Far, far away, barely visible in the night, is a dark, rectangular shape on the runway. It’s nearly a mile away, but as the plane picks up speed and closes the distance, its headlights illuminate an armored riot truck that has pulled right into the plane’s path, playing chicken with a 112-ton jet.
In the cockpit Trace sees it, but it’s too late to abort liftoff.
In the truck, the driver realizes a moment too late that this is a game he’s going to lose.
As the jet’s nose lifts off the ground, the truck swerves to get out of the way, but the driver isn’t fast enough. The starboard landing gear clips the truck, sending it tumbling like a toy, and a huge chunk of the landing gear rips loose, just as the plane leaves the ground. The Dreamliner lists precariously to one side, threatening to fall from the sky, but then stabilizes. Its broken landing gear, twisted and useless, retracts sluggishly into the wheel well.
On the ground, hundreds of earthbound kids are “tranq’d and yanked” by the Juvies, finding neither salvation nor sanctuary in the flightless vessels around them, while up above, the only vessel ever to be resurrected from the Graveyard carries 169 souls into the sky: 169 souls with no possible way to land.
69 - Lev
Lev has the advantage of being behind the action. He can see where the battlefront is, he can see the tactics of the Juvey attack force, and since no one has yet to graft eyes in the back of their head, Lev can move behind the battle without being caught.
And so can Nelson.
It’s before the escape jet has taxied away, when the focus is still on the armed AWOLs toward the north end of the main aisle. Lev spots Nelson leaving his van at the far western aisles of the Graveyard and moving in on foot. The parts pirate now wears a Juvey uniform he must have pulled from a real Juvey that he tranq’d. He’ll blend in. He’ll pass for one of them. The only thing Lev can pass for is an AWOL, and that won’t get him anything but unconscious. He knows he has to be careful.
Lev tries to figure out where Connor might be in this war zone, and suddenly he realizes that he doesn’t even know this Connor. The old Connor was all about saving himself, and he was good at it. But will he still be that way now that he’s responsible for every kid here? Connor saved a baby once. He also saved Lev. No, he won’t be running or hiding. He’ll be here until the last AWOL is taken down, and that last one may very well be him.
Nelson doesn’t know that. He sees Connor in only one dimension: a lowly AWOL. He won’t look for Connor at the battlefront, he’ll look for him on the fringes—and sure enough, Lev sees Nelson on the edges; places where stray kids have been tranq’d. Like a vulture pecking at carrion, Nelson lifts their heads off the ground, looks at each of their faces, then drops them back down again, moving on to the next one.
Lev circles behind Nelson in shadows, giving him a wide berth, and makes his way closer to the danger zone, where riot police clash with armed AWOLs. This is where Connor will be—but how can Lev save him from both Nelson and the Juvies?
When the answer comes to Lev, he grins in spite of the dire battle around him. The answer is simple. It’s terrifying. It’s impossible. It might work!
- - -
Lev nears the main aisle just as the Dreamliner begins to move and riot police advance on the crush of kids who never made it onboard.
A hundred yards away, on the failed front line, Lev sees a figure in off-color camouflage fearlessly charge a Juvey shooting at him. The kid takes the Juvey out—not with a bullet, but with the butt of his rifle—and there’s something about the way this kid moves that’s familiar.
Lev charges against a panic of escaping kids running toward him, ignoring the sound of gunfire, the roar of jet engines, and the crunch of crushing metal as the Dreamliner takes out a riot truck on takeoff.
The tumbling truck bursts into flames as the plane rises into the sky, and the light of the explosion illuminates the face of the kid in camouflage. Lev knows he’s found him.
“Connor!”
But Connor’s eyes are fixed on the escaping plane. “Don’t just stand there, run!” Connor tells him. “You were all supposed to run!”
“Connor, it’s me. It’s Lev.”
Even when Connor looks at Lev, he doesn’t seem to recognize him at first, and Lev knows it’s more than just the hair. Neither of them are the kids they were a year ago.
“Lev? What are you doing here? What, has the whole world gone nuts, and I’ve lost my mind?”
“I’m sure both are true, but I’m really here.” Lev bends down and takes the tranq gun away from the cop Connor has just rendered unconscious. “I came to save you.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”
“That’s probably true too, but I have to warn you: There’s a parts pirate after you.”
“That’s the least of my problems right now!”
Another kid with an automatic rifle hurries up to Connor. “We’re out of ammunition! What do we do?”
“Sticks and stones and airplane parts,” Connor tells him. “Or you can take your chances and run. Starkey didn’t leave us many choices.”
“Freakin’ Starkey!” The kid drops his spent weapon. “Good luck, Connor,” he says, and hurries away, trying to lose himself in the night.