Lethal Planet Read Free Page B

V-shaped hull that was designed to deflect head-on blasts and break through obstructions. He held the wheel steady with his robotic hand; the new limb felt strong, and wasn’t aching or cramping up like his old one often did when driving. Jason was quite pleased with it after all.
    Kat was sitting beside him. ‘When we reach the end of this branch, how are we going to get down the trunk?’
    Jason shrugged. ‘No idea.’
    Beneath them, the tree shuddered as the Majestic shifted in its cradle of branches. There had been no choice but to abandon ship.
    ‘No idea? This was your plan, to drive to Perazim, Jase!’
    ‘Strategy and tactics, Kat!’ Jason said. ‘Do you know the difference?’
    ‘Of course! Well … erm, nope …’
    ‘The strategy is the overall plan,’ he explained. ‘We drive to Perazim through the jungle, and hopefully the Arch Predicant won’t see us coming. Tactics, on the other hand, are the solutions to the problems that we’ll encounter along the way. When we get to the end of this branch, then we’ll think about how to get down. Why worry about a problem that hasn’t appeared yet?’
    Jason was pleased to have his thought process justified: they were able to escape the branch they were travelling along by way of a knot the size of a football stadium, then drop down onto one of the giant tree’s exposed feeder roots. The trucks and tanks were then able to roll off onto the jungle floor.
    It was dark down here, and the headlights of the MTV’s bounced off the mist, illuminating almost nothing. The ground was muddy and wet, and rain gushed off leaves and boughs like waterfalls. The only things that provided any kind of reference point were large glowing purple flowers that seemed to be everywhere, sprouting from twisting tendrils than snaked around and between the trees. As the MTVs trundled over the tendrils, the flowers would move, turning to watch the invaders as they passed by.
    ‘I don’t like this,’ Jason muttered. ‘Where’s Brandon anyway? Maybe he can turn his bionoids into some kind of pesticide.’
    ‘He’s in the back,’ Kat said, ‘talking diplomacy with the President; telling him how he won’t ever use the bionoids as a weapon, blah blah blah …’
    She sighed and shook her head.
    Jason glanced across at her. His sister looked a little dishevelled. Her cropped hair, that Gem had cut back when they had stopped at the castle in France, was growing out in messy, mousey tangles. She had also taken to wearing her black plastic specs again: the fix Brandon’s father had administered with the bionoids had proved only temporary. ‘Everything all right between you two?’
    ‘Not really,’ Kat said. ‘Bran has these amazing powers, but they’ve changed him. Instead of being this incredible superhero with all these cool tricks, it’s like he’s taken all the responsibility too seriously. I think he sees himself as some guardian of morality, whose life is devoted to serving the bionoids.’
    ‘While we grunts do all the dirty work when battles need to be fought,’ Jason added.
    ‘Yeah,’ Kat agreed glumly. She suddenly switched moods. ‘Oh well! Maybe when this is all over, we’ll have chance to be a proper boyfriend and girlfriend again. Until then, I’m going to make sure I look out for you, Bro. Brandon can take care of himself.’
    Jason grinned. ‘Twins against the world. Just like old times!’
     
    * * *
     
    Lieutenant Hewson ducked into the cabin. He looked different too: he was happy now to wear a baggy fisherman’s sweater and jeans, rather than his regulation black MI Zero combat threads, and he had started growing a very non-regulation beard. It had grey speckles in it, which seemed to sparkle against his dark skin.
    He seemed less authoritative, too—less soldierly and tough than he used to be. Jason knew that all the fighting men and women had taken a knock in confidence since the strange bird alien attack. It had been the final straw, added to