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529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJg5daIYps
What might the tunnel hold? How far would the subterranean trail lead? Jessica considered these questions as they drove underground, where the headlights revealed nothing but rock and old mining equipment.
"Where exactly are we going?" said Shannon, glancing at the passenger seat. "Oh, c'mon!"
Raptor was asleep.
"That's just great timing," said Valerie.
"Unlike us, I don't think he got any sleep this morning," said Jessica. Nevertheless, she felt tempted to smack him awake. To their luck, Amon's vehicle served as the convoy's focal point. Shannon would simply play it by ear and follow.
Far into the tunnel, they encountered a fork in the road. Three more dark tunnels spiraled before the Sub Terran convoy.
"Turn right, Shannon," Valerie told her.
Jessica eyed her friend. "Are you communicating with them somehow?"
"Yes, I am." She fingered a wireless earbud.
"You have another?" Valerie retrieved an earpiece from her front pocket, and Jessica placed it in her ear. The first voice belonged to Monarch.
"Eyes open out there. As far as you're all concerned, we're innocent civilians. Remember your aliases and avoid drawing unnecessary attention. Over."
"And if we see Asgard? Over," replied Beelz.
"Avoid at all costs, and pray for the best. Out."
"Asgard..." Jessica scrunched in her seat cushion.
"Azarean Strategy, Gendarmerie, and Rapid Deployment," said Raptor. He lazily stirred in his seat. "They're the not-so-secret arm of Eden security. A privatized military of nothing but space elves who serve their own interests, which are corporate interests. They're highly specialized and ruthless when no one is looking."
Jessica sighed. "What a coincidence that Goliath funds ruthless Azareans."
"The thing about the truth is that you never have to like it."
"Have Monarch promote you to Captain Obvious."
When they reached and ascended a rocky slope, Raptor laid wary eyes on Shannon. According to him, they were due to reach the surface. Sure enough, a slit opened in the darkness. Jessica peered beyond the windshield, where a sliver of light beamed through, past two parting shadows. Past the oversized hatch, they were finally granted a view of the sky. The surface was scarcely lit by a dark blue veil on a violet horizon.
Dawn.
Within mere seconds of their exiting the subterranean trails, Sub Terra's drivers split into unique directions. Raptor guided Shannon to a blind spot in city surveillance. In a very roundabout way, she entered a street at the fringe of city sprawl, where no one would question the sight of an off-road vehicle. At any rate, twenty-foot neon holograms of digital girlfriends and boyfriends provided well-endowed distractions. From there, she promptly merged into the city's superhighway. They quickly hit an impasse, however.
"Traffic," groaned Shannon.
"That's kinda weird," said Valerie.
Raptor shut his eyes. "We're just going to have to stay calm and wait it out."
For every sigh, Jessica surveyed something outside. The sun was rising, for better or worse, and its rays sheened the paint of hundreds of vehicles. Panning across the long sprawl of traffic, she remembered why owning a car was overrated. In the centuries leading up to current society, it was a wonder everyone managed to share roads as they did. Contrarily, modern vehicles functioned through remote monitors and smart, automated navigation. No excitement.
Back in the day, when everyone was behind their own wheel, the key to safety was just being cool. Everyone agreed to be cool, for the most part. The past is an uncontrolled experiment, and every trend is an outbreak.
"Traffic," she started. "Considering the dismal chance of an accident, more than likely, we owe this horrible crawl to a security checkpoint."
"If my hunch is right, it's directly related to the recent terror attack," said Raptor. "Security has to be down the road, waiting. We'd better hope it's regular highway patrol. Do all of you have photo IDs?"
"They want something," Valerie interjected. "After Pine Rim, the Azareans just need one more excuse to put Asgard on the streets."
Pine Rim, Jessica tried not to think about it. Tried. She scanned the superhighway and found nothing beyond a lifeless palette of pedestrians and vehicles. No aliens. Her spectral reflection appeared in the window – Dark circles around her eyes formed stark rings, thanks in part to thick eyelashes. She mentally warned the ghost that stared back. Don't let your guard down.
Raptor yawned. "Let me ask you guys this; where are the guards? The Azareans, all that tech and their best innovation is invisibility. Does anything you see make you feel like the city's under an iron thumb? Lynx? Wildcat? Shann—"
"No," said Jessica. "It all looks normal, unexciting all the time."
"Think you spoke too soon." Shannon pointed to a uniform on a scooter down the superhighway, a patrolman judging by the sleek white. Cars advanced up the lane, every single one stopping to interact with the scanner in his hand. "There's another one on the opposite side."
The mere concept of security made Jessica roll her eyes. Raptor's ambivalence, hence, made no sense. Composed as he was, it seemed like a pretense.
"I see Elsa down the lanes," he whispered.
"Understood," said Monarch. His granulated voice returned before the rest of the channel broke radio silence. Above the superhighway on which Jessica and her friends had situated themselves, there were a series of skylanes full of floating traffic. There, she saw a lime-striped vehicle on the fringe. It belonged to NSS: New Sumer Security, one of their emblematic Enforcers. More often than not, an Azarean held the wheel and badge. And below the black car, something else caught her attention.
"I think that's Beelz," said Jess. A quarter of a mile behind them drove a small cargo truck.
"Stop," Raptor warned. "Don't make it obvious. Sit and act casual."
For the next few seconds, Jessica's heartbeat play like an ominous drum. Beside her, Valerie tried to stay calm. Oppositely, Shannon sat lax in the driver's seat.
"I'm not used to seeing you nervous," muttered Valerie.
"This is my calculating face," she said, flashing a sly grin.
"No, it's not."
Raptor glanced at the black Azarean Enforcer on the skylanes, the one Jessica spotted 14 seconds ago. "Elsa on Skylane 15." His eyes carried on their search.
"Roger that," said Monarch.
Sub Terra speaks in code. "I see an Azarean couple," said Jessica.
Raptor tossed a look. "What?"
"31 meters southwest. Two Azareans sitting in the white sporty."
Raptor rubbed his head against the seat cushion, and let his eyes peek past the rear window. "The couple?"
"I'd keep an eye on them."
His furrowed brow said enough, and he lowered to his microphone. "Prince and princess on the white pony. 31 meters—probably—south of you."
"Understood," said Monarch.
Jessica had only peered back once, and a snapshot of everything and everyone fed back into her memory with clarity. The Azarean couple could be nothing or something, but they were the biggest anomaly.
"I got something," said Dexter. Jessica's hair rose at the sound of his voice.
"Go ahead, Darkstar," said Monarch.
"Elsa is dancing up the road." He alluded to a second Enforcer. Per his observation, the distant vehicle was advancing up their lane. Meanwhile, Jessica scanned above their position until she isolated the blue vehicle that belonged to Dexter and Ike.
"I see them," said Raptor.
Monarch's voice solidified. "Stay frosty."
By the time Jessica dragged her attention from the Enforcers, the human patrolman was near. Time became imperceptible while his uncompromising smile scattered prickly chills across her spine. "Just keep calm. This will be a cakewalk," Raptor told them. But, her fingers twiddled on their own, eyes jamming from the gravity board at her feet to the gun at Valerie's waist. With enemies ahead, behind, and above, she had faith in their party but not the variables. Raptor, Beelz, Monarch, and Ike made for volatile ingredients to present chemistry.
"Good morning," said the patrolman. His vomit-inducing smile loomed over the driver's side. "Identification, please." Shannon retrieved her e-card. "All of you," he gleefully clarified.
Stiffened by his awkward smile, Jessica kept cool. Raptor kept a perfect composure and the patrolman in his field of view.
"Got a problem here," said Ike. His grave tone returned the moment Shannon handed her ID to the officer.
"Go ahead," said Monarch.
Jessica passed a fake ID, eyes skewed for the second patrolman. She smiled her signature fake smile to the sound of radio chatter. Teetering between interactions inside and outside the car, she cracked her fingers. One, two, three cracks, none of which could break the band around her throat.
"Visual on Elsa combing the streets, and we have family coming from the northeast, against traffic," said Ike.
On the superhighway, to the rear, the pair of Azarean officers had exited their black vehicle to patrol the lanes on foot.
"What are they doing?" asked Monarch.
"Is there a problem?" said Raptor.
"No, not at all," said the patrolman.
"Someone got stopped," replied Ike.
Heat in Monarch's voice. "One of ours?"
"I'm just double-checking," the patrolman grinned.
"We're nearing Elsa," said Dexter.
Past the rear window, Dexter's car gravitated on the cusp of the Enforcer, so Jessica's hand inched to the goggles around her neck but stopped when she remembered the patrolman.
"I just noticed that you attend my son's university," he said, staring at the calm and collected Shannon. "Complete Huron, through and through. Are you going to the exhibition tonight?"
"Oh, absolutely!" she exclaimed, matching the man's energy. "I'll be there like soy on rice as soon as I'm done studying, then I just gotta convince the boyfriend here"—thumbing at Raptor—"to get the hell out of his apartment."
"Hey, there, missy, watch that language..."
Shannon blinked.
"I'm kidding!"
Awkwardly absorbed by the white uniform, Raptor's teeth came together to form what could almost pass for a smile. Jessica imagined a different outcome if Shannon heard the same alarm bells across the channel. She waited with bated breath as Ike's anxiety needled through the earphone. "They're coming this way," he said.
Chills. The hairs on her skin stung, and the sensation nullified her normal acuity as she peered at the bright sky. Valerie squeezed her arm and glared with a warning. Stay calm. Jessica found her breathing when the patrolman handed back their IDs.
"You take care, now!" He tipped his hat.
Shannon pulled forward. They were free, the road ahead empty and s sea of vehicles behind them. Then, a third Enforcer descended upon the skylanes.
"That's three. Three Azarean patrols confirmed!" said Valerie.
"Monarch?" Raptor called.
Nothing.
Phantom knots in her neck, Jessica chose an alternative to wallowing. One ear for reality, one ear for music. "Babel, let the music play," she said and fastened her goggles. Back, left, right, then leaning into the dashboard, she measured the superhighway in preparation for what was to come.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
