Another blue glow filled the compartment as Timothy’s hologram emerged behind a pile of coiled cables.
“The cameras confirm that the landing zone is free of hostiles,” he said. “We’re going to land on an old runway, but keep your eyes peeled, as they say. There’s nothing in the archives about this place, besides a map.”
Timothy nodded at Cricket, who chirped back.
“Touchdown in T-minus sixty seconds,” said the AI.
The hatch opened again, and another man in armor walked in. He ducked under the overhead and into the light.
Michael should have known that Captain Mitchells wasn’t going to sit this out.
“What do you say we get the damn thrusters back online so we can go home,” he said with a half grin.
It was the first smile Michael had seen on him in days.
“Prepare for landing,” Timothy said.
The turbofans held them just above the ground as the legs extended. There was a slight jolt as the ship touched down on the tarmac.
Michael looked outside. A dark, hellish world surrounded the airship—broken runways, a collapsed central terminal, and a dozen debris piles that had once been hangars.
This place was no different from most of the places Michael had seen. Not a square inch spared from the bombs over 250 years ago.
He opened the hatch, raised his laser rifle, and prayed that Timothy was right about this place being free of hostiles—especially the killer machines.
FIVE
Lightning sizzled through the bulge of clouds above the demolished airport. The armored shape of a Hell Diver with a robotic arm trotted over to the edge of the runway.
Magnolia stepped up to the ladder, keeping her night-vision optics off. She was second in line to climb down, standing right behind Sofia.
No one knew what Michael had said to Sofia behind the closed hatch, but he had let her join the team on this mission.
Magnolia hoped it was the right decision. With a heavy heart, she watched Sofia descending the rungs. The young woman had endured much in her short life, and after finally securing her freedom from el Pulpo, she had lost Rhino.
As much as Rodger annoyed Magnolia, seeing the loss Sofia was dealing with reminded her that she loved Rodger, even though she hadn’t let herself fall in love with him. She had thought she lost him back in Florida years ago, and now they had a second chance together.
Hell Divers rarely got second chances. Seeing Sofia lose Rhino made Magnolia realize she had to let her guard down with Rodger if she wanted to embrace love.
She also had to stop worrying about Sofia right now. There would be plenty of time to help her on the ride home and after they returned to the islands. But first, they had to make it back home.
Near the bottom of the ladder, Rodger held up a hand to help Magnolia. She took it and jumped onto the cracked asphalt. The militia soldiers came next. For all three men, this was their first time setting foot in the wastes.
“So this is what it’s like,” Banks said.
“Damn, what is that?” Sofia asked, pointing toward the airport.
Magnolia brought her rifle scope up and zoomed in on several hangars on the eastern edge of the main hub.
“ ‘Damn’ is right,” she murmured.
A massive old-world airplane sat inside one of the hangars, whose metal walls had protected it from the elements. There didn’t appear to be any windows left on the plane, and the paint was gone, but the shell was there and both wings were still attached.
“I think that’s a jumbo jet,” Rodger said. “They used to ferry people around really fast—much faster than the airships.”
“That one doesn’t look too fast,” Magnolia said. This was the first passenger plane she had ever seen on a dive. Most planes had crashed during the early days of the war, some of them falling from the sky after EMP blasts or after the computer virus that disabled their electronics.
Rodger looked all around. “I wonder if there are any fighter jets here.”
“Come on, guys, we’re not here for the sightseeing,” Les said, waving the three divers after him. “Let’s get a perimeter set up.”
The militia and the Cazadores were already doing that. Banks used hand signals to position his men. Neither of the Cazador warriors could speak English, but they understood his gestures.
They fanned out across the dirt field, their spears ready to skewer anything that moved. The militia soldiers brought up their rifles, the barrels roving back and forth as their virgin eyes took in the sights.
Michael tapped his wrist computer, and Cricket flew above the divers, its red hover nodes glowing in the dark.
They all had the robot to thank for getting them out of Rio de Janeiro alive. It wasn’t the first machine to save Magnolia’s life. Timothy had protected her several times.
But that didn’t mean she trusted robots. Plenty had tried to kill her, and as she looked out over the desolate terrain, she found herself wondering whether any defectors were out there hunting.
“Come on, Mags,” Rodger said.
Les led the group around the hull of the ship, toward the stern. Magnolia switched on her night-vision optics and glassed the area.
A mound of rubble was all that remained of the control tower, and most of the other structures were no better. Pockmarks in the runway painted the scene of what had happened during the war.
It wasn’t a nuke that had taken out this place, but rather smaller weapons that leveled the concourse and cratered the runways.
The machines hadn’t quite finished the job, though, leaving one airplane behind.
“Timothy, you seeing anything out here besides us?” Les asked over the public comm.
“Negative, Captain.”
“And no exhaust plumes?”
“Correct, sir.”
Magnolia glanced over her shoulder. The militia and the Cazador soldiers continued their patrol around the perimeter of Discovery. The section of flat runway was the perfect place to put down, with a panoramic view of the surrounding fields and buildings.
To get to the airship, a hostile would have to cover major ground and make it past waves of gunfire and the grenade launcher strapped to Cricket’s mechanical arm.
Unless the beasts came from underground…
Magnolia scanned for any unexplained mounds of earth like those she had seen back at the fuel outpost. She shuddered at the thought of seeing the monstrous two-headed snakes again.
Her scans still came back empty—nothing but decaying buildings, and mutant vegetation growing out of the cracked dirt fields. The wind was picking up, though, and a rainstorm was brewing in the east.
Alfred and his three technicians set down their crates and pulled out the folded-up scaffolding they would need to access the banks of thrusters.
At Michael’s command, Cricket picked up the folded platforms and flew them up to the circular thruster tubes protruding just below the two tail fins.
“Timothy, we’re in position at the stern,” Les said. “Engage ladders.”
Two aluminum ladders clanked down to the ground. Alfred grabbed a rung and looked at Michael, then Les.
“Good luck,” Michael said.
Footsteps sounded behind them, and Magnolia turned to see Sofia walking out on the cracked runway with her assault rifle.
“See something?” Magnolia asked.
Sofia peered through the scope, then lowered the rifle. “I thought I did, but I guess it was nothing.”
“Don’t go too far,” Michael called out.
Magnolia stayed at the edge of the runway, searching the rubble piles for signs of life. She finally spotted the first creature: a beetle the size of a shoe.
The purple chitinous head emerged from a hole in the dirt, antennae waving back and forth, before it ducked back into its lair.