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"Over there!" a voice shouts frolooht just as he pulls the trigger The bullet grazes runt with pain There’s a pop-pop-pop of retaliatory gunfire fro us a few vital seconds of cover I forcewith the effort Lucinda barelyI drag her upright as another bullet whizzes by us We reach the Transporter just asBeetle grips Lucinda’s hand and helps her on board I leap onto the aircraft, landing heavily on the metal floor, and nearly drop Theora’s heart

"Go!" I shout to Destiny as Natalie rushes over tome to my feet

Destiny yanks on the control stick and the Transporter lurches up

The hatch begins to close, but it’s not fast enough A Sentry guard aier Two bullets hit the h The Transporter suddenly dips wildly Natalie lets out a cry of panic as she stuht wall

In the cockpit, Destiny is gri with pain as she atte out of the wound in her shoulder Acelot, Beetle and Day race over to the cockpit Acelot takes over the controls, stabilizing the aircraft, while Beetle lifts the Sentry woman out of the pilot’s seat and lays her down on the empty bench Day slides into the copilot’s seat A stream of curse words spill out of Destiny’s lips as she clutches her bleeding shoulder

The aircraft levels and Acelot boosts the engines The Transporter rushes upward, the sound of the tree branches like rats scratching at the h the tree line, and iht There’s a rat-a-tat-tat of un fire, and bullets thud into the armored walls and crack the windscreen

"We have company!" Acelot says

Out the splintered windscreen I notice three Transporters They’re heading straight at us

"Hit the green button!" Destiny says through gritted teeth

"Which green button?" Day replies, panicked There are several on the dashboard

"The one next to the orange switch," Destiny grunts "The et, unless you ai her hand on the green button

A missile flashes across the sky, and a second later the nearest Transporter explodes into a ball of fire, sendingdown on the forest Day punches the switch again The secondrips off The vehicle spirals down to the ground There’s a terrible explosion, followed by shock waves that buffet our ship,everyone jerk in their seats The third Transporter veers off, knowing it’s vastly outgunned, the guards wisely trying to escape before they’re shot out of the sky too We zoo over Primus-Two, then One Several new trainloads of prisoners are being led up to the registration office The Boundary Wall looot any more missiles?" I say

She checks the monitor "There’s three left"

"See that wall?" I say, pointing toward the concrete structure "Airins "Yes, sir"

She aireen button, once, twice, three tiets Dust and debris fly up into the air as the wall is blasted apart, leaving a hole about a h to react as the prisoners swarap toward freedom One down

Acelot and Day fly us away from the Tenth, and soon Mount Alba becomes little more than a pockmark on the landscape I return to theto Destiny’s wounds, while Elijah rests his head on his raze--then take a seat beside Lucinda on the hs so little It’s hard to believe this small object was the catalyst that started Eds Now it’s time to end it

23

NATALIE

THE SUN HAS STARTED TO SET over the city by the tihold in Galliuht It’s only been a little over a day since we left here, but it feels like a lifetih the windscreen, I watch the city swoosh past us in a blur of copper Transporters zooo to and from the munitions factories I don’t think ere followed out of the Tenth--I haven’t seen any aircraft Acelot’s an incredibly skilled pilot, expertly weaving the Transporter between the skyscrapers and industrial buildings Day is chatting happily to hi lesson

Ash sits silently beside me, his jaw clenched He hasn’t said a word since we left the Tenth, and I haven’t pushed it He’s trying so hard to keep it together His hair stirs gently, sensing the blood around us We all have cuts and scrapes from the shoot-out, and Destiny’s shirt is stained with dry blood Her wound has finally stopped bleeding; Beetle did a great job on the bandage He patched up Ash’s arm too Beetle’s now asleep on the bench between lass jar on Ash’s lap "I can’t believe we did all that for a heart" She sighs "Well, it wasn’t a total bust At least we got Ash"

I s him back was my priority, so I’m not too disappointed the Ora didn’t turn out to be yellowpox, although it’s going to be hard explaining to my father e risked our lives to retrieve a thirty-year-old Lupine heart

I checkthe vial of silvery-white liquid I stole from the laboratory in the Tenth I take the vial out of e case Thankfully it hasn’t broken There’s a slass tube with F-09 WINGS written on it

"That looks suspiciously like a Haze blend," Ash says, glancing at the vial

"Yeah, that’s what I thought too" I’ve had enough experience with the Golden Haze--a luey consistency, and glinize a blend when I see one The old "It’s the silver stuff the Haze has been coht Whisper?" Ithe butterflieson the laboratory Their wings are silvery in color But ould Purian Rose add theht The liquid glints, drawing Yolanda’s attention

"What’s this?" she asks, taking it fros It was in the Sentry lab back at the Tenth, along with this disc," I say, retrieving a blue disc out of my pocket with PATIENT TRIALS scrawled on it "I want Dr Craven to run so, to see what’s in it"

"I’d like to help with that," Yolanda replies, passing the vial back

I tuck it into o up to the cockpit

"Which way?" Acelot asks s down the sides of his handsoht of sunset

I point toward a s works on the west side of the city, which conceals the tunnel leading into the Sentry rebels’ stronghold Fro into the factory’s warehouse, which won’t rouse suspicion--it’s co in and out of factories around here as they transfer cargo Acelot steers the vehicle through the open factory roof, and Day punches a button on the control panel The warehouse’s false floor opens, revealing the tunnel entrance, and we fly down into the rebel compound I return to ar<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>