“So they’re almost seven thousand nautical miles away,” Frank said to the group. “Anyone on Kent invent teleportation while I was away?”
“Seems like someone did, but they only let Skulls use it,” Rachel said. “Damn things keep attacking.”
Shepherd scratched at the graying stubble along his chin. “That chopper you landed here with isn’t going to make it across the Atlantic, is it?”
“Not unless we turn it into a boat,” Frank said.
“You could take a boat. Catch up to the Huntress,” Rory said. “I’d be happy to help. Rachel and I can sail.”
Frank sighed. “How long do you think a transatlantic sail from here to the Congo is going to take?”
“Say you get two hundred nautical miles a day, at best.” Rachel played with a dusty fork, scratching it along the table. “With favorable winds, maybe fifteen or twenty days on a forty-foot catamaran. Longer on a monohull.”
“Not fast enough,” Frank said. “The Hunters will be in Bikoro before we’re even a quarter of the way over the ocean. Apparently they discovered new types of Skulls over there, and I’m not going to let them traipse back through a jungle full of monsters when I could be flying them out.”
Leigh squirmed next to him.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe from those things here,” Frank said.
“I’m not scared,” Leigh said. “But you’re going to leave me, aren’t you?”
Frank looked at the others as if they would know what to say or do. She was right. He was abandoning her here. There was no safe way to drag her across the Atlantic with him.
“I’m sorry, Leigh,” Frank said. “We don’t have a choice. But you did good. You helped me get on the island, and now, because of that, I’m going to do what I promised. I’m going to help fight those monsters.”
Leigh’s bottom lip trembled, but she sat up straighter. “Okay, but you have to keep that promise.”
“I will,” Frank said. “With the help of these good people, I’m going to find a way to reach Africa.”
Shepherd nodded, as did Rachel.
Rory dragged his finger over a paper map he had unfolded over the table. “To get there in time, you’ll have to fly. It’s too far for a helicopter, right?”
“Right,” Frank said.
“Damn.” Shepherd glanced out the diner’s dusty window. Across the road, a small airfield sat with military and civilian aircraft parked along the meager runway. “No way we’re taking a plane out of there. Military keeps watch twenty-four, seven.”
“Yeah,” Frank said. “I wouldn’t want to steal a plane from Kent anyway. The people here need those resources.”
Rachel tapped her fingers on her fork, and Rory massaged his temple, all of them racking their brains. There had to be some way to cross the ocean without losing weeks of valuable time. As they had all learned with the Oni Agent rampaging across the world, too much could change in a week.
The rumbling chug of a single-prop plane echoed over the road. A white Cessna started down the runway, headed off for some surveillance or transport mission.
An idea popped into Frank’s mind. It was a long shot. Dangerous. Maybe suicidal. But if it worked...
“Anyone know where the closest FedEx facilities are?”
-30-
The shrouded body sank with a gurgle of bubbles in muddy water. Meredith watched Renee disappear into the Congo River. The Hunters stood at the stern of the ferry as the sweltering afternoon heat burned off the last wisps of humid fog. This wasn’t a proper burial at sea, but they’d had little choice. A body would decompose quickly in this heat. This was the best they could do for her now.
“The world should know the sacrifices she made,” Meredith said.
“Wish we could tell everyone there’s someone fighting for them,” Dom said. “It’s not a matter of personal pride or ego. Renee never wanted a medal or anything. She just wanted to do good and help people. But it stings that she died in disgrace, that people out there think we’re traitors. The army, the CIA, whoever the hell is out there pulling all these strings—they’ve got a lot to answer for.”
Miguel joined them, offering a bleak smile. “That’s what’ll make kicking their asses all that much sweeter, Chief.”
“Yes,” Andris said, his gaze frozen on the spot where Renee had slipped beneath the surface. “I will enjoy watching the fear in their eyes before I pull the trigger.”
A Skull loped along the shore, screaming. Several more joined it. But the ferry chugged onward, leaving the beasts tangled in the roots and foliage. At least the jungle hampered the Skulls as much as it did the Hunters. Meredith thought about the trails she’d loved to hike back home. How much longer until nature, ever hungry, reclaimed the parks, the suburbs, even the cities?
She leaned over the railing. The wake of the ferry lapped against the shore. Even if they survived this madness, even if they stopped the Oni Agent, what then? What if it was already too late for man to take back the world?
Jenna was by Glenn, their heads bowed in silence. Miguel’s forced good cheer had faded, and he stood in tense, gloomy silence. Andris had ducked back into the pilothouse to join Terrence. She had started to think of these people as friends, maybe even family, but it seemed they didn’t feel quite the same way. The bonds formed between them had developed over years, and there was nothing she could do to make up for that.
She stood next to Dom. Wind whipped across them both, kicking up the short wisps of dirty-blond hair he’d let grow in. Dark smears covered his face—dirt he’d never had the time or water to spare to clean off. He said nothing to acknowledge her presence, but soon she felt his rough, calloused fingers intertwine with hers. Even if everything else went to shit around them, she prayed that they would at least have each other.
“Maybe this is the wrong time,” Meredith started, “but what happens after all this is over?”
“We rebuild,” Dom said.
“No, I mean us. Am I with you just because we’re fighting the Oni Agent together? Just because of circumstance?”
Dom brushed a finger along the railing, and his eyes traced over the dark water below. He said nothing.
“Is this relationship real, or just an escape for us when everything else is going to hell?”
“I’m shit at this, Mere,” Dom said.
She paused, watching him, waiting for him to continue, and he looked at her, his eyes meeting hers again.
“I’m not good at this relationship stuff. I think...I think Bethany would’ve told you that much. You probably know that much.” He squeezed her hand. “I never thought about us as much more than partners.”
“Not even friends?”
“It was work. It was always work with me. Even the people—like you—that I thought were my closest friends. I couldn’t get past seeing how relationships affected my career.”
“You mean benefited it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I do. That’s why Bethany, my goddamn wife, for Heaven’s sake, was always a low priority when my relationship with her came against work. Do I accept a new assignment or take a trip with her?”
A heavy weight settled in Meredith’s gut. She was ready for him to tell her that he could never change that. That he was wired that way, and he couldn’t promise anything.
“And now,” he began again, “I know how stupid I’ve been.”
His words surprised her as he continued.
“I lost years of my relationship with my family, with my daughters, that I’m never going to get back. Hell, I took you for granted, but I promise I’m not going to do that again.”
“So when this is all over—”
“When this is all over, I hope to God you’ll still want to be with me,” he said. “When we’re through with the Oni Agent, I want to be on a beach with you and my daughters and Maggie and never leave your sides again.”
“A beach?” Meredith asked, a bit of her loneliness fading away. “You already decided without consulting me?”
She laughed, placing her hand on his arm, and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in close.
“A beach is fine,” she said. “A beach is just fine.”
***
Dom tried to close his eyes. He lay next to Meredith on a makeshift mattress of ragged blankets and tarps they’d pulled together from around the ship. He heard rustling from other spots in the pilothouse. Sleep was a difficult foe to conquer these days. He kept replaying his last conversation with Renee, her words floating through his mind like a cloud of dandelion seeds on the wind. Gentle, peaceful, delicately beautiful. He wished he had said more to her, expressed his admiration for her as a Hunter and a leader. Gratitude for her friendship and support. Love.
“You awake?” Meredith whispered. Moonlight played across her face, revealing eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. Her hands were folded under her head.
“I’m exhausted, but goddamn it if my mind won’t listen to my body.”
Meredith let out a low chuckle. “Isn’t that the truth? I never—”
A thump sounded outside, like something clunking against metal. Glenn straightened at his position behind the wheel. Miguel jumped to his feet, and Terrence sat up, blinking and confused.
Andris and Jenna were both on watch. His voice broke over Dom’s comm link. “Captain, I heard a suspicious noise. Jenna and I are going to investigate.”
“Copy,” Dom said. “We heard it too.”
He strapped on his tac vest and body armor then grabbed his rifle and his helmet. Meredith and the others did the same. The noise might have been nothing more than a falling branch slapping against the deck or the ferry hitting a rotting log just under the water’s surface. But Dom had long since learned to assume the worst where Skulls were concerned.
The ferry jerked and then crawled to a halt. Sickening grinding noises echoed up from the engine compartment, shattering the illusion of the peaceful night. The entire vessel stopped as if an invisible hand had grabbed it, and Dom fell forward, barely grasping the chart table in time to steady himself. Meredith grabbed his shoulder for balance.
Miguel was not so lucky. His helmet cracked against a stanchion. The impact rang out hollowly, but the Hunter quickly got back to his feet. “Damn, Glenn, where’d you learn how to drive?”
Glenn’s brow furrowed as he played with the ship’s controls, trying desperately to get the engines back online. “You don’t think the damn props are fouled again, do you?”
“I don’t want anyone going out there in the dark to fix them if they have,” Dom said. He chinned his comm link. “Andris, Jenna, report?”
“Negative,” Jenna replied. “Can’t seem to find anything.” There was a beat of silence. “Wait a second, what is—”
A blast of gunfire drowned out her words. Dom ran out of the pilothouse, scrambling down the ladders to their position. Another salvo flashed against the dark night. Meredith and Miguel’s footsteps pounded behind him.
“Glenn, Terrence, stay on guard,” Dom said over the comm link.
“You guys have all the fun,” Miguel muttered.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Terrence said, talking over Miguel. “We’ve got eyes on you from up here.”
More gunfire blasted.
“Jenna, Andris, what’s going on?”
“Those damn Imps,” Jenna said. “A few of them landed on the portside.”
Dom searched the open sky. “Where the fuck did they come from? The nearest tree branches are a good twenty yards away.”
“No idea,” Jenna said. “Spotted at least a half dozen.”
Meredith scanned the shoreline with her rifle. “Don’t see any contacts on either side of the river.”
“Nothing in the trees,” Miguel said.
They continued running over the deck, dodging between cars toward where Jenna and Andris stood. The duo aimed into the shadows with their rifles, but there were no more flashes of gunfire.
“By my count, there is still one left,” Andris said. “Not sure where he went.”
A screech on Dom’s left side answered that question. An Imp flew at him in a storm of fur and bone and claws. He dropped, barely dodging the creature. Its body slammed against the side of a van, puncturing the rusted metal. The agile monster wasted no time in leaping at Dom again.
Meredith tried to fire at it, but the Imp was too fast. It zigzagged as it bounced, becoming a white blur. Dom’s muscles tensed. The monster wailed as it soared at him with talons aimed straight for his neck. Again, Dom dodged and tried to bat the creature away. The Imp ducked. Its tail whipped out, catching Dom’s rifle and knocking it out of his hands. The weapon’s strap dug into his shoulder as the rifle slapped to his side.
Dom tried to sidestep the little beast. His boot caught on a loose piece of luggage, and he hit the deck hard. Pain radiated through his shoulder. Meredith battered the Skull with the stock of her rifle. She fired on it but succeeded only in adding a series of holes in an already-beaten Civic.
“Chief!” Miguel said as he ran toward Dom.
“I’m fine!” Dom yelled back. He stood, ready for the creature’s next assault. This time he wouldn’t let it catch him off guard.
The monster stared at him, seeming to size him up, its yellow eyes glowing. Another screech sounded behind him, and he was forced to spin. His rifle came up just in time to block the slicing claws of another Skull.
“I thought you said there was only one!” Dom said.
“I may have made a slight miscalculation, Captain,” Andris replied. “My sincere apologies.”
The sounds of bone cracking against metal rang out as Dom parried the strikes of the second creature. He heard the grunts and yells of Miguel and Meredith as they tried to catch the first. The Imp attacking Dom bounced from vehicle to vehicle, teasing him like the ruthless monkey it had been. Its tail lashed out, forcing Dom to stay on his toes. He wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Animals turning to Skulls! It was like some sadistic joke.
But joke or not, this Imp wanted him dead.
The monster surged at him again, and Dom clenched his jaw. Not this time, asshole. He swung his rifle at where he guessed the Imp would dodge. Dom was rewarded by the crack of metal against bone. The monster flew into a car window. Safety glass rained down on its body as it slumped into the front seat. Dom sprinted toward the car, drew his knife, and stabbed straight into the monster’s tiny chest. The metal cracked through overgrown ribs, and blood sputtered out between the fissures in its skeletal armor. The one good thing about these bastards being so little was that their armor was nothing compared to the strength of human-sized Skulls.
Satisfied it had died, Dom turned from the creature to see Meredith and Miguel cornering the last Imp. Its eyes darted between them, waiting for one of them to make a move before it threw itself at the Hunters’ faces. Dom twisted his rifle up and fired at the beast. It crumpled in a pool of its own blood.
“Damn, Chief, stealing my kill?” Miguel said, lowering his gun.
“Just making sure it’s the Skull that gets killed and not you,” Dom replied. “Hunters, on me. Any other contacts?”
The group prowled together, forming a circle on the deck. They waited in silence as they probed the darkness with their NVGs, but nothing else attacked.
“Glenn, Terrence,” Dom said. “How’s it look up there?”
“Can’t see anything on the forward deck,” Glenn said.
“Good,” Dom said. But dread flowed through him like a poisonous snake. Nothing forward. From the pilothouse, their view was limited, and that meant...
“To the stern! Now!”
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the ship quaked. It began to move toward the shore.
“Terrence, Glenn?” Dom asked, confused. Had the engines miraculously restarted on their own?
“That’s not us, Captain,” Glenn said. “I don’t know what the hell is going on!”
Dom ran. He leapt over the bodies of dead Imps. His boots landed in the dried remnants of gore and death from their earlier battles. Spent bullet cases kicked up at his feet. His heart hammered, pulse thundering in his ears. He skidded to a stop as he reached the stern.
Then everything—the moving ferry, the smaller Skulls attacking out of nowhere—made sense. And with that understanding came a fear so powerful, Dom almost froze in abject horror.
Almost.
-31-
Frank knelt in front of Leigh and gave her a hug. “You’re going to be all right. You’re in good hands, and you’re a tough kid.” He looked up at Rory. “Make sure she gets all settled in before you run back to the airfield.”
“You got it, boss,” Rory said.
Leigh wrapped her skinny arms around Frank. “My dad said that when someone does something nice for me, I should do something nice for them. So when I grow up, I’ll find you and pay you back for saving my life.”
Frank pulled back and put his hands on her shoulders. “You don’t owe me anything. You’ve done more than you can ever know to help me get back to my friends.” He winked. “That Oscar-worthy acting alone might’ve saved the lives of many more people than we can count in the future.”
Leigh smiled, but Frank could tell she didn’t quite believe him.
“Rory’s going to take you to meet some other kids on the island who need your help,” Frank said. “You can be a big sister to them. You want to pay me back? That’ll be more than enough.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. Leigh offered a slight nod. “I promise.”
Rory guided the girl away from where Shepherd, Rachel, and Frank stood on the sidewalk outside the diner. They jogged down the gravel road to one of the island’s grade schools, which had been turned into an orphanage. From what Rachel had told Frank, they took in children like Leigh who had lost their families to the Skulls. Leigh glanced over her shoulder and gave Frank a final wave.
The Tide: Iron Wind (Tide Series Book 5) Page 19
