Chapter 88
The boom of heavy artillery shook the earth while the rat-a-tat-tat of smaller arms filled the gaps between the larger explosions. Mother White stood with her arms folded, far back from the advancing line, hoping her troops would continue to press on now that night had fallen. While the Oklasaw militia had been highly successful with the sun up, picking off her Military Mothers right and left, slowing them tremendously, now that it was dark and they could no longer easily see their marks, the invaders were finally making progress.
It still wasn’t as fast as she would’ve liked though. By her calculations, the tracker was only about ten miles north of them right now. But they were only advancing about one mile per hour, which meant it would be daylight again before they made it far enough north to intercept the tracker, and that was assuming that the speed the object was traveling to the west didn’t pick up. She had no idea how Mist could be traveling so quickly, and she hadn’t been able to get a drone up there to see the situation clearly, either. The only one drone that had made it through the Oklasaw line had its signal broken up before it was shot down. To move that quickly, the girl had to be in some sort of a vehicle. Perhaps she and the other rebels had stolen something. Or perhaps they had simply tossed the tracker pieces in with a passing Oklasaw citizen who, unbeknownst to him, was transporting contraband.
“Mother White,” Mother Jaguar said as she came up to White’s shoulder, “I have a report from Mother Apple at the mountain range.”
White lowered the screen she’d been looking at, attempting to calculate whether or not they should shift their advance to the west and raised her eyebrows at Jaguar, waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t of her own accord, she prompted, “Yes?”
“She says they have searched the area where the signal first began to emanate and have been unable to find any trace of Mist or her friends. No blood--nothing. They’ve also searched the area where the tracker began to head west. There’s nothing unusual there either.”
White absorbed the information, not sure how to respond. None of this was making sense, and she was afraid she was being duped again. She remembered what had happened with the tiger, when Jaguar had wasted precious time hunting down a big cat that carried a transponder from Mist’s tablet. Was it possible the rebels had figured out a way to simulate the tracking signal from an IUD? She didn’t think that was possible. The technology they used in the IUDs was state-of-the-art. She was highly familiar with it, having studied all of it in military school. It was designed to help the military pinpoint any woman that would dare try to take procreation into her own hands. No, she didn’t think there was any way the signal could be coming from anything but Mist’s tracker.
She did think, however, this was still a ploy of some sort, that Mist and her friends had attached the tracker to something else and that none of them were anywhere near the location where the signal was transmitting. “What major city is closest to where the tracker first started signaling?” She could’ve looked on her tablet, but she expected Jaguar to have that knowledge immediately.
Assuming her response was reliable, she did. “Louis City, Mother White, though it’s quite far away.”
White nodded. “I want the party searching the mountains to head to that city and begin to infiltrate the citizenry. I want to know if our party is there. Or if they may be headed that direction, I want to know when they arrive. I want you to head that direction yourself and lead the forces searching the roads between the transmitter’s initial location and the city.”
“Yes, Mother White,” Jaguar said. She made the sign of respect, a slashing motion across her chest, and moved off to do as White had ordered.
White returned her attention to the battlefield, wishing they could pick up speed. According to the map, there was a major river in the direct path of the tracker. Whether that was their objective or not, she would like to have the opportunity to pin the tracker down on the banks of that river and see what the carrier knew--before she annihilated whoever was carrying the tracker. Assuming it wasn’t Rain or the boy. No, if it was either of them, they’d be headed back to Michaelanburg and however much torture it took to find the rest of the rebels.
The rumbles of her guns continued to shake the ground, lighting up the sky like a summer storm. “Prepare yourself, Rain,” she said under her breath. “The thunder is coming for you.” She was coming for her--and wouldn’t stop until the redheaded girl was in her possession at last.
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