United as One

The four of us stand in a clearing about a mile upriver from Niagara Falls. Our stolen warship is parked a few hundred yards away, dwarfing the sparse trees nearby, its tank-sized exit ramp extended. I keep catching glimpses of the monstrous ship out of the corner of my eye, and every time, I have to resist the urge to run for cover. Hard to believe that’s ours now.

Marina runs two hands through her hair. “I talked to him about this, about controlling his anger. . . .”

Nine chuckles. “Was that before or after you tried to stab Five in the face with an icicle? Again?”

“After, actually,” Marina replies stiffly. “I thought he was managing his grief, at least. But flying off alone to do battle with another warship. My God, Six, it’s suicide.”

“I don’t know,” I reply. “You didn’t see him up there. He was pretty much unstoppable.”

“He’s not thinking,” Marina says, shaking her head emphatically.

“Part of him truly believes he can do this himself,” Ella puts in. “And another part of him doesn’t want to see anyone else get hurt. He’s convinced it will be better for everyone if he does this alone.”

We all fall silent for a moment, considering Ella’s words. It’s pretty obvious to me at least that she plucked those feelings right out of John’s brain. No way did he confide that in her.

“Aw, hell with that nobility shit,” Nine says. “This is our war too. I’m going to beat his ass when he comes back.”

“You realize what he’s left us with is a pretty big deal, too, right?” I ask, looking around at the others. I don’t want to spend any more time talking about John. “Delivering these cloaking devices is going to save a lot of lives potentially. It’s the key to humanity being able to win the war.”

Nine scoffs and walks away. Marina sighs and folds her arms across her chest, half turning to gaze out over the river. Ella just stands there, still holding on to the satellite phone that John gave her. I glance down at my own phone, the one that Sam gave me that’s hopefully emulating the cloaking device’s frequency.

Seventeen percent battery life. When that runs out, according to Sam, this crappy old cell phone will forget the instructions he gave it. We better hurry up with this test.

No sooner do I start to worry that we’re running out of time than I hear the rumble of an engine. A jeep drives into view, bouncing over the rough terrain of the clearing, Lexa at the wheel.

Lexa pulls up in front of me and gets out, the engine idling.

“Good timing,” I tell her.

“The Canadians said they’d prefer if we didn’t crash it,” Lexa says with a shrug. “They were real polite about it.”

“All goes well, their car will be just fine,” I reply.

I notice Adam appear at the top of the warship’s ramp. Rex stands behind him—more like hides behind him—looking as timid as a mouse. I take a few steps towards the warship and wave to them. Meanwhile, Nine jogs over to my side.

“Is it ready?” I yell, cupping my hands around my mouth.

“Yeah!” Adam shouts back. “The force field is fully functional!”

I squint at the warship. I can’t actually see the force field from this distance. Like before, when we were flying towards it, you can’t really see the dull blue energy until you’re nearly right on top of it. I edge closer to the ship. Nine puts a protective hand on my upper arm.

“The hell are you doing?” he asks.

I glance down at his hand. “Same question.”

“You don’t want to get too close to that shit,” Nine says. “I had to nurse Johnny back to health after he took a header into one of those force fields.”

“I know what I’m doing,” I reply, and shrug Nine off.

I edge as close to the warship as I dare, right up until the force field becomes visible. Then, using my heel, I dig out a line in the grass.

“That’s our target,” I say as I jog back to the others. “We push the jeep past that with Sam’s cloaking device attached, we know it works.”

“Why bother with the car? Why not just float Sam’s device through the field with our telekinesis?” Marina asks.

“We know the Mogs’ cloaking devices cover an entire vehicle,” Lexa says. “We don’t know that Sam’s has the same range.”

“Assuming it works at all,” Nine adds.

I take the flip phone and set it on the jeep’s dashboard. Then I back up and look around.