The floor of the Rend proved hard-packed and bone dry for the next several miles, and blessedly free of any more Swarm. Through the dust, Kait thought she could see the cliff wall that marked the end of the basin, but it was hard to tell for sure.
“How much farther?”
“A mile,” Del replied. “Maybe less.”
“Once we get past this,” Lovings said on the comm, “it’s not far to Jacinto Plateau and then a straight shot to New Ephyra. With any luck we’ll be there by dinner.”
Kait knew enough to know you couldn’t make a “straight shot” through the fractured lands of the Jacinto Plateau, but she also knew that wasn’t really what Lovings meant. They were almost to cover, which was the important part. Out here, on the salt flats, they could be seen for miles. The plume of dust trailing behind them might even be visible from orbit.
Ahead she saw Cole stop and turn around. He took up a defensive stance.
“Something wrong up there, Cole?” she asked.
“Negative! Just thought I’d watch your backs while you exit this lovely place.”
And there it was. As Kait’s truck was pulled up to the Mega Mech, she could see that Cole had positioned himself beside a ravine about fifty feet across. It zigzagged its way up from the salt flats. Unlike the “road” they’d used to enter the Rend, this was very narrow—barely wide enough for a Minotaur—and made of soft sand and large rocks. The walls were sheer and ominous.
“Suddenly I’m not thrilled with this idea,” Del said.
Kait agreed.
“We’re here, we’ve got Cole in a fifty-foot-tall suit of armor, let’s just get it done,” Marcus said.
They started the climb.
Then Kait saw the real reason for Cole wanting to bring up the rear. As soon as they took the first sharp corner of the ravine, her unpowered vehicle completely ignored her turn of the wheel. The tires just slid in the soft pack of sand and rubble.
Cole came up behind her truck and nudged it, pointing it in the right direction again. Then Del eased forward and started to pull again. They went on like this, corner after corner, at what felt like an average of maybe five miles per hour.
“This is going to take all day,” Kait said.
“It was quicker coming down,” Lovings agreed.
“Plus you aren’t towing anything,” Del said.
For once Lovings was smart, and kept his mouth shut.
The trucks inched along the ravine. It was nearly midday, and despite the steepness of the walls on either side of their route, sunlight baked the ground and turned the Minotaurs’ cabins into ovens. Only Kait was comfortable, having ditched her armor-plated windshield.
A shadow fell over her, but when she glanced up there was only the glare. The edges of the ravine were barely visible against the sun’s brightness. She shielded her eyes, but could see nothing.
“Anyone else see that?” she asked on the comm.
“See what?” Del asked.
Kait wasn’t sure what to say. Her visions had fooled her so many times recently that she hesitated to voice such things. Of course, that’s what just about got her—and everyone with her—killed, keeping such a vision to herself.
“I thought maybe something flew over us. After that flock I’m a little on edge.”
“Trick of the light, maybe?” Lovings asked.
“I can barely see anything,” Del replied. “Cole, what about you?”
“I’m just focused on Kait’s rear,” he responded. “Uh. That didn’t come out right. I’m looking at her behind. The truck. I’m focused on the rear of the truck.”
Lovings barked a laugh, but when no one else joined in he quickly got himself under control. Kait shook her head, smiling a little despite herself. It amused her whenever Cole’s superstar confidence faltered, and the humble man shone through.
“Baird, you send any aircraft with the reinforcements?” Kait asked on the comm. No reply came. Only static. “Must be the ravine walls,” she said hopefully. “Blocking the signal. If that was the reinforcements, they won’t be able to home in on us.”
“Good point,” Cole said.
“Can you climb up there and have a look? Just in case?”
“Sure thing,” he replied, probably eager to do something other than babysit the damaged Minotaur.
Twisting around in her seat and looking out the window, Kait watched him guide the Mega Mech up the ravine wall, coping with the soft rock, scaling it as expertly as if he were on a mountaineering expedition. He had to leap to reach the last handhold, then pulled himself up and over the edge. Hidden by the rock, and with the sun overhead, he was impossible to see.
“Don’t… any… here.” His words were garbled.
While Kait was trying in vain to spot him, she didn’t notice her Minotaur twisting to one side. In front of her, Del swerved to avoid a jagged rock in the “road.” There was a horrible, teeth-juddering sound as the outcropping scraped along the underside of her truck. Kait grasped the steering wheel and heaved it, trying to straighten out, but it was a move of pure instinct—totally ineffective in the vehicle’s current state.
She ground to a stop. The chain connecting her to Del started to pull taut, and then her whole cabin shuddered as his truck came to a stop too, unable to pull her any farther.
“Woah,” Del said, “hold up everyone. Got a problem back here.” Kait got out and climbed down, her foot sinking into the soft-pack ravine floor as if it were loose snow. On hands and knees she studied the vehicle’s underside.
“It’s punctured the undercarriage and into the drive shaft,” she said to Del, hearing his footsteps as he approached. “Going to need to lift it off.”
“Cole, you read me?” Del said. “Need a hand down here. A mech’s hand, I mean.”
No reply.
Del swore. “Damn rocks.”
Kait stood and looked at him. She was about to suggest they take a break, when the shadow fell across the ravine once more. Only this time, it didn’t go away.
Then Del crashed into her, tackling her to the ground.
The whole ravine seemed to shake as something massive slammed into the broken Minotaur, crushing it. Kait felt the shockwave of the impact even as she and Del landed in the rubble a few feet away. Bits of metal and rock sprayed over them, but Del took the brunt of it.
Kait clambered to her feet as quickly as she could. Rocks continued to fall, a cloud of dust obscured her world, but there were hints in that cloud of Cole’s mech suit, and something large grappling with it.
“Juvies!” Lovings shouted on the comm.
No way that thing on top of Cole is a Juvie, Kait thought. She went for her Lancer, only to realize she’d left it in the cab of the Minotaur, which was now crushed flat under the Mega Mech. She had her sidearm, though, and it would have to do. It was a Talon Autopistol, after all. A marked improvement over the MX8 she’d first learned to fire when Reyna thought she was old enough.
Del was up, smartly with his Lancer. He glanced at her, saw her weapon, frowned, but said nothing. Visibility was down to ten feet or so, and shrinking fast. Bursts of gunfire rang out from somewhere at the front of the caravan, echoing off the ravine walls. She heard the gasps and alarmed shouts of several Outsiders, as well as Pasco’s stern orders.
“Out, out! Get to the edges! Hide!”
Stones rained down, jostled loose when Cole fell into their midst. Kait pressed herself against the rock wall, pulling Del toward her just as a boulder the size of a fabricator landed where he’d been standing.
“We gotta get to my Minotaur,” he said to her, then coughed as the dust became so thick they could taste it. “Got to get the hell out of here.” She nodded and took the lead, running along the edge of the ravine, keeping as close to the wall as she could.
Something swung at her from the dusty air. A massive blue metal object. She ducked under it, rolled, came up running. It was the leg of Cole’s mech, she realized.
“It’s gonna be like that, huh bitch?!” Cole shouted somewhere off to her right. “Two can play at that game!” She heard what sounded like a giant fist slamming into an equally giant wall of metal.
Del flinched at the sound. “What the hell’s he fighting?!”
“I don’t know—”
A foot slammed down beside her. Kait was thrown against the wall, bounced off, landed on the huge armored boot, jumped as it lifted off the ground, and dove through the air a good eight feet before she tucked into a somersault and came up running again.
She glanced behind her in time to see Del slide beneath the foot. He made it through an instant before the massive appendage slammed back into the rubble with an earth-shattering thud.
The other foot stomped down nearby. Cole, digging in. Then a third foot, just beyond it, and a fourth.