Lifter: Proton Field #2 Page 24

  They were starting around the steep side of a hill. In fact, this one seemed really steep. He turned and said, “There’s a big drop-off to the left, so if you stumble, try not to fall that way.” He reached out with his right hand and realized the hill was so steep he could feel a slope almost like a wall on that side. He started leaning on that right hand in order to avoid stumbling to the left.

  A red flash of light on the path in front of him caught Mark’s attention. In a semi-befuddled state from all the hiking they’d been doing, at first he only felt a little curious. Maybe it’s some kind of leak from one of the flashlights?

  Another red flash of light. This time he realized it was the spot of a laser! It made a streak down the back of the Abu in front of him. Then it hit the trail just in front of Mark’s feet. Realizing it had to be coming from above him, he tilted his head back to look up. He stumbled and immediately looked back down. Though logically, he knew he couldn’t see well enough to keep from falling by looking down, he couldn’t avoid the reaction. As soon as he looked down, something bounced off of his chest. He heard it bounce onto the path a little bit to his right. Pushing back on the stick to keep the others from running him over, he crouched down to feel for whatever it was. A second later, the laser spot appeared directly in front of him and moved slightly further ahead and to the right. When he felt the spot the laser had focused on, his fingers closed around a small plastic case. Astonished, he lifted his head and looked around again, still virtually unable to see anything but the red spot of the Abu’s flashlight he’d been following. It was slowly moving further on down the path. Behind them an Abu barked, “Get moving!”

  Mark stood and resumed walking, tugging on the stick in his left hand and holding the little plastic case in his right. His heart was thumping. Feeling the case, he found a catch on the case and popped it open a little. An exploring finger found what felt like some soft rubbery lumps inside it. Afraid he might drop the case, he reached over so that he could use some of the fingers on his left hand to help while he gripped the stick between just his small and ring finger. He plucked out one of the lumps and realized it was an ear bud. With trembling fingers, he lifted his hair off his ear and inserted it. His sister’s voice said, “Mark, can you hear me?” Then after a moment’s pause, she said, “If you can hear me, nod your head.”

  Mark nodded his head. Adrenaline poured through him and he found himself trembling as he walked. In his ear, Ellen’s voice said, “Since you can’t ask us anything without alerting those Abu Sayyaf bastards, I’m going to try to answer the questions I think you must be having… First of all, we’re using a new device that’s letting us float in the air above you.”

  Mark’s consternation at her blasé description of a technology that let her fly silently was so great that it took him a moment to remember he needed to nod.

  When he did nod, Ellen continued, “There’re three more earbuds in that case. Hopefully you can quietly pass them back to the other three hostages.”

  Mark moved his hands together again and pulled the rest of the earbuds out of the case. He turned back over his right shoulder and reached back to bump Linda’s hand. When he succeeded, she grabbed his wrist. In a faint whisper, he said, “Someone’s come to rescue us.” He felt Linda’s grip stiffen and could imagine the conflicting surges of joy and disbelief that must be racing through her. He twisted his hand so he could put her hand on the bottom and burrow his fingers into her palm. Once he was sure her hand surrounded his, he carefully released the three earbuds and whispered, “Earbuds. Take one and pass ‘em along.”

  Linda’s hand seemed frozen for a few seconds, then it pulled away with the earbuds. Over the next couple of minutes he felt some jerking on the stick in his left hand, presumably as the others twisted to pass on the earbuds and put them in. Eventually, he thought that Greg must’ve gotten his at the back of their group of four. Since the escape attempt, Mark and Greg were always careful to place themselves on either side of the two women so that if the terrorists tried to do something to the women, they’d have to attack through the men.

  It was too little, too late. The second morning after Nina and Wendy had escaped, a couple of Abu Sayyaf’s bravos had marched Mark and Greg out of camp for “punishment chores.” Since they’d already hiked much of the night, being made to walk further had indeed seemed like a punishment. After a substantial trek, they’d arrived at a road where one of Massoud’s contacts waited with food and other supplies. On the way back to the camp Mark and Greg carried a pole between their shoulders with the supplies suspended beneath, feeling thoroughly abused by both the extra hike and the load.

  But, when they’d gotten back to the camp, they’d learned to their dismay that Linda and Penny had been repeatedly raped in their absence. It seemed that Nina had been intimidating Massoud and the other kidnappers. Her apparently extensive knowledge of the Quran and intense willingness to badger them for any apparent violation of what she claimed were its dictates had managed to restrain the kidnappers from behaviors that were all too common in terrorist groups like Abu Sayyaf.

  Mark, who in Nina’s absence had again been thinking of himself as the leader of their little group, had been horrified by his failure to prevent such a tragedy. Since then, he and Greg had refused to be separated from the two women even momentarily. They’d held onto them physically at any suggestion that the men and women might be separated by their captors. They even went to the bathroom together. Performing their bodily functions in front of one another was humiliating, but far better than leaving the women alone with the kidnappers. On one occasion, Massoud had beaten Mark with a bamboo lath while Mark clung to Linda with both arms and legs wrapped around her—physically refusing to let them be separated. The beating had been awful and Mark hadn’t been able to keep from screaming and crying, but he took great pride in the fact that they’d finally given up without prying him away from the woman he was protecting.

  Mark’s ruminations on his failures halted when his sister’s voice came back in his ear. “Everybody nod if you can hear me.” Mark nodded, hoping the others had their earbuds in and were nodding as well. Apparently they did. Without revealing that she was his sister, Ellen said, “I’m a member of a group who’s here to extract you from this situation. We’re going to use some technology you might find hard to believe. Believe it or not, we’re actually hanging in the air above you right now using silent devices that let us fly. I know you can’t see us, but we can actually see you very well since we’re illuminating the area with infrared light and using infrared night-vision. We’re almost ready to intervene. When we do, we’re going to use the earbuds to ask you to ‘Get down.’ When we give the command, what we’d like you to do is to drop flat to the right side of the path and huddle against the side of the mountain. If there’s a fight we want you down low and secure so you can’t accidentally get knocked off the path and roll down the side of the mountain; it’s really steep.” There was a brief pause, then Ellen said, “Sorry, I’d really like to be able to get your feedback on our plan, but we don’t have a good way for you to talk to us without alerting the terrorists. We won’t be using any dangerous weapons, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be completely safe. It’s possible the terrorists might start shooting. We think our best chance at taking them out will be here on the side of this mountain, but if you want us to regroup and work towards finding a way for you to communicate back to us by tomorrow night, shake your head. If you want to go ahead with the plan we’ve got for right now, give me a nod.”

  Mark nodded vigorously, but wondered how his fellow captives were responding. A moment later, Ellen said, “I just realized that in the dark you guys are probably wondering whether the others nodded or shook. All of you gave us a nod, so we’re planning to go ahead in a minute or two when we work out the rest of our details. Be ready to flatten yourself down low against the hillside.”

  With Mark’s nerves wound so tight, it seemed like they just kept hiking and hiking with nothin
g happening. Mark intensely watched the bobbing red lights of the Abus’ flashlights in front of him. He pictured dozens of commandos jumping down onto the Abus from the cliffside above, though he couldn’t help but wonder how they’d keep from tumbling on over the edge themselves. Or perhaps, despite their assertion that they wouldn’t use dangerous weapons, they were planning to shoot the Abus from the air? Or… Mark couldn’t think of another way his imaginary commandos might attack. Anything they might do sounded dangerous, either to themselves or to the captives. Mark didn’t want them risking his life, but he didn’t want them risking their own either. In the midst of his thoughts he heard someone shriek far behind him. This was followed by some crashing lower on the mountain as if someone had fallen off the edge of the path. In his ear Ellen said, “Get down! Now!”

  Mark sprawled to his right, pulling on the stick though it came with him readily enough to suggest that the others had either let go or were also diving down against the face of the mountain. Though he knew he wouldn’t see anything, he turned to look back down the path behind him. He could only see the flashlights of four of the five Abus back there. As he blinked, wondering if the fifth one was who he’d heard yell and fall, the rearmost of the four he could still see suddenly jerked and disappeared down the side of the mountain. Yelling and cursing accompanied the fall. The other three flashlights had stopped bobbing like they did when the person carrying them was walking. In fact, Mark thought they’d settled down against the side of the mountain as if the Abus were worried about falling off the path themselves. The current rearmost light was barely visible, but then it surged out over the edge of the mountain with a despairing cry. Then the next one, and the one after that. Is something collapsing the cliff face somehow? Mark wondered. He reached up to feel the wall of the mountain above and to his right. He found a bush growing out of a crack and got a good grip on it.

  Since there were no lights behind him anymore. Mark turned to look ahead. He saw only three lights. By their vigorous bobbing, he thought the two farthest in front were running away from whatever calamity was occurring behind them. Suddenly, very close to him, one of the lights appeared and jerked to the left as if a giant hand had grabbed a person lying on top of a flashlight and dragged him over the edge. Just in front of that one, two more lights suddenly jumped up and moved ahead rapidly as if they’d started running. First one, then the other of the runners were jerked over the side. Far in front, the front runner of the two who’d immediately started running suddenly flailed off the cliff. The last one, who’d been right behind the leader stopped. The light turned white as if the cellophane had been pulled off of it. The beam waved about. A moment later a muzzle flash came from that location as that last Abu fired a weapon, but then the white flashlight also flipped off to the left of the path and fell.

  Mark couldn’t make heads or tails of what’d just happened. He stared into the darkness, blinking and wishing he could see something. With the moon down and some of the sky overcast there wasn’t even much starlight. Suddenly, Ellen’s voice spoke in his earbud, “Mark, Linda, Penny, Greg… stand up please.”

  Worried about the stability of the path, as he slowly stood Mark kept a firm grip on the bush growing out of the side of the mountain. From some rustling behind him on the trail, he assumed the others were getting up as well. There were a couple of footsteps from in front of him on the path, then Ellen spoke again. This time her words didn’t come through the ear bud. “Mark, I’m going to put an arm around you, you put both of yours around me and don’t let go.”

  Ellen’s right arm went around him and he clung to her. She spoke to her AI, telling it to connect her to all of the captives’ earbuds. “Okay.” Ellen said, “Mark, Linda, Penny, Greg. Someone’s going to step up beside you in the dark and put an arm around you. You need to put your arms around them and hold on because you do not want to get separated from them. Next, you’re going to feel a very strange sensation. It’ll be as if your head and shoulders are getting light. You’ll feel your spine stretching as the upper part of you is pulled up into the air. Eventually, it’ll pull your entire body up into the air. Before you get airborne, it’s going to mess with your inner ears. You’ll probably feel like you’ve been flipped upside down or maybe like something else weird has happened. Some people get nauseated. If you’re someone who easily gets sick on carnival rides, get ready to choke it back because your life depends on not letting go. Also, we’d prefer you not barf on us.”

  Mark had just begun to think that his sister must have lost touch with reality if she thought… Then he began to feel exactly what she described—something kind of pulling up on his head and then the upper part of his body. His spine felt like it was being stretched. He began to feel weightless, then suddenly he felt a sensation like someone had suddenly flipped him upside down. If he hadn’t still been able to feel the ground under his heels, he’d have been sure he’d turned upside down and was falling toward the ground. Biting down hard he managed to keep from crying out. Trying to distract himself he focused on how his heels were still touching the ground.

  Then they slipped free.

  Now he really did feel like he was upside down and being pulled toward the ground by some kind of distorted gravity that pulled harder on his head, chest and shoulders. Looking up, he saw stars and focused his mind on the fact that he must still be right side up. Mark congratulated himself on the rational thinking that kept him from shrieking like a little child—but worried that he might be clinging to his sister so hard that she’d have trouble breathing.

  It was still very dark, but as he rose out of the trees and into the air, his adapted eyes let him faintly see the jungle stretching away beneath him. Far in the distance, he saw a few lights on the horizon.

  He looked up and saw that something had occulted some of the stars directly overhead. At first, Mark surmised that they were approaching a cloud, then—because even in the faint light he could see it was much too regular—he thought it might be some kind of small blimp. To his utter astonishment, a door opened in the side of it. Within, he could see a lighted interior with seats and couches and, for all the world, what looked like a small kitchen! He and Ellen floated closer—then they were in the doorway—then inside.

  Mark started to loosen his arms from around his sister, but then, as his weight suddenly came back down onto his legs, his ears told him he’d flipped over again and he stumbled. Ellen threw both arms around him, holding him up and saying, “Sorry. I should have let the weight back onto you more slowly.”

  Mark hugged his sister fiercely, “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He turned to look at the door he’d just come through and saw a gigantic man float through the door with Linda. A young woman floated through the door with Penny, and finally a man who looked a lot like Nina came in with Greg.

  The four erstwhile captives gathered to hug one another, then gape about at their surroundings. In a tone of awe, Greg said, “What is this place?!”

  The young woman who’d brought in Penny said, “It’s a new spacecraft from Miller Tech. They’ve let us borrow it to rescue you guys.” She stepped over and looked out the doorway, and said in a concerned tone, “Where’s Nina?”

  Mark’s eyes shot to the young man that he’d thought looked like Nina. If Nina was supposed to be here, Mark wondered if she and the young man were related. The man said, “She was going to attach a tracker to any of the kidnappers who looked like they might still be mobile. That way we’d be able to locate them for the anti-kidnapping people.” He walked over to the door, said, “If she’s not back, I’d better go check on her.”

  The guy stepped out the door as if they weren’t hundreds of feet up in the air. A moment later the huge man followed him.

  Mark turned to Ellen, “Are they talking about the Nina who was captured with us? The one that escaped?”

  Ellen nodded.

  “She’s free?” Mark asked, then realized if they were talking about her being with them, it was a ridi
culous question. Quickly he said, “Is that guy related to her?”

  “Her brother.” Ellen said, “He was in the Special Forces, but mustered out to try to save his sister. The big guy, Brock, was one of his buddies in the Special Forces.”

  “We’ve got to go down and help!” Mark said. He said, “Do you have another of your devices so I can fly down with you?”

  The young woman who’d brought in Linda had been watching out the door. She said, “Relax, the three of them are already on their way back up.”

  “They’ve rescued her?!”

  “No, she’d started up before they got all the way down to the jungle.”

  A few minutes later, in the midst of a great deal of hugging and shrieks of joy, Mark and the others were reunited with Nina. Nina introduced her brother Ardis, and Brock; then Myr, the woman who’d rescued Penny, and Vinn, who was apparently the spacecraft’s pilot. They asked about Wendy and were glad to hear that she’d gotten free too.

  The joyful spirit of the gathering disappeared when Nina learned that Penny and Linda had been raped. “Those bastards!” Nina turned to the two women and gathered them into an intense embrace. “I’m so sorry…” Mark was leaning close in an effort to offer his own support so he heard when Nina whispered, “I can tell you that son of a bitch Massoud’s never going to hurt another soul but…” She crouched a little bit to look up into the other two women’s downcast eyes, “Do you want…” She paused as if uncertain, then her expression firmed, “Do you want us to go down and kill any of the others that survived the fall?”