“Now you’ll have to be careful.” Lucy pulled him in closer and smiled.
Diego smiled back. “Okay, I’m sorry in advance about your toes.”
“Shush,” she said, and leaned close against him. Diego felt her cheek against his, and smelled her hair, and tried his best not to make them fall over.
They made slow circles around the floor. “I knew you’d get the hang of it,” she said. Then she spoke so close to his ear that Diego felt the warmth of her breath. “Be careful in Yorktown, okay? Think before you act, you daredevil.”
Diego smiled, but fought nervous tremors. “I will. You too, Lucy. Do you still have my mother’s chopstick?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Good. It will bring you luck.”
They didn’t speak again, just danced, until the song ended and the needle scratched.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Where All Paths Lead
Diego woke to the sound of the paddle wheel churning rhythmically and the occasional whump of the bow against a wave. For a moment, he didn’t know where he was, but then he smelled the brine of the open ocean and heard Petey’s sleeping breaths above him.
They’d boarded the John Curtis the night before after dinner. The captain had said they’d all sleep better if they were already in motion, and they had a long way to go.
Diego lay there for a moment, fear brewing in his belly. He thought about the night before, about dancing with Lucy, about her voice in his ear, her cheek against his.
Sleep would not come, so Diego slipped out of bed, dressed, and headed for the galley. He smelled bacon and coffee and thought of his last good morning at home, before all this began.
He found Paige in the galley, sitting alone at the long table. She sipped tea and stared into the boiler, the light from the flames flickering on her face.
“Hey.” Diego sat beside her and filled a mug with coffee.
Paige eyed him and his mug. “You’re too young for coffee. It’s going to make you jittery.”
“We’re too young for a lot of things, but that isn’t stopping us.” He sipped and puckered. “And it can’t make me any more jittery than I already am.”
“You and me both.” Paige wrapped both hands around her mug and held it close to her face, letting the steam filter over her.
“Of course you’re not worried. You’re tough as iron,” Diego said.
“Ha! When you live past Ninety-Ninth and Washtenaw, you learn how to put on a tough face. You have to be hard ’cause all you got is yourself and your family to watch your back.”
“Lucy is family?”
“She’s my girl.”
“You know I would never do anything to hurt her—”
“He’d say the same thing.”
“Who?”
“My big brother, Alejandro. We called him Ali for short. Truckloads of courage, unbreakable heart, never thought anything through, he just . . . did. That was my Ali’s way.” Paige started slicing up an apple and offered Diego some. “And you are just like him. Do you know the Breakers factory down where Old Chicago meets the black neighborhoods? That’s where I met Lucy.”
“Really?” Diego knew the place, but not that Lucy had ever been anywhere near there.
“See, when Steam Timers need to get downtown quick, they take the Dan Ryan waterway, and that takes you past the Breakers. One day I was skating with my crew, and guess who shows up at the fence watching us . . . pretty little Victorian doll all trussed up in some dress. She was on her way home with her mom in a broken taxi boat.
“Her mom was arguing with the boat driver, not minding Lucy, and so this fearless, delicate little bird wanders away from her momma and up onto the Breakers blacktop.”
“That place is . . .”
“Yeah, you know it. It’s no place for a Steam-Timing British white girl. Anyways, she’s watching my brother and me skate, and she calls us over. I’m thinking, ‘Is this girl for real?’ and I say, ‘What you want, shante vanilla? You shouldn’t be coming around here.’ And Princess Goldilocks says”—Paige mimicked Lucy’s accent—“‘My brother and I learned to ride the wheeled planks back in London with some East End bruisers. I got quite good, but you appear to be even better. I’d wager that with proper instruction, I’d be great, maybe better than you. Would you teach me?’ Can you believe that?”
Diego laughed, just imagining the scene.
“She was all fearless and proud like the queen of England herself come to visit, and if she was terrified to talk to us, you couldn’t tell. Even though we were probably the first black people she ever talked to.” Paige smiled, remembering it. “But dang, the courage in this girl! My brother and I laughed—we couldn’t believe it. Then Margaret Emerson comes up and says, ‘Get away from my daughter, you street savages!’ That’s when it went bad.
“This older boy, real tough thug—T-boz. Well, he comes up and starts yelling at Margaret and Lucy to leave, then shoves Margaret.”
Paige snapped her fingers.
“Without thinking, Alejandro grabs T-boz and puts him to the ground so Lucy and her mom could get away. Afterward, my brother let T-boz go.”
Paige stopped, and for a moment, Diego didn’t think she would go on. “T-boz doesn’t take to being disrespected on his turf and in front of his crew. It made him look weak. So he stood up and got in Ali’s face, and it might have gone real wrong right there if a police boat hadn’t come over when they spotted Margaret and Lucy on the Breakers property. T-boz bolted. Lucy’s momma tried to give my brother some money for helping them. Can you imagine? Ali politely said no, and those policemen picked ’em up and brought them home.
“Next day,” Paige went on, “a little kid up and steals my skateboard and runs into that ruined chocolate factory. I told Ali to let it go, but he wouldn’t. So he runs in there . . . and T-boz and a bunch of his boys were waiting for him.” Paige got up and poured herself a mug of coffee. “Alejandro would’ve been seventeen this year. Now my momma and daddy just have me.”
“Paige . . . I’m sorry.”
She sat back down, clutching her mug with both hands. “A few weeks after, I ran into Margaret and Lucy while I was skating near the dinosaur meat markets at Dusable Harbor. She called me over to thank me for what my brother did. Told me she’d read about what happened to him in the papers and said she was sorry. Margaret told me that she and Lucy went to the market every day after her homeschooling and that if I wanted to . . . maybe I could skate with Lucy while they were there. That was after school started last semester. Lucy and I have been friends ever since.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Diego said.
“You’re not supposed to say anything. . . . You’re supposed to be smarter than Ali was. That’s what you can be. Don’t hurt my girl and don’t get yourself killed tomorrow. That’s what you can do for me. Deal?”
“Deal. And hey, be careful out there too, and don’t distract Gaston.”
“Whatevs, Ribera.”
Diego leaned over and hugged Paige. She was stiff as a board, but after a moment, she hugged him back.
“I gotta get breakfast plated.”
“You want help?”
“Nope.”
Diego finished his coffee and stepped out onto the deck. The sun had crested the misty horizon and bathed his face.
“There he is.” Diego turned and saw Petey and Lucy coming his way. “We thought you might have pulled another all-nighter.”
“Nah.”
Petey and Lucy leaned on either side of him.
“This time tomorrow we’ll be in Yorktown,” Lucy said.
“Yeah,” Diego said. He wanted to add something else, but nothing came. The future hung there between them, getting closer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Battle at Yorktown
Diego stood in the crow’s nest, staring into the inky pre-dawn. In front of them was a small island, its surface splattered with bone-white droppings from pteranodons and pterosaurs. It wa
s called Jersey Devil Island, and it stood directly between the John Curtis and the distant skyline of Yorktown, keeping them out of sight.
His dad was close. Diego could feel it.
Less than four miles ahead, beneath the waves, his father was being held in an underwater power station that, if activated, would wipe him and every child of this world from existence. They had no idea how far Magnus and Balthus had gotten in their efforts to repair and restart the Quantum Reactor. They might be days away, still. Or only hours.
But Diego was near his father again, with a chance to save him.
He climbed down and joined the others in the galley. Ajax and the captain had laid out weapons for each of them.
“These are concussive hand cannons,” the captain said, running his hand over the table. “CHCs. They work using an antigravitational field, like your boards. A half pull of the trigger will stun a three-hundred-pound man. A full pull will make sure your target never rises again.
“These are air corps 9mm P26s for you two,” the captain said, handing the two pistols to Paige and Gaston. “Waterproof.
“Check your watches with mine,” the captain said, holding out his wrist. After they checked their times, he turned to Lucy. “You’re in command now, Miss Emerson. Mr. Kowalski, you are navigator and first mate. I don’t need to remind you that this ship is a part of my family.”
“We’ll take care of her, sir,” Lucy said.
“Gaston, Paige, report to the Kingfisher and await my launch order. Your mission is to take out the battleship in Yorktown Harbor.”
“Aye, sir,” Gaston said.
“Ajax, Diego, and I will be in Seahorse and make for the reactor. We will all be in contact via these radio devices that Diego has constructed.” The captain motioned to a set of handheld phones connected to small speakers. Diego had found a way to refurbish and pulse shield individual two-way radio units for each person to wear. He and Redford had found enough walkie-talkies inside some of the ships in the wreckage surrounding Volcambria. It amazed him how much of the derelict technology rusting away in those scrap piles was salvageable. He wasn’t sure how well the communication system would work over these distances and, like his Walkman, the disruptor fuses he’d placed inside them would overheat and have to reset every few minutes, but their tests yesterday had indicated that they would work.
The captain took a deep breath. “You’ve been tested in battle. You’ve been trained, your skills honed. Your minds are sharp, and our purpose is true. Do not falter, and do not fail each other.” With a quick nod, he turned and marched out.
The rest of them stood there, the air heavy and silent.
“Good luck,” Diego said to Petey, and those words flew from one to another, and they hugged and shook hands.
The captain’s voice sounded over the pipe line. “Everyone report to your battle station.”
Diego breathed deeply. “Let’s do this.”
Moments later, the Kingfisher hummed across the waves and lifted into the sky. Diego settled into his seat in Seahorse, and Ajax sealed the outer hatch and the intake valves.
As they descended into the blue depths, Diego saw the John Curtis’s engines spin to life, churning the water and startling the great shadow of a nearby archelon.
“This is the captain, over,” Lucy said on the radio system. “We’re moving into position.”
Boleslavich chuckled. “Now she’s the captain.”
“This is Kingfisher, over,” Gaston said, his voice crackling with static. “We’re in the air and proceeding to target. The sun should be at our backs when we hit Yorktown.”
“Godspeed to you both,” Boleslavich said over his radio. “And Gaston, remember, that Aeternum battleship has two ready-launch fighter planes. Destroy that ship before they launch.”
“Petey’s headed to the crow’s nest with the spyglass,” Lucy said. “Captain, out.”
“Here comes the sun,” Gaston said over the radio. “And away we go.”
Diego focused on piloting Seahorse around the rocky skirts of Jersey Devil Island. They cleared its shallow flanks, and the seafloor dropped away to a sandy shelf lit in cool blues. Lights shimmered in the murky distance, forming concentric circles.
“Turning off the exterior lights,” Ajax said. They’d been essential for navigating around the Devil, but now their primary concern was stealth.
Diego brought them down to the shelf. Not far to their left, the world dropped away into fathomless darkness. The light was dim down here, but there was still enough filtered sun to give the rippled sand a ghostly shimmer. Schools of thick gray fish, enormous mantas, and a small basking shark all moved slowly out of Seahorse’s way.
“Hopefully they won’t decide that we’re food,” Ajax said.
The undersea world was as beautiful as anything Diego had ever seen, but he kept his focus straight ahead. It seemed like hours passed in the ten minutes it took for them to close on their glowing target. There were teeth of rock here and there in the sand, and Diego maneuvered from one to the other, hoping it shielded their approach.
“How are we doing up there?” the captain said into his radio.
“John Curtis holding steady,” Lucy said.
“No sign of activity from here,” Petey added.
“This is Kingfisher,” Gaston said. “We are bearing true toward the target. All clear and—wait a minute.”
Silence.
“What is it?” the captain asked.
“We’ve got a bogey,” Paige said, her voice tight. “Trying to identify . . .”
“It’s an Aeternum Me 109. He’s pulling up alongside us . . . ,” Gaston said.
Diego could hear him and Paige conversing tensely but couldn’t make out their words.
“What’s happening?” the captain asked.
“What’s up, Mr. Enemy Pilot!” they heard Paige call. “Yep, don’t mind me, we just—”
They heard a gun cocking . . . then the radio went dead.
“Paige . . . Gaston?” Diego said.
There was no reply.
“I think the fuses reset,” Diego said. “It might be a few minutes before—”
“It’s okay,” the captain said. “Gaston is a seasoned and skilled fighter pilot. They can handle one Aeternum fighter. Now, our focus needs to be here.”
He pointed out the window, and Diego narrowly missed an outcropping of rock. “Sorry.”
“There she is,” the captain said.
“Is my dad down there?” Diego asked.
“He and Lucy’s father were brought to fix the nuclear ignition sequencer. It’s inside the dome of that power station.”
Which meant they were close.
“That cable car is a good sign. It’s here, so that means they are still there. According to Wallace’s spies, it should be Magnus and only a few men. We’ll dock at that second set of air locks, on the other side,” the captain said.
Diego brought them to the far side of the structure, stopped Seahorse, and powered down its engines to silence. High above, he could see the bellies of the two Aeternum warships bobbing on the surface.
He flexed his fingers on the controls. Now they had to wait. Once Gaston and Paige launched their attack, it should draw off the warships.
“If that attack plane took them out,” Ajax said, “this will all be for nothing.”
The captain activated his radio. “Kingfisher, come in. Status? Kingfisher, over.”
All they heard was the hiss of silence.
“Could be the radio’s acting up,” Diego said again. “At this depth, maybe—”
“This is Kingfisher, back on the air!” Paige shouted over the radio. “That plane we encountered bought our disguise and peeled off—so we’re cool. About to break through the clouds here and . . . Oh my God, is that New York? It doesn’t look like any of the pictures in our books!”
“We’re clearing the city and sighted the battleship.”
The speakers exploded with the sound of metal bei
ng torn apart.
“Holy crap, it followed us . . . the 109! We—” Her voice was interrupted by the chatter of machine gun fire. Distantly, they heard Gaston cursing in French.
And then the crackle of silence.
“Lucy, Petey, keep the radio silent until there is anything to report or until we’ve reestablished contact with the Kingfisher. Seahorse over and out,” the captain said.
“Understood, Seahorse, Curtis over and out.”
The captain checked his watch. “We can’t wait any longer.”
“But sir,” Ajax said. “Those ships are still there.”
“It’s now or never. The longer we wait, the greater the risk of being discovered. Diego, if you please.”
Diego docked at the air lock and peered into the darkened corridor beyond its thick doors but didn’t see signs of anyone walking around. Dad, he thought. I’m right here.
“Hand me your gun,” the captain said. Diego did, and the captain checked it and handed it back to him. “According to the schematics from Wallace’s spies, your father, Magnus, and the others will be three floors down in the NIS launch chamber. We’ll find them, take out the Aeternum, and bring our people out.”
He and Ajax unbuckled from their seats and checked their weapons. “Seal this door behind us,” the captain said. “If we don’t return in thirty minutes, no matter what, you are to leave and return to the John Curtis, and all of you are to retreat immediately for Volcambria.”
“Yes, sir.” Diego wanted to go, but he knew he was the least trained for a fight. And someone had to guard Seahorse. Still, he hated the idea of waiting behind.
The captain opened the door and stepped into the corridor. “Diego, if we don’t make it back in time, we’re not coming back at all . . . and you will follow orders.”
“Yes.” Diego felt a lump in his throat as he said it.
The captain would succeed. Of course he would.
The two men took off down the passage.
Diego sealed the door, powered down the robot, and waited. He stared at the clock. Each minute seemed to take forever.
Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic Page 24