Breaking Sky(91)

Phoenix made no move.

“He’s not going to let you guys take our place, Nyx,” Romeo said.

“Yeah, well, in about a minute, I’m going to be too close to those drones, and they’ll split and come after me too, so he better decide fast.”

Phoenix didn’t respond, and Chase started to worry he was too tired to escape.

“Arrow won’t let you take the heat,” Riot said, the jealous jab in his tone acceptable for once.

“He will or I’ll never make out with him again. You hear that, Arrow?” She heard the surprised husk of Tristan’s laugh. So he was listening. “I have a plan. You have to trust me.”

The returning silence was too much.

“Tristan. Give me something.”

She waited.

“Okay.”

The word was so small that it was mostly breath. In that moment, Chase couldn’t help but remember Pippin’s diatribe on okay being so inexact. And then her thoughts slipped to his odd and poetic last words on the melody of “Ode to Joy.”

Up…and down.

“Right,” she said. “On three. Arrow, you head up, and I’ll go down. These drones have issues with breaking thin atmosphere. You’ll be able to get away.”

“How do you know that?” Riot asked.

“Because I’ve seen it.”

“Ready?” She counted.

Tristan broke early, jerking and heading high, but Chase was ready. She dove through the cloud of drones, making several of them crumple and spin into a plummeting dive. Riot yelled, but Chase kept her eye on the sky. The drones were after her now, and she slowed just enough for them to cage her in like they had caught Tristan. “Is he clear, Riot?”

“He’s headed back toward the d-line. I don’t think they’re following him, idiot machines.” He groaned loudly. “But that’s only because they’re all over us.”

It was quite a sight to see. The sky had turned red through the cockpit as the drones flew perilously close. They kept low and tight, trying to wear her down, force her to the earth.

Chase rushed the throttle. The blinding pressure in her muscles sent rivers of sweat down her cheeks and neck, but she only pushed the jet faster. The drone cloud started to thin as she passed Mach 3 and blasted out over the ocean.

“Shouldn’t all the drones be the same?” Riot said in a tight voice. “Some are faster than others. Some are unevenly weighted. Is that because they’re mass-produced?”

“Stop. Talking,” Chase barked.

Even more drones fell back when she crossed Mach 4.

Four times the speed of sound.

She couldn’t hold the pace much longer, and she knew that as soon as she lost it, they’d be all over Pegasus like a stinging swarm. “I can’t keep this up,” she admitted through her teeth.

And she didn’t have to.

An alarm went off in the cockpit. The missile-lock alarm.

“They’ve gone to active missiles. All of them!” Riot yelled. She heard the controls as he punched them, attempting to map a getaway trajectory, no doubt. “They’re going to shoot us down. I can’t find a clear direction. Watch it!”

Chase jerked out of the way just as a missile screeched underneath them, hitting another drone and exploding it like a red-metal firework.

“You do have a plan, right?” Riot asked tensely. “You said you had a plan.”

“I have an old trick.” Chase took a deep breath and pointed the bird straight up, streaking toward the yellow orb of the sun.

“A trick? Are you serious?”

“We’ve got to get high. Real high.”

Riot started to swear and didn’t stop. The red drones chased them to the thinnest atmosphere, losing speed just like Chase had known they would. She pushed faster for a few seconds, turning back toward the earth with a flick of her wrists. Chase put every piece of herself into the throttle and threw them at the earth so fast that both cadets screamed with the engines.

The rushing speed was brilliant, and a cloud of mist burst behind them, announcing that the sound barrier had exploded. Riot must have been yelling, but she couldn’t hear him anymore. To the right, China’s coastline revealed its impressive naval force. To the left, she could make out the sky full of U.S. jets, waiting for whatever was about to happen.

Behind her, a few hundred drones raced to keep up. And below, the ocean swiftly magnified with stunning detail.

The deep blue.

The chop of waves.

She pulled up, braking at the split second before they smashed into the sea.

The drones were not so skilled.

They shattered against the cobalt surface as though it were a concrete wall.

“Boola-boola!” she called out through gasps. “Boola-f*cking-boola!”





41


    BRAVO ZULU


   Well Done


Chase was breathing so hard that she could barely hear the cheering over the shortwave—the radio piping in from the fighter jets on the horizon. She steered Pegasus toward the demarcation line, leaving a sloshing sea of sinking red metal in her wake.

Chase knew how Tristan felt now, being too tired to respond. Words of affirmation came over the radio that she couldn’t acknowledge. She was determined to make it back on her own power. She turned northeast. Toward the Star that called her home.