“That signal,” intimated Kite, pointing out the window, “means we’ve taken over the transportation department. Shortly, the underground walkways will be stopped, and our soldiers will be able to move in and apprehend the Abh. There’s no way for her to escape this time.”
Entoryua rolled his eyes. He couldn’t handle Kite’s endless jabbering. For some reason, his running commentary updates always concluded with “There’s no way for her to escape this time.”
The more Kite spoke, the more his voice induced a wave of dread in Entoryua, because it served as a constant reminder of his impending execution.
Soaring Through Heaven (Robiash Sesura)
He looked out the window of the fire department’s ship and saw a smattering of fires on the ground below. The occupation army simply blew up all cars that looked even remotely similar to the suspects’ Uusia.
There were also tiny flashes of gunfire.
An air tank flew around, alerting the citizens to the situation, requesting everyone’s cooperation.
“See that?” Now, Kite pointed to the edge of a cluster of tree-buildings, from which soldiers beamed more flashing light signals. “They’ve searched all the rooms in that city-tree, and are moving to the next building. There’s no way for her to escape this time.”
“Searching without a warrant? That’s every policeman’s dream,” joked Entoryua.
“This is all your fault. If you were more respectful of democracy and God’s Providence, we could have done this in a more civil manner.” Kite sighed. “We’re a liberation army, you know.”
“What are you liberating us from? We didn’t ask you to come here. Can you at least admit that?”
“It’s really a shame, Inspector. I had hoped we might be able to understand each other.” Kite’s gaze wandered to the window.
✦ ✦ ✦
Chaos ruled the streets.
Most of the citizens were already cognizant of the Abh’s imminent return. Thus, they were reluctant to cooperate with the occupiers.
Most of the Sos on Clasbul weren’t passionately opposed to the occupation army; they merely regarded it as an eccentric and bothersome houseguest. When the guests took over their government, made them shave their lue hair, and sent some of their loved ones to “democracy schools,” it planted little seeds of hate in their hearts, but the anger hadn’t grown beyond that.
Then, in a span of about thirty minutes, the army caused those seeds to bloom, fertilizing them with blocked streets, unannounced searches, extreme rudeness, quickness to fire weapons, callous automobile destruction, and other such things.
“Citizens, the Abh girl is responsible for all of this disorder. Find her, and we will restore order,” insisted the voice from the flying tank.
But the people of Clasbul were smart enough to see that the zealots running around shooting guns all over the place weren’t wearing the black Serlin of the Abh. The people of Guzornyu weren’t armed, but mobs did form to beat the stuffing out of several soldiers and take their weapons.
Of course, many people fled for their homes, attempting to avoid the soldiers at all costs. That’s exactly what Jinto, Lafiel, and the others were doing.
Fortunately, Marca had extensive knowledge of Guzornyu geography, and had even memorized the spots where soldiers were likely to be. At certain times, she led them out of the crowd, through back alleys and along deserted roads. They weaved a trail underground and above, using the elevated walkways that connected the buildings.
As they passed from an elevated walkway into the plaza of a building, they split up into two groups and pretended to not know each other. Jinto was with Marca and Daswani as they entered.
Two enemy soldiers wearing jetpacks descended right in front of Lafiel and the others.
“You! Girl! Take off your hat!”
Marca quietly pressed a Ribwasia into Jinto’s hand.
Undertaker pretended to be drunk. “Who are these guys? Did they see my niece’s nice, new hat? We bought it.”
“A great hat!” seconded Bill. “We paid for it! I still have the receipt.”
“Really!” said Undertaker. “Hey, is anybody else hungry? I’m staaaaaaarving.”
Lafiel played the part of an innocent girl, acting frightened, clinging to Bill.
Jinto, Marca, and Daswani moved past, pretending not to know the others.
“Just take the hat off!” One of the soldiers pushed at the brim of the hat with the barrel of his gun.
Marca and Daswani made their move at the same time.
Jinto was a second later, but he still managed to stick his Ribwasia to the nape of one soldier’s neck and squeeze the trigger. The sudden movement reminded him of his wounded shoulder.
Lafiel, Bill, Undertaker, and Minh hit the deck. The movement caused Lafiel’s hat to fly into the air.
“Gwah!” moaned one of the soldiers, as he scattered some bullets harmlessly into the sky. The other soldier fell silently.
Like children who break a window while playing in the street, everyone knew to run.
“Remember that guy I told you about?” Undertaker wheezed as soon as they stopped to catch their breath in an underground walkway. “The one who jumped into the thorn bush?”
“You’ve only told us a million times,” responded Marca.
“Well, there’s a sequel. About a month after he got out of the hospital, he did it again. I visited him at the hospital again, and asked him why he did it. He said he just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a good idea after all.”
Rolling her eyes, Marca informed them that their destination was just ahead.