The men and women inside the launch bay of the Hive were a diverse group. Les could see many shades of skin standing in front of the tubes that, for centuries, had launched Hell Divers onto the postapocalyptic world.
But there was one thing these people all had in common: youth.
Les hated seeing so many young volunteers standing in a room that most people stepped into only a handful of times. Seeing his son among them was especially painful.
Trey will have to make his own way. Captain DaVita’s words repeated over and over in his mind as he looked over his son and the other volunteers.
Trey stood between Sandy Bloomberg, the daughter of the head farmer on the Hive, and Jed Snow, an orphan that had lost his dad to diving and his mom to cancer. They were just months shy of their eighteenth birthdays, and it showed.
Jed sported a thin beard that didn’t quite cover all of his pimples, and had his long dark hair slicked back. Sandy tried to make herself look older by liberally applying homemade makeup, but it only served to emphasize her lack of experience with the stuff. She directed light blue eyes at Les and smiled, two crooked front teeth showing.
The veterans, Commander Michael Everhart and Layla Brower, weren’t much older than Jed, Sandy, and Trey. Only Erin Jenkins was in her midtwenties.
Vish Abhaya and his twin brother, Jaideep, were also young, only nineteen years old. They were both handsome: tall and dark-skinned, but they had spent the past few years in and out of trouble. They came from a Buddhist family that still practiced traditions of the Old World. But the boys didn’t shave their heads, wear robes, or meditate multiple times a day—or at all.
Ordinary brown jumpsuits draped their skinny frames, and gold hoops hung from their ears. Like many youths, the boys had rebelled, not because they were evil at heart, but because they were bored.
Hell Diving seemed to attract kids like this until they realized what it really entailed or until they died, whichever came first. Les had seen it plenty of times before, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about their presence. Both Abhaya twins were failed students and had spent most of their teenage years working odd jobs or in maintenance. Their last name meant fearless, but he wasn’t sure they were cut out for the world of diving into the apocalypse.
“You sure about this?” Vish whispered to his brother.
Jaideep punched him on the arm. “I told you to keep your trap shut.”
“Jeez, man.” Vish gave his brother a cockeyed look and rubbed his shoulder.
“What you lookin’ at, old man?” Jaideep asked Les.
Vish laughed. “You sure you’re not too old to dive?”
“And too tall?” Jaideep added with a chuckle.
“That’s Lieutenant Mitchells to you,” Trey said. He took a step toward the twins, but Les shook his head. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now was a fight that could end in Trey heading back to the brig.
“Yeah, I’m tall, and I’m old enough to be your father, but if you’re serious about diving, you both better get serious, because diving isn’t a joke,” Les said.
Jaideep smirked, but Vish nodded, apparently getting the message.
The twins weren’t the only potentially problematic divers.
Erin Jenkins had a chip on her shoulder. Her Mohawk glistened with paste under the overhead lights. She wore a sleeveless shirt that showed off her ropy, defined arm muscles. Michael and Layla were discussing something with her in private.
“We have no choice,” Michael said loud enough for everyone to hear.
Layla put a hand on his arm—a subtle gesture to calm the commander down. Les had seen her do it a hundred times, but this time it didn’t seem to have any effect.
Michael stalked over to the porthole windows to look out at the swirling storm clouds. For the past two months, both he and Erin had developed anger problems. Erin’s was related to losing her dad, but Les wasn’t sure where Michael’s was coming from, unless it had something to do with X.
Layla walked over to join Michael, and Les moved closer to Erin.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Erin shrugged a shoulder.
Les liked the young woman, but he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of diving with her again until she got her emotions in hand. A prickly attitude could lead to poor decision making, and a single poor decision could kill someone.
For Les, with Trey standing just a few feet away, more was at stake now than ever before. Les had to protect his son at all costs, but he wasn’t sure there would be a way to prevent Trey from diving with Erin in the coming months.
The problem was simple math. They didn’t have a very big pool of people to recruit from. The passengers were getting stronger, thanks to an increase in food production, but the only volunteers so far were those now standing inside the launch bay.
Katrina had privately communicated orders to Les, Michael, and Layla. She didn’t want any of them diving unless absolutely necessary. Their focus was to be on the airships, not the surface. X and Mags were in charge of the ground, for now.
The metal doors screeched open, and everyone came to attention as Katrina finally walked into the room. She wore her braided hair over her shoulders, and her crisp white uniform pulled up over her forearms to proudly show off the Raptor and Angel tattoos.
“Good evening, Captain,” Les said.
“Evening, Lieutenant.” Katrina stopped in front of the group, who gathered in a loose rank before her. She spent a moment taking them in, and Les did the same.
Jed, Trey, and Sandy stood stiffly and respectfully, eyes forward like soldiers. Jaideep and Vish were more relaxed, and Jaideep seemed to be whistling a tune under his breath. Les realized if you added up all their ages it still wouldn’t equal the amount of dives Xavier Rodriguez had completed over the years.
“Welcome, and thank you, all of you, for volunteering,” Katrina said. “I started diving when I was about your age.”
Moving down the line, she looked at each of them in turn, stopping to give Jaideep and Vish another once-over. Then she moved on to Trey and Sandy. Finally, she walked past Erin, Layla, Michael, and Jed.
“Jed, I’m happy to see you here. Your dad would be extremely proud, and your mom would be, too,” Katrina said.
“I’m proud to be here,” Jed said. “If it weren’t for some health problems, I would have been here when I turned sixteen.”
Katrina forced a smile, and then looked at Les.
“Lieutenant, may I have a word?” She gestured toward Michael and Layla. “You, too, Commander Everhart, and diver Brower.”
The three followed the captain over to the conference room, where hundreds of Hell Divers had received briefings over the years. Les saw Sandy’s curious gaze follow them across the room before Katrina closed the door behind them.
“This is not enough,” she said.
Michael and Les exchanged a glance.
“These are the only volunteers,” Les said.
“We will need more.”
Michael stepped forward, his back stiff. “I thought we didn’t have any upcoming missions.”
Les was equally baffled. Did she have something planned that he didn’t know about? Just last night, she had told him there wouldn’t be any dives for months.
He wanted to ask what had changed in the past twenty-four hours, but his job as her right-hand man wasn’t to question her in front of others. He would do that in private—unless she told them first.