Chapter 72

Paul confers with his co-pilot David, who I also really like. Which makes this much worse. They listen precisely and I tell them to shut off the radio once we’re in the air.

Paul looks over the documents on the strike Judica sent once we’re in the air. “They’re flying high, very high, to avoid detection.”

“That’s good, right?”

He shrugs, “It is what it is, but we aren’t equipped to take them out. We don’t have anything but basic defensive anti-aircraft artillery. You said fast, not tactical.”

“That doesn’t matter. I brought everything we’ll need.”

Paul tilts his head and presses his lips together, but he doesn’t argue.

“Can we catch them?”

Paul studies the documents and nods. “They’re ahead of us, but they’re using old tech. That means we’re much faster than they are. But I need to know more about what you’re planning to figure out the best approach. If they see us, they’ll take us down immediately. They have pretty clear orders, and this will be sort of like going after a tank and two Humvees with a Porsche.”

“I know.” I tap my hand on the seat in front of me. “I brought a weapon. Try not to worry about that part overmuch. I’m going to take all three planes down at the same time.”

“How?” Paul eyes me with understandable skepticism.

“The critical part,” I say, “the part I’m relying on you to ensure, is that we intercept their flight path in the middle of the ocean, without anyone else around.”

“We aren’t coming back from this, are we?” Paul asks.

I glance down at my mom’s ring. It sparkles in the light. “I doubt very much whether we will.”

“Oh, heck no.” Noah pops out of the bathroom at the back of the jet. “I knew I was right to come. You sound totally crazy.”

“You’re supposed to be in a holding cell.” I raise one eyebrow.

Noah rolls his eyes. “Oh please. I’m human, not mentally deficient.”

“You took out an evian guard?” I can’t quite keep the disbelief out of my voice.

He snorts. “Let’s not get carried away. More like, he saw what he expected to see, and I specialize in the unexpected.”

“Was anyone injured?” I ask.

Noah rolls his eyes. “Thanks for the concern for my fragile human person, but I’m fine.”

My voice is flat. “I meant my guards.”

“Relax. They’re fine, and I’m only here to help.”

“What exactly are you going to do?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “I obviously don’t know yet. I need to see the information you have and hear your full plan. But I’m an excellent problem solver.”

Paul clears his throat. “Well, I’m sure you’ll figure out something brilliant with his help.” He raises his eyebrows at me. “But if you can’t come up with anything better, why don’t you let me execute your plan for you. I can air drop you anywhere along here and send a message to home base so they can come and retrieve you.”

Paul’s offering to die in my place.

“I should airdrop you.” I’m ashamed I didn’t think of that. “Or at least one of you. I doubt I can fly the plane and execute my plan at the same time.”

“It is an honor to serve you, Your Majesty.” Paul seems absolutely serious.

I cross to where he’s standing and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve always been kind, and brave, too. I appreciate your offer. But I have to do this myself.”

His eyes glance down at my ring, probably thinking about the weight of ruling, or maybe about the fact that if we all die, the ring is lost again. Who knows, though? Maybe he has guessed that I plan to use the ring, somehow.

“Well, I’ll be thinking things over in the cockpit,” Paul says. “If I have any ideas, I’ll let you know.”

As soon as Paul’s gone, I turn to face Noah. “I wish you hadn’t come.”

Noah sinks into one of the plush seats. I think about the last time I was in this plane. I was preparing to die then, too. I can’t catch a break today.

“Have you heard of origami?” Noah asks.

“Uh, folding paper cranes? Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”

“I’ve been practicing origami since I was four. I’ve probably made ten thousand paper boxes, so trust me when I say I’m an expert at thinking outside of most any shaped box.”

“Speaking of boxes, there wasn’t time,” I say, “to equip this plane with a Faraday box.”

“So your weapon’s an EMP?” Noah asks.

I nod.

“How does it work?”

I glance down at my mom’s ring, and Noah follows my gaze.

“Last time we had trouble, you used your necklace. So, what? Your ring turns into an arrow and you shoot it at the other planes?”

“Something like that,” I say.

“I have totally been getting my mom’s Christmas gifts at the wrong places. I need the name of your jeweler.”

“Here’s the thing, Noah. If anyone else could use this particular weapon, I’d let them. But only I can make it work. And if I weigh my life against that of thousands of humans—”

“I bet a lot of your friends wouldn’t come to the same conclusion as you do about the relative value.” Noah folds his arms.

“They wouldn’t, no. They’d put a billion human lives up against one evian, probably, but I’m not them. Your family matters to me, as do all the other people living in the area being bombed. I’m so sorry this is happening.”

I hand him the file.

While he looks over it, I think about my doubt before I fought Judica. It didn’t help me. In fact, it kept me from seeing the truth for longer. And I need to see the truth of what to do here right away, because if I fail, Judica isn’t the bad guy for sending these. I am for failing to fix it.

“It’s noble of you to be willing to trade your life for people you don’t know.”

“Thanks,” I say.

“You know what’s even nobler?”

“What?”

“Not dying. Live and save people. That way you can fix all those things that are broken with your family.”

“Thanks Confucius. Great tip.”

Noah sits down next to me and rests his hand on mine. “Tell me what you’re doing, exactly. How does it work?”

“I don’t really understand it myself.”

“Well, start at the beginning.”

To my surprise, I do. Maybe it’s because Noah’s going to die with me. Maybe it’s because he’s human. I tell him everything. I tell him about my mom’s death, and how awful it was. I tell him I don’t know who killed her or why. I tell him about Sotiris. I tell him about what happened before she died, and how I reacted to the ring. I even tell him about the prophecy.

How it ruined my life. And how it’s obviously wrong, since I’m about to die.

“So you’re sick to death of the guilt?”

“Excuse me?” I ask.

“You tried to get your sister to kill you earlier. Now you’re sacrificing yourself to save these people because your mom died for this secret. It must have a purpose, right? If you save these people, then your mom’s death wasn’t such a waste. And your sister, your poor, hurting, misunderstood sister can finally have what she always wanted, a sparkly crown all to herself.”

I frown. “You don’t get it.”

“Oh, I think I do.”

“Look, I’ve always thought there must be a God. And if there is, and he gave me this gift that ruined my life, there must be a reason. Maybe it’s so I can right this tremendous wrong. Maybe all our decisions lead to others and there’s a purpose behind each of them. If I’d come back sooner, Judica wouldn’t have sent this yet, but I didn’t. So here I am, fixing my mistake.”

“Dying without cause is cowardly. The Chancery Alamecha I’ve been watching isn’t a coward.”

“You suck, Noah.”

“I want to save that town full of people too, okay? I’m on board with that. It’s the dying horribly part where you lose me. There must be some way for you to use that ring without knocking out our plane at the same time.”

I think about it. Isn’t that what my mom wanted? For me to master the ring and be able to direct the projection of the EMP?

“The problem is that I focus my energy, and it just bursts out of the ring. I’m not sure how far, but it wiped out our entire island and part of a neighboring one the first time.”

“That’s a pretty hot blast,” Noah says.

“Yeah.”

“There was a second time?”

“My mom made me practice a little.”

“How’d that go?”

“Not so great,” I say. “Near the end, I directed the pulse so that it took out everything in front of me first, before the electronics beside me shorted.”

Noah thinks for a moment. “Maybe the problem is the goal. We’re imagining that we’ll fly up behind the planes, right? Zoom down behind them and zap all three, right?”

I nod. “Basically.”

“And if we do that, when our electronics are fried, we all lose altitude at the same time, and the bomb will be triggered below a certain altitude and BOOM, we all die, right?”

“Yep.”

“So instead, how about we fly at them head on and pass them. Then you stand at the back of the jet and take them out. We’ll be headed in opposite directions, so if you send your pulse out in just one direction—”

“Best case, we don’t fry our plane, and worst case, we’re already heading away from the other planes when we do. The warhead detonates at altitude, but they’re flying west and we’re flying east,” I finish for him. “We might get far enough away to survive the blast.”