“How many men did you have posted here?” Les asked.
“Probably twelve,” Alejo said. “Maybe a bit more, but I don’t have the information on me at the moment.”
Cricket continued into another room, whose floor was covered with puddled water. Les had hoped they might find a survivor somewhere, until he saw the broken hatch. Anyone inside here was dead.
The robot hovered into a common area that looked like a mess hall. Cans of food and drinking glasses were scattered across the surface. A plate seemed to be moving in place.
“Zoom in on that table,” Les said.
The camera captured an image that made his stomach churn. Hundreds of red maggot-looking larvae were eating whatever rotting food was on the plate.
Cricket pushed onward, but there were no bodies. The divers were getting visibly anxious.
“Where are the corpses?” Michael asked.
“Would you like me to fast-forward?” Timothy said.
Les held up a hand. “No, I want to see everything you found.”
“Very well, sir.”
Cricket hovered through a storage room that had been ransacked and was now overrun with more of the red insect larvae as well as some wiry bluish worms. It went on into more sleeping quarters.
Hatches sealed off the glass windows in the next room, which seemed to be some sort of command center. Several chairs faced a display of computer equipment.
On the floor, a mug had fallen and shattered. The drone turned and moved through a passage where Les saw the first signs of a struggle.
He had expected to see the holes from laser bolts but instead found long scratch marks and spattered gore along the walls.
“This is where Cricket found the crew,” Timothy said.
The robot buzzed around a corner, passing over a steel door that had been battered down. A bathroom came on-screen, with showers on the far wall, toilets, and sinks.
“I don’t see anyone,” Michael said.
Cricket shined a light on the ceiling over the showers and then on a wall around another corner. Several corpses were plastered to the tiles.
“Sirens,” Les whispered.
Alejo shook his head. “No,” he gulped.
“Sirens didn’t do this,” said the AI. “Actually, there is no evidence of their being here at all.”
The beam raked over what looked like dried skin manually stretched over human bones.
“Holy Siren shit,” Magnolia breathed, cupping her hand over her mouth. “Is that what I think it is?”
Les swallowed hard at the ghastly images.
Several human eyeballs, noses, and lips had been stitched onto a skin blanket that was then stretched over a frame of limb bones. It looked a bit like a worn and wrinkled map.
“Defectors,” Les said.
“I don’t think the machines did this, either,” Timothy said.
Cricket hovered into another room, whose hatch had also been broken off. The light hit a balcony and two more displays of skin stretched over human bones. Unlike the earlier remains, these sculptures were hardly recognizable after exposure to the elements.
The remains reminded Les of a scarecrow in a book he had read as a kid.
Then it dawned on him. These weren’t sculptures.
They were a warning.
He glanced to the two Cazador officers to see their reaction.
To his surprise, General Santiago seemed uncharacteristically agitated, as if he had seen something like this before. He turned to Alejo and said something in a hushed voice.
“All right,” Les said. “Shut the footage off, Timothy.”
The screen went dark.
Les put his hands on the table and looked at the two Cazadores in turn.
“Before you return to your ship, one of you is going to tell me what the hell did that to your comrades. No more secrets.”
Alejo translated to Santiago, who began speaking fast.
Les looked to Alejo, waiting.
Santiago spoke faster, growing more agitated.
“Well?” Rodger said. “Someone going to tell us what turned those people into human scarecrows?”
“So, I’m not the only one,” Les said.
“Scarecrows are supposed to warn birds away, right?” Magnolia said.
The general looked at Les, raised a hand, and then pointed at his chest.
“What’s he saying, damn it?” Les asked.
Alejo didn’t seem to want to explain.
“What did that?” Les said. “Spit it out!”
The lieutenant hesitated for another moment before saying, “We did.”
FIFTEEN
Magnolia shivered in her bunk. The images of framed human-skin canvases were seared in her mind. Rodger sat in the bunk across from her, his knees pulled up to his chest under a blanket.
“I really want to know what the hell Lieutenant Alejo meant when he said ‘we’ did this,” she said.
“Maybe one of the guys living on the outpost got cabin fever and decided to turn his pals into upholstery,” he replied. “I’m sure a few divers thought about doing that to me back in the day.”
“Not funny, Rodge.”
“We’ll find out soon, I hope.”
“I’m guessing they’re still talking, since we haven’t lowered to drop them off on Star Grazer or climbed above the storm yet.”
She rested her head and tried to calm her beating heart. She should be sleeping but was still riding high on adrenaline from an eventful day.
Just when she thought she was going to get some answers in the briefing room, Les had kicked out all the divers except Michael. It left her and the others wondering what secrets the Cazadores had kept from them this time.
Even with a vault full of records, there was still much they didn’t know about these people and their past.
Rodger groaned. “First the snakes, then whatever bizarre, ghoulish stuff we saw in the tower, and we’re not even halfway to our target yet. Now I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t stowed away on the Sea Wolf, but I couldn’t let you come alone.”
“You were supposed to be guarding X.”
Rodger gave her a wry smile. “Mags, did you somehow miss seeing that six-foot-five badass that’s guarding him? I’m pretty sure he’s safe with Rhino. Guy is pure muscle.”
“Yeah, yeah, but he could still use more eyes with all the enemies he has back at the islands. For the record, you don’t have to come on this mission once we get to the target.”
“Mags, you can’t get rid of me,” he said with an extended grin. “I’d ride the back of a mutant whale if you were on it.”
Magnolia forced a smile back, but she wasn’t in the mood for romance, which was what Rodger had in mind, judging by his gaze.
She pulled the blanket up over her bra.
“You shouldn’t have come, Rodge. X needed your help, and I can take care of myself.”
Rodger seemed a bit taken aback by her response, and for that she was sorry. After all, he had helped save her on the surface. Who could say what might have happened if he hadn’t ridden the cable down to help.
“Look, it’s not that I don’t want you here,” she said. “I just worry about X.”
“I understand. With flawless hindsight, I see that I should have stayed behind. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
Rodger laid his head back on the pillow. “We’d better try and get some sleep,” he said.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” said a voice.
Michael’s head poked through the open hatch.
Wearing jumpsuit and armor, he looked ready to dive.
Rodger was wearing nothing but tight-fitting shorts similar to those he had worn in the sky arena. He hopped out of bed and stretched, his face distorting from trying to suppress a yawn.
“Man, what’s going on now?” he moaned.