The Horns of Avalon (Purge of Babylon, Book 8)

by Sam Sisavath

  I wonder if I could make that kind of choice in his shoes?

  Will could have. But then, Will could do a lot of things…

  “I guess you could say it sort of just showed up when we needed it most,” she said.

  Riley chuckled.

  “Did I say something funny?” she asked.

  “The boat showed up when you needed it most, and now it’s here. I needed a way to get my people off the Ocean Star, and you showed up. There must be something special about that boat.”

  Its previous owners would beg to disagree, she thought, but said, “I never asked you how you spotted us in the first place.”

  “Peters.”

  “Peters?” she said, and reflexively turned around and glanced up at the crane, though this time she couldn’t see anything that looked like a man up there.

  “He’s got one of those amateur telescopes up there,” Riley said. “It’s supposed to be used for astronomy, but he’s adapted it for terrestrial surveillance. The damn thing weighed close to twenty pounds and it took forever getting it up there in one piece, not to mention welded into place. He spotted the Trident when it was still twenty miles away—even before you guys anchored—otherwise we’d never have met.”

  “Lucky you.”

  “Lucky us,” Riley said.

  “Lucky you I didn’t give the order to shoot last night.”

  He smiled. “Definitely lucky me, then.”

  Neither one of them said anything for a while, and they were content to lean against the railing and let the cold wind whip around them. A fishing boat had already left the Ocean Star while they were talking and was now maneuvering toward the back of the yacht, where a couple of figures were waiting for it. Faith and Bonnie would be on that boat along with the first stack of supplies from Riley’s inventory.

  Finally, she said, “Why an oil rig?”

  “Probably the same reason you’ve been living off the yacht,” Riley said. “The Ocean Star has the benefit of being isolated. You would have just cruised right past us if I hadn’t pulled my idiotic stunt last night.”

  She smiled and hoped he didn’t see it.

  “These things were built to withstand time and anything Mother Nature can throw at it,” Riley continued. “And while it’s not exactly halfway between the Texas shoreline and The Ranch, it’s the next best thing.”

  “You mentioned The Ranch before. Where is it, exactly? Or is that something else I don’t need to know yet?”

  “Have you ever heard of Black Tide Island?”

  “It doesn’t ring any bells.”

  “It’s a U.S. government-owned piece of real estate in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. The military uses it for war games, and it’s equipped with a base big enough to have its own accompanying landing strip.”

  “That’s where your planes took off from.”

  “No. I mean, yes, the planes Mercer’s using during R-Day have the range, but the logistics made it impossible, not to mention all the fuel they would burn just getting from point A to point B. The ones they’re flying out there were already sitting in Texas air bases, gathering dust. We only used Black Tide to train the pilots.”

  “You mean people were flying around out here all this time and no one noticed?”

  “Like I said, Black Tide is in the middle of nowhere, on purpose. How many other people have you run across before us?”

  She thought about the dead body they had fished out of the ocean, then later, the voice on the radio begging her for help but that she had chosen to ignore…

  “None,” she said.

  “It’s a big ocean,” Riley said. “Anyway, after the pilots were trained, it was just a matter of sneaking them back into Texas with the main force. We already knew where to get everything we needed for the operation. Of course, it took the teams weeks to get the planes working, but Mercer is blessed with men who know their way around machines.”

  “Blessed,” she said, unable and unwilling to hide the derision in her voice. “Not quite the word I’d use to describe what’s happening out there right now.”

  “They’re only doing what he asked of them.” He leaned closer against the railing, as if he were trying to make himself small. “I’m not proud of any of this, Lara. I wish I could say I was braver, but I wasn’t.” He looked over his shoulder as the same two guards she had seen earlier passed them by again on their rounds. “When all of this is over, I’ll take the blame.”

  “The blame for what?”

  “For not putting a stop to this nightmare before it ever got started. But I didn’t. None of us did. We could have done so much more—I could have done so much more—but we didn’t, and we’re going to have to live with that.”

  She thought about the voice on the radio again, asking for her to make contact, asking for her help…

  Lara closed her eyes and counted to five, then opened them again.

  “The plan was always to bail once we got out here,” Riley was saying, “but my transportation never arrived.”

  “What happened?”

  “At the last minute, Mercer decided to reroute it to help with the war effort. I think he’s planning to attack Port Arthur from two sides—land and sea.”

  “So you needed a replacement transportation, fast.”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “What about that refueling ship?”

  “It’s not exactly designed to haul people around, Lara. And definitely not forty-eight people and all of our supplies.”

  “How did you convince everyone here to abandon Mercer’s war, anyway? That must have been one hell of a discussion.”

  “It didn’t take that much convincing, actually.”

  “No?”

  “As the CO, I was able to handpick everyone here with us right now. So I only took the ones that I knew could be convinced. Most of them are friends, and some are known acquaintances.”

  “So you only selected people who were already pro-mutiny.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Smart.”

  “One of the few smart things I did, I guess you could say. It took a lot of work and vetting, but I had help.”

  “Hart.”

  He nodded. “Hart, Faith, Terry, and a few others. I never told you this, but the Ocean Star, in terms of staff, is the smallest FOB out here. It’s not because the rig can only accommodate forty-eight people. These were just the ones I could be sure of.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  He looked over at her. “What do you mean?”

  “You said you handpicked everyone here, but how can you be absolutely sure everyone sees things the way you do?”

  “I don’t understand…”

  “Fine. You only chose the ones you thought would be the most open to your mutiny. But how can you be absolutely certain every single one of them didn’t just say yes when you revealed your plan, not because they agreed with you, but because they had no choice?”

  “No choice? Of course they had a choice.”

  “What if some of them are just going along with you because they’re afraid of what will happen if they say no? You said it yourself how difficult it was to do what you’re doing because of everything Mercer’s done for you. He saved your life. He saved all of your lives. What if not everyone is quite as willing as you to cross the line from having doubts to full-on mutiny?”

  Riley didn’t say anything for the longest time, and she found it difficult to read his face. Was the notion that he could have miscalculated even registering? Maybe he really didn’t understand the possibility that one of the forty-seven people he had brought onboard so they could all escape Mercer’s insanity together might not actually want to escape after all.

  She felt a little sorry for him for introducing all of these doubts, but she pushed through the guilt (You’re getting really good at that…). She was getting involved in something that could cost more than just Riley and his people, but also the lives of everyone on the Trident, and she’d be damned
if she didn’t face it head-on.

  “I’m assuming you’re 100% sure about Hart and the other soldiers,” she asked.

  He nodded. “I am.”

  “That leaves the civilians. What are the chances they’re just going along with you because they know you have the full backing of the guys with guns? Don’t you think in that situation it would be a little intimidating for them to say no? After all, they know you’re the one who came up with this idea.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t pick these names out of a hat, Lara. I looked into the eyes of each and every single one of them when I told them what I was planning. The things Mercer is doing out there in the name of saving humanity…” He shook his head and she could see him growing with confidence. “Trust me, I know every single person on the Ocean Star right now, and they all want to wash their hands of this bloodbath.”

  Lara didn’t know if she believed him, but Riley seemed to embrace it as the truth, and she didn’t know any of these people—hell, she barely knew Riley—well enough to question his (absolute?) certainty.

  “All right,” she nodded. “They’re your people. I accept that you know them better than me, but I just wanted you to consider the possibility you could be wrong. All it would take is one mistake, Riley, and there’s more at stake here than just your people.”

  “I didn’t make any mistakes, Lara. They’re all on board. I would stake my life on it. Hell, I am staking my life on it.”

  Famous last words, she thought, but didn’t voice her doubt.

  Instead, she followed his gaze back out into the ocean, to the Trident and the busy activity at its aft.

  “I like Hart; he’s a good second-in-command,” Riley said, “but he doesn’t always challenge my decisions. It’s nice having someone second-guessing me for once.”

  “Glad to be of service,” she said, and they exchanged a slightly awkward smile.

  “I don’t know if you’ve already guessed, but this whole war and leadership thing is new to me. I’m flying by the seat of my pants most of the time, doing my best not to get everyone who depends on me killed.”

  Join the club.

  “How long before Mercer’s men arrive?” she asked.

  Riley glanced at his watch. “Soon. We’ll need to send the Trident away so it’s not spotted. Five miles in the opposite direction should do it.”

  “I’ll let Blaine know once they finish loading the supplies.”

  “Hey, Riley,” a voice called behind them. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “You found me,” Riley said, and started to turn. He hadn’t gotten fully around when there was a bang! and a stream of blood spewed out from behind his back at the same time a bullet pinged! off the railing.

  Lara spun around as Riley’s body sagged to the floor next to her. The only reason he didn’t slip right into the water below was because he was clutching the railing with both arms. His face was plastered with a sheen of confusion as he stared at his shooter.

  Her mind screamed to Go for your gun, go for your gun, you idiot! while the man who had shot Riley took a step toward him and was about to shoot him again. She knew she would never get her pistol out in time to stop him.

  So she screamed “Don’t!” instead.

  The sound of her voice startled the man and he looked over at her, as if seeing her for the first time. She didn’t know who he was, but there was nothing strange about that. She hadn’t come close to meeting all of Riley’s people and could count on one hand the number of faces she would recognize.

  He had dark brown eyes partially hidden underneath a dirty baseball cap, and they were focusing in on her even as he swung the gun gripped tightly in his right fist in her direction—

  Bang!

  The second shot exploded in the air like a crack of thunder at almost the exact same time the man’s head, along with the cap perched on top of it, seemed to come apart. He collapsed, gun and body clanging against the steel platform floor. The gunshot’s echo was still fading across the endless ocean when Lara looked up at the crane and saw a dark figure silhouetted against the sun, and Riley’s words rushed back to her:

  “His name is Peters. I had to keep him up there, just in case things went sideways. He’s my insurance. My only insurance…and he never misses. Never.”

  She turned back to Riley and found him on the floor, his back resting against the railing while blood pumped out of his right shoulder and dripped down the edge of the rig and into the ocean below. He was staring forward at the lifeless body, a large puddle of brains and skeletal fingers reaching toward him from his would-be assassin.

  Lara crouched next to Riley, pulled off her jacket, and draped it over his shoulder, then pressed down hard from both sides. He grunted from the pain but never took his eyes off the dead man.

  “Who is he?” she asked.

  He wiped at his forehead with a bloodied hand before answering. “Andy. Jesus.”

  “One of your security guys?”

  Riley shook his head. “He’s a mechanic. Kept things running. Jesus. I didn’t think…” Riley blinked as if he had trouble believing what his eyes were showing him. “I was sure of him. I was so sure of him….”

  I guess you weren’t sure enough, Lara thought, wondering how many other people were running around the Ocean Star right now that weren’t quite as all-in with Riley’s mutiny as he had proclaimed. Maybe the woman who had served them fish and SPAM in the galley, or the parent of the kid who had waved to her as she walked past their room earlier this morning…

  Loud, clanging footsteps as people approached them. She looked up as Terry, the woman from the comm room, and two others—including Hart—raced around the maze of machinery and ran to them.

  “Oh God, Riley, oh God,” Terry said.

  The third person was an older man wearing wire-rimmed glasses and civilian clothes. He crouched next to them and reached for the bloody jacket she had pressed against Hart’s wound. “What happened?”

  “He shot him,” she said, nodding at Andy’s mostly headless corpse.

  “Andy?” Terry said.

  “Fuck,” Hart said, gritting his teeth.

  “You can let go now; I got him,” the man with glasses said.

  She stood up and backed away as the man and Hart worked to lessen Riley’s bleeding. The older man seemed to know what he was doing, so he was probably a doctor or had experience with gunshots, because he didn’t look fazed by Riley’s injury. Two more men, both in tactical gear, appeared and hovered over them. The horrified look on their faces told her everything she needed to know: They didn’t think this could happen, and the fact that it had left them questioning everything.

  After a while, and with so many bodies crowding around Riley, Lara couldn’t see him anymore. She walked over to where Andy was instead and stood over his remains.

  It was a nice shot. Hell, it was a perfect shot, especially from so high up and at such a drastic angle. She remembered telling herself that there was no way someone up there could hit her all the way down here, that all the odds were in her favor, even as Riley told her not to reach for her gun.

  Jesus, that was close.

  The radio on her hip squawked and she heard Blaine’s anxious voice: “Lara. Lara, come in.”

  She unclipped the radio and keyed it. “I’m here, Blaine.”

  “What was that shooting?”

  “Long story; I’ll explain later.”

  “But you’re okay?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Thank God.” Then, “There’s something else. I was going to call you before I heard the shots.”

  She brushed at a bead of sweat with her hand, forgetting that it was still covered in Riley’s blood. “I could really use some good news right about now.”

  “Danny finally radioed in,” Blaine said.

  Oh, thank God.

  “How is he?” she asked.

  “I don’t know; Carly’s talking to him now. I’ve never seen her so happy.”
<
br />   “Fill me in later.”

  “But you’re okay?”

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  But Riley might be dead, and if he dies, where does that leave us?

  She looked off at the Trident sitting where she last saw it.

  At least I got him to refuel us first…

  “Lara,” Terry said as she emerged out of the crowd and walked on wobbly legs over to her.

  “Riley?” Lara asked.

  They watched as the wall of bodies came apart and the two commandos picked up Riley and, with the man in glasses at their side, carried him off. Hart looked after them, wiping his blood-covered hands on his pant legs.

  “Who’s the civilian?” Lara asked.

  “George,” Terry said. “He’s our doctor. Or, well, the closest thing we have to one out here. He’s actually a veterinarian.”

  Hart walked over to them. He looked in shock, and she swore he had aged five extra years since she last saw him. “You okay?” he asked her.

  She nodded. “What about Riley?”

  “George will do the best he can.”

  “I have a doctor—a real doctor—on the Trident.”

  “Can you bring him over?”

  “Her. And yes. Until then, what happens now?”

  “What do you mean?” Terry asked.

  “I mean,” Lara said, “Mercer’s people will be showing up anytime now. Are they going to ask where Riley is if he’s not here to meet them?”

  Hart and Terry exchanged a look.

  “Well?” Lara said. “Are they?”

  “Maybe,” Hart said.

  Lara was annoyed by their uncertainty but managed to temper it down—at least, some of it. “Did the others meet with Riley when they came through here?”

  “Yes,” Terry said. “I mean, they didn’t ask or demand it or anything, but he was always there when they showed up. You know, as the CO.”

  “What about you?” Lara asked Hart. “Can you take his place?”

  Hart was still trying to wipe the blood off his hands when he looked up at her. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”