Deep Black Road: The Head of the Snake

Chapter 32

Recognizing that Suzanne was into something big, Ricky adjusted his path of descent to take him towards her, and was startled to discover that he was heading to the capital city.

Then he felt her burst of despair.

Even though he was still travelling in the middle atmosphere at supersonic speed because of re-entry, he forced his black skin to remain active, fired up his rockets, and blasted towards her.

What happened? he wondered. Something must have gone wrong.

Flying very low as he got close to the House of the Federation, he thought to radio her, but decided not to, since he didn't know what was going on.

Her fear was growing; so he dove through a window just below the huge domed roof, and landed beside her, where he was met by a hail of bullets that blew him across the hall.

Lying still, he waited for the firing to stop, determined to get back to Suzanne before she got damaged. As soon as he could, he scrambled to his feet, holding his hands in front of him to block the bullets—since most of them were aimed at his chest—that immediately started up again.

Unexpectedly, his hands started to glow brightly; and a stream of sparks flowed from them across the chamber. In seconds all the soldiers were unconscious.

As he puzzled over what had just happened, he noticed that Suzanne was lying in a heap on the floor. Guessing that they must have shut her down remotely somehow, he uploaded to her the program which he'd developed to remove that weakness.

"As soon as you've run this," he radioed to her, "get out of here! Use the way I came in."

"Alright," she answered, and in a moment was airborne; but she hesitated at the window.

The Prophet glared at Ricky, and said to Corran, "My son, this little pest is not hurt by bullets. Use the plasma."

Corran bowed. "As you command." He linked and said, "Activate the plasma gun immediately! There are two humanoid robots here trying to escape. Shoot them on sight! ... Because they can fly! Now do it!"

Plasma gun? Ricky thought. That sounds like it'll do damage, armour skin or not. I'd better hurry.

He turned to General Orkan, who was now sitting up close by—he also must have received the upload.

"You've got no rockets," Ricky radioed, "so I can't help you. Sorry."

"It certainly doesn't look good for me," replied Orkan as he got to his feet.

Ricky glanced up at Suzanne, and then radioed, "There is something I can do!"

Pleading within himself, Oh God, let this work! he stepped over and placed his glowing hand on the general's chest, plunged his other hand in, tore out the compact fusion reactor system, and blasted into the air with it towards Suzanne. Her shock at what he'd done rippled inside him; but that didn't stop her from ducking out of the window as directed; and she was already high up and well ahead when he popped out into the open air.

Shooting after her, he looked back at full zoom, and saw activity on the roof of the CDA federal headquarters—which was west of the House of the Federation—around what had to be the plasma gun. Checking its angle, he calculated that it was aimed directly at Suzanne.

No way! he thought as he clutched the reactor in his right hand. I'm not going to lose you now!

He rocketed into what he hoped was the correct position to block the shot, just as a bright beam slashed through the air. Alarms from his left leg reported its damage as he watched his left arm tumble towards the ground.