Icarus

Part 10

Back in the Resistance’s tech lab, Kai gave a triumphant yell.
“What is it?!” Roger and Miri asked simultaneously.
Miri’s was a bit harder to understand, since she was talking around not one but three butterscotch lollipops. Kai spun to face the others, beckoning the former gang kids over to the screen directly in front of them.
“Well, the good news is that Lyr’s alive so far. The bad news is this.”
The nonbinary genius hit play on a video spliced together from security camera feeds all over the city, showing everything that had happened to Lyr up until she was thrown into the holding room.
“I couldn’t get a visual inside that room, but here’s what happened about half an hour later.”
The video skipped to show a tall, ostrich-like man carrying an unconscious Lyr out the back door of the police station and bundling her into a car.
“Lyr!” Roger yelled, hands stretching out towards the screen like he hoped to pull his friend to him through it.
His face was deathly pale, making his reddish freckles stand out like drops of blood.
“That guy, he’s one of the Elites’ agents. They finally found her.”
Kai nodded grimly.
“Toral Reckenbridge. Doesn’t look it, but he’s one of the most dangerous men in Port Nerona. This really isn’t good.”
Miri piped up. “Can we map the car’s route using the camera locations to find out where he took her?”
Kai smiled.
“Good call, Munchkin. You get working, I’ll message the Marshal.”
“No need, I’m right here.”
The Marshal was leaning against the doorway, eyes glued to the video feed through the slits in her mask.
“Roger, come with me.”
“But I need to help find Lyr!”
“Kid, you will be helping. We need weapons, bombs, comms devices, diversions, everything like that prepped and working smoothly before the raid.”
“We’re gonna rescue her?!”
“Duh, genius.” 
Roger wasn’t sure, but he thought he caught a note of real admiration in the Marshal’s voice as she looked him up and down. Then it was gone as she said “Hurry up, we don’t have extra time.”
Roger followed the Marshal through the tunnels, trotting to keep up with her long strides. Finally they got to the armory, a huge cavern stocked with the latest weaponry, including some military-grade mass-destruction stuff that he was pretty sure was still being tested in prototype form by the legal government. He guessed that when you were bona fide revolutionaries, you could steal whatever blueprints you wanted. He’d love to get some nice, uninterrupted time to play around in here and improve everything, but that would have to wait. Right now, he needed to get ready to help rescue Lyr.
Just then, he spotted some familiar faces amongst the Resistance people checking over their personal weapons.
“Finn? Taylee? Jax?”
His three seconds-in-command waved to him cheerily.
“These people have some utterly badass gear, Roger!”
That was Taylee, her thick, lisping Northern Islands accent making her words instantly recognizable. Jax and Finn were busy adjusting each other’s armored suits, although they were making it involve quite a bit of kissing. Taylee made an exaggerated gagging face at their antics. Roger was tempted to do the same. He normally hated having to look at people being mushy, although he’d been a little more curious about it since he’d met Lyr. It still bewildered him, though. It looked like a good way to seriously injure your face if you did it wrong, for one thing. Shoving those very distracting thoughts to the back of his mind, Roger strode over to the explosives table and started checking the detonation timers to make sure nothing would explode prematurely. Once that was done, he moved on to the smoke grenades, the stink sprayers, and other diversionary stuff, losing himself in his work until everything else faded into the background. He came out of his daze to feel Miri tugging on his hand.
“Roger, the Marshal says I can’t come! I told her and told her I can fight, but she says no!”
“Depending on where we’re going, I’m probably gonna agree with her, Meerkat.”
“The Elite Towers.”
Roger gulped. He’d kind of expected as much, but expecting something and being told it’s really happening are two very different things. “Definitely not, then.”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
Roger changed tack, kneeling down next to her and taking both her hands.
“You need to stay here and keep Kai out of trouble, okay? They’re a bit of a handful, but I think you’re up to the task.”
Miri nodded firmly. “If I’ve got my trusty sidekick, then I’m ready for anything!”
Roger looked around. “Um, where is Quark?”
Miri yelped. “Uh-oh, I left him in my new room. Gotta go, bye! Be safe!”
She dashed off, waving goodbye over her shoulder.
Roger watched her go, grinning. “That kid is gonna go far one day.” He muttered to himself.
“If she gets the chance, yeah.”
Roger jumped, not realizing the Marshal had come up behind him.
“This mission is our first big step to giving Miri, and all science-mage kids, the chance to be free.”
“I sure hope so.”
“We’ll manage it. Your help with the weapons has gotten us ready to go way sooner than I’d thought possible.”
The Marshal hesitated, then pulled a neatly wrapped sandwich out of her pocket. “You should eat. A butterscotch lollipop is nowhere near enough fuel for this kind of heist.”
Roger took the offered food, unable to keep his surprise off his face.
“What?” She asked him.
“Uh, nothing. Thanks. Hey, is this apple and goat cheese? How did you know that’s my favorite?”
“I didn’t. It’s somebody else’s favorite too.” She said softly.
“Who?”
“A friend.” The Marshal said shortly, turning to leave.
Most of the softness was already gone from her voice when she said “Come on, genius. It’s time for me to pep-talk you all.”
Everyone who was going on the mission was lined up in rows in the largest cavern, facing a makeshift podium constructed out of scrap metal. For the first time, it really struck Roger just how few of them there were. Even with the older, more combat-skilled gang kids swelling their ranks in new uniforms, there couldn’t have been more than about sixty. And they were about to attempt something at least three armies had failed at over the course of history: breaking into the Elite Towers.
The Marshal strode up to the podium and instead of standing behind it, leaped up on top in a single graceful movement. “Friends!”
Her voice rang out over the crowd, full and confident.
“Some of you are new to our cause, some of you have been with us for years, but we all share one goal and one purpose: An end to tyranny! An end to slavery!
And a new beginning where people are all treated as people, money or no money, magic or no magic, whoever they are.
We’ve been working towards this for nearly a decade now, and we’re closer than ever before.
Tonight won’t be our final victory, but it is a turning point.
We are on the brink of adding what’s likely the world’s most powerful science-mage to our cause.
We are rewriting the course of history! This is going to be in textbooks one day, but that’s not why we’re doing it.
We don’t need parades and glory and fame. What we need is a world where all children can grow up without fear of being hurt and shamed and enslaved for something their distant ancestors did, or just for existing! Tonight, we are one giant step closer to making that world a reality. But I’ll need every single one of you to make it happen. Who’s with me?!”

A roar filled the cavern, the roar of over sixty voices being raised in a raucous battle cheer.
“FREEDOM!!!!! FREEDOM!! FREEDOM!”
Roger found himself yelling along with them, completely carried away. He was normally pretty cynical, but the Marshal’s speech had set him on fire somehow, made him feel like for the first time in his life, he could maybe make a difference. He looked around at his friends, seeing the grim wildness he felt mirrored on everyone else’s faces. This was really happening, and he felt more ready than he had ever expected.