A steady clanking sounded over the chiming bells as two elevator cages, one of which she had never seen before, cranked up toward the airship rooftop.
Magnolia looked down. The Sea Wolf bobbed in the torchlight. Still moored to the dock, it was there for the taking. All she had to do was get there and send out a transmission warning her friends not to come … And then get the hell out of this awful place.
They dropped to the next balcony, the next, then another. On the eleventh floor, Magnolia landed off-kilter on the foot she had bruised kicking the Cazador soldier in the jaw.
Sofia was already over the next railing. A shout rang out, and Magnolia limped over to check. On the balcony below, a husky Cazador soldier had Sofia by the throat. He pushed her against the railing, nearly knocking her over the side.
Magnolia moved to the right side of the railing and stuck her knife between her teeth. Then she swung her legs over and crouched down. Grabbing the bars, she lowered herself instead of dropping.
When she was a foot off the deck, she dropped silently and buried the knife in the man’s right kidney.
Letting go of Sofia, he arched backward, in too much pain even to scream. Magnolia pulled the blade out and stabbed him again, this time under the jaw, pushing the blade deep into his brain.
The fat guy crumpled, jerked, and lay still. She bent down and relieved him of her knife and a handgun.
Sofia massaged her neck, gasping for air.
“¿Bien?” Magnolia asked.
“Sí.”
Magnolia moved to the railing and took the lead. She made it down to the eighth floor before the pain in her foot stopped her.
Sofia, still breathing heavily, dropped down beside her.
“You good?” she asked.
Magnolia nodded, seeing motion through the glass door behind Sofia. Another kid stood watching them—a girl this time, no older than seven.
She raised a hand, and Magnolia raised hers to wave. But there was something else in the room.
Cazador soldiers stood in the hallway outside the open entrance door.
“Oh, shit,” Magnolia said.
They dropped to the next balcony together this time, just as the glass window above exploded in a spray of gunfire. The next two balconies went by fast, Magnolia gritting her teeth with each impact.
At the sixth floor, a Cazador soldier stood waiting. He lunged with a spear, which Sofia avoided by jumping to the side. Magnolia grabbed the shaft and pulled, but the guy yanked back.
As Sofia raised her pistol, gunfire rang out several balconies above them. She moved away to avoid the rounds pinging off the rail. Jumping to the side, Magnolia moved under the roof for cover—right into the path of the man still holding the spear.
He jabbed at her head, then at Sofia, as more gunfire came from above. This time, Sofia grabbed the shaft and pulled so hard, the guy stumbled. Magnolia tripped him, and he sprawled near the railing, where gunfire ricocheted off the metal on both sides of his head.
When he got up, Magnolia used the eight feet of space to run and jump-kick him in the chest. The impact knocked him over the side.
A short yelp and a splash followed.
Magnolia and Sofia pulled their handguns and moved to opposite ends of the balcony. After a nod, they both maneuvered for shots and fired at the deck above them.
One of the Cazadores on Magnolia’s side backed away, but the other, caught off guard, took a bullet to the head and slumped away from her view.
“I’m clear,” Sofia said, still pointing her gun above them. “You go first.”
Magnolia wasted no time. She swung down to the next balcony and covered Sofia while she climbed down. A head popped up above, and Magnolia closed one eye. The first shot missed, but the second took off his ear, forcing him back.
They had made it to the fourth floor when reinforcements showed up on balconies to the right and left. The pistol fire turned into automatic spray as the warriors busted out the big guns.
Magnolia and Sofia backed up to the glass door. Glancing over her shoulder, Magnolia looked inside the quarters. Going back inside would be a death sentence.
There was only one way out of this.
“We have to jump,” she said.
Bullets pounded the railings around them and punched through the metal platform. Sofia gave a firm nod and drew in a breath. They tucked their weapons into their waistbands before bolting for the edge.
Sofia went over headfirst, but Magnolia hurdled the railing, narrowly clearing it. The fall lasted only a moment. The dark water rose up to meet her faster than she expected, and she slammed into the surface hard, clutching her weapons with one hand and holding her nose with the other.
The cool water was a jolt to her sweaty body. She kicked up toward the glow of the moon. Bullets lanced into the surface.
“Down!” Sofia yelled.
Magnolia ducked under the water and kept kicking. She couldn’t see anything, and the horror of not knowing what else lurked in the depths filled her with adrenaline. She swam even harder when she realized she did know what lurked in these waters.
Bullets cut through from above, and it was just a matter of time before one ripped into her, sending her to the bottom, where the giant octopus these people worshipped would find her.
No. This isn’t where your life comes to an end.
She kicked harder, pulled harder, swam faster.
For the moment, Magnolia was the woman she had been at Sofia’s age, when she first dived to the surface and survived impossible situations because she did what it took to survive. That was what she had always done.
She would never be a slave again.
Kicking back to the surface for air, she glimpsed the docks ahead. Only a few more strokes. Sofia was already pulling herself up onto the dock.
The gunmen on the balconies had retreated into the building.
Magnolia took a moment to tread water and look around. The torches flickered in the breeze, creating shadows over the docks.
“Come on!” Sofia said, reaching out to her.
Magnolia kicked over toward the younger woman, but something seemed off … As she swam, she felt for her pistol, but it was gone, lost in the fall. She pulled the sheath knife from her waist and put it between her teeth on the final kick to Sofia.
They locked hands, and Sofia pulled her out of the water. As she stood up, she saw the elevator clanking down from the decks thirty feet above.
“Run!” Magnolia said.
They sprinted down the dock toward the Sea Wolf, the clanking of the elevator urging them on. It hit the bottom and disgorged six soldiers.
Sofia fired over her shoulder on the run.
But these warriors did not return fire. Maybe they didn’t want to damage one of el Pulpo’s prized trophies. If that was the case, it gave the women an advantage.
Sofia was the first onto the Sea Wolf. She jumped over the gate leading to the starboard side and moved over to the motors. “Cut us free,” she said.
Magnolia used her knife to saw through the bow rope, then moved back to the stern, where Sofia was still working. She pulled on a cord, and the motor choked to life.
The sound prompted more shouts from the men running up the dock. They were almost to the Sea Wolf.
Magnolia went to the pilothouse but stopped at the open hatch. Most of the dashboard was gone, the monitors stripped and cables sticking out of the gaps.
A new wheel and a throttle lever had been mounted to the dash. Replaced windows gave her a view of the men running onto the piers. She put the boat in reverse and pulled away from the dock as the young Cazador soldiers all made it to the edge. One brazen teenager jumped onto the stern of the boat and landed in the razor wire.
Sofia shot him in the chest, and he slumped back into the wire. Return fire lanced across the bow—a warni
ng, forcing Magnolia down and out of view.
Over the crack of gunfire came a whistling noise, the same type she had heard the night of the banquet. From her hunched position, she saw that the radio she had used on the journey was also gone. The Cazadores had replaced it with what looked like an analog radio.
“No, no, no!” she shouted, slamming the dashboard with her palm. She had no idea how to use the radio, and the airships hardly ever monitored the old analog frequencies.
Magnolia’s gut tightened with dread as she peered out of the glass. The Cazador soldiers aimed their rifles at the boat, and muzzle flashes flickered across the docks. Apparently, they were less concerned now about damaging el Pulpo’s property.
Sofia joined her, blowing into the shell whistle on her necklace.
“This better work,” she said.
Magnolia reached up and pushed the lever down, burying the throttle in reverse. Another bullet broke through the windshield. The hole spiderwebbed, but the panel held firm.
The gunfire suddenly stopped, and for a moment there was only silence. A scream shattered the calm. This was not the angry shouting Magnolia had heard earlier. These were cries of pain and panic.
She slowly got up as three Cazador soldiers rose into the air, wrapped up in giant, slithering arms. The men twisted and howled as the beast pulled them off the docks as easily as a child playing with stuffed animals.
The body of the mutant creature surfaced—a slimy back covered in flaps and bumps. She couldn’t see the eyes, but she already knew what they looked like after her close encounter on the open seas.
“It worked,” Sofia said, holding the necklace. She grinned as a tentacle lined with suction cups snaked over the dock and snatched a fleeing soldier who had almost made it back into the elevator. Two others managed to flee before the giant arms could wrap them up.
Magnolia stood up, turned the boat around, and pushed the throttle lever forward. By now, Sofia had the other two motors started, and the boat surged away from the capitol tower.
As they turned, a boneless pink limb slapped the front of the boat. It curled delicately around the corpse in the razor wire and plucked it away.
Magnolia shivered as the giant cephalopod slipped beneath the Sea Wolf’s wake. The thing could as easily have snatched her or Sofia instead of the dead soldier.
She turned her attention to the radio. “Do you know how to use that?”
“Yes,” Sofia said, “but I think we have bigger problems right now.”
“I need to get a message to my friends, send out an SOS, and warn them not to come here.”
“Okay, I’ll try,” Sofia said.
While Sofia worked on the radio, Magnolia looked out over the waves. She had no idea where to go now that they had escaped. She also had no idea where either X or Miles was, and she didn’t know how much gas she had in the tanks.
The only thing she knew for certain was Rodger’s location. She had left him to the Cazadores once before, and she wasn’t going to do it again.
She scanned the distant oil rigs, trying to remember their configuration from when she sailed past them a few hours earlier.
“I think I got it working,” Sofia said. “We can send a message out on this frequency and hope someone who’s monitoring analog dials us in.”
“Take the wheel,” Magnolia said. “We’re heading to the rig where they’re building a prison.”
She bent down and grabbed the handset while Sofia took the helm.
“This message is from Magnolia Katib. If anyone on Deliverance or the Hive receives this, do not come to the Metal Islands. I repeat, do not come here. This is not the place we thought it was. There are too many soldiers to fight. Please, do not—”
“Oh, shit,” Sofia said.
A bright light hit the windshield, and Sofia spun the wheel hard to port. Grabbing the back of a seat to keep from falling, Magnolia shielded her eyes from the bright glow.
She couldn’t see anything, but she could hear the rhythmic cough of the exhaust pipes.
“Down!” Sofia yelled.
Before Magnolia could react, something slammed into the Sea Wolf. She lost her footing and went down hard, hitting her head on the cabin bulkhead. Water spurted from the passage outside the open hatch to the other quarters, and between blinks she saw a long, sharp spike that had punched through the hull and the little galley where she once cooked shark meat.
Blood trickled down her forehead, dripping into the seawater that poured in through the breached hull. Sofia tried to get up but fell back down.
The loud purr of idling motors surrounded the Sea Wolf, and bright lights glared through the broken windshield. Magnolia looked around her for something to fight with, but she couldn’t even get up. This time, there was no escaping. No lucky break. She had played her cards and lost, and what came next would be worse than anything she could imagine.
Sofia crawled across the deck toward her, holding her gun in a shaky hand. Voices sounded outside, and the noise of boots slopping through water in the passage.
Magnolia pushed the hatch shut just as lights flickered into the command center. She managed to lock the hatch, then fell backward on a deck awash in seawater.
Sofia handed Magnolia the gun. “I’ve got seven bullets left,” she said. “Make them count.”
Magnolia took the pistol and trained it on the doorway at waist level.
“Save two bullets,” Sofia said. “We can’t let them take us alive.”
TWENTY-TWO
“Clear a path!” Les shouted.
Everyone parted to make way for the thirty militia soldiers heading to Deliverance from the Hive. They tromped over the metal deck, cradling submachine guns—normally reserved for the Hell Divers due to the risk of an accidental discharge on the fragile ships.
But instead of yelling profanities or giving these men and women a hard time, the passengers on the way to their shelters moved aside to stand and pay their respects to the soldiers who would soon put their lives on the line for humanity.
The soldiers weren’t the only people headed to war. Civilians who had spent their entire lives working on the ship trailed the militia soldiers. Rodger’s dad, Cole, from the woodworking and clock shop; Marv from the Wingman; Dom from the Dragon; and dozens more: farmers, engineers, janitors, teachers, and even lower-deckers.
Les let them pass before taking the rigid passageway connecting the two airships. The tunnel was packed full of passengers being reorganized under the updated disaster mitigation plan that Ensigns White, Winslow, and Connor had put together. During the attack on the Metal Islands, most of the civilians, including his family, would remain on the Hive.
He wasn’t supposed to go to the Hive, but he had to see his girls before the ships uncoupled. Their shelter was already packed full when he got there. Fourteen passengers sat in the bucket seats, with red safety belts across their chests.
Seeing Phyl strapped into a child seat about melted his aching heart.
“Dad!” she shouted.
“Hey, sweetie.” He knelt down in front of her. To his surprise, Katherine unbuckled herself and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m so glad you came,” she said. “I wanted to tell you something.”
The emergency siren ceased for a moment, replaced by the kind, firm voice of Ensign Ada Winslow.
“T-minus ten minutes before the ships uncouple. Please report to your shelters or stations immediately.”
As always, Les felt that he was running on a clock and that time was almost up.
Katherine tightened her grip around his neck and then pulled back to look him in the eyes.
“Now I understand why you became a Hell Diver and an officer,” she said. “Everything you’ve done has been for your family.”
He smiled. “I love you all too much to do less.”
“
I know,” Katherine said. She looked up at the dented bulkheads of the shelter, then at the other people strapped inside. “This ship has carried us for long enough. It’s time to find a new home, even if we have to fight for it.”
“You’re right, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Les kissed his wife on the lips and then kissed Phyl on her forehead.
“I’ll see you both soon,” he said.
“Look after Trey,” Katherine said.
“I will.”
He left the shelter and closed the hatch with a heavy but full heart. Knowing that his wife supported him gave him the energy to do what had to be done. After securing the hatch, he took off at a trot through the corridors.
Three engineers in red jumpsuits stood on the Deliverance side, waiting to retract the connecting walkway. He squeezed past them as the warning siren wailed.
When he reached the command center, the officers were finishing their final launch preps.
“Someone give me a sitrep,” Les said.
“We’ve confirmed one enemy vessel on the water,” Bronson reported.
Les stepped over to the porthole windows, but all he could see was darkness slashed by lightning. They were fifteen thousand feet above the ocean, far out of reach of any weapons the Cazadores could fire at them, and even if they did have some sort of missile, tracking the airships in the soup of electrical storms would be impossible, according to Timothy Pepper.
“Captain DaVita is moving into position,” Dave said.
“Good,” Les said, typing in his credentials. He eyed the empty captain’s chair. I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Katrina.
She had changed the plan at the last minute, and Les wasn’t sure the new one was any better. The bridge doors whisked open and Layla entered, but to his surprise, she wasn’t wearing her Hell Diver armor. Michael followed her inside.
“Commander,” Les said.
“Lieutenant, Layla is going to stay on the bridge during both phases of the attack,” Michael said.
Layla didn’t look too happy about it, and Les wasn’t going to ask questions. They didn’t have time.
Hell Divers V: Captives Page 26
