“Right. Got a plan for how we kill Valadian?” Jack hated how easily he was throwing around that “we” now.
Blade scanned their immediate surrounds as he checked his Eagles by feel. “We don’t, Jack. You’re in no shape.”
“Because you shot me.” Jack, too, cast an eye over the cattle pen and sheds. The compound was quiet in the pre-dawn, their fight with the patrol not yet discovered. The calm wouldn’t last long, however.
“It was simply the most expedient way of getting you out of the Big House. Come on, I have your escape vehicle.”
Blade trotted away, leaving Jack to follow. Or not. Jack recalled those thoughts he’d had right back at the start of this whole mess. Why should he follow Blade? He was trained to deal with these situations. And surely he had every right to put a bullet or two into Valadian.
The first step he took, however, proved Blade right. The blow of the rubber bullet to the chest might not have killed him, but he wasn’t in peak condition either.
Then he saw the direction Blade was going.
Seeing the possibilities, Jack followed.
“I thought you said it was grounded,” Jack huffed as he caught up to the assassin.
“I have a half-dozen racing cars, Jack,” Blade said smugly. “I’ve learned to maintain them myself. You’ll find I’m something of a deft hand with a spanner.”
The Kamov Ka-52 loomed above them, a sleek, powerful shape cut out in matte black against the glowing gold sky of dawn.
“I’ve fixed the damage I caused,” Blade explained. “It’ll get you up well enough, but the damage was compounded. It won’t get you all the way home, I’m afraid.”
Jack ran his hand along the side of the chopper. “As long as it doesn’t blow up on lift-off.”
“It won’t.”
Turning at the hint of sadness in Blade’s tone, Jack was surprised by the assassin pushing against him, arms wrapping around his waist.
“I meant what I said, Jack. I don’t regret the other night.”
Still not sure if he did, Jack kept his hands to himself. Whatever Blade said now, Jack was highly aware of him also letting Valadian fuck him.
At the lack of response, Blade sighed and let him go. “Wait until I’ve distracted the troops, then leave.”
Jack nodded. “Sure. Whatever you say.”
Blade eyed him suspiciously, then turned and walked away. Jack watched him go, unsure of the mix of emotions in his sore chest. He didn’t know how much of that soreness was from the bullet and how much from Blade’s betrayal.
Alone, Jack looked up at the chopper. He’d logged a couple hundred hours between simulators and aircraft, but that had been ten years ago. Did playing sim-flight games count? They’d better.
Jack popped the canopy, heaved himself up, wincing with every pull on his abused chest muscles and broken wrist, and all but fell in. Arranging himself in the pilot’s seat, Jack got reacquainted with the complex array of buttons, levers, and gauges. He’d never flown a Ka-52 before, but a chopper was a chopper was a chopper. Surely. At least the digital screen in front of him was in English, not Russian.
Ignoring Blade’s advice to wait, he ran through the pre-flight, relieved at the hum of the batteries and, when he got that far, the whine of the engines. The coaxial rotors starting to turn overhead made him cheer. He might just manage to get this thing off the ground after all. Landing without crashing would be a problem for later.
He’d finally gotten the HUD up when whatever Blade had planned began. Shouts, gunshots, truck engines roaring.
Valadian had had about a hundred soldiers with him when he’d ambushed Jack. Blade was good, but was he that good?
Jack needed up, now. The rotors were thumping beautifully, kicking up dust in a rolling wave around the chopper. If Ethan had misjudged his repairs, Jack would find out very soon. Slowly, the aircraft lifted up, ponderous and awkward at first, swinging too far left. Overcompensating, Jack nearly drove the rotors into the storage shed on the right.
Across the compound, towards the entrance, there was an explosion and a fireball rolled into the sky.
“Fuck,” Jack shouted. He had to get his shit together, or it was going to be too late to do any good.
Finally, memories kicked in and Jack found his rhythm, lifting the chopper steadily. Once he was above the surrounding buildings, Jack pushed the stick forwards. The nose dipped and the Ka-52 shot away.
Leaving the compound behind, Jack took the chopper through its paces. Thanks to the coaxial rotors, it was one of the more manoeuvrable craft around. Thanks, however, to Ethan’s previous sabotage, it was sluggish to respond, engines whining as Jack forced the chopper into a near-vertical climb. When the vibrations got a bit too scary, Jack tipped it over and dived for the ground. Aware now of his aircraft’s abilities, Jack banked wide, easing the chopper through the turn, and then charged back towards the compound.
His first pass showed him a blazing truck, so reminiscent of that night at the torture shack he almost had an attack of nostalgia. The second, coming in slower, showed several bodies lying across the dirt, a pitched gunfight between soldiers taking cover behind an overturned truck, and Blade, making his way across the rooftop of a barracks.
A third truck was hurtling towards the gates of the compound.
Jack whizzed by it all, swinging out in a long, curving arc. He checked the Ka-52’s weapons and found them fully stocked.
Coming back around, he dropped the chopper down until it skated so close to the ground it left a veritable sandstorm behind it. Hoping the poor thing held together, Jack arrowed for the front gates of the compound. He armed the side-mounted guns and, from a distance of several hundred metres, began firing.
Two great plumes of dust blew up in lines ahead of him, driving straight for the truck presumably carrying Valadian away from his compound and the assassin intent on killing him.
Jack held on until he saw the truck swerve sharply, come up on two wheels, teeter, then topple over. At the last moment, he wrenched the stick back and around.
The chopper screamed through the tight turn, its belly scraping the top of the fence. Then it was clear and hurtling back over the compound. Jack let out a wild yell of surprise and victory.
Another wide arc and he came back in, this time aiming for the troops holed up behind the second truck. He hovered over them, nose down, turning in a slow circle and laying down a carpet of bullets. Bodies scattered, and on his roof, Blade waved his thanks, then raced on.
Jack concentrated on pinning down those soldiers who survived his first attack. As he drifted through the air over the compound, feeling the chopper start to shudder and shake more and more, he kept an eye on Blade.
The assassin was back on the ground and calmly ploughing his way through the soldiers protecting Valadian. He moved with that singular purpose Jack had witnessed the first night, every motion precise and controlled, perfectly targeted and flawlessly executed. It was a terrible kind of beauty.
Jack emptied his guns just as the last of the soldiers dropped their weapons and surrendered. Amidst them, Blade stopped his dance of death and said something. Whatever it was, the soldiers moved, and as Jack swung by on a slow pass, they dragged a protesting Valadian out of the truck.
He made another low fly over. Valadian was on his knees before Blade, his once-loyal soldiers hightailing it out of there as quickly as they could. Blade stepped up to Valadian, saying something, to which The Man shook his head furiously. Then he surged to his feet, rushing Blade.
Feeling the chopper jitter uncomfortably, Jack left. He couldn’t stay and watch what happened next. If he had any chance of getting home, he had to take it.
He made it as far as the homestead, and that just barely. The groaning aircraft landed with an ungainly series of thumps and crashes. Even after he shut down the engines, the whole thing vibrated so much Jack didn’t waste time getting out of it.
Taking shelter behind the stable, Jack waited. The chopper didn’t explode.
Blurt!
He even managed not to kill Sheila out of shock. In fact, he was so grateful to see the ugly beast he patted the long, smelly neck. Which apparently was all it took to gain a camel’s friendship for life.