Hacking the Sun - The Re-Remake

Chapter 22 I Haven't Had Coffee 2/2

"Aren't you and Babel going to do anything!" Raptor shouted.

Jessica breathed in and out, steadily. She could have scrambled the airship's system; she could have deduced a method of disengaging the claw. "You just have to trust me," she insisted. "This isn't Asgard."

Raptor stared spitfire, the seat unbalancing him and everything else. Despite incredulity in his eyes and fists, he didn't move from his seat. Like Valerie and Shannon, all he could do was hold on and wait. At that moment, Jessica's swirly vision caught a stir in the backseat. Dexter was waking up.

He opened his eyes. From a squint to dilation, they widened with surprise—or horror. "What 's going on?" he croaked.

Jessica removed her seat belt and leaned into the back seat, vying for balance in the car's free-flight rumble. She took Dexter's wavering expression between her hands and looked him in the eye. "Dex, listen, you're okay...

"Homegirl!"

Valerie appeared beside Jessica to inspect the boy for herself. "Whatever you do, stay calm and don't look at your arm," she said. Jessica glared and froze so intensely she thought her bones would creak. Without creaking, she pushed Valerie away and held Dexter close.

"We're going to make it!" was all she could say, while Dexter's chest heaved and compressed. 

They flew to the climax of speculation. Before they could contemplate—or panic—at length, the airship descended. Outside the windows, a theater of canyons greeted them in the middle of nowhere country.

A thud meant landfall, but after the metal clamps came undone, the car continued its clinks. They were on a platform, where the sky surrendered to rock until the morning light disappeared yet again.

"Not another cave!" Shannon whined.

Desperation carved Valerie's eyeshadow, but the wrinkles seemed to smoothen when she met Jessica's confident gaze. Goosebumps, nevertheless, ran down Jessica's spine; the likelihood of being wrong sunk in, the closer they came to the end. Dexter had emotionally stabilized, breathing normally as he looked at her and nothing else. Surprising, especially since he had seen his arm stub. Jessica couldn't help but lament internally at that moment... when the elevator stopped. The car doors were forced open.

"Get down on the ground!"

Weapons and threats waited for them on the other side. Jessica and her friends were greeted by yet more guns in the arms of tech braces. She remembered the Sicario suits.

Valerie hit the ground, alongside Shannon. As the last out of the vehicle, Jessica grabbed her bearings. Dexter eliminated her sense of self-preservation, reaching out just as black hands grabbed hold and took him.

"Dex!" she stammered.

He swiftly broke free with a fearful look in his eye. Reality had dawned on him, and so he outstretched his arm and touched her hand for a second.

"Easy with him!" Raptor barked.

Just as quickly, Dex was restrained and carried down the only tunnel, where he disappeared from sight. Jessica glimpsed the object he'd pressed into her hand; it was a miniature touchscreen. She pressed the single button, illuminating a topographic map with nothing more than a blip.

A gunpoint fell within inches of her face, so she stared down the barrel before staring down the wielder. Swelled in bitterness, she coldly awaited search and seizure. "The hell do you want?"  When visor slid down, Monarch's dark smirk prevailed.

"You were gone a while," he said, lowering the weapon. "Get them up. And be gentle about it..." Shannon and Valerie could breathe when they rose to their feet.