To avoid Blue Neptune’s off road vehicles, Treen and Russell chose their cubbyholes carefully and kept their clothes and faces smeared with muddy camouflage.
However, hiding here and there wasn’t helping them find the lab any faster. In fact, in the hour since they’d left the peaceful pond, they’d probably moved less than a mile, and were now lying on their stomachs in a field of wildflowers. With only a few hours left of daylight, Treen prayed for a break.
Then, they heard the helicopter.
“There it is!” said Russell pointing at the fluttering speck in the sky. “It’s comin’ right at us.”
“Hurry, into the woods...”
One hundred yards later, they stood shielded amongst the evergreens. As the aircraft grew louder, Treen took the binoculars from her pack and scanned the area they’d just fled — a good decision with the chopper hovering, then descending where they’d once stood.
The wildflowers flattened beneath the rotor wind. Steadily, the blades quieted, until the noise from the aircraft had stopped completely. The doors opened. The armed pilot that stepped out didn’t surprise Treen, but the passenger did: Lance Ruof had taken matters into his own fists.
Lance and the pilot moved away from the chopper, stopping to speak to the guards that rolled up in their black vehicles. Lance pointed all around, sending each of them in a different direction. He then motioned the pilot to follow him towards the forest.
“Earth to Treen,” whispered Russell. You see Lance walkin’ towards us, don’t you?”
“Yes, let’s go,” she said grabbing his hand.
As they zigzagged through the evergreens, Treen stopped suddenly when she noticed how quiet the surrounding forest had become; only moments ago, she could hear the distant motors and nearby voices patrolling the area...
“They’re sneaking up in on us,” she whispered, leaning against a trunk.
Russell dragged his hand down his face, then left his eyes shut. “We’re runnin’ outta places to hide.”
Treen stared up at the massive tree she’d been resting against. “No we’re not.”
Russell opened his eyes and looked up. “Let’s do it.”
The higher they climbed into the foliage, the more the tree wanted them off. Its wet branches poked and scratched their hands and faces and even sent two angry squirrels to try to scare them to a painful plummet. However, Treen and Russell survived even their own bickering and finally rested upon secure branches, balanced high above the ground.
The golden leaves beneath their dangling feet were pretty, but blocked their view of the ground. Instead, they listened; the continuous, crackling twigs and rustling leaves were suddenly drowned out by a blaring voice.
“Treen Alee and Russell Wellbay are in this area!” Lance shouted.
“Find them and kill them. If you are unsuccessful, it’s not a problem; I’ll simply toss all of you into the crusher and build new Ecnals. Move out!”
“We’ll be dead before we find that lab,” Russell whispered. “No we won’t. I have Tail Tracker in my backpack. I’ll connect
it to the helicopter, then let Lance lead us to the lab.”
Russell stared at her. “Are you tryin’ to make me fall off this branch? How the heck we gonna get over there?”
“Carefully — but I’m going alone.”
“No Way!”
“It’s less conspicuous and it’ll be easier for me to climb back up here —
“Without my butt in your face, right?”
“Yes.”
Branch by branch Treen climbed down the oak. She could now see the Ecnals combing the area, most of them headed away from the field of wildflowers.
She could’ve descended closer to the ground, but as the area around the oak cleared, she wasted no time. From eight feet, she leaped down into the leaves, got up, then sprinted towards the helicopter.
Russell grew uncomfortable up in the oak. Still wearing the backpack, he sat crouched over, gripping the branches. Any thoughts of a quick nap were erased by the height, or the by the fear that the girl he loved might get herself killed messing around with some helicopter.
He tried to keep still because the dried mud on his clothes and shoes began to crack off and fall through the foliage. Even when he quit breathing and blinking, the chips of mud continued to fall.
Still lurking in the area, Lance and his pilot stopped a few feet from the oak. “Those stupid kids are around here somewhere, I know it.
“Excuse me, sir,” said the pilot, but I believe I heard something near that tree. She pointed over Lance’s shoulder and he turned and jogged towards the oak.
Lance glared up at the leaves, listening to what sounded like fizzling sand. He rubbed his goatee then moved closer to the trunk.
As he studied the footprints surrounding the oak, Lance chuckled and rubbed his goatee faster; he realized the prints were much too small to be Ecnal boots. When he heard another shuffling sound from above, he turned towards the pilot. “I’ll be right back.”
As swift as a cat, Lance scaled the oak. He’d climbed twenty feet when he heard Russell whisper, “Treen is that you?” Then, glaring up at the soles of his feet, Lance launched his head up between Russell’s legs, giving him a jolt that almost made him made him fall.
“Sorry to disappoint you, punk!” Lance shouted, with a quick punch under Russell’s chin that knocked him out instantly. He slumped forward then flopped down a few branches before Lance grabbed the back of his jacket. “Come here, stupid,” he said, lifting him with one hand. After some rough maneuvering, he tossed Russell over his shoulder, and climbed back down.
Russell twitched and panted when cold water splattered on his face. When he cleared his eyes and looked up, he saw the pilot staring down at him. Ecnals surrounded the oak; Lance popped into view and squatted next to him. “Where is she?”
“Who?” he moaned, struggling to sit up.
“You like playing dumb? See how you like this,” he said, grabbing Russell’s collar. Lance lifted him over his head, then hurled him ten feet into the brush. He wiped off his dingy black suit, then strolled over to grill him again.
“Tell me where she is!”
Russell lay face down, twisted in the shrubbery as if a parachute had failed to open. When he didn’t answer, Lance reached down and pulled him up. Russell’s head sagged, arms limp at his sides —
“LET HIM GO!”
In sequence, the mob of Ecnals turned and aimed their rifles. There stood Treen Alee, seemingly unafraid and glaring only at Lance.
“I said let him go, Lance.”
Lance hadn’t moved since Treen appeared. With the other Ecnals staring at him, waiting for a command, he just glared at her. Then, he unclenched his fingers and let Russell crumple to the leaves.
Wide-eyed, lips apart, Lance stepped towards her. He stopped a few feet away and rubbed his goatee. He moved closer, tilting his head side-to-side and staring in amazement.
“How can a girl of sixteen years do so many things?” he said, gazing at her. “It doesn’t add up. It does not compute. Do you think you are smarter than me?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. I just want my family back. If you’d like to evaluate your intelligence, take the total Turing test.”
Lance laughed. “The Turing test is for lower class computers and droids. It is far beneath me.”
“Fine, then we’ll play chess later. Just tell me where my family is,” she said angrily.
“Incredible. You stand here alone, surrounded by guns, yet you continue to make demands. Aren’t you the least bit afraid?”
“No. God’s got my back — something professor Mera could never program you to feel. You and Tsara are confused because your creator is dead and Mr. Blue killed him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Garrison Blue organized the explosion in France so he could own both of you and the Merafuel plans. Of course, you believe that Mera sold everything to Blue — just like everyone else. What I haven’t figured out is why Mr. Blue doesn’t get rid of you. What do you have that he wants?”
“Kill her!”
The Ecnals fired. Treen dove into the bushes and pulled the pin on the last smoke bomb. She laid it in front of her then bolted from the shrubs, sprinting through the evergreens towards her only escape: The helicopter.
Running faster than she ever had, she slowed to glance back at the Ecnals charging out of the smoke cloud. When they started shooting, she weaved and ran faster.
Sprinting through the wildflowers, Treen was thirty yards from the helicopter when she suddenly realized that she’d actually have to fly the thing. Her mind had definitely been working too fast. Sure, she’d spent time with Shainy in the helicopter simulator, but Shainy was superb. Treen? Well...
Treen yanked the door back then climbed inside, where she faced an assortment of buttons and switches. “Okay”, she said breathing hard, “Cyclic stick, forward, backward, sideways; collective stick, up, down, hover.”
The Ecnals stormed closer. Several bullets clanged off the aircraft and Treen got the rotors churning. The chopper shook and vibrated as the blades spun faster and faster. The Ecnals tried to get closer, but the rotor wind slowed them down. They could only watch as Treen Alee took off!