“Crikey!” Alton put it on and tipped it up.
“Heya there, mate, I’m a cowboy,” Alton said in a deep voice.
Kade gave a rare grin. “Sweet as, pal. You look just like one.”
“Okay, give it back now, Alton,” Kaitlyn said. She took the hat and handed it back to Kade with a shaky hand.
He noticed then that her skin was paler than normal.
“Thanks,” she said.
Kade would have asked her if she was feeling okay, but not in front of her son. He knew that frail, pale look. It was how everyone had looked back at the camps. But this wasn’t from starvation and exhaustion. This was the sickness, or what many in the camps referred to as the “reaper.”
“Alton, do me a favor,” Kade said.
Alton nodded enthusiastically. “What do I get to do?”
“Go and get my guitar, okay? It’s leaning against the big stuffed chair at my shack.”
“Heck yes!” Alton jumped up and sprinted away from the table.
“And don’t run with it!” Kade shouted after him.
As soon as the kid was gone, he leaned forward.
“How long?” he asked.
Kaitlyn knew exactly what he was referring to. “About a month now,” she said. “Doctor says it’s back again, and not much he can do.”
“I’m sorry,” Kade said.
“I have a few good months left, maybe more.” She drew in a deep breath. “I got to spend a year with him here, but I just don’t know what he’s going to do without me.”
She met his gaze, eyes burning into his.
“I know this is a lot to ask,” she said, “but, Kade, you’re a good man. One of the best. Promise me you will look after him some. I don’t mean you got to take him in, but just make sure he finds his way.”
This wasn’t the first time someone had asked Kade to look after their child.
He reached out and put his hand over Kaitlyn’s. Something he would have done decades ago whenever his wife was worried.
He patted her bony hand. “I will,” he said. “You have my word.”
Kade quickly pulled his hand back. He hadn’t touched a woman for as long as he could remember.
Alton returned a few minutes later, reverently carrying the guitar.
“Will you play us a cowboy song?” he asked.
“I don’t think I know any cowboy songs,” Kade said.
“Sure you do,” came another voice.
Kade turned around to see Captain Rolo with the former chief engineer, Carl Lex, also known as “the Charmer” for his toothy smile and a certain knack for getting his hands on whatever he needed over the years, both on the ship and in the machines’ camp.
From what Kade had seen, Charmer was doing the same thing on this rig, running a full-fledged scavenging and bartering operation. Dressed in a new beige tunic with a silver-lined collar, he seemed to be using his skills also to purchase the best for himself. He even had a new suede eye patch to cover the socket gouged out by one of the defector machines.
With the two men were an entourage of officers from the other two airships that, like the Victory, had followed the signal to Mount Kilimanjaro in hope of finding a place like this.
Captain Linda Fina, from the ITC Requiem, and Lieutenant Olga Novak and Ensign Dmitri Vasilev, from the ITC Malenkov, took seats at a table. Their bowls were topped to the rim with chunky fish soup.
Some things never changed.
Kade had understood the need to keep rank and discipline in the camps, but these people had never gone a day without eating or drinking more than their share.
“So, you going to play us a tune?” Captain Rolo asked.
Kade hadn’t planned on performing. Hell, he hadn’t put on a show since the night before the ITC Victory went down.
“Please?” Alton said, putting his hands together.
The voice reminded Kade of his son, who had begged him to play that night. Mikah smiled her beautiful smile, and Kade gave in, playing for a crowd of clapping and dancing passengers who were their neighbors, friends, and family.
“How about ‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds’?” Rolo said. “Sons of the Pioneers. Mikah used to like that, right?”
Kade looked around, all eyes on him. He realized he really didn’t have a way out without looking like a bastard.
“For you, Mikah,” he whispered, picturing his wife.
Taking a deep breath, he put a foot up on a bench and brought up the guitar. It was a Cazador instrument, crafted here at the islands.
Plucking the guitar strings with his fingertips, he broke into song.
“See them tumbling down,
Pledging their love to the ground!
Lonely but free, I’ll be found,
Drifting along, with the tumbling tumbleweeds.”
Playing and singing reminded him of the best days of his life, when he was with his family and his Hell Diver comrades back on the Victory. There was never enough to eat, and they never knew if tomorrow would be the day the airship finally crashed, but he would trade anything for another day with his family.
He would give up the light for the darkness just to see his wife and kids again.
He opened his eyes, but the crowd was no longer looking at Kade. He lowered his guitar and turned to see a one-armed man with a bulging backpack slung over one shoulder. An unruly black beard with gray streaks covered half his craggy face.
At his side stood a wolflike dog with bright blue eyes that were currently fixed on Kade.
“King Xavier,” Captain Rolo said.
He stood up with the rest of the officers.
Kade almost didn’t recognize the king. He stiffened and lowered his guitar.
“Hey, don’t let me interrupt,” X said, gesturing to Kade. “That was getting really good.”
Kade tipped his hat.
“What brings you to our humble abode, Your Majesty?” asked Rolo.
Kade started to sit, then hesitated at what the king said next.
“I’m here to talk to Kade.”
Kade turned slowly, meeting Rolo’s eyes first, then the king’s.
“Finish your food, then meet me on the top deck,” X said.
“I’m all done,” Kade said. He handed his guitar to Alton. “Watch this for me, please.”
The kid took the guitar as if he were being handed the Holy Grail.
Kade pushed his half-eaten bowl of soup over to Kaitlyn.
“Ta,” she replied.
“Yeah, thanks, Cowboy Kade,” Alton said.
“Cheers.” Kade walked through the crowd, ignoring stares—and some glares—from comrades as he followed X to the top deck. Troughs and platforms covered in dirt supported plots of pole beans, corn, and vegetables, most of them nearly ripe, that swayed and dipped in the wind.
X walked down a path to the edge of the rooftop and looked out over a darkening horizon. A storm brewed, firing silent bomb bursts through the clouds.
“You and I are a lot alike, Kade,” X said. “You just don’t know it. We’ve survived when others have died, and I bet you wonder why that is. I sure as shit did.”
“Aye, sir,” Kade replied.
X turned. “And I bet you feel guilt.”
“Every damn day.”
X nodded at the horizon. “There’s a storm coming, and I need people,” he said. “People I can trust. People with experience.”
“I could use work.”
“Not sure this is the type of work you want,” X said, grunting as he unslung his backpack. He unzipped it and pulled out a shiny chest rig and armor plates.
“I need Hell Divers, and I’m told you made a fine one in your day. You don’t have to decide now, but I need to know by tomorrow.”
X eyed the hat and said, “Someday, yo
u’ll have to tell me how you came by that. Never seen one of them before on the surface.”
“It was my son’s,” Kade said.
X looked at it for another hard second before patting Kade on the arm. “The armor will be on the Vanguard waiting for you if you want it.”
“Aye, gratitude, Your Majesty,” Kade said.
“We sure could use your help, but no pressure. I understand if you want to just . . .” He looked around them. “Enjoy this place, but it’s going to take good men and women to protect what we’ve got.”
The king walked away, leaving Kade to contemplate his offer. The warm wind beat against his tunic, ruffling his hair.
He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, drifting in the past, thinking about the future, and feeling his heart kick in his chest.
Kade Long was still alive, while everyone he ever loved was dead.
Voices snapped him from his trance. Not the joyous laughter from earlier. These voices were close, and he turned as his people flooded out onto the rooftop, looking at something in the east.
He followed eyes and pointing fingers toward the only remaining airship in the world: the Vanguard.
It rose into the sky, sirens blaring.
For those around him, this was a warning about the incoming storm. But to Kade, it was a call to arms—a chance to protect this place, to make sure the families that had survived could continue to live in peace.
To live a life he had been robbed of.
As Kade turned to go, he noticed another life that had been robbed. On a boat racing across the water, Tia sat with a group of five sky people. Behind the wheel was a Cazador soldier, and on the bow another, holding a spear.
“Shit,” he whispered when he realized what she was doing.
There was work that anyone could get on the islands: soldiering.
He thought they had escaped death and war, but it seemed, no matter where humanity lived, soldiers would always be in demand.
Just like Hell Divers.
Four
A bright green flash, a shade brighter than Magnolia’s hair, streaked across the horizon. Something to do with the earth’s magnetic field and the incoming storms—a precise synchronicity that made this moment of rare and fleeting beauty.
Magnolia stepped away from the portholes in Vanguard’s launch bay. The big empty space looked pretty much the same as the day she first stepped into it over a decade ago, back when she was just a petty thief with an attitude.
In the center of the room, technicians prepped the recently restored launch tubes for the training dive. Hundreds of divers had come and gone over the years. All that remained besides memories were the stickers on their lockers and the banners of the diving teams.
Reporting here, she had thought her life was over, but it was really the start of a journey that would lead her people to a new home and save her from a life of misery.
Magnolia walked past the veteran divers of Team Raptor at their lockers. Her best friend, Sofia Walters, was braiding her hair. She looked good for having given birth just six months ago to Rhino’s son.
“It’s just training,” Sofia said, glancing over at Magnolia. “I’ll be fine.”
“I know, but it’s never safe,” Magnolia replied.
Sofia sighed. “We can’t let Arlo have all the fun, can we?”
“Fun?” Arlo said. “Not what I call this. I call it my contribution to humanity.”
“Like the time you landed in a Siren pit?” Edgar asked. The militia soldier turned Hell Diver had survived fifty-nine jumps and the war with the machines. Unlike happy-go-lucky Arlo, Edgar was a no-nonsense, get-it-done kind of diver, always following orders and putting the team first.
“We got out of there just fine, didn’t we?” Arlo said.
“Some of us did,” Edgar replied.
Magnolia remembered the death of Alexander Corey, who had sacrificed his life so the team could escape in Rio, not long after Arlo almost ended up as Siren shit.
Edgar shook his head in resignation.
A low grunting came from across the room. Ada Winslow was feeding her companion animal, Jo-Jo. Ada was here not by choice but by conscription, as Magnolia had once been.
For Ada, this was a second punishment for her terrible crime against the Cazadores. But she had accepted it with grace and had already proved that she had what it took to be a Hell Diver.
At first, Magnolia didn’t like the idea of Ada diving with the beast, but they had trained over the Vanguard Islands for months and had mastered the tandem dive.
“Sorry, she’s hungry,” Ada said.
Magnolia watched the young woman feeding the animal, who had grown a foot since they returned from the wastes a year ago. Sharp white canines protruded like tusks below her dark lips. The liquid black eyes were riveted on the pile of dried fish Ada had placed on the deck.
The twenty rookie divers stood by watching, some of them with revulsion, others with friendly curiosity. And then there was Jorge “Gran Jefe” Mata, who looked as if he wanted a bite of the fish.
Half a head taller than anyone else in the room, the Cazador was brawny as well—easily one of the strongest men in the Vanguard Islands. He had fought for el Pulpo, and last week he had transferred from the Barracudas in answer to the call for Hell Diver recruits. Sergeant Slayer had personally blessed the move.
The irony wasn’t lost on Magnolia, but she was willing to put the past behind them.
They all were survivors here. Fifteen new Cazador divers, along with two from Rio de Janeiro, and three of the sky people from Kilimanjaro.
Like her, these men and women had endured hardships unthinkable to most people. And with grit, vigilance, and a bit of luck, they were here now, ready to dive so humanity might survive.
“Okay, listen up,” Magnolia said, “especially you greenhorns. Today we’re jumping from twenty thousand feet, free-falling through storm clouds.”
The launch-bay doors opened behind the rookies, and Magnolia looked up at whoever had just interrupted her briefing.
A tall, muscular man came in, wearing a burned leather cowboy hat. He took it off, revealing a weathered face with kind brown eyes. “Commander Magnolia Katib?” he asked.
“Yes, and who are you?”
“Kade Long,” he said. “King Xavier asked me—”
“Oh, that’s right . . . But you’re late.”
“Aye, sorry, Commander, I—”
She cut him off again. “I heard you were a damn fine diver on the airship Victory.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Well, I don’t know how things were done on the Victory, but around here, we respect the clock.”
“Yes, ma’am. Won’t happen again.”
Magnolia jerked her chin at the lockers. “Choose one. Then we’ll find you some armor and gear.”
“I got the armor covered,” Kade said, shucking off his backpack.
“Who’s that?” Edgar asked.
“Cowboy Kade,” Arlo said. “Heard he once rode a horse against a pack of mutant wolves.”
Edgar laughed. “No such thing as a horse anymore—not in the wild, anyway.”
“No? So you’ve explored the entire world?”
“Guys, cut the shit,” Magnolia said. “As I said, we’ll be jumping from twenty thousand feet into what is so far a mild storm, to simulate what it’s like in the wastes. But very soon, the best of you will be heading to the wastes on a classified mission.”
Kade looked at Magnolia. Unlike most of these divers, he had no fear in his eyes. She saw something else, too—a sense of sorrow.
Magnolia had heard a few stories about him, mostly from Michael, who had discovered the survivors at the machines’ camp. Kade had helped them fight back, and with his background, she hoped he would be a valuable asset.
“Our DZs are the weather deck of the Octopus and of the Ocean Bull,” Magnolia said.
“Those rust buckets are going to be slick,” Arlo said.
“Es el punto,” Gran Jefe said. “The point.”
“Plan accordingly,” Magnolia said.
The divers finished suiting up and fastening their armor before moving on to check their gear. Magnolia made sure Kade had a chute that was already checked and prepped.
Thirty minutes later, Captain Rolo’s voice crackled over the PA system. “The ship is in position.”
Magnolia stepped in front of the veterans and said, “All right, who’s going first?”
“I will,” said a voice from behind her.
Magnolia turned, surprised to see that it was Kade.
She couldn’t help but smirk. “Not questioning your commitment, but how long has it been since you dived, Kade?”
“Ten years, give or take.”
“So maybe you should sort of ease into this.”
“And all due respect to you, Commander, but diving isn’t something you forget.” He shrugged the chute harness over his back and stepped forward. “King Xavier asked me to dive, and from what I understand, we don’t have much time before this airship leaves.”
“You’re right.” Magnolia brushed a strand of green hair from her face. “Go ahead and be the first, then. I’ll come down with you.”
Judging by his hesitation, Kade didn’t seem to appreciate that she wanted to go with him. But this wasn’t a suggestion. He was here on King Xavier’s wishes, not hers, and she didn’t like diving into the wastes with someone until she trusted that they could get the job done. A training run with him would be a way to start building that trust.
“The rest of you, pair up with the other greenhorns and follow, one by one with your new recruit, in the following order: Edgar, Ada and Jo-Jo, Sofia, and finally Arlo.”
The veteran divers moved to buddy up with the rookies.
“I really got to go with this guy?” Arlo asked, side-eyeing Gran Jefe. “No offense, amigo, but you are . . . how do you say—oh, right, el gordo.”
None of the Cazadores laughed, especially Gran Jefe.
Magnolia whistled before the soldier could smack the grin off Arlo’s face.
Hell Divers Series | Book 8 | King of the Wastes Page 6