Tailspin, page 49
“Almost forgot, sorry,” Silao replied, and a moment later, he was sighting us to land them and fast. They were coming in hard, and I wondered if he had them under control or if we would get hit, too.
Of course, I needn’t have worried. He landed them all perfectly, I might add. I closed the hangar doors, not wanting anything of the ocean getting in there with them or us, and I eased in over the bouncing ocean, landing as safely as I could just outside the reach of Justin. Silao was out of his seat and scrambling to the back to help him get in. “Locked.”
I took off and scooted a couple hundred feet in the other direction. There were bits of helo debris everywhere, but at least a full helo hadn’t come down on them.
“I see her,” Silao shouted. “Rus, she’s not moving.”
My stomach flipped. “Hook,” I shouted.
I could power down and jump out to help, but if she was injured significantly, this helo had to get back to OOF as fast as possible.
“Got her, pulling her in now.”
“Justin, you got access to her HUD?”
“Not yet,” he shouted back.
I tried to crane my neck and see, but I couldn’t.
Mind on the helo.
“She’s in,” Justin called.
“Doors locking!”
I auto-locked the door over and, within a second, had the helo back in the air and was plotting a course straight back to OOF.
“She’s alive but unconscious,” Justin said. “I can’t tell what injuries.”
I took that as all I needed to comm FC back.
“FC, Ice71. We are hot and inbound with First Airman Canlas unconscious. Unknown injuries.”
“FC to Ice71, rerouting you to Sector One,” he said. “Incoming flight packet, copy.”
“Copy,” I called.
Sounds from the back distracted me on a major level, but I took the flight packet, input the new coordinates, and held our course. I had to, for Malaki.
Silao appeared between the seats. “She’s bleeding from the ears,” he said.
I swallowed, my hands threatening to shake.
No, Apex said. Use the X24, concentrate, or let me take control.
I’ve got this, I replied. I have to.
“Keep her as stable as you can,” I replied to Justin. “We’re ETA fifteen minutes.”
Those fifteen minutes were the longest fifteen minutes of my life.
The Triumph came in towards OOF, then over our sector and across the center of the massive city she was. “We’re—” Justin started.
“Would you expect her to go anywhere else?” I asked him.
“No, not at all.”
This was the most direct route. It saved us time. Time Malaki might have needed.
“What the fuck happened?” I asked him.
“I don’t know.” His voice shook. “I don’t know.” He turned on Silao then, too. “You shot our helo out of the fucking sky—”
“Don’t,” I said, “If he hadn’t, that helo might have been the death of the both of you so close to the water.”
The helo pad I was landing on lit up with a billion lights. Even in the daylight, there was no mistaking it. This was where I’d seen the DH 1 and 2, which seemed so many years ago but wasn’t.
“Ice71, you are clear to land. The medivac team is on standby.”
“Coming in now,” I reported.
The helo responded to my every move. My X24 had complete control, even if my normal hand shook. This one didn’t. It was perfect. It wasn’t responding to my brain functions as a human, just my orders to it from the X1.
I couldn’t have asked for more. It was perfect.
No sooner did I touch down, though, I powered off and was out of my seat and in the back in a second. I was not quicker than the medivac team, though. They had the doors open and Malaki strapped to a board, a floating walker, and she was gone. I stared at them rushing across the pad, finding my breath had left me. I wobbled.
Silao hooked his arm underneath mine. He was shivering, and I realized he still had no shirt on.
Justin grabbed him a jacket from the back and wrapped it around his DP’s shoulders.
The three of us stood staring at each other, unable to utter a single word.
59
“Airman Korolyov?” a voice asked.
I turned to see a face I knew, though he didn’t look so happy. He had bags under his eyes, and wasn’t clean shaven, there was obvious stubble. “Trevor?”
Casey stood by his side her obvious concern written all over her tight-lipped smile.
The others with me paled at my use of his first name. I took a step forward, and my knees threatened to give way. Casey swooped in and wrapped me up. “Come on, let’s get you all inside.”
“Casey, we’re here under—”
“Fuck off,” she shot at him. “I don’t care. Can’t you see how upset they are?”
I pushed myself off her slightly. “It’s okay, thanks.” I moved to stand straight before Trevor. “Sir?” I asked.
“We’ve been asked to escort you across the sector,” Trevor said. “You’re internal now.” He indicated for us to start walking, and we did. But there were eyes on us from all over.
“Investigation,” Justin said to Silao, but I needed to hear that too.
Silao stopped walking, found the nearest bush, dropped, and vomited. When Casey was going to go to him, I stopped her and went.
“I’m fucked,” he said, his voice shaking.
“No, you’re not,” I replied.
He looked up at me, his eyes red and face puffy. “No offense,” he said. “But you don’t know me that well.”
“What I do know is what you did out there—”
“I shot down an aircraft worth millions.” He tried to stand but couldn’t.
I reached down and helped him up while he wiped his mouth off. “You saved two of their best pilots’ lives.” I made sure he could stand on his own before I let go. “Besides, you commanded those drones perfectly.”
He let out a very strained laugh. “Fuck, I did.”
“Yes, you did. I’ll back you up,” I said. “Without your response, we really could have lost them both.”
“What happened?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
I have some ideas, but they’ll need the black box to confirm, Apex said.
What? I shot back at him. What did you see?
I won’t discuss it now. You need to see their intentions first, then I’ll talk.
You’re protecting us?
The less you know, the less you can say, so yes, I am.
We walked back to Trevor and Casey.
“You good?” Trevor asked Silao.
“Yes, sir,” he replied and straightened up.
“What will happen?” I asked the two of them.
Casey started to walk again, slowly. “This won’t be like before. You’re going to a special internal officer who will take your statement, and possibly this week, you’ll sit in front of the board for a decision.”
“We don’t have time for this,” I said.
Trevor shot me a look, but he nodded and glanced at Casey.
“We’ll go to bat for you,” she said. “There’s no way you’re going down for this.”
“Going down?” Silao asked, his hands visibly shaking.
“You’re not even out of your first year,” Trevor said. “They’d never live it down on OOF if they didn’t get rid of you.”
Silao swallowed, and I shook my head at him. “No, no way.”
He moved before me. “Rusty,” he said. “Don’t lose your position because of me.”
“I won’t,” I said, feeling anger burning.
“You don’t know that,” Casey replied. “With Malaki—”
My stomach flipped once more, thinking of her. “Any news?”
Casey shook her head. “Not yet.” She reached for me and put her hand on mine. “FA Canlas is as strong as they come.”
I knew she was, but…what the fuck happened?
We walked to a building. It was the same one we’d been in months ago. I recognized it. When we moved inside it, we went in the opposite direction. Three uniformed men I didn’t know were waiting for us. “Just tell them what happened,” Trevor said. “All of it. Leave nothing out at all. Every detail.”
“Just like I did for Kuri.”
Casey’s face dropped when one of the men stepped forward. His uniform was different, gray with gold accents. I’d never seen it or him before. He looked easily in his early thirties, but his hair wasn’t cut short, and it was visibly receding. “Please, Airman Korolyov, you’re with me.”
I nodded to him and tried my best to smile at Casey, following the man into a small room. I glanced around, nothing but a small desk, and two chairs.
“Please take a seat,” the man said and pointed at one of the chairs.
I complied, sitting opposite him and laying my hands flat on the cool surface. It made me feel better, cooling my soul.
“My name’s Zachary Pulakos. Zach. I am one of the lead investigators for M-Corp’s CIS division. While everything is fresh I’d like you to tell me what happened today.” He sat before me, his squared jaw set, not even an inkling of a smile or anything friendly at all. “First, I am to inform you the rooms under medical, video, and sound surveillance. Everything you do in here is watched by the smartest AI we have.”
I glanced around the room once more. Noted the floor was an odd color, “Understood,” I said, but my voice cracked. Everything I said, felt, or did was under scrutiny. I shivered.
“Relax,” he said. “Take a breath or ten.”
I tried, but my heart pounded in my ears.
Blood pressure is a little high, Apex said. Heart rate too. Breathe with me.
Okay, I replied and took in a nice deep breath.
That’s it, in and out.
While Zach waited, I did however force myself to breath slower. Panic in here wouldn’t help me or Silao. I had to word all of this with clarity and control.
You can do this, Apex encouraged. Slowly.
When I looked up at Zach, he smiled this time and he looked much friendlier. “Take your time. I’m here to go through what happened. If you need to stop at any point, you can. Or if you need anything, ask.”
“I’m allowed to stop?”
“This is an interrogation, but yes, you’re allowed to stop,” he said. “I need to obtain all the facts, and then we can put it all together and hopefully better understand what happened and why Airman Silao took the actions he did.”
“Okay,” I said and rubbed my temples. “I’d like some water, please, or anything enhanced.”
“Headache?”
I nodded.
It wasn’t a moment later, a young woman came in with a pitcher and two glasses. Zach poured me a drink when she left.
“Start when you’re ready.”
I did, carefully. I took him through my day right from the moment I got up and went out running. Walked through Silao asking for my help, and then everything we did to get in the air.
He stopped me at specific points to get me to clarify something he wasn’t sure of, but his calm voice and his general nature made me feel much better and not like an investigation.
The whole time, I was worried about Malaki. I had to stop myself when I talked about her, her chiding me for putting her with Justin. It was us, the joking, the banter. I wasn’t sure anyone would get that.
“Is there any news?” I asked. We seemed to have been going at this for hours and hours. It hadn’t even been an hour since I checked my internal clock.
“I’ll see if I can find anything out,” he said. “Give me a moment.”
When he left me alone in the room, I looked everywhere. I couldn’t see any surveillance anywhere. Nothing gave me the impression I was being watched at all.
I got up, stretched myself out, and popped my back by leaning over, hands on the floor.
The door clicked, and I stayed where I was, thinking it would be Zach.
A cough from a voice I didn’t know made me stand abruptly. No, I did know that voice.
In full uniform, clearly displaying his rank insignias, an older man stood straight before me and glared. “Airman Korolyov.”
“Apologies, sir,” I said. “Yes, sir.” His eyes trailed up my body, and I shivered. Apex, is it? Really?
Yes, there is only one man that would ever look at us like that.
I’d seen his pictures, I’d listened to him giving speeches, but here in the flesh. Fuck, was he imposing. He towered above me, muscle on muscle, his gray-blue eyes glinting of not only his tech, but his intelligence.
“General Canlas,” I said, lowering my head.
“Look at me.” I tilted my head back and met his eyes with mine. “My daughter is alive.”
“Thank fuck,” I said and internally cringed.
His eyes narrowed at me, but his face never gave anything away. He stepped toward me, and I felt something change in the room.
He just silenced it.
I had no idea what that meant, but in slow motion, General Canlas reached for my shirt and grabbed a firm hold of it, scrunching the fabric in his fist. “I will tell you once,” he said. “Listen carefully.”
I could have pissed myself right there, the venom in his voice, his eyes. “I’m listening,” I stammered out, my whole body shaking.
“Both Michaels and my daughter believe you’re something special. I see nothing before me other than a waste of tech, resources, and a lot of our fucking money.”
I swallowed hard. Words tried to form in my head and mouth, but nothing would come out this time.
“This is the first time on your watch she’s injured. There will not be a second time, or I will find you and cut out your tech personally, without an anesthetic. Understand me?”
I managed to suck in enough air to let out a “Yes, sir.”
General Canlas let go of my shirt, but he didn’t move away. Instead, he smoothed it out for me. I stood there and took it. Took him touching me like I was a prized possession. Because I was.
“Now, despite Pulakos just asking you, sit. I want you to tell me what happened.”
You can do this.
Once again, I reiterated exactly what I said to Zach. Almost word for word. I used my memory and my release of events to steady the conversation.
As I drew up to where their helo went down, General Canlas held his hand up. “Wait,” he said. “Focus on what you think you saw. Describe the smoke, the color, the way it drifted.”
I didn’t question him there. I focused on what I recalled from the smoke and gave it to him as it appeared to me.
“Thank you,” he said. “I think I have everything I need.”
The general’s eyes glazed over. “She’s awake,” he said and his eyes focused on me. “And she’s asking for you.”
I wanted to bolt from the room. One to get away from him, and two because I needed to see her. I stayed still while he did whatever he was doing internally. His chair scraping backward brought me around when he stood.
“Come with me,” he said and indicated the door.
I followed. Mr. Pulakos stood outside the door waiting for us. “General Canlas, you can’t take him away from this investigat—”
General Canlas gave him one glance, and he quieted. “Airman Korolyov will be returned to you if you need him again. I suggest you correlate your findings with the others in your team.”
I could have cut the tension with a knife. But as General Canlas moved away from him, Mr. Pulakos stepped before me. “If you think of anything else you wish me to know, please”—he held his wrist out to me, and I put mine to his—“contact me.”
“I will,” I said. “Thanks.”
General Canlas wasn’t hanging around. I ran and caught up to him fast. A shuttle was waiting for us, and he was in it, leaving the door open for me. It auto-closed behind me.
“Where did they take her?” I asked.
He pointed down. “Only one place I’d ever have her go here,” he said. “Are you okay traveling underwater?”
I had no idea. I nodded, though, and said, “Yes.”
He smiled at me. “You don’t lie very well, in fact, well at all. Once we’re in the water, I will ask you a few more questions.”
“Sir?”
“Off the record.”
To my surprise and absolute horror, the shuttle sped up toward the side of the city. The wall. We’d hit it.
No. The wall shimmered and moved.
I couldn’t process it fast enough, but we were off the end of the main platform, and the ocean was hurtling toward us in less than a minute.
General Canlas reached out and pushed me back into my seat.
We hit the water hard, and I flinched, expecting the water to break the glass, and burst into the vehicle.
“We’re safe,” he said. “Think of this almost like a helo, but we’re going underwater.”
I physically shook. I did not like this, not at all.
“Where are we going?” I asked again.
“Out to Trimaran, the capital for the Techean. It won’t take long.”
I couldn’t see anything else. The view before me faded. “How deep?”
General Canlas fidgeted in his seat. A moment later, he was undoing his jacket and unbuttoning his sleeves. “We’ll be approximately six thousand meters under.”
Under twenty thousand feet. I hadn’t even been that high in a helo, yet…here I was going underwater, further than I’d been in height.
I was terrified. “Sir.” My voice shook. “I don’t like this.”
“I can see that,” he said. His tone had totally changed. “Please, Malaki needs you.”
His face had softened up a lot, a hell of a lot.
“She needs me…” I reiterated and panic set in. “Is she okay, really?”
“They’re going to take her in for an operation. She’s refusing till she talks to you.”
“Why?”
General Canlas sat back in his seat, resting his head and blowing out a breath. “She’s as stubborn as me,” he said simply.
I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “I’m screwed, then.”
To my surprise, the general laughed as well. “No wonder she likes you,” he said, reaching out with his hand. “Please, call me Josef when we’re alone.”
