“General Santiago says that if we want to kill each other, we should have that option, King Xavier,” Imulah said. “And Colonel Moreto agrees. She says we aren’t asking your people to fight.”
“That is true,” Samson said.
Magnolia nudged him in the gut with her elbow, earning an angry glare from the old engineer.
“What?” he said. “If they want to kill each other, who are we to stop them?”
X folded his arms over his open white shirt. “Perhaps, before jumping into this topic, I should have brought up the report Lieutenant Winslow gave me earlier.”
The room fell silent.
“The crew of Discovery has detected a radio signal like the one Team Raptor discovered in Jamaica,” X said after the pause. “However, there is one major difference.”
This was what Ada had been talking to them about outside, Magnolia realized.
“There is also a message with the signal,” X said. “From survivors who need our help.”
Carmela folded her hands together, copper wrist guards clanking, while Imulah interpreted. She replied, and Santiago nodded.
“There is a reason we use radio jammers and have warned you not to send out messages,” Imulah said. “The metal gods have never found these islands, because we are a grain of sand in a desert, thanks to the storms forming a barrier around our home—and thanks to the great lengths we have gone to in not using old-world technology.”
Carmela spoke again, and this time both Colonel Vargas and Colonel Forge stood up in the audience, pounding their chests.
Imulah waited for the noise to subside. “Colonel Moreto said that if the metal gods are there, we should send out warriors to crush them.”
Kotchee let out a cackle, as if in agreement.
“Could you please tell that baby buzzard to shut its beak?” X said.
Imulah hesitated.
“On second thought, don’t,” X said.
Carmela glared at X, clearly sensing that he was insulting her bird. Magnolia couldn’t help but smirk.
“We crush,” Santiago said in broken English. He smacked his open palm with his fist. “Crush metal gods.”
Vargas and Forge again pounded their chests. Magnolia turned to look at them. Both were middle-aged and had clearly seen their share of fighting over the years. Forge had short brown hair the color of his skin, and even darker, unwavering eyes. He was older than Colonel Vargas, but age had been kinder to Forge, whereas Vargas’s protruding dark eyes and scarred features made him look half-mad and decades older.
“Metal gods?” X said. “I appreciate your eagerness, General, but the defectors are killing-machines, not mere cans to crush.”
Imulah started to translate but hesitated again.
“If I could cut in,” Magnolia said.
Santiago glowered at her, but she wasn’t intimidated. She had survived el Pulpo, and the old warhorse was nothing compared to that mean, ugly son of a bitch.
“The most important thing we have to do right now is keep our home safe,” Magnolia said, “and that means removing the threat of the defectors. Not fighting amongst ourselves over stupid shit like who can lop off someone’s head in the Sky Arena would be a good start.”
The old general raised a gray hedge of brow at Carmela, who gave a half nod after Imulah had relayed Magnolia’s words. If the Cazadores had gone to such lengths as creating radio jammers to keep the location of the islands secret, it was clear enough that they feared the defectors.
Also, Magnolia had read their logbooks about several encounters they’d had with the machines over the decades. Encounters that did not end well for the Cazador warriors. Perhaps having a mutual enemy was a good thing, she thought. It might bring the two societies together in a way that nothing else could.
“I volunteer to check out that signal,” she said.
X thought about it and shook his head. “Not yet, Mags. I need you here.”
“We should send a warship,” Rhino suggested. “We can spare one of the three currently patrolling the barriers. Two others are undergoing repairs, and there is still our training ship, Elysium.”
X seemed to prefer this idea to Magnolia’s.
“Why not send Discovery out again?” she asked.
“Because that leaves us vulnerable, and because we have already lost too many souls,” X said. “I will not risk more if—”
“We’re already vulnerable,” Michael interrupted. He stood in the audience. The other Hell Divers rose as one, a wall of red suits around the commander.
Magnolia saw many fresh faces in the group. She had helped train them all, and while some were ready for a real dive, most were still rookies like Ted, Lena, and Arlo.
Arlo Wand showed the most promise of all the new divers. But the well-built kid with dark eyes didn’t just have long curly blond locks hanging over his shoulder. He had a chip on it and was a little too eager to prove himself.
“If we hope to defeat the defectors and keep our home safe, we need forces in the air and on the sea,” Michael said. “If the machines are lying in wait at the location of this signal, then I say we send as much firepower as we can spare and destroy them before they can destroy us.”
“He’s right,” Magnolia added. “We can’t be on the defensive forever and hope this place stays a secret. If you and I found it, then the machines can, too.”
Her words led to a moment of silence.
Michael raised his robotic arm. “I’ll go, too.”
Layla looked shocked at his suggestion. X seemed caught off guard, too. He started pacing, his finger rubbing the gray stubble on his square jaw.
Magnolia suspected that his reluctance to send out Discovery wasn’t just because he didn’t want to send out his friends and family. It was because he wanted to go and couldn’t.
X was stuck here, whether he liked it or not. Without his leadership and reputation, Magnolia had a bad feeling the Cazadores and sky people would tear each other apart.
“You want to go back out there after what happened to Trey?” Layla asked. Her back was to Michael as she folded their freshly dried clothing.
He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be careful if I do.”
Layla pulled away and walked over to the open window in their small quarters. She brushed her face against her shoulder to wipe away a tear. Then she put a hand on her belly and looked out over the ocean.
Michael followed her and gently put his hand over hers. It was the most glorious feeling, to know that the life inside her was part of him. The little guy was getting more active by the day.
“I can’t believe you’re even considering this,” Layla said.
“I want to stay here with you and Bray, but you and Bray are why I have to go.”
The breeze was up this afternoon, creating whitecaps across water as clear as a sapphire. Michael sometimes found her here, just staring, lost in her thoughts.
Katrina’s death had hit both of them hard, but she and Layla had been especially close.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” Michael said. “Katrina wanted us to live out our lives here and raise our family. That’s why she did what she did with the USS Zion.”
Layla lowered her head. “I know,” she said. “I just miss her. She never got to experience being a mom, and I know she wanted that with Xavier at one point.”
Michael had never heard this, but it didn’t surprise him. Katrina had always loved X.
“She never got to see all this,” Layla added. “The way the world was meant to be.”
Michael gave a quiet sigh. “A lot of people gave their lives so that we could have a second chance.”