Halo_ Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe - Eric Nylund [29]
Ceretus watched as those words sunk deep into their minds.
“Do you think it will work, that he’ll listen to me?” Facius asked rather dubiously.
Hammadus grabbed his brother by the shoulders. “If he doesn’t, I’ll be there to protect you, brother.”
Ceretus nodded gravely, concealing a pleased smirk.
BRIEN’S PLAN was a long shot, but it was their only hope. Haunted by the memory of the rampaging Brutes he’d barely escaped, and what he knew from studies and his experiences so far here, these aliens were pack creatures and followed alpha males. Eliminate the alpha males and you’d have a bunch of thugs. Pit those thugs against one another somehow and you’d get a chaotic brawl. Then they could make a run for it. The exfil point was about five miles up through the thick forest, over the hill. If his guess on time was correct, they had about eight hours before the Calypso hit the rendezvous point, which meant they needed to act at the first opportunity and hope for a miracle.
He had waited until the Brutes were mostly asleep before feeding the others the plan. Judging by the health and shape of his fellow captives, he knew if any of them made it with him off this planet it would be a miracle.
But his plan was based on one necessity. He needed a confrontation between Big Boy and Six. As best as he could gather, these two were the alpha males of this pack: Big Boy by force, Six by brains. If he could tranq the two of them just after they started fighting, the others would be lost and hopefully argue and battle amongst themselves, creating enough of a distraction for them to make a run for it. He had about two miles until he made it back to his camp, where he had the M6 in case the Brutes did come following. Then he’d have at least a few hours before the exfil craft came for him. It was the best he could come up with.
The entire hostage camp was on alert for Six and Big Boy. The morning was relatively slow, and Brien was completely transfixed by an impromptu meeting between Six, Ludo, and Butch. If Brien had to guess judging by the events of last night, they seemed to be conspiring. This could be their chance.
“Dasc, I think we got something cooking . . . look.” He moved only his eyes toward the hovering trio of Brutes.
The three conspirators seemed reserved as they walked quietly toward where Big Boy and his entourage were gathered. The whole Brute camp diverted their attention from what they were doing to bear witness.
Dasc waved the others over, and they hovered around Brien.
“Okay, this is it. Look for my okay and then, you two”—indicating the woman, Nixaliz, and another withering prisoner with a turtle face, named Vern—“run to the front of the pen and start screaming your asses off. Once they look toward them, the rest of you clear me a path and I’ll send two tranq darts at Six and Big Boy as fast as I can, then we run like hell. Up toward the tree line at the hill. No turning back, like the dickens.”
“Like the what?” asked a stick of a prisoner whose thin face barely escaped his puff of hair and beard.
Brien caught his eye. “Like you’ve never run before.”
CERETUS WATCHED in amazement as Parabum actually entertained the words of Facius. He actually looked like he was considering it. Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as he seemed. Then he saw his tone quickly change.
“Cousin, we live like kings here, and judging by the fleet back on that human planet, there will be no Covenant to return to. We need not cower at the thought of their displeasure. We wait until I say we can return. You disgrace yourself with this plan, brother.”
“So staying here is the will of the gods?” Hammadus asked, confused from behind his brother. Ceretus caught a whiff of his fear.
“Will of the gods, boy? There is no will of the gods. If there is anything I’ve learned from all this is that no gods answer our prayers, they do not care what we do. They abandoned us long ago.”
“Blasphemy!