Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

He hadn’t noticed it at first, the exultation of flying through the explosion masking the pain, but he had come out of his crazy stunt more damaged than his beloved Stealthy. And the nanobots in his pilot suit weren’t responding. Most likely the pre-programmed directives couldn’t get from the armour’s comp to the nanobots to tell them what to do. The solution wasn’t beyond Rivas’ ability, but he needed his full attention, and all his appendages, to pilot the half-crippled Stealthy. Luckily the compression band had kicked in just fine, and the blood loss had slowed to a mere trickle.

‘We could duck behind a peak and parachute,’ Atkins offered.

‘Deep in the middle of the Alps? Sarge, get your head checked next time you get a chance. That’s a dumb idea.’ A wet cough swallowed anything else Rivas might have wanted to say.

Gonzalez frowned. They were about sixty kilometres away from Roc de Chere, and with the emergency supplies on board the Hippogryph they could make it on foot if need be.

‘Colonel, don’t even think about it.’ Rivas’ voice came back clear, but a fast-growing edge of tiredness coloured it. ‘We can’t outrun them on foot. Even if they don’t see the parachutes and you manage to use the Hippo’s autopilot to crash the aircraft, they will know within hours that we didn’t die on board. And Phantom’s autopilot is non-responsive. If you want to play hide and seek in the mountains closer to home, I can give you time.’

‘Okay,’ Gonzalez replied. ‘You can—’

‘No!’ Eloise screamed. ‘You are not sacrificing yourself!’ It had taken her longer than usual to work out what was happening, due to her half-dazed and concussed state, but now that she had, she felt unusually strongly about it.

‘I’m sorry, Eloise,’ Rivas replied quietly. ‘There is no point in all of us going.’

‘Going? You’re talking about dying. You can’t just—’

‘Enough!’ Gonzalez barked. ‘We’ll go down this valley and make a loop here.’ He marked the points on the digital map, tracing his fingers towards the east. ‘Lieutenant, you will continue heading on this course’—a different part of the digital map lit up—‘for another two minutes, and then it’s your show.’

‘No!’ Eloise objected again. ‘I can see his vital signs. They are stable. He can make it to the Ro—back home with us.’

‘Eloise, my insides have been rearranged—my vitals will drop soon. The medical nanobots are non-responsive. I won’t make it. Even if Phantom holds up that long, we can’t lead Bogeys Five and Six to our doorstep.’

‘Head towards the closest town. They won’t fire at you in the city’s airspace. They will patch you up in a hospital.’

‘And then I would have to kill myself to avoid being interrogated,’ Rivas replied matter-of-factly. ‘That’s too convoluted a way to go.’ His morbid laughter died, swallowed by another fit of coughing, and he tasted blood in his mouth. ‘Colonel, your valley is approaching. Godspeed.’

‘Godspeed,’ Gonzalez replied, the unfamiliar words sounding unnatural but genuine. ‘And thank you.’ He wanted to say something more, something profound, but all he could think of felt too dramatic.

‘No!’ Eloise wailed, her vehemence broken by despair as she clawed at the straps. ‘Please don’t,’ she begged, rushing towards the cockpit the moment the harness came loose.

The Hippogryph jerked in a sharp turn, and her body bounced off a bulkhead as if she were a ragdoll, sending her to the floor. Gonzalez caught her arm before she could be thrown around anymore, but said nothing. There was a knife twisting in his own chest, and he saw absolutely no need to make it worse for Eloise.

‘Raymond?’ she said into her helmet’s mic. ‘Please don’t do this. I know you’re doing this to protect me. You’re staying behind, just like Major Toscano, to save me. I don’t want this. I don’t want this at all. We can take our chances on the ground. Please…’

For a few seconds there was absolute silence.

‘I’m doing this because it is my duty,’ Rivas replied, his voice thick. ‘I can’t bring back those that died in Dubai, but I can protect others by making sure you live to nail the fuckers. You can use what we downloaded from Olympus’ computer to free the Leeches held in the cells. You can do so much more with your skills.’

Gonzalez blinked, realising that in all the chaos of the last few days Rivas had found the time to share his life story with Eloise. That he had trusted her enough to share it.

‘I… I will miss you,’ Rivas added.

‘You won’t miss me, because you’ll be dead, you overgrown adolescent.’ Eloise giggled sadly through her own tears.

‘I’m already missing you,’ he said quietly. ‘Colonel, requesting comp link silence. I can feel my responses slowing down and I need to focus.’

‘Understood, Lieutenant.’ He pressed a selection of buttons, removing Rivas’ comp from the all-hands channel, leaving only the emergency one open for his own use. And then his eyes dropped to Eloise’s crumpled body on the floor. He was still holding her with one hand. His grip was no longer just pinning her in place, saving her from being thrown around. Somehow, in the last few seconds it had also become reassuring.

‘Please, for your own safety you need to strap in,’ he said as gently as he could. ‘It would be a poor use of Rivas’ sacrifice for you to crack your head open now.’

Without a word, Eloise turned and half crawled to the nearest bench as tears blurred her vision. She deftly tightened the harness around her body with steady fingers, though inside everything shook. She ached so badly she doubted she would ever feel anything else.

It was tempting to reach for the med-panel and force the armour to pump her with so much sedative that she would never have to feel anything again. The armour wasn’t designed for such a use, but she could override it easily. And yet she hesitated.

She didn’t particularly see any reason to live, but the pain she felt seemed