Vargas gagged, struggling to take in air.
“We need him,” Carmela said. “We’ve already lost too many of the Black Order.”
Vargas’s eyes rolled upward. Rhino wanted to break his windpipe and drop him like a sack of crabs on the deck. But he was just trying to scare the man into submission.
Mercy might make you look weak now.
“Let him go,” Carmela said.
Vargas’s hands fell away from Rhino’s forearm, and his feet gave one last feeble kick.
“Lump of whale shit,” Rhino said.
He let go of Vargas as if dropping a bag of refuse. Now was not the time to kill him. He stepped away as the man lay gasping on the deck.
“Test me again, and I’ll have those goggle eyes staring out your ass,” Rhino said.
He returned to the maps as if nothing had happened. Carmela and Forge joined him while Vargas gulped air on the deck. Rhino kept him in his field of vision, just in case Vargas got stupid again.
“General Santiago managed to fill one tanker with the help of the Hell Divers,” Rhino said. “I hope it’s enough to get to the target and back, but in the meantime, we should send out an expedition to check on the Iron Reef, in Belize. We can’t afford to lose both, and our reserves are dwindling back here.”
“Agreed,” Forge said.
“This must get the okay from X first, but I will recommend sending Mercury to escort a tanker to the Iron Reef,” Rhino said.
“I’ll help,” Carmela said.
Rhino shook his head. “I want you in charge of getting Renegade and Shadow back into the fleet. Whatever destroyed the outpost could be coming this way.”
Carmela nodded. “I’ll see that Elysium is ready, too.”
“Let us hope that General Santiago returns victorious soon, so we can focus on rebuilding our army and armada,” Forge said. “The Octopus Lords will forsake us if we do not.”
Vargas pushed against the deck, coughing and laughing at the same time.
“You all forget what happened with the last ship that sailed to Rio de Janeiro,” he said. Staggering to his feet, he massaged his neck. The sharpened black teeth grinned.
“No Cazador warrior has ever returned from that place,” he said. “And when General Santiago doesn’t come back, the blame will fall on you, Perrito.”
SIXTEEN
X tossed and turned in his bed for hours. Unable to sleep, he had decided to call another dive with the rookies, waking them all before dawn. There was something about diving that always seemed to clear his mind. At first light, he took Miles to the marina and boarded a boat with his trusted guards, Ton and Victor. In the gray predawn, they sped toward a location between the decommissioned Hive rig and the capitol tower.
Two container ships had already anchored in the water, with large white drop zones marked on their wide decks where containers had once been. The rookie divers and support teams had arrived and were finishing their gear checks.
X joined them on the deck, the orange glow of the sunrise illuminating their helmetless features. Most of them looked exhausted, but all appeared annoyed, and not because of being woken early.
Lena, Hector, Alberto, and the other greenhorns weren’t wild about diving with Ted again. X didn’t blame them, but he had decided to give the young man a second chance to prove himself.
X walked over to Ted.
“Don’t make me regret this,” X said.
“I won’t, sir, you have my word,” Ted replied.
Satisfied, X scanned the other rookies. With all the veteran divers aboard Discovery, it was up to him to help train them, and while he had a packed day, he decided to start it with a few dives.
X finished putting on his gear, secured his helmet, and walked around with the technicians. They double-checked all systems, and once everyone had confirmed they were operational, he bumped on the comm channel.
“Hector, Alberto, Lena, and Ted will go first with me,” he said into his headset. “The rest of you, watch and keep out of the way on the deck.”
Nods all around.
“Follow my lead to fifteen thousand feet, release your booster, and deploy your chute,” X added. “I want to see everyone in a stable falling position—no suicide dives.”
X glanced at Ted, who nodded enthusiastically.
“Remember to keep your distance, both on the ascent and on the dive,” X said. “Questions?”
Seeing no hands, he punched his booster. The orange training balloon shot out, filling with helium and hauling him into the sky. The other divers spread out, deploying their balloons at a safe distance.
While the horizon lit up with the rising sun, the divers rose into the clear blue sky.
Ted looked up at X and held a hand up. “Thank you for giving me this second shot,” he said on a private channel.
“You’re welcome,” X replied. “Now, focus.” He was glad Magnolia wasn’t here to watch, because she would break his balls for allowing the guy back into the sky this soon.
But the need for Hell Divers outweighed any grief he would get for his decision.
Maybe being king did have benefits.
As the balloons pulled them higher, X took in the view of everything he was trying to protect. Rigs dotted the crystal-clear water, housing the last remnants of humanity. Securing the Vanguard Islands was the heaviest responsibility he had ever borne in his life, and not even his legendary days of diving had prepared him for the challenges he faced now.
The ships below grew smaller, and the rescue runabouts hardly appeared to be moving. He could tell only by the streaking white wakes.
He glanced at his HUD—time to release the helium. He gave the order over the comm channel. At fifteen thousand feet, he hit the booster’s purge valve, deflating it. Then, as his upward motion stopped, he pulled the ring cable releasing the booster harness. It peeled off him as he pulled his arms and legs into stable position and plummeted earthward. The training balloons’ bright orange would be easy enough for the motorboats to track and receive when they drifted down to the surface.
As he began to fall, the other divers followed suit, releasing their boosters and going into free fall. A few seemed to struggle, especially Alberto, but Ted was one of the first to get it right.
The kid seemed determined to make up for his mistake.
“Lena, Hector, watch your six,” X said.
The two divers turned and extended their legs just a bit, quickly getting fifty feet of separation, but Hector lost his stable position and did a barrel roll before finally managing to get stable again.
“Relax,” X said. “Remember, you’re light as a feather.”
The water rose up to meet them, the two ships and many rigs once again coming into focus. X could already see the white landing zones on the decks. He took a moment to savor the thrill of falling.
Then he tracked toward the left vessel, keeping his eye on Ted.
“Slow it down, hot rod,” X said.
The diver was falling a little faster than the others and catching up with X. They would be the first two on the deck of the first vessel.
“Lena, Hector, Alberto, take vessel two,” X said. “Tomen el barco dos.”
All of their parachutes blossomed open without mishap.
“Easy, everyone, you got this,” X said. The deck rose up to meet his boots, and at six feet he pulled his toggles to slow his descent and stepped out of the sky.
Releasing the left riser, he spilled the air from his canopy and watched Ted.