Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

by Armand Baltazar

  As they started up the gantry, another vicious explosion rocked the station. Water sloshed in the corners, and a new alarm began to sound. The locomotive engines roared to life, and the reactor began to lower itself down into the shaft, huge, watertight doors closing above it.

  They rushed down the corridor, through the storage area, and back to the air lock. As they ran, Diego glanced back to where he’d left Balthus. Balthus was gone. Santiago heard pounding on the door of a storage compartment near the air lock and opened it to find Ajax and the others locked inside.

  “The general was waiting for us,” Ajax said.

  They reached Seahorse to find the door open. The captain ducked in first and roared with frustration.

  “Magnus!” the captain said. Diego stepped in, his boots crunching on shards of broken glass. He saw the captain picking up one of the metal panels that had covered the dashboard. Circuits had been pulled out, wires dangling here and there, levers yanked free, and control banks smashed.

  “Santiago, can this be repaired?” the captain asked.

  Diego saw his dad studying the controls. Santiago put his hands on the console and closed his eyes, his brow wrinkling. So many things he wanted to ask his dad about . . . that he finally could. Once they were out of trouble.

  “Can you fix it?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Santiago said. “I can.” He turned to George, Georgie, and Ajax. “But only with your help.”

  “This had better work,” George said.

  “Get this done,” the captain said, then turned, yanked the ax free, and ran out through the air lock.

  “Boleslavich!” Santiago called after him, but the captain’s boot steps had already faded.

  “I’m going to get the captain,” Diego said.

  “Diego, no, you—”

  “I’m not leaving him behind!” Diego shouted.

  Santiago stared at him . . . but then nodded. “Do you have your gun?”

  Diego pulled it from his belt. “Yeah.”

  Santiago checked his watch. “Fifteen minutes. If we’re going to make it, you have to be back.”

  Diego raced through the station, splashing through the watery passageways, trying to remember how the layout had looked from outside.

  Finally, he rounded a corner and arrived where he’d been hoping to, only the sight that greeted him was hard to comprehend.

  It was the second air lock, but it was larger and configured differently from the other. There was a large chamber; the back wall was made entirely of glass. The captain stood before a single glass-and-steel door at its center. Beside him, a set of tall brass levers protruded from the floor.

  Magnus stood on the other side of the glass, inside the underwater cable car’s connecting air lock. Behind him, Diego could just make out the unconscious form of Balthus. The captain and Magnus glared at each other, their faces a few feet apart, separated by glass and ocean.

  “Sir,” Diego said.

  The captain looked over his shoulder, spied Diego, and then turned back to Magnus in his cage. The men’s eyes were locked. “I hot-wired the cable brake before he could get away,” the captain said. He pressed a button on the wall, activating the wall-mounted speaker system.

  “You have me, old friend,” Magnus said. For the first time, Diego heard a note of uncertainty in his voice. “Pull me back in and let’s settle this man-to-man. No weapons, you and me.”

  “Don’t do it!” Diego shouted. “Captain, come with me. We only have a few minutes!”

  The captain took a deep breath.

  Magnus shook his head and clicked his tongue like he was scolding a child. “Yes, Captain, leave like the coward you are, like last time. Run from your mistakes rather than answer for them.” He looked at Diego. “He’ll abandon you someday, when you no longer . . . serve his purpose. Just ask your father.”

  “How dare you,” the captain said.

  “How dare you?” Magnus said. “How can you train these children and send them off to die for . . . this?” He raised his arms to the sea around him. “This obscenity of a world.”

  “This is my home!” Diego shouted.

  “And what about MY home?” Magnus slammed the glass with both hands, his voice distorting the intercom. “What about my children? My wife?”

  “We all lost people, Magnus.”

  “No! I didn’t lose them, Alex. They were taken from me.”

  The station computer crackled over passageway speakers, cutting in and out. “You now have th . . . ty-two min . . . eactor ignition. Evacuate . . . mediately.”

  “Captain,” Diego pleaded. “Please.”

  “Go, Diego,” the captain said.

  “No, you—”

  “Magnus is right. We both have sins. And we will both pay for them. Together. Go!”

  “I won’t!” Diego crossed his arms, shaking. The frigid water was over his knees now.

  “You will, Diego! I am ending this—”

  “Elana Ekaterina Boleslavich!” Magnus shouted. “Born Elana Ekaterina Marapova in Moscow. You two met at the National Academy of Sciences, in the Ukraine. You had a daughter that you named Natalia Aleksandra Boleslavich. She would be . . . Ah, but you don’t know. . . . She is seventeen years old. And she’s as lovely as Elana is.”

  The captain slammed the ax against the floor. “Stop your treacherous lying!”

  “Not lies, Aleksandr.” Magnus smiled. “Your wife and daughter are alive. And I have them.”

  “No . . . it’s not possible, it can’t be.”

  “I’ll prove it with a word, a nickname that only you and Elana could know: Ahi.”

  “No,” the captain said.

  Magnus grinned. “Now you believe me, don’t you? Release me, Captain, and you may find them. You and I can fight another day. I swear on my honor I will not harm them.”

  “Your honor,” the captain muttered, but Diego could see the way he was shaking, could hear the defeat in his voice.

  “Find me again and face me alone. Defeat me and they are yours. You have my word.” Magnus bowed.

  The captain fell to his knees. Around them, alarms blew more urgently. Diego could see the tears in the captain’s eyes, the anguish scarring his face.

  “Come on, Captain,” Diego said. “He’s lying. Don’t let him. We need to go—”

  “Ahhh!” The captain lurched to his feet and swung the ax with lethal force.

  It slammed the glass, embedding in the door. When the captain wrenched it away, water sprayed them.

  “Balthus did it, didn’t he?” he asked Magnus. “My God, he really did it.” He dropped the ax. Diego went to him, pulling his arm.

  “Captain! We have to go!” The water was rising fast.

  “It’s no use, boy,” Magnus said. “He knows it’s true.”

  The captain stood, his shoulders slumped, and grasped the brake lever.

  “Captain, no,” Diego said.

  He pulled the lever. The cable wheels groaned as they began to spin, and the sea trolley slipped away from the air lock. As it disappeared into the black water, Magnus gazed back at Diego and the captain, and saluted them with a smile.

  Diego struggled to stay upright. The water was swirling near his chest. He grabbed the captain and dragged him away from the glass. He still didn’t budge, and Diego slipped and submerged completely, the frigid cold all around him.

  Icy darkness, his muscles failing.

  Then strong arms yanked him up, and the captain pulled him, striding back through the passageways. They struggled against the water until they reached Seahorse. Ajax let them in through the air lock, and they collapsed to the floor.

  “Diego! Finally,” Santiago said.

  “Did you get it to work?” Diego gasped.

  “We’ve got something rigged,” Santiago said. He glanced at the captain. “Magnus?”

  The captain shook his head.

  “Another time,” Santiago said. “Ajax, uncouple us.”

  They detached from the domed str
ucture, backing away and then lifting. They’d barely made it to a safe distance when the dome imploded, rocking Seahorse violently. Santiago kept a tight hold of the controls and righted them.

  “Is that the John Curtis?” Santiago asked, pointing to the surface.

  “That’s it,” the captain said.

  “But the array,” Diego said. “We can’t leave—we need to destroy it before—”

  “Seahorse is unarmed,” Santiago said. “We need something to blow it up with.”

  The captain checked his watch. “Twenty minutes. I have two torpedoes aboard my ship.”

  Santiago glanced at Diego and then turned back to the controls. “Time is tight. I hope whatever is going on topside isn’t as bad as it seems.”

  “We’ll have to act fast,” the captain said. “Everyone, gather your weapons and be prepared to disembark.”

  As they neared the surface, the water churned from explosions, and the trails of bullets penetrated the blue.

  Seahorse rose fast, breaking the waves beside the John Curtis. They were immediately strafed by bullets. And something struck them and exploded, causing alarms to go off and water to seep in.

  Diego raced to the top hatch. He waited for a pause in the clanging of bullets, then popped open the hatch and peered out. Plane engines growled overhead, and Diego looked up to see the Kingfisher wrapped in a spiraling dogfight with a German 109 and a Japanese Zero. He switched on his radio, and it vibrated with the sound of throbbing machine guns.

  “Petey, release the smoke bombs!” Diego heard Lucy shout.

  Seahorse came alongside the John Curtis while Diego grabbed the tether line and tensed, readying to jump over.

  “Lucy, this is the captain,” Diego heard over the radio. “Power down. We are going to tie on to the ship.”

  “Do it fast, sir!” Lucy replied. “We lost that gunship under cover of smoke, but they are out there.”

  “Holy crap! Enemy ship behind us!” Petey shouted. “I repeat, enemy ship! Break off, break off!”

  Diego spun and saw the Vengeance bearing down on them.

  Petey dove for safety just as the Vengeance fired on the John Curtis.

  “Petey!” Diego screamed.

  “Break off, Captain!” Lucy shouted. “Submerge while I draw that enemy ship away.”

  The John Curtis accelerated and began to pull away.

  “Wait!” Diego called, but Seahorse was already starting to lower. Diego looked back at Petey lying on the deck . . . and he lunged out of Seahorse, slamming into the side of the John Curtis and barely grasping the deck rail. He hauled himself up and bolted toward Petey.

  “Are you all right?” Diego asked, sliding down beside him.

  “I’m all right,” Petey groaned, pulling himself up to a sitting position. Diego helped move him to the wall.

  “The gunship is closing!” Diego shouted toward the bridge.

  “Lucy,” the captain said over the radio. “Do you still have the torpedoes?”

  “We only have one, Captain!” Lucy replied. “Petey and I used the other to destroy the first gunship.”

  “Use the one you have against the Vengeance!” the captain said.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Sir, what about the reactor station?” Diego asked.

  The radio hissed, but for a moment, no one spoke. Diego was about to ask again when the captain replied, “Diego, we’ll rig up a mine or some other form of explosive device to take out the station.”

  Diego and Petey sprinted for the torpedo tubes mounted on the aft deck.

  “Just need another moment to line up the boat,” Lucy called through the voice tube.

  The John Curtis eased out of a turn, straightened out, and slowed. Diego watched as the Vengeance angled to aim its big side guns at them.

  “Are the torpedoes armed?” Lucy asked as Petey flipped the switches.

  “Aye, aye, captain!”

  “Now, fire!” Lucy ordered.

  Diego slammed the release lever, and the torpedo hurtled out into the water, carving a triangle of foam in the sea.

  “Come on . . . ,” Diego said.

  The Vengeance started to turn hard, but too late. The torpedo struck it broadside in an explosion of water and fire.

  “Yes!” Petey and Diego high-fived as the Vengeance broke apart and its smoking hull slipped beneath the waves.

  They watched as the Kingfisher dived from the clouds. It flew erratically and landed hard, skipping across the waves like a stone and leaving a spray of water. Moments later, Seahorse pulled up alongside the ship. Lucy slowed the ship to stop. Diego and Petey ran over and tied Seahorse to the ship, and its passengers disembarked.

  “Where’s my daughter?” George demanded, scanning the decks.

  “She’s busy piloting the ship,” the captain said. “The fact that we are all alive should prove her excellence. For the moment, Mr. Emerson, you and your boy please take the others below. Ajax, man the aft guns with me.”

  “There’s Paige!” Petey said, pointing to where she was emerging onto the wing of the Kingfisher. But any joy in seeing her alive was cut short as Paige pulled Gaston out onto the wing. He was covered in blood and oil, and he wasn’t moving. Paige unholstered her pistol and pointed it at the sky and started firing.

  “Incoming!” Ajax called.

  The Me 109 hurtled out of the sky, bearing down on Paige. Ajax and the captain chased it with streams of bullets but couldn’t slow its attack.

  The plane, nearly on top of Paige, burst into a fireball, debris shooting in all directions. Another plane raced overhead.

  “Is that . . . ,” Diego said.

  “Skywolf!” the captain called.

  Mom! Diego watched as Siobhan brought the Skywolf around in a wide arc. She buzzed by the deck, saluting them, and her eyes caught sight of Santiago on the deck. Then she turned away and raced skyward to engage the last two fighter planes.

  “Let’s get Paige and Gaston aboard,” the captain said. “And then—”

  He was cut off by the deep explosions of massive guns and the whistling of incoming fire.

  Huge shells exploded, barely missing them.

  “There!” Petey shouted, pointing toward Jersey Devil Island. The island sat about four miles from where they were, and past it they saw the huge Aeternum battleship rounding the coast, swinging into position, lining up its guns.

  “We need to move!” Diego shouted.

  “Too late,” the captain said. “He’s got us dead to rights.”

  Diego watched as the giant guns took aim, their sinister black chambers gleaming in the sun. . . .

  But a new buzzing reached their ears. Streaks of molten cannon fire rained down from the clouds, strafing the battleship. Smoke, fires erupted, and the battleship burst into flames.

  A huge shadow emerged from the clouds in the distance.

  “The Magellan!” Diego shouted. He high-fived Petey, then turned to find Lucy—she was right there and threw her arms around him.

  “That is a sight for sore eyes,” the captain said, waving his hat to the Magellan in the distance. “Now, everyone at the ready!”

  Diego turned back to the ocean and his smile faded.

  The John Curtis pulled up alongside the Kingfisher. Ajax and Petey climbed down and carried Gaston up. He hung limp between them, his pilot’s suit stained with blood.

  They laid him on the deck. His body was still, lifeless. Paige came up the ladder right behind them and dropped to her knees beside him. Paige was dirty and bloodstained, her clothes still dripping wet. Her tears flowed freely as she cradled his head while the captain knelt at his side.

  “Paige . . .” The captain placed his arm around her.

  “He was shot—but there was no way to come down, sir,” Paige said. “Couldn’t land . . . couldn’t shake ’em.” Paige wiped her eyes. “It took all his strength to keep us in the air, moving, fighting—living. He said he had to save me.” Paige sobbed and held Gaston tightly against her. “It’
s not fair,” she whispered. “I should’ve . . .” Her tears fell on Gaston’s still face.

  After a moment, Diego and Petey stepped forward and each put a hand on her shoulder. She spun and fell into them, her body wracked with sadness. She screamed into Petey’s chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.

  The captain took Gaston in his arms and held him. “You’ve been a son to me, Gaston Le Baptiste. Godspeed you to the distant shores.”

  Diego looked at Gaston. Silent. He’d always seemed older and so irritating, but he looked young and innocent now, except for the blood crusted on the side of his head. “Bye, frère.”

  Outside, another cannon explosion rocked the ship. Bullets pinged the walls.

  Paige wiped her eyes and looked up toward the skies. “Payback.”

  “Ajax is at the rear guns,” Petey said. “I bet he could use some help. Let’s go give those bastards hell.”

  Paige straightened up and nodded. “With pleasure.” She glanced back at Gaston. “Mission’s not over,” she said. “Not for us.”

  “The Magellan may have what we need,” Diego heard Santiago saying. He was standing by the captain, watching the airship approach.

  “They’re still about ten miles out,” the captain said. “At their speed and against this headwind, they’ll be here in seven minutes.”

  Santiago glanced at his watch. “Not good. We’ve got less than twelve minutes. That’s not enough time to bring explosives down to Seahorse and get back to the station in time.” He glanced at Diego, then at the Skywolf, which had just touched down on the barge. He turned back to the captain. “Aleksandr, fashion four mines together with a timer. That should be strong enough, then I’ll take it back down, attach it with Seahorse, and get clear.”

  “I’ve only low-yield torpedo mines aboard the ship,” the captain said flatly.

  Santiago held the captain’s gaze for a long moment and nodded. “You and I know that they’ll have to be enough.”

  “Dad, no! That’s too dangerous.”

  “No, Santiago,” the captain said. “Stay here with your boy. I should be the one. Let me take the bomb. You stay here with Diego.”

  “I’m sorry, old friend. Seahorse’s controls were damaged nearly beyond repair. There is no way to engage the autopilot, and I’m the only one who knows how to operate the makeshift controls,” Santiago said, shaking his head. “It has to be me. So please, the bomb.”