Chapter Sixteen
"WATCH OUT!" PAUL YELLED.
Frakes jammed a foot on the fan control pedals. The car snapped off a tree as thick as a man's waist, then rammed sideways into a half-fallen domed structure. Pink debris rained through the open hatchway as the car tore through, fans screaming.
"I can't see!" Frakes roared. "Get the damned screens on!"
"I'm trying!" Paul yelled back, punching frantically at the console's vidscreen controls. Frakes couldn't control the car at the same time he was trying to see through the hatchway. Besides the vidscreens, the only other view to the outside was through a single narrow slit that was positioned in front of Paul's seat. It was obviously meant to give a view around the skirts for the antipersonnel gunner, but was of no use when it came to steering the massive vehicle.
"To the left!" Paul yelled. Frakes stomped on the pedal and the car veered ponderously, skidding sideways through a pile of brownish-red rubble.
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The fans shrieked as they chewed through stone, and Paul was nearly thrown from his seat. He had spotted a roadway over there. If they could reach thatThen he hit upon the right combination of keys, and the central screen flickered into life.
"Ah," Frakes said with relief.
"Over there." Paul pointed to the starboard screen. "I saw—"
"I got it spotted," Frakes said. They crashed through heavy vegetation, then shot across the roadway and plowed into a grove of slender trees. Frakes muttered under his breath, then got the fans swiveled around and the car turned back to the road. He brought the car to a stop and hovered, staring at the vidscreens. "Which way?"
"Left," Paul said.
The car jerked forward, shuddering over the low ridge that bordered the road. The fans churned rocks and dust. Then the car swung around and headed down the road, weaving unsteadily from side to side.
Paul got the rest of the vidscreens on at last so the bank above the weapons board gave a full threesixty view. As far as he could see, there was no pursuit. But the stemview screen gave evidence of the cloud of dust boiling up behind them. That would be more than enough to give the deacons and Sons at the temple their general direction.
"What was that all about?" Frakes asked, jerking a thumb back toward the temple. "Quite a free-forall."
"We'll talk about it later," Paul said. Frakes had a few answers to give, too. But for now Paul wanted to concentrate on reaching the building at the river. They slid over the roadway, blasting through the rubble from collapsed domes and vegetation that grew up through the pavement. Twice Frakes had to steer the car off the road and pick his way around sections of tube that blocked it.
The road began sloping downhill a few minutes before they saw the glimmer of water on the forward screen. The car passed over a small stream that had branched off from the river. The road ended abruptly at a solid wall of trees and brush, and the car shuddered to a stop.
"Turn right," Karyn called from the back. "Stay as close to the river as you can."
Frakes turned the car and began easing it through the heavy growth of trees and underbrush. Paul watched the vidscreens, and within a few minutes he saw the broken spire thrusting up above the trees. He pointed it out, and Frakes guided the car toward the building. The fans got bogged down in heavy growth when they were still fifty meters away.
"Close enough," Paul yelled above the roaring engine. "Shut it off."
Frakes experimented briefly with the controls; then the engine wound down abruptly and the car crashed to the ground.
"Oy!" Jacque muttered from the back. Paul let out his breath and turned around in his seat. "Everyone okay?"
Karyn and Sabastian had been thrown together into one corner of the back seat. Sabastian's face was gray, but his eyes were open and clear.
"Where's Olaf?" Karyn asked.
"Dead," Sabastian answered.
She drew a quick breath and started to say
something, then changed her mind. Her eyes went to Erich Frakes. "Is he with the Fringe Alliance?" Paul shook his head. "UNSA."
"Does that mean we can trust him?"
"I doubt it."
Frakes began to make a sound of protest, but William Greenleaf
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Karyn ignored him. "Then we'll keep an eye on him. Let's get inside."
Jacque was picking himself up off the floor.
"Look what I found!" He held up a long-barreled carbine in one hand. "More goodies down here, too. Let's get 'em out, Selmer."
By the time Paul and Erich Frakes had helped Sabastian out of the car, Selmer and Jacque each had armfuls of weapons they'd found in the car's rear storage compartment.
"So there really is a city," Frakes said with a trace of awe.
"Let's get inside," Paul said. He waited for Frakes to go first, then ducked through the arched entrance. The scene in the inner chamber was exactly as they had left it: Dorland sat on the pedestal, and Elli stood above the chauka.
Sabastian and Karyn had stopped just beyond the door.
Dorland heard them and looked around.
"What the hell?" said Erich Frakes. He was staring at Elli.
"Tal Tahir," Paul supplied. While Karyn filled Dorland in on what had-happened at the temple, Paul pulled Frakes back through the archway. Now that he knew Dorland was safe, he wanted to get some answers from Frakes. "How did you find us?"
"I followed him here." Frakes couldn't take his eyes off the figure of Elli swaying above the chauka. If she noticed that others had come into the room, she gave no sign of it.
"Followed who here?" Paul prompted.
"One of Maiar's agents."
Paul felt a chill along his spine. Was the Fringe Alliance that close to finding Clarion? "Come on, Frakes, tell me what happened."
Frakes looked at him, then cleared his throat.
"Yeah, I guess I should. I got word about that Fringe agent." Paul recalled their discussion on the hotel's rooftop parking pad on Fynnland—
something about a courier's message. "We finally got the message decoded. It wasn't as useful as we'd hoped, but it gave us the name of one of Maiar's agents who I knew had to be involved. I've been following him the last couple of days. When he took his streamer out and skipped, I had to track him. I couldn't risk calling for help—that would've given me away."
"He led you here?"
Frakes nodded. "He had the coordinates, no doubt of that. He must have spotted me on his scope when I broke out of the stream behind him. We took potshots at each other all the way down. It was clear he was following a beacon. It brought him straight to this place."
"Sabre doesn't know where you are?" Frakes shook his head. "Like I said, I didn't get a chance to call back."
"Damn!" That meant they couldn't expect help from UNSA. And if Hans Maiar had the coordinates, it wouldn't be long before he sent someone else to Clarion.
Through the archway Paul could see that
Dorland had returned to the chauka and was again talking to Elli. He stepped past Frakes and picked his way through the pedestals. As he neared Dorland, he felt the buzz in his mind and heard Elli speaking:
*Kra'ith (group/touch) Dorland can see——best youth kra'ith*
"We have to get out of here," Paul said to Dorland. "The deacons and Sons will be here in a few minutes."
Dorland's eyes left Elli with a visible effort and focused on Paul. "We can't leave the chauka. If High Elder Brill finds it, he'll destroy it."
"We don't have any choice," Paul said. "We're running out of time—"
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"We already have," said Karyn, behind him. Paul turned around. Karyn and Jacque stood in the doorway. "They're coming. Jacque saw them about halfway from the temple. They'd spot us before we ever reached the tubes."