Trey’s boots hit the pier a moment later, between the ship and Les. The boy quickly lost control, running and then tumbling head over feet.
“Covering fire!” Katrina shouted.
Les, still in shock, finally turned to fire on the machines streaming out of the building. Erin was gone, but maybe he could still save the others.
Katrina was on one knee, fighting desperately, firing calculated bursts.
One of the divers had landed on the roof of Red Sphere and opened fire from above. The final diver was nowhere in sight.
Six robots strode out of the garage, firing bolts in all directions.
Les heard one crackle in the air just over his head. He was giving them too big a target, so he dropped to his belly. His first three shots took down a machine, and fire erupted from its innards. His weapon clicked on the next squeeze—overheated again.
He switched to his rifle and aimed a burst at the mouth of one of the remaining five machines standing just outside the entrance to the garage.
Bolts cut through the air separating Les and Katrina. They both rolled out of the way and into each other.
Les glanced up, expecting a bolt to his face.
He heard something streak over their heads, followed by a thunderous boom that seemed to come from both the Red Sphere garage and the ocean. The explosion tore the machines standing there to scrap metal, and they vanished in the fiery blast. The diver on the roof fell backward.
Les had already grabbed Katrina and pulled her to the left, where they tumbled over the side of the pier and into the water.
Kicking back to the surface, he pulled himself onto the dock, where he saw a navy ship rounding the piers.
“Got the ship working,” Layla said over the open channel. “Anyone want a ride out of this charming place?”
Pushing himself up, Les ran to help untangle Trey, who was shouting for help on the pier, his chute on fire.
Katrina rushed over to help. They released the chute and put out the flames on his legs. By the time they had him out, Edgar and Jaideep were running across the platform toward the pier.
“You okay?” Les asked Trey.
The boy sat up and managed a nod. “The suit saved me.”
Katrina looked to the left, where Erin’s headless corpse lay in her blood, which was pooling underneath her due to a broken bone that protruded through her suit.
Trey lowered his helmet in despair.
Running footfalls came from behind them.
Jaideep arrived, panting, his arm around Edgar, who was gripping his side.
“Where’s my cousin? Does anyone know what happened to Ramon?” Edgar’s words trailed off when he saw Erin’s body.
“His beacon went off in the storm. I’m sorry,” Katrina said. “There’s nothing we can do for him or Erin now.”
“He’s hurt,” Jaideep said.
Edgar unslung his arm from the diver’s shoulder. “I’m fine.”
But Les could see that Edgar wasn’t fine. Shards of metal stuck out of his chest armor, and another piece protruded from his belly, where blood was seeping out.
Katrina pointed her chin at the cruiser, which was moving into position along the pier. “Let’s go, divers.”
SEVENTEEN
The waves crashed against the Sea Wolf’s bow, sending up plumes of spray. Magnolia tightened the strap against her chest, and looked over at X.
“The sails will hold,” he reassured her.
“But what about our friends?” she asked. “Will they be okay?”
X sighed. “I… I don’t know. But there’s nothing we can do for them right now.”
“So we just have to sit here and wait to hear from Katrina?”
He gave a silent nod.
Magnolia shook her head sadly. X had spent a decade on the surface, waiting to be rescued, but she couldn’t wait a few hours to hear about her friends. That was the difference between them, and why he had survived all this time.
Her mind replayed Katrina’s transmission from an hour earlier.
“Team Raptor is under attack by unknown hostiles.”
The guilt filled her with dread.
If they died, it was on her. She had sent the information that encouraged the captain to send divers there.
And it had been a trap.
The next transmission explained what Team Raptor was facing at Red Sphere.
“AIs,” she said quietly. “I just can’t believe it’s true.”
“Pepper, you got some explaining to do,” X growled under his breath. “Seems to me like you’re hiding stuff from us, and if I find out…” He made a cracking sound with his tongue to mimic a snapping neck.
“Sir, I assure you, if I had known that Red Sphere was compromised by those machines, I would have informed you. And my counterpart on the Hive would have informed Captain DaVita, as well.”
X looked at Magnolia. Neither of them had told Pepper his counterpart was shut down. And she wasn’t about to…
“Your counterpart is offline, Pepper, and I’m about to fry your hard drive, too, unless you start talking.”
Timothy paused for two full seconds before responding to X’s words. “I don’t know how else to explain this. Whatever records existed must have been destroyed during the Blackout.”
X didn’t look convinced, and Magnolia certainly wasn’t.
“You heard some of those transmissions from Red Sphere,” Magnolia said. “Explain to me why AIs would wear human and animal bones. That doesn’t sound like a machine thing to do. But I suppose it takes one to know one.”
Timothy paused again.
“Spill it, Pepper, or you’re going to sleep forever,” X said.
“CEO Tyron Red built one type of machine that was top secret,” Timothy replied. “This particular hybrid model was commissioned by the military and a small supply of two hundred units were purchased in the year two thousand forty. They were named DEF-Nine and were designed to hunt and kill enemies. The model looks humanoid, but they are far different from other units built to fight alongside human soldiers in times of war.”
“Show us,” Magnolia said.
“One moment.”
“What does DEF-Nine stand for?” X asked.
“Defense Unit Nine. This was the ninth version of the machine,” Timothy replied.
X and Magnolia exchanged another glance. The metal hatch covering the broken windshield rattled as the bow slapped down hard off a wave.
She tried to relax in her seat, but the constant rocking and shaking were making her ill. The lump on her head didn’t help. The swelling had gone down, but a migraine had settled behind her right eye, and it made her entire head pulse.
While they waited, Magnolia studied X in the weak light emanating from the control panel on the dashboard. The faint glow illuminated his features, and she could see his age now more than ever: the scars lining his face like tattoos, the crow’s-feet framing the dark eyes that had seen more horrors of the real world than anyone else alive. All those horrors and all his experiences would have driven an average man mad or killed him.
But not X.
He had the heart of a warrior and, in some ways, a saint. She saw it in the way he gently patted Miles on the head and the way he always put others before himself. The bond he shared with the dog made Magnolia envious. She had never been that close to anyone over the years, whether friend or family. Everyone she loved had been lost to the apocalyptic world. And when she finally opened her heart to Rodger, he, too, had died.
“How far out are we, Pepper?” X asked. “This tin coffin can’t take much more of this pounding.”
“At our current speed, our target destination of the western edge of the Virgin Islands should take another forty-five minutes, assuming the wind remains at—”