The Purge of Babylon Series Box Set, Vol. 3 | Books 7-9

by Sisavath, Sam

  “He’s better,” she said. “Where were you?”

  “In the lobby. They had some questions for me.”

  “About what?”

  “This, that, everything in between.” He cocked his head when they both heard the sharp crack! of a rifle shot outside the walls. “And some of that, too.”

  “Mercer’s men?”

  “Yup. They wanted to make sure I didn’t know anything about it. I told them maybe.”

  “But you don’t.”

  “Yeah, but they don’t have to know that. Also, I wanted to see how far they’d push with the questioning.”

  “How far did they push?”

  “Not very, as you can see by my still-pretty face.”

  “Ah.”

  “I got the sense they were afraid to tune me up. At least, ol’ Danzinger was.”

  “Danzinger?”

  “The guy asking the questions. The leader of the pack, from the looks of it. His name sounds like a ’70s rock band front man, but the guy looks like an accountant.”

  “I thought Mason was the leader.”

  “He’s more like a floating consultant. Looks like Danzinger’s team just got saddled with him.”

  “Mason told me he was connected to them. The blue-eyed ghouls. That that was how they always knew where we were. How they tracked us from Starch. Because he told them.”

  “‘Told them?’”

  “That’s what he said.”

  “Hunh,” Danny said.

  “I’m not sure if I believe him. Do you?”

  “Will…” Danny started, but didn’t finish.

  “What about Will?” she pressed.

  “Kate used to visit him all the time. In his dreams. They would talk, hold whole conversations. The way he put it, the whole thing was beyond freaky. I’m glad I never slept with that bitch.”

  “Is that how it works? You have to sleep with them to become—I don’t know the word—connected, I guess, to them?”

  “Hey, nothing’s more powerful than swapping the ol’ baby-making spit.”

  “Gross, Danny.”

  “It’s a medical term. I swear.” Then, “Anyway, I hope I never find out. The thought of one of those things crawling around in my head…” He shivered. “Damn. I think I might have wet myself there. Wait, did I just say that out loud?”

  “You think she’s still out there? Kate?”

  “I hope never to find that out, either.”

  “What else did they want to know?”

  “Nothing worth repeating. Danzinger seemed more annoyed by the constant hit-and-run attacks than anything.”

  A long series of pop-pop-pop crackled, but this time it actually sounded like it was coming from farther away than the last few back-and-forth. It went on for a few seconds, which stretched into a full two minutes before things fell quiet again.

  Danny was looking down at his watch. “They’re biding their time. I don’t think we’re going anywhere anytime soon, kid.”

  “Mason told me they—the blue eyes—are waiting for someone. They’re using us as bait to get this person here.”

  “Our little buddy Mason seems to know more than he’s letting on. That sneaky little pussy…cat.”

  “I told you, we should have killed him back at Starch.”

  “Yeah, yeah, stop nagging. You’re starting to sound like Carly.”

  “That’s a compliment.”

  “It should be, she’s a wildcat in bed.” Danny glanced at the door. “Most of them are still in the lobby, including Lopez and Mason. At least eight more running around out there engaging Mercer’s boys.”

  “Twelve in all?”

  “Uh huh. That includes the driver of the Jeep that was chasing us earlier.”

  “Twelve men is a lot of resources, Danny. If Mason’s to be believed—and I’m not one-hundred percent buying it—they’re here because of the blue eyes, and this person they’re trying to lure to Gallant.”

  “He’ll come for them soon,” one of the creatures had said last night as it stood over her.

  “Yes,” the other one had replied.

  “And when he does…”

  “We’ll end him.”

  “Finally…”

  Across from her, Danny was staring at the wall next to the door. She didn’t know how long he had been doing that, but it was obvious to her by the look on his face that it wasn’t the barren white wall that was on his mind. He was somewhere else...

  “Danny,” she said.

  He shook his head before she could say anything else. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “What was it, then?”

  “He,” Danny said. “The person all of this is for. The reason we’re still alive.”

  She nodded.

  “I don’t know,” he said again.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Maybe…”

  “Danny, what is it? What’s been on your mind since Starch?”

  He shook his head, then started to speak, only to stop himself.

  “Danny,” she pressed. “What is it?”

  “The blue-eyed ghoul back in Starch,” he finally said. “And at the airport outside of Larkin before that.”

  “Danny, what are you saying?”

  Larkin and Starch were burned into her memory—two nights of confusion that she still struggled to understand even today. She didn’t know how she was going to tell Lara and the others about them if she couldn’t even make up her own mind what had happened. There was a reason Danny hadn’t mentioned all the details to their friends back on the Trident. He hadn’t known how, either.

  “Are they related?” she asked. “What happened outside of Larkin, then in Starch?”

  “I don’t know,” Danny said.

  “Danny…”

  He shook his head.

  “Danny,” she said again, unsure if she actually wanted to hear the answer.

  “Maybe,” he finally said. “Maybe…”

  12

  Lara

  You should be here right now, Will, not me. This was never the plan.

  Why did you have to go and ruin the plan?

  The “man” Riley sent over was a girl named Faith, who couldn’t have been older than twenty, and arrived alone in a small ten-footer to pick Lara up.

  They were halfway to the oil rig when Lara glanced back at the Trident. She couldn’t see Bonnie on the roof, but she’d be there right now watching her back with binoculars while Blaine kept guard on the other side of the wraparound windshield on the bridge. Carly, Benny, Carrie, Maddie, and everyone else would be at their stations and on full alert until she returned.

  This is such a bad idea. You know that, right?

  Everything about this was risky, but they were running out of choices. They had already exhausted most of the refueling locations on Gage’s list around the area—the ones that hadn’t been razed to the ground or occupied by collaborators, anyway. The only other place left to explore was down south along the Mexican coastline, and what were the chances collaborators hadn’t either destroyed or taken over those places, too?

  Mercer. This was all because of him. Before his attacks on the towns, they hadn’t had any difficulty finding abandoned but plentiful fuel.

  Mercer…

  Even when she did everything possible to steer clear of the man, his war still somehow managed to affect her.

  She faced forward and looked past Faith, standing behind the controls in front and slightly to the right of her, and at her destination.

  The platform looked bigger and more imposing out here in the open sea. It was at least 500 feet long and probably half as wide, though she couldn’t be sure of the latter since she was looking at it from the front. It stood well over a hundred feet above the water and rested on four massive foundations made of solid concrete, the heavy gray color marred by bright yellow stripes.

  “How many people are onboard?�
�� she asked Faith, shouting over the roar of the engine to be heard.

  “The Ocean Star,” Faith said.

  “What?”

  “That’s what it’s called. The Ocean Star.”

  “They have names?”

  “I don’t know if all of them do, but this one does. It was designed for about 150 crewmen.”

  “Are there 150 people onboard?”

  “Not exactly,” Faith said.

  From what she could see, the rig consisted of four levels, including the top platform. The lower three were a tangled web of beams and tubing, with rows of yellow guardrails and stairs crisscrossing all four sections from end to end and top to bottom. She paid special attention to the massive crane towering over everything like some kind of metal tentacle rising out of the ocean. She expected to see the snipers that she knew were somewhere up there, but even closer now she still couldn’t spot them. Either they were very well hidden, or Riley had taken them down. Maybe that also explained the lack of visible people moving around on the platforms.

  “You live here?” Lara asked.

  Faith nodded. “We all do.”

  “I noticed you’re not wearing a uniform.”

  “We’re not soldiers,” Faith said. She had on khaki cargo pants and a long-sleeve plaid shirt underneath a thick winter coat. Long, stringy black hair poked out from under a hoodie and blew against the cold wind. Unlike Hart and the five with him, the young woman looked nothing like a soldier.

  Faith was also not armed when she showed up, and Lara’s cursory inspection of the boat—made easier because she was standing at the stern behind Faith—had revealed no weapons, though of course Faith could have hidden something inside the compartment under the vessel’s middle console. Lara wore her gun belt, but she hadn’t bothered bringing a rifle. If Riley was setting her up for an ambush at the oil rig, whether she came with one M4 or ten wasn’t going to make a bit of difference. The logic behind her decision was a no-brainer, but the emotional part was less easy to swallow.

  “Don’t go onto the bad man’s oil rig, Lara,” she imagined her mother telling her.

  “Listen to your mother,” her dad would say.

  She crossed her arms over her chest for warmth. It might have been her imagination, but she swore it had gotten noticeably colder since she climbed onto the small boat and began her trek to the oil platform.

  “Why did he send you?” she asked the girl.

  “I don’t know; he didn’t tell me why,” Faith said. “He asked if I would come get you, and I agreed.”

  “He asked you,” Lara said. It wasn’t a question.

  “I told you, we’re not soldiers, Lara.”

  Then what are you? she wanted to ask, but didn’t. She said instead, “You’re survivors.”

  “Yes.” Then, as if sensing her hesitation, the girl said, “Riley’s not trying to trick you, Lara. He wouldn’t do anything to risk Hart and the others.”

  “He took plenty of risks when he sent them to take my boat last night.”

  Faith seemed to hesitate, but Lara couldn’t see her face, so she didn’t know what the younger woman was thinking.

  Finally, Faith said, “He regrets that. I don’t think he got any sleep at all last night.”

  That makes two of us.

  The girl slowed down the vessel as the Ocean Star loomed in front of them before finally killing the motor completely. She expertly used the boat’s forward momentum to ease it underneath the structure until they were alongside one of the docks. Riley may not have needed to order Faith to come get her, but it was pretty obvious the young woman knew her way around a boat.

  Two men, both unarmed (at least as far as she could see without telling them to strip off their thick coats), were waiting for them underneath the platform.

  “Riley’s orders,” Faith said, finally looking back at her for the first time since they started away from the Trident.

  “What’s that?” Lara said.

  “No one you meet on your way up to see him will be armed, but you’re free to keep your weapons on you at all times.”

  “That’s awfully considerate of him.”

  “He’s trying to make up for last night. Please let him, Lara.”

  The plea caught her by surprise, and Lara didn’t answer right away.

  Finally, she nodded. “Lead the way.”

  Faith took her up along the winding stairs while the two men worked to secure the boat behind them. There were a dozen vessels of various models already in the water when they arrived, including a couple of fast boats. She didn’t see anything bigger than a fifteen-footer tied to any of the docks and had to wonder if that was the reason they were so desperate to get their hands on the Trident—it was easily many times bigger than all the vehicles they had combined.

  “Can I ask?” Faith said hesitantly.

  “Depends on what you’re going to ask,” Lara said.

  “Our guys. Are they okay?”

  “They’re all alive, if that’s what you mean.”

  “No, I meant…” She paused, then, “I meant, was there any shooting last night? During the siege?”

  “There was no siege. We took them prisoner before they even climbed aboard.”

  “Oh.”

  “What did Riley tell you?”

  “Not a lot, but I thought something bad might have happened—” She stopped short and shook her head, then glanced over her shoulder with an almost apologetic look. “So there was no shooting? No violence?”

  Depends on what you mean by “violence,” Lara thought, but said, “No. We took them prisoner and put them in a room all night.” She saw the relieved look on the girl’s face and said, “Who are you worried about?”

  “What do you mean? I’m worried about all of them.”

  “But there’s one in particular, right?”

  Faith might have blushed. “My boyfriend. James. Do you know if he’s okay?”

  “I don’t remember talking to anyone named James, but if he’s part of the crew, then he’s fine. Like I said, we didn’t hurt anyone. They were smart and surrendered when we caught them trying to sneak onboard.”

  “Oh, thank God.”

  God had nothing to do with it, Lara thought, remembering how close she had come to giving the order to open fire. If Hart hadn’t seen how badly out-positioned he had been and told his men to stand down, things might have gotten bad. The six-men-dead-in-the-water kind of bad.

  “I guess everyone here knows what happened,” Lara said.

  Faith nodded. “It’s not a very big place and Riley doesn’t hide many things from us, especially something this big.”

  Lara was startled by a flock of birds that appeared out of nowhere and glided in for a landing along the railing next to her. They were small and purple, and she got the feeling she was more wary of them than they were of her. That is, if they noticed her presence at all.

  “Oil rigs are magnets for birds,” Faith said, smiling back at her. “We get every kind.”

  Faith wasn’t lying. Lara had seen flocks in the air as they were coming in. At first she thought they were going to swerve around the human-made monstrosity squatting in the middle of the ocean, but instead they honed in on it, landing all along the multiple levels.

  “Where do they come from?” Lara asked.

  “Everywhere,” Faith said. “By the time they reach us out here, they’ve been flying for so long they just crash. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Then, with a look that Lara wasn’t sure was a joke, Faith added, “Bird stew used to be on the menu until we realized how awful it tasted.”

  They went up another set of stairs before finally reaching the top platform. As they climbed up, she took the opportunity to sneak a look at the ocean behind her before settling on the familiar white shape of the Trident about a mile away. From out here, the luxury yacht looked absolutely lonely surrounded by vast open ocean, which was exactly what she was hoping to see. It was going to take a lot (a miracle) to sneak up on the ya
cht’s crew. Anything other than a submarine was going to get shredded by gunfire before they even got close.

  Seeing the solitary boat in the distance eased her mind tremendously. Even if everything went bad and Riley turned out to be the snake in the grass that a part of her expected him to be, at least she could say everyone onboard would be safe. Most of all, she could count on Blaine to put the Trident in gear and get out of there at the first sign of trouble. He wouldn’t want to do it and there would be all kinds of internal and external conflict, but Blaine would do the right thing. She had made damn sure of that before she left.

  “That clearheaded rush you just got?” Faith said in front of her. “That’s the altitude. It’ll clear up any sinus problems you have. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s friggin’ cold up here, so keep your jacket on at all times or you’ll end up in sickbay.”

  When she turned around again, the first thing she saw—because it was simply impossible to miss—was the giant derrick in the center. It was red and white and looked like a shrunken version of the Eiffel Tower. The only thing taller than the drill was the massive crane to her right. She spent a few seconds looking it up and down but like all the other times, she couldn’t make out any figures perched along its many sections. Even so, she didn’t believe it was empty for a second. It was simply too perfect a location to not have someone up there, and if her civilian mind knew that, someone like Hart and Riley would, too.

  Come out, come out, wherever you are.

  “To answer your question, no; we haven’t turned the drill back on,” a voice said.

  She looked over as a tall man walked toward her. He was wearing green cargo pants and, like Faith, wasn’t armed in any way that she could see. His jacket’s collar stood up against the sides of his neck to protect him from the cold.

  “I’m Riley,” the man said, sticking out his hand.

  “Lara.”

  “I know,” he smiled.

  She didn’t return it. “Nice place you got here.”

  “It’s got a great view and the rent’s cheap,” he said before nodding at Faith. “I’ll take her from here, Faith; thanks.”

  “I’ll go wait with the boat,” Faith said. To Lara: “Please listen to what he has to say.”