Rhino couldn’t take that chance.
He handed the binos back to a militia soldier and picked up his spear. Worried sick about Sofia, and worried sick about the Vanguard Islands, Rhino was about at his breaking point.
Across the rooftop, a platoon of militia soldiers patrolled in the rising sunlight. On the way to the stairwell, he passed another patrol. With so much security outside, it would be easier to get to the brig.
Rhino took the stairs down several floors to the cells. As he had suspected, no one was guarding the entrance. Part of him wished there were a guard, someone to stop him from doing what he had to do—from doing what X should already have done. Ada had to pay for her crime, and it fell to him to exact payment.
His heart pounded with adrenaline but also with fear as he waited outside, considering his decision one last time. He never felt like this before battle, not even when facing monsters. But this wasn’t a battle. This was murder.
“No,” he said aloud. “This is justice.”
Rhino opened the barred gate to the cell-lined corridor and walked inside. Ada was the only prisoner being held here. No one but her to see what he was about to do.
He leaned his spear against the wall and pulled his knife from the sheath on his belt. The long sawtooth blade had killed dozens of men, but he had never used it to execute someone in cold blood, let alone a young, defenseless woman.
He looked for the key ring near the door but didn’t see it on the hook. Then he checked the dark passage between cells and saw the key ring, hanging from one of the cell doors.
“Ah, shit!” he said, hurrying over to the unlocked door.
“I knew you’d come,” said a familiar voice from inside the cell.
X lay on the bed, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Miles lay on the floor, head between his paws.
“King Xavier,” Rhino stuttered.
X sat up. Then he stood up and let out a sigh.
“Where is Ada?” Rhino asked.
“Gone,” X said.
Rhino opened the rusting door and stood in the entry. “Gone where?”
“I gave her a rifle, gear, provisions, a map, and a boat with oars and some fuel,” X replied. He walked over to stand in front of Rhino. “I decided exile is the best punishment, but you have to understand, I couldn’t kill her in cold blood.”
Rhino stepped closer to the king.
“That’s not my way,” X said. “That’s not our way.”
They came face-to-face. This wasn’t their first time. The last time was on the boat, just before the battle for the Metal Islands, before they were bonded by bloodshed. He had wondered whether X was going to kill him then, and he wondered the same thing now.
“She escaped justice,” Rhino said.
“Justice,” X said with a snort. “There is no justice here. There will never be justice when you have the Sky Arena, and people owning other people.”
Rhino didn’t step back.
“She’ll probably die out there,” X said, “but I gave her the same chance you give your people in the Sky Arena, without risking more bloodshed.”
He shook his head wearily and looked back to the barred window. “Ada killed the soldiers who killed Katrina,” X said. “It was cowardly, and it was wrong, but it’s done.”
“You shouldn’t have let her go.”
“I could have let her rot here, but I knew you would come for her, and if you had killed her, then whatever bond we have would be broken. So I removed the opportunity, and we’ll leave it at that.”
Rhino clenched his jaw, suppressing the flash of rage that made him want to knock the king’s lights out. He had sworn loyalty to X, but the guy was driving him crazy with some of his decisions.
“Consider her dead,” X said. “Chances are, she won’t last long out there.”
Rhino’s eyes narrowed. He still believed in the old warrior’s vision for rebuilding the islands and expanding the economy to provide food and shelter for everyone. But Rhino wasn’t sure the two societies could live in peace, even with the common threat of the defectors and, now, the skinwalkers.
“You planning on using that knife still?” X asked, looking down at the blade.
“Not on you,” Rhino said. “Guess I’ll save it for Vargas.”
The moment of tension passed. Rhino wondered whether X was going to punish him. Did X even still trust him?
But the king just shrugged and said, “Better get a move on it. We’ve got some planning to do, I’ve got Hell Divers to train, and I have a ton of other shit to shovel before I head to the trading post with you and your four badass Barracudas.”
Rhino stepped to the side, letting X and Miles pass. When they were gone, he looked at the empty cell and bed. He knew he had to let the past go, but he had a feeling it was still going to haunt him, one way or another.
Magnolia ran, dripping tears and sweat. Arlo, Alexander, and Edgar—all dead. And so were most of the Cazadores.
Another soldier had vanished an hour ago. Now it was just her, Rodger, General Santiago, Lieutenant Alejo, and the injured grunt soldier, Ruiz.
Something was hunting them, taking them quietly, one at a time. A Siren, perhaps, maybe something else. Rio de Janeiro was a haven for Sirens, bone beasts, and a zoo of other mutant creatures, along with some truly bizarre plant life. One thing was clear: this was their turf, and the divers were unwelcome guests. Or welcome, perhaps, as meat on the hoof.
Coming down here in two teams had been a mistake. They should have stuck together all along. Then they might have had a chance to reach the target.
They were only two blocks from the location. Michael and Sofia weren’t far, but their beacons were moving at a crawl.
Magnolia’s group was no longer moving in combat intervals, but in single file, keeping close so the monsters couldn’t snatch anyone else away into the darkness.
The electronic wail of a Siren echoed in the distance. The beasts were active again. She still thought those were the predators picking off her team one at a time. Maybe there was an alpha unlike any they had come across in the wastes.
The defectors wouldn’t take them out individually. Neither would the bone beasts. One of those things could kill their entire group if it managed to trap them in a room. But the Sirens were stealth hunters.
Magnolia slipped around a fallen door lintel into a space overgrown with vegetation. The purple-and-red vines had run riot inside the office building, pushing over desks and breaking through walls. The team kept clear of the spiny bulbs that grew like bark on the scaly skin. She didn’t want to find out what would happen if they got too close.
Broken glass doors led to a business that had served coffee. She looked at the faded green mermaid logo on the ground. Paper cups and plastic spoons were strewn about as if a hurricane had blown through. Two tables remained standing. Everything else was upended or smashed.
Alejo waded through the debris to the missing front door, to check the street. Glowing vines pulsated on the road, rhythmically lighting up and dimming the twilit room.
“I think the divers are somewhere out there,” Magnolia whispered, pointing.
“And the target is around the next block,” Rodger said. “We should link up with Michael and Sofia first, then—”
Alejo cut him off. “We link up with your divers; then we get the hell out of here,” he said. “Pray our boat is still waiting with my men.”
“My boat,” Magnolia said.
Alejo’s helmet rotated toward her. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, sweetheart, but the mission has failed. We’re getting picked off like flies.”
“And what’s the general have to say?” Magnolia asked.
Alejo spoke to Santiago in a hushed voice. The old warrior cradled his double-barreled shotgun and said, “Sigamos. Cumplamos la misión.”