Militia soldiers, some of them smoking cigarettes, patrolled the rooftop.
“Assassinate Colonel Vargas?” Sloan gasped. “Are you out of your tiny frigging mind … uh, sir?” Her lazy eye wandered toward Rhino. “This is your idea, isn’t it?”
He started to reply, but Sloan was rolling. “If you want to get yourself killed, be my guest. But my duty is to serve King Xavier and to prevent the bloodshed of innocent sky people. Not to mention protect humanity. One wrong move could spark a—”
“Lieutenant,” X interrupted.
Sloan looked at him but kept talking. “I will have no part of this, and the militia will have no part of this. If Cazadores want to kill each other, who am I to get in their way? But if X is caught killing Vargas at this point, it could start an all-out war.”
“Lieutenant,” X growled.
She finally clamped her mouth shut.
“The militia is sitting this out,” X said. “And I’m moving forward with the assassination to prevent a war. If something happens to General Santiago out there, Colonel Vargas and his allies are coming after Rhino and me.”
“By killing him, we end the threat first,” Rhino said.
Miles wagged his tail, as if he were all for it.
Sloan shook her head. “This still sounds crazy to me.”
X gave her a sly grin. “Crazy kept me alive in the wastes, and it’s going to keep our people alive. You just have to trust me.”
She took a moment to answer. “Well, shit, maybe I should help, because I sure as hell don’t think you and three other soldiers are going to take down Colonel Vargas and his Praetorian Guard, even if you catch him with his pants down, so to speak.”
“No, you are right about not involving the militia,” X said firmly. “This needs to seem like it was all Cazadores, settling their differences.”
“You should have killed him when you had the chance.” Sloan growled the words, sounding enough like an animal to draw Miles’s attention.
“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, as they used to say,” X said. “But I don’t regret my decision. I did it to keep the peace. Now things have changed.”
Sloan sighed.
“You just worry about security,” X said. “Make sure the oil tanker, the Hive, and this rig are protected at all costs. If something goes wrong or if Horn shows up or if the defectors come…”
The threats facing them might have daunted someone else, but Rhino had lived his entire life with death knocking at the hatch. He was less fearful now than when he had served under el Pulpo.
“You keep our security tight, no mistakes,” X said. “That’s your job, Lieutenant.”
“Don’t worry, sir. Nothing’s getting through.”
“No tuna out of the net, Lieutenant,” Rhino added. He normally didn’t joke, but the woman needed to take the edge off.
To his surprise, she one-upped him.
“I believe the term is, ‘security’s as tight as a turd cutter,’” she said.
With a nod and a snort, she walked off to the command center with her orders.
“I really think you’re starting to grow on her,” X said.
Rhino laughed again, deeper this time. He admired the sparkling band of the Milky Way and thought of his love. Discovery was somewhere out there, under the stars.
“I hope they are doing okay,” he said.
“The crew and divers are all experienced,” X said. “If there are people out there, my team will find them and bring them home. And if they encounter the defectors, Team Raptor will destroy them.”
He bent down next to Miles. The dog had gone back to sleep now that Sloan was gone.
“Come on, boy,” he said. “Time to go back to bed.”
The dog looked up and let out a whimper as X helped him to his feet. The hybrid animal was old, and Rhino feared it was nearing the end of its life.
Miles suddenly barked and growled.
Flashlight beams were flitting through the fence of tropical trees. Multiple voices called out in the night. Rhino grabbed his spear from where it leaned against the rail, and X unslung his new weapon.
Militia soldiers came running out onto the platform, machine guns cradled. Sloan was right behind them, running with a radio in one hand, her helmet in the other.
“What now?” X muttered.
“Sir,” Sloan said.
“What’s up?” X called out.
“A boat’s been discovered drifting through the border,” she said.
Sergeant Wynn joined her at the platform, and the other guards, including Ton and Victor, spread out. Rhino turned to see the machine-gun turrets and the thirty-millimeter cannons on the Hive already swinging around to the east as word spread over the comms.
“Is it the skinwalkers?” Rhino asked.
“I don’t know,” Sloan said. “It’s just a skiff, but it could be a trap, sent in by Horn to distract us.”
“Skiff?” Rhino asked.
“Yes,” said Wynn. “On the side, it says ‘Leon,’ whoever that is.”
Rhino’s grip tightened on the spear shaft. “Who found the boat?”
“Rhino, what’s it mean?” X said.
“Who found it, and are there survivors?” Rhino said to Sloan.
“A fishing boat that was trawling just off the border,” Sloan replied. “Two survivors, but they’re in bad shape.”
“Fuck a bone beast!” Rhino groaned.
“Either this is a well-orchestrated trick, or those men have been out on the water for a while,” Wynn said. “I’ve already dispatched two war boats to warn Mercury—figured we may need the help. Our people saw it heading out a few minutes ago.”
“God damn it, what’s ‘Leon’ mean?” X growled.
“Lay-own,” Rhino said, keeping his voice low. “Spanish for ‘lion,’ King Xavier. Those men aren’t skinwalkers from Horn’s crew. They are Cazadores who somehow escaped when Ada drowned the rest of the Lion’s crew.”
TWENTY-THREE
Magnolia snapped awake. The rain had stopped sometime in the early morning hours, but the dead city was alive with animal sounds. Electronic wails of hunting sirens, the thunderous roaring of bone beasts, and the cackles and squawks of the creatures the alpha predators hunted. The noises from the circus of mutant creatures echoed outside the underground shelter, taking her mind off Alexander’s death for a moment.
She raised her wrist monitor and tapped the screen to bring up the location of the other divers onto her HUD, to make sure it wasn’t just a dream.
Only four beacons of Team Raptor came online.
Her pounding heart ached for Eevi and for everyone else who had loved Alexander. He was a good man and a brave diver.
A screech, followed by a long wail of agony, distracted her. Magnolia recognized the sound of a dying vulture, probably being torn apart, wings and all.
She wanted to shut off her speakers and seal her helmet to block out the noises, but she had to keep alert. They weren’t safe here. The building with a sinking foundation was only a mile north of where they docked the boat, and they were still another two miles from their target.
Another guttural roar came from outside. This one was closer than the others.
She looked toward the sealed-off windows on the left side of the room. Rainwater cascaded under the sheets of metal, forming a lake on the far side of the basement.
“Those are really bone beasts?” Rodger asked.
“Yes,” Alejo replied.
“Sounds like there are a lot of them,” Rodger said.
Everyone in the basement knew that the beasts were more powerful and harder to kill than Sirens. Not even the hardened Cazador warriors, who lived for the hunt, were out there trying to bring one home as a trophy.