:Thank Densil for me, will you?: Thom asks me as we crowd around him in relief. :It was great to get a ride before that big ship ran me over or blew me out of the water.:
I relay Thom’s comments to Densil.
:he can give me a long rub tomorrow,: Densil says. :now we go to sleep someplace more quiet. these fighting ships fill the seas with too much noise,: he says with great disapproval in his tone before he darts away.
:That sounds like a good idea,: I call after him. :Sleep well.:
We sling our hammocks and settle in for the night, too.
:Cam will probably be fine,: I say to Robry, who looks as worried as I feel about his big brother.
I keep picturing their freighter being boarded and Cam getting hauled away to a prison camp again, or being executed. Even though I’m worn out from the excitement of hijacking a freighter and dodging Marine Guard shells, it takes me a long time to fall asleep.
~~~
Robry and I are up before dawn. The dolphins come to find us and bring the good news that there are no boats in the area. We hurry to the surface and crank up our marine radio.
“Dolphin Girl calling Fisher Boy, Dolphin Girl calling Fisher Boy, are you there?”
A long silence greets my hail. I’m just about to try again when Cam’s voice issues clearly from our radio.
“Hi Dolphin Girl. We’re here and safe. Thanks for being such excellent decoys last night. My boss says he almost thought you were smugglers.”
Robry and I both sigh in relief. “We’re glad to know you’re okay. We’ll see you soon. Over.”
“Not sure you’ll recognize this old lady by then. She’s already getting her facelift. Over.”
We sign off and grin at each other. Cam made it through, and he sounds more like his old self, too.
Two days later we travel out to Catalina to escort the repainted freighter, newly renamed the Esperanza with forged registration certificates to match, to pick up her first load of c-plankton. We leave the island just after dark. It’s a calm, starry night with only a slim silver moon lighting the skies. With the dolphins’ help, we manage to slip undetected across the busy shipping lane around 10 PM.
The freighter pulls up to a makeshift pier Scarn’s smugglers often use. Made out of cement blocks and old trucks, the pier is located in a sheltered cove at the back of Lunada Bay. As I tread water in the gentle surf, I’m surprised to see over a hundred people waiting for us. Julita and Miguel are there, along with several members of the other salvage gangs we worked with and many of the scroungers who grew the c-plankton in the warehouses. Ree exclaims under her breath and runs out of the water. She makes a beeline to La Valiente who sits in her wheelchair near the water and smiles at us.
I follow Ree more slowly. Being around this many landlivers makes me nervous now, but when I reach out telepathically, I can’t sense anyone who means us harm. They all seem excited. Up on the dry, beige bluffs surrounding the cove, Rath’s fighters are cautious and watchful, but they, too, seem pleased that the first load of c-plankton is about to head out to sea.
“Many people care about these tiny sea algae we’ve been growing for you,” La Valiente tells me.
“You’ve been growing them for all of us,” I reply with a smile.
James walks up to me. “I don’t like that there are so many people here,” he mutters. “Crowds attract too much attention.”
Electric trucks loaded with barrels of c-plankton drive quietly down a steep road that leads to the cove. The strongest salvies and scroungers roll the barrels off the trucks and onto the pier. Cam is there, assigning people to load the barrels into nets and boxes that his crew winches aboard the freighter. He takes the very first barrel and rolls it to the end of the pier.
“It starts with one barrel of c-plankton,” he calls out to the crowd, “but barrel by barrel, we will seed the oceans and reclaim our planet!” He pries open the barrel and dumps its contents into the water with a flourish. While the crowd claps and people hug each other, he smiles and waves to Robry and me.
The night is hot, so I retreat to the water with my friends and we watch the loading as we float on top of the waves. The process goes smoothly for about an hour until the radio on James’ zode crackles.
“This is Sentry Two. We have a problem. An armored carrier full of soldiers is heading this way. Looks like they may have followed the last truck from the Torrance warehouse.”
I glance at the pier in panic. Barely a third of the c-plankton is loaded. Plus, there are over a hundred people down in this cove who have risked their lives to help us.
James straightens, his expression grim. “Guess this is a job for me.”
“James, it’s too risky,” I protest.
“If Rath’s people get into a firefight with those soldiers, we’ll have gunships down on us within minutes, they’ll slaughter these people, and the Marine Guard will take the freighter.” He drives the zode through the surf to the beach, and I kick after him. He jumps out and races for the road up the bluff.
Ripping off my dive fins, I sprint up the road after him. I don’t want the soldiers to see our ship, but I also desperately don’t want anyone to find out that James is a Controller.
We pound up the hot, winding dirt road past the line of trucks waiting to unload their barrels. When we reach the top of the sandy bluff surrounding the cove, I can see down the shadowy road that runs between abandoned houses and stores into the old city. Along that road, a black armored personnel carrier roars toward us. My mouth goes dry when I spot a dozen armed soldiers riding in the back.
“Hide over there.” James pushes me toward a wrecked car lying abandoned beside the road.
I dash over to the car and kneel behind it. I bite back a protest when James strides out into the middle of the road. He looks so alone and vulnerable standing there. Soon he’s silhouetted in the carrier’s bright lights as the big vehicle rumbles closer and closer. He raises his hands to show he’s unarmed. I hold my breath. Will they run him over? When the armored car pulls to a stop, I let go my breath, but my heart still gallops inside my chest.
With his hands still over his head, James walks slowly toward the driver’s window. He needs to be close to someone to be able to alter his or her thoughts, and I don’t know if he’s ever tried to control so many people at once.
Suddenly, Nid and another of Rath’s fighters appear beside me.
“Is that guy crazy?” Nid whispers to me as he raises a solar rifle to his shoulder.
“I think he’s trying to talk to them,” I whisper back.
“Like that will do any good,” the second fighter hisses as she raises a big, wide-barreled weapon to her shoulder and takes aim at the carrier. She’s a lean, middle-aged woman who reminds me of Vival. I tremble when I realize she’s holding some sort of energy mortar.
“Don’t fire that yet,” I whisper, glad now that I followed James. “Give him a chance.”
“If they drive forward another inch, I have orders to blow them sky high,” the woman says grimly.
James speaks to the driver and his passenger, his voice low and calm. Then he’s quiet, and I sense he’s reaching out to each of the soldiers riding in the back.
“This is too weird,” the woman mutters. “Why are they all just sitting there?”
“Maybe the driver’s thinking about what that guy told him,” I offer lamely.
Both fighters stare at me and then at my brother. I don’t like the look of comprehension dawning on Nid’s face. An endless minute later, James waves at the soldiers and says goodnight to them politely. As the carrier backs up and turns around, James walks over to us.
“You don’t need to fire that,” James tells the woman. “They’re going and they won’t be back.”
“I don’t believe it,” Rath’s fighter says as she watches the carrier drive away. “What did you say to them?”
“Mebbe instead you should ask, what did he do to them,” Nid says.
“You don’t want to kn
ow,” James says and rubs his face wearily. “You’d better get word to the folks at the Torrance facility that they need to evacuate. I think it’s been compromised.”
Nid keeps his gaze fixed on James as he speaks rapidly into the radio strapped to his arm. When he finishes, he shakes his head.
“You know, I seen somethin’ like this happen before. A Controller I knew once stopped a whole platoon of soldiers from wiping us out. He was a handy guy to have around. But then the government got hold of him, and we never saw the poor sud again.”
“The Controllers are all gone now,” James says shortly, “and that’s better for everyone.”
“You’re probably right. Leastways, we won’t be claiming anything different,” Nid says, and I let go a sigh of relief as he and the woman step back into the darkness. “I’m just glad you’re on our side, whoever you are.”
chapter thirty-four
Loading the rest of the c-plankton goes quickly. By 4 AM, the last of the barrels are stowed and the Esperanza is ready to head out to sea. Miguel and Julita join Ree and me in the surf.
“It feels good to be doing something that could finally make a difference,” Julita says as she watches Cam’s crew cast off the mooring cables.
“Some of us are going to come along on tows to see the Esperanza off,” Miguel says. Several salvies are scrambling into their wet suits and grabbing their spear guns and fins.
The crowd on the beach waves as the freighter eases away from the pier. La Valiente leaves with her scrounger friends, and the rest depart as well. James jumps into his zode to follow the freighter until it’s safely out to sea, and then he’ll bring Cam back to rendezvous with the Phantom.
My friends and I hurry down to the tows we left on the bottom of the cove. I’m tired from the long night, but we still need to escort the freighter safely across the busy shipping lane. Julita, Miguel and eight of their fellow salvies follow us on their tows. Just before the Esperanza reaches the mouth of Lucinda Bay, the dolphins come racing to find me.
:the big sub is back with several shark people,: Densil says, :and they block the way out of this bay.:
My belly tightens with dread and icy fear pumps through my veins as I relay this news to my friends and James.
:Contact Cam and tell him to stop while we figure out what Kuron wants,: I say to my brother.
:Roger that,: James says worriedly. :He’d better not hold us up for long. Daylight is coming, and we don’t want the Marine Guard looking too carefully at the new paint on the Esperanza.:
Dai swims up beside me, his face tight. :My dad’s quite capable of blowing up that freighter and all of us with it.:
I flinch when Wasp’s cold mind contacts mine. :The bossman wants to talk to whoever is in charge of this operation.:
:That would be my brother James.:
:The bossman will contact him now,: she says and tells us the frequency he’ll be using.
We surface and gather around James’ zode as Kuron hails my brother on his com screen. Peering past James’ shoulder, I can see Kuron clearly. His face looks haggard and his dark eyes smolder with fury.
“Your father and sister had no right to steal my wife’s work. I’m going to sink this freighter and nuke your growing facilities on land.”
James turns pale. “But if you nuke those facilities,” he argues, “you’ll murder thousands of innocent people in LA.”
“And the shock wave will create a tsunami that will crush your sub like a tin can,” Dai adds.
“My sub and I will survive, but the rest of you won’t. I suggest you leave this area at once.”
:Rad,: Robry asks quickly, :if we can get you aboard that sub, could you short out its firing systems?:
:Probably, but there’s a risk I’ll fry more than those systems. It’s hard to control where exactly my electricity flows.:
“I demand to talk to my son,” Kuron is saying, “one last time, in person.”
:Let me go and see if I can convince him not to do this,: Dai says to us. :At the very least, I can keep him distracted while Rad shorts out the weapons’ controls.:
“I won’t let you go over there alone,” I tell Dai aloud.
“Neither will we,” Janni says firmly, and our other team members nod as well.
:Maybe I should come, too, and try to control him,: James suggests to me on a private send.
:Kuron’s so paranoid, I doubt he’d let you get close enough to alter his thoughts.:
“Does that nutcase really have a nuke on board that thing?” Julita asks me, looking sick.
“I’m afraid so,” I reply. “Ran Kuron, the man threatening us, is Dai’s dad. We’re escorting Dai out to the sub so he can try to talk Kuron out of firing those nukes.”
“Then we’ll come along, too.”
“We appreciate the backup,” I say, “but tell all the salvies to watch out for shredders. This is the guy who created those monsters.”
While the dolphins tow us swiftly out to the sub, I do my best to explain to Mariah, Densil and Sokya this new threat, but it’s hard for the dolphins to comprehend the destructive power of a bomb that can incinerate an entire city. It’s hard enough for me to comprehend it.
As we approach the sub, the six shredders still under Kuron’s control swim in a tight circle above the Ophion’s port bow. The shredders eye us coldly. Wasp, Sham and Whitey stop us twenty feet from the bow of the sub, their spear guns pointed our way. Sham grins nastily, Whitey glares at us, and Wasp smiles unpleasantly. She has purple shadows under her eyes and keeps glancing at the shredder patrol. She lights up, though, when she sees Ocho.
:Ochy,: she cries, :I’m so happy to see you.: She slings her spear gun and throws her gloved hands around his neck. Ocho flushes pink as he hugs her back.
Wasp sends Dai and me an arch look. :Don’t you think it was nice that Ochy’s kept in contact with me and let me know exactly what you were doing?:
So Ocho was the one who was telling them about our plans. I clench my spear gun as we all stare at him. His skin turns scarlet. A part of me can’t believe that kind, good-natured Ocho betrayed us, but he’s always loved Wasp.
:He’s planning to nuke LA,: Ocho says urgently to her. :You’ve all got to get out of here.:
Wasp’s eyes widen, and then she shrugs. :That’s crazy,: she replies. :Besides, even if the bossman does set off one little nuclear missile, we’ll be nice and safe down here under the water.:
:You don’t know much about nuclear explosions, do you?: Robry contradicts her coldly. :The shock wave from the explosion will create a series of massive tsunamis that will crush all of us, and the nuclear radiation will fry anyone nearby on land or in the water who survives the force of those waves.:
Whitey and Sham exchange glances. :That’s it,: Whitey growls. :I’m outta here.:
:I’ll go grab the fastest tows we’ve got,: Sham says and sprints for the sub.
:Bro, head north or south once you’re out of this bay,: Dai says to Whitey. :If he sets off a nuke, the biggest waves will travel straight out from here.:
Whitey holds Dai’s gaze. :Thanks, bro,: he says. :You should come with us.:
:I have to try to talk him out of it.:
:Good luck with that,: Whitey says and swims after Sham.
:We’ll wait for you here,: Janni says to Dai and Rad.
:We want to go aboard the sub with Dai,: Robry tells Janni. Ocho and Penn are ranged behind him. :We might be able to help Rad figure out the firing controls faster, and we can help him fight off the crew.:
Janni nods. She’s probably realized that being on the sub is no more dangerous than being outside it if Kuron fires one of his nuclear missiles, and we’re running out of time.
:He only has a few crew members left,: Wasp says hurriedly. :Most of his men bailed on him a few weeks ago.:
:Be careful,: Dai says to our team, :and warn the salvies to keep an eye out for rogue shredders.: He twists around and kicks for the waterlock with Rad and the others on his heels.<
br />
:I’m coming, too,: I call after Dai. As I race for the sub, the ghost of a plan is coming together in my mind.
:We don’t have time to argue about this,: Dai says, glancing back at me. :My dad could fire a nuke any moment now. We both know he’s crazy enough to do it.:
:So, don’t waste time trying to stop me. We’re all dead anyway if he pushes that button.:
Despite my bold words, I’m shaking as we approach the big gray door to the waterlock, and Dai presses the control to open it. Before we enter, we see Sham and Whitey speeding away from the sub’s transport bay on powerful tows. Inside the lock, I draw in deep breaths, trying to fight my growing panic. Is it possible that everyone I care for is about to die? Dai reaches out and takes my hand. His grip is firm and warm, and his touch steadies me.
:I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m glad you’re here,: he says on a private send. The moment the door slides open, Dai shows the others a hatch that leads to the upper level of the sub where the main firing controls are located.
I try to ignore my terrifying memories of being a captive here as we hurry down the stark gray corridor. This time the water on this level is set at neck height. Kuron probably lowered it so that Dai can talk to him aloud and breathe, too. We enter the com room to find Kuron pacing back and forth in front of its big window. He stops dead in his tracks when he spots me.
“I want to talk to my son alone,” Kuron says angrily. His hair falls lankly about his face, and his hollowed cheeks are shadowed with stubble. His dark eyes are filled with a maniacal intensity that chills me. Ran Kuron is completely insane, yet somehow we have to find a way to make him see reason.
I glance at Dai. He’s staring at his father in mute horror. For Dai and for all of us, I’m about to take a huge risk. If my gamble doesn’t work, thousands of people could die in the next few minutes.
The Neptune Promise Page 24