Allegiance

TWENTY-FIVE

In the early dawn, Rhino trained his binoculars on Mercury. The warship’s guns weren’t pointed at the airship or the oil rig, and the soldiers on deck went casually about their tasks. If they knew the truth about what had happened to the crew of the Lion, they weren’t showing it.

That was good, but Rhino had a feeling Carmela was plotting something. She was supposed to be preparing for the mission to the backup fuel outpost in Belize, but the trip was on hold until the team of raiders returned with engine parts for the warship Renegade.

Now she seemed very interested in the two survivors from the Lion. She stood outside Mercury’s command island, watching the capitol tower.

Rhino scanned the horizon for Elysium, but the largest warship in the remaining fleet was still out of view—another good sign. It meant that Colonel Vargas and Colonel Forge were waiting before taking any drastic measures.

But Rhino knew that the two societies were spiraling toward another clash and possibly even another war, and he was running out of time to stop it. Eventually, the sky people would need to hand over the Cazador survivors from the Lion, and unless X killed them and said they had died of dehydration and exposure, there would be hell to pay if the two sailors told the truth about what had happened out there.

Rhino couldn’t take that chance.

He handed the binos back to a militia soldier and picked up his spear. Worried sick about Sofia, and worried sick about the Vanguard Islands, Rhino was about at his breaking point.

Across the rooftop, a platoon of militia soldiers patrolled in the rising sunlight. On the way to the stairwell, he passed another patrol. With so much security outside, it would be easier to get to the brig.

Rhino took the stairs down several floors to the cells. As he had suspected, no one was guarding the entrance. Part of him wished there were a guard, someone to stop him from doing what he had to do—from doing what X should already have done. Ada had to pay for her crime, and it fell to him to exact payment.

His heart pounded with adrenaline but also with fear as he waited outside, considering his decision one last time. He never felt like this before battle, not even when facing monsters. But this wasn’t a battle. This was murder.

“No,” he said aloud. “This is justice.”

Rhino opened the barred gate to the cell-lined corridor and walked inside. Ada was the only prisoner being held here. No one but her to see what he was about to do.

He leaned his spear against the wall and pulled his knife from the sheath on his belt. The long sawtooth blade had killed dozens of men, but he had never used it to execute someone in cold blood, let alone a young, defenseless woman.

He looked for the key ring near the door but didn’t see it on the hook. Then he checked the dark passage between cells and saw the key ring, hanging from one of the cell doors.

“Ah, shit!” he said, hurrying over to the unlocked door.

“I knew you’d come,” said a familiar voice from inside the cell.

X lay on the bed, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Miles lay on the floor, head between his paws.

“King Xavier,” Rhino stuttered.

X sat up. Then he stood up and let out a sigh.

“Where is Ada?” Rhino asked.

“Gone,” X said.

Rhino opened the rusting door and stood in the entry. “Gone where?”

“I gave her a rifle, gear, provisions, a map, and a boat with oars and some fuel,” X replied. He walked over to stand in front of Rhino. “I decided exile is the best punishment, but you have to understand, I couldn’t kill her in cold blood.”

Rhino stepped closer to the king.

“That’s not my way,” X said. “That’s not our way.”

They came face-to-face. This wasn’t their first time. The last time was on the boat, just before the battle for the Metal Islands, before they were bonded by bloodshed. He had wondered whether X was going to kill him then, and he wondered the same thing now.

“She escaped justice,” Rhino said.

“Justice,” X said with a snort. “There is no justice here. There will never be justice when you have the Sky Arena, and people owning other people.”

Rhino didn’t step back.

“She’ll probably die out there,” X said, “but I gave her the same chance you give your people in the Sky Arena, without risking more bloodshed.”

He shook his head wearily and looked back to the barred window. “Ada killed the soldiers who killed Katrina,” X said. “It was cowardly, and it was wrong, but it’s done.”

“You shouldn’t have let her go.”

“I could have let her rot here, but I knew you would come for her, and if you had killed her, then whatever bond we have would be broken. So I removed the opportunity, and we’ll leave it at that.”

Rhino clenched his jaw, suppressing the flash of rage that made him want to knock the king’s lights out. He had sworn loyalty to X, but the guy was driving him crazy with some of his decisions.

“Consider her dead,” X said. “Chances are, she won’t last long out there.”

Rhino’s eyes narrowed. He still believed in the old warrior’s vision for rebuilding the islands and expanding the economy to provide food and shelter for everyone. But Rhino wasn’t sure the two societies could live in peace, even with the common threat of the defectors and, now, the skinwalkers.

“You planning on using that knife still?” X asked, looking down at the blade.

“Not on you,” Rhino said. “Guess I’ll save it for Vargas.”

The moment of tension passed. Rhino wondered whether X was going to punish him. Did X even still trust him?

But the king just shrugged and said, “Better get a move on it. We’ve got some planning to do, I’ve got Hell Divers to train, and I have a ton of other shit to shovel before I head to the trading post with you and your four badass Barracudas.”

Rhino stepped to the side, letting X and Miles pass. When they were gone, he looked at the empty cell and bed. He knew he had to let the past go, but he had a feeling it was still going to haunt him, one way or another.

Magnolia ran, dripping tears and sweat. Arlo, Alexander, and Edgar—all dead. And so were most of the Cazadores.

Another soldier had vanished an hour ago. Now it was just her, Rodger, General Santiago, Lieutenant Alejo, and the injured grunt soldier, Ruiz.

Something was hunting them, taking them quietly, one at a time. A Siren, perhaps, maybe something else. Rio de Janeiro was a haven for Sirens, bone beasts, and a zoo of other mutant creatures, along with some truly bizarre plant life. One thing was clear: this was their turf, and the divers were unwelcome guests. Or welcome, perhaps, as meat on the hoof.

Coming down here in two teams had been a mistake. They should have stuck together all along. Then they might have had a chance to reach the target.

They were only two blocks from the location. Michael and Sofia weren’t far, but their beacons were moving at a crawl.

Magnolia’s group was no longer moving in combat intervals, but in single file, keeping close so the monsters couldn’t snatch anyone else away into the darkness.

The electronic wail of a Siren echoed in the distance. The beasts were active again. She still thought those were the predators picking off her team one at a time. Maybe there was an alpha unlike any they had come across in the wastes.

The defectors wouldn’t take them out individually. Neither would the bone beasts. One of those things could kill their entire group if it managed to trap them in a room. But the Sirens were stealth hunters.

Magnolia slipped around a fallen door lintel into a space overgrown with vegetation. The purple-and-red vines had run riot inside the office building, pushing over desks and breaking through walls. The team kept clear of the spiny bulbs that grew like bark on the scaly skin. She didn’t want to find out what would happen if they got too close.

Broken glass doors led to a business that had served coffee. She looked at the faded green mermaid logo on the ground. Paper cups and plastic spoons were strewn about as if a hurricane had blown through. Two tables remained standing. Everything else was upended or smashed.

Alejo waded through the debris to the missing front door, to check the street. Glowing vines pulsated on the road, rhythmically lighting up and dimming the twilit room.

“I think the divers are somewhere out there,” Magnolia whispered, pointing.

“And the target is around the next block,” Rodger said. “We should link up with Michael and Sofia first, then—”

Alejo cut him off. “We link up with your divers; then we get the hell out of here,” he said. “Pray our boat is still waiting with my men.”

“My boat,” Magnolia said.

Alejo’s helmet rotated toward her. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, sweetheart, but the mission has failed. We’re getting picked off like flies.”

“And what’s the general have to say?” Magnolia asked.

Alejo spoke to Santiago in a hushed voice. The old warrior cradled his double-barreled shotgun and said, “Sigamos. Cumplamos la misión.”

Alejo gave an exasperated snort. “He says we complete the mission.”

“Good,” Magnolia said. “We’re almost there.”

“I’ll take point,” Rodger said.

“Not a chance.” She got up and moved toward the exit before he could get out in front.

Rain drizzled onto the slick sidewalk just outside the door, and lighting flashed over the skyline. The thunderclap came a moment later, followed by the high screech of a Siren.

She hesitated in the open doorway, looking, but saw nothing. There was no sign of monsters, and no sign of Michael or Sofia.

How was that possible? According to her HUD, the other divers should be right across the street. The building there had collapsed, but the data put the two remaining divers on Team Raptor somewhere in the area.

She brought up her scope just to make sure, zooming in on the pile of debris. As she scanned, brown flesh darted past the crosshairs. She tried to follow, but it was too fast.

“What?” Alejo said quietly.

“Siren, maybe, but the flesh looked darker.”

“Maybe we should find another route,” Rodger said.

“No, Michael and Sofia should be right out there,” Magnolia said. “We just have to find them.”

She waited another moment before signaling the team to follow her out on the sidewalk. The new vantage provided a view of the demolished structures on both sides of the road, but no Michael or Sofia.

Baffled, she looked at the tangle of vines stretching across the asphalt. Could they be crawling through the thick flora?

She followed the beacons on her HUD over to the closest vine, wrapped around a slab of concrete. Stepping onto the slab, she looked over the edge. The lip of a sinkhole was a few feet away.

Michael and Sofia weren’t inside the vine or in the buildings, she realized.

They were under the road.

She stood looking down at the trunk of vines that wound deep into the cavernous hole. The roots flashed, spreading a dull glow over the muddy slope and the multiple footprints going down it.

But why in the wastes had the divers gone down there?

Unless some beast took them…

She signaled the team to join her. Rodger and Alejo were already moving low across the road. Santiago stepped away from the wall, but Ruiz suddenly squirmed on the sidewalk, his arms tight at his sides.

Before anyone could help, Ruiz was yanked off the sidewalk and pulled up the side of the building.

Magnolia brought up her rifle and aimed at the rooftop, where two naked men were pulling the Cazador up by the rope they had lassoed him with.

“Ambush!” she yelled.

Something whizzed past her before she could pull the trigger, and she jumped away. Another projectile thunked into the vine in front of her. An arrow. A third hit one of the bulbs, which blew out droplets of sap.

Magnolia rolled away from the toxic spray and bolted for the safety of the building as the naked men on the roof fired more arrows. The four remaining members of the team all took cover against the wall. Rodger brought up his assault rifle, but Alejo pushed the barrel down.

“Don’t fire,” he said. “It will draw the beasts. We have to run.”

“Screw that, man,” Magnolia said. “We’re sitting ducks down here.”

Something crunched down on the pavement outside of the coffee shop. Rodger let out a yelp and backed away from a splash of blood and gore.

“Dear God,” Magnolia whispered.

The hunk of meat on the concrete was Ruiz—or, more correctly, the upper half of Ruiz. The naked humans, or whatever they were, had cut him in two at the waist.

“We have to get inside the sinkhole,” Magnolia said.

Alejo nodded and relayed the plan to Santiago.

“The laser rifle is quiet,” she said. “I’ll lay down covering fire.”

“Get down!” Alejo said.

Magnolia dropped, and Alejo threw his knife over her head. She heard a dull smack and turned to see a naked man crumple to the ground not twelve feet away, the knife buried in his chest.

As if on cue, a dozen more men came rappelling down the sides of the buildings and running over the debris piles across the road.

Arrows bracketed the wall around Magnolia’s team.

In a few seconds, they were surrounded.

Alejo, too, must have realized they couldn’t win this fight.

“Don’t shoot,” he growled.

She moved her rifle from target to target as they moved in with bows. She counted fourteen, all of them dark-skinned and naked.

But as they got closer, she saw that their skin looked odd, dried out. Perhaps, these were the people from the bunker, who had somehow adapted to survive in the toxic conditions here.

The leader of the group carried an axe in either hand. Both blades were caked with dried blood. He was almost as big as Rhino and had a horn sticking out of the center of his forehead.

“What are they?” Rodger stuttered.

The horned man walked over, and in a prolonged lightning flash, Magnolia saw that he wasn’t one of the people from the bunker after all. He was wearing the people from the bunker.

Dried, shriveled flesh covered his armored body from head to toe.

“Skinwalkers,” Alejo said.

“!Hijo de la gran puta!” Santiago yelled. Magnolia knew this one from gambling with the Cazador warriors—something about a son of some great whore.

The big man did not speak but simply gestured for them to lower their weapons. Alejo kept his rifle trained on him, and so did Magnolia and Rodger.

An arrow crunched through Alejo’s armored shoulder, knocking him backward. A second hit his weapon, knocking it from his hand. Rodger and Magnolia finally lowered their weapons.

Santiago laid his shotgun on the ground and drew his sword. The skinwalkers fanned out into a circle around him but did not riddle him with arrows as Magnolia had expected after the insult.

“Saludos, general,” Horn said in a voice that sounded almost robotic. “Nos encontramos de nuevo.”

Santiago replied in only a few words that Magnolia understood, but she didn’t need a translator to know that the two men were about to fight to the death.

She subtly glanced at the sinkhole, gauging whether she could make a run for it with Rodger and Alejo, but two bowmen had already flanked them and nocked their arrows.

She crouched beside Alejo to check his wounds. Blood trickled down his armor. He snapped the end off one arrow.

“The pinche cabrón must have heard your radio messages to the people in the bunker,” he groaned.

“I thought the Cazadores don’t use radios,” she whispered.

“They don’t transmit, but that doesn’t mean they don’t listen.”

Alejo stumbled, then rested his back against a wall. He was done for unless they got him patched up soon, and the only way to do that was to get into the sinkhole.

“We led him right to the bunker, didn’t we?” she said.

Alejo nodded. “And now they are going to fillet us like fish unless General Santiago pulls off a miracle.”

Metal clashed against metal as Santiago’s sword met Horn’s axes. The leader of the skinwalkers jumped backward, avoiding the next sword stroke. He swung one of his blades at Santiago, following it with the other axe.

The second blade clipped the armor covering the general’s right arm but did not penetrate. He thrust his sword at Horn, and Horn parried the blow with an axe.

A screech sounded. The clanging weapons had alerted a male Siren. The beast swooped down to examine the noises, only to crash into the debris pile, bristling with arrows.

Magnolia used the distraction to tell Rodger to get ready to run. He nodded back, but Alejo shook his head.

“You won’t make it,” he said.

“We have to try.”

The dying Siren somehow managed to push itself up on the sidewalk. Six arrows stuck out of the wrinkled flesh. Two skinwalkers ran over with swords drawn.

The beast slashed at the air, but one of the men cut the taloned hand off, and the two went to work, stabbing until it finally stopped moving.

The general slashed at Horn, who brought up his axes together, deflecting the blade and pushing Santiago backward several feet.

Horn then swung with his right axe, very nearly slicing Santiago across the gut. Old but still agile, the general back-stepped, following with a jab to the face. But his adversary twisted, and the horn cresting his helmet deflected the thrust.

The miss knocked Santiago off-kilter, and he staggered, allowing an opening. This time, the axe got through, crunching into his ribs. The general screamed in pain as Horn yanked the blade free.

Santiago bent over, gripping the gushing wound.

The other skinwalkers looked at the sky and streets for hostiles, knowing that the scent of fresh blood would draw them.

This was Magnolia’s chance. “Rodger, now!” she said.

Scooping up her rifle, she got off two quick bolts, through the chests of both distracted soldiers on their flanks. Then she grabbed Alejo and helped him to his feet. He pulled a pistol and fired, dropping a bowman.

One of the faster skinwalkers let an arrow fly. Alejo stumbled behind Magnolia from a bolt to his side. He took down the shooter with his pistol and then looked over at Magnolia as several arrows cut the air between them.

“run!” he shouted.

Two more arrows hit him in the chest, and another went through his thigh. He went down on one knee, screaming a war cry.

Magnolia dashed after Rodger while looking over her shoulder. Lieutenant Alejo killed two more of Horn’s men before they finally brought him down. It took seven arrows to finish him off.

A last glance over her shoulder showed Santiago on his knees, gripping his bleeding side. Horn brought up both axes to finish the last of the Cazadores who had sailed with the sky people.

Arrows hissed past her and Rodger as they zigzagged toward the vines. They were almost there, but any second now, she would feel the inevitable stab. Even if the bolt didn’t kill her right away, the tear in her suit would.

She gritted her teeth and prepared to jump. Rodger tripped on a vine, falling just as an arrow streaked over him.

Magnolia reached down to help him, firing the laser rifle for cover. A skinwalker went down from a blast to the face, but the others closed in with their bows.

In a stolen moment, she saw Santiago’s slumping headless body, with twin geysers of blood jetting out of the neck.

Horn raised a bloody axe in the air, then pointed it at Magnolia and Rodger. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up. As they stumbled for cover, a flash came out of the sky.

Then a second flash.

Behind the skinwalkers, a projectile detonated, blowing pieces of two men skyward.

Using the brief window, the two divers hopped over a thick braid of vines and into the hole. Rodger skidded down the side, screaming all the way down, while Magnolia ducked behind the wall of flora and fired her laser rifle at the two men pursuing them.

Both went down with smoking holes through their torsos.

“Mags!” Rodger called out from the bottom of the hole.

The skinwalkers took off in all directions as the divers’ savior swooped down, firing a blaster and a grenade launcher.

It wasn’t Discovery coming to their aid—it was Cricket.

The little Hell Diver was doing what Team Raptor and the Cazadores couldn’t do. It was killing the killers.