Brought Down

28. The Downfall

Julian

It feels surreal, being in the rebels' control center, witnessing their downfall from within. The place is a mess of blinking screens, ringing phones and panicked people shouting out updates mixed with curses.

I keep my back to the wall, trying to blend with the surroundings. Yet, every now and then, people glance my way, either perplexedly or hatefully. It's a good thing they don't have a minute to spare. Even though Garrett's condition for returning was that I wouldn't be harmed, I don't think it would have stopped some of them from taking what little revenge they could. But it doesn't matter now. I'm here, so I'm bound to go down with them.

Their general, Rykar, is calm enough. He receives updates on the dogfight in the sky and monitors the evacuation; I can't help but be impressed by his composure. From the scraps of orders and conversations, I figure they are trying to remove everyone underground. Seems their hideaway is situated above some abandoned mines and is connected by underground passages to the active mines that we work with. That explains how the rebel settlements pop up unexpectedly in new places, and how they get people and provisions. They must have dug a serious underground infrastructure over the years.

"We must move them to Rosefield," shouts a stout, red faced man, leaning over to Rykar. "If we keep people down in the mines, and they nuke us, the whole place will collapse."

Rosefield. The nearest working mine. Its name always sounded ironic to me, given the barren wasteland it stands on.

"We can't move such a crowd to Rosefield without their overseers noticing," Rykar says without looking at him. "We can't have the place associated with rebels. They'll cut them off and rely on other mines, or even blow up all the official mines and rely on what they have on Luna. We can't let this escalate to such a degree it will hurt the miners."

"But our people --"

"The hundred children we've sent there will have to do. We can't send thousands." Rykar turns and frowns at him. "We'll have to remain in the mines and prepare to be sealed from the surface for a while."

I wonder about Maggie and Sam, the kids we have found in the abandoned city. Not that they mean anything to me, but I hope they're among the hundred that's out of danger. Although it seems nobody here is ever completely out of danger.

"Malin is down," someone shouts, and the voices and the noise subside sharply as people process the news. "He didn't eject." The room goes completely quiet. "We only have Garrett and Angie now, and Kevin is still engaged farther to the north."

There are moans of shock and disappointment. The man who gave the news throws a spiteful glance at me, as if it was my fault one of their crafts has been hit.

At least it wasn't Garrett's.

"They're down, they're down," someone else shouts, and everybody go quiet again. My heart stops and my skin prickles. "They're... they have ejected, but the jets are down. They'll land miles from here. We have no protection in the air."

My heart starts beating again, faster. Garrett's alive, but out there on the surface, they will be captured or killed in no time. And this place will likely go up in flames even sooner.

"All right, let's move," says Rykar. "We must evacuate."

People start running around, gathering equipment, papers, maps.

"But what about Garrett?" someone says. "And Angie? We must send --"

"There's nothing we can do." Rykar looks up briefly. "There's two more jets but no pilots, with Mortenson and Wiggs still in Rosefield."

"So you'll just do nothing?" I say.

I don't care about Angie, but Garrett is a different matter. His lousy jokes, his lips on mine, his little kitchen with its heavenly bowl of soup. Him taking my deadly coat off, his hands bringing a boulder down to break my foot cuffs. He can't just die.

Rykar glances at me suspiciously.

"We have no pilots to send for them." He shakes his head and turns away, and then everybody just ignore me, moving around, picking things, leaving the room one by one while I stand there, unmoving, invisible.

Rykar is the last to leave. As he walks past me, I catch him by the sleeve.

"Sir," I say. "I'm a pilot."

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