A short yelp and a splash followed.
Magnolia and Sofia pulled their handguns and moved to opposite ends of the balcony. After a nod, they both maneuvered for shots and fired at the deck above them.
One of the Cazadores on Magnolia’s side backed away, but the other, caught off guard, took a bullet to the head and slumped away from her view.
“I’m clear,” Sofia said, still pointing her gun above them. “You go first.”
Magnolia wasted no time. She swung down to the next balcony and covered Sofia while she climbed down. A head popped up above, and Magnolia closed one eye. The first shot missed, but the second took off his ear, forcing him back.
They had made it to the fourth floor when reinforcements showed up on balconies to the right and left. The pistol fire turned into automatic spray as the warriors busted out the big guns.
Magnolia and Sofia backed up to the glass door. Glancing over her shoulder, Magnolia looked inside the quarters. Going back inside would be a death sentence.
There was only one way out of this.
“We have to jump,” she said.
Bullets pounded the railings around them and punched through the metal platform. Sofia gave a firm nod and drew in a breath. They tucked their weapons into their waistbands before bolting for the edge.
Sofia went over headfirst, but Magnolia hurdled the railing, narrowly clearing it. The fall lasted only a moment. The dark water rose up to meet her faster than she expected, and she slammed into the surface hard, clutching her weapons with one hand and holding her nose with the other.
The cool water was a jolt to her sweaty body. She kicked up toward the glow of the moon. Bullets lanced into the surface.
“Down!” Sofia yelled.
Magnolia ducked under the water and kept kicking. She couldn’t see anything, and the horror of not knowing what else lurked in the depths filled her with adrenaline. She swam even harder when she realized she did know what lurked in these waters.
Bullets cut through from above, and it was just a matter of time before one ripped into her, sending her to the bottom, where the giant octopus these people worshipped would find her.
No. This isn’t where your life comes to an end.
She kicked harder, pulled harder, swam faster.
For the moment, Magnolia was the woman she had been at Sofia’s age, when she first dived to the surface and survived impossible situations because she did what it took to survive. That was what she had always done.
She would never be a slave again.
Kicking back to the surface for air, she glimpsed the docks ahead. Only a few more strokes. Sofia was already pulling herself up onto the dock.
The gunmen on the balconies had retreated into the building.
Magnolia took a moment to tread water and look around. The torches flickered in the breeze, creating shadows over the docks.
“Come on!” Sofia said, reaching out to her.
Magnolia kicked over toward the younger woman, but something seemed off… As she swam, she felt for her pistol, but it was gone, lost in the fall. She pulled the sheath knife from her waist and put it between her teeth on the final kick to Sofia.
They locked hands, and Sofia pulled her out of the water. As she stood up, she saw the elevator clanking down from the decks thirty feet above.
“Run!” Magnolia said.
They sprinted down the dock toward the Sea Wolf, the clanking of the elevator urging them on. It hit the bottom and disgorged six soldiers.
Sofia fired over her shoulder on the run.
But these warriors did not return fire. Maybe they didn’t want to damage one of el Pulpo’s prized trophies. If that was the case, it gave the women an advantage.
Sofia was the first onto the Sea Wolf. She jumped over the gate leading to the starboard side and moved over to the motors. “Cut us free,” she said.
Magnolia used her knife to saw through the bow rope, then moved back to the stern, where Sofia was still working. She pulled on a cord, and the motor choked to life.
The sound prompted more shouts from the men running up the dock. They were almost to the Sea Wolf.
Magnolia went to the pilothouse but stopped at the open hatch. Most of the dashboard was gone, the monitors stripped and cables sticking out of the gaps.
A new wheel and a throttle lever had been mounted to the dash. Replaced windows gave her a view of the men running onto the piers. She put the boat in reverse and pulled away from the dock as the young Cazador soldiers all made it to the edge. One brazen teenager jumped onto the stern of the boat and landed in the razor wire.
Sofia shot him in the chest, and he slumped back into the wire. Return fire lanced across the bow—a warning, forcing Magnolia down and out of view.
Over the crack of gunfire came a whistling noise, the same type she had heard the night of the banquet. From her hunched position, she saw that the radio she had used on the journey was also gone. The Cazadores had replaced it with what looked like an analog radio.
“No, no, no!” she shouted, slamming the dashboard with her palm. She had no idea how to use the radio, and the airships hardly ever monitored the old analog frequencies.
Magnolia’s gut tightened with dread as she peered out of the glass. The Cazador soldiers aimed their rifles at the boat, and muzzle flashes flickered across the docks. Apparently, they were less concerned now about damaging el Pulpo’s property.
Sofia joined her, blowing into the shell whistle on her necklace.
“This better work,” she said.
Magnolia reached up and pushed the lever down, burying the throttle in reverse. Another bullet broke through the windshield. The hole spiderwebbed, but the panel held firm.
The gunfire suddenly stopped, and for a moment there was only silence. A scream shattered the calm. This was not the angry shouting Magnolia had heard earlier. These were cries of pain and panic.
She slowly got up as three Cazador soldiers rose into the air, wrapped up in giant, slithering arms. The men twisted and howled as the beast pulled them off the docks as easily as a child playing with stuffed animals.
The body of the mutant creature surfaced—a slimy back covered in flaps and bumps. She couldn’t see the eyes, but she already knew what they looked like after her close encounter on the open seas.
“It worked,” Sofia said, holding the necklace. She grinned as a tentacle lined with suction cups snaked over the dock and snatched a fleeing soldier who had almost made it back into the elevator. Two others managed to flee before the giant arms could wrap them up.
Magnolia stood up, turned the boat around, and pushed the throttle lever forward. By now, Sofia had the other two motors started, and the boat surged away from the capitol tower.
As they turned, a boneless pink limb slapped the front of the boat. It curled delicately around the corpse in the razor wire and plucked it away.
Magnolia shivered as the giant cephalopod slipped beneath the Sea Wolf’s wake. The thing could as easily have snatched her or Sofia instead of the dead soldier.
She turned her attention to the radio. “Do you know how to use that?”
“Yes,” Sofia said, “but I think we have bigger problems right now.”
“I need to get a message to my friends, send out an SOS, and warn them not to come here.”
“Okay, I’ll try,” Sofia said.
While Sofia worked on the radio, Magnolia looked out over the waves. She had no idea where to go now that they had escaped. She also had no idea where either X or Miles was, and she didn’t know how much gas she had in the tanks.
The only thing she knew for certain was Rodger’s location. She had left him to the Cazadores once before, and she wasn’t going to do it again.