Captives

EIGHT

Katrina couldn’t will her heart to slow down. It thumped like the small inflatable boat now banging over the wave tops, speeding away from the USS Zion. She kept her rifle pointed up at the sky, where the monster birds circled.

At first, she had thought they were Sirens, but they seemed to be the vultures that X, Magnolia, and Miles had encountered back at the Turks and Caicos Islands.

In the green field of her night-vision goggles, she counted only six of them now. The others had returned to the island, one of them with Trey in its talons.

Over an hour had passed since the beast snatched him off the deck, and it took that long to get this boat in the water.

A glance at her HUD confirmed he was still alive. Thank all the gods he had been wearing his armor on deck. Finding him without it would have been like looking for a specific apple in a grove of apple trees—to say nothing of what the bird’s talons would have done to him without the armor. Even with it, he could be mortally wounded.

She had to find him fast, without losing anyone else. Despite the warnings from most of her crew, this was exactly what she planned to do.

There was no way in hell she would leave him out here. Captain Jordan had done that to X—left him out there all those years. Never again would a Hell Diver be left to die alone in the wastes.

The beacon on her HUD blinked. He was still breathing, and his heart was still beating.

I’m coming, Trey. Just hold tight…

She looked around at her small team. Behind her at the steering console sat Alexander, and Vish and Jed were in the stern, their blue battery units illuminating their armor and weapons.

They all were packing heavy—each carrying an assault rifle, blaster, and pistol. Extra magazines protruded from vests on the outside of their armor, and bandoliers around their arms and thighs held extra shells. She had the same setup but had decided to clip on the captain’s sword, which was supposed to be just ceremonial.

They needed the weapons and ammunition against the Cazadores. That was why she hadn’t brought the laser gun. She could afford to expend some lead, but not the precious battery of laser bolts.

The Zodiac’s battery-powered motor was surprisingly quiet. Otherwise, she might not have heard the loud caw from above as one of the more intrepid birds decided to take a dive at the boat. She brought up the rifle scope and waited until the creature folded its wings to swoop down. Getting her target in the crosshairs, she fired a three-round burst into its breast.

An otherworldly screech followed as the thing cartwheeled down and down, splashing into the ocean left of the boat.

“Faster!” she yelled back at Alexander.

He gave it more throttle, and the boat thumped over another wave. The batteries showed 70 percent—already nearly a third down from the charge they received overnight. She prayed they would hold out long enough to get through the mission.

The silhouette of the USS Zion faded in the darkness behind them. Eevi, Sandy, Jaideep, and Edgar were on their own for now.

“Eevi, do you copy? Over,” Katrina said into the comm.

The response came a few seconds later. “Copy, Captain.”

“Make sure you keep those things off the ship,” Katrina said.

“Roger that, Captain. We’ve already got the fifty-cals tracking any hostiles in the area. Good news, too. The storm appears to be weakening. We should be able to send long-range transmissions and use the GPS shortly.”

Katrina sighed with relief at this small bit of good tidings. But there was no time to celebrate.

“Reef ahead!” Jed shouted.

Alexander curved around a cluster of sharp rocks jutting out of the water ahead and brought the boat toward the beach. The remains of the building she had spotted from the command center wasn’t far, and she could also make out the hull of the wrecked ship.

A burst of machine-gun fire came from the USS Zion as the .50-cals poured tracer rounds into the sky, taking out a vulture that had ventured too close. Having the weapons system back online was another bit of luck that Katrina welcomed.

She turned back to the stern of the Zodiac, energized and ready for the mission. They jolted over the last of the waves and rode the surf in to the beach, where they hit with a grinding slide.

Katrina hopped over the side and grabbed a handle, and the other three divers helped her pull the boat up above the high-tide mark. They dropped it near the edge of the jungle, and Katrina took a moment to get her bearings. Trey was somewhere to the north—not far, judging from the beacon on her map. Maybe not even a mile. Another stroke of luck.

“On me, and watch your step,” Katrina said.

Alexander marched right up, but Vish and Jed both hesitated.

“We’re really going in there?” Vish asked. He tilted his helmet at the fortress of treetops reaching toward the storm clouds. Thunder boomed in the distance as if warning them away.

“You’re welcome to stay and guard our ride out of here,” Alexander said.

Jed cradled his rifle and walked over to Katrina and Alexander. Vish looked over his shoulder at the water, cursed under his breath, and joined them.

Katrina wasted no time setting off into the jungle, stepping over vines that snaked across the dirt. A beetle the size of a rabbit perched on a rock ahead, its chitinous shell reminiscent of the Hive.

The raucous calls of the birds rang out in the distance, but she didn’t spot any in the canopy ahead or perched on the branches around them—perhaps due to the spikes covering the branches. The unwelcoming limbs swayed in the hot breeze.

Her HUD gave a reading of eighty-four degrees. If not for the radiation warnings, she would have taken off her helmet by now.

A bush glowed ahead, and she bumped off her NVGs for a moment to see the diamond-white sparkle with her own eyes.

“Stay away from that one,” she said. “The crystal petals contain a poison that’s lethal from a single scratch.”

“Lovely,” Vish said. “Just lovely.”

Katrina bumped the goggles back on, slung her rifle, and pulled out her sword as they approached an area blocked off by a curtain of vines. This was flora unlike any she had come across on the surface, and there seemed to be no way around it. She tried to slice through the middle, but the edge caught in the sticky material. Several more chops finally hewed a doorway through the red and purple mat.

Trees loomed in the path, their leafless branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. Another bug skittered across the dirt and vanished into the spiky underbrush. The foliage to the right glowed as she approached, and the purple flower petals began to open.

“Keep away from those, too,” Katrina said. “In fact, don’t touch anything.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Vish said.

Bearing left, she continued along the narrow trail. The chirr of insects and the croaking of some other unknown creature ceased as they pushed into another open glade. She stepped carefully between the red vines sprawling across the jungle floor.

After a half hour of hiking, the path ended at the base of a rock-studded hill. To the north, dark trees crested the top of the mountain she had seen from the command center.

Sheathing the sword, she unslung her rifle and checked the beacon on her HUD again. It didn’t appear to be coming from the other side of the hill or from the jungle surrounding the hill, but from inside the hill.

Was there a nest at the top?

“Stay here,” she told the others.

After making a quick scan of the sky, Katrina started up the hill, rifle up and ready. Her heart pounded at the thought of what she might find at the crest.

But when she got there, she saw nothing but more rocks, a pile of dung, and scattered bones. Beetle shells and fish heads were strewn on the ground. The wind whistled over her armor, and the cries of the birds on the hunt rang out in the distance.

“Trey, do you copy?” Katrina whispered. She had tried several times to raise him, but there was no response, which told her he was either unconscious or…

She turned, taking in the view. To the north, the jungle continued, and to the south, the ocean slapped against rocky coastline. The USS Zion was still out there waiting, guns silent.

Perplexed, she checked the beacon. It told her Trey was right beneath her boots.

Cradling her rifle, she went back down the hill. Loose rocks moved underfoot, and Vish moved out of the way as a fist-size cobble hit the dirt beside him.

“Find anything, Cap?” Alexander asked.

“No, but I think I have an idea.” Flashing a hand signal, she directed the team to the right. They followed the tree line around the base of the hill until they came to a small ravine on the north side.

Flicking on the tactical light of her rifle, she raked the beam over the rocks below, where she found just what she had expected. The cave entrance was recessed, and she had to bend down to get a look.

“Trey, do you copy?” Katrina asked.

She waited several seconds, listening to the static, making sure she wasn’t mistaking his raspy breathing for the crackle.

No… not him.

“Vish, Jed, stand watch. I want to check this out.” She motioned for Alexander to follow her into the cave.

After bumping off her NVGs and switching to her tactical light, Katrina ducked under a slanting rock overhang into a damp chamber, where she stopped to scan for threats.

With her finger on the trigger guard, she played the light over the surrounding rock and found nothing but a spongy red moss covering the jagged walls and underfoot. Alexander moved in behind her, and they started across a squishy floor.

The chamber narrowed to a passageway that snaked downward, opening into another chamber. Her boot crunched over something beneath the carpet of moss. Bending down, she found the shapes of bones covered by the soft growth. She swept the light again and gulped at the realization: they were standing in a boneyard.

Rising to her feet, she shined her beam down the passage, which appeared to end at a wall of whitish vines like those she had cut through in the jungle.

“You think that thing took him down here?” Alexander whispered.

It did sound crazy for a bird to live in a cave, but this was where the beacon was transmitting from.

Alexander pointed to another passage, which forked off about twenty feet ahead. Katrina motioned him to follow. Ducking under jagged limestone ceilings, they moved into another tunnel. The passage narrowed even more as they went deeper.

Her eyes flitted between the passage and her HUD.

A few minutes later, they entered another chamber, where she stopped to listen to a dripping sound. Then she continued into a tunnel.

Alexander stopped and held up a fist. “What the hell…”

Katrina almost fired a burst into the huge bird splayed out across the white wall at the end of the passage. Its wings were spread, head to one side. The torso and legs were gone—nothing but strings of meat and sinew leaking blood onto the mossy floor.

The source of the dripping sound…

She slowly moved the light to her left—and gasped. Bound to the same wall was a human figure.

“Trey,” Katrina whispered.

When she started forward, Alexander held her back.

“Something’s not right,” he said. “If that bird is what captured him, then what captured it?”

Katrina paused to study the carcass. Something had torn the creature in half. Something big.

As if in answer, the crack of gunfire broke the silence.

Alexander looked back the way they had come.

“I think we’re about to find out what did this,” he whispered.

“Vish, Jed, do you copy?” Katrina said over the comms.

Static.

More faint gunfire.

And then a screech unlike any Katrina had heard in her days as a Hell Diver—a cross between the squealing of an injured pig, and the cries of a human baby.

“Hurry, let’s get him down,” she said.

Alexander shouldered his rifle and backed across the room, covering Katrina as she approached the wall. She swung her sword, hacking at the white strands that held Trey in place. On the third swing, the blade stuck, and she had to yank it free.

“Trey,” she said. “It’s me, Katrina.”

His eyelids fluttered, and he tried to turn his head, but his helmet was stuck fast. And then it hit her: the wall wasn’t a wall, but a spider’s web.

The gunshots continued outside the cave, but she and Alexander were too deep to send or receive intelligible transmissions, which was probably why Trey hadn’t answered earlier.

Another rage-filled shriek echoed through the tunnel as she worked to free Trey. Alexander had joined Katrina, hacking with his knife at the tough fibers, when the rocky floor trembled. A crunching noise echoed, and she felt more vibrations under her boots. The mountain above them seemed to be shaking.

They pulled Trey away just as one of the other divers emerged. He jumped through the entrance of the narrow passage and seemed to hover midair. Blue light pulsated as he floated toward them.

Alexander shouldered his rifle and pulled the trigger before Katrina could stop him. Then she saw the curved black thorn protruding from Jed’s battery unit. The disruption of the circuitry created a strobe-like effect that made it difficult to see what had impaled him, but she could see enough to know it was some sort of spider.

The beast had to be three times a man’s girth and just as tall. Bulky enough that it was struggling to get into the chamber.

She unslung her rifle and aimed its light at the creature as hairy legs swiped the air.

“Kill it!” Alexander shouted. He shouldered his rifle and fired at the misshapen eyes, spattering the ceiling with green goo. The beast roared and tried to advance into the chamber, its clawed appendages scraping the rocky floor and throwing up divots of moss.

When her rifle clicked dry, Katrina drew her sword. She waited a second for Alexander to change his magazine, then set off across the tunnel.

Jed’s body slumped off, and the creature finally managed to get through the entrance, scuttling toward her. She raised the sword, flicking off the headlamp and bumping on her NVGs for a more complete view of the monster.

Two arms with pincer claws swiped at the air as it set off to meet her in combat. This nightmare arachnid was also part scorpion, with only four legs, the two clawed arms, and a spiked tail ending in the curved spike that had skewered Jed.

“Watch out!” Alexander yelled.

She brought her sword up and parried one of the clacking pincer arms. Then she ducked as Alexander unloaded another magazine, exploding several of the eyeballs on the front and near side of the creature’s head.

The beast now had a blind spot, and she used the opportunity to hack at a leg, severing the horny exoskeleton and the fragile flesh beneath with a single swing.

It fell to the ground, pushed itself back up, and darted its spiked tail at her. She moved to the left, and the pointed tip hit the floor, catching in the springy moss. Then she swung the sword in an uppercut, taking the last foot of tail off before the beast could retract it.

A spray of green blood showered Katrina. She rolled away from the thrashing tail, got back up, and sliced off another leg, bringing the beast down onto its belly. Down to the two legs and the arms, the creature tried to snag her with the scissor claws. A single wrong move, and it would snap her in half as it had done to the bird.

The next swipe came close, but Katrina ducked, swinging overhead. The blade chipped the armored appendage, but before she could react, the other claw snatched her sword and sent it skidding across the cave floor.

The abomination pushed itself forward on the two remaining hind legs and brought both arms up, claws open. She staggered backward and fell, holding up an arm to shield herself as the creature moved in to finish her off.

“Captain!” Alexander yelled. He fired from the side into the clawed arms and the head.

More gunshots sounded from the entrance of the passage, and the creature reared and twisted toward the gunfire. Katrina didn’t waste the opportunity to scramble upright and run for the sword.

By the time she grabbed it and turned, the monster had collapsed to the ground, its remaining eyeballs staring at the Hell Divers who had brought it down.

“Guys!” shouted a voice. “Guys, I think I killed it!”

Panting, Katrina staggered over to the fallen beast. She jabbed the sword into the last forward eyeball and leaned into it, pushing the blade so deep that she had to put her boot against the carapace to pull it out.

The pincers clacked together once and fell open as the monster finally went limp.

Katrina wiped her visor clear of goo and staggered away, trying to compose herself and catch her breath. She hurried over to Alexander, who was kneeling beside Jed. The reading on her HUD told her he was already dead, but to be sure, she pulled off a glove and felt for a pulse.

She bowed her head at what she already knew. He was gone, and there was nothing they could do to help him.

“Captain,” Alexander said. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she stood to go check on Trey.

“My God, it just came out of nowhere!” Vish said. His rifle shook in his hands. He hugged the wall, inching his way around the dead horror. “Ew-w-w, that thing is really gross…”

Vish stopped, his words trailing off at the sight of Jed on the ground.

Trey stirred and put a hand on his helmet.

“You okay?” Katrina asked.

“I… I think so.”

Katrina gave him a minute to get his bearings and gestured toward Jed. “Vish, Alexander, help me pick him up.”

“You want to take him with us?” Alexander asked.

Katrina hadn’t realized it needed to be said. “We never leave a diver behind.”

“X is still alive,” Katrina said over the comms.

Michael would have pumped his right fist if he still had it—and if bad news hadn’t followed so quickly. But that was how things seemed to go these days, and he had a feeling the news was going to keep getting worse.

“Jed?” Michael asked.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Michael,” Katrina said. “I know he was your friend. He really respected you.”

Michael clenched his jaw at a fresh wave of phantom pain. “He was a good kid,” he said. “Always looked after his mom.”

The crew of Deliverance huddled around the comms station, holding a moment of silence for the lost diver. Every officer was present: Les, Layla, Michael, Dave, Bronson, and Ada. Despite the bad news, they all were eager to hear what Katrina had planned and what Timothy Pepper had transmitted from the Sea Wolf.

“I’m going to play the last transmission for you all to hear,” Katrina said.

The voice of Timothy Pepper on the Sea Wolf crackled over the channel. Michael leaned closer to listen to the replay.

“I’ve translated several conversations from my captors and can tell you that at this moment, X is definitely alive. Apparently, he just achieved a great victory in a place known as the Sky Arena.”

“The transmission was interrupted when the vulture snatched Trey off the Zion’s deck,” Katrina said. “But there’s more…”

She played the next message from Timothy Pepper of the Sea Wolf.

“If my translation is correct, the sky princess is slated to marry el Pulpo, and the sky beast has become his personal pet.”

“Sky princess?” Layla said.

“Sky beast?” Les added.

“Has to be Magnolia and Miles,” Michael said. “They are still alive.”

“Yes,” said Katrina, “and it also means we have time to keep planning, which is a good thing. Listen to this.”

Another old transmission came over the speakers.

“From my calculation, there are hundreds of Cazador soldiers, and probably closer to a thousand. They have dozens of oil rigs and hundreds of boats, and that’s just at this location. There could be more I am not aware of…”

“Let me talk to her,” Les said. He moved in front of Michael, who backed up to let him through to the comms.

“Captain, I’ve been able to recruit only thirty militia soldiers, and fifty civilians ranging from farmers to shopkeepers. How the hell are we supposed to win against those kinds of numbers?”

A pause came on the other end.

“We can’t,” Katrina finally said. “We will have to use our weapons and hope el Pulpo surrenders.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Les asked.

“Then we start destroying his home until he does.”

Her words sounded sharper than normal, and Michael exchanged a glance with her XO. Les had been in a somber mood since learning that his son had been carried off by a vulture. Although Trey was safe now, the close call had brought home just how dangerous this mission was.

“I’m going to share my idea with her, okay?” Michael said to Les.

He scratched the tuft of red hair at his temple, frowned, and then nodded.

Michael closed his eyes to fight off another jolt of phantom pain. It felt real, as if his arm were still there and burning—not just the flesh, but the bones, too, even the marrow.

“Commander,” Ada said.

“Sorry,” Michael said. He moved back to the comms. “Captain, I have an idea that might help us avoid using our own people in this fight, or any bombs or missiles.”

“I’m all ears,” Katrina replied.

“I’ve had nothing to do over the past few days but sit around and heal, so I spent some time researching Red Sphere and the AI defectors. After a detailed conversation with Timothy Pepper, I discovered they have a weakness.”

“I’m not sure I understand what that has to do with anything,” Katrina replied. “Why do I care about the defectors?”

“I’ll let Timothy explain,” Michael said.

The holographic form of the AI flickered to life in front of the communications equipment. Timothy folded his hands together in a triangle in front of his lips, almost as if praying.

“Captain, this is Timothy Pepper,” he said. “The defectors are some of the most advanced AI ever built by Industrial Tech Corporation. They were designed to be dropped into a hot zone, dispatch an enemy, and leave after inflicting mass casualties. This typically meant that civilians were destroyed in the process.”

“So I’ve heard,” Katrina said.

“During the war, the defectors hunted down human survivors at places like Red Sphere.”

“So why didn’t they leave?” Katrina said.

“Because they completed their final mission,” Michael said. “Until we showed up.”

“Go on.”

“Captain, Timothy believes we can drop an EMP bomb from Deliverance at Red Sphere to shut down the defectors. After we disable them, we’ll reprogram them to use at the Metal Islands, as part of our army.”

Layla gave Michael another incredulous side glance. She had already given her opinion: she hated the idea.

“Return to the place you almost died?” she had said. “Your quest to save X is going to get you killed. Maybe get us all killed.”

Michael cleared his throat. “Captain, I’m requesting permission to take Deliverance back to Red Sphere, deploy the EMP bomb, and bring Timothy Pepper to the surface with us to reprogram the defectors and to collect all the laser rifles we can find.”

“You’re injured, Commander,” said Katrina. “How can you expect to fight if you can’t aim a rifle?”

“X fought in far worse shape than I’m in, Captain.”

“Indeed, he did. I’ll give you that.”

There was a long pause while Katrina discussed the idea with her crew aboard the USS Zion.

“You need to rest, not fight,” Layla said. She laid a hand gently on his back and whispered, “Tin, I’m really worried about you.”

The comms crackled again.

“All right,” Katrina said. “Bring only a skeleton crew with you to Red Sphere, but be careful with that ship. I need it fully functional.”

“Understood, ma’am,” Les said.

“You have four days, Lieutenant. On the night of the fifth, we’re meeting at the Metal Islands at dark. We will offer el Pulpo the terms of surrender then. If he doesn’t accept, then God have mercy on our souls.”