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“So, what then?”
“I think explosives are the only solution.”
“Explosives? Really? How do we find those?” She blanched at the idea of handling explosives. She was a computer technician, not a weapons or explosives expert. She always considered herself more of an inside girl. And now she was being asked not only to use a bomb, but to use one that hit the sweet spot of being large enough to tear down a wall but not large enough to kill the being inside who she had come to care about more than anyone she’d ever met.
“We have two options, I think. Either finding a cache of weapons for the military or police, which seems unlikely, given the Jorvlen obsession with security. The other is finding a place that has the right materials for one. Anything related to transit seems like the best bet.”
Cora wondered why transit, and then she remembered that to get a vehicle moving, especially out of the atmosphere, you needed propulsion, which meant sparks and fuel. In other words, raw materials for an incendiary device.
That’s when she remembered lore she had heard from ancient days on Earth about a way of making bombs when there weren’t sophisticated materials. Revolutionaries concocted explosives in desperate times that were easy to make with materials that were easy to find, and a method that made them easy to deploy.
“Right, I was thinking we’d have to find advanced weapons technology. But you made me remember something. On Earth in ancient times, they had these things, Molotov cocktails.”
“Is that a drink? What’s that have to do with explosives?”
“The Molotov part is after some government official. But for the cocktail, it’s because it’s made in a glass bottle. Fill it with fuel, stick in a rag, light it like a fuse, and bottoms up. Boom! Maybe I’ll get lucky and find better materials. At the very least, I bet I can get a closed container and fuel. If nothing else, I’ll rip off my clothes for the fuse.”
“That has the added bonus of creating a beautiful diversion.”
She and Levi laughed on opposite sides of the wall, keeping her warm as the sun set all around her. “I promise I’ll be back, Levi.”
“I have total faith. I’ve never had more faith in anyone or anything.”
She hoped she would deserve it. “All right, my dearest Lorr warrior. Time to orchestrate a prison break.”
She found it easy to move around the bleak plain that surrounded the jail. Without the bright sun and clouds of dust, Cora could see the fires of a small town in the distance, and she followed it.
As she approached the outskirts of the town in the twilight, she found more places to hide but also more beings wandering around, and she knew she would stick out as a human. She ducked in and out of alleys as she waited for the gray dusk to turn to the black of night. She got more nervous each time she dived behind a column or vehicle, terrified of being found. She tripped over a grating on the ground and discovered it was an abandoned bunker with old metal shelving near the entrance. She pulled it across the open doorway so anybody trying to get in would have to make a noise doing it.
Once she was certain the sun had fallen, she moved the metal shelving and began to emerge.
“Well, it’s now or never,” she said quietly to herself. “Let’s make some fireworks.”
The night was dark and cool when she stepped out into it.
Smatterings of beings were walking around the street, but they became increasingly empty as workers went home. Several times she had to duck out of the way so as not to be spotted. As she hid behind a small transporter, she overheard the grumbles of two disgruntled Jorvlen laborers.
“All day, it’s like the fires of hell there in starship parts manufacturing. I breathe in these toxic fumes at the parts factory, and I’m sick of it. I’m so fed up. I work late, and they don’t pay me.”
“At least it’s a job, Dil. They’re getting hard to come by,” the second voice said.
“I spent the entire day filling containers of rocket fuel today for shipment off-planet.”
Jackpot.
Chapter 16
Thadunk!
The ball bounced off the gray stone floor of the cell, ricocheted off the wall and then landed back in Levi’s hand.
Thadunk!
Thadunk!
Thadunk!
He didn’t know how many times he’d thrown that ball while waiting for Cora’s return, but he knew he had to do something to keep him sane while she was out there risking her life for him.
