Dactyl Hill Squad

by Daniel José Older

  “What happened?” she asked, when everyone had calmed down enough to catch their breath and settle back in around the table.

  Redd shook his head. “We got got, it seems. After you and the young ones made it clear, we opened up on ’em and made a break for it. We took out two of those plesios but were getting hammered pretty bad. David put me and a bunch of the kids in the escape boat with these two hooligans and off we went, real quiet like. The Kidnapping Club was so busy bombarding the Ocarrion they didn’t even notice.”

  “And the others?” Magdalys said. “I saw them at the Brooklyn docks, they were chained up …” The terrifying thought of how close she’d come to killing the people she loved reared back up in her mind. She shoved it away.

  “Captured,” Two Step said. “And now Riker has ’em at the Penitentiary.”

  “The one right there on top of Dactyl Hill?” Magdalys gaped. “Wha — how?”

  “We followed ’em,” Mapper said. “Once we got away we made for the docks, snuck up and watched from the shadows while they transported them on a brachy.”

  “Along the way we bumped into an ol’ friend of mine,” Redd put in. “And by friend I mean ‘guy I once robbed.’ Seems he got run out of the Raptor Claw after word got around he’d been bested by a black girl with a shotgun during the riots …”

  “The Rusty Raptor guy!” Magdalys almost spat.

  “Yeah, him. He was still butthurt about the whole thing, ranting and raving in the streets. So I robbed him again.”

  “That’s why his raptor’s outside.”

  Redd shook his head earnestly. “Poor thing was near starving and ol’ boy was spending his money on drink. I really did everyone a favor, to be honest.”

  “Especially us,” Mapper said. “Without that raptor we never would’ve been able to keep up with the transport brachy.”

  “Anyway,” Redd said, “we figure Riker’s holding ’em at the Dactyl Hill Pen because the Ocarrion’s wrecked and he has no other way to transport ’em out the city for now,” Redd said. “Probably will by the end of tomorrow though.”

  Magdalys felt her heart start to zoom. “We have to —”

  “Break ’em out?” Mapper said. “Already on it.” He pulled out a big sheet of parchment that he must’ve shoved under the table when they heard someone at the door.

  Magdalys’s eyes went wide. “The Penitentiary!”

  Mapper had rendered it in explicit detail, as only he could. Little numbers estimated the lengths of each wall (not that those numbers would be much help to anyone but Mapper, Magdalys thought). He’d even approximated the artillery reach from each of the gun turrets on the towers and signified with dotted lines how he guessed the different inner chambers would be laid out.

  “I still don’t understand how little dude did this,” Redd said.

  “He flew over it when we were dactyling from rooftop to rooftop sweeping chimneys,” Magdalys explained.

  “Yeah, but …” Redd gestured at the intricacy of Mapper’s sketch.

  Two Step shrugged. “He’s Mapper. But ay, how we gonna bust up into that place, get past the guards, through that gigantic door, find our friends, and get ’em out?”

  Everyone looked back and forth for a moment, and then the door from the back room flew open and Halsey Crunk stormed in, with Josephine in tow. Both were armed to the teeth. “The fire-eyed maid of smoky war,” Halsey declared, “all hot and bleeding will we offer them!”

  Miss Josephine rolled her eyes. “’E ’as been talking like this ever since you all came back and told ’im Mademoiselle Cymbeline had been captured. Ah! Magdalys, mon cherie, I am so glad to see you are alright!” She blew Magdalys a kiss and then set about loading the Winchester she was carrying.

  “Whoa,” Mapper said. “You guys raided the secret artillery closet?”

  A whole arsenal of weaponry was dangling or strapped to the two of them. “The arms are fair,” Halsey said, cleaning off a Winchester, “when the intent of bearing them is just.”

  “Totally didn’t answer my question,” Mapper muttered.

  “Madame Bernice let us in,” Josephine explained. “As to where she got them, she did not wish to elaborate and I did not press ’er for information.”

  “Alright,” Redd said, “we can figure this out on the way, but let’s get moving. I want the Penitentiary staked out so we can see what’s what from there.”

  They all stood. The night seemed suddenly ready to burst with all that was about to happen. Magdalys felt her pulse thrumming through her ears as she wove her braids into a bun behind her head and took a deep breath.

  “Cry ‘havoc,’” Halsey whispered, “and let slip the dactyls of war.”

  Magdalys rolled her eyes and then everyone bustled out the door.

  THEY LOADED THE weapons stash onto the raptor (who Redd informed them was named Reba) and made their way quietly through the midnight streets of Dactyl Hill, glancing around for slinking shadows or dinoriders at each turn.

  The flaming wall torches of the Penitentiary seemed to glare angrily as they approached, until finally Redd motioned for everyone to huddle out of sight at the side of an old stucco-walled factory. He peered out. “Okay, so we’re up against an armored fortress, with how many knucklehead-riding guards did you say, Mapper?”

  Mapper pulled out the floor plans he’d drawn and unrolled them. “Two at each gun turret, four at the front gate, two walking the walls, so at least eight on a normal night.”

  “And they have shotguns,” Magdalys added, remembering the way those double-barrels had glistened in the sun as the knuckleskulls strutted clunkily along the fortress rampart.

  “Fantastic,” Redd said. “I see three guys at the front right now, none on dinos. But these are Kidnapping Clubbers, not regular prison guards. They got cloaks and rifles. That means we can probably count on more of ’em being inside.”

  “For sure,” Mapper said, narrowing his eyes at the drawing as if a master attack plan would materialize if he just squinted it into existence.

  Magdalys looked over the motley crew that had gathered. “And against that, we got …”

  “A pirate,” Redd said. “A map wizard. A dinowrangler. An actor.”

  Halsey bowed extra low to the ground. “Do not discount the actor, good sir, for murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ!”

  Redd pursed his lips. “Okay, but do it quietly, please. We still relying on the element of surprise and all that.”

  “Right.” Halsey lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “Also, I’m a crack shot with a Springfield …”

  “Cool.”

  “Now that I am sober.”

  “Alright, man. And … you in, Miss Josephine?”

  “But of course, mon cherie! I am here, am I not?”

  “And a Haitian pyrotechnic specialist.”

  She grinned wickedly. “Ooh, I like this!”

  “And a kid named Two Step.”

  Two Step made finger guns. “That’s the title of my autobiography, actually.”

  “Plus a bunch of weapons,” Magdalys said.

  “And let’s not forget Reba,” Redd said.

  “Plus whatever dactyls we can rustle up,” Mapper added.

  Magdalys shook her head. It wasn’t enough. It was never enough. After all their planning and caution with the Ocarrion raid, it had still blown up in their faces. How were they supposed to take on a whole fortress with no time to plan and barely any kind of team at all? “Riker had at least a dozen men tonight, and who knows how many more? We’re outnumbered for sure.”

  Redd chuckled sadly. “Yeaaah, the pirate’s life, hey. Outgunned and outmanned, cuz. We gotta be slippery. Once we in, Halsey and Miss Josephine head to one side and I’ll hit the other. The cells line the courtyard facing inward and they got little windows on the doors. I may not be Mapper but I remember that much from my little stint in there. Gotta snatch the keys from one of these door guards and then bust out our folks when we
find ’em. The real question is, how do we get inside?”

  “Let’s march without the noise of threatening drum,” Halsey said.

  Redd nodded. “Right. A sneak attack.”

  “Then sound trumpets! Let our bloody colors wave!”

  “I really need you to keep it down, man.”

  “And either victory, or else a gra —”

  “Enough,” Miss Josephine declared, shoving Halsey out of the way. “We send in Monsieur Crunk to distract them, oui? Then myself and Monsieur Redd ‘roll up’ as you say on Rebus —”

  “Reba.”

  “— from opposite ends of the street and overwhelm them and open the gates. Meanwhile, les enfants land on one of the parapets avec les dactyls, take control of the artillery, and provide backup fire when we enter the yard.”

  “Enfants is children,” Two Step whispered to Magdalys.

  She rolled her eyes. “I know that, man!”

  “Then we bust everyone free and fight our way out as needed,” Redd said. “It’s tight, but it might work. It just might work.”

  Magdalys couldn’t see it, but her whole body screamed to do something, anything, to get her friends free. “Alright,” she said. “It’s bonkers, but we don’t have much choice. Give us ten minutes to get into position and grab some dactyls. Mapper, go with Miss Josephine and then head up. Redd, Two Step and I will roll with you and then hit the roofs.”

  “SO WHAT IS it, Magdalys?” Redd said as they slipped around a corner through the shadows.

  “What’s what?”

  “That something special you got with the dinos.”

  Magdalys felt her heart rate speed up a fraction. She wasn’t sure why — there was plenty of danger around and all of it worse than admitting what she’d never said out loud before: that she could hear the dinos’ thoughts and control them with her mind. “I guess I’m just a good wrangler,” Magdalys muttered. “I don’t know, really.”

  “This one’s open,” Two Step whispered from a doorway up ahead.

  “I’m right behind you,” Magdalys said. Two Step nodded and disappeared inside.

  “Hold up, cuz,” Redd said, his hand landing on Magdalys’s shoulder.

  She glanced around. Had he seen something? “What is it?”

  “That ain’t how power works.”

  “What?”

  “You can’t mumble bout it. What you scared of?”

  Magdalys shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “Shame, girl. I’m talking bout shame. What’s your magic? Why you scared of it?”

  “I’m … I’m not. We gotta go though.”

  “We got a sec before the attack. I’ve never seen anyone wrangle a mosasaur like you did. Most folks can’t even get near ’em without losing a limb, let alone ride it like they were born to. What’s your magic?”

  “It’s not … it’s not magic. It’s just that I can … I can hear the dinos. Like, in my head? And, when I think … they do what I tell them. Mostly.” Magdalys was staring at the cobblestones, which still glistened from the rain showers earlier.

  Redd let out a wild cackle. Magdalys looked up, frown already stretched across her face. She’d finally admitted the secret she’d never told anyone and Redd was laughing at her?

  “That’s amazing!” Redd said. “You’re like … a dinogenius!”

  Magdalys raised her eyebrows. “I mean …”

  “Like those old-time back-in-the-day dinowarriors everyone talk about. Girl, say it loud. Otherwise how you gonna get even better at it?”

  It hadn’t even occurred to Magdalys that she could get better at it. When she met Redd’s eyes they’d turned serious, the laughter suddenly gone.

  “I wasn’t born in a body most people would call a boy’s,” Redd said. “I had to, you know, learn not to let what other folks thought of me determine how I thought about myself.”

  Magdalys nodded. She couldn’t understand what that must’ve been like, but she knew how powerful names were.

  “I had to learn to say, Ay — my name is Redd and I don’t care what you think! Every bit of me a boy! I mean, didn’t stop certain people from wanting to kill me for who I was, so I still had to get good with a cutlass, but it helped me figure out what matters and what don’t.”

  “Mags, you coming?” Two Step called from the doorway.

  “Coming,” Magdalys said, still looking Redd in his big brown eyes.

  Redd grinned. “Feel me?”

  Magdalys did, she definitely did. “Hey, Two Step,” she said, a smile creeping across her face.

  “Huh?”

  “My name’s Magdalys Roca.”

  “I know, Mags, what’s going o —”

  “And I can wrangle dinos with my mind.”

  “Oh snap! I mean, I kinda figured. But cool! Can we, uh, can we go storm the prison now?”

  Magdalys and Two Step had just reached the edge of a nearby rooftop when they heard Halsey’s voice from down below on the street.

  “Give me the cups,” he called. “And let the kettle to the trumpet speak!”

  “Halt, you!” a gruff voice called out.

  “The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth.”

  “Halt, I say.”

  “Now the king dunkth to Hamlet.”

  “Oh, man, he’s wasted,” another guard groaned. “Get him out of here.”

  “Or just throw him inside and be done with it,” a third said. The others laughed. “Stay sharp, lads. The Magistrate said to be on the lookout for any funny stuff.”

  So Riker was there, Magdalys thought. Or had been.

  Redd’s laughter-tinged voice rose up in the night: “Funny like this?” Magdalys peered over, caught sight of him and Josephine riding Reba straight toward the Penitentiary gate, guns blazing. Halsey flung himself out of the way as shotgun blasts and pistol shots filled the night.

  “Get back!” one of the guards called.

  “I’m hit!”

  “Don’t let up, men!”

  Magdalys heard a terrible roar from somewhere nearby. What on earth was that? Didn’t matter: The gunshots were their cue. “Go,” she whispered. “Go!” Two Step and Magdalys ran side by side across the rooftop toward the dark cluster of shapes at the other end. “That middle one,” Magdalys said. “The tallest.”

  “Got it,” Two Step said.

  “One,” she counted as they sprinted closer and closer to the dactyl squad. “Two … and jump!” Magdalys went for the neck and Two Step hurled onto the dactyl’s torso. It squawked, bursting forward, and flapped out into the sky. Below them, more shots rang out, and Magdalys prayed Redd, Halsey, and Josephine were okay.

  Off to their left, a shadowy shape soared past and then dipped sharply down. Mapper.

  Circle the tower, Magdalys commanded, and their dactyl cut a wide arc and then spiraled toward the parapet. Below them, flickering torches lit the open Penitentiary yard. There were shapes in there, large ones. Dinos. It spun past too fast for her to figure out what, but they looked wide and squat and — BLAM!! Two Step’s carbine burst to life behind her. The shot pinged off the wall, but it was enough to get the attention of the guard manning the howitzer. BLAM!! The carbine fired again, this time dinging the artillery unit itself.

  Magdalys brought them in low for his next shot, which smashed into the wall just close enough to the gunner for him to get the picture. He threw himself on the ground and crawled away. “Nice shooting,” Magdalys said, swinging the dactyl for one more circle over the walls.

  “Trikes!” Two Step yelled, and Magdalys knew without another glance that’s what those shapes had been. The Kidnapping Club had brought in a battalion of triceratopses, a beast reserved almost exclusively for use by the War Department, at least when they were young and healthy.

  She landed on the parapet. The mighty dinos stood in military formation, each with additional armor supplementing its already fierce horned head shield and thick hide. More goons from the Kidnapping Club sat astride each trike, rif
led muskets trained on the front gate.

  The front gate that Redd, Halsey, and Miss Josephine were about to bust through. It was going to be a massacre.

  On the far wall, Mapper landed his own dactyl and gazed down in disbelief. Then he locked eyes with Magdalys. She could see he knew what they both had to do. There wasn’t time to work the howitzers; the door would swing open at any moment. “Get ready to shoot, Two Step,” Magdalys said. She nodded slightly at Mapper, then they both launched their dactyls into a nosedive at the waiting trike battalion below.

  MAGDALYS LET OUT a fierce cry as the night wind whipped through her hair. The trike riders looked up, some of their hoods falling back to reveal startled, angry faces. It wasn’t enough for them to look, though; she needed those guns trained away from the gate.

  From nearby, Mapper let out his own battle cry, and then Two Step’s carbine started blasting away right behind her. And then they were zipping just a few feet over the dusty ground, Magdalys leaning low so Two Step could get a clear shot over her head, and the trike riders were raising their rifles but it was too late, she’d already zoomed into their ranks, between the rows of those great red-and-gray beasts, shouts and gunshots erupting around her, her whole body a tight fist, bracing, bracing for the vicious shock of a bullet ripping through her.

  And then they were back up in the sky, more shots ringing out from below, the sharp whistle of a ball slinging past them into the night, the thrill of having made it mixed with the terror of knowing it wasn’t over, it was never over.

  When they’d glided out of range, she looped back around and there, down below, was the first tiny victory of the attack: The gates had swung wide open and, even better, Halsey, Josephine, and Redd were nowhere to be seen. That meant they’d probably slipped in during the confusion and were setting to work freeing the entire Penitentiary.