They’re talking to one another, Les realized.
Erin continued raining bullets down on the pack. Not bothering to move for cover, they stood their ground and returned fire. Blue laser bolts punched through the ship’s rusted hull as if it were cardboard.
Keep your head down, Erin …
Les dropped to one knee, aimed the weapon with both hands, and squeezed off a single bolt. The laser zipped through the air, just over the head of a machine that had dropped to all fours.
The other two machines, both without laser weapons, ran toward him. Lightning forked through the sky, hitting the ocean.
Les aimed again, holding the trigger down to fire a longer bolt that took off the top of a metal skull. His next shot went through the chest of the machine with the human jaw, sending it crashing to the ground. It quickly pushed itself back up.
He centered the barrel at the head to finish it off, but the trigger pull ended with an empty click. Smoke rose off the glowing barrel. The third machine suddenly stopped running toward Les and stood on both feet.
The downed robot directed an orange visor toward the sky. The other three robots all stopped firing at Erin and also looked toward the storm clouds.
Les aimed his weapon, waiting for the gun to cool.
A message crackled from the speakers, but he didn’t understand Layla’s transmission. It sounded like the Hell Divers motto.
“We dive so humanity survives.”
But why the hell would Layla be saying it right now?
Thunder grumbled overhead.
He pulled the trigger again, but still it wouldn’t fire.
The sky suddenly rained blue orbs.
Five of them.
“Pull your chutes!” yelled a voice over the comms.
Les stared in awe at the sky, where a parachute suddenly bloomed out under the cloud cover. Then another, and another. All but one of the chutes fired and spread black canopies.
“Katrina came for us,” he whispered.
His speakers crackled with the deep voice that had to be Edgar Cervantes.
“Ramon!” he yelled.
Les watched a body tumbling through the air. It smacked into the ocean several hundred yards out from the piers.
The machines with weapons raised them toward the sky and fired off bolt after bolt. Several of them tore through chutes, sending the novice divers careening through the air.
Les aimed his weapon at the robots.
“Over here, assholes!” he yelled. This time, the trigger pull fired a bolt. The laser traveled through the central chest slot of the machine and the battery exploded in a fiery blast, all but tearing the robot in half.
The other machines all looked in Les’ direction.
He swallowed.
At least he had distracted them from the other divers. Erin stood above the rail, which was sliced through and glowing from laser hits. He hit the deck, rolled, and returned fire.
A diver was already coming in hot over the pier, performing a two-stage flare with such grace, it had to be Katrina.
She ran out the momentum, passing Les as he kept firing bolts. Timing his shots, he tried to keep the gun from overheating again.
Erin stuck her rifle over the side of the ship, screaming as she fired. “Eat this, you walkin’ shit cans!” She squeezed off three-round bursts from side to side. “You want some? Come on! Swallow this!”
Gunfire erupted behind Les, and Katrina ran up beside him with her rifle shouldered.
“Good to see you’re still alive!” she yelled.
Les said the first thing that came to mind. “Where’s Trey?”
“Not sure, but his beacon’s still active.”
The reassuring words energized Les. He came up on one knee and took down another machine on the pier with a shot to the neck. The partially severed head craned to the side, sparks shooting from the wound.
“Focus your fire on their heads!” Les yelled.
Erin and Katrina slowed their rate of fire, the sporadic cracks echoing amid the boom of thunder and cries of the machines.
The two remaining enemies both went down, their skull armor broken to pieces. They squirmed as Les finished them off with laser bolts. The final AI twitched on the ground before going limp, the orange lights fizzling out like coals in the rain.
Les stood and scanned the sky above the ITC ship where Erin was busy changing a magazine. Three more divers were still in the air, but the wind, damaged canopies, and inexperience had taken them all off course. Two floated overhead toward Red Sphere. The third was coming down near the destroyed robots.
“Trey, where are you!” Les shouted.
“Dad! I’m over the ship, but I can’t slow down.”
Les turned to see his son sail right over the ITC ship, about two hundred feet above Erin. She, too, looked up as he passed overhead.
“Do the two-stage flare like we trained you,” Les said. “Wait till you’re about eight feet off the deck; then pull both toggles down hard but not all the way, to slow your descent. Then, when you level out, pull the toggles slow the rest of the way down to stop your forward motion.”
Movement on the deck pulled Les’ eyes off Trey.
“Behind you!” Erin yelled.
Bolts hit the deck just right of Les and Katrina. She rolled away from the laser fire, but Les stayed put. One of the machines he had knocked down was getting back up with a weapon raised. A bolt sizzled past Les’ head as he pulled the trigger—the same moment the machine fired a bolt into the sky.
“No!” Les shouted.
He lowered his gun as the robot dropped, smoldering. Les’ eyes jerked upward, searching the sky for his son. But the AI’s laser bolt had not been meant for Trey. An object the size of a melon dropped over the side of the ship, near the stern. It took Les a moment to register what he was seeing.
Erin’s headless corpse, still standing on the deck, slumped against the rail, then toppled over. Her helmet, with her head inside, clattered onto the concrete and rolled a few feet.
Trey’s boots hit the pier a moment later, between the ship and Les. The boy quickly lost control, running and then tumbling head over feet.
“Covering fire!” Katrina shouted.
Les, still in shock, finally turned to fire on the machines streaming out of the building. Erin was gone, but maybe he could still save the others.
Katrina was on one knee, fighting desperately, firing calculated bursts.
One of the divers had landed on the roof of Red Sphere and opened fire from above. The final diver was nowhere in sight.
Six robots strode out of the garage, firing bolts in all directions.
Les heard one crackle in the air just over his head. He was giving them too big a target, so he dropped to his belly. His first three shots took down a machine, and fire erupted from its innards. His weapon clicked on the next squeeze—overheated again.
He switched to his rifle and aimed a burst at the mouth of one of the remaining five machines standing just outside the entrance to the garage.
Bolts cut through the air separating Les and Katrina. They both rolled out of the way and into each other.
Les glanced up, expecting a bolt to his face.
He heard something streak over their heads, followed by a thunderous boom that seemed to come from both the Red Sphere garage and the ocean. The explosion tore the machines standing there to scrap metal, and they vanished in the fiery blast. The diver on the roof fell backward.
Les had already grabbed Katrina and pulled her to the left, where they tumbled over the side of the pier and into the water.
Kicking back to the surface, he pulled himself onto the dock, where he saw a navy ship rounding the piers.
“Got the ship working,” Layla said over the open channel. “Anyone want a ride out of this charming place?�
�
Pushing himself up, Les ran to help untangle Trey, who was shouting for help on the pier, his chute on fire.
Katrina rushed over to help. They released the chute and put out the flames on his legs. By the time they had him out, Edgar and Jaideep were running across the platform toward the pier.
“You okay?” Les asked Trey.
The boy sat up and managed a nod. “The suit saved me.”
Katrina looked to the left, where Erin’s headless corpse lay in her blood, which was pooling underneath her due to a broken bone that protruded through her suit.
Trey lowered his helmet in despair.
Running footfalls came from behind them.
Jaideep arrived, panting, his arm around Edgar, who was gripping his side.
“Where’s my cousin? Does anyone know what happened to Ramon?” Edgar’s words trailed off when he saw Erin’s body.
“His beacon went off in the storm. I’m sorry,” Katrina said. “There’s nothing we can do for him or Erin now.”
“He’s hurt,” Jaideep said.
Edgar unslung his arm from the diver’s shoulder. “I’m fine.”
But Les could see that Edgar wasn’t fine. Shards of metal stuck out of his chest armor, and another piece protruded from his belly, where blood was seeping out.
Katrina pointed her chin at the cruiser, which was moving into position along the pier. “Let’s go, divers.”
SEVENTEEN
The waves crashed against the Sea Wolf’s bow, sending up plumes of spray. Magnolia tightened the strap against her chest, and looked over at X.
“The sails will hold,” he reassured her.
“But what about our friends?” she asked. “Will they be okay?”
X sighed. “I … I don’t know. But there’s nothing we can do for them right now.”
“So we just have to sit here and wait to hear from Katrina?”
He gave a silent nod.
Magnolia shook her head sadly. X had spent a decade on the surface, waiting to be rescued, but she couldn’t wait a few hours to hear about her friends. That was the difference between them, and why he had survived all this time.
Her mind replayed Katrina’s transmission from an hour earlier.
“Team Raptor is under attack by unknown hostiles.”
The guilt filled her with dread.
If they died, it was on her. She had sent the information that encouraged the captain to send divers there.
And it had been a trap.
The next transmission explained what Team Raptor was facing at Red Sphere.
“AIs,” she said quietly. “I just can’t believe it’s true.”
“Pepper, you got some explaining to do,” X growled under his breath. “Seems to me like you’re hiding stuff from us, and if I find out …” He made a cracking sound with his tongue to mimic a snapping neck.
“Sir, I assure you, if I had known that Red Sphere was compromised by those machines, I would have informed you. And my counterpart on the Hive would have informed Captain DaVita, as well.”
X looked at Magnolia. Neither of them had told Pepper his counterpart was shut down. And she wasn’t about to …
“Your counterpart is offline, Pepper, and I’m about to fry your hard drive, too, unless you start talking.”
Timothy paused for two full seconds before responding to X’s words. “I don’t know how else to explain this. Whatever records existed must have been destroyed during the Blackout.”
X didn’t look convinced, and Magnolia certainly wasn’t.
“You heard some of those transmissions from Red Sphere,” Magnolia said. “Explain to me why AIs would wear human and animal bones. That doesn’t sound like a machine thing to do. But I suppose it takes one to know one.”
Timothy paused again.
“Spill it, Pepper, or you’re going to sleep forever,” X said.
“CEO Tyron Red built one type of machine that was top secret,” Timothy replied. “This particular hybrid model was commissioned by the military and a small supply of two hundred units were purchased in the year two thousand forty. They were named DEF-Nine and were designed to hunt and kill enemies. The model looks humanoid, but they are far different from other units built to fight alongside human soldiers in times of war.”
“Show us,” Magnolia said.
“One moment.”
“What does DEF-Nine stand for?” X asked.
“Defense Unit Nine. This was the ninth version of the machine,” Timothy replied.
X and Magnolia exchanged another glance. The metal hatch covering the broken windshield rattled as the bow slapped down hard off a wave.
She tried to relax in her seat, but the constant rocking and shaking were making her ill. The lump on her head didn’t help. The swelling had gone down, but a migraine had settled behind her right eye, and it made her entire head pulse.
While they waited, Magnolia studied X in the weak light emanating from the control panel on the dashboard. The faint glow illuminated his features, and she could see his age now more than ever: the scars lining his face like tattoos, the crow’s-feet framing the dark eyes that had seen more horrors of the real world than anyone else alive. All those horrors and all his experiences would have driven an average man mad or killed him.
But not X.
He had the heart of a warrior and, in some ways, a saint. She saw it in the way he gently patted Miles on the head and the way he always put others before himself. The bond he shared with the dog made Magnolia envious. She had never been that close to anyone over the years, whether friend or family. Everyone she loved had been lost to the apocalyptic world. And when she finally opened her heart to Rodger, he, too, had died.
“How far out are we, Pepper?” X asked. “This tin coffin can’t take much more of this pounding.”
“At our current speed, our target destination of the western edge of the Virgin Islands should take another forty-five minutes, assuming the wind remains at—”
“All right, got it, Pepper. Thanks.” X took the controls. “I’ve got it from here.”
“Wait, sir, I thought you wanted to see photos of the D—”
“We do,” Magnolia interrupted.
A beeping came from the dashboard. Magnolia looked at a monitor displaying an old-world video of a factory. An assembly line of humanoid-shaped robots rolled out on a conveyor belt inside a massive room with a high ceiling.
“These are the DEF-Nine units,” Timothy said. “As you can see, this is in the beginning stages of their design.”
Robotic arms along the track welded parts onto the frame as the machines continued down the line. Anatomically shaped plates were applied to their extremities and torsos, making them look a bit like Roman warriors from the picture books. Visors were fastened over the slits where their eyes would have been. Finally, a battery unit was inserted into the chest socket. It flickered on, emanating an orange glow that also flickered out of the mouth and visor.
“The DEF-Nine units were built for one purpose,” said Timothy, “to kill their enemies in barbaric ways so as to strike fear in future enemies. Here’s a video I found in the archives of a prewar mission.”
A video showing three of the machines in a jungle came online. Their plated bodies were covered in camouflage … and something else.
“What are they wearing?” Magnolia whispered.
The machines slunk through dense foliage surrounding a small fishing village set on a coastal beach. Smoke billowed out of chimneys into the sky as the robots fanned out. A fourth robot’s video feed captured the scene. Numbers and data scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
X leaned closer to the monitor. “Is that human flesh?”
Magnolia looked closer, confirming the answer with a nod. All the machines were wearing bloody patches of skin over their armored
bodies. Blood and mud dripped down their metallic hides.
The pack entered the village, screeching in electronic frequencies as they approached a group of men and women standing around an open fire and roasting what looked like a pig. The first robot grabbed a man reaching for a rifle and tore his arm off in a single pull.
Screams followed, both human and electronic.
None of the machines used the weapons attached to their extremities. They didn’t need them. Their powerful hands were all they needed to tear the first group of humans limb from limb.
They quickly moved into the village. A shirtless man with a shotgun emerged from one of the huts. He fired off several shots, but the bullets only dented the armor.
The closest machine picked the man up by the throat and, with its other hand, ripped away his nose and face like a hunk of cheese. Then it dropped the still twitching man and smoothed the skin over its metal face.
The video feed from the fourth machine zoomed in on the glowing orange eyes that burned through the eyeholes of the stolen face.
“Katrina sent Tin, Layla, and Giraffe to a place with these things?” X snorted. “What was she thinking?”
Magnolia remembered to exhale. The guilt continued to sink through her as she watched the machines sweep through the village, slaughtering anyone they came across, even the children and animals.
“We have to turn around and head back for Cuba,” she said. “We can’t leave them to die there.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” X said. He looked up at the overhead. “Pepper, how far away from Red Sphere are we, and how long will it take to get there?”
“Approximately seven hundred forty miles away. At this speed, it would take us about thirty-four hours to reach Red Sphere, assuming the damaged mainmast doesn’t break. If that occurs, then—”
“We get it,” X said. “They won’t last another hour out there if they don’t escape. But there’s nothing we can do. Their fate rests in Katrina’s hands. Only she can save them, but doing so would likely put Deliverance at risk if she tries to lower through that storm they reported on the dive in.”
Hell Divers IV: Wolves Page 22
