Michael put the receiver down and looked out the viewports. Pinpricks of fire burned from barrels on the distant rigs—a reminder that the power was still off since the storm.
He wanted to believe that everything would be okay, that they would restore the power and replenish their food depots. But how often did things go to plan? And there were still threats aplenty—from the storms, from the wastes, and from some people, even here at the islands.
The fight for survival wasn’t over. Far from it.
Epilogue
“I got eyes on a contact,” Kade said. “Proceed with caution.”
He crouched in the hull of a rusted-out vehicle, holding an infrared scope up to his face shield. A white heat signature came onto his screen: a beast hidden partly behind a tree trunk.
“Is it Jo-Jo?” Magnolia asked.
She was behind Kade with Arlo and Tia, all of them lying prone in the six-foot weeds that grew up through cracks in the road. A squad of Cazador soldiers was out here, too, led by Sergeant Slayer, although Kade couldn’t see them.
“Kade,” Magnolia said.
“I can’t tell if it’s Jo-Jo, but whatever it is, it’s human size,” Kade said, watching the creature.
“Is it a Siren?” Arlo asked.
“I don’t think so,” Kade replied.
He knew that the monsters were out here, but so far the Sirens were keeping their distance from the Cazador army and the Hell Divers.
The search for Jo-Jo had been ongoing since her handler, Ada, fell to her death over a week ago. Shortly thereafter, the animal had taken off with her body into the underground labyrinth, making an already dicey rescue mission nearly impossible.
Since then, her beacon had fled into the radiation red zone of Panama City. But earlier this morning, the beacon had inched closer to the outpost built at Fort Kobbe at the west end of the canal.
Kade had put together a volunteer mission to retrieve the monkey and bring her home. It wasn’t just for sentimental value. Jo-Jo was the best hunter, and an even better alarm system than Miles. Kade knew from experience that such talents could make all the difference in the wastes, and this was just the beginning of what would be many more missions out here.
Lightning webbed across the canopy, one of its forks splitting a tree not a quarter mile away. Kade switched the infrared off on the binos and zoomed in. His heart leaped when he saw that the creature wasn’t a monster.
Two weeks after taking the canal, they had finally found the animal.
“Eyes on Jo-Jo,” Kade said over the comms. “Moving in.”
“Here,” Magnolia said, pulling a banana from her bag. “She seemed to like you better than me.”
“Maybe this is a bad idea,” Arlo said. “Maybe we should just let her be in the wild where she was born. There’s no telling what’s in that jungle.”
“Maybe you should try following orders,” Magnolia said.
Kade chuckled. “Not really your strong suit, is it, mate?”
“Damn, you got me,” Arlo replied.
Magnolia motioned everyone back but Kade. He took the fruit and started out through the weeds, toward the jungle.
Bird calls fluted through the canopy, and a growling noise stopped him in his tracks for a few seconds. With a cutlass in one hand and his revolver in the other, he worked his way between hummocks of grass and weeds until he got to the clearing.
The monkey peeked out from behind the tree as he came closer to the radioactive jungle.
“Hi, Jo-Jo,” Kade called out. “I’m here to take you home.”
A howl answered him, and he hesitated again. They had already killed two of the little shelled beasts on the way here, and they would likely encounter more, but Kade wasn’t about to turn back now. He owed it to Ada after the tragic accident that led to her rope breaking and her plummeting to her death.
He blamed himself for leaving Tia, Ada, and Gran Jefe alone to provide covering fire for Team Raptor. If he had stayed, maybe they would have seen the creature come out of a tunnel and cut her rope. By the time he arrived on the scene, Ada was dead and Jo-Jo had dragged her body deep into the tunnels.
Finding the monkey and bringing her back to the outpost was the least Kade could do for Ada. But suppose Arlo was right. What if the beast was better off out here?
Kade pushed the thought aside. He kept walking toward the jungle with an overripe banana in hand. He waved it enticingly. “Come and get it.”
Jo-Jo moved from around the base of a tree and started toward Kade, moving tentatively on all fours. Her muscular front legs bulged with each step.
Two shrieks echoed in the distance, distracting the monkey.
“It’s okay,” Kade said.
She looked back to him and took a few steps closer.
“That’s it,” he said. “Come on, just a little bit farther.”
He held the banana out, and she snatched it from his hands, backing away and gobbling it down, blackened skin and all.
“Come with me, and I’ll give you more,” Kade said.
He pulled out another banana and had started backing up when his comms crackled.
“We have orders to get back to the outpost,” Slayer said. “Pack it up and hurry back.”
“Why?” Magnolia replied.
“Radiation spike.”
“Copy that.”
Magnolia trotted over to Kade.
“We need to move,” she said.
Kade noticed the uptick in radiation on his HUD. They still didn’t know what was causing it, but something in the city was still producing an extremely high radioactive output. That could have explained the mutant creatures in the zone, and the radioactive former humans that Team Raptor had encountered on the ship, but Kade was no scientist, and no one seemed to know yet what they were.
“Come on, please, Jo-Jo,” he wheedled.
The monkey looked over its shoulder at the skyline of ruins, almost as if it could sense something. Then she slowly made her way to Kade.
“That’s it,” he said.
He eased his other hand to the tranquilizer gun, just in case, but the monkey didn’t run off. It moved in front of him and Magnolia, looking up.
Magnolia crouched and reached out, meeting the animal’s clawed finger.
“It’s okay, girl,” she said. “You’re safe now, but you need to come with us.”
The monkey was slow at first, but it followed them back toward the road, where the other divers stood. From there, they trekked through an old boatyard that had already provided the Vanguard military with much-needed parts to take back to the islands.
Slayer was glassing the city with a pair of binos from the crow’s nest of an old mast that stuck straight up out of the dirt. He climbed down and motioned for the divers to follow.
“We need to haul ass to the outpost,” he said.
Three soldiers armed with flamethrowers came out of the shadows, and the group took off through the industrial zone, past half-buried boats and shipping containers.
On the other side of a destroyed crane, an APC engine rumbled. A cargo truck also waited, its engine firing up when the driver saw them.
“Let’s move,” Slayer said. “Vámonos.”
Kade got into the back of the truck with Jo-Jo and the divers while Slayer and his men piled into the armored personnel carrier. The two trucks pulled away, jostling over the lumpy dirt.
Kade checked on Jo-Jo, who sat on the floor, looking down. The monkey was clearly depressed from losing Ada. There was no telling what it had been through in the wastes for the past two weeks.
“Contacts at three o’clock,” Slayer said over the team comm.
Kade peered through the window with his night-vision goggles, scanning the wastes. Switching to infrared, he saw a herd of mutant deer galloping through an open field of beached and battered boats.
The APC kept its distance, with a gunner in the turret watching them, but the herd wasn’t coming toward the vehicles. Rather, they seemed to be fleeing something.
Kade relaxed and turned back to Jo-Jo. She was looking at Arlo.
“I’m sorry about Ada,” he said. “I liked her, too.”
The truck lurched and swayed over rough terrain, evening out as the tires met the new road to the outpost. Two weeks earlier, they had put a blade on a half-track and bulldozed a road for traffic to and from the shipyard.
When they finally got back to the canal, Kade could see the results of those raids. A crane swung up another shipping container full of salvaged supplies onto the Immortal, destined for the Vanguard Islands. There were all sorts of treasures, including wind turbine blades and solar panels, and pipe and galvanized sheet steel and fiberglass panels and a whole manifest of other items Chief Engineer Michael Everhart had requested for repairing the rigs.
Raven’s Claw was also there—docked at an actual seaport, no less, with the Octopus in the next berth. But they weren’t heading back with supplies. Rumors were floating around the outpost that King Xavier had other plans for the ships.
The truck took a bridge across the canal to the outpost. Metal and concrete walls surrounded the five-acre compound of six buildings and an underground bunker.
There was little sign of it now, but this place had once been a foreign military base, Fort Kobbe, decommissioned in the 2000s and taken over by the Panamanian government.
A pair of sentries opened the gate, and they passed under two guard towers with snipers and machine guns.
A few seconds later, the truck ground to a stop. Slayer opened the back hatch, and Jo-Jo hopped down with the Hell Divers.
Engines rumbled across the camp as Cazadores and sky people operated arc welders and hoists to restore the structures. A bulldozer pushed up a berm of dirt and rubble to form a barrier, and a crane stacked empty containers to form a wall.
Thick orange tents with radiation shielding formed temporary quarters for the soldiers stationed at the outpost. The material rippled in the strong breeze.
The divers and Jo-Jo followed Slayer and his squad down a dirt road, toward a concrete bunker built into a hill. Two .50-caliber machine guns guarded the entrance—one from the road, the other from the top of the mound.
Blast doors groaned and clicked as the bars disarmed to reveal a wide roadway that went underground. Kade glanced over his shoulder to make sure Jo-Jo was still following. She was hobbling along, curious but cautious.
The road leveled out into a long passage that ended at another pair of doors. These opened, and the group stepped into a decontamination chamber. Magnolia fed Jo-Jo another banana before the system clicked on.
The animal didn’t like the hissing gases and chemical bath, but then, neither did the divers.
Thirty minutes later, they entered the facility marked by a plaque that read outpost vanguard gateway. The hallways bustled with staff working to restore the base’s internal systems. Power from the Immortal’s nuclear plant was running critical systems, including the air handlers to keep toxins out. Batteries and a generator would keep it going after the supercarrier left.
Kade went with Jo-Jo to the barracks, where he changed out of his suit and into his clothes. He pulled his cowboy hat over his long hair.
“Commander Katib, you’re needed at the CIC,” said Slayer. He nodded to Kade. “You, too, Commander Long.”
“What about Jo-Jo?” Magnolia asked.
“I’ll keep an eye on her, don’t worry,” Arlo said.
“Give her some more food, water, and a bunk.”
“You got it, Commander.”
Kade and Magnolia followed Slayer toward the command center, stopping just outside.
The steel doors were open, revealing a small room with four long tables configured in a rectangle. The hologram of Timothy Peppers stood between the tables, his glow illuminating the people seated there.
Sitting around the conjoined tables were Rodger, Captain Two Skulls, Captain Rolo, Executive Officer Eevi Corey, and Yejun. General Forge was facing a monitor next to King Xavier. It was the first time Kade had seen the general since the battle that almost killed him. His scarred features glistened with the nanotech gel that was helping his skin grow back after his devastating burns.
He wasn’t the only one who had suffered grave injuries. Bromista was here after taking the first steps with his new prosthetic legs. As soon as he saw Slayer, he stood and pounded his chest, stumbling but managing to keep his balance.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Slayer said in the doorway. “I have Commanders Katib and Long outside.”
“Bring them in,” X said.
Slayer motioned the divers inside. Kade and Magnolia both stood at attention and saluted.
“At ease,” X said. “I’ll get right to it.”
Miles looked out from under X’s chair before going back down on his paws for a nap.
“Tonight, I leave for the Vanguard Islands with the first cargo of supplies,” X said. “Bromista, we are promoting you to lieutenant. You will remain here, supervising construction of the outpost and conducting foraging raids into the city. Eventually, I will appoint a civilian director of this outpost, but for now, Bromista is in charge of all operations.”
Bromista simply stared until Forge translated.
“Gracias, King Xavier,” Bromista said.
“Be cautious of the radiation spikes,” X said. “They are coming from the heart of Panama City, and we still don’t know what’s causing them.”
“We know why the beasts here were so big,” Rodger said.
“And we know they are all dead now,” Slayer added.
Forge translated to Bromista, who pounded his chest. “I protect,” he said.
X went to the maps recovered by Team Raptor.
“When I return to the islands, I will meet with the council to discuss these locations.” He tapped a finger on the first map. “Yejun’s people believed there was supplies at the Buenaventura Port, west of Cali, in Columbia. That is the closer option . . .”
X moved to the next map, which had a trident symbol marked on the ocean just off the east coast.
“This is the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, where Yejun’s people believed there is an underwater city,” X continued. “The same place that I believe the Cazadores call ‘the Coral Castle.’ I’ve seen the sword they took from the man who first spoke of this place. It had this same trident engraved in the blade. Now, we don’t know where this place is, exactly, other than this trident marking on the map, but we do know there were three ITC research facilities across the reef, and one of them could be the location of the Coral Castle.”
Kade stood up for a better look of the place his ancestors once called home.
“King Xavier,” Rolo began, “that’s halfway around the—”
“World. I know, and I would walk there myself if it meant keeping everyone alive,” X replied firmly.
“I understand, but you said these ITC facilities ‘might’ be the location of the Coral Castle.”
X gave Captain Rolo the full intensity of his gaze.
“Captain, if you’re going to question everything I say and do, then perhaps you should consider stepping down from your position,” X said. “I need a selfless captain, who isn’t afraid of making tough decisions. Someone like your XO.”
Eevi Corey stiffened in her seat.
Rolo glared at X. “I’m looking out for my people, who, based on our current inventory of supplies, are months away from starving,” he said. “I’m told the situation back at the islands is grave, with horrid conditions, and we still don’t have food, nor do we know for certain there will be any at this port south of Cali, and furthermore, you really have no idea where this underground city even is, only th
at it is ten thousand miles from our current location.”
“The supplies we’re sending back will help us in the short-term,” X replied. “I’m thinking about the long term. You have a decision to make, Captain.”
Kade saw the anger in Rolo’s face. It was the same look he had seen many times as a diver years ago. But this time, Kade didn’t agree with the captain.
X was right. They had to keep searching for a food source, or the next bad storm could be the end of the Vanguard Islands.
An alarm suddenly blared. Miles shot up from under the table.
“What the hell?” Rodger said.
Slayer unslung his rifle and went to the door. “Wait here!” he yelled.
The doors closed, sealing them inside for a few tense moments. A few moments later, they opened and Slayer entered.
“Something’s happening in the barracks—a fight,” he said.
“Let’s go,” X said.
Kade bolted out of the command center with the others.
A howling echoed through the facility. At first, he feared that a monster had somehow gotten inside, but he quickly recognized Jo-Jo’s voice. And a deep, angry human voice that had to be Gran Jefe’s.
They entered the barracks to find the monkey and the Cazador wrestling on the ground while the other Hell Divers and staff stood in a circle, watching.
“What the fuck is going on here!” X yelled.
Miles ran over, barking.
Kade ran over as Jo-Jo pummeled Gran Jefe with fists and bit off a piece of his ear.
The monkey raised both fists to finish him, then seemed to lose interest.
Instead of delivering the death blow, she reached over her shoulder, trying to remove a small dart that hung there. She lowered her other fist and slumped off Gran Jefe.
He got up and pulled his cutlass, raising it and screaming.
X brought up his metal arm and deflected the blow away from the unconscious animal. “Back off!” he yelled.
Gran Jefe turned the weapon on X, placing the blade at his throat.
“Put it down!” Slayer shouted.
Kade stepped up behind Gran Jefe and put the muzzle of his six-shooter just behind the big man’s ear. “Do it now, dickhead, or I’ll turn your fat head into jam.”
Hell Divers Series | Book 8 | King of the Wastes Page 45