Counterattack Page 5

  I almost blurted out that I had never seen it before. Even so, it seemed difficult to think that people would take all of this for granted.

  I nodded. I, too, had come to understand that there’s more to life than what a person can see or hear or touch.

  I wanted to be able to trust Nate completely. But Dad had said to trust no one. I finally asked one of the questions that had been bugging me. “Why did you decide to live alone in the swamp?”

  “Tell you what,” Nate said, grinning, “I’ll tell you where I came from if you tell me where you came from.”

  “Can’t,” I said after a few seconds.

  “Wish you could,” he said, “but you’re old enough to decide who you can trust.”

  The alligator in the nearby swamp roared again. A few minutes of silence passed.

  “Good night, kid from nowhere,” Wild Man finally said.

  I did feel like a kid from nowhere. Like an alien on Earth. In a wheelchair, when most people could walk. With a spinal plug that made me even more of a freak. I knew Nate had been joking, but it still hit too close to the truth. I didn’t answer him.

  He must have felt my coldness in the silence between us, but he spoke kindly. “You already told me you don’t need help getting into your sleeping bag. So I’ll wake you in plenty of time tomorrow morning.”

  He crawled into his own sleeping bag.

  And left me alone in my wheelchair, staring at the fire, feeling very alone.

  CHAPTER 13

  The smell of the fire woke me up just before dawn. Along with another interesting smell.

  “Eat quickly,” Nate said from where he was crouched beside the fire on our miniature island in the middle of the Everglades. “We’ve got about two hours to reach our meeting point.”

  I was still in my sleeping bag. The night before Nate had given me a pair of blue pants. He called them jeans. I also wore a T-shirt and a sweater.

  I let Nate help me out of the sleeping bag into my wheelchair, impressed all over again at how powerful he was.

  Nate went back to the fire, then handed me a green bowl filled with brown liquid. I wasn’t familiar with the smooth hard material. Plastic?

  He grinned at the puzzlement on my face. “Turtle soup. Remember? Slurp it right from the shell.”

  I nodded and took a taste. A strange texture and rather drippy. But not bad. Nate’s version of Earth food was much better than the nute tubes on Mars.

  Nate noticed Ashley had awakened as well. He handed her a bowl. She ate it from her sleeping bag.

  “Hmmm,” she said, after a slurp.

  “Finish it quick and get ready to go,” he told her. “The sooner we leave, the sooner we arrive.”

  “Where?” I asked. The sky was getting brighter, and I shivered in my sleeping bag in the predawn cold. Already the sounds of birds filled the air. As if they were happy to be alive. I couldn’t blame them. Earth was fascinating.

  “It’s no coincidence that I chose this route away from the base,” Nate put in. “It was the direction that put us closest to the interstate. I’ve got a friend who handles a mag-strip truck on the north-south route. He usually brings me supplies once every two weeks, and I meet him at a truck stop on the highway on the outer limits of the Everglades. After my excommander showed up the other day, I called this friend and set up a meeting with him for today. Just in case I needed to get away from this area quickly.”

  No coincidence? It seemed like too much of a coincidence. I was immediately suspicious. “How did you know you’d need him?”

  Nate smiled grimly. “When I was running operations, I always set up a fallback plan in case anything went wrong. The way it looks now, not only is my ex-commander going to be looking for me after not showing up with you two, but so are the Combat Force people we escaped yesterday. To me, this definitely qualifies as something going wrong.”

  A little under two hours later, Nate let the swamp boat glide to a stop at the edge of some trees.

  As the motor died, I heard a strange whooshing rumble on the other side of the trees. The thick green underbrush did not let me see more than 10 feet ahead, so I couldn’t tell what was making the noise.

  “He’ll have parked his trailer as close to the path as possible,” Nate said as he jumped from the boat and tied the rope to a tree. “That’s how he does it when he delivers my supplies. So I’ll make a couple of trips. I’ll bring up our equipment first, then come back for you guys.”

  “Um, sure,” I said. We didn’t have much choice except to trust him. The alternative was to try to move by ourselves, which would be next to impossible. For two reasons. One, I was in my wheelchair, which could not roll through swampland. And two, Ashley and I didn’t really know where we were going. Yet.

  Nate jumped back on the swamp boat and rolled each robot forward. He jumped off the boat and reached up for the upper body of the first titanium robot. He tilted it forward across his shoulder.

  “At least these things are light enough to carry. But they’re going to be a pain to travel with,” he said. “I have a feeling they’re the reason I was offered so much money for you. Sure you don’t want to tell me about them?”

  I shook my head. As did Ashley.

  “Remember,” I said. Ashley and I had talked with him earlier about our money cards and the unlimited funds. We weren’t in danger that he’d steal them from us, because he didn’t have the identity prints to use them. “When you get us where we need to go, you will get your million.”

  He grinned. “I remember. Of course, you still haven’t told me where you need to go.”

  We didn’t know yet. But this wasn’t something I wanted to tell him.

  With the robot over his shoulder, Nate turned and disappeared up the path. Thirty seconds later he reappeared and did the same with the second robot. He came back for a duffel bag with his own supplies. Then for me and Ashley.

  To get me off the boat, he first lifted me and then set me on the ground. Next he went back for my wheelchair before setting me in it and rolling me forward on the path toward the rumbling noises.

  Ashley followed, carrying our gear.

  When we reached the end of the path, one row of trees screened us from what lay beyond. Both robots and Nate’s duffel bag sat nearby.

  Finally I saw the source of the rumbling noise.

  “Trucks!” I said in triumph, recognizing them from the DVD-gigaroms. There was a parking lot filled with huge trucks and trailers. And on the other side was a highway, with vehicles rumbling down the pavement at high speeds. I never would have guessed they’d be so big.

  “You sound like you’ve never seen a truck before.” Nate again eyeballed me.

  I didn’t answer.

  Ahead of us, a truck had backed up to the edge of the parking lot. The back trailer doors were open. That, I guessed, was our destination. A truck stop. As Nate had explained, it was a rest area off the interstate where trucks fueled.

  There were probably 50 trucks, so I wasn’t too worried that we would be noticed. Until I saw the Combat Force soldiers guarding trucks with Federation colors. Would they see us as we loaded our stuff onto the truck?

  Before I could say anything to Ashley, there was a loud explosion.

  And the front end of one of the military trucks blossomed with smoke.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” Nate urged Ashley. “As soon as they figure out it’s only a smoke bomb, they’ll start wondering why. And we need to be gone by then.”

  Ashley ran toward the back door of the trailer, carrying what she could.

  Nate helped her up.

  He ran back for the robots. One by one he lifted them into the trailer. He threw her his duffel bag. That left only me in the wheelchair.

  Nate rolled me forward. With a loud grunt he picked both me and the wheelchair up and hoisted me into the trailer. Then he hopped in and swung both doors, putting us into temporary darkness.

  “I think we’re safe.” His voice
echoed in the trailer.

  A lurch told us the truck was moving forward.

  I held my breath. If any of the soldiers were going to stop the truck, it would be in the next minute as it left this parking area.

  I heard rumbling as the truck gained speed.

  And finally, when I could hold my breath no longer, I relaxed.

  We were on the highway.

  Light hit us from the front of the trailer as a door opened.

  It revealed stacks of heavy crates between the front and us. The outline of a man showed in the light. The man walked toward us on a small catwalk that led from the cab to the trailer. Nate had told us earlier that these newer trucks included sleeping quarters in the trailer.

  “Not even close, Nate,” came his deep voice. “No hitches. Just like the old days. Nothing like a good old smoke bomb to distract the enemy, huh?”

  “Whistler was one of the best bomb guys I had,” Nate said quietly. “We called him Whistler because he whistled all the time but couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Still, I’d trust him with my life.”

  Whistler reached us. Nate shook his hand. In the dimness I could barely see his face, but I could tell he was African-American.

  “Ashley and Tyce,” Nate said proudly, “this is Whistler.”

  Whistler’s white teeth showed in a wide grin as he shook both our hands. “Ee-yew. You guys don’t smell that pretty, let me tell you. How long you been in the swamps?”

  “Too long,” Nate said with a laugh.

  “Is there another driver?” I asked.

  “No,” Whistler answered. “Should there be?”

  “You’re back here and …” I’d never been in a truck before, but even I knew that someone should be at the steering wheel.

  “Mag-strips,” Whistler said.

  “Mag-strips?”

  “You from another planet, kid?” Whistler joked.

  Here we go again, I thought.

  “Everyone knows how mag-strips work,” Whistler continued.

  “Go easy on him, Whistler,” Nate said quickly. “He asks crazy questions, but I know he’s not stupid.” Then he turned to me. “All the interstate highways have mag-strips embedded every five feet in the pavement. They read computer sensors in the truck’s axles. Between GPS and the main computer at the trucking company’s head office, the trucks are guided at the right speed the right distance apart.”

  “This truck can be tracked anywhere it goes?”

  “Tracked and guided. But only on the interstate highways. The drivers are needed for when the trucks have to exit and head into the cities.”

  “Yeah,” Whistler announced, “it’s a great job for long-haul drivers. Once we get our rigs from the city streets or the truck stops onto the highway, we can kick back and relax.”

  He jerked his thumb toward the rear of our trailer. “Except for the Combat Force drivers we left back at the truck stop. They’re under such tight computer supervision, they can’t even blink without some commander knowing it. Which is a waste, considering they always travel in a pack of 10 trucks. What’s one of the drivers going to do? Peel off and try to drive away from the escort trucks? Not even a payload of tantalum is worth that kind of risk.”

  “Tantalum?” I echoed.

  “This kid is from Mars, isn’t he?” Whistler joked to Nate. “Tantalum. The miracle metal they’ve been mining from the moon. Those trucks you saw back there? All of them came from the Everglades space base. That’s where the shuttles land with tantalum from the Earth-Moon orbits.” He paused. “Where exactly are you guys from? All Nate told me was he needed to get you out of this area.”

  “More important than where they’re from,” Nate interrupted, “is for me to know where they’re going. Which is something they refused to tell me until we made it out of the Everglades. Now would be as good a time as any, Tyce.”

  “Not so fast,” I said. “When can we get to the nearest library?”

  CHAPTER 15

  After about four hours on the interstate, we stopped at a motel just off the road.

  Whistler rented a room near the back of the motel and parked his truck in such a way that passersby couldn’t see inside the trailer as he opened the back doors. During our time on the highway, Nate had given us a couple of reasons why we should stop, and Ashley and I saw no reason to disagree.

  Especially for reason number one.

  Showers! After a couple of days in prison and our time in the Everglades, we needed it.

  Nate carried me into the room. Ashley followed. She went into the bathroom first while Nate and I waited in the outer room and watched television. Then my turn.

  I loved it. Whistler had made sure to rent a room that would accommodate my needs from a wheelchair. It was the first shower I’d ever been able to take without worrying how much water I was using. On Mars, water was far too scarce, so we were allowed showers only twice a month. The rest of the time we used an evaporating gel as soap.

  Here, under the hot water that streamed down like it would never end, I couldn’t believe that people on Earth had a luxury like this any day they wanted. I finally finished when I heard banging on the bathroom door.

  Then Nate’s turn. He went in with his duffel bag while Ashley and I flipped channels. We’d never actually used a television before—she because of her time in the Institute and I because of my time on Mars. I was familiar with a lot of the programs, though, from the DVD-gigaroms I’d watched on Mars.

  The television hung from the ceiling, so Ashley and I could each lie on a bed and watch.

  After I flipped through all the channels twice, Nate stepped out of the bathroom. But he didn’t look like Nate.

  “Wow!” Ashley said.

  “Is that you?” I asked.

  Nate had given himself a haircut and shaved his beard. Plus, he’d changed from his crusty wilderness clothing into a black turtleneck and tan pants. I almost didn’t recognize him.

  “Yes, it’s me,” Nate said. “We’re on the run. Last thing I want is to draw attention to us by looking like a hermit.”

  I kept flipping channels as he spoke.

  “Whistler’s not back yet?” he asked.

  The truck was still outside, but Nate had asked Whistler to take a taxi to a car rental place to rent a van.

  “He—” Ashley stopped as a car horn beeped outside. She smiled. “He’s right here.”

  “Good,” Nate said. “I’ll say good-bye to him for all of us. You guys wait here while I unload the stuff from the trailer to the van. Then the three of us can travel by ourselves.”

  “Hang on!” I shouted. It felt like my eyes were bugging out of my head as I pointed at the television.

  “Yes?” Nate looked confused. Filling the screen was the face of an old man handling a press conference.

  “It’s him!”

  “Sure it’s him. It’s big news, this week’s annual gathering of the Governors of Justice. In New York.”

  “You have television in your cabin in the Everglades?” Ashley asked.

  “No. Radio.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “You don’t get it,” I told them. This wasn’t the time for idle conversation. “It’s him!”

  “What’s the big deal?” Nate put in. “Everybody knows who he is. The supreme governor. Head of the Governors of Justice. Aside from the president of the World United Federation, he’s the most powerful man in the world.”

  “But it’s him!” I claimed excitedly. “The guy my dad held hostage in the Combat Force prison!”

  CHAPTER 16

  A half hour later we were on the interstate again, where GPS and an onboard computer system in the van guided us among the other vehicles through the mag-strip sensors embedded in the pavement.

  I looked around. All I saw were large trucks, cars, and vans traveling at precisely the same speed we were, since the computer system maintained the proper distance between each vehicle.

  Trees and hanging vines formed walls of green on b
oth sides of the interstate. Over the previous hours of travel, the highway had lost some of its flatness and straightness. Nate had promised that as we traveled farther north, the surroundings would change even more.

  “Do you like your library?” Nate asked, turning from behind the steering wheel to Ashley and me in the back of the van.

  “Library?” I asked.

  “Sure.”

  I was so used to Nate with a beard, it was strange to see his smile surrounded by smooth skin. “I know you’re carrying a comp-board. We’ll just plug it in to the Internet as we drive. You can find anything you need.”

  I sure hoped he was right.

  “You know we have a comp-board?” Ashley repeated.

  “Of course. Think I’d take you guys anywhere without searching all of your possessions while you slept? I was disappointed I needed a password to access the information.”

  It made me glad I hadn’t gone into my journal earlier.

  “That’s not fair,” Ashley said.

  “Who said I had to be fair? We’ve got two different branches of military after us. My ex-commander and your prison people. But you won’t tell me why. You want me to take you somewhere, but you won’t give me the location. You won’t even tell me why you were held in prison or what those robots are for. Plus, I’ve been offered a lot of money for you. By Cannon. And by you guys. Which leads me to another thing. How you have that much money. Face it. There’s a lot of questions about all of this. I’d be dumb not to find out what I can.”

  “I still don’t think it’s fair.” Ashley frowned.

  Nate gave her a charming grin. “As long as you don’t kick me in the shins again.”

  “Guys?” I interrupted. “Library?”

  “One wireless Internet connection is up front here,” Nate said, still grinning as Ashley kept giving him a dirty look. “And there’s another in the back beside your wheelchair.”