James Axler – The Mars Arena

“What about the water in the lake?”

“I’d purify it before I drank it. Drank it before and I’m still here.”

“Any game along the way?”

“Precious little,” Hoyle replied. “Country’s still carrying a taint of rad-blasting from farther east.”

Shifting his attention back to Bernsen, Ryan asked, “When’s the space station going to come down?”

“Two days from now. An hour or two after nightfall.”

“How sure are you?”

“I came out here to see it,” Bernsen said. “Six other people from the foundation died getting this far. We’re pretty certain.”

“Everybody get your gear together,” Ryan ordered. “We’re leaving in five minutes.”

“YOU’RE GOING after the space station, aren’t you?” Krysty asked.

“Yeah,” Ryan replied. “Only a day, mebbe two out of our way. Keeping the raft and staying with the river as much as we can, we should make the time up okay.” He studied her.

Krysty knew the strain she was under showed to him. There weren’t any real secrets between them anymore, except the ones Ryan knew she didn’t want to know about and the vision she’d had yesterday.

“You think we should do it another way?” he asked.

That he would ask rather than simply leading the companions let her know he was concerned about her. She reached up and softly stroked his face. “Kind of thinking about the people mebbe closing in on our backtrail bothers me. It’ll pass.”

He nodded and started moving gear toward the raft.

Krysty picked up one of the backpacks they’d been fortunate enough to keep throughout the flood and started after him. At least, with Ryan headed up to the site of the falling space stationwhether it landed there or notit would give him something to think about instead of why she was being so quiet. It would also give her more time to figure out what the vision actually meant. She hoped.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The moon was hidden behind a cloud bank when Dean joined up with the rest of Perry’s group in the forest beyond the school’s cultivated fields. Mr. Solomon, tall and angular, with a long, thick mustache that curled down from his upper lip, stood in front of them. He was dressed in black, as well, but had double pistol holsters with revolvers shoved into them.

“You’re late, Mr. Perry,” Solomon said in a low voice that carried.

“Won’t happen again, sir.”

Dean instantly rebelled against the man’s military bearing as he fell into line with the other boys. Authority didn’t suit him, and Solomon was more by-the-book than any of the teachers at the school. There were some rumors that Solomon had a background in sec work somewhere farther west, maybe even as far as the Cific Ocean coastline.

Solomon flicked his dead gaze on Dean. “Glad you could join us, Mr. Cawdor.”

Dean nodded.

“I hadn’t planned on the unfortunate incident that removed Mr. Conover from our midst this morning.” Solomon crossed the space to stand in front of Dean. “Tonight’s activities, though, required ten players. I’ve never seen you operate in the dark. How good are you?”

“Okay,” Dean said.

“I guess we’ll have the truth of that in short order.”

Solomon walked back down the line, his hands clasped behind his back, his spine rigid and his shoulders squared. He met each boy’s gaze in turn. “Tonight’s exercise requires cunning and stealth. Follow me.”

Dean went with the others and trailed after Solomon.

The phys-ed instructor came to a stop on a small promontory overlooking rugged terrain filled with trees, brush and hills. He pointed at five of the boys, then presented them with black handkerchiefs. “Put those in your belts, loose enough to pull out but not loose enough to fall out on their own.”

The five boys tucked the handkerchiefs in their belts, testing them for tightness.

“The exercise works like this,” Solomon said. “The five of you with the black flags will be given a minute head start. Your goal is the tree out there.” He pointed.

Dean followed the phys-ed teacher’s finger, spotting the tall Colorado blue spruce nearly a half mile away. A white banner fluttered near its top.

Solomon went on. “Then the others will follow. I want you to use stealth, not speed traversing that terrain. Some of you could run that distance in three, four minutes. Shadows are all over the place out there. One misstep and you could end up with a broken leg or a broken foot. Or worse. I don’t want to get anyone hurt out there and screw up this team any more than it has been after this morning. Is that clear?”