Nicholas Sansbury Smith

To my editor, Michael Carr. An adventurer, scholar, and globe-trotter

—a real-life Xavier Rodriguez.

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

—G. K. Chesterton

PROLOGUE

Ada Winslow knew she would likely die soon, but human nature and a strong will to survive kept her aching hands on the oars. The ocean had calmed through the day, but now the swells were growing in size, beating the hull of her boat.

She leaned back, putting her weight into the oar stroke, but the twenty-foot aluminum fishing boat seemed to be getting no closer to her destination.

Blood from the repetitive friction made her uncalloused hands slick inside the gloves. Almost in a trance, she continued the motion: pulling, grunting, pulling, grunting.

It took every atom of her will not to rest. Climbing back into the narrow compartment designed for supplies and sleeping sounded like heaven. She could strip off the gloves, clean her hands, and bandage them up.

She stopped only to straighten her sore back. Both arms throbbed, near cramping. Her body wasn’t used to this type of exercise. Life in the sky hadn’t required anything like it. She had mostly sat in front of a monitor, crunching numbers about storms or the amount of recycled water lost each month. Monotonous stuff that required using her brain more than her body.

In her first days working on the bridge of the Hive, Ada had helped map out dive zones, using actuarial science to calculate risk to the divers. She wasn’t used to labor that didn’t tax her brain.

But there was an easier way to get to where she was going…

She eyed the small vessel’s steering wheel and controls. Switching to the ancient four-horsepower motor would give her a reprieve, but her supply of gasoline was too precious to use now.

Ada had set a goal of rowing a hundred miles before she switched to the motor. Since her youth, she had always been a goal setter. Goals had helped her rise from the filthy lower decks to second in command of an airship.

And she had wiped away all her hard work with a simple press of a button, dropping a container full of Cazador warriors into the ocean. This was her punishment.

Rowing into the darkness, toward a destination in the wastes that she would probably never see. The journey to Florida was over a thousand miles, and the thought of rowing over half that distance filled her with anxiety.

King Xavier Rodriguez had given her just enough gasoline to get halfway there, which felt like a second punishment, or perhaps a lesson.

She glanced at the steering wheel again but didn’t take the bait.

Don’t give up. Keep rowing, she repeated.

Even now, while she was on her own, X was teaching her a lesson on survival. She pulled the oars through the water for the three-thousandth time since leaving the Vanguard Islands. Maybe the ten-thousandth.

You didn’t leave.

She had been exiled into the wastes. It was a surprise when King Xavier showed up at her cell with a key and not a sword. But not long into her journey, she had realized that it was no act of mercy.

How could she possibly survive this?

If she did somehow survive, the trip from the Vanguard Islands to the ruined city on X’s map would leave her exhausted and broken. At this rate, even with the fuel he had given her for the small engine, it would take her months just to get there.

A sword would have been quicker and more merciful.

Out here all alone, she’d had plenty of time to think about all the ways death could come: from capsizing, sea monsters, radiation poisoning, or simple infection of her blistered, bleeding hands.

Keep calm. Keep steady. Stay alive. This was her new mantra.

She took in a deep breath of filtered air from the flimsy plastic helmet she had found in the crates. It wasn’t one of the advanced Hell Diver helmets, with armor and a plastic face shield, but it made her feel better. Wearing the mask was an important lesson from growing up on the lower decks. Always protect your body from the rads.

The survival instincts ingrained in her and every other soul from the sky had given her a mental edge, and she had plenty of food and supplies, as well as the gear to survive. What she didn’t have was the training or knowledge of how to survive.

She didn’t know much about how to sail a boat, or fight, or hunt, or avoid the beasts and the poisonous plants and the storms. She wasn’t much better off than a child tossed into the postapocalyptic remains of the Old World.

But just because she didn’t know how to fight didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight when the time came.

She dug the oars deep, inching her way closer to Florida or wherever she could find to stop and rest on the way.

For the next few hours, she lost herself in the monotonous motions, her anger sinking into despair as she thought about everything she had left behind at the Vanguard Islands.

The sunny paradise was the place she had always dreamed of while growing up—the place all sky people dreamed of finding.

Except for one thing: the Cazador warriors who lived there.

Dropping the container full of sailors and soldiers into the water had been her way of avenging Captain Katrina DaVita, who had taught Ada never to stop fighting for their people, never to give up.

Despite the repercussions, she still did not regret pushing that button. The only thing she regretted was not trying harder to persuade X to kill the warriors after the battle for the Metal Islands ended with the sky people’s victory.

Instead, he had signed a peace treaty allowing the warriors who swore loyalty to stay in the Cazador army.

“We need this peace,” X had said. “The real enemy is the defectors.”

Maybe Ada could have bought that if she didn’t know what the cannibalistic barbarians had done to Katrina after killing her.

She dug the oars harder into the water. Sweat poured down her forehead.

X had told her she could come back home in five years, but she had a feeling that if she lived that long and managed to return, her people would be dead at the hands of the Cazadores.

Killing the crew of the Lion had helped even the playing field, but it would take a lot more dead Cazador warriors before her people were truly safe.

But looking out over the whitecaps, she knew they would never be safe. It wasn’t just the cannibalistic society that threatened them. The defectors were still out here, hunting down the survivors. The machines would never stop until every human was dead.

A hot breath clouded the inside of her visor. It cleared a moment later to reveal a glowing dark sky that seemed alive from the constant flash of lightning.

A wave hit the port side and knocked the oar out of her throbbing hand.

Taking it as an omen, she decided to rest for a while.

After shipping the oars inside the hull, she climbed into the enclosed cabin in the stern. Crates of gear and supplies were stowed neatly and secured to the bulkheads.

Ada had made a bunk of the metal seat, laying a couple of blankets down for padding. The gasoline supply was stored underneath, along with the motor.

She shut the hatch, blocking out the wind and salt spray and nearly all the light. But it wasn’t completely dark as blue lightning flickered in through cracks and holes where the metal had rusted through.

If she hit a radioactive zone, the enclosure wouldn’t protect her unless she sealed off every inch with caulking and tape.

For now, this was home. Sitting on the bunk, she took off her helmet and, wincing in pain, peeled off the gloves. Her palms were blistered, and the blisters had broken. Blood wept from the open cracks.

She searched for the first-aid kit and remembered it was in the second crate. It took her a moment to rearrange things, but she eventually pulled it out.

Gritting her teeth, she dripped antibacterial liquid onto the wounds, cleaned them, and wrapped both hands. The burn lasted several minutes, but the bandages helped relieve the pain.

Her growling stomach reminded her that she hadn’t had a bite all day. She fished out an apple and some fresh bread from her pack of perishables. The small pleasures made the rowing and darkness more bearable, but she was already lonely.

If X can survive out here, you can too.

She knew how crazy that sounded. Xavier Rodriguez was a Hell Diver, and not just any Hell Diver. He had survived more dives and missions than any in history.

Ada had a lot to learn if she was to survive even a fraction of the time he had spent out here.

She ate slowly, savoring each bite, knowing that soon the fresh fruit and vegetables would be gone and she would have to switch to fish jerky and, eventually, the packaged goods.

She decided to rest for a few hours before heading back out to paddle. The first few days at sea, she hadn’t been able to sleep in the constantly rocking boat. It was far different from sleeping on the Hive, where she rarely felt any sense of motion unless the airship hit a storm.

Sailing out here was like being in a never-ending storm, and she hadn’t even hit the big waves. Her gut told her that sea and storm would kill her before any mutant beasts got the chance.

The idea of drowning had never crossed her mind, but it would be karma after what she did to the crew of the Lion.

Everyone on the airships had pictured their death at one point or another. Living in the sky was like holding a stick of dynamite with the fuse just below a flame. Death was always there, hovering in the darkness.

Most people thought the end would come from crashing down on the surface or dying from the cough or from radiation-caused cancer. But drowning beat most of the other ways this could end.

She sighed and tried to get comfortable on her bunk. Memories of her family replaced the morbid ruminations. It wasn’t often that she thought of her parents, but recently she had found herself thinking of them more and more.

They had been gone so long, she had trouble remembering their voices. The cough had taken them fifteen years ago, when the flu swept through the lower decks of the Hive.

Somehow, Ada had never caught it. She had stayed in school, entered the academy, and graduated as an ensign. Years of working on the bridge had given her the experience to climb through the ranks to the second-highest position on the airships.

All the training had taught her to put her people first. To make sure whatever decision she made was in the best interests of the passengers and the airship.

Captain Katrina DaVita had gone beyond that training by teaching her what sacrifice was. Serving under Katrina was an honor that Ada had felt compelled to pay back.

That was why she killed those Cazadores.

Not just to avenge her friend and captain, but to protect her people from the barbarians who had mutilated Katrina’s corpse and displayed it like a trophy.

Ada jerked with the flash of anger. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and exhaled.

You have to rest. You can’t dwell on the past anymore.

Another swell broadsided the boat, nearly knocking her onto the floor. She rolled back onto her side and clutched a rolled-up blanket, then closed her eyes and battled her demons.

A beeping sound jolted her awake.

She shot up on her narrow bunk, groggy and sick to her stomach. The beeping continued. It wasn’t part of the dream after all.

She searched for the source and finally found it in her backpack. Reaching inside, she retrieved the wrist computer the Hell Divers used to detect radiation, map their locations, and hack into ITC facilities.

X had uploaded a digital map for her to find his former home in Florida, but a message had replaced the screen she pulled up.

Radiation spike. Seek shelter.

Heart thumping, Ada slipped the gloves over her bandaged hands and placed her helmet over her short-cropped hair. She wasn’t sure why she grabbed her rifle, but touching the stock made her feel safe.

Taking in a breath of filtered air, she steeled herself before opening the hatch. Lightning speared the horizon, forking toward the water.

She searched the whitecaps but didn’t see anything in the glow.

A few moments passed before she finally saw something out there. Another flurry of lightning illuminated the ocean, and in the blue glow she spotted the first landmass since leaving the Vanguard Islands.

But that didn’t make any sense.

According to the map, there wasn’t supposed to be anything out here.

She raised her wrist computer to make sure she hadn’t veered off course. Tapping the screen, she pulled up her location.

Sure enough, she was still hovering around the red line she was supposed to be following, and there was no island in her path.

So what the hell was she looking at?

She raised the rifle scope to her plastic visor, but without night-vision goggles, she had to wait for another strike of lightning to see the shore.

The flashes came a moment later, capturing the object in the glow.

This wasn’t a landmass with rocky shores, mutated trees, and beasts prowling for prey. Zooming in, Ada saw a massive ship that seemed to be the source of the radiation spike.

And it was sailing right toward her.

Panicked, she hurried over to the controls and steering wheel. As she pulled out the key from her pocket, a dozen questions swam through her mind.

Were they Cazadores? Defectors? Something else?

She inserted the key and turned it, but the motor whined in protest. She tried twice more, cursing each time. The engine wouldn’t turn over.

“Come on!” she yelled.

The ship in the distance seemed to grow in size, dwarfing her vessel.

On the fifth try, the motor coughed to life.

She turned the wheel, pushed down on the throttle, and sped away from the huge radioactive ship, wondering.

ONE

Reinforced glass windows separated Michael Everhart, Layla Brower, and Les Mitchells from the thirty-one survivors they had rescued at the bunker in Rio de Janeiro. The group had spent the past twenty-four hours in quarantine inside Discovery’s launch bay.

Michael hated seeing them locked away and also hated that he had to post two militia guards and the two surviving Cazador soldiers outside.

But the guards weren’t here to protect the crew of the airship from these people—they were protecting these people from the airship crew.

Fear of transferring bacteria or a virus to the survivors had forced Captain Mitchells to isolate them at AI Timothy Pepper’s suggestion. The medical staff was busy running tests and treating them for exposure to radiation and toxins outside their bunker.

For most of them, this was the first time they had ever left their underground shelter, and the journey had already taken a toll.

Several of the adults and children coughed inside the sealed space. Technicians and medical officers in space suits treated the sick the best they could, but Michael feared they would lose some on the trip back to the Vanguard Islands.

“Two hundred and fifty–plus years underground,” he said. “So many things could have killed them, and now we’re worried about a common cold.”

“It’s like making first contact,” said Layla.

Michael had a hard time understanding how just breathing on one of these people might kill them. He had spent his life in the skies before meeting the Cazadores. But life in the skies and dives to the surface had still introduced his body to the microbiota of today.

Michael glanced over at the two Cazador soldiers standing guard. The two men had never spent time in a bunker, and like nearly all their people, they had spent their entire lives at the Metal Islands. Being exposed to outside elements made their immune systems resilient.

The people now sequestered in the launch bay never had that luxury. Most of them had been sealed in a vault their entire lives. According to Timothy, who had translated several conversations with their leader, only two men in the entire group had ever seen anything outside those bunker walls.

“Hopefully, the meds we have back at the Vanguard Islands will boost their immune systems,” Les said.

“They’re all so timid,” Layla said. “I doubt they even know how to fight.”

“Sure seems that way,” Les replied.

“Some of them have to know,” Michael said. He thought back to the machine-gun nests and the wall of cars he had discovered outside the police station.

It had appeared to be abandoned for some time, but someone in this group had known the people who manned those posts. And that knowledge had likely been handed down.

“We didn’t find a single weapon, though,” Layla said. “Couldn’t they have picked up a knife or a dropped rifle in the cavern?”

“One of them did,” Michael said, recalling the man who had run at a skinwalker and received an arrow to the chest. “He didn’t make it.”

“If we hadn’t found them, they all probably would have starved over the next year,” said a female voice.

Magnolia Katib walked over to look through the window. Rodger Mintel was right behind her, cleaning his glasses on his ripped shirt.

“I want to talk more with Pedro,” Les said. He pushed his headset mouthpiece up to his lips. “Timothy, can you translate?”

Pedro, the group’s leader, was sitting in a chair, talking to several other bunker survivors. He was a big man with long dreadlocks and a dark beard streaked with gray.

Les fidgeted while he waited for Timothy to join him in the passageway.

“I want to know more about the defectors,” Les said. “I think Pedro knows more than he’s told me.”

“We should really let them rest,” Michael suggested.

“They’ve been through a lot,” Rodger said.

“No time to rest,” Les said. “Not with the threat of the defectors still out there. If they know the location of this base, I want it now, so we can destroy it.”

The almost manic eagerness of his tone worried Michael. They still didn’t really understand what Pedro and his people knew about the machines, and Michael feared that the captain would try to force it out of them.

Michael glanced back into the room. Most of the people not being treated by the technicians were resting on cots, but a boy no older than six walked over to stare back at them.

He gingerly raised a hand, and Michael raised his prosthetic hand to wave. That seemed to scare the kid, who retreated several steps before Michael lowered his titanium hand and raised the other.

The boy smiled, but not at Michael.

Rodger was in the middle of making a funny face, bulging his eyes and sticking out his tongue.

A woman got up from her cot and hurried over to scoop the boy up. She avoided eye contact with Michael and the other divers.

“Rodgeman, you’re scaring them again,” Magnolia said.

“Or they think he’s a god,” Layla said with a chuckle.

Rodger put his hands on his waist and popped a hip at Magnolia. “Don’t hate me because I’m gorgeous, sunshine.”

Michael grinned but grew serious. Pedro had turned to look at the divers. Several of the men and women with him did the same.

It took Michael a moment to realize they weren’t looking at the divers—they were looking at Timothy. The glow of the AI warmed the dimly lit passage outside the launch-bay doors.

“Captain, you’d like me to translate?” he said.

Les nodded. “I’d like you to ask Pedro more questions about the defectors. Find out anything you can, okay?”

“Captain…” Michael started to say. He let his words trail off, knowing that nothing he said would matter anyway.

“Okay, sir,” Timothy said.

The hologram walked through the bulkhead and into the launch bay. Timothy worked his way around the cots of sleeping people, waking several with his glow. They sat up and watched him.

Pedro and several other men stood as Timothy approached.

“Well, you did it, Commander Everhart,” Magnolia said. “You rescued the first human survivors we have ever found besides the Cazadores.”

“We did,” he said.

“Yeah, but now what do we do?” Rodger asked.

“We start by getting to know them better,” Layla said. “Explaining who we are and where we came from.”

“That’s what Timothy should be doing,” Michael said.

Les looked over, clearly agitated. “Commander, the most important thing we can do right now is figure out what they know about the defectors.”

“Okay, sir,” Michael said. “I’m going to go check on Arlo and Edgar.”

Les moved closer to the window while the divers followed Michael down the hallway.

“I’m worried about him,” Magnolia said as soon as they were in the next passage. “He’s obsessed with the defectors.”

“Almost as obsessed with the machines as Rodger is with you,” Layla said.

Magnolia blushed, and Rodger grunted.

“In seriousness, do you blame the captain?” Michael asked. “They killed his only son.”

“Yeah, still…” Magnolia shook her head.

“You know, we’re going to have to tell these people about the Cazadores at some point,” Layla said.

Michael sighed. She was right.

“Technically, the skinwalkers are Cazadores,” said Layla. “So how are we supposed to explain to these people that we are bringing them to a place where the skinwalkers came from?”

“We don’t,” Magnolia said. “No need to explain that to them.”

Michael wasn’t so sure. He wanted to be honest with these people about the Vanguard Islands, their bloody history, and the threat that still existed out there.

“We still don’t know exactly what happened back at home,” he said. “All X told me was that they averted a war and that General Rhino was killed.”

“We’re heading home to more problems,” Magnolia said.

“But at least, we’re heading home,” Layla said. “We’re all lucky to be alive.”

“I sure hope X is okay,” Rodger said.

“He better freaking be,” Magnolia said. “Otherwise, I’m going to kick your ass, Rodge. After all, you promised you would protect him.”

Rodger paused. “I know, but I decided to come protect you instead.”

She let out a huff. “Like I need protection.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Layla said. “I mean, it’s X. He’s the Immortal.”

Michael stopped outside the medical ward. The doors opened, and he gestured for Layla to go first.

Inside, both Arlo and Edgar were sitting up in their beds, their battered faces swollen and red. Bandages wrapped Arlo’s midsection, and all four of Edgar’s limbs were bandaged.

“Hey, Commander,” Arlo said cheerfully. He cracked a smile with several teeth missing.

Edgar had a fractured jaw and could hardly talk at all. He managed a nod as Michael walked over.

“How you guys feeling?” Michael asked.

Arlo shrugged.

Edgar grunted something that Michael couldn’t make out.

“I think he said he’s happy to be alive,” Arlo said.

Edgar nodded again.

“You guys are lucky,” Michael said. “We all thought you were dead.”

“How’s Eevi doing?” Arlo asked.

“Not good,” Layla replied. “I should probably get back to the bridge and check on her since Les is at the launch bay.”

“Good idea,” Michael said. “I’ll come.”

“Probably for the best if you stay here, actually,” Layla said. “She hasn’t really wanted to talk to anyone; neither has Sofia.”

“Where is Sofia, by the way?” Michael asked.

“In her quarters, last I heard,” Layla said.

“She also needs time to grieve.”

“I’ll check on her, too,” Layla said. “See ya later, guys.”

Michael watched her go, his heart aching for both Sofia and Eevi. He wouldn’t blame Eevi if she held him responsible for her husband’s death.

Alexander had sacrificed himself so the divers could get into a tunnel. Michael kept replaying those moments in his mind, wondering whether he could have somehow saved him, but even if they had been able to drag Alexander into the tunnel, he had lost too much blood and been exposed to radiation and foreign toxins.

Hell Divers all knew the risks.

His father had known; Trey Mitchells had known; Alexander Corey had known. Dying was often part of the duty to humanity.

Michael sighed and moved over to Arlo. He hadn’t spoken to him or Edgar much since they lifted off.

“Thanks for coming back for us, Commander,” Arlo said. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

“Thank… you,” Edgar mumbled.

“I just wish we could have saved Alexander,” Michael said. “But I’m glad you two are okay. I thought you both were goners.”

“Me, too,” Arlo said. He gripped his stomach. “That nanotech gel is already helping, man. So weird. I can almost feel it working.”

“It better,” Michael said. “We used the last of our supply on you two, and we need you both back in action as soon as possible.”

The lights flickered.

“That’s weird,” Arlo said.

An alarm blared, making him flinch on his bed.

Michael jumped, too. Stepping away from the beds, he looked out through the open doors at a red light swirling on the bridge.

The public address system crackled. “All noncritical personnel are to report to their shelters immediately,” Timothy said. “Everyone else, please report to your stations.”

Michael moved over to the speaker on the bulkhead and pushed the button.

“Timothy, this is Commander Everhart. What the hell is going on?”

“Commander Everhart, we have a hull breach, and a contact has entered the airship.”

Michael’s heart skipped.

The doors to the medical ward whispered open, and the lead militia soldier, Corporal Banks, stepped inside. He had a glistening bald scalp, wide eyes, and a submachine gun in hand.

“It’s… a Siren,” he stammered.

“What the hell do you mean, a Siren?” Rodger asked.

“One of those things is in here?” Arlo said, nearly falling out of his bed as he tried to sit up.

“This can’t be happening,” Rodger said. “Mags, this is a joke, right? You guys are just messing with me, right?”

“This is no joke,” Michael said, his face stern. “Now, calm down and stay here.”

“But—”

“Do it,” Magnolia said.

Michael eyed Banks’s submachine gun.

“You can’t use that on the ship,” Michael said. “Follow me to the armory. We’re going to have to kill this thing with crossbows.”

Michael hurried out of the room with Mags and the militia soldier.

“Wait!” Arlo called after them. “Can you leave that gun here?”

* * * * *

Xavier Rodriguez sat with a pillow propped behind his back. The view through the open windows in his humble quarters was spectacular, even though he could see it with only one eye. A swollen eyelid puffed around his other eye, blocking the view.

Miles sat at the edge of his bed, watching clouds crawl across the blue sky while the warm breeze drifted into the room.

But X couldn’t bring himself to enjoy the sunshine.

A day after holding Rhino in his arms, his mind was as burdened as his broken body. Not only with thoughts of his fallen friend, but also with what happened on the mission to Rio de Janeiro.

Although the mission had been a success in finding survivors, it had come at a grave cost to the Cazadores and to his people.

A rap came on his door, and Lieutenant Sloan walked inside. Chief Engineer Samson was also with her, but he stayed in the hall, coughing into his handkerchief—something he was lately doing more and more.

If X had to guess, the third figure in his blurred vision was Dr. Huff.

“How are you doing, King Xavier?” said the doc’s voice.

X groaned as he tried to sit up straighter. “Like a whale ate me and shat me out into the mouth of a shark,” he said. “Then the shark chewed a while, decided I didn’t taste good, and—”

“We get the point,” Sloan said.

“I need to check your dressings,” Huff said.

“I’m here to help,” said Sloan. “But don’t worry, I’m not giving you a sponge bath.”

Thank the Octopus Lords, X thought.

She moved to the other side of his bed and helped rotate his body slightly while Huff examined his arm. He put on his glasses and bent down to check the freshly closed surgical incision.

Miles turned from the view of the sky to watch the doctor.

“It’s okay, buddy, they’re trying to help me,” X said.

He winced from the burn shooting up and down his limb as Huff rotated it gently and Miles bared his teeth.

“Uh, he’s not going to bite me, is he?” said the doctor.

“If I die, maybe,” X said. “Or if I act like you’re hurting me.”

“You’re not going to die, but this wound doesn’t look too good, and I’m recommending you stay in bed.”

“Can’t you just give me some of that nanotech gel?”

“I sent the rest of our supply with the Hell Divers,” Huff said. “And even if we had it, it wouldn’t help your cracked ribs.”

X glanced down at his body. He had more cuts than he could count and had taken two arrows.

“The trauma you took would have most people down for weeks,” Huff said.

“It would kill most men,” Sloan said.

“True,” Huff replied. “In any case, I am ordering you on bed rest for the foreseeable future.”

“Hell no,” X said. “I’ve got a council meeting in a few minutes.”

“No, you don’t,” Sloan said. “I’ve already informed Imulah you aren’t coming and that we will proceed without you.”

X glared at her. “You did what?”

“Sir, you are in no shape to go to a council meeting.”

Huff stared as if he couldn’t believe that X would consider getting out of bed.

“You may have more than nine lives, but you’re not an immortal,” Sloan said. “You’re a man, and you can die if you don’t take care of yourself.”

X grunted. “I almost died in the wastes a dozen times, and I was way sicker than this for most of them.”

“I don’t care,” Huff said. “Stay in bed if you want to get better.”

“You aren’t listening to me,” X said.

“Fine, you can listen or not, but for now, I need to continue checking your wounds, so please turn over.”

Sloan helped X turn to his side. The movement sent a spike of pain across his cracked ribs. He lowered his arm and checked the stitches now that the bandage was peeled back.

The wound was a nasty one, and he could tell by the color that the flesh was becoming infected.

“Not good,” Huff said. “I need to keep a close eye on this one. If it gets into your bloodstream and you get sepsis, you’re going to be in major trouble.”

They rotated him again to check the other arrow wound, on his upper chest, which had required cutting into his back.

“This one’s also pretty swollen,” Huff said.

X looked at Sloan and found no trace of jocularity on her face. She was concerned, and for good reason.

X hadn’t told either of them yet, but he felt a fever coming on.

If this was the beginning of an infection, he could be taking a turn for the worse.

You don’t have time for this shit. Your people need you.

“So am I going to die, or what?” X joked.

Miles looked at Huff.

“Not just yet,” Huff said after a beat.

“That wasn’t convincing, Doc,” X said. “Remember, Miles isn’t going to be happy if you let me die.”

Huff put a hand to X’s forehead. “You may have your humor intact, but you’re running a high fever. We’ll start you on an antibiotic regimen and I’ll keep a close eye on both these wounds and the rest of you…” He dug into his bag and pulled out a bottle of pills that were worth their weight in gold because they never lost their potency. “Take these.”

“No painkillers,” X said. “I’ll rest right after the meeting, I promise.”

Sloan shook her head. “Sir, Samson and I can handle it on our own.”

“At least take these,” Huff said. He held out another bottle, but X recoiled at the sight. The doctor pushed them to him. “Just antibiotics.”

X grabbed the bottle of another type of medicine that didn’t spoil. Industrial Tech Corporation had found a way to preserve more than humans and animals. They had helped design the technology to keep medicines and motor fuels fresh.

It wasn’t nanotech gel, but it would help.

He swallowed a pill with water from his bedside table.

“I’ll be back later,” Huff said. “I really hope you change your mind about that meeting.”

“Thanks, Doc, but I’m going.”

Huff snorted, grabbed his bag, and stalked off.

X craned his neck at a much wider figure that took Huff’s place in the open doorway.

“Samson, why are you creeping out there in the hall?” X asked.

The chief engineer stepped in, and X focused his good eye on another person out in the passageway. A robed man waited in the shadows.

“Come in, Imulah,” X said.

The bearded man walked inside and joined Samson and Sloan around the bed. He clasped his hands behind his robe, and Samson again brought up a handkerchief to cover his mouth.

“What now?” X asked, sensing more bad news.

Imulah spoke first. “Since you aren’t coming to the council meeting, I thought I would let you—”

“I am coming,” X interrupted.

Imulah looked to Sloan.

“Don’t look at her,” X said. “Tell me what you’re here to say.”

Imulah scratched at his beard.

“Speak, man,” X said.

“King Xavier, now that General Rhino, General Santiago, and Colonel Vargas are dead, the military is in desperate need of a new leader. This is something that can’t be delayed, due to the current situation with the skinwalkers and defectors.”

“I say you promote Lieutenant Sloan to general and place her in charge of both the militia and the Cazadores,” Samson said.

“I would respectfully disagree with that suggestion,” Imulah said. “Colonel Moreto and Colonel Forge are next in line, and promoting an outsider over them would cause problems in the ranks.”

“I can handle problems,” Sloan said.

X glanced at the woman with the buzz cut. She was strong and a fierce fighter, but she didn’t have the experience fighting with the Cazadores that X had. It gave him a perspective that someone else didn’t have.

“This is a discussion for the council,” X said. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

Imulah nodded and backed away.

“Wait,” X said.

“Yes, King Xavier?” The scribe moved back to his bedside.

With Rhino dead, X didn’t have any ears or eyes among the Cazador ranks. Imulah was his only source besides Sloan, who had her own militia spies out on the rigs.

“What are you hearing among the soldiers about the skinwalkers and about what happened to General Santiago and his platoon at Rio de Janeiro?” X asked the scribe.

Imulah swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Not a good sign. X tried to force his swollen eyelid open to look at the scribe, but he could see only a sliver out of that eye.

“Most of the soldiers are thrilled with the possibility of fighting the skinwalkers and killing Horn,” Imulah said, “but a few are not sure what to think.”

“What’s there to think about?” Sloan said. “Horn and the skinwalkers are murderers.”

“Demon men,” Samson added in a scratchy voice.

Imulah looked at them in turn. “That’s true, but Horn is also the heir to the throne, and some soldiers believe it’s all a lie.”

“What’s a lie?” X asked.

“They think the sky people killed General Santiago and sank Star Grazer… and the Lion, sir.”

X blinked away the stars that suddenly swarmed his vision. Beads of sweat dripped off his forehead, stinging his swollen eyelid. He tried to focus on the conversation, but the fever seemed to worsen by the second.

“King Xavier,” Sloan said.

X nodded and took in a deep breath. “This is exactly why I need to come to the council meeting,” he said. “Samson, get the video footage ready. Nothing like a dose of truth to sell it to these conspiracy theorists.”

The words came out so fast, X didn’t realize they were half a lie. The sky people were responsible for killing the Lion’s crew. And only a few people knew about what he had done with Ada Winslow.

Samson left the room, coughing again, with Imulah trailing behind. X reached out and asked Sloan to stay behind. The door shut, sealing them inside.

“Lieutenant, has anyone figured out Ada is missing yet?” he asked her.

“No, sir,” she said. “I believe Rhino was the only one who knew, but people are going to start asking.”

“I know.”

“What are you going to say?”

“I don’t know yet.” He groaned as he sat up straighter. “Just make sure our defenses are as tight as a tuna’s ass,” X said, borrowing from Rhino. Thinking of his friend again made his heart ache.

“Okay, sir,” Sloan said with a smirk. “Just make sure you don’t die, okay?”

X grinned back. “Don’t worry, I ain’t dying until the skinwalkers are dead and the defectors are permanently out of commission.”

TWO

Magnolia heaved up on the cocking rope to load the crossbow. It had been years since she’d used one of the archaic weapons, but it was too risky to fire a gun or one of the advanced laser rifles inside the airship.

Hell, arrows were risky, too, but she didn’t want to hunt the Siren with her blades alone, even though she had on dives. Fortunately, unlike the Hive, Discovery had no helium bladders for an errant shot to puncture.

“Shit,” she said.

Michael helped her, using his robotic hand to pull the string back over the latch.

Magnolia secured her helmet but flipped up the face shield. Michael did the same but gave Magnolia a worried glance.

“There’s just one of them, Tin,” she said.

“I know, Mags, but you’ve seen what a single Siren can do, and it’s not just Hell Divers on board.”

His words trailed off, and he focused on his weapon.

Magnolia felt stupid. Of course Michael was scared, but not for himself. He was terrified of losing his family. She had only Rodger to worry about, and he was locked safely away in the medical ward with Arlo, Edgar, and a militia soldier to protect them.

Sofia had also joined the divers in the medical ward, and Magnolia was glad for that. The young woman was a mess after learning of Rhino’s death back at the Vanguard Islands. Magnolia didn’t want her out here tracking down a Siren in her current state.

“Timothy, you got a twenty on this thing?” Michael said over the comm channel.

“Last known location was in compartment fourteen, where it tripped a sensor twenty-one minutes and thirteen seconds ago.”

“So it could be anywhere now?” Magnolia said. “Don’t you have cameras you can access?”

“Yes,” Timothy replied, “but so far, the creature has not crossed into any areas where they are in use, and my scans aren’t detecting anything.”

The damn thing could be anywhere, and with so many passengers about the same size as the beast, infrared scans could give false negatives. Worse, the passengers were scattered among different shelters, the bridge, and the launch bay.

“Keep scanning, and make sure the shelters are sealed and protected,” Michael said. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but the two surviving Cazador soldiers from the mission had been dispatched to the bridge to guard Layla, Eevi, and the vital equipment while Timothy kept an eye on them.

Michael motioned for Magnolia to follow him into a well-lit passage. The emergency Klaxon blared all around her like a den of Sirens.

“Timothy, can’t you turn the damn sirens off?” she asked.

“If Captain Mitchells authorizes that, certainly,” Timothy replied.

“Do it,” said the captain’s voice on the open channel.

The shrill ringing died away as the two divers ran quietly down the passage.

“Mags, Michael, where are you?” Les asked.

“Just leaving the armory,” Michael said. “Heading toward an access hatch to compartment fourteen.”

“I already searched it. The beast isn’t there.”

“Shit,” Michael said.

“Exactly,” Les replied. “You two take the access hatch and search compartment ten, then eleven. I’ll work my way through thirteen and twelve. With luck, we can trap it.”

“Roger that, sir,” Michael said. “Good luck.”

“You too.”

Magnolia sprinted down the passage with Michael by her side. She was exhausted from the mission, but adrenaline fueled her, especially now that it had sunk in: there was a Siren on board.

But after what she had seen in Rio de Janeiro, she feared men more than monsters.

She ran faster, closing the distance between herself and Michael. He rounded the corner to an access hatch in the bulkhead. Unlatching the handle, he started inside, not giving her a chance to catch her breath.

“Going to have to use our helmet beams,” he said, flipping down his face shield. He bumped on the tactical light at the top of his helmet.

Michael went first, checking left and right with the beam. He nodded, and she followed him into a tunnel not much bigger than a crawl space.

There were few things she hated more than crawl spaces, unless it was a crawl space with monsters. And, damn it, why couldn’t she just get some rest?

“Timothy, bring up the schematics on our HUDs,” Michael said.

The red outline of an oval flickered into the translucent subscreen on her heads-up display. It was the first time she had ever seen what the guts of the ship looked like.

“You go left; I’ll go right,” Michael said. “We’ll meet at the hatch to compartment eleven. Timothy, mark that for us.”

A red dot came online, and she started moving down the left fork of the passage. The ceiling was just tall enough she could move at a crouch without bumping her helmet, and just wide enough that she could cradle the crossbow without scraping the bulkhead.

She checked her progress on her HUD. She seemed to be crawling along, barely moving.

The beam flitted across the metal bulkheads and overhead. It lit up a clump of something on the floor.

It didn’t take long for her to recognize it as feces, and not just any kind. The pink gunk was Siren shit. Shells from several large beetles protruded from the pile.

She was lucky she couldn’t smell anything while wearing her helmet.

Magnolia tried moving around it, but there was no way to do that without smearing it on her leg armor. She gagged as the pink slime streaked behind her.

“Gross, gross, gross,” she whispered.

Bumping on the comms, she reported the find to the other divers and militia soldiers.

“If it came that way, it could have made it to the lower compartments,” Les said. He cursed again over the line. “Everyone, head to compartment five. We’ll try and flank it.”

As Magnolia turned, her light captured something else in the passage. It was the bulkhead, or what remained of it.

Panels had been torn away, opening a jagged hole.

“Um,” she said. “Make that ‘um, shit.’ I think I know where it went.”

“Speak,” Michael said.

“It tore through the damn bulkhead in compartment ten,” she said. “Timothy, mark my location for the others.”

“Done,” replied the AI.

Magnolia moved on all fours to check the opening. Sharp edges of metal had been pulled back, and several wires stuck out.

“Yeah, this thing is definitely in the guts of the ship now,” she said.

Her heart skipped. Michael was right. This thing could do grave damage if it tore any critical wires.

“Can you get your light in there and see how bad the damage is?” Les asked.

“Can’t Timothy run a diagnostic?” she whispered. “I really don’t want to stick my head in there, Captain.”

“I’m not detecting any breaches in that compartment,” Timothy reported.

“Well, then your sensors are screwed up, because I’m looking right at one,” she replied.

“Timothy, is it possible this thing disabled your sensors?” Les asked. “Maybe that’s why you haven’t been able to pick it up on your scans.”

“Yes, but that would require an extremely cunning beast.”

“We’re talking about creatures that evolved to survive in the wastes,” Michael said. “It’s definitely possible.”

“Mags, check the opening,” Les said.

She scooted closer, training her crossbow on the doorway to hell. A few feet away now, she stopped to listen for any signs that the beast was still down there. All she heard was the hum of the nuclear-powered engines, and the gentle movement of air.

Holding in a breath, she sneaked a glance, angling her helmet downward.

The beam revealed debris-strewn compartments.

“I think we got a major problem,” she said. “A lot of wiring is shredded.”

A flash of pale skin writhed in the beam, and Magnolia jerked back, banging her helmet on a jagged piece of metal. The scrape prompted a screech below.

She scooted backward on her butt, keeping her crossbow on the ragged hole in her beam.

“Magnolia, do you copy?” Les said.

She didn’t reply, trying to keep her breath steady.

The screech echoed and faded away, but in its wake came another sound—a scratching that seemed to be getting louder.

Magnolia swallowed hard. She needed just one clean shot. If she got it, she would bury a bolt in this ugly bastard’s forehead.

The scratching stopped, but she could still hear something over the nuclear reactor and ventilation system.

She moved her finger to the side of the trigger.

Come on, you son of a bitch…

Black matte armor moved around the bend left of the torn bulkhead. She aimed the crossbow at head level for a Siren, then took her finger off the trigger. It was Michael.

He held up a hand to her, then moved to the bulkhead, took a look, and swore. He hurried over to her on his hands and feet.

“It’s gone,” he said. “We’ve got to hurry before it causes more damage.”

Magnolia turned around and started back the way they had come.

The comm link fired. “I think I know where it’s going,” Michael said.

“We’re listening,” Les replied.

“The nuclear reactor. That’s the biggest power source on the ship.”

“Damn, I bet you’re right,” Les said. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that earlier. Meet me in engineering.”

“Can you do a scan for life-forms in that compartment, Timothy?” Magnolia asked.

“One moment,” replied the AI.

Michael and Magnolia clambered back down the tunnel to the exit hatch. She got more Siren scat on her armor going back.

The speakers crackled in her helmet.

“I think we have another problem,” Timothy said. “The life scans in engineering are picking up two life-forms.”

“Do we have an engineer down there?” Les asked.

“No, sir,” replied the AI. “We don’t have anyone down there.”

* * * * *

The militia guards closed the shutters over the stained-glass windows in the council chambers, blocking the view of the sunny morning.

The wind rattled the metal as X eased himself onto the throne. He was starting to regret turning down the painkillers Dr. Huff had offered, but he couldn’t afford to dull his senses. Right now, the most important thing he could do was keep his wits.

Flouting the doctor’s orders could end up biting him on the ass, but it wasn’t the first time he had broken orders, and he needed to show his face and scotch any rumors about his health.

He also needed to set the record straight about the mission to Rio de Janeiro and about the ambush at the Purple Pearl—especially after Imulah’s report on the rumors spreading through the Cazador ranks. If the soldiers believed that his people had sunk Star Grazer, even Rhino’s sacrifice wouldn’t stop a war between the two societies. They had already gotten away with mass murder after Ada killed most of the Lion’s crew—something that Rhino and X had not seen eye to eye on.

Not having General Rhino made him feel vulnerable in a way he hadn’t in a long time. But he still had plenty of people here to protect him from enemies. Ton and Victor flanked the throne, both armed with spears and slung rifles. X looked at the former Cazador prisoners, but they kept their gaze forward, like statues.

So did Lieutenant Sloan, standing at the base of the stairs. She glanced over her shoulder to give X a frustrated glare. She didn’t seem to believe him when he said he had been sicker than this many times in the wastes.

He knew that Sloan and Dr. Huff were right. He should have stayed in bed to rest. The fever was rising, and the pain radiating from the inflamed wounds was hard to conceal. If the antibiotics didn’t kick in soon, he would be in trouble. He was doing everything in his power not to shake from the chills.

Miles let out a whine and curled up at his sandaled feet. The dog looked up as the double doors cracked open. In walked the last person X wanted to see. Colonel Carmela Moreto, cockatoo perched on her shoulder, strode into the chamber wearing ceremonial armor. Her black cape sported the octopus crest. Four Cazador soldiers followed her.

Next came Colonel Forge, also in ceremonial armor and black cape. His iron jaw was set, and his gleaming dark eyes roved the room, revealing no trace of emotion.

Samson and a group of sky people filed in after them. The chief engineer, his face red from coughing, sat at the table with Carmela. With several council members still en route aboard Discovery and with General Santiago dead, the council was down to just these two and X.

Wind rattled the shutters. X focused on his breathing and tried not to shiver. His body trembled from the bone-deep chills. It was too late to call off the meeting now.

More people entered the room. Most were militia soldiers and new Hell Divers, but the Cazadores were well represented with soldiers, Imulah and his scribes, and two accountants in suits.

Lena, Hector, Alberto, and Ted took the front row of seats, with the other new Hell Divers sitting behind them. They all stared at X, clearly disturbed by his condition.

X wondered whether Ted had his silver flask with him. A bit of shine could do him good right now. At the very least, it would warm his gut.

“Let’s go,” Sergeant Wynn called out. “Close the doors.”

He gestured for the two militia soldiers to close the doors as soon as the last civilians walked into the room—Cole Mintel and his wife, Bernie, accompanied Les’s wife, Katherine. They all looked anxious for news of their loved ones on the airship.

X put his hands on the armrests of the throne and pushed himself up, trembling again. Spots darted about in his vision from the exertion.

Sloan glanced over her shoulder again, her lazy eye on X. He managed to wink at her and walked over to the edge of the platform, trying not to stagger like a drunk. He was so unstable, he felt as if he had just polished off a bottle of shine and then fallen down the stairs.

“King Xavier,” Imulah said, joining X on the platform to translate the proceedings.

“Discovery is still flying home from the mission in Rio de Janeiro,” X said in a loud, clear voice. “Their arrival has been slightly delayed due to electrical storms, but they should be home by this evening, with the thirty-one survivors they rescued.”

The Hell Divers and sky people in the crowd applauded the news, even though it wasn’t exactly fresh. Rumors had already spread like windblown spores across the rigs.

X watched Carmela and Forge, wanting to assess their reactions if his vision would cooperate. It blurred for a moment, then cleared. Another chill washed through him, making him shake slightly.

Imulah finished translating the first few statements, but the Cazadores in the audience didn’t seem as thrilled as the sky people. Not that he blamed them. Only two soldiers were returning home from the mission.

X continued. “As many of you know, General Santiago, Lieutenant Alejo, and most of the Lion’s crew were killed on this mission, and Star Grazer was attacked and sunk by a pod of mutant whales.”

Imulah gestured with his hands as he translated.

Several grunts came from the Cazador soldiers in the audience, but Forge and Carmela looked on with stony expressions.

“That brings our fleet down to only a few vessels,” X continued. “And with the added loss of Colonel Vargas and General Rhino at the Purple Pearl, it severely diminishes the Black Order of the Octopus Lords.”

That didn’t seem to get much of a reaction, either, but what came next would. X turned his attention to Carmela and Forge, watching for the reaction.

“What we haven’t told you is exactly how the Cazadores and several of our people were killed,” X said. “Since I’m told there are those who doubt what happened out there, I’ll show you.”

While Imulah relayed his words, X nodded to Samson.

Samson turned on the projector, and footage from the airship’s drone, Cricket, played on the metal bulkhead. The robot had captured some of the battle with the skinwalkers.

The footage wasn’t great, but even with his limited vision, X could see the armored men covered in human skins. Horn and his demon warriors seemed to act like defectors, hunting humans and wearing bits of them as trophies.

A coincidence? He doubted it. More likely, Horn worshipped the machines.

X focused his good eye on the Cazador leadership while they watched.

Both Carmela and Forge had stood for a better view. They watched for several minutes before Forge turned to the platform and said something in Spanish to Imulah.

“What did he say?” X asked.

The scribe leaned over. “He said, ‘So it is true. The skinwalkers have returned.’ ”

“Indeed, it is, and what I want to make very clear is…” X blinked at the blurring scene before him. A wave of dizziness took him.

“What I want to make clear is…” he repeated.

“Sir,” Sloan said quietly.

X held up a hand to her and regained his composure. “Horn has no right to this throne,” he said, pointing behind him at the sacred chair. “If he comes here, he will die, and I’ll kill him myself.”

A chuckle sounded from the audience. X scanned the rows of seating but didn’t see who it was. When his good eye roved to the table, he saw why.

The laughter hadn’t come from the outer gallery, it had come from the head table, where Colonel Carmela Moreto stood with a smirk on her wrinkled face.

Anger flared in X’s chest. He walked down the stairs and out onto the floor, with Miles at heel. The cockatoo on Carmela’s armored shoulder squawked at the dog, and Miles growled back, putting the bird to flight.

The smirk evaporated.

“You find something funny?” X said.

Imulah translated.

She shrugged, then reached into the air for Kotchee to return.

“Then why are you smiling?” X said.

She stepped up to meet him, and they came together face to face. Her lips curled back, and she spoke rapidly while holding his gaze.

“Imulah,” X snapped when the scribe paused.

“Uh,” Imulah stuttered. “She says you don’t look as if you could put down Horn.”

“And what else? That’s not all she just said.”

Imulah unclasped his hands. He cleared his throat. “She also said that you are underestimating Horn, just as General Santiago did in the wastes, and that he will be the new king.”

“Did she, now,” X muttered.

It was obvious some of these people thought he looked weak, but that was precisely why he now stood in front of Colonel Moreto—to prove that his injuries and a fever weren’t enough to keep him from the important task of protecting the islands.

As long as he didn’t pass out, he would prove he could still lead.

“You just focus on the mission to the Iron Reef and protecting the fuel outpost,” X said. “Let me worry about the defense of these islands.”

Imulah relayed his words. Carmela narrowed her brows, clearly not happy about being sent off when she had her sights on a higher position in the Cazador military.

Rhino had been right about wanting to kill her after she invoked the Black Order at the Sky Arena, during his match against Warthog.

Maybe if X had listened, Rhino would still be alive. But killing Carmela now would just cause more problems. Sending her far away was still the best option.

X held steady, not taking his gaze off her.

“How are the repairs to Shadow and Renegade coming along?” he asked.

Carmela raised a graying eyebrow and replied through Imulah.

“She says they expect to be complete by tomorrow on Renegade, but Shadow is ready to go,” he said. “Colonel Forge has taken over that ship.”

“I want you and your dumb bird out of here as soon as it’s seaworthy,” X said to Carmela. “You got that?”

Imulah explained his orders. Even with a moment to think, X didn’t regret his tone or words. She needed to know who was in charge. He would not tolerate her open disrespect.

Her jaw clenched in anger, and her hand went to the hilt of her sword.

The Hell Divers all stood, even the Cazadores. Ted reached down to his holstered blaster, gripping the handle of the sawed-off triple-barreled weapon.

Footsteps clanked as Ton and Victor moved in to flank X.

X raised a battered finger. “No sea estúpida,” he said.

Her eyes burned with rage, but Colonel Forge clicked his tongue to draw her attention. He spoke rapidly, and she finally backed down.

“Lieutenant Sloan, please join us,” X said.

Already right behind him, Sloan stepped up by his side.

“I want you to work with Colonel Forge, making our defenses ready to destroy the skinwalkers if they decide to embark on a suicide mission. Colonel Forge will use Shadow to patrol our borders, while Moreto takes Renegade to Belize.”

Sloan didn’t seem to like the idea, but she didn’t protest, and when Imulah had finished relaying the orders, Forge nodded.

“Usted… have my sword, King Javier,” Forge said in broken English. Then he shut his mouth, concealing the sharpened teeth that, unlike a lot of the Cazadores, he rarely showed off.

“Gracias, Coronel,” X said. He eyed Carmela once more and then walked back to the platform. Miles trotted after him. Climbing the stairs brought on a second wave of dizziness, but X kept going up even as his vision blurred.

He misjudged the second step and tripped, banging his knee.

Ton and Victor rushed over with Wynn to help him back up.

“I’m fine,” X said, waving them back.

X paused a second to take a breath and then stood. Another wave of chills rattled his bones. Then he started to go numb, much as he had when dying of cancer in the wastes.

He staggered to the throne and plopped down, heart thumping, afraid to look out over the room. His fall had basically proved Carmela’s point. It didn’t matter how many Cazador warriors he had slain or how many monsters he had gutted. He was in no shape to fight Horn.

In the eyes of everyone in this chamber, X suddenly didn’t look like an immortal. He looked like a dying old man, and that made him a target for any Cazador warrior eager to take the crown.

Horn wasn’t the only one X had to worry about now.

THREE

An alarm blared across the airship, and this time, Les couldn’t just order Timothy to shut it off. This was an automatic emergency siren and would blare as long as the threat remained.

He stopped inside the enclosed ladder that led down to the bridge.

“Timothy, what the hell triggered that alarm?” Les said into his headset.

“Most of my sensors are offline, Captain, but I detected a fire in compartment four. I’ve already sealed off the section and am neutralizing the flames.”

“That’s right above engineering,” Les said. His blood iced at the implications. The wiring there powered the turbofans and the six thrusters.

“Come on!” Les said to the three militia soldiers behind him. Corporal Banks didn’t waste a moment.

They pounded down the ladder to a landing, cleared the next flight, and hit the final landing outside engineering with a thud.

“Michael, Mags, where are you?” Les asked over the comms.

“Outside the hatch up to the top mezzanine,” Michael replied.

“Be careful, and don’t hit anything critical,” Les said.

“Aye-aye, Captain.”

“Timothy, you got a reading on the Sirens inside engineering yet?” Les asked.

“Afraid not, Captain,” replied the AI. “Most of my sensors are still offline.”

“What about the cameras?”

“Offline in that sector.”

“Damn it, Timothy,” Les said. He turned to face Banks and the other two militia soldiers.

“It’s up to us to kill these things,” Les said. “Make those bolts count, and make sure you have a clear shot.”

“Yes, sir,” the soldiers said simultaneously.

Les nodded, and Banks twisted the wheel handle and popped the hatch open. Another soldier followed Les through the gap and into the large open space.

They stood near the starboard hull, where the boilers were positioned in a row along the bulkhead. On the far side of the boilers towered the central nuclear reactor. This part of engineering was bright as day, but several of the lights behind the reactor flickered.

The huge bulb-shaped engine hummed so loud Les couldn’t hear much else, but he couldn’t miss the two piles of Siren scat on the other side of the boilers.

A streak of white goo curved around the tanks and led out into the central deck between the tanks and the reactor.

Les crept around the boilers, crossbow shouldered, checking the deck and then the mezzanines above for Michael and Magnolia. Across the chamber, a diver was moving slowly toward the top of the reactor.

The speaker in his helmet crackled. “Captain, we’ve contained that fire,” Timothy said. “Too early to say how bad the damage is, but we’ve lost control of turbofan three.”

“Copy that, Timothy.”

Coming up on the last boiler, he gestured for the militia soldiers to fan out through the gaps between the tanks. He moved around the first boiler and out onto the open floor near the Siren scat.

With his bow, he swept the area between the reactor and the other industrial equipment that powered the airship. The militia soldiers moved with him, their weapons covering all directions.

Magnolia and Michael were both crouched down on the mezzanine, pointing at the back of the reactor, where one light flickered.

The trail of goo led right toward the reactor.

Les gave the signal to advance, and the three militia soldiers fell into combat intervals, their footfalls nearly silent amid the hum of the reactor. Michael and Magnolia crouch-walked on the platform, getting into position.

Moving his finger to the trigger, Les led the way, taking slow strides. The whitish slime curved around the left side of the reactor.

Large conduits snaked out the side. He carefully stepped over one, then brought his crossbow up at the space behind the reactor.

What in the holy wastes…?

A webwork of glistening slime stretched across the conduits, forming an enclosed tent that was some sort of nest. Michael looked down from the end of the mezzanine, and Magnolia aimed her crossbow.

The militia soldiers moved in to cover Les as he pulled out a knife and sliced through the gooey ropes. The thick and ropy material fell away, and after clearing a path to the nest, he sheathed his knife.

Instead of giving the order to fire, he motioned up to Magnolia and bumped on the comm channel. “Mags and I will shoot first,” he said. “If we miss, Banks and his men will fire. Michael, you’re the last resort.”

“Copy that,” Michael replied.

Les eyed the conduits. The metal was sound, but a bolt could puncture the exterior and shred the wiring inside. If that happened, they were in a world of trouble.

Reaching up, Les turned on his helmet light, illuminating the nearly translucent tent in the dark space. Something was definitely inside the folds of the hardening goo. He lined up his arrow and pulled the trigger.

The bolt punctured the nest, and a screech rose over the sound of the engine.

Before Les could back up, the Siren, a winged male, burst out of the nest and jumped into the air on springy back legs.

Another bolt sailed through the air from the platform above, missing the beast and punching through the aluminum deck in front of Les. He pulled out his knife just as the creature leaped to the side of the reactor.

The militia soldiers squeezed off their arrows. Only one hit the Siren, in the shoulder. It extended its wings and dropped toward Les.

The maw of jagged teeth opened in the eyeless face as frayed wings spread outward. He shoved the blade into the sinewy chest muscles. The beast came down on it, knocking Les backward into a conduit that gave under the weight of his armor.

Even with two arrows protruding from it and the knife deep in its chest, the monster was still very much alive, writhing in agony and slashing at Les.

The conduit holding Les up sagged, threatening to shear away from the bulkhead and uproot the wiring inside. He pushed at the beast, but that just made things worse. Claws scraped his armor, and searing pain knifed into his shoulder.

“Help, God damn it!” Les shouted.

The three militia soldiers moved in with knives drawn, cutting and stabbing the beast across the arms and back.

Les tried to push it off again. It screeched in his face, obscuring his visor with saliva. The wings beat the air, pulling the creature backward with the knife still in its chest.

It slashed at one of the militia soldiers, knocking him backward. It tried to gain altitude, but the wings slammed into the conduits, trapping it above Les.

Michael aimed his crossbow down from the platform. “Get out of the way!” he yelled.

Les rolled off the damaged conduit and hit the deck. He scrambled several feet before looking over his shoulder.

The Siren crashed to the deck in a crumpled heap of wings and limbs, an arrow shaft jutting from the back of its skull.

“Got it,” Michael said. “You okay, Captain?”

Les gave a thumbs-up, then pushed himself off the deck, grabbing his crossbow.

Banks was crouched next to one of his men, who gripped a gut wound.

“Get him to the medical ward,” Les said. “Banks, you’re with me. There’s still another one of those things.”

“Hang in there, kid,” Les said to the young soldier.

He glanced back up at the mezzanine, but Michael and Magnolia had already left to search for the last Siren.

Les slotted a new bolt in his bow and bumped on the comm channel.

“Timothy, get Alfred down here to clean this place up and make sure we didn’t screw anything up,” he said. “And get me a damn twenty on the second Siren.”

“On it, sir.”

Les and Banks took off for the exit.

“Any ideas where this thing is going, Michael?” Les asked.

The reply crackled into his helmet.

“To find food, if I had to guess,” Michael replied.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Banks said.

The thought made Les run faster. “Have we secured all the shelters, Timothy?”

“Yes, sir, and I’ve got cameras monitoring all of them.”

“Michael, you and Mags go to the medical ward,” Les said. “I’m heading to the bridge.”

“Got it, sir.”

Banks and Les hurried up a ladder and out into a passage. The alarm siren was finally off. They ran all the way to the bridge. Both Cazador soldiers, armed with spears and swords, stood sentry outside.

Les nodded at them and moved inside the bridge to check on Eevi and Layla. Timothy stood with them, his glow illuminating the grieving Eevi’s features.

“What’s the status of the ship?” Les asked.

“Turbofan three is offline,” Timothy said, “and we have multiple exterior panels that were broken during that stunt we pulled back in the city.”

“Stunt?” Les snorted. “Oh, you mean when you turned on the thrusters and told me that the ship was clear?”

“No, I meant when you used our friend Cricket as bait,” replied the AI.

“You think that’s when the Sirens infiltrated our outer panels? Because if that’s the case, you should have detected that hours ago!”

“Guys, stop,” Layla said, rising to her feet. “This is not anyone’s fault.”

Les turned for the door. “Tell me when you find that Siren, Pepper.”

He moved out into the passage to continue the search.

Everyone on the comms reported the same thing. No one had any idea where the thing was.

Les felt a stab of fear. The thing had already caused damage in compartments ten and fourteen, knocked out a turbofan, and…

The floor shuddered.

Les halted in the passage as the lights winked off.

“Timothy, what the hell is happening now?” he said into his headset.

There was a slight delay, enough to make Les wonder whether it was intentional.

“Captain, this is Alfred. One of the valves to the reactor is damaged. We’re diverting power from several sectors to keep the thrusters online.”

The lead technician confirmed Les’s worst fear.

“How bad is the damage?” he said.

“Bad enough, sir. The conduit housing the valve is severely damaged.”

“Shit!”

“This wasn’t the beasts. The damage is from an arrow.”

Les cursed again. “Just fix the damn thing!”

He flipped on his headlamp and took off in the darkness.

Maybe Timothy was right. Maybe this was partly Les’s fault. He had used Cricket as bait to draw the Sirens away from the divers in the city.

It was also possible the beasts had gained access when he landed the ship to evacuate the divers and the survivors from the bunker.

Either way, he had failed to keep the monsters from entering the ship.

“Sir, I’ve located the second Siren,” Timothy said. “Inside the launch bay.”

Les cursed under his breath at the news. Of course the thing had gone to the launch bay. With all the people inside, it was the biggest food source on the ship.

“Everyone meet me there!” Les yelled back. Cradling his bow, he ran as fast as his long legs would carry him. Knowing the passageways by heart helped him calculate the distance.

It would take him two minutes to get there—more than enough time for the Siren to shred through the rescued passengers.

Worse, these people didn’t seem to know how to fight.

Les thought of his boy as he ran. Trey had sacrificed himself to find people in the wastes, and now that they had, Les would do anything to save them, even give his own life.

He was the first to reach the dark passage to the launch bay. Michael and Magnolia rounded the next corner and arrived a second later. Their headlamps captured the terrified faces of the refugees pounding on the hatches and glass. Behind them, Les glimpsed the Siren slashing at three men. One of them jabbed at it with a metal leg from a cot.

Les twisted the handle. Locked.

“Timothy, open the door!” he shouted.

“Sir, I can’t…”

“What do you mean, you can’t?”

“Alfred shunted power from that sector of the ship.”

Les backed away and kicked the door. That did nothing but hurt his foot. He kicked again, and again.

“Out of the way, sir,” Michael said. He used his robotic hand to smash the lock. When the door clicked open, Michael and Les grabbed the inside edge and pulled. The beast’s ethereal screeching rose above the shouts of terrified passengers.

Les couldn’t worry about the quarantine—the Siren’s knife-size claws would kill them faster than any invisible germs.

Michael grunted, and finally the two men pried the door open. The people on the other side flooded out, and Magnolia squeezed in, with Les and Michael right behind her.

Les shouldered his crossbow. The beast was on its back, wings extended. Two men stomped on the wings while a third straddled the chest. The dreadlocks over his shoulders confirmed what Les suspected. It was Pedro, the leader of these people.

He bent over, pushing on something.

Les hurried over to help. The beast jerked on the deck as Pedro shoved the cot leg into its open mouth, crunching through teeth and bone. He kept pushing until the creature went limp.

Covered in the creature’s blood and bleeding from several gashes of his own, the man limped away from the dead beast.

“Timothy, report to the launch bay,” Les said quietly into his headset. “And get a medical crew here ASAP.”

Pedro put his hand to the back of his dreadlocks and pulled it away bloody. Les stepped back to scan the room for bodies.

A man lay in a puddle of blood with several people crouched around, sobbing. They looked up when a blue glow washed over the open space.

“Tell them it’s okay now,” Les said to Timothy’s hologram. “Tell them the beasts are dead and we are sorry, and that in a few hours they will see the sun as we promised.”

* * * * *

X raised his wrist computer toward the dark sky. It was a balmy fifty degrees Fahrenheit, with a hint of radiation on the surface. Sporadic jags of lightning cut through the black drape of sky, illuminating the cracked earth he trekked across.

A rusted sign marked the way.

Déjà vu enveloped him. He had seen this one before.

Welcome to Florida, the Sunshine State.

Miles trotted ahead, the hazard suit crinkling over his muscular body. Muzzle to the ground, he sniffed toward a cluster of blue weeds that writhed like octopus limbs at the side of the road.

“No!” X shouted.

Miles halted, just out of the tentacles’ reach. A single sting could end the dog’s life with a lethal dose of venom.

“You know better than that, boy,” he said, bending down.

The dog tilted its loose-fitting helmet for a better view of X. Then it brushed up against his hand as if trying to lick his gloved fingers.

X chuckled and stood. “Stay next to me this time, buddy.”

Side by side, the man and his best friend set off again down the apocalyptic road toward their new home on the coastline. The view seemed to shift as he walked, and in a moment of clarity, he realized he was in a dream he couldn’t rouse himself from.

A collection of memories surfaced. The next thing he saw was a land bridge. Again déjà vu struck. He remembered what had happened here, and watched it unfold in slow motion.

Several fissures broke the ground. Jumping back, Miles went over the side of the embankment. X bolted after the dog, leaping another chasm.

Scrabbling with his forelegs, Miles tried to climb back onto solid ground.

“Miles!” X shouted.

Before X could get to him, a reddish tentacle shot out of the water and grabbed the dog, yanking him into the muck.

No matter how hard he tried to wake, X was stuck in the purgatory of sleep.

He jumped into the fetid water, darkness swallowing him like quicksand. Kicking upward, he broke the surface in time to see the twenty-foot monster swim past with Miles in its grip.

He pulled out his knife and slashed the creature, opening a long gash.

Pinkish eggs jettisoned from the rubbery hide. The beast let go of Miles and snaked backward through the water toward X. A fanged reptilian mouth opened.

The dream transported him again, this time to some sort of limbo between reality and nightmare. Voices seemed to call out in the ether. He could feel his wounded body again and the chill from his fever.

A few voices seemed familiar, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. They faded away, leaving him with a sensation of near weightlessness, like during the first few moments of a dive.

The dreams returned, and he was in a military bunker where he had taken refuge with Miles on his way to the coast. It was here that he repaired an old-world motorcycle. Here was also where he started coughing up blood. The continued exposure to toxins and radiation had finally caught up with him.

He was transported into yet another dream—more a collection of memories and not as vivid. He drove the bike with Miles strapped into the custom seat. A view of Miami’s ruins stretched across the horizon.

They had finally reached the coast, and the place he made into a home for himself and Miles. The high-rise building overlooked the shore, where glowing red vines flashed.

Not long after settling in, he had learned it was cancer eating his throat. Miles had whined all day, sensing something dramatically wrong with X.

The memories faded away into darkness, and he returned to the limbo between reality and dreaming. X recalled how he had felt lying in that small apartment, sealed off from a toxic world, coughing up blood while Miles watched helplessly. It was similar to how he felt now, stuck in a bed overlooking the ocean, with Miles at his feet.

Back then he had pondered killing Miles to prevent him from suffering and starving while X rotted away from cancer.

The dream pulled X back in, and he recalled that he had taken the other option.

To fight.

The throttle rattled in his weak hands, sending vibrations through his cancer-riddled body as he motorcycled to an ITC facility, to find the medicine that might save his life.

Along the way, he coughed flecks of blood onto the inside of his face shield. The blurred view almost made him dump the bike when a pack of Sirens attacked. But the blades attached to the hubs had saved his life, cutting several beasts in half.

The scene moved to the inside of the building, after he had scavenged the life-saving cancer medicine. He crouched in a dark passage, listening to something he had never heard on the surface: human voices.

He had tried to make it past them, but the Siren-hunting Cazadores had captured him and put him in a cage. Now he was face-to-face with el Pulpo. It was the first time they had met, the day he gouged out the king’s eye with a needle.

More events streamed across his consciousness, as if he were watching an old-world video with himself as the star. But the next scene of this kaleidoscopic video was one he didn’t remember.

X stood on a debris-littered beach. A fishing boat lay in the sand. The boat looked familiar.

Boot prints led away from the boat and into an embankment covered in red vines and tall bluish weeds. Skeletal palm trees towered above him, their fronds shifting in the toxic wind.

He followed the tracks to a field of more weeds. The blue tendrils writhed like sea anemones underwater, ready to latch on to a bug or beast. Or perhaps a human.

The tracks led into the field. Searching for a way around, X found more prints. Drips of blood darkened the soil along the path.

The dream seemed crystal clear, as if he were actually back in Miami, on the hunt for this mysterious person. The trail continued toward the row of high-rise apartment buildings once owned by wealthy residents of this city.

He stopped again to look at one he recognized. A black tarp covered a balcony door on one of the upper floors—the place he and Miles had called home several years ago.

It all came crashing over him. The boat, the tracks—they had to belong to Ada Winslow, the former executive officer of the Hive and Discovery, who had killed an entire crew of Cazador sailors. He had exiled her out here, with a map to his former home.

The tracks continued through the city’s ash-covered streets. He ran, needing to find her. Several spent cartridge casings and more blood dotted the ground on the next street.

A Siren carcass lay on a curb, bugs consuming the flesh. Maggots spilled out of the open mouth. The rot meant it had been here for some days, but where was Ada?

He kept moving until the dream suddenly ended, darkness like a wave washing away the city. Light broke through his vision. In the glow, several blurred faces hovered over him. One seemed furrier than the others.

Miles…

He had woken from his dream to the same familiar voices from earlier.

“X, can you hear us?”

The gruff female voice belonged to Sloan.

“King Xavier,” she said. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah,” he growled.

Sloan, Dr. Huff, and Samson were huddled around his bed. Miles was at his feet, tongue out, panting. He moved over and nudged X’s bandaged right leg.

Huff tried to push him back, but the dog bared his teeth.

“How long have I been out?” X asked.

“Since just after the council meeting,” Samson said.

“And how long ago was that?”

“I don’t got a watch, but it’s been about a day,” Sloan said. “We have Ton, Victor, and an entire militia patrol standing guard outside your room just in case anyone gets any ideas about finishing you off.”

“Finishing me off…” X mumbled.

He tried to sit up, but his body wouldn’t respond. He felt paralyzed, as if he had been pricked by one of the blue weeds in his dream.

X didn’t even feel the doc pull off the chest bandage to check his arrow wound, but he saw the reaction.

Huff winced. “It’s infected, badly,” he said.

“Not surprised, considering X doesn’t listen to orders,” Sloan said. “Honestly, you’re lucky those arrows weren’t dipped in poison.”

X tried to move again, but his limbs wouldn’t respond. He tried to wiggle his toes and got one to move.

“Did you say I’ve been out a full day?” he muttered.

“Pretty much,” Sloan said.

X turned his head slightly to look at the hall. “Then where’s Michael, Les, and everyone else? They should be back by now.”

Samson coughed into his handkerchief and moved away from the bed. Huff looked up.

“You really should let me take a look at you, too,” said the doctor.

Samson waved a hand. “I’m fine—just a cold.”

X finally managed to sit up slightly. Nothing like fear to energize a dying body, he mused.

“I asked a question,” he said. “Where is the crew of Discovery?”

Clenching his jaw, he braced for more bad news.

“There was an incident on the airship,” Sloan said. “A pair of Sirens somehow got inside after they left Rio de Janeiro.”

“You got to be fucking kiddin’ me,” X grumbled.

“I wish I were,” Sloan said. “Fortunately, there was only one casualty and minor injuries.”

“It was Discovery that took the most damage,” Samson said. He went into the technical details until X cut him off.

“English, man,” he said.

“A reactor valve was damaged, and they lost power to all six thrusters,” Samson said. “They also lost turbofan three.”

“So what’s keeping them in the air?” X asked.

“The rest of the turbofans.”

“How long until they get back?”

“Could be a while unless they get the thrusters back on,” Samson said. “Sounds like they’re going to put down to fix them, so they don’t risk crashing to the surface.”

X swallowed hard at the news, his throat burning just as it had when the cancer was eating away his esophagus. Spots darted in his vision.

Out his open window, a tiny black dot inched along the horizon.

“Is that a Cazador warship?” X asked.

Sloan looked, then nodded. “Colonel Moreto,” she said. “She left for Belize this morning, but appears to have turned back around.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

X closed his eyes, trying to fend off another wave of dizziness and anxiety.

Huff finally finished changing the dressing and moved on to the next one.

“Here, drink,” Sloan said. She helped X sip some water while the doctor worked.

When he finished, Huff said, “Go back to sleep, King Xavier.”

X nodded. This time, he wasn’t going to argue, even if it meant returning to the nightmares. He closed his eyes, then snapped his battered eyelids back open.

X grabbed Sloan’s wrist and said, “Lieutenant, if something does happen to me and I don’t make it, tell Michael I want him to take care of Miles.”

“You’re going to make it,” Sloan said.

He gripped her wrist harder. “Just promise.”

She glared at him and then nodded. “Okay, I promise.”

He let go of her wrist and reached down to Miles. The dog licked his hand, and X closed his eyes and the let darkness swallow him again.

“Oh, and, Lieutenant, watch out for bird lady,” X said. He opened his eyes, suddenly feeling vulnerable. “I don’t want her slitting my throat while I sleep.”

“You have my word, sir.”

He looked out the window at the warship one last time, but he was no longer thinking about Moreto. He was thinking about Ada, alone on the ocean.

FOUR

The massive radioactive ship’s rusted bow plowed through the water. Ada had fled when she first saw the vessel heading straight at her small boat.

Panicking, she cranked the small motor, burning through some of the gas. She had been convinced it was Cazadores, defectors, or maybe unknown pirates.

But the rusted monster was nothing more than a ghost ship, drifting aimlessly with no one at the helm.

Looking at the vessel in the distance, she confirmed again: it was real and abandoned.

From what she could see earlier, no one was on the weather deck, and the command center appeared dark.

As the vessel drifted farther and farther across the horizon, she had decided to pursue it, hoping to salvage something for her journey.

Her little boat was now closing in on the ghost ship’s stern, near enough that she could see several faded letters, though she couldn’t make out a word or name.

She checked her wrist monitor for radiation levels. It was in the yellow-zone range—not immediately deadly, but enough to pose a threat if there was long-term exposure.

Still, she wanted to search the ship for anything useful, and she could use a break from bobbing up and down like a bathtub toy.

If she was really lucky, there might be a weapon, although she doubted she would find any gas or ammunition that would work.

As she closed in, she began to question her decision.

Suck it up, Ada. You got nothing to lose.

“Except your life,” she said aloud.

She pushed down on the throttle. The engine rumbled, and smoke billowed from the little motor.

If there was anyone out there, they would definitely hear her coming, but she would never catch up using the oars.

With the engine at full throttle, it took only a few minutes to catch up. She came alongside the stern and glanced up, struck again by the sheer size of the ship.

She wasn’t sure what it had been used for, but it wasn’t a fishing vessel or one of the cruise ships that had carried thousands of tourists on vacation. It didn’t look military, either, though it had a crane and a domed structure on the deck, along with multiple satellite dishes.

Perhaps it was a scientific research vessel.

She drew parallel with the starboard hull, chugging along under broken porthole windows festooned with dried vegetation. More branches clung to the rail far above her.

She took one hand off the wheel to pick up a coiled rope. The remains of a rusted ladder hung from the hull just ahead, stretching all the way down to a waterline marked by barnacles and a pink mosslike growth.

After checking the rusted rungs, she decided to tether her boat to something else. She motored along, scanning for a way to secure her craft.

Two steel booms from a broken crane hung over the rail near the bow. Both appeared to be sheared off and hung over the hull like broken arms.

It struck her then. The ship had been moored at some port, where vegetation had overgrown it at one point, only to die off after the vessel broke free and was swept out to sea.

Perhaps the ship had slipped its moorings in a yellow or red zone and was still radioactive. She hoped that was the case and that nothing on board was causing the readings.

She steered around the broken booms, which hung low enough to block the way. Once past them, she pushed the throttle and motored toward the bow.

She was steering closer to the ship when a wave slapped her boat right into the towering steel hull. The boat caromed off, and, for a beat, she thought she would capsize.

The stacked gear inside her enclosure clanked to the deck behind her, but she kept her gaze on the water and her hands on the wheel.

Heart pounding, she steadied her craft and again got parallel with the ghost ship. The massive rusting hulk drifted on as if nothing had happened, the only evidence a patch of barnacles scuffed away.

Her boat had sustained a large dent on the bow and a loose stanchion.

For another fleeting moment, she considered abandoning her plan and just heading back to her route. That would be the safe thing to do. The smart thing. But she had come this far and wasn’t ready to give up quite yet. There could be something useful on the ship, and she could use the rest. And as long as she wore her suit, she would be protected from the minimal radiation.

Having found no better spot to tether the boat, she steered back toward the ladder, waiting for a calm stretch. Then, holding her coiled rope in one hand, she swung the grappling iron at the ladder.

The first throw fell short, and the second bounced off the ladder’s rail. On the third toss, a fluke caught and wedged between a rung and the rail. Tying her end to the bow, she snugged the grappling hook tight, then pulled over to the hull. The rope felt secure, but she decided to run a stern line as well since she didn’t really know what she was doing.

After securing the stern line, she turned off the engine, picked up her rifle, and moved back into her shelter to grab her gear. Three crates had fallen over, but nothing appeared broken. She would clean it up later.

She put on her backpack, then slung the rifle strap over her shoulder. But as she started to leave, she felt as though something was missing.

“Oh, yeah,” she muttered, grabbing a sheathed machete and hooking it to her duty belt. It might come in handy with all that vegetation on board. Armed and equipped, she crawled out of the shelter and shut the hatch.

The hull towered like a cliff above her boat, and again she reconsidered her decision.

“Come on, Ada,” she said. “Whattaya got to lose?”

Your life.

She jumped up to grab the first rung. Her sore palms hurt like hell, but she didn’t let that stop her. She began the climb, rifle smacking against the backpack, machete slapping against her thigh.

The ladder was rusty, but the rungs seemed secure. She was halfway up before one cracked under her weight.

A yelp escaped her, but she held her grip on the ladder’s rail and pushed off the hull with her boots to keep climbing.

At the top, she poked her helmet up and looked around. Crates and rusted equipment littered the deck, and dead vines snaked through the debris.

The large domed structure in the middle of the deck had a hole in the center.

Vines cobwebbed up from the hole and spilled out the opening.

In the stern, the command tower also had foliage covering the hull. The top level was crushed, as if something big had fallen onto it.

Ada swung her legs over the railing and jumped down onto the deck. After checking that her boat was secured below, she pulled her headlamp from her backpack and strapped it around her helmet. The beam shot out like a white saber through the darkness.

The first thing she checked out was the dome structure. The wheel hatch would hardly budge at first, but she got it to turn and it finally popped open.

She raked the light over a device angled toward the opening in the ceiling. So it wasn’t damage that had caused the hole.

A telescope pointed at the sky. She walked over to it with her light centered on the tube. A plaque was mounted to the side. She brushed off the dust and dead leaves.

Nebula Chaser.

She glanced up at the telescope, wondering what people had once seen through its optics. A star-filled sky, the moon, a meteor shower. Now the only thing to see was storms.

She walked around the telescope, stepping over the vegetation that covered the deck and wrapped around the observatory like a giant snake.

Like every kid growing up, she had always wondered what the Old World was like. She marveled at human engineering, wishing she had been born at a time before the war, so she could experience things that were now nothing but rust and dirt and historical archives.

Coming out here may have been a death sentence, but it allowed her to discover things like this telescope.

She left the structure and continued with machete in hand, eager to uncover other mysteries. Moving through the maze of empty boxes and crates that littered the path, she stopped at an open hatch in the deck.

The window gave her a view of the level below her boots. She bent down near the edge and shined her light inside.

Standing water had pooled below, hiding whatever was down there.

The hatch that led to the command center was closed, and when she tried the handle, it was locked. The rusted hull didn’t appear to have any other entry points.

Sheathing the machete, she backed up a few steps and unslung her rifle. A round was already chambered, so she flicked off the safety and aimed at the lock.

It wasn’t her first time firing a gun, but she felt oddly nervous. Moving her finger to the trigger, she held a breath in and squeezed. The crack echoed like thunder, and sparks flew from the impact.

She pulled a fresh cartridge off the bandolier and chambered it. The handle on the hatch budged slightly, but that was all.

She would fire one more, and if that didn’t work, she must find another route.

Taking a few steps back, she lined up the sights and fired again.

This time, the round punched through the lock, and the hatch clicked open. She slung her rifle and entered.

The beam from her headlamp revealed more standing water and vegetation. The growth was thick here, webbing across the passage and through several hatches.

She hacked through it easily, the dead vines breaking away like dust.

The first hatch revealed an office with broken picture frames still on the bulkheads. She searched the drawers of a rusted metal cabinet but found nothing besides a few screws and a plastic pen.

She shined the light into the passage. Four more open hatches led to other quarters beyond the wall of vegetation blocking off the route.

She went to work with the machete, hacking while her light flickered off the bulkheads. When she finally broke through, she saw something unexpected. The steel deck had erupted, like a puffball releasing its spores.

She switched from the machete back to her rifle and plucked a cartridge from the bandolier. There were still six left. She had more in the boat, which suddenly seemed very far away.

Ada started to chamber the round when a distant clanking sounded. She froze in place, listening as the noise faded away.

It came again a moment later. This wasn’t a creaking hull, or flotsam sloshing about in the standing water below. This noise was animal in nature.

Pushing the cartridge into the open chamber, she managed to drop it. The round clattered to the deck and rolled through the opening in the torn metal. It pinged and clattered a dozen more times before finally stopping.

A screech answered. She wasn’t the only living thing on this ship after all.

* * * * *

Michael crouched in front of Layla at her station on the bridge.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “We’re only going outside for a few hours, and Cricket will do most of the work.”

“Can’t you just let Alfred’s techs and the engineers fix the thrusters, Tin? Why do you always have to be the hero?”

“I’m not trying to be the hero, but someone’s got to guard them, and we’re down to just four divers and three militia soldiers in fighting condition.”

Layla drew in a deep breath, her chest rising above her swollen belly.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” she said. “Bray and I can’t take much more of this. First the snakes at the fuel outpost, then the monsters and skinwalkers in Rio de Janeiro. What’s next?”

“Hopefully nothing,” Michael said. He looked over his shoulder. “Timothy, have you been able to bring your sensors back online?”

The hologram stood with his hands clasped behind his back, not far from the captain’s chair. He held up a finger to indicate he would be with Michael after finishing his hushed conversation with Captain Mitchells.

“I want to hear this,” Layla said.

Michael took a seat in the chair beside her and listened to the captain and the AI discuss the state of the airship. He already knew most of it, but it was a good reminder of what they were facing.

“Life support is at fifty-two percent,” Timothy said. “I’d like to get that closer to the eighty range now that we have our new passengers.”

“Number’s definitely moving in the right direction,” Les replied.

“Oxygen flow is back to optimal levels.”

“Good work,” Les said. “Now we just have to get the thrusters working again. How far are we from our target?”

“About an hour, sir, give or take. Hard to say without the thrusters.”

“And the sensors Commander Everhart asked about?”

“I have not been able to get the biological life scanners online, unfortunately,” said Timothy, “but I should be able to determine the radiation levels once we get closer to the suggested landing zone.”

“What about scans for defectors?” Michael asked.

“I should be able to detect any exhaust plumes if they are present,” Timothy said. “In the meantime, here’s a map of the best LZ I could find in our databases.”

The main wall-mounted screen came online with a map of what looked like an old-world airport.

“What are we looking at?” Les asked.

“Grantley International Airport, Barbados,” Timothy said. “The runways are probably going to be rough, but if they are clear of hostiles, we’ll call them perfect.”

“Ensign Corey, how is the weather looking over this potential LZ?” Les asked.

Eevi hunched with droopy eyes over her monitor. She tapped it a few times before giving her report. “There is a storm just east of the airport,” she said. “Skies might be rough in that area, but it’s hard to say.”

“Don’t forget, we’ve sustained massive damage to three of the outer shields, thanks in part to those Sirens,” Layla said. “A direct lightning hit to any of those areas could be the end of Discovery.”

“True,” Timothy said, “but once we put down, it won’t take long to get the thrusters online. We just need to replace wiring and relays that got fried in each one during the surge. Two hours max for both if Alfred and his team work fast. The odds of a lightning hit in that span of time are statistically insignificant.”

“Timothy, take us down to five hundred feet,” Les said. “Commander Everhart, round up the divers, militia, and Cazador soldiers. We’re going to need you all to keep our techs and engineers safe.”

Michael got out of his chair and bent down to Layla. “I’ll be gone a few hours max, promise,” he said.

They shared a soft kiss that lasted a few seconds longer than normal. Michael then wrapped her up in a hug.

“It’s okay, I promise,” he said.

“Good luck, Commander,” Les said.

Michael left the bridge and didn’t stop until he got to the bottommost compartment of the airship, which served as a second launch bay. The space was already filling with crew members.

Magnolia and Rodger had beaten him here. Both were already in their Hell Diver armor. Alfred and two of his technicians were standing with two engineers at bulkhead-mounted screens. On the display were blueprints of the thrusters.

Banks and the other militia arrived a moment later. They had traded out their crossbows for submachine guns.

“You sure these are going to protect us out there?” Banks asked. He wore a hazard outfit and a space helmet.

Alfred looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t tear the suit.”

Everyone in the room turned to look at the next two men through the hatch. The two surviving Cazador soldiers entered, in full armor and carrying spears and swords.

“All right, listen up,” Michael said.

The bulkheads hummed as the airship lowered through the sky. He raised his voice above the noise of wind and turbines.

“Our target LZ is an old-world airport on an island called Barbados,” he said. “We’ll set down there and then haul ass outside to start fixing the thrusters. Timothy said it’ll take only two hours max if all goes to plan.”

Michael gestured to the militia soldiers. “Banks, you and your men will patrol the runway around the airship once we set down. Mags, you and Rodge are with me. Our job is to protect the techs and engineers.”

“Are you expecting hostiles?” Alfred asked.

“On the surface, we always expect hostiles, and unfortunately, we’ve lost the sensors that will help us detect any.”

“Well that’s just sweet as Siren shit,” said one of the engineers. He scratched at his bald head. “Not exactly what I signed up for.”

“Even with your protection, without weapons we’re still sitting ducks,” said one of the techs.

“You’re not sitting ducks,” Magnolia replied.

“Says the lady with a laser rifle,” another engineer chimed in.

Michael raised his robotic hand. “Cricket is going to be out there with us, too, and if we see anything remotely hostile, we’ll pull everyone back inside. If you want to bring a blaster or a gun, that’s fine, long as you know how to fire them.”

Alfred nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me. Besides, we don’t have a choice.”

“No, we don’t,” Michael said. “I’m sorry, but we will do everything in our power to make sure everyone gets back inside unharmed.”

“No one gets eaten on my watch,” Rodger said.

The techs and engineers all looked at him with the same incredulous gaze, as if trying to decide whether he was joking or just stupid.

Michael resisted the urge to shake his head. “Any other questions?”

No one said a word—a good thing because Michael didn’t have the patience to deal with anyone else. He didn’t want to be out there any more than they did.

“Okay, get ready,” Michael said. “We’ll be there in about forty-five minutes. I have a few stops to make and need to grab some more gear.”

“Will you check on Sofia?” Magnolia asked. “I’m really starting to worry about her.”

“No need to worry,” said a voice.

Sofia Walters, the Cazador who had once been married to el Pulpo, stepped into the room wearing her Hell Diver armor.

Michael gave her a once-over, but the armor didn’t deceive him. She wasn’t ready to go back out there. Losing Rhino had broken her, and she could become a liability in the field.

“Can I speak to you a minute?” Michael asked her.

Sofia followed him into the passageway, and he shut the hatch behind them.

“I already know what you’re going to say, and I’m fine,” she said. “Not fine, but—”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. You’re not fine, but you can function.”

She raised a brow. “Something like that.”

“If you want to sit this out, you can,” Michael said.

“I need something to keep my mind off what happened to Rhino. If I stay another minute in those dark quarters, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Michael paused, unsure what to say.

“You need more boots on the ground to protect our engineering team,” she said. “I won’t let you down, I promise.”

She was right about him needing more security out there.

“Okay, you’re in,” he said, “but don’t make me regret it.”

“I won’t, Commander.”

They parted ways, and Michael returned to the upper decks. His first stop was the medical ward. Arlo, Edgar, and the militia soldier injured by the Siren in engineering were all sleeping in their beds. Two medical staffers worked inside the dimly lit room, moving from monitor to monitor.

Edgar raised a hand at Michael, and Michael raised his robotic hand back.

“Hang in there, brother,” he said. Then he hurried off to the launch bay to check on their new friends. Two more medical technicians were inside, dressed in hazard suits. They worked on Pedro, who sat on a stool with his shirt off.

The Siren had done a number on him, leaving multiple gashes across his muscular flesh, but the tech was applying nanotech gel to the deepest of the wounds, ensuring a much faster recovery.

Pedro had risked his life to save his people, proving that they weren’t weak pacifists after all. Pedro, at least, could hold his own, having killed an adult male Siren with the leg of a cot.

Timothy had already spoken to him, and he was mad. Furious, in fact. But Michael understood his feelings. They had locked Pedro and his people inside the launch bay, inadvertently turning them into bait. Not the best way to start building trust.

“Timothy, have you explained to Pedro what is happening?” Michael asked over the headset.

“Not yet, Commander.”

“Please explain to his people that we’re touching down to make repairs, but do your best to keep them calm and assure them everything is fine.”

“You got it, sir.”

The hologram emerged inside the launch bay, in front of Pedro. Michael frowned and then returned to his quarters. Another message crackled over his headset.

“Radiation levels are in the yellow zone,” Timothy confirmed. “Biological scanners are still offline, but I’ll do a visual scan with our cameras once we get into position.”

“What about exhaust plumes?” Les replied over the comms.

“No exhaust plumes detected on the surface, Captain.”

On the way back to the lower decks, Michael grabbed his duty belt and a bag of tools from his quarters. His final stop was to get Cricket off the charging station.

When he got there, he hit a button to raise the crossbars. Hover nodes glowed red as the chirping robot flew away from the charging station.

“You ready for some more fun, buddy?” Michael said. He tapped his wrist computer to link with Cricket. Several more chirps echoed down off the bulkheads.

“Don’t get too excited,” Michael said.

He led the drone back down to the compartment where Rodger and Magnolia were still bickering.

“What’s this place called, again?” Rodger asked. “Barbarian?”

“Barabados, man! Do you ever listen?” Magnolia said.

Rodger slapped a magazine into his rifle and looked up as Michael came through the hatch. “Hey, Commander,” he said. “Do you think there are going to be those bone-beast thingies down there?”

“I don’t know, Rodgeman,” Michael said.

A technician still suiting up looked over. “Bone beasts?”

“He’s kidding,” Magnolia said, darting Rodger a warning glare.

The bulkheads groaned, distracting everyone during the last moments of the descent. Lightning slashed the sky outside the portholes.

Another blue glow filled the compartment as Timothy’s hologram emerged behind a pile of coiled cables.

“The cameras confirm that the landing zone is free of hostiles,” he said. “We’re going to land on an old runway, but keep your eyes peeled, as they say. There’s nothing in the archives about this place, besides a map.”

Timothy nodded at Cricket, who chirped back.

“Touchdown in T-minus sixty seconds,” said the AI.

The hatch opened again, and another man in armor walked in. He ducked under the overhead and into the light.

Michael should have known that Captain Mitchells wasn’t going to sit this out.

“What do you say we get the damn thrusters back online so we can go home,” he said with a half grin.

It was the first smile Michael had seen on him in days.

“Prepare for landing,” Timothy said.

The turbofans held them just above the ground as the legs extended. There was a slight jolt as the ship touched down on the tarmac.

Michael looked outside. A dark, hellish world surrounded the airship—broken runways, a collapsed central terminal, and a dozen debris piles that had once been hangars.

This place was no different from most of the places Michael had seen. Not a square inch spared from the bombs over 250 years ago.

He opened the hatch, raised his laser rifle, and prayed that Timothy was right about this place being free of hostiles—especially the killer machines.

FIVE

Lightning sizzled through the bulge of clouds above the demolished airport. The armored shape of a Hell Diver with a robotic arm trotted over to the edge of the runway.

Magnolia stepped up to the ladder, keeping her night-vision optics off. She was second in line to climb down, standing right behind Sofia.

No one knew what Michael had said to Sofia behind the closed hatch, but he had let her join the team on this mission.

Magnolia hoped it was the right decision. With a heavy heart, she watched Sofia descending the rungs. The young woman had endured much in her short life, and after finally securing her freedom from el Pulpo, she had lost Rhino.

As much as Rodger annoyed Magnolia, seeing the loss Sofia was dealing with reminded her that she loved Rodger, even though she hadn’t let herself fall in love with him. She had thought she lost him back in Florida years ago, and now they had a second chance together.

Hell Divers rarely got second chances. Seeing Sofia lose Rhino made Magnolia realize she had to let her guard down with Rodger if she wanted to embrace love.

She also had to stop worrying about Sofia right now. There would be plenty of time to help her on the ride home and after they returned to the islands. But first, they had to make it back home.

Near the bottom of the ladder, Rodger held up a hand to help Magnolia. She took it and jumped onto the cracked asphalt. The militia soldiers came next. For all three men, this was their first time setting foot in the wastes.

“So this is what it’s like,” Banks said.

“Damn, what is that?” Sofia asked, pointing toward the airport.

Magnolia brought her rifle scope up and zoomed in on several hangars on the eastern edge of the main hub.

“ ‘Damn’ is right,” she murmured.

A massive old-world airplane sat inside one of the hangars, whose metal walls had protected it from the elements. There didn’t appear to be any windows left on the plane, and the paint was gone, but the shell was there and both wings were still attached.

“I think that’s a jumbo jet,” Rodger said. “They used to ferry people around really fast—much faster than the airships.”

“That one doesn’t look too fast,” Magnolia said. This was the first passenger plane she had ever seen on a dive. Most planes had crashed during the early days of the war, some of them falling from the sky after EMP blasts or after the computer virus that disabled their electronics.

Rodger looked all around. “I wonder if there are any fighter jets here.”

“Come on, guys, we’re not here for the sightseeing,” Les said, waving the three divers after him. “Let’s get a perimeter set up.”

The militia and the Cazadores were already doing that. Banks used hand signals to position his men. Neither of the Cazador warriors could speak English, but they understood his gestures.

They fanned out across the dirt field, their spears ready to skewer anything that moved. The militia soldiers brought up their rifles, the barrels roving back and forth as their virgin eyes took in the sights.

Michael tapped his wrist computer, and Cricket flew above the divers, its red hover nodes glowing in the dark.

They all had the robot to thank for getting them out of Rio de Janeiro alive. It wasn’t the first machine to save Magnolia’s life. Timothy had protected her several times.

But that didn’t mean she trusted robots. Plenty had tried to kill her, and as she looked out over the desolate terrain, she found herself wondering whether any defectors were out there hunting.

“Come on, Mags,” Rodger said.

Les led the group around the hull of the ship, toward the stern. Magnolia switched on her night-vision optics and glassed the area.

A mound of rubble was all that remained of the control tower, and most of the other structures were no better. Pockmarks in the runway painted the scene of what had happened during the war.

It wasn’t a nuke that had taken out this place, but rather smaller weapons that leveled the concourse and cratered the runways.

The machines hadn’t quite finished the job, though, leaving one airplane behind.

“Timothy, you seeing anything out here besides us?” Les asked over the public comm.

“Negative, Captain.”

“And no exhaust plumes?”

“Correct, sir.”

Magnolia glanced over her shoulder. The militia and the Cazador soldiers continued their patrol around the perimeter of Discovery. The section of flat runway was the perfect place to put down, with a panoramic view of the surrounding fields and buildings.

To get to the airship, a hostile would have to cover major ground and make it past waves of gunfire and the grenade launcher strapped to Cricket’s mechanical arm.

Unless the beasts came from underground…

Magnolia scanned for any unexplained mounds of earth like those she had seen back at the fuel outpost. She shuddered at the thought of seeing the monstrous two-headed snakes again.

Her scans still came back empty—nothing but decaying buildings, and mutant vegetation growing out of the cracked dirt fields. The wind was picking up, though, and a rainstorm was brewing in the east.

Alfred and his three technicians set down their crates and pulled out the folded-up scaffolding they would need to access the banks of thrusters.

At Michael’s command, Cricket picked up the folded platforms and flew them up to the circular thruster tubes protruding just below the two tail fins.

“Timothy, we’re in position at the stern,” Les said. “Engage ladders.”

Two aluminum ladders clanked down to the ground. Alfred grabbed a rung and looked at Michael, then Les.

“Good luck,” Michael said.

Footsteps sounded behind them, and Magnolia turned to see Sofia walking out on the cracked runway with her assault rifle.

“See something?” Magnolia asked.

Sofia peered through the scope, then lowered the rifle. “I thought I did, but I guess it was nothing.”

“Don’t go too far,” Michael called out.

Magnolia stayed at the edge of the runway, searching the rubble piles for signs of life. She finally spotted the first creature: a beetle the size of a shoe.

The purple chitinous head emerged from a hole in the dirt, antennae waving back and forth, before it ducked back into its lair.

The howling wind picked up. A vortex swept across the dry fields, whipping up a cloud of dust. Grit pelted her visor, and the first fat drops of rain spattered on her helmet.

The wind had exposed something in the dirt between the runway and the hangar. She set off to examine it.

“Hey, hold up, Mags,” Rodger said.

He trotted over, and they squatted down by what looked like bones. Most of them were covered in dirt, but the skull was exposed. She nudged it with her rifle barrel.

“Holy hog balls,” Rodger breathed.

Magnolia stared at the chipped and cracked eyeless skull. This wasn’t human. It was Siren.

She slung her laser rifle and brushed away the dirt with her gloves, exposing more of the skeletal remains. Rodger bent down to help while Sofia watched from the runway.

A few minutes later, they had unearthed most of the skeleton, including the wing bones of a male Siren.

“Wow,” Rodger said, standing.

Magnolia remained on her knees. The remains had been here for years, maybe longer, judging by the weathering of the skull.

Michael opened a private channel to Magnolia and Rodger. “What are you two doing over there?” he asked.

“We found the bones of a male Siren,” Magnolia replied. “It’s been dead a good while, but better keep an eye on the sky.”

Michael sent out a heads-up over the public channel.

“More of those things?” Banks said.

“I’ll redirect my cameras,” Timothy said. “I’ll let you know immediately if I spot anything on the feeds.”

“Gee, thanks,” Banks deadpanned. “That makes me feel so much better.”

“Timothy, do our records show any ITC facilities on this island?” Les asked.

“Negative, Captain. My guess is, that Siren flew here many years ago in search of food.”

“So what killed it, then?” Banks asked. “I doubt it was starvation.”

The screaming wind died down, and they heard Cricket chirping away as he worked on the scaffolding. The robot used one arm to attach the platform around the left bank of thrusters, and the other arm to secure it. Alfred helped from the ladder while the other techs and engineers waited on the ground.

Magnolia left the Siren’s bones and went back to the stern with Rodger.

While the other divers stood sentry, Magnolia stole a moment to check on Sofia, who was staring out over the bleak landscape.

“How you doing?” Magnolia asked.

“I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Magnolia wanted to give her a hug, but now wasn’t the time. That didn’t mean they couldn’t talk, though.

“He gave his life to protect what he believed in—a home where our two societies can live in peace,” Magnolia said.

“There’s more to the story than that, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Magnolia replied.

Much had happened back at the Vanguard Islands since they departed, and the Hell Divers had only a piece of the puzzle. Les had kept most of what he knew, including King Xavier’s condition, to himself.

She was starting to worry that it might be worse than they all thought.

“I just hope we get home before his burial at sea,” Sofia said.

“We’ll be home before you know it.”

Sofia finally looked over at Magnolia. Though she couldn’t see through the mirrored visor, Magnolia knew that her friend was crying.

A gust slammed into them, knocking Magnolia back a step. Sofia slid a foot before digging her boots in.

“Watch out!” one of the techs yelled.

The top crate on a stack of three toppled over, scattering the contents in the dirt. Alfred descended the ladder, battling the rising gale.

Static broke over the comm channel. “That storm is picking up and heading right for our location,” Eevi reported from the bridge. “Looks like we can expect fifty-mile-per-hour winds and heavy rain.”

As they picked up the tools, one of the engineers said to Les, “Captain, maybe we should consider pulling everyone back inside for now.”

“Or maybe we should get out of here while we can,” suggested a tech. “Use the turbofans to get us away from the storm.”

Les looked at the sky in all directions. “Ensign Corey, how long until the worst of it hits us?” he asked.

“We’ve got about forty-five minutes if we’re lucky.”

Les seemed to think on it another few seconds, then said, “We’ll keep working for now, then head inside if it gets really bad, but it’s too late to flee. We’d never make it with the turbofans alone—we need those thrusters online.”

“Better get to it, then,” Alfred said. Clipping a rope to his harness, he set up the ladder to the first scaffold that was complete. Cricket had moved over to the right bank of thrusters, to assemble the platform for the other techs and engineers to use.

Magnolia moved closer to the airship. The techs and engineers were arguing about who would join Alfred.

“Screw it, I’ll go,” said a voice.

Magnolia didn’t recognize it over the wind but figured it was Michael.

She was wrong.

Les wrapped a tool belt around his waist and slung a coil of wiring around an arm.

“Watch my back,” he said to Michael.

The tall former engineer, Hell Diver, and now captain moved quickly up the rungs. He had worn many hats, always putting everyone before his own safety.

Another twenty minutes passed before the acid rain really started dumping. Cricket swayed slightly as it worked on the other scaffold.

Alfred and Les had removed the access panel for the left bank of six thrusters and were busy pulling out the fried wiring.

Magnolia wasn’t sure what they had to do, but she hoped they could do it quickly. The storm front was moving in fast. Lighting forked from the bulging clouds rolling across the island.

“Michael, command Cricket to help us,” Les said. “Screw the right bank. We need to focus on getting the left bank up and running!”

Michael tapped his wrist computer, and the drone hovered back to the first thruster to work with Alfred and Les.

The public comm channel crackled to life again. “Commander Everhart, this is Banks. Your team might want to take a look at our view on the starboard side of the ship.”

“Rodger and Sofia, stay here,” Michael said. “Magnolia, with me.”

The two divers ran around the stern, pelted by sheeting rain. A gust slammed into them as they made their way toward the bow.

“Timothy, you seeing anything on your cameras?” Les asked over the open channel.

“Negative, sir.”

Magnolia caught up with two of the militia soldiers. Banks stood halfway between the airship and the hangar with the jumbo jet, looking up at the swollen clouds.

“I don’t see anything,” Michael said.

Magnolia brought her scope up for a scan but couldn’t see anything, either. She switched to infrared, apparently the same moment Michael did.

“What the hell…” he said.

Magnolia tried to make sense of the readings. The entire skyline seemed alive with red dots, but that was impossible…

“What do you guys see?” Les asked over the comm.

“I’m not sure, sir,” Michael replied. “It could be Sirens, but I don’t think so.”

The two Cazador warriors came running around the bow, talking in Spanish.

“Timothy, you seeing what we’re seeing?” Magnolia asked.

“Yes, it’s very odd,” he replied. “I believe Commander Everhart is correct. Those do not appear to be Sirens.”

Magnolia started toward Banks, but Michael grabbed her by the arm.

“Hold up,” he said.

The other militia soldiers moved out into the rain, but the Cazador soldiers remained near the Hell Divers, as if sensing something was off.

“We’ve almost got thrusters one through three online,” Les said over the comms. “Ensign Corey, how is that storm looking?”

“It’s about to get pretty bad,” she reported.

“We better get everyone back inside and finish the right bank of thrusters later,” Michael said. “I don’t want to risk having people out here when it hits.”

“I need only a few more minutes,” Les said, “but pull everyone else back. I’ll stay out here with Cricket.”

“Banks!” Magnolia shouted. “Get back here!”

The wind howled like an enraged Siren, masking her voice. She bumped on the channel to the militia soldiers.

“Get back to the airship!” she shouted.

That got their attention.

They all turned and began to jog across the dirt, but they were a good fifty yards out. Gusts slammed into them, knocking Banks down.

Magnolia led the Cazadores and Michael back toward the stern. They couldn’t open the launch-bay doors lest they contaminate the new passengers, so they must return to the port side, where they had taken a ladder down to the ground.

Finally back at the stern, she glanced up at the scaffolding.

“Almost got it,” Les called down.

Alfred was still up there with him, helping replace the final wiring.

“Guys, come on,” Rodger said, waving at her and Michael.

“I’m staying here with him,” Michael said.

“Me, too,” Magnolia said.

“Figured you’d say that,” Rodger said.

The techs and engineers ran back to the hatch with the Cazadores, leaving only the militia soldiers still out in the field.

Magnolia moved back to the port side of the stern, where Banks and his men were slowly making their way back in the screeching wind.

“I’ve got a visual,” Timothy reported over the comm. “I’m running a scan in my database, but I think I know what those things are.”

Magnolia zoomed in on the cloud closing in on the airship. Thousands of tiny dots moved at the outer edge of the bulging storm. Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the wings.

Now she knew what had killed the Siren.

“Fruit bats,” Timothy said. “Thousands of them, and these look a lot bigger than their ancestors.”

“Same things that attacked me in Jamaica,” Michael said. He looked up at Les and Alfred. “Move it, guys!”

“We’ve almost got it!” Les shouted back.

Rodger paced. “Bats? That wall of black is really—” His sentence ended in a squawk.

Only it wasn’t from Rodger at all.

A flurry of motion surged from the sky, homing in on Banks and his men as they kept near the hull of the airship. All three men turned just as the bats swarmed them. Their armor and suits vanished in a swirling cloud of wings and hairy skin.

Magnolia watched in horror as the first wave of creatures flew up into the sky like a whirlwind, allowing the next wave to swarm in, and the next.

Within seconds, all three men had been stripped of their armor, suits, and flesh. They didn’t even get the chance to scream. Or perhaps they had, and the shroud of wings muted the sound.

Michael pulled her back around the stern. He raised his laser rifle, and she did the same, directly under the left bank of thrusters. They stood side by side, waiting for the wave of bats to move around the stern and attack.

“Les, Alfred, come on!” Michael said over the comm.

The two men descended the ladder, but Cricket hovered, working to take down the scaffolding.

Shrieks rose over the wind like a macabre chorus.

Magnolia and Michael waited at the bottom of the ladder with their weapons up. It was just the two of them now. Even Rodger had bailed.

The bats’ vanguard curved around the stern, cutting through the air just as Les and Alfred jumped to the dirt. Laser bolts shot skyward, cutting off wings and erasing ugly faces. The mutant monsters came in droves, each with a wingspan of several feet, hissing like vampires.

“Get down!” someone yelled.

Magnolia dropped to the ground with Michael, and a stream of fire jetted overhead, coating the swooping bats in flame. Behind the long barrel, she spotted a Hell Diver with a Cazador flamethrower strapped to his back.

Not just any diver. It was Rodger.

Sofia joined him with another flamethrower, torching the beasts. Burning carcasses rained from the sky, sizzling in the pouring rain.

“Hot enough for you ugly turd-faced fucks?” Rodger screamed as he raked the stream of flames back and forth. “How about you? Yeah? You guys want some, too?”

Magnolia and Michael crawled below the twin gouts of flame and got up behind Rodger and Sofia as Alfred and Les led the way back to the hatch.

“Timothy, can you get us out of here with just the left bank of thrusters working?” Les asked.

“We’re going to find out, sir,” replied the AI.

“Come on!” an engineer yelled from the open hatch.

Alfred climbed the ladder, and the rest of the team followed. Sofia and Rodger covered their retreat, then Sofia turned to climb while Rodger stood guard.

At the hatch, she fired again to give Rodger a chance to climb. But a burning bat latched on to his leg. He kicked and kicked, screaming all the while.

The creature finally fell away, and Rodger nearly jumped up the ladder.

The hatch slammed behind him.

Timothy’s hologram waited inside the room, spreading its glow over the panting divers, engineers, and technicians.

A bat slammed into a porthole, cracking the glass. More of them pounded the other windows, streaking them with blood.

“Get those thrusters online now!” Les yelled.

“Cricket!” Michael said. “We can’t leave without Cricket.”

“Better get his mechanical ass inside, then,” Les said.

Michael tapped his monitor. “I’ll have him latch on to the Sea Wolf.”

The airship jolted as the turbofans clicked on and powered the ship skyward. The retracting legs clanked amid thuds from the bats assaulting the exterior.

“I sure hope we plugged those exterior holes the Sirens found,” Magnolia said.

“Me, too,” Rodger said. He turned around, and Les helped him shuck off the tank for the flamethrower. Sofia placed her tank on the deck and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“Glad you came with us,” Michael said. “Quick thinking by you two.”

The bulkheads whined from the onslaught of wind, rain, and bats pounding the exterior. Over all the noises came a loud whine, like that of an engine that won’t start.

“Trying thrusters again,” Timothy said.

Another long whine.

“Shit,” Rodger said.

Magnolia grabbed his hand. “Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“For not leaving me.”

He took off his helmet, and she took off hers while Timothy tried to bring the thrusters online.

Another whine, another failed attempt.

Bats crashed against the portholes, splintering the exterior glass and smearing it with blood.

Magnolia reached over to take Rodger’s glasses off. Then she leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. His cheeks reddened when she pulled away.

The thrusters whined a fifth time, and she kissed him again.

On the sixth attempt, the left bank of six came back online. The airship jolted with such force that she fell forward, landing on top of Rodger.

He let out a squeak.

Applause rang out around them as the airship picked up speed.

“We did it!” Timothy said with a handsome smile.

Les smiled back at the hologram. “Take us home, Pepper,” he said. “It’s finally time to show our new friends the home we promised them.”

SIX

The pebbles of dried blood continued up the stairs. X knew that the concrete stairwell wasn’t real. None of this was. He was stuck in a delirious dream state, trapped like a Siren in a cage, living in a nightmare.

Only this wasn’t exactly a nightmare. It was a dream in which he was following Ada Winslow’s journey to his former home in Florida.

And it was as clear as rainwater. So clear that he felt as if he were actually there. He could even feel his pounding heart.

He kept going up the stairs, following the drops of blood, compelled to find Ada and help her.

The plastic curtain he had used to block off the next landing was torn aside. He slipped around it, halting at the claw marks along the walls.

More streaks marred the floor.

X wasn’t the only one following Ada in this dream.

Sirens were hunting.

He had given her a rifle to defend herself with, but that didn’t matter if she didn’t know how to shoot it or was too injured to fight.

He had also given her medicine, but that wouldn’t matter if she didn’t know how to dress a wound from the poisonous barbed weeds.

But she had made it here, and if she got herself across the ocean in a crappy little fishing boat with only half the needed gas, then maybe she could put down a Siren or two.

He ran up the stairs, determined to find her before the monsters did.

The vivid dream flashed to darkness, then images of the young officer’s freckled features being torn apart by a pack of Sirens, her arms and legs being ripped away while she screamed.

“Help me! Somebody, help me!”

She stared at X.

“You did this to me!” she shrieked. “You killed me!”

X jerked free of the nightmare, panting like a dog.

A scream echoed in the dark quarters. He recognized the rough voice.

It was his.

Something wet and cold hit his forehead. He shivered violently, his body clammy but burning at the same time.

“Ada,” he muttered. “I have to save Ada.”

A deep fog settled over his mind, as if his brain were suspended in tar. He squirmed, trying to break the mental chains.

“His temperature is one-oh-four,” said a distant voice.

“The antibiotics just aren’t working,” said another.

X tried to make out the blurred faces hovering over his bedside.

“Ada,” he mumbled again.

A hand restrained his chest. More figures were in the hallway, where torches burned in mounted sconces.

“Ada,” X said again. “They’re hunting Ada.”

“Ada is gone, King Xavier,” said a faint voice.

Another hand pushed down on his shoulders. The pain cleared his vision, and in that moment of clarity, he focused on the person holding him.

Sloan’s lazy eye glared down at him.

“Sir, you need to calm the hell down,” she said. “You’re burning up.”

“Ada,” X said.

“She’s gone, sir,” Sloan said. “It’s a tragedy, but she chose to take her own life over her guilt. You can’t blame yourself.”

She put a hand on his shoulder, and X held her gaze.

But X knew the truth. Ada hadn’t taken her own life. She was out there, and she was being hunted by the monsters, all because of him.

Sloan’s lazy eye wandered right, to Dr. Huff. Samson was also here, watching with his arms folded over his sizable belly.

“X, you need to settle down,” Samson said.

Something nudged his feet, and X looked down to see Miles there, whining. The dog tried to get closer, but a militia soldier reached out.

Miles growled at the man, who, X now saw, was Sergeant Wynn.

More soldiers were in the hallway, guarding the room. Ton and Victor held spears, trying to look inside. Several militia soldiers also stood sentry with submachine guns.

“Wynn, get out of here,” Sloan ordered. “Unless you want to lose your hand.”

“Ada,” X mumbled. “We’ve got to find Ada.”

He tried to sit up, but Sloan pushed his shoulders down.

Huff said, “King Xavier, if you don’t relax, I’m going to have to give you a shot to make you sleep.”

“Fuck you,” X said.

The doctor stared, incredulous, but Sloan chuckled.

“I think he’s getting better, Doc,” she said.

“No, he’s not, actually,” Huff said. “If his temperature gets any higher, it could affect his brain.”

That wiped the grin off Sloan’s face.

X was delirious, but he registered what he was hearing. He blinked through the sweat stinging his eyes.

For a moment, his brain ramped back up to normal speed, and he remembered the airship and everyone else still out there. Memories of the past few days flashed through his mind.

Rhino was dead. So was Vargas.

Ada was probably dead.

And the crew of Discovery.

“Where’s Tin?” he asked, trying again to sit up. He managed to break free of Sloan’s grip and sat up, his body on fire, sweat pouring down his bandaged flesh.

X blinked rapidly, willing his brain to stay alert. But the fever, the injuries, and the uncertain fate of his friends in the sky felt like too much to bear, even for the Immortal.

He was going to crash, and perhaps this time, he wouldn’t wake up again.

Something pricked his arm.

He looked down at his right arm. A needle had pricked his flesh, and holding it was Dr. Huff.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You son of a…”

The fog clouded X’s mind again, and the room began to fade. He slumped back on his pillow.

The voices grew distant until there were no voices at all.

Darkness gave way to light.

He was back in his apartment in Florida, standing in the hallway that led to the bunker he shared with Miles. The door was cracked open, providing a narrow view inside.

Crates of supplies were stacked on the floor, and the windows were sealed with plastic.

X squeezed through the opening and stopped just inside the doorway. From the bedroom came a sound like snapping twigs and someone chewing fatty meat.

Five more steps brought him to the open bedroom door. A beast with skin the color of a hen’s egg hunched over a body on the floor.

It was Ada.

He stood there for a moment watching the beast slurp down her guts. Both legs had already been stripped to bone. But it was her face that most horrified him. The cute freckled features had swollen to four times their normal size, and both eyeballs bulged out.

She had managed to get her helmet off before she died, exposing her swollen neck. The stings from the barbed plants had killed her before the Siren could.

Or so X hoped.

Either way, she had suffered horribly. And it was his fault.

She wasn’t ready to come to the wastes. She had never dived or spent time outside the airships. Sending her here with gear but no skills was much worse than a simple sword thrust.

Rhino had been right. X should have just killed her in her cell.

The Siren suddenly twisted with a rope of viscera hanging from its open maw. The eyeless face tilted slightly and sniffed the air.

Jagged teeth snapped, and the creature let out a high-pitched wail that seemed to go on and on, like a never-ending air-raid siren.

X wasn’t sure when he woke. A bright moon cast a glow inside his quarters. Dr. Huff, Samson, Sloan, and Wynn were gone, but Miles remained camped out at his feet.

The dog nudged him, licking the salty sweat off his arm.

“It’s okay, boy,” X mumbled.

A rattling sound came from the corner of the room, where Sloan sat sleeping in a chair.

X drew in a breath and raised his hand to his forehead. Sweat dripped down, but he didn’t feel as hot, and he could move and actually think in a straight line. His mind reverted to the Ada nightmare.

Miles nudged his arm again. X was lucid enough to know now that the nightmare was just that, but chances were, Ada had already died from some other threat.

X lay back on the pillow and took a deep breath of fresh air. A pressure had settled in his skull, and his right arm felt numb. While his fever seemed to be going down, he wasn’t out of danger yet.

* * * * *

Discovery shuddered and groaned like a dying beast.

Les stood at the helm, arms folded over his chest, watching the storm clouds on the wall-mounted main screen, trying to process everything Lieutenant Sloan had told him on an encrypted line.

Over the past few days, X had taken a turn for the worse and was slipping in and out of consciousness. The fight with Vargas had left him broken and bedridden, and now an infection threatened his life.

Les had decided to keep the information from everyone on the ship. They had spent the night flying with one bank of thrusters and were minutes away from the Vanguard Islands. Once they arrived, he could assess how bad the situation really was, and then the others could know.

“Sir, I’m detecting a storm front ahead,” Timothy said.

The AI snapped Les back to reality. He looked over to the empty chair where Eevi normally sat. Timothy stood in her place while the grieving widow slept.

“Keep us clear of it,” Les ordered.

The AI nodded. “Taking us down to five thousand feet.”

Les sat down in his chair and closed his eyes for a few minutes of rest. He was generally happy with everything they had accomplished, although it had come at a great cost.

Losing Banks and two militia soldiers in the onslaught of bats had added to the deadly mission’s toll. Only one militia soldier was returning, and only two Cazador soldiers from General Santiago’s platoon. They had also lost a Hell Diver.

But the sacrifices had allowed thirty new souls a chance to see something they had never seen before: the sun. That in itself was a victory.

Les had also spoken with Lieutenant Sloan about providing security and a quarantine shelter for the newcomers once they landed.

He hoped the immune system boosters would protect them from whatever new pathogens they encountered.

Footsteps sounded on the bridge, and Les opened his eyes to see Michael and Magnolia cross the bridge, side by side.

“Everything’s ready, Captain,” Michael said. “As soon as we put down, Samson and his people will start repairs on the other thrusters and turbofans.”

“Good,” Les replied. “I want to be back in the sky as soon as possible.”

Michael and Magnolia exchanged a glance.

“Sir, back in the sky for what exactly?” Magnolia said.

“That’s classified for now.”

He had kept his plan to himself, just as he was keeping King Xavier’s condition under tight wraps. They may be returning to a situation that could spiral out of control, and he didn’t want any leaks.

“Classified?” Michael asked.

“Sounds like something Captain Jordan would say,” Magnolia muttered.

Les shot her a glare. “You’re out of line, Katib.”

“Agreed,” Michael said. “I’m sure Captain Mitchells has his reasons.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Magnolia said. “I’m just used to more transparency from you.”

Les didn’t respond to the insincere attempt at an apology.

She brushed her red locks back behind her ear. “If something’s going on back home, we should know, so we can prepare.”

Les could feel Timothy looking at him now. The AI was the only one who knew what Les did about the defectors. He had translated the conversation with their new passenger, Pedro, before they set down to repair the thrusters.

Captains had kept secrets in the past, and now he knew why. This one had the potential to change the future of the human race, and he wanted to discuss it with X before telling anyone else.

Assuming that X could talk at all.

The hatch on the bridge opened, and Layla walked in.

“Everything okay?” Michael asked.

“Eevi’s a wreck,” she said.

Les drew in a deep breath and sighed it out. The pain and suffering in their world never seemed to stop. But it touched them all, and together they would get through whatever awaited them at home and whatever the future held.

Layla took a seat at a station, and Michael said to Les, “Sir, is there anything you can tell us?”

Les put a hand on Michael’s shoulder.

“It’s X, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Commander,” Les said. “I spoke with Lieutenant Sloan a few times over an encrypted line, and his injuries have resulted in an infection. We’ve been careful about what to share on the radio and on the ship, because if he dies…”

“Dies? What the hell are you talking about? I just talked to him a few days ago, and he seemed—”

“Things have changed since then,” Les said. “I’m sorry, Commander. I don’t know much, but he’s in bad shape.”

Magnolia choked up.

“There’s something else. Two soldiers from the Lion escaped on a rowboat before Ada dropped the container into the ocean.”

“What?” Magnolia gasped.

“Do they know what she did?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know,” Les replied. “I can only guess this is why X and Rhino struck Vargas before he had a chance to rally the Cazador army and mount a coup.”

“With the death of General Santiago, there are only two Cazador officers left in the army now,” Michael said, “and neither of them seemed to like X. Forge and…”

“Bird lady,” Magnolia snorted. “A.k.a. bitch on wheels.”

“We have to be very careful when we land,” Les said. “I need you both to stay vigilant.”

Both Hell Divers nodded.

“You can count on that, Captain,” Michael said.

“If, by ‘vigilant,’ you mean offing bird lady, I’m totally down for that,” Magnolia said.

Les frowned. “I mean the polar opposite. We’re trying to avoid a war, not ignite one.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Magnolia said.

A blinking light appeared below.

“Captain, we’re closing in on the Vanguard Islands,” Timothy said. “Should have a visual shortly.”

Les motioned for them to join him in front of the hatches.

“Open them and take us down to sea level, Timothy,” Les commanded.

The hatches clanked downward, revealing the storm outside. Explosions of lightning burst through the bulging clouds, and rain pattered the windows.

Les clasped his hands behind his back as Discovery’s bow dipped. A warning played over the public address system, in English, then Spanish, then Portuguese.

He imagined what the new passengers must be feeling: fear, certainly, and anticipation of a world filled with sunshine and sweet air. It would be a drastic change for them, just as it had been for his people.

“We’ve reached five thousand feet,” Timothy reported.

The airship carved through the swirling blue-gray. As it descended, the storm clouds lightened until they became translucent.

“Three thousand feet,” Timothy said. “Prepare for visual.”

The bow exploded through the cloud cover surrounding the Vanguard Islands, and blinding light filled the bridge. The crew squinted into the golden glow.

“Timothy, activate the tint,” Les said.

“Done, sir.”

The sun shield, something they rarely had to use, activated on the windows, dimming the glare. As his eyes adjusted, Les beheld the Vanguard Islands with a faint smile.

The hatch opened again, and Eevi hurried to her station and sat down without a word.

Les turned back to the view.

The oil rigs rose in the distance, and several large boats cut white wakes through the water—fishing trawlers bringing home the catch.

“Timothy, open a line to Command,” Les ordered.

“One moment, sir.”

A buzzing sounded, followed by static.

“Vanguard One, this is Captain Mitchells of Discovery, do you copy?”

“Copy, Captain, this is Sergeant Wynn,” came the reply. “It’s damn good to hear your voice. Welcome home.”

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Les replied.

“The landing zone on the capitol tower is prepped and ready, sir.”

“Copy that. Prepare for our arrival.”

Les moved over to the controls and had Timothy take them off autopilot. He switched off the bank of thrusters and switched all auxiliary power to the remaining turbofans.

“Look at that,” Michael said. “Is that Renegade?”

“Looks like it,” Magnolia said.

“So they finally got it back up and running, then.”

“Kind of,” Magnolia said.

Les watched the warship sailing away from one of the rigs. A plume of smoke rose into the blue sky. The airship swung away toward the capitol tower.

Another warship was down there, larger than the first. This one didn’t appear to be moving.

“That’s Elysium,” Michael said.

Hundreds of warriors stood on the deck, holding weapons. They all turned to watch the airship sail overhead.

“That’ll show ’em,” Les said.

Michael arched a brow. “You planned to fly over?”

“To show the Cazadores we’re back,” Les said.

“Sounds like something Magnolia would do,” Timothy said.

Les hadn’t seen the third Cazador warship, Shadow, during the flyover. Perhaps they had deployed it already to watch for defectors and Horn’s skinwalkers.

The hull groaned, and the deck shivered as Les turned Discovery sharply.

“There she is,” Magnolia said.

Seeing the metal fortress in the sunshine brought a smile to the faces of everyone on the bridge except Eevi. For her, this wasn’t a happy homecoming.

Les knew something of the pain she felt. He had left his son in the wastes, his body destroyed like Alexander’s. He wanted to say something comforting to Eevi but didn’t want to sound like all the people who had tried to offer him condolences and support.

The only thing that would make him feel better was destroying the defectors and eliminating the threats to the Vanguard Islands. As soon as Discovery set down, Les was going to see his family. Then he would start planning to do just that.

SEVEN

Ada moved through the collapsed passageway in a crouch, ducking the overhangs and rusted metal reaching out like broken skeletal fingers. The beam from her helmet light cut through the inky black, pushing away shadows that seemed to retreat from it in fear.

Hours ago, she had hidden herself from whatever creature lurked in the black abyss. It had taken a lot of second-guessing before she finally emerged from the quarters to return to her boat.

On the way back to the deck, the screeching had come again. It sounded as though the beast had moved to the weather deck.

She had been forced to return to the passages and take refuge in a berthing area, hiding beneath a crooked bunk with a tarp over her.

After leaving the hiding spot, she was working her way through a tangled mess of pipes and fallen overheads.

Rifle in hand, she was prepared to kill whatever was out there, before it killed her.

Ropes of vines blocked her way around the next bulkhead. Slinging her rifle and unsheathing her machete, she stopped to listen for anything other than the dripping of water.

When she got back to her boat, she would sharpen the blade with a file. It was already getting dull from all the hacking, sticking several times in the meaty vegetation. Now she could see that it wasn’t just the dulling blade causing her issues.

This flora was still alive. Purple sap wept out of the severed stems on the deck.

She retreated a few steps and bent down to examine the first mutant life she ever encountered in the wastes. Although the outer skin of the vines was a dead-looking dull brown, the inside was ripe purple and very much alive.

Ada stood and carefully maneuvered around the dying stems. She stepped over one that wriggled like a giant earthworm.

The movement made her jump, and she backed away, not daring to take her eye off the limbs lest they shoot out to grab her in revenge.

But her fear resulted in a costly mistake. Backing up, she bumped into a bulkhead. Her pounding heart thumped faster at the sound of tearing fabric.

Terrified of what she might see, Ada looked down. A broken pipe protruded from the bulkhead to her left. Its jagged end had snagged her pant leg.

Ada acted fast, placing her rifle against the bulkhead and sheathing the machete. Shucking off her backpack, she fished inside for tape to seal off the tear.

She took a close look now, and her sigh of relief fogged the inside of her visor. The metal hadn’t cut her leg, so she needn’t worry about infection.

After sealing off the tear, she slowed her breath and heart rate. The accident had taught her something important: always watch where you’re going.

Noted.

She pushed onward, down a passage of more open hatches, to a space set with industrial metal tables—the sailors’ mess hall.

Several plates and cups littered the deck, but she wasn’t interested in those. Something in the kitchen might be useful, though.

She set off across the room, careful not to make any noise. The beam raked back and forth, capturing a bulkhead covered in vines that had grown down through the overhead.

The kitchen door was gone, and rusted pans and utensils were scattered over the counters and deck.

She wasn’t expecting to find any food, but she did find a knife on one of the counters. Picking it up, she saw that the blade was mostly rust.

Ada left through the back hatch, which opened to a passageway. A supply closet, long since raided, didn’t look promising. There wasn’t much she could do with a broom, but the three nested plastic buckets could be useful.

The problem would be carrying them back to her boat without banging anything. Something was still out there, and if she couldn’t avoid it, she wouldn’t mind having a cleaver or butcher knife. For now, the machete and rifle were all she had.

She set back out into the passage, searching several quarters. In one, she halted in the open hatch.

The space was furnished with two desks covered in decayed books and folders. Only one book remained on a shelf. She bent to pick it up when she saw something on the floor.

Ada reeled back. The skeletal remains were tucked under the desk, head down, legs pulled up to the rib cage.

Her beam captured a pair of eyeglasses and the remains of a torn jacket and pants still covering the bones.

A plastic name tag hung loosely from the frayed jacket. Dr. James…

She couldn’t read the rest, but from what she could tell, this man had been some sort of scientist. Perhaps one of the people who had used the telescope above decks.

Ada stood and checked the book on the shelf. The cover was worn, but she could make out the first word. Biomedical.

She flipped it open, and decayed pages sloughed away in pieces. This ship had been used for more than looking at the stars.

She felt the tingle of fascination and mystery, but she had to find a way back to her boat.

She went back out to the passage. Another ladder led to a lower deck—from what she could tell, the lowest on the ship. No vegetation blocked the way.

She shined her light down the ladder. The stairs and the next landing were both clear, but her heart pounded at the idea of going down there.

She had come this far and had avoided whatever beast dwelled on the vessel, but she hadn’t found anything useful to her journey.

What would X do?

If X were here, he would already have killed the monster and had it barbecuing on a grill while he took a snooze with his boots propped up on a chair.

That all sounded great, but she wasn’t X. She had never killed anything.

That wasn’t exactly true. She had killed plenty of Cazadores.

But that had been much different. She had pushed a button, not pulled a trigger or stabbed something at close range.

You’re going to have to learn sooner rather than later.

Ada stood and started down the stairs with the barrel of her rifle angled into the darkness. As she reached the landing, the light on her helmet flickered. Fear pierced her heart as darkness flooded the passage.

She reached up and tapped the lamp. The beam knifed into the darkness.

Ada resisted the urge to let out a long sigh of relief. Instead, she kept going, doing what X would have done. The final level was drier than the others, and the bulkheads seemed cleaner, with no moss or other vegetation growing down them.

She moved slowly down the center passage, past hatches to other quarters. One had engineering stenciled over it. The light held steady, illuminating a large space with bulky engine equipment—the old-world kind, fueled by diesel instead of a nuclear reactor.

For the first time in her search, she found something she could really use. Several coiled chains hung from the bulkhead inside a supply room. There were toolboxes, and even some ropes in a plastic crate.

She threw a coiled rope over her shoulder and searched the tools. An adjustable wrench went into her duty belt, and a screwdriver and hammer went in her pack. So did a tape measure.

The find made the exploration worth it. She returned to the engine room, satisfied and confident.

She passed the massive engines and boilers without a glance. It was time to get back to her boat with her goods and kill anything that stepped in her way.

She selected a different exit route, which eventually led to a passage infested with the same flora. The vines grew across the deck and out through open hatches. A pass with her light confirmed they were alive.

Turning too quickly was a costly error. Before she could catch it, the wrench slid out of her duty belt and bounced on the deck with a loud clang.

She flinched at the noise reverberating through the ship. She held in a breath and closed her eyes, anticipating a screech.

After an endless minute of waiting, she took a cautious step back to Engineering.

A screech froze her in midstride.

This one was louder than the others, and it seemed to come from the engine room.

Frozen, she listened.

The echo made locating the source difficult. She took a step back toward the vines, pulling out her machete. The growths writhed at her approach, stopping her again.

Her heart climbed to her throat.

Any sense of confidence vanished at the sight of the wriggling flora.

Coming down here was a mistake. She was trapped between mutant plants and a mutant monster.

Scanning with her helmet light, she searched for a place to hide. A closed hatch seemed the only option. A crooked sign hung from the bulkhead, with an image she recognized from the Hive. The biohazard symbol was the last thing she had expected to see down here.

Another wail sounded, followed by the clank of metal on metal. It sounded like steel fingers scratching the deck.

She felt the hairs on her neck rise. This wasn’t the cry of a Siren. She had heard those over the comms during her time working on the bridge of the airships.

This was a different monster.

With nowhere to run, she grabbed the handle of the biohazard hatch and twisted it as quietly as possible. The loud click made her cringe, but it opened right up.

Ada swept her light over a space full of lab stations.

The screeching grew louder. Dozens of little clattering noises came in the respite between wails.

There wasn’t just one creature out there.

She closed the hatch behind her and sealed it shut with a bar. Then she turned to see what kind of lab she had just locked herself inside.

Her beam revealed a score of large vats. She moved the light from tube to tube. Each had been shattered.

The wail came again, mixing with other screeches and cries.

Ada kept her light on the shattered vats. Whatever they had housed was gone now, and she couldn’t help drawing a connection to the creatures prowling in the darkness outside the hatch.

* * * * *

A hundred people had gathered on the capitol tower rooftop to help unload Discovery and help move the injured. Michael was happy to see them all, but he was too worried about X to celebrate just yet.

Outside the airship, Lieutenant Sloan and Sergeant Wynn oversaw a contingent of militia soldiers tasked with providing security and unloading weapons. Medical support staff had shown up to help with the wounded.

Engineers, mechanics, and technicians in their yellow and red jumpsuits set off to different locations to start work inside and outside the airship.

Michael took a breath of sweet ocean air and followed Layla and Eevi down a ramp. They both were heading back to their quarters for some downtime, and Michael was glad for that. His lover needed rest and a warm shower, and Eevi needed a break from people so she could grieve alone.

Dozens of civilians rushed and jostled for a view of the ship. Cole and Bernie Mintel were among them, searching for their son, Rodger.

But one person was conspicuously absent from the rooftop. He knew that X was in bad shape, but he had still expected the old man to show up. He wanted to go straight to X’s quarters and see him, but Captain Mitchells had ordered Michael to stay here and help.

“We don’t want to raise any alarms,” Les had said. “I’ll go see how he’s doing and sort out exactly what happened.”

Michael wouldn’t argue with his superior officer, but his anxiety grew with every passing second.

“Commander Everhart!” Ted shouted. He walked over with Lena by his side. Hector, Alberto, and several other greenhorn divers had also shown up to help.

“Why the hell are you wearing a jumpsuit?” Magnolia said.

Ted stiffened, then grinned.

“X gave me a second chance, and I’ve been training since you guys left,” he said.

“Did he hurt his brain, too?” Magnolia said. She looked at Michael.

He was too worried and mad to say anything. It wasn’t just being kept in the dark about X that had him upset. The captain had also classified new information about the defectors and a possible mission into the wastes.

Michael took a deep breath and reminded himself how lucky he was to be alive and still with Layla. In two months she would give birth to Bray, and he wanted his son to come into this world during a time of peace. For that to happen, a lot had to change.

The skinwalkers, defectors, and even the Cazador army still posed a threat to their fragile home. And with Rhino dead, they had lost their best ally.

“Yo, Tin,” Magnolia said.

Rodger stepped up. “Hey, Ted, how’s it—”

“Shut up, Rodge,” Magnolia said.

He frowned.

“Start unloading the crates,” Michael said.

Ted and the other greenhorns took off to help.

“Tin,” Magnolia called out. She followed him over to a side hatch. “Tin, wait up.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you worried about Ted joining back up after that stunt—”

“I’m worried about X,” he snapped.

Magnolia recoiled. “Me too, but come on, it’s X.”

“Nobody lives forever.”

Grabbing a crate, Michael walked past the exterior launch-bay doors, leaving Magnolia and Rodger behind.

Inside, eager faces had crowded around the cracked portholes for their first view of the outside world. He was delighted at having saved them, but there was still a lot to do to keep them alive—and, for that matter, to keep his people and the Cazadores alive.

Behind the expectant faces, Timothy’s hologram glowed inside the launch bay. The AI was working to keep the new arrivals calm and informed. Soon, they would all be given immune-system booster shots, and until they were cleared, they would remain inside the airship.

Shouting pulled Michael away from the view.

“What the hell did you do to my ship!” yelled Samson.

The husky chief engineer strode around a grove of palm trees, a handkerchief pressed to his forehead. Overdramatic as ever, Samson was a welcome sight, and Michael couldn’t help feeling a glimmer of relief.

“Nothing we can’t fix,” he said. “Your new shields saved our asses from a lot of lightning strikes.”

“You’re welcome,” Samson said.

“Didn’t stop the Sirens, though,” Rodger said.

He hauled another crate away from the Sea Wolf, which was still attached to the belly of Discovery.

“Well, I didn’t design them to stop Sirens,” Samson said. “I imagine it’s quite the story how they made it on board, and also how you made it on board.”

“A story you won’t believe,” Rodger said.

Magnolia shook her head.

“Good to see you kids back home,” Samson said with a rare smile. “You did a fine job out there considering the circumstances.”

“Thank you,” Michael said. He looked around them, then said softly, “Do you know how X is?”

Samson tensed, his smile vanishing.

“Well?” Magnolia said.

“Sorry. I can’t say.” Samson looked to Rodger. “I’ll need your help soon.”

Rodger gave a haphazard salute. “At your service, sir.”

“I better go see how bad things are,” Samson said. He hurried off toward the stern, where Alfred and his mechanics and engineers had gathered under the thrusters.

Michael’s gut clenched as he walked, the worries getting the best of him again. He had a really bad feeling about X. Nothing short of being on his deathbed would keep him from coming up on the rooftop.

“Make way!” someone yelled.

Michael stacked his crate and turned to see the medical crew carry several stretchers past the growing crowd on the rooftop. The civilians watching craned their necks to see who was being carried out. Edgar lay on one stretcher, looking up at the sky. Arlo was on another. He sat up, one hand on his belly, the other waving at the crowd—the hero home from the war.

The shit-eating grin on his face seemed to ruffle Magnolia. “Cocky little bastard,” she said.

Rodger laughed. “He’s going to need some new teeth.”

“Maybe you can make him some wooden ones,” Magnolia said.

“Yeah,” Rodger said, serious for the moment. “I bet I could.”

“Hey, Silver Fox, you got that flask?” Arlo called out.

The greenhorn divers all gathered around to watch. Several of them chanted “Thunder.”

Arlo waved like a celebrity, but Michael didn’t care. They all needed something to take the edge off.

“Make way!” yelled one of the medical workers.

The crowd parted. Dr. Huff walked alongside the third stretcher, which bore the militia soldier injured by the Siren that had sneaked aboard the ship. The only militia soldier to survive, he was lucky to be alive.

The crowd clapped as the injured were trundled away.

Michael wanted to ask Dr. Huff about X, but when they made eye contact, Huff picked up his pace, clearly not interested in a conversation.

The divers went back for more supply crates.

“Has anyone seen Sofia?” Magnolia asked.

Rodger jerked his chin toward the railing. Sofia stood there, away from everyone else, looking out over the water.

“I should go check on her for a moment,” Magnolia said.

Michael nodded and set down another crate.

“You think Sofia’s going to be okay?” Rodger asked.

“Eventually,” Michael replied. “I’m honestly a bit more concerned about Eevi right now. She seems to be getting worse.”

“Not to be a selfish prick, but when everyone thought I was dead, did…” Rodger’s words trailed off, and he blushed.

“Don’t worry, Rodgeman, Magnolia was pretty damn upset when el Pulpo skewered you,” Michael said.

“Not to compare, or anything.”

“She sure has taken a liking to you since then. Maybe now you’ll finally have some downtime to get to know each other better.”

Rodger pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I sure hope so. I’ve got a bad case of…”

Magnolia waved from the railing.

“Come on,” Michael said.

Rodger followed him under the airship, through the maze of lowered turbofans that the engineers and mechanics were already assessing for damage.

Before Michael even got to the railing, he saw the smoke rising over the water. He ran the rest of the way to Magnolia and Sofia.

The Cazador warship Renegade was having engine problems. It had stalled beyond the oil rig topped by the decommissioned Hive.

Smoke billowed away from the warship, and three tugboats had latched on to help push it back to the large rig the Cazadores used for ship repairs.

“I guess Colonel Moreto isn’t going anywhere for a while,” Michael said.

“It could be a trap,” Magnolia said.

“What do you mean?”

“What if she staged the ship to look disabled, when really it’s fully operational and can take out the capitol tower? I mean, her orders are to take the ship to the other fuel outpost, right? So maybe she’s buying herself time and really plans on taking us out.”

Sofia finally looked away from the rail. “With Rhino gone and Vargas dead, I could see her and Forge planning something like that,” she said. “To finish the job that Vargas failed on.”

The pieces of the puzzle locked into place in Michael’s mind, and he finally realized what Les meant by “stay vigilant.” Their king needed defending while he recovered from his injuries.

“Screw it,” Michael said. “I’m going to see X.”

Magnolia reached out to stop him, saying, “Les ordered us not to, Tin.”

“I know what he said, but I have to know if X is okay,” Michael said. “We can’t lose him now. We need him more than ever.”

Magnolia looked back out over the water. “I have a bad feeling Colonel Moreto is hoping that’s exactly what happens,” she said. “Rodge, get the laser rifles from the armory. We might need them.”

EIGHT

X awoke on the deck of Elysium, surrounded by dozens of Cazador warriors, all clanking their sharpened teeth while tapping their spear butts on the deck in unison. Blood smeared their tattooed skin, and several had someone else’s skin draped over their own.

At first, he thought the skinwalkers were real, that Horn had finally come with his warriors to claim the throne of the Vanguard Islands. But then X saw the other onlookers.

Standing on the platform outside the command center were ghosts from his past. Hell Diver Aaron Everhart gripped the rusted railing and looked down with the same hardened gaze that X remembered from their days of diving.

Michael often had that same stoic look. He had taken after his father in other ways, too.

But the younger Everhart wasn’t here in this dream. Only dead Hell Divers joined Aaron on the platform. Will, Rodney, Sam, Pipe, and a dozen other men and women who had made the ultimate sacrifice flanked Aaron. Former diver Captain Katrina DaVita stepped onto the platform with another old soul. Captain Maria Ash glanced down at X.

Only one non-sky person stood with his old friends. Nick “Rhino” Baker had his thick arms folded over his chest. Blood wept from the gashes and holes in his body. Raising an arm with an arrow stuck through it, he pointed to another ghost, behind X.

The Cazador warriors had parted to make way for el Pulpo. The dead king wasn’t alone, but the muscular younger man walking by his side wasn’t translucent. A horn crested a scratched metal helmet, and bloody strips of skin hung like tentacles from his head.

Horn, the bastard son of el Pulpo and heir to the throne, twirled two axes through the air, the blades flinging drops of blood.

The leader of the skinwalkers had indeed come to claim the throne in this dream.

The setting shifted, and X now rowed a small fishing boat. Choppy waves slapped the hull, rocking him gently. He tried to bring in the oars, but his right arm wouldn’t respond. Glancing down, he saw why. Red vines snaked around his muscles.

He startled as something swam alongside the boat and then jumped into the air, releasing a series of chirps. The smooth gray body of a dolphin splashed him with salt spray. Another darted under the waves, and then two more joined the first two. They leaped out of the ocean, crashing back down together. The pod of spinner dolphins circled the boat.

Over the clicking and splashes came the same voices from the sky. He recognized one of them.

Dr. Huff.

X looked up at a light brighter than the sun. He raised his right hand to cover his eyes.

“We have no choice,” Huff said. “We do this now, or he dies.”

X gritted his teeth in pain and looked down again at his arm. The vines tightened, cutting off the circulation.

“If we do this, the Cazadores will challenge him and try to take the throne,” said another voice.

“If we don’t, he’ll die anyway,” replied another.

The bright light intensified, and the view of ocean and dolphins vanished. The dreamscapes darkened, leaving X in a foggy limbo where he was only half aware.

He couldn’t feel much, but he knew that something terrible was happening to his body.

Sometime later, he awoke in a room that reeked of chemicals. He forced one eye open to a bright space with gray bulkheads. Definitely not his room at the capitol tower.

He was lying on a table, unable to move, paralyzed to the point that he felt only fear. Through his blurred vision, he could see the shapes of several people huddled over him. They seemed to be wearing white masks.

“I think he’s awake,” someone said.

“How is that possible?” replied another.

X tried to speak, but no words came. Something covered his mouth and nose.

A machine beeped, drawing his attention. Just when he saw the IV, one of the medical staff stuck a needle in his left arm. He didn’t feel the prick, but a warm sensation washed over him.

He was back aboard Elysium, and there was Horn, swinging an axe at him.

The blade came down on his upper right arm with such force, it nearly severed the limb.

X tried to scream, but nothing came.

“You almost got it!” said a distant voice.

X lifted his gaze from Horn back to Aaron. His old best friend nodded at him, and the dreamscape went dark.

Memories drifted through his mind, all of them taking the shape of dreams. In one, X journeyed through the wastes with Miles. In another, he sat in the Wingman with Marv and downed as much shine as he could without falling off the stool.

The next, he was sitting by his wife’s side while her body wasted away from the cancer. The next, he was with the only other woman he ever loved. Katrina and X were alone in the launch bay, their sweaty bodies wrapped in darkness. Finally, he recalled the dive to Hades where he lost Aaron and all of Team Raptor.

These were the life events that made X who he was—a good but flawed man, who had made many mistakes but always seemed to survive while other, better men and women perished.

More memories rushed through his mind, and he wondered whether this was what it felt like to die.

But as in so many other situations that should have killed him, X didn’t die. He awoke to the sound of beeping, back in the same bright room.

Several people stood at his bedside, checking monitors and watching him. Groggy and numb, he couldn’t move and could hardly see.

He knew that these people were nurses and doctors, and this was a medical ward. But why…?

Then he saw the bandaged stump.

“No,” he mumbled.

One of the masked onlookers reached out to him.

“Xavier, it’s okay,” the voice said. “You’re going to be okay.”

“Stay calm, my king,” said another.

X squirmed, remembering the nightmare battle with Horn. It hadn’t all been a dream after all.

But how had he…?

He managed to move and saw the bloody bone saw on a stainless steel table across the room. Then he saw Dr. Huff, washing his hands in a sink.

The son of a bitch had cut off his right arm above the elbow, leaving him with nothing but a stump and ending the life he had known.

“No,” he groaned, his voice growing louder. “You took my fucking arm!”

Dr. Huff turned from the sink.

“Sir, you need to stay still,” said a female nurse.

X finally managed to raise the stump, staring at it in shock.

There was no coming back from this. The Cazadores would never follow him now. He was a one-armed king who had lost his knife hand and could no longer protect his people.

He wouldn’t be able to swing a sword, fire a gun, swim, or even write his name as he used to. He would have to learn how to do everything over again, like a damn child.

“You’re going to be okay,” said the nurse. She leaned down and used a rag to wipe the sweat from his brow.

“No, I’m not,” X growled. “Do you know what you’ve done, Doc?”

Huff walked over. “I saved your life,” he said.

“The infection had spread,” said the nurse. “We had to do it.”

X kept his gaze on the doctor.

“You would have died if we didn’t take your arm, King Xavier,” Huff said.

The old mental anguish assailed him, just as it had back in the days when he spent his free time in the Wingman before and after dives. There was only one cure for this agony.

“Shine,” he mumbled.

Red sparks burst before his vision, and he felt a sharp pain where his arm had been.

He squirmed again, bumping the nurse who stood by his side. She moved, and X saw his severed arm resting on a blood-soaked towel.

Huff came in with another needle to put him back to sleep, but X grabbed the doctor with his remaining hand.

“No more needles, Doc,” he growled. “Give me some fucking shine.”

* * * * *

“Can we see him?” Magnolia asked.

Her heart thumped at the news that X was in surgery. No one knew exactly what was happening behind those doors, but it must be dire. Much worse than anyone from Discovery had anticipated.

Even Captain Mitchells seemed caught off guard.

She waited in a dark passage outside the medical ward with Les and all the Hell Divers, even the greenhorns. Militia soldiers had gathered to stand sentry at both ends of the passage outside the ward.

Miles sat on his haunches outside the door, whining. Ton and Victor flanked the dog, eyes ahead, like statues.

“It’s okay,” Magnolia said, crouching down to pet the dog.

Sloan spoke in hushed tones to the militia team on the right. She then jogged back over. In the glow of burning sconce torches, sweat trickled down her brow.

“How… how is he?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” Michael said. “He’s still in surgery.”

Sloan pulled out her radio and relayed a message.

“Sergeant Wynn, you got a sitrep?”

“Yes, Lieutenant. Everyone is in position. No one is getting past our defenses around the capitol rig. Don’t worry.”

“What about the warships? Any movement?”

“Negative,” said the sergeant. “Still in the same position, and they aren’t anchored.”

“Copy that.”

Still panting from the rush to get here, she put the radio away and unslung her submachine gun.

“Word about X has spread like fire,” she said, “and my scouts have reported movement of other Cazador forces. If King Xavier dies, I fully expect Colonel Moreto and / or Colonel Forge to make a play for the throne—maybe even before.”

“I told you,” Sofia said, looking at Magnolia.

“What can we do?” Ted asked. He swept his silver hair back from his green eyes. “There has to be something.”

“Keep your blasters at the ready,” Sloan said. “For now, we wait to see what happens.”

Miles got up and turned toward echoing footsteps. Rodger jogged down the passage with two laser rifles slung over his back. He gave one to Michael and handed the other to Magnolia as she shuddered from the implications.

Sofia’s theory wasn’t just correct; Lieutenant Sloan shared it. And it was exactly what Magnolia had feared before leaving for Rio de Janeiro—and exactly why she had told Rodger to stay here and help protect X.

She glared at him, but then, things would have gone badly if he hadn’t stowed away on the Sea Wolf and gone on the mission to Rio. If not for Rodger, she would have died at the Bloodline fuel outpost. No, this wasn’t Rodger’s fault.

Whatever madness had driven Rhino and X to try to kill Colonel Vargas was on them, and she had a feeling it was probably Rhino’s decision.

Footfalls echoed as more troops filtered into the passage. The group parted to allow a heavyset man through the group. Candlelight illuminated Samson’s sweaty features.

Miles got up to check out who was coming.

“Someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Samson called out.

Sloan explained to the chief engineer.

“Have you tried contacting Colonel Forge and Colonel Moreto?” he asked.

“Yes, Moreto claims that Renegade is having engine troubles and that they are mobilizing troops just in case the skinwalkers show up,” she said. “I don’t believe a damn word of it.”

“Me, either,” Magnolia said.

Samson took in the information, then looked to the medical ward’s doors. “How is X?”

“We still don’t know,” Les said.

“I don’t understand why you kept this from us for so long,” Michael said.

The captain sighed. “I didn’t know he was in this bad a shape, Commander. It shocked me when I came down to talk to him and found out he was being hauled off to surgery.”

Sloan cleared her throat. “We specifically didn’t want this information to be released widely. It was a risk to tell Captain Mitchells even over the encrypted channel, for fear it would lead to a coup. But we told him so he could at least be prepared when you all returned.”

Les changed the subject.

“How are the airship repairs coming along?” he asked Samson.

“Going to take a while.” He dabbed his eyes with his handkerchief and stifled a cough. “You used a lot of ammunition on the mission, too, and we’re almost out of rounds for the twenty-millimeter Miniguns.”

“I know, but I had no choice,” Les said. “How far are we from getting her in the air again? She’s a sitting duck on the tower right now.”

“I could get her in the air now, Captain, but we can’t fix the thrusters or turbofans while we’re in the sky.”

“I know. Damn it, I know.” Les looked up at the ceiling, then back to Samson. “Perhaps we should consider getting her into the cloud cover, just in case the Cazadores decide to try anything.”

“That I can do, sir.”

Les didn’t look at anyone else for consideration. He simply nodded and said, “Turn on the engines. I’ll be up shortly.”

“You got it, Captain.”

Samson took off, pulling up his pants as he hurried away.

“Lieutenant, you’re the only one that seems to know what’s going on with X,” Magnolia said. “We’d all like the full story.”

Sloan waved them into a room across the hall. The Hell Divers and support staff, including Layla, walked over while Miles remained at the doors.

“Come on,” Magnolia said in a soft voice.

The dog whined and turned back to the door. The sight broke her heart, but Magnolia had to go with the other divers. She was the last inside the room and shut the door behind her.

“This is classified,” said Sloan.

“Got it,” Michael said. “Now, tell us what happened.”

“Colonel Vargas was preparing to kill X, or so General Rhino believed,” she said. “They came up with a plan to kill him first but ended up getting their small team ambushed.”

“So that’s what he was trying to tell me over the radio,” Michael said.

“X was in bad shape after,” Sloan continued, “but we got him stabilized, and he even decided to hold a damn council meeting. Then the infection started and, finally, flesh-eating bacteria.”

“Flesh-eating what?” Rodger asked.

“Necrotizing fasciitis is what Dr. Huff called it,” Sloan said. “He’s been in and out of consciousness for the past two days while medical staff tried to treat the infection with antibiotics that didn’t work.”

“His body’s been through a lot over the years,” Les said. “All that time in the wastes. Maybe it’s resistant to antibiotics now.”

“That’s what Dr. Huff thinks, too,” Sloan said, “and unfortunately, there isn’t much we could do about the flesh-eating bacteria besides hack off his arm.”

Michael bowed his head, and Layla put a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said.

“X is the strongest man in the universe,” Rodger said. “He’s not going to die. He’s, like, a superhero.”

Normally, everyone would have agreed out loud, but the divers and support staff didn’t respond. They all knew how serious this was.

The door to the room swung open, and Dr. Huff stepped out with his white mask pulled down under his chin. Everyone got up from the table, boxing him in front of the doors.

“Is X out of surgery?” Les asked.

“How is he?” Michael said.

Magnolia held her breath.

The doctor looked at them in turn and then sighed. “He’s out of surgery and alive,” he said.

“When can we see him?” Michael asked.

“He needs rest, Commander. He’s got a long recovery ahead, and he isn’t out of the woods yet. These next twenty-four hours are vital to whether he survives or not.”

“Sur… vives?” Michael stammered.

“His body has been through extreme trauma, and this wasn’t just a normal infection.”

“I already told them,” Sloan said.

“Then you all know if we hadn’t cut off his arm, it would have spread and killed him.”

“Which arm?” Michael asked.

Huff checked the door to make sure it was closed. Then he seemed to relax, his shoulders slouching. “His right arm. He’s lucky to be alive, frankly.”

“Any other man wouldn’t have made it out of the Purple Pearl,” said Sloan. “He’s going to make it. I have no doubt.”

Huff didn’t reply, and Magnolia sensed he was holding something back.

“Let’s give the doc some space,” Les said. “There’s nothing we can do for X right now.”

Huff left the room, and everyone else trailed him back into the hallway. Ton and Victor moved aside so he could open the doors. Magnolia held Miles back when the dog tried to charge into the room.

She glimpsed an operating space, the floor slick with blood. The view vanished as the doors closed behind Huff.

Right before they clicked shut, a gruff voice called out, “Shine!”

Miles pulled harder, trying to get out of Magnolia’s grasp.

“It’s okay, buddy,” she said. “Your dad’s going to be okay.”

“Is that X?” Layla asked.

“He’s calling out for shine,” said Rodger.

Ted pulled a flask from his jumpsuit. “I’ve got some.”

“Put that shit away,” Magnolia said.

“Come on, let the doctor do his work,” Les said, starting away. “We need to get to the rooftop.”

Magnolia stood her ground. She didn’t want to leave this hallway with X in such bad shape. “I’m staying,” she said.

Rodger nodded.

“I am, too,” said Michael.

Les stopped and then walked back to the divers.

“Look,” he said, “I know you’re both worried, but the best thing we can do right now is do our jobs and get Discovery ready for the next mission. I’m going to fly the airship somewhere safe, and I’d like you both with me.”

“The next mission?” Michael said. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Les gave him a cold look. “Commander, I don’t like your tone,” he said.

“All due respect, sir, but I don’t like being kept in the dark about things, and while you may not have known the extent of X’s injuries, I know there are other things you aren’t telling us.”

“You are a Hell Diver, Commander Everhart,” Les said. “And what I tell you or keep from you is at my discretion. Classified information has always worked that way in the sky, as it will here at the Vanguard Islands.”

“Sir, having served under Captain Leon Jordan, I understand very well how things have worked in the past.”

“Are you, too, comparing me to Jordan now, Commander?”

Magnolia had already done it once and regretted it, but now Michael had doubled down on what he earlier chided her for.

Les, who was not easily riled, breathed heavily. The heated conversation drew the gaze of the warriors holding security outside the medical ward.

“Let’s take this somewhere else, shall we?” Magnolia suggested.

“Good idea,” Layla said.

Michael seemed to back down at her touch, but then he pulled his arm away from her hand.

“X is lying in there near death, Captain,” he said. “If we lose X, we lose everything. I’m staying here to guard him.”

Miles whined again and finally got up and walked over to sit between Magnolia and Michael. She gently scratched the dog’s head.

Les still breathed heavily, but he seemed to calm down slightly. Michael had stepped up to the doors, trying to look around the shades that had been drawn over the windows.

“I know you’re upset about X, and that he’s like a father to you, Commander, but you need to think about the big picture,” he said. “Anger is the path toward mistakes. I know from experience.”

Michael also seemed to relax. He slowly turned from the doors to face the captain. Miles settled back down, once again sitting outside the doors.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Michael said. “It’s just…”

“Emotions are running high in all of us after what happened in Rio, and back here while we were gone,” Les said. He looked at everyone in turn. “As I said before we touched down, we have to stay vigilant. All of us.”

Michael nodded.

“We’re prepared for any and all threats,” Sloan said.

Ton, Victor, and a dozen militia soldiers came closer, ready to protect the king from any attempt to finish him off.

“The tower is on lockdown,” Sloan continued, “and our aerial defenses are operational. As soon as Discovery is back in the sky, we will have a second line of defense.” She turned to Les. “Assuming you aren’t planning to take it on a mission anytime soon.”

All eyes returned to the captain.

“That depends,” he said after a pause. He let out another long sigh. “I guess it’s time I told you all the truth, but first we need to get Discovery airborne.”

“Okay,” Michael said.

“Mags, Rodge, Michael, I need your help,” Les said. “Rest of the divers, we’ll need you, too.”

Michael unslung his laser rifle and handed it to Sloan. “Use this to protect X.”

“Mine, too,” Magnolia said, handing Sloan the other rifle.

Michael led the group of Hell Divers away from the medical ward, past the militia soldiers standing guard.

“Defend X at all costs,” Michael said. “He’s done the same for all of us.”

NINE

Les rushed to the rooftop with his team in tow. Since returning to the islands, he had only briefly seen his wife and daughter, and now he was heading back into the sky without even saying goodbye.

But he had a damn good reason. Their fate, and that of everyone on the islands, was wired to the heartbeat of a man ten floors below. A man who had been very hard to kill over the years—a man who some believed to be an immortal god.

It would take only one crazed Cazador to convince the others that this wasn’t the case, and the rumors spreading through the rigs seemed to be doing just that.

“He’s on his way to the Octopus Lords,” one militia soldier had overheard a Cazador saying at the trading-post rig.

“King Xavier has lost his mind,” another Cazador had said at the rig where they worked on the warships.

Les knew that if the rumors continued to spread and the troops rallied to finish off the king, they would start by hitting the capitol tower. Those weapons would also target their most valuable asset—Discovery.

As captain, it was Les’s responsibility to make sure they didn’t get the chance, even if it meant leaving his family behind. At least, from the sky, he could protect them.

He ran up the final stairwell, the sound of footsteps behind him. Layla had remained behind, but Rodger, Magnolia, Michael, and the greenhorn divers were following, all of them in their civilian clothing.

Sergeant Wynn waited for them on the rooftop outside the Sky Arena with several of his troops. They handed out several assault rifles and magazines.

“You might need these,” Wynn said. “Since we already unloaded most of the airship.”

The divers took the assault rifles, and Les took a moment to survey the rooftop. The area was devoid of civilians, but a militia patrol marched within view under the moonlight.

“What’s the status, Sergeant?” Les asked.

“All our weapons are directed at the Cazador ships and boats,” Wynn said. “Both Renegade and Elysium have moved positions, and dozens of smaller vessels have taken to the water with Cazador sailors and soldiers.”

“Holy wastes,” Magnolia breathed.

“Who is guarding the borders and watching for the machines or skinwalkers?” Les asked.

Wynn spat in the dirt. “We have vessels out there watching for hostiles, but not nearly enough.”

“What about Colonel Forge? Do we know where he is?”

“My scouts have reported he is on the warship Shadow,” Wynn replied, “and the company loyal to him has not joined Moreto yet. Forge is patrolling the border, watching for the skinwalkers, as directed by King Xavier in the last council meeting.”

“We need to get in the sky,” Les said. He started running toward Discovery. “Protect the capitol tower, Sergeant,” he said over his shoulder.

The divers followed him at a run all the way across the rooftop. Machine-gun nests pointed out over the railings. The militia had even installed a mobile missile launcher.

Also, the thirty-millimeter cannons taken off old-world warships were now mounted in strategic locations. They were the same cannons the Cazadores had fired at Discovery and the Hive during the battle for the Vanguard Islands.

Les swallowed hard at the thought of going back to war. This had to stop, and with X disabled, he had to be the one to stop it.

A voice called out from under the airship. Engineers, technicians, and mechanics were still at work, with Alfred and Samson supervising the repairs.

“Got another turbofan up and running,” Samson called out. “But we still have only three of the six thrusters operational.”

“We’ll deal with the thrusters later,” Les said. “Get back inside the tower unless you’re coming with.”

“I’ll come,” he grunted.

Alfred and his team of technicians also joined them.

They stopped at the side entrance to the airship. To Les’s surprise, Eevi was waiting at the ramp, wearing her white uniform and standing stiffly at attention.

“Captain, I hear you need a flight crew,” she said.

“You heard right.”

“Permission to come aboard.”

“Permission granted, Ensign,” he said. “Glad to have you back.”

Two militia soldiers opened the hatch and let them inside.

The passageway to the bridge took the team past the sealed interior launch-bay doors. Passengers rescued from Rio de Janeiro were still quarantined inside, and Les slowed to check on them.

Most of them sat or lay on their bunks, but several stood at the door, looking out. A girl the age of his Phyl smiled and raised a hand at Les. He tried to smile and waved back at her, then pushed onward.

“Michael, take the divers to loading dock two,” Les said. “Samson, Eevi, with me.”

Michael peeled off at the next intersection with the divers. Two more militia soldiers stood guard outside the bridge. They used the keypad to open the doors.

Overhead lights clicked on as Les stepped inside the empty space. “Fire her up, Timothy,” he commanded. “We’re taking off.”

The AI appeared in the center of the bridge, the glow washing over the stations.

“I was hoping you’d say that, sir,” said Timothy. “I’ve had plenty of time to watch the events unfolding outside, and frankly, I don’t like what I’m seeing with the cameras.”

“That makes two of us.”

Les took the captain’s chair, and Samson and Eevi sat at the stations to get them operational. With Layla staying behind, he must rely on the two of them and Timothy to get them in the air and keep them there.

“Path is clear for liftoff,” Timothy said. “Turning on turbofans and retracting legs.”

The deck rumbled, and the bulkheads vibrated with a distant whining sound.

Several warning sensors rang out, but Les ignored them, keeping his attention on the monitor to his right. The working turbofans activated at a low speed, lifting the airship slowly off the surface.

“Steady as she goes, Timothy,” Les said.

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

The speakers crackled with a message from the combat operations center.

“Weapons systems are online,” Samson said. “What’s left of them, that is.”

“Timothy, how many missiles do we have?” Les asked.

“Twenty of the smaller Sidewinders, eight Hellcats, and three cruise missiles, plus twenty-one bombs,” Timothy said. “That’s the good news. The bad news is, we’re almost out of twenty-millimeter ammo.”

“We won’t be needing it tonight,” Les said.

The airship rumbled as it continued to rise off the rooftop. They were even more vulnerable now that they had risen into the sky. Being grounded had at least provided some cover from the Cazador warships.

“Eevi, I want you to identify and then target every single Cazador vessel out there with our Sidewinders and Hellcats,” Les ordered.

“Define ‘every single Cazador vessel,’ ” she replied, visibly taken aback.

“The warships all the way down to the fishing boats.” Les turned toward her. “Anything bigger than a WaveRunner or a dinghy.”

“Roger that, sir.”

Les tapped his screen again, opening the hatches over the bow windows. The Sirens and the bats had done a number on them. Cracks webbed across the glass, but at least they were clean of blood, giving a clear view of the dazzling star-filled sky.

He swung his monitor away on the stand and got up from his chair. Through a section of unbroken glass, he studied the water below. He had no problem identifying both Elysium and Renegade.

“Eevi, are they targeting us?” Les asked.

“Not yet, sir.”

“Send out an alert to hold on to something, then fire the thrusters and get us out of range ASAP.”

Les strapped into his chair as a message to hold on went out in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. The short wait was agonizing, and he braced to take enemy fire. This wasn’t his first time to face the possibility of being blown from the sky, but he hadn’t expected it to happen here at home.

The enemy fire never came, and the bank of boosters finally fired, propelling the airship into the sky.

Les had to give X time to heal by keeping the Cazadores away from the capitol tower. The king had gambled and lost, leaving himself even more exposed to assassination attempts.

Now it was on the Hell Divers in the lower compartment, the militia on the rooftop, and the few trusted Cazador allies like Colonel Forge to protect them—assuming that Forge was indeed an ally.

“Ten thousand feet and climbing,” Timothy said. “Life-support systems at seventy percent.”

“Thrusters are holding, but I’m diverting power from the turbofans,” Samson said.

“I’ve got weapons locked on every vessel in range,” Timothy said.

Les was fully prepared to give the order to send them to their Octopus Lords. But the thought reminded him of something Ada Winslow would have said. He thought of his former XO as the airship climbed.

Sloan was telling people she had killed herself, but Les knew the truth. He wondered where she was now, whether she was even still alive out there.

She had been right all along. The Cazadores would try to kill King Xavier.

But that still didn’t absolve her of her sins. She had disobeyed orders and committed mass murder and deserved punishment for putting everyone at risk. Still, Les felt conflicted in a way he hadn’t before. He pushed the thoughts aside.

“We’re almost out of range of their weapons,” Timothy said. “Should be clear in thirty seconds.”

Les began to relax. If the Cazadores were going to fire, they would have already. But that didn’t mean they weren’t planning something.

“All clear,” Timothy said.

“Good, you have the bridge,” Les said. “Let me know ASAP if anything happens on the surface.”

Samson coughed into his handkerchief and then stood up at his station.

“Where are you going, sir?” he asked in a scratchy voice.

“To brief the Hell Divers on what Pedro told us about the defectors.”

Eevi also stood. “I’d like to hear this, too.”

“And I,” Samson said.

“I can handle the bridge, sir,” Timothy said.

Les realized that they both needed to know. He jerked his chin for them to follow, and together they left the bridge.

“It’s good to be back at work,” Eevi said. “Keeps my mind off Alexander.”

“That’s how it’s been for me after losing Trey,” he said.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, aside from Samson’s sporadic coughing. When they got to compartment two in the lower decks, all the divers were in their armor and preparing their gear for a dive.

“We’re out of enemy firing range,” Les said. “So everybody can relax for now. Timothy’s got the Cazador vessels on the surface locked on, just in case.”

The divers circled around, more relaxed now.

“I’ve got something to tell you that’s classified,” Les said. “Something I learned from Pedro.”

“The leader of the refugees?” Sofia asked.

“Right. Timothy, bring up the recording of my conversation with Pedro and feed it through the monitor in compartment two.”

The divers huddled around the wall-mounted monitor. A video of Les talking to Pedro inside the launch bay came on the screen.

Wearing a space suit to avoid exposing the refugees to germs, Les had Timothy with him to translate their conversation.

“Turn up the volume,” Les said.

“Pedro, I want to be very clear, we’re here to help you,” Les said in the feed. “We’re going to bring your people to a place where the sun shines and the water is clear. A place without monsters and the machines we call defectors.”

The bunker survivor revealed very little emotion throughout their conversation.

“But this place we call home isn’t safe from the machines, and I need to understand better what you know,” Les said.

Pedro raised a bushy brow. He finally spoke, and the conversation continued to feed through the monitor in compartment two.

“The machines have a base—a place that humanity tried to destroy during the war many, many years ago. Unlike most of the major cities, Rio de Janeiro survived the nukes, but the machines forced my ancestors underground months after.”

“The machines came to the city to hunt survivors?”

“Yes,” Pedro said. “My ancestors joined a coalition of other surviving South American countries to fight them many, many moons ago, and we launched an offensive to their base in East Africa.”

Even now, watching the video on-screen, Les got the chills.

“It was believed that they could shut down the machines if they destroyed the ITC hub facility,” Pedro said. “The offensive did destroy many of the machines, but in the end, it failed, killing every man and woman who set out to destroy them.”

“And afterward?” Les asked.

Pedro looked at the floor in the video. Then he glanced back up. “We hid like everyone else out there, and we never came out until you and those monster men found us.”

* * * * *

Ada hid under a lab station. She had never experienced fear like this—so paralyzing, she couldn’t move anything but her trembling lips.

The station was in the back of the pitch-dark lab. For the past eight hours, she had hunkered down with her legs pulled up to her chest, like the skeletal remains of the scientist she had discovered. Praying that the creatures prowling the passages wouldn’t get in.

But at some point, she would have to face them. She couldn’t bring herself to move from under the lab station. No matter how much she wanted to be like X, she couldn’t summon the courage.

He would never have gotten on this ship. He would have stuck to his plan and kept rowing until he couldn’t row anymore. The risk wasn’t worth the simple rope and tools she had scavenged, or the brief respite from the choppy water.

As she sat there cursing her stupidity, she suddenly realized she hadn’t heard the beasts for a while.

In fact, she wasn’t sure when she had heard them last.

This is your chance, girl. Time to move your ass.

She reached up and turned on her helmet lamp, praying for it to work. The beam lit up one of the exploded glass chambers across the room.

Careful not to make a sound, she scooted out from under the lab station. Then she pushed herself up and started back toward the hatch she had entered.

Crossing the lab gave her time to look at the broken vats. Skirts of glass shards lay on the deck where the chambers had shattered. From the looks of it, whatever was inside had broken out.

But what?

She had spent so much time hiding, she hadn’t been able to explore this lab. Now wasn’t the time to start, though.

Her lamp showed a path to the hatch. She kept it aimed ahead, trying to ignore the brown stains on the overhead and the deck. It was hard to ignore, just outside the beam of her light, what looked like a ripped garbage bag made of skin.

She froze, keeping her head forward.

The edges of the white glow illuminated the rust-colored pile, but she didn’t need the full beam to recognize human remains.

No, you don’t need to look.

She couldn’t help herself, though, and the beam roved to the pile of bones. Moving the light away, she kept walking, alternating glances between the hatch and the deck. The last thing she wanted to do was step on glass.

Halfway across the lab, she spotted something on the bulkhead to the right—something she had missed on the way in. Another room lay beyond the shattered glass wall. Inside, a row of empty cages sat against another bulkhead.

Again powerless to resist, she angled her light at the room. Most of the cages were open, but several had closed gates. The bars of several were pulled apart, as if the animal inside had bent them back to escape.

She returned to the vats.

Whatever animals the lab technicians had kept in this space had broken out.

But how?

It doesn’t matter. They’re here.

Ada pressed on, not stopping until she got to the hatch. She slung her rifle, grabbed the handle, and listened for the beasts outside.

Hearing nothing, she pulled up the bar, flinching at the clicking noise. She pulled her rifle out again, heart pounding.

No more screeches echoed through the ship. Once she had her breathing under control, she strode into the passage with her rifle barrel pointed to the right.

The beam revealed no contacts that way, but she did see the vegetation. Seeing nothing to her left, she went that way, back through the engine room.

A few minutes later, she was heading up the same dark ladder she had unwisely descended. The next level up, the remains of plants she had chopped littered the floor. But they looked different somehow.

Drawing closer, she saw why.

Something had eaten them.

The ends of several vines were frayed like a gnawed rope, and purple goo wept from puncture wounds in the thicker limbs. Her light confirmed teethmarks.

But if these beasts fed on the flora, why hadn’t she seen that earlier?

Perhaps these vines were like a farm they hadn’t yet harvested, and her cutting through them had prompted a feeding. Tamping down the panic, she hurried through the half-eaten mess.

One of the vines reached up as she stepped over it, snagging her ankle. She kicked out of it and took off at a wary jog.

She reached the passage where she had to crawl under the broken overhead and support beams. To avoid any unnecessary clanking, she put everything hanging off her belt into the backpack.

Her lamp flickered as she approached the sharp debris.

No, no, no!

She shook it, and when the beam came on again, she wasted no time. Crawling under the crossbeams would take a few minutes if she was fast but going fast could compromise her suit. She wiggled under the beams and collapsed bulkheads, keeping low, rifle in her right hand.

Halfway through, she spotted the end of the low passage. From there, it was a short hike back up to the weather deck and her boat.

Salvation was near. She just had to make it a bit farther.

The rifle barrel hit a bulkhead with a loud clank. A screech came in reply.

Ada scrabbled forward, low and fast. The screech had come from behind her, but she dare not turn with her lamp.

On all fours, she crawled under a section with higher clearance.

Almost there, almost…

The screech turned into a hiss. This time she did risk a glance.

Fur darted away from the beam, and the hissing faded. She started crawling fast when the creature bolted into the collapsed passageway, red eyes glowing in the light.

A scream escaped her when she saw the thing. The face and torso looked ratlike, but it had prosthetic legs and arms made of metal.

It scuttled toward her, the metal claws clicking on the deck. The same thing she had heard below.

Ada swung her rifle around and got the abomination in her sights. The thing opened its mouth, a snakelike tongue slithering out along with a hiss. Still screaming, she pulled the trigger.

The bullet took off a leg, and the creature flopped onto its side.

Not waiting to see whether it got back up, Ada crawled until she was free of the cramped passage. Standing, she slung her rifle, knowing she wouldn’t have time to load another round.

She unsheathed the machete instead and took off running for the hatch that led back to the deck outside. More hissing and screeching followed.

From the sounds, she had at least three of the mechanical rodents trailing her. When she got to the hatch, she swung it open and looked back just as they came skittering around the corner.

Only these weren’t all rodents. One was bigger than the others and had the face of a primate. Some sort of monkey, also with prosthetic metal limbs and tubes coming out of its torso.

She screamed again in horror.

Grabbing the hatch, she slammed it shut before any of the creatures could get outside. They thumped into the other side, mechanical claws scratching on metal.

Ada ran toward the bow of the ship. Halfway across the deck, something shattered behind her. Two of the creatures skidded down the bulkhead of the crushed command center. Another leaped out of the broken window.

Gripping the machete, she sprinted to the gunwale and peered over. Her boat was still there, but the chain had come undone and it was hanging only by the rope. She swung her legs over the other side as more creatures flooded out of the command center.

She would never be able to climb down before they got to her. The only option was to jump. But she couldn’t swim and jumping into the boat would break her legs and maybe her neck.

Her eye caught the life buoy she had seen earlier. It lay between her and the monsters, but she had no choice. For this to work, she must act fast.

With her machete in the air, she ran at the three monsters, screaming like a Cazador during the battle for the Metal Islands.

The monkey-faced creature leaped at her, and she swung the blade, hacking off its nose and knocking it away. Both rodents jumped at her at the same time. She ducked below them and slid.

Coming to a stop, she grabbed the buoy and wrapped it around her body with the rope and pack she wore.

A dozen of the mechanical hybrid monsters darted toward her from the command center, crossing the deck like a swarm of insects.

She ran, swiping at the two rodents that had jumped over her seconds earlier. Her machete took off two legs of the first beast, and she kicked the second in the face, sending it sailing like an old-world soccer ball.

When she got back to the gunwale, she took off the buoy, her bag, and the rope, which she uncoiled. The bag went overboard, onto the boat’s deck.

She tied one end of the rope to the machete’s hilt and snugged the machete between the rail bracket and the top edge of the hull, then grabbed the free end of the rope. Putting the buoy around her midsection, she climbed up onto the rail, hoping she had the courage to jump.

But the screeching, hissing monsters were all the motivation she needed. Holding the rope, she sprang out, over the boat, and watched the water rush up to meet her boots. She splashed under the surface.

She pulled on the rope she held, praying that the machete would stay locked in place. Hand over hand, she hauled herself toward the surface.

She finally burst through and flopped over the waves like a fish on a line. Then, kicking and pulling, she got to her boat.

Grabbing the side and hooking a heel, she managed to pull herself over the gunwale.

The mechanical monsters were already skittering down the hull like crabs.

She shook the machete loose, and when it fell, she pulled it out of the water and swung it against the bow rope mooring her boat to the ship. It took three hacks to sever the line, and two more to cut the stern rope. When it snapped, the boat lurched and she fell on the deck.

Dripping, she scrambled to the controls. The engine fired right up, and she steered away, not looking back until she had put some distance between herself and the ghost ship.

The hybrid beasts were climbing back up the hull, heading back to their lairs now they had missed out on their meal.

No more exploring, she thought. Stay focused and stay on course.

Speeding away, she wondered whether X would be proud of her performance back on the ship. One thing she had learned: she had better survival skills than she’d thought.

TEN

“There are too many of them, and they have us surrounded,” Michael said.

A holographic map of the Vanguard Islands hovered over the central table on the bridge of Discovery. The rest of the crew, including Rodger, Magnolia, Samson, Sofia, and Les, huddled around to look at the positions of every Cazador vessel, ranging from the smallest skiffs and runabouts to the warships.

Rookie Hell Divers Ted, Lena, Hector, and Alberto were also here, standing behind the table and ready to pitch in.

Les said, “Even if we can take them all out from the sky, it will expend the ammunition we need for…”

Michael still hadn’t quite processed everything they had learned back in the briefing room, but he knew what the captain wanted the ammunition for: to destroy the defector base in Africa.

They also had the skinwalkers to consider, and he had a feeling they would show up sooner rather than later. If they knew that X was dying, they would come now.

“Samson, get Lieutenant Sloan on the encrypted line,” Les said.

The chief engineer sat down at the comms station.

“What can we do?” Ted asked.

“Go to compartment two with Rodger,” Michael said. “Put on your gear, and be ready.”

“Ready for what, a dive?” Lena asked.

“Anything,” Michael said.

“Why do I have to go?” Rodger asked.

“Because I don’t think any of them even know where compartment two is,” Michael said.

“Go on, Rodger,” Mags said.

With a groan, he led the rookies and Sofia off the bridge just in time for a report from Samson.

“Lieutenant Sloan says the militia has been pulled back from the other rigs to protect the Hive and the capitol tower. So far, there have been no attacks on boats carrying our troops.”

Michael looked at the holographic map again. Several of the red dots representing Cazador vessels blinked to indicate movement. As he watched the warships Elysium and Renegade, the realization hit him.

“Colonel Moreto isn’t going to attack,” he said. “Not yet, at least.”

“How do you know?” Les asked.

“She’s waiting to see if X will die on his own.”

“I don’t understand how they even know about his condition,” Magnolia said.

“There’s a mole, maybe several, on the capitol tower,” Samson said. “The militia has done a sweep, but it could be anyone.”

“Imulah and many other Cazadores have been living with us since the war ended,” Michael said.

“Imulah isn’t the rat,” Magnolia said. “He knows I’d skewer him in horrible ways.”

Les stroked his jaw, thinking. “The damage is already done,” he said. “Nothing we can do now but wait.”

“Or we could do what X did,” Michael said.

Les looked up from the table. “Not sure I follow you, Commander.”

“He went after Vargas and killed him before the bastard could make a play for the throne. We could do the same thing to Carmela.”

Magnolia seemed to like the idea. “I’ll take her out.”

“No one is taking out anyone unless they make a move,” Les said. “Colonel Forge still appears to be neutral. Think what would happen if we attacked Moreto.”

“All due respect, sir,” said Michael, “but it takes only one of their cannons to kill our families on the capitol tower. If you don’t want to waste ordnance, I’m sure we can figure something else out.”

Magnolia smirked, probably thinking the same thing Michael was.

“Oh, hell no,” Les said. “You want to dive?”

They both nodded.

“I’ll take the bitch dead or alive,” Magnolia said. “Just give me the order, Cap.”

Les seemed to consider their options, giving Michael a few stolen moments to do the same. Diving onto a Cazador warship was not the sanest of ideas. Layla definitely wouldn’t approve.

But Les was right about saving their ammunition unless they were forced to fire. There had to be a better way, and diving was the best he could think of.

“Timothy, any bright ideas?” Les asked.

The AI turned, stroking his perfectly groomed holographic beard.

“What about contacting Colonel Forge to try and negotiate his support?” Timothy asked. “I’ve observed his behavior over the past few months, and he seems to be the most reasonable of the Black Order.”

“We don’t know Forge,” Magnolia said. “We can’t trust him.”

“Perhaps, though I believe it was Colonel Vargas and Colonel Moreto who threatened X all along,” Timothy said. “But I don’t believe she has full support of the fractured military.”

“I hope you’re right,” Les said.

“So X and Rhino killed the wrong officer on the Black Order,” Michael said.

Samson coughed, drawing everyone’s attention. The hefty engineer was getting weaker by the day, but he was still here, still working.

“General Rhino advised X to kill both of them, but X decided to send Colonel Moreto away to the Iron Reef, in Belize,” said the engineer. “X feared that killing her would cause more problems, and the best thing to do was send her on a mission.”

“So she made Renegade look disabled to buy time, instead of leaving for the Iron Reef?” Les said.

“That seems a logical assumption,” Timothy said.

“So why are we still talking? I say we end the bitch.” Magnolia stroked the hilt of one of her curved blades. “I’d be happy to do it free of charge.”

Les walked over to the open hatches and stared up at the glittery sky.

After seeing the captain make several knee-jerk reactions regarding the defectors, Michael was pleased to see him ponder this decision.

With each passing second, the threat of another battle became more of a reality.

The Cazadores were watching. They knew what the sky people were doing, and Carmela, like a snake, waited to strike.

“Captain,” Timothy said, “I’m detecting gunfire on the surface.”

“Where?”

Michael joined the huddle around the map.

“Here.” Timothy pointed to the second-biggest red dot on the map.

“That’s Renegade,” Michael said.

“Yes, Commander.”

“Can you get us a visual?” Les asked.

“Negative, Captain. The gunfire is limited in scope and appears to be isolated to that one ship.”

The radio buzzed, and Samson brought the transmission over the speakers.

“Captain, this is Lieutenant Sloan, do you copy?”

“Copy, Lieutenant. What’s going on down there?”

“I’m not sure, sir, but there’s some sort of battle taking place on Renegade’s weather deck.”

“Can you move some of our vessels to get a closer look?”

“Might be risky, but your call, sir.”

Les glanced over at Michael and Magnolia.

“We need to know what’s going on,” Michael said.

“Agreed,” Les said. “Lieutenant, send in your best to get a visual, and report back.”

“Copy that, sir.”

Les paced along the map as they waited.

“Sir,” Magnolia said, “if you want your best down there, you should send me and Tin.”

Les halted.

“We’ll dive in under cover of darkness,” Michael said. “They’ll never see us coming or know we’re there.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Les said. “And if this is a coup, we need to stay out of it.”

“All due respect, but if this is a coup, we need to make sure the right side wins,” Michael said. “Let Mags and me go. We won’t interfere, but we will report back to you.”

“We wait until we hear from Lieutenant Sloan,” Les said firmly.

Michael didn’t protest. He was already in hot water with the captain for their argument outside the medical ward. And Michael still felt guilt over the death of Les’s son in Jamaica.

Minutes ticked by. Two hours had already passed since they took to the sky, and the bomb’s fuse was hovering very near the flame.

White noise filled the bridge. Samson worked the radio to clear it. The doors whisked open, and Rodger returned.

“The rookies are with Sofia in compartment two,” he said. “What’d I miss?”

Les put a finger to his mouth as the transmission played over the speakers.

“Captain, this is Lieutenant Sloan again. We’ve got eyes on Renegade via Sergeant Wynn and a team…”

Static broke up the transmission.

“Come again, Lieutenant?” said Les. “I didn’t catch your last.”

“Wynn is reporting other Cazador vessels and boats sailing for Renegade,” Sloan replied, “but we’re not sure who is who.”

“You were right, this is a coup,” Les said to Michael.

“But who’s leading it?” Magnolia said.

The speakers crackled again.

“Captain, I just got another report from Wynn,” Sloan said. “They’re hearing something about a team of Barracudas that boarded Renegade, and small-arms fire on the deck.”

Rodger joined the group around the map, keeping quiet.

“General Rhino’s old team?” Magnolia said.

“I’ll be damned,” Michael said. “General Rhino is still protecting X, even in death.”

He stepped up to Les. “Sir, permission to dive and help them.”

“Me, too,” Magnolia said.

Rodger chimed in. “Me, too.”

“No,” Magnolia and Michael said in unison.

Les snorted and looked at the overhead. “All right, Commanders,” he said. “Permission to dive, but no one else.”

Michael smiled.

“And, Commanders,” Les said, “please see that the Barracudas win this fight.”

* * * * *

Pinpricks glowed across the surface like a halo of burning stars. From the airship’s lower compartment, one might have confused the ocean below with a constellation in the night sky. But Magnolia knew better. The lights were torches burning on the decks of Cazador vessels that had surrounded the Hive and the capitol tower below.

She crouched near an open hatch in the deck of compartment two on Discovery, where the hoist cables remained coiled like massive snakes. Michael stood nearby, checking his gear one last time.

The other divers were all here, trying to get a good look.

“I should be coming,” Rodger said.

Magnolia leveled her helmet at him. “Rodge, I’m going to say this once more. You. Stay. Here. Got it?”

“If you get into trouble, then—”

“Rodge, you break a direct order, and we’re going to have major problems,” Michael said.

Magnolia stood and tapped her wrist monitor to check her systems. They had rushed to get into their gear and grab their weapons. Everything had been relocated because the new passengers were still quarantined in the launch bay.

She latched the leather pad over her battery unit to mask the glow. No need to give anyone an easy target.

“Good to go,” she said.

Michael pulled a fresh magazine from his tactical vest and slapped it into his rifle.

“Captain, this is Raptor One,” he said. “Ready to dive.”

“Raptor Two, online and ready,” Magnolia confirmed.

“Be careful,” Les said.

Michael crouched near the open hatch in the deck. “Hope you’re listenin’ to the cap,” he said over his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered.

Michael tapped his wrist computer, bringing the target up on their HUDs.

“DZ is the upper weather deck of Renegade,” he said. “Think you can handle it?”

“Think you can?” Magnolia quipped.

“We’ll find out soon. See ya down there.”

With that, Michael dropped through the wide hatch with his arms over his chest, plummeting into the night. Magnolia followed.

They were only at ten thousand feet—barely half a minute to pull their chutes.

Moonlight sparkled in a white streak across the choppy water. In its glow, rusted towers rose from the water, lights burning across platforms where thousands of civilians lived.

After months of living alongside these people, she had started to put aside their differences and accept them, even after once being their prisoner. Fighting alongside General Santiago and especially Lieutenant Alejo, who had sacrificed himself so she could escape with Rodger, had helped her bury the hatchet.

But that hatchet was about to crack more skulls. Somewhere in the capitol tower, X was fighting for his life, and she would fight for him.

Magnolia speared through the sky in a suicide dive. At three thousand feet, Michael maneuvered into stable falling position, and she did the same.

Moonlight illuminated the airship rooftop with its twenty-millimeter machine-gun nests. The powder keg was open, and a spark would blow the whole damn thing up.

Michael pulled his pilot chute. It hauled the black canopy out, yanking him above Magnolia, or so it looked.

She reached down to her thigh, pulled her pilot chute, and felt as if she, too, were being yanked back up into the sky. Grabbing the toggles, she began homing in on the drop zone.

The two divers sailed over dozens of boats. They were low enough now that she could see armed warriors on the small craft in the glow of their torches. The vessels kept their distance, probably waiting for orders.

But their enemy wasn’t the one she had hoped they would rally to fight. These men and women hadn’t assembled to kill defectors or even the skinwalkers. Some of them—many, probably—wanted the sky people dead.

Muzzle flashes sparked on Renegade’s bow. Several more came from the center of the deck. As she sailed lower, she spotted the two factions. In the center, a group of Cazadores advanced behind metal shields. Another group had formed a wall of shields around a central figure.

She couldn’t tell who was who, even with her night-vision goggles on. Michael dipped down beside her and spiraled toward the command center.

Magnolia tensed up when she saw two figures up there, shooting arrows from longbows onto the deck.

“Oh shit,” she muttered.

Michael saw them, too, but it was too late to change course now.

If she could confirm that these were Carmela’s people, she would have no problem taking both warriors down, but what if they were aligned with the Barracudas?

She had only seconds to decide.

She let go of one toggle to raise the submachine gun slung over her chest, but Michael waved at her to hold her fire.

Grabbing the toggle again, she followed him toward the command center, preparing to do a short two-stage flare. Coming in over the starboard hull, she could see their DZ from the side. They had maybe thirty feet—plenty of room were it not for the two bowmen raining arrows on the deck. Corpses of three comrades lay crumpled near them.

In the final seconds of her descent, a bowman loosed an arrow, and his target’s red cape fluttered as he fell. It was the symbol of the praetorian guards, who had protected Colonel Vargas and other members of the Black Order of Octopus Lords.

The phalanx surrounded a figure with a black cape, and while Magnolia didn’t see a parrot, she knew that it was Carmela.

She grinned, eager to end the scheming woman’s reign.

It appeared that the Barracudas were trying to do the same thing. From the looks of it, they had caught her off guard by climbing aboard.

The two bowmen fired from the higher position while the team on the deck kept advancing, crouching as bullets punched into their thick shields.

Carmela’s team held their ground, popping up from behind their shields to fire in both directions.

Another bowman crumpled from rounds just as Magnolia and Michael touched down. Her boots hit the deck hard, and she had to hop to avoid the downed archer.

Michael lost his balance and rolled, sliding and getting wrapped up in his chute, but she managed to stay on two feet.

The last bowman turned with an arrow nocked.

“We’re friends!” Magnolia shouted. “¡Amigos!”

A bullet punched through his helmet as he lowered his bow.

She reached out, but he toppled over the edge and crashed to the deck. Rounds lanced the air above her, and she dropped to her butt.

Michael had already gotten out of his harness and stuffed the chute. He crouched with his submachine gun while she got free of her harness.

Enraged shouts came from below, along with the clank, clank of advancing shields on the deck.

Keeping low, Magnolia moved over beside Michael to have a look. Twenty-odd praetorian guards had surrounded Carmela with shields and armor against the advancing Barracudas.

Dozens of bodies littered a deck slick with blood and gore.

Michael opened an encrypted line to Captain Mitchells.

“Sir, we’re in position,” he reported, “and it looks like the Barracudas are about to clash with Colonel Moreto’s praetorian guards. Numbers are about even, sir, but we’re about to change that.”

“I’ve got a shot,” Magnolia said. “Just say the word and you’ll never have to hear that damn bird again.”

Magnolia kept Carmela’s helmet in her crosshairs.

Come on, give me the clear, Cap…

“X is still alive, and he doesn’t want her dead,” Les said.

“Sir, we both know she’s just waiting for the right time to—”

“Barracudas are dying for the king down here, sir,” Michael said. “Let us help them.”

“Permission to take down the praetorian guard,” Les said, “but do not—I repeat, do not—kill Colonel Moreto. Take her alive, and we’ll let X deal with her.”

Magnolia cursed under her breath.

“Mags, that is a direct order,” Les said.

“Ughhh, fine.”

“Is there a way to announce what’s happened once we do have her?” Michael asked. “I’m worried the troops loyal to her will come to her aid. There’s a whole damn fleet of boats out here.”

“I’ll make sure they don’t,” Les said.

“All right, Captain, leave this to us,” Michael said.

She moved her finger to the trigger and waited for Michael to fire first. The bark came, and Magnolia squeezed off a burst.

All three bullets punched through a soldier’s red cape, dropping him. She fired another burst, killing the next soldier with head and neck shots.

The praetorian guards turned toward their position faster than she had hoped. She took down a guardsman before he could get off a shot.

A war cry rang out from the Barracudas, who also saw what was happening. Their shields lifted off the deck, and they stormed forward, slamming into the wall of shields around Moreto.

Magnolia spotted, at the back of the Barracudas, a man with a prosthetic leg. He raised a cane into the air, and she thought she heard him yell, “¡Por Rhino!”

She aimed carefully to avoid hitting any Barracudas. Carmela Moreto’s helmet was in her crosshairs again. The woman looked directly up at their position and raised a pistol at Michael, but before Magnolia could take the shot, a shield slammed the colonel, knocking her to the deck.

“Come on,” Michael said.

Magnolia followed him to a ladder that led to another platform below. By the time they got to the deck, Barracudas had surrounded the surviving praetorian guards. Several abandoned their weapons and raised their hands in surrender, but three stood fast with Carmela.

“Put your weapons down,” Michael ordered.

The soldiers either didn’t understand him or weren’t ready to quit. Magnolia flipped her face visor down and aimed her machine gun at them, then walked over to kick Carmela’s pistol away.

“Down!” Magnolia shouted. “Or I shoot you all!”

The man with the prosthetic leg translated as he limped over on his cane. A muscled young warrior with bandages on his tattooed flesh walked beside him, his two swords dripping blood.

After another flurry of shouting, the guardsmen finally put their weapons down. Twelve Barracudas surrounded them and took their swords.

“Thanks for the help,” said the man with the prosthetic leg.

“Who are you two?” Michael asked.

“I’m Mac, and this is Felipe,” he said, nodding to the muscled young man.

“We swore to fight for el rey Javier, and before Rhino died, I promised him we would protect the king. We recruited these warriors to help us stop Colonel Moreto from taking the throne.”

Carmela took her helmet off and snarled, then spat at them.

Mac just laughed. “She said she was just waiting to make sure King Xavier was okay before heading out to the Iron Reef.”

Magnolia spat right back at Carmela. “If I had a dick, I’d piss on you,” she said. “Mac, will you translate that, por favor?”

The older man laughed again, deep and hard. Magnolia liked him already.

“Sir, we’ve got Colonel Moreto in custody,” Michael said over the comms. “Whatever you’ve got planned, best do it fast before the rest of her friends try anything.”

“Copy that,” Les replied.

Magnolia kept her rifle aimed at Carmela’s face, itching to pull the trigger and erase that smirk. But unlike Ada, she would respect orders. Not that this was even close to that situation. No one would exile Magnolia for giving Carmela a third eye.

A whirring sounded, and all eyes turned to the sky. The first rays of sunrise glinted off the hull of Discovery. Les brought it down until it was directly over the warship.

Speakers on the airship blared for all the boats to hear. Timothy spoke first in Spanish, then repeated it in English.

“Lay down your weapons and return to your homes, by order of King Xavier,” he said. “Anyone who does not heed this order will be considered a traitor and will be executed by the king himself.”

Carmela sneered and said something.

“What’d she say?” Magnolia asked Mac.

“She said, ‘How can he do that with just one arm?’ ” Mac replied. “I’m not sure where she’s getting her information, but that can’t be true… can it?”

Magnolia bent closer to Carmela. The message replayed again, and when it stopped, boat motors coughed to life in the distance.

“You hear that?” Magnolia said. “That’s the sound of your amigos going bye-bye. Now you’re all mine.”

Mac interpreted, and Carmela bared her sharpened teeth.

“Get her up,” Magnolia said.

Felipe motioned for two Barracudas to yank the colonel to her feet. She squirmed in their grip, snarling.

Magnolia watched them haul her off to a boat below.

“Good work,” Michael said to Mac, extending a hand.

“It was our honor to uphold our oath to General Rhino and King Xavier,” Mac said.

“Come to the capitol tower so we can thank you properly,” Magnolia said.

“That would also be my honor,” Mac replied.

When the militia arrived, Magnolia climbed into the boat with Michael to head home. They loaded the renegade colonel with the help of Sergeant Wynn and his strike team of four soldiers. Magnolia took a seat, managing her anger on the ride and resisting the urge to kill Carmela.

The boat slapped across small waves as the sun rose above the horizon. An armored speedboat screamed across the water in the distance, sun glinting off its windows.

“Ah shit,” Wynn said. “This could be trouble.”

“That’s Colonel Forge’s personal war boat,” Mac said, rising up.

Heart thumping again, Magnolia unslung her rifle. The fight wasn’t over.

She looked down at Moreto, who wore that infuriating smirk once again. Wynn barked orders into the radio, and several militia boats sped away from the enclosed marina.

“What the hell is Forge thinking?” Magnolia said. The rooftop machine-gun nests and twenty-millimeter cannons were swinging around toward the war boat.

She spotted something else up there in the glow of the sun. Someone stood at the railing, looking down.

If Magnolia wasn’t mistaken, the person had only one arm, and a dog sat by his side.

“It can’t be,” Michael said.

Militia boats surrounded the war boat as it coasted to a stop. Three soldiers stood on the deck. One wore a black cape.

It was Colonel Forge, and he wasn’t holding a weapon; he was holding a box. He held it up at the capitol tower rooftop, where X stood looking down.

Wynn lowered the radio and said, “My people are saying it’s medicine—some nanotech gel or something.”

Magnolia couldn’t believe it. Forge was coming to offer the king the advanced healing technology they had run out of.

X remained at the railing.

“I can’t believe he’s out there,” Michael said.

“Why do you think the other Cazador boats fled?” said another militia soldier.

Magnolia and Michael looked out over the water and the departing boats returning to their rigs.

It wasn’t just the warning from the airship that had scattered the Cazadores.

The king had come outside to show everyone that he was still alive. Now Forge was bringing him something to help him heal.

Even Carmela stared up in apparent disbelief.

“How do you say ‘immortal’ in Spanish?” Magnolia asked. “Someone tell this bird lady that she’s about to see one.”

ELEVEN

Several days after Dr. Huff lopped his arm off, X left his quarters for the second time with Miles. An escort of guards, led by Lieutenant Sloan, accompanied him up the short walk from his quarters to the command center on the capitol tower.

The five-minute jaunt took him three times that, and he had to stop three times to catch his breath. It wasn’t all from fatigue and injuries—he had a wicked hangover.

“You’re sure about this?” Sloan said for a second time.

He shot her a glare.

“Okay, boss,” she said.

He led the way, trying not to puke. The night of his surgery, Sloan had practically carried him out to the rooftop to look over the rigs. Much of that night was hazy, but he grinned at what he could recall.

“Dr. Huff just saved your life, and now you’re going to kill yourself?” she had yelled. “He can’t bring you back to life again!”

X would have laughed if laughing didn’t hurt. The stump where his arm had been connected still burned, and the scabs from his many wounds were soft from days in bed.

On top of that, his head was in constant fog, as if storm clouds had settled in his brain. It wasn’t all from the shine and wine. Everything since the Purple Pearl seemed like a bad dream. The flesh-eating bacteria, the fever dreams of Ada in the wastes, the losses incurred in Rio de Janeiro, and Colonel Moreto’s betrayal. But for the Barracudas, she would have stormed the capitol tower and the Hive to slaughter his people.

General Rhino’s spirit had watched over him that night. His former team of Barracudas, led by Mac and Felipe, had recruited a team to attack Carmela. With an assist from Michael and Magnolia, they had captured her and scotched a coup d’état.

“Here we are,” Sloan said.

Miles trotted toward the command center hatch, where Victor and Ton stood sentry.

“King Xavier,” Victor said in his thick accent.

The dusky warrior and his comrade both came to attention. It was the first time they had seen him in days.

“Evenin’, fellas,” X said.

Sloan switched on a light over stacks of maps and books on the table. His requested bottle of wine sat in the center. He poured himself a glass. Just the thing for a shine hangover.

“I’ll come back in a bit,” said Sloan. “Got some stuff to check on.”

X started his briefing on everything he had missed over the past week. Miles went under the table and conked out at his feet.

When Sloan returned, he had gone through the reports on the militia’s defensive positions, along with two more glasses of wine.

Sloan picked up the bottle, now over half empty, and asked, “How many glasses have you had?”

“This is my second,” he lied. “These are small glasses.”

Her lazy eye watched him take another drink.

“Sir, I just think you should try to stay sober before our meeting.”

X snickered. “You don’t think I’m sober? You clearly haven’t seen me drunk.”

“Actually, I have, sir, but I was just a kid. It was before a dive when you brought back nuclear fuel cells. Not everyone came back.”

All trace of jocularity vanished with the memory. The dive had cost him his entire team, including his best friend and Michael’s father, Aaron.

Grabbing the bottle, he filled the glass to the brim, ready to drown the memories.

A rap came on the hatch, and Dr. Huff walked in, breathing heavily.

“Oh, great,” X muttered.

“I rushed here when I heard you left your bed again,” Huff said. “Xavier, what am I going to do with you?”

“Hopefully not chop off my other arm.”

Sloan did smirk at that.

Huff’s eyes narrowed, forming crow’s-feet around the edges.

“I’m kidding, Doc,” X said. “In hindsight, I’m glad you did it.”

“After you came out of surgery, you said you were going to rip my arms off and beat me to death with them.”

“I’m sorry, Doc, truly.” X raised his glass, almost sloshing the wine. “Thank you for bringing me back from the brink.”

Huff’s eyes narrowed again. “Is that alcohol?”

Sloan nodded. “His third or fourth glass, if I had to guess.”

“I need it for the pain,” X said. “Now, can we get this checkup over with? The rest of the team will be here shortly.”

Huff snorted, and Miles let out a low growl. X scratched the dog’s head while the doc checked his vitals and took off the bandage.

“You’re healing ten times as fast, thanks to this,” Huff said, smearing on the nanotech gel Colonel Forge had gifted them with. “As long as you rest, you’ll make a full recovery.”

The doctor looked over at Sloan as he packed up his gear. “Make sure he follows my orders for once,” he said.

Sloan nodded.

The doctor left them, and X rose from his seat, trying not to show any discomfort.

Michael, Magnolia, Rodger, and Sofia entered in their new black jumpsuits with their team crests on the breast. Edgar was with them, and so were rookie divers Ted, Lena, Hector, and Alberto.

Arlo limped in after them, holding his belly and wincing.

“Surprised you made it here, kid,” X said.

The young diver smiled, revealing two missing teeth. “Surprised to see you on your feet, too, sir.”

X greeted the other divers with a forced smile. Only Sofia did not acknowledge him. He knew that she placed some of the blame for Rhino’s death at his feet.

So did he. He should have killed Vargas long ago.

Next through the door was Les, in his dress whites, along with Eevi, and finally Samson, wearing oil-stained coveralls.

“Let’s get started,” X said. “Samson, you’re up first. How are the repairs coming on Discovery?”

“Good and bad, sir,” said the engineer. “We’re making headway on the second bank of thrusters, but two turbofans need new parts that I haven’t been able to salvage anywhere.”

“There is another option,” Les said.

Samson shook his head. “I told you this already, Captain. I don’t want to take them from the Hive.”

“Why not?” X asked.

“Sir, I wasn’t a big fan of decommissioning her in the first place, for the simple reason that we might need her again.”

X had a feeling that was where this was going. “If you strip the Hive, can she still fly?”

“Yeah, but not as fast as we might need her to if we have to pack up in a hurry,” Samson said.

“If we can’t get Discovery fully operational, it won’t matter,” Les cut in. “The skinwalkers will come, and if the defectors find us, we’re done for. There is no escaping them. We have to strike first.”

X pulled out Les’s handwritten note about the machines. “I still haven’t read this yet, Captain.”

“That’s classified,” Les reminded him.

“I’m declassifying it with everyone in this room,” X replied. He rubbed his forehead. “Samson, if you can’t find the spare parts elsewhere, take them from the Hive. Captain Mitchells is right: Discovery is more important to us right now than our old home.”

“All right, sir,” Samson said. He coughed into his handkerchief.

“And see Dr. Huff about that cough.”

Samson grumbled something.

X checked Eevi, who hadn’t said a word. She stared ahead, almost in a trance, before seeing he was looking at her.

He gave her a small nod, simply to say he was grateful to have her back at work.

“Let’s move on to the survivors from Rio de Janeiro before we talk more about the defectors,” X said.

“They are still in isolation, but the immune boosters should have kicked in,” Sloan said. “We’re waiting for Dr. Huff to clear them.”

“Good,” X said. “And how are our defenses just in case the skinwalkers show up?”

“Tight as they can be,” Sloan said. “Colonel Forge is helping secure the borders with warships Shadow and Renegade.”

X was anxious to meet the colonel again, to judge whether this was all another Cazador ploy, or if he really could trust the man. With Rhino gone, he needed a new ally.

X looked to Michael. “I want you to restart the greenhorns’ training as soon as possible,” he ordered. “I’ve done all I can for them while you were gone.”

“Not a problem, sir, assuming Discovery isn’t going anywhere soon,” Michael said with a subtle glance at Les.

The captain didn’t say anything, but X picked up on some tension between the two.

“We might need Discovery to deal with the skinwalkers, too,” X said. “The question is, do we try and hunt them down before they have a chance to attack?”

He checked everyone in the room for their reaction, stopping last on Arlo, who was staring at his stump.

“You want to see what it looks like without the bandage, or what, kid?” X asked.

Arlo stiffened. “No, sir. I mean…”

“Moving on to the defectors,” X said.

Les rolled out a map he had brought, and draped it over the table.

“This does not leave this room,” X said.

Everyone nodded except for Arlo.

“Arlo, you listenin’?” X asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Les used a pin to tap a place in East Africa once known as Tanzania. Someone had already drawn a red circle around a mountainous area.

“Has anyone heard of Mount Kilimanjaro?” the captain asked.

X recalled the name but couldn’t place it.

“You might recall learning about Captain Sean Rolo, of the ITC Victory,” Les said. “Decades ago, he decided to make the dangerous trek across the ocean, looking for a habitable spot to put down in Africa.”

“I remember that now,” Magnolia said. “Captain Ash mentioned it in her logs before she died—how he had reported minimal radiation and weaker electrical storms.”

“I think we all know what happened to the airship and Captain Rolo’s crew after their final transmission.” Les studied the map. “The ITC machine base Pedro identified is located there.”

“Why Africa?” Sloan asked.

“Why not?” X said. “It makes perfect strategic sense to me. I’d bet the next batch of Cazador wine the base is buried inside that mountain.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” Les said.

“What I don’t understand is how there is zero evidence of this offensive,” X said. “If there was a worldwide effort to destroy the machines, it’d be in the archives, right?”

“I asked Timothy this very question, and he believes it was lost to the blackout,” Les said. “The history of these final days before the end vanished in the disruption of all communication networks worldwide.”

X recalled the event Magnolia had discovered when they were sailing on the Sea Wolf to what were then the Metal Islands.

“I believe Pedro is telling the truth,” Les said.

“We have no reason to doubt him,” X said. “Just asking.”

A rap came on the door, and Sloan walked over to open it.

Sergeant Wynn entered with Mac and Felipe. The two Cazadores stood in front of the table as everyone turned to look.

Grimacing from a jolt of pain, X walked over and shook their hands.

“Those who haven’t had the honor, meet Mac and Felipe,” X said. “They fought with General Rhino on the Barracudas and helped me kill Colonel Vargas.”

Everyone in the room nodded at the men.

“I invited them here to thank them for helping capture Colonel Moreto and to seek their counsel on what we should do with her,” X said. “Mac, please speak.”

“Thank you, King Xavier,” Mac said. He translated X’s words for Felipe, who bowed slightly. The young Cazador warrior was still covered in bandages and bruises from the fight that killed Rhino.

X felt the overwhelming dread that hadn’t ceased since the ambush at the Purple Pearl. Losing the big man had hit him harder than most other deaths in his lifetime. Combined with all the other losses, especially Katrina, and his guilt over sending Ada to her likely death, X felt the darkness of depression returning.

Only a few people knew the truth of what X had done, and he was having a hard time keeping it from Michael.

“So, Mac, do you agree with what General Rhino suggested I do with Colonel Moreto?” X asked.

The old man smiled. “What do you think we were trying to do for you, King Xavier?”

“It is different when Cazadores kill each other than when sky people kill them,” X said. “If I lop off her head, will Colonel Forge and the rest of the military be emboldened to avenge her?”

“Not if you do it the Cazador way,” Mac said.

Magnolia almost shot up from her seat. “Sir,” she said, “I was never a big fan of their customs, but you gotta let me do this.”

Maybe it was the hangover, or maybe X was a bit drunk again, but he wasn’t following their conversation.

“What are you guys talking about?” he asked.

“I want to invoke the Black Order of the Octopus Lords, or whatever that stupid shit’s called,” Magnolia said. “I’ll face her in the Sky Arena.”

“Mags, no,” Rodger said, reaching for her arm.

She sidled away from his hand.

“I can take her out easily,” Magnolia said.

X had no doubt of that, but letting one of his best divers enter the arena was still a huge risk.

“Come on, X,” she said. “Don’t make me beg.”

He reached down to pet Miles as the dog panted and looked up at him. His old friend was tired and thirsty.

So was X. To deal with life right now, he needed something harder than fermented fruit.

“I want to talk to Colonel Forge before I decide what to do with her,” X said. He grabbed the bottle of wine. “Arrange a meeting. Until then, I’ll be in my quarters.”

* * * * *

Michael tried to tune out the noise from the work on Discovery. Purple and orange streaks carved up the horizon as the sun retreated behind distant storms for another day.

Hand in hand, Michael and Layla were enjoying a break in the tropical gardens before he must head to the great hall for the meeting between King Xavier and Colonel Forge. After a day shift working on the airship, the hour with Layla before his next task flew by.

He wasn’t sure how many more short dates like this they would have before the next emergency. Defectors, skinwalkers, and uncertain alliances within the Cazador military—threats were encroaching on the paradise of the Vanguard Islands.

Peace, it seemed, was as uncertain as on the day he arrived here.

Michael and Layla strolled through the gardens, enjoying the scents of fruit and flowers. Still, it was impossible to ignore the reason for the construction going on across the rooftop, where new machine-gun emplacements were being rigged behind sandbags.

Several spearguns the size of old-world lampposts angled over the edge of the rooftop, ready to sink boats. There were even flamethrowers to scorch any climbers off the wall.

Sloan and Wynn had gone all out to protect the heart of the Vanguard Islands and the decommissioned Hive.

Any other day Michael might have been able to forget about these things and live in the moment with Layla, taking in the beauty of the tropical gardens. But tonight, he was having a hard time.

“What’s wrong, Tin?” she asked.

Everything, he wanted to reply. But he didn’t want to burden her with his worries. She was seven months along, and he had to be strong for them both.

“I’m okay, just really tired.”

“You’re more than tired.” She squeezed his hand. “Please talk to me.”

“I don’t know. I guess seeing X drinking again has me stirred up.”

“I was wondering what you thought about that, but try not to worry. He’s been through a lot.”

They kept walking through the maze of fruit trees until they reached the fresh graves on the other side.

“I still can’t believe she did it,” Layla said.

Michael looked at Ada’s grave. They had held a brief ceremony for her, keeping it small. It was only now sinking in that she was gone. After killing the Cazadores, she had lost her way and taken her own life.

“Me, either.”

They walked toward the airship, trying not to dwell on yet another tragic loss. Discovery was again parked on the rooftop, with a throng of red and yellow jumpsuits working underneath. Cricket was helping a team take off a turbofan.

Michael checked his wrist computer. He still had another twenty minutes before he must head to the meeting with Colonel Forge and King Xavier.

He led Layla over to the railing. A pod of spinner dolphins jumped the wake of a speedboat jetting away from the piers below.

On the horizon, three fishing trawlers sailed toward the trading rig to sell or barter off the day’s catch.

But it wasn’t just civilian and merchant ships and boats on the horizon. Warships were anchored out there.

Renegade and Elysium were within view, with militia boats surrounding them in case a new rebellion hatched to free Colonel Moreto.

Layla cupped her belly. “Bray’s active today,” she said with a dimpled smile. Michael put a hand around her waist.

The spinner dolphins chased another boat. On the rooftop, several figures patrolled around the defensive points.

Shouting came from the direction of Discovery.

Michael moved away from the railing. Mechanics and engineers were crowded around the turbofan they had taken down for repairs.

Several men jumped back as Cricket used one of its new limbs to open the side panel. Something white and red slopped out from the interior.

“Gross!” Layla said. “What is that?”

Michael wasn’t sure from this distance, but the excited voices confirmed his suspicions. A Siren had hidden inside the fan until it turned on.

He wanted to enjoy a few more minutes alone with Layla, but a glance to the piers confirmed his time was up.

A war boat with a raised white flag was puttering in. Colonel Forge stood on the deck, surrounded by Cazador warriors. Militia soldiers moved out onto the docks to receive them.

“Do you think we will ever live in peace?” Layla asked.

“I do, honestly,” Michael replied, “and I still believe it is X who will help us achieve it. That the islands exist, and that we survived to get here, proves that miracles happen.”

“Katrina believed this place was worth dying for. Now I know why. It’s more than a haven. It’s the place Bray deserves.”

“That’s why we have to do everything we can to protect it.”

She turned from the railing to face him. “Does that mean you’re going back out there?”

“I…”

“Michael, I’ve supported your mission to find survivors in the past, even after Trey died, and then in Rio de Janeiro, but Bray is almost here.”

“I know.”

“You found your survivors. What more do you want?” Layla sighed. “I suppose you won’t stop until you’ve searched every corner of the earth.”

“Other survivors deserve the chance we have here.”

“I agree, but how many missions before your luck runs out?”

“How long until our luck here runs out?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that from everyone,” she said. “But this place has survived a very long time without the defectors finding it, if that’s what you mean. And the skinwalkers seem like a threat we can handle.”

“I don’t want to leave you and Bray,” Michael said.

“Then don’t.”

He nodded.

“Tell me you won’t.”

Michael swallowed. “I… I’m a Hell Diver, Layla.”

“So was I. But I quit, for Bray.”

“We don’t both have that luxury,” Michael said. “And I don’t want to make you a promise I can’t keep. And don’t forget, part of the reason I’m training new divers is so that someday I can retire and be a father and husband.”

A voice across the rooftop called his name. Sloan and several militia soldiers approached.

“Go,” Layla said, turning away.

“Layla, please, let’s talk about this later.”

“It’s always later with you.”

Sloan was panting. “Sorry to interrupt, Commander, but we need to get down to the great hall,” she said. “Colonel Forge and his men are here.”

Layla still wouldn’t turn to look at him, and he left her there, again putting duty first. Walking away, he glanced over his shoulder, but she was still gazing out over the water.

He and Sloan crossed the rooftop in silence and walked down the stairs to the great hall. Torches burned in sconces, the light dancing over the bulkheads and vaulted ceilings overhead.

X sat on the throne, slouching a little, a glass of wine on the arm of the chair. Seeing him drinking again worried Michael, but maybe this was just a phase to get him through the mental anguish. It was always the darkness in his mind that brought X back to the bottle.

Imulah joined them. Next came Les. He stood next to Michael.

At least a dozen militia soldiers took up positions across the massive space. Ton and Victor flanked X, and Wynn stood in front of the platform where X sat.

The king barely looked at Michael, but Miles thumped his tail.

“We’re ready when you are, King Xavier,” Sloan called out.

X slowly rose from his seat and gestured to open the doors. Two militia soldiers in shiny black armor with red Vanguard crests pulled them open.

The guards escorted Colonel Forge toward the platform.

The rest of the guards who had accompanied Forge were kept outside with a group of heavily armed militia soldiers.

Boots clanked down the tile floor, echoing in the large room.

“Tell Colonel Forge I appreciate him coming, and I’m grateful for the medicine he delivered,” X said. “Tell him also that I guarantee his safety.”

Imulah relayed the message, and Colonel Forge bowed slightly.

X sat down again. He was pale and should be in bed, but the man simply wouldn’t listen to orders. Michael doubted that he would ever change.

“Imulah, ask Colonel Forge who is in charge of the Cazador fleet,” X said.

Forge responded by hammering his chest armor.

“Then why did you allow Colonel Moreto to threaten the capitol tower during my surgery?” X asked.

This took Forge a few moments.

“Sir,” Imulah said, “Colonel Forge says Colonel Moreto claimed she was having engine troubles, and it is custom not to interfere with another officer’s warship. Further, Colonel Forge said that if she had moved on the capitol tower, he would have stopped her, and that if he wanted you dead, he would have told her your secret.”

X smirked. “You expect me to believe that hunk of whale shit?”

The scribe hesitated, but X told him to repeat the message.

“Colonel Forge says he can prove he is telling the truth, and if you want him to kill Colonel Moreto, he will proudly fulfill your request.”

Sloan looked back at X and said something Michael couldn’t make out from where he stood.

“This is all crap,” Les whispered.

“How can he prove it?” X asked. “And what is my secret?”

Imulah asked Forge, who took a step closer to the throne. Ton’s and Victor’s spears moved downward.

The colonel stopped and looked at the men in turn, then back to X.

Imulah interpreted for Forge.

“He says he knows the truth about the Lion and that you will know what he means by that. If he had let this information out, you would already be dead, but he does not want another war.”

X got out of his chair, stumbling slightly. He walked down to the edge of the platform. Michael felt a chill run through him, though he wasn’t sure whether it came from the news or seeing the two warriors staring each other down.

“The truth about the Lion?” X asked.

Forge spoke, holding the king’s gaze.

“He says Lieutenant Sloan and Colonel Vargas are not the only ones with spies on the rigs, and he’s uncovered the truth about Lieutenant Ada Winslow,” Imulah said.

X’s cracked lips moved, but no words came out.

Forge pounded his chest armor and put his hand on his sword pommel as he spoke.

“Colonel Forge says it would be customary to grant Colonel Moreto a chance to fight for her life in the Sky Arena,” said the scribe. “He also says that he will be the one to take her head if you so wish, King Xavier.”

Michael watched as X seemed to deliberate for a few seconds.

“No, I’ll let Magnolia have the honor,” he finally said. “I’ve got other plans for Colonel Forge.”

X narrowed his gaze on the stone-faced colonel. “I want him to head to the Iron Reef in Belize, secure the other fuel outpost, and bring us back a tanker.”

Imulah relayed the request and Forge nodded.

“Sí, rey Javier,” he said.

The colonel backed away, and X sat back down to take a drink of wine.

“Everyone but Michael and Les, leave me,” he said.

The rest of the room emptied, leaving only the three men.

“There’s something I need to tell you, Michael,” X said. “Les already knows.”

Michael raised a brow.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Ada… She didn’t kill herself,” he said. “I exiled her while you were away.”

“What! ”

“I don’t know if Colonel Forge knows that, but if he knows what she did to the Lion, he holds the cards now.”

“So what do we do?” Les asked.

“If Forge completes the mission and keeps what happened to the Lion a secret, he will have my trust and respect,” X said. “If not… shit, Captain, I have no idea, but it will likely be very bloody.”

TWELVE

Ada tried to wrap her broken toe, but the wobbly boat made it difficult. She waited for the craft to settle, then realized that it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

For the past day, the choppy water had grown into turbulent swells, as if her boat were a toy in a gigantic rocking bathtub. Worse, since escaping the research ship three days ago, her stomach problems had not improved. It wasn’t radiation poisoning, since throwing up was her only symptom. If she had radiation poisoning, she would be in far worse shape. This was plain old seasickness from the little boat’s wallowing and pitching. She slipped a wool sock over her foot and reached for a bucket that reeked of vomit.

She tried to resist the next spasm, but there was no stopping it once the smell hit her nostrils. By the time she finished lurching and dry heaving, everything hurt.

The lantern in the enclosed quarters illuminated flecks of blood. Maybe she had radiation poisoning after all.

That wasn’t her only new worry.

Jumping off the ship, she had broken her big toe and torn off the nail inside her boot. It hadn’t seemed bad at first, but now it throbbed with her pulse.

Without proper medical attention, an infection, even in a toe, could kill her.

For the first time since pushing the button that killed the Cazador crew of the Lion, she felt a tinge of regret. Being sick, injured, and alone in the darkness out here in the middle of the ocean was hell. And she wasn’t even sure where here was.

Her progress on this compass bearing should put her somewhere south of the island of Hispaniola, perhaps five to twenty miles from land. It was hard to tell.

She had traveled mostly by the gas motor, with maybe thirty miles from rowing. She hadn’t touched the oars for the past day, though. Her blistered hands needed the break, and the seasickness made rowing impossible.

To conserve gas, she had cut the engine. As long as she kept on the bearing X had marked on the map, she should be fine.

Ada moaned and pressed her back against the bulkhead, gripping the bucket so the contents didn’t spill. People in desperate situations often thought of their loved ones, but she didn’t have many.

The only man she ever loved had died on a Hell Diving mission when she was eighteen. She wasn’t sure she knew what love was, but at least she had experienced sex before he died.

Death was the other thing on her mind. Part of her thought about embracing it, giving up. Do it in the least painful way.

You’re not killing yourself, so forget it.

“Not yet, anyway,” she mumbled.

She woke sitting up sometime later, still gripping the puke bucket between her knees. That was good, because a swell had slammed into her boat, nearly knocking her off the bunk.

Thunder boomed in the distance, and rain pecked at the roof overhead like hundreds of fingertips tapping the metal. The storm was getting worse.

Ada opened the floor-lock hatch to dump out the puke—the same lock she used to flush shit and piss.

As soon as she stood, her stomach seemed to roll with the boat. She had to sit back down for a moment. It was time to use one of the precious antinausea pills.

She downed one of the few that remained and fell off the bunk as a wave slammed the starboard hull. Gear fell from the bulkheads.

This was it, the moment she had feared since setting off on the journey. The sea was going to swallow her and send her to the bottom.

Not without a fight, it’s not.

She had been battling Mother Nature all her life in the sky, and damned if she would just sit here and let it kill her now.

After securing her suit and helmet, she opened the hatch. The wind pushed her backward, and rain pelted her. She fought the gusts and stumbled over to the wheel, which she had locked in place. After unlocking it, she started the motor.

The waves seemed to be growing in size. Lightning captured the tips of what looked like white dorsal fins. Without night-vision goggles, the sporadic flashes were all the light she had.

A wall of waves blocked out the view to the north.

On the airships, they could go above or even below storms, but she had no other option than to go right through it in her little underpowered boat.

A raucous explosion of thunder shook the heavens and rattled her bones. In the respite, she heard a choking sound. The motor was struggling.

“Come on!” she yelled.

It felt as if she were crawling in a race that required sprinting to win.

The boat held steady for now, but the motor sputtered more often. She wiped her visor clear and turned to check for smoke.

When she turned back to the north, something caught her attention on the horizon. Cresting a wave, she got a momentary glimpse of what looked like a landmass.

But the waves were growing in size. The boat wobbled up and down over them.

Don’t puke in your helmet, Ada.

She wasn’t sure she had a choice.

The bow punched into the next wave, and she slid, her broken toe lighting up as she grabbed the wheel to steady herself. Another wave broke over the bow a moment later, drenching her. She turned with the swell, trying to move with it.

Another flash gave a quick view of the landmass, and she saw civilization. Or what was left of it. The resorts that had once towered over the beaches had crumbled into piles of debris. A monster wave blocked out the view until it lifted the boat.

The masts of several sail craft stuck out of the harbor at odd angles. A skeletal prow jutted above the waves.

Anxious to take refuge in the harbor, she pushed the throttle down as far as she dared. The wind howled, flinging rain that felt like needles.

Almost there.

She held back the puke and felt her heartbeat in her throbbing toe.

The boat rose on another wave and smacked down into the trough. This time, the impact knocked her grip from the wheel. She fell backward, slamming against the closed hatch of the cabin.

The boat didn’t founder, but the deck had several inches of water. She slopped through it to reach the wheel yet again. The best she could hope for was to keep the boat moving in a straight line toward the forest of masts a half mile ahead.

Lightning hit a steel tower, showering sparks over hills of debris and mutated vegetation. Images of the monsters on the research ship surfaced in her mind as she recalled the last time she deviated off course. But there was no turning back now.

The boat struggled over a large wave, plunged into the trough, and went up on the next swell. At the crest Ada got a view of the landmass stretching across the horizon, but the image vanished as the bow plummeted.

A scream escaped her throat.

Down the boat went, toward water as black as night. She fell to the deck, water sloshing over her.

Lightning cut the horizon, illuminating the biggest wave yet. It rolled toward her, and like so many times in the sky, there was nothing to do but brace for the coming impact.

* * * * *

Les cursed when he saw the time on his wrist computer. It was just after dusk, and he had spent all day working with Samson’s little army of mechanics, engineers, and electricians trying to restore the airship to operational speed.

“Samson, I’ve got to bail now for dinner with my family,” he said.

The lead engineer coughed as he torqued another nut on the turbofan. Then he rested his sweaty back against the panel.

“No problem, Cap, I’ve got things under control,” Samson huffed, “assuming we don’t find any more freaks inside our turbofans. It’s no wonder this one had so much damage.”

“I’ve got my radio if you need me,” Les said.

He jogged past the staging area under the airship. Tool crates were laid out in neat rows. Coils of wiring and spare parts awaited installation.

Soon, Discovery would be 100 percent operational.

Les put that out of his mind. If he didn’t hurry, he would be late for dinner with his wife and daughter—the first real meal they had shared since his return from Rio de Janeiro. He mustn’t screw this up, especially since he wasn’t sure how much longer he would be here.

Instead of eating in their quarters tonight, he had a surprise for his family. He had told Katherine to save their ration of fish and wait for him to get home. It was a small step in trying to make up for being mostly absent since Trey’s death, but it was a start.

He passed under the ship and halted when he saw the platform extending from the launch bay. A team of militia soldiers, all of them unarmed, and a group of medical staff waited outside.

Les had been so busy working, he had forgotten that the bunker survivors from Rio de Janeiro had been cleared to leave quarantine. The immune-system boosters had worked, according to Dr. Huff.

The old man waited at the bottom of the platform, a tablet tucked under his arm, his white jacket whipping in the breeze.

Les hurried over to see the Vanguard Islands’ newest citizens emerge and take their first breath of unfiltered air. He stayed in the shadows, not wanting to cause any distractions. Lieutenant Sloan had gone to great lengths to make everything go smoothly, even ordering her soldiers to supervise without their weapons.

A tall, muscular man with dreadlocks stepped up to the top of the ramp. It was Pedro, the leader, who had killed a Siren with the leg of a cot. He reached back and picked up a young girl, whom Les also recognized.

She was the orphan who had lost her father to the stowaway Siren. Her mother had perished in the battle with Horn and his skinwalkers.

Pedro carried the girl down the ramp, and his people followed wearing their gray jumpsuits.

Curious eyes flitted over the tropical forest and the rooftop, the adults taking in the sights with eyes as wide as the children’s.

Several of Samson’s team joined Les to watch.

“More mouths to feed,” said a mechanic.

“Hope they have some skills so we can put ’em to work,” said another.

Les turned toward them. He had known both men all his life and was saddened at their selfish comments.

“They survived underground for over two and a half centuries,” he said. “They obviously have skills. Now, get your asses back to work.”

Les had thought X would be here to greet the new arrivals, but maybe he was planning something else.

Or maybe he’s hitting the sauce.

He took off through the tropical forest, hoping that wasn’t the case. The veteran Hell Divers had gathered with the greenhorns outside the Sky Arena for weapons training.

Edgar sat in a chair near the railing, cleaning his sniper rifle. He was the best marksman of the divers. Les had watched him hit a can off a boat on the water at over fifteen hundred meters.

Tonight, he was taking over for Magnolia and Michael, who had led the training while X recovered from his injuries. With the king out of commission and Les too busy to help, only four veterans had the experience to pass on to the dozen rookies.

“That’s not how you do it,” Arlo said.

“Stop, man,” Ted said. “This is my rifle, and I’ll hold it the way I want.”

Arlo shrugged. “Fine. Die if you want.”

“Guys, please shut up,” Rodger said.

Les walked on, to the door of his small two-room apartment, taking in a breath. He couldn’t mess this up. His family needed a good evening together, and he needed a break from work.

“Papa!” Phyl yelled when he opened the door.

She came running down the passage and wrapped her arms around his midsection. Katherine hung back, her hair blowing in the breeze through the open windows.

The afterglow of the sunset streaked across the sky behind her.

“I just need to change, and then we’re off, okay?” he said.

Phyl gave a snaggletoothed grin. “Do you like my dress?” She curtsied, spreading the flowery yellow dress outward.

“It’s beautiful, honey,” Les said.

Katherine was also wearing a dress, of white material. In the past Les would have told her she looked gorgeous, but they hadn’t spoken that way to each other for months.

Les hurried into their bedroom and changed out of his jumpsuit. He put on the only casual clothes he owned: brown trousers and a yellow button-down shirt.

Since becoming captain, he had heard his nickname less and less, but even he admitted he looked like a giraffe in the outfit.

“You guys ready?” he said.

“Yeah!” Phyl yelled excitedly.

Les led the way. They went four floors down to an open pair of wooden doors with intricate carvings of fish and other sea creatures.

The room was the Cazador version of a mess hall. But this was no ordinary mess hall.

Lanterns hung from beams across the vaulted ceiling of sparkling mosaic tiles depicting elephants, whales, and tigers.

“Hey, that’s you, Dad,” Phyl said, pointing to a giraffe.

Katherine almost grinned. Les reached down to grab their hands. To his surprise, Katherine didn’t resist.

They entered the public seating area side by side—another change.

People sat at wooden tables, eating dinner as mouthwatering scents of spices and sizzling fish drifted out of the open kitchen.

Adrian was one of the cooks. The young man slaved over a grill with his dad, Dom, the chef famous for his noodles on the Hive.

The aroma of their orange noodles, a favorite of King Xavier’s, drifted through the room.

“What are you having tonight, kiddo?” Les asked Phyl.

“I really like lobsta,” she said. “Can I?”

He glanced at Katherine.

“You can have whatever you want, sweetie,” she said.

They queued up behind six other people. It reminded Les of some of the destroyed places he had seen in the wastes. Places called restaurants, where people once waited in long lines to order flat, round bread with tomato sauce and cheese, or meat sandwiches and string potatoes.

“What can I get for you tonight?” said the young Cazador boy behind the counter, in almost unaccented English.

“I want a lobsta and some potatoes,” Phyl said.

“One langosta, coming right up.”

The boy wrote it down and looked to Katherine.

“Whatever the fresh catch of the day is,” she said.

“Sea bass?”

“Lovely.”

The boy nodded and looked to Les.

“Orange noodles with sea bass, please.”

Dom looked up from the grill, his wrinkled face forming a near-toothless grin.

“Hey, Dom,” Les said, raising a hand.

“Ah, Captain, good to see you!”

Dom hovered behind his son.

“No, not like that,” he said. Grabbing a skillet, he tossed the contents into the air and swished it around. “Like this…”

Les looked for an empty table. Familiar faces nodded and said hello as they crossed the room.

Magnolia had just sat down with Rodger and his parents. They shared a plate of shrimp and two whole fish, eyeballs and fins included.

“Hey, Cap,” Magnolia said.

Cole and Bernie nodded out of respect.

Phyl shied away from Rodger, who made funny faces.

“She’s not three years old, man,” Les said.

Cole shook his head and nudged Rodger gently in the shoulder. “You ever gonna grow up, Rodge?”

“Not likely,” said Magnolia, gesturing with a shrimp tail. “We’re stuck with this man-child.”

“Have a good dinner,” Les said, heading for an empty table.

The other Hell Divers, fresh from training, waited in another line with trays. Arlo and Ted were clowning around, apparently vying for who got to stand next to Lena. The shy young woman seemed to have caught both young men’s attention. Sofia, the one diver Les didn’t see, was likely off on her own again, grieving for Rhino.

“So how is school?” Les asked Phyl.

She shrugged a bony shoulder. “I like it, but I wish I could just play outside all the time.”

“You already do,” Katherine said.

They both had some color to their normally pale skin. Phyl even had more freckles than Les remembered. Being gone so much, he had missed some things, including what she had learned recently.

“I don’t want to go to class,” Phyl said. “I just want to fish. Why can’t we have classes on how to fish?”

“Your father took classes to become an engineer,” Katherine said. “From engineer to Hell Diver, to captain and Hell Diver.”

She sounded resentful, and he didn’t blame her. He was failing as a husband and a father.

“I don’t want to be an engineer,” Phyl said. “I want to be a fisherwoman. Dad, when are you going to take me…”

A man with long hair pulled back in a ponytail walked toward their table with three steaming dishes balanced on one arm, and two on the other. He set their plates down in front of them, then moved on to another table.

“Yum,” Phyl said, eyeing the succulent white lobster meat.

Les was glad she had forgotten her question, since he wouldn’t be able to take her fishing anytime soon.

He checked the time on his wrist computer. That brought a glare from Katherine, and he lowered his hand.

“Don’t worry, it’s not because of work,” he said. “In a few minutes, you guys are going to see something pretty cool.”

The reason Trey gave his life…

Phyl stuffed a pile of potatoes into her mouth.

“Chew with your mouth closed, honey,” Katherine said. She seemed to be enjoying her meal as well.

And for that fleeting instant, it was just like old times—aside from not having Trey.

The voices in the room hushed, and Katherine stared over Les’s shoulder. He looked to the front entrance, where Lieutenant Sloan was standing with Pedro. He held the hand of the orphan girl, who clung to his side.

“Who are those people?” Phyl asked.

“This is your second surprise,” Les said. He got up from the bench. “These are survivors from the wastelands—people your brother gave his life to save.”

“He died for these people?” Phyl asked. “What makes them so special?”

When Katherine didn’t try to explain, he said, “These are good people who used to live underground like we used to live in the sky. Now they’re going to live here, with us.”

“But why did Trey have to die for them?” Phyl asked.

Katherine looked to Les for an answer, but instead of trying to explain, he walked over to greet Pedro.

The other refugees followed Pedro into the room and were led to a group of empty tables where bowls of fruit and vegetables were being set out.

“They’re hungry, that’s for sure,” Sloan said.

“No kidding,” Les said, “after that gunk we fed them till the immune boosters kicked in. Now they get to experience real food.”

Pedro gestured for the girl to go eat, but she stuck like a limpet to his side.

Les crouched in front of her and then pointed back at Phyl. “That’s my daughter,” he said.

Phyl waved and smiled.

Katherine also waved, and the girl gave a tentative smile.

“Phyl, will you bring our new friend some fruit?” Les asked. “Their bananas don’t look ripe.”

Phyl hurried over with an apple and a banana, Katherine trailing behind.

The girl looked up at Pedro, who nodded. Moving away from his side, she took the apple.

“Now you have a new friend,” Katherine said to Phyl.

Looking around the room, Les felt that he was witnessing the good that was in humanity before technology got out of control and ruined the world.

The mess hall wasn’t advanced like those old automated restaurants. People were talking and laughing as they enjoyed their meals.

This place, the Vanguard Islands, was the home his family deserved, the home these people from the bunker deserved, and the home Trey had died to protect.

It was on Les to finish the job.

As soon as Moreto’s head was lopped off and the skinwalkers dealt with, he would request permission to take Discovery to Africa and destroy the final threat to their new home.

THIRTEEN

Ton and Victor guided X through the passages of the capitol tower. He took a nip from his flask when they weren’t looking.

The stainless-steel flask was as old as the Hive. Handed down from generation to generation, it had ended up in his Hell Diver locker after he won it in a poker game twenty years ago.

This juice was strong, and tonight he needed something thicker than the wine he had been drinking like water over the past few days. Happily, Marv, the former owner of the Wingman, had reopened his bar on the trading-post rig and was back to making his potent drink.

Miles looked up, tail thumping, as X sneaked another swig.

“Not for you, buddy,” he murmured.

Ton and Victor stopped at a door that led to an interior stairwell. The dog entered, and X followed, taking another nip as he prepared to do something he had dreaded for days.

Nearing the bottom, he put the flask away, not wanting Lieutenant Sloan to see he had moved up to the hard stuff. She waited with a torch at the bottom landing.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Getting better with each step,” X replied.

“That’s good, sir.”

She waved the torch down the enclosed concrete stairwell. Miles kept beside X, looking up every time he winced from the pain.

Two more levels of stairs ended at a passage of hatches. The Cazadores had used this area as storage in the past, and now his people had retrofitted one level into a morgue.

A wall of cool air hit them as they entered the room.

Candles in sconces lit up mounds of rusted metal parts that had been moved and stacked along the sides of the room.

The glow from her torch chased away the shadows, capturing a group of four men already huddled around a metal table in the center of the room. A sheet covered the corpse of General Nick “Rhino” Baker.

X stopped to take a drink from his flask without Sloan seeing him. Then he limped after her until he reached the table.

Two more militia soldiers followed them inside—for security purposes, X supposed. Mac, Felipe, and two Cazador men X didn’t recognize all turned toward him and bowed slightly.

“Good evening, King Xavier,” said Mac.

“No, it isn’t,” X said.

Sloan raised her torch, and X saw Rhino for the first time since the Purple Pearl. The massive warrior looked better now than he had then.

X thanked the Octopus Lords, or whoever was listening, for the two drums of embalming fluid scavenged on a recent foraging trip to the mainland. Someone had done a good job cleaning Rhino up, dressing him in his battle armor with the crest of the Barracudas.

X reached out and shook Mac’s hand.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done,” X said. “You risked your life to help Rhino protect me at the Purple Pearl, and again on Renegade.”

“General Rhino thought very highly of you, sir. He believed you are the one chosen to protect this place, and if he was willing to die for you, then so am I.” Mac pounded his chest armor with his prosthetic hand.

X looked back to Rhino and resisted the urge to take another drink.

“So what happens now?” he asked.

“Tradition is to send a warrior out in a boat and give him to the Octopus Lords, but Rhino apparently had other plans,” Mac said. “He wanted an old-world ceremony.”

“He wants us to bury him?” X asked.

“Not exactly.” Mac looked toward the torch Sloan held.

“He wanted to be cremated?” X asked.

“Yes, and have his ashes spread over the islands, and some of them given to Sofia, his one true love.”

“Then we will make that happen,” X said. “Lieutenant, find a boat that we can put his body on. Use whatever spare wood we have.”

She hesitated, probably because they didn’t have much wood to spare, but then she gave a nod.

“I’m surprised Sofia isn’t here now,” X said.

“Tradition is not to have the wife or lover see the deceased until the ceremony,” Mac said. “Rhino would not have wanted her to see him like this, either.”

X put a hand on the general’s arms, which were crossed over his chest.

One of the other Cazadores standing behind Felipe and Mac held out a spear shaft. The motion caught the attention of the militia soldiers standing guard, but X waved them back when he saw that it was Rhino’s double-bladed spear.

X took the shaft and carefully placed it over Rhino’s body.

“I never served with a braver warrior,” X said. “I grew to trust him like a Hell Diver.”

They stared at his body for a moment in silence.

“I knew Rhino for many years,” Mac said. “In those years I’ve never known him to kill anyone to advance in rank. He earned his rank by completing missions and killing beasts in the wastes.”

X pulled out his flask and drank, drawing the gaze of Sloan’s lazy eye. He handed it to Mac, and Mac took a gulp.

“Yeow!” Mac said, making a bitter face.

“Good stuff, right?” X said with a chuckle.

Mac handed the flask back, but X put it in his pocket. It was time to switch to wine.

But first he had a favor to ask.

“How many men do you have, Mac?” X asked.

“I recruited thirty after Rhino was killed,” he said. “But the battle with the praetorian guards cut our numbers in half.”

“Keep recruiting. We’re going to need a lot more loyal Cazadores for what comes next.”

“What does come next, King Xavier?”

X wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that. In the past, gut decisions had guided him and kept him alive on dives, on his trek through the wastes, on the journey to the Metal Islands, and in the battles that followed. Now his gut was telling him those were the easy fights.

What came next would be for the future of humanity.

X patted Rhino again, holding a breath to keep from choking up. Then he nodded at Mac and the other Cazadores and turned away from the table to leave with Sloan.

It was time to forget his worries for now with a bottle of wine, or three.

* * * * *

X jerked free from the nightmare. He sat up to glaring sunlight and a mean headache. The first thing he saw was his bandaged stump.

Not what you’d call an inspiring start to the morning.

Not morning, he realized when he saw the clock. It was just after noon.

He groaned and slung his legs over the side of his bed. Miles hopped up, tail wagging, keen to get outside. The poor dog had been cooped up all morning.

“I’m sorry, boy, just hold on,” X said.

Without this dog, X wouldn’t have survived this recent flirtation with death—or his ten years in the wastes, for that matter.

A knock came on the door, and X stumbled over, nearly tripping over a pile of dirty clothes. He went to grab the knob with a right hand that wasn’t there.

He hoped it was Ted with a fresh supply of shine.

“Ah, shit,” X grumbled.

Lieutenant Sloan stood outside, in a freshly pressed black militia uniform.

“Nice to see you, too, sir…” Her lazy eye flitted from his bare feet up to his shorts and ragged T-shirt. “Sir, you haven’t even dressed.”

“Yeah,” he mumbled. He walked back into his room, bumping an empty bottle that skidded across the floor.

“Were you drinking this morning?” Sloan said. She followed him into the room.

“I had some wine for breakfast, if you count three in the morning as breakfast. Grapes are fruit, right?”

He didn’t need to look to know she had found the other empty wine bottles that Ted had sneaked him the past two nights.

“What can I say,” he said with a shrug. “Cazador wine is great for numbing pain.”

He wasn’t speaking of his injuries. He spent his bedridden days thinking about Rhino, Katrina, Aaron, and all the other dead people he had loved.

At night, he dreamed of them—and of Ada.

The guilt was eating him alive, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he was having a hard time functioning since they cut his arm off.

“Sir, did you forget what is happening this afternoon?” Sloan asked.

“No,” he said. “Rhino’s ceremony. I have plenty of time.”

“That’s tonight…” Her eyes narrowed. “You seriously don’t know?”

X tilted his head, clueless.

“Colonel Moreto’s fight to the death,” Sloan reminded him.

“Yeah, I know,” he growled. “I just don’t give two shits, or even one. Mags will make quick work of that old hag.”

“Are you going to watch?”

He shrugged.

“Do you need help getting ready?”

“Help?”

“You know…” His body language sent her back a step.

“I can wipe my ass with the other hand, if that’s what you mean,” X said. “And if I’m not there on time, Carmela can have an extra hour in the brig before she dies.”

“Okay, then, sir.”

As Sloan left, Michael and Layla squeezed past her. Layla wore a white dress that curved over her belly, and Michael was in new black pants and a camel-colored shirt. His long hair was pulled back, and Layla wore braids.

Miles trotted over to say hello.

“X, will you be ready to go soon?” Michael asked, petting the dog. He stopped stroking Miles when he saw the bottles.

“Don’t say it, kid,” X said. “I already got the full ration of shit from Lieutenant Sloan.”

“You’ve been drinking more, and I’m starting to worry.”

Layla kept silent, but he could see the concern in her eyes.

“I don’t need scolding today,” X said. “I’m going to watch Magnolia cut off Moreto’s head, and then say goodbye to a dear friend.”

“No judgment. I’m just worried.”

“Nothing to worry about, but I’ll warn you now, after the ceremony I’ll probably drink another bottle. It’s my process, and I’ll get through it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get dressed so I don’t have to worry about Sloan trying to do it,” X said. He walked over to the pile of clothes on the floor, then went to his dresser. The drawer rattled, but he couldn’t get the damn thing open.

He pulled harder, and it sprang off its tracks. He stumbled back against the side of his bed, dumping clean clothes onto the pile of dirty laundry.

Layla stopped in the hall, and Michael hesitated in the open doorway.

“It’s fine,” X said, holding up his stump and wincing in pain. “I’ll get it.”

“Give me a minute,” Michael said to Layla.

She quietly shut the hatch behind her, leaving them in silence.

“X, we need to talk,” Michael said firmly.

“If I had a piece of coin for every time I’ve heard that—”

“You’d be able to buy your own island,” Michael said. “You said that a lot when I was growing up, remember?”

X couldn’t help but grin, recalling old times.

“Well, you got your island, so why are you drinking like you did at the Wingman?”

Bending down, X grabbed his favorite shirt and draped it over his bed. Then he laid out a pair of brown shorts.

“X, I’m not judging you; I’m trying to help,” Michael said. “You almost died again, but you didn’t, and that’s a damn good thing, because we need you. I need you, and pretty soon, Bray is going to need you.”

X had his back turned to Michael now. Pulling off his T-shirt, he used it to wipe the tears away.

Michael stepped closer. “I want you to be Bray’s godfather,” he said. “Layla and I were going to ask together, but I think you really needed to hear this from me today. And there’s something else I want to ask you.”

X tossed the shirt on the floor and faced Michael, trying to keep his lip from quivering.

“I’m going to ask Layla to be my wife,” Michael said. “And I want you to be the one to marry us.”

X couldn’t stop himself from choking up. Miles moved over and pressed against his leg, whimpering.

“Xavier,” Michael said.

He reached out and grabbed X, pulling him into a hug. X felt as if he might break at the young man’s touch.

“X, it’s okay. Everything is going to be okay. You’ll get used to not having an arm. It’s not so bad, trust me.”

X chuckled and snorted at the same time. “My arm isn’t the reason I’ve been drinking like a fish.”

“Then why?” Michael asked.

“The past, and the future.” X recalled the fortune cookie with the quote about both those things. “I know I’m supposed to accept the past without regret and face the future without fear, but sometimes… sometimes I just can’t fucking do it, kid. I’ve trekked the wastes for a decade, found a home for our people, and continued the fight, but I’m getting old and I’m tired. Tired of fighting, and really tired of losing my friends.”

“I understand, X, I do. But please, you got to keep fighting—if not for yourself, for Bray. I want you to meet him, and at this rate, I’m worried you’re going to slip back into the darkness I remember.”

X thought back to those days after Aaron had died on the surface, and even before. He had watched Tin grow up but couldn’t remember a lot of the good times because he had been too drunk during many of them.

And he had missed Michael’s teens by being stranded on the surface. It wasn’t until last year, after they found each other in Florida, that X had really connected with him again after he had grown into a man. Michael was the son he never had.

“I’m not giving up,” X said.

He walked over and grabbed the wine bottles in his left hand and tucked them against his body with the stump of his right arm. Then he went to the open window and looked out over the water.

He flung the bottles out and watched them splash into the ocean. Michael handed him the last bottle, still half full.

X hesitated long enough to smell the wine.

“I’ll miss the fruit juice,” he said as he lobbed it out after the others.

Michael joined X at the window, and they stood taking in the gorgeous view.

“This is worth fighting for, kid,” X said. “Thanks for reminding me.”

“You’re welcome. Now, about that request?”

“I’d be honored, kid, you know that.”

They embraced so hard that X hurt, but he didn’t care.

“Okay,” X said, pulling away, “enough of the sweet sap, as Rhino used to say. Let’s go see Colonel Moreto become a head shorter, and then I’m going to give our friend Rhino the send-off he deserves.”

FOURTEEN

Magnolia slipped on the boots that Sofia had given her the night they escaped from el Pulpo only to be captured later during the war between their two societies. That horrific night had almost resulted in her death. And tonight, Magnolia was going back to war. Colonel Carmela Moreto was going to die. And Magnolia was going to kill her.

Bending down, she laced up the leather boots. Lighter than her bulky Hell Diver boots, they would allow her to move nimbly in the arena.

She wasn’t as fast as she once had been, or as thin, but she had packed on muscle from routine exercise and a healthy diet of vegetables, fish, and fruit.

“Change of plans,” said a voice.

Rodger and Sofia stood at the entrance to her quarters. He still wore his Hell Diver armor from training earlier, but Sofia had changed into a dress and red shoes. Yellow flower petals graced her braided hair.

She wasn’t dressed for the fight. She was dressed for her final farewell to General Nick “Rhino” Baker. After the fight, they would honor him and spread his ashes over the water.

“What do you mean, ‘change of plans’?” Magnolia asked.

“Colonel Moreto has requested a new site for your battle,” Rodger said.

“What? Can she do that?”

“Yes,” Sofia said. “By tradition, any member of the Black Order can make a request for the site of a fight to the death.”

“So where is this going to take place?” Magnolia asked.

“The Hive. It’s a weird request, but maybe she thinks it will distract you.”

“Good luck with that.” Magnolia finished buttoning up her purple vest. Then she put her Hell Diver armor on over her chest and torso. Armored kneepads and arm guards went on next.

Finally, she strapped on the two crescent blades, sheathed over her back, and a duty belt that held a long dagger.

“Let’s get this over with,” Magnolia said.

She followed Sofia and Rodger out of the room and through the capitol tower. No one spoke, but Rodger glanced over his shoulder several times.

“You sure you shouldn’t be working with Captain Mitchells and Samson on the airship?” she asked.

“Ha! And miss you kicking her butt? Forget it, Mags. Samson said they’re almost done anyway. Should be in the air tonight if all goes to plan.”

Rodger pushed his glasses up on his nose—his nervous tic.

She knew that he was worried about the fight, and her heart ached knowing how disappointed he was in their stagnant relationship. Between their many duties, they stole what moments they could together, and she still dealt with her own issues not wanting to get close to him—or anyone.

Perhaps someday, when the Vanguard Islands were finally safe and at peace, there would be time for her and Rodger, but for now, the timing just wasn’t right.

A cloudless sky greeted them outside. By the time Magnolia made it down to the docks, she was already sweating under the sun’s hot glare.

Sergeant Wynn and a contingent of heavily armed soldiers were at the dock. He gestured toward a ferry and reached out a hand as she approached.

“Ma’am,” he said politely.

Rodger, who had already boarded, reached out, and she took his hand, grinning at his jealousy. Six militia soldiers got on the boat with the three Hell Divers.

It was a short ride to the Hive, but enough time for a pod of spinner dolphins to find them. They jumped and gamboled next to the boat.

“They’re rooting for you,” Rodger said.

“I’m sure Moreto ate a dolphin or two in her life,” Magnolia said.

“I saw it with my own eyes,” Sofia replied. She watched the magnificent creatures, but Magnolia could tell that her friend’s mind was with Rhino.

Since her return to the islands, the grief had gotten worse, and she had slipped deeper into the darkness of depression. But Magnolia would be there to make sure her friend pulled through. In time, she would start to heal.

The dolphins scattered as the ferry approached the rig mounted with the decommissioned airship. Another boat of militia soldiers cruised over the waves around the platform.

There was plenty of security out, and only a few Cazador vessels, mostly fishing trawlers or runabouts. But one boat was different from the others.

Stacked with wood, it rode low in the water.

Sofia got up from her seat and put a hand over her mouth. The yellow petals in her hair blew away in the wind, fluttering out over the water.

“I should never have left him,” Sofia sobbed. “I should have stayed here and tried to convince him not to follow the mad king.”

Magnolia put her hand on her friend’s back. She would cut her some slack for calling X mad.

“Nick fought so hard for so long and didn’t even get to enjoy our freedom,” Sofia said. “It’s all he ever wanted.”

“I’m so sorry, Sofia, but he did what he did knowing it would safeguard your freedom.”

Sofia turned to face Magnolia. “What good is that if he’s not here?”

“I know it hurts,” Magnolia said. “But time will heal your wounds, like it has healed mine. And you never know, you might see him again someday.”

Sofia shook her head.

The boat putted into the marina built under the airship rig. Dozens of vessels were already docked along the piers between the rig’s massive uprights.

Wynn tossed the mooring line to a soldier, who pulled them in to the pier and tethered the boat to a pole. Rodger jumped out and reached for Magnolia’s hand.

More militia soldiers waited on the piers. Some were newly trained, coming from jobs that no longer existed now that the Hive was decommissioned.

Wynn sent them across the piers to await Colonel Moreto’s arrival. Then Magnolia and the other divers followed him over to the ladders.

Magnolia looked up at the massive ship. Porthole windows lined the hull, some of them darkened by interior drapes drawn by the sky people who lived there. Some residents stood in hatches that opened to newly constructed balconies.

A cage much like the one at the capitol tower took Magnolia, Sofia, Rodger, and Sergeant Wynn to the top platform installed over the airship’s domed roof.

Sofia wiped away a tear as she looked at the boat holding her lover’s remains.

Magnolia took her hand and Rodger’s. They were two of the dearest people in her life, and she would do anything for them.

At the top platform, the gate opened. Michael and Layla stood talking with King Xavier and Rodger’s parents. Several Cazadores were also there, including Imulah and two scribes. Notably absent was the crew of Discovery. Les, Samson, and Eevi were getting the ship flightworthy for whatever came next.

The small number of spectators was a significant change from the screaming crowds that normally watched from the stands of the Sky Arena. Four rows of chairs had been brought up for the spectators. The sand and dirt of the arena had been replaced with a metal deck, and red flags marked the ring for the combat. Ton and Victor, with spear shafts held vertically, stood at parade rest outside the ring.

At every corner of the rooftop, militia soldiers stood at their posts. Machine-gun nests and flamethrowers looked out over the water.

Although vegetable gardens still grew in long planters across the platform, most of the rooftop had been turned into a firebase.

The group of sky people parted, and X strode out. His open shirt revealed scars new and old. The king had seen better days. Bags hung under his eyes, one of them still swollen from the beating he took at the Purple Pearl. The bruises and scabbed cuts gave the only color to his pale skin.

But it wasn’t just exhaustion and injuries that made him look like a beaten old man. He was clearly hungover from a night of heavy drinking.

“You’re sure about this?” he said in a gruff voice.

“Do you really need to ask?” Magnolia replied.

Imulah walked over to her, his hands clasped behind his robe.

“I wish you the best of luck, Magnolia Katib,” he said. “With all honesty, I hope you end Colonel Moreto swiftly and without injury to yourself.”

“I’m still not apologizing for your hand.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

He bowed slightly, and Magnolia couldn’t help feeling a pang of remorse for the way she had treated him.

“You’re a good man who was forced to do some bad things,” she said. “And I am sorry about your hand.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry as well.”

A shout drew their attention to the fences on the south side. Magnolia went over to look. A dozen boats filled with militia soldiers were flanking another ferry. Even from this height, she could see it was Colonel Moreto sitting on the deck, with Lieutenant Sloan guarding her.

Magnolia waved Rodger away from the growing crowd. She crossed over to the flagged-off combat ring while the other spectators took their seats.

“When this is over, I want to talk to you, okay?” she said.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Magnolia smiled and kissed Rodger on his lips. “Do not worry, okay? I’ve got this, and everything is going to be fine.”

“Remember, Mags,” he said. “You are fearless, fast, and freaky.”

“Been a while since you reminded me.” Magnolia recalled the words from a card game with Commander Rick Weaver on the Hive long ago. It seemed like yesterday.

Rodger reached into his pocket. She half expected another wood carving, but instead he pulled out a white and purple seashell.

He said, “When I was in captivity, this was my talisman. I rubbed it each night for good luck. Now I want you to have it.”

Rodger placed it in her open palm and kissed her on the cheek.

“May it bring you luck now, Mags.”

Then he walked over to stand next to his parents, leaving her with the smooth purple shell in her hand. Her heart thumped. Rodger was a goofball, but he was her goofball and a sweet, sweet man. She closed her fingers over the shell and tucked it into her vest pocket.

Layla came over and gave Magnolia a hug. So did Michael.

“Trust yourself and stay wary,” he said.

“I will.” Seeing Layla’s worried expression, she smiled and said, “Don’t worry. It’s not good for the baby.”

“You’re a brave gal,” Cole Mintel said, putting his arm around Rodger. “For putting up with my son, that is.”

Bernie shook her head, but Magnolia chuckled—until she saw the cage rising back up to the top of the roof.

Lieutenant Sloan opened the gate to let Colonel Carmela Moreto out. The handcuffed colonel walked toward the flags.

Magnolia glared at the woman, who was twenty years her senior. The colonel had opted not to wear her body armor or cape, instead donning a light shirt with brown leather arm guards that partly covered her tattoos. A turquoise necklace hung at her throat.

She held Magnolia’s gaze as she halted and Lieutenant Sloan unlocked the cuffs.

Thank God they didn’t let her bring that dumb bird, Magnolia thought.

King Xavier walked over, limping slightly. His face had taken on a new greenish color, and for a moment Magnolia thought he might puke. Imulah stepped up to translate.

The entire rooftop fell silent but for the whistle of the wind and the distant call of a seagull. X cleared his voice and wiped his forehead with his stump.

“Carmela Moreto, you stand before me today accused of treason and plotting my death,” X said. “If it were up to me, I’d kill you myself, but seeing as how I lost my arm recently, I’m going to let Hell Diver Magnolia Katib have the honor.”

Imulah relayed his words while Moreto kept staring at Magnolia.

“You have been granted your request to fight for your freedom, and you have also been granted your request to do so here, on this rooftop.” X tapped the ground with his sandal. “If you survive, you will be exiled to the Iron Reef in Belize, to hold the fuel outpost for the rest of your days.”

Imulah translated, and Moreto bared her sharpened front teeth to X.

“I will be glad to be rid of you,” X said. He nodded at Magnolia and stepped away.

Lieutenant Sloan tossed a cutlass onto the deck. Moreto walked over and picked it up while Magnolia unsheathed her two sickle blades.

The people straightened in their seats. Rodger, standing in the back, brought two fingers to his mouth. She smiled at him and then turned to Moreto.

“Any final words, bird lady?” Magnolia asked.

Imulah spoke, and Moreto replied with something about an octopus and death.

“Yeah, yeah,” Magnolia said.

All across the rooftop, militia soldiers turned from their posts to watch. Wynn stepped up beside Sloan.

Moreto moved first, charging faster than Magnolia had anticipated. Backing, she let Moreto take the first swing.

The colonel struck hard, and Magnolia brought up her two blades together to deflect the powerful blow. The newly sharpened blades clanged against the rusted metal of Moreto’s cutlass.

Magnolia screamed and kicked Moreto in the shin, but the old woman responded with a punch that almost caught Magnolia on the jaw.

Moreto swung again, screaming in a raspy voice. Her blade arced from the side this time, and Magnolia parried the blow with the blade in her right hand, then sliced with the left.

The tip found purchase, cutting the turquoise necklace from Moreto’s neck. It hit the deck, drawing the colonel’s gaze downward. Magnolia used the stolen moment to strike again, bringing the curved sword in her right hand upward.

Moreto moved at the last moment, but not fast enough.

Sharp metal cut through cartilage and flesh, severing the colonel’s ear. It fell to the deck, beside her necklace.

Moreto let out a screech and swung the cutlass several times, forcing Magnolia backward. The crowd got to their feet.

Moreto jabbed, but Magnolia jumped out of the way.

Instead of keeping her momentum, Moreto stopped and went back to her necklace. A trail of blood dripped from her head as she hurried away.

Magnolia didn’t give chase but just watched, curious. The necklace must have sentimental value.

“Kill her, Mags!” someone shouted from a machine-gun nest. All across the roof, soldiers had paused to watch the fight.

Moreto brought the necklace up, but instead of putting it back on, she brought it to her lips. Her cheeks expanded as she blew into it. The whistle sounded much like the one that el Pulpo used to call the Octopus Lords from the depths.

Magnolia’s heart skipped when she realized that this wasn’t to summon the beasts—it was a signal.

“Oh shit,” she said, and started walking toward Moreto, who was running toward the north side of the rooftop.

A gull flew overhead and then swooped down. Not a gull. It was Moreto’s white cockatoo.

Moreto stopped and reached up for the bird to land on her wrist.

“You got to be kidding me,” Magnolia said. She almost broke out laughing. “You called your dumb bird to help you, huh? Guess it’s the best you could do, since your soldiers didn’t come to help.”

Imulah, who had followed them across the roof, translated to Moreto, who put the bird on her shoulder.

She spoke rapidly and then blew into the necklace again.

Imulah looked over to Magnolia, eyes wide. “She says her soldiers are already here.”

Footfalls sounded across the deck as people left their seats and milled about. X drew his sword and walked over.

“What the fuck is she talking about?” he asked.

“Horn,” Imulah continued. “El Pulpo’s bastard has come to the islands.”

Moreto spoke again and then brought up her whistle.

“Her bastard,” Imulah corrected.

“Somebody, shoot her!” Magnolia yelled.

Several soldiers aimed their rifles, but X held up his hand.

“Wait,” he said. “I don’t—”

An explosion tore into the Hive, rattling the entire airship and knocking Magnolia to the deck, beside X.

Screaming chaos sounded in all directions.

Another blast hit a machine-gun nest, erasing the two militia soldiers aiming their rifles at Moreto.

Magnolia pushed herself up and ran. Three strides later, a third impact knocked her down again. Then the realization struck her.

Moreto had requested to leave the capitol tower and fight on the Hive instead of the Sky Arena, to draw the king and his soldiers into the open.

Magnolia got up and bolted after Moreto as gunfire hit positions around the north side of the airship. Another militia soldier dropped to the deck, his head blown open by a high-caliber round.

Moreto was running right for the machine-gun nest now.

She’s going to freaking jump.

“No you don’t, you fucking bitch,” Magnolia growled.

Machine-gun fire rang out from the other weapon turrets. Judging from the muzzle angles, they were aiming at boats.

But how had Horn and his men gotten past security?

She considered throwing her dagger at Moreto to stop her, but the woman was already too far away. When she got to the machine-gun nest, she kept running, right over the edge.

More explosions rocked the airship. The skinwalkers’ bullets were hammering the machine-gun nests across the northern edge of the rooftop.

Magnolia hunched down in the nest where Moreto had leaped, just as tracer rounds nearly took off her head. On all fours, Magnolia climbed over the two dead militia soldiers. Her hands slopped into the blood pooling around their mangled corpses.

One of the men grabbed her.

“Help me,” he mumbled, gripping a spurting wound.

Another blast went off behind her as a second machine-gun nest vanished in smoke. Most of the sky people had retreated toward the elevator, but they couldn’t all go down at once.

She spotted Michael and Layla waiting to get on behind Cole and Bernie. Rodger was running toward her with a rifle.

When Magnolia turned back to the injured soldier, his eyes had closed in shock.

“Rodge, help me!” she yelled.

He climbed into the nest and pressed on the man’s belly while Magnolia risked a glance over the sandbags.

Another flurry of rounds forced her down. The spray then chopped into the machine-gun position to her right, blowing one of the soldiers backward in a spray of red mist.

She picked up a dropped assault rifle and moved closer to the edge for a better look.

“Mags, be careful!” Rodger shouted.

Now she saw why the militia hadn’t detected the skinwalkers’ vessels.

Three hundred yards out, a submarine had surfaced.

Another shell exploded behind her, followed by a chorus of screams. Ducking, she turned. A projectile had hit the elevator cage. It had been packed with people frantic to get off the rig.

Twisted metal and smoldering bodies lay strewn under a pall of smoke.

“Mom! Dad!” Rodger shouted.

A force suddenly slammed into Magnolia, knocking her backward. She managed to bring up her hand to shield her face as a scorching wall of fire washed over her and Rodger.

FIFTEEN

“Layla!” Michael screamed.

His voice sounded faint. Everything did. Dense smoke filled his lungs and burned his eyes, blocking his view of the carnage. Coughing and retching, he crawled across the deck, searching frantically for his best friend and mother of his unborn child.

Hot, twisted metal stung his hand. He reached out for Layla. How could she just be gone?

His mind filled with morbid thoughts, and he pushed them away. He wiped away blood that had dripped into his eye. More seeped down the back of his head, but he ignored the injury.

All that mattered was finding Layla.

He shouted her name again, then broke into another deep, guttural cough. The strain sent spots swarming in his vision.

He moved on his knees, feeling with his hands. The robotic fingers hit something, and he reached over with his real hand to check a body wet to the touch. Warm, slick blood dripped off his fingers.

The smoke cleared enough to reveal the body of a Cazador scribe. Imulah was a few feet away, sprawled on his back but breathing. He rolled over and coughed violently, drooling blood.

As the smoke dissipated, Michael saw more bodies.

Closest were a male and female, both blown down in the blast. Somehow, they were still holding hands. The woman was facing him, sort of. He couldn’t tell who she was, because a hunk of shrapnel stuck out where her nose should be. Then he saw the clock tattoo on the arm of the man holding her dead hand.

“No,” Michael choked.

The bodies were Bernie and Cole Mintel. He was checking Cole for a pulse when movement came through the wall of swirling black.

Militia soldiers swarmed the roof to help the wounded. Sergeant Wynn helped Michael to his feet. He said something, but Michael still couldn’t hear much.

“Layla!” he shouted. “Have to find Layla! Have you seen Layla?”

Wynn shook his head, and Michael pushed away from him to search the crowd of wounded staggering away from the debris field.

“layla!” Michael yelled.

He turned in all directions, disoriented from the smoke that still swirled around the blast zone.

How could he have lost her when she had been right by his side at the elevator cage?

Medics and civilians rushed by him to render aid. His heart hammered as if it were trying to break free. He turned in a full circle, stopping at the sight of a woman with her arm around a militia soldier.

Seeing her short hair, he staggered toward the thickest part of the smoke, screaming, “Layla!”

And then he saw her, standing on the deck, a hand on her stomach, blood streaking down her chin.

Layla sobbed, her lips quivering.

He ran over and wrapped her in his arms. They embraced, both of them coughing as they tried to speak.

Still half dazed, Michael guided her away from the twisted metal and body parts. He heard faint screams and, over them, more distant gunfire and an explosion, then another noise. It sounded like the blast of thrusters.

He looked to the sky as Discovery pulled away from the capitol tower, rising into the clouds. Two missiles streaked after it, but there were no blasts to indicate it had been hit.

Michael led Layla to the gardens, not stopping until they were free of the smoke. Several injured people sat with their backs against the square-sided planters while medics worked on them.

“Here,” Michael said. He got her to sit on a bench and then bent down to look her over. Tears rolled down her ashen face, and blood trickled from a gash on her chin.

“Are you okay?” he asked her. “Does anything hurt?”

He couldn’t hear her answer, but she shook her head. To which question, though?

She arched her back, wincing.

“You fell on your back?”

A nod.

Better, maybe, than falling on her belly.

“Tin! Layla!” said a voice that Michael could actually hear.

He turned toward the scene of chaos. A phalanx of militia soldiers shielded the king.

Ton and Victor led the escort over to the gardens, holding metal shields in a defensive position.

“We have to get off the roof,” X said.

Victor pointed and led the way.

Michael took Layla’s hand and followed through the extensive gardens. There were no cages to take them down to the lower decks—just ladders. He didn’t like the idea of her climbing down, but they had no choice if they wanted to get off the rooftop.

Victor waved the group toward the two exit ladders. On the right ladder, more medics and civilians worked to lower the incapacitated, while any injured who could walk used the other. Imulah and another scribe were being helped onto the rungs.

A dull ringing lingered in Michael’s ears, but by the time Victor made it to the back of the line, he was hearing better.

“We have to get the king down!” someone yelled. “The submarine went under, and no telling when it’ll come back.”

“Get the others down first!” X shouted.

Submarine… With Layla’s hand in his, Michael cautiously approached the ladders. He stopped a few feet back to look at the water but didn’t see any enemy craft.

The small line inched forward as more people climbed down to the lower levels.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Michael asked Layla yet again.

“I… I think so,” she said. “Bernie and Cole… They took most of the blast, I think. They knocked me down during the explosion.”

Michael closed his eyes, but it didn’t block out the image.

“I’m worried they’re hurt bad,” Layla said.

Michael didn’t reply.

“We’ve got to get you out of here,” X said to Layla.

Michael took her to the ladder, and she started down, looking up at him and X. It was a long way to the platform below, and several people, including Imulah and another scribe, were below her on the ladder.

Fencing had fallen away and hung loosely over the rooftop to her left. Smoke rose from several levels below, and flames licked at the hull on her right.

A boat with a water cannon was spraying the flames.

A voice came from behind them. Sergeant Wynn, radio handset in hand, tried to catch his breath.

“The skinwalkers have at least three submarines,” he gasped. “That’s… that’s how they got past our defenses.”

“I hope to God Discovery got away,” Michael said. “It’s our only hope to take out those subs.”

“Get Captain Mitchells on the radio,” X said. “And, Michael, get your ass down there.”

With each rung, Michael tried to manage his breathing, but the attack had rattled him. Bernie was dead, and probably Cole, too. The Hive had taken severe damage, and who knew how many civilians and militia soldiers had died.

Layla was halfway down the ladder when voices rang out from the balconies rimming the hull. Militia soldiers had started an evacuation, and civilians had come out of their apartments with their belongings stuffed into bags.

One of the soldiers shouldered a rifle and aimed it at the water.

Michael looked to the surface just as a small submarine surfaced like some massive sea creature. Water dripped off the conning tower. A hatch popped open, and a man emerged wearing armor that looked like bone. He raised a long machine gun.

“Shoot him!” Michael shouted.

The militia soldier on the balcony opened fire, rounds pinging off the sub. Another hatch opened near the stern, and two skinwalkers popped up with rifles.

“Keep moving!” Michael yelled to the scribes who had stopped below Layla.

Several bullets hit the militia guard on the balcony, and he crumpled against the railing, dropping his rifle to the deck.

Layla pushed down below Michael as the skinwalker locked the large machine gun into a turret mount and fed it with a belt of ammo.

“Move it!” Michael yelled.

Layla glanced up at him, their gaze meeting. He flinched at the bark of machine-gun fire.

He looked over his shoulder again, watching in horror as the rounds picked away the people below him and Layla.

Michael unholstered the handgun X had given him. Squinting, he aimed at the shooter. Even from here, he could see the man laughing as he raked the barrel back and forth.

Bullets punched gaping holes in the airship’s hull. The scribe below Imulah jumped to avoid the gunfire. He hit the bottom deck, cartwheeling off it and splashing into the water.

Michael knew that the odds of hitting the shooter from this distance were slim, but he had to try. He locked his feet against the ladder, gripped the side with his robotic hand, and lined up the sights.

The tracers rose toward Imulah and Layla.

Over the crack of gunfire, another noise, like a loud whistle, sounded as he pulled the trigger. The submarine vanished in an explosion that sent shrapnel flying.

Michael holstered the gun as another whistle sounded. This time, he saw the missile from the clouds streak down on the far side of the airship, slamming into a target there.

Layla gripped the ladder, staring up at him with frightened eyes.

“It’s okay,” Michael mouthed. “I love you.”

Smoldering pieces of metal plate and skinwalkers rained down over the water as the submarine sank to the depths. Michael searched the water for more hostiles, but it seemed they were in the clear. Discovery had saved them for now.

Two tugboats with water cannons raced to the rig to help put out the fires. Hoses shot water across the hull of the Hive, but he wasn’t sure it would be enough to save their ancient home. Most of the blasts had come from the opposite side of the ship, which told Michael the damage would be even worse there.

Distant gunfire and another missile from the sky confirmed the battle was far from over.

But how many men did Horn have? From what Michael understood, he had slaughtered half the crew on Raven’s Claw. And where had they found submarines?

Imulah finally got down to the bottom platform, where more medics were waiting. He reached up to help Layla down, and Michael hopped down onto the deck beside them. Dr. Huff had arrived on a speedboat.

“I need tables set up there and there!” Huff yelled.

“No, not here!” a voice called out above Michael.

X jumped off the ladder.

“We need to get all nonemergency personnel and militia off this rig—especially the wounded,” he said. “Everyone not fighting the fires or holding security needs to fall back to the capitol tower.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir,” Wynn said. He got off the ladder and hurried over with his handset.

“Why?” X asked. “It’s the most defensive place we got.”

Wynn swallowed hard. “Sir, listen to this.”

He turned up the radio to white noise and the screams of terrified people.

He stepped closer, his heart climbing in his throat as he picked up something else amid the din.

“What?” X said. “What am I listening to?”

X grabbed the radio and brought it to his ear, his eyes widening as he listened for several moments.

“I don’t understand,” Layla said. “How is that possible?”

“The skinwalkers must have brought them,” Wynn said.

“Get me a boat now!” X said.

Wynn gave the orders, and X grabbed him before he could walk away. “Where the hell is Lieutenant Sloan?”

“Sir, I’m not sure,” Wynn replied.

“Find out.”

X looked up at the ladders across the hull. Michael did the same thing. A hundred people were abandoning their homes as rescue workers fought to save it.

“Deploy every able man and woman to the capitol tower,” X said. “We’re not letting it fall to the monsters.”

“Roger that, sir,” Wynn said.

“And tell Les and Timothy to keep eyes out for more subs.”

He looked to Michael and Layla. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I need Michael’s help.”

Layla nodded and squeezed Michael’s hand. “Go, Tin,” she said. “Save the capitol.”

* * * * *

Ada opened her eyes to a world so black, she thought she was dead until she heard the boom of thunder.

She tried to move, but something weighed her down. Mustering all her energy, she squirmed just a little in what felt like dirt.

A breath of air through her nostrils carried the scent of wet earth. She remembered the smell from the farms on the Hive, where she had helped her aunt pick produce when she was just a girl.

But this smell was different.

Ada twisted again, freeing one shoulder. She managed to get that arm out and reached up to wipe her visor. She cleared enough sand off it to see lightning flash on the horizon.

With her free hand, she pushed off the sand that half buried her body. Memories of the storm crashed over her like the last wave to hit her boat.

Sitting up, she reached to turn on her helmet lamp, but it was gone. Her wrist monitor still worked, providing a small glow. Radiation levels were low, and the air showed no signs of sulfur dioxide or other noxious gases. That also explained how she was breathing with a depleted air filter and a cracked visor. A little over a day had passed, which explained her growling stomach and parched throat.

The relief she felt over finding herself alive vanished when a skein of lightning illuminated the beach. Her boat was nowhere in sight.

She pushed herself up to start the search.

As she shambled along, her broken toe throbbed, but her eyes adjusted to the faint blue glow of the sky.

Waves crashed, churning up blocks of white foam that piled up on the sand.

A few minutes later, she stopped to get her bearings and realized she had lost more than her boat and headlamp. She had nothing to defend herself with.

The first thing she spotted was a pole sticking out of the sand. She walked over and tried to dislodge it.

Wiggling it back and forth, she finally managed to free the five-foot length of pipe. It reminded her of the spear General Rhino carried. Almost as long as her body, it was so heavy she could hardly swing it.

The farther she trekked, the more frightened she became. She had no real weapon. No flashlight, no food, no water. And no idea where her boat was.

Ada stopped and thrust the pipe into the sand.

You’re okay. There’s nothing out here with you.

She wanted to believe that, but the electrical storm illuminated a dense tropical jungle growing up through the old-world resort city. Trees had grown up through mounds of rubble, and vines curled like snakes toward the beach.

A quarter mile away, a raised concrete walkway cut the beach. At the end, metal poles stuck out of the sand and rose from the water. The pier that had connected them to the concrete walk was mostly gone.

In the harbor, bows and masts jutted out of the surf. She counted two dozen yachts and double that number in smaller craft, washed up along the shoreline and partially buried in sand.

The bigger vessels didn’t make much sense to her in a harbor so shallow that their remains poked out of the water like broken bones.

Maybe people had fled here after the bombs, she thought. Maybe they anchored here to wait out the war.

She looked back, to where hotels and resorts had once overlooked the harbor. The buildings were mostly rubble. Probably felled by a monstrous tsunami—a bomb would have caused much higher radiation readings.

She climbed up onto the concrete walkway for a look at the beach on the other side.

Lightning flashed, and in the glow, she saw there wasn’t much left of the pier on this side of the marina, either. Only a few rusting platforms—mostly just poles sticking out of the water.

She waited again for lightning and used it to scan the shore.

Her spirits lifted when she saw a boat that looked like hers. But they sank again when she saw tracks in the sand just below the edge of the concrete walkway.

She waited for another lightning bolt. It provided just enough light to make out a trail made by webbed feet about the size of a human’s.

The tracks ran between her and the capsized boat that looked like hers.

She hurried down the sand, past the remains of a metal boat whose hull was cracked in half. Something skittered out from under the stern.

Alarmed, she jabbed the metal pole into it, impaling a purple crab the size of a sea turtle. The creature squirmed, claws snapping at her, all four eyeballs looking on probably the first human it had ever seen.

Ada gave a scream, not of horror but of disgust, and flung the pole down on the sand. The crab managed to free itself and scuttled away into the crashing surf.

She stood there staring for several moments until her heart stopped pounding. Then she raced to the capsized boat, leaving the pole behind. Coming closer, she saw that it was indeed her boat, with the same oars she had spent countless hours hauling through the waves.

She pulled it from the sand, only to have it snap in two.

“Son of a…”

She found the other oar still strapped against the hull, but the top of the paddle had broken off. Gear and uncoiled rope lay scattered about the boat. The steering wheel was partially buried in the sand.

But at least the hull didn’t have any damage that she could see. If she could rig a rope, maybe she could turn it over and launch it back to sea.

Somewhere on this beach, there had to be other oars for the scavenging. She found her machete in the sand. Then she ducked under the portside gunwale.

The cabin she had called home was crushed against the beach on the starboard side. She tried to open the hatch, but it, too, seemed broken.

She kicked it with her good foot. The steel toe did the trick, and the hatch popped open. Inside, she saw that the starboard side of the cabin bulkhead had been crushed inward, knocking off all the gear and crates she had locked in place. Even worse, they had spilled into standing water.

“No luck at all,” she whispered.

She dug through the soup for whatever she could salvage. In the end, she returned to the sand with her soaking backpack, a knife, and a hand flashlight.

Slumping down onto the beach, she watched the surf and felt the anger warm her body. The Cazadores she’d killed had it coming for what they did to Katrina, but how did she deserve this punishment?

“Fuck you for sending me out here, Xavier,” she growled. “Fuck you for not believing me about the Cazadores.”

She lay back on the sand, looking up at the blue explosions of electricity in the clouds rolling overhead. The thunder made her think of bombs.

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” she muttered.

As if in answer, a croaking sounded in the distance.

Ada shot up, grabbing the machete and the flashlight. She clicked the button, but the beam didn’t come on.

She tapped the flashlight with the spine of the machete, and it flashed several times, then died again.

Dropping the flashlight, she scanned the mounds of rubble along the shoreline for movement.

The croaking came again a few minutes later, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the beach or the fallen buildings.

She turned toward the surf.

A capsized sailboat lay in the sand, its hull stripped of paint. The mainmast was broken, but a remnant of sail flapped lazily in the breeze.

It struck her then. Maybe she wasn’t stranded here after all. She didn’t need fuel and oars to get her to Florida. She just needed the wind and something to catch it.

The beach was littered with dozens of boats. At least one had to be seaworthy.

The croaking came again.

The escape strategy was great, but she must first survive whatever mutant beasts lurked out there in the ruined city.

Machete in hand, she backed up to her boat. She wanted to climb inside and hide, but she stayed on the sand, searching the water for the source of the noise.

When it came again, it was louder. Its source had moved. She scooped up the flashlight again and tried it. The beam came on, lighting up a small area of beach and surf.

She flicked it in the direction of the next croak.

Playing the light over the concrete walkway, she paused on a slimy green mass of something attached to the side wall. Horns lined the spine and head of a creature with four jointed legs spread out in L shapes. It looked a lot like a frog.

The large eyes looked back at her. A purple crab claw hung out of its mouth, wobbling as the creature chewed.

She kept the beam on the beast, but it didn’t seem to care. The claw fell from the mouth onto the sand. A long tongue shot out and whisked it back into the open mouth.

Ada took a step back toward her boat, bumping up against the portside gunwale. The light flitted downward and picked up something else on the concrete. Something even slimier than a frog.

At first glance, the three blobs looked like worms, but then she remembered seeing leeches in her biology classes on the Hive. These were orders of magnitude larger than the small creatures from that lesson.

They oozed up the wall toward the gargantuan frog.

The frog continued munching its meal, either unaware or unconcerned. She almost wanted to warn it since it hadn’t tried to harm her, but she didn’t want to risk drawing any attention.

Besides, the leeches were only a third the frog’s size, and there was no way…

Before she could finish the thought, the closest leech parted down the middle, like a sleeping bag being unzipped halfway. A red maw of gums lined with barbed teeth clamped around one of the frog’s hind legs.

The creature gave an alarmed croak and jumped. It succeeded in escaping its attackers, but at the cost of a severed limb.

The frog hit the beach, leaking blood from the stump. All three worms dropped to the sand, moving astonishingly fast toward the scent of blood.

A ball of rubbery black skin consumed the frog.

Nearly falling, Ada ducked into her boat. From beneath the overhanging hull, she watched as the leeches fed. The crunching made her queasy, and she resisted the urge to take off her helmet and place her hands over her ears.

The noises of death felt like a foreshadowing of her own fate, and for a fleeting moment, she thought of ending it her way, painlessly, instead of being eaten alive like the poor frog.

The feeding was soon over. The wormy creatures, plump and slower now, squirmed back toward the foamy surf, vanishing in the next wave that lapped the shore.

The bloodsuckers hadn’t left a drop behind. In fact, they had left nothing. No skin, flesh, or even bones remained. The only evidence of the frog were several webbed footprints.

And a moment later, the surf washed those away, too.

SIXTEEN

The small armada pushed away from the Hive, toward the capitol tower. Other boats sped to the Hive, to help put out the fires and evacuate civilians.

X sat in the bow of a speedboat with Michael while Sergeant Wynn piloted the craft as fast as he could between patches of burning debris floating on the choppy water. Ton and Victor stood in the back, staring in disbelief.

The refugees had seen more death in their lives than some Hell Divers. So much for bringing you to a safe place, X thought.

He looked over the gunwale at the flotsam from the destroyed submarine, but much of the burning debris had come from militia and Cazador vessels.

He choked up when he saw the burning pyre on the funeral boat. Smoke billowed into the sky as the flames consumed General Rhino’s mortal remains.

X wasn’t sure how the boat had been set ablaze, but without a proper ceremony, Rhino probably wouldn’t get into Valhalla or wherever it was Cazador warriors went after death.

“Fuck!” he yelled. A wave of dizziness brought him to the seat, where he tried to contain his anger. But part of him didn’t want to. He was going to need the anger to fight the Sirens.

He remained sitting, looking in all directions.

The skinwalkers had hit the Vanguard Islands hard in a well-coordinated attack. And it was Colonel Moreto who had orchestrated the whole thing.

X should have known she was up to something when she requested that the fight take place on the Hive rooftop.

The boat weaved around more wreckage, where several militia soldiers held on to pieces of a boat, waving and shouting at crews moving out to pick them up.

X still didn’t know where Lieutenant Sloan was or where Magnolia, Rodger, and half of his most trusted divers were. He turned back to Sergeant Wynn to ask for an update, raising his voice over the motor’s racket.

“Last I saw them, they were on the rooftop of the Hive!” Wynn yelled back.

“Victor, did you see them?” X said.

Victor shook his head, then asked Ton in their native language. Ton also shook his head in reply.

“And Lieutenant Sloan?” X asked.

“She’s still not picking up the radio,” Wynn replied.

X looked back to the airship, fearing the worst for the divers and the woman in command of the militia. Thick smoke wafted away from the flames lapping the curved beetle shape of the home that had kept much of humanity alive for over two and a half centuries. More flames billowed out of the gaping hole from a missile impact.

To leave the airship now felt like fleeing, especially without knowing where his friends were, but X had to deploy their limited resources to try to save the capitol tower, too. The damage was severe, but his people would do what they must to salvage the ship.

If anything in this world was immortal, it wasn’t X. It was the Hive. And it would survive.

He turned back to the capitol tower and kicked himself for leaving Miles sleeping in his room. If something happened to his dog, Carmela Moreto would die slowly…

“Look!” Michael shouted. He pointed his robotic hand at the tropical forest topping the mounted airship. A winged beast flapped over the tops of the palms, then dived.

It emerged a moment later with a soldier in its claws. The man kicked helplessly, fighting to get free. He succeeded, but he didn’t fall back to the rooftop, instead plummeting all the way down to the ocean.

Water splashed from the impact, and X didn’t see the soldier resurface.

Tracer fire followed the creature into the clouds. More of the abominations circled the tower. One squeezed out of a window on the third level, spread its wings, and took flight.

“Faster!” X yelled back at Wynn.

The boat accelerated, jolting over the waves.

“Sir, I’m picking up some radio chatter,” Wynn said. It sounds like there are over a dozen Sirens inside the tower, most of them at the top.”

“How is that possible!” Michael yelled back.

They would find out soon enough, but X hoped to God the monsters hadn’t started from the bottom and worked their way up already.

Michael loaded a spare assault rifle that Wynn had given him, and X unstrapped his rifle. He struggled to load the shotgun shells from the bandolier into the hybrid weapon, and Michael reached over to help with his robotic hand.

“Guess we’re twins now,” X said. Feeling helpless and embarrassed, he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Neither of them laughed.

“Here,” Michael said, handing the weapon back.

X took the loaded assault rifle–shotgun combo, though he had no idea how he was going to fire the damn thing. It was too heavy to hip fire, especially with his left hand, and his stump was too short to rest the stock on.

Slinging the weapon, he grabbed his sword. He had killed Sirens with less in the wastes.

The boat closed in on empty docks in the open marina. X had a feeling this was where the skinwalkers had released the Sirens.

Wynn took the radio off his vest and held it to his ear while guiding the boat to the dock.

“Sir, it’s Captain Mitchells. He wants to talk to you.”

X took the handset. “Tell me you took out all those subs,” he said.

It was hard to hear over the chug of the motor, but X did make out that Discovery had taken out one sub; then the transmission broke up.

“Les!” X shouted. “Les, do you—”

“Sir, I copy,” Les replied. “I was saying there are still at least two submarines left, and they have gone back under.”

“What about Raven’s Claw?”

“Not picking it up on radar,” Les said. “We’re continuing to scan.”

X doubted they would find it. Chances were good the warship had launched the subs from a distance, and one of those subs had somehow unleashed the Sirens.

“Stay out of view, and take out those subs if they resurface,” X said. “I’ll take care of the Sirens.”

“Sir, my family…”

Through the static, X could hear the fear in the captain’s voice. He was in the sky, unable to do anything to protect his wife and daughter.

“I won’t let anything happen to them,” X said. “Watch our back from the skies.”

Several boats full of militia soldiers powered toward the rig. X handed the radio back to Wynn and prepared to jump onto the dock. Then he saw the bodies. Militia soldiers and civilians, including a Cazador merchant, lay on a dock slick with blood.

“My God,” Michael groaned.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened here. The Sirens had torn through the area and then scaled the tower or taken flight.

The boat pulled up alongside the dock, and dozens of militia soldiers stormed the piers with X and his comrades.

X raised his sword into the air and shouted, “Save our home!”

The soldiers shouted in response, but he could hear the fear in their voices. Many of these men and women had fought the Cazadores during the battle for the islands, but they had never faced the mutant monsters.

X ran ahead of the group to show them he did not fear the beasts and that he would happily give his life today for his home and his people.

He was first to the elevator cage. Michael, Ton, Victor, and Wynn piled in after him, and he hit the lever.

The jolt rocked his stomach, and X again cursed himself for drinking too much last night. Facing Sirens with a hangover and no right arm was going to be one of the toughest fights of his life.

The cage lift was maddeningly slow.

When it clanked to the sundeck, X burst out. He ran across the gardens toward a side door, sliding to a stop when he heard the electronic wail of a Siren nearby.

The beast loped around the end of a wall decorated with images of ships and animals. Wings riddled with bullet holes spread outward. It then tucked them to its side and dived toward X while he labored to bring up his slung rifle.

Two spears sailed overhead and slammed into wrinkled, pale flesh, impaling the beast against the tower bulkhead. Blood smeared the colorful birds and butterflies painted on the wall.

Ton and Victor drew their swords as it screeched in agony. The creature flapped away from the wall, fighting for altitude, then sank to the deck, where Michael finished it with a burst from his assault rifle.

The team entered through the side door. A blood trail streaked down the tiled floor, ending at a corpse sprawled in an intersection, only the legs in view.

Michael shouldered his rifle and went first. A loud crunching resonated, and he held up his robotic fist. X gripped his sword, leaving the rifle slung over his back.

He followed Michael around the corner to find a Siren hunched over a dead woman. It raised an eyeless face, viscera hanging from the mouth.

Michael fired a burst as the lips opened to release a screech. The head went backward, and the Siren fell on top of its victim.

The team pressed on, finding two more bodies in the next passage. They were getting close to X’s quarters. Around the next corner, he heard distant barking.

X ran in front of Michael, nearly bowling him over.

“X, wait!” Michael called out.

There would be no waiting, no caution, when it came to Miles. If X lost his dog, he might just as well die, too.

He bolted for the open door and burst into his quarters to find Miles under the bed. A female Siren was on the floor, swiping under the raised platform.

“Hey, you blind, ugly fuck!” X shouted.

Dropping his sword on the deck, he grabbed a hind leg of the creature and hauled it out. It rolled to its back and swiped at X, slashing his chest and ripping through the strap of his gun. The weapon clanked to the floor behind him.

X stomped on the beast’s face with his sandals, but that only hurt his foot. He stumbled back as the creature jumped up.

Michael entered the room with his rifle shouldered.

“X, get out of the way!” he shouted.

A big ball of fur squirmed out from under the bed and grabbed the creature’s leg as its hooked talons whipped out again at X. This time, he moved back.

Miles clamped down on the scaly ankle, cracking bone. The Siren let out a wail and turned to strike the dog, but X plunged his sword through its back. Then he lifted the skewered beast off the floor with all the strength of his left arm.

Victor squeezed into the room and swung his blade, and the head bounced on the floor with a clunk.

X withdrew his blade and bent down to Miles.

“I’m so sorry, boy,” he said. “I’m soooooo sorry.”

Miles whined and licked his hand.

The dog had a gash on his back, but it didn’t look deep.

“I’m going to make you feel better, boy,” X said, grabbing the medical kit Dr. Huff had left in his room. “Hold still, buddy.”

Once X had Miles patched up, he kissed him on the head. The dog returned the gesture by licking his face.

The radio crackled in the hallway.

“Our teams on the rooftop are being overrun,” Wynn said. “We have to help them.”

They fought their way up three more floors on their way to the tropical forest, killing two Sirens and finding five more sky people dead on the way. None were Les’s family, but X couldn’t leave the lower levels without checking on them first.

He stopped at the next intersection and went left.

“Sir, where are you going?” Wynn called out.

“To check on Phyl and Katherine—I promised! I’ll meet you up there. Go!”

The team broke off, Michael and Wynn heading topside while Miles, Ton, and Victor went with X. The two refugees stuck close to him, their round metal shields up and their swords dripping blood.

Miles had a slight limp, but he trotted right along, happy to be with X.

The next hallway appeared to have been spared from the Sirens, but he had to make sure. X stopped at the apartment Les shared with his wife and daughter.

He knocked on the door with the pommel of his sword.

“Katherine,” X said quietly. “It’s Xavier.”

Rustling came on the other side, and the door cracked open.

Phyl peeked through the gap and looked up at X with eyes swollen from crying.

“Where’s your mom?” X asked.

The door opened, and Katherine pulled Phyl back.

“Are you both okay?” he asked.

“Yes, we’re fine,” Katherine replied.

“Good. Stay here and block off this door.”

“Don’t leave us,” Katherine said. “Please.”

“Victor, tell Ton to stay with them,” X ordered.

Victor relayed the order, and Ton nodded. Katherine let him into the quarters, and X bent down to Miles.

“You have to stay here and protect Phyl and Katherine, boy, okay?” X said.

The dog licked his face again. X patted his head and then gestured for him to go into the room. Phyl bent down to stroke the dog, the tears forgotten and a smile on her face.

“Don’t open this door until we come back,” X said. Then he was off, running with Victor to the rooftop.

When they got there, bodies of militia soldiers lay strewn haphazardly in the dirt. Gashes marked where claws had torn through flesh and opened arteries beneath their armor.

Gunfire came from the other side of the tropical forest, and X bolted toward the sound. He was slowing down now, feeling as if he might puke or pass out, or both.

X stumbled, and Victor caught him.

“Keep moving,” X said.

They ran into the tropical forest, where X stopped to vomit. He wiped his mouth.

When Victor gave him a concerned look, he said, “I feel better now.” It wasn’t a lie. Puking had reenergized him.

He took off running again, and when they emerged from the forest, the anxiety and nausea returned.

Michael, Wynn, and three militia soldiers were surrounded by a prowling pack of ten Sirens. More circled overhead.

The men alternated fire between the creatures in the sky and those on the deck. Two of the fliers dropped to the dirt, making their alien cries as they took their last breaths.

When X gave the order to advance, Victor didn’t hesitate, running toward the beasts with their backs turned, hoping to take them by surprise.

Down to just his sword, X slashed at the nearest creature just as it turned, cutting halfway through its neck.

He moved to the next one, plunging the blade into the creature’s forehead with an audible crunch. Victor slashed and stabbed, killing two monsters.

Two airborne Sirens dived toward Michael’s group. Gunfire riddled them, but one managed to snatch a militia soldier, yanking him away.

The creatures on the ground bolted toward the rest of the team, and several more broke off to take on X and Victor.

X swung and sliced, screaming. Beside him, Victor fought nimbly, bringing down several of the beasts before they could strike.

But there were too many.

A muscular female slammed into X, knocking him to the deck. Victor tried to help, but two creatures came at him.

X lost sight of the man as he fought to get the Siren off him. He grabbed the neck with his left hand, but with only his stump, he couldn’t do much besides hold back the maw of jagged teeth.

Human screams rang out around him. One was Michael’s youthful voice. Filled with rage, X crushed the Siren’s windpipe and pushed it off him.

He grabbed his sword and stabbed a monster that had knocked Victor down.

Three more Sirens bounded toward them.

X and Victor came together, side by side, while Michael, Wynn, and one last militia soldier took on five more of the beasts.

X let out a scream that sounded almost inhuman, in a voice that even he didn’t recognize. “argggggggghhhhhh!”

He strode forward with his blade, lunging to strike a Siren that raced toward him on all fours. Over the creature’s high-pitched death wail came another sound.

Human shouts and screams exploded from the forest.

X kept fighting, filled with hope now that reinforcements had arrived. He became a machine, slicing, stabbing, and kicking at the monsters’ wrinkled flesh. He didn’t ease up until a troop of armored soldiers stormed past him to finish the fight.

Panting, X finally lowered the sword in his throbbing left hand. He watched the soldiers finish off the last Sirens.

But these men weren’t wearing black body armor. They were Cazador warriors, and leading them was a man in full armor, with a black cape fluttering behind his shoulders.

“Colonel Forge!” X yelled.

The officer swung a bloody cutlass at the last two monsters. The soldiers flanking him also wielded blades slick with blood, and some bore the claw marks of Sirens.

Mac, Felipe, and several Barracudas had also joined Forge and his men, clearing the inside of the tower and fighting to the top. For the first time since Rhino’s death, X finally had Cazadores he could trust.

And judging by the destruction the skinwalkers had left behind, he was going to need every ally he could get.

SEVENTEEN

“Launch the drone,” Les said into the handset.

The mechanics in Discovery’s launch bay released Cricket into the sky. Les took over manually by tapping the screen on the bridge. The drone’s newly upgraded thrusters powered it away from the airship, toward the barrier between light and dark.

The little mechanical Hell Diver had the best shot at locating Horn and his demonic crew aboard Raven’s Claw. The submarines wouldn’t be far from the flagship, and once Cricket found them, Les was going to lob a missile down their throats.

He wanted to go out there with the drone, but taking Discovery into the storms was too risky and would leave the islands even more vulnerable to another attack by the submarines.

“Eevi, you detecting any major storms out there?” Les asked.

“Several, sir. I hope Cricket is ready to take a beating.”

“He’s built for it,” Timothy chimed in.

Good luck, little friend, Les thought. Find us those murdering demons.

Then he grabbed the handset again.

“All hands, buckle in or grab something to hold on to,” Les said over the intercom. He turned the airship around, then waited a moment for the skeleton crew of mechanics and engineers to buckle in.

“Timothy, activate thrusters on my mark,” Les ordered. He tapped his screen. Confirming that all six repaired thrusters were operational, he gave the order.

“Mark.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Timothy replied.

The thrusters all fired, giving Discovery enough juice to plaster Les against the captain’s chair on the bridge. The airship picked up speed.

Fifty miles per hour.

Seventy-five miles per hour.

One hundred miles per hour.

Through the feed from the front cameras, he watched the gray view of swirling clouds, his heart pounding from not knowing what was happening on the surface.

Les had no idea whether his wife and daughter were still alive. After beseeching X to protect Katherine and Phyl, he had switched off the radio. It would help them avoid detection from the prowling hostile forces and any Cazadores working with them.

At this point, he couldn’t trust anyone on the ground.

“Eevi, sitrep.”

“Scans on the surface are picking up no vessels that are not supposed to be out there,” she reported.

Les checked the monitor again. The below-surface scans weren’t picking up anything, either. The submarines had dived after their stealth attack.

It was nothing short of a miracle that Discovery had gotten away. The airship still wasn’t fully operational, but it was better than being a smoldering debris field on the water. And that had almost happened.

He thought back to the narrow escape. The explosions had happened fast, but Les had grabbed the closest militia soldier and sent him to protect Katherine and Phyl. Then he had rounded up the small crew of mechanics and engineers who were doing final repairs, and they all piled into the airship.

If not for Timothy, the ship would have been blown to pieces. The AI had expertly evaded several projectiles and escaped into the clouds.

“Still no sign of submarines on the sonar,” he said.

Les plotted a course through the clouds, back to the capitol tower. Once again, he was in the sky while his family was in danger on the surface. That was how he had lost Trey. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—lose Katherine and Phyl the same way.

Tapping his screen, Les canceled the course and decided to lower the airship for a look with his own eyes. A white glow from the AI spread over the deck around his station.

“Sir, our orders are to stay out of sight,” Timothy said.

“Focus on the weapons systems and your scans, Pepper,” Les said. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Sir—”

“That’s an order.”

Eevi looked as though she wanted to say something, but she turned back to her monitor.

“Fifteen thousand feet,” Eevi said.

“Raise hatches,” Les said.

The hatches over the bridge portholes cranked upward. Les eased off on the thrusters, heart thumping fast in anticipation of his first look at the surface.

A view of vast blue ocean replaced the clouds. Thick smoke snaked away from the Hive. Tiny black dots surrounded the rig, spraying white jets of water onto the flames. The wakes from dozens of other vessels streaked away from the tower, carrying the injured to other rigs.

Not only the decommissioned airship was on fire. As Discovery lowered to eight thousand feet, Les spotted a vast field of debris from sunk vessels spread across the water.

On the horizon, a chimney of smoke rose from another fire that appeared to be burning out of control.

“What is that?” Eevi said.

Les held back a curse and said, “Timothy, tell me that isn’t what I think it is.”

The AI took a moment to confirm that it was indeed their last tanker, which had been anchored outside a rig. The fire had spread to that rig and was now rising toward the rooftop.

Les wanted to punch his screen. He didn’t even know the extent of the damage from the attack or whether his family was alive, but things looked bad.

He wasn’t sure they would be able to come back from this.

Exhaling, he tapped his monitor to shut down the thrusters, switching to the turbofans and then directing the airship toward the capitol tower.

Discovery leveled out, and cloudy horizon replaced the ocean in the monitor.

Flying over the other rigs gave him a new perspective on the attack. It wasn’t just sky people who had suffered. The trading-post rig had taken heavy damage, and a rooftop farm burned.

The skinwalkers had attacked their military posts, destroyed their fuel, and taken out some crops and water supply.

“This is very bad,” Timothy said. “I’m so sorry, Captain Mitchells and Ensign Corey.”

Eevi met Les’s gaze, but neither said a word.

They hovered over the capitol tower. In the dirt around the sky arena lay human bodies haloed by blood streaks. Among them were pale carcasses of monsters, strewn about as if a tornado had whipped across the rooftop.

But not everyone down there was dead.

“Pull up!” Les yelled when he saw the armored Cazadores run out of the forest.

Discovery lurched away from the capitol tower.

Les studied the monitor, noticing several militia soldiers.

“Aiming the twenty-millimeter cannons,” Timothy said. “Firing on your mark.”

“No, hold your fire!”

Les walked over to the screen. With the Cazador warriors were Hell Divers. Now the king walked out in front of the group and waved his sword.

A radio transmission crackled from the speakers.

“Captain Mitchells, what the hell are you doing?” said a familiar gritty voice.

It was X, all right. He sounded furious, but that just meant he was still alive.

Les said nothing about sending Cricket through the barrier to track down Raven’s Claw, for fear the wrong people were listening.

He simply said, “We came to help.”

“We don’t need it!” X yelled over the channel. “Get back into the clouds!”

“My family—”

“Is fine,” X replied. “I checked in on them personally, and Ton and Miles are with them now.”

Les swallowed. “Thank you, sir.”

The airship climbed higher into the sky as Timothy guided them away from the rooftop.

“Stay in the sky until I give the order,” X growled over the comms.

Warning sensors suddenly beeped across all stations on the bridge. An alarm wailed. Timothy’s holographic eyes widened.

“Incoming!” he yelled.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Les shouted back.

The airship jerked as the thrusters fired to accelerate Discovery out of the path of another missile. But this time, not even the AI could save them.

Eevi let out a cry.

The impact knocked Les to the deck, and the world went dark.

* * * * *

Magnolia gasped for air. She shot up into a sitting position, to find herself on a wide fishing boat packed to the gunwales with passengers. None of these people were looking at her. A few appeared to be sleeping. Those who were awake stared at the sky, where sparks rained down from the side of what looked like…

Discovery. That was Discovery up there!

The boat thumped over a wave, sending a jolt of pain through her. She fought back to a sitting position and watched the airship climb into the clouds.

Some of her fellow passengers pointed. She could see their lips moving, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. It wasn’t just voices—she couldn’t even hear the motor on the fishing boat.

Pain filled her skull. Reaching up, she felt something covering the right side of her head, which burned like hell. A bandage, she realized. But how did she get hurt?

The last thing she remembered was fighting Moreto.

She looked again at the people who appeared to be sleeping. Blinking, she realized they were unconscious or dead from devastating burns.

A memory flashed in her mind, and when she saw smoke rising in the distance, the memories rolled in like a wave of fire from a Cazador flamethrower.

She was one of the burn victims in an attack orchestrated by Moreto.

Anger and fear gripped Magnolia, and it got worse when the person sitting on the deck in front of her turned.

She hardly even recognized Rodger.

Tears rolled down his ashen face, and blood soiled his outfit. He reached out to her with a bandaged hand, and she took it, choking up as she recalled what had happened.

Magnolia closed her eyes, trying to stop the painful images, but the militia soldier who had died in her arms lingered. Then came the explosion of the cage, where civilians had clustered to escape the violence.

Rodger gripped her hand a little tighter, as if he could sense her mental anguish.

All around them were injured sky people and Cazadores. Imulah was in the bow, being treated by a medical worker in gray coveralls.

Dr. Huff checked a militia soldier with his back to the hull. He was in bad shape, with blood streaking down his black armor.

Huff made his way over to Magnolia and bent down. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and gently held her chin, rotating her head to the left to check her bandage.

His lips moved, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Rodger said something that she couldn’t hear, either.

Had she lost her hearing completely?

She reached up again to feel the bandage that was wrapped around her head. Maybe it was blocking out the sound.

But that was unlikely.

She could feel fluid in her ears—not a good sign. Huff checked her chest armor, and glancing down, she saw why. A hunk of shrapnel stuck out just above her heart.

The doctor bent down for a better look, and Magnolia tried to read his lips.

“No blood,” he seemed to say. Then something about armor, and luck.

He patted her on the shoulder, forced a smile, and nodded at Rodger before moving on to another patient.

Rodger scooted closer, his eyes glazed with tears.

It’s okay, she mouthed. I’ll be okay.

She was more concerned about Discovery. If the airship went down, there went their best hope of defending the islands.

Scanning the sky, she searched for the airship but saw nothing.

The boat slowed, and several people got up in the bow. A militia soldier hopped onto a pier and pulled the craft over by its mooring line.

Rodger helped Magnolia up, and the slow exodus began. Some of the injured could make it onto the platform unaided; others were carried. Once on the deck, the worst of the injured were put on stretchers and carried toward the doors.

She put her arm around Rodger and walked toward more medical staff, civilians, and even merchants who had come to help.

Then she saw the armored Cazadores across the piers. She halted in midstride and pulled Rodger back when she saw a stack of Siren carcasses.

No. It couldn’t be.

She pulled back, but Rodger held on to her.

It’s okay, he mouthed.

But how could it be okay? There were dead monsters on the docks, which meant the Sirens had somehow…

Then it hit her. Moreto hadn’t orchestrated just the attack with the submarines. In the ambush, the skinwalkers had unleashed the monsters.

The cage from the rooftop descended to the docks. To the right, a side door to the marina flung open. More Cazador soldiers poured out.

Colonel Forge was one of them, holding a cutlass covered in blood. Mac and Felipe followed him out. They all glanced up at the cage, and Magnolia spotted Michael, Victor, X, and Sergeant Wynn inside.

The elevator finally clanked to the deck, and the men joined Forge. They formed a group and started off for the docks to her left, passing the injured and those helping them.

They hurried toward a dock where Magnolia spotted an armored Cazador speedboat that she had never seen before. The hull sported a black octopus logo. It had to be Colonel Forge’s personal war boat.

Farther off, Shadow, his newly assigned warship, was also sailing, with a small fleet of boats on patrol. Most of them were coming from the direction of the Hive.

She brought a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun’s glare.

Smoke rose away from the Hive.

“Come on!” said a faint voice.

It took her a moment to realize that some of her hearing had returned.

The voice grew louder. “Mags, come on, we have to go,” said Rodger.

She started walking, and he helped her into the long line of injured heading inside.

Another group of people went the opposite direction on the pier, but they weren’t militia or Cazador soldiers. Hell Divers Arlo and Edgar, in their armor and armed with assault rifles, ran past her without even stopping.

Rodger pulled on her when she turned and raised a hand.

“Wait,” she slurred.

“Mags, we have to get you to the medical ward,” Rodger insisted. “Please…”

“Magnolia!” shouted a raspy male voice.

X had spotted her and Rodger. He ran over, panting, looking them both up and down.

“God damn, it’s good to see you two,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“I will be,” she said. “You?”

A diagonal gash across his chest leaked blood. He held the captain’s sword in his left hand and used his bandaged stump to wipe sweat and blood from his face.

“I’m fine and heading out to patrol,” X said. “You two get inside. It’s safe now. We’ve cleared the building of the beasts.”

Wynn stepped up beside X. “Have you seen Lieutenant Sloan yet?” he asked.

“No,” Magnolia said. “Last time I saw her was on the rooftop, at the start of the duel.”

The ringing in her ears blocked out X’s cursing. She winced.

Rodger tried to keep her walking by gently taking her arm, but again she resisted. The soldiers and Hell Divers were boarding the boats, and she wanted to go with them.

She wanted to fight. To find Moreto and get the satisfaction that had evaded her on the roof.

“Please,” Rodger said.

“Get inside,” X said. He patted her on the arm and then ran with his team to the docks. Another armored boat came out from the covered marina. She recognized that throaty rumble—the boat where el Pulpo had strapped her and Sofia next to the exhaust stacks.

“Where is Sofia?” she asked Rodger.

“I don’t know,” he said, “but we have to go. Your wounds need to be treated before you get an infection. I can’t lose you like I lost…”

The ringing came again, silencing Rodger. The right side of her head pounded. Fighting the agony, she mouthed, lost who?

Rodger wiped a tear and spoke again, but she still couldn’t hear him.

Magnolia put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him closer.

Who? she mouthed.

It was hard to make out the response of his quivering lips, but he seemed to be trying to say, My mom and my dad.

EIGHTEEN

The armored war boat bobbed in the water somewhere in the center of the Vanguard Islands. In the stern Michael threw on a chute and booster pack. They were old, pulled from storage in the armory, but it was all they had. Everything else was on Discovery, wherever that was…

They had lost contact with the airship after a rocket from the surface exploded against its hull. Details were still coming in, and Michael still wasn’t sure whether the militia had captured the skinwalker who fired the rocket.

At least a dozen vessels surrounded the war boat. Militia soldiers and Colonel Forge’s forces stood on the decks, their weapons angled at the water, searching for submarines.

The only people looking up were Hell Divers. Ted, Hector, Alberto, and Lena waited in a boat across from Michael. Arlo and Edgar were on another craft, in armor and ready for orders, despite their still healing injuries.

They weren’t the only ones hurt. Michael had a gash across his forehead and another on the back of his head. But the sting and trickle of blood was just a nuisance. All that mattered was that Layla had safely evacuated to the capitol tower, where she was now protected.

A runabout, commanded by Sergeant Wynn, chuffed closer to the war boat. A Hell Diver standing on the bow took off her helmet. It was Sofia.

“Did you find the skinwalkers who fired the missile?” X growled.

“Yes, sir, we have them in our custody,” Wynn replied. “We’re doing our best to search for any remaining hostiles with the resources we have left.”

Have left… The devastating ambush had killed far more people than he imagined. And with Discovery’s fate unknown, the future of the Vanguard Islands was never more uncertain.

“What about Discovery?” he asked.

“We still have no idea where she is,” Wynn said, “but we do know their radio was damaged in the attack. Good news is, we haven’t seen her come crashing down anywhere.”

X put his fingers in his mouth and whistled to the other vessels.

“Listen up, Hell Divers!” he shouted. “We’re sending you all up into the sky with your boosters to see if you can locate Discovery.”

Michael scanned the sky. Chances were good the ship was just above the cloud cover, and with the flares, he could get Captain Mitchells’s attention.

“Spread out and find her!” X yelled.

Motors fired, and the boats chugged away, fanning out to give Edgar, Arlo, Sofia, and several of the greenhorns the best chance of finding the airship.

Michael prepared to put on his helmet, but X stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“I told you a war was coming,” X said quietly. “This is it, and we just lost the first battle.”

“We can still win this.”

X waited a second before nodding. “I fear there are more skinwalkers lurking on the rigs, so be careful once you get in the air. If your balloon is popped, you know what to do.”

“Yes, sir.”

X looked out over the water as the other boats pulled away.

“Once you find Discovery, make sure none of the green divers give away its position. If you manage to board, have Les put down under cover of darkness, at these coordinates.”

X handed Michael a torn piece of shirt with numbers scribbled on it. They meant nothing to him at first glance, but Timothy would be able to determine the location.

Michael slipped the sliver of torn shirt into his vest pocket. Then he secured his helmet. X pulled him close, pressing his head against Michael’s visor.

“Be careful, kid,” X said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “We don’t know if there are more threats out there.”

“I will.”

Michael made his way up to the bow, next to one of the mounted machine guns. On the other boats, Hell Divers had already punched their boosters and were ballooning skyward.

Reaching over his back, Michael fired his canister, and a balloon shot out, filling with helium that swung him up off the armored deck. He watched the sparkling water below, and the war boat bobbing on light chop.

X raised his left hand, and Michael waved back.

Then he turned his attention to the other rigs, scanning the devastation. Smoke rose off the Hive, but the fires appeared to be out. Many boats that had helped fight the flames were now on their way to the rig where the remaining oil tanker had exploded.

Thick plumes of smoke followed the Hell Divers. Michael steadied his breathing. The slow ascent made him and the other divers easy targets for any skinwalker waiting to strike.

Even with the militia, Colonel Forge’s troops, and the Barracudas holding security, it would take a single shot to deflate the balloon of a helpless diver. At a thousand feet, they would have little time to pull their chutes.

Michael looked up at the clouds, trying not to think about the threats that could still be on the surface. All around him, the other divers rose toward the ceiling of bulging cottony clouds.

The cover had likely saved Discovery from destruction. On a clear day, the skinwalkers would have had an easy target.

Arlo and Edgar were almost to the cloud cover. If someone was going to shoot them, they would have done so already, and chances were good they all were out of range by now.

One by one, the clouds absorbed the other divers. Michael was the last to enter the translucent haze. The higher he rose, the thicker it became, until he couldn’t see anything.

He kept his body relaxed in the harness connected to the helium balloon. The minutes ticked by with the altitude. The divers were safe from enemy bullets and rockets, but it was still an agonizingly slow climb. On the way back to the airship, it always was.

Normally, Michael used the downtime to calm his mind after an adrenaline-fueled dive and surface run. Today was no different.

The rush of adrenaline had slowed to a trickle, but he still didn’t know who had perished in the ambush—only that several important people were missing, including Lieutenant Sloan.

He had a bad feeling that she had died in the initial explosions and fallen into the ocean. If that were the case, they would never find her body.

And he still didn’t know whether Layla and Bray had been harmed when she fell. He wanted to be down there with them now, but duty called.

He cursed the gnawing guilt. Layla deserved so much more than this. She deserved a husband, and Bray deserved a good father.

Michael wanted more than anything to be both. But how could he do that when a war was coming? The war that X had warned him of before he even left for Rio de Janeiro.

He had promised Layla that he would back off after saving the people from the bunker there. But the attack by the skinwalkers, and unknown location of the defectors reminded him they would never be safe until both threats were destroyed.

Captain Mitchells was correct. Until the islands were safe, they couldn’t rest.

Fighting and diving were in his blood, right down to the marrow of his bones. Michael was a Hell Diver, and he wouldn’t stop jumping until his family could live in peace.

At eight thousand feet, the cloud cover began to lighten. When he finally broke through, the sun’s glare dazzled him.

Using his wrist computer, Michael brought up the sunshield on his visor. The tint eased the glare, but it took several moments for his eyes to adjust. Even then the green halo made it difficult to see.

He twisted in his harness for a view to the west. He spotted the balloon carrying Edgar, but no Discovery.

He turned to the south. Nothing there but Sofia and Hector.

Smoke drifted east of him—the same direction as the destroyed oil tanker and the rig the fire had consumed. But they were at almost fifteen thousand feet now. The smoke from a surface fire couldn’t be that thick, not even from a burning tanker. Then he saw the source of the smoke.

A horizontal trail curved to the northeast—a dark plume in Discovery’s wake. It reminded him of the dark, greasy exhaust from the motorcycle he had ridden in Florida.

Arlo was the closest diver. He fired a flare that burst into a dazzling display of red sparks. The airship moved slowly, using only turbofans, no thrusters.

Michael had a feeling the newly repaired thrusters had been destroyed, but he couldn’t see through the billowing smoke from the stern.

The balloon pulled him higher, and to avoid climbing too high, he let some of the helium escape. The other divers would be doing the same thing, waiting for Les to spot them and scoop them up.

The wait was even more agonizing than the climb, and Michael feared that Les had been injured or killed in the explosion.

It would take time for all the divers to get aboard. Judging from the sheer volume of smoke, he marveled that Discovery was still in the sky.

Arlo fired a second flare, and this time someone on the airship saw it.

A bank of thrusters fired, booming in the distance.

Relief washed over Michael. It lasted for a second or two—until he realized that it wasn’t the stern that had been hit.

The snaking trail of smoke dissipated as the airship maneuvered toward Arlo. The new angle provided a different view.

Michael saw then why no one on the bridge had seen them right away. An entire section of the bow was gone, exposing the bridge, or what remained of it. Michael pulled out the binoculars and hesitated an instant, afraid to look.

Smoke wafted from a gaping hole on the bow. Twisted metal and jagged Plexiglas were all that remained in the main impact area that had punched through the outer and inner hull.

White ash coated the aluminum framework, making it look like mangled bones. One light still shone on the bridge, spreading a white glow over the shambles.

The interior deck and several of the stations had survived the blast, but the captain’s chair was empty.

Michael zoomed in with the binos but didn’t see Les, Eevi, or any of the crew who had boarded. But then something moved with the white light.

It was Timothy. The AI walked in front of the vacant captain’s chair, hands clasped behind him, looking out through the new window in the hull. He stood there stoically, watching the divers as the ship lowered to pick them up.

* * * * *

Moonlight streamed through the open hatches of the council chamber. X sat on his throne, looking down at Miles, who had a fresh bandage on his back. Like his dog, X also had a new bandage, covering where a Siren had raked his chest.

The nanotech gel had helped his arm heal, and pain medicine was keeping him functioning, but he was starting to feel the effects of fatigue and his injuries.

Ton and Victor stood at the bottom of the stairs, spears in hand. They, too, had bandages over fresh wounds, but that didn’t hinder them from standing straight and guarding their king.

Rhino would have done the same thing. X missed the big man now more than ever. Seeing the boat with the burning corpse had probably fueled him in the fight against the Sirens. They had won the day, but it sure didn’t feel like a victory.

Guilt gnawed at his stomach while he sat waiting to learn whether the Vanguard Islands were secure. For now, it seemed the battle was over, but he wanted confirmation. It was too dangerous to send messages over the radio, but according to his scouts, Discovery had landed at the secret location—a place that no skinwalker would think to go.

The scouts had also confirmed that the Hell Divers would be on their way back in boats, but X still didn’t know about the airship’s condition or whether anyone had been injured on board.

X had waited anxiously to meet the bastard who nearly destroyed the airship, but that wasn’t going to happen now. The doors at the end of the chamber finally opened, and the man who had killed the escaping skinwalker entered the room.

Wet hair hung to Sergeant Wynn’s armored shoulders. He shambled forward woodenly, his face bruised and bloody. The soldiers with him looked equally beat up and exhausted.

X stood to greet them. He knew each face and name, knew their painful pasts, and their fears for the future. And tonight, he felt responsible for everything they had endured.

No, this was not a victory by any stretch of the imagination. He should have seen the trap, should have guarded the islands better. He had failed his people.

So much for the fucking prophecy.

“How bad is it?” X asked.

“Very bad, King Xavier,” Wynn said.

“Have you found Lieutenant Sloan?”

Wynn shook his head. “All we know is, she was last seen in a boat with two other militia soldiers, pursuing a submarine.”

X closed his eyes for a second. The news could mean only one thing. Sloan was fish food.

The pounding of boots on the tile floor pulled him from the gruesome image. Michael, Rodger, Edgar, Sofia, and Arlo entered, still in their suits. The rookie Hell Divers followed.

Missing from the group was Magnolia, who, the last X heard, was being treated for burns. He was glad she was actually resting—probably only because they had sedated her.

“Close the doors,” X said.

“Wait,” said Michael.

The team of divers parted as one more person walked into the great hall. The tall man wore a jumpsuit that looked as if it had been washed with ash. The doors clanked shut behind Captain Les Mitchells.

The Hell Divers and militia soldiers followed him on the short walk down the empty rows, to stand in front of Ton and Victor.

As X watched, it struck him that every person in the room had been injured in the attack or was still recovering from the mission to Rio de Janeiro. They had been through so much, and Les looked like hell.

X gestured for everyone to sit but remained standing.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “Everything is going to get worse before it gets better, but you’re all prepared for that.”

He waited a moment to let that sink in and then said, “I’m sorry. Sorry for letting you all down. I should have done more—”

Michael spoke up before X could finish. “Sir, we all knew an attack was possible, but you couldn’t know that the skinwalkers had submarines.”

“Now that we do, we’re locking down the borders,” Wynn said. “Our troops are working with Colonel Forge to patrol for the skinwalkers, but we have a major problem.”

“Fuel,” X said.

“Precisely, sir.”

“How about the rest of the Cazador forces?”

“From what I’ve heard, almost all of Colonel Moreto’s forces have joined Colonel Forge,” Wynn replied. “Those who haven’t are in the brig.”

“The Barracudas have joined our ranks,” said another militia soldier.

X hesitated, not wanting to ask his next question. But he had to know. “And the total body count?”

Wynn seemed as hesitant to reply as X had been to ask. The sergeant said, “King Xavier, we lost sixteen militia men and women, and another twenty are injured. With Sloan and five other soldiers missing, we’re down almost a third of our forces.”

X cursed under his breath. “What about civilians?” he asked.

“Twenty-one people were killed on the Hive,” Wynn said gravely. “Twenty more on the capitol tower, from the Sirens.”

X tensed at the numbers. Still, it could have been much worse.

“And Discovery, Captain Mitchells?” X asked.

“The damage is severe,” Les replied. “And even with all hands working on it, the ship isn’t going to be airworthy for some time.”

“How long is ‘some time’?”

“I… I’m not sure, sir. Samson and every mechanic and technician we can spare are already at the ship or on their way, but the main issue is going to be finding parts. Most of the bow is destroyed, but the good news is, the nuclear engines weren’t damaged, and almost all the thrusters and turbofans are operational.”

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Michael said.

“I have Timothy to thank for that,” Les said. “He didn’t just save the ship; he saved Eevi and me. He acted fast to turn on the sprinklers after the explosion.”

X wanted to hear the story, but not now. He crouched beside Miles, scratching his chest while he thought about how to move forward. They needed Discovery more than anything. It was their best weapon.

The airship was at the coordinates he had given Michael—safe, but for how long?

“Rodger, how about the Hive?” X asked. “How bad is it?”

Rodger wiped his eye and stepped up beside Les and Michael. He had lost both his parents in the attack, but he had still reported to the airship rig to survey the damage.

“I hope getting her back into the air isn’t your Plan B,” Rodger said. “Chances of the Hive sailing again are pretty much zippo.” He wiped his nose. “Sir, if you’re done with me, I’d like to go see Magnolia.”

X nodded. “Tell her to keep resting.”

“I will, sir.”

X stood, his old bones creaking like a wind-blasted tree in the wastes. He was dizzy, but this time not from being hungover. The alcohol was out of his system, and for the first time in weeks, he didn’t even want a drink. What he wanted was to fight.

“Has Cricket found anything beyond the barrier?” X asked.

“Not yet,” Michael said. “I’m monitoring his progress.”

“We have people on the grounded airship ready with speedboats to relay messages if Timothy receives intel on their location,” Les said.

“Can’t we use some sort of code over the radio?” X asked.

Les shook his head. “The airship’s radio is damaged, and handhelds won’t reach that far.”

X cursed again at the bleak situation. It would take a speedboat a half hour at top speed to get a message back and forth—plenty of time for Raven’s Claw to destroy the drone and then move.

“If anyone has any bright ideas on how we find Moreto and her bastard, I’m all ears,” he said. “But with both airships grounded and limited fuel for our boats, I’m low on ideas.”

Les and Michael exchanged a glance, but neither spoke. Several moments passed before a voice broke the silence.

“What about hang gliders?”

Someone at the back of the group limped through to the front. It was Arlo, and he looked serious.

“Hang gliders?” X asked.

“Yes, sir. Since we don’t have an airship right now, why not paint some hang gliders and send out a bunch of Hell Divers wearing camouflage to search for Raven’s Claw and subs? It will be dangerous in the storms, and we can’t go very far past the boundary, because that’s where the thermals end, but if we find the warship or their subs, it’s over for those mutant freaks that stuck me like a pig in Rio.”

Arlo rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure we could design a submarine-detection system by using those underwater sensors the trawlers use to find schools of fish.”

Everyone stared at Arlo for a moment—especially X, who didn’t know how to respond. The kid with an attitude had grown up a lot since Rio de Janeiro, and he had some damn good ideas.

“Hang gliders,” X said, deciding to start there. “How do you know we even have any?”

Arlo grinned, showing off two newly missing teeth. “Let’s just say I got acquainted with a Cazador lady the night before my first dive, and she told me a few secrets. She said her ex-husband died using one in the proving grounds.”

X remembered Rhino telling him about the island that was basically a boot camp, complete with monsters, for Cazador trainees. But he didn’t recall anything about hang gliders.

“So where are they?” he asked.

“Colonel Forge should know,” Arlo said. “And that Tomás guy, the merchant that was on the council—I’m sure he’ll be happy to hand over some sensors.”

“See if this is all true, Sergeant Wynn,” X ordered.

“Sir, all due respect, but how are we going to get them into the air?” Wynn asked. “It’s a ways from the capitol tower to the barrier, and those electrical storms are going to be hairy.

X knew that sending hang gliders out into the storms was risky, but they would be hard to detect if he could get them into the sky.

“We can use the boosters to get us in the sky again,” Michael suggested. “We just need boats to ferry us out to the barrier.”

X scratched the stubble on his chin. “It’ll be good training for the greenhorn divers,” he said, looking at Lena, Hector, Alberto, and Ted. Then he shrugged. “Hell, I might take one out for a spin myself if I can figure out how to fly it with just one arm.”

NINETEEN

The giant leeches fed twice more during the night. Each time Ada heard the sucking and crunching sounds, she considered fleeing. But there was nowhere to run, so she hid in the enclosed shelter of her capsized boat.

Not only couldn’t she run; she couldn’t flee, either. Her boat was ruined, the precious fuel was wasted, and she was stuck on this hellish island with limited water and food.

Depression washed over her like the wave that had stranded her here.

Her flashlight illuminated the dented bulkheads and toppled crates. Her broken toe was infected and throbbing. It had swollen to almost twice its normal size, making it excruciating to wear her boots, and almost impossible to fall asleep.

Sleep. That was all she wanted: to close her eyes and have a break from the living hell. She considered taking more painkillers. Not the weak ones. She was going to need the hard stuff to knock her out. But that would also leave her vulnerable to the monsters.

Ada reached down and unlaced her boot, then wiggled her foot free of its confines.

A flood of relief rushed through her toes, foot, and leg. It felt like taking a breath after being underwater too long. After enjoying a few moments of less pain, she took fresh gauze and antibiotic ointment from the medical kit. The toe was even more swollen when she unwrapped it. Thick pus wept out of the open wound where she had used tweezers to pull off the destroyed nail.

After cleaning and disinfecting it the best she could, she wrapped it with gauze, then fished inside the kit for the painkillers. There were two bottles of the anti-inflammatory she had been taking, and one sealed bottle of the hard stuff.

After a moment of looking at both, she opted for the same stuff as before, chasing down two pills with what was left in her water bottle. They settled in her sour stomach. Closing her eyes, she rested her back on the bulkhead.

Exhausted, injured, and nauseated, she finally dozed off sometime in the wee hours. She dreamed of the nightmarish leeches, only to jerk awake to that same horrid crunching.

They were closer now, feeding on something not far from her boat. Taking off her helmet, she put her ear against the metal, flinching at a noise that chilled her bone marrow.

The long, agonized wail reminded her of something she would never forget from twenty years ago: the relentless wailing of a baby dying of radiation poisoning in the Hive medical ward.

She remembered it like yesterday because that baby had been her little brother.

Whatever was making this noise was not human, but she was too frightened to open the hatch and look outside. Sitting idly inside was almost just as bad.

She pictured the leeches feasting on a mutant otter or some other mammal that had adapted to live here and was caught in the surf hunting for fish.

In her mind’s eye, the bloodsucking worms swarmed the creature, chewing through flesh and bone until there was nothing left, as they had done to the frog.

The noise came again, and Ada backed away from the bulkhead. She hugged herself, trembling.

Make it stop. Please make it stop.

She wanted to scream.

The leeches were far worse than whatever she had encountered on the research ships, and again she considered ending her life before they found her.

She was so very tired. Of the sounds of thunder and ocean. Of being afraid. Of waking to darkness.

At least on the airships there were lights. Out here there was just the black.

The wailing started again. She cupped her hands over her ears, but no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn’t block out the sounds.

She dug back into her medical supplies and pulled out the jar of the hard painkillers that she had been saving. A caution symbol marked the bottle that ITC had designed to survive for centuries. A laundry list of possible side effects ran vertically down the label. One read, Death may occur if…

The cries of the creature outside rose into long, plaintive wails. More than anything, it sounded like a child in distress.

But that wasn’t possible. No child could survive out here. Maybe no adult could.

This had to be her mind playing tricks on her.

Soon she would find out. She couldn’t stay in the damned cabin forever.

No, you have another option, Ada.

A painless option that let her choose her own fate.

In a fleeting moment of fearlessness, she twisted off the cap. She brought the bottle to her lips and tried to shake pills into her mouth, but none came.

Tilting the bottle, she looked inside to see something wedged inside.

Using her pinkie, she fished out the blockage. It wasn’t the usual cotton ball she had seen in other pill jars. This was paper.

Probably more instructions and warnings.

She dropped it, and it landed on her thigh. Then she tipped back the bottle and shook three tablets into her mouth. She kept them on the tip of her tongue for a moment, considering what she was about to do.

You tried, Ada. You gave it your best, but this isn’t worth it.

And damned if she would let herself become food to a beast. Especially the horrid leeches.

She had no reason to live and no way off the island. No friends waiting for her back home. No family left. And maybe, just maybe there was something better after this bleak existence. A real paradise, without any cannibalistic barbarians.

Whatever happened next, she prayed it would let her see her mom and dad again. She missed them now more than ever. Maybe she would even meet the brother she never got to hold.

Either way, the infinite darkness of death was better than living in the darkness of the nightmarish wastes.

She picked up her water bottle and downed the pills, then swallowed two more for good measure. Once she finished, she put the bottle down on a crate and rested her head against the bulkhead.

The crying continued outside, though not loudly enough to drown out the sounds of the leeches consuming its body. How it was still alive mystified her.

But soon, the horrifying noise would be gone. Soon, Ada would be at peace. No more monsters. No more pain. No more being sick. Only the infinite quiet of death.

She let her body relax, accepting her fate.

You tried. You gave it your best.

The cries came again, whimpering now, like a baby. Ada opened her eyes and picked up the bottle again to take more, to make sure she had enough in her to finish the job.

Then she saw the paper on her thigh. It wasn’t instructions.

She blinked and picked it up, holding it in the glow of the flashlight.

Ada,

Never give up.

I didn’t, and I lived.

You will, too, if you don’t give up.

When I was in a dark place, I always came back to these words:

“Accept your past without regret.

Handle your present with confidence.

Face your future without fear.”

X

Ada stared at the note. X had put that in the bottle knowing she might use the pills for exactly this. He had known.

He did care. He did want her to survive.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent you out here.

She had thought he’d doomed her, but he had given her a chance, and now he was offering her a second chance.

Several minutes had passed since she’d swallowed the five pain pills. She found herself wondering why.

Why give up?

She had a broken toe and a bellyache, and there were monsters outside. Big whoop.

“Coward,” she muttered.

She had seen plenty of boats on the beach that could be seaworthy. All she needed was one with a sail. The excuses and fear had made her a coward, but no more.

Without another thought, she jammed her finger down her throat. She leaned over the crates and vomited into the bilge. Then she did it again. She gagged herself until there was nothing left in her stomach but pale-yellow foam.

When she was finished, she wiped her mouth. Her throat burned from the acid. For the next few minutes, she pulled out the supplies she needed to get her head back into survivor mode, starting with antibiotics to fend off the infection in her toe, and then the antinausea pills.

Next, she ate one of the energy bars she had salvaged, filling her stomach. She stuffed the rest of the bars in her vest pocket. Finally, she drank several swigs of water.

By the time she was done, she felt like a new person. Not quite confident enough to take her machete outside and fight the leeches, but confident enough not to piss herself worrying about them.

She grabbed the machete. If they came for her, she would make it expensive for them.

It was this thought that made her realize that the crunching had stopped, and the wailing had subsided to a whimper.

She put her ear against the bulkhead again. There was a new sound—something moving outside in the sand.

Ada eyed the hatch. She would have to get back down into the bilge water to reach it. She hadn’t planned on doing that until the leeches were gone, but the only way she could know was by checking.

Using the utmost caution, she lowered herself into the calf-deep water with the machete and the flashlight. The waterproof boots sloshed through to the hatch. Once there, she switched off her flashlight and calmed her breathing.

Just one look. Only one.

She slowly pushed on the broken hatch, using her shoulder to open it. Lightning streaked through the sky right when she did, illuminating the concrete walkway connected to the pier in the distance.

She waited for another strike, giving her eyes a chance to adjust to the darkness.

All she could see were amorphous shapes.

She focused on the beach, where the whimpering seemed to be coming from. But the sound was on the other side of the capsized boat. To see what it was, she must leave the shelter.

Another jag of lightning lit up the beach.

She didn’t see any leeches out there, or any sign of what they had eaten during the night.

Curiosity brought her out of the cabin.

The irony hit her then. Only minutes ago, she had tried to kill herself. Perhaps she was trying to again. But she had to see whether the leeches were gone.

Only then could she move on to plan B: find a boat with a sail and get the hell off this godforsaken island.

She ducked under the hull of her boat. Bringing up her flashlight, she turned it on and raked it over the beach.

Nothing.

Machete in hand, she moved out onto the sand. Using her light as a guide, she walked around the other side to search for the source of the wailing.

When she saw it, she froze.

A hairy face with wide eyes stared back at her.

It was some sort of small primate with dark-black hair and an almost humanoid face. But unlike the creatures on the ghost ship, this one didn’t have any robotic parts, and it didn’t try to kill her.

The creature looked away from Ada, uninterested in her. She followed the big brown eyes to the beach and shined the light on bloodstains in the sand.

The leeches, it seemed, had consumed this creature’s friend or perhaps parent. The small monkey-like creature was crouched on a rock, its back slightly hunched. It reminded her of Jo-Jo, a stuffed toy she’d had as a kid.

Unlike most of the mutant creatures she had seen, this one was cute. But looks could be deceiving. It could have a mouthful of sharp teeth, and retractable claws hidden on those hairy fingers.

Everything that had adapted to live out here had weapons.

The creature sulked, whimpering again, black lips quivering.

Ada couldn’t help but feel bad for the baby monkey.

She pulled an energy bar from her vest. Then she pulled back the wrapper and broke off a chunk. She tossed it to the creature, but it just looked at it in the sand and went back to crying.

Ada took a step closer. The creature jumped away. She took a step back and looked at the beast.

It wasn’t really a beast at all. Standing about two feet tall, it was the size of a rather skinny toddler with black fur covering its humanlike body. Definitely some sort of monkey.

But how had it survived?

According to her wrist computer, the radiation was minimal here, but if humans couldn’t survive, how could these creatures? One thing she was still learning out here was that life continued to find a way.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The monkey crouched back down. It whined, opening its mouth. It didn’t appear to have any sharp teeth or claws, but she was still waiting for it to reveal something horrifying.

Perhaps it would split down the middle, and a much nastier beast would jump out. Or it might spit acid on her, or perhaps…

Relax, Ada. It’s just a baby monkey.

The creature jumped again, making a new noise much like what she remembered monkeys making in the documentaries she’d watched as a child.

It jumped back and forth, suddenly agitated. When she moved her light, it raised a hand to shield its eyes from the glare. Then it turned and hobbled away.

“No,” she whispered. “No, come back.”

The animal darted into the vegetation crawling down the beach. Ada tried to find it with her light, but it was gone.

Lowering her beam, she heard a noise over the crashing waves on the beach. She whirled with her machete, knowing that she wasn’t what had spooked the baby monkey.

The leeches had returned, surging up the beach with the tide. They squirmed toward her, their gleaming spiked backs closing in like a school of demonic fish. A dozen of the slimy creatures snailed toward her.

One raised its head as it approached, opening sucker lips rimmed with teeth. Her brain screamed at her to run, but instead of flight, the fight instinct kicked in.

She strode forward, swinging the machete. The blade cut through gristly flesh, and purple blood ran out.

She yanked it free and hacked at the next creature, slithering a few feet away. The edge cut open a gash through the back. A third leech rose up like a cobra and darted toward her, only to stop when she jabbed the machete into its open mouth.

The point broke out the back of the head, and the thing went limp, pulling the stuck blade down with the weight of its body. Before she could get it out, a fourth leech slithered toward her, striking at her boot, and she had to let go of the weapon.

She jumped away and then fell on her back, with the flashlight still in her hand.

A tide of the leeches surged forward in the glow, sucker lips popping. She jumped up and bolted for her boat, looking frantically for something to fight with. The broken oar was the first thing she saw.

She grabbed it and impaled the nearest creature with the jagged edge where the paddle had broken off. The other sucker-faced abominations surged up the beach, making clicking noises. She struck them one by one, pounding them over and over until they were masses of spikes and pulp.

Killing each of the monsters felt oddly satisfying. She slashed, jabbed, and hacked until she was panting. Sweat dripped down her forehead.

After another few whacks, the last creature stopped writhing.

Lightning forked overhead, spreading a glow over her handiwork. A dozen monsters lay in pools of purple blood in the sand. She stood there, chest heaving, drenched in sweat, flush with a feeling she hadn’t known in a long time.

Pride.

While she caught her breath, the adrenaline that had masked her pain faded. It wasn’t just her toe that hurt. The same foot pulsated with pain from where a leech had sunk its teeth through the reinforced boot. She could feel it filling with blood.

Cursing, Ada hobbled over to retrieve her machete, when she heard a familiar noise behind her. She searched for the source with her light and found a hairy head poking above a cluster of purple roots that grew at the edge of the sand.

The little monkey hopped out of the vegetation and moved cautiously toward her.

She lowered the machete and the flashlight.

“It’s okay,” she said soothingly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The monkey hopped over until it was just a few feet away.

She thought back to one of the reasons she had popped all those pain pills. Now perhaps she had a companion. A creature to accompany her, as X had with Miles on his journey through the wastes.

But would it come with her, and could she care for it?

One thing was certain. She wasn’t going to Florida. She was going back to the Vanguard Islands, to fight for her freedom in the Sky Arena—assuming she hadn’t been right about the Cazadores.

She feared there wouldn’t be anything to return to if, by some miracle, she made it back.

First, though, she had to get her foot fixed up and then salvage a sail from another boat. She sure as hell wasn’t rowing all the way back to the islands.

Ada went back to her boat, and the monkey followed warily.

Halfway there, she saw something sticking out of the sand. Bending down, she brushed sand away from her rifle.

The animal hopped over and looked up at Ada, and for the first time in recent memory, she smiled.

This was shaping up to be a better day than she could have hoped for. She was still alive, and she had a friend.

TWENTY

Magnolia woke up in a room that smelled like overcooked meat. Looking around her, she realized she was surrounded by it.

Dozens of burn victims lay in rows of beds, their bodies wrapped in bandages brown with blood.

With her ears still ringing, she sat up and scanned the bandaged faces for the one person she expected to see in here. For the first time she could recall in her adult life, she found herself missing another human being.

She had always counted on herself, but she had grown to count on Rodger. And Rodgeman wasn’t in any of the beds that lined both walls.

Feeling a twinge of panic, she lay back on her pillow, looking up at the ocean waves and fields of flowers painted on the ceiling.

She followed the line up from her arm to the IV bag hanging from a pole beside the bed—sterile saline for rehydration, she supposed.

It had taken her a few seconds to remember why she was here and why her ears were ringing. Memories of the attack flooded her mind, but she had no idea what had happened since the boat ride, or how long she had been out.

“Nurse,” she mumbled in a scratchy voice.

The woman attending a man across the aisle turned and said something that Magnolia could hardly make out.

The woman, named Lisa, wasn’t really a nurse. She had worked as a seamstress on the Hive, which apparently made her really good at stitching people up. The skill had come in handy since they arrived at the Vanguard Islands, but Magnolia was leery of her doing anything more than suturing a wound.

As she waited, a man with a beard raised a bandaged hand to her.

“Imulah,” Magnolia whispered. She waved back to him, and he rested his head back on a pillow.

“What can I do for you?” Lisa asked in a distant-sounding voice.

“How long have I been here?” Magnolia asked.

“Since the attack.”

“Which was when?”

“This morning,” Lisa said. “It’s about midnight now.”

“I slept that long?”

“We gave you a strong painkiller,” Lisa said. “You have a ruptured eardrum, and burns—”

“Do you know what’s going on outside?”

“Not really, but he might.” Lisa looked toward the double doors with glass windows. A militia soldier stood outside.

“Thanks,” Magnolia replied.

Lisa nodded and moved on to her next patient.

Magnolia wasted no time. Reaching down, she ripped off the tape and pulled the needle out of her vein. Then, wincing in pain, she swung her legs over the side of the bed.

The right side of her head throbbed under the thick bandage, but she didn’t care about the pain. All that mattered was finding Rodger and the Hell Divers. She threw off the blanket and placed her naked feet on the tile floor.

Several patients in the beds were people she had grown up with, but there were also Cazadores she didn’t recognize. The attack had spared no one.

After testing her balance with a tentative step, Magnolia staggered down the center of the room, past nurses and patients. A male voice that had to be Dr. Huff’s called out when she had reached Imulah’s bed.

“Magnolia!” said the same agitated voice.

She slowed but didn’t stop as the doc hurried after her.

“Where are you going?” he said.

She kept walking. She didn’t have time to argue.

“Magnolia Katib, stop!” Huff said, his voice louder but still faint.

Several injured patients looked up from their beds.

“I said stop!” Huff said in what had to be a shout.

Magnolia halted and faced the doctor. He stepped up to her, stopping uncomfortably close to her face, all the usual niceties forgotten.

“I’m going to assume you didn’t hear me because you have a ruptured eardrum,” he said.

“I can hear just fine,” she lied.

“Well, then, listen and listen well. You have third-degree burns on the right side of your head and need to rest. Your ruptured eardrum makes your middle ear prone to infection and needs time to heal as well. I’ve given you some of the last of Colonel Forge’s nanotech gel, but you still need rest if you want to heal fast.”

“Just give me some painkillers that won’t knock me out.”

Huff stared. “I really want to believe you can’t hear what I’m saying.”

“I hear you, but I have work to do.”

“What is it with you people?” he asked.

“What people would that be, Doc?”

“Hell Divers. You’re all the same. You think you’re invincible. Well, I can tell you, you’re not.”

“One of us is.”

“No. X almost died because he didn’t listen to my orders about staying in bed.”

“But he didn’t die, did he?”

Huff let out a sigh of frustration. “I give up.” He walked over to a table and returned with a mirror.

“If you won’t take my word for how badly you’re injured, take a look for yourself,” he said. “Now, sit.”

Magnolia sat on a doctor’s stool and held the mirror up while he carefully unwrapped her head. The first few winds didn’t hurt, but he stopped when she was almost unbandaged.

“This is going to hurt,” he said.

“Then get it over with.”

He unraveled the bandage one last time, then peeled the dressing away from her scalp. She gritted her teeth and took the pain. Then she held the mirror up and turned her head.

The entire right side of her scalp and her right ear were burned away, leaving gooey flesh that was covered in the gray gel. Horrified, she just stared.

“You’re not howling in agony now only because of the pain med in your saline solution, and the nanotech gel that’s speeding up the healing process,” Huff said. “But you’re still at high risk for infection.”

She held the mirror there, studying the wound.

“The ruptured eardrum is essentially a tear in the thin tissue that separates your ear canal from your middle ear,” he said. “I’ve tried to get some of the nanotech gel inside, but I’m not sure it’s going to work.”

Magnolia turned her head more, looking out the corner of her eye.

“X insisted that I keep you in bed and watch you, so you can heal,” Huff said. “Those bandages need to be changed multiple times a day…”

She lowered the mirror when she saw a flash of black armor outside the medical ward. The militia soldier standing guard suddenly ran away with another guard who had just arrived.

“X didn’t have time to heal, and I don’t, either,” she said.

Magnolia handed the mirror back to the doctor, and wrapped the bandage around her head as she hurried out of the ward.

“You Hell Divers are all insane!” Huff called out after her. “Do you hear me?”

Magnolia heard him, and of course he was right. The best Hell Divers were the crazy ones. And she was proud to be one of the craziest in the ranks.

* * * * *

A group of divers and support staff had gathered inside the marina under the capitol tower. X stood with them, anxious to join them in the air and search for the skinwalkers. Having a mission to focus on helped keep his mind off all the people he had lost.

But the losses were not far from his mind. And his heart.

Torches cast a glow over the freshly painted hang gliders pulled from storage on another rig hours earlier. With all the mechanics, engineers, and technicians busy working on Discovery, the divers had to do most of the work.

But most of them had come from other fields such as engineering, and some, like Michael, knew their way around equipment and machines. The young commander of Team Raptor finished applying a synthetic wrap around the aluminum-alloy poles of a glider’s control frame. Apparently, it would help lessen the risk of lightning strikes. A few feet away, Sofia was securing her booster pack to the control frame of her glider.

Two militia soldiers laid out submachine guns, extra magazines, pistols, and flares.

Ton and Victor finished tying the camouflage tarps on a fiberglass boat that would be almost invisible to any skinwalker subs still prowling. Mac and Felipe helped with the tarps on another boat. After working all day with Colonel Forge and Sergeant Wynn to scour the rigs for hostiles, they were now joining the mission to launch the divers. It was a coordinated effort between sky people and the many Cazadores who had rallied after the skinwalkers’ attack.

Even Pedro, leader of the survivors from Rio de Janeiro, had come to help. While he couldn’t pilot a boat, he was armed and could fight.

X chugged the rest of a disgusting beverage more potent than the shine Marv used to pour at the Wingman. The liquid running down his throat wasn’t alcohol, though. It was a Cazador cocktail of thick fruit juice infused with electrolytes and a special ingredient that they claimed would give him energy.

He still wasn’t even close to normal, but he wasn’t hungover, and the phantom pains where his arm had been were manageable tonight. It was his heart that hurt the most.

After finishing off the bottle of nutrients, X walked with Miles over to the divers. Michael, Rodger, Sofia, Arlo, and Edgar were the veterans of the group. They worked on their rigs quickly and efficiently, showing no sign of pain.

It wasn’t physical injuries that had X worried. Rodger had just lost his parents, but he insisted on going. And the truth was, they needed every single diver in the air.

Ted and Lena had finished rigging their hang gliders and were checking their armor and suits. Hector and Alberto were also flying tonight.

X didn’t trust any of the other rookies for a mission as tricky as this, but these four had enough experience under canopy that they should be able to figure out the gliders. He was more worried about himself. If anyone was going to have a problem up there, it was X, who had only one arm to steer with.

“Boats are ready,” boomed Mac.

“We’re good to go,” Michael said.

“All right, gather around,” X said. “We don’t have much time. The plan is simple. We take boats out under cover of darkness, use our boosters to get into the sky, and start the search in the storms.”

He gestured to Pedro and the Barracudas. “Our friends here will wait on the boats during our search. They will keep an eye on our beacons, and if you spot Raven’s Claw, you simply tap your wrist monitor to indicate hostiles.”

Michael held up his wrist monitor and tapped the screen to demonstrate. Then he said, “I’ve analyzed the area Cricket has searched so far. I’ll upload that to our HUDs and then program the computer to assign us all grids that haven’t been searched already.”

“Good,” X replied. “Sergeant Wynn and Colonel Forge will be patrolling to guard our home while we work. Once we find Raven’s Claw, we will relay the coordinates to our fleet.”

“And the cavalry will charge,” Mac said.

“Okay, then, let’s get to it,” X said.

The divers picked up their hang gliders and took them to their assigned boats.

X put his left hand on the wing of Rodger’s glider. “You sure you’re up for this, Rodge?” he asked.

All trace of Rodger’s usual jocularity was gone. “Sir,” he said, “my parents are dead, and I’m damned if I’ll sit here and wait for you all to find their killers.”

“You’re not going alone.”

Both men turned toward the hatch that led into a stairwell. Magnolia stood there in armor still covered with ash. A bullet had dented the upper chest piece.

“Mags, you—” X began to say.

“Save it, sir,” she said, working the helmet carefully over her bandaged head. “You have no room to talk on this subject.”

X grumbled under his breath. He hated when Magnolia made him look like an idiot just by being right.

She walked over and gave Rodger a hug as X decided to let it go. She was needed in the sky, and he wasn’t going to tell her no when she wouldn’t listen anyway.

The divers and support team loaded up the boats with gear. X holstered a pistol while the other divers grabbed assault rifles. Michael took one of the two remaining laser rifles.

“Let’s move out!” X shouted.

Miles got up and followed X to the boat where Victor and Ton had loaded the glider. Arlo was already on the deck.

“No, boy, you have to stay,” X said. He waved the dog back toward the docks, but Miles wasn’t having it. He jumped into the boat.

“I watch him,” Victor said in English that was getting better by the day.

X sighed. He couldn’t win an argument with Miles or Magnolia tonight. The motors chugged to life inside the marina, echoing off the bulkheads.

“Wait!” called out another female voice from the stairwell.

X turned to see Layla walk out of the open hatch in a dress, a hand over her swollen belly.

“Tin,” she said. “Come here for a minute.”

Michael, who had already boarded a boat, jumped out and hurried over. X watched, pondering whether to leave Michael behind. There was no telling when the skinwalkers might attack again, and the storms could make this mission more dangerous even than diving.

X was close enough, he could hear the conversation.

Layla wiped away a tear. “Please be careful, Tin. Please…”

Michael silenced her with a kiss. “I’ll be back by sunrise,” he said. “Meet me at the rooftop gardens. I have a surprise for you.”

Layla glared at X but didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to.

“I’ll watch out for him,” X said, raising a hand.

She held her hand up, too, then brushed a strand of hair away from her face, revealing a gash on her forehead. Michael kissed her and ran to his boat.

The marina door clanked open, and X put his helmet on as Victor guided their boat out into the night.

One by one, the boats sped away from the rig, moving out in all directions to take the people he loved most on a dangerous mission. Moonlight sparkled in the dark water ahead of the boat.

X decided to use the time before the mission to talk to Arlo. The young man sat by himself, looking at the sky. X took the seat next to him. For a few minutes, they sat in silence.

“I hope this isn’t a bad idea,” Arlo said. “I didn’t do so great last time my chute opened.”

X had heard the story but didn’t want to rub it in. He couldn’t remember a diver who had a worse landing and lived to tell about it. Arlo was lucky as hell to be here and not composting as Siren shit back in Rio.

“I haven’t told anyone this, but the skinwalkers…” Arlo’s words trailed off as a memory seemed to surface. “When they ambushed me and Edgar in Rio, I thought they were some sort of mutants because of their shriveled skins.”

“Worse than mutants.”

“Anyway, they captured us, but there were only three of them, and they didn’t understand English. Edgar came up with a plan to escape, and when the time came for me to do my part… I got scared, King Xavier, and I ran,” he said. “I ran and I left Edgar there. That’s why he was beat worse than me. He tried to fight the three bastards by himself while I took off like a damn coward.”

Edgar had apparently kept the story a secret. As far as X knew, no one had said anything about what had happened there.

“And you know what he told me when we were rescued and safely on Discovery?” Arlo bowed his helmet.

Lightning cleaved the skyline. They were getting close now. The boat thumped over waves as Victor opened it up. A distant crack of thunder sounded over the motor, and Arlo finally looked back up.

“Edgar told me he just wanted me to get away, and he was sorry I didn’t. He was sorry I didn’t get away. Can you believe that?”

“Yes,” X finally replied.

“And Alexander—he gave his life to give us a chance to escape when those freak bone-beast things were about to rip us limb from limb.”

“Everyone freaks out on their first dive,” X said. “It’s a natural human emotion to feel fear when you’re on the surface for the first time in your life. Don’t beat yourself up too much, kid.”

“Yeah, well, I realized in Rio what it means to be a Hell Diver.”

Another fork of lightning speared the horizon, illuminating the dark clouds. Arlo kept talking, seemingly oblivious to the storms.

“I realized diving is a duty and it requires sacrifice,” he said. “I’m ready to do my part, King Xavier. I’m ready to give my life if need be, for our people and for this place.”

X stood and patted Arlo on the shoulder.

“That’s good, kid, because tonight you’re going to need courage.” X looked out at the skyline. “Tonight, we’re heading out there.”

TWENTY-ONE

Michael rose into the sky for the second time in as many days, but this time he was strapped to a hang glider. His black helium balloon rose above the triangle of aluminum struts and sailcloth.

The rig was awkward, but the weight wasn’t as bad as he had expected. Fortunately, he didn’t need to rise to twenty thousand feet. This search would be much lower, at only two or three thousand feet above the water. When he reached the proper altitude, he would let out most of the helium. Then, when he needed to regain altitude, he would dial the booster to add more helium. It was a brake system in a way, but it was also dangerous as hell.

As he rose toward the black clouds, he twisted in his harness for one last look at the capitol tower, still visible in the distance. Leaving Layla after the attack was the hardest it had ever been. The only consolation was that Dr. Huff had cleared her of major injuries, and the ultrasound showed Bray doing just fine. The kid was a fighter like his mom and dad.

But they had been lucky. A few feet closer to the elevator cage on the rooftop of the Hive, and they could have ended up like Cole and Bernie Mintel.

Michael tried not to think of the dead and focused on the living.

He checked his wrist monitor. The beacon representing Cricket was going in and out from the electrical interference. For a small drone, it had covered a lot of surface area, but it hadn’t detected anything beyond the barrier.

Where the hell are you bastards? Michael thought.

Horn and his skinwalker army were out there, waiting and scheming to strike again. He could feel it in his guts. But there was one thing Horn and his demon soldiers hadn’t planned for.

Hell Divers.

They would never see the hang gliders until it was too late.

Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the control frame. The wind pushed the sail deeper into the storm until the barrier around the islands swallowed him, blocking his view of the last rig.

Darkness enveloped him like a shell, only to be shattered by lightning strikes across the horizon. Wind pulled and tugged on the balloon, jerking his harness. He prepared to let out helium and start the hunt.

Lightning burst above him. In the residue of fading light, the clouds seemed to churn. He sailed higher into the void, trying to remain calm as thunder boomed like artillery going off.

A warning sensor beeped in his helmet, indicating he was nearing three thousand feet. A glance at his HUD confirmed the other divers had already let helium out of their balloons. They were picking up speed and swooping toward the surface.

Michael did the same thing, using his wrist monitor to start the slow and controlled release of helium. Once it reached 35 percent, a valve closed. The sails caught and propelled him forward. The rig picked up speed, whistling under the storm.

He embraced the wind as he did at the start of a dive. Using the control bars, he eased his glider all the way down to nine hundred feet. The sail carved through the air, over water flecked with whitecaps.

For the first few minutes, the rush of flight was more intense than he had anticipated. There was also more to manage than on a dive. He alternated his gaze from his HUD to the water, making sure he didn’t deviate from his assigned search grid.

Lightning reached down like a skeletal hand in front of him. He flinched and then weaved right. The balloon dragged slightly, and once his rig was level again, he tapped his wrist monitor to let out more helium.

Once it was released, he swooped two hundred feet lower to avoid other strikes, although there was no way to get below their range. Going lower just lessened the chance of being hit. The synthetic material installed around the aluminum bars would help, too, at least in theory.

At seven hundred feet, he had a great view of the surface. There was no sign of a warship or submarines amid the galaxy of whitecaps. He alternated from night vision to infrared, hoping to pick something up.

The minutes ticked by. By two in the morning, the other divers and Cricket had covered a combined hundred square miles. Michael feared they must expand their search even more if they didn’t find Raven’s Claw soon.

Or maybe they were wasting their time. Maybe his gut was wrong about the warship being close.

His mind wandered as he searched.

At three a.m., he struggled to stay awake. The longer he flew under the storms, the more fatigued he became. Part of that was the darkness. Spending so much time in the sunshine had changed him in some ways, making the real world feel more suffocating than ever before.

He drank through his straw, wishing he could splash water on his face.

Lightning sizzled across the horizon, and his HUD flickered off, on, then off.

The map on his display vanished. Worse, his night-vision optics went dark from the electrical interference.

A pocket of turbulence shook his glider violently. He held it steady, waiting for his systems to come back online.

For what felt like another hour, he flew in almost complete darkness, using the glow of lightning to scan the surface and make sure he didn’t go too low.

By the time his optics came back on ten minutes later, he was a mile off course. But seeing that the other divers were still alive helped him concentrate.

He took another drink, trying to break through the fatigue. There was always the stim pill in his vest, but he decided to save it. He had functioned on far less sleep before.

Better to save the precious pill for when he really needed it.

Leaning forward on the control bar, he spotted something on the surface during a flash of lightning. He blinked again, thinking it was an illusion. When he activated his night-vision optics, he saw the curved shape of an airship resting on the top of an oil rig.

Exhaustion had messed with his memory before, but this was no illusion.

The rig was real, and so was the airship.

Discovery had landed on top of the Cazador prison they called the Shark’s Cage. Dozens of boats were docked outside—ferries that had taken Samson and his small army of workers to repair the airship.

It was a dangerous place to do work, but it was the only rig on the Vanguard Islands that didn’t see sunshine—the one place the skinwalkers would probably not think to look.

Michael decided to check it out before veering back to his search grid.

He swooped down to about five hundred feet. Sparks glowed across the airship’s bow. The workers were busy patching up the exterior, but they still had much to do. A dozen mechanics and engineers stood on scaffolding around the exposed bridge. No one seemed to notice as he ghosted past.

He steered away from the airship and headed back out to hunt for skinwalkers. To pick up speed, he let out most of the remaining helium in his balloon.

That did the trick. The sail caught on a gust of wind to send him streaking beneath the clouds.

Arriving back at his search grid, he added some helium from his booster. The balloon both slowed and lifted his rig.

He went back to scanning the whitecaps for Raven’s Claw. But the longer he searched, the more his eyes started to play tricks on him, making waves look like ships. He drank more water and decided it was finally time to take a stim pill.

Fishing in his vest pocket, he retrieved the last one from his stash back at the islands. He flipped his face shield open, the cold wind buffeting his face as he popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed it.

By the time he closed the shield over his cold skin, he had a blip on his HUD. One of the beacons flickered, then vanished.

Michael’s heart sank when it didn’t come back online. They had lost a diver.

Terrified to look, he finally brought up his wrist computer and saw that it was Alberto, one of the new Cazador divers. Michael didn’t know him well, only that he had served in the military as a boat mechanic and had jumped at the chance to dive through the sky. And now he was dead.

“I’m sorry,” Michael whispered.

He flew for the next few minutes thinking of Alberto and all the other divers they had lost over the years. And as always, he did his best to push the grief aside and concentrate on the mission.

The stim pill was already kicking in, and the exhaustion seemed to wash away as the glider took him deeper into the storm beyond the barrier. With the stimulant working, his mind multitasked, focusing on the hunt but also on his worries, hopes, and dreams of the future.

One thing had become clear to him in the past year: life was even more precious than ever before. It could vanish in a blink, as it just had for Alberto.

Michael had struggled between duty to his people and duty to Layla, but out here, flying through the sky, he realized now what he must do, both for his people and for the only woman he had ever loved.

The gift of life growing inside her womb had to be protected at all costs. The very future of their people depended on children like Bray.

Lightning rickracked across his flight path, and he swooped lower. Rows of waves rolled across the black surface, stirred by the violent wind that drove his glider through the sky.

Another beacon winked on his HUD. But this wasn’t one of the divers—not a human one, anyway.

Cricket’s beacon flickered in and out, which could mean the robot had sustained damage or that the electrical disturbance was affecting the signal again. It appeared to be the latter, Michael realized when he brought up the drone’s location.

For some reason, Cricket had veered away from the search grid, heading farther away from the islands and into the darkness. Michael tapped his wrist computer to give it new orders, but the signal flickered off altogether. He waited a few seconds, hoping it would come back online, but the beacon had stopped transmitting. They had lost contact with the drone.

The loss hit Michael hard. In some ways, Cricket had become his friend. Not quite in the way Miles was to X, but so much more than a mere machine.

The loss of Alberto, and now Cricket, filled him with anger. He felt his prosthetic hand dent the aluminum of the control bar.

For the next hour, he searched the water. The only thing on his mind was finding the demons.

At five thirty in the morning, his HUD beeped again—this time, not for a lost diver. The alarm meant he needed to head back to the islands.

It wouldn’t be long now before the sun rose and all the divers had to be back and grounded to avoid being seen.

The search tonight had failed. And they had lost a diver and Cricket in the bargain. Michael’s jaw clenched in anger.

He let more helium out of the balloon and soared back toward the barrier. By the time he was nearing the border of the islands, all he could think of was Layla. She would be waiting for him in the gardens of the capitol tower.

The journey back took him through several patches of turbulent skies. He didn’t flinch at the lightning strikes, or in the rattle of the thunder. Michael was too focused to be fazed by them. He knew what he had to do now. It was all so clear.

He was so focused, he didn’t realize what had happened when his balloon popped. The glider dropped a hundred feet, picking up speed. The tube from the booster to the balloon whipped the sailcloth of the glider’s wing.

He fought to level out his descent, dropping another two hundred feet before he got his rig under control. Fortunately, he had climbed back up to eight hundred feet earlier, or he would be dangerously close to the water.

But with a mile to go to the barrier, and five miles to the capitol tower, he wouldn’t make it to the rooftop before splashing down. And he didn’t have anything that would help slow his descent now the balloon was flopping behind him like a deflated lung.

He was still losing altitude. Looking back, he saw why.

It wasn’t just his balloon that had been damaged. The tube connected to his booster had smacked the wing so hard, it tore the sailcloth.

Pulling the knife from his boot, he twisted around to cut the helium tube at the back of the rig. But the angle was too awkward, and he couldn’t get to the mounted booster.

So he unbuckled it. The wind sent the booster tumbling away, still connected to the deflated balloon.

He sheathed the knife and put both hands on the control bar. The glider was going down, and nothing he could do would stop it.

If he could just get to the barrier, there would be boats to pick him up after he hit the water—if a shark didn’t find him first.

He checked his HUD, seeing the last location of the boat that had dropped him off. The other divers were already breaking through the barrier on their way to the capitol tower, where they would put down. X was closest, but Michael couldn’t see him on the horizon.

At around four hundred feet, a crosswind slammed into the torn sail, pushing him sideways. He pulled back on the control bar to steady the rig, but it was too late.

Closing in on the barrier, he was on a crash course with the surface. He speared through the remaining clouds until they lightened, and he saw the oil rigs in the green hue of his optics.

He chinned the NVGs off as a thin line of molten gold lit the horizon.

The glider had sunk to three hundred feet above the water.

Michael searched for the closest vessel and finally spotted a boat bobbing in the water about a mile away. He sailed toward it, trying to maintain altitude.

Reaching down, he pulled out his flare gun and fired it at the boat.

At fifty feet above the water, Michael said a prayer to the ancient gods and braced for impact.

All he wanted to do was see Layla and their baby boy. Never in his life had he wanted anything more.

Please, he begged. Please don’t let this be the end.

The whitecaps rose up to meet him, and at the last minute, he unbuckled his harness so he wouldn’t be trapped in the glider. He dropped out and crashed into the water.

He skipped like a flat rock thrown across a pond, before a wave slammed into him. The impact knocked his visor open, and water filled his helmet.

All he could do was hold his breath and try to battle his way back up to the surface. But he was so disoriented, he didn’t know which way was up. The salty water stinging his eyes didn’t help. And everything was so dark.

He kicked and stroked, trying not to panic. Far away, a hint of light beckoned. He kicked toward it.

Layla was waiting for him in the capitol tower gardens, in the first rays of light. She had waited for him on so many missions, worrying, wondering whether he would come home.

He stroked upward, but the weight of his armor and prosthetic arm pulled down on him. Fire burned in his lungs.

The glow above him seemed just in reach, but red swarmed his vision. A vision entered his oxygen-deprived brain. It was just one memory, of the time he had nearly drowned in the Florida swamps.

He tried to kick again, but his legs and his arms failed him.

No! Not like this!

His robotic hand sank with him, the fingers the only thing he could still control. He moved them once more toward the surface before they, too, locked up.

TWENTY-TWO

X held Michael’s limp body in his arms on the boat ride back to the capitol tower.

“Hurry!” he shouted.

Victor pushed the throttle down as far as it would go, resulting in a whining motor and plumes of smoke. Dripping wet and chest heaving, X laid Michael down on the deck with Ton’s help.

They had pulled him from the water not long after Michael crash-landed in the ocean. X had watched him go in while he was returning to the capitol tower on his hang glider.

He had known something was wrong when Michael’s altitude plummeted on his HUD. When that happened, X had let most of the helium out of his balloon and glided over toward Michael at full speed, only to brake at the last instant and drop out of his harness into the water.

Several boats had already arrived at the scene, but by the time they pulled Michael out, he wasn’t breathing.

Now X and Ton stripped off his chest armor, and X started pumping his chest and breathing into his mouth.

“Come on, kid,” X growled. “Don’t leave me like this.”

Miles whined and licked Michael’s face.

X pumped, but with his right arm gone, it wasn’t easy. It had almost gotten him killed on the hang glider, but once again he had survived, and others had not.

Immortality seemed more a curse than a blessing.

He kept pumping, trying to bring Michael back before it was too late. Every passing second brought him closer to forever losing the young man who seemed like a son.

My life for yours, kid.

Ton crouched down, making a clicking sound with what remained of his tongue.

“What?” X said.

Ton gently pushed X out of the way and took over.

Miles nudged Michael’s limp body, and X used his left arm to pull the dog back, holding him tight. Instead of feeling comfort from the dog, he felt an overwhelming flood of dread.

As the boat bumped and skidded over the waves, X gripped the commander’s limp hand.

“Come on, kid,” X muttered. He glanced at the orange glow of the sun.

They had lost Alberto and Cricket, and now they were losing Michael. And for what? The skinwalkers were still out there, and so were the defectors.

It was supposed to be safe here. The islands were supposed to be the vanguard for humanity, but X had failed to bring peace to the rigs and failed to protect his people. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but grief sucked the anger out of him. Ton kept pumping Michael’s chest, but X knew that the chances of his coming back now were slim to none.

He closed his eyes, squeezing out a trickle of tears. He opened them again just as something jumped alongside the boat. A flash of gray hit the water with a splash.

X’s first thought was of submarines, but then he heard dolphins calling. Several more arced up from the water.

Miles barked excitedly as the magnificent creatures followed all the way to the piers, jumping and gamboling in the water.

On the docks, a group of people waited for the boat. One was a woman with a swollen belly.

Layla…

X was in such a trance, he hardly heard the vocal clicking sounds. Turning, he saw Ton grinning as he helped Michael sit up.

Miles nudged up against him, tail whipping.

Michael blinked, then leaned forward and vomited a bellyful of water. He wiped his mouth and then mumbled, “Layla.”

“Kid!” X yelled. He bent down and grabbed Michael, pulling him tight.

Miles brushed up against them, licking the salt off them.

“It’s okay, Tin,” X said. “We’re almost back home.”

“Layla,” he mumbled.

“She’s waiting for us on the docks.” X let go of Michael and gave him some space so he could throw up the rest of the water.

“Good job, man,” X said, clapping Ton on the back.

Ton nodded proudly.

Victor coasted up to the docks, where several hands pulled the boat in.

“Tin!” Layla cried.

X helped Michael up and out of the boat. He broke free and ran to meet Layla. When they were ten feet apart, Michael went down on one knee.

But he hadn’t fallen.

Panting to catch his breath, he reached into his vest and pulled out the ring that Rodger had made for him several days earlier.

X hurried over with Ton and Victor while others moored the boat and started unloading the gliders.

Miles barked happily as he trotted over with X to stand behind Michael. Michael held the ring in a shaky hand.

“When I was out there in the darkness, all I could think about was you and Bray,” he said. “I want to be with you two forever.”

He held up the ring. “Will you marry me, Layla?”

She cupped her hands over her face and nodded.

“Of course I will,” she said.

They embraced while applause broke out all around.

X almost burst into tears. As the sun rose over the Vanguard Islands, he wanted to collapse in his bed with Miles and sleep for a day. But the skinwalkers were still out there, and he had to plan more defenses and arrange for several more funerals.

The elevator across the dock clanked down with the Hell Divers who had landed on the rooftop earlier. Hector, Edgar, Ted, Lena, Arlo, Rodger, and Magnolia ran over to see what the commotion was about.

The chugging of motors drew X’s eye to the docks, where several boats had just arrived. Sergeant Wynn hopped out of one with a radio in his hand and ran over. He clearly wasn’t here to celebrate.

“Sir, a boat’s been spotted on the eastern border,” Wynn said, panting. “Should I sound the alarms?”

“What kind of boat?”

“It’s small, sir, definitely not a warship,” Wynn replied. “I’ve dispatched several of our vessels to intercept.”

“Don’t sound the damned alarms,” X said. “I don’t want to frighten people over one boat. Just make sure everyone’s ready for another attack.”

“Got it, sir.” Wynn relayed the orders over the radio.

X bent down to Miles. “Sorry, boy, but this time you really have to stay here.”

Miles went down on his haunches, but he didn’t whine when X took off for his armored speedboat. Mac and Felipe fired up another boat, pulling away a moment later.

Ton and Victor jumped with Wynn into the war boat that once belonged to el Pulpo. It would be a fitting end to his son, X thought, to kill the bastard with the mounted machine guns. He would proudly hang the skinwalker’s bullet-riddled corpse on the prow if that happened.

But he had a feeling it wasn’t Horn who had breached the border in a small craft.

X climbed aboard, standing next to Wynn.

“Wait!” Magnolia yelled from the docks. She ran over with Rodger, Edgar, and Arlo. Michael and Layla also joined them but stopped shy of getting on the boat.

X caught Michael’s gaze and saw the reluctance this time. He turned to the other divers to make sure Michael didn’t try to follow.

“Stay here with Michael and Layla!” X yelled. “I’m not losing any more Hell Divers today.”

He nodded to Wynn, and the sergeant turned the wheel and pushed the throttle down, blowing a wave of water against the pier.

Several clouds rolled across the morning sky, threatening to block out the sunshine. Lately, nothing good seemed to last long. All the losses came crashing over X.

A small armada of vessels joined the speedboat on the journey to the barrier between worlds. X looked out over the waves. The warriors’ faces seemed stoical, each man and woman ready to face whatever awaited them.

Ton and Victor, holding rifles instead of spears, gazed at the horizon. Sergeant Wynn stared ahead, too, gripping the wheel with one hand and holding the radio up to his ear with the other.

“It’s one of our boats,” he called out. “Probably why the divers missed it earlier.”

“So it’s just drifting out there all this time?” X asked. “How’s that possible?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Because it’s not possible,” X said.

There was no way they had missed it on their scans, and boats didn’t just show up out of nowhere.

“Keep everyone back,” X said to Wynn.

“We’re already forming a perimeter, sir.”

X pulled out his pistol. Something felt wrong about this boat. His gut told him this was another trap.

“Make sure Colonel Forge keeps Shadow positioned between the Hive and the capitol tower,” he said. “We need all the firepower there we can get.”

Wynn relayed the order to their liaison working with Forge.

In calmer waters, the boat picked up speed. Ton and Victor shouldered their rifles as they approached the loose ring of boats surrounding the mystery boat.

X saw the red Vanguard logo on the side. Bullet holes perforated the militia boat’s hull and enclosed cabin above the waterline.

“Everyone, keep sharp,” X said. “Wynn, you’re with me.”

“Sir, leave this to us,” Wynn said. “It’s too dangerous for you to go.”

Victor pointed at the deck. “You stay here, King.” He said something to Ton in their native language, and Ton moved over to grab the wheel.

“Fuck that,” X said. “I’m going.”

“Sir, all due respect, but this could be another trap,” Wynn said. “What if the boat is loaded with explosives?”

The sergeant was right, which meant anyone who set foot on the deck was at risk of being blown into fish chum.

But what choice did they have? With Cricket gone, they had no way to board without risking lives.

The speedboat cruised to a stop, and X stared at the shot-up militia boat.

“We need volunteers,” he said. “Make sure they know the risk.”

Wynn raised the handset to his mouth and put out the request.

“I go,” Victor said, pounding his chest.

“No,” X said. “You stay with me.”

Wynn listened to a transmission and then looked to X. “Mac has volunteered to go with Felipe,” he said. “They’re waiting for your permission, sir.”

“Send them in,” X replied. “Then pull everyone else back a good distance.”

The cordon of boats pushed back, except one. A fishing boat with nets draped over the side cruised forward with Mac at the helm.

X grabbed a pair of binoculars to watch their advance, alternating between their boat and the militia vessel. When they were close, Felipe leaped from the bow to the mystery boat’s hull, grabbed the rail, and swung over.

He quickly tethered the two boats together. Once they were connected, he helped Mac aboard. The old Barracuda leader drew his sword. Felipe unslung a shotgun, training it on the hatch to the enclosed cabin.

It swung open without resistance, and both men disappeared inside.

X braced himself, but the only explosion was pain where his right arm no longer was. He lowered the binos in a shaky hand.

“King,” Victor said.

“I’m fine,” X replied through clenched teeth, trying to ignore the pain. It wasn’t until he saw motion on the boat again that it dissipated.

X pushed the binos back up and centered them on the young Cazador warrior, who was waving in the air.

“He’s signaling us,” X said. “Take us in, Sergeant.”

“They haven’t searched the entire boat yet,” Wynn replied. “I still think we should stay back, sir.”

“And I think you should remember who is in charge here.”

Wynn moved his jaw, but X didn’t give him a chance to protest. Nudging Wynn aside, he took the wheel and gunned it toward the militia boat.

Mac also reemerged on the deck. He sheathed his sword—another sign that there were no apparent threats on board.

X eased off the gas and coasted cautiously forward.

Felipe threw Victor a rope, and they came up alongside the shot-up hull.

The two Barracudas’ sour looks told X they had found something after all.

“King Xavier,” Mac said, “there’s something you need to see below.”

He led X down into the cabin while Victor and Felipe remained on deck. The stench wafting out of the open hatch hit X so hard, halfway down the ladder he covered his face with his arm.

Mac went first, ducking low into the living quarters. In the small space, three skinned corpses lay on the deck. The bodies had been here since the battle, and with the heat and little air flow, the place was ripe with rot.

Mac held a handkerchief up to his nose as he bent down and grabbed something that was stuffed into the flayed hand of the middle body.

Mac unfolded the note he had plucked from one of the hands. X crouched down beside the bodies. They were skinned to the muscle and bone, but he already knew who they were.

X almost gagged, as much from the sight as from the smell. The bodies were so badly mutilated that he identified the one in the middle as Lieutenant Sloan only by the rank insignia someone had pinned through the flesh on her back.

He covered his mouth and rose to his feet, feeling as if he were about to puke. Mac was reading the note written in Spanish.

“What does it say?” X asked.

“Nothing good, sir,” Mac replied.

* * * * *

After being summoned, Les had taken a boat back to the capitol tower straight from the Shark’s Cage. But with communications down, he had no idea what to expect—only that something had been discovered on the eastern barrier.

From the marina he went straight to the council chamber, not even stopping to say hello to his wife and daughter. He carried an important message of his own for the king.

The double doors were shut, guarded by a militia soldier and a Cazador soldier.

They opened the door, and he walked into the room.

Dozens of faces turned in the dim torchlight. A group of Hell Divers, soldiers, and advisors had gathered around the council table.

X stood at the throne, Miles at his feet. “Captain,” he said in a gruff, defeated voice, “I hope you brought me some good news about Discovery.”

Les halted between Ton and Victor and ran a hand through his red frizz.

“She’s in bad shape, King Xavier,” he said. “Samson still isn’t sure he can get some of the systems back online without a trip to the wastes.”

X cursed under his breath. He looked much older this afternoon. The salt-and-pepper hair seemed mostly salt. The years of diving and fighting were taking their toll.

“There’s something you need to hear,” X said. “Have a seat.”

Les went to the council table. Every chair was occupied, but Edgar got up and offered his chair.

“That’s okay,” Les said. “I’ll stand.”

He took a second to scan the faces.

Rodger sat next to Magnolia, his head bowed in grief. Imulah, Colonel Forge, Mac, Felipe, and every living Hell Diver were sitting or standing around the table. Pedro was also here.

Everyone had the same solemn expression: frowns, wrinkled brows, sunken eyes.

“We have a decision to make,” X said. “And this time, it’s something that I can’t, and won’t, make on my own. It will affect everyone’s future, sky people and Cazadores alike.”

Imulah translated to Colonel Forge in a slow, almost slurred speech due to the medicine he took for his burns. When he finished, X stepped to the top landing of the platform.

“The mission this morning to find Raven’s Claw failed, resulting in the death of Alberto and the destruction of Cricket,” he said. “We know now that the mission never had a chance from the beginning—Raven’s Claw and the submarines retreated long ago.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and winced.

“The militia boat that Lieutenant Sloan pursued the submarines with during the attack was recovered, along with her skinned, mutilated body and the bodies of two of her soldiers,” he said. “I don’t know how we missed it, but we did.”

“What!” Les said. “How…”

“We don’t know,” said Sergeant Wynn in a quivering voice.

The discovery of her body, especially the brutality of her death, rocked Les to his core.

X bowed his head, clearly shaken. He gestured to Imulah. “Go ahead and read the note Mac found.”

Imulah stood up from his chair and held the note in his bandaged hand.

“If the occupying hostile force from the sky does not leave, and the false prophet Xavier Rodriguez vacate the throne, the Metal Islands will be destroyed,” Imulah said. “The recent attack was just a taste of our strength.”

“Let them come,” Arlo interrupted. “With the underwater sensors deployed and our fleet reorganized, they won’t stand a chance.”

“Quiet,” X snapped. He nodded at Imulah again.

“We have taken the face of your lieutenant and will return to skin the rest of you if you do not heed our orders. But it won’t be just us coming to take your flesh,” read the scribe. “We will send the metal gods to finish you off.”

Imulah paused to look at X, who nodded for him to continue.

“In the time Lord Horn has been away from the Metal Islands, we have searched for the machines, and we have joined them.”

“No,” Les whispered.

“If you do not leave the islands, you will experience the beautiful wrath of the machines in all their violent glory,” Imulah continued. He lowered the note. “It is signed by a scribe I knew long ago, a man who now serves Horn.”

“He’s bluffing,” Magnolia said. “The defectors wouldn’t join with humans. Their sole mission is to kill us.”

“Maybe, but we have no way of knowing that,” Michael replied. “We can’t ignore the threat and hope it’s a lie.”

“I agree,” Edgar said through his clenched and wired broken jaw.

“We have to go after Horn,” Rodger said. “That’s the only answer.”

“Rodge, I know you’re upset, but how are we going to do that?” Magnolia said calmly. “Finding Raven’s Claw and those submarines will be like finding a needle inside a haystack in a farm field full of haystacks.”

“I don’t care,” Rodger said. “I was a coward after el Pulpo tried to kill me, and now his son has killed my parents. I’ll do whatever it takes to find them. Even if it means fixing up the Hive and taking her into the air to search for these animals.”

“I disagree,” Wynn said. He looked to X and then to Colonel Forge. “I say the militia and the Cazador forces do everything we can to tighten the defenses, and then we wait for Horn or the machines to come.”

Arlo muttered something under his breath about their being screwed.

Les walked over to Pedro. Without an interpreter, it would be hard to communicate, but he had to try. The survivor from Rio de Janeiro was key to humanity’s future, maybe even more than X.

Everyone looked at Les as he moved around the table.

“There is another option,” he said. “One that will solve the problem of the machines forever.”

The room went silent, all eyes on Les. He thought of his wife and daughter, but his heart told him this was the only way to save them.

“King Xavier, once Discovery is fixed, I’m requesting permission to fly it to Africa, where I will destroy the ITC mainframe controlling the DEF-Nine units. From my conversations with Pedro here and Timothy, that’s what humans tried to do two hundred and fifty years ago.”

“And how’d that work out for ’em?” Sofia asked. “The machines have been hunting down people outside our little slice of loco heaven for centuries.”

From the platform, X said, “I thought you said the airship is in bad shape.”

“It is,” Lex replied, “but the parts we need are pretty generic. If we can find them here on the rig, we can get our repairs done in a week max. Flying at full speed with our upgraded boosters, it will take less than two days to get to the target in Africa. I’ve already checked.”

X seemed to be considering it, then shook his head. “Captain Mitchells, if allied forces failed to do this during the war, what makes you think you can succeed with one airship?”

“Because they didn’t have Hell Divers,” Les replied.

“Shit’s crazy,” Sofia said. “You won’t even get close to their base before they blow you out of the sky.”

“Going to have to agree with her,” Arlo replied. “No offense, Cap.”

Michael sat silently, avoiding the gaze of Les and everyone else but Layla. She, too, was silent. The new engagement ring on her finger told Les why.

“Can we just try and nuke the base from a distance?” Magnolia asked.

Michael’s wrist monitor beeped, and he looked down to shut it off.

“I want all options on the table,” X said. “That’s why I called you all here. What else do—”

“Holy shit!” Michael said, nearly shooting out of his chair. “It’s Cricket! The bot is online again.”

X walked down the stairs and over to the table, and Les made his way over for a look at the screen.

“I think I know what happened now,” Michael said. “I think Cricket found Raven’s Claw and followed it, and the storms blocked its signal. It must be somewhere that the storms aren’t interfering.”

“That must be how they launched the yacht with Sloan’s body,” Magnolia said.

“Do you know where Cricket is now?” X asked.

Michael tapped his screen. “A place that was called Aruba.”

Les leaned in for a better look.

“I’m not familiar with this island,” Michael said, “but maybe Colonel Forge would know.”

Imulah interpreted, and the colonel took a look.

“La Escolta,” he said after a quick look at the map.

“The Outrider,” Imulah explained. “The former colony that we abandoned many years ago.”

X stroked his chin. “That’s where General Santiago believed Horn took Raven’s Claw after killing half his crew on a mission to North America.”

“How do you know that?” Les asked.

“Rhino and I found out through a former crew member serving time at the Shark’s Cage,” X said.

Rodger stood. “So we go to the Outrider and kill them all,” he said. “Simple answer to all this.”

“We have no idea what’s there, Rodge,” Michael said.

“I don’t care what’s there,” Rodger snarled, “as long as Horn and Moreto are. I’m going to find them, skin them, and burn them alive.”

Magnolia put a hand on his arm, but he pulled away.

“What are we waiting for?” he said, glancing around with wild eyes. “Cricket just gave us a map to the place where we can end all this.”

Everyone remained quiet, even X.

“We have to go and kill Horn,” Rodger said. “I’ll go by myself if I have to.”

“Rodge, it’s not that simple,” X said. “We need a plan before we set off. We need to do recon.”

“Recon?” Rodger said. “What the hell for? We know what’s there.”

Magnolia tried to soothe him, but again he pulled away. He looked to Michael, X, and finally Les. Then he stormed off.

Magnolia called out after him. “Rodger, wait up.”

The doors opened, and Rodger slipped between them, his footsteps echoing with Magnolia’s as she gave chase.

X sat down on his throne, putting his hand on his head.

“Everyone but Michael and Les, leave me,” he said.

Michael kissed Layla on the cheek. She whispered something to him, and he nodded.

“Actually, Layla, please stay,” X said. “I want your advice, too.”

Les walked with Michael up to the base of the steps while the room emptied. Ton and Victor, last out, closed the doors.

They creaked open a moment later, and Magnolia returned. X waved her forward.

She joined Michael, Les, and Layla at the steps in front of the throne.

“You four are my most trusted confidants,” X said. “I’ve known you all for a very long time, during which we’ve suffered and fought together enough for several lifetimes.”

He pulled his hand away from his head and leaned down to stroke Miles.

“What we do next could very well determine the fate of our people and the rest of our species,” he said. “And I want your opinions.”

He looked first to Les.

“I say we send Colonel Forge and some of our boats to the Outrider to destroy the skinwalkers,” Les said. “While simultaneously launching Discovery with a team of Hell Divers to Africa, to eliminate the defectors.”

“I disagree with the second part,” Layla said. “Send our firepower to the Outrider and destroy the skinwalkers and keep the rest of our defenses back here just in case they aren’t bluffing about the machines.”

“I don’t like the idea of going to Africa, either,” Magnolia said, glancing over at Les. “But I do think we should go to the Outrider. Strike before they can.”

X looked to Michael last. So far, it was two against one.

The young commander grabbed Layla’s hand, facing her. “I know you’re scared, but we can’t wait for them to attack. Rodger was right. Cricket gave us a map to destroy the skinwalkers, and Pedro has a map to the defectors.”

Layla pulled her hand away from his.

“We will never be safe if we don’t destroy both threats,” Michael said, turning back to X. “I say we take this fight to both enemies and surprise them before they come for us.”

TWENTY-THREE

Ada lay on a rocky outcrop overlooking a beach littered with boats. She had stashed the gear salvaged from her boat in a nook in the rocks.

After a night of rest, she had set off to find a seaworthy vessel. About a mile away from her capsized boat, she had discovered a small catamaran with its sails stowed in the cabin, out of the weather. They looked potentially seaworthy if she could patch them up a bit.

The boat reminded her a bit of the Sea Wolf, and while she had no idea how to operate it, she decided to check it out.

Using her rifle scope, she pressed it to her repaired visor, making sure the path ahead was clear.

A squeaking sounded behind her. The adolescent female monkey she rescued had followed her around for the past twelve hours, not leaving her side.

While it was nice to finally have a companion, she worried that the creature would draw the attention of less benign beasts. Leeches weren’t the only things she worried about here.

Another distant wail sounded, as if in answer.

Ada remained prone, the rifle butt tucked against her shoulder. She didn’t see anything moving in the wake of lightning flashing over the beach, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t down there.

She had a choice to make before she moved: bring her hairy friend with her or leave it here in the rocks with her gear.

Another squeak forced her to turn.

“Quiet,” Ada whispered.

The monkey tilted its smooth, black face and blinked its big obsidian eyes. Of course, it couldn’t understand her, but there had to be a way to make it be quiet.

Ada pointed to the dirt. Stay here. The monkey blinked again.

She could barely see it at all in the sporadic lightning, but it must have adapted to see in the wastes, because the damn thing kept staring right at her.

Standing, she started to leave the rock outcropping, but the creature cried out. Ada crouched back down and put a finger to her visor—another command the monkey didn’t understand.

She pointed to the ground a second time.

The primate cried again.

Ada cursed. She had no choice.

“Fine, come on.”

She turned the flashlight, now mounted to the rifle barrel, and left the outcropping. She moved slowly through boulders, tangled roots, and debris. The monkey kept up easily, leaping from rock to rock.

At the bottom, she swept her light over the beach before advancing toward the sailboat. The hull of another vessel provided a rest stop halfway there.

She wiggled her toes, trying to keep the blood flowing. The broken toe with a missing nail, freshly wrapped, was feeling much better, and her stomach had calmed for now.

X’s note and her new friend had completely changed her outlook on life. She was determined to get back to the Vanguard Islands.

If she must die, it would be in the Sky Arena, by a Cazador spear or sword.

But she didn’t plan on that fate, either. After her journey into the wastes, she felt she could best whatever opponent she faced there.

After a few minutes’ rest behind the hull, she set off with the monkey following her on all fours. The rest of the way to the sailboat looked clear.

When she was almost there, she halted because the monkey had stopped. It was hunched down on the sand, trembling.

“What is it?” she whispered.

The monkey let out a peep, staring into the sky.

Ada swung her rifle, and the light captured a frayed leathery wing flying over the water. It swooped downward, screeching an electronic discord out of a black maw in an eyeless face.

She aimed her rifle and fired a round at center mass. The recoil knocked her back slightly. When she regained her balance, the beast had flapped away, releasing an angry wail that rose and fell like an emergency siren.

From the ruins of a resort down the beach, another creature answered the call.

She plucked a round from the bandolier and pushed it into the chamber. Again, she swept the sky until the beam found the wrinkled flesh.

The beast swooped again, changing course, talons out.

“no!” Ada yelled.

The frightened monkey bolted for the mutant vegetation bordering the beach. Evading the talons, it vanished into the brush.

Ada sighted in on the Siren, leading it slightly as she had been trained. The beast stooped, screeching.

The round punched through the monster’s wing.

Ada lit out after the monkey, reloading on the run, but the animal vanished into the dense jungle.

She dropped a round and had to leave it.

“Wait!” she called out.

The injured Siren flapped away, but several others cried out.

She jumped vines snaking over the sand and ducked skeletal branches the color of blood. Somewhere up ahead, the monkey cried.

Pulling another round, she carefully got it into the chamber. In that moment, her foot caught under a root and she went down hard. The rifle flew from her hands.

Ada pushed herself up and scrambled over to the weapon. A screech forced her to the ground again as another Siren sailed over the canopy.

But they weren’t just in the air. She could hear the beasts in the jungle. Limbs crunched and snapped as they hunted.

Fear gripped her, but she kept moving. A flash of pale, wrinkled skin darted past the beam as she picked up the rifle.

Ada advanced, slower now, playing the light back and forth over thorn bushes and twisted vines. The beam flickered.

She tapped it against the bark of the closest tree. It came on again, illuminating what looked like grayish moss clinging to a low branch. The moss suddenly moved in the glow, forming a humanoid shape that turned an eyeless face to her.

The wingless monster dropped from the tree and hit the ground running.

Ada aimed, said a prayer, and pulled the trigger.

The beast skidded to a stop a few feet away from her, squirting blood onto her boots.

Ada stepped around the carcass and kept searching the jungle, ducking branches and hopping over vines.

A squeaking stopped her in midstride.

The noise was coming from behind a tree to her right. She went around it, pointing her rifle into the brush. A hairy, curled hand of four fingers reached out from under a fallen palm frond. Big black eyes blinked at her.

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

The dark eyes widened. A high screech sounded as Ada whirled with the butt of her gun, slamming it into another eyeless face.

The Siren slumped to the ground with a broken skull.

Ada grabbed the monkey and took off running through the jungle with it clutched against her. Something grabbed her ankle, and she kicked at what proved to be a vine. Two more kicks, and she snapped it free from the ground and dragged it with her.

Shrieks echoed through the jungle. For a fleeting moment, she considered trying to hide, but they would find her eventually. Unless… She recalled what she knew about the abominations: that they evolved from humans. That males flew and females didn’t. And that they were attracted to energy.

That was it! They were drawn to her light. But she couldn’t shut it off until she got back to the beach. What she needed was a distraction.

A beetle skittered across her path, stopping to click its mandibles at her. The old Ada might have screamed, but the new Ada punted it into the air.

The monkey pressed its face against her as she ran. Branches cracked, and a wail came from above.

When she got back to the beach, she shut off her light and slung her rifle. She could flee by the glow of lightning.

She stumbled across the beach, listening to the electronic wails of the monsters. They seemed to be coming from all directions.

One swooped from the sky, and she ducked behind a boat she had passed earlier.

Then she was running again, lungs burning, toe throbbing, heart pumping. She didn’t stop until she was past the rock outcropping where her gear was stored.

Her capsized boat wasn’t far now.

In the wake of lightning, she spotted the concrete walkway where the leeches ate the frog and then the parent of the monkey. Her boat was somewhere between her and the walkway. She spotted it in the next flash of lightning.

The wails grew louder, and she counted at least five, maybe six of the monsters sailing through the air, plus the females on the ground, prowling the beaches.

She finally made it to her boat, where she set the monkey down and reloaded her rifle. Then she reached into her vest and pulled out a flare. It ignited after two strikes.

Flames burst out, spreading a red glow over the beach. She waved it back and forth and saw long, skeletal shadows moving across the sand. In the sky, the males circled like hawks.

The females inched closer, clicking their teeth. A beast with an underbite charged at Ada, giving its discordant shriek. The monkey grabbed her leg, but she held her ground, waiting until the last instant.

One by one, the other Sirens charged on land and swept down from the sky.

Reaching over the transom, she twisted the cap off the second fuel tank. Then she dropped the flare in the boat, picked up the monkey, and ran. The Sirens raced toward the flare.

She sprinted twenty paces before an explosion boomed behind her, and pained cries rang out. She used the glow of the fire to run, glancing over her shoulder once to see burning monsters flopping about like beached fish.

Ada tripped, regained her balance, and didn’t stop running until she got to the rock outcropping. Flames lit up the beach in the distance.

She set the monkey down, unslung her rifle, and switched the light back on. Then, picking up the pack she had left in the dirt, she took off for the catamaran.

Most of the gear would have to wait for later. First, she needed to check the condition of the boat, and then she must find a way to get it into the water.

The monkey followed her and climbed inside with her.

The distant cries of the beasts echoed through the afternoon as she checked the boat. Ducking into the cabin, she found out why it was in such good shape.

A corpse lay on a bunk, pistol in hand, and a hole in its skull. The skeletal remains were old but not ancient. This person had come here long after the war.

Ada looked at the controls. The boat had no engine, just a battery for the navigation system, which had a cracked screen. She doubted that it worked. Old-world technology had advanced to the point that a storage battery could hold its charge indefinitely, but it wouldn’t help if the GPS was shot.

The wails faded away as she worked for the next few hours to get the boat seaworthy. The monkey followed her, watching curiously as she went outside and started jamming boards under the stern. Using masts scavenged from other boats, she began to build a ramp down the sloping beach.

If all went to plan, the tide would come up and dislodge the sailboat enough that she could slide it down the ramp, into the water. Then she would use the rudders and the mainsail to guide it out to sea on the high tide—assuming, of course, that the sails weren’t in bad shape and that she could figure out how to rig them.

She walked over and went to work to haul out the buried sails. One needed patching, but if she could get the mainsail up, she could rig the other two once she was out to sea.

She returned to the cabin, which had seats and a table with loads of cabinets, some hanging open. Ignoring the gear inside, she went straight for the navigation system.

She played the flashlight over the controls. After fiddling with the various dials and toggle switches on the panel for an hour with no luck, she returned outside to listen for the beasts.

All she heard were chirping bugs and the soft lapping of wavelets on the sand. Satisfied she wasn’t being hunted, she went back to work, and two hours later, she had figured out how to get the mainsail up. The others would have to wait.

For now, she had done all she could to get the boat ready. Now the tide must do its part. If it came up high enough, it would lift the boat. Getting it through the surf was another question.

Ada took the pistol and dragged the corpse outside. She dug a grave, filled it with sand, and said a prayer for someone who had died in desolation and solitude.

Exhausted, she returned to the outcropping where she had left her gear and supplies. She loaded everything into the boat while the monkey sat on a crate inside the cabin, chewing happily on a piece of fish jerky.

“You are going to need a name,” Ada whispered. “I guess for now, I’ll call you Jo-Jo.”

The monkey swallowed, then just stared at her. Not at her, she realized. Its ears had picked up something that she heard a moment later.

A guttural roar in the distance raised the hair on her neck.

The monkey bolted into the tiny cabin and hid under the bunk.

Ada looked toward the decaying resorts beyond the beach, where the noise had come from. There was something else out there worse than Sirens and giant leeches.

Grabbing the hatch, she closed it and prayed. She could worry later about how to navigate the way home—right now she just needed to get them through the surf and away from this place.

* * * * *

From Magnolia’s balcony everything looked peaceful and serene. The whitecaps had settled, leaving the ocean glossy under a retreating sun.

A mauve skyline with streaks of magenta hypnotized her with its beauty. But this wasn’t the heaven they all thought it could be, and she was growing tired of trekking through hell to protect it.

Sky citizens and Cazadores had suffered in the ambush by the skinwalkers, and many of them would go to sleep tonight missing loved ones—in Rodger’s case, his parents. He sat on her bed now, head bowed, hands on his thighs. He wore plum trousers and a brown collared shirt he had bought from the trading rig last week.

Her white dress fluttered in the breeze. She had been saving it for Tin and Layla’s inevitable wedding, which everyone but Layla had seen coming.

Tonight, Magnolia would wear the dress to the memorial service for those lost in the attack. Grabbing the windowsill, she fended off a wave of dizziness. Her hearing was better, but her head pounded.

“Are you okay?” Rodger asked.

He glanced up, pushing his glasses up on his nose. A tear rolled down from one dark eye and vanished in his beard.

She sat down beside him and put her hand on his.

“I just took more medicine,” she said. “I’ll be okay; don’t worry about me.”

He looked down at his shoes.

“I can’t believe they’re both gone.”

She pulled his head over onto her shoulder.

“I’m so, so sorry.” She tried to smile, but it hurt her burned face. “You still have me.”

She looked at the wood carvings he had made for her over the years. The elephant and other animals on her nightstand were the only possessions besides her armor and blades that she actually cared about.

And Rodger was the only man she had ever…

“I love you, Rodger,” she blurted.

He pulled his head away, tilting it slightly.

“You’re my guy,” she said. “Seeing Tin and Layla on the pier earlier today helped me realize something I never thought I would want.”

Rodger gripped her hand. “You don’t have to say this because—”

“I’m not. I’m saying it because it’s true, Rodge.” Magnolia leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, then caught his gaze. “I love you, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

However long that might be…

“After we lay your parents to rest, we’re going to face one of the toughest fights of our lives, but together we can get through it, and when this is all over, that’s what I want.”

Rodger got up and reached for both her hands. His calloused palms were comforting to her in the way her father’s had been, from what little she could remember of the man.

“Magnolia Katib, you’ve had my heart since the moment I laid eyes on you, back when you were a rebel without a cause, stealing calorie-infused herb sticks from the trading post.”

She chuckled at the memory. “What color was my hair back then?” she asked.

“Blue.”

“You do remember.”

“Of course I do.”

She smiled, then sighed.

“What?” he asked.

Her eyes went to the mirror that she had been avoiding across the small room. The burns to her scalp were hideous beneath the bandage, and she doubted that her hair would even grow back.

“You’re beautiful no matter what,” Rodger said. He kissed her gently on the cheek and then helped her stand. “Now, come on. Let’s go bury my parents.”

Magnolia got up, dizzy from the sudden motion. She winced and lowered her head to touch her bandage.

“You sure you’re up for this?” Rodger asked, leaning down to look her in the eye.

“I’m fine. The gel is already helping heal the wound. The ruptured eardrum is what’s causing me issues.”

“Maybe you should sit down for a bit.”

“No.”

Rodger hesitated another moment, then looped her arm over his. He guided her out of the room, down the passage, and up the stairs to the rooftop.

People were already starting to gather, walking toward the tropical forest. Magnolia and Rodger took a winding path through the trees. The sunset’s glow bled through the canopy of banana leaves.

Magnolia spotted a spent shell casing in the dirt—a memento of the horrifying battle with the Sirens. Several militia soldiers had died along this path, torn open by the clawed beasts.

She tried to block out the memories and focus on being there for Rodger.

They were almost to the graveyard. A small group of people dressed in their finest clothes had gathered to pay final respects.

Dozens of bodies were wrapped in white cloth and laid neatly in a row near freshly dug graves. Shirtless men with shovels stood nearby, sweat dripping down their muscular bodies.

Rodger halted on the path, his lips quivering.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” he mumbled.

Magnolia tightened her grip on his hand. “You can. I’ll be right here with you.”

They walked out of the forest and around the newly dug graves.

Michael and Layla stood hand in hand at the front of the group. X was there, too, dressed in shorts and a wrinkled white shirt, half buttoned up and exposing the bandage over his chest. Unlike the last time she saw him on the docks, his skin had some color, but he still looked exhausted.

Standing behind him was the man they all once knew as Giraffe. Les towered over his wife and daughter. Samson was also here, staring ahead as if in a trance.

Both had come from the Shark’s Cage for the funerals and would be heading out as soon as they were over.

“Mags,” said a voice.

Sofia walked out of the group and gave Magnolia a hug.

“How are you doing?” Magnolia asked her.

“I’ll be better when I see Horn’s head on a stick,” Sofia replied coldly.

Rodger nodded. “Me, too.”

They weren’t the only ones who wanted revenge. Everyone standing in the crowd had lost a family member or good friend in the ambush—and not just sky people, either. Several Cazador civilians and soldiers had perished, but their bodies wouldn’t be laid to rest here; they would be given back to the sea.

Alberto, too, would be buried at sea. Magnolia thought of the quiet Hell Diver. Though she hadn’t known him well, she had liked him.

She walked with Rodger and saw the first of the corpses. Lieutenant Sloan’s body was wrapped alongside the remains they had recovered of Rhino. There wasn’t much of the deceased general—mostly bones, armor, and his spears. But unlike his Cazador brother and sisters, he was not to be returned to the ocean. Not yet.

Felipe and Mac stood in front of his burial plot. Mac tapped the soil with his cane and shook his head wearily.

X waited for more people to gather as the sun sank through the horizon. Torches went up across the rooftop, spreading a fiery glow over patrolling militia soldiers.

Sergeant Wynn and Colonel Forge were on the open water, just in case. They had already deployed the underwater sensors and repaired machine-gun nests and twenty-millimeter cannons on both rooftops.

If the skinwalkers returned, they would be ready this time.

At the sound of a scratchy voice, Magnolia looked up.

“We’ve gathered yet again to honor our lost loved ones,” X said. “And like I told the council and the Hell Divers earlier today, before this is over, we will gather again to bury more of our loved ones.”

Several people mumbled.

“How do we fight such evil, King Xavier?”

The voice belonged to Dom, the chef famous for his orange noodles.

“I heard the machines are coming,” someone else said.

Magnolia wasn’t sure how that had gotten out, but it was always only a matter of time. She fully expected X to curse and try to mitigate the rumors, but he spoke the truth.

“It’s possible they will come,” he said.

Chatter broke out through the crowd.

“But there is only one way to stop them,” X said. “Only one way to protect this place and ensure that the heavy sacrifice so many have made was not in vain.”

Wind rustled the branches of the trees. A chill ran through Magnolia, and she gripped Rodger’s hand tighter. X walked over to the graves with Miles trotting to keep up.

After looking at the burial plots, X turned back to his people.

“I thought about what to say tonight,” he said. “Something that would encourage us all to keep fighting and give us hope in the face of such terror. But what I’ve realized over my life is that hope and courage come from the person standing by your side and at your back.”

Magnolia looked to Rodger. She also looked over her shoulder, at Sofia.

“For me, hope always came from knowing there were other Hell Divers in the sky, and brave warriors like General Rhino, who would give their lives to save mine, as I would for them. Tonight, we must remember that we are in this together and that we will fight, together.”

Wind again whistled over his echoing voice.

“You have my blade,” a voice boomed. Mac tapped his cane on the dirt again.

“Mine, too.” Adrian, Dom’s son, stepped out of the crowd. “I will fight,” he said. “And so will my dad.”

“We dive so humanity survives, sir,” Edgar said through wired-together jaws.

“Rhino stood by your side, and now we do, too,” said another Barracuda.

Arlo said, “I’ve still got a nickname to earn. You know I’m in.”

“I’m with you to the end,” Magnolia said.

“Me, too,” said Rodger.

Les and Michael remained quiet.

She knew why. They both had made promises about the future to their families. But Layla and Katherine had to know they didn’t have a choice. The future of the sky people—perhaps of all humankind—depended on Hell Divers now more than ever.

“Your bravery and support remind me why I accepted this position in the first place,” X said. “Together, we will win this final fight, but first, we must lay our loved ones to rest.”

He motioned to several workers who stood by the freshly dug graves. One by one, they lowered the corpses into the soil. Magnolia and Rodger went to the plot where his parents would be buried side by side.

“I don’t even have a marker yet,” he said.

“I’ll help you make one,” she said. “Maybe you can teach me a thing or two about woodworking.”

People sobbed as the bodies were lowered into the dirt. X went with Miles over to Rhino’s grave.

Mac picked up the soot-blackened spears and locked the two halves together, making a single shaft. Then he handed it to X.

“Here, King Xavier,” said Mac. “You should have this.”

“I thought a Cazador warrior is supposed to be honored by being burned and dropped into the sea with his armor and weapon,” X said.

“They are,” Sofia said. “But without a ceremony first, Rhino will remain in purgatory.” She walked up to X. “Horn made sure of that by burning him without a ceremony,” she added. “The only way for Rhino to reach the afterlife now is for someone to kill Horn with this blade.”

X took the shaft from Mac. “He would want you to do this, King Xavier,” Mac said, looking at Sofia to make sure she understood.

Magnolia could smell the tension. The entire thing sounded ridiculous to her, but she respected their right to worship whatever they wanted, even big-ass mutant octopuses.

X lifted the spear in salute. “I’ll make sure he crosses the bridge,” he said. “I swear this to you, Sofia.”

She reached out and touched the blade, one of the last remaining keepsakes of her lover.

The workers finished lowering the bodies and started covering them with dirt. When they finished, family and friends walked up to drop flowers onto the mounds.

Magnolia went with Rodger to the two humps covering his parents. He let go of her hand and crouched in front of them.

“I’ll avenge you,” he said. “I’ll make you proud, Mom and Pop.”

TWENTY-FOUR

The group of warriors filed through the library to a loft area, where X stood at a wood balustrade with Imulah and Sergeant Wynn. Miles moved up beside X, pushing his muzzle through the bars.

Below, Colonel Forge and Lieutenant Colonel Ranker made their way through the maze of dimly lit tables, their black capes fluttering behind them. The Hell Divers came next, in their jumpsuits and armor, ready for whatever orders awaited them.

Seeing them had X reconsidering his decision. He worried that many of these warriors would leave the Vanguard Islands to do their duty, and never return again.

Captain Mitchells towered above the group with Eevi by his side. The woman had suffered much over the years, losing a child and, most recently, her husband.

X had considered ordering her back to the Hell Divers, but she was needed more on the bridge of Discovery.

“Welcome, everyone,” X said. “Let’s get started. Imulah, bring me the maps.”

The scribe returned, and Wynn helped him unroll the large scroll and spread it over the table. Mac and Felipe came in and joined the rest of the group at the table.

“This first map is of the Outrider, once called Aruba,” X said. “I need to know how long it will take to get there, how much fuel we have, and what we expect to find when we get there.”

“It’s about a two-day sail to Aruba,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ranker. “We’ve already combined our fuel, and it should get us there if we don’t push too hard.”

“So how do we get back home?” Arlo asked.

“Outrider is another refinery,” Imulah said. “If you are victorious, you will have access to a new fuel source.”

“Precisely why I don’t want to have Discovery just blow the place up,” X said. “We still don’t know if the Iron Reef in Belize is destroyed. If it is, this is our only known source of fuel.”

“What about sending Discovery?” Rodger said. “We could dive in and surprise the skinwalkers. It’ll be a slaughter.”

“Yeah, it could be a slaughter—of us,” X said.

Rodger wasn’t thinking logically, and his comment proved it.

“I’ll kill ’em all,” Rodger said. “Every last one of them.”

“Sending in a diving team isn’t a bad idea, Rodge,” Magnolia said. She rubbed the bandage on her head. “But don’t forget about the machines.”

“What about sending out Renegade to Belize, to check on the fuel outpost?” Wynn asked. “Do we have the time?”

“I thought about that, but we can’t risk sending out one of our warships,” X said. “We’ll need them to defend the Vanguard Islands and for the mission to the Outrider, which brings me back to my original question: What should we expect to find there?”

Ranker interpreted for Forge. He was the highest-ranking soldier left at the islands, but as far as X knew, most knowledge of the skinwalkers had died with General Santiago in Rio de Janeiro.

“We know that Horn killed half the crew of Raven’s Claw,” Ranker said. “That puts his numbers at anywhere from a hundred to a hundred and fifty. Minus however many he lost in the attack here, and on the ground in Rio.”

“We saw at least thirty there,” Michael said. “Maybe more.”

“We know he has two more submarines,” said Wynn, “and while they are small—probably some sort of research sub—they can do real damage.”

Imulah went to another table and brought back a green hardcover book with an octopus logo engraved on the spine. He dusted off the cover—also marked by an octopus—and handed it to X.

“Most of us were children when the colony was abandoned,” Ranker said.

“Very little is known now,” Imulah said. “I found that in the archives, but the other books were missing—probably destroyed by el Pulpo.”

“So what do we know about it?” X asked.

“Colonel Forge said it was another training facility for warriors,” Ranker said. “In fact, he went there when he was a teenager and was stationed there for a few months.”

X looked to Forge, who simply stared at the map as if recalling memories of long ago. He glanced up and caught X’s gaze.

“Lieutenant Colonel Ranker, ask Colonel Forge why it was abandoned,” X said.

The two Cazador officers spoke for several moments. Ranker then stiffened slightly. “The metal gods found it, sir.”

“What!” X blurted. The secrets these people held continued to infuriate him. “Look, I still haven’t figured out how you forgot to tell me el Pulpo had a bastard son, or that Moreto was the mom, but not revealing this…” For the moment, words failed him. “I want to know everything you know,” X said. He glared at Imulah. The muscles in the scribe’s cheeks trembled slightly.

“While some of us suspected Moreto was Horn’s mother, speaking this would have been treachery,” he said.

Ranker nodded. “The scribe is right. Moreto would have killed anyone who spoke such truth.”

X scratched his beard. It didn’t matter now anyway. What did matter was that the machines had found the outpost, so maybe Horn wasn’t lying about working with them.

“That’s why they wear people’s skins,” X said. “They must worship the machines. It makes total sense now.”

“I suspected that myself when I was in Rio,” Michael said.

X took another look at the map of the former colony. What he was about to order must be done. The soldiers and divers all waited for what many of them knew was coming.

“Sergeant Wynn,” X said.

The Asian man stiffened. “Yes, sir.”

“You’re being promoted to lieutenant and will oversee defenses at home while we send Shadow and Renegade to the Outrider. The warship Elysium will remain here to guard our homes.”

Wynn nodded. “Thank you, King Xavier.”

X looked to Forge and Mac next. “Mac, I’m assigning Renegade to you and the Barracudas and promoting you to colonel,” X said.

“That would be my honor, sir,” Mac said, bowing his hunched back.

“Ranker, I want you to relay this to Colonel Forge,” X said. “Colonel Forge, I’m promoting you to general of the combined armies of the Cazadores and sky people,” X said. “Your first orders are to sail Shadow to the Outrider.”

Ranker translated the first part.

“I will join you on this mission, along with a select group of my people,” X said. “Together, we will destroy Horn and the skinwalkers.”

Several people seemed surprised by the order, but X realized now more than ever that they needed the Cazadores all in on their cause, and the best way to do that without Rhino was to give his position to another Cazador.

After listening to the orders, Forge thumped his armored chest, and X nodded back. He didn’t fully trust the man, not as he had trusted Rhino by the end, but Forge had helped save his life with the nanotech gel and had also kept the truth about what happened to the warship Lion under wraps. He had also helped them clear the capitol tower of Sirens. If he was a collaborator with the skinwalkers, he was doing a lousy job.

“That takes care of one threat, but what about the machines?” Les asked.

X had a feeling this was coming. “I’m getting there, but first, what’s the status of the airship?”

“Sir, Discovery should be ready in three days if all goes to plan,” Les replied. “Samson managed to locate some parts thanks to Tomás Mata.”

“Good news.”

“Pedro has briefed us on everything he knows about the base in Africa,” Les said. “We are still working up a strategy, but I won’t need a full crew—just enough to run the ship, and two teams of Hell Divers.”

X considered the request again. They had no idea what they would find at either location—only that both would be heavily guarded by human warriors and probably machines as well.

He missed the old days of fighting Sirens and bone beasts.

“If you can get the airship ready, she’s yours, Captain,” X said. “And you will have your Hell Divers.”

“I also need an XO now that Ada is deceased and Layla is sitting this mission out,” Les said. He looked down to Eevi. “Ensign Corey, how do you feel about joining me in Africa on—”

“I’d be honored.”

“You understand the risks,” X said.

“All due respect, King Xavier, but I’m well aware, and I’ve got nothing to lose anyway.”

X gave her an empathetic nod.

“There’s a lot of work to do before we depart,” he said, “but I want everyone here to spend time with their families. That’s an order.”

He looked at Michael, then Les.

“All right, dismissed,” X said. He reached down to pet Miles.

The room started to empty, but Les lingered. Ton and Victor remained on guard.

“Sir, a moment of your time,” Les said. “Michael, you too.”

They took seats at the table and waited for everyone to leave the library. When the doors clicked shut in the distance, Les spoke.

“I need Magnolia and Rodger on the mission to Africa,” he said. “I know that Rodger wants to avenge his parents and that Sofia will want to kill Horn, but—”

“I don’t think Magnolia is going anywhere without Rodger,” Michael said.

“We have a dozen divers,” X said. “Can’t you make do without those two?”

“A dozen divers who have either never dived or dived only a few times,” Les said. “I need veterans, not greenhorns to screw things up like Arlo did.”

“I know, and you’re right,” X said. “I’ll talk it over with them.”

“Thank you, sir,” Les said. He stood and nodded at Michael, then started out of the room. He stopped at the twisting stairwell.

“I’ll be at the Shark’s Cage if you need me, sir,” Les said.

“Don’t forget my order, Captain,” X said. “Katherine and Phyl need you, too.”

“I know,” Les replied. “I’m heading up to see them first. For the record, that’s why I’m going to Africa—for them, and for Trey.”

“I know,” X said.

We all have our own missions now.

Les ducked down the spiral staircase and hurried out of the library, his footfalls echoing.

“I better get back to Layla, too,” Michael said. “She’s worried.”

“Hold up a minute.”

Michael brushed his long hair over his shoulder as he stood.

“You ever gonna cut that, or what?” X asked, also getting up.

“I don’t know. You going to trim that unibrow? It looks like an angry caterpillar.”

X laughed. “Grooming isn’t high on my priority list. I’m more concerned about getting myself one of those.”

Michael held up his robotic arm. “I’ll bring one back from Africa.”

The thought of the mission made X tense up. It was almost surely the more dangerous of the two, and he hoped he was making the right decision sending Michael there.

“Don’t worry, X,” Michael said as if sensing his concern.

“I am worried, and I know Layla is, too…” X caught Michael’s gaze. “How does she feel about this?”

“She hates it, but I promised this is the last mission.”

X feared that it would be, but not in the way Michael thought. He feared for Les and the other Hell Divers, too.

The choice he had to make was an impossible one, but he would face it without flinching.

“We dive so humanity survives,” Michael said.

“You know, I always found that a little cheesy. How about ‘We fight so humanity survives’?”

He picked up the spear that Rhino had carried into battle. Somehow, he must learn to use the ungainly weapon before he went out to kill Horn.

“In seriousness, I’m glad we can talk in private,” Michael said, “because I want to have a small gathering to celebrate my union with Layla before I go. Tomorrow night, after we wrap most of the preps.”

“I figured you would do that when we get back.”

A moment of silence passed, with both of them probably thinking the same thing.

“Okay,” X said. “We do it tomorrow night.”

“Now we just need to find someone to marry us.”

“Don’t look at me, kid. I’m no priest.”

“Ain’t that the truth. But you are a king.”

X cracked a half grin and patted Michael on the shoulder. Michael wrapped him in a hug.

“There is another reason I need a new limb,” X said when he pulled away. “I want to be able to hold Bray when he comes.”

Michael smiled wide.

“Although I’m not too good with babies,” X said.

“Me neither.” Michael laughed. “We’ll figure it out together, old man.”

* * * * *

Heading back to his apartment, Les kept a brisk pace through the hallways of the capitol tower, trying to ignore the signs of battle. Despite the best efforts of a cleaning crew, there was still evidence of the Sirens that had ravaged this place.

Blood spatter on walls and overhead. Claw marks on doors. Even a few spent bullet casings had eluded the cleanup crew. But there were far bigger problems to deal with than washing blood off the walls.

He counted his blessings. His family had survived unscathed—physically, anyway, although he worried about the psychological damage, especially for his daughter.

His suspicions were confirmed when he arrived back at his apartment. He unlocked the door to the sound of sobbing.

Les quietly shut the door and slipped into the shadows outside the room Phyl had shared with Trey. A candle burned on the bedside table. She was sitting up in bed, clutching a stuffed animal, with Katherine sitting by her side.

Neither of them had heard him come in, and for a moment he stood in the darkness, watching. He wanted to comfort his daughter, but he felt frozen.

The father he had become over the past few months was an absent one, and he couldn’t bear hearing Phyl beg him not to leave again, or endure the resentful gaze Katherine fired at him every time he walked into the room.

Taking a step back, he considered slipping away and heading back to the Shark’s Cage. That would be easier. But that wasn’t the father he wanted to be, and he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt later. He would rather watch his child cry her eyes out than abandon her and go back to work.

Les walked into the room, the creaking floor attracting Katherine’s attention. To his surprise, it wasn’t a resentful gaze, probably because she was crying.

He went to the bed as Phyl stretched out her arms.

“Papa,” she cried.

He leaned down and pulled her tight. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?” he said quietly.

“Papa, the monsters,” she whimpered.

Katherine stood and folded her arms over her chest after wiping away the tears. “She had a bad dream about the Sirens,” she said.

Les released his grip on Phyl and sat on the bed next to her. “Sweetheart, the monsters are gone,” he said.

“But what if they come back?”

“They won’t. I’m going to make sure of that.”

“You promise?”

“Cross my heart,” Les said.

Phyl smiled, then frowned. “Does that mean you have to leave again? Because if it does, I won’t be able to sleep.”

Les didn’t reply, the guilt already eating at his insides.

“Papa, I want you to sleep on my floor like you used to.”

A flood of memories entered his brain, but the worst part wasn’t recalling the past; it was explaining the future.

“Daddy has to go back to work,” Katherine said.

He looked up at his wife, surprised again.

“To make sure the monsters stay away,” Katherine said. “Right, Les?”

He just nodded. “Now, go back to sleep,” he said. “I’ll come back in the morning and eat breakfast with you and your mom, okay?”

“Promise and cross your heart again?”

Les motioned over his chest, drawing the hint of a smile from Phyl. He grabbed her stuffed bear and put it in her hands. She relaxed her head on the pillow, hugging the bear and letting out a sigh.

“Everything is going to be okay, my princess,” Les said. He pulled the sheet up to her neck and tucked the sides in neatly around the bed.

Phyl watched him retreat to the doorway with Katherine. “Wait,” she called out.

“We’re going to talk outside, okay?” Katherine said. “We’ll be right outside the door in the hallway.”

Phyl’s lips quivered in the candlelight.

“Just right outside,” Les said.

“Leave the door open,” Phyl said.

Les followed his wife out of the room and kept the door ajar. He fully expected another lecture or that withering gaze, but again he was surprised.

Katherine took his hand. “Les,” she said.

Moonlight through an open window illuminated his wife’s features. She had braided her hair tonight, just the way he loved it.

“After the ceremony earlier tonight, I realized why you’re doing all this,” she said. “I won’t try and talk you out of it anymore or make you feel guilty.”

Les felt as if he had entered a dream. This couldn’t be real.

“I don’t understand the sudden shift,” he started to say.

“The world I’ve lived in is not the same as yours,” she said. “You have dived through the storms, trekked through the wastes, and fought countless monsters and humans.”

“It’s my duty, and I do it for you and Phyl. Just as Trey did.”

“I know,” Katherine said, heaving a deep sigh. Her freckled nose crinkled in the moonlight. “All this time, I’ve been mad at you for leaving and for what happened to Trey, but…”

She squeezed his hand.

“I don’t blame you for what happened to our son,” she said. “I know you would have traded your life for his if you could.”

“I would have,” he said, “but Hell Divers don’t get do-overs, and I will live with the regret of that mission for the rest of my life.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You are a good diver, captain, father, and husband. You’re a good man, Les. You always have been.”

He didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t hold back his emotions this time. He let the tears come.

“It’s okay, Les,” she said.

“I’m sorry…” He wiped his eyes.

“No, if you need to cry, cry. I just want you to know I was wrong, and I’m so sorry.”

“You have no idea how good it is to hear these things,” he said. “Katherine, I’m going to do everything in my power to save our home, our people, and you and Phyl so she can grow up in a peaceful, safe world.”

“I know…”

She loosened her grip slightly, and he waited for things to take a turn for the worse.

“What are the odds you can beat the machines and the skinwalkers?” she asked. “I mean, what are the chances we will win this war?”

He hadn’t seen that one coming.

He reached down and grabbed her other hand and led her to the kitchen.

“We’ll be right out here,” Katherine called out to Phyl.

Les stopped near the open windows, where the cool breeze rustled his thinning red tuft.

“I don’t know exactly what we’re going to find when we reach the target in Africa,” he said. “All I know is that I have two secret weapons to use against the machines: Timothy Pepper and Hell Divers.”

“Les, you’re not just a good man; you’re an intelligent one. And that’s part of the reason I fell in love with you. But one AI and a team of Hell Divers? What makes you think you can stop the machines that destroyed the world?”

“I have a plan. I’m working with Timothy to develop something that I can’t talk about yet, but you have to trust me. Trust that I believe I have a chance.”

“I—”

Les kissed her on the lips. Then he held her gaze. “I have to do this, or eventually they will find this place. If that happens, there will be no future for Phyl or the rest of the children.”

“There’s no one else who can do this?”

“Everyone will play a role in the coming war,” he said. “This is mine.”

“What can I do?”

“Take care of our daughter and promise me you’ll always love me.”

“Oh, Les…” She hugged him. “I’m so sorry for not being there for you. I didn’t realize how bad things were until I talked to…”

“What?”

She looked down. “I talked to X, and he gave me some perspective on things.”

Les didn’t know whether to be happy or mad. But the king had done something he couldn’t: make Katherine realize she loved him still.

“I’m sorry, too, for everything. I love you and Phyl so much.”

They kissed but were interrupted by a surprised voice.

“What is that?”

They both turned to see Phyl standing in the hallway, her stuffed bear dangling from one hand.

“You’re supposed to be in bed,” Katherine said.

Phyl lifted a finger and pointed out the window, not answering.

Les and Katherine turned to the open shutters.

Red flares floated down from the sky.

“What is that, Les?” Katherine asked.

He smiled.

“Those are Hell Divers,” he said. “And they’re going to help me save us from the monsters.”

TWENTY-FIVE

The next morning, the islands had come alive with activity. News of Colonel Forge’s promotion to general had spread fast, and most Cazadores seemed thrilled that one of their own was again in charge of the military.

Civilians across the rigs had started their day helping with the war effort. Rumors about the machines had also spread, and every soul understood what was at stake. It had taken a shared threat to bring everyone together—a threat that had already wiped out most of humanity and destroyed the world.

Michael watched it all proudly, with confidence and optimism. Everyone was playing a role in preparing for what could very well be the final battle in a war that had lasted over two and a half centuries.

An army of shipwrights and mechanics had arrived to get Renegade and Shadow ready for battle. Every bullet, bomb, and missile across the islands was inventoried while prisoners at the Shark’s Cage and civilians on other rigs redoubled their efforts repairing damaged ordnance, casting lead bullets, and reloading spent brass.

At the trading post, animals were being slaughtered and preserved for the journey to Aruba. Food, ammunition, and spare parts were being ferried out to Discovery. Even the people from the bunker in Rio were helping.

On the capitol tower, a group had gathered at dawn to patch jumpsuits and parachutes. The people who had lived underground for centuries had many skills that were coming in handy.

Like most of the Hell Divers, Michael had spent much of the night diving through the clouds to train for the Africa mission. This would be his last time in the sky—a promise he had made to Layla and wasn’t going to break.

After wrapping up twelve training jumps, the divers had been assigned to help a team of Cazador scuba divers with the last of the underwater sensors to detect submarines. These were already in place at strategic locations along the border of light and dark, but the teams installed more around the capitol tower and the Hive, just in case.

When the sensors were all in the water, the divers returned to the capitol tower for a few hours of rest before more training. Finally, Michael took them to the Sky Arena, where they were given breakfast and water.

He was there with them now, standing in front of Mac and Felipe. A rusted metal rack of swords and spears was nearby. Pedro stood with his arms folded over his chest, dreads hanging over his back. He was here at X’s request, although Michael wasn’t quite sure why.

Michael handed a bottle of water to Sofia, who passed it down to the other divers. The casual onlooker wouldn’t have known a greenhorn from a veteran. They all looked exhausted.

Sofia, Lena, Ted, Hector, Edgar, Arlo, Magnolia, and Rodger were all here, but barely. Some were almost staggering.

Arlo sat down and then leaned back with his hands behind his head. “Let me know when you’re ready,” he said. “I’m going to take a quick nap.”

“X should be here soon,” Michael said.

He looked up at the surrounding seats, picturing the crowds that had watched when X and Rodger first fought here.

So much had changed since then.

Some of the other divers started to sit down, too, but Michael remained standing next to Magnolia and Rodger.

“I know you’re all tired,” he said, “but suck it up. What you’re about to learn could very well be the difference between life and death once we reach Africa.”

“I ain’t fucking going to Africa,” Rodger muttered.

Michael wasn’t in the mood to argue, and he didn’t want to upset Rodger further so soon after he buried his parents.

“That’s going to be decided by King Xavier,” he said. “Regardless of where you go, there or Aruba, you need this training.”

Rodger grumbled, and Magnolia elbowed him in the ribs.

The sound of boots on the stands commanded his attention, and Michael brought a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. Ton and Victor walked with X down the stairwell splitting the stands. Miles trotted after them but stopped at the railing.

Arlo and the other divers got to their feet.

“Stay, boy,” X said.

The dog paced and whined after X and his guards climbed down to the sand. The king carried the double-headed spear that had belonged to his most trusted guard, Rhino.

“Sorry I’m late,” X said.

“Welcome, King Xavier,” Mac said. He bowed slightly and twirled a cutlass in his only hand. “This afternoon, you’re getting a crash course on how to wield that spear.”

“What the hell do we need those for when we have machine guns and blasters?” Arlo asked.

Mac looked at the diver as one might respond to a slow child. Then he said, “Guns don’t always work in the wastes, and a sword doesn’t run out of ammo.”

He swung the cutlass at Arlo’s neck, the blade stopping less than an inch from his Adam’s apple.

“In the time it would take to aim a gun, I would have just lopped your head off,” Mac said.

Arlo swallowed, looking shaken.

“Everyone, grab a weapon,” he said. “Your training starts now.”

The divers walked over to the rack of weapons and chose from the blades and spears. Pedro joined the divers and grabbed a double-edged sword.

“Hope you got a plan on how to teach me to use this with one arm,” X said, raising his spear awkwardly in the air.

“Oh, I’ll show you a few tricks,” Mac said.

Michael didn’t like the idea of X trying to fight Horn with the weapon, but he knew better than to try to talk him out of it. Once X had his mind made up, he rarely entertained alternatives without a fight. But also, Michael wanted to see how Mac would train X on the weapon.

“Watch and learn,” Mac said.

He stepped into a white ring painted in the dirt and raised a blunted cutlass to Felipe. The younger Barracuda got into a fighting stance with a short sword. Sweat beaded on his bald pate and trickled down the crab tattoo.

Mac let out a cry as he swung first. The blades clanged.

For an old man with only two natural limbs, Mac was fast. Felipe was a strong fighter, too, and he didn’t seem to be going easy on the veteran. They traded blows for several minutes, staying within the border of the white line.

“Don’t watch your opponent’s eyes,” Mac said to the spectators. “He can use them to fake you out. You can get a better read on his next move by watching his chest.”

Felipe, who didn’t know much English, wasn’t prepared when Mac flitted his eyes to the left and jabbed with his right. Mac turned the dulled blade aside at the last moment, smacking Felipe in the back with the flat.

Wincing, Felipe hopped away.

“Wow,” Arlo said. “That was sick.”

Edgar twirled his sword. He was still bruised and injured but looked more determined than ever. “Let me try,” he said.

The former militia soldier wasn’t just an expert with a sniper rifle. In the militia he had been an artist with a baton. He wasn’t bad with a sword, either. At least, that was what Michael thought until Mac had the Hell Diver on his back, with a blade to his chest, within four strokes.

“Damn,” Arlo said. “You just got worked, homes!”

“Sick? Worked? Homes? What the hell does that shit even mean?” Sofia asked.

“Just stuff I heard in old-world movies and songs,” Arlo said.

Sofia stepped up next, and to everyone’s surprise, she swung her sword so hard that it made Mac take a step back with his prosthetic leg.

He hit back, but Sofia lunged, forcing him to sidestep the blow.

“Whoa,” X said. “Take it easy, Sofia.”

But she only hit harder. Mac parried the blows with his cutlass, not striking back, letting her expend energy.

“Damn,” Arlo said. He looked to Lena. “You got hidden moves like that?”

“I know a few tricks,” she replied.

He winked at her, and Lena rolled her eyes.

“Guys, less talking, more watching,” Michael said.

“She’s got skills,” Arlo said.

“You’re right for once,” Ted said after taking a slug from his flask.

Sofia grunted louder, hitting harder, feet moving nimbly.

“Careful,” X warned them.

But Mac didn’t seem to be easing up any more than she was, and the bloodlust in her eyes made Michael a little uneasy.

A scream pierced the morning as Sofia charged Mac. She swung hard, sparks flying when Mac’s sword deflected the blow.

Felipe stepped closer, clearly worried about his commander.

“You’re good, but not that good,” Mac said. He swung at her, but she swung harder, almost knocking his sword out of his grip. She smacked him in the face with her elbow.

Stumbling backward, he dragged his forearm across his lips, smearing blood. His eyes glared with rage.

They both raised their swords at the same time, but Michael strode into the middle of the ring and reached out with his metal arm, catching her sword blade. Felipe stepped in front of Mac.

“Enough!” X said.

The king’s raised voice seemed to calm Mac down, but Sofia just yanked on her sword. Michael’s robotic fingers held the blade like a vise.

“Calm down,” he said.

“Fuck you.”

“Hey!” Magnolia said. “Sofia, you need to check yourself.”

“You can fuck off, too,” Sofia said. She finally let go of her sword and stormed off, over the railing and up the stairs.

Magnolia walked after her, but X shook his head.

“Give her time,” he said.

Blood dripped off Mac’s chin. He held up his hand and spat a tooth into his palm.

“Oh, it’s just wood,” he said, and chuckled.

X laughed, too, but the jocularity vanished with the whistling wind.

Michael dropped Sofia’s sword, point first into the soil.

“Tell me again how we’re supposed to use swords on the machines,” Arlo said. “I don’t think I caught that part of the training.”

“You’re not,” X said. “They’re for human enemies.”

“And why is Pedro here?” Ted asked.

Hearing his name, Pedro walked over.

“He’s going with you to Africa,” X said. “He’s humbly volunteered to join the crew and share his knowledge of the machines.”

Michael wasn’t surprised to hear this and once again appreciated the man’s courage.

“Either way, I think I prefer my submachine gun and blaster,” Arlo said.

They had bigger problems than weaponry to worry about. Michael wondered whether X was thinking the same thing. How could a team of emotionally and physically broken-down Hell Divers fight the machines on the machines’ turf?

They weren’t ready, but would they ever be?

* * * * *

While the sun sank into the sea to end another day, Cazadores and sky people worked together preparing for war.

X was still in the Sky Arena, working with Mac and Felipe. He wanted to hear Imulah translate the book about the Outrider, but there would be plenty of time for that on the journey to the not-so-abandoned Cazador colony on Aruba.

Right now, though, he must learn how to fight one-handed with the spear if he had any hope of killing Horn.

Mac and Felipe finished off the rest of their water, and Mac motioned for X to get back into the ring.

“Again,” Mac said.

X gripped the spear as Mac had taught him, and then jabbed it through the air at the crab tattoo on Felipe’s skull, only to have the blade knocked away by his cutlass.

“Better, but too slow,” Mac said. He spat in the dirt. “It’s a shame you lost your knife hand—makes training all the more difficult.”

“No shit,” X muttered, panting.

He tightened the thong of the leather sheath on his spearhead. Ton and Victor watched his every move.

They weren’t the only ones. Miles watched from the stands and got up when X looked in his direction.

“Almost done, boy,” he said.

Looking at his wristwatch, he realized he was running out of time to spar. The ceremony for Michael and Layla was in an hour.

“We’ll pick this up later,” X said. “Thank you for helping me out, brother.”

X went back to his room, where he left Miles with a bowl of fresh food and water. Then he headed for the solar-heated showers on the floor below. Ton and Victor pushed open the double doors, and they all entered a steamy room that smelled like a mixture of body odor and flowers.

Ted and Arlo were in the first changing area. With his back turned and his long curly locks hanging over his shoulders, Arlo looked like a woman.

“You know why soldiers buzzed their heads in old wars?” X asked him.

Arlo turned, tightening the towel around his waist. The stab wound he had suffered in Rio de Janeiro wasn’t fully healed yet, but the stitches were out.

“I don’t recall, King Xavier,” he replied.

“So an enemy couldn’t pull your head back and slit your throat,” X said, tracing a line across his own scarred neck.

Arlo flipped a lock of hair over his shoulder, flinging water on Ted.

“Hey, man, what the hell!”

“Sorry,” Arlo said. He sat on a long wooden bench. “All due respect, King Xavier, but I’m going to have a helmet on out there, right?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.”

“I still don’t know how a sword is going to do me any good against a machine.”

“It may not,” X said. “But there are more than machines where you’re going. Remember that Siren pit you fell into on your last dive?”

Arlo swallowed hard, and Ton and Victor gave him a hard look as X hit the showers.

* * * * *

Feeling refreshed, X walked back to his quarters in silence. Miles followed him over to his closet, where X pulled out his best shorts and slipped into his worn leather sandals. The two white shirts hanging on hooks were wrinkled, but the one thing in his small closet wasn’t.

“What do you think, boy?” X asked Miles.

The dog moved into the closet and sniffed the bottom of the leather outfit that Imulah had given X during the first days of his reign.

To be king, you must dress like one, he had said.

“Fuck that,” X mumbled.

It was the same reply he had given back then.

He left the closet and went over to the trunk at the foot of the bed. Miles sniffed the box eagerly, expecting a treat.

X opened the lid to reveal the only possession that had survived all his journeys. While he had lost most of his original Hell Diver armor during his trek through the wastes and his imprisonment by the Cazadores, he still had the main plate of his chest armor.

He placed it on the bed. After putting on a white button-down shirt, he added the chest plate. Turning, he checked himself in the cracked mirror on the wall.

“I look good?” he said, glancing down.

Miles’s tail thumped, and X laughed.

He went to his small desk, where he had placed Imulah’s book on the Outrider colony, but it was the second book from Imulah that he was interested in tonight. A faded gold cross marked the cover.

It was as old as X felt, with pages as creased and weathered as his scarred flesh. He had never felt much in common with religions, but tonight, he was going to use a line from this ancient book for the old-world ceremony that would unite Michael and Layla.

X buckled his captain’s sword to the duty belt at his waist. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he stopped in front of the mirror and made sure he didn’t have anything in his teeth. He even ran his fingernails through the thicket of eyebrow, then used scissors to cut any errant bristles. Satisfied, he went to work trimming his beard into shape.

At last, he wiped the mirror off and stared at his reflection.

He hardly recognized the man looking back at him. A new wrinkle had formed on his forehead, and his nose looked more crooked than before. And his short hair and beard now had more salt than pepper.

“You shouldn’t even be alive,” he said.

He and Miles left the room and walked with Ton and Victor to the sun deck where el Pulpo’s wives had once lounged in the sun while servants fed them grapes.

The servants were gone, as were the cages that once held Rodger and Miles captive. The rest had been transformed into a beautiful oasis.

Electric lights hung from the branches of trees. Four tables, each covered with a white cloth and set with dishes of fruit and vegetables, had been set up along the deck.

Voices came from the other side of the garden. X walked toward them, halting behind a tree when he saw Michael and Layla holding hands under a bower strung with lights. Several people waited in the shadows.

Layla looked beautiful in a white dress with flowers and a lace V-neck. Michael wore a black Hell Diver jumpsuit with the Raptor logo on the sleeves. Armor covered his chest. The ponytail was gone, shorn down to a crew cut. He had also shaved his baby face. Both were too busy talking with Imulah to even see X.

He stood there a moment, admiring the two kids. Even in their midtwenties, that was how he saw them. And they were about to start their own family now.

X drew in a breath, suddenly feeling more nervous than he did before a dive. A memory surfaced of his ninety-sixth jump, the day Michael’s father died with the rest of Team Raptor.

More memories flooded his mind: bringing Tin orange noodles while he put together a vacuum cleaner bot in their small quarters; finding the boy in the medical ward with his shiny foil hat after a storm.

He recalled the fortune cookie quote Tin had given him before the dive that left X stranded on the surface. They hadn’t seen each other for almost a decade until their reunion in Florida, when X was a half-crazed shell of his former self. Since then, they had made up for lost time, but that time was fraught with harsh reality.

Devastating dives.

The battle for the islands.

Death and suffering.

His drinking again.

All those moments had led X to tonight—to this very spot, where he was lucky enough to see Michael and Layla joined together in the sacred tradition of marriage.

Rodger and Magnolia waited hand in hand. She had buzzed her head and wore a bandage over the burn wounds on the right side of her forehead.

Rodger pushed his glasses up and smiled as X walked over.

Les stood with his wife and daughter, holding their hands. Eevi and Samson had also come. And there were the ever-present Victor and Ton, keeping to the shadows to watch for threats.

But so many were not here tonight—people they had lost who would have loved to see this union.

X led Miles over to the gathering.

“Welcome, King Xavier,” Imulah said.

X almost choked up as Michael and Layla turned to face him.

They both smiled, but there was still tension in their faces—concern over what came after their ceremony. X vowed to live in the moment and leave the worries for tomorrow.

“We are here to celebrate the union of two beautiful people tonight,” X said. “Two people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing since they were children.”

He stepped up in front of the altar, under the fronds of a palm tree.

“Layla Brower and Michael Everhart, it is my honor to oversee this ceremony. You are beautiful inside and out and have always put others before yourselves with your kind and selfless hearts.”

He let that sink in.

“Tonight is about you, and I hope you can put aside all other thoughts and focus on each other right now. For this is a night that you will never forget.”

Michael looked at Layla and smiled. Her dimpled grin widened.

“Gather around,” X said.

Everyone moved closer, and he thought back to his own wedding. He wasn’t even sure how long ago it was—probably thirty years by now. A distant memory, but one that still lived in his mind.

His wife had looked so beautiful that day, and they were so in love. Long before the diving turned him into a drunk and, at times, an asshole.

Accept your past without regrets, he reminded himself.

X opened the book. Clearing his throat, he read the passage about love.

“Love is kind. It does not envy…”

He handed the book to Imulah and moved to a tradition his people had come up with over the years.

“Layla, Michael,” X said, “tonight your hearts become one. Wherever one of you goes, the other follows, even if not in physical form.”

They placed their hands over each other’s heart.

“Repeat after me,” X said. He waited a moment. “I, Michael Everhart, promise always to put you first and take care of you as long as we live in the sky…”

Several chuckles sounded.

“Sorry,” X said. “I guess we’ll need to change some words.”

Michael and Layla both smiled even wider.

“As long as we live,” X corrected.

Michael repeated the words, and Layla did the same.

“I want to make another promise tonight in front of you all,” Michael said. He looked to X for permission.

“Go ahead,” X said.

“Layla,” Michael said, meeting her gaze once again, “I promise the mission to Africa will be my last as a Hell Diver.”

A tear rolled down her cheek. She nodded once, then twice.

“Put your hand on top of each other’s,” X said. They did, and X put his left hand on top of theirs.

“Let us all pray for their love and safety,” he said.

The small crowd bowed their heads.

X waited another beat and took his hand away.

“And with that, I present you all with Michael and Layla Everhart,” he said.

Clapping rang out, and several cheers.

Miles wagged his tail and barked.

Michael looked to X and mouthed, Thank you.

“Don’t look at me, kid—er, man,” X said, correcting himself again. “Kiss your bride!”

Michael leaned in, kissing her gently on the lips.

To no one’s surprise, Rodger did the same thing to Magnolia, and to everyone’s surprise, she didn’t slap him.

Samson walked over to the table, grumbling about being hungry, while the lovebirds embraced. X smiled and cried at the same time as he sat with the others for their banquet, just as they did before a dive.

Only tonight X wasn’t going to get plastered and make bad decisions. Tonight, he was going to be the king that his people needed before the most important missions of their lives—and perhaps the most important mission since the end of the world.

TWENTY-SIX

The rain sounded like hundreds of fingernails tapping on the glass. The noise stirred Ada awake. The first thing she saw was two large, gleaming black eyes staring back at her.

Startled, she let out a cry that prompted a shrill yelp in reply.

She had slept so hard that at first, she didn’t remember where she was, but the sight of the baby monkey brought everything crashing down. The creature she had rescued from the island hopped off the bunk and onto the deck of the rocking boat.

“It’s okay, Jo-Jo,” Ada muttered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She sat up and checked her wrist monitor, shocked to see she had slept for several hours. It was no wonder, really. She had expended much energy launching the boat after first killing a pack of Sirens.

The launch had gone better than expected, but she had worked for hours to rig the other sails, and one still needed patching.

She was lucky to be on the water. Lucky to be alive and off that nightmare island. Lucky to be going home.

Now she needed to figure out where home was in this vast sea. And for that, she needed the boat’s GPS.

The monkey grunted and then whimpered. Ada reached out with a gloved hand.

Jo-Jo reared back, baring a slight underbite. The creature’s hair was bristly, almost like spikes. She had yet to touch it with her bare hands, fearing that it would transmit some disease.

A long groan sounded across the vessel’s twin hulls. The monkey looked left, then right, and climbed Ada’s leg to perch on her lap.

The creature let out a purring sound as her gloved hand stroked its back.

“You don’t like boats, huh?” Ada said. “That makes two of us.”

The monkey just whimpered.

She had no idea what Jo-Jo wanted, so she dug through the supplies she had stowed in front of the control panel.

Digging into a pack, she started with food. The little creature didn’t seem to want any more fish jerky. She tried water next, mindful of what little she had left. But it wasn’t that, either.

“You must just be scared, then, huh?” Ada said.

Lightning forked outside, followed by a loud thunderclap. The monkey didn’t seem to care about the noise, but every time a wave jostled the boat, it cried out.

Ada picked up the animal again and sat down on one of the chairs in front of the control panel. The screen was cracked, and the controls to the sail wouldn’t work without power.

The monkey went limp in her arms, and she didn’t dare move. She held it for a few minutes until the bristly back moved rhythmically up and down.

Ada gently set the baby monkey down on the pad and covered it with the blanket she had salvaged from her boat. With the creature asleep, she changed into her suit. She had managed to sail out of the obstacle course that was the harbor, but if they were going to find their way home, she must get the battery online.

After putting on her taped-up helmet, she returned to the back hatch, stopping first to check on the monkey, who was snoring peacefully.

Ada slung her backpack and opened the hatch. Wind and rain blasted her, and she quickly closed it behind her.

A torrent of electricity flashed through the clouds. The strikes lit up more than just the boat; they showed her a storm front that appeared as a wall of clouds rolling over the water. Cloud towers that looked almost like scrapers rose out of the mass, moving as if they were a floating city. From what she could tell, the boat was heading right for it, or rather, the mass was heading right for the boat.

Grabbing her backpack, she crouched near a hatch. Rain pummeled her as she twisted the screwdriver. Another wave crashed into the hull, splashing her with water. Thunder boomed, rattling the twin hulls.

With the hatch open, she shined her flashlight into the battery compartment. A thick, powdery rime of corrosion blossomed up from both the battery’s poles. Her heart sank. This could be a lost cause.

Still, she had to try.

In the pause between thunderclaps, in the whistling wind she heard a familiar crying sound, followed by pounding on metal. Jo-Jo was awake again, alone, and probably scared to death.

Ada worked faster, scrabbling in the tool kit for the wrench to fit the battery clamps. The battery was old, and while some of them had a theoretically infinite life span, its connections hadn’t been cleaned in a century or more.

Her gut told her the sky people needed her.

She wasn’t sure why she felt so strong about this. It felt almost like a sixth sense. It was no mistake that she found the note from X when she did. Her heart told her the king needed someone like her, who could make tough choices to save their people.

Holding two screwdrivers by their insulated grips, she placed the tip of each on a battery pole and bumped the shafts together. She was rewarded with a pop and a spark.

Her spirits lifted instantly. The old storage cell still had some juice. If she could clean the poles and cable clamps, she just might be able to get some of that juice to the GPS monitor. What she needed now was something alkaline to clean them with.

When she returned to the cabin, the baby monkey jumped onto her, latching around her waist. It held on as she moved over to the little refrigerator. Praying that it had what she needed, she opened the door and groaned. The shelves inside were bare.

As she swung the door shut, something caught her eye. Opening the door again, she reached to the back of the bottom shelf and pulled out a small yellowish cardboard box.

Yes! She had heard about this old-world trick of keeping an open box of baking soda in the fridge.

Putting a few ounces of water in a pan, she dumped half the box in and stirred it with a wooden spoon. Then, grabbing a dishrag from the counter, she calmed Jo-Jo and went outside again. She must get this done before the storm arrived.

Soon, she had loosened the nut on each battery clamp and got the cables free. Then she wet the dishrag with the baking soda–water slurry in the pan and rubbed both clamps and both poles of the battery. They fizzed and foamed, and when she wiped them off, they were gleaming and free of corrosion. She reconnected the cables and tightened down the clamps, then closed the battery compartment and went back inside.

With bated breath, she flipped the toggle switch powering the GPS monitor .  .  .

Ada let out a whoop so loud, Jo-Jo started whimpering again. There on the monitor was a map of the Caribbean.

After soothing the nervous monkey, she brought up her current location. They were way off course, sailing south when they should be going east. Then she typed in the direction she wanted to go, and the destination—what had been the British Virgin Islands.

The monitor on the control panel brought up a map that showed a line through the water. Not a line—a road to the Vanguard Islands. Again, she thanked all the gods that the machines hadn’t been able to shoot down the solar-powered positioning satellites, without which she would be forever lost on a dark ocean.

Ada held both fists in the air and gave a slightly more subdued whoop this time. The monkey just looked up at her.

“We’re headed home, Jo-Jo!” she said. “And I think you’re going to love it there.”

* * * * *

Magnolia had revenge on her mind, and a light hangover from last night’s celebration of Michael and Layla. The wine had helped numb the pain of her burns but combining it with the medicine was a bad idea.

At least she could hear better. The nanotech gel was a miracle drug, even if it made her sick after a few carafes of wine. The burns were already healing nicely.

She forced herself out of bed and into the kitchen, where she brewed a cup of Cazador coffee. A gust of cool air blew through the window as she pushed the shutters open.

The warmth of the sun on her face helped her feel a little better.

That was good. Today was not a good day to be in pain. She had a hundred things to do before they departed on their mission to find and destroy the skinwalkers and the machines.

She sipped a steaming mug of coffee at the open window as the sun rose. The shimmering orange ball continued to amaze her every time she woke to watch it rise. It was hard to imagine that the entire world had once witnessed this magic every day. Somehow, she was one of the very few privileged to see it now.

And that was why she couldn’t stop fighting.

“Mags,” Rodger mumbled.

He sat up in her bed, a hand to his head.

“I can’t find my glasses,” he said. “Do you know where…”

He stood and staggered.

“Gah… I don’t feel so good.”

“You drank too much,” she said. “We both did.”

“And I ate too much.” His hand went to his belly. Then he looked at her, squinting without his glasses. Realization crossed his face, and his eyes went wide.

“Did we…” He looked down at the crinkled sheets.

Magnolia just smiled.

“Oh, my, my,” he mumbled to himself. His eyes flitted back to hers. “We finally…”

She burst out laughing.

Rodger stared for a moment, then felt about in the sheets until he found his glasses. He put them on and straightened his back, looking like a schoolchild with an important question.

“Was it…”

“It was great, Rodgeman,” she said. “You’re more agile than you look, that’s for sure.”

A grin broke across his face.

“I… I remember… most of it,” he said.

She let his imagination run, but she wasn’t about to give him a round two. They had much to do today.

“Here,” she said, handing him the cup. “Drink up and get your clothes on. We need to get to the marina.”

As he dressed, the solemn look returned. Their lovemaking hadn’t helped his aching heart, but she had at least gotten him to smile and forget about revenge for a while.

Twenty minutes later Magnolia tossed Rodger an apple, and they took the elevator cage down to the already bustling docks. Cazadores and sky people worked together loading boats that ferried supplies to Renegade and Shadow, anchored in the distance.

She still hadn’t talked to X about where she and Rodger were going, but she had a feeling the king would want her in the air. As much as she wanted to finish off Carmela Moreto, she would do what was for the greater good.

They would find out soon.

X stood at the end of the pier with Ton and Victor. Miles crouched at his side, barking at the water. The dog turned when Magnolia and Rodger approached.

“Hey, boy!” she called out.

Miles trotted over, tail wagging.

“Nice of you two to show up,” X said, wiping sweat from his brow.

“Sorry, we…” Magnolia said.

X had already turned to other things. Normally, she would have expected him to be hungover, but he hadn’t drunk a single drop last night and even looked well rested.

“I need to talk to you both,” he said. “A lot has happened since last night.”

He motioned for them to follow him over to the marina, where the Hell Divers were loading the last of the supplies to take to Discovery.

X kept walking until he got to the moored Sea Wolf. A humming sound came from inside the vessel. He hopped over the railing and into the cabin.

Magnolia and Rodger followed, passing the kitchen where she had cooked shark, and the bedroom where she had spent many restless nights. The hatch closed behind them, and X locked it from the inside.

In the control room, she was surprised to find Michael welding on a robot, so early the morning after he just celebrated his marriage. But she was even more surprised to see Layla helping.

But what shocked Magnolia was what they both were working on.

Michael stood and pushed the goggles up over his fresh crew cut. He wasn’t working on just any robot. Cricket lay on the deck, cords connecting its “torso” to the Sea Wolf ’s display panel.

“Whoa! When did the bot get back?” Rodger asked.

“An hour ago,” Michael said. “Returned on its own, and I’m trying to figure out why. I didn’t even know it was coming back until I woke up.”

“Four thirteen this morning, to be exact,” Layla said with a roll of her eyes.

“Sorry,” Michael said. “I should have checked the signal before we went to bed.”

“If it’s here, then we have no idea if the skinwalkers are still at their outpost,” Magnolia said.

“That’s true,” X said, “but we should have a ton of intel on the Outrider, including where the skinwalkers likely are, and their numbers.”

“Horn and Moreto are there for sure?” Rodger asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Michael said. “The data from Cricket’s mainframe is just now being uploaded to the Sea Wolf ’s computer system.”

“How much longer?” Rodger asked.

“I’m not sure,” Layla said. “We had a problem getting things connected, but we’re good to go now.”

“That’s her job,” Michael said. “I’m trying to fix the outside of our little friend.”

Two of the drone’s four limbs were broken, and the exterior charred and dented. Magnolia was amazed it had even made it back.

“Well, hell, that makes sense!” Layla suddenly said.

“What?” Michael leaned over to look at the monitor on the display panel.

“I figured out why it came back,” she said. “The battery unit was almost dead.”

Michael moved over to the monitor. He shook his head and frowned. “I feel pretty stupid, but now we know why the data hasn’t been uploading quickly—it’s probably on power-saving mode.”

Layla checked a few things on the monitor and nodded. “Yup, that’s exactly why.”

“Can you charge it here?” Magnolia asked.

“Yeah, it just takes longer than it would on Discovery,” Michael said while changing out wires.

“Should we tell General Forge?” Magnolia asked X.

“Not yet.”

They watched Michael and Layla work in silence. Rodger paced impatiently. He stopped as a low wail rose in the distance.

X went rigid, narrowing his brows.

“Is that the emergency siren?” Layla asked, looking up.

“Sure as hell sounds like it,” X growled. He stopped. “Michael, is it also possible Cricket returned because the skinwalkers left the Outrider?”

“Yes, but we won’t know until I get this data downloaded,” Michael said.

“fuck!” X shouted. “Michael, you and Layla get that data downloaded. Rodge and Mags, with me.”

They rushed off the ship and back to where the Hell Divers were getting out their weapons. Ted tightened a bandanna over his silver hair, and Lena loaded a rifle.

“What’s going on?” Arlo shouted.

“Trouble!” X yelled back.

Magnolia ran after X and the others, out into the sunshine. The emergency siren blasted so loud, it hurt her injured eardrum.

Two militia soldiers came running. One held a handset.

“Something set off one of our sensors on the border, King Xavier,” he said.

“Give me the radio,” X said.

The soldier handed it over, and X took off toward the end of a pier, where the armored war boat was waiting. Mac and Felipe were in the bow, feeding belts of ammunition through a hatch in the deck. Both men looked up from their work, covered in grease.

Magnolia and Rodger hopped into the speedboat with X.

“We got a major problem, Colonel,” X said to Mac. “You got those machine guns ready?”

“Almost,” Mac said.

“I need them ready in five minutes,” X said. He went to the controls and fired up the engine.

Mac and Felipe went back to work while Magnolia and Rodger helped unmoor the boat. She untied one of the ropes and tossed it to the dockhand as several militia boats full of soldiers cruised away from the piers.

She untied the last rope and threw it overboard.

“Ready!” Magnolia shouted.

X pushed down on the throttle. Miles barked as they took off, and X yelled over his shoulder for him to stay. Then he turned to Mags and Rodger.

“Get ready,” he said.

Rodger crouched and pulled his small revolver from the holster around his ankle. Magnolia had her sheathed blades and her blaster, but those weren’t going to do much good if the skinwalkers had returned.

She searched for a weapon, but all she saw were the swords and spears Mac and Felipe had placed on the deck.

“I need a…” Magnolia began. Her eyes lit on the .50-caliber machine gun installed in the bow, with a seat and lever that rotated the weapon.

She moved to the bow, past X at the controls, stopping behind Mac and Felipe, who were still feeding ammunition into an open hatch.

X held up a headset to his ear. Then he yelled, “Whatever set off those sensors hasn’t surfaced yet! My guess is subs!”

Magnolia had figured this much already, but hearing it sent a chill down her spine. She climbed into the seat and grabbed the machine gun.

“Almost ready!” Mac called out.

An explosion of water in the distance confirmed their suspicions.

The militia and Cazador vessels that had joined the hunt spread out in various directions, forming a surface net to surround the sub.

“I’ve got you now, you son of a bitch,” she muttered. Closing an eye, she focused the iron sights where she had seen the geyser of ocean water.

“Ready!” Mac said, patting her on the shoulder. He and Felipe both got off the deck and moved behind her with Rodger.

X yelled into his radio, but she couldn’t hear much over the ringing in her ears.

Another blast of water exploded into the air, rising above the militia boats, which had slowed. X also eased off on the throttle but continued straight for the target.

She moved her finger to the trigger.

One of the fishing boats suddenly rose into the air, slammed from the starboard side. The impact rolled the boat, sending Cazadores flying into the sea.

She lined up the iron sights, ready to fire on the submarine that had rammed the vessel. A wall of water rose along the narrow sub, now on a crash course with their war boat.

She pulled the trigger, sending rounds lancing into the water.

But instead of hitting metal, they found flesh. Small geysers of blood spurted above the water. Magnolia squinted, not at a submarine, but at a whale the size of one.

Memories of the beasts that had sunk Star Grazer surfaced in her mind as she pulled the trigger, firing a burst at the monstrous beast.

X turned the boat, and she worked the chair lever to track the creature.

Casings pinged off the deck as she fired again.

It suddenly vanished under the water. But the trajectory was clear as the sky to Magnolia—the beast was making a run for the capitol tower.

Clicking noises commanded her attention, and she looked right, at a pod of spinner dolphins that had emerged. They must have realized it a moment later, because they all went under and retreated in the opposite direction.

A burst of water shot into the sky a few minutes later, and X gunned the war boat toward the surfaced whale. Lumpy, pink flesh broke the surface as it took in a breath. It was already halfway to the pier outside the capitol tower, where dozens of people were working.

She sighted in again and prepared to pull the trigger, when multiple snakelike limbs writhed out of the water and slapped the mutant leviathan’s warty back.

A high-pitched roaring sounded above the rumbling engines as the giant octopus wrapped its tentacular arms around the whale.

It rolled, throwing up a wall of water and bringing the body of the gargantuan purple octopus above water for a split second.

X laid off the throttle, and the boat coasted.

Mac and Felipe moved up next to Magnolia, both of them throwing their hands in the air and cheering on the octopus they worshipped.

She had seen one before, but this was a sight for the ages.

The beasts fought for minutes, creating a growing red tinge in the water.

Dozens of boats surrounded the battle, and on every deck, sailors and soldiers watched in awe. Many of the Cazadores held their spears and swords in the air, chanting for the octopus.

In a final effort to shake its attacker, the whale rolled again, revealing bloody wounds across its back and belly.

Waves rolled outward, and red bubbles formed as the monsters returned to the depths.

The onlookers fell into silent anticipation, waiting for the whale to reemerge. But the only thing that surfaced was more blood.

After a few moments, Mac raised his cutlass in the air.

“Sharpen your spears, brothers and sisters!” he yelled. “The Octopus Lords are with us!”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Late in the morning before he was to leave for Africa, Les had taken his wife and daughter to an open balcony on the back side of the capitol tower. The long platform stretching over the ocean was usually packed with people fishing, but not today. Everyone on the rigs was preparing for war.

“Do you think I might catch one of those huge whales?” Phyl asked.

Les laughed. “Let’s hope not, sweetie—then we’d have to clean it!”

He had been working on Discovery on the rooftop of the Shark’s Cage, overseeing the final repairs, when the whale attacked. They were ahead of schedule on the airship, and he had decided to take the rest of the morning off and surprise Phyl by taking her here to fish.

Katherine sat on a bench behind them, out of the sun, knitting a new pair of socks for Phyl. She had seemed surprised when he showed up at midmorning.

Every few minutes, she looked up from her work, smiling. But there was a sadness in her gaze.

Les could feel it, too. He was happy to be here with his family, yet his mind was a mess with worry, and he was having a hard time concentrating.

Deep down, he felt as if this could be one of the last moments he would ever share with them.

Make the best of it, then.

He helped Phyl bait her hook with a shrimp and cast the line out into the water with the big fishing rod.

“Keep letting out the line,” Les said. “We have to go pretty deep to catch a fish here, I think.”

Phyl hung her tongue out the side of her mouth as she let the line out. Every few seconds, she looked for his approval.

“Keep going, sweetheart,” Les said. He wanted her to do it on her own, but the Cazador rods were long for a child, and the reels tricky to operate.

Once the baited hook was deep enough, he helped her fit the pole into a holder on the railing.

“Now what?” she asked.

“We wait.”

They stared down at the clear water. Several boats cruised away from the capitol tower.

Les glanced subtly at his wrist computer. He couldn’t stay much longer, and he really wanted to help her catch a fish before he had to return to Discovery.

And he still hadn’t told her he was going to Africa.

For the next few minutes, he willed his brain and his heart to be in the moment and enjoy just being a father and husband. Fishing in the sunshine was something he had never in his wildest dreams imagined doing with his family.

“Captain,” said a voice.

Layla stepped out onto the balcony with Eevi, who wore her white officer’s uniform with a new lieutenant insignia pinned to the collar. Bags hung under her eyes, and Les realized she had worked through the night.

“Hey!” Phyl said. “Look! We’re fishing!”

“That looks fun,” Layla said.

“Did you catch anything?” Eevi asked.

“Not yet,” Phyl said. “But I’m going for a whale, so probably going to take some time.”

“What’s going on?” Katherine asked. She had gotten to her feet and set her knitting down.

“We need to speak to Captain Mitchells,” Layla said.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Eevi said.

Les looked to his wife. She nodded and went over to the pole with Phyl while Les went to the other side of the balcony with the officers.

“Sir, we’ve got Cricket’s data all downloaded,” Layla said. “We’re still going through it, but we’ve got quite a bit of intel already.”

“And?” Les asked.

“We have identified the outpost and their vessels, including two subs and Raven’s Claw.” Layla raised a brow. “Assuming it hasn’t left.”

“What about the machines?”

She shook her head. “None that we saw. Cricket didn’t detect any exhaust plumes, either.”

“So either Horn is lying, or they’re hunkered down.”

“Precisely.”

Katherine and Phyl chuckled as Phyl pointed at something in the water.

“Sir, there’s something else,” Eevi said.

Les brought his attention back to his lieutenant.

“Since the repairs are ahead of schedule, King Xavier has moved up the launch of Discovery. I just came from the airship, and the bridge is almost operational, thanks to Timothy.”

“The airship and the warships are all slated to leave tonight,” Layla said.

Les felt deflated. He no longer had a day with his family; he had just hours.

“I want you to know I’ll look after Phyl and Katherine while you’re gone,” Layla said.

“I know, and I appreciate that very much.”

“I wish I could come with…”

“New life is priceless, and it must be protected.”

“It’s been an honor serving with you, Captain.”

Les smiled. In some ways, she had been like a daughter to him. He hated not having her on the most important mission of their lives.

Layla reached out and embraced him.

“Please be careful, and bring back my husband,” she said. “I know you will, Captain.”

“Giraffe, please,” he said, grinning. “I’m sick of being called ‘Captain.’ I just want to be a civilian again.”

“Soon,” she said. “When you return.”

Her voice seemed to catch, but before he could respond, Phyl crowed, “Dad, Daddy! I got a fish!”

The pole arched, bending down. He hurried over and grabbed it, pulling it from the holder, and spun the reel several times to make sure the hook was set.

The fish fought back, pulling hard enough that Les almost lost the rod.

“Here, help me reel it in,” he said. He moved back from the rail and bent down to let Phyl grab the reel handle.

“Twist it,” he said.

Phyl turned the handle, intent on the prize.

“It’s a big one, Papa!” she said.

Les couldn’t see the fish, but whatever it was, it was big.

He held the rod as she turned the reel.

The three women stepped up to watch.

“Don’t let it get away,” said his wife.

“Phyl’s got this,” Les said.

He spotted a long, narrow shadow swimming below the surface. It darted away, then back again. He raised the rod, pulling the fish toward the surface.

“Faster!” he said.

Phyl let out a grunt.

The silvery fish broke through the surface but then went back under, darting away again.

“Holy wastes,” Les said. Did they have a big tuna on the line? It was so damn fast and powerful.

Pulling up on the rod, he got the fish closer to the surface again while Phyl spun the reel.

When it was just below the waves, Les yanked on the rod, and the fish burst out of the water, somersaulting in the air. He reeled it the rest of the way up until he could grab the line in one hand.

“Take the rod,” Les said to Katherine.

She grabbed it, squealing as Les pulled the fish over the railing. He grabbed the back with his other hand and brought it to the deck, where he put a knee on the slender body.

The fish had to be two feet long, with needle teeth that were snapping at his hand.

He glanced up at Phyl. “You did it, sweetie,” he said. “You caught a big fish!”

Phyl walked over timidly, staring with wide eyes.

“What is that thing?” Katherine asked.

“I’m not sure,” Les said.

Layla bent down. “Looks a lot like the crest that Rhino wore, and the ones that Mac and Felipe have on their armor,” she said. “I think it might be a barracuda.”

“Wow, a barracoooda, Papa,” Phyl said.

Les carefully removed the hook from the mouth and then held the fish up in both hands.

“Want to touch it before I throw it back in?” he asked.

Phyl moved over, cautiously. Then she brought up a finger and ran it along the body. The barracuda squirmed, forcing her back into Katherine’s arms.

“Okay, I better get it back home,” Les said. “Say goodbye.”

“Bye, Barracooooda,” Phyl said.

Les gently tossed the fish over the rail. It landed with a splash and swam slowly in a circle, stunned.

“I want to see,” Phyl said.

He picked her up for a better view just as the silver body vanished into the depths.

“That was so cool,” Phyl said.

“Great work, kiddo. You can now tell the other kids you caught a barracuda, one of the fiercest fish in the ocean.”

She smiled wider and looked up at him.

“I figured out what I want to be when I get older,” she said.

“A fisherwoman?” Katherine said.

Phyl shook her head. “Nope.”

“What, then?” Les asked.

“I want to be a barracuda warrior that fights the monsters.”

Les and Katherine exchanged a worried glance.

“I better get going,” Layla said. She held up a high five to Phyl before parting. “Good job, little lady.”

“Thanks,” Phyl said, slapping her hand.

Eevi smiled at Phyl and left with Layla.

“See you in a bit,” Les said.

Phyl’s smiled disappeared as Les put her back on the deck. The time had come to tell her the truth about his mission.

“I wish Trey were here to see me catch that fish,” she said. “Maybe he’s watching from above.”

“Oh, he is, sweetie,” Katherine said.

Les bent down so he could meet his daughter’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Phyl said. She looked to her mom and said, “Something’s wrong, isn’t it, Mama?”

Katherine looked at Les.

“I’m going away for a while again,” he said.

“To fight the monsters?”

“Yes. But this time, it’s different,” he said. “I’m going to make sure they never come back again and that you can fish whenever you want and grow up and be whatever you want to be.”

“When will you be back?” Phyl asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Hopefully, I won’t be gone too long.”

Phyl looked at the sky. “I want to come this time,” she said. “I caught a barracuda; I’m strong enough. I promise.”

“Not this trip,” he said, “but maybe someday.”

“But…”

“Barracuda warriors don’t pout,” he said. “Barracuda warriors are like Hell Divers. They don’t cry. They just do what they have to do so humanity can keep carrying on.”

Phyl thought on it, then nodded firmly, her pigtails bobbing. “Okay, but promise me you’re going to be back soon so we can go fishing again.”

“I promise,” Les said, trying not to choke up. “Just remember, no matter where I am, I’m always here.”

He tapped Phyl over her heart and kissed her forehead.

* * * * *

Storm clouds rolled in with the darkness over the Vanguard islands. X watched the footage Cricket had captured of Raven’s Claw.

On his tablet, the recorded video feed was grainy, but there was no mistaking the massive Cazador warship that the bastard son of el Pulpo had stolen and sailed to the Outrider.

Soldiers patrolled on the deck, wearing human skin over their armor. X zoomed in on the one wearing a horn on his helmet.

“I’m coming for you, hijoeputa,” X said.

He set the tablet aside and went back to writing letters. When he finished the last one, he sealed the envelope with a hot wax stamp of the Hell Diver Raptor symbol. Writing with his left hand had taken him longer than he expected, and now he was running late for the launches.

You’d be late to your own funeral, Sloan had told him.

I’ve never met a warrior who can’t tell time, Rhino once said.

X put the letters in his backpack and gestured for Miles to follow him out of his quarters. He blew out the candle and shut the door.

They took the stairs down to the docks. Dozens of soldiers waited in the moonlight, their armored silhouettes turning in his direction. There would be no ceremony for the departing warriors tonight, no boats with thousands of Cazadores holding torches and candles to wish them success on their missions. No flower petals being cast before them to show love for the men and women defending this audacious miracle in the middle of the ocean.

Tonight, they were leaving in silence, as discreetly as possible.

Layla waited on the docks with Phyl and Katherine, all of them wearing robes against the unusually cold wind. Michael stood with them, arms around his wife and unborn son.

Several other people were outside, having said goodbye to their loved ones, while many more were on their balconies, gazing out at the warships.

“King Xavier,” Michael said.

“You ready?” X asked.

Michael and Layla ended their long embrace, and he hefted his pack and gear.

“Look after Les for us,” Katherine said to Michael.

“I will.”

X fished in his bag and handed a note to Layla. “Read this after we leave,” he said.

She took it gingerly, then tightened her grip as the wind gusted.

“This isn’t goodbye,” X said.

He hugged Layla, then Katherine and Phyl, and walked away at a brisk pace with Miles by his side. Michael ran to catch up.

At the end of the pier, Ton and Victor stood, still as statues, on a boat with a militia soldier behind the wheel. X helped Miles aboard, and off they went. Their destination, Renegade. The warship was fueled and waiting with Shadow in the distance.

The dark bulk of Elysium came into view in the moonlight. The massive training vessel and flagship of the Cazador Navy carried over a hundred Cazador and militia soldiers manning its cannons and machine guns, ready to defend the islands.

The ferry bore right, and a rig blocked the view of the flagship. X took a moment to look up at the airship he had called home for nearly all his life.

Scaffolding surrounded the sections of the Hive damaged by the skinwalkers’ attack. Sparks showered down from welders patching up the hull. The teams had worked tirelessly to repair the exterior and engineers were already fixing life-support systems inside the ship.

X wanted it ready to fly.

On the balconies, civilians and militia soldiers patrolled, some armed with nothing but crossbows. Everyone had pitched in to fix the Hive and to ensure it was defended from another attack at all costs.

“It’s our turn now, buddy,” X said, reaching down to pet Miles.

“X,” Michael said.

“Yeah?”

Michael unslung his backpack. “After the Sky Arena training the other day, I made something for you that I think will help you defeat Horn.”

He pulled out a contraption with leather straps and buckles.

“It’s not a robotic defector limb, but it should help you handle the spear better,” Michael said. “Half of it, anyway.”

He handed the prosthetic arm to X.

“Go ahead and try it on.”

X put the contraption around his stump, and Michael cinched the leather straps tight.

“What the hell am I going to do with this?” X asked.

Michael picked up Rhino’s spear from the deck and clicked the middle, pulling the shafts apart. Then he inserted one into a metal slot in the prosthesis and twisted until it clicked.

“Go ahead, try it,” Michael said.

X stood, the spear shaft and blade pointing down. For a moment, he just stared.

“Swing it already,” he said.

The shaft and blade whooshed through the air.

Michael smiled.

The half shaft wasn’t heavy and felt natural. After a few swings, jabs, and uppercuts, X smiled, too.

“Pretty smooth, right?” Michael said. “I borrowed the spear when you were in the library. Had to make a few mods, but it should work.”

X went to the back of the boat, where he could swing without taking anyone’s head off. For the first time in weeks, he felt as if he could fight again.

Once again, Michael had helped fill him with confidence. Just as when he gave X the fortune cookie quote on the dive that had separated them for a decade.

X raised the blade again.

The militia soldier steered the ferry around the decommissioned airship. X spotted motion on the decks of Shadow and Renegade. Even this far away, he could hear the voices of the crew, sailors, and Hell Divers.

X thought of the last decision he must make, one that had burdened him for days now.

Miles nudged up against his leg, and again X bent down to stroke the husky, trying to remain calm even though he felt as if he might puke.

He had to face what seemed an impossible task, rallying an army to fight battles he wasn’t sure they could win.

Miles’s touch and the renewed confidence bestowed by Michael’s gift did help with the anxiety, though.

“I really appreciate this,” he said to Michael. “I wish there were something I could give you to help you take out the machines.”

Before Michael could reply, the boat slowed, and Victor climbed onto the bow to fend off the hull of Renegade.

“King Xavier, you go first,” Victor said. His English was getting better by the day.

The refugee warrior grabbed a rope ladder hanging over the hull of the warship. X turned around and tucked Miles into his improvised canvas packsaddle. Then X hoisted him over his shoulders and started up the ladder.

Rodger and Magnolia were the first two people X saw when he got up to the deck. All the other divers stood around piles of gear bags they were taking to Discovery.

Surrounding the team was a group of Barracudas, including Mac and Felipe. They had selected twenty of the best warriors left in the Cazador army to fight the skinwalkers.

X looked them over. Many of them were bulky and muscular like Rhino, Whale, and Fuego. There were also lean women like Wendig, and one who reminded him of Sloan.

Trusting eyes locked on to X, reminding him of all the dead divers and soldiers who had trusted his leadership.

Brave warriors always rose when the brave fell. People like Colonel Mac and Felipe, and General Forge and several of his officers, fresh off Shadow for final orders. And Lieutenant Wynn and two of his soldiers recently promoted to sergeant, who would stay behind on Elysium.

X approached, wondering how many of them would perish.

“All right, gather around,” X said. “Imulah, up here with me.”

The Hell Divers formed the inner circle with General Forge and his men, while the Barracudas clustered behind them.

X dreaded talking tonight, but his words had never been more important.

Miles sat and looked up with his sapphire gaze. X smiled at the dog, then spoke.

“Tonight, we embark on two missions to save our home. Facing dual threats from the very machines that brought our species to the brink of extinction, and the evil men who worship those machines.”

He walked in a circle so he could see everyone while Imulah translated.

“If we defeat our enemies,” he pointed his prosthetic spear at the rigs around them, at the hundreds of torches burning on the decks where Cazadores and sky people had made their homes, “then we will have secured safety and peace for the next generation of humanity.” X looked to Michael. “Peace and safety for the children who will help us rebuild, repopulate, and thrive.”

X paused to look at Rodger and Magnolia. He had always believed that the only people who could save humanity were Hell Divers, which was why he couldn’t send them to Africa. The world needed them, and risking them all on one mission again could doom humanity. So he was sending them to Aruba. He couldn’t bear to lose Magnolia and Michael, although that could still happen if both missions failed.

If they did, there was still one final failsafe, noted in the letters in his bag.

“Some of you are wondering how we are going to win this fight,” X said. “Truth is, none of us know how much time we have, but I will gladly die to protect our home.”

His voice grew louder. “I will gladly die for the Hell Diver, militia soldier, or Cazador warrior beside me! We win this fight not just through skill and courage, but by relying on the men and women at our side!”

Michael clapped Rodger on the shoulder, and Arlo nudged Lena. All around, the group seemed to come closer together. Cazadores thumped their chest armor and clanked their spear shafts on the deck.

“Hell Divers never give up,” X yelled. “Even when the odds are stacked against us, we press on, we fight. We are the last guardians of humanity!” He raised his spear into the air. “We are the soldiers of the apocalypse, and we will fight so humanity survives!”

The Hell Divers and other warriors yelled in unison, raising weapons and fists. “Immortal!” shouted the Hell Divers and militia soldiers.

“¡Inmortal!” shouted the Cazadores.

X shook his head. He hated that name, just as he hated being called “king.” But the chant grew louder, and it only helped their cause. Sometimes, it was better to believe in a fantasy than in nothing at all.

A humming rose over their voices, and blue lights appeared on the horizon. The chant was drowned out by the whir of turbofans.

X lowered his spear and watched as Discovery flew toward their location.

“There she is!” Rodger yelled.

The Hell Divers said their final goodbyes, with Rodger and Magnolia hugging Sofia, Edgar, Arlo, Ted, Lena, and the others.

X hurried over to his pack and pulled out the letters. He handed the first one to Wynn. “If something goes wrong, these are your final orders, Lieutenant,” he said.

Wynn nodded. “Good luck, sir.”

“You too,” he said. “Defend this place at all costs.”

X handed two more sealed letters to Michael. “Give this to Captain Mitchells,” he said. “And this one is for you.”

Michael hugged X harder than ever before.

“This isn’t goodbye,” X said again. “It’s just good luck.”

The final weapons were distributed, with one laser rifle going to Magnolia, the other to Michael. Not nearly enough, but from what X knew about the top-secret plan Timothy and Les were working on, it would help buy them time to destroy the machines.

Discovery switched off several of the repaired turbofans as it hovered closer. The rotor wash whipped across the deck.

X glimpsed the bow as it approached. The portholes there had been replaced with an armored shell covering the bridge. Samson was up there, along with Les and Timothy.

The ship steered directly overhead, and the launch-bay doors opened. Alfred’s crew of technicians dropped ropes down to the divers. The eight brave men and women selected for the mission hooked in and waved goodbye.

Michael hesitated a moment as he clipped into a rope.

“Xavier,” he said, “on the boat you said you wished you could give me something to help me take out the machines, but you already gave me something more important than any weapon,” he said. “You gave me courage and taught me how to fight—taught us all to fight.”

Michael clipped into the rope and rose into the air. “We will win these two battles, and the war. Face your future without fear!”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Ada recited from the note that X had tucked inside the bottle.

“Handle your present with confidence,” she said aloud.

The whistling wind answered, followed by a crack of thunder. Rain smacked into her suit and helmet in the torrential downpour.

Holding the wheel of the sailboat in her gloved hands, she tried to see through the waterfall running down her taped-up visor. Swells slapped the twin hulls like the arms of some giant sea creature trying to break them apart.

“Face your future without fear,” she said.

The storm seemed to respond, slamming her with a gust that almost pushed her away from the wheel. Determined, she held on.

Her new companion, Jo-Jo, was belowdecks, hiding under the bunk. Trying not to think about the monkey, she brought up her wrist monitor to make sure she was going in the right direction.

The Vanguard Islands were another two days’ sail, maybe longer. She would be a lot closer had the storm not caught up with her.

She looked out over the luminous horizon. Lightning snaked out in all directions, as if she were in a blue bowl of electricity.

The storm was growing, and she feared for the mast. Even with the small sails designed for storms, it was being tested near its limit.

At least she could operate the mast and sails on her own, without a crew. The automated system was easy to operate with battery power.

Although having to steer out in the weather wasn’t ideal. She would have preferred to do it from the controls inside the cabin, but it was almost impossible to see anything through the clouded windows.

Another flurry of wind buffeted her. That didn’t bother her. It was the lightning and monster waves that had her on edge.

The risk of capsizing grew with every building swell.

Keeping the speed of the boat up allowed her to steer away from the bigger waves. The biggest threat was those tall breaking seas that had rolled her last boat.

But there were other things out here besides the waves and storm to worry about. Mutant sea creatures the size of her boat, or bigger, had evolved to live and hunt in the darkness.

She tried not to think about what lurked below, and focused on the water.

As the hours passed, her hands grew numb inside the soaked gloves. Her body began to tremble from the cold water that had crept beneath her suit. She shivered violently.

Wet, exhausted, and scared, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could stay out here. It was two in the morning, and she hadn’t checked on Jo-Jo since before midnight.

But even a short break could kill them. One rogue wave catching them broadside would roll them.

She remained at the wheel, changing her grip and blinking repeatedly to keep her eyes open. Moving around a bit helped get her blood flowing, but exhaustion had no cure besides sleep.

An hour later she felt as if she would soon pass out.

A wave bashed against the right hull, throwing the sailboat off course and snapping her alert. The skyline lit up with blue tendrils. Thunder like exploding artillery echoed through the early morning hours. She thought of the Vanguard Islands and again wondered whether she would be too late to help her people.

Every minute that passed, her gut told her something was happening back there that would change the future of humanity.

Another tall wave slammed the boat. The sail whipped behind her, the mast vibrating.

Thunder boomed so loud overhead, it rattled her teeth.

She steeled herself. She could do nothing about the lightning, but she just might be able to keep this boat right side up until the storm passed. A strike sizzled into the ocean somewhere in the distance.

Turning the wheel slightly, she kept the boat as perpendicular as she could to the prevailing waves. But it wasn’t enough, and a crossing wave caught them amidships, nearly knocking her off the boat.

Lightning split the sky to westward, where the storm seemed to be the worst. She guided the boat away from it, heading east.

An hour later she reached the edge of the storm, and calmer waters. Exhausted, Ada locked the wheel in place.

It was time to take a break and check on Jo-Jo. And she really had to pee. Dry clothes and a bite to eat also sounded heavenly.

She checked the sails. Both needed better patching, but that could wait. The mainsail was working fine for now.

She ducked into the cabin, where Jo-Jo waited. The monkey leaped on her, clinging to her leg.

“It’s okay,” Ada said. “I’m back, and we’re going to be okay.”

The animal whimpered, gripping her leg as she took off her helmet. Then her suit. Then she peed in the bucket, put on dry clothes, and got back into her suit.

After drinking some water and eating a stick of jerky and her last orange, she checked her wrist monitor. They were heading farther and farther off course. It would only add time to her journey, but that was okay with her as long as they survived.

She had plenty of food and water left. What she needed was rest. She went through her pack to find something for Jo-Jo to eat. The sniffling monkey seemed hungry.

A piece of fish jerky was the first thing she pulled out.

The monkey sniffed at the stick, then bit off a hunk.

Ada went to dump out the bucket. Jo-Jo, still eating, shadowed her to the hatch.

“I’ll be right back,” she said.

Ada got the monkey to back up, then went outside. Lightning burst overhead as she closed the hatch. After discarding the waste into the ocean, she let the bucket collect some rainwater and washed it out. The sea had settled somewhat, but the wind was still brisk, rippling her suit.

The moment she reentered the cabin, Jo-Jo jumped back on her leg, chirping over the howling wind. At least, that was what it sounded like.

But as Ada closed the hatch, she heard another chirping sound. This sounded electronic. She hurried over to the control panel and the cracked radar screen.

The beeping was coming from the speakers, every few seconds. Each time, Ada tensed at the sound.

Either another vessel was out here, or a sea creature swimming along the surface was big enough to be picked up by the radio waves. But the broken screen didn’t allow her to see the range, angle, or velocity of the object or objects.

There was only one way to find out. She put her helmet back on and looped the binoculars around her neck.

“Wait here,” she said to Jo-Jo, gesturing with her finger.

The monkey either didn’t understand or didn’t care, and followed her to the hatch. There, Ada slung her rifle and grabbed her machete. Weapons at the ready, she went outside.

The rain felt like tiny darts being flung at her. She felt as though she was being watched, as if someone or something was looking right at her.

Had something spotted her sailboat? She didn’t see how that was possible. Statistically, it wasn’t likely. They were in the middle of the ocean, a pebble in a desert.

She unlocked the steering, just in case she needed to make a run for it.

Using the glow of lightning in the storm clouds, she scanned the water with her binoculars, keeping one hand on the wheel as she searched.

Several scans in all directions revealed nothing but endless dunes of whitecaps. The storm seemed to be rolling away now, but she feared steering back into it.

After another few minutes of searching the water, she decided that it was safe enough to hew closer to the prescribed heading. Recharged from the water and food, she stayed topside for another half hour.

Once she was back on course and satisfied they would avoid the storm, she went back into the cabin.

As soon as she got inside, she heard the beeping again.

It was getting louder, which meant that whatever it was, it was getting closer.

But that was impossible. She hadn’t seen any vessels. And if one was out there, it had detected her boat and was coming for her.

Not necessarily.

As an officer on two airships, she had learned a lot about radar and what various images could mean. Although she couldn’t determine the object’s range or heading, it had to mean one of two things: Either it had found her and was closing in, or the two vessels were sailing toward the same destination. Statistically, nothing else made sense.

She grabbed her rifle again and went back to the second deck. Standing behind the upper gunwale, she searched the waters again for whatever boat or ship was heading in the same direction.

To the Vanguard Islands.

* * * * *

Michael walked to the briefing room on Discovery, trying to keep his mind off Layla and Bray. The wedding ring on his finger was a constant reminder. The old-world tradition connected them forever.

He massaged the ring, taking comfort in its touch. He’d had plenty of time to think about his family and future during the thirty hours since he left the islands. The airship had been cruising at around twenty-five thousand feet, far above the electrical storms, at an average speed of 150 miles per hour.

Michael opened the hatch into the room where the other divers sat contemplating an uncertain future, for themselves and those they had left behind at the islands. It felt odd not seeing Magnolia and Rodger, but he understood X’s decision to send them to Aruba. And he was glad that X would have divers there with him.

“Briefing starts in a few minutes,” Michael said.

Arlo, Sofia, Edgar, Lena, Ted, and Hector returned to their quiet thoughts.

Time was ever the enemy of a Hell Diver. There was either too much or never enough.

But it was truly an enemy before a mission, especially for the new boots who had so much to think about before the dive.

Michael walked over to the wall-mounted monitor and turned it on. A digital map of their current location came on-screen. The red dot representing Discovery slowly inched across the Atlantic Ocean.

“As you can see, we’re about to cross into West Africa,” Michael said. “We’ll be some of the first humans to pass the invisible threshold in decades.”

“Damn, that’s a big country,” Arlo said. “There’s got to be some survivors living here somewhere.”

“Not a country; it’s a continent,” Sofia said.

Arlo shrugged. “Why do you always got to bust my balls about every damn little thing?”

Ted chuckled and sipped from his flask. “Maybe she likes you, Arlo. You ever thought of that?”

Sofia got out of her chair and knocked the flask out of Ted’s hand.

“Hey!” he yelled, shooting to his feet. “That was valuable shine!”

Michael went over to end the fight before it could get traction. Right as he got there, the hatch opened, and a tall figure ducked under the bulkhead.

“Captain on deck!” Michael said, coming to attention.

The other divers all stood while Ted and Sofia turned toward Les.

“At ease, everyone,” said Les.

Pedro, Eevi, and Timothy followed him into the room. Coughing echoed from the passage, and Samson walked in last, holding a handkerchief to his mouth. When he pulled it away, Michael noticed the flecks of blood.

The engineer was sick and not getting better.

“Have a seat,” Les said.

The divers returned to their chairs, but Ted first reached down and scooped up his flask, putting it back in his vest before the captain could see.

Alfred and his two technicians walked into the dimly lit briefing room. The other two had refused to come on the mission, believing it was too dangerous.

Michael didn’t blame them. He stepped over next to the side of the podium with the Vanguard Islands symbol on the crest.

“All right, listen up,” Les said from behind the podium. “We reach our East Africa destination in about twenty-six hours. We got a five-hour launch jump on Shadow and Renegade, so we’ll have boots on the ground at Kilimanjaro about the same time our ships reach the Outrider. If we don’t shut down the machines fast, King Xavier and General Forge may have more than skinwalkers to fight.”

“I thought Cricket didn’t detect any machines at the skinwalker outpost,” Arlo said.

“Cricket didn’t, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” Michael said. “Some of the footage was difficult to make out, but at least we know where their barracks and their fleet are.”

“Assuming they haven’t left,” Samson said. “Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing what they discover, since we’re now out of range of all radio transmissions.”

Several divers fidgeted in their seats.

“So we have no idea what’s going on at the Vanguard Islands, either?” Lena asked.

“The Vanguard Islands are in good hands with Lieutenant Wynn,” Les said.

“And we’re not on our own,” Michael said. “Don’t forget what King Xavier said.” He took a moment to look at each Hell Diver. “We are only as good as the man or woman standing next to us. Never forget that.”

“Indeed,” Les said. He walked over to the digital map with Samson and instructed Timothy to pull up the target.

A mountain surrounded by green and brown terrain came online.

“This satellite footage of Mount Kilimanjaro is two hundred fifty-eight years old,” Les said. “So a lot will have changed in that time, but for now it’s all we’ve got.”

Pedro walked over to the map, studying it. He turned and said something to Timothy in his native tongue, then pointed to an area on the map and circled it with his finger.

“Pedro said the history handed down through the generations told of the great battle that occurred somewhere around the base of this mountain,” Timothy said.

“What does ‘great battle’ mean?” Sofia asked. “Like ground troops, or was this a battle in the sky, or both, or what?”

Timothy asked Pedro, who shook his head, unsure.

“From what I know about the blackout, there probably wasn’t much left of the world’s militaries to launch this final offensive,” Les said. “I doubt anyone had much of an air force left. It was just the airships that survived the EMP bursts and the computer virus.”

The rumbling deck beneath his boots reminded Michael of the irony. They were on the last known airship in the world, and they were going to use it to destroy the machines.

Pedro spoke again, and Timothy interpreted.

“He says the allied forces were trying to get inside the base, where they could shut down the machines by destroying their mainframe. This was around two hundred fifty years ago. Time enough for them to build more mainframes or move them.”

“Not necessarily,” Les said. He nodded to the AI. “Timothy, share your plan.”

Timothy turned off the map of the target and replaced it with a technical rendering of a DEF-Nine unit. The 3D image showed the machine’s multilayered anatomy. An orange visor glowed on a titanium-alloy skull with humanoid features.

“The endoskeleton is a lab-created hyperalloy,” Timothy said. “Very strong and almost impervious to bullets. The DEF-Nine units have a supercomputer the size of a microchip, encased inside the skull. To bring one down, you need to destroy either the supercomputer or the battery unit in the chest.”

“But there is another way to bring them all down,” Les said. “According to Pedro, their mainframe acts as a heart to machines across the world, and Timothy has a plan to destroy it.”

Les pulled out two metal devices that looked like old-world computer flash drives. He held them up for everyone to see.

“A virus,” he said. “The same way they destroyed us during the blackout.”

Michael was the only other person in the room besides Samson who knew of the plan. He had shared it only with Layla, before leaving. It was part of the reason she believed this wasn’t a suicide mission after all.

“There are two ways to end the AI threat,” Timothy said. “Either by destroying the mainframe with a nuclear blast or by uploading this computer virus, which will do essentially the same thing by sending a signal worldwide to every DEF-Nine unit.”

“You mean a Hell Diver delivering the virus, right?” Lena asked.

“Correct.”

“How does this virus work?” Edgar asked.

“Quite simply, really,” Timothy said. He gave a half smile. “The computer virus changes one key component of the machine’s programming: to kill humans.”

“So it doesn’t destroy them?” Sofia asked.

“No,” Timothy said. “I designed this virus by uploading a crucial part of my own programming: never to harm a human.”

“It’s genius if it works,” Samson said.

Les walked back to the screen to look at the technical rendering of the machine. “It will work,” he said after a pause. “And while I would prefer to destroy them, our duty is to protect humanity in any way possible.”

He switched the screen back to the map.

“Mount Kilimanjaro is huge,” Timothy said. “At five thousand, eight hundred ninety-five meters above sea level, it’s the world’s twentieth-highest summit. A hard slog, but not a technical ascent, so you won’t need climbing gear.”

“Still, we don’t know exactly what the terrain is like,” Les cut in. “So we’ll approach cautiously and come up with a plan once we’re closer. Commander Everhart will explain.”

Michael stepped in front and said, “I’ve been given the duty and honor of helping plan this mission. After much deliberation, Captain Mitchells and I have agreed we will hover at forty thousand feet, about ten miles from the target. Here.”

Timothy marked the spot on the digital map, not far from the area Pedro had pointed out: an area of low hills around the base of the mountain where the decisive battle had occurred.

“From there, we will send in Cricket to access the machines’ defenses,” Michael continued. “If we determine we can get close enough to send a missile down their throats, we’ll launch one of the nukes.”

“We expect the base to be buried and heavily defended,” Samson said. “If I were the machines, I would protect the mainframe with every resource available.”

“And if we can’t launch the nukes?” Arlo asked.

“Then we go with plan B,” Michael said. “Send in the Hell Divers, with Les and me leading two teams to deliver the virus that will produce the same effect.”

“I’ll take Team Phoenix with Lena, Ted, and Edgar,” Les said.

“And I’ve got Team Raptor,” Michael said. “Arlo, Sofia, and Hector are with me.”

“If that happens, Eevi and Timothy will man the ship with Alfred and his skeleton crew,” Les said. “The rest of us will locate the main facility, infiltrate it, and upload the virus.”

Several of the divers exchanged worried glances.

Michael discreetly scrutinized them one by one. Ted was nervously running his fingers through his hair. Arlo doodled on his notepad, making stick figures of what had to be machines. Hector had his arms folded over his muscular chest, showing no emotion.

Others sought comfort in one another. Michael noticed Edgar brush his finger up next to Lena’s hand under the table. She didn’t seem to mind.

“I know what you’re all thinking,” Michael said.

“I doubt that,” Arlo said. “Unless it’s that eight of us are launching an offensive against the machines, when a worldwide effort failed two hundred and sixty years ago.”

“You have something they did not,” Timothy said.

The AI had been uncharacteristically quiet for most of the journey, and Michael was glad to see him speaking up.

“What’s that? You?” Ted asked.

“No. You,” Timothy said.

“Hell Divers,” Michael said.

“And a captain hell-bent on destroying the machines,” Les said. “All I need is for you to show up when the time comes, and fight by my side. I’ll do the rest.”

Michael subtly glanced at the tall man. The iron resolve in his features was the same that he often saw in X.

“Any questions?” Les asked.

When no one spoke, Michael said, “All right, get some shut-eye. We’re all going to need it.”

The divers got up and slogged out of the room with the technicians.

“They think it’s a suicide mission,” Eevi said.

Samson frowned. “The chances of success are thin.”

“Thanks for keeping that to yourself earlier,” Les said.

Timothy cupped his hands behind his back but said nothing even though he surely knew the numerical odds for success. Michael didn’t want to hear the number, either.

Les shut off the digital map. “Let’s get back to the bridge,” he said.

Timothy’s hologram was already there.

“What’s our current location?” Les asked.

Eevi took a seat at her station and scanned the weather conditions. “We’re just passing over the West African coastline,” Timothy replied. “A place that was called Liberia.”

“And the skies?” Les asked.

“Storms are still ten thousand feet below us, sir,” Eevi replied. “All clear from what I can see.”

“For now,” Timothy said, “but according to the archives, several nukes were detonated in areas we are traversing. I’ve adjusted our course, but we will likely experience an increase in storm activity.”

“Okay,” Les said. “Keep an eye out for hostiles on radar.”

“You really think the machines could have aircraft?” Eevi asked. “There’s zero evidence of that.”

“If they had aircraft, they would have found our airships over the years,” Michael said. “They probably thought we were all dead.”

Les went and sat in his captain’s chair, staring at the section of hull where the portholes had been replaced with lightweight aluminum plates. Michael joined him there for a moment.

Across the world, X would be halfway to Aruba. And neither team knew how many hostiles waited at their targets.

“Everyone remain on high alert,” Les said. “We’re in enemy territory. Anything is possible now.”

TWENTY-NINE

On the voyage to Aruba, Magnolia and Rodger had spent much of the first day in their bunk. In fact, it was almost dark when they finally got up to eat dinner in the mess.

She couldn’t deny how happy she felt. Finally giving herself, and committing to Rodger after so long, was a relief. And her hearing had returned to almost full acuity. Even her charred scalp was healing!

He seemed happy, too, but there were still moments when she found him staring into space. She found herself drifting also, thinking about what the Hell Divers would find in East Africa, and whether she would ever see them again.

She feared for Layla and Bray.

The human race couldn’t afford to lose good men like Michael and Les. There were too few left. She had to hope they would somehow manage to shut the machines down and end the threat once and for all.

Not being there to help them weighed on her, and she felt an absence, something she couldn’t explain.

Both missions needed her, though, and Rodger needed her more than anyone. Without her, he would do something stupid that would get him killed.

She thrust her legs into her jumpsuit while he looked for his glasses.

Magnolia saw them on the deck and scooped them up. Then, still half naked, she placed them gently on his face as a rap sounded on their hatch.

A militia soldier named Brett poked his head inside before she could finish dressing.

“Hey, Mags, Rodge,” he said.

She covered her chest, but Brett remained in the open entryway.

“King Xavier is sparring with Felipe on the deck,” he said. “You guys should come watch.”

“Get out of here!” she snapped.

Brett laughed, then shut the hatch.

“Dickhead,” Rodger muttered.

They threw on clothes and left the quarters. A ladder took them to the upper decks. At the top landing, she put on her helmet over her bandaged head.

The few militia soldiers who had accompanied them on the trip were outside in the darkness, weapons cradled, rain pattering on their armor.

In the center, X was fighting with Felipe. The young Cazador warrior twirled two blunted cutlasses as he circled X.

Mac supervised nearby, leaning on his cane.

Felipe forced X back with several strikes from his cutlasses, which X deflected with his spear, covered in a lightweight aluminum sheath to protect Felipe. The clang of metal on metal rang out.

Felipe lunged and sidestepped with fluid grace, but X appeared slow and sluggish. He was still recovering from his wounds, and he was still getting the hang of the spear.

Magnolia had no idea how he was going to kill Horn with half a spear and half an arm. But he had the will and, as they used to say, he would find a way.

Soon, Magnolia would also find a way to get her revenge, killing Moreto. The mother of the skinwalker prince had caused many of her own people to die, and what they had done to Sloan made Magnolia shudder each time she thought about it. The gruff militia officer had died trying to protect the Vanguard Islands, losing her skin to the monsters. God knew what else the animals had done to her.

Magnolia blocked out the mental images and focused on the sparring session that was starting to look more like a real fight.

Felipe swung his right cutlass low, and X again knocked away the blow. A jab with the left cutlass almost struck X in his chest armor. He jumped back and threw an uppercut with the spear, nearly catching Felipe in the jaw.

“¡Bien!” Mac yelled. “Good!”

The other Barracudas drew closer as the session intensified. Magnolia did the same.

Lightning split the horizon, illuminating the two warriors. X swiped sideways, the blade coming close to Felipe’s neck. Felipe came back with a swing of his right cutlass, which X jumped over.

He landed on both feet but couldn’t do much besides brace himself against the kick that Felipe planted in the center of his chest armor.

Barracudas roared and thumped their spear shafts on the deck.

The impact forced X back. He recovered quickly and threw a left hook that hit Felipe in the jaw.

The young warrior stumbled backward as the Cazador and militia soldiers shouted even louder.

“Immortal!” Magnolia yelled.

“Felipe!” yelled one of the Barracudas.

Mac got between the two, holding up his cane.

“Good,” he said to X. Then he looked at Felipe. “Muy bien.”

“Don’t stop now!” shouted Brett. “It’s just getting good.”

“Get back to work,” Mac said.

“You’re not my CO.”

“Actually, shit-for-brains, Colonel Mac is your CO,” Magnolia called out.

Brett glared her way, then motioned for the soldiers to follow him away from the impromptu fighting ring. The Barracuda warriors returned to their duties, too, and Magnolia went with Rodger to talk to X.

He was shaking hands with Felipe, who smiled and then spat blood on the deck.

“Where you two been?” X asked. “Haven’t seen much of you all day.”

“My head was hurting somethin’ awful,” Magnolia lied.

Rodger simply nodded.

The king looked at each of them, and said, “Meet me in the command center in an hour. We need to go over the intel again.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” Magnolia said.

They went to the mess to get some food while they waited. Imulah was a few people ahead of them in the short line.

“Hey, Imulah,” she said. “Want to sit with us?”

The scribe turned and smiled politely. He joined them at a long metal table. His plate of grilled sea bass smelled heavenly, but Magnolia didn’t have an appetite. Her head was starting to pulse again, and she swallowed another pain pill.

“Not hungry?” Rodger asked.

“You must at least try to eat,” Imulah said. “You will need your energy to fight the skinwalkers.”

“I know.” She swallowed a few bites of fish and vegetables.

The warship rocked slightly, and their plates slid on the table.

“Damn boat doesn’t help my stomach,” Magnolia grumbled. “I really do prefer diving to sailing.”

Rodger looked as if he might reply, then just shoveled food into his mouth.

“What’s your take on the machines?” Magnolia asked Imulah.

He set his fork down and stroked his long beard. “I think that it’s a lie,” he said. “That Horn and his skinwalkers have not joined with them, but I do think they worship them.”

“The Cazadores really can be sick,” Rodger said. “But there are some good ones, like you, Rhino, Sofia—”

“There are a lot of good Cazadores,” Magnolia said. “I grew fond of Lieutenant Alejo in Rio de Janeiro, and General Santiago wasn’t all that bad. They both were very brave men and wanted to kill Horn.”

“It’s a complicated society, fueled by warfare, not unlike many of the old-world societies,” Imulah said. “I firmly believe that the Cazadores’ martial ethos kept the Metal—er, Vanguard—Islands safe all these years.”

“How do you mean?” Rodger asked.

“Did you ever read Niccolò Machiavelli or Charles Darwin?”

“I have,” Magnolia said.

“The state of nature, and survival of the fittest,” Imulah said. “The islands are prime examples of these theories in action. If it weren’t for the warrior mentality, I’m not sure the islands would have survived.”

Magnolia agreed with a nod, but she didn’t say what she was thinking: that the warrior society hadn’t saved el Pulpo from defeat at the hands of her people. Then again, his son could still achieve victory and retake the islands.

A group of militia soldiers, led by Brett, walked into the mess, distracting her from the conversation.

“Excuse me,” Rodger said. He got up and walked over before Magnolia could stop him.

“Great,” she whispered.

“What?” Imulah asked.

Brett halted as Rodger approached.

“Hey, I think you owe Magnolia an apology,” Rodger said.

Brett’s eyes went to Magnolia and then Imulah.

“I don’t apologize to Cazador sympathizers,” he said.

“What did you say?” Magnolia called out.

Rodger stepped up closer to Brett as Magnolia got out of her seat.

“You better watch your mouth,” Rodger said. “You’re pissing everyone off, and we’re not even to the target yet.”

Brett smirked. “Like I give a shit if I piss off—”

Before the words had left Brett’s mouth, Rodger shoved him against a bulkhead. He hit it hard, then let out a scream of rage and tackled Rodger to the deck.

The entire mess hall got up from their seats to watch.

Magnolia tried to move in to help, but Rodger headbutted Brett in the nose. The crack echoed, and Brett yelped. He rolled off, holding his gushing nose.

But Rodger wasn’t finished yet. He grabbed Brett by the throat, choking him while Magnolia tried to pull him back.

“Rodge, enough!” she shouted.

Two soldiers crowded around and helped Magnolia pull Rodger off. Brett scrambled away, glaring at Rodger like a frightened, wounded animal.

“Get him out of here!” Magnolia shouted.

Brett pushed out of the soldiers’ grip and stalked off through the open hatch, again muttering something about Cazador sympathizers.

Chest heaving, Rodger watched them leave. Everyone in the mess stared at him as he wiped blood from his face.

“What y’all lookin’ at?” Rodger said.

Imulah sat back down and returned to his meal. The sailors and soldiers did the same.

“Come on,” Magnolia said to Rodger.

They left quickly, not speaking until they got to the CIC. Ton and Victor stood outside the hatch. Magnolia pulled Rodger back around the corner, out of view.

“What the hell was that all about?” she said.

“I’m sick of people talking shit.”

“Yeah, but was attacking Brett necessary?”

Rodger didn’t reply. Still breathing heavily, he opened the hatch to the CIC.

X was there, his spear arm lying across a table covered with several well-worn maps. Miles sat on the deck.

“You’re late,” X said.

General Forge, Lieutenant Colonel Ranker, and Colonel Mac were also inside, looking out the portholes at the dark water.

“Shut the hatch,” X said. “We’ve devised a plan for recon. I’ll let General Forge explain.”

General Forge stood stiffly, his stone jaw set as he looked over the map. He pointed to a bay and spoke while Lieutenant Colonel Ranker interpreted.

“The general says this is the location of the outpost, and he’s marked where the drone captured footage of Raven’s Claw and also the submarines. This is an oil refinery, and part of the reason the Outrider was set up.”

Forge then pointed to several buildings near a sprawling equipment complex. Magnolia had seen the video feed. The pump stations, vacuum pipestills, and drums were like what she had seen back at the Bloodline outpost.

“This is why we can’t nuke the island,” X said. “The oil in there will determine whether the Vanguard Islands survive or die.”

Forge pointed to the eastern part of the map and spoke.

“He says this is where he proposes sending our stealth speedboats,” Ranker said. “It’s a little over a mile hike, and it will allow Renegade and Shadow to stay out of view while two strike teams make sure the targets are still in the same place.”

“What about mines or booby traps?” Magnolia asked.

“There could be some out there, but I doubt they will be anywhere near the route we’re taking,” Mac said. “Still, I’ll bring my best scouts and minesweeping equipment.”

“It’s a good plan,” X said. “But keep in mind, this route wasn’t in the footage from Cricket, so we have no idea what conditions there will be.”

“The Barracudas can handle it,” Mac said. “I’ve requested permission to lead the scouting mission, and General Forge has accepted.”

“Good,” X said.

Forge stepped back and looked at X.

“He says once we confirm the targets are there, he will attack with the warships and take out the submarines and Raven’s Claw,” Ranker said. “Then you can go in, find Horn, and deal with him and Moreto, if she’s there.”

“What?” Magnolia asked. “What do you mean, if she’s there.”

X scratched his week-old beard.

“I’ve got classified information,” he said. “This doesn’t leave the CIC.”

“Okay,” Magnolia said.

Rodger nodded.

“First, we saw something that makes no sense,” X said.

He pulled out his personal tablet and set it on the table. Then he tabbed it on and scrolled through to the footage time-stamped ten hours and fifty minutes into Cricket’s mission.

“Here,” X said, pointing to the frozen frame.

Magnolia and Rodger looked down at what appeared to be a group of people in black suits walking outside a building at the oil refinery. But these weren’t the skinwalkers Magnolia remembered. They weren’t wearing armor or human hides, nor did they carry weapons.

“Who are they?” Magnolia asked.

“We don’t know,” X said.

“They aren’t Cazadores,” Mac said. “I can tell you that much. There are too many of them to have been crew from Raven’s Claw.”

“Maybe they’re people from bunkers or ITC facilities that Horn kidnapped and enslaved,” Magnolia said.

“That’s my guess, but there’s no way to know from the video,” X said. “What it boils down to is, the skinwalker army could be bigger than we thought.”

“I still want to know what you meant by ‘if Moreto is there,’ ” Rodger said.

“Like I said, I was going over Cricket’s footage again,” X said. “I noticed something and double-checked with several others, but there is no evidence that Colonel Moreto is at the outpost. Not a single video feed captured her.”

Magnolia swallowed, implications sinking in.

“You got to be fucking joking,” Rodger said.

“Do you think she’s…” Magnolia began to say.

“I think it’s possible she never left the islands,” X said.

“We have to warn Lieutenant Wynn,” Magnolia said.

X shook his head. “We can’t break radio silence now. Wynn is prepared for an attack, and I trust him to hold security while we’re away.”

“We’re making good time,” Mac said. “At this rate, we’ll be there in less than twenty-four hours.”

“We’re ready,” X said.

“More than ready,” Rodger added. “I’m going to find that murdering witch and then I’m going to burn her alive.”

THIRTY

“All hands, approaching target. ETA fifteen minutes,” said Les.

He put the handset back in its cradle. This was the moment they all had been waiting for—the moment he had visualized since Trey’s death.

Almost sixty hours into their journey, they were nearing their destination above Tanzania, the home of the machines. If all went to plan, they would deploy Cricket in a few moments for a first glimpse at a zone no one had laid eyes on in decades.

“Skies are clear, Captain,” Eevi said. She twisted from her station. “Only minimal storms from here to Mount Kilimanjaro, and zero sign of hostile contacts on radar.”

“Captain Rolo reported the same thing: clear skies, then…” Les suddenly had a feeling he knew exactly what had happened to the airship that crossed the ocean before Discovery.

“Timothy, you have the ship,” he ordered. “Keep us in the cloud cover, all systems in stealth mode. “Samson, everything looking good with the weapons systems?”

The lead engineer stood over a station. He coughed into a hankie and glanced up.

“Sorry,” he grumbled. “This damn—”

He coughed again into the handkerchief.

“All weapons are primed and ready,” he finally said. “And we have our defensive flares ready to deploy.”

“Good. I’m heading down to oversee the launch of Cricket.”

Samson went back to coughing, and Eevi turned to her monitor.

The closed hatches in the passage leading from the bridge reminded Les of all the people who had lived here after Michael and his team found the ship at the Hilltop Bastion. It was no longer a life barge. It was a weapon.

By the time Les arrived at the launch bay, the two teams of Hell Divers were suited up and ready. Michael crouched in the center of the open space, working on Cricket with Alfred and another tech. Two open crates of tools lay on the floor next to the crates of machine guns and blasters.

“Captain on deck,” Ted said.

“Not a captain now,” Les said. “As you were.” He thumped the Team Phoenix logo on the breastplate of his Hell Diver armor. “I’m one of you all.”

Ted, Arlo, Sofia, Edgar, Hector, and Lena all formed a line beside Michael. They looked ready for battle. They wore bandoliers of shotgun shells and armor-piercing rounds, and blasters and knives were sheathed on their hips. Vests over their armor held extra magazines and grenades.

Edgar, the best marksman of them all, had a slung sniper rifle that fired the armor-piercing rounds—the same model of weapon that Erin Jenkins had used to take down several machines at Red Sphere.

But there was one thing they lacked. Only one precious EMP grenade remained in their stockpile. Michael had it in his gear. He also carried the one laser rifle and one of the USB sticks containing the virus that would reprogram the machines. Les carried the other.

They looked like two teams of special-operations soldiers from the Old World. But if they did dive, they would face an enemy designed to be a more efficient killer than any special-forces soldier ever to walk the earth.

“We’re ready to dive, sir,” Michael said.

“Indeed, you are,” Les replied. “How is Cricket coming along?”

“We’re making some last-minute changes to his system that will lighten his carbon signature and maybe keep him invisible.”

Michael tapped his wrist computer, and the robot chirped. The hover nodes spun, but without the glow of before.

“He’ll have to move slow on the surface,” Alfred said. “There’s not much we can do about the exhaust from his thrusters.”

The divers all followed the drone across the open space. Les walked over to the portholes by the launch-bay doors. It was the middle of the afternoon, but the sky was a deep charcoal gray, with no hint of sunshine bleeding through.

“Timothy, take us down to fifteen thousand feet,” Les ordered into the headset. “Slowly and cautiously—first sign of any hostile contact, you haul ass out of here.”

“Understood, sir.”

Les went to his locker and carefully peeled the giraffe picture Phyl had drawn off the metal door. She had added a mother and two baby giraffes to the image. It was the only picture of his family he had.

With the utmost care, he tucked the piece of paper into his vest. Then he walked back to grab a blaster from the crate. He sheathed it and started the manual process of checking his systems.

The airship switched to turbofans, lowering through the sky without a lick of turbulence against the hull.

“Phoenix One, online,” Les said.

“Phoenix Two, online,” Ted said.

“Phoenix Three, good to go,” Edgar added.

“Me, too,” Lena said. “I mean, Phoenix Four, ready.”

Team Raptor went through the same routine with Michael, Arlo, Sofia, and Hector all confirming that their systems were working properly.

“What did you paint on your dome?” Lena asked Arlo.

“Thunder and lightning,” he replied. “My two different nicknames.”

“Who’s calling you ‘Lightning’ now?” Michael asked.

Arlo smirked, exposing a missing tooth. “I believe she actually called me ‘el relámpago.’ ”

“Gross,” Sofia said. “And I think you mean ‘el poco peso,’ as in ‘lightweight.’ ”

“Okay, let’s get serious, people,” Les said. He appreciated a little humor to take the edge off before the mission, but they were in enemy territory, on what could be a turning point for humanity.

“Eevi, how’s it looking up there?” Les asked over the comms.

“Sir, I’m picking up some sort of heat signatures on the surface.”

Les looked out the portholes and saw nothing through the darkness but clouds. The other divers tried to get a glimpse of the ground.

At eighteen thousand feet, Les turned to the techs, who were going through final prep on Cricket with Michael. They checked the newly installed cameras and each of the jointed mechanical limbs. Two of the extensions were made of scrap metal, but they looked secure.

“I don’t like sending Cricket in without any weapons,” Michael said to Les.

“Not a lot he can do against the machines, anyway, right?” Edgar said.

“He sure kicked some skinwalker ass and saved our hides from them back in Rio, but this time he’s just doing recon.” Michael patted the robot.

“Nearing launch altitude,” Samson reported over the comms. “All noncritical systems are ready to go dark on your mark, Captain.”

“Stand by,” Les said.

“That also means no external comm use unless necessary. Everything is internal for now,” Les said. “Everyone got it?”

“Ted, Arlo, I want to see nods,” Michael said.

Both helmets dipped.

Les waited another moment before he gave the order.

The lights winked off throughout the ship, leaving the launch bay in near darkness. Emergency lights came on, emitting a red glow in the corners of the room.

Michael patted Cricket on the back as he might a human friend. “Be careful down there, buddy,” he said. “I know you’ll make me proud again.”

Cricket chirped as it hovered toward the launch-bay doors.

“Alfred and team, get back to the secure area,” Les ordered. “Rest of you, behind the red line.”

The technicians followed Alfred’s flashlight to the exit as Les moved behind the red line with the other divers.

The AI’s hologram appeared in the middle of the launch bay, but even it was dimmed almost to invisibility.

Once Alfred and his men were outside in the hallway, Les gave the order to open the launch-bay doors. They let in the gusting wind and revealed the dark skies over Africa.

Michael typed commands into his wrist computer. Cricket’s hover nodes whirled, propelling it forward.

“Godspeed,” Les said.

The drone passed the threshold outside the ship and into the black. It hovered for a moment, then dropped like a rock, vanishing from view.

The doors closed, and the divers went to the portholes. But as before, they could see nothing but random lightning streaks in the soupy black.

“Timothy, take us down to twelve thousand feet,” Les said.

Michael watched the robot’s descent on his monitor.

“Thirteen thousand and feet and lowering,” he said. “Should be getting a visual of the surface in a few seconds.”

“Timothy, Eevi, sitrep,” Les said into his headset.

The internal comms crackled with static.

“No change in weather conditions,” Eevi reported. “Just a few pockets of heavy clouds and sporadic lightning. The heat signatures are still coming through on my scans, and best I can tell, they seem to be isolated to six or seven locations.”

“Any idea what they are?” Les asked.

“Looks too small to be fires of any size,” she replied.

“Samson, Timothy, you got any ideas?” Les asked.

“A few theories, but…”

Les staggered as a pocket of turbulence rocked the vessel. White clouds blocked the view through the portholes.

“Eevi, talk to me,” Les said.

“Just some turbulence, sir. We’re hitting a patch of clouds.”

Les managed his nerves with deep, slow breaths.

“Three thousand feet,” Michael said. “Turning on the hover nodes in T-minus three, two, one…”

He tapped his wrist monitor.

Les pictured the drone suddenly halting in the sky.

“Okay, switching feed to our HUDs,” Michael said.

In the subscreen at the upper right corner of his visor came the grainy footage from one of Cricket’s cameras. Les strained to make out the picture.

“I don’t see shit,” Ted said.

“Wait a minute—need to switch on night vision,” Michael said. He tapped his monitor again.

There was no mistaking what came on the subscreen this time.

“Wow,” Lena said. “I never knew the surface was so colorful.”

The drone descended over many acres of flat ground covered in glowing purple and red forests. But it wasn’t the vibrant jungles or the open fields of blue weeds that amazed Les—it was the snowcapped mountain in the distance.

“Mount Kilimanjaro,” he said.

“That’s our target?” Ted asked.

“You see any other mountains out here?” Arlo asked.

“Switching feed again,” Michael said. Another view came online, to the east of the mountain.

The terrain in that direction seemed desolate, with hardly any flora growing on the sand-colored dirt. The desert stretched to an area near the base of the mountain, where fields of purple grass and weeds grew. Dense red jungles snaked up into the rocky slopes.

But something didn’t fit with the mutant landscape on the southern base of the mountain.

Massive tubes the color of dirty eggs reached toward the clouds behind the foothills. The towers were human in origin.

Or machine…

“Can you zoom in on those towers?” Les asked.

“Got to get closer,” Michael said. “I’m taking Cricket down to one thousand feet, okay?”

“Roger that.”

Waiting for the bot to get into position, they gazed at the vast purple fields and jungle carpeting the hills. From this vantage point, it was almost impossible to see any sign of bipedal life—or machinery, for that matter.

Most of the trees had red umbrella canopies and thick, curved trunks. Les had never seen any like them. The jungle thinned, giving way to dry riverbeds and cracked earth.

Cricket flew slowly, giving them a panoramic view.

“Steady, buddy,” Michael said. He tapped his screen, slowing the drone’s thruster speed as it approached the silos they had seen east of the mountain.

“What are they?” Sofia asked.

“Must be the source of the heat signatures,” Les said. “They look like smokestacks from old-world factories.”

“Why would the machines have factories?” Lena asked.

No one had an answer. Not even Timothy hazarded a guess.

As Cricket got closer, it became apparent they had found part of the machines’ base. According to the data Cricket was sending over their HUDs, black metallic buildings made up the interior of a compound the size of four old-world city blocks.

In the center was a rectangular metal tower with a spike on top. Warehouses and small structures, all the same metallic color, surrounded the tower in neat rows.

Several radio towers rose along the base of the mountain. There were satellite dishes, too—some of the biggest Les had ever seen. Perfect for sending the signal out if he uploaded the virus successfully.

“Timothy, you seeing this?” he asked.

“Yes, Captain,” Timothy replied, “and I’m mapping it to upload to your HUDs. I’ve located two main roads so far, twenty buildings, and…”

“What is it?” Les asked.

“I’m detecting movement in the feed.”

“Where?”

Les saw the vehicles before the AI responded. From this height, they were hard to make out, but they had central turrets like those on a tank, built on a central core unit. But they differed from old-world tanks in one major way. Instead of tracks, each had six segmented beetle-like legs, but they were anything but slow. Les watched as they ran at an alarming speed down a road curving through the rocky foothills.

“Commander Everhart, I would highly recommend pulling Cricket out of there,” Timothy said. “I think our robot friend has been compromised.”

Michael tapped at his monitor, cursing.

On the screen, the tanks bolted away from the compound, their jointed legs pounding the ground. They halted at a wall built into the rocky landscape. It was hard to say how tall, but it looked thick.

The entire area seemed to be one massive fortress that made the most of the terrain.

Beeping sounded from the wall-mounted speakers.

“What is that?” Les asked.

“It’s an alert,” Timothy said. “I set it up should any sensors detect exhaust plumes.”

Les felt his pulse ramping up. “How many is it detecting?” he asked.

“Hard to say. Give me a minute…”

Cricket had turned now to retreat, but its cameras were still on the compound. The tanks remained at a gate in the fortress wall.

Cricket was flying back toward the jungles now, passing over the last stretch of desert. This time, Les saw something else on the subscreen. It looked like mounds in a rocky field.

“Zoom in on those,” he said.

Michael tapped his wrist computer and the drone’s cameras focused in on the rocky field.

“Now have him zoom in on those humps in the earth,” Les said.

The image clarified further, confirming his fear. They weren’t rocks. They were weapon nests.

Cannons protruded from the ground. And these were just the ones he could see.

“Those are some big-ass guns,” Arlo said.

Les considered having Cricket search for more of the hidden emplacements so they could try to take them out, but he had a feeling more defenses were buried out of view. The weapons confirmed what he had already known: Plan B was the only option.

“Do we even have enough missiles to take them out?” Ted asked.

“No,” Timothy said. “Not from what I have already seen.”

“Get Cricket out of there and have it return to the launch bay,” Les said.

Michael nodded and tapped his screen again.

“Not too fast,” Timothy said. “You don’t want the thrusters to give away…”

It was already too late.

Several red streaks darted into the sky. Not cannon rounds—these were lasers.

One of them struck Cricket, and the view went topsy-turvy as the drone fell.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Michael said.

“Turn the hover mode back on,” Timothy said calmly.

“I’m trying!” Michael snapped.

The drone continued to plummet, the view of the sky and ground spinning. One of its arms had sheared off. The divers crowded around Michael. He tried to regain control of the drone, but time was running out. In just seconds, it would hit the dirt.

“Eevi, any sign of hostiles in the sky?” Les asked over the internal comms.

“Negative, Captain,” she replied. “What’s going on out there?”

“No, please, come on…” Michael said. He kept tapping the monitor, trying to activate hover mode. “Cricket, come on. Please, buddy, don’t do this to me again.”

The nodes finally switched back on around a hundred feet from the surface, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the drone from crashing. Dust bloomed out around the feed on their subscreens.

The divers stood watching as if in a trance. Like Les, they were staring at their HUDs, waiting for the dust to clear. When it finally did, a view of the desert came into focus. Spindly foliage protruded from the cracked earth. Somehow, the camera feed continued.

“Can you move Cricket?” Les asked.

Michael’s helmet shook. “I’ve lost control of all motion systems. The only thing I can move is the camera.”

“Sir, can you zoom in?” Arlo said.

“On what?” Michael said.

“Those skeletal tanks. I think…”

“This isn’t just a desert,” Sofia said.

Michael zoomed the camera in on white bones sticking out of the ground.

“It’s a graveyard,” she said.

The launch bay fell into silence as the drone’s cameras provided a panoramic view of a battlefield. Hundreds of bones, some of them still in helmets and armor, littered the sand-colored dirt. Les saw several weapons with rusted barrels strewn about.

The remains of thousands littered this one dry field alone. And for every ten human skeletons, there was one destroyed machine.

Les broke the silence that hung like humidity in the launch bay.

“If they didn’t know we’re here before, they do now,” he said. “Get us out of here, Timothy. We’ll be diving in after all.”

THIRTY-ONE

X stood with Miles on the platform outside Renegade’s command center, watching the dark water. He pictured Ada out there, trying to row across the rough sea to Florida. If she was even still alive.

Hang in there, kid.

She would still be a long way from his old apartment, but he hoped the survival gear and the note—if she found it—would help get her there safely. It would take a miracle, but he hoped to see her again someday.

A light rain drizzled down, dripping off the overhang that shielded X and his dog. Here they were together again, out in the wastes.

“Just like old times, buddy,” X said.

Miles wagged his tail in his hazard suit, but only for a few half-hearted strokes.

“About how I feel, too,” X said. He glassed the horizon with binoculars and his NVGs.

Clanking sounded from the hatch that opened onto the platform. Ton and Victor turned from their post, but seeing only Magnolia and Rodger, they relaxed.

“Sir, we’re closing in on the location General Forge selected for anchorage,” Magnolia said. “Sonar and radar look clear for subs and surface vessels. We’re ready to go when you are.”

“You sure you’re up for this?” X asked. “Your head—”

“Is fine,” she interrupted.

“You know I’m ready,” Rodger said.

Miles looked up at them both, then nudged X as if he could understand what they were talking about.

On the deck below, the Barracudas were moving about. Most wore full protection from radiation, even though historical records put the outpost in a green zone.

The militia soldiers hung out on the opposite side of the deck, watching and not helping. As long as the two sides didn’t fight, X didn’t really care.

He glanced west. At Shadow’s bow stood the silhouette of a Cazador soldier in full armor. X turned off his optics. Lightning illuminated the orange cape flapping behind the man’s armored shoulders.

Forge stared into the distance. X had met with him several times on the journey and had grown to respect him more each time.

Like X, the general had no wife or kids. He had given his life to the Cazador military. But he wasn’t savage like so many others. He was strategic and intelligent.

And while he wasn’t Rhino, X was starting to trust him. After all, he had kept the secret that could have caused a war, and he had given up the precious nanotech gel to help X heal. Not to mention helping save the capitol tower from the Sirens.

X turned his NVGs back on, searching the ocean for a glimpse of what awaited them. Being in the dark both literally and figuratively was gnawing on his sour stomach. He had no idea what was happening in Africa. The team would have arrived by now.

He also had no clue whether Horn—or his evil mother—was even on Aruba.

He doubted that Moreto was still back at the Vanguard Islands, though. If she had somehow swum to another rig after jumping off the Hive, they would have found her during their sweeps after the attack. If X had to guess, she had made it to a submarine and was now hiding in a bunker.

When X found her, it would be a nice surprise.

He was distracted by the sound of someone shouting in Spanish. It was coming from the deck. At the rail, a pair of Cazadores looked over the side as a clanking sound rang out.

They were anchoring.

The Barracuda soldier switched to English. “Launch the boats!”

X patted Miles on the head, then went to the lower deck with his team.

Mac greeted them there. He wore his armor and had a helmet tucked under his arm.

“I guess you’re coming with us,” Mac said.

“You guessed right,” X said. “And Rodger and Mags are coming, too.”

Victor and Ton stepped forward.

“Oh, and my friends Ton and Victor,” X said. “We’re all coming on the recon mission.”

All around them, the deck hands, sailors, and soldiers went into action. The anchors went over the side of the warship, splashing into the choppy seas. Pulley systems dropped the black fiberglass boats into the water.

The militia soldiers continued to watch the Barracudas without offering to help. One of them, Brett, seemed to be laughing.

X had heard in passing about a problem between Brett and Rodger.

He walked over to the militia guards, Miles at his side.

“Brett,” X called out.

The young soldier turned.

“I’ve got a job for you.”

“Yes, sir,” Brett said. He stood ramrod straight, showing X respect that he had lacked with Rodger and Magnolia.

“Watch my dog, and make sure he doesn’t get a scratch while I’m gone,” X said. “Anything happens to him, you’ll have worse things to worry about than the skinwalkers.”

Brett looked down at Miles.

“Got it?” X said.

“Yes, King Xavier, sir,” Brett replied.

X patted him on an armored shoulder pad with the blade of his spear. “Good man.”

He returned to the rail, where the Barracudas were preparing to climb down to the boats already lowered to the water. The strike team was twelve strong, with Felipe and Mac leading.

X looked at his dog one last time and pointed his spear at Brett. “Not a scratch!” X shouted.

Brett raised a hand in acknowledgment.

A line had formed at the two ladders leading to the boats below. X got behind Magnolia and Rodger while Ton and Victor slung rifles and traded their spears for cutlasses.

X had a blaster, a .357 Magnum revolver, his captain’s sword, and the half spear attached to his arm. The other half of Rhino’s spear was sheathed over his shoulder.

“Let’s go!” Rodger yelled.

Several Barracudas waiting to climb down turned toward him.

X pulled Rodger aside.

“Hey!” Rodger protested.

“Cool it, man,” X said. “I know what you’ve lost, but no one should be eager to kill for revenge. It results in bad decisions, trust me.”

“Every man is different,” Rodger replied coldly. “You should know that better than anyone.”

He returned to the line behind Magnolia. She looked at X before carefully slipping her helmet over her bandaged head.

It wasn’t just Brett who had an attitude.

Rodger was losing his cool and putting them all at risk. X was starting to regret bringing him along, but the sneaky diver was known to stow away on ships, and he would have found a way out here regardless.

X climbed down with Ton and Victor to one of the boats. Rodger and Magnolia got into another.

For a fleeting moment, X considered yanking Rodger and locking him in the brig until he got his head on straight. But he didn’t get the chance.

Mac swirled his finger through the air, telling the pilots to start their engines. The two sleek boats sped away from the warship.

General Forge remained on the deck. He held up a cutlass and yelled at the departing boats.

“What’s he saying?” X asked Mac.

“We have the Octopus Lords on our side,” he replied. “Victory is ours for the taking.”

X raised his spear arm to the general before turning back to the bow. They thumped over the waves for the next twenty minutes, beating around to the other side of the island, where they would beach and trek in.

Lightning streaks provided an almost constant blue glow over the water, and not long into the ride, a soldier spotted the landmass. Felipe handed X a pair of binoculars. Through them, he could see a shoreline of sandy beaches.

The recon boats rode the waves staggered in a combat interval. The black vessels would be almost invisible to the naked eye, and the lightweight fiberglass hulls would help keep them off radar.

They slowed on the approach to shore.

Nature had retaken this area, with thick jungles growing to the high-tide boundary. X scanned with his NVGs for several moments but saw nothing moving in the underbrush or around the trunks of trees.

The canopy towered over the shoreline, some of the mutant palms leaning over the sand. Victor pointed his rifle at the beach, and X brought up the binos again.

A pole stuck out of the ground, a skull mounted on top.

The sight didn’t seem to bother Mac. He motioned for the teams to beach. As soon as the boats hit solid land, the warriors jumped out and pulled them up.

X noticed several more shriveled heads and skulls on spikes farther down the beach. While the other soldiers worked to cover their landing, he went to the nearest spike.

Magnolia joined him to examine the egg-shaped head without eye sockets.

“It’s a Siren,” she said.

“Lovely,” X said.

Behind them, several soldiers used palm fronds to sweep the tracks away, leaving no trace of their landing. Once the boats were securely stashed under camouflaged tarps, the two strike teams set off into the jungle.

Felipe and another soldier, both with mine sensors, took point. They moved quickly but cautiously, trying not to disturb any of the underbrush. Several Barracudas used their machetes to hack away the poisonous plants and open a doorway for the teams.

X used his captain’s sword and his spear to push away limbs covered in pine cone–like growths. Several burst, covering his blade in goo that stretched into a web.

The Cazadores worked their way through the foliage, hardly making a sound despite their bulky armor. It was all too reminiscent of his first mission with the Barracudas, almost a year ago, when he was not their leader but a prisoner.

Only Rhino, Wendig, and X had survived the journey. The two warriors would live on in his mind as long as he drew breath.

Mac stopped ahead and held up his prosthetic hand. A cawing sound echoed through the canopies as a bird with a beak the size of its head took flight.

The teams pushed onward, fanning out and navigating the dangerous passage with the two mine detectors on point. X ducked a branch covered in spikes.

Magnolia kept to the right, using her curved blades to plow the way for Rodger. The jungle gave way to a clearing where the Barracudas had taken up positions behind boulders covered in bird guano.

X joined her and Rodger at the low rocky escarpment bordering an open field that separated them from the oil refinery and ruined old-world resorts. Patches of weeds grew out of dirt blanketed in gray ash.

Wind turbines two hundred feet tall, stained mostly black with time, stood like giant sentinels. Several of the blades had broken off over the years, and one stuck out of the ground like a massive spearhead.

X noticed several skeletal objects that looked almost like huge insects clinging to some of the poles. More hung from the turbine blades, as if they had been caught in a spider’s web.

Mac ignored these, also. He gave Felipe and the other point man the signal to advance. They set off first, swinging their elongated mine detectors with a ten-foot range.

Once they reached the turbines, Mac sent the next group.

The divers’ and the Barracudas’ matte-gray armor matched the color of the ash, but X worried about their tracks.

Glancing behind them, he saw no way to avoid leaving evidence without taking extraordinary measures. The Barracudas didn’t bother trying to erase the tracks as they had on the beach.

Next, Mac gestured to X. Ton and Victor went ahead of him, their round shields slung over their backs, rifles up.

X sheathed his sword and held his blaster in his left hand. He couldn’t fire a rifle accurately anymore, but with a blaster, he just needed to aim in the enemy’s general direction and pull the trigger.

He took another look at insect remains or whatever was clinging to the poles. Coming closer, he realized they weren’t mutant bugs, but human skeletons. And maybe some Siren. The brooding turbines were like massive scarecrows to scare off man and monster, using corpses of the skinwalkers’ victims.

But the Barracudas weren’t deterred, and neither was Magnolia. She was the first of the three divers to reach one of the turbines. Mac got there next and raised his fist. The Barracudas crouched in the field, keeping low. X did the same thing, and Rodger followed suit.

After a brief conversation with Mac, Felipe took off toward the next landmark between the teams and the target—a row of silos and shipping containers.

Using his mine sensor, he cleared a path there, stopping several times to flag mines. General Forge had mentioned the possibility, but their presence still made X uneasy.

Felipe finished his sweep and vanished into the maze of structures. He returned a few minutes later, running in a low crouch.

Mac spoke to the young warrior, then came back to X.

“Felipe says the area is clear,” he said, “but we have to move through those silos to get to the buildings. From there, we should be able to see the harbor and the outpost. You might want to hang back a bit, King—”

“Forget it. I’m coming.”

“Okay, let’s move out, then,” Mac said.

The soldiers took off in combat intervals along the path Felipe had swept earlier. Something felt off to X as he followed them, as if they were being watched—by man, monster, or machine, he couldn’t say. Then again, there wasn’t much difference in this place.

Ton and Victor seemed nervous, too, as they moved toward the shipping containers.

The first of the strike team took up position there while the single file moved along the cleared path. Once they were all there, Mac again signaled to advance.

This time, X followed Felipe, who pointed with his cutlass inside the open door of a container. Stacked cages contained the remains of several Sirens and other mutant beasts, decomposed to just bones.

The next shipping container had two gurneys holding human skeletons, both of them missing their limbs.

Ton and Victor stopped to look, no doubt recalling the horror they had experienced at the hands of el Pulpo’s army.

X patted them both on the back and kept moving.

Several spiny rats skittered out of another container, leaving wet tracks in the dirt. A glance inside revealed fresher kills. X flicked on his helmet light over a limbless body on a table. The corpse had on one of the black suits he had seen in the video footage captured by Cricket.

He held up a hand to Magnolia and then went inside. His helmet beam illuminated a humanoid male face on the table, eyes closed. He stepped over for a better look.

Something about this man seemed off. Higher cheekbones and smooth, almost plastic-like skin. But this was real bone and flesh, so not a robot.

Moving to the head, he sheathed his blaster so he could open the eyelids. The orbs were pure black.

That was when X noticed the ITC logo on the breast of the uniform.

He reeled away from the table.

“X, what is it?” It was Magnolia’s voice.

“I think I found out who those people in the video were.”

Magnolia walked into the container, and X pointed with his spear.

“Genetically engineered humans, pre-Siren stage,” X said. “Horn must be raiding ITC facilities to build an army and a workforce—and for meat on the hoof.”

“Sick bastard,” Magnolia said.

“What are you doing?” Rodger said quietly from the open door. “Oh, shit…”

The three of them went outside and followed the Barracudas through the maze of meat lockers. At the end of the lot, they reached a fence topped with razor wire. The refinery was just on the other side, its silos towering in the air. Forking electricity illuminated more skeletal remains on pikes. The team split up and snipped through the fence at two entry points.

Two roads ran between the wide silos. The soldiers walked slowly, eyes roving for hostiles. Felipe led the way with his mine detector. At the halfway point, Mac sent Felipe up one of the ladders to look around. He handed his minesweeper to another soldier, who started sweeping while the rest of the team waited.

X took up position at a silo across from Rodger and Magnolia, who crouched behind the rusted hulk of a pickup truck. He looked toward the buildings beyond the silos. An old-world tanker truck, its tires long gone, sat alone in the empty parking lot. Beyond the lot, several structures with broken windows and sunken roofs overlooked the beach.

The harbor where the skinwalker ships were docked in Cricket’s recon images wouldn’t be far. It was possible Felipe could see them from the top of the oil silo. If he did, they could radio General Forge, and the attack could commence.

Felipe stopped halfway up the massive silo and looked, then kept going.

“Screw this,” Rodger muttered. He got up and went to climb another ladder, ignoring X’s signal to get down.

“God damn it,” X muttered.

He hurried over and got to the silo just as Magnolia yanked Rodger down.

“You’re really starting to piss me off,” X growled.

“Me, too,” Magnolia said.

“I’m just…”

Before Rodger could reply, a flare shot into the air, bursting in a bright glow that lit up the refinery.

“Down!” Mac yelled.

Automatic gunfire sounded, and a muzzle flash came from the top hatch of the tanker truck in the parking lot, where a soldier had popped up with a large machine gun.

Green tracer rounds streaked across the two roads between the silos from another position that X couldn’t see.

Two Barracudas crouching in the open went down before they could find cover. One lost an arm at the elbow, and the other lost half his helmet in an explosion of armor, blood, and bone.

A Barracuda ran over to take cover with X but was cut down by rounds punching through his chest armor. He landed on his side and, despite the devastating injuries, managed to start crawling.

X crouch-walked out to help, but Magnolia pulled him back as bullets kicked up a spray of earth on their way to the fallen soldier.

His blood spattered X’s armor. The Barracuda jerked and then went limp.

Ton and Victor were holding their shields at the silo across from X, waiting to make their move across the stream of fire, but he waved them back.

“Stay there!” X shouted.

He was no stranger to combat, but the flare and ambush had caught him off guard. He watched the armless Cazador crawl for cover, only to be shredded by more gunfire. An explosion boomed in the distance, rumbling the silo X hid behind.

Two other Barracudas got up to lay down covering fire, but the men they were trying to protect were cut down as soon as they took off running.

In a brief lull, X heard Mac shouting over all the other noises of war. The booming voice snapped him out of the shock. He got up to look for another way out. That was when X saw a figure on the silo that Felipe had climbed.

This wasn’t Felipe—it was a man holding a knife to Felipe’s throat. He kicked Felipe’s helmet off the roof, attracting Magnolia’s attention.

X could see the young Barracuda’s tattooed face in the glow of the parachute flare. His eyes were proud, no sign of fear.

Magnolia raised her laser rifle just as the skinwalker traced the blade across Felipe’s throat and pushed his body to the ash below.

THIRTY-TWO

A third of a world away, forty thousand feet in the sky, Michael thought of X as Discovery hovered over enemy territory. He felt a queasiness in his gut from the fear that something had happened to X.

He shook it away. They had already lost Cricket, and now they were facing an impossible decision.

“This is now a volunteer-only mission,” Les said. He looked down at a white line on the deck. “We all saw what’s down there. I won’t blame you if you don’t want to dive.”

The seven other Hell Divers stood in the launch bay with Timothy, who was here to interpret for Hector.

The tension was palpable among the men and women who could very well decide the future of humanity. Michael was both honored and horrified to be one of them.

He clenched and opened his robotic fist. “We’re running out of time,” he said. “We have to make a decision.”

“Why can’t we just launch the nukes and try to take out the machines that way?” Lena asked. “The mountain can’t be that deep.”

Michael recalled when he had considered dropping the nukes in the ocean, where they couldn’t cause the human race any more harm. But now those same bombs could potentially save humanity from the very machines that had destroyed the world.

“If we fire the nukes and they don’t work, we ruin our chances of going in on foot,” Les said. “The radiation would be too deadly even for our suits. As I said, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but if you’re coming, join me.”

He stepped over the painted white line.

“All due respect, Captain,” said Arlo, “but if we dive, how do we get past those defenses we saw on Cricket’s feed?”

“Ever hear of the kamikaze?” Ted said. “They were Japanese pilots during World War Two that—”

“I know what they are,” Les said. “They did their duty for their country during war, and we’re going to do ours as well, for all humanity.”

“I have a suggestion, if I may,” said Timothy, speaking up for the first time.

“Go ahead,” Les said.

“Perhaps a distraction might help you get into the base. We have enough rockets to take out the bulk of the defenses that Cricket documented—not all, but most.”

“That will tell ’em we’re here,” Arlo said.

“They know we’re here,” Michael said.

Les nodded. “It gives us a chance to sneak in and evens the playing field if we use nukes. So the question is, who’s with me?”

“I’m with you, sir,” Michael said.

“I’m here to avenge Ramon,” Edgar said. He put an armor-piercing round with his cousin’s name written on the brass into the sniper rifle and worked the bolt.

Sofia stepped over the line.

Arlo grunted, “Got to prove I’m thunder and lightning, I guess.”

He stepped over, and Hector did, too, leaving just Lena and Ted grounded.

“Come on, sweetheart,” Arlo said. “Remember what you told me last night?”

“Shut up, Arlo,” Lena said. She walked over and grabbed Edgar’s hand.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Arlo said.

Ted sighed and stepped over the line. “I can’t let Arlo die alone.”

“I ain’t dyin’,” Arlo said.

“You’re all very brave,” Timothy said. “I will watch over you the best I can with the crew while you’re on the dive, and once you near the target, we will give the DEF-Nine units some fireworks.”

“Upload the DZ on our minimaps,” Les said. “And get the rest of the support crew in here.”

Timothy uploaded the drop zone the team had chosen from the maps and satellite imagery. It was in the middle of a valley that would give them cover and let them avoid some of the forest.

Samson, Eevi, Alfred, and the two technicians who had signed on for the dangerous journey all filed into the launch bay.

Michael checked his wrist monitor. Cricket was still online somehow, though so damaged that it couldn’t fly. He kept an eye on the cameras that were still documenting the graveyard.

Samson, Alfred, and the two technicians walked around checking that all dive systems were operational.

Michael checked the charge on the laser rifle. It was down to just 8 percent. He jammed the battery back in, then stepped aside and opened the note that X had given him before they left. He had yet to read it, wanting to save it for the last minute.

“Timothy, take us to twenty thousand feet,” Les said.

As the ship started down, Michael opened the note.

Dear Michael,

The day you came screaming into the world was a day I will never forget. Your father insisted I hold you, but I was drunk and almost dropped you on your head.

That’s how we first met. I literally almost killed you.

“Clear launch bay,” Les said.

Michael looked up from the note, saving the rest.

“Good luck, and Godspeed,” Alfred said. “I pray you all return safely.”

Samson coughed into his handkerchief. “Give ’em hell,” he rasped.

He and Les shook hands, and he turned to Michael.

“Be careful, Tin,” Samson said. “I want Bray to grow up with a father and become as good a man as I’ve watched you become.”

“Thank you, sir.”

They hugged for what Michael realized was the first time. Even more surprisingly, Eevi also gave Michael a hug.

“I don’t blame you for Alexander, you know,” she said.

“Thank you,” Michael replied. “He was a good man and died bravely to save us.”

“He sure was…” She took a deep breath. “Good luck down there.”

The support crew departed, and while the Hell Divers lined up to jump, Michael went back to reading the note.

Since then, I’ve watched you grow into a man who is rare in this world. Selfless, kind, brave, wise. I could go on and on. Bottom line: You are the best of us, Michael. You are our future, and while I can’t be there with you to fight for it, know that I’m fighting for it, too, halfway across the world, and I will never give up.

No matter what happens, I will always be with you, even in death.

I love you like both a son and a brother.

Michael stopped reading and looked up to blink tears from his eyes.

“T-minus five minutes to launch,” Timothy said.

“Status reports,” Les said. “Phoenix One, online.”

“Phoenix Four, ready to dive,” Lena said.

Ted and Edgar both confirmed they were good to go.

“Raptor One, ready,” said Michael.

“Raptor Two, ready,” said Arlo.

“Raptor Three, online,” said Hector.

“Raptor Four, good,” said Sofia.

“Nearing jump altitude in one minute,” Timothy said.

Normally, a red light would have swirled in the launch bay, warning everyone to keep clear, followed by a pulsating blue. But Timothy had the entire ship in stealth mode.

“Ah, shit, this is really happening,” Ted said.

“You’ll be okay,” Edgar said. “Remember your training.”

Michael continued reading the letter from X.

You saved my life over a decade ago and have continued to make me a better man every day we’ve been together.

Thank you for reminding me to accept my past without regret, handle my present with confidence, and face my future without fear.

As the king of the Vanguard Islands, I promise you, Bray will have a place to grow up that is worthy of humanity, and I pray both you and I will see him grow up there.

Love,

Xavier

Michael tucked the note back in his vest just in time for the final warning.

“Prepare to dive,” Timothy said. “You dive so humanity survives. Good luck, my friends.”

Michael nodded at the AI. “Thank you for everything, Timothy.”

A countdown came on their HUDs.

Michael’s heart thumped with conflicted emotions. These could very well be the last moments of his life. He didn’t want to leave Layla alone to raise Bray. But if he didn’t do this, their home would never be safe.

Ten…

Nine…

Eight…

The launch-bay doors hissed open, letting in the gusting wind. Michael and Les both stepped out in front of the groups and shook hands.

“For Trey,” Les said.

“For Trey, sir,” Michael replied.

Three…

Two…

One…

“We dive so humanity survives!” Les shouted. He leaped into the darkness, and Michael followed right behind, yelling the same thing.

They speared into the inky void. Normally, Michael felt weightless the first few seconds of free fall, but today he felt gravity pulling down on him, or perhaps it was something else.

He brought his hands to his body and formed a human spear.

He bumped on his night vision, and the view turned green. The sky was packed with clouds, but there was no hint of lightning.

He looked up past his boots to check the other divers. Everyone was out of the launch bay. Normally, the battery units would glow, but today they were all covered.

Michael moved away from Les. The other divers did the same, fanning out from each other for safety.

They shot through the cold mattress of dense cloud cover like bullets through smoke. Michael shifted his gaze back to his HUD to check the DZ Timothy had selected.

The teams were already down to twelve thousand feet. At this speed, they would be on the ground in five minutes or less.

Michael rocketed through the billowy clouds. The beacons of the other divers blinked on his HUD.

As they neared the surface, the cloud cover lightened. At eight thousand feet, it was thin enough that he saw light in the east.

He bumped off his night-vision goggles and focused on a patch of pulsating red and purple much like what he had seen on the dive into Rio de Janeiro. It had to be the jungles they had seen via Cricket’s feed.

Les emerged on his left, still in a nosedive like Michael. A side glance confirmed that Sofia had also caught up to them. The other divers were still five hundred to a thousand feet higher.

The floor of black turned white as they neared a new cloud layer.

The easy dive was suddenly shaken up by a pocket of turbulence. Michael almost hit Sofia but managed to move away before he clipped her.

A scream sounded somewhere above—a male voice, probably Arlo.

The teams were all over the place in the clouds. For five seconds, Michael spun out of control. Then he suddenly burst through the bottom of the clouds.

Making a hard arch, he then pulled back into stable position and saw that Sofia had done the same thing. She was a natural. It took Les a bit longer to get his long frame into a stable fall.

Glancing up, Michael searched for the other divers using his NVGs.

Hector burst through the clouds next, cartwheeling. Ted and Arlo weren’t in much better shape, but both Lena and Edgar had managed to regain control of their fall.

At five thousand feet, Ted and Arlo didn’t have much time to get back into stable position.

Come on, Michael thought. You can do this.

The young men battled their way out of their spins and got back into nosedives. That left Hector. He seemed almost limp.

Had someone hit him and knocked him out?

Michael didn’t want to break radio silence to find out. He tried to slow his speed and make his way over to Hector. It was terribly dangerous to approach the spinning Cazador, but Michael wasn’t about to lose a member of Team Raptor.

At two thousand feet, Michael made his move. He grabbed Hector, trying to push him into a stable position. It didn’t work and almost knocked Michael out of his dive.

“Hector!” Michael yelled.

The diver didn’t respond.

Michael went back in again for one last attempt. That was when he saw Hector’s open face shield. Frozen eyelashes hung over his closed eyes, and his lips were dark.

What the hell…

Michael had no idea how the visor had opened, but he had heard about this happening on a long-ago dive. The poor bastard had probably died of asphyxia during the first minute, when his face froze from the thirty-below air at a hundred miles per hour.

A glance down revealed the first look at the desertlike terrain of the surface. The other divers had already pulled their chutes above the DZ.

At a thousand feet, Michael had to make one of the hardest decisions of his career. He pulled away from Hector, knowing there was nothing he could to do for him now.

Then he pulled his own chute, and the suspension lines came taut. He grabbed the toggles and looked down, his breath catching when he saw a diver right in Hector’s path.

“Lena!” Michael shouted.

He couldn’t tell whether she heard him, because her canopy blocked his view. He flinched as Hector’s body slammed into her chute, collapsing the two leftmost cells and sending her careening out of control.

The ground rose up to meet the divers—only seconds from touchdown for those with canopies, but it was the end for Hector. He frapped into the earth.

Michael tried to focus past the devastating loss. Lena was still in trouble, and they were almost on the ground in hostile territory.

The DZ was in a mile-long valley with jungle growing around the rim. Steep cliffs blocked much of the access, but he spotted the path out that Timothy had plotted on their minimaps.

Lena swung around using her toggles and finally managed to get control. One by one, the other divers performed two-stage flares and stepped out of the sky.

Arlo and Ted both crumpled after running a few strides, but Sofia and Les landed gracefully. Lena hit hardest, crashing and tumbling.

Michael managed to stay on his feet and ran out the momentum. He crouched down, released his chute and packed it down, and scanned for hostiles.

Edgar was the last down. He collapsed his chute and raised the sniper rifle, ready to fire on any machines waiting for them.

The team packed their chutes quickly. Edgar got to Lena first. She gripped her ankle, grunting in pain.

Michael trotted over. “How bad is it?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Lena said.

“We need to move,” Les said, crouching. “Can you walk?”

Edgar helped her to her feet. She yelped when she weighted the sprain.

Les looked to Michael but didn’t say a word. They both knew she would slow them down.

“What happened to Hector?” she mumbled.

Then she saw Sofia, kneeling by the body. Only the armor and jumpsuit held it in a recognizably human shape.

“It was his visor,” Michael said. “Somehow, it opened during the dive.”

“At least he didn’t suffer,” Arlo said.

Michael didn’t want to tell him the truth: that for an agonizing minute or more, Hector had likely suffered far more than if he had just crashed into the ground. And screaming would have made it worse, sucking freezing air into his lungs.

“What do we do with him?” Ted asked.

“Grab his vital gear and ammunition,” Les said. “Then bury him.”

The divers worked quickly, digging a shallow grave and covering the dead Cazador with dirt while Edgar held security with the sniper rifle.

When they finished, they each put a hand on the mound of dirt and whispered a few words.

“I’m sorry,” Michael said when it was his turn.

Les motioned for the teams to move out.

“Michael, you’re on point with Edgar,” he said. “Ted, Arlo, you got rear guard. We don’t stop until we get out of this valley.”

The divers moved out in combat intervals, navigating the foreign landscape cautiously but fast along a creek that flowed through the valley. Leafy mutant flora grew along the banks.

Michael kept the laser rifle shouldered, using his infrared optics to scan for life. Nothing bigger than a rabbit showed.

He stopped at the edge of the creek. The fast-flowing water was clear, nothing like the swamp murk he was used to seeing on dives. He tapped his wrist computer. The temperature was sixty degrees, and the air was free of radiation. It was one of the cleanest green zones he had ever dived.

Michael set off toward a creek bank of rounded river rocks, his boots sloshing in the ankle-deep water. The path out of the valley was just a quarter-mile north.

The team crossed two at a time, with Edgar supporting Lena.

Michael took cover behind a boulder, aiming his rifle at the distant cliffs and scanning for machines. Lightning fired from the belly of a cloud.

Thunder clapped a few seconds later.

The team joined him at the rocks, where Michael guided them toward a stand of trees.

Another thunderclap echoed through the darkness. This one didn’t fade away.

Michael halted, straining his ears.

A rumbling noise sounded in the distance. Here in the valley, it was difficult to gauge the direction.

He flashed signals toward the trees, and the team took off for cover. Edgar slung his rifle, picked Lena up, and ran with her.

The thunderous sound grew louder. Michael looked up through the dense canopy but saw nothing.

It was Arlo who spotted the drone. He raised his assault rifle, but Les pushed down on the barrel and shook his head.

A drone not much bigger than Cricket flew over the trees, then out over the valley, trailing a purple exhaust plume. The circular body had an antenna on the crest of what looked like an insect head covered in spikes.

Michael motioned everyone down. They went to their bellies and hugged the trees for any concealment they could get.

The drone circled once, then hovered low over the water.

Shit, our tracks! Michael thought.

He aimed his laser rifle at the machine, but it continued south—away from their location, but back toward where they had buried Hector.

Les was quick to get the divers up. “On me,” he said.

They moved out of the trees at a run, toward the rocky incline leading out of the valley. Lena was limping still, enduring the pain.

Les slowed the pace up the narrow cleft out of the valley. Nearing the top, Michael moved his robotic finger to the laser rifle’s trigger guard, ready to let the bolts fly into the trees growing along the valley rim.

He saw no movement among the large trunks, which would provide excellent cover. He motioned the divers to hunker down behind him. Then he took off in a crouching run to the trees.

Picking his way around exposed roots, he took up position behind a huge trunk. An infrared scan of the jungle to his left revealed no sign of life, and his NVGs didn’t pick up any machines in that direction.

Then he looked eastward, to his right.

The terrain there was flat, as he had expected. What he didn’t expect to see was an airship on the ground.

He zoomed in on the faded ITC logo on the hull. “My God,” he whispered.

It was the ITC Victory, the airship that Captain Sean Rolo had flown here decades ago despite Captain Maria Ash’s warnings.

She had been right all along.

Michael finally understood why she had never flown beyond the shores of North America and had always chosen green-zone dives to keep them in the air. It was the reason the Hive became the last survivor of its kind.

Perhaps Captain Leon Jordan, despite his evil ways, was trying to keep the same truth a secret: that out here, there was nothing but death.

But it was finally time to face the future and end this war forever.

THIRTY-THREE

“We have to retreat!” Magnolia yelled.

Mac’s recon team fought their way around the silos, trying to escape. Several of his men laid down covering fire toward the machine guns on the tanker truck and a shipping container.

Magnolia had frozen during the ambush, but the adrenaline snapped her free of the shock.

She ran around a silo and fired off three bolts at the shipping container, peppering the side with glowing red-orange holes.

Ton and Victor ran over to help shield X. Bullets kicked up puffs of black ash, and one hit Ton’s shield, knocking him to the ground.

Rodger fired a burst at a silo and hit a skinwalker sniping at the fleeing Barracudas.

“Go, King Xavier!” Victor yelled. He helped pick up Ton, and the two men held their shields up as a protective wall.

“Move!” Magnolia shouted.

X ran with Ton and Victor while Magnolia took aim at another silo, where a new sniper had popped up. The rounds hit a Barracuda soldier standing next to Mac. Magnolia took the sniper down with a bolt, removing his leg at the knee.

They had set a perfect ambush, but how had they known?

She suppressed the burning question and took off after X. The only way to escape was back the way they had come in. Mac was already guiding the team that way.

X stopped at Felipe’s corpse and bent down despite Victor’s shouts to hurry. Magnolia felt X’s sorrow. The young Barracuda had fought with him and helped him kill Colonel Vargas, only to die here at the hands of even worse men.

She and Rodger caught up with X and his guards behind a wall. A helmet covered in what looked like bloody patches of skin emerged on an adjacent silo. She fired a bolt, and even through the blurry NVGs, she could see the top of the soldier’s head come off.

“Let’s go!” she shouted.

Ton and Victor held up their shields and darted with X between two silos as Rodger and Magnolia laid down another field of fire.

One of the enemy machine guns went silent, either to change ammo or because the gunner was out of action.

Four silos remained between X’s group and the relative safety of the shipping containers. Six Barracudas were already there, firing bursts downrange. Bullets whizzed past Magnolia, one actually grazing her leg armor.

She rounded a corner, taking cover with the others behind a silo. Bullets pounded the side she had just cleared. Mac ran toward them, waving his prosthetic hand.

Four skinwalkers darted into the corridor between Magnolia and X’s group and Mac. But instead of gunning the warrior down, the four men drew swords.

The old Barracuda did the same and charged.

Magnolia got up and ran after Ton and Victor, who were trying to keep up with X.

Bullets chased them, pinging off the silos and lancing into the dirt. She came up alongside X as he fired a flare at the four skinwalkers. It hit a man in the back, igniting the skin draped over his armor. Flailing and screaming, he burned.

Something hit Magnolia hard in the back, slamming her to the dirt.

“Mags!” Rodger yelled.

She looked up as X raised his spear arm and the captain’s sword. The three skinwalkers continued to slash and jab at Mac, who deflected their blows.

“Yo, fuck-face!” X yelled.

A skinwalker turned, brandishing his sword.

X slid, jabbing upward with his prosthetic spear. The blade crunched through the groin and deep into the abdominal cavity. He crumpled, and X got to his feet just as a skinwalker’s blade struck Mac’s prosthetic hand, breaking it in half like a twig.

Magnolia pushed herself up off the ground with Rodger’s help. He turned to fire at hostiles approaching on their six while Ton and Victor ran to help X.

But X didn’t need help. He jammed his spear through the helmet of the skinwalker who was about to finish Mac off with an axe. He tried to pull the spear out, but it was stuck in metal and bone.

The remaining skinwalker swung a cutlass, but X used the skewered man as a shield, turning him toward the blade. Mac grabbed the cutlass wielder by the shoulder and spun him around, then jammed a knife up under the man’s chin, through the hard palate and into the brain, with a crunch that Magnolia could hear.

“X!” she shouted.

He braced a foot against the skewered man’s head and finally yanked his bloody spear free.

“You hurt?” he asked.

She wasn’t sure what had hit her, but she didn’t feel any blood or pain.

The group fled with Mac, finding cover in a scrapyard of containers. After a half-minute’s rest, they ran back to the field with the wind turbines. Several Barracudas waited there, reloading their weapons.

Less than half the recon team remained—only five including Mac. He spoke in Spanish to his men. Magnolia picked up the name “Felipe.”

“I’m sorry,” X said. “He’s gone.”

Mac hesitated, then looked toward the turbines. “We can’t hold here,” he said. “We have to go back through the field. You go first, King Xavier. We’ll cover you.”

“No,” X said. “We’re all going.”

Bullets dinged against the containers, and voices called out in the distance.

Another parachute flare streaked into the sky.

“Once that fades, you go,” Mac said. He gripped a bloody sword. “Rhino told me to guard you with my life before he died, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Rodger fired off a burst, the crack echoing off the containers.

“Fuck you!” he yelled.

Ton and Victor brought up their shields, ready to move. The remaining Barracudas moved to the sides of the containers and down on their bellies.

“Go, Immortal!” Mac yelled.

X clearly didn’t want to move, but Ton and Victor urged him on. Magnolia and Rodger followed them out into the field, keeping low. They kept to the path Felipe had swept for mines on the way in.

It was hard to follow the tracks in the ash, especially while under fire.

Ton went down with a muffled cry. X helped him back up and Magnolia noticed Ton was bleeding from his shoulder.

“Come on!” Rodger yelled, running ahead to take point.

Victor picked up Ton’s shield and took rear guard, using both shields to cover their retreat. The thick metal deflected the lower-velocity bullets, but some of the bigger-jacketed rounds punched through. One hit Victor in the arm.

He cried out, dropping one shield but keeping the other up.

Magnolia was focused on the ground, looking for mines, when Rodger vanished in an explosion. The blast knocked the entire team down, and something stung like a hot needle in her side.

Ears ringing, she lay in the ash for a moment. Lightning tendrils forked across the skyline. Smoke drifted away from a crater ahead of her.

She tried to yell for Rodger, but all that came out was a gasp.

Someone grabbed her and helped her up.

She could hear distant wails of pain. They sounded familiar.

“Mags,” said a gruff voice.

X stood over her, searching. Rodger was curled up on the ground not far from the crater.

Victor helped Ton to his feet. Both men raised their shields and moved to protect X and Magnolia.

“Rodger,” she managed to say.

X helped her up, and they stumbled over to him. His right foot was mangled. The armor was dented in places but appeared to have saved his limbs.

“Grab him!” X shouted. “We have to get out of here!”

Victor grabbed Rodger under the arms, and Magnolia lifted his knees. X wrapped Ton’s arm over his shoulder, and the group continued toward the turbines, following the tracks from earlier.

Moments later, they reached the huge turbine blade that stabbed the earth like a giant’s arrow. The ringing in Magnolia’s ears faded, replaced by the sound of gunfire. Mac and his men held back the skinwalkers, but it wouldn’t be long before they were overrun.

Magnolia bent down next to Rodger and grabbed his hand.

“I can still fight,” he growled, trying to sit up.

“Rodger, hold still.” She pushed down on his chest, but too late—he saw his foot.

“My toes!” he said. “My toes are gone!”

Victor had a medical kit out, and X was unwrapping a dressing. Ton gripped his shoulder, blood dripping between his fingers.

“Mags,” Rodger said.

She looked back down at him. “It’s okay, Rodge. You’re going to be okay.”

“You have to kill her for me if I can’t do it,” he said. “Promise me.”

“I promise. Now, try and relax. You need to be still.”

He tried to look down at his feet again, but she blocked his view.

“I love you, Rodge,” she said to distract him.

It worked. His helmet turned upward, and she bumped her visor against his.

A massive explosion bloomed out on the horizon. She saw it mirrored in Rodger’s visor. She turned toward it, her heart skipping a beat.

A message broke radio silence over the comms in her helmet.

“Renegade has been hit!” someone yelled.

X got to his feet and shouted in a crazed voice that didn’t sound like his.

“miles!” he screamed.

* * * * *

The sailboat rocked in sloppy seas. Ada sat at the control panel in the cabin, keeping an eye on the radar. She had shadowed the ship for a day now, keeping her distance. She still didn’t know who was on it, but one thing was certain: it was heading for the Vanguard Islands.

The chances of this being another ghost ship were slim, and while she couldn’t see it yet, she had a feeling there were Cazadores aboard. Who else could it be?

Luckily, her boat hadn’t attracted their attention. Yet.

Ada yawned and took a sip of water. She wasn’t sure how long it had been since she slept for more than an hour straight. She slapped her face twice and blinked her heavy eyelids.

Her new little friend slept peacefully on her lap, and she stroked its bristly hair. Jo-Jo had clung to her since she came back inside from the storm.

But she must go back out there soon. They were only four to five hours away from the boundary of the Vanguard Islands. If this was an enemy warship, it was her duty to warn King Xavier.

But it was more likely just another Cazador vessel like the Lion, and if that was the case, she would just keep her distance and follow them in.

But something told her she was sailing back to a war. She just hoped she wasn’t too late to help her people.

Waves slapped the starboard hull of her craft. She checked the skyline through the portholes. Lightning blasted the clouds, though she couldn’t hear the thunder over the breaking waves. The storm was closing in.

“We’re going to have to sail through that, Jo-Jo,” Ada said.

The monkey opened one big black eye.

Ada leaned forward to check the dashboard monitor. The sailboat was gaining some distance on the ship she tracked—too much distance, she realized.

She studied the radar to see whether the ship had changed its heading at all, but if it had detected her, it didn’t appear to be acting on it. It was still on the same course for the Vanguard Islands.

As the sailboat drew closer to both the ship and the home of her people, Ada felt her heart thump a little faster. After so long at sea, she couldn’t wait.

“You ready to see sunshine?” Ada said.

The monkey sighed and went back to sleep.

It amazed Ada that a creature that could survive in the wastes was so dependent. Anything born into this harsh new world would need natural survival skills.

Then again, she herself didn’t have many survival skills, and she was still breathing despite many things that had almost killed her.

Ada just watched for a few minutes, taking comfort in the innocence of the miracle she had found in the wastes.

Growing up, she had always wondered what the Hell Divers encountered on the surface, but they never spoke about it. She couldn’t help but think they had come across many creatures that weren’t hostile. Her journey had taught her that many forms of life had found a way after the apocalypse, and they weren’t all dangerous.

Ada put her helmet back on, then grabbed her gear and headed topside. She could operate the sails from inside the cabin, but she needed to see better.

Light rain pattered on her suit. The wind gusted, though without its earlier ferocity. Still, it was just enough to power the sailboat through the water faster than the ship she was chasing.

Unlocking the wheel was trickier this time and took some fiddling. When it was free, she steered toward the northeast, hoping to avoid the brunt of the storm.

For the next hour, she stood there, her excitement growing as she drew closer to the Vanguard Islands.

The sky opened up, and thunder boomed closer now as the lightning illuminated the way back to the islands.

A half hour later, she spotted something through the rain. At first glance, the ship was far larger than the Cazador warships like the Lion. Even bigger than their largest, Elysium.

Curious, Ada pulled out the binoculars and waited for the next lighting bolt.

When it came, what she saw in those split seconds was unlike any ship she had seen in the Cazador fleet. It had a landing strip like the old-world aircraft carriers she had seen in photos.

But that made no sense. She had never seen this ship in their fleet when she arrived at the islands, nor did she know of an aircraft carrier at any of their outposts.

Ada scoped the horizon again, looking for aircraft, but in the next flash, she saw nothing on the runway. That didn’t mean there were none belowdecks.

She swallowed at the implications. If this was a craft X didn’t know of, it could very well be a serious threat to her people. There was only one way to find out: get closer.

With only a few hours before she reached the barrier, she must act fast.

Returning to the cabin, she moved quietly past the sleeping Jo-Jo and sat at the controls. After a few false starts, she managed to raise the secondary sails.

The wind caught in them, and as the sailboat picked up speed, she guided it northeastward, away from the storm.

For the next half hour, she waited belowdecks, eyes fixed to the porthole. The ship seemed to be growing in size.

But how?

The sailboat had already made up so much ground that…

“Shit!” she shouted.

The sailors must have spotted her boat.

She hurried back toward the hatch, scaring Jo-Jo off the bunk.

“Stay put!” Ada yelled.

Grabbing her rifle in one hand, she opened the hatch, then shut it behind her to seal the monkey inside. She climbed up to the deck above the cabin, with a round chambered.

The rain slanted down in sheets now.

She trained the rifle scope on the ship and groaned with relief—it wasn’t turning.

Ada steered away, then raised her scope again. She was so close, in the lightning’s glow she could see small figures moving on the deck. The scope went dark, and she waited for the next strikes to show her who these sailors were.

An overhead bolt lit up the deck, and she spotted several armored figures. But something about them was off.

The view darkened. Ada cursed as her boat dropped farther away.

Holding the scope as steady as she could on the heaving sea, she glimpsed a faint orange light glowing on the deck. A figure walked out to join the armored soldiers.

But this was no Cazador. It wasn’t even a man. The figure she was looking at had a glowing orange visor.

These weren’t Cazadores. They were machines, and they had found the Vanguard Islands.

THIRTY-FOUR

The mission clock read three hours. That was also how many miles the Hell Diver teams had traveled from their drop zone. It wasn’t just Lena slowing them down. Twice now, they had hidden from drones searching for them.

Les looked at a secondary clock. It was nine thirty at night. A third clock brought up the time in Aruba. It was four thirty in the afternoon there, and the Barracudas would be on their recon mission by now. That didn’t leave the Hell Divers much time to shut down the machines.

Another drone passed over the jungle canopy, thrusters flaring as it rocketed westward with the howling wind.

“They definitely know we’re here,” Michael said.

Edgar nodded. “They’re searching for us.”

The windstorm picked up, rustling the foliage and making the tree branches creak around the hidden divers. As soon as the drone vanished, Les gave the signal to advance. Taking point, he brought the team deeper into the jungle. He used his rifle barrel to push away barbed plants and a sharp purple weed he had never seen before.

A snake with spots that looked like eyeballs slithered in front of his boot. He halted, letting it pass, then pushed on. In the green hue of his optics, he noticed a clearing that provided a window to the arid landscape where the ITC Victory had crash-landed.

They were more than a quarter mile away from the ruined hulk, but he could still see it. A tree canopy grew out of the curved rooftop.

Decades of exposure to the elements had blown away much of the outer hull, spreading pieces across the landscape. Most of the debris was small: aluminum plates and interior bulkheads. But also, several stabilizing fins had sheared off.

From the looks of it, the airship hadn’t crash-landed as Les had expected. So why would Captain Rolo come here of all places, when it was the base for the machines.

There had to be something he didn’t know, something that Captain Maria Ash had kept from her crew—something not in her records. Perhaps the deranged Captain Jordan destroyed it. Or perhaps Captain Ash had.

His mind whirled with various scenarios as he trekked through the jungle. Had they known about the machines all along?

If Pedro was right and humanity had launched an offensive to destroy the machines here, then it was a hell of a coincidence that Captain Rolo should come here almost 230 years later.

Unless he was tricked.

Les put aside the questions and went back to listening for drones and searching for machines on the ground. A bug with a faceful of eyes landed on his shoulder. He swatted it away and brought the rifle scope up to his visor.

The next leg would take them out of the jungle and into the open for at least five minutes before they reached the airship. Then it would be another four to five miles to the foot of Kilimanjaro and the factories they had seen from the air. He had no idea how they would make it that far without being seen unless Timothy came through with his distraction.

The wind picked up again, blasting a wave of grit into the jungle.

Les crouched and turned to the divers. They all seemed to have come through the initial shock of losing Hector, but he could tell by the way some of them moved just how scared they were.

That was good and bad. Fear got rid of cockiness, but it also made people do dumb things. He had to stay sharp to keep these young divers alive.

“Listen up,” Les said. “We’re heading for the wreckage of that airship, moving out in teams, with Raptor going first.”

“Why Raptor?” Arlo asked.

Michael moved in front of Les and held up his laser rifle. “This is why,” he said.

“Ted, you help Lena,” Les said. “Edgar, I need you to keep an eye on things with that rifle of yours, okay?”

Getting a nod from Edgar, he looked to Lena.

“I think I can put my full weight on it now,” she said.

Les watched as she tried it, though he couldn’t see whether she was wincing inside her helmet.

“I’m good,” Lena said. “Really.”

Les stood for a better view of the terrain separating them from the airship. Seeing no contacts, he signaled to advance.

Michael took point with the laser rifle. Arlo and Sofia followed him out into the screaming wind. Their receding figures seemed to dissipate like phantasms in the green hue of his optics.

A hundred yards out, Michael stopped and crouched behind a boulder at the edge of the debris field. Sofia and Arlo huddled there with him for a few minutes, then ventured into the wreckage.

The wind whipped the branches overhead, and one cracked off, falling next to Les.

Team Raptor was almost impossible to make out now. He spotted Michael darting to the hull of the ship. A platform still hung from an open hatch in the hull, and he raised his rifle inside to have a look. Then he turned and waved at the jungle before vanishing again in the whirling sand.

“Let’s go,” Les said.

Ted kept close to Lena, and Edgar took rear guard. Les went first, taking the same route as Michael but not stopping at the boulder. He went all the way to the scattered metal scraps, keeping low. The wind let up slightly, and he watched Michael walk up the platform and into the airship.

What the hell was he doing?

Les finally stopped behind the curved blades of a turbofan that had broken off. The other divers of Team Phoenix clustered behind him, checking the sky in all directions. From here to the airship, there was scant cover for someone as tall as Les, and the howling wind made drones hard to hear.

Edgar glassed the skyline with his spotting scope.

“We’re clear, sir,” he said.

The wind stirred up a vortex of dust, blocking his view of the airship. It blew open a suitcase, the contents long gone.

For a fleeting moment, the wind seemed to die again, and he saw the full outline of the airship, including the whipping forest canopy growing out of the rooftop.

He gave the order to advance. The other divers kept close as they navigated the field. Lena was limping again, with Ted helping her fight the wind.

Halfway across, the storm kicked up dust that brought visibility down to just a few feet. Sand scoured his armor, pushing him backward.

Les kept his helmet down, eyes on the barely visible ground. The storm continued to gather strength until the team found itself in near-blackout conditions.

Les looked back to Ted and Lena, scarcely able to make them out. He couldn’t see Edgar at all. There was nothing to do but hunker down and wait it out.

Over the howl came a thrumming sound that sent a spike of fear through Les. The thrumming grew to a blast.

Another drone.

The team was trapped in the open, unable to move, as the unmanned hunter hovered somewhere overhead.

Les pressed his long frame into the dirt, wishing he could shrink. He motioned for Ted and Lena. They started crawling.

Leading the way, he squirmed over to a dislodged fin. He grabbed the side and tried to lift it up, then halted when he saw the faded lettering on the metal: “ITC Requiem.”

But that made no sense.

He didn’t have time to figure out where this airship came from or where the ITC Victory was. Lena moved toward him on all fours, about ten feet away.

Les still didn’t see Edgar, but he spotted Ted.

The diver was battling the wind from a standing position. Les tried to wave him down, but Ted was looking away, his helmet down.

The thrumming came again, drawing Ted’s attention.

He looked to the sky and raised a hand to his visor. Les got up on one knee, ready to run over and pull Ted down.

A bolt of light flashed through the swirling gust, too blue and straight to be lightning.

Ted fell backward in the dirt, a sizzling hole in the upper-left quadrant of his chest armor, where his heart had been.

No!

Les held in a scream and dropped back down with Lena.

More bolts punched into the ground, kicking up dirt and leaving little smoldering craters. Les pushed the fin up and pulled Lena underneath.

Then he raised his assault rifle to the sky, aiming at the source of the lasers. A bolt blasted the ground to his right. He rolled away, banging into another piece of debris from the airship. A laser whizzed past his helmet.

Les got up on a knee and aimed where the bolt had come from.

This time, he spotted the drone hovering.

A flurry of bolts zipped from the drone as he pulled the trigger. Rounds from his rifle found the target, sparking on impact and sending the machine spiraling away.

Les looked at the burning holes in the ground to his left and right, then at the one that had missed his crotch by inches.

He was lucky. Far luckier than Ted.

Partly in shock, Les crawled back over to the metal fin to get Lena out. Before he got there, the drone’s hum rose over the whistling wind.

The noise sucked the air from his chest.

He spotted the same drone flying back toward his location, smoke fanning away from the holes he had blown in its outer armor.

Bolts sprayed the ground, and Les bounded away, back toward where Ted had fallen. Edgar was there, on his back next to Ted’s body, searching the sky with his NVGs.

Laser beams pounded the dirt as the machine homed in on their location. Les rose on both knees, raised his rifle, and was aiming when bolts cleaved the sky, slamming into the smoking side of the drone.

It burst into pieces, raining shrapnel on the surface.

“Over here!” yelled a voice.

Les turned to see Michael, who had run out into the storm.

“Help me with Ted!” Edgar shouted over the wind.

“We can’t take him with us!” Les called back.

Grabbing Ted’s rifle, Edgar jumped up and followed Les to the dorsal fin, where Lena had crawled out. Together, they made their way to Michael and, finally, to the cover of the airship hull.

Arlo and Sofia stepped away from the hull.

“Where’s Ted?” Arlo asked.

Les shook his head, and Arlo bowed his. The two had been good friends and had grown even closer since joining the Hell Divers.

But this was the reality of being one.

“We can’t stay here,” Michael said. “Gotta keep moving!”

He ran along the starboard side of the airship, under broken portholes. The legs had collapsed long ago, and the bottom of the ship had pushed dirt outward into a low, sloping wall smoothed by the wind.

Fighting strong gusts, the divers came up on the stern. Michael shouldered his weapon as he reached the debris of broken fins and rudders at the back of the ship.

Beyond there, Les couldn’t see much in the swirling grit. According to his HUD, they had another four miles’ march to the mountain, most of it in the open, in the wind.

If they made it that far, they must then infiltrate a base, find the mainframe, and upload the virus.

Passing another hatch, Les looked inside. Maybe they could shelter in the ship. Not much was left. Pitted bulkheads were covered in dark moldy growth. Electrical wires hung like spilled guts from the overhead. More discarded suitcases littered the decks. One contained a plastic doll.

It was as if these people had landed and then disembarked, leaving their belongings behind. But why? And if these were not Captain Rolo’s people, who were they?

“Captain,” called a voice.

Michael had stopped ahead, kneeling to glass the terrain in the distance. He waved Les over. The other divers followed close behind, hugging the bulkhead like scared children, except for Edgar, who stood tall with his rifle, scanning the debris field they had crossed.

Les squatted beside Michael.

“No sign of drones,” Michael said. “But we’ve got to cross that.”

He gazed out at a flat, desolate windswept area. Grit clouded the view, but there was something moving out there. An orange glow.

Michael saw it, too, and aimed his laser rifle.

“Get the others into the ship,” he said. “Tell them to hide.”

Les spotted three orange lights moving in the storm. Gripping his assault rifle, he thought of Phyl and Katherine.

He had known that this moment would come, but somehow he didn’t feel ready.

Did you expect to get in there without a fight?

“I’ll take them, sir,” Michael said. “You should go with the others.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Les replied. He motioned for Edgar to get the other divers inside the airship. Edgar nodded and corralled Sofia, Lena, and Arlo into the open hatch where they had found the doll.

The orange lights on the plateau brightened until Les could see the titanium-alloy skulls. Seeing the defectors sparked something inside him. He inched away from the hull.

“What are you doing, sir?” Michael asked.

“Aim for the chest or the head. I’m going to get us three new laser rifles.” With that, Les took off running into the storm, away from the orange visors and back out into the debris field.

He ducked behind a boulder and propped up his rifle. Michael fired a beat later, opening up with calculated single bolts.

An orange visor went down, fading out, but the other two headed right for the airship. Les aimed at the head of one just as they returned fire at Michael.

He pulled the trigger, but his aim was slightly off, going high. The shots did the trick in attracting the droid. In an abrupt mechanical motion, it turned and strode in his direction.

Les kept steady, lining up the crosshairs on the robot’s chest, aiming for the battery unit.

Bolts flashed, slamming into the rock and sandblasting his face shield. Les fired again, burst after burst into the metal exoskeleton, but none penetrated.

The robot kept coming. Lasers pounded the boulder.

Les hunkered down as low as possible, chest heaving.

The other defector sprayed the hull of the airship, but Les couldn’t see Michael, nor did he see return fire.

Shit, shit, shit!

Les buried his fear and prepared to get up and fire, but something felt wrong, as if these were the last seconds of his life. He knew that if he exposed himself now, he would die.

Then he heard the crack of automatic weapons.

Not one. Bursts from two. Then a third.

The defector approaching the airship went down. In a brief lull in the storm, black armored figures funneled out of the ship. One reached down to help someone off the ground.

More laser bolts flashed in their direction. The defector had turned its rifle away from the boulder and onto the divers.

Les crept around the side of the rock, laying down his assault rifle and grabbing his blaster. With the weapon in hand, he got up and ran toward the defector firing on the Hell Divers.

It turned toward him as he aimed the weapon into the mouth of the machine.

“For Trey,” Les said as he pulled the trigger.

THIRTY-FIVE

X hid with Magnolia and Rodger in a thicket at the edge of the beach. The distant sounds of gunfire had faded away, confirming the obvious: Mac and his team were all dead or in captivity.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The skinwalkers weren’t supposed to have anyone in the refinery. He had seen the damn footage himself. He felt sick.

A few feet away from him, Ton and Victor watched the forest for pursuing hostiles. Both men were wounded. Ton had a bullet wound to the shoulder, and Victor had a through-and-through to the upper arm.

Magnolia lay beside Rodger and tried to keep him from moaning and giving away their position. It was just a matter of time before the skinwalkers found them here.

They hadn’t just ambushed his team. They had also attacked Shadow and Renegade. X lifted the binos, afraid to look.

Smoke wafted away from Shadow, but Renegade was gone, sunk by the submarines.

The skinwalkers had gotten the best of X twice now. Horn had ambushed him at his home and now at the outpost. And now Miles was dead, caught in the crossfire of a war X couldn’t stop.

“Miles, my sweet boy,” he mumbled.

He pushed up his visor and vomited onto the sand. Then he sobbed like a child.

Magnolia moved over and put a hand on his back. “I’m so sorry, X,” she said.

Rodger writhed in pain, and she returned to his side. The land mine had turned his right foot to mush, and his legs had suffered major trauma. If not for his armor, he would have lost them both. The dressing Magnolia had applied below the tourniquet was already bright red.

“We’ve got to get him aboard Shadow,” Magnolia said.

Using his spear as a brace, X pushed himself up. He couldn’t grieve for Miles right now, not until Rodger was safe and X had his revenge. Until they all had their revenge.

El Pulpo, Carmela, and their bastard son had taken too much from the sky people. X was going to make Horn and his mother suffer.

Across the green view of the ocean, Shadow sailed farther out to sea. On the deck stood a man wearing an orange cape. X zoomed in with the binos—it was indeed General Forge.

As long as the man was alive, they had a chance.

“Men,” Victor said.

Magnolia and X both spun about, X with his blaster, Magnolia shouldering her laser rifle. But Victor was pointing at the water.

X followed his line of sight, seeing nothing in the waves.

Victor kept pointing. “See. I see men.”

“Where?” Even with his night vision on, X didn’t see anything beyond the breakers but endless whitecaps.

Over the surf came a noise. Barking.

X lowered his blaster and walked out onto the sand.

“King, no,” Victor said.

“X, get back here!” Magnolia said.

X staggered out farther down the sloping sand toward the pounding waves. Were his ears playing tricks on him?

The barking came again and halted, and he strained to see the outline of a craft moving in the water.

“Miles?” X whispered. He stared in disbelief at what had materialized into a rubber boat. Not one but three, all carrying soldiers.

And a dog.

Miles leaped out into the surf and swam toward the beach. X ran out into the tide, battling the massive waves to get to his best friend.

“Miles!” he yelled.

A wave brought Miles right toward X. He wanted to grab the dog, but it was too dangerous while the spear remained attached to his stump.

Miles came ashore with the next wave. X wanted to hug the dog and hold him tight, but now wasn’t the time.

The three rubber craft beached, and militia soldiers and Cazadores jumped out. With them were Imulah and another scribe, bandaged and bleeding.

The soldiers pulled the boats up the beach, then grabbed gear and weapons.

“I took care of him like you said, sir!” a voice called out.

X spotted the soldier he had told to look after his dog. Brett something… He wanted to hug the guy, but he was too busy hugging the dog. Brett ran over, panting.

“Thank you,” X said. “I owe you, man.”

“We need medics,” Magnolia said. Brett turned and motioned toward the militia soldiers. Two of them ran over with packs. Another walked over to Ton and Victor, who were still watching the jungle for hostiles.

Victor waved the medic away.

“Fine,” he grunted.

“We need men to hold security along this tree line,” X said to Brett, pointing with his spear.

He counted ten militia soldiers and twelve Cazadores. Several wore the Barracuda logo on their armored chests. He didn’t want to tell them what had happened to Colonel Mac and Felipe, but he had no choice.

“Any of you Cazadores speak English?” X asked.

“I do, King Xavier,” said a man in full armor. He walked over, holding a long rifle with a scope.

“What’s your name?” X asked.

“Willis.”

X explained what had happened, and the soldier interpreted for the other Barracudas. Several lowered their heads, clearly distraught, but they put aside their grief and fanned out with their weapons.

Brett got down on a knee, still trying to catch his breath.

“What the hell happened out there?” Magnolia asked.

“Fucking subs. General Forge took one out with cannon, but Shadow got hit by multiple rockets, and Renegade took one to the starboard hull.”

“They must have seen us coming somehow,” said a female militia soldier. She had a see-through visor, and X recognized her freckled face.

Libby was just nineteen and had gone from school on the Hive to farmwork on a Cazador rig, and now to fighting.

“We barely escaped,” she said.

“What about Raven’s Claw?” X asked.

“Not sure, sir,” said Brett. “I didn’t see it, but General Forge is on the hunt. At least, that’s what we were told before the comms on Shadow went down.”

“What do we do?” Libby asked.

X looked at her, then scanned the other frightened faces behind the masks. The Cazadores’ helmets were pointed his way, and while he couldn’t see their features, he knew that they, too, were scared. Most of those here on the beach were young people, just as in old wars.

Now they were cut off, and X had no idea where Horn and his main forces were. The recon mission had not merely failed; it had ended in a slaughter.

But how had Horn known?

“Sir,” Brett said. “I mean, King… What do we…”

“We do what the Cazadores do,” Magnolia said. “We go hunting.”

Miles wagged his tail.

“You aren’t coming,” X said. “You’re staying with Rodger and…”

X wasn’t sure who to put with them, but he couldn’t leave them on the beach. He couldn’t risk sending them to Shadow, either. Not with another submarine and Raven’s Claw still out there.

“Victor, tell Ton I want him to stay here and guard them,” X said.

Victor interpreted, and Ton nodded. A medic had already finished plugging his armor.

“The militia stays here, too,” X said. “You got that, Brett? Keep an eye on the jungle and beach. If anyone approaches that looks like them, you shoot. Got it?”

“Where are you going?” Brett asked.

“Mags, Victor, and I are going to find Moreto and Horn,” he said.

“No,” Rodger moaned. “You can’t leave me.”

X bent down to the medic wrapping Rodger’s foot. “Give him some morphine,” he whispered.

The medic nodded and fished inside her pack.

Rodger reached out to X. “Don’t do this to me, King Xavier,” he slurred. “I can still fight.”

“Don’t worry, Rodge,” X said. “I’ll save some for you.”

Rodger grunted in pain as the medic stuck a shot between armored plates, into his suit.

X walked over to Imulah. “You okay?”

The scribe shook his head. “The radiation…”

“Is minimal. You’ll be fine without a suit for a little while.”

“What are you going to do, King Xavier?” Imulah asked.

“Finish what I came here for,” X said. “Hang in there, mi amigo.”

X went to the Barracuda who had spoken English.

X said, “Willis, I want you to take eight men down the beach and try and flank the outpost. Don’t attack unless you think you can win. I want the other four here with the militia, to protect the wounded and Miles.”

Willis nodded and pounded his chest.

By the time X returned, Rodger was passed out. Magnolia put her face shield up against his.

“He’s going to be okay, Mags,” X said. He went down on one knee beside Miles. “Look after Rodge, okay, boy?”

Miles’s tail swung back and forth, hampered by his suit.

Rising to his feet, X checked the ocean. Shadow sailed toward the harbor, in pursuit of the last sub and Raven’s Claw.

“Good luck, General,” X said softly. “We’re both going to need it.”

Victor waited at the jungle’s edge with his cutlass in hand. His left arm hung limp against his side. The medics would dress the bullet wound when they could.

Magnolia checked her laser rifle.

“You guys ready for this?” X asked.

Two nods.

X led the way. Together, they set off through the jungle, taking a new path—this time without a mine detector.

X selected a route thick with vegetation, knowing it would be less likely to have mines. He chopped a barbed frond with his spear. Purple sap spurted like blood from an artery.

Magnolia hacked at branches with her sickle, and Victor used his cutlass. By the time they reached the clearing, their blades were sticky with sap.

X took up position behind a thick palm trunk and glassed the field with the binos. Over decades of use, the night-vision goggles had become like a set of glasses, helping him see things other divers would miss.

On this sweep, he saw nothing between his position and the oil refinery.

“X,” Magnolia said quietly.

He joined her at the base of another tree.

“Look at the turbines,” she said.

X used his binoculars again, centering them on the turbines in the other direction. A rope hung from one of the blades. He followed the rope to the ground, where several people wearing black suits stood pulling the rope.

“What in the…” he whispered.

Victor joined him and Magnolia to watch. The people were unarmed and looked just like the ones X had seen in the video from Cricket’s recon and in the meat locker.

Both Magnolia and Victor aimed their rifles, but X waved them down. He zoomed in on skinwalkers standing around a perimeter with their rifles. They seemed to be guarding the workers in black suits. He hadn’t wanted to believe it earlier, but now he knew.

The skinwalkers had done the unthinkable—something no Hell Diver or even Cazador had ever done. They had awoken genetically modified humans at the ITC chambers and were now using them, for both slave labor and food.

X zoomed in farther, trying to see their features behind the plastic visors. Only then did he see what they were doing.

The four groups of slaves stood in single files, hoisting fresh bodies up to the turbine blade. All were Barracudas.

X watched in impotent rage as Felipe was hauled up. When the workers got him up to one of the blades, the skinwalker soldiers shot crossbows, pinning the young warrior’s corpse to the blade.

Closing his eyes, X tried to block out the evil. When he opened them again, another corpse was going up on the third turbine. This one had a prosthetic leg, and a stump where a prosthetic hand had been broken off.

X centered his binos on the dead colonel, who no longer had a helmet, or even a face. The bastards had mutilated him and the other Barracudas.

“What’s around his neck?” Magnolia asked.

X zoomed in on a sign pinned to Mac’s chest armor. He tried to read it as the workers pulled the limp body up.

The words were in Spanish and written in smeared blood, but X knew enough Spanish to read them. “Vienen las máquinas.”

Horn wasn’t bluffing. The machines were on their way to the Vanguard Islands.

* * * * *

The Hell Divers were running out of time.

If X and his war party encountered defectors at the Outrider, they would be in major trouble. The divers had to get into the base and upload the virus before it was too late.

Three new laser rifles scavenged from the machines would help, but the team had already lost Ted and Hector, and they still had several miles to travel before they even got within view of the base.

And now they didn’t have Cricket’s cameras. The drone’s feed had switched off an hour ago.

Michael trekked through the wastes with a heavy heart. At this rate, they wouldn’t make it far if they encountered more machines. It wasn’t a matter of if, but of when.

He didn’t know what was stopping the machines from finding them now. They knew that the divers were here, but they hadn’t sent out any of the beetle-looking tanks. Only a few drones and a single foot patrol of DEF-Nine units.

Maybe we’re not a threat to them.

Michael could use this to his advantage. The machines were going to be sorry they hadn’t taken the Hell Divers more seriously.

He led the other five divers into the darkness and the howling wind, moving from cover to cover, stopping every few minutes to scan the skies.

There wasn’t much out here now that they had left the ITC Requiem behind. Michael had plenty of questions about the airship. He still hadn’t found Captain Rolo’s ITC Victory, but he was starting to put the pieces together.

It was a hell of a coincidence for the Victory to show up where humanity had made a final stand against the machines during World War III. But two warships was beyond any possible coincidence. They had come here for a reason that Captain Maria Ash and Captain Jordan either had hidden or never knew.

If he survived, Michael would very soon find out what that reason was.

Grit swirled across the plains, making it difficult to see, but Michael spotted cover at a dry riverbed snaking across the cracked ground. A fence of spindly trees grew on the banks, their branches dangling like Cazador fishing poles.

He directed the team toward the watercourse. To his surprise, a weak trickle flowed through the channel below, but the creature drinking there surprised him even more.

A four-legged beast that looked like a cross between and a cat and a dog looked up at Michael with eyes that glowed green in his NVGs. Long, rigid bristles rose up across its neck and along its back.

Michael froze.

The animal seemed to do the same. The tail dropped between its hind legs. Opening a mouth full of sharp teeth, it let out an almost human-sounding laugh.

Then it turned and took off running. Rising on its hind legs, the beast jumped to the opposite bank and bounded up and over the top. A cackle filled the night as the creature retreated across the fields.

“What the hell was that thing?” Arlo asked.

Lena limped over. “It looked like a hyena but with a few adaptations, like those spines.”

“At least there is life out here,” Sofia said. “That means the machines don’t kill everything.”

“Just humans now,” Edgar said. Leading the way with his sniper rifle, he set off down into the riverbed. Using the watercourse for cover, the divers followed its snaking path upstream, toward the snowcapped volcano in the distance.

A drone flew low over the foothills, searching the canopy of trees growing along the base of the mountain. It circled several times, then shot back over the jungle, in the direction of the smokestacks.

Michael could see the smoke streaming out into the sky but still couldn’t see the silos. He could see radio towers, and a satellite dish protruding from a cliffside like a mechanical ear.

Flat, dry terrain stretched from the divers’ position to the scree slopes around the base of the mountain.

“We have to cross that?” Arlo whispered. “We should have just dropped on the mountain and rappelled down.”

“Quiet,” Les snapped.

Michael took a sip of water through his straw and tried to calm his nerves. He had tried his best to bury all thoughts of what was happening both on Aruba and in the Vanguard Islands, but downtime like this gave his mind time to stir up worries, like a gust of wind stirring up grit.

A sonic boom snapped him right out of it. The divers all hunched down as a drone rocketed across the sky. It stopped over the mountain and then lowered. Another drone rose into the air over the cliffs and climbed into the clouds. Thrusters pulsated, and it blasted away across the skyline.

Edgar panned his spotting scope over the flat, sere terrain, then looked over. Lightning reflected in his mirrored visor.

“We got a window, Commander,” he said.

“This is our chance,” Les said. “Move fast and stay low.”

Michael got up and started off across the plains. The team ran in a crouch. Lena was still limping but keeping up.

A half mile into the trek, they paused to rest at an outcropping of boulders. The wind had died down enough that Michael could see the hills. He sheltered behind a rock and gestured for Edgar.

“Find us a path,” Michael said.

“Northeast looks clear with several more outcroppings if we have to hide,” Edgar said, handing Michael his spotting scope.

There were several clusters of buildings across the plateau. But it was the jungle at the base of the foothills that most interested him. If they could reach it, they could sneak to the foothills and then into the rocks surrounding the fortress at the foot of the mountain.

He rotated the scope to look at the smokestacks and the fortress walls. They had to get inside there somehow.

“We make a run for the jungle,” Michael said, “then work our way up to the rocks to look for a way in. Everyone on me, fast and tight.”

He took off running. The trees were a mile and a half away—normally about a thirteen-minute run in armor, but he had to go slower for Lena.

Minutes into the trek, he spotted the mounds of earth they had seen from Cricket’s camera. And while he couldn’t see cannons or turrets, he knew they were there, hiding.

A branch snapped under Michael’s boot. He kept going, ignoring it. After another snap, he realized that they weren’t sticks. Bones littered the dirt ahead.

He slowed his pace. They were in the graveyard they had seen from the sky. The round rocks he had spotted at their last position weren’t rocks, either.

Shells of vehicles littered the ground. The nose of a helicopter and a wing of a fighter jet stuck out of the ground to his right. And bones were everywhere. Armor, too—all of it scoured by the wind over the centuries since the human army lost the battle to stop the machines.

Michael kept walking, then broke into a trot. Every bone that snapped under his heavy boots made him think of the dead. These people couldn’t all have been soldiers. Like the Hell Divers, they had probably come from all walks of life. Teachers, engineers, chefs—people trying to save what was left of their world.

And they had failed.

Michael kept running, trying to put them out of his mind and focus on the mission. But every step was a challenge. He felt that he was in a graveyard possessed by the ghosts of fallen warriors, all of them counting on the Hell Divers to finish what they themselves had failed to do.

His thoughts returned to Layla and Bray. He was trying to save his family, just as these people had tried to save theirs.

Thinking of X enabled him to refocus. The king was off fighting the skinwalkers, to save not only his family but the Vanguard Islands, too. And if X and General Forge ran into defectors there, it could be a slaughter.

Michael narrowed in on the trees, running faster, rifle cradled and eyes forward.

To defeat the machines, he must become one.

He was a quarter mile from the tree line when another drone rose into the sky. He didn’t see it at first—only the sound of thrusters. But then it burst through the smoke wafting away from the factory stacks.

Michael kept running, close enough to the fortress now to see a dirt road leading away from two massive steel doors that must be an entrance. Both were sealed shut.

He glanced over his shoulder. The divers were keeping up with him, even Lena. They bolted for the acres of trees and red sage-like bushes—ample concealment for scouting out the base.

Somewhere behind them, another drone thruster roared. Everyone hit the ground, praying that their suits would mask their heat signatures.

He stared ahead, not daring to move, staring into the empty orbits of a cracked and wind-polished skull. A rib cage stuck out of the ground nearby, and beside it a skeletal hand, a wedding ring still on the third finger.

Michael again thought of Layla and Bray.

You’re going to see them. You’re going to get out of this.

As the machine closed in, that little promise to himself seemed hard to believe.

Michael flitted his eyes to see the drone up close for the first time. This model was much more advanced than Cricket. It had no limbs and a curved shell. Spikes jutted from the armor, and an antenna tested the air.

The thrusters in back turned off as the underbelly opened. It switched to hover mode, and all those spikes extended into what were surely weapons.

Heart thumping, he resisted the urge to raise his laser rifle and blast the damn thing out of the sky. If he did, they were so close to the base that the machines would send everything down on them.

The drone lowered until it was ten feet above him, close enough that the hover nodes kicked up a rooster tail of dust. The force of the draft exposed a skull still wearing a helmet that didn’t look much different from his own.

Michael tried to calm his pounding heart as the drone flew over him. He waited for a flurry of bolts that never came. The draft of air passed right over him as it flew over the other divers.

He remained frozen, and the noise moved farther away. He swallowed hard and then flinched at another noise—a beeping sound.

Michael’s gut clenched when he realized what was causing it: his wrist monitor.

He brought it under his body and shut it off, but too late. The humming returned, drawing closer.

He prepared to roll away and fire his laser rifle, waiting for just the right moment. But just when he flipped onto his back, the thrusters on the drone fired. Blue flames scorched the air as it zipped away.

He didn’t waste a second getting up. The team followed him toward the trees while the drone flew away to the eastern edge of the battlefield.

Michael recognized the location. Cricket had somehow come back online—not to warn Michael, but to provide a distraction. He looked over his shoulder just as the enemy drone located Cricket’s broken body. A flurry of red lasers pounded the ground, finishing off the mechanical Hell Diver that had saved countless human lives, including Michael’s.

Anger flared, and he halted, but Les pulled on his robotic arm. He chambered the anger for later and ran to the jungle on the captain’s heels.

When they got there, Edgar was aiming his rifle toward the fortress walls.

“Guys, we have a major fucking problem,” he said quietly.

The gate Michael had seen earlier widened, giving them the first look inside the base. Marching forward were three DEF-Nine units, followed by another three.

Within seconds, a small army had left the base, marching down a sloped road.

“Holy shit,” Edgar said. “Take a look at this.”

He handed Michael the spotting scope, and Michael zoomed in, expecting to see even more machines inside the base. But he saw other figures—not machines at all.

These were humans, all of them shackled and chained.

A drone hovered over the group, and a defector led them across an open area, toward the factory smokestacks. The gates slowly closed, again blocking the view.

Mechanical joints clanked in the distance as the defectors marched down the road and spread out.

“What do we do?” Arlo asked.

Les looked toward Michael.

They both answered at the same time.

“We hide.”

THIRTY-SIX

Magnolia climbed the interior stairwell in what appeared to be an abandoned building. X and Victor followed her, their helmet beams raking back and forth, illuminating a reddish crust that covered the stained walls like warts.

Head pounding from her injuries, she felt like an insect stuck in a web, being pulled in all directions by a family of hungry spiders. Using her body, she burst through a web covering the stairwell.

She hoped that Lieutenant Wynn would be able to protect their home until the Hell Divers could shut down the machines. Not knowing how Les and Michael were doing made her feel helpless. But that wasn’t her only worry. Leaving Miles and a gravely wounded Rodger on the beach tugged on her heart.

At the top floor of the building, she entered a hallway with cracked walls. Switching off her helmet lamp, she used her night-vision optics to scan the passage. The doors were gone, allowing a view into each room.

X and Victor followed her, clearing the spaces one by one. At the final room, Magnolia went inside, sweeping her rifle barrel over the rotted desks and rusted chairs. Broken windows looked over the refinery.

Keeping low, she spotted a figure on a silo.

The skinwalkers weren’t hiding anymore. Several walked on the round rooftops, watching the ground and the air for hostiles. She counted five of them, and on the ground another two patrols of four men each inside the fenced-off compound.

X and Victor took up position along the wall, sneaking glances out the missing windows. Magnolia checked out the compound.

Two fences sealed off the main buildings inside. A third barrier, of brick and mortar, surrounded the buildings. Weeds and bushes with stubby branches grew inside the fenced zone.

Something moved in the purple foliage, parting it like a dorsal fin cutting through the water. An eyeless head emerged, and a spiked back. A prowling Siren—another layer of security around the outpost.

And not just one Siren. She spotted several of the creatures. All were males, their wings sheared off, leaving jagged stubs protruding from their bony backs.

X saw them, too, then raised his binoculars to the ocean. Magnolia aimed her night-vision monocular in that direction, looking for Shadow. The remaining Cazador warship was nowhere in sight, but she could see another vessel.

Zooming in, she confirmed that it was Raven’s Claw, sailing about a mile out to sea. This warship was different from the ones she had seen in the Cazador fleet. Several modifications had been made over the years, but it was the ribs of some gigantic sea beast mounted along the gunwales that caught her attention.

On the bow, the skull of the largest shark she had ever seen bared its teeth at the darkness. Raking the scope over the deck, she spotted several sailors, though not as many as she would have expected.

X stood beside her, scanning with his binoculars while Victor stood guard.

“I don’t see Shadow,” he said.

They turned back to the view of the outpost buildings. The skinwalkers were hunkered down, and Magnolia had a feeling she was seeing only a small portion of their fighting force. They also had the people they had woken from ITC’s cryo chambers, not to mention the Sirens.

Horn and his men weren’t just evil. They had to be insane.

“How are we going to get inside?” she asked X.

He kept his binos on the industrial buildings inside the fences. The structures were mostly metal warehouses built on concrete foundations. Like the Raven’s Claw, they had been reinforced with plate steel. Bars covered the shaded windows.

Train cars, no longer on tracks, served as barracks. Rusted containers also stood inside the compound, probably containing more horrors.

“Three against thirteen men,” X finally said. “I’ve faced worse numbers.”

Victor didn’t seem to understand.

“Plus the Sirens,” Magnolia said.

“Exactly,” X said.

Magnolia gave him a puzzled look.

X flipped up his face shield and spat on the ground.

“You take out the guards on the rooftops, and Victor and I will take the patrols outside the outpost,” X said.

“You want me to sit here and snipe?”

“Victor’s injured, and as you know, I can’t shoot for Siren shit with this damn toothpick arm.”

X was right, but she wanted in on the action when they found Moreto. She had a feeling the woman was hiding in the buildings directly in front of them.

“Once shit hits, meet on the west side of the outpost,” X said. He pointed to the boatyard with its motley fleet in various states of decay, then to a cargo ship laden with containers.

“There,” he said. “We use the chaos to pick off anyone coming outside; then we enter the outpost to mop up any survivors.”

“Got it.”

“Good luck, Mags.”

“You too.”

The two men left, and Magnolia unslung Rodger’s assault rifle. She rested it against the wall, then laid out the magazines.

Getting on one knee, she trained her laser rifle at the silos that X and Victor crept toward. The skinwalkers had spread out on the tops. They must have night-vision goggles, because none were using flashlights.

X and Victor neared the area where the Barracudas had been ambushed. Blood from fallen soldiers darkened the soil. Spotting the area where Felipe fell, she aimed at the skinwalker who had killed him. Flaps of bloody skin draped the sides of his helmet. Magnolia noticed the dark tattoos on the patches.

He was wearing Felipe’s face and scalp.

“Bye-bye, ass wart,” she whispered.

A bolt flashed through his mouth and out the back of his head. He crumpled to the silo roof, out of view. Seconds later, she dropped another skinwalker with a bolt through the chest. She could see through the glowing orange hole in his middle as he teetered and fell.

The other three soldiers seemed oblivious.

She used the lag time to take off a third skinwalker’s arm at the elbow. Before he could cry out, his head slid off and rolled against the severed forearm.

The fourth guard turned, looking around wildly as he raised his rifle. Magnolia took his hand off, then blew through his helmet with a second bolt.

Seeing his comrade drop, the fifth and final soldier swung his rifle toward her. She vaporized his chest armor before he could squeeze the trigger.

Victor and X had advanced toward the first patrol of four skinwalkers. The men all carried rifles and had bows slung over their backs.

X took up position behind a low concrete wall and pulled the other half of Rhino’s spear from the sheath over his back.

Victor stood with drawn cutlass, hugging the wall of an adjacent silo. Even from here, Magnolia could see that the blood had soaked through the bandage on his arm.

The skinwalker patrol marched toward the ambush until the leader, a hulking man sporting a human jaw on his helmet, stopped and held up a hand. He looked up at a corpse hanging its head and arm over the edge of a roof.

Magnolia aimed right at the jaw on the bulky skinwalker as he raised an arm. Before she could pull the trigger, X materialized from behind a concrete wall. With a swift jab, his prosthetic spear pierced the man’s helmet. With his left hand, he drove the other half of the spear into another soldier’s chest.

Victor had flanked, bringing his cutlass down on the back of a neck, severing head from spine. By the time the fourth soldier knew what was happening, both X and Victor had stabbed him twice.

He dropped to the ground, and X finished him off with a spear through the eye slot.

The patrol was dispatched in less than a minute, and Magnolia hadn’t even fired a bolt.

The king and Victor took off for the final patrol outside the fences.

Gunfire cracked in the distance. Magnolia looked back toward the wind turbines. The noise seemed to be coming from that direction.

Rodger… Miles…

More shots popped toward the beach west of the compound—where the other Barracuda team had gone to flank the outpost. Trying not to think about what was happening out there, she focused on finding the last patrol.

X and Victor ran down the dirt road, following streaks of blood toward the fences and the area where she had last seen the other patrol.

She moved to another window but still didn’t see the four warriors.

Where the hell did they go?

Magnolia went back to the window where she had rested her assault rifle. Using her night-vision monocular, she combed the ground, finally spotting boot prints.

She followed them to a silo, where they vanished from view. Panning left, she finally saw part of a soldier. Just an arm and back of the helmet of a man who had stopped behind the silo.

X and Victor were walking right toward the skinwalker patrol.

If she didn’t do something, they would be the ones ambushed.

She aimed at the exposed helmet, but the angle was tricky. And even if she made the shot, there were still three more.

Acting quickly, she swung the barrel to X and Victor and sent a bolt across their path.

They both retreated and looked up at her position. She pointed at the location of the patrol. X nodded and started to flank with Victor, each moving around one side of the silo. She kept her rifle barrel aimed at the still-exposed helmet of the soldier standing sentry.

The distant pop of gunshots came again, but it was more sporadic. Voices drifted in the lull.

Magnolia took her visor away from the scope for a moment, looking east, toward the field with the wind turbines. It took a moment of scanning to see movement. Figures marched across the ash-covered field. The ITC slaves were returning with their masters.

Shit, shit…

She panned back to X and Victor. Both men were inching around the silo from opposite sides, preparing to strike the final patrol.

The voices of the skinwalkers guarding the workers grew louder, but neither of her friends seemed to notice.

Again she moved her night-vision monocular to the slavers. She counted six. They were heading right for the refinery. She couldn’t take them all out before being spotted.

When she turned back, X and Victor had moved around the silo. A scream rang out, then a gunshot. Metal clanked on metal.

She tried to get a shot but saw only a blur of armor.

A skinwalker flew backward, limp, already dead. She still couldn’t get a clear shot, and the slaver soldiers were about to reach the refinery.

“Come on, X,” she whispered.

Zooming in, she saw another skinwalker hit the ground. Someone grabbed his boots and dragged him out of view. Victor emerged and did the same with the other dead men.

X waved up to her and then set off with Victor. Side by side, they ran for the fence and disappeared around a shipping container.

Magnolia slung her rifle and set off to join them when a footfall made her freeze. With no time to unsling her rifle, she unsheathed one of her crescent blades.

Whirling, she raised it, only to have it smacked away. Her blade flew across the room, clanking against a wall.

A hand grabbed her around the neck and lifted her off the ground. She kicked at armored legs as she stared at the helmet of a massive skinwalker holding an axe.

Several more soldiers in bulky armor adorned with bloody skin flanked the warrior. He squeezed tighter, cutting off her airway.

She kicked and grabbed his wrist, but nothing worked. The man held her up higher, and she saw the horn on top of his helmet.

It was the last thing she saw before the red border of her vision encroached, turning everything dark.

* * * * *

Les had abandoned the idea of hiding and ran through the jungle with the other divers, not even trying to cut down the barbed branches and spiky blades in his path. Laser bolts singed the air, raining bark and leaves down from the canopy.

He was trying to put all the distance he could between his team and the machines.

Lasers punched into tree trunks, bursting out the other side in bright streaks that seemed to reach infinity. An artillery shell whistled overhead and streaked into the jungle, exploding in a brilliant orange glow. Leaves and branches fell blazing to the ground.

Another shell sheared the top off a tree to his left. The blast shot out hundreds of little splinters that punched into his armor, leaving spikes like the bristles on a caterpillar. Pain lanced down his arm where one of the slivers jabbed through an interstice between armor plates.

He gritted his teeth and plucked it out, only to trip over a root and fall flat on his stomach.

“Captain!”

Michael waved from what looked like a drop-off in the jungle. He ran over to Les, yelling something that Les couldn’t make out over the ringing in his ears.

Smoke whirled around them as flames lapped upward, igniting the dry bark of towering trees. Embers fell like flakes of burning snow.

Les turned to see Edgar helping Lena through the labyrinthine foliage. They took off for the area Michael had waved from, but Arlo and Sofia were nowhere in sight.

Another flurry of laser bolts strobed through the forest, slicing through everything in their path. He had a feeling the two young divers were already cut to pieces by the bolts.

He pushed at the ground but hesitated when he saw pulsating light through the trees. Michael started moving, then froze.

Bumping off his NVGs gave Les a clearer view.

A platoon of orange visors strode into the forest, looking like old-world soldiers. But these soldiers would not show mercy. They would not take prisoners or lay down their weapons if surrounded. They would fight to the end and kill to the very last machine.

They had one purpose: to end humanity.

Bolts sprayed from their guns. Branches fell, and a monstrous tree split at the crotch, both halves knocking down many of their neighbors.

“Let’s go!” Michael said. “Stay low.”

Les pushed himself up on his knees, trying to stay close to the ground as he crawled. A cracking sound came from the advancing army, and he got his first view of one of the beetle tanks.

The six segmented legs were taller than the defectors, probably even taller than Les. The turret rotated with at least six long tubular weapons. He got only a glimpse before the tubes opened fire, raking through the forest.

As the machines and tanks entered the jungle, the barrage from the distant cannons stopped. Les started moving in a crouch, listening to the mechanical joints of the tanks as they strode into the forest.

A figure came running from about halfway between Les and the machines. Dozens of bolts cut overhead, and he held a breath as the Hell Diver zigged and zagged, ducking under branches and darting between two trees.

“Help!” the diver screamed.

Les could hear the nasal voice over the ringing in his ears. It was Arlo, and here he came, screaming and diving to the ground between Les and Michael. He rolled onto his back, gasping.

“What the hell do we do?” Arlo yelled.

“Stay down and follow me,” Michael said. “There’s some protection behind those trees.”

“Where is Sofia?” Les shouted.

Arlo shook his head. “She fell…”

“Come on!” Michael commanded. He started crawling under the spray of bolts, and Les and Arlo followed. They moved around a tree, and Michael got up to lay down covering fire.

“No!” Les said. “That’ll tell them where we are.”

Michael nodded and pulled something off his vest. “Get down; then run.”

The final EMP grenade. He pushed a button and lobbed it at the wave of approaching robot infantry.

Les shook Arlo, who lay trembling on the ground.

“Run when I tell you,” Les said.

Arlo managed a nod.

Michael raised his rifle again, his back to the tree, and sneaked a glance.

“Go now!” he shouted.

Les grabbed Arlo and pulled him up, and they ran together, zigzagging as low as they could go. The stream of laser bolts had all but stopped.

Edgar fired his sniper rifle from a prone position between two trees just ahead.

Les and Arlo made it to the drop-off Michael had found earlier. Unable to stop, Arlo yelped as he tumbled down the side. Les tried to grab him but almost went over with him.

Digging his boots into the dirt, Les watched helplessly as Arlo pitchpoled right past Lena and banged into a tree twenty feet below.

Lena went after Arlo, and Les turned to help Edgar.

“Where’s Tin?” Les yelled.

Edgar took his shot, then pointed.

Following Edgar’s finger, Les saw a figure advancing toward the machines disabled by the EMP grenade, firing laser bolts so they would never walk again.

The blast had taken down half of them, but others advanced through the curtain of smoke.

Michael fired calculated shots, destroying several of the machines.

“We have to help!” Les said. He got up, but Edgar yanked him back down.

“You nuts, Cap?” he asked.

Chest heaving, Les watched in horror as Michael fought his way deeper into enemy territory. But it wasn’t simply the urge to kill that was driving the commander mad. Les saw where Michael was heading.

Sofia was slouched against a tree, holding her shoulder. The armor glowed red where a bolt had singed the plate.

A crack from Edgar’s rifle refocused Les. Another machine went down from an armor-piercing round to the skull. Les aimed his laser rifle at the defectors closing in on Michael. He had gotten to Sofia and reached down to help her up.

Two defectors burst through the bushes to the right of the tree. Edgar took one down, and Michael reached up with his robotic hand and slapped the other machine’s laser muzzle away. Then he punched it in the chest with his robotic hand, breaking the exoskeleton and shattering the battery.

The machine toppled to the ground.

Les fired more bolts into the machines trying to flank the two divers. Several went down from well-aimed shots, but more came. Les had no idea how Michael and Sofia could make it to the drop-off without being cut down.

There had to be at least twenty more machines in the jungle, plus the two tanks pushing their way through burning trees.

Les and Edgar fired over and over, doing their best to help. The staccato crack of automatic gunfire joined the din, and in his peripheral vision Les saw Lena pull out another magazine and palm it into her assault rifle.

Return fire kicked up dirt in front of the rock and then found the boulder. The three divers hunkered down under the flurry of lasers.

“What do we do now?” Edgar asked.

Bolts pounded the rock and blew limbs off trees as Les crawled around the boulder to sneak a look.

Michael and Sofia were trapped behind a massive tree. Ten or more orange visors homed in, unleashing an onslaught of bolts into the tree.

The lasers broke through like a chainsaw until it cracked in the middle.

“Michael!” Les shouted.

Michael gripped his laser rifle to his chest and looked at the boulder. Then he waved at Les, motioning for him to retreat.

“We have to go, or we’re all going to die,” Edgar said.

Lena crawled backward as bits of rocks pattered down, mixing with the bark and foliage from the trees.

Edgar grabbed Les, but Les pulled out of his grip.

“I can’t leave them,” he said. He reached into his vest and pulled out the device containing the virus. “Take this, and complete the mission with Lena and Arlo if I don’t make it.”

“Sir, you…”

A bolt flashed by their helmets, cutting Edgar off. Then came what sounded like multiple shells screaming through the sky. Both men looked up as detonations filled the night.

Rockets descended like destroying angels from the clouds, ripping into the jungle canopy and making the ground rumble.

Les got up as defectors cartwheeled through the air like thrown rag dolls. An entire infantry column vanished in a wave of fire.

“run!” he yelled to Michael.

Michael was already on his feet, helping Sofia up.

Les and Edgar fell back into firing positions to cover their retreat.

The entire jungle seemed to light up in a bright glare of the missile blasts.

Timothy was giving the machines much more than just a distraction. The AI was giving the other AIs a beating.

Michael and Sofia made it to the boulder, and they all slid down the hill.

Arlo was at the bottom, standing now.

“This way!” Lena said.

The team headed into the ravine and toward a slope up. As they climbed, a view of the white-capped mountain rose in front of them.

It took a few minutes to work their way up through thick bushes and spiky plants. At the crest of the hill, they could see the burning jungle and the ground scorched between it and the fortress. Twisted remains of machines littered the smoking dirt.

A humming sound came from above. It wasn’t a drone.

Les looked up and saw the outline of Discovery. He raised a hand, knowing that Timothy couldn’t see him.

As if in response, another salvo of missiles tore through the clouds and slammed into the fortress wall, opening gaping holes.

“Now’s our chance!” Michael yelled. “Let’s go!”

THIRTY-SEVEN

The little catamaran had slipped ahead of the aircraft carrier in the darkness, but time was running out for Ada to reach the Vanguard Islands and warn King Xavier about the machines.

In a few hours, her sails would penetrate the barrier between dark and light. The only saving grace was that the machines had slowed and stopped their ship. Planning their attack, or waiting for orders.

She remained on the weather deck, holding the wheel and wearing one of the life jackets she had found inside the cabin. The protection helped her manage her anxiety, although it was building again. With each wave her hulls thumped over, the anticipation grew. She had endured hell in the wastes, but that would all be a walk in the park, as they used to say, if the machines reached the islands.

She turned for a parting look at the aircraft carrier, but she had sailed out of view.

A pounding sounded below.

Jo-Jo hammered at the hatch, wanting out of the cabin. The monkey’s constant slamming was grating on her nerves, but she couldn’t go and check on it now.

The black wall ahead seemed to lighten, or perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her. According to her wrist monitor, she was still at least twenty miles from the barrier.

Ada took one hand off the wheel to use her binoculars. Holding them to her cracked visor, she raked them over the waves, stopping on a shape that jutted out of the ocean.

The sails flapped, hit by a crosswind that shook the boat. She nearly lost the binos over the gunwale. She put them away and grabbed the wheel, trying to keep the craft steady.

Moments later, a blast of lightning stabbed the horizon like a spear from the heavens.

In the glow, she saw a tower on the water.

She remembered then, several oil rigs were outside the barrier. This was where the Cazadores kept their prisoners—a place she could have been sent if not exiled. The Shark’s Cage.

She steered toward it, thrilled at her good luck. They would have a communication system there—a way to radio the king about what was coming. She hoped he was still alive to fight.

Thunder rattled the boat, and another lightning strike fired the horizon, but she kept going toward the rig, undeterred.

A chill ran up her spine when she spotted something over her shoulder. She kept her gaze on that grid of ocean, but after a few moments, she marked it off as a wave.

She still had time.

Before her loomed the oil rig turned prison. The southern side had a marina where several boats were docked.

It had been a long time since she saw another human, and she prayed there were at least a few militia soldiers here, though she doubted it.

Tired, injured, and cranky, she wasn’t in the mood to talk to Cazadores.

Waves slapped at the boat as she sailed toward the piers. She eased off the sails, trying to slow the boat. This was the first time she had ever tried to dock.

All that matters is getting there, even if you destroy the boat.

But if she crashed, that could injure Jo-Jo. She realized then that the pounding below had stopped. Maybe that was good.

Ada put the monkey out of her mind. As she sailed closer, one question consumed her: How had the machines found them?

A cracking sound snapped her away from the implications. The damn monkey was trying to escape.

Ada was locking the wheel when she heard the shattering of glass on the starboard side of the boat. A bundle of dark fur emerged on the aft ladder. Two wide black eyes stared at her.

“You little shit!” she yelled. “Get over here!”

Jo-Jo climbed up onto the deck and clung to her leg.

Ada grabbed the steering wheel again. A wave slapped the port side, dousing them in water. She wasn’t sure Jo-Jo could swim, and didn’t want it to freak out when it saw other humans, especially Cazadores in full armor.

Ada eyed the other life jacket she had found belowdecks. It was out of reach, and with Jo-Jo clinging to her leg she couldn’t nudge it with her boot.

The rig was close now, the docks within view.

Letting go of the wheel, she hobbled over to the jacket, with Jo-Jo stuck like a limpet to her leg. She strapped the creature into the jacket, then hurried back to the wheel.

Right as she grabbed it, a rumbling sounded over the waves, commanding both her and the creature’s attention. The noise was from a motor.

A light blasted the sailboat, blinding Ada and sending the monkey bolting.

“No!” Ada shouted.

She raised a hand to block the spotlight beam. The creature had gone now, retreating to the lower deck.

Another beam hit Ada in the side of the head, forcing her to turn away, and she heard the chug of another motor.

Over the engine noise came shouting, all in Spanish.

A flare streaked into the sky, exploding in a bright-red burst.

In the glow, she spotted multiple small vessels closing in from different directions.

Within minutes, the sailboat was surrounded.

“Lower your sails!” someone shouted in English.

“It’s me, Ada Winslow!” she yelled back. “The machines are coming!”

“Shut up and lower your sails!”

She decided to do as ordered.

Six boats closed in as she slowed her craft.

“There’s something on the deck behind the mast!” someone shouted. “Some sort of…”

Ada turned to look for Jo-Jo but froze when a gunshot cracked.

“Hands up and don’t move!” yelled the same voice from earlier.

“You have to listen to me!” she cried. “There is a ship, an aircraft carrier of machines heading this way!”

No one replied at first.

Then came laughter.

“Hands up. Don’t make me tell you again!”

A voice in Spanish followed—someone giving orders. Two of the boats approached, men on the bows, ready to jump onto her deck. Not just Cazadores. The militia was here, too, and they might shoot her strange companion out of fear.

She raised her hands and slowly turned. “Please! You have to listen to me!”

“We’re coming aboard. Don’t move!”

The monkey whimpered. It was hiding somewhere below, and she had to get to it before the soldiers did. She walked away from the wheel, holding a breath in her chest, waiting for bullets to pierce her flesh.

She made it to the ladder. Bathed in light, she stood there, searching the deck for Jo-Jo.

She found the monkey in a corner on the port side, by a lashed-down stack of crates. She pushed her luck by climbing down the ladder.

Several voices called out to stop her, but no bullets came. She got to the deck and hurried over to Jo-Jo, petting the monkey with one hand and keeping the other hand above her head.

The two boats that had started to approach had stalled. She could hear distant voices, all of them quieter now.

Then, over the chug of outboard motors, she heard humming.

“What is that?” a soldier asked.

Ada turned toward the Shark’s Cage but saw nothing. Then she looked out over the ocean. The warriors in the boats were doing the same thing, turning in all directions.

Purple streaks burst from the clouds, and a swarm of spherical craft the size of Siren cocoons rocketed out of the sky.

“Incoming!” someone yelled.

“Fire!”

Gunfire cracked all around her, muzzles winking in the darkness. Laser bolts lit up the darkness like perfect lines of lightning. One hit the boat nearest her, and it burst into flames. The next beam flashed through the sailboat’s deck.

Ada did the only thing she could think of. She sucked in a breath, grabbed Jo-Jo, and jumped overboard. Waves swallowed them, but she kept her grip on the terrified monkey.

The life jackets pulled them back up toward the dazzling flurry of bolts lancing through the darkness. She tried to stay below the surface, using her legs and free arm to push down.

But they bobbed back up.

The sounds of slaughter boomed in her ears. She swallowed a mouthful of water from a wave that slapped against them.

On her back, still choking, she kicked away from the boats. Jo-Jo gripped her tight, digging its nails into her.

Hold on, little friend.

Laser bolts flashed from the drones swooping overhead. Explosions boomed, and glowing metal hissed into the water. An armored body splashed in front of her and sank like a stone.

She finally stopped coughing and rolled onto her belly, one arm around Jo-Jo, the other paddling.

Bolts sizzled into the black water below her. Muffled sounds filled her ears.

She expected a bolt to burn through her at any moment, but only her lungs burned. She kept kicking until she couldn’t.

Pulling her face up, she listened. This time, there was only a humming sound. Water dripped off her visor.

When her vision cleared, fires raged on all the boats. The drones had already flown away, their thrusters flaring as they sped toward the Vanguard Islands.

She was too late.

Treading water, she searched for the Shark’s Cage, hoping to get inside and send a message over the comms. A glance told her it wasn’t going to happen.

The rig burned like a cornstalk. With a loud crack, the top deck of the tower slid off into the water. The splash formed a sizable wave that pushed outward.

She held Jo-Jo, trying to think of what to do as smoke wafted into the sky. Over the crackling fires, she heard what sounded like a motor.

A voice called out. “¡Auxilio!”

Someone was still alive.

Holding Jo-Jo with her right arm, she side-stroked toward the noise, her life jacket keeping her afloat. Amid the burning flotsam, a single boat remained. At the gunwale, a man in Cazador armor fished out the soldier who had cried for help.

Ada swam over as the boatman pulled the soldier aboard. When she reached the rescue craft, she tensed, half expecting the armored Cazador to point a gun at her. Instead, he reached out a gloved hand.

A memory of the Lion’s crew surfaced, and regret tugged at her heart. There was only one way to make up for it.

Ada side-stroked the rest of the way, holding Jo-Jo against her. Reaching the boat, she took the Cazador’s hand, burying the past in hope that together they could help save the future.

* * * * *

When X told Magnolia to meet them in the abandoned shipping yard “when the shit hits,” he hadn’t meant it as an understatement. But the Sirens he and Victor had let out of the electronic fence weren’t just heading into the compound; they were taking off into the refinery.

It wasn’t just skinwalkers they were hunting. The group of ITC slaves had returned after hoisting up the bodies of the Barracuda recon team. X couldn’t see them, but he could hear their guttural screams. The Sirens were tearing them apart.

X and Victor continued through the maze of wrecked boats in the yard, putting distance between themselves and the monsters. Victor carried his shield over his back and led the way with his assault rifle. They passed a boat that was nothing but metal ribs, looking like the carcass of a whale calf.

They made it to the container ship without being seen. By the time they started climbing a ladder to the deck, the outpost sounded like a war zone. Gunfire cracked, and the high-pitched shrieks of the freed Sirens added to the cacophony.

X took up position near the gunwale and glassed the industrial buildings inside the compound. A single steel door had opened, but only six skinwalkers had emerged. That was good.

“Easy pickin’s,” X whispered.

Two of the soldiers didn’t even have their helmets on. Several were still loading weapons, and one had nothing but a machete in hand. The skeleton crew had been caught with their pants down, unaware that their patrols and snipers were dead.

X didn’t need to scan the six to know that Moreto and Horn weren’t among them. No, the cowards would be hiding underground, or perhaps they were on Raven’s Claw. Maybe even a submarine.

X hoped that wasn’t the case. He had to avenge Rhino with his spear. It was the only way for the general to reach his Valhalla.

Determined, X crept along the rusted gunwale of the ship while the cries of the slaughter continued. The staccato of gunfire was followed by an electronic wail from a dying Siren.

He tried not to think of what was happening on the diving mission or back at the Vanguard Islands, or even to Miles and Rodger on the beach. But it was nearly impossible. The only thing that helped was fighting. Merely watching the fighting didn’t help much.

A burly skinwalker strode away from the others, fearlessly approaching twenty prowling beasts in the compound. He raised two submachine guns in his beefy hands. The bastard had packed on weight by feasting on human flesh. But in a few moments, it would be the Sirens feasting.

The skinwalker sprayed the advancing monsters with both weapons, the muzzle flashes lighting up his large frame. The ten beasts in the open charged, and those near the industrial buildings scurried up the walls to the roofs.

A muscular female Siren made it through the wall of gunfire, taking several hits before punching its talons through a skinwalker’s chest armor and bringing him down hard on his back. The beast slammed its head into the man’s helmetless face.

Another female jumped off a rooftop, landing on the back of the man with the submachine guns. He whirled, still firing, his bullets killing one of his fellow soldiers.

The other four men fled while a pack of beasts descended on their two fallen comrades. A dozen more Sirens gave chase, quickly catching up to two laggards.

Hearing their screams, X smiled with grim satisfaction, then looked over his shoulder for Magnolia. She should be here by now.

“You see Mags out there?” he asked.

Victor seemed to understand and looked back the way they had come. A dirt road curved around the compound’s outer walls. It bore fresh vehicle tracks. Weeds the height of a child framed the road. But X didn’t see Magnolia anywhere.

He checked the outpost once more to see the last two skinwalkers being surrounded by the Sirens they had starved. The other beasts were already feasting on corpses or had continued their hunt into the barracks.

The final screams rang out as the pack overran the two skinwalkers. They vanished under a flurry of spines, talons, and veiny flesh. One of the smaller abominations took off with an armored arm. It stopped behind a building where it peeled off the armor as if peeling off the shell of a shrimp to get at the meat.

Human screams died away in the distance, leaving the island in silence. Even the gunfire had stopped.

X searched for Magnolia again but still didn’t see her.

The lonely wail of a Siren shattered the stillness, and another monster answered the call. Hearing that sound, X still felt a shiver. They were once again the alphas in control of the outpost.

He zoomed the binos in on the refinery. Bodies of ITC slaves lay crumpled, gutted, many of them missing limbs. He had never seen one of the cryofrozen humans outside their chambers, and he couldn’t help but feel pity for them all.

But he was more worried about Magnolia.

Where the hell was she?

Victor pointed his rifle north, toward the harbor. “Men,” he said quietly.

X panned the binos to five men in armored suits. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the metal wasn’t covered in human skin.

These weren’t skinwalkers. They were the remaining Barracudas he had ordered to flank along the shoreline. Several limped from injuries, and the biggest man of the team had an arrow in his chest armor, the end already snapped off.

X didn’t want to leave without Magnolia, but he had a feeling she was hunkered down, waiting to make her move. Another fear crossed his mind: that a Siren had gotten to her.

X took the same ladder back to the ground with Victor. They joined the team of Barracudas in the boatyard.

The man with the arrow jutting from his chest armor walked over. It was Willis, the English-speaking Cazador X had talked to on the beach.

“King Xavier,” Willis said, “we cleared a patrol from the shore.”

“Good work. Victor and I took out the skinwalkers here, with a little help from the Sirens.”

“The demons.”

X nodded. “There are at least fifteen still out there.”

Willis nodded.

“Shadow is sailing east,” he said. “We saw Raven’s Claw to the northeast.”

X looked back out to sea but couldn’t distinguish much beyond the scrapyard. The warships would meet, eventually.

In the meantime, he had to do his part. It was not ideal and not the way he had planned it, but six able warriors stood in front of him and Victor. Once they linked up with Magnolia, he would take them into the outpost to clear the buildings and root out the rats.

X explained the plan to Willis, who then relayed it to his soldiers.

Pulling out his blaster, X led the way back through the scrapyard, hoping Magnolia was somewhere out here, waiting.

The Barracudas fanned out, weapons shouldered.

X went back the way he had come, all the way to the fence he and Victor had cut through after disabling the power.

Several sheds and abandoned structures provided cover from the fences to the building where Magnolia had laid down covering fire. He raised his binos to the window where he had last seen her. Nothing moved behind the opening.

X pushed forward. She would have seen him by now. Something had happened to her.

You should never have left her, you old prick.

The abandoned building was one of several outside the outpost and refinery. The others were just long warehouses. He kept low, eyes up, forward, then down—where he spotted Siren tracks. They led to the building on his left where he had last seen Magnolia.

The sight turned his gut to ice.

Another pair of prints angled toward the warehouse on his right.

He started running toward the larger building’s back entrance. The first set of Siren tracks led right to it.

Victor and the Barracudas followed him to the back wall, where they could see a wide alley between the buildings. He halted when he saw a flatbed truck parked diagonally at the other end, with a shipping container on the back. He hadn’t seen it before, but then again, he hadn’t checked the alley for anything but contacts.

X continued to the exit door that opened into a stairwell. Ash tracks led up into the dark building.

He stopped to listen for the prowling monsters. The other soldiers set up along the back wall.

A rattling sound rose over the wind. It wasn’t coming from inside the building.

Victor started to move around the corner to look into the alley, but X stopped him and went first.

A Siren had perched on the adjacent warehouse, all the way down by the parked truck. The eyeless head tilted like that of a curious bird on a branch. Its mouth opened into what looked like a macabre grin. Then it lowered its bald white head and tore into a body it had dragged up to the roof, where it could eat in peace. A bloody arm hung over the edge.

X swallowed, hoping to God it wasn’t Magnolia. He pointed his spear at the monster.

The Barracudas followed him into the wide alley, past rusted trash bins and piles of bricks.

Halfway down the alley, he stopped. The rattling came again. But it wasn’t coming from the rooftop as he had suspected.

His eyes flitted to the container on the truck. This wasn’t some abandoned vehicle. It had inflated tires. The back end was much lower than the front, indicating much weight in the container.

X looked back to the Siren and saw that it was chewing on an ITC worker. Relief filled him—it wasn’t Mags.

The beast suddenly shrieked and arched its spiked back, grasping an arrow in its side.

A second arrow and a third struck the creature, knocking it off the side of the building. It landed with a thud on the back bumper of the truck.

The shipping container shook violently, and a roar sounded inside.

X took a step back as the container door clanked open and a hulking figure emerged, glowing in the green hue of his optics. He flipped his NVGs off, expecting to see the orange visor and battery unit of a defector, but instead he saw a gargantuan monster.

Bones formed bars over the bulging muscles across its body. Barbed spheres protruded from the double-jointed elbows and kneecaps.

This was no machine, but a bone beast, or what the Cazadores also called a demon king. A metal halo was bolted onto its bony head, like some sort of evil crown.

The creature went down on one spiked kneecap, hunching slightly. Jutting from its back were the long, sharp bones that X had seen other bone beasts use as spears. But unlike those abominations, this creature seemed strangely docile.

X motioned for the Barracudas to get back. They all knew what it was, and needed no encouragement. Victor was the only one to step forward.

Whoever had shot the bolts at the Siren still had not emerged, and several Barracudas had run over to the warehouse to flank.

A buzzing sounded, and the bone beast reached up with a paw to the crown on its head, letting out a raucous cry that scrambled distant birds into the sky.

The monster jumped out of the container and landed on the ground, exposing a skinwalker in the back of the truck, who held a long black rod that connected to the metal crown.

“No!” X yelled when Victor went to shoot the man.

It was too late, and the burst hit the soldier in the chest. He released the rod, and the bone beast looked over its spiked shoulder.

Roaring, it grabbed the soldier and ripped off both legs like chicken bones. Then it whirled, flinging the limbs at X and Victor.

“Aim for the eyes!” X yelled. “Open fire!”

Rounds lanced into the creature as it bounded forward.

X almost tripped as he turned to run with Victor.

Two Barracudas were on their knees, firing assault rifles at the abomination, but X knew all too well they were going to need luck.

He ran past them, almost skidding in the dirt when he saw that a group of skinwalkers had flanked them from the scrapyard. The ten soldiers held rifles, spears, and bows, but none of them aimed their weapons yet.

They weren’t alone.

A female voice screamed, and the wall of armor parted to reveal Magnolia, crumpled at the feet of a short woman in armor. It had to be Carmela Moreto. Behind them, a massive soldier strode out of the shadows. Like the monster, the bastard prince wore a metal crown. His sported a horn.

Something about the flaps of dried flesh on his helmet seemed familiar. The lips looked female, but it was the buzzed crown cut from a skull that told X exactly who the face had belonged to.

“You sick son of a bitch,” he snarled.

Behind him, the bone beast gave a deep, baying howl and slammed into two Barracudas. One crashed to the ground, sliding all the way to X, with a dent in his chest armor. He wheezed, trying to suck breath into crushed lungs.

All around, in what seemed like slow motion, gunfire rang out with the war cries of warriors. X and his men were outnumbered over two to one, and the bone beast was tearing apart their rear flank.

He saw Magnolia move slightly.

Back when he first met her, the girl with attitude and a gothic vibe had given him the creeps. Now she was practically family—the rebellious daughter he never had. And there was only one way to save her: fight.

Horn twirled an axe and pointed it at X.

Victor screamed as he raised his shield with his injured arm, stopping several arrows and bullets meant for the king.

X used the moment and turned with his blaster, firing a flare into the bone beast’s face. The flare hit right where he had hoped, and rained sparks down on the Barracuda the creature was pummeling.

Dropping his blaster, X pulled the other half of Rhino’s spear from the sheath on his back. Releasing a war cry of his own, X ran with Victor and several Barracudas toward the skinwalkers. Horn and his men didn’t fire their guns. Instead, they brandished spears, swords, and machetes.

X clenched his jaw, focusing on Horn. In just seconds, he would have his chance to kill the man. As he ran, faint booming sounded in the distance. He spotted flashes on the horizon.

Shadow had finally found Raven’s Claw.

And X had finally found Horn and Moreto.

It was time to end this or die trying.

THIRTY-EIGHT

An hour after Discovery surprised the army of machines, the remaining divers had worked their way through the jungles and into Kilimanjaro’s rocky foothills. A bluff with multiple peaks provided a perfect vantage point over the fortress built at the southern base of the mountain.

Only a half mile away from the nearest section of wall, it was the closest Michael had been to the base. Glancing up to higher promontories, he spotted Edgar and Les, now in position.

Michael moved behind a rock and glassed the battlefield where Timothy had obliterated the small army of machines. Smoke still wafted up from the scorched dirt. Twisted and charred exoskeletons of machines smoldered in the debris field. Four tanks lay on their backs like dead beetles, their segmented legs twisted and melted from the intense heat of the bombs.

Michael couldn’t see the airship, but knowing that it was up there, with Timothy, Samson, and the crew watching over the divers, gave him a new sense of confidence.

Now he just had to get inside the base.

That wasn’t going to be easy, even with two gaping holes in the fortress walls. The rocket impacts had opened the doors, but new tanks had shown up to plug them, with laser barrels aimed at the skyline.

Michael couldn’t see the cannons that had taken out Cricket, but he knew they were waiting for the airship to move into firing range.

Discovery had been lucky to get away on the first run. Against all that firepower, the chances of its surviving a second attack were thin. And it wasn’t just the cannons and tanks. A swarm of drones patrolled the sky. Michael guessed they couldn’t fly as high as Discovery, or they would already have blown the airship out of the clouds.

It had wreaked havoc on the base. Four of the fourteen buildings inside the walls were now piles of rubble. The undamaged buildings looked manufactured—all the same metallic color, all in perfect rows, like a small old-world city for machines instead of humans.

Centered in the small city was a massive steel tower with a spiked roof. It was ten times the height of the other buildings. Several rockets had hit the odd structure, leaving black streaks on the surface. But there didn’t appear to be any damage. Nor could he see a single window or doorway leading into the tower.

Several DEF-Nine patrols marched down the roads, where the divers had little to hide them from the machines. A few trees grew in the dirt, along with clumps of weeds. Stacks of pipes and metal parts might also provide cover.

There were still enough machines to make sneaking in difficult, especially with the drones. He ducked back into the rocks as another flew overhead. This would be harder than he had supposed.

The drone hovered a moment, and Michael decided to return to the cave, where Arlo and Sofia rested. Lena waited at the entrance, holding a laser rifle. They exchanged a nod, and Michael went inside to check on the injured divers. Both sat on the dirt floor, leaning against the cave wall.

The armor had saved Arlo’s life, but it hadn’t stopped the laser bolt that sheared off the top of Sofia’s shoulder. As Michael knew all too well, the only upside to being shot with a laser bolt was the cauterizing effect.

“I can still fight,” she said, standing. “Did you find a way in?”

“Not yet,” Michael said.

Arlo remained seated, holding his side. The wound he got in Rio de Janeiro had flared up after his tumble down the hill, and he likely had a concussion.

“Tell me when it’s time to finish these tin pots off,” he said.

“Soon,” Michael replied. But we’re running out of time.

If there were machines at the Outrider, X and his team could be in terrible danger, and not just from the defectors. The drones had changed the game, and seeing them here meant they could be out there, too.

Crunching footsteps sounded, and Michael moved over for Les and Edgar.

“Gather around,” Les said.

His tone was grave. Michael wondered what Les had seen that he hadn’t.

“I’m uploading video to your HUDs,” Les said. He tapped his wrist computer and fed the recorded video to their subscreens. “I still don’t know where the entry to their main hub is, but I did see a road…” He tapped his monitor and zoomed in. “Right here.”

The road went straight into the mountain—something Michael had missed.

“As we suspected, the mainframe must be buried,” Les said.

Now Michael understood the grave tone.

“So how do we get in?” Arlo asked.

“By finding an alternative route,” Les said. “There has to be one. My guess is, there are underground tunnels from the main buildings to the base below. But they’ll surely be heavily guarded.”

Michael studied the imagery. The road was just behind the factories built against the mountain. Les was probably right, but it was a big risk on a hunch. Then again, a hunch was all they were going on anyway.

“We counted ten patrols of defectors, each four strong, and three more of those walking beetle tanks,” Edgar said. “Some of them are clearing debris piles, though, so that’s good for us.”

Sofia checked Les’s arm. “You okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine. You’re the one that—”

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said, eyeing the missing armor and the charred flesh beneath. “I can fight.”

Les stepped closer to check the wound. “Good, because I need all of you,” he said. “Lena and Edgar, find a spot up here to provide covering fire if we run into problems.”

“Wait, who is ‘we’?” Arlo asked.

Les tilted his helmet. “The rest of us.”

Arlo snorted but didn’t protest.

“You’re with Michael,” Les said. “I’ll take Sofia. We’ll scramble up the rocks to get over the walls by those smokestacks. Once we’re inside, we split up and find a way into the mountain.”

“You good to go?” Michael asked Arlo.

“Sure,” Arlo said.

“You don’t sound like it,” Les said.

“’Cause I just tumbled down a goddamn hill after nearly getting turned into swiss cheese, and now we’re walking into a slaughterhouse.”

The divers lapsed into silence in the dark cave. A drop of water spattered on the floor.

“If that is true, it’s another reason we have to do this,” Les said. “Don’t forget why we came here. I need you now more than ever.”

Arlo’s cracked helmet nodded. “I won’t let you down, sir. I’m sorry, I’m just…”

“You survived Rio,” Sofia said. “You’ll survive this.” She gave him a pat on the back.

“It’s settled, then,” Michael said. “Let’s get moving. We don’t have much time.”

The divers left the cave and climbed back into the rocks. Storm clouds swollen with rain were passing overhead. The drones blasted in and out of them, uninterested in looking for the divers. Discovery was the threat. Once again the machines were making a mistake that Michael would use to his advantage.

He led the divers by climbing carefully, keeping three points of contact on the unstable rock. The first drops of rain fell when he got to the next bluff.

Les, Arlo, and Sofia took cover there with him while Edgar and Lena moved to a higher vantage.

The slope below stretched into a valley, then up to the fortress walls. Rocks the size of a man and bigger covered the dry terrain in between.

Orange and red crust grew on the fractured surfaces of the boulders. But they weren’t the only organic life. Purple blades grew out of the dirt, blowing in the wind.

He also spotted a strange new grain with a corncob head attached to a long, curving stem. Patches of the odd plant grew all the way to the twenty-foot-high fortress wall.

Michael didn’t spot any guard towers along the top, but that didn’t mean there were no defectors or cameras up there.

Les stayed with him a moment, then signaled to advance, but Michael suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

“What?” Les asked quietly.

Michael stared at something on the ground near the base of the wall. He zoomed his laser-rifle scope in on a patch of the plants.

A pinheaded metallic object jutted out of the end of the corncob-shaped grain head.

These weren’t just plants. They were sensors.

Michael whispered his discovery to Les, who twisted back toward the bluff where Edgar and Lena were moving into position.

“What are you thinking?” Michael said quietly.

“Either we need Timothy to come back in for another bombing run, or we use our boosters with the eastern wind,” Les said. “If we launch from the bluffs, it should be powerful enough to take us over that wall.”

“Discovery won’t survive another run,” Michael said.

“I know.”

“Boosters it is, then.”

Michael again led them back through the cliffs, following the tracks Edgar and Lena had left in the narrow passages between the jagged walls. The two divers were around the next bend, perched on an outcropping with a perfect view of the factories.

Edgar swung his rifle around at Michael before realizing who it was.

“Shit, Commander, you about lost your head,” he muttered.

“Change of plans,” Michael said. “There are sensors down there. We’ll deploy our boosters and let the wind take us over the walls.”

“Risky as hell,” Edgar said, “but I’ve got your backs from up here.” He set his magazines down on the rock and chambered an armor-piercing round. Lena got down on one knee beside him, laser rifle clutched like a baby against her chest armor.

“Okay, let’s do it,” Les said. “I’ll head east to the factories with Sofia; you start west and work your way back toward us.”

“This is nuts,” Arlo muttered.

Michael spotted the perfect place to land on the western side of the compound. Several warehouses with industrial equipment on top provided cover and a long, flat roof to land on. The bombardment hadn’t damaged any of those buildings.

“We aim for that one,” Michael said, pointing.

“Listo, jefe,” Arlo said. “I mean yeah, boss…”

Michael scanned the base once more. The roof of a three-story building near the factories opened, disgorging a drone. The spike on the tallest tower flashed orange, then went dark, and the drone zipped away.

The spike had to be some sort of signal. Michael searched for more drones but didn’t see any. He didn’t see any defectors or their human slaves, either—only the tanks at the shattered walls, and the drones patrolling the sky. So why the lack of interior defenses?

Time to find out.

The closest drone flew back into the base and hovered over the building where the last had emerged. The roof opened, and the drone descended inside.

From a bluff to the east, Les gave the signal to deploy their boosters.

“We fly so humanity survives,” Arlo whispered.

He punched his booster first, maybe trying to prove he wasn’t scared. Michael followed immediately. His balloon burst from the cannister and filled with helium, yanking him off the bluff.

As he expected, the wind pushed him toward the walls. Rain pattered his visor as he rose into the sky. For the first several seconds, he anticipated lasers riddling his body.

They were floating targets—known in the Old World as “sitting ducks.” But their black armor and suits made them hard to see.

Les and Sofia took off from the bluffs farther east, toward the factories on the opposite side of the compound.

Michael headed for the warehouse, twisting slightly to look at the metallic tower centered in the base. The spire on top made it one of the oddest old-world towers he had ever seen.

Ten defectors cleared debris from a destroyed building abutting the tower. None seemed to pay attention to the sky.

The balloon carried him higher as the wind pushed him toward the walls. A patrol of defectors, visors forward, walked down the main road on the south side of the base.

By the time Michael’s boots cleared the wall, he was already two stories up. Arlo was even higher and rising. They both let helium out of their balloons to descend.

East of them, Sofia and Les were also lowering. They vanished from view a moment later, and Michael focused on the DZ. He checked for contacts on the ground again, but the western side looked clear of machines.

The flat roof rose up to meet his boots.

Arlo landed first. Pulling his balloon down, he took cover behind a block of industrial units. Michael joined him there after carefully deflating his balloon. They each had only one, and it was their ride back to Discovery.

Michael motioned for Arlo to follow him. As they crept across the rooftop, a drone blasted across the horizon, forcing them down.

Once it had passed, Michael glanced over the building’s edge. Below were several windows and a closed door. He had a feeling his wrist computer couldn’t hack in as easily as on ITC facilities. He would do this the old-fashioned way.

Hunching down out of sight, he explained his idea to Arlo. The answer was predictable.

“That’s crazy, man.”

“That’s why it’s going to work,” Michael replied.

He scanned the sky for enemy contacts, then the ground. Seeing none, he swung his legs off the roof, placing his boots on a narrow ledge.

Then he turned and bent down, lowering himself to the next ledge. The window was shaded, but a light inside messed with his night-vision optics.

Michael turned them off, and in the moment it took to process what he saw behind the glass, he gave an astonished gasp.

“What?” Arlo whispered from above. “What do you see?”

A little boy holding a tattered stuffed elephant stood inside, looking at Michael. He narrowed his big green eyes, then waved.

Several other people came running over, all of them covered in ash and grime. There had to be ten of them.

Michael waved them back.

One of the men inside understood and herded the group of filthy workers away from the glass. Michael aimed his laser rifle at the center and fired a bolt. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the hole.

Slinging his rifle, Michael used his robotic fist to finish the job. On the third punch, the glass shattered and rained to the ground.

He entered the room, which ran the length of the building. Bars segmented the long space into cages, each holding a dozen people—young, old, white, brown.

Michael froze as the implications set in. There had to be a hundred people on this level, and there could be even more below this floor. Chatter broke out, and the people in the cage Michael had entered stared at his robotic arm with wide eyes, like terrified animals.

“It’s okay,” Michael said, raising his gloved hand. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

His words did little to curb their fear. Or his.

Panicked voices came from the other cages as people huddled close to get a look at Michael. He moved out of the way to let Arlo in.

“What in the hell… ?” Arlo said. “Where did all these people come from?”

Michael had an idea, but he was too worried about the machines to stop and theorize.

“Quiet,” Michael said, bringing a finger to his helmet. “Please, you have to be…”

In the next cage, a middle-aged man with a long beard and sunken cheeks spoke. So did a gaunt gray-haired woman. He didn’t recognize either language. Maybe French and German?

“Does anyone speak English?” he asked.

More voices in different languages. The noise made him cringe. He held up a hand again, trying to quiet them. People crowded the cages, jostling to get a look.

Someone whistled, and silence filled the long space.

Several people in the cage across from Michael moved aside for a shirtless man with a faded bird tattoo on his chest. He grabbed the bars of his cage.

“I speak English,” he said.

Michael and Arlo walked over to the bars of the cage, and Arlo fished a lock-pick kit from his vest.

Something told Michael this man had survived horrors as bad as anything X had seen.

“I am Commander Everhart,” Michael said, “from the Vanguard Islands. We’re here to destroy the machines, and we’re going to get you out of here.”

“I’ll be damned,” the man said. “We thought we were all that was left of mankind.”

He gestured out to the other cages.

“We’re passengers from the ITC Victory, ITC Requiem, and ITC Malenkov all brought here under the premise of salvation, saying the war was over.”

The man looked back to Michael and patted his chest. “Never thought I’d see one of us again.”

Michael saw the tattoo as the man pulled his hand away.

Not just any tattoo. It was a Raptor.

“You’re a Hell Diver?” Michael stammered.

The man sighed. “A lifetime ago. I’m Kade Long.”

“Kade, this is Arlo Wand, and there are four more of us out there. We need to know where the machines’ mainframe is.”

Kade shook his head. “Did you see that metal tower next door with no windows?”

Michael nodded.

“That’s your target, Commander,” Kade said. “But the only way in is through the machines, and nothing short of a nuke set off inside is going to destroy their mainframe.”

Arlo pulled the lock pick away.

“Screw this,” he said. “Just use your laser, sir.”

Michael motioned everyone back and fired a bolt. It blasted through the lock, punching into the floor. The gate swung open, and Kade stepped through.

Reaching back, Michael unholstered the pistol X had given him. He handed it to Kade.

“Thank you, Commander,” he said. “I never thought anyone would come for us.”

“Don’t thank me until we get you out of here. Let’s start with freeing everyone else. They can’t kill us all…”

His words trailed off because the machines could damn well kill everyone in this room if they wanted.

Michael directed Arlo to the steel hatch while he and Kade walked down the passage between cages. Kade spoke to specific people in each, mostly older men and a few women.

One by one, Michael shot the locks, freeing the prisoners.

The strongest men and women converged behind Michael and Kade, eager to fight for their freedom.

At the final cage, Kade beamed a yellow smile. Two prisoners helped an old man with white hair to his feet. A threadbare white uniform hung over his bony frame.

“Captain,” Kade said.

The man squinted at Michael and reached out his hand.

“Commander Everhart, meet Captain Rolo,” Kade said.

“No time for introductions,” Rolo mumbled. “We have to get out of here.”

Michael nodded. “How many machines are in this building?” he asked.

“Normally, none,” Kade replied. “They only come to get us for work in the factories. But after those explosions, who knows?”

Kade helped Rolo as they worked their way through the crowd of filthy people in the passage outside the open cages. All eyes were on Michael as if he were some sort of divine savior.

The boy with the stuffed elephant toy reached up as Michael joined Arlo, who was working on getting the steel exit open.

“Alton wants to know if you’re going to save us all,” said Kade.

Michael looked over at the boy. “I’m going to try, Alton.”

He patted the kid on the head, then froze when he heard a humming. Just as a drone rose outside the shattered window, Michael yanked the kid back from a flurry of laser bolts.

Screaming filled the room as people rushed away, tripping and falling.

Michael aimed his laser rifle at the drone and fired, blowing it away from the window.

Amid the screaming, he never heard the door open. When he turned, a defector stood in the opening, holding Arlo up by his neck.

THIRTY-NINE

Magnolia woke up on the ground, tasting metal. She opened her eyes to a blurred view of dirt and grit covered in ash.

Taking another breath of smoky air, she realized she didn’t have her helmet. She tried to look around for it, but her eyelids seemed the only thing she could control. The rest of her felt paralyzed. And her head hurt something awful.

She heard a faint clanking, followed by what sounded like grunts. Then people speaking in Spanish. Male voices, muffled by breathing apparatuses.

A familiar gruff voice said, “Don’t touch her!”

Magnolia blinked as strong hands hoisted her off the ground. As her motor function returned, she craned her neck to see an alley between two rusted buildings.

Armored bodies lay crumpled in the dirt between her and a flatbed truck with a shipping container on the back. She blinked again at the sight of a brooding beast with double-jointed kneecaps that ended in barbs.

This can’t be real.

The monster looked in her direction, or so it seemed. She realized that it wasn’t looking at her—or anything else, for that matter. Half its face was burned away.

A man stood behind the monster, holding it in place with a black iron rod attached to a metal crown around its skull.

The clanking came again as the people holding Magnolia up dropped her onto the ground facing a boat scrapyard.

She glanced in the direction of the clanking and grunting.

Two men dueled amid the wrecked vessels. One man held a spear, and the other wore a horned helmet covered in dried skin.

The man with the spear jabbed at the air, but his weapon wasn’t long like a normal Cazador spear, and his arm looked too short. Then it dawned on her: the spear was the man’s arm.

King Xavier…

Memories flooded her mind. She remembered everything up until the moment Horn sneaked up on her in the building. What happened after that was hazy. She knew only that the leader of the skinwalkers had taken her captive, choked her unconscious, and was now fighting X to the death. And she was a spectator.

Both men seemed sluggish now, their strikes weak and slow, as if they had been at it for hours.

On their knees nearby were two Barracuda soldiers and Victor, hands tied behind their backs. None of them said a word, but Magnolia managed to mumble, “X.”

A short figure suddenly blocked her view, removing its helmet to reveal a smirking wrinkled face. The green eyes of Carmela Moreto burned at Magnolia.

“You fucking bitch!” Magnolia blurted.

Moreto nodded proudly. “Sí, claro.”

The two men holding Magnolia tightened their grip as she regained command of her body. A rush of adrenaline was all she needed to get the use of her limbs back.

She nearly yanked free, but they pushed her to her knees, right in front of Moreto.

The old woman warrior leaned down close enough that Magnolia smelled her barbecue breath. Then Moreto leaned left to examine Magnolia’s head. Reaching out, she grabbed the bandage covering her burns and yanked it off.

Magnolia yowled in pain.

X glanced over, and Horn used the distraction to kick him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Her vision flooded with red, but she saw X roll away to avoid Horn’s boot. He stomped the ground where X had fallen, then swung one of his axes.

Moreto turned to watch.

Explosions flashed on the horizon, providing another distraction.

Magnolia spotted Shadow and Raven’s Claw. The warships had come up alongside each other, and although she couldn’t see it, she had a feeling General Forge and his men were in hand-to-hand combat with the skinwalkers.

This is what it all comes down to, she thought. Swords and spears.

And from what she could see, which wasn’t much, her side was losing. She could only hope that the forces at the Vanguard Islands were faring better and that the Hell Divers had completed their Africa mission just in case the machines had reached the islands.

Tin, Les, Layla, Rodger, Miles, X—everyone she loved in this world was in danger.

And not just them. The entire human race was at risk, thrust back into the apocalypse. The fate of the survivors would be determined by what happened in three far-flung locations.

Filled with rage, Magnolia jerked free of the two men and tackled Moreto. The old woman hit the ground hard, and Magnolia grabbed her around the neck, screaming.

This caught Horn’s attention right as he held both axes high, ready to bring them down or throw them at X, who was backing away.

X seized the opportunity to dart forward and jab with his spear arm. The blade punched in just below the collarbone, with a sickening crunch.

The skinwalker let out a roar and dropped one axe to the dirt.

Magnolia didn’t get a chance to see whether X finished the job. The two guards pulled her off Moreto and tossed her to the dirt, beside Victor.

Boots kicked her in the stomach and chest. The armor seemed to offer scant protection. Another kick knocked the breath from her lungs.

She glanced up just as Moreto stumbled over, holding her neck. Then she, too, joined in with a kick to Magnolia’s jaw.

Blood filled Magnolia’s mouth, and a piece of broken tooth cut her tongue.

She slumped to her stomach, drooling blood and saliva onto the ash.

The onslaught stopped, and a boot pushed against her back, holding her in place.

She raised a swollen eye to X and Horn. The spear blade he had jammed into Horn’s upper chest was stuck there.

Horn had tried to bring his remaining axe down on X, but X had grabbed his wrist and was pushing up with that hand while trying to pry the spear free with his stump.

“Die, asshole!” X said.

Planting his left boot, he pushed the blade deeper into Horn’s shoulder, eliciting another muffled roar of agony.

A distant Siren answered the call.

Horn pulled X closer to his chest, pulling the spear blade deeper into his own flesh. He continued to scream as he pulled X, not stopping until the blade broke out the back of his armor, blood dripping off its slick edge.

Now X was fastened to Horn’s armored chest.

The bastard prince, who was much taller, brought his horned helmet down hard against X’s. The first blow didn’t seem to inflict much damage, but the second knocked X’s head back.

He managed to keep his grip on Horn’s wrist until the third head-butt cracked his visor. X seemed to go limp in Horn’s grip.

He head-butted the king another time, and shards of visor fell to the dirt. Then he raised the axe and brought it up to finish off the king.

“No!” Magnolia shouted.

Victor tried to get up, only to be shot in the upper back. A halo of dust poofed up as he hit the dirt belly-first. The bullet didn’t stop him. Hands still tied, he squirmed toward the king.

Horn laughed as one of his men stomped on Victor’s back.

Magnolia’s heart skipped a beat, then another as Horn, still laughing, brought the axe down toward X’s head. But instead of hitting him in the helmet, he smashed the spear contraption attached to his stump, breaking it off.

Then he pushed X backward.

The king fell on his back and lay still.

Victor wriggled out from under the boot, but the skinwalker guard grabbed him by the boots and pulled him back to Magnolia. Tears rolled down her face as she watched helplessly.

Moreto bent down and wiped away a tear with her finger, then brought it to her tongue. Magnolia glared with more hatred than she could contain.

The distant chatter of gunfire sounded on the horizon as the battle continued between Forge and the other skinwalker forces.

She could only pray for the general’s victory. But even if he won that fight, there was little hope of him getting to X in time to save him from the demented skinwalker leader and his demonic mother.

Magnolia had to do something. But what?

She searched for a weapon, anything she could use. The other half of Rhino’s spear stuck out of the dirt ten feet away, which was about nine feet too far.

Horn staggered over to X, the other spearhead still stuck in his chest armor. Blood ran down his front and back. The blood loss would have been enough to bring most men to their knees, but like X, this wasn’t a normal man.

“Fight me!” Magnolia yelled.

Horn looked at her, then reached up and twisted his helmet until it clicked. He pulled it off to show his face for the first time.

Magnolia wasn’t sure how she had imagined el Pulpo’s son to look, other than ugly. But the strong jawline and dimpled cheeks had little in common with his father. The surprisingly handsome features were ruined by soulless eyes that now focused on her.

He licked the air and said, “Te dejo para luego”—something about saving her for later.

Then he went back to the king. Dripping blood, he bent down and pried X’s helmet off.

The scarred, battered face of the man Magnolia loved like a father tilted toward her.

Horn kicked the king’s legs out into an X shape. Then he kicked his left arm out at an angle. When Magnolia realized what he was doing, she felt bile rising in her throat.

The bastard was going to cut X’s limbs off, one by one.

“No,” she mumbled. “X…”

Horn staggered, then righted himself. He pointed his axe at someone behind Magnolia.

Snorting and the crunch of heavy footsteps told her what was happening now.

The bone beast lumbered by, led by the man with the electrical rod. Even Moreto stepped back, giving it a wide berth.

The skinwalker guard gave the beast a zap, bringing it down on its barbed knees only three paces from X.

Horn walked over to the monster and stopped in front of the ruined face. It was on the same level as his own eyes, even with the creature kneeling.

Blood snorted out of the burned nostrils, flecking Horn’s forehead and nose. He wiped it away and licked his hand.

“Ya vas a comer a un rey,” he said. Magnolia recognized the words “eat” and “king.”

He patted the creature on the head as if it were a dog, then turned back to X.

Horn didn’t just plan on cutting X into pieces. He planned on feeding each piece to his pet.

* * * * *

Over two hours had passed since the drones attacked the Shark’s Cage. The only survivors had pulled Ada and Jo-Jo out of the water, into a damaged fishing boat.

Miraculously, the craft made it to the Vanguard Islands, partly thanks to Ada’s bailing efforts with a metal bucket. Sitting low in the water, they crossed the barrier just before sunset.

Her view of home was obscured by smoke. It appeared that Ada was indeed too late to save her people.

The drones had swarmed the outer rigs, slaughtering civilians and soldiers alike. They had already moved to the interior rigs, leaving burning metal stalks in their wake.

A warship had sailed to meet the drones, but a squadron of the deadly machines rained bolts down onto it from all directions. Fire licked the hull of the massive ship that Ada recognized as Elysium.

The Cazador sailors put up a brave fight. Machine guns and twenty-millimeter cannons blazed into the sky, and pinpricks from small arms flashed from the deck.

Other vessels had also joined the battle, but many had already been turned to smoldering debris on the surface. She searched the sky for Discovery, and the water for the other warships, but none were in sight.

Had the airship already been destroyed? She shuddered at the thought. If Discovery was gone, they were doomed.

The two Cazadores also watched in horror, one manning the motor, the other slumped next to Ada, gripping his side, where a piece of shrapnel from the first attack had punched through his armor.

A pair of drones raked the deck of a fishing trawler with laser bolts. It burst into flames, then exploded. The wave of flames consumed the shapes of people jumping overboard.

Another pack of drones circled a rig that served as a slaughterhouse and cleaning station for livestock and fish. The bolts punched into the bulkheads, and flames burst out. Next to the rig, a farm burned. Hogs squealed in panic.

The machines weren’t discriminating. They were systematically killing everything that moved, from the outer rigs inward.

“We have to get to the capitol tower,” she said, pointing.

The Cazador pilot steered toward the airship roof. She spotted the decommissioned Hive on the horizon. The drones hadn’t made it there yet.

Maybe there was a chance to stop them. After all, some had already been blown from the sky.

Jo-Jo clutched Ada as the craft labored through the waves. So far, the drones hadn’t spotted them, but she kept a close watch to make sure they weren’t being followed.

An explosion bloomed on a rig up ahead. The injured Cazador man beside Ada got up and held on to a gunwale.

“no!” he yelled.

Several drones circled the rig, firing bolts onto the residential levels. Shacks collapsed and tents burned. Cazador civilians leaped off the decks into the water to escape the inferno.

A few Cazadores held their ground to defend their homes, firing rifles at the drones. One woman was shooting arrows.

The bullets and arrows had little effect, merely knocking the drones off course before they came back in and finished the job. The woman with the bow vanished in a fireball.

The Cazador soldier at the gunwale took off his helmet and knelt on the deck, weeping. He wiped the tears away and spat into the water, yelling curses in a language Ada didn’t understand. She shared his sorrow.

Their boat skirted a fishing trawler destroyed by the drones. It was still in the process of sinking, the stern poking out of the ocean and dropping fast.

A halo of debris surrounded the vessel. Barrels, tackle, and panels bobbed in the waves.

Ada pointed at someone treading water and waving. The pilot throttled down and cruised over to them.

This time, Ada was the one to extend a hand into the water.

Days earlier, she would never have dreamed of helping a Cazador. They all were evil cannibals who wanted her people dead. But things had changed since then.

The man who plucked her from the water instead of letting her drown had made her rethink everything.

A memory surfaced of dropping the Lion’s crew into the waves. She had killed them because she feared them, and because of what some of them had done to Katrina. But maybe X had been right about giving them a chance.

She shook off the thoughts as the boat brought her closer to the man in the water. He flailed in the other direction.

“Take my hand!” Ada yelled.

He turned around, treading water, then kicked over to her.

Their hands connected just as another explosion burst on the horizon. The drones had moved on to another rig. The trading post…

Jo-Jo let go of Ada’s leg to cower in the stern while the wounded soldier helped her haul the fisherman aboard. Then they putted away, the motor coughing acrid black smoke.

The rescued man nodded his thanks to Ada. But then, seeing the monkey, he reared back slightly. Jo-Jo, equally afraid, cowered behind Ada on the metal bench.

“It’s okay,” she said.

But it wasn’t okay. The trading post was being torn apart, and one of their farms had already been destroyed.

Elysium sailed over to help, still taking enemy fire. The bolts stitched down the warship’s hull. They were close enough now that Ada could see soldiers on the deck. They weren’t all Cazadores.

Militia soldiers in black armor stood among the warriors. They fought side by side, firing everything they had into the sky.

What had happened since she left? Maybe X had secured the peace he promised, after all.

Remorse continued to eat at her.

She looked back to the capitol tower. Cannons boomed from the rooftop, and in the waning sunlight came muzzle flashes from machine-gun nests.

Of the hundred drones that had attacked, over half were still in the air—enough to inflict major damage on the rigs. And from what she could see, the defectors’ aircraft carrier wasn’t even here yet.

In the waning light, muzzle flashes glowed like fireflies across the top deck of the Hive as soldiers and civilians defended their home. She noticed a gaping hole under the balcony platforms built out from the airship. But this one wasn’t smoking, and it had scaffolding around it. Was this from an earlier attack?

Tracer rounds chased a pack of drones that rocketed toward the Hive. One of the machines burst apart, scattering hot metal over the water.

It was a victory, but short-lived.

The swarm came together into a tight V formation six strong. Bolts punched into the Hive, blowing another hole in the side.

The Cazador pilot steered them in a wide arc around the flotsam of sunken boats.

Fires burned on three levels of the rig, but the drones had stopped their assault to concentrate their fire on Elysium.

Antiaircraft weapons on the warship pounded the sky, and two drones exploded. The other ten fanned out, then came back together into a chevron formation.

Bolts pierced the bow and slammed into the command tower. Soldiers on deck ran for cover as the squadron wheeled around for another run.

Ada looked around for the other warships. Where were they?

And where was X? The legendary Hell Diver would be out here, not hiding in the capitol tower.

She wondered again at the damage to the Hive. Something had happened when she was gone.

Darkness carpeted the ocean as the last drip of sun was swallowed by the outer edges of the Vanguard Islands. Flames from burning rigs reflected off the attacking drones.

It was easy to picture how they could have destroyed Discovery in a single pass if it were here. She prayed that Les had flown it somewhere safe. But that wasn’t in the captain and Hell Diver’s nature. Like X, he would be here in the thick of it, fighting to save their home.

She looked on as the soldiers on Elysium put up a last-ditch fight. The machine guns, cannons, and antiaircraft artillery blazed away as a new pack of drones left an adjacent rig to join the fight.

Together, the two aerial formations came in from starboard and port. Lasers pounded both sides at the same time.

A third formation had approached low over the water to avoid the ship’s defenses. They surged up into the sky, then made a strafing run over the deck. Soldiers dived overboard to avoid the brilliant wave of fire that erased the command tower.

The formations broke back into individual flight, and dozens of thrusters jetted purple flame as they moved on to new targets.

Then all at once, they took to the sky, vanishing into the clouds.

Jo-Jo clutched Ada’s leg as she looked out on the devastation. The injured Cazador and the fisherman wept beside her.

Plumes of smoke trailed away from the rigs, and a thick layer drifted over the water. Ada coughed as they motored through it.

Water sloshed nearly ankle deep in the boat. But they were almost to the capitol tower—close enough that they weren’t going to sink.

The boat emerged from the pall of smoke, and the airship rooftop came into view under the glow of a rising almost full moon.

Not a single Cazador or militia soldier stood on the docks of the capitol tower.

Boats rocked in the water, still moored where they had been left.

She jumped out when they pulled up, wincing as she landed on her injured foot. After getting Jo-Jo onto the dock, she helped the injured Cazador soldier. The fisherman who had piloted them here tied up the boat, then grabbed a rifle.

Ada wanted to scream for X, but she walked in silence. Her gut told her the king wasn’t here and neither were the Hell Divers.

Helping the injured Cazador with one arm and holding Jo-Jo in the other, she slogged toward the elevator cage. The fisherman went first, with his rifle shouldered. Looking skyward every few seconds, he slung his rifle and opened the elevator cage. Ada and the wounded soldier piled in, but Jo-Jo balked.

“It’s okay,” Ada said, stroking its bristly hair. The monkey trembled against her, letting out a whimper as the cage jolted and jerked upward.

The apocalyptic view took Ada’s breath away. She had been right about returning home to a war—just not the war she had expected.

As the cage rose higher, the fisherman pointed at the eastern horizon. A large vessel had broken through the outer barriers and stood bathed in moonlight.

She recognized the elongated warship. The aircraft carrier had arrived with its defector cargo to finish the job.

FORTY

X was tied to steel pipes that the skinwalkers had pounded into the ground. The irony wasn’t lost on him as they splayed his body out and tied him up in the shape of his nickname.

He raised his head, his vision swarming with fireflies.

Twin suns resolved themselves into torches that a pair of skinwalkers held. It wasn’t just the bone beast they were going to feed him to. Horn and his men planned to feast on the king’s flesh.

The former prince of the Metal Islands sat on a throne of dead bodies that the skinwalkers had piled up over the past hour. Orange gauze plugged the hole in his armor where X had plunged Rhino’s spear.

It had taken three skinwalkers to hold Horn down while a medic pulled the spear from below his collarbone. He had nearly strangled the medic before passing out. That had delayed the execution for a short time. Now he was awake again, and he seemed to like Moreto’s plan to barbecue X a piece at a time, forcing him to look on as he was being consumed. Horn sat there watching X and grinning while the fighting continued on Shadow and Raven’s Claw.

The skinwalker leader didn’t seem worried about the battle. He wasn’t even watching. X was, though not by choice. Hanging from the poles, he had a decent view of the ocean and the smoke drifting away from Shadow. The skinwalkers’ last submarine had pounded it with rockets a few minutes earlier, then vanished under the surface.

It would all be over soon, and X could do nothing to stop it.

He turned his head toward the surviving Barracudas. There were only two, one of them Willis, the English-speaker. Both were tied up next to Magnolia and Victor.

She lay in the dirt, hardly moving. Victor hadn’t moved for several minutes. He had taken two bullets, and X feared he had died of his injuries. Seeing his loyal guard gunned down like a beast when he had tried to help X was the breaking point.

X looped his fingers through the rope tying him to the pole and tried to move a foot, but they were too tight to budge. Both guards with torches walked closer. One thrust the torch toward his face. The intense heat warmed his flesh. He turned his head to the side for some relief, this time in the other direction.

The bone beast, still on its knees, chewed on the arm of a Barracuda soldier while awaiting the main course—X.

He drew in a rattling breath. For most of his adult life, his body had been pushed from one extreme to another. He had always defied the odds, survived when others died, and fought his way through what seemed impossible situations. A high pain tolerance and sheer stubbornness had helped. But it was over for him, and he knew it.

He had failed his people. Worst of all, he had doomed them by spreading them too thin. A good general would have dealt with one threat at a time. But all the good generals were dead—or about to be.

X looked at the bloody spearheads that had belonged to Rhino. He had come so close to killing Horn with them.

Magnolia squirmed in her restraints. Good, she still had fight left in her. And Victor moved again—another small cause for relief. The two warriors had journeyed far to fight with X, but they hadn’t been able to stop the evil.

A bright light flickered on the horizon. X tried to make it out. It wasn’t coming from Shadow or Raven’s Claw.

General Forge had destroyed the final submarine, leaving just the two warships. X held back a grin. Maybe there was a chance…

Another explosion blossomed in the distance. The skinwalkers on patrol all stopped to look. A man standing on a silo called out in Spanish, and the men all cheered.

It was over. Shadow was destroyed.

X felt the deepest dread of his life. He forced himself to watch the warship sink and vanish. Again he tried to move his body, but he was having a hard time breathing now, wheezing every few breaths.

Horn walked over with an axe in hand.

“Es hora de morir, Inmortal.”

X didn’t know what he had said, but this had to be the end. He lifted his chin as high as he could.

“I may have lost the fight in this life,” X said. He coughed. “But I’ll kill you a thousand times in hell.”

Horn twirled his axe and moved over to X, looking at one leg, then the other. It appeared that he would start on the right. He waved one of the torchbearers over.

X didn’t fear the pain. He didn’t particularly fear death, either, but he feared what would happen to everyone out there. Michael, Layla, Bray, Miles, Les, Rodger… The list went on and on.

Moreto joined her son, arms folded across her chest. They exchanged a few words in Spanish, something about a perro.

X knew the word for dog. Had they found Miles?

Letting out a scream, he pulled with his left hand on the rope while kicking with his feet as hard as he could.

Horn watched for a moment, then laughed. Moreto joined in with the other soldiers until everyone was laughing uproariously.

“You sick bastards!” Magnolia shouted. “I’ll kill all of you! all of you!”

Horn glared at her and licked his lips again, then turned back to X as Moreto walked over and kicked Magnolia in the gut.

X felt his sinewy muscles bulge as he fought to get free. His face burned with rage.

Horn tilted his head, but not at X.

A whooshing sounded. Something hit the dirt behind X. Then something else.

The guard in front of X slumped over onto his torch, two arrows sticking out of his back. Another guard grasped at an arrow through his face mask.

Muzzle flashes came from the scrapyard, and several more skinwalkers fell. Horn grabbed the second torchbearer, using him as a human shield.

Bullets riddled the man’s armor and the dirt behind him. Horn tossed the limp body aside, and the torch landed right in front of X.

The flames licked up between his boots.

Horn brought up his axe to finish X, but a bullet hit the blade, and another punched into his arm. He hunched down and bolted away from the gunfire, no longer the gloating victor.

Shouting broke the momentary lull.

“For X!”

The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

Barking rose above the war cries. That voice, he could place.

Miles came running from the scrapyard, flanked by a dozen soldiers in militia and Cazador armor. Ton ran in front, his assault rifle blazing.

The skinwalker guarding Magnolia and Victor took several rounds. Moreto hit the dirt and scrambled for cover while the other skinwalkers knelt to fire.

X could feel the heat of the torch, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the battle.

Magnolia pushed herself to her feet and looked over at him. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. She staggered a few steps, righted herself, and kicked Moreto in the face as she tried to crawl away.

“How ya like it, ya withered old witch?” Magnolia shouted.

X couldn’t do anything but watch the chaos unfold around him. Ton, ten militia soldiers, and four Barracudas laid into the dozen skinwalkers still standing.

Horn returned to the battle to fight with his men. He brought an axe down on a militiaman’s shoulder, splitting his upper chest in half. Then he yanked it free and threw it into the back of another soldier.

Magnolia kicked Moreto once more and then grabbed an assault rifle from the ground. She lined up the sights on Horn’s head.

“Die, motherfucker!” she yelled.

She pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire.

“Spear!” X yelled at her.

Tossing away the gun, she ran over to the spear still sticking out of the ground.

The bone beast roared as a burst of rounds hit its handler. Free now, it grabbed the nearest person, another skinwalker. It twisted off his helmet, head and all.

“X!” Brett yelled.

The militia soldier that X had told to look after Miles was waving.

“Shoot that thing in the eye sockets!” X yelled.

Brett aimed at the monster’s head and fired a burst that broke away a shard of bone. The creature roared, muscles flexing under its bony armor.

Then it lurched forward, blind and pawing at the air.

The beast slammed into the armored back of a skinwalker swinging a cutlass at Ton. He skidded across the ground, and the creature sniffed to find him before he could crawl away. Claws ripped through his back armor.

Ton pulled a blaster and walked toward the feasting monster. He held the weapon up toward the bone beast’s mouth as it turned toward him.

The buckshot blew through the mouth and out the back of the skull, cutting short the beast’s final roar. The boom of the weapon was one of the most beautiful sounds X had ever heard.

Ton ran over to Victor while Magnolia stumbled over to X with the spear she had plucked from the ground. She cut his restraints, and he slumped to the earth, arm and legs numb.

“Finish this,” she said, placing the half spear in his hand.

Summoning the little strength he had, X got to his feet. Miles ran over, nudging against him.

The fighting was mostly over. Five militia soldiers and three Cazadores had Horn and his remaining two men surrounded. Yelling in Spanish, the bastard prince swung his axe through the air at the encroaching circle of enemies.

Moreto was sitting, hands clasped behind her head.

Dozens of bodies littered the dirt. Magnolia picked up another assault rifle, then suddenly stopped, staring into the boatyard. X saw two more figures emerge. One hobbled on crutches made of broken oars, and the other wore a robe.

“Imulah! Rodger!” Magnolia yelled.

She ran over to them while X limped over to Horn and his mother. Brett and another militia soldier backed away to let the king through.

Horn swung the axe once more, cutting only air. He went down on one knee, bleeding through the gauze that plugged his armor. His two men lowered their weapons and put their hands behind their heads.

“Everyone back,” X grumbled.

He walked up to Horn, who had to know he was defeated.

But as soon as X got close, Horn swiped with his axe again. X stepped back, easily avoiding the blow. Horn fell to his stomach, and Magnolia used a knife to pin one hand to the ground. X used the spear to pin his other hand.

An animal howl of pain followed. He centered his obsidian eyes on X, then Magnolia.

X didn’t finish him off. He had a promise to keep.

Turning, he gestured to Rodger and Imulah. Magnolia grabbed Moreto, dragged her over, and dumped her next to her son.

Rodger joined Magnolia, looking down at the two skinwalkers.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I will be soon,” Rodger replied. “You?”

“Same.”

“Someone hand me a blaster,” X said.

Brett said something to Ton, who handed his over. X flipped open the breech and found a buckshot shell and a flare loaded. He flipped it shut and handed the weapon to Rodger.

“Not until I tell you, Rodge,” X said.

Magnolia helped steady Rodger as, with a shaky hand, he pointed the blaster at Moreto.

X coughed deep. “Imulah,” he said, “I want you to interpret for me.”

Imulah scurried over.

“As king of the Vanguard Islands, I sentence—”

Horn interrupted, talking fast. He followed up by spitting on X’s boots.

X calmly looked to Imulah.

“He said that you are not worthy of the crown, and that’s why all your people will die by the metal gods.”

Moreto mumbled something next.

“She said you may have defeated them here, but the sky people and the traitorous Cazadores will all die soon…” Imulah paused.

“What?” X asked.

“She said the islands are burning.”

“What does that mean?” X asked.

He had a feeling that it meant what it sounded like. That the defectors had reached their home. And X was helpless to stop it now—with Shadow and Renegade sunk, they had no way to make it home.

Moreto spoke again but was silenced by a crack that made X flinch. The flare from Rodger’s blaster burst against the side of Moreto’s head, setting her hair on fire.

Horn let out a scream of agony as his mother wailed. He yanked up on the blades pinning his hands down.

X pulled the spear, freeing one hand.

Swiveling his head, Horn focused a soulless gaze of rage at X.

His mouth opened to let out a scream, but X cut it short with a stroke of the blade across his throat. Horn reached up to stanch the blood as pink bubbles burst from his lips.

Moreto, still burning, writhed in agony.

Aiming the blaster, Rodger pulled the trigger. A dozen double-aught pellets hit her in the chest, silencing her. Rodger dropped the weapon to the ground and leaned on Magnolia, sobbing.

X watched as Horn kicked at the ground, still fighting for life. He bent down over him with the spear still in his grip.

“For Rhino,” he said, and staked Horn through his icy heart.

Leaving the blade in his chest, X walked away, only to flinch as a voice shouted in the distance.

“Boats on the beach!”

X turned away from Horn and Moreto. “Who?” he shouted.

“I don’t know,” the militia scout yelled back. “But Raven’s Claw is still out there.”

“Get ready,” X said. “This ain’t over!”

The soldiers trained their weapons on the boatyard. Ton stuck by Victor, their backs against a brick wall. Both men held pistols.

Brett handed X a blaster.

“Thanks for coming back for me,” X said. He took the weapon and stood next to the militia soldier, with Miles by his side.

“It’s okay, boy,” he said. “Stay close.”

The dog’s tail whipped inside its hazard suit.

Flashlight beams hit the scrapyard. X scanned the shadows for the enemy forces coming to avenge their leader.

The wait wasn’t long. Faint silhouettes moved in the scrapyard. Someone launched a flare.

“Hold your fire!” Magnolia yelled.

In the flare’s glow, a group of Cazador soldiers strode out. One wore a burned and frayed orange cape.

General Forge led a group of twenty men, some holding spears, others down to knives. All the blades were bloody. They ran up, then slowed to take in the battlefield.

Magnolia breathed a sigh of relief and turned to X, smiling.

But she knew this wasn’t over, and so did X.

“We have to get back to the Vanguard Islands,” X said. “The killing won’t stop until all the machines are destroyed.”

FORTY-ONE

“We found survivors…”

Michael’s radio message was garbled and staticky. Les heard most of it. He also heard the panicked screams in the background.

It lasted only a few seconds, but those seconds changed everything.

Fear took his fatigued body hostage as he tried to think what to do. Breaking radio silence could give away his and Sofia’s position behind some metal platforms in a supply yard.

Since landing on the roof of a low warehouse, they had climbed down but were forced to hide in the maze of construction equipment.

At either end of the supply yard, a defector stood inside a small metal kiosk that had shielded them from view earlier. Their visors were dark. Normally, they glowed.

Something was different about their arms, too. Instead of hands, they had sharp blades.

“Defectors are surrounding… can’t escape,” Michael said over the comms. “Must get to the tower.”

Les tried to make sense of the second part, resisting the urge to ask. But he couldn’t just crouch here and listen.

He had to do something.

He hand-signaled his plan to Sofia. She would neutralize the defector at the north entrance of the supply yard, and he would take out the one to the east. They parted, heading opposite directions. He crept between the rows, laser rifle forward, until he got about ten feet from the machine. A pulsing light glowed around the final row of stacked metal platforms.

Les readied his rifle and moved around the other side to fire a bolt into the machine, which must have heard him coming—it had left the kiosk.

Hearing a clank behind him, he ducked just as the robot jabbed a blade down at him from atop a stack of metal platforms. The sharp point of the second blade glowed red hot as it grew like an extendable baton.

Les tried to fire his laser rifle, but the machine jumped down behind him. He dived to avoid the blade, but it punched into his booster. Helium hissed out of the cannister.

He rolled to his back and fired a bolt, but the defector lay slumped to the side, the skull sizzling with an orange hole through the temple.

Sofia lowered her laser rifle and reached down to Les.

“Thanks,” he said. “I owe you one.”

She followed him out of the supply yard, passing the other defector, which she had fried with a bolt to the battery unit. Les slowed as he walked through a gate that opened to a street. It was the main artery through the base, but there wasn’t much concealment here besides a few trees and clumps of weeds growing in the alleys between buildings.

The patrols he had seen earlier were gone—it wasn’t hard to guess where to. He tried to get a view of the warehouse where Michael and Arlo had landed. Just as he rounded the corner of a building for a look, the comms hissed again.

“Factories… mainframe… You have to get to… They have…”

Les retreated behind a fence of weeds growing outside the supply yard. He and Sofia looked out at the egg-colored silos rising over the next block. Their smoke plumes had ceased.

“The factories house the mainframe?” he whispered.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Les slipped deeper into the weeds, using them to get to the side of a building. Stopping at the corner, he sneaked a look down the street to the western edge of the base.

At the far end of the complex, drones hovered over the multilevel warehouses. Those had to be where Michael and Arlo had discovered the human prisoners.

“What do we do?” Sofia asked.

At the creak of robotic joints, he motioned her down. The ground trembled. It wasn’t just drones that Michael and Arlo had drawn to their location.

Two tanks with segmented legs came from the direction of the factories. Les and Sofia froze as they charged past the weeds.

After they passed, he raised his head to check them out.

The weapons turret was built on a central core unit. An orange glow came from small windows in the side that must house the battery unit powering the tank.

Over the crunching of the massive feet came another mechanical noise.

Les went down again as four defector units strode after the tanks. Sofia kept her helmet tilted toward him. He couldn’t see her eyes, but they had to be as wide as his.

He moved his finger to the trigger of his laser rifle, ready to open fire. But they kept marching, the orange glow of their visors receding through the weeds.

Les watched them head for the warehouse, where another patrol joined them.

Then another.

More and more surviving defectors showed up at the warehouse. Some were damaged and missing limbs. Others had soot-darkened exoskeletons. But at least thirty of those surrounding the building looked shiny and new, as if they had come fresh off the assembly line. Those units had the same blades that had almost skewered him in the supply yard.

Michael and Arlo were not getting out of the warehouse alive unless their captain did something. But what could he do? If he and Sofia tried to help—and there was no guarantee that they could—then they threatened the entire mission.

There was one possible way to save them, though it would risk their ride home.

Les took a long, slow breath of filtered air. He had prepared for this to be a one-way trip. The thought of never seeing Phyl and Katherine again hurt his heart worse than a hot knife. But they were the main reason he was here. He would never again let the machines hurt anyone he loved, even though it meant making a difficult decision.

He turned to the smokestacks again. Could the factories really be housing the mainframe? If so, where did the road into the mountain go?

Les looked back to the warehouse. What was the right call? Leave Michael and Arlo and try to complete the mission, or try to save them?

The firepower surrounding the warehouse helped him decide. There was literally nothing he and Sofia could do to help. He could only hope the machines took them captive instead of killing them outright. That would give him a chance to shut the mainframe down and save them.

Good luck, Tin…

With a heavy heart, Les motioned for Sofia to follow him while they had the chance. Maybe there was a way into the mountain from the factories—a hidden tunnel or passage that Michael had discovered.

Or maybe the mainframe really was inside.

The abandoned streets between the buildings on the next block allowed Les to run, and despite her injuries, Sofia managed to keep up. They kept close to buildings and used whatever cover they could find, pressing on until they got to the road between them and the factories.

Les noticed tracks from humans and machines leading toward closed industrial roll-up doors built into the base of each tower.

He checked the left and right side of the road, then nodded at Sofia. Taking point, he led the way to a side door. He didn’t see a handle, keypad, or anything else to provide a way in.

The hum of the drones would hopefully mask the sound of a laser bolt. He raised his weapon at the door and fired.

Four shots later, it clicked open. He walked inside with his NVGs on. When his eyes adjusted to the green hue, rows of assembly lines across the long space came into focus.

Robotic arms had frozen in place. Cranes with grappling hooks hung from tracks on the ceiling, still holding on to parts for DEF-Nine units.

An entire conveyor belt of metal skulls had stopped. Nothing was operating, not even emergency lights.

Les hurried past the assembly lines, ignoring the limbs and torsos of the killer machines. The plant was empty, giving him free rein to look for an elevator entrance, a door—anything that might tell him where the mainframe was.

Moving past boilers, compressor units, and other industrial equipment, he quickly cleared the first section of the main floor. Behind it was a wall—no door or elevator. Nothing.

Les met Sofia at the other back corner of the lab, where there was a door. He blasted it open and entered a passage with glass walls on either side.

He bumped off his night vision and turned on his helmet lamp for a better look inside. The beam speared into the dark space on the left, illuminating cages and red eyes.

Les reared back at the sight.

“Dear God,” Sofia whispered.

She joined him behind the glass, her lights raking over cage after cage containing human heads mounted on turrets like the tanks, with multiple thin, spiderlike legs.

Dozens of human eyes blinked at their beams sweeping over the cages.

These people were still alive.

Sofia turned away, gagging inside her helmet. Les stared in horror as mouths opened, trying to communicate. He shined his light down the rows of cages and then on tables with full-length defector bodies minus the heads.

It didn’t take long to figure out what was happening here.

“Come on,” he said.

“Leave them like this?” Sofia stuttered. “This is torture.”

“We’ll burn this place to the ground after we shut down the mainframe.”

She hesitated, then followed Les back to the factory floor.

Halfway across, they heard distant shouts. Then screams. And finally, clicking joints of the machines.

Les and Sofia dropped as three defectors strode into the room. Their visors emitted red holographic walls that swept over the space, beeping.

He remained hunched behind a boiler, with Sofia beside him.

The beeping stopped. Not because the machines were leaving.

Clicking metal feet echoed across the factory floor. Les motioned for Sofia to flank the machines. She crept around the other side of the boiler.

He nodded, and they darted around the sides and opened fire.

The first bolt from his weapon blew through a defector, knocking it to the floor in a fountain of sparks. Sofia dropped a second machine in almost the same instant, sending another shower of sparks through the air. Les turned his gun on the third as it aimed at Sofia.

A bolt into the visor dropped the machine in a sizzling heap near the one Sofia had destroyed.

Les looked over at her and gave a sigh of relief as she raised a hand to touch the rivet atop her helmet where the last defector’s shot missed its mark. If Les hadn’t shot the thing at that exact moment…

A vision of Trey swam before his eyes. If the machine had shot a moment earlier, aimed a couple of inches lower, Sofia’s face would be nothing but a glowing hole. His son had died the same way.

Les hurried over to Sofia and embraced her hard. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around him as well. Without a word, they broke apart, and Les picked up an extra laser rifle from one of the machines.

It was time to finish this now and save the others.

To save the entire human race.

Carrying both weapons, he walked to the downed machines and put a bolt through each metal skull. Then he trained the rifles on the open doorway.

The shouting intensified as they made their way outside and down the road. From there, Les had a perfect view of the warehouse at the west end of the compound.

Drones continued to circle like vultures waiting for a meal. The tanks stood outside, weapons angled down at a horde of people.

A hundred or more people filed out of the building and stood in the dirt. Les started toward them, motioning for Sofia to stay close and hugging the buildings along the way to keep out of sight.

What he saw seized his breath. People young and old, of all races. Les had never seen such a diverse group.

Defectors herded the growing crowd away from the warehouse. Two of the machines dragged armored bodies out of the crowd.

“No,” Les whispered.

“We have to do something,” Sofia said.

They stopped behind a cluster of trees growing outside the metal tower with a spiked roof. Hidden by the trees, he watched in the darkness, his mind racing as fast as his heart.

He had no idea what was happening in Aruba or the Vanguard Islands, and his team was either dead or captured. It was on him to complete the mission by finding the damn mainframe. If he did that, he still might save everyone here and at home.

The machines herded the prisoners toward the gate. People sobbed, and a group of children wailed as they were separated from the adults. Les spotted a young girl who could have been his own daughter. Another reminder of what was at stake.

He zoomed his rifle scope in on Michael. There was a reason the transmissions had stopped. Michael was limp like Arlo—either unconscious or dead.

Les lowered his rifle, his heart breaking. He searched the sky for Discovery. Timothy was up there, awaiting his orders. There was no other choice now. It was time to risk the airship and his position.

Les bumped on the comms. “Timothy, this is Captain Mitchells. Do you copy?”

The response was almost instant.

“Copy you, sir.”

“You got anything up there left to fire?”

“We are down to ten percent of our ammunition, sir.”

“I want you to use most of that on those cannons outside the base,” Les said. “Once they’re destroyed, fly low and fast and take out the drones, then the tanks. We’ll deal with the individual machines.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

“Drop off all civilians before you come in. Food and supplies, too, just in case.”

“Already done, sir. Only one person is on the ship with me.”

Another voice came in over the comms. “Captain, this is Samson. I’m staying with Timothy. He’s going to need a copilot.”

Les wasn’t surprised. He was one of only a few people besides X who knew the truth about Samson’s cough. His fate would be the same as Captain Maria Ash’s: throat cancer. But it had spread to his lungs. Not even the ITC cancer medicine could save Samson now.

“We got your back, boss,” he rasped.

“You’re sure about this?” Les asked.

“Hey, I always wanted to be a Hell Diver but was a bit heavy for the old launch tubes. I guess this is as close as I’ll get. Good luck, Captain.”

“You too,” Les replied. “And, Timothy?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Give these AI assholes hell, my friend.”

“You may count on that, Captain.”

The channel closed, and Les opened a private one with Edgar and Lena.

“It’s on us now,” he said. “When Discovery comes in, start shooting the DEF-Nine units to give the prisoners a chance to run. I’ll try to find the mainframe and end this.”

“Roger that, Cap,” Edgar said. “Stay safe.”

“You too.”

With the division of prisoners complete, the gates were opening. Two machines dragged Michael and Arlo by their feet while six others with laser rifles marched most of the men outside. The rest of the machines guarded the other prisoners. The women and children were sobbing and screaming for fathers and brothers.

It was clear what was about to happen.

Les turned to Sofia, handing her one of the laser rifles. “Stay here under cover and take out as many of those bastards as you can.”

“What about you?”

“I have to shut down that mainframe.”

As the prisoners were corralled toward the gates, Michael suddenly broke free from the two machines dragging him. He got up and swung with his robotic hand, shattering a defector’s visor. The other raised its laser rifle.

Les and Sofia both aimed their rifles but before they could fire, the defector staggered sideways, sparks flying off its head.

A gunshot rang out in the distance. Edgar had taken the perfect shot.

“Good luck,” Les said.

“You too,” Sofia replied.

Two drones rocketed away from the warehouse as Les set off on his own. Lena opened fire with her laser rifle, and Edgar fired another high-velocity round, hitting a defector in the chest.

Les heard the electronic chatter of the laser rifle behind him as Sofia laid into the six defectors herding the men through the open gate.

Screaming and wailing rang out from the crowd as the chaos spread.

A voice surged over the comm channel. “The mainframe is in the main tower!” Michael said.

Les glanced up at the black tower he had just left. The spike at the top flashed orders to other drones rising into the sky. A squadron of the bots blasted away through the darkness to find Discovery.

Timothy was ready. Explosions burst across the dark clouds over the mountain. Waves of tracer rounds from the airship’s twenty-millimeter guns raked back and forth. Orange bursts illuminated the snowcapped crest of Kilimanjaro. The drones that had taken to the sky rained down as bits of shrapnel.

A moment later, Discovery exploded out of the cloud cover. Its reinforced bow slammed into a drone, splattering it like a bug on a windscreen.

Rockets streaked away from the tubes, slamming into the cannons below. Explosions billowed up into the sky from each impact, some making huge, loud fireballs as the artillery shells also detonated.

Les turned back to Michael, who had helped Arlo to his feet. Civilians were still scattering, but the defectors were gunning them down. One of the tanks released a flurry of rounds into several men who had picked up laser rifles. They vanished in bursts of pink mist and gore.

Raising his rifle, Les aimed at the central unit and fired a stream of bolts into its core. Several bolts broke through the armor casing. The tank went haywire, jerking back and forth, legs stomping the ground, then crashed in a cloud of dust.

Michael and Arlo looked in his direction.

“Get everyone out of here!” Les yelled. “Outside the walls!”

Michael stared for a stolen moment, then took off as Discovery raked the defector ranks with twenty-millimeter rounds.

Les took off for the tower as more drones ascended from an open roof to the east to fire bolts at Discovery. Several stitched across the hull.

Timothy kept the airship steady and turned the bottom-mounted twenty-millimeter cannons on another group of defectors, turning them into scrap metal.

Another group of brave prisoners stormed the destroyed units and picked up their dropped laser rifles. The second tank swiveled its turret toward Discovery as the airship blasted back into the sky. The tank fired a volley of bolts, several blowing into the stern and knocking out a bank of the thrusters. The group of prisoners turned their newfound weapons on the tank.

Les kept running, watching as a swarm of drones climbed into the clouds after the purple exhaust trail from the thrusters. Several of the machines peeled away a moment later, changing direction.

An explosion boomed in the distant cliffs.

Les paused, realizing that it was Edgar and Lena’s location. The gunfire from Edgar’s sniper rifle ceased, and so did Lena’s laser bolts.

“No, God, no,” Les mumbled.

It was just him, Sofia, and Michael now, with Arlo too injured to fight.

Concussions rang out in the clouds as the drones caught up to the airship.

Les was almost to the tower.

Bright flashes lit the skyline above the mountain as the drones and Discovery fired. He took cover in the trees surrounding the tower, the canopy blocking his view of the battle.

Walking around the base of the structure, he searched for a door while the heavens rumbled and the shouts and screams of prisoners filled the night.

Les found the tower’s entrance on the north side. He approached with his laser rifle. Like the factory door, it had no handle or keypad.

He fired multiple bolts until it clicked open, revealing a room of computers, all of them flashing and beeping.

Their noise blocked out the sounds of the battle raging outside.

Les had just stepped inside when a deep, burning sensation ripped his gut. He tried to move, but his legs wouldn’t respond.

Then he saw the red-hot blade sticking out of the armor below his battery unit. The blade retracted, and Les fell on his side.

A defector strode toward him out of the trees. One of the blades attached to its arms glowed red. He had never even heard the machine following him.

The second blade began to glow.

Les brought up the laser rifle hidden under his body, and pulled the trigger before it could stab him again. The bolts erased the visor and a chunk of metal skull.

The machine clattered to the floor beside him, giving him a view inside the skull: a small microchip suspended from wires in some sort of thick fluid.

With one hand pressed against his gut, Les stumbled into the room. He set his rifle down and reached into his vest pocket for the USB stick. Bolts streaked down the road outside, and the aerial battle continued, rattling the tower walls.

Les resisted the urge to look down at his wound. He knew that it was something he probably wouldn’t survive, and checking it wasn’t going to help. Keeping his hand over the wound, he scooted all the way to a wall of computers.

Lights blinked up and down the bulkheads, right up to the ceiling ten stories above. Each time they flashed, he had a feeling they were sending out the same signal to machines across the planet.

He pushed himself up, cried out in pain, and nearly fell back down.

“Captain,” a voice hissed in his earpiece.

Les blinked, trying to steady himself.

“Captain, we’re almost out of ammo and have sustained severe damage,” Timothy said. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep us in the air.”

“I just need… a few…” Les slumped against the computers, his vision going dark. It came back a moment later, but his body felt weightless, as in the first seconds of a dive.

He pulled off the end of the thumb drive and searched for a place to upload it. “I’m almost there,” he said. “Just…”

More explosions rang outside—from ground or air, he couldn’t say. They sounded faint, or maybe that was just his hearing. His body was failing.

Les inserted the drive into a slot in a computer and then connected his wrist computer, using cables from another pocket in his vest. He tapped the screen, starting the upload.

At first, nothing happened. The percentage showed zero on his wrist computer.

He slumped down the wall of computers with a view of the open door. The fighting was distant now, and he heard only one voice, crackling in his helmet.

“Everyone’s outside the base,” Michael said. “I’m coming back in.”

“No,” Les choked. He saw the upload starting on his computer. It jumped to 10 percent, then 15. That gave him a shot of confidence.

“Get as far away from the base as you can, just in case this doesn’t work,” Les said.

“But, sir…”

Les spoke as firmly as he could. “That’s an order, Commander.”

“No way. I’m coming back.”

“Michael, if you do, you will never see Layla again or hold your son,” Les said. “Now, go. I’m finishing this myself!”

“But, Captain…”

“Take care of Phyl and Katherine.”

A pause.

“Sir, you can take care of them when we get out of here.”

“I’m sorry, Michael, but it’s over for me…” Les groaned in pain. “I’m hurt bad and not leaving this place. I’m counting on you. I love you like a son, and that’s why I can’t lose you like I lost Trey.”

Les shut off the channel before Michael could reply. He straightened his body against the wall.

“Timothy,” he said into his headset. “Do you copy, Timothy?”

“Copy, sir.”

Beyond the trees, the street was still. No machines in sight, nor any human prisoners. Tall weeds swayed gently in the breeze. It was almost peaceful.

He looked at his monitor: 95 percent.

A moment later, the virus was uploaded, and the inside of the tower glowed again, sending out the signal worldwide.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“Timothy, you have to destroy the main tower,” Les said.

“I’m out of rockets, sir,” Timothy replied.

Les closed his eyes.

Another voice came online.

Les disconnected his wrist computer and squirmed all the way to the door, where he had a view of the skyline above the canopy.

“We’ll use the airship,” Samson said. “Slam it right into the side.”

Les wanted to say no, but he knew that the airship was done for. This would ensure that the mainframe could never be brought back online.

“It’s been an honor serving with you, Captain,” Timothy replied.

“The honor has been mine, Timothy. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. And you as well, Samson.”

“You’re a good man, Les,” Samson said. “Leave this to us now.”

“Hit the tower at the lowest point possible,” Les choked.

Les didn’t mention that he was right underneath it. He was already dead anyway.

“Roger that,” Samson said. “I always wanted to say this: we dive so humanity survives!”

With what strength he had left, Les crawled out into the dirt, past the weeds. He managed to sit up against a tree trunk. A perfect view of the skyline.

A glowing outline moved through the clouds above the walls. Discovery shot through the barrier a moment later. Fire spewed from the hull as the airship hurtled toward the tower. An armored panel cartwheeled away to expose a translucent figure standing at the helm.

“Well done, Timothy,” Les croaked. “It’s been a hell of a ride.”

He closed his eyes, ready to join his son. The mission to avenge Trey and save his family was complete at last.

FORTY-TWO

Raven’s Claw carved through the sea on a course for the Vanguard Islands. A day had passed since they left Aruba, but to Magnolia it felt like a lifetime.

She stood in the command tower, looking out over the deck below. Most of the fighting had taken place here after General Forge boarded with a team of his fiercest warriors. They barely won the hand-to-hand battle against the skinwalkers, leaving a deck slick with blood. No one had walked away from the fight without an injury, and most of the survivors were in the medical ward three decks below.

General Forge, Magnolia, Imulah, and X and Miles were in the command center. The king sat in a chair, stroking Miles, while the general stared out over the water, his arm in a sling.

No one had said much since they left Aruba and heard a single radio message from a militia soldier. It played endlessly in Magnolia’s head.

The machines are almost to the capitol tower! We can’t hold them back!

Raven’s Claw had lost contact shortly thereafter, and they were sailing home at full speed. Magnolia knew that the chances of anything being left by the time they arrived weren’t good. It was a two-day sail in the best conditions, and it wouldn’t take the machines long at all to kill everything that breathed.

“Try the radio again,” X said.

Magnolia turned the dials, but only static crackled back. It was possible the electrical storms were interfering with the comms, but it was more likely that no one was left to answer the radio.

X let out a long sigh and went back to stroking Miles.

“We must not give up hope,” Imulah said. “Lieutenant Wynn was ready for them, and we have the Octopus Lords on our side.”

Magnolia snorted.

The general turned from the window, his chiseled jaw covered by a bandage that moved while he spoke to Imulah. He was ready to fight, and so were his men, but Magnolia knew they couldn’t do much with what they had left.

“General Forge says we crushed Horn and Moreto, and we will do the same to the metal gods,” Imulah said.

“ ‘Crushed’ isn’t exactly…” A glare from X stopped Magnolia from finishing the thought.

She backed away from the three men and Miles. “I’ll go check on Rodger,” she said.

X nodded, and she went to the lower decks, which smelled of body odor, mold, and a putrid scent that she couldn’t and didn’t want to place. The skinwalkers, cannibalistic barbarians that they were, had lived in filth. And while she was glad they had salvaged the warship, restoring it to habitable conditions was going to take a lot of work.

Magnolia ducked under a bulkhead and into a passage with standing water. She took a detour to the shit cans. They were even worse than those on the Hive.

The draft in here was almost unbearable. She held her nose as she relieved herself in a stall missing a door. The bulkhead-mounted mirrors across from the toilet were stained and cracked, but she could still see her reflection.

Both eyes were swollen, her lower lip was cracked, and she had lost a tooth. If not for the fresh bandage on her head, she would look like a monster. Even now she looked awful. But she was alive.

She rinsed off her hands and went to the medical ward. Rodger was sitting up in his bunk.

“Mags,” he said, forcing a crooked grin.

She walked over, and his face returned to its perpetual frown.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Really tired, but I’ll live. How about you?”

Magnolia shrugged as she walked into the space crowded with injured soldiers. Ton and Victor were in adjacent beds, and beside Ton was the English-speaking Barracuda warrior Willis. Everyone was being treated for radiation poisoning, including Magnolia, who had been exposed to low doses with her helmet off.

She smiled at Ton and Victor and sat by Rodger’s side. His feet and legs were covered with a blanket, and she was careful not to sit on them.

“We still haven’t been able to raise the Vanguard Islands since the first message,” she said.

He looked down, then back to her. “I have faith in Tin, Les, Timothy, and Samson,” Rodger said. “If anyone can stop the machines, it’s them.”

Magnolia wished she had that same faith, but she feared that their mission had failed. Even if they had succeeded, it may well be too late for the Vanguard Islands.

Something in her gnawed like a parasite feasting on her guts. She had this horrible feeling her friends were all dead, not only at Kilimanjaro but at the islands.

Darkness swarmed her mind. All she wanted to do was curl up with Rodger and sleep. But if the Hell Divers had failed, there was another fight ahead.

Would it even be worth fighting if everyone was dead?

“I better get back topside and start helping with the weapons,” she said. “The skeleton crew needs help.”

“Wait.”

Rodger reached out and took her hand.

“We’re going to be okay,” he said. Then he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I love you, Mags.”

“So you can be romantic,” she said. “I love you, too. See you in a bit.”

She walked over to Victor and Ton before leaving. “How are you two feeling?”

Victor blinked at her, still sedated. He mumbled something to Ton, who gave a thumbs-up.

“Thank you for everything you did for the king,” she said.

Victor pounded his chest with his fist.

She continued, past Willis. He swung his legs over the bed and pulled an IV line out of his arm, then stood up with a pained grunt.

“Screw sitting here and shitting in a bucket,” he said. “You need help with those guns?”

“I’d love some.”

He followed her back to the upper decks, stopping to change into a suit before going outside. Magnolia changed into one, too, and stepped up to a porthole.

Lightning flashed across the horizon, illuminating the deck. Several Cazador soldiers worked on the twenty-millimeter cannons and several smaller machine guns mounted on the gunwales.

Most of the rockets had been expended, but the skinwalkers had several other weapons systems. She spotted the spearguns that they used to hunt Sirens.

Can’t use one of those on a machine.

There were two Mark 45 lightweight guns, but neither worked. If they could get them up and running, they might have a fighting chance to inflict major damage, as they had back at Red Sphere.

“We have to get those back in service,” she said, pointing to one of the cannons.

Willis nodded. “I’ll get a team on it.”

She spent the next hour working with him and a handful of Cazadores, including some mechanics who had managed to escape from Shadow and Renegade. The team finished with a final count on weapons and ammo.

There wasn’t much even if they could get one of the Mark 45 lightweight guns working, which the mechanics weren’t sure about. All tallied up, it was hardly enough to fight more than a few machines.

She thanked Willis and walked off the bloody deck. A ladder took her to a hatch that opened to another empty passage. Brooding, she walked to the command center.

Halfway down the next passage, a voice stopped her.

“There you are,” Rodger said.

“Rodge, what in the hell are you doing out of bed!”

She turned around to see that he wasn’t alone. Ton was there with Victor, and so was Imulah. The fact that they all had gotten out of their beds despite severe injuries told her something dire was happening.

“Come quickly,” Imulah said. “We made contact with the Vanguard Islands.”

Magnolia went over to help the injured men to the command center. As they approached, the crackle of static echoed off the overhead and bulkheads.

X was standing with Forge at the comms station.

“What’s going…” Magnolia started to say.

X turned with a finger to his lips.

She helped Rodger over, and Ton limped with Victor and Imulah.

“Destroyed… Trading post… Gone…”

The female voice kept breaking up, but she caught the gist of it. The machines had all but destroyed the Vanguard Islands.

Lightning forked through the sky, creating a resounding crackle over the comms.

The view was one Magnolia had seen all her life. She had always thought this view was all that existed on the surface: storms, wastes, and memories of a world destroyed.

But through it all, they had finally found a home, only to have it wiped out by the machines. She dreaded the thought of returning to a destroyed paradise.

“Machines are…” said the voice.

The message finally cleared.

“This is X,” he said. “Who am I talking to, and what the hell is happening?”

White noise filled the room, but it passed and a familiar voice surged over the channel.

“This is Ada Winslow, sir,” came the reply. “The machines attacked and sank Elysium…”

The radio cut out again.

“How can that be Ada?” Magnolia asked. “Is this some sort of a trick?”

“Ada, do you copy?” X said.

“Copy, sir.”

“It’s really you?”

“Yes, sir. I returned to help you.”

X paused, his graying brows coming together in confusion.

“We’re on our way, aboard Raven’s Claw,” he said. “How long can you hold off the machines?”

There was no reply. The radio had cut out again.

Magnolia felt her chest warm.

“Ada,” X said. “Ada, do you copy?”

He pounded the radio with his hand.

“This piece of shit,” he growled.

Lightning flashed outside the portholes. The warship was sailing toward another electrical storm—probably the cause of all the static.

They stood there for several minutes trying to get Ada back. Rolling thunder followed another barrage of lightning.

After the rattling stopped, the radio came to life.

“King Xavier, do you copy?” Ada said.

“Copy!” X almost shouted.

“Sir, I don’t know what you heard last, but we held the capitol tower and the Hive long enough for the divers you sent to Mount Kilimanjaro to complete their mission. The virus worked, sir. The defectors were shut down—worldwide.”

Rodger looked over at Magnolia, his swollen eyes widening behind his glasses.

This couldn’t be real, could it?

“We won the war,” Ada said. “The Hell Divers defeated the machines!”

For a moment, no one said a word except for Imulah, who interpreted for Forge.

Then X stomped the ground and reared his head back, letting out a howl of glee. He got down and hugged Miles, who also began to howl.

Magnolia remained frozen in place, unable to fathom what she had just heard. Over two hundred fifty years after the apocalypse, the Hell Divers had defeated the ancient enemy that started the war.

She was aware of Rodger pulling on her arm, and Imulah laughing with Forge in a rare display of emotion. But she couldn’t quite grasp that this was real.

It wasn’t until X kissed her on the cheek that she snapped out of it.

“They did it, kid,” he said. “They really fucking did it. Giraffe and Tin saved our home.”

“They saved the world,” Magnolia mumbled in disbelief.

* * * * *

Michael stood at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, blasted by windblown sand. Over three weeks had passed since Les uploaded the virus that shut down the machines, and Timothy had sealed the deal by ramming Discovery into the tower. The defectors could never come back online.

Michael had never felt such a conflicted wash of emotions. But why now, after saving humanity from extinction? On the way back from a supply run into the destroyed base, he stopped at the graveyard. He knelt at the rows of mounds covering the remains of his friends and the prisoners killed during the battle. Hector, Ted, and Lena were all buried here. Nothing remained of Samson or Les, but Michael had dug a grave for them anyway.

Behind him stood Kade, Captain Rolo, and the surviving crew of Discovery.

Eevi, Pedro, and Alfred and his team, along with Sofia, Edgar, and Arlo had joined Michael on the supply mission. Captain Rolo had also brought a small team of men carrying crates from the machine base—mostly medicine, but some weapons, too.

Arlo limped over and knelt beside Michael. Edgar had a limp as well, but he had lucked out when the drones hammered his sniping position. Sofia was also lucky to be alive.

Lena hadn’t been so lucky. Losing her had hit Edgar hard, and while he hadn’t spoken much about it, Michael knew he felt guilty for not saving her. Arlo showed the same guilt over losing Ted, one of his best friends.

The dry wind swept over the ground, whipping up dust off the mounds in front of the four divers.

Four left.

A tear rolled down his face. They had lost much, but they had completed their mission, and the fallen divers’ sacrifice would never be forgotten.

They had won a monumental victory, yet they might never know how X had fared in Aruba, or whether the Vanguard Islands had survived. He and the other survivors were stranded here with no way home.

A tear fell from the other eye.

His home and his family were almost half a world away. Somehow, he would get back there even if he had to walk and swim the whole way. Nothing would stop him from seeing his wife and their son.

He got to his feet as another dust storm swept across the plains outside the walls. Kade led the crew behind the factories, to a road strewn with destroyed defectors. All had gaping holes in their skulls, where Kade and his people had shot them after the virus shut them down—a precaution.

That day had been a celebration of freedom and the end of an enemy that had all but wiped humanity out.

The fight against extinction wasn’t over yet, though, and Michael had a feeling it was going to be a long road ahead. Especially for these people.

At first, he didn’t understand why the machines had even kept them alive, but it was obvious now that they all had worked in the factories.

They were slaves—labor to help build more machines.

And some of them had been subjected to worse horrors, turned into machines with human brains and awareness. Michael had blown the factories sky high after the battle, ending the suffering of the tortured beings inside the macabre laboratories.

Gusting grit buffeted the group as they walked toward the massive blast doors built into the mountain. Timothy and Les had supposed this was the entrance to their command center and mainframe, but it was actually an entrance to a base built here before World War Three.

The doors screeched apart to reveal a long concrete passage. Several old-world vehicles sat on rusted hubs.

The group walked over a mile before reaching the secondary entrance. Kade used a key to open the steel door, and Michael helped him push it open.

The passage narrowed considerably, allowing just enough room for Michael to walk with Kade. He respected the old Hell Diver greatly for keeping his people alive all these years.

Behind the final door, he saw what they had been promised in the radio intercepts from the machines. A massive vault with high ceilings sprawled out before them. The bunker had its own water supply, farm, and everything else they had on the airships, but without the risk of crashing to the wastes. It was big enough to house two thousand people—about four times the current population.

Only 510 survivors remained. Many were in such poor health, Michael wasn’t sure they would make it. They needed medicine—the purpose of this scavenging mission.

Kade directed the men carrying the crates to a packed medical ward.

Michael slung his laser rifle and took off his helmet as he walked into the open chamber. All ten metal tables were occupied with people eating dinner. Everyone wore dark-blue uniforms from the bunker, with the flag of some old-world government.

Most of them turned, eyes flitting toward the divers.

For the first few weeks of living here, the former prisoners had shied away from Michael and his team, but now they were more curious, especially the children.

Alton, the boy Michael had first seen when breaking through the window of the warehouse, had become his shadow. He was behind Michael now, walking with his tattered stuffed elephant.

“Commander Everhart,” Alton said politely. “Where are you going?”

Michael nodded at Edgar to keep going with the others. Then he crouched in front of Alton.

“I have to go to an important meeting,” he said.

“Can I come?”

“No, I’m sorry, bud, but this is about our future—grown-ups only.”

The boy’s brown eyes swept the high ceilings and then the rooms across the chamber.

“Are we going to live down here forever?” Alton asked.

“No,” Michael said. “I’m going to take you someplace where you will see something you’ve never seen before.”

“The sun?”

“And the ocean.”

The kid’s eyebrows rose. “Promise?”

“I promise.”

Alton smiled and ran off toward his smiling mother. Michael waved at her, feeling a sense of dread. He was a long way from the Vanguard Islands, and he had promised Layla that he would someday hold their son just as Alton’s mother held him now.

Michael went through the chamber and took a stairwell two levels down. Another hallway led him to a room that had been designed as a command center. There was radio equipment, computers—everything that generals and high officials needed to monitor a war.

Alfred and his team were working on several of the computers, but they hadn’t been able to get any of the comms to work.

Michael went to a conference room and opened the door. Edgar, Arlo, Sofia, Pedro, and Eevi were already seated at an oval table with Kade, Captain Rolo, and several leaders from the other two airships. This was their second planning meeting, and Michael hoped it would go better than the first.

Across the table sat Captain Linda Fina of the ITC Requiem. The old woman’s wispy hair and wrinkled face reminded Michael of Janga. Fina was the descendent of French ITC soldiers, and she spoke several languages.

“Commander Everhart,” she said in a croaking voice. “Please have a seat.”

Anderson Links, a bald man with dark skin and a long beard, had served as a lieutenant under Captain Rolo.

The other two attendees, a man named Dmitri Vasilev and a woman named Olga Novak, were the only remaining officers of a third airship, the ITC Malenkov. The Russian ship was the third lured here with the promise of the bunker.

“Let’s get started,” Rolo said. “Commander Everhart, you and your divers have the floor first.”

Instead of sitting, Michael moved over to a wall of maps. They all had seen them. Everyone in the room knew how far they were from the Vanguard Islands. That was why half the group had argued to stay here.

After all, this was better than their former living conditions, and they had supplies to last for years.

But the other half of the group, Michael included, wanted to leave. The question was, would they be allowed to leave with supplies that his opponents thought would be wasted on a doomed endeavor?

“I know it sounds impossible to reach the Vanguard Islands on foot,” Michael said. “But even if it takes years, I’m willing to take the risk out there in the wastes.”

Edgar chimed in. “For me, seeing the sun and living somewhere on the surface, the way it used to be, was worth diving for. It was worth dying for, and many of us did die to make it here.”

“This place isn’t exactly safe,” Arlo said. “And I, for one, would rather spend a few years trying to get home and see the ocean again, than stay in this rabbit hole.”

Everyone listened while an interpreter explained what the divers were saying. When they finished making their case, Captain Fina spoke.

“We are grateful you and your team came here to destroy the machines and, ultimately, to save us,” she croaked. “But traveling to the Vanguard Islands on foot is a death sentence.”

“A poor deployment of resources,” said Lieutenant Links.

Olga Novak spoke through a translator. “If we believed we could make it to the Vanguard Islands, or knew of places to find vehicles and then boats, we would try, but until then, we agree that staying here is the best course of action.”

Michael was beginning to lose patience with these people.

“I say if they want to go, we give them supplies to go,” Kade said. “Also, they have their own from their airship, which was destroyed, mind you, while saving us.”

The others hashed it out while Michael stood with Sofia, Arlo, and Edgar.

A rap came on the door, and Alfred stepped inside.

“Commander, we’re picking something up on the radar,” he said. “You’d better come out here.”

Michael joined Alfred and his technicians around a radar screen in the adjoining room. A dot pulsed on the green screen, inching closer to the mountain.

“What is it?” Michael asked.

“No idea, sir, but it’s definitely heading for the base.”

“Keep me updated on the internal comms,” Michael said, referring to their headsets that still worked. He motioned for Pedro, Kade, Sofia, Arlo, and Edgar to follow him.

They met back in the main chamber, trying to avoid scaring any of the people still eating their meal. Several looked up as they passed.

Michael couldn’t help rushing across the room. This could be some machine that they hadn’t been able to shut down—an aircraft come from across the globe to exterminate them, or a swarm of drones moving as one. If so, they were already dead.

Thirty minutes later, the team arrived at the blast doors. A thin guard with a buzzed head snored in a chair.

“Don, wake up!” Kade said.

The man nearly shot out of his seat. “What?”

Michael secured his helmet. “Open it,” he said. “I’m going to check this out.”

Kade gave the guard the order, and the man pushed a lever. The doors screeched open, and sand blew in.

Michael told Pedro and Arlo to stay behind while Sofia, Kade, and Edgar followed him into the storm. He set off down the road, NVGs on to guide him in the darkness.

“Alfred, do you copy?” Michael said.

Static hissed in his helmet.

“Copy, sir.”

“You got a location on this aircraft?”

“Currently at two thousand feet and lowering,” Alfred said. “Looks like it’s about a mile outside the main gates. I’m uploading the coordinates to your HUD.”

Michael held up a hand, trying to see through the swirling grit that pecked his visor.

“Come with me,” Kade said.

Michael and Edgar followed the diver deeper into the base, carefully maneuvering around the debris from Discovery and the demolished tower that had housed the machines’ mainframe.

Michael looked away from the rubble pile. Les had given his life to stop the machines. But now Michael had a gut feeling this was some sort of machine they didn’t know about.

The team stopped at a three-story building with a ladder on the backside. Kade went up first, Michael next. The top gave a better view of the skyline above the dust storm.

Michael finally saw a dot emerge on the minimap in the corner of his HUD subscreen. The aircraft was half a mile away, at a thousand feet.

The divers crouched and raised their laser rifles, scanning the dark clouds. Whatever was out there was lowering slowly.

A shape emerged in the cloud cover, then vanished. Michael moved his finger to the trigger.

Lights suddenly blazed through the darkness. Michael raised his hand to hold fire. That whir sounded familiar.

Rising from his hunched position, he stared in disbelief at the beetle shape descending over the base. It couldn’t be…

There in the whipping grit, spinning up whirlwinds with its turbofans, hovered the airship he had spent most of his life on. The hull was patched, and fresh paint marked the bow.

Vanguard.

The turbofans slowed and shut off as legs extended downward and connected with the dirt.

“Come on!” Michael yelled.

He nearly slid down the ladder.

When his boots hit the ground, he took off running. By the time he reached the launch bay, it had already opened. A platform lowered.

A figure in a Hell Diver suit emerged on crutches. A more slender Hell Diver followed.

Michael had stopped a few feet from the platform, his heart about to burst.

A woman emerged in the launch bay wearing a hazard suit, one hand on her swollen belly.

“Tin!” she called out.

Miles, Ton, and Victor all emerged with her, but they parted to allow another diver out of the launch bay. This one was missing an arm.

Dressed in full armor, the legendary king of the Vanguard Islands was the first to walk down the ramp and set foot on African soil. Michael stared in disbelief.

After all the horror they had experienced, this seemed too good to be true. In his years as a Hell Diver, he rarely saw happy endings.

“Is it really you?” Michael asked.

“You just going to stand there all teary-eyed?” X asked. “I figured you’d be a little happier to see us and this bucket of rust!”

EPILOGUE

Two months after the machines invaded the Vanguard Islands, the rigs were starting to look like home. Not the old version of home on the Hive, or when the sky people first landed and lived with the Cazadores. Repairing the rigs had allowed the people to build a new home. A home inspired by the diverse survivors ferried in on the airship from Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as the survivors from Rio de Janeiro, and all the sky people and Cazadores.

X stood on the rooftop of the capitol tower with his dog, looking out over the kingdom he was in charge of rebuilding, and all the people whose lives were his responsibility.

To help the transition with all the new citizens of the islands, each group had been granted its own rig, a place they could make their own. The Cazadores and the sky people had lost significant portions of their populations in the attack from the defectors and in the battles with the skinwalkers.

With the survivors from multiple locations, the sky people had reached their highest numbers in the past two decades. And while several of the rigs had been damaged beyond repair, there was plenty of room on the others.

He trained his binoculars on the trading-post rig, still under construction. Scaffolding and ladders clung to the exterior, where a small army of workers helped rebuild the place that brought all these cultures together to share traditional foods, clothing, goods, and ideas handed down from generation to generation since the great war.

A distant bell chimed, notifying the militia and Cazador soldiers that a ship had returned. His hip radio crackled with a message from Lieutenant Wynn.

X pressed the transmit button. “Copy, Lieutenant.”

“General Forge has returned with Raven’s Claw from their raiding mission,” Wynn reported.

X raised the binos again. Two militia war boats pulled away from the marina below and sped east, their mufflers chugging. Lieutenant Wynn piloted the one that had been el Pulpo’s. He had fought valiantly against the machines, and although they lost Elysium in the battle, Wynn had survived with a handful of his best soldiers.

The two war boats sped through calm waters toward a vessel at the eastern edge of the islands. X zoomed in on the whale-skull figurehead jutting from the warship’s prow.

And Raven’s Claw wasn’t alone. With it were two smaller ships General Forge had discovered and repaired.

They would join the fleet X had ordered rebuilt—one of his first decrees since their victories in Aruba and Tanzania. The machines and the skinwalkers were defeated, but that didn’t mean there were no other threats out there. He had learned that hard lesson over his lifetime. You could never let your guard down. Not in a world of wastelands and monsters.

Everywhere X looked, his people were rebuilding, preparing for the future.

A fort of sandbags protected three militia guards holding sentry at a machine-gun nest. On an adjacent rig, crops were being sown in the soil that some farmers had salvaged from the attack.

X walked with Miles along the railing built around the airship’s rooftop, taking in the view. Ton and Victor shadowed him, spears in hand, ever ready to die for him if it came to that.

They stopped at a platform overlooking the western islands.

In the distance, an oil tanker had dropped anchor at a new marina built around one of the rigs. The ship had returned from the Outrider with a supply the skinwalkers had barely tapped.

It wasn’t just oil they needed. The crops had been severely damaged in the attack by the machines. It would take a year to get back to full food production. In the meantime, they were relying on supplies brought back from Africa, and the fleet of fishing trawlers was working overtime.

The boats were out there now, hauling up the day’s catch. There would be enough for every mouth. X would make sure of that.

He turned the binos on their true savior.

The Hive, renamed the Vanguard. The airship sat on the platform Samson and Rodger had built months earlier. But it was no longer secured by beams and bolts. The airship was back in service, and they were going to keep it battle ready just in case they needed it again.

“She’s like you—an Immortal,” a voice called out.

Magnolia smiled when X turned. Her hair had grown back, even where her scalp had been charred. It was dyed a light blue, like the water. A good contrast to the matte-black Hell Diver armor she still wore from an early-morning training with the thirty new recruits.

“When I die, you’re all going to feel stupid for calling me that,” he said. “I can see the tombstone now: ‘Here lies the Immortal.’ ”

She smiled back. “You can’t die, X. If you try, I’ll drag you back, kicking and screaming.”

“Yeah, there’s too much work for me to die, which, I’m guessing, is why you’re here.”

“You’re right. Raven’s Claw has returned and—”

“I saw it,” he interrupted. “Looks like they found two new ships, which is a good start, but building a new armada will take years and many trips to the wastes.”

“That’s not the only reason I’m here.”

“Oh?”

“General Forge has called a council meeting in an hour,” she said. “He found something on his journey. Must be classified.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon,” X said. “Thanks.”

Magnolia trotted off, but he stayed on the rooftop to enjoy a few minutes of sunshine. It always helped him feel better, but today it wasn’t meant to be.

A cloud shadow crept across the roof, blocking out the sun for a moment.

X left the rooftop with his escort of two men and a dog. The walk through the great hall allowed him to pay respects in passing to many they had lost.

Rodger had been busy carving wooden busts over the past few months to honor the fallen.

He was here now, chisel in hand, standing on one foot and a peg leg. The mangled foot had been amputated at the ankle, but he still had the other and two of the toes.

Rodger tucked the chisel into his leather apron.

“What do you think?” he asked.

X stepped up to examine the statue of Captain Les Mitchells. The tall man stood with his hands cupped behind his back, his tuft of red hair seeming to blow in the wind.

“You outdid yourself, Rodgeman,” X said.

“Can’t dive anymore, so I’ve got to do something with myself when I’m not working for Tin.”

Rodger wasn’t the only retired diver. While he and Michael still trained the new Hell Diver recruits and volunteers, they were part of the reconstruction team, with Michael taking over for Samson as chief engineer. Soon, Michael would add another title to his résumé: father.

X continued down the hallway.

There were other statues among the paintings of Cazador generals and leaders. Katrina DaVita, Captain Maria Ash, and Samson all had been carved out of wood to replace the portraits of Carmela Moreto and el Pulpo.

Rodger hobbled over to X.

“You still haven’t told me what you want yours to look like,” he said.

“Yeah, I did.”

Rodger tilted his head.

“I told you I don’t want a damn statue, painting, or anything of the sort,” X said.

“But…”

“Rodge, there are no buts, only butt-heads. You don’t want to be one of those, do you?”

“Uh, no, sir.”

“Good. Keep up the excellent work.”

X continued down the hallway, with Rodger joining his entourage.

A Cazador and a militia guard opened the chamber’s double doors.

The Hell Diver leaders were in their new uniforms, each sporting the red V logo of the Vanguard Islands crest. In the audience sat thirty new divers, most of them survivors from other airships or Rio de Janeiro.

At first, X hadn’t liked the idea of retiring the old teams, but he realized it would be honoring the memory of those who came before, and looking toward a future under one banner: that of humanity’s vanguard.

The divers all stood up, boots clicking on the floor, backs straight. Team leaders Edgar, Arlo, Magnolia, and Kade walked up to the council table.

Layla was already there, only a week from her due date. She slowly rose from her chair with the officers of the airship.

The new captain, Eevi Corey, saluted, as did her lieutenant, Ada Winslow, who had helped lead the fight against the machines after returning from her exile.

Miles trotted in front of X to sniff his new friend Jo-Jo, the monkey.

Pedro and a woman named Cecilia also had seats on the council, representing the people from Rio de Janeiro, Sofia sat on the council as a representative for the Cazadores. Joining them were the leaders of the three airships lured to Mount Kilimanjaro by the machines over the past few decades—Captain Rolo, Captain Fina, and officers Dmitri Vasilev and Olga Novak.

It was only now that X understood the truth. Captain Maria Ash had received the same signal from the machines, but she had recognized the danger after Captain Rolo never returned.

Everyone stood as X walked down the aisle to the throne.

As he climbed the stairs, the doors opened again, admitting General Forge and two of his guards. They had come straight from the marina and now marched to the council table. Forge pounded his chest armor and then stood behind his assigned chair. He carried a metal case in hand, and his helmet under his arm.

Imulah joined X on the platform, along with another translator.

“Welcome back, General Forge,” X said. “I’m anxious to hear what you found out there that is important enough to call a council meeting.”

Forge nodded at Imulah and spoke.

“The general says they raided an old-world port in Panama, where they found the new vessels,” Imulah said. “One is an ITC ship.”

X narrowed his eyes. “So what’s in the case?” he asked.

After Imulah interpreted, General Forge set his helmet down and placed the case on the table. He opened it, and X moved closer for a view of the contents, which appeared to be laminated papers.

Forge unfolded what looked like a map. Not a map, but a blueprint.

He took it up the steps and handed it to X.

X wished he had brought his glasses, which he now must use when reading anything. Although he couldn’t read the small print, he could make out the images.

Forge spoke through Imulah while X studied the blueprints.

“General Forge says these are blueprints of a weather-modification system that ITC built before the war,” Imulah said. “They are located at the poles and along the equator, and he believes they could be used to reverse the electrical storms.”

“Michael?” X said.

The new head of engineering flipped through the blueprints, reading each one carefully.

“Well?” X asked.

“I think you should ask our old friend his opinion,” Michael said. He held up his wrist computer and, with a nod from X, tapped the surface.

A hologram in the shape of Timothy joined them on the platform.

“Hello, Commander Everhart. How may I assist you?”

But this wasn’t the same Timothy, nor did it look completely like him. He had shaved his beard, exposing dimples X never knew the AI had.

The program was indeed Timothy, but it was a backup that lacked most of his memories since leaving the Hilltop Bastion.

“General Forge brought back blueprints from what we believe are ITC weather-modification facilities,” Michael explained. “We want your opinion.”

He held them up for the AI to see, one page at a time.

“General Forge is correct,” Timothy said. “These facilities were named Red Sky and were designed in the year two thousand thirty-six, according to my database. However, I have no record of them ever being activated.”

“If they were, could it reverse the electrical storms?” Michael asked.

The room was silent.

“It is hard to say, Commander. This technology was built to counter the overheating of the planet, but as I said, it was never used.”

Magnolia gasped.

X paid her no attention until he saw Layla standing in his peripheral vision.

“Michael,” Layla stammered.

“What…” Michael turned calmly but then hurried over when the other council members got up.

“Michael, I think Bray is coming,” Layla said.

Clear liquid ran down her leg, pooling on the floor. X was no doctor, but even he knew what this meant. Bray was coming early.

“Get her to the medical ward, and let Dr. Huff know she’s coming!” X shouted. “We’ll finish this conversation later.”

X rushed out of the chamber with a small group led by Michael, who had scooped Layla up in his arms. He ran down the passage to the stairwell, then up two flights to the medical ward.

Dr. Huff was waiting outside with a nurse and a wheelchair.

“Put her in the chair and come with me,” Huff told Michael. “The rest of you, stay here.”

Michael gently set her down, and Huff gave X the glare that said, You’d better not test my patience today.

“Good luck!” X called out.

Layla groaned as Michael pushed her chair down a passage of closed doors. The group vanished around the next corner.

X stood in the lobby with Magnolia and Rodger while Ton and Victor took up position outside the medical ward’s entrance. Miles remained outside, too, sitting on his hind legs and watching the hallway.

“This could take a while,” Magnolia said. “We better get comfortable.”

Rodger hobbled over and took a chair next to Magnolia, but X couldn’t calm his nerves. He paced on the tile floor. When he was younger, children had scared him more than anything, especially babies. Not the kids themselves, but that he would screw things up around them.

An hour passed. Another. X lost track of time while they waited. Rodger dozed. Magnolia left and came back with food and water for the three of them.

After a while, Rodger pulled out an unfinished wood carving and a knife and began carving while Magnolia slept with her head on his shoulder. X couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. He could only sit there, worrying and playing with a thread that had come loose from the arm of his chair. Finally, when he’d managed to work the thread out to triple its original length, a technician came into the lobby with an update.

“Layla’s in the final stages of labor now,” he said.

The man didn’t leave. He stood there looking at X.

“What?” X finally asked.

“Michael said you’re welcome to come back,” said the technician. “But you have to put on a mask and scrubs.”

X looked at Rodger, then Magnolia.

“What are ya waitin’ for, X?” Rodger said.

“Go,” Magnolia said, swatting air at him as she might a pesky bug.

Just as he was about to leave, the doors opened and Katherine walked into the lobby with Phyl. The girl clutched a new doll that looked like a giraffe.

“We were told Layla’s in labor and to come up here,” Katherine said almost sheepishly.

Phyl glanced up timidly.

Since losing Les, neither of them had been the same. X had shared several meals with them and had taken Phyl out to fish, but broken hearts mended slowly.

X’s did, too. The captain, Hell Diver, electrician, and engineer was as good a man as X had ever met. Les deserved to be here with them far more than X did.

“I’m going back with Michael,” he said.

“Have a seat,” Magnolia said, patting the chair next to her and smiling.

Katherine and Phyl sat down, and X followed the technician to a room where he changed into scrubs and a mask. He froze at screams that echoed through the medical ward.

The technician grinned. “It’s normal. Follow me, King Xavier.”

They put on their masks and went to a room filled with staff surrounding Layla. She looked at X and yelled, “Shut the damn door!”

X hurried inside the room but hesitated at the sight of blood on the sheets. He had seen boatloads of blood over the years, but for some reason this made him queasy.

“Come here,” Michael said, waving a gloved hand.

X took a few steps and swallowed hard.

“Almost there, Layla, great work,” Huff said encouragingly.

“A few more pushes,” Michael said. “You’ve got this!”

She gripped his hand and grunted.

“Good job, kid,” X said, not knowing what else to say.

The room started to spin around him. The screaming, the blood—it was like a damn battlefield! He held in a breath and blinked, trying to get control.

Another hour of screams, grunts, and heavy breathing passed. The nurse and doctor leaned closer.

“One more hard push,” Huff said.

Layla roared, and X looked away, wincing. He heard voices but didn’t comprehend the words. He did feel someone pulling on his arm.

When he turned back to the table, Huff held a wet child in his hands. Unlike other babies, this one wasn’t crying.

The doctor went over to another table, where they cleaned the child and wrapped it in a blanket. Layla and Michael watched, still hand in hand. They spoke, but X still didn’t hear a thing.

The baby was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Huff wrapped the boy up in a towel and brought him over to Layla and Michael. She was crying tears of joy.

X moved closer to the bed, still mesmerized by the tiny fingers and toes and the matted gossamer hair.

“He’s perfect,” X said.

Layla looked up. “Isn’t he?”

Michael stared, too, every bit as dumbstruck as X.

“Congratulations,” X said, leaning down. “Hey, there, little buddy.”

Layla clutched Bray against her chest, and Michael bent down and kissed them both on the forehead. They held him for several minutes.

“We can move to your room when you’re ready,” Huff said.

Layla nodded.

X left, his heart full but also aching for all the people who hadn’t lived to see this.

Back at the lobby, everyone stood to greet him.

“Well?” Magnolia asked.

“He’s a healthy boy,” X said. “Almost eight pounds.”

Rodger and Magnolia embraced, and Katherine smiled warmly.

“Can I hold him?” Phyl asked.

“Soon, I’m sure,” X said. “Dr. Huff is getting them settled in a room, but then we can all go back and see them.”

An hour later, a nurse came and brought them back. She took them to a room at the end of a hall, with a view of the ocean.

Layla was sitting up in her bed, slowly rocking Bray with Michael by her side. The sun streamed through the windows.

“Wow,” Phyl said. She walked over, grinning from ear to ear.

Layla and Michael held the baby up together.

“We present Bray Leslie Everhart,” she said.

Katherine put a hand over her mouth, and Phyl looked up at her mom.

“We wanted to honor him,” Layla said. “He meant so much to both of us.”

Katherine didn’t bother trying to hold back the tears. “Thank you,” she managed to say. “He would be honored.”

Michael took Bray and held him over for Katherine and Phyl to see up close. Phyl chuckled, and Katherine wiped away a tear. The baby slowly opened both eyelids.

X made his best funny face and a cooing sound.

In response, Bray burst into a full-throated wail.

“Man, you really don’t know much about babies,” Michael said.

X frowned. “Like I said…”

“Here,” Michael said, holding the swaddled infant out. “You’re going to learn fast.”

Backing away, X shook his head and said, “Oh, hell no.”

“Come on.”

“Don’t you remember what I said happened when I held you?”

“You’re the godfather,” Michael said. “You’re holding him sooner or later. Best start now. Come on, I’ll help.”

X looked to Layla, who nodded her approval.

Reluctantly, he reached out with a stump and one shaky hand.

“It’s okay,” Michael said.

Bray had stopped crying and looked up while Michael handed him over.

X held the baby as if it were an unstable high explosive. Layla watched like a hawk, which didn’t help his confidence.

X walked cautiously over to the balcony doors with Michael, and Magnolia opened them. The cool breeze swept into the room.

Together, they stepped out onto the deck.

“You’re going to make a great dad, just like your father.”

“Thanks,” Michael said. “I’ve had several good role models.”

He reached out and took Bray from X. Then he raised him up to bask in the warmth—a new tradition for all children born at the Vanguard Islands.

“Welcome to the world, son,” Michael said.

The Sea Wolf rocked in the water below. X could see the airship, too, resting on its rooftop port, ready to fly when the need arose.

Both vessels had helped find this home and protect it despite all odds.

Michael lowered Bray and returned to the room to hand him off to Phyl, while Rodger and Magnolia hovered.

“You’re next, Rodger Dodger,” Michael said.

X grinned, but he stayed on the balcony for a moment, looking out over water that sparkled all the way to the barrier between light and dark.

They had saved a pocket of humanity, but if the weather-modification system was real, then just maybe they could also begin to reverse what had happened to the entire world, and bring it back from mass extinction.

One thing was certain. They all were going to enjoy retirement for a while, and the miracle of new life. But at some point, the world was going to need Hell Divers again.

* * * * *

I hope you enjoyed Hell Divers VII: Warriors. If you’d like to see a sequel to this series, please leave a short and honest review letting me know. This is the best way for me to gauge whether readers want more books. Thank you for reading!

If you’re looking for your next NSS read, I highly recommend Sons of War, my newest postapocalyptic thriller about a global economic collapse and the destruction of the United States in the wake of a Second Civil War. Bestselling Author Craig DiLouie called it, “The Sopranos meets Mad Max.”

Click here for more info and to watch the book trailer.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the USA Today bestselling author of the Hell Divers series, the Orbs series, the Trackers series, and the Extinction Cycle series. He worked for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster mitigation before switching careers to focus on his one true passion—writing. When he isn’t writing or daydreaming about the apocalypse, he enjoys running, biking, spending time with his family, and traveling the world. He is an Ironman triathlete and lives in Iowa with his wife, their dogs, and a house full of books.

Books by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Blackstone Publishing

THE SONS OF WAR SERIES

Sons of War

Sons of War 2: Saints (coming fall 2020)

THE HELL DIVERS SERIES

Hell Divers

Hell Divers II: Ghosts

Hell Divers III: Deliverance

Hell Divers IV: Wolves

Hell Divers V: Captives

Hell Divers VI: Allegiance

Hell Divers VII (coming summer 2020)

Orbit

THE EXTINCTION CYCLE SERIES (SEASON ONE)

Extinction Horizon

Extinction Edge

Extinction Age

Extinction Evolution

Extinction End

Extinction Aftermath

Extinction Lost (A Team Ghost short story)

Extinction War

Great Wave Ink Publishing

THE EXTINCTION CYCLE: DARK AGE SERIES (SEASON TWO)

Extinction Shadow

Extinction Inferno

Extinction Ashes

THE TRACKERS SERIES

Trackers

Trackers 2: The Hunted

Trackers 3: The Storm

Trackers 4: The Damned

THE ORBS SERIES

Solar Storms (An Orbs Prequel)

White Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

Red Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

Orbs

Orbs II: Stranded

Orbs III: Redemption

Orbs IV: Exodus

Copyright

Copyright © 2020 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

E-book published in 2020 by Blackstone Publishing

Cover illustration by K. Jones

Series design by Kathryn Galloway English

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

The characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Trade e-book ISBN 978-1-5385-5712-9

Library e-book ISBN 978-1-5385-5711-2

Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic

CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Blackstone Publishing

31 Mistletoe Rd.

Ashland, OR 97520

www.BlackstonePublishing.com

Content

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

PROLOGUE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-TWO

TWENTY-THREE

TWENTY-FOUR

TWENTY-FIVE

TWENTY-SIX

TWENTY-SEVEN

TWENTY-EIGHT

TWENTY-NINE

THIRTY

THIRTY-ONE

THIRTY-TWO

THIRTY-THREE

THIRTY-FOUR

THIRTY-FIVE

THIRTY-SIX

THIRTY-SEVEN

THIRTY-EIGHT

THIRTY-NINE

FORTY

FORTY-ONE

FORTY-TWO

EPILOGUE

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Books by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Copyright