DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 16

Reb chuckled at the expression on her face and moved his right hand to a different control stick. Red bolts shot out ahead of them, and the doors disappeared with a boom, in a haze of flame and smoke.

Blue daylight filled the viewscreen, dotted with the orderly patterns of downtown air traffic. Reb swooped and dove to avoid slow-moving passenger vehicles, making a few very near misses. Ridley covered her eyes.

"Are they chasing us?"

"Don't worry about that yet," said Reb. "They're going to have a tough enough time explaining the explosion, let alone what sixty warships are doing flying out of a hole under the Guildhall in the middle of downtown."

"They can't just let us get away," Ridley said, then added, "especially you."

"Oh, they won't. I expect ships to come from somewhere. Just not downtown."

"Where are we going?"

"Over the Wall into Mannaz." Reb handed her the codepicker. "Hold onto this, we're going to need it in a minute."

He gestured at a screen to his left. Ridley craned her neck to see. A series of green blips on an ice-blue field approached a green blip with a yellow "AIX" displayed inside of it.

Ridley looked through the viewscreen off to her left. They must be in her blind spot, because a warning shot zipped past them.

Reb jerked right to avoid it and spun the ship around to fire back. Now Ridley could see them—twelve ships, fanning out ahead and to their left.

"We're going to be surrounded!" She couldn't help herself.

"They're trying to stop us before we get over the Wall," Reb said. "But this is a metropolitan area. They're going to be in trouble if they don't watch their fire. Hang on!"

He put the ship through a series of dips and dives that threatened to make Ridley sick. The other ships swung in the viewscreen, racing and diving to block them.

"Hit the button on the end of the codepicker!" Reb shouted. "The orange one!"

Ridley inspected the ends of the picker and did as she was told.

"I don't want to shoot them right over downtown!" Reb said. "But they're not letting us move." He juked the craft around, playing chicken with two aircraft directly in front of them.

Every time he attempted to pass over them, one would fire at them. The two ships forced them down, lower and lower. Ridley could see the glistening shores of the Potomac, the woods beyond that, and the Wall beyond that. They grazed over the treetops, close enough to knock down bird nests.

Ridley screamed. Her hands shot out to brace herself. "We're not going to make it over the Wall!"

"Yes, we are!"

Reb jerked the nose of the craft up and fired one perfect shot at the ship just ahead of them. The boom hurt Ridley's ears.

The craft ahead of them stalled and plummeted, nose down, trailing a thick plume of smoke. It crashed into the glistening river.

"Explain that, Devane!" Reb snarled.

He turned the nose of the craft to the sky. The force of acceleration made Ridley dizzy.

They were over the Wall. Ridley peered ahead of them. "No!" she shouted, pointing.

A phalanx of twelve more ships sat squarely in their viewscreen, waiting to finish them off.

Reb held up a hand. "Don't worry, don't worry!" he said. "Friendly fire, courtesy of the President of Mannaz. The cavalry is here!"

"But they look like—"