fusillade was a pointless mistake: they were simply throwing away their best weapons. All they had to aim at was mist, and white water, and beyond it a series of heads swirling downstream like corks. One by one the fugitives were reaching the floating catwalk, accelerated by the growing flood.
'Jump in after them!' Wrench roared in frustration. But his companions hesitated. The pounding of the unleashed water was getting more violent as the corroded gates were pried aside, the reservoir swirling toward the dam's open mouth with an ominous suck. And how would they fight in the water? Rugard's scouts began backing warily away from the spillway lip.
The fugitives were already out of sight.
Wrench and Gallo looked at each other across the gap, as impassable as an ocean. The lake behind was big and might take hours, even days, to drain itself back down to the level of the new opening. They howled in frustration. And then turned to try to follow as best they could along the steep, brushy banks on either side of the river, falling farther and farther behind.
The energy that swept Daniel's party downstream was frightening in its power, and a narrower river canyon with more rocks might have resulted in serious injury to the members of his party. The reservoir water was cold, deep, and turbulent. But the valley below the dam was wide enough so that the pouring water had room to spread and run smoothly as it rushed downstream. The fugitives were mostly young, immensely fit after months in the wilderness, and good swimmers: none had come to Australia without that skill. So instead of being caught in a white-water death trap, Daniel's group was instead sped by a brownish current that was tidelike in its steady power. The wreckage of the catwalk became a life raft that supported most of the fugitives, though a few clung to random logs that had been picked up and carried downstream as well. The water moved so fast that the frustrated cries of Rugard's men were soon left behind. Then the pulse of the current began to slow, and by concerted effort the group clinging to the catwalk eventually managed to kick the structure to the eastern side of the stream so that it grounded on a sandbar. By that time they'd been washed down several miles.
The shaken trekkers staggered ashore to collapse and steam in the sun, panting, and then roused themselves to unlash their belongings and sort themselves out. Surprisingly, few of their supplies had been lost: Raven's plan had worked. And besides cuts and bruises, there were no serious injuries. Even Ned had decided his shoulder was only hurt, not broken, by the slung rock.
'Well, we crossed the river,' Ethan spat. 'Not quite the way we intended.'
The other fugitives were looking at Daniel with a mixture of triumph and stunned uncertainty. What now? He stood stiffly, took a deep breath, and faced them. Everyone was a bit dazed by the sudden confrontation but also exhilarated to have escaped: thrilled to have beaten this sudden foe, thrilled to still be alive. Come alive! Outback Adventure had promised. They had this day.
Now they had a choice to make, and a hard one. If they were going to help him, he had to play to their desire for escape.
'We've told you all that we think we have a way to get a couple of us back to where we came from,' he began quietly. 'And if the transmitter works they might just be able to expose this scandal for what it is and get the rest of us back as well. But to use the transmitter we were forced to flee with it from a convict community hundreds of miles to the west of here. After so much distance and time, we thought the convicts had given up any hope of pursuit, but obviously we were wrong.'
The others were watching him grimly. His vague promises of journeying to a point to seek help had seemed like deliverance, and now his admission that a rival group was still on their heels smacked of betrayal. It was like the misleading half-truths of Outback Adventure all over again, he knew. By now, they trusted no one.
'We can't let this destroy us,' he continued. 'One of my original friends betrayed us in his desperation to escape. We can't let that happen again.'
'So what do we do?' Peter asked.
'We've escaped for now. But they may find us again soon. That leaves all of you with a choice. You can stick with us in hopes we can elude our pursuers and try to call in some kind of rescue craft, once we get out from under this electronic cloud of jamming. That's always been a long shot, but it's our only shot. But if you come with us, we may end up in a bad fight- a desperate fight- trying to do it. Or, you can bail out now. If we split up you don't have any chance of getting back, but the group that is chasing us will probably leave you alone. Maybe.' He stopped.
'Risk death with you or stay marooned by ourselves,' Peter summed up. 'That's it, isn't it?'
He nodded. 'A bad choice, but we've never had very good ones, have we? I wasn't trying to keep anything from you, Peter. I just didn't want to worry you needlessly. If we can just signal for rescue, the convict pursuit becomes pointless. I hope.'
There was a gloomy silence.
'And the only one guaranteed to have a ride out of here is her?' Iris clarified, pointing to Raven. 'Why her?'
He took a breath. 'Because she's the one who told us about this chance. We're going to send her and Ethan to try to bring help. That was our original plan and we're not changing it now. Any fight over who gets to go would be fruitless.'
His followers digested all this. 'Wish you were here- and I wasn't,' Ned tried to joke.
Jessica stepped forward to stand next to Peter. 'Well, I'm not giving up my only chance of getting out of here to a bunch of damned convicts,' she announced. 'I'm sticking with Daniel.'
'Me too.' Peter sighed. 'If I'm going to die in Australia, it might as well be for a reason. At least with you guys there's a hope.'
'Be realistic, everybody,' Daniel warned. 'If it comes down to a fight it will be with people United Corporations deemed beyond rehabilitation.'
'In that case, we'd better start thinking about some serious weapons,' Ethan said. 'Amaya, could you work on a flamethrower, please?'
The others laughed, breaking the tension. Her ingenuity had become well known. There was a new fierceness to them since the dam, Daniel realized, a new confidence and resolve. They had a goal, and now they had the unity from sharing danger. One by one they began to stand. Unity like… United Corporations. No! Not like that!
'Which way, mate?' Oliver asked, a little unsteady now.
'Ollie, this really isn't your fight,' Daniel said. 'Or Angus's. I'll understand if you Australians want to bug out and leave it to us immigrants. Really.'
Angus shook his head. 'You said we're all Australians now.'
Daniel glanced away, trying to hide the surge of emotion welling up in him. They were following! For desperate reasons, perhaps, but behind him, of all people. What would harridan Lundeen think?
'This river eventually leads to the sea, of course, but because of that it's a little too obvious,' Daniel judged. 'They'll expect us to go that way.' He pointed east, over a range of mountains. 'So we'll climb. Do it the hard way.'
'Sounds like a bloody Outback Adventure!' Ned quipped, shouldering a pack.
'I'd pay a year's salary for this experience any day!' Ethan chirped.
'For people who ask why they do!' Jessica warbled.
'And need their bleedin' heads examined,' Peter amended.
They headed east again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Australia had changed. The taut harshness of the Outback had given way to the soft contours of rounded hills and thick forest, cut by streams and interspersed by meadows and abandoned pasture. Old farmsteads had become frequent, the rotting and rusting houses half swallowed by eruptions of brambles. Wild cows, horses, pigs, and goats were frequently encountered. Sheep had disappeared, destroyed perhaps by roving packs of wild dogs. And now the first city was glinting on the horizon.
Ethan sat next to Daniel as they rested in the grass of an east-facing slope, studying the abandoned towers. Ragged remnants of the building windows still caught the light of the sun. Somewhere, not too far beyond, must be
