Were they really going to try and…
Everyone cried out as the ship gave a sudden lift.
What?
“Damn it, they’re taking off!” Ashton said.
“They can’t fly this thing,” Anna said. “They’ll just crash it.”
Anna was right. Even if Elias said he knew how to fly the ship, he’d never actually flown it before. But that didn’t seem to be stopping him.
The ship rose ever higher. We were all still pressed to the deck.
There was no question, now. We had to get to that bridge before Elias could launch any nukes.
Aeneas rocketed upward at a lightning pace. A minute later, the pressure from the deck eased up, causing my stomach to sink. Aeneas had slowed to a midair hover.
Quickly, everyone stood, grabbing their weapons.
“What now?” Anna asked.
Footsteps sounded from the corridor outside the captain’s quarters. There were at least two people running this way.
“Wait for it…” I said.
Two women suddenly stood in front of the doorway — a girl, perhaps my age, with wide brown eyes and long brown hair, and the woman I had seen earlier — the blue-eyed one that I felt was against Elias.
“Don’t shoot,” she said. “We’re not with them.”
“Who are you, then?” Anna asked, not lowering her blade.
“I’m Deborah,” she said. “Leader of the Resistance.”
The Resistance? So not all of these women were under Elias’s spell.
“Where are the rest of you?” Anna asked.
Deborah shrugged. “It’s just me and Ada here.”
“What?” I asked. “There’s only two of you?”
“Hey, you want our help or not?”
“Yeah, of course we do,” I said. “It’s just you’d think there’d be more people against that nutcase.”
“Well, we got the ship taken off,” Deborah said. “That’s plus one for us.”
“You did this?”
Deborah smiled. “Sure thing, Twenty Questions. I had to do something before they were ready for it. But we don’t have time to yak.”
“But how…”
“Didn’t I say there was no time? We need to hustle. They know someone’s on this deck and the battle will be starting at any second.”
“Battle?” I asked. “What battle?”
“There’s another ship out there!” Ada said. “It’s coming this way.”
“It’s Makara,” I said. “It has to be.”
“Makara?” Deborah asked.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to get to the bridge.”
“They’ll kill you,” Deborah said.
“Not if I kill them first.”
I walked out of the Captain’s Quarters, past Deborah and Ada, and into the corridor.
“Guess that works, too,” Deborah said.
Chapter 16
I took to the stairs down to the main deck. As we entered the anteroom, there were about ten women gathered around a mess of scattered vegetables and plates. One of the tables and many of the chairs had been overturned. I pointed my Berretta ahead, watching for signs of sudden movement.
The women ducked behind the tables as the rest of us arrived downstairs.
“These have no weapons,” Deborah said. “It’s the ones on the bridge we have to worry about.”
The women continued crouching behind the tables, staring at us with wide eyes.
One of them turned toward the corridor leading to the bridge.
“They’re coming!”
With a curse, Deborah started forward once again. Having no other choice, we followed her past the women toward the main corridor that led to the bridge. Footsteps pounded from the corridor ahead — reinforcements were coming, alerted by the woman who had shouted.
Deborah raised her handgun and gave a few warning shots. This was followed by a few screams from ahead. I was sure Elias was regretting making Deborah one of his guards; it was the only way she could have had a gun.
Though Deborah was now on our side, it didn’t exactly tip the odds in our favor. We still had to take control of the bridge, and I didn’t see how that would happen without losing people along the way. All of the higher-ups and guards in the Community had weapons — anywhere from ten to twenty of the women, along with Elias.
I didn’t have time to make any sort of decision, however. A woman, with hands over her head, approached from around a corner where the corridor ended.
“Don’t shoot,” she said. “Elias requests your presence. Without bloodshed.”
“What for?” I asked.
“The other ship is threatening to attack,” the woman said. “He needs you to call it off.”
“Only if everyone gives up their weapons,” Anna said.
I wondered why Elias didn’t just shoot at the other ship. Then I realized that he had never piloted this ship before. Of course he would be leery of getting into any sort of battle. He hadn’t counted on being attacked the second he left Bunker 84. Makara would win this fight, hands down.
Only, Makara was threatening to attack without knowing we were on here. And to let her know that, we had to go to the bridge. But as soon as we went to the bridge, we would be surrounded by Elias and the Community.
There was no way to win.
“No,” I said. “I’d rather we all went down in flames.”
Anna brushed me aside. “If your leader agrees to not attack anyone, then yeah. We will help. Neither side can have weapons if this is to work.”
“How can we guarantee no one has weapons?” Ashton asked. “We can’t, and there isn’t time to devise a system we can all agree with. All we have is each other’s word.”
I didn’t trust this woman or Elias’s offer. I was beginning to think that charging the bridge was the best bet. I had no idea what Elias’s game plan was, but I knew we probably didn’t really fit into his scheme for the Ascension once it came into full fruition. Now might be our only chance to take the ship once and for all.
But was I willing to lose people along the way?
I looked from Michael, to Julian, to Grudge. Ashton and Anna both looked at me, awaiting a decision.
“There has to be another way,” I said.
“Unless you have a better idea, this is it,” Anna said. “Makara needs to know we’re on board before this place gets blown to smithereens.”
“So we let her know once we storm the bridge.”
“We’ll all be dead if we do that. I’m sure they have the place fortified.”
“Of course,” the woman from ahead said, “you must surrender all your weapons before you enter the bridge.”
“We need a guarantee,” I said. “If Lyn agrees to be held for ransom, we can go in and take care of the other ship.”
The other woman’s eyes widened, showing that this was not a possibility.
“Tell Elias that,” I said. “That’s the only way we’re coming in there.”
“That is unacceptable,” the woman said. “We can offer someone else…but not Lyn.”
“Lyn seems to be the only person who means something to Elias,” I said. “We want her or we’ll let your ship burn before your precious Ascension can work out.”
The woman scowled, but said nothing in reply. She still wasn’t budging.
I tried to think of other options. But I came up blank. If we had Lyn with Michael and perhaps Julian standing guard, I felt confident that Elias wouldn’t try anything once Makara was called off. There was the problem of what to do after that, however. I couldn’t think that far ahead. My idea was far from perfect.
Anna was right, though. At least one of us had to go to the bridge. And if that person went, we deserved to have someone in return.