“Thanks, Manny. You too.”
Gill leaped off Timber and joined the rest of the team around Alex. “Sounds straightforward enough.” The drow glowered. “They’re just planning on abandoning them.”
Jollies zipped around, shaking her head. “It’s not that simple. It’s a death mission. Oh, sorry, a suicide mission. You heard what Manny said. They’d lose too many people.”
Brath didn’t seem to care how many people would be lost. He was brooding underneath his beard. “It’s cowardly,” he finally spat. “Those two are practically heroes, and they’re just going to leave them.”
Jim rested his hand on Brath’s shoulder. “Roy’s my captain. Since I became a mech rider, all I’ve heard is how he and Toppinir are unstoppable. Myrddin probably thinks they’re going to pull their asses out of this like they always do.”
Brath pushed off Jim’s hand. “Have they come out of anything this bad before?”
Alex had to interject here. “Honestly, we don’t even know how bad it is,” she admitted. “I mean, we know that they say it’s a suicide mission, but we’re kinda scant on the details. Maybe Manny’s right. We’re flying in the dark here.
There was a loud beep, and Alex checked her HUD—a message from Manny. It read, “Big briefing in a few minutes about Roy and Toppinir. Find out if you can see anything. Be safe.”
Alex could read between the lines. More importantly, Manny thought this was worth supporting. She knew that if Manny didn’t think it was possible, he wouldn’t have bothered sending her this. It was a sign of faith—a pallid sign, but a sign nonetheless.
“Scratch that,” Alex said. “Manny’s with us. What else do you need?”
Jim’s mech started shrieking a beep three times louder than the one that had gone off on Alex’s HUD. “Obviously to pay attention to the swarm of drones heading toward us,” Jim shouted as he ran to his mech.
Jim jumped in and closed the cockpit behind him. The mech rose to its feet and lumbered over to the mouth of the cave. “Gill, I’m going to need a visual from you for when to fire,” he shouted.
Gill climbed onto Timber’s wing and poked his head out of the cave.
The swarm of drones had recombined into the nanotech cobra and it was heading right toward the cave. “Oh, I can see why you said this was a problem,” he murmured before returning to the cave and shouting, “Fire in five!”
Jim flipped through a couple of holographic menus in his mech before finding the manual switch for the EMP bomb. He flipped the switch and positioned his mech so its mouth was facing out of the cave.
As the swarm of drones flew past, Jim pulled the EMP lever and a glowing ball of electromagnetic energy flew out of the mech’s mouth into the middle of the swarm of drones. The bomb detonated instantly, and a pulse of energy rocked the drones.
There was no physical damage, but the drones shook for a second before shutting off and falling out of the sky.
Jim pulled his mech back into the cave. “I’ll now respond to either ‘hero’ or ‘savior of the day,’” he said, smiling as Gill gave him a high five and Brath scowled approvingly. “Whatever makes you feel more comfortable. I prefer ‘savior.’”
Alex punched Jim on the shoulder on her way to Chine. She didn’t want to make his head any bigger, though it was good to see him finally start acting like himself in front of the other riders. He was almost like the Jim she had played with in VR, if a little more serious.
Alex reached out telepathically to Chine. Hey, how strong can you boost my ability to see through someone else’s eyes?
Chine answered, Substantially. But you may not need my help. If you’re trying to reach Manny, you may be able to do it on your own.
How?
As I said, your psychic powers show potential. We should work on honing them. For now, concentrate on Manny. Try to imagine him in your mind’s eye. Once you can see him, focus on seeing through him, then open your eyes. But you must concentrate. Push everything else from your mind.
Alex closed her eyes. She pushed every thought in her head away. Ignored Gill’s cute butt. Tried not to think of Brath’s endless pacing, or whether or if Jollies felt comfortable around her. Forgot about her parents. Myrddin ceased to exist. The only thing in the universe was Manny’s eyes.
When Alex reopened her eyes, they were the foggy green of Manny’s. She watched what Manny watched, trying to memorize everything she saw. She let Manny’s many eyes flood her with information and concentrated on every moving thing. When Manny left the room, Alex closed her eyes and returned to her own sight.
Above, Brath had finally gotten tired of waiting. “All right, we should just go! We have the coordinates,” he complained.
Alex whistled for the attention of the other riders. “Oh, trust me, we’re going. But now I have a plan.”
Chapter Seven
Gill uploaded the coordinates Jollies had stolen from the facilities war room, and Team Boundless was off. Alex still hadn’t explained the plan to the rest of the team, but she knew what had to be done. She had seen what kind of fight they were headed toward through Manny’s eyes.
Every second spent talking and explaining was wasting time they needed. Alex just hoped she had the trust of her team. That was the most important thing at the moment. She hadn’t had much time to prove herself to them, but she didn’t think she’d disappointed them so far. Today wasn’t going to be any different.
Alex kept Team Boundless close to the ground as they flew away from the mountains, heading toward a green valley. Beyond the valley was a dying forest, trees gnarled and
