arrangement, however—and continued to glower as the others prepared to board the balloon. “So they’re leaving you behind,” the AI observed slyly. “How does that make you feel?”
“Shut up,” Hoggles growled. “Or I’ll take a shit and use you to wipe my ass.”
Meanwhile, out where the aircraft tugged at its ropes, Rebo, Norr, and a minder named Hasa mounted some portable stairs. Once on the platform above, they were level with the balloon’s woven basket. Hasa made the transfer fi?rst—quickly followed by Rebo and Norr. The additional weight caused the aircraft to sag, but it recovered when the pilot opened the burner for a full three seconds, thereby generating more hot air.
Like most the aviators employed by the artifact kings, Kufu’s pilot was female and therefore lighter than the average male. She wore a padded skullcap to protect her head during the spills often associated with landings, handmade goggles to protect her eyes from windblown sand particles, and a well-worn leather fl?ight suit. A bolt- action rifl?e was clamped to one side of the basket and hinted at occasional bouts of air-to-air combat. “Hang on!” the young woman ordered, and turned to wave a gloved hand at her ground crew.
In spite of the fact that Norr had traveled between solar systems, the sensitive had never been in a hot-air balloon before and felt her stomach lurch unexpectedly as the heavies let go of their ropes. But then, as the burner roared, and the aircraft began to ascend, the sensitive felt her fears start to melt away. The sun was peeking over the horizon, and the normally harsh desert was bathed in soft morning light as the balloon fl?oated out over the underground city of Kahoun. But there was scant time in which to enjoy the fl?ight because the passengers had a job to do, and it wasn’t going to be easy. There had been hundreds of attempts to enter the fl?oating pyramids over the years, mostly by teams of wings, but none had been successful. The structure had been damaged, however, which could clearly be seen as the westerly breeze blew the balloon and its passengers toward the fl?oating monuments and the pink-lavender sky beyond. The largest, the one they planned to intercept, was so cratered that Norr theorized that a large artillery piece had been used to fi?re at it. Probably in hopes of causing damage to whatever mechanism kept the structure aloft so it would fall to desert below and thereby become vulnerable. At that point, a formation of Kufu’s wings descended to take up positions around the balloon. Thanks to the efforts of genetic engineers long dead, the wings had long, slender bodies, hollow bones, and muscles that norms didn’t. Their leather wings made a steady whuf, whuf, whuf sound as they drew abreast of the basket. The concept of harnessing the variants to the balloon and towing the aircraft into close proximity with the largest of the pyramids had been Rebo’s idea. Now, with distances already starting to close, the runner was in communication with the formation’s leader via a small handheld “talk-box” that Hasa had loaned to him. As the norm gave orders, and Norr looked on, four of the strongest wings fl?ew into stiff leather hoops that were attached to the dangling ground ropes. The variants took up the slack, beat their wings even harder, and sought to pull the balloon onto a new course. It would have been impossible had there been any sort of headwind, but the air was relatively calm, and it wasn’t long before the aircraft veered to the southeast.
Meanwhile, having been attracted by all of the unusual activity, fl?ocks of competing wings were vectoring in from all directions, bent on stopping whatever King Kufu and his minions were up to. But only four of the red-liveried variants were occupied pulling the balloon, which left the rest of Kufu’s air force to block the attackers, which they hurried to do.
Mindful of the need to drop her passengers on the largest of the pyramids, the pilot allowed the balloon to begin a gradual descent, even as she took occasional potshots at enemy variants. Most of her projectiles went wide, but by means of either skill or luck, one of them hit home. Norr happened to be looking in that direction when the blue-clad wing appeared to pause in midair, spiraled toward the ground, and was soon lost from sight.
“Get ready!” Rebo shouted urgently, as the huge pyramid loomed ahead, the pilot triggered the burner, and the wings prepared to drop their harnesses. There was no good way to exit the basket on such a steep incline, but that’s what the plan called for, as the balloon made violent contact with the pyramid’s westernmost fl?ank. The leading edge of the basket hit, the container tipped forward, and Hasa spilled out onto the ridged slope.
“Jump!” the pilot ordered, as she grabbed onto a support and struggled to keep her footing. “Jump now!”
Norr went fi?rst, tripped, and fell face downward onto the stone facing below. She skidded, rolled sideways, and struggled to right herself. Finally, after arresting what threatened to be a fatal skid, the sensitive came to a halt. Rebo followed, managed to avoid landing right on top of Norr, and wound up sprawled across three six-inch- high steps. The burner roared as the pilot struggled to get her aircraft airborne again, the balloon soared, and soon fl?oated away. A ground crew, all mounted on swift angens, galloped below. Chasing the unpredictable aircraft and retrieving them was a full-time job.
It took the better part of a minute for Rebo, Norr, and Hasa to regain their feet and check for damage. Fortunately, none of them had suffered any injuries beyond scrapes, abrasions, and minor cuts. Then, just as Rebo was about to lead the others to the point where Lysander said they could gain entry, six red-clad wings fl?uttered down out of the sky to land a few yards away. One had been slightly wounded during an airborne scuffl?e with Quar’s orange-liveried fl?ock, and all of them were armed. They took up positions behind Hasa, and Rebo was quick to object. “What are they doing here? This wasn’t part of the deal. . . . What’s going on?”
Hasa was a small man who had one eyebrow and a mustache to match. When his lips retracted, the resulting expression was more of a grimace than a smile. “What?” the minder inquired sarcastically. “You thought the great Kufu would be so foolish as to send only one man? Whom you could murder with impunity? Never! File Leader Lartha and his men are here to ensure that you keep your part of the bargain. Besides, the interior of the tomb is sure to be guarded, and you may be glad of the extra fi?repower.”
Rebo looked at Norr and saw the sensitive shrug. “We’re after the dead emperor’s ring,” she whispered. “Nothing else matters.”
The runner wasn’t so sure, but had very little choice since Kufu’s men outnumbered the two of them more than three to one. “Okay, but do as you’re told, or we will call the whole thing off.”
Hasa shrugged, as if to say, “Who cares?” and fell in behind Norr as Rebo led the party toward the far side of the pyramid.
Thanks to the fact that large sections of the pyramid’s outer covering had been destroyed by cannon fi?re and the passage of time, it was possible to walk along the crumbling ledgelike steps that would have otherwise been covered. A task that turned out to be more diffi?cult than it appeared since the monument was in motion, there were areas of unbroken material to traverse, and the occasional ping could be heard as winged snipers fi?red on the party from beyond the protective envelope that Kufu’s air force had established. Finally, after circling halfway around the construct, Rebo arrived at the spot where Hios’s name had been carved into the pyramid’s surface in letters twenty feet tall. Much of the o and the s had been blown away. But the i was intact. Confi?dent that the others would follow, the runner climbed up to the point where he could access the dot over the i and used a knife to pry and scrape at the surface material. It took some elbow grease, but it wasn’t long before a palm-sized chunk of the ceramic material broke loose, and made a clattering noise as it tumbled down a succession of steps. Rebo felt his heart leap as he looked at the huge ruby. He applied pressure to the gemstone, felt it give, and held his breath. What if the ancient mechanism was stuck? Or broken? But the ancients had built well, servos whined, and more of the ceramic material shattered as the entire dot irised open. There was a sudden outgassing of stale air, followed by expressions of amazement from Lartha and his warriors. “Nice work,” Norr said approvingly.
