The Soldiers of Halla

Chapter 21

The plan was to get some sleep and leave before dawn.

I had been going nonstop for who knows how long, and my tank was empty. Two rooms were set up for sleeping on the second floor of the grimy garage. One for men, the other for women. They each had single-mattress beds lined up along the walls. It wasn’t exactly cush, but it was far better than what the Batu had at Mooraj. At first I was reluctant to take one of the cots, thinking I’d be displacing somebody. That is, until I remembered that there were a bunch of people who wouldn’t be coming back to sleep there that night. Unfortunately, there was plenty of room.

I made sure that Elli was set up and comfortable in the room they had for women. She was there along with three others. They saw to it that she had everything she needed, which wasn’t much. Soon Elli was off to sleep. At least, I thought she was. She may have just been closing her eyes, so as not to have to deal with reality. Elli hadn’t said much since we’d arrived on Third Earth. I hoped she was up to the task in front of us. In front of her. If she wasn’t, our trip was for nothing.

When I finally settled into my own bed, Mark was waiting for me. He wanted answers. The thought of explaining the realities of Halla and Solara to him made me shudder. How would he react to it all? Getting Mark to understand and accept it was a job I didn’t look forward to. All I wanted to do was sleep.

But he needed to understand why our mission to protect the exiles was so important. Heck, he was an exile himself, and he’d been part of this war as long as I had. He deserved something.

“I know it all now, Mark,” I said as we sat facing each other on our beds. “Everything. Though I’m not sure how to explain it to you.”

“Give it a shot,” he said without hesitation. He didn’t care that I was exhausted. I didn’t blame him.

I racked my brain, trying to come up with the simplest explanation possible.

“There’s life beyond our own,” I began. “Spiritual life. The spirit that lives in every person doesn’t die when their body does. It moves on and becomes part of a bigger reality that reflects our own.”

Mark looked at me like I had just said cows could fly.

“Okay…,” he said with a huge dose of skepticism.

“I saw Uncle Press again. And Kasha. And Osa.”

“They’re dead,” he said flatly.

“The physical beings they were when they were living in Halla are dead. Their spirit continues on in a place called Solara.”

“An eleventh territory?”

“No, it’s way more cosmic than that. It’s been about Solara from the beginning. Saint Dane is trying to control it. To destroy its spirit. Once he does that, Halla doesn’t matter anymore, because he can create his own physical universe. His own Halla.”

Mark frowned. “Uh… what?”

“Yeah, this is where it starts getting complicated.”

“Starts? I’d say we’re already pretty far down that path.”

I shrugged. What could I say?

“You’re serious about this?” Mark asked tentatively.

I nodded. “That was a way simple explanation, but yeah.”

“So why are the exiles so important that Saint Dane wants them dead?”

“Because after all that happened to Halla, after the dismantling of so many societies and civilizations, they’re the last remaining group of people who stood up to Ravinia. To Saint Dane. When they were shot off of Second Earth, it was like they were taken out of the loop. They didn’t experience the downfall of their own world. It was like Saint Dane inadvertently protected them, and now it’s their collective spirit that is keeping him from his final victory. The collective spirit of the exiles is keeping Solara alive. Remember how Saint Dane kept talking about Denduron being the first domino to fall? The exiles are the last domino. If they are destroyed, Solara will be his.”

“So, if the Ravinians hadn’t sent us all into exile, Saint Dane would have won by now?”

“Pretty much. It was the biggest mistake he made. Now he’s trying to correct it.”

“And we’re counting on it to come back and bite him in the butt.”

“Exactly. The Travelers were sent out to find the remaining exiles and protect them. You’re one of them, Mark. Courtney too.”

“Okay, say you find the other exiles. Then what?” “Then we move on Saint Dane here. On Third Earth.” Mark’s eyes lit up. “That I understand.” “I thought you would.”

“You think Elli can convince Nevva to help somehow?”

I rubbed my eyes. It was a point-blank question. I had to give him an answer that was just as direct.

“No. I don’t. Nevva’s hard-core. But who knows what’ll happen when she sees her mother? It might get through to her somehow.”

“Don’t count on it,” he grumbled.

“I hear you, but I’ll try anything. I don’t want to say that I’m desperate but… I’m desperate.”

“Is it worth the risk? Going in there, I mean. You saw what happened to Antonio.”

“I did, and it’s another reason I want to get to Nevva. Antonio said there was an attack coming. If Saint Dane knows where the exiles are, they’re dead and Halla is lost. We need to find out what’s going on and try to scuttle it.”

Mark nodded. I knew he was running Antonio’s final words over in his head. I’d done it a hundred times myself.

“If he’s building more gunships to go after the exiles,” Mark said, thinking aloud, “it means they’re probably here on Third Earth.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“Are there really seventy thousand of us?” he asked.

“Saint Dane created a massive flume in the middle of a packed Yankee Stadium that sucked them all inside. Seventy thousand might be light.”

Mark’s eyes went wide. I figured he was trying to imagine the event. I, on the other hand, preferred to forget it.

Mark said, “It’s easier to imagine that whole Solara-spirit thing than to picture Yankee Stadium being sucked down a drain. Yikes.”

We looked at each other, and laughed. It was totally inappropriate, but it broke the tension. For a second it felt like old times, when Mark and I would hang out for hours and talk about anything that came into our heads. It didn’t last long.

Mark clapped his hands on his knees and stood up. “I’ll send my guys out in a chopper at first light. If there are seventy thousand people hiding out somewhere, we’ll find them.”

“I don’t know,” I said skeptically. “It took Saint Dane a while.”

“Yeah,” he said slyly. “But we know where to look.”

He strode for the door, then stopped and turned back, as if he had a new thought. He squinted, which was something Mark always did when he was having trouble understanding something. I liked those small, familiar moments. It meant that beneath that hardened exterior, my friend was still lurking around somewhere.

“The flumes were destroyed, right?” he asked.

“Every last one of ‘em.”

“So how did you and Elli get here? And how are the other Travelers getting around?”

“We don’t need the flumes anymore. The Travelers can go wherever we want, anytime. But we have to be careful, because each time we do, it depletes more of the power of Solara.”

Mark stared at me, still squinting. We stayed like that for a few seconds. I think he went into brain lock. What I had just said went beyond his comprehension. He finally shook his head and said, “Forget I asked.”

“Forgotten.”

He didn’t move. Something else was on his mind. I hoped he wasn’t going to ask me any more questions about Solara.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Besides everything?”

Mark hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “I feel like, one way or another, this is it. I mean, it’s finally going to be over, isn’t it?”

“It is. One way or another.”

He nodded. “I’m glad we’re back together, Bobby.” “Me too.”

“Courtney should be here.”

“We’ll find her,” I said with confidence, but absolutely no authority.

He pulled himself out of there. I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, hoping for sleep to come quickly. As usual, it didn’t. My mind was too full of clashing thoughts, most of which were about what would happen the next day. I’d been on plenty of adventures since becoming a Traveler. My journals are loaded with the tales. It had become a way of life. A crazy way of life, but what can you do? That was the way it was meant to be. This time was different. Of all the things I’ve been through, either alone or with another Traveler, we were always able to take care of ourselves. More or less.

Not this time. Mark and I were setting out on what could be a suicide mission… with an older woman on our team. The closest I’d come to that was with Gunny, but he could take care of himself. Heck, he could handle himself better than I could. Elli was a different story. She was smart and resilient, no question there. But she was fragile. Physically and emotionally. I wasn’t so much worried about something bad happening to her. After all, she was a Traveler. But we were going to have to move fast and react to constantly changing threats. Doing that with an older, fragile woman was going to be tricky.

Making it worse was the fact that Mark would be with us. He wasn’t a Traveler. He could die. Like really die. And he was an exile. I had to make sure that Mark survived the ordeal… while watching out for Elli, and oh by the way, staying alive myself. Suddenly my plan didn’t seem like such a hot one.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night.

But I did get to sleep. Finally. My body and my brain needed it. I probably could have slept for days, but all we could afford was a couple of hours. Mark got me up before daybreak.

“Come on” was all he had to say.

I was up and ready to go in seconds. I followed him quickly and quietly, trying not to wake the other guys who slept in the beds around us. Elli waited for us in the garage near the helicopters. She had changed into nondescript gray pants and a black shirt. Standard wear for Third Earth. She stood stiffly, with her arms still wrapped around her waist. Her long gray hair was pulled back tight, out of the way. I’m not sure if it was the way her hair was, or the light, but for the first time I saw the resemblance between her and Nevva. She stood up straight. Her eyes were alert. Just like her daughter. They were definitely blood relatives.

I still had on my Second Earth clothes, and Mark had on the same raggedy pants and shirt I’d seen him wear the day he rescued those people from the building in the zoo. That seemed like years ago. For all I knew, it was years ago. I’d lost all sense of time.

Mark had three short, jet-black guns that looked like miniature shotguns. The single barrels were wide. Beneath each was a thick, round disk where, I assumed, the ammunition was stored. Not that I was an expert, but it was like no gun I’d ever seen.

“These were stolen from the fortress,” Mark explained. “It fires some sort of burst of charged particles. It’s enough to knock a big guy off his feet, but it won’t kill him. What it kills are dados. One shot and they go cold.”

He kept one and gave one each to Elli and me. I held the weapon up, admiring it.

“I love this,” I said in awe.

“I’ve never fired a weapon in my life,” Elli said, holding the gun as if it were diseased.

“Be sure to hold the stock tight against your body, or the recoil might hurt you,” Mark explained. “Each has ten shots. After that, it’s done. We don’t have reloads.”

Elli looked sick. I wasn’t even sure she knew which end to point at a dado. I took the gun from her.

“It’s okay. You won’t have to do any shooting,” I assured her.

She looked relieved. Not relaxed, but relieved. I hadn’t fired many guns either, but to be honest, the idea of nailing a couple of dados appealed to me. I didn’t want to go looking for one, but if I had one in my sights, I didn’t think I’d have any trouble pulling the trigger. The guns had shoulder straps, so I slung both weapons over my back.

“What’s the plan?” I asked Mark.

He led us out of the garage to where one of the other exiles, a girl with red hair and freckles, named Maddie, was waiting behind the wheel of an ancient yellow taxi. She didn’t look any older than sixteen. I wondered if she had her driver’s license, though I doubted if anybody checked anymore. Just so long as she knew how to drive, I didn’t care. We hurried into the backseat, slammed the door, and Maddie hit the gas. With a lurch we were off and flying. Fast. She knew how to drive.

Mark explained, “We have to get to the insert point before the sun comes up. Moving cars in daylight draw attention.”

“Insert point?” I asked.

“The city is honeycombed with ancient tunnels,” Mark said. “At all levels. They carried subways, sewage, electricity, pretty much everything that made a city work and that nobody wanted to see. There’s a whole city below this city that most people never saw.”

“It’s still intact?” I asked.

“Most of it collapsed when the fireworks started. That’s what they tell me, anyway. But the deeper tunnels survived, and we have maps. They’re like gold. It’s how everybody moves around without being seen by Ravinians.”

“People live underground?” Elli asked.

“Some do, but mostly the tunnels are used as highways. There’s a service tunnel that runs directly beneath the Ravinian fortress. They have no idea it exists. We don’t use it that often, because we don’t want to risk it being discovered and ruining the one advantage we have over them. But every once in a while we stage a quiet raid, like the one that got these guns. We’re able to get right under their noses without them knowing.”

Elli asked, “Is that how Antonio got to the fortress?”

Mark nodded.

I didn’t want to dwell on that last mission. “Do you know the factory he was talking about?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s outside the fortress. It’s a huge place where they assemble the choppers. I think it’s where they store weapons, too. I don’t know for sure though. I’ve never been inside. Nobody has.”

“Except for Antonio,” Elli corrected.

“We should go there first,” I said. “I want to see what Antonio was talking about. We have to know what we’re up against.”

“Done. I can get us in.”

“Great.”

“Tricky part is getting out again.” Oh.

On that depressing thought we all fell quiet. Maddie drove us quickly through the dead streets of Manhattan. It was a hairy ride. Our car didn’t have headlights, and there were no streetlights burning, so it was hard to make out where the streets ended and the sidewalks or buildings began. That didn’t stop Maddie. She charged down the streets and took corners as if she were wearing night-vision goggles. For the record, she wasn’t. It was scaring the hell out of me. But I wasn’t about to be a backseat driver. All I could do was dig my fingernails into the armrest and prepare for the jolt when we hit something.

We didn’t, though I’m not sure why. Maddie pulled up to a two-story brick building that had no signage or markings. She hit the brakes, skidded to a stop, and looked back at us with a quick, “Go. Good luck.”

“You too,” Mark told her.

“That was great driving,” I said to Maddie, trying to make friends.

“You should see what I can do in a helicopter,” she replied with a sly smile.

I didn’t necessarily want to experience that particular pleasure. If she flew like she drove, I’d probably pass out from fear.

Mark said, “Maddie’s flying the first leg to search for the exiles.”

“Oh,” I said quickly. “Then good luck to you, too.” She winked.

We all got out of the car. Maddie barely waited until I closed the door before taking off. She shot down the dark street, took a sharp corner, and was gone. She had to get back before sunrise. These people lived like vampires.

Mark wasn’t wasting time either. He walked straight into the building. We followed. Of course the place was empty. I had no idea what it might have been used for, but if it was sitting over the entrance to an underground utility tunnel, it was probably a city building of some sort. Mark led us quickly across the empty floor that was covered with broken bits of furniture, glass, and I don’t know what else. He knew exactly where he was going. I had Elli walk in front of me so I could keep an eye on her. Mark led us through a few doors, to a stairwell that disappeared down into the dark.

Elli hesitated.

“If Mark says it’s okay, it’s okay,” I said, trying to reassure her.

Mark looked back and said, “This is the easy part.”

That didn’t make me feel any better, which meant it probably did even less for Elli. But like I said, she was brave. We followed Mark down several flights of winding, concrete stairs. After passing through another doorway, we came upon another stairwell. The deeper we went, the darker it became.

“Are we going to be walking the whole way in the dark?” I asked.

“Wait,” Mark answered.

We had finally reached bottom. At least, I thought it was the bottom. I didn’t see any other stairways around. I didn’t see much of anything. It was nearly pitch-black. Elli had a death grip on my arm. Mark shuffled over to a far wall, moving slowly, so as not to walk face-first into something. He ran his hands along the wall until he came upon what looked like a box mounted there. He opened it, reached inside, threw a switch… and we had light. A line of overhead bulbs lit up an impossibly long tunnel that stretched out to either side of us. Dark pipes ran the length of the tunnel for as far as I could see. It was dizzying. We were standing at the foot of metal stairs, surrounded by electric juncture boxes.

“The survivors tapped the electricity that powers the Ravinian’s underground train,” Mark explained. “It’s one of the advantages of living like a shadow.”

“Yeah, no electric bills,” I said, making a lame joke. Nobody laughed.

“This is the insert point that’s closest to the fortress,” Mark said. “I’ve made this trip only once, but it’s not like we can get lost. We’ve got about a mile to go.”

He turned right and started walking. Elli followed him and I followed Elli. It was tough getting my bearings after that breakneck cab ride courtesy of our night guide named Maddie. I figured that if we were headed toward the Ravinian fortress, then we were walking under the river. That was kind of creepy. But if this ancient tunnel had lasted through multiple centuries and a devastating war, the odds of it collapsing and trapping us were pretty slim. We didn’t say much on our journey. I think we had all retreated into our own heads to prepare for whatever we might find on the other side. Every so often we’d come upon an area where the tunnel widened. These areas seemed to be where connections were made and service people worked. Kind of like crossroads. I could see that these areas had been used as homes. There were crusty, crumpled-up blankets, empty cans of food, and some long-forgotten books.

“Did the homeless live down here?” I asked.

Mark didn’t even look back when he answered. “We’re all homeless, Bobby.”

Oh. Right. I started getting a clearer picture of what life was like for the non-Ravinians on Third Earth. They were in constant fear of being discovered by the Ravinians and lived like rats. They kept to the dark tunnels and could only move around without fear at night. They really were like vampires.

“So sad” was the only comment Elli made.

It wasn’t much, but I was glad to hear that she hadn’t checked out completely. Her head was with us, in the moment.

Our journey took about half an hour. It felt endless, since there wasn’t much to look at. We reached another juncture point, where the only difference between it and all the others was a painted symbol on the cement wall. It was a crudely drawn red star. The star that marked the gates. The Ravinian star. Mark saw that I was staring at it.

“We painted that to mark the spot,” Mark explained. “Kind of fits, don’t you think?”

I nodded. I knew what he meant. Every trip I had taken through Halla had begun at a spot that was marked by a star. This time would be no different.

Mark continued, “Going up here would get us into the conclave. You want to start here or check out the chopper factory?”

“I want to see what Antonio saw” was my answer. “Then we keep moving.”

Mark led us another few hundred yards until we came to another juncture. Our last. A narrow, metal ladder led up into the unknown.

“This is where it gets risky,” Mark explained. “This is the route we sent Antonio’s team on. The maps show that this comes up outside the fortress wall, next to the factory. We’re going to climb up to a manhole that’s buried under dirt and rubble. The thing is, there’s no way to know if a Ravinian guard is standing nearby until we lift it up.”

“So we might climb up into the middle of a bunch of dados?” I asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. This is outside the fortress, but it’s inside their security perimeter. They don’t expect anybody to be popping up out of the dirt. So if we run into somebody, it’ll be bad luck.”

“And what if our luck is bad?” I asked.

“Then we come out shooting.”

I had to smile at my friend’s bold statement. He hadn’t only grown up, he’d become a guerrilla. “Are you sure you’re Mark Dimond?” I asked.

He laughed. “I haven’t been sure of anything for years. You guys ready?”

I looked to Elli. She nodded.

Mark went to another electric panel. “Gotta kill the lights. Too risky to leave them burning. Put your hands on the ladder.”

Elli and I grabbed the ladder and Mark threw the switch. It was a good thing we were holding the ladder, because the juncture went pitch-black. I couldn’t see an inch ahead of me. We would have bumped into one another looking for the ladder in the dark.

“Me first, then Bobby,” Mark commanded.

I sensed him move past us and up the ladder.

“You going to be okay?” I asked Elli.

“I’m fine down here” was her answer. “It’s what’s outside that has me worried.”

That made three of us.

We all climbed up. And up. And up. We kept reaching higher levels, where we transferred to other ladders. Luckily, the ambient light grew as we got nearer the surface, so it wasn’t like climbing through ink. I kept glancing back, afraid that Elli might freeze. But she was right there with us. No problem. So far, she was rising to the occasion. We hit yet another level, and Mark waited for us to join him.

“This is it,” he whispered. “The manhole is at the top of this next ladder. I’ll go up and push the cover. Bobby, you stay behind me, but keep your eyes down. Dirt’s gonna fall. Once I’m up, I’ll check to see if it’s clear, then call for you guys to follow.”

“I should go first,” I suggested. “This was my idea.”

I was actually thinking that if we were to climb up under the feet of some dados, I didn’t want them to get Mark.

“Sorry. I’m calling the shots here.” He cuffed me on the arm. “Besides, I can’t let anything happen to the lead Traveler.”

I wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to worry, but it was clear that his mind was made up.

“Fine. What do we do once we’re on top?”

Mark shrugged. “Beats me. The map only gets us to here. After that we wing it.”

I turned to Elli and said, “Stay down here on the platform. We’ll call for you to come up.”

Elli nodded and backed away from the ladder. “Ready?” Mark asked.

I hitched the two guns up onto my shoulder and nodded. Mark scrambled right up the ladder. I followed close behind. In no time he was at the top. I leaned back and looked up to see the circular outline of the manhole cover. Mark waved for me to look away. I waved back for him to keep going and not worry about me. He shrugged and raised a hand up to the circle. Manhole covers are heavy to begin with, and if this thing was covered with dirt, it must have weighed a ton. I saw Mark strain to push with one hand. It barely budged. He had to use both hands, which wasn’t easy while balancing on a ladder. He climbed up one rung higher so he could use his legs as well. Yet again, I was amazed at how much my friend had changed. He was now a powerful, confident guy. I hoped he was powerful enough to get us the heck out of there. I was about to climb up, to see if I could help, when I felt the first trickle of dirt fall in my eyes. I looked away, and not a second too soon because Mark had the cover in motion and a load of dirt hit me on my head. I saw Elli on the platform, looking up. She had to step back to avoid getting hit with the dirt shower. The sound of metal raking across metal meant that Mark was pushing the cover aside. More dirt fell on my head, but I didn’t care. I wanted out of there. Fast. If there were any dados hanging around, we were in the worst possible position.

The scraping stopped and so did the cascade of dirt. I took a chance and looked up, to see a crescent of gray sky. Mark didn’t waste time admiring the sight. He popped his head up and did a quick three-sixty around.

“Bring her up,” he whispered down to me.

I looked down to Elli and motioned for her to climb. By the time I looked back up, Mark was already gone. I climbed quickly and squeezed myself through the sliver of an opening. Mark was right next to me, on his belly, his head near the open manhole.

“Stay down,” he whispered. “It’s clear, but who knows for how long?”

I scrambled out and got down on the ground next to Mark. The whole world looked gray, mostly because of the early-morning light that comes before the warm rays of the sun sneak over the horizon. We were in a wide alley between two high walls that ran parallel to each other. One, I realized, was the outer wall of the Ravinian fortress. It towered high over us like a skyscraper. I guessed that we were a couple hundred yards back from the front wall where the huge doors were. This wall had no doors. Or windows. Or anything. It was a sheer, stone facade that looked more like a giant dam than a wall. About thirty yards across from the fortress was the wall of another building. This wasn’t anywhere near as tall. I’d say it was about four stories high. But it was still pretty huge. We were maybe fifty yards from the front of this building, but it stretched back the other way for several hundred more. I looked at the massive building, then to Mark.

He nodded. He knew what I was thinking.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “The factory.”

The best news was that there wasn’t a dado in sight. We had made it through what Mark thought was the riskiest part of the trip. I had no doubt there would be plenty of risks ahead to make up for it.

Elli poked her head up out of the hole. Mark and I quickly helped her out. After she was safely up, we struggled to push the manhole back into place and brushed dirt over it to hide our tracks. The ground between the walls was nothing but dirt, which made it easy to rebury the cover. We made sure to spread the dirt around enough to disguise the manhole. If somebody was looking for it, they’d probably find it. But if a random dado walked by, I was confident they wouldn’t uncover anything. The whole time we were disguising the manhole I was thinking how there was no way we’d be able to use it to get out of there. Especially if we had to find it in a hurry. When it was time to get back to the city, we were going to have to find another route.

Mark was already scanning the building, looking for a way in. There were no windows in this wall either. No way to get a quick peek inside. It looked to me like the little brother of the much larger Ravinian conclave across from it. There was a set of double doors near the front of the building. Next to the doors was a metal ladder that ran up to the roof. We didn’t need to discuss it. This was where we had to go. I looked to Elli. She nodded that she was okay, but her eyes were wild. She was scared. I was afraid that she was barely holding it together.

I motioned for Mark to go first. He jumped up and scampered to the wall of the factory and the double doors. I held Elli’s arm and helped her run after him. My other hand was on the straps of the two rifles. I’d have preferred to have one of them pointed and ready, but I couldn’t do that, hold the other strap, and guide Elli all at the same time. I had to trust that if a shot needed to be taken quickly, Mark would take it.

We got to the door in seconds. Mark tried it. It was locked.

“I guess that would have been too easy,” he said with a shrug.

He tried to force it open. No go. I looked at the ladder.

“We could climb, or we could head around the corner of this building to look for another door. I’m thinking that the longer we spend sneaking around, the better chance we’ll be seen.”

Mark didn’t wait for any other opinions. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and climbed the ladder.

“One more climb,” I said to Elli with a weak smile.

She went right after Mark. I was last in line. Climbing this ladder was hairier than any of the others. For one, we were totally exposed. Anybody coming by would spot us in a nanosecond. It was scary, too. Underground it was safe and closed. Out here we clung to the side of a building with nothing around us but air. We probably would have been hurt just as badly if we had fallen when we were down below, but being out in the open made this seem much more dangerous. I guess it’s like the difference between walking a tightrope that’s two inches off the ground… or thirty feet up. I made a point of not looking down.

We made it to the top with no problem. When I reached the lip and stepped onto the flat roof, I gasped. I actually gasped. The building was huge. Seeing one side wall didn’t give the full perspective. Up on top we could see the whole thing, and there was a lot to see. The roof was completely flat, broken up by various air ducts and skylights that dotted the surface. From the front corner we could pretty much see to the far side. It was a long way away. The building was probably twice as long as it was wide. It was an enormous, sprawling structure.

“You could make a whole lot of helicopters here,” I pointed out.

“I guess you need a lot to hunt down seventy thousand people,” Mark added.

“Let’s go see,” I said, and jogged off.

We were totally exposed up there, but what else could we do? I ran toward the closest skylight, hoping it would give us access. The glass window looked like a small greenhouse structure on top of the flat roof. I got there first and peered down for my first look inside.

Sure enough, there were several rows of gleaming black, brand-spanking-new helicopters lined up, ready to fly. Each had rocket launchers in front. These choppers were assault weapons, no doubt about it.

Elli and Mark joined me and looked down.

“Wow,” Mark exclaimed. “Armed for bear, too.”

“It’s monstrous,” Elli gasped, numb.

A few feet beyond the skylight, I spotted a hatch with a handle. I grabbed the metal loop and pulled. The hatch opened.

“I guess they don’t expect anybody dropping in from up here,” I remarked.

Inside the building another small ladder led down to a metal catwalk. I climbed down first, then helped Elli. The catwalk ran along the wall, high above the factory floor. From inside we could look down to see the entire fleet of choppers. Or whatever it is you call a bunch of helicopters. They were all new. They were all armed. They were all ready for their deadly mission.

“Look,” Mark said. “They’re making even more.”

He pointed to the far side of the space, where we saw several more helicopters in various stages of construction.

“Yikes. How many do they think they need?” Mark asked.

“Seventy thousand people is a lot of people” was my sober answer.

I scanned the vast factory floor, trying to take it all in. It was then that something struck me.

“This might get worse,” I announced.

Mark said, “Worse than a few dozen attack helicopters armed with rockets?”

“I mean, this isn’t the whole factory.” I pointed to the right, which was the direction the building had stretched out before us when we were on the roof. “What we’re seeing here isn’t even half the factory. Look at the far wall. No way that’s the end of the building. There’s more beyond that. A lot more.”

“Could there be even more helicopters?” Elli asked.

I saw that the catwalk continued on along the wall, high above the factory floor.

“Let’s find out,” I said, and moved quickly along the metal walkway.

I took one of the guns off my shoulder and held it against my hip, ready to shoot. I kept glancing to the factory floor to see if any workers or dados might be down there to sound an alarm. The place seemed deserted. I figured it might have been a day off. Did dados take a day off? Or maybe it was too early for the first shift to begin. After all, the sun had barely come up. We passed row after row of the attack helicopters. I was already planning some way to sabotage them. Maybe the rockets on board could be fired and that would create a chain reaction. Or something. We had to figure out some way of grounding this fleet of killing machines.

We made the long walk to the far wall, and to a door that would lead us to whatever was beyond. I grabbed the door handle and turned. It was unlocked. I turned back to the others.

“You think we can do some damage down there?” I asked Mark.

Mark shrugged. “I don’t see why not. There’s plenty of live ammo around. Of course, if we start making noise, they’ll know we’re here.”

“You think?” I chuckled.

I opened the door, stepped into the next factory space…

And all thoughts of helicopters left my head.

I dropped the rifle. That’s how stunned I was. My arms went limp. The weapon clattered onto the metal walkway. I left it there, taking a few dazed steps forward, as if getting closer might make the image before me clearer, and prove it wasn’t what it seemed to be. I hoped it was an optical illusion. Or a trick. Or anything other than what it looked to be.

There was a question I’d often wondered about but never bothered to try and answer. Since leaving home, I had to learn about and understand so many impossible things that some of them I just had to let go. It’s how I felt about unique technology on all the territories. I never really wondered or cared about how they created power on Ibara. Or how the air globes of Cloral were created. Or what advanced technology would allow something like Lifelight to exist, or the amber crystals on Eelong that carried radio signals. These were all aspects of the territories that were interesting, but didn’t need to be analyzed unless it could help us on our mission.

The same held true for what we saw on that factory floor. This is what Antonio and his team had discovered. This is what he meant when he said the Ravinians had been preparing to attack.

It had nothing to do with helicopters.

The factory did indeed go on. This second section had to be three times the size of the area that held the choppers. The lame choppers. The choppers that now seemed like toys compared to what faced us on that factory floor. I now had the answer to a question I’d never asked.

I now knew where the dados were made.

We stood above a sea of thousands of dado warriors. Shoulder to shoulder. Heel to toe. Row upon row upon perfect row. They were dressed in various uniforms. Some wore the green military-like uniforms with gold helmets from Quillan. Another whole section had on the deep red suits that showed them to be Ravinian guards. One huge section held dados that didn’t have uniforms, but instead were dressed in normal clothing that would easily allow them to blend in with the people of Second Earth.

There was more. I saw dados dressed as Batu warriors and Bedoowan knights. Some wore the rags that made them look like Flighters from Ibara. Maybe the most jarring of all was the section of klees. They actually made dado cats.

As with the helicopters, one whole section of floor was an assembly line that held hundreds of dados that were yet to be completed. There were more to come. Many more. I saw multiple rows of legs and arms and hands-all waiting to be used to create more robotic warriors.

The dados all had the same, blank expression. Many were still made in Mark’s image, but others branched out with different looks. The dados were looking more human than ever. But they weren’t. They were machines. They were Saint Dane’s army.

“This is what Antonio found,” I said with a dry mouth. “This is how they’re going to attack.”

Mark looked just as stunned as I felt. “There could be seventy thousand exiles, or seven hundred thousand. It won’t matter. They can’t stand up to this army.”

I went into brain lock. I didn’t know what to do. About the dados. About Halla. About the exiles. I didn’t even know what to do in the next second. I was frozen.

Wump!

A dull but powerful sound tore through the dead quiet. An instant later, a dado that had been creeping toward us along the catwalk fell off and plummeted to the factory floor. It looked like a mannequin because it was already dead. It hit, bounced, and crumbled like a doll. Mark and I both looked back in surprise to see Elli standing behind us with the gun I had dropped. She had it braced against her hip, her finger on the trigger.

She had dropped the dado with a single shot.

“Pick up your guns,” she commanded with confidence. “They know we’re here.”