Page 10 of Aviatrix

THREE

A FOOTNOTE IN HIS PERSONAL SOAP OPERA

The blast hurls me backward. I hit the floor so hard the air vanishes from my lungs. A flash of white light slices across my vision. Seconds later, the tower shakes with another deafening boom closer than before.

Smoke. Heat. The high-pitched silence follows too much sound. The sound of almost dying.

“Quay!” Eli’s voice cuts through the static. “Are you hit?”

My eyes widen before I blink, everything swimming. “I—I don’t think so.”

He hauls me up just as another tremor shudders through the tower. Lights flicker. Alarms scream. The command room is pure chaos.

Scooter. Thea.

I scramble to the launcher screen, but it’s fried. Cracked. Black.

“No, no, no,” I whisper as I glance out the shattered window. “They were locked in.”

Gary coughs, dragging himself up from under the console. “I rerouted the targeting. Launched wide. It wasn’t clean, but—”

“Did it hit them?” I cut in.

“I don’t think so. They might still be flying.”

Eli snatches the radio. “Titan-4, Titan-6, report.”

Static. Then, something breaks through the chaos.

“This is Fox.” Scooter voices, shaken but alive. “We’re fine. Missiles missed.”

Relief punches through me like a gut shot. I press both hands to my face, still shaking. We almost killed them.

“They let it happen,” I murmur. Not to anyone. Just… out loud.

Gary turns to me. “What?”

“They let us think we had control,” I say. “Then, they shut it down.”

Eli tilts his head. “They’re playing with us.”

And they know my name.

Why me? Why now? Unless... this isn’t the beginning of something. It’s the continuation of something I was never meant to know.

“Who the hell are they?” Lark snaps.

I freeze. “No one.”

Eli’s voice lowers. “Quay. You should tell him.”

“Why?” I laugh bitterly. “So he can throw it in a report and watch me burn for it?”

“You’ll get court-martialed if this gets out wrong,” Eli warns.

“I never even entered the damn aircraft,” I snap, locking eyes with Lark. “Remember?”

Lark steps closer. “Who are they?” His voice is calm now. Measured. But his eyes give him away. Something cold and afraid flickering just under the surface.