

“This is Pegasus.” Chase leaned into the throttle. Sent them down the runway.

“Those drones are over the d-line, Harcourt. They could send firepower this way any minute. Turn around and get to the bunkers. That’s an order!”

“I can get to Arrow, General. I can use the shortwave and talk him back to life.”

He paused for far too long.