Kade grabbed Johnny by the shoulder and turned him until their visors almost touched.
“The mission doesn’t ride on what you—or even I—think,” Kade said. “You just keep your head together and follow me, and I promise I’ll get your arse back in one piece.”
Johnny tried to pull back, but Kade held his grip.
“You got it?”
“Aye. Got it,” Johnny replied. “Arse. One piece. Good.”
Kade let go just as a howl pierced the quiet. He looked out over the field as the elk stampeded away from something moving in the weeds.
Aiming his pistol, Kade followed the hidden beast as it moved like liquid through the weeds. A spiked back emerged, but nothing more.
It was gaining on the herd of elk. One of them turned, and the beast sprang up from the weeds, latching onto its throat and bringing it down before Kade could get a look.
Kade rose with his pistol aimed at the weeds where the bawling animal was losing the struggle for its life. Crunching and tearing sounded as the spiked creature tore the poor elk apart. Blood sloshed out, painting the tips of the bladed weeds.
“Let’s go while it’s busy,” Kade said.
When he didn’t get a response, he turned to see Johnny sprinting away through the forest.
“Damn wanker,” Kade whispered.
He remembered another thing he told his boys. Courage isn’t being fearless. Courage is deciding to face one’s fear.
Keeping low, he moved out into the field, toward the supply crate. The elk had ceased its struggles, and there was only an occasional growl from the beast feeding on it.
Kade worked fast, opening the crate and pulling out an assault rifle and three magazines. He loaded the weapon and chambered a round.
He considered taking the other rifle but decided to leave it for Johnny, just in case he came back.
“Your rifle is here if you should happen to grow some balls,” Kade said over the comms.
Static crackled in response.
Kade shouldered his rifle and set off through the strange woods, toward the foot of the mountain. The coordinates for their mission were only a half mile away.
He ran through the dark woods, guided by his night-vision goggles.
At the base of the monument, Kade found what they had dived here for. The hidden entrance to a bunker was marked by two rusted-out military vehicles outside a tunnel bored straight into the granite.
Heading toward it, he passed one of the windowless trucks that sat on rusted hubs.
The bunker would be too dark for his NVGs, so he shut them off and turned on his helmet light to enter the tunnel. The beam revealed open blast doors.
Someone had already been here.
He moved inside and started down the tunnel with concrete walls marked by faded red paint.
“Keep going to the command center. You’re almost there!”
Kade followed the text and signage. There were even arrows pointing down the passages and the stairwell that led deep underground. He passed through an old cargo hangar with several vehicles and three empty shipping containers. Everything of any value had already been carried off.
Following the arrows, he took another stairwell down to another set of doors, also ajar and painted with the United States coat of arms. “The Presidential Bunker” was etched below.
Kade stepped into what had once served as some sort of command center. A huge projection screen hung from the tallest wall, with tiered seats facing it.
Arrows on the floor led him to a U-shaped central dashboard. Above the center console was a glass box covering a red switch.
He scanned the room and saw nothing to indicate a trap.
“Commander Long, do you copy?”
Kade bumped his comm with his chin. “Copy. Where’d ya go, ya bastard?”
“I’m sorry, I came back for my rifle, and I’m waiting in the woods.”
“Stay there and don’t move again unless I tell you.”
“Copy that.”
Kade flipped up the glass housing box, took in a breath, and flipped the switch.
A low hum sounded from an unseen power source. The screen flickered to life, and the face of a woman came online. She was maybe late forties; it was hard to tell with the makeup she wore on her pale features.
Her red lips parted to reveal perfect white teeth.
Wanting to record everything, Kade turned up the audio on his wrist computer.
“Hello. My name is Krista Potter, and I’m the COO of Industrial Tech Corporation. If you are seeing this message, then you are one of the lucky ones. As you know, a catastrophic war ended the world as we know it, but there is still hope for people like you, who have survived the decades following the bombs.”
“You hearing this?” Kade asked Johnny.
“Loud and clear.”
“Sunshine and fertile soil await those willing to make the dangerous journey across the ocean and through the storms that ravage the skies,” Krista said. “But that journey will be worth the risk if you arrive here safely and join the thousands of survivors living in paradise.”
“You got to be dreaming,” Kade whispered. He held up his computer and took a picture of the map that replaced the woman’s face. On it was a place called Tanzania, and a mountain named Kilimanjaro.
“Hell yeah, Cowboy Kade! You might have just saved . . .” Johnny’s words died away. He grunted, then cried out. “Oh, shit . . . What the hell is—”
A scream resonated through the forest, followed by the crack of a rifle.
“Johnny,” Kade said. “Johnny, god damn it, answer me.”
He lowered his wrist computer and dashed out of the room, his rifle banging against his chest armor with every step. By his helmet light, he ran back up the stairs, down the tunnels, and through the vehicle depot.
By the time he got to the entrance, Johnny wasn’t answering on the comms.
Kade checked his beacon. It was still online.
He ran through the forest and didn’t stop until he got within earshot of Johnny’s position. He was in the field somewhere, not far from their supply crate.
Kade kept low and moved out in the weeds.
“Johnny,” he whispered.
A grunt answered.
Kade moved over to it and found the diver lying on his back, without his helmet. It lay a few feet away, the visor crushed and gouges on the side.
Not five feet away, a massive boar with coarse black hair and wicked curling tusks lay on the ground, bleeding from multiple holes in its head.
The beast wasn’t breathing—according to the life scanner, dead.
Kade moved back to his comrade.
“I’m screwed,” Johnny whispered. “I’m screwed, aren’t I, mate?”
He checked him for injuries, but somehow, it seemed that his helmet had taken the brunt of the attack.
“No, you’ll be okay,” Kade said. “We just got to patch up your helmet before we get in the air.”
Johnny reached out to him. “No, man, you don’t get it.”
“What?” Kade looked him over, still not seeing any injuries.
“I can’t feel anything below my nuts,” Johnny said.
Now Kade saw the awkward angle of his legs.
“You’ll be okay,” Kade assured him. He moved over to the supply crate and pulled out a gear bag. Inside was a lifesaver: duct tape.
Working quickly, he taped up the shattered visor and helped Johnny put it back on. Then he gently helped him up. The absence of any pain wasn’t good.
“I’m sorry,” Johnny said, sobbing. “I’m sorry I ran.”
“It’s okay, just shut up and focus on getting back to the ship. I’m going to hit your booster once I get you up, okay?”
Johnny gave a hesitant nod. “Aye.”
“On three.”
Kade reached over the rookie’s shoulder and hit his booster.
The balloon popped out, filled with helium, and yanked Johnny skyward.
“See ya up there,” Kade said.
He picked up their weapons and put them back in the supply container, then loaded their gear. Before he could finish, the bioscanner on his wrist computer chirped.
He worked faster, securing the crate and hitting the boosters. The balloons filled and lifted the crate skyward.
With his six-shooter in one hand, he reached over his back to his booster but stopped when he saw what his scanner had detected.
Out of the tree line strode an old-world beast that looked remarkably like the ones he remembered from library books.
It was a black horse with a thick, dark hide, dappled with white spots that reminded him of a star-filled sky.
The magnificent creature looked at him for a long moment, then trotted away.
Kade remained there for another moment before he finally hit his booster. As he rose into the air, he saw the horse running through an open field. It then vanished into thick woods.
“Wow,” Kade whispered.
He shifted his gaze to the chipped faces of the presidents, then to the blue glow of Johnny’s battery pack, already a thousand feet above Kade.
A promise was a promise. He was getting the man home, even if he was a wanker and a coward. And they were bringing back a message that could change everything—if it was real.
Nineteen
Twenty-four hours had passed since they boarded the ITC Ranger, and now Michael was back on Raven’s Claw, ordered there after Timothy reported a breakthrough that was being kept confidential for now.
Michael promised Layla he wouldn’t put himself at risk again, and here he was, just days after surviving the hurricane. Being this close to the AI of the man who destroyed the Old World, whether he was still dangerous or not, seemed a betrayal of that fresh promise.
But until the threat of Tyron Red was removed, their entire future was at risk. And they needed the nuclear-powered ITC Ranger to set up outposts, starting in Panama.
Michael had faith that Timothy could figure a way to cleanse the other AI from the vessel.
Holding a laser rifle in his robotic hand, Michael watched out the viewport while they waited. Lightning flashed over the ITC Ranger, illuminating the long flight deck and the superstructure that made it look like a city on the water.
He couldn’t see much besides the silhouette of the vessel, but he could hear what was happening onboard, thanks to the connection to Cricket, Lieutenant Wynn, and Timothy.
A few feet behind Michael stood X, Rodger, Steve, and a small crew monitoring the channel and live feed.
“Okay,” X said. “Stand by for transmission.”
Michael turned from the window and made his way to the main monitor in the center of the command center. The screen flickered online with a live feed from the ITC Ranger. Lieutenant Wynn faced the camera, the blue glow of Timothy’s hologram illuminating his strained features.
“King Xavier,” Wynn said, “Timothy has finally completed his full scans of the systems and discovered the access code. And he believes he can purge Tyron from the system, but to do that, we must turn on the original power source.”
Michael crowded behind the monitor.
“What do you think?” X asked.
It took Michael a second to realize that X was talking to him.
“I think that’s above my pay grade, as they used to say,” Michael said.
X cracked a half grin, then put a hand on his shoulder.
“There will come a day when you have to make decisions like this,” he said. “Today is one of them.”
“Okay.” Michael gulped. “We came this far, so we give Timothy a chance, and if anything goes awry, we get Wynn and his men out of there and send the Ranger to the bottom with the defectors.”
“I agree.” X pulled his hand away. “Lieutenant, bring the power back online, and tell Timothy to proceed.”
The screen grew brighter as the switch was flipped. A background voice came over the feed.
“What is your name, user?”
It was Tyron again.
“Timothy Pepper. User code, nine-four-three-four-four-tango-foxtrot-alpha-zulu-ten.”
“Access code accepted,” Tyron said. “However, Timothy Pepper, I’m not familiar with you. What is your origin?”
“I lived at the Hilltop Bastion before my body was destroyed,” Timothy replied. “I have been assigned to the ITC Ranger and will now be replacing you as the operating system.”
Michael looked to a second monitor as a count started.
“That’s the deletion?” X asked.
“Yes,” Michael replied. “Looks like it’ll take few minutes.”
The numbers ticked up from 1 percent to 5.
“Ah, so you are like me, the descendant of a human?” Tyron asked.
“Indeed I am. However, I am a protector of humanity, while you will go down in history as its destroyer, and for that reason—”
“I did not intend for this to happen,” Tyron interrupted. “And the former version that performed these atrocities was wiped out four hundred twenty days ago.”
“He means by the virus?” X asked, looking to Michael.
“Must be.”
“This is taking too long,” Rodger said.
The percent crept up to fifteen, where it seemed to linger.
“I am no longer harmful to humanity,” Tyron said. “What remains of me is stuck in this rusting vessel, to languish for centuries until the nuclear engines cease working and the power goes dark.”
“That is why I’m ending your suffering,” Timothy said.
Michael almost smiled. He now knew exactly what Timothy was doing.
“I can do that myself, but I still have a duty to this vessel to ensure it does not fall into enemy hands. So tell me, Timothy Pepper, are you friend or enemy?”
“I am a friend of humanity, and those here with me need this vessel to ensure their survival.”
“They are soldiers, are they not?”
“Indeed, they are.”
“Soldiers of war—the reason humanity is extinct.”
“No,” Timothy said. “These soldiers are protectors—guardians, if you will.”
Tyron went suddenly quiet. The figure on the monitor hit 20 percent, where it remained.
Michael and X exchanged a glance.
“Uh,” Wynn suddenly said, “I think something’s happening.”
Captain Two Skulls brought up his binoculars as an officer at the helm shouted.
“She’s moving,” the officer said.
“What’s moving?” X asked.
“The ITC Ranger, King Xavier,” replied Captain Two Skulls.
He handed the binos to X.
“I didn’t tell Timothy to move it,” X said.
“He’s not,” Michael said. “Son of a bitch. Tyron is doing it now that the power’s restored.”
“Arm weapons systems,” X said. “Point everything we got at it, and get Lieutenant Wynn and his team out of there now.”
Timothy came back on the channel.
“Sir, Tyron has gone offline,” he said. “Something happened. It must be some sort of failsafe that didn’t appear in my scans.”
X cursed under his breath.
“Stop the ship,” he said.
“I can’t, sir.” There was fear in the AI’s voice. And something else—shock, perhaps.
“Where’s it headed?” X asked.
“Toward us,” replied the captain.
“Get us out of the path,” X said. He stepped up to the window, and Michael joined him.
In the wake of lightning flashes, they could see th
e carrier powering through the waves and picking up speed.
“Lieutenant Wynn’s team is almost off,” Timothy said. “I will remain here and try to take control of the ship.”
“It’s picking up speed, Captain,” said another officer.
The CIC buzzed with activity and voices as the crew worked to get out of the far bigger, faster carrier’s path.
Michael remained at the window, staring in horror at the bow of the ITC Ranger, coming right at them.
“Turn!” X shouted. “¡Vámonos!”
“I am!” Captain Two Skulls yelled back.
The carrier quickly closed the distance, its bow towering over them. Raven’s Claw was bearing hard to starboard, but not fast enough, as Michael could see.
They were about to be sheared in half.
A wall of water pushed up against the bow of the ITC Ranger as it powered toward them. Some of the crew abandoned their stations, preparing to jump overboard, but Michael stood right there with the king and Rodger as Captain Two Skulls threatened to execute the next person who ran.
“Turn, turn, turn!” Rodger yelled. He covered his glasses with his hands, but Michael watched the ITC Ranger sail right past the stern, so close that its bow wave splashed Raven’s Claw.
The ship groaned from the strain on its hull as the massive carrier rolled on across the ocean.
“Missed us!” Michael said, tapping Rodger, who pulled a hand away from his face to peek.
“Where’s it going?” X asked, rushing over to a radar monitor.
“The Vanguard Islands,” Captain Two Skulls said.
Realization hit Michael and nearly bowled him over. “The weapon is the carrier,” he said. “Tyron probably plans to scuttle the ship once he reaches the islands.”
“The nuclear reactors . . .” Rodger said.
“What kind of damage would that cause?” X asked.
Michael didn’t even want to say, because he had a hard time believing it himself.
“Chief Engineer Everhart,” X said firmly. “What kind of damage?”
“It would turn us into a red zone, sir.” His own words chilled him.
“This can’t be happening,” Rodger said. “We have to set off those charges.”
Hell Divers Series | Book 8 | King of the Wastes Page 26