Blood Mine

Chapter Forty Nine

Tongana stood behind the pilots' seats, trying to imagine the tree canopy rolling by beneath them. Any smart soldier would have taken this opportunity to sleep, but Tongana refused to. Bonde Wakulima was the best home she had ever had, and now they were headed back to save it. Darkness was Ahriman's domain, but he wouldn't triumph this time.

Out the windshield, there was nothing but blackness. The sun was gone, and no light came from the jungle. The other six aircraft in the convoy had shut off their lights, and Tongana only knew they were still there from the rumbling of their rotors. The north had brought out its best toys for this invasion. Quad-rotor VTOL craft thrashed the air, with a company of heavy armored fighting vehicles weighing down their cargo holds. But the real star of the show was the massive cargo plane Tongana rode in. This plane was at least thrice as long as the humble one-propeller thing they had taken from Bonde Wakulima, and it was dozens of times as roomy. In this plane alone, they had enough women, autocannons, lasers, sentry turrets, explosives and sensor scramblers to stage the kind of heavy assault Tongana had only dreamed of back in her Atanuan Army days.

"Hey," said Hengsha, behind her. "Hey, Tongana. Time to call the survivors. Let them know how we're doing."

You're not my commanding officer, thought Tongana, with a strum of anger. But Hengsha had a point. "You're right. If they've moved, we need to find out where to meet them." She pulled out her projector and speed-dialed Zanele's number.

There was a long delay before the call connected. For the first time, Tongana was worried. She braced herself to be met with an error message, then to touch down and see that the survivors had been massacred. She faced down the prospect of being one of the last survivors of Bonde Wakulima. She imagined being the only one who remembered what the town had been like before the disaster.

Then the call went through.

"Hello?" said a plaintive male voice, hard to understand through the interference. "Hello? Who's there?"

"This is Corporal Tongana Aimes. Who am I speaking to?"

"Morgan. My name is Morgan. Tongana, are you alright?"

"Yes. We have the weapons and personnel, and we should be there in less than an hour."

"Good... Tongana, I've got bad news. They've found us."

"What?"

"The helicopters! They've been sending in helicopters, and as soon as they reach us, they just... they just cut us down! They keep finding us! I don't know how!"

"Calm down!" she commanded, even as she failed to do so herself. "Morgan, tell me your situation."

"They found us! This morning, they sent helicopters after us, and they've been chasing us ever since. I can't tell if we've lost them or not."

"What helicopters? We destroyed theirs. I was there!"

"I know! But they got more!"

Tongana growled and palmed her forehead. This was just how she remembered war; she would fight tooth-and-nail for something, then a few days later, she would receive a radio call curtly informing her that it was lost.

"Tongana! Tongana, can you hear me? How do they know where to find us?"

"I don't know. Where are you?"

"Uh... I don't know what-"

Her patience frayed. "Your coordinates! Now!"

Morgan's voice grew tinny, as if he had brought his mouth away from the microphone. "Dad, do you know how to do this?" For a few seconds, nothing comprehensible came through.