Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

by Armand Baltazar

  “Oh,” Lucy said.

  “Mestizo is the word for someone who’s half Spanish and half native Filipino. When I was a baby, my dad called me his little halo-halo. That’s the Tagalog name of a Filipino dessert of mixed ingredients.”

  “You’d be quite the novelty in my neighborhood back home.” Lucy elbowed him, and as she did, a little pendant slipped out of the collar of her shirt.

  “What is that?” Diego asked, pointing to it.

  “Oh, this.” Lucy held it up on the tip of her thumb. “I found this little knickknack the other day on the barge. It was pretty, so I made a pendant out of it.”

  Diego gaped at it. “Can I have it for a second?”

  Lucy unclasped the necklace and handed it to Diego. “What is it?” she asked.

  “This . . .” Diego couldn’t believe it. He held the object in his palm and ran his finger over it. It was a small piece of electronics in the shape of an octopus. “This is it! I saw this exact thing, in a vision.”

  “A vision?” Lucy said. “Like your Sight?”

  “I’m not sure,” Diego said. Seeing the object made the hairs prickle on the back of his neck. “Just a sec.”

  He closed his eyes and focused, trying the Sight, but all he saw in his mind was the object itself. The charm didn’t look like any technology he’d ever seen. Its metal felt strange, almost like skin. He tried again. A tiny spark of brilliant blue energy crackled beneath the surface of the object and surged into Diego’s fingertips. The jolt made his arm tremble.

  This time, a single image formed in his mind. Diego opened his eyes. “No way,” he said. “That’s impossible.”

  “What?” Lucy asked.

  “It—this piece . . . it calls itself a Kavohn processor.” Diego flipped over the tablet and popped off the back.

  “It—what do you mean, ‘it calls itself’? You know what it does?” Lucy asked.

  Diego got his battery-powered soldering kit from his backpack. He carefully attached the octopus-shaped processor to the circuitry inside the tablet, then powered it up.

  The tablet delivered an audio message: “Foreign processor accepted. Molecular stabilizer configuring. Proto-field engaged in five seconds.”

  “Your pendant—this Kavohn thing—was the missing key to the tablet,” Diego said.

  “How is that possible?” Lucy said.

  Diego had no idea. He didn’t know where it had come from or even what it was, but the Sight had somehow awoken it, and it showed him the possibility of something. He rubbed his fingers where the tendril of blue energy had touched his skin. It still tingled. He watched a numerical countdown on the screen, dropping from five to zero.

  Then the screen went black, and blue energy lines pulsed across it. The tablet spoke, the energy lines dancing as sound waves.

  “Hello, Diego. Hello, Lucy. It is nice to meet you. My name is . . . default settings vocal interface.” It paused. “But Diego may give me a name . . .”

  “I can’t believe it,” Diego said. And then he wondered. He looked at Redford. Could it possibly work?

  Then his eye caught something in the distance, far beyond Redford. Something streaking below the clouds, glinting in the morning sun.

  “Oh no,” Diego said.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Monsters of Sea and Air

  For a second after Lucy sounded the alarm, they stood frozen, watching the plane streak toward them, the whine of its engine increasing like a buzzing bee.

  “I don’t suppose it’s friendly,” Lucy said.

  “Nope.” Diego had already recognized the plane: a Japanese World War II torpedo plane, the same as he’d seen in his history books. A single torpedo hung beneath its fuselage. As it closed in, he could see its Aeternum colors.

  But that isn’t possible . . . is it?

  “Let’s move!” Lucy said.

  Below, they heard shouts. Ajax and Paige made their way to the forward guns.

  The air sizzled, and bullets sprayed from the plane.

  “Get down!” Lucy grabbed Diego, and they both dropped to the floor as bullets strafed the crow’s nest and the bridge below, digging into wood and clanging off metal.

  “Go!” Diego shouted. They yanked open the hatch and scrambled down the rigging. “Get to the bridge!”

  Gunfire roared from the front of the ship. Diego saw Ajax swiveling the forward gun, while Paige fed a heavy belt of bullets into it. The plane arced and wove while completing its turn and lined up to attack again.

  Diego and Lucy jumped to the deck and dived through the door into the bridge as the next rain of bullets pelted the hull. The firing sound retreated down the side of the ship.

  The captain jumped up and craned to see out the side window. “He’s targeting the steam engine.”

  “Should we man the rear guns?” Lucy asked.

  “Gaston is already there,” the captain said.

  They heard the rear gun roar to life. The ship rattled from both ends to the pulsing of gunfire.

  “Put us into evasive maneuvers!” the captain ordered Lucy.

  “Yes, sir.” Lucy bit her lip and raced to the wheel.

  The captain stepped to the control banks at the back of the bridge and began throwing levers. “I’m shutting down the steam engine and redirecting power to the diesel. Diego! I need you to do a purge of the boiler. It’s armor plated, but if there’s a rupture at full pressure, it could blow the ship.”

  “Got it!” Diego shouted, lunging for the lever.

  The plane screamed around. The front gun kept pounding, but the back gun ceased.

  “Diego, help Gaston reload!”

  “On my way.” He met Lucy’s eye, hoping she could hear his thought: Good luck.

  Diego sprinted down the deck, his body taut like coiled wire, wondering when the next round of bullets would come. He heard the buzzing of the plane but couldn’t pause to find it in the sky.

  He heard barking and found Daphne at his heels. “Go, girl! Get out of here!”

  Daphne yipped and stayed with him, looking thrilled by their game.

  The plane’s engines grew louder. Diego glanced over his shoulder and spotted the plane heading directly toward him over the water. Its guns blazed, bullets strafing the waves. He dived behind Gaston and the protective plating of the gun as the bullets riddled the steam engine.

  “I could have used you two minutes ago!” Gaston said, jumping back to the gun sights. “Feed that ammo!” He opened fire, the gun roaring and bucking. Diego grabbed the magazine and loaded it into the cannon’s side feeder. He wheeled, bullets chasing the plane. There was a shriek of metal as Gaston tore a large hole through one of its wings. The plane dipped, righted, but then flew on with a shimmy in its gait.

  “Nice shot!” Diego said.

  A grinding of metal from below. Diego peered over the side, down the back of the ship. The paddle wheel slowed to a stop, rising from the water as it did and then folding flat against itself like an accordion.

  “Are we switching to the propeller?” Diego shouted over the roar of the plane and gunfire.

  “Oui!” Gaston said, lining up the gun for another shot. “Need the speed and maneuverability.”

  “But won’t that attract mosasaurs or something worse?” Diego wondered, gazing into the deep blue around them.

  “Last time I checked, mosasaurs don’t shoot bullets, petit frère!”

  “Stop calling me that!” Diego shouted.

  Gaston grinned. “Give me a reason.” He pumped another round of lead into the air but then stopped firing and slapped the gun. “Out of range. Why’s that plane flying away—is he breaking off the attack?”

  Diego squinted into the distance. The plane seemed to be spiraling downward.

  “Maybe your shot to the wing was enough.”

  The plane straightened out, heading straight at them. The torpedo dropped from beneath its belly and slid into the water.

  “Wishful thinking,” Gaston said.

  Diego
watched the trail of white bubbles rocketing toward them.

  “We need the anti-torpedo mines,” Gaston said. He stepped from the gun.

  Diego grabbed his arm. “You stay and fire! Where are the mines?”

  “Merde, Diego! Do you not remember your training?” Gaston frowned. “Those armored compartments!” He pointed across the aft deck.

  Diego sprinted toward them, only to have Ajax arrive at the lockers ahead of him. He was covered in sweat, a long smear of blood on his shoulder.

  “Were you hit?” Diego asked.

  “Seems that way,” Ajax said. He flipped the latches and yanked open the locker, revealing three giant steel barrels painted bright yellow. “I’ll get these two,” he said, squatting and lifting a barrel over each shoulder, then standing with a heavy grunt. He nodded at the third one. “You,” he said, and raced back up the deck.

  Diego lugged the giant barrel out of the locker and kicked the door shut. He tried to lift it, as Ajax had done, but could barely budge it off the ground. Instead, he tipped it on its side and rolled it up the deck, joining Ajax by the catapult-style mine launcher.

  “How’s it going, Paige?” Ajax called toward the bow.

  Diego saw Paige crouched behind the gun, arms flexed, spraying bullets. “I could get used to this!” she shouted.

  “I’ll load these two,” Ajax explained to Diego. “You load that one, and when I tell you, pull the arming pin!” There were six catapults built into either side of the deck.

  “I thought two mines were enough to stop a torpedo?” Diego asked, lugging the barrel into place.

  “That’s a big torpedo,” Ajax said, lifting a barrel overhead.

  Diego struggled to get the mine into place while watching the trail of bubbles grow.

  He heard Ajax counting to himself. “Thirteen . . . twelve . . . eleven . . . Diego, pull the arming pin!”

  Paige stopped firing. “Guys!” she shouted. “He brought a friend!”

  Diego whirled and saw a second plane drop out of the clouds. Diego knew the style: a Japanese Zero fighter. It joined with the other, and both opened fire.

  “FIRE!” shouted Ajax.

  Diego pulled the arming pin and jumped back. Ajax released the launchers, and the two torpedo mines hurtled into the water, converging on the streaking torpedo . . .

  BLAM!

  Water exploded upward.

  “Yes!” Diego shouted.

  “By blood to bones . . . I’ll see you in hell!” Ajax shouted.

  With its one torpedo spent, the plane banked hard and came back around, putting them right in its crosshairs. Ajax stood in plain view, unflinching.

  “What are you doing? Take cover!” Diego shouted.

  Ajax chuckled, the booming notes echoing off the deck. “There’s more than one way to catch a fox, boy. Sometimes you need to draw him to the henhouse. Ready, Paige?”

  “Hell yeah!”

  “Why does she get to have all the fun?” Gaston shouted. He unloaded a heavy stream at the second plane but stopped when it turned in retreat and banked up into the clouds.

  “Yeah!” Paige said, dancing across the deck.

  “Paige!” The captain stepped out of the bridge.

  “Yes, sir!” Paige froze, her smile fading.

  The captain stared her down. “Well done.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  A small explosion tore through the rear deck near the back piston arm. An alarm blared.

  “Paige! Gaston!” the captain called. “Stay at your posts! Ajax, Diego, Lucy, and Petey, put out that fire!”

  “Where are these planes coming from?” Lucy called as they raced to the hoses.

  “Aeternum scavenger ships sometimes raid the Caribbean settlements,” Ajax said. “These look to me like long-range scouts.”

  They dragged out the hoses, and Ajax hit the valves. Diego braced himself as water pumped onto the flames.

  “Here he comes!” Paige pointed, and they saw the Zero drop out of the clouds and mark them before disappearing again.

  “Captain, that sneaky bastard is up to something!” Gaston said. “He must be—”

  Bullets tore into the armor plating of the bridge, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

  “Take cover!” the captain shouted.

  Diego dropped his hose and sprinted for the rear deck, his friends beside him. He ducked and turned to see the plane streaking past, but its engine sounded strange, more like a muffled whirring.

  “That plane has switched to an induction engine!” Gaston said through the voice pipe.

  It was by them in an instant—Gaston’s fury of bullets barely missing it—and then back up in the clouds.

  “What are induction engines?” Petey asked.

  “Somehow, that plane has been modified to switch to a twenty-second-century compression engine,” Ajax said. “It makes it virtually silent, and much faster, but it goes through its fuel faster.”

  “What does that mean for us?” Lucy asked.

  “It means he’d like us dead as soon as possible!”

  The deck shook as the captain fired up the locomotive engine, disengaging the diesel propellers and switching back to the paddle wheel. The water churned behind the boat as the wheel spun to life, only to slam to a grinding halt, sending a wicked shudder through the ship that rattled every joint.

  “What happened?” Diego asked, scrambling to the railing alongside Ajax.

  Ajax peered over the side, then rushed to the aft deck voice pipe. “Sir!” Ajax called. “One of the backup fuel tanks exploded, taking out the starboard-side drive crank. The paddle wheel is dead.”

  The captain cursed in Russian on the other end of the voice pipe. The ship shook again as he reengaged the propellers. “Lucy!” the captain called. “Get back to the bridge! Petey, assist Paige! Ajax, back to the guns! Diego, to the crow’s nest to spot for that plane.”

  Ajax stopped Diego and secured a pistol in his belt. Diego thanked him and climbed atop the bridge. He hauled himself up the rigging, back into the bullet-riddled crow’s nest. The boat sped through the calm seas, the propellers creating a wide wake behind them. Far in the distance, Diego saw a spine of islands, no more than silhouettes. The Great Eastern Wall, he guessed.

  Where was that plane?

  “Anything?” Ajax called to Diego.

  “Not yet!” Diego called. He squinted but saw nothing in the clouds. . . .

  “Hey, petit frère!” Gaston called.

  “What?” Diego said.

  “Make sure you hang on tight up there! A strong gust of wind could—” But Gaston didn’t finish.

  They all heard it at the same time. That strange engine sound in the sky.

  Diego whirled, looking in all directions.

  “There!” Paige shouted, pointing straight up.

  Diego craned his neck, and there was the plane, diving hard right at them. Its guns blazed. Gaston barely got off a shot before he had to dive away, bullets riddling his position.

  The plane banked hard and circled around the ship. Paige unloaded, but the plane was too fast. It came so close to the crow’s nest that Diego could see the pilot, light reflecting off his goggles. Diego scrambled for the pistol that Ajax had given him, but by the time he had it out of his belt, the fighter was already past and attacking the back deck again, this time causing Ajax to leap away.

  “Are they okay?” Lucy called up over the voice pipe.

  Diego squinted through the smoke and saw Ajax and Gaston ducking behind stacks of cargo. “Yeah, everyone’s fine, but our back cannons are gone!”

  “Diego, get down below and help Ajax and Gaston!” the captain shouted through the voice pipe.

  “Got it!” Diego threw open the hatch and started down the rigging. He had only gone a few lengths when he turned and saw the plane banking, coming at them head-on.

  “Come on!” Paige shouted, firing.

  The plane fired back. A blur of bullets. Paige clipped its wing, but only until her gun sparked
and smoked . . . and exploded, sending Petey and Paige careening backward into the wall.

  “Guys!” Diego shouted. He leaped from the rigging, collapsing into a roll on top of the bridge, and then scrambled down two decks through the smoke to his fallen friends.

  “I’m okay,” Paige said, coughing and getting to her feet. “I tagged that sucka, but he’ll be coming for us.”

  “Petey . . .” Diego knelt beside him and slapped his friend’s face gently.

  Petey coughed and doubled over, at the same time holding up a hand to fend off Diego. “I’m good.”

  Daphne scuttled over and licked Petey’s face.

  “Dieu merci!” Gaston and Ajax sprinted over to them. “They live!” He threw his arms around Paige and kissed the top of her head.

  “What is with you?” Paige shouted, pushing him away.

  “Nothing, I—” Gaston swept off his hat and kicked at the deck. “I thought you were lost, belle.”

  “Paige!” Lucy ran out and hugged her friend.

  “Status of the cannons?” the captain called from the wheel.

  Ajax looked to the front gun. “We’ve lost all three, sir. Gaston and I can—”

  Engines again. Coming in fast.

  “Our friend is back!” Paige shouted.

  Diego spied the Zero coming from the other side. Its guns blazed, strafing the hull.

  “Watch out, Captain!” Lucy shouted.

  The Zero arced overhead, and the captain popped up again.

  “Ajax, Gaston, break out the small arms from the armory!”

  “I can help!” Paige shouted.

  “You’ve done enough; get inside!” Gaston shouted.

  “I’m not taking orders from you!”

  “Come with me,” Ajax said. “We’ll get rifles from the weapons locker.”

  “Paige, be careful,” Gaston said.

  “You don’t need to worry about me, I—”

  An explosion rocked the side of the ship. Everyone ducked for cover.

  The Zero swooped by overhead.

  “That little bugger is going to be the end of us!” Petey shouted.

  “Ajax, arm everyone and take positions for cover!” the captain shouted. “Aim for the fuel supply . . . or the cockpit.”