“Understood,” says Fyfe. “Control command modified to include the Vice President, Jude MacCain.”
“Thank you, Dumdumb,” says Jude. But he’s looking at me.
“You’re welcome,” I say.
He laughs. “Now, let’s blow some things up.”
“You have a plan?” I ask him.
“More or less. Maeve won’t want her precious dam to fall into enemies’ hands. If we attack here, it might convince her to turn back and give a chance to the Devil of the Waste and Helios to escape. And we have access to their main channel, and her favorite whore is a hostage.”
By whore, he means Marika, who is now tied to one of the seats at the back of theFirefly.
“Whatever you have in mind, I’m in,” I say.
Jude smiles. “I didn’t tell you, but I found a rocket launcher on the back seat of one of the cars.”
My smile now mirrors his own.
The next morning, theHighwaymenleft to guard the dam watch us with curiosity as we fly above the bridge. Some of them might be aware that Marika had been hacking into an aircraft. Fyfe, following our instructions, hovers above the four intake towers. I hold Jude with an arm around his waist as he leans over the edge, the rocket launcher over his shoulder. Without hesitation, he shoots a rocket over the north-west tower, the one where we met with Marika two days ago. It explodes with flourish. Two men who had been on the bridge leading to the other tower fall into the lake below.
“That should get Maeve’s attention,” Jude says as I pull him back inside.
He looks so proud of himself and wicked, I feel like kissing him.
TheHighwaymenshoot at theFireflyand a few bullets ricochet over the hull and windows. Luckily, everything is bulletproof. They didn’t mess around with the President’s safety back in the day.
Fyfe takes us over the mountain top near the dam, at a safe distance from the shooters. We land and watch as Maeve’s pet god, Altamaha-ha, devours the men who fell into the lake minutes ago. They didn’t get time to reach the spillway.
“Now, we wait,” says Jude.
We didn’t have to wait long. The radio we brought on theFireflyimmediately started relaying angry orders on all theHighwaymen’schannels.
Maeve is furious.
Our plan worked. They seem to have entirely forgotten about the Bug and the Devil of the Wastes. Helios is safe for now.
Maeve and her little army arrive an hour before sunrise. The cars and trucks, red flags in the wind, darken the horizon.
“Well, fuck,” says Jude. “It looks like she’s recruited more people since she took over.”
“We stick to the plan?” I ask.
He nods. We still have one rocket left.
We fly over the tall bridge behind the dam, the one they built back in the days to cross over the river. The cars stop on both sides of the canyon.
Jude gets a hold of Marika and opens the shackles around her hands and feet.
“Go back to your master,” he says, before pushing her out.
We’re thirty feet above the bridge. Marika screams and crashes down below. He might have decided not to kill her, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold a grudge. From the way she limps away, she certainly broke her ankle. Jude can be kind, but he’s far from soft.
A lone figure gets off a vehicle and walks to the middle of the bridge. Maeve. Marika hobbles to her. But if she expects a warm embrace, she’s sorely mistaken. Maeve kills her with one bullet in the heart. Favorite hacker or not, she’s too angry to care. So much forfamily.
Jude sighs as his old friend crumples to the floor. “She never adapted to the new world.”
Instead of turning back, Maeve steps over Marika’s corpse and keeps walking to the center of the bridge.
