Scene 11
Jo met Zane by the garage door. She was examining the beanbag gun as she walked, cracking it open to see how the small, square blankets could slide inside, peering through the target finder.
"A modified Arwen 37?" she said by way of greeting. "Crappy range, right? About six meters? We're going to need to get pretty close. And only five rounds. I'll probably need to reload. I hope these blankets don't jam it. Nice laser scope, though. Did you add that?"
He grinned at her. "I made some tweaks," he admitted. "I think you'll like it."
"It's a gun, and I get to shoot things. What's not to like?" she grinned back at him. "You ready to go?"
He gestured with one hand to the re-built Skycruiser, a matte-black flying wave-runner, sleek and powerful. "All set," he said. "But you need a helmet."
"Don't have one." Jo slung one leg over the back of the Skycruiser, and checked that she could reach the pouch of extra ammo blankets comfortably.
"There's bound to be another helmet here somewhere," Zane protested. "We'll find one."
"Yeah, down with the body armor, there are plenty. But we don't have time." She shook her head. "If we lose these bats now, we have no idea how much damage they'll be able to do before we find them again. We have to go while we have the chance."
"You take this helmet, then."
"We don't have time to argue about this. And I can't aim with that on. Come on, Zane, we need to move. Put the helmet on and drive."
He paused, and she grinned at him. "Lupo…" he started.
"Not the time, Donovan," she said. "Drive, or I'll leave without you. And it's gonna be really tough to shoot bats and drive at the same time."
He sighed, and slipping the helmet on, took his seat at the front of the Skycruiser. Jo slid closer to him on the seat, so that her legs were touching his. She tightened one arm around his waist briefly, before realizing that holding on was not going to work. "I'm not going to be able to hold on to you and shoot at the same time," she said, leaning back, and pulling the modified gun up to see how she could comfortably aim. "Drive carefully."
"This is insane, Jo," Zane shook his head as he kicked the Skycruiser on. With a roar of sound, they took off, zooming into the air. The wind rushed past, and instinctively Jo leaned forward, clutching at Zane's back with one hand. Wow, it was cold. She was wearing her black leather jacket and her scarf, but she glanced down at her hands, one holding the gun across her lap, the other on Zane's back, and wished briefly for gloves. The ground was moving past in a blur of green and gray, and she looked up, leaning to see over Zane's shoulder.
"Careful," he shouted back at her as the Skycruiser tilted, and he pulled it straight. "It's not as stable as a watercraft. It's more like a motorcycle, lean too far and you could tip us."
With the intensity of the wind, Jo only caught about two words in three, but it was enough to get the message across—or maybe the tilt alone had been enough. Ooh, this was going to be fun. How the hell was she going to make this work? Shooting at a moving target from a moving vehicle, with Zane's back blocking her line of sight? Not to mention that one false move would send them plummeting to the ground?
And damn it, they should have figured out some better way of keeping in touch with Fargo. They'd left him working on a way to track the bats but between the rush of the wind and the noise of the Skycruiser, even her Bluetooth earpiece wasn't going to make it easy to hear from him.
They were almost at the edge of town. Wow, the Skycruiser was fast. Almost involuntarily, Jo's lips stretched in a grin. Okay, so maybe this was crazy…but it sure was fun. But she still had the problem of aiming. They were close to the bats, and she needed to be able to see them. She stroked the gun in her lap thoughtfully, and then slung it over her shoulder. Best bet…she was facing the wrong way.
Leaning forward, she shouted into Zane's ear. "Get ahead and above any bats you see, so that I'm firing down on them and behind us."
"Got it," he shouted back confirmation, still focused on keeping the SkyCruiser steady.
"I'm turning around. Keep me safe!"
"What? Wait, what?" Zane dared a glance back over his shoulder.
"Face forward," she ordered him, thumping his back. "I'm turning around."
Taking a deep breath, she paused, said a quick prayer, and then swiveled, pulling her right leg over the back of the Skycruiser so that for one terrifying moment she was perched sidesaddle, high in the sky, nothing between her and the ground but thirty feet of empty air. Then she did she same with her left leg, so that she was again straddling the machine, but this time facing backwards.
The Skycruiser wobbled precariously, and Zane swore, struggling to keep it flying smoothly. But it quickly straightened out again. "Nice work," she shouted, leaning against him and laughing. This was much better. She had the strength of his back against her, a warm support. And she could see everything, the entire spread of Eureka beneath them.
There! It was a bat, swooping down Main Street. Jo lifted the bean bag gun, looked through the laser scope and dropped into the place she went when she was shooting. Suddenly, her hands weren't cold. The wind wasn't harsh. The Skycruiser wasn't loud. The world was a still and perfect place and the only things that existed were the bat, the bullet in the gun, and the space between the two.
Now.
Jo fired.
The square of blanket shot out from the gun and, just as Jo had anticipated, started spinning in the air, expanding with every spin. Gravity started pulling it down almost immediately, but they were far enough above the bat that the blanket was over the brown body before its weight stopped its forward movement. But then it was falling and the bat was falling with it and finally it was on the ground, a red-and-white checked blotch with a struggling lump underneath it.
Jo leaned away from Zane, trying to see over the back of the cruiser. Was someone coming to collect the bat or would it be able escape from the blanket? Ah, there was Taggart, running into the street with one of his smaller animal cages.
"Go higher," she shouted to Zane, twisting her head so that her voice was as close to his ear as possible. He nodded and pulled the Skycruiser's steering bar so that its nose aimed up.
Oops. Jo started to slide, gravity having its way with her, just as it had with the blanket. She couldn't use her hands to hang on without letting go of the gun, so hastily she clenched her legs around the seat, and pushed with her feet against the base, trying to stop her momentum. She yelped involuntarily-ooh, but it was a long way down. Zane glanced back, and realizing what was happening, straightened the Skycruiser out, slowing it down. Jo sighed with relief, wiggling her way back up the seat.
There, another bat. No, two of them, flying close together. Jo aimed, fired, and watched the blanket pull the bats out of the sky. One was too close to the edge of the cloth and managed to wiggle out from under the blanket before it landed, so Jo took another shot.
That time the blanket was blue-and-white checks, and it landed on the bat, but also on the statue of Archimedes. The Skycruiser blew past but Jo stretched to see if Taggart would capture the bat before it could escape.
Again, the Skycruiser tilted. "Careful," Zane shouted. Jo leaned back quickly, restoring their balance. She couldn't see if Taggart had managed to capture the bat, but she saw Carter running down the street, so maybe Carter would get it.
Jo scanned the sky, trying to see the other bats. She thought that there were at least three more left to find, and—there they were, all three of them, near the Sheriff's office. Jo lifted the gun and fired, one down. Again, and there went a second. She reloaded, slipping the squares of blanket into the gun with calm efficiency. One more, unless…drat, one had escaped.
Quickly, she fired two shots in succession, the blankets spiraling through the air and spreading out. Main Street was looking like Florida during a freeze, blankets randomly draped across the street, as if protecting precious plants from the cold. Well, or it would, if it weren't for the broken glass, the burnt-out wreck of a jeep, the smashed streetlight, the bat bodies with spread out wings…maybe it was more like Florida during a natural disaster.
Zane turned the Skycruiser around and cruised slowly down the roofs of Main Street again. Carter and Taggart and Emily were out on the street, putting the last bats in cages. Vincent was standing at the doorway of Café Diem, shaking his head at the mess. People were beginning to re-emerge from storefronts, and cluster on street corners, pointing out the damage and talking excitedly.
A crackle in Jo's ear was Fargo's voice. It sounded as if he was saying that they'd gotten them all.
"I think we're good," Jo shouted. "Take us down."
Zane lowered the Skycruiser to the ground in a slow spiral, landing in front of Café Diem, and turning the power off. In the sudden silence, Jo laughed with joy. "That was awesome," she said, swinging her leg over the side of the Skycruiser so that she was perched on its back as if it was a bench, facing the restaurant.
Zane jumped off the Skycruiser, pulling his helmet off, and turning to face her. "That was not awesome," he said in disbelief. "That was terrifying. Are you insane? Switching positions in mid-air? Why didn't you just tell me to stop for a minute? Do you know what a fall from that high up could have done to you? And did you nearly slide off the back once?"
Jo grinned at him. Jumping off the seat, she launched herself into his arms. He stumbled backward a step or two, dropping the helmet, before catching himself and her. "Jo," he started to protest, before she took his mouth with hers, shutting him up. One hand ran up through his hair, while the other caressed his cheek as she kissed him hungrily, all the passion and desire she felt flowing through her mouth.
"Oh, well, if you're going to be that way about it," he mumbled through kisses, pulling her closer.
