Aegis Desolation: Action-Adventure Apocalyptic Mystery Thriller (Aegis League Series Book 4)

by S. S. Segran

  “We’ll take it one problem at a time.” Tegan bit the tip of her thumb. “That’s all we can do.”

  “Fifty feet!” Kody announced, just before the cockpit collapsed and the ocean rushed in.

  Aari was up to his hips in salt water within seconds. The cold cut him straight to the bone but he lunged at where he’d last seen Kody, splashing around in wild search. “Kody!”

  The other boy surfaced, gasping and coughing, already moving toward the back of the submarine. “Evac chamber!”

  As one, the group let the deluge carry them with Jag sandwiched between; Mariah had already fitted the rebreather over his head. They just barely got ahead of the flood and slipped through the watertight door, sealing it shut behind them. Inside the cramped six-by-six space, Jag was laid into the escape tube within the opposite bulkhead and the friends pressed against each other, soaked and shivering. Desperate hands clambered to hold one another. Aari’s face was pressed into Mariah’s coppery hair, his left arm wound tight around Tegan, the other slung around Kody.

  “How did we survive that?” Mariah gasped. “Everything happened so fast.”

  “Not to be the bearer of bad news,” Aari said through the beginning chatters of his teeth, “but since we’re taking on water now, that means we’re sinking.”

  Tegan slipped free. “Good news is that this chamber is watertight. There’s a monitoring system in here, too.”

  Another alarm blared, wailing as if it were in its death throes. “What now?” Mariah yelled.

  Kody went up on his toes to get a closer look at the mounted screen. “The engine’s shutting off!”

  “The manual said this chamber runs on its own power,” Tegan said. “Batteries, basically. I think we should be okay for now, but do we have enough air?”

  Aari twisted around to face the screen. “We’ve got fifteen minutes’ worth, but that doesn’t really matter. The real question is, how much carbon dioxide can we put out before this broom closet of a room becomes toxic? There’s five of us and every time we exhale, we’re pushing it one step closer to lethal.”

  Mariah curled up on the floor, patting Jag’s calf as it stuck out from the escape tube, and laughed faintly. “Just another day as the Chosen Ones, apparently. I’m gonna go crazy.”

  Aari’s mouth wrenched sideways in grudging mirth. He examined the CO2 readout. The scale spans from two hundred to forty thousand parts-per million. At every five thousand ppm, there’s a marker . . .

  He tapped the line at the first thousand. “At one thousand to two thousand ppm, we might begin to feel drowsy.” He pointed to the next marker. “From two thousand to five thousand ppm, headaches, sleepiness, loss of attention, and increased heart rate. Five thousand ppm to twenty thousand is dangerous exposure. Past that, we risk permanent brain damage, coma, and death.”

  “Cool, cool,” Kody said. “So we’re either gonna die from our breath, or we’re gonna evacuate and die in the water. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.”

  “We are not going down with the ship.” Tegan had her rebreather at the ready. “Maybe we can hand the helmet off between each other on our way up.”

  “That’ll take a while,” said Aari, “and the helmet will fill up with water every time we remove it. Might not be worth passing it around.”

  “But we can’t hole up here either. We’ll have to swim. Are you guys just gonna take a deep breath and go?”

  “We’ve already dropped to sixty-five feet, but we can make it if we go now. The longer we stay in here, the more distance we’ll have to cover. As I said earlier, though, even if we make it, it’s going to be out of the frying pan, into the fire. No one on our side knows where we are, our telepathy is suppressed, and Reyor is about to return.”

  “It’s either that or death,” Kody said.

  “Who’s to say that Reyor won’t kill us once we’re topside?” argued Aari. “Tegan, Mariah and I were turned back from our repurposing, Jag’s been broken free, and you never broke to begin with. We might all be defects in her eyes now—liabilities again.”

  Kody threw his arms up. “What do you wanna do? Die here?”

  Aari rested against the bulkhead, banging his knuckles against his temple. “No, of course not. I’m just going over every angle.”

  “Well, like I said earlier, we’re between the devil and the deep blue sea. Let’s pick our poison and go.”

  “We’ve got ten minutes of air left,” Tegan said. “I’ll go out first. You send Jag through after me. Once I’ve got him, the rest of you come out.”

  Aari grasped her elbow. “Hold on a sec. I know you hate being underwater and this is probably your nightmare come true. Even in a straightforward situation like this, it can still be super easy to panic. Let’s run through the plan real quick so it’ll stay imprinted in your mind if anything happens out there. We’re at eighty feet now. You have the helmet, so you have to swim straight up with Jag. Take a break if you need to, you both have the time. If anything happens to the rest of us, get him on the raft first before doing anything else.”

  She shot him a grateful look. “Thanks, Aari. It’s good to have a certified diver with us.”

  He smiled and released her. “Eh, of the lowest caliber.” He pointed at Kody and Mariah. “The three of us need to stick close, just in case. The water seems pretty clear, so we should be able to see maybe twenty feet in any direction. None of us have properly swum in saltwater, have we?”

  “Nooope,” came the resounding answer, and Kody sang, “Landlocked Montana kids, Montana kids!”

  “When you get into the water,” Aari said, “squint until your eyes adjust to the salination. If it starts to hurt, shut your eyes for a bit before trying again. Ideally, we’d be able to make it to the top within a minute—”

  “I don’t know if I can hold my breath that long,” Mariah said, fidgeting with the hem of her t-shirt. “At least, not while having to swim.”

  “I’ll go out first, then we’ll head up together,” Kody told her, ruffling her hair. “I may not have a diving license, but I can swim pretty good, too.”

  “Are we going to forget what happened in that river when we tried to escape Dema-Ki?” Tegan said as she pulled Jag out of the escape tube.

  “It was fast-moving water! I was completely caught out, so that doesn’t count! And yes, we are absolutely going to forget about that!”

  Aari had to snort. Leave it to the bunch of them to razz and natter at a time like this.

  Tegan crouched in front of the escape tube. It was designed to take one person at time. Kody worked on her shoulders like she was a boxer about to enter the ring. “We’ll be right behind you. And don’t forget, you’re Tegan Ryder—the woman who commandeered a five-hundred-ton mining truck and rained havoc on a Phoenix site. You can do this.”

  She gave herself two firm beats of the fist against her sternum, then fixed her helmet on and crawled into the tube. Moments later, her muffled voice reverberated toward them. “I’m about to go through the outer hatch! Start sending him out in about ten seconds!”

  They counted down, then Kody wiggled into the tube, dragging Jag behind him. “Ten seconds!” he yelled.

  Aari and Mariah looked at each other. He extended an arm outward. “After you.”

  “I hate being scared,” she muttered as she clambered through. “I’m holding onto Kody like a jellyfish all the way to the surface.”

  Aari turned back to the monitor. Four minutes left. He waited until he heard Mariah call to him, then started hauling himself through. As his hands touched the cool inner lining, a realization punched the air out of him.

  They’d left Mokun’s chest behind.

  He turned back toward the watertight door that led to the rest of the inundated submarine. Mokun hadn’t explained what was inside, but to be entrusted with a strongbox by the man who had helped set the destruction of the world in motion? What laid within it? Secrets of Phoenix’s operations? Future plans? Reyor’s weaknesses? Relics from the lost island
?

  Aari could not leave that behind. He wouldn’t.

  He shouted up the tube, hoping Mariah hadn’t yet ejected from the hatch. “I’m getting the chest! I’ll see you guys up top!”

  He took one last gulp of air and unsealed the door. Cold water rushed in but he was ready for it. His eyes closed, he pushed through the flood, keeping to the right side of the submarine where the chest had been placed. He’d visualized the layout of the vessel and followed that map as best he could. Carefully, he opened his eyes. Despite the dimness, he was surprised and gratified by the clarity of the water. It also made it easy to see that the sub was still sinking, him along with it.

  Don’t look into the abyss, don’t look into the abyss . . .

  As he came down from the high of his initial alarm, he began to notice the flaws of his plan. What if the chest got dislodged and it’s now floating down outside? I’ve got to be at eighty feet now.

  He propelled himself further in the eerie quiet of the water. As he neared the cockpit, his eyes began to sting. He pinched them shut and swam on, feeling his way along until the side of his wrist smacked against a sharp edge. He eased his eyes open and would have whooped if he hadn’t been counting on the air in his lungs to keep him alive.

  Tegan and Mariah had wedged the chest in place well; it was only partially out of its spot. He heaved against it, once, twice, before it came loose. He braced it above his head and began to swim upward.

  The others would likely be well above him by now, blocked from view by the box over his head, so when he swam past a struggling Kody and Mariah, it took a moment to register. He looked back. A cloud of bubbles exploded around his friends’ heads as they fought to claw through the water. Something had entangled their legs and torsos.

  Aari immediately rerouted himself, guiding the chest along. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what had snared them. As he got closer, his hunch was confirmed.

  Ghost net. He needed a knife, something sharp to cut them free, or they were going to die.

  Readjusting himself so he floated horizontally with the chest against his back. The first hints of a burn tingled in his chest, chased by panic. He thought about Mariah and Kody, who had already expelled more air than they should have. They were in worse shape, and they still had a long way to go to reach the surface. He knew what he had to do, but to let go of the mysterious contents of Mokun’s trove that he had explicitly told them not to lose . . .

  Aari grabbed the net with both hands and kicked up. He refused to look at the chest as it slowly sank into the darkness below. Above, neither Tegan nor Jag could be seen. The blue of the water grew brighter the higher he swam but the surface still felt too far away. A muscle in his calf twinged, forcing him to slow his pace. He’d been idle for too long in the Sanctuary and the exertions of the night had begun to catch up.

  The struggling in the net grew weaker and ceased. Terrified, he glanced down. Two faces, stricken with abject fear at the realization that they’d run out of time, looked up at him. Aari had never wanted to weep as much as he did in that moment.

  Wait, he begged, the searing in his lungs twice as excruciating. Wait a bit more. After everything, it can’t end here.

  There was truly nothing as awful as needing a reprieve so badly, only to have time laugh at you and slow itself down. It was as if the universe was conspiring to dangle success just out of reach. Always out of reach.

  Please, please . . .

  His eyes stung again and he closed them. Up he swam, struggling against the drag of the net and the two bodies below him. Up he swam, closer to the surface but still so distant. Up he swam, just him and the silent sea and the stale air he could hardly hold.

  The net grew light in his grip. His eyes flew open. Bubbles leaked from his lips, and he wished he could have cried out. Tegan had grasped the net on the other side of Mariah and Kody. She jerked her helmeted head at Aari and together they sailed up, covering the distance far quicker than he could have on his own. And just like that, time sprang back to its natural flow as they broke the surface.

  Aari made the unseemliest of sounds as he drank in the fresh air while Tegan climbed into the gaudy yellow raft a few feet away and helped haul their friends to safety. Kody hollered into the sky, chest heaving desperately for air as Mariah wrestled herself free of the net, hair clinging to her face, her hands trembling.

  “I hate this,” she lamented, hiccupping. “I hate Reyor. I hate that we keep being put in these situations.”

  Aari pulled himself into the raft, sprawling back against its rubbery stern, and in the next moment was tackled into a hug. Mariah, hanging on to him tightly, thanked him over and over. Kody remained where he was next to Jag, exhausted with the net still wrapped around him. “Yeah, hey, once I’m out of this thing, I’m smothering you as well. Of all the rotten luck, we got stuck in a stray fishing net?”

  “Unfortunately, there’s more of those things floating around than there should be.” Aari wrapped his arms around Mariah. “Are you guys okay? I really thought I’d lost you.”

  “I’m so tired,” Mariah said. “I think we did nearly—”

  “If you’re tired,” Tegan said, popping off her helmet to stare out over the water, “then prepare to be completely drained.”

  After his stint below, it took a while for Aari’s ears to adjust and pinpoint the source of the disturbance. Mariah pulled back, allowing him to see two boats approaching from the island that was now less than a mile away. The speeding vessels had the outlines of rigid-hulled inflatable craft he’d seen in countless military movies.

  A third boat roared out from behind the first two, slotting into the center. Its brazen orange-and-black detailing turned to fire under the rising sun. A figure stood at the wheel, proudly bracing himself as his golden curls flowed back in the wind.

  “Great.” Mariah glared and got to work freeing Kody from the net. “Tony.”

  “Oh, shove off!” Aari yelled, knowing full well that the man could not hear him.

  A faraway growl of thunder rumbled toward them from the open sea. Kody stood up, hands flung out to the heavens. “Sure, why not! Let’s get a storm going while we’re at it, see how miserable we can make this whole—oh, you have got to be joking.”

  There was no break in the thunder. Instead, the sound maintained its guttural pitch, growing steadily louder. Aari swung his head left, scanning the skyline. A plane approached, coming directly for the showdown.

  The friends wilted and Aari wished his powers would miraculously rematerialize so he could turn them and their boat invisible. They were so exposed, so defenseless.

  “Reyor’s back,” he said, sinking low in the raft. “I’m sure we’re in for one very happy reunion.

  The first few moments out of the helmet had brought on the most jarring sensory twist Tegan had ever experienced. From the hush of the indiscriminate sea to the thunderous approach of the boats and the plane; she almost wanted to dive back into the water. Tony’s speedboat was barely half a mile away. The aircraft, its altitude rapidly decreasing, was closing in fast.

  She picked up Kody’s mutterings as he stood behind her. “High-mounted gull wings, turboprops, nose strakes, fixed floats . . . yikes. Looks like Reyor’s got an amphibious plane.”

  Tegan had made a grab for her abilities as soon as she had been ejected from the submarine, but they remained mercilessly out of reach. She tried to reach them again, pushing herself until the muscles in her temples constricted, and fell back with a resigned huff. “So we’re getting the royal treatment?”

  “Probably the royal execution,” Mariah said, holding one of the raft’s oars like a weapon.

  The gray plane rumbled in low from the left, its belly skimming the water and kicking up sharp sprays, cutting directly between the approaching boats and the life raft. The boats were forced to cut their speed to a near halt. There were shouts, followed by rapid gunfire. The plane rounded toward the friends, looping once until it sat squarely on the water not ten ya
rds from them, bobbing on the waves as it obstructed the group’s view of Tony and his crew. A hatch at the top flew open. A head rose out, followed by a torso clad in a dark garment. The figure’s voice boomed over the surface. “Get in!”

  The raft nearly tipped over as the friends scrambled in their elation. “It’s Victor!” Kody hollered. “Sir Grumps-a-lot! How did he even find us?”

  A crew door low in the fuselage opened, and Tegan shrieked in delight as a familiar blond-haired man leaned out, one hand holding onto the inside of the plane. “Marshall!”

  Mariah threw the oar to Aari and picked up the other for herself. “We are not staying a second longer in this godforsaken place, and there is a Sentry over there that I need to hug to death.”

  “Here, let me. You almost drowned.” Tegan snagged the oar from Mariah and, with Aari, began paddling ferociously. Her arms were gelatinous from the swim but the glorious sight of safety kept her going. Even the barrage of gunfire from the other side of the aircraft couldn’t dampen her spirit.

  With a dozen strokes, they were in Marshall’s reach. He helped them into a cramped compartment until the group laid jam-packed together, soaking wet and very much depleted.

  Marshall bent over them, his taut expression relaxing into an affectionate smile. “Huh, looks like we got a good haul today.”

  “You are currently my most favorite human being to walk the planet,” Kody said.

  “Boy, have I missed you.” The Sentry frowned at Jag’s unconscious form and lightly patted the boy’s cheek. “What happened? Is he okay?”

  “We think so.” Mariah struggled to sit up. “We’ve been dealing with a lot, and he might just need some time to recover.”

  “Then how about we get you guys out of here, hm?”

  The friends laughed, the sound rising above the incessant grumble of the aircraft. “That sounds really good,” Tegan said.

  Aari bolted upright, clutching Marshall’s arm. “No! There’s a chest sinking below where our raft was!” He held out his hands to show the size. “It’s really important, and I know we don’t have time but maybe you could—”