“Help me,” he said. He uncovered the surface and then tugged on a handle to free the box. Katrina took the other side, and together they hoisted it out of the snow.
Flipping the lid, X wasted no time. He tossed the supplies and weapons into the snow to make room for the cells and valves. Weaver stooped down and picked up one of the extra boosters. After locking it in, he retrieved spare magazines and stuffed them into his vest.
“Hurry,” X said, stowing the cases inside. Then he set the valves over the top. Using the straps, he secured the goods.
“We got a problem,” Weaver shouted. “A big fucking problem!”
X glanced up and followed Weaver’s rifle muzzle to the east. Dozens of winged Sirens flew across the industrial zone, moving in a V formation straight toward the divers.
“Grab a gun,” X said. He flipped the lid shut and punched in his key code on the security panel. With a loud pop, two balloons shot out of the external boosters, expanding as they filled with helium. The crate rose into a sky alive with Sirens.
“Clear a path, but don’t shoot the crate!” X shouted. He stood beside Katrina and aimed his weapon. They came together back to back, moving as one. Magnolia and Weaver took up position a few feet away.
The crack of gunfire rang out in all directions. Bullets shredded wings, sending the fliers spiraling down. Some swooped away, but others soared directly into the incoming fire, shrieking their high-pitched cries. Lightning flashed overhead as the sky rained monsters. X grinned in spite of himself.
Eighty yards out, a single survivor landed and folded its wings into its back. “Someone shoot that one!” X shouted as it broke into a gallop. He pulled an empty magazine and reached for another.
Weaver fired two rounds into the creature, and it somersaulted and lay still in the snow.
X watched the crate vanish into the clouds. It could take a lot of abuse, but he still found himself praying it got back to the Hive in one piece, and that the Hive was still up there to retrieve it. He had put the gunshot he heard during the first seconds of the dive out of his mind—until now.
“That’s the last of ’em,” Weaver said. “What’s your plan now?”
X continued to look skyward. Hades had killed a lot of Hell Divers today, but despite the odds, they had completed their objective. Life would go on in the sky, at least for a while.
He turned away from the clouds to look back at the frozen city behind them. Hundreds of black dots rose above the skyline. The intermittent lightning flashes revealed a swarm of Sirens sailing away from the buildings.
X had never really imagined he would get to utter the words that left his mouth next. “Time to get the fuck out of here and go home.”
The Hive shook fiercely. The storm had completely engulfed the ship. Captain Ash clung to the wheel, but her throat burned so badly, she could hardly concentrate. It felt as if someone were holding a flame against her esophagus.
“Thirty-five thousand feet, Captain!” Jordan shouted.
The walls screeched in protest, and LEDs flickered overhead. Amid the chaos, Ash heard a familiar voice in her earpiece. “Captain, I’m not sure how much more of this she can take!”
It was Samson, and he sounded defeated.
“Do whatever you have to, to keep us in the air,” Ash said. “I don’t care if you have to climb outside and flap your arms.”
“I’ve done everything but that,” he said. “I’m sorry, Cap. This is it.”
“God damn it,” Ash shouted into her mic. “I need you, Samson. Screw your head back on straight. You’re a fighter!”
She pulled up on the wheel as far as it would go. The bow was at sixty degrees now. An explosion burst from a far corner of the room. Screams broke over the wailing sirens.
“We’re almost clear of the storm!” Jordan yelled. “Another two thousand feet and we’re home free!”
Ash scrutinized the main display. It blinked as if taunting her.
“Captain, I’m picking up a signal over Hades,” Ryan shouted.
She turned, scarcely daring to allow the thought. Could it be X? Could the divers really be on their way back?
“It’s a crate!” Ryan yelled. “The divers have sent back one of the crates!”
Ash felt a tentative wash of relief, but they weren’t out of this yet.
“Plot me an intercept course as soon as we get above the storm,” she replied.
“Captain Maria?”
Ash ignored the voice and concentrated on the main display. The data had solidified: they were two hundred feet from clearing the storm.
The voice came again. “Captain Maria?”
The glare of annoyance faded into a soft smile when she saw Tin looking back at her from the captain’s chair.
“What is it, Tin?” she said in a voice loud enough to be heard over the sirens.
“Is X coming home?”
“I hope so,” she replied. “Hang on tight, okay? I have a special surprise for you.”
“What kind of surprise?”
“I’m going to show you the sun.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Everywhere X looked, the ground was littered with the smoldering bodies of Sirens. The divers had killed those in the industrial zone, but the explosion from the ITC building had attracted the creatures from the heart of the city like vultures to a kill. Wave after wave sailed across the horizon in a mass migration of beating wings that seemed to block out the skyscrapers behind them.
“Get in the sky!” X shouted. He peered up into the maelstrom. Even if they could escape the Sirens, they would still have to make it through the lightning. They were trading one hell for another, but they had no choice. There was only one way home, and that was up, into the soup.
X watched the approaching monsters with mixed dread and fascination. For a moment, their unearthly shrieks sounded like a warning for the divers to stay away from the raging storm—a warning that X didn’t heed.
“Deploy!” X shouted. “Deploy your fucking boosters right now!”
Weaver didn’t need to be told twice. He punched his booster, yelling in a hysterical voice about hell and leaving the wretched place. Katrina followed Weaver into the air, but Magnolia hesitated, staring at the Sirens soaring toward them.
“I said GO!” X yelled. He swung her around, but she had already punched own booster. They locked gazes for an instant—enough time for him to see the raw terror in her eyes. Then she was gone, lifted into the air, screaming at the top of her lungs.
X pivoted away, raised his rifle, and aimed at the first wave. Beyond it, a dozen more V formations were sailing in over the industrial zone. There must be hundreds of the monsters, and judging by their energized screeches, they didn’t want the divers to leave Hades.
X fired into the first wave. The rounds lanced across their flight path, catching the Sirens out in front by surprise. Several died instantly, their lumpy bodies spiraling toward the snow. Others took their place at the front of the line and climbed above the spray.
X squeezed the trigger selectively, focusing his fire on the nucleus of the formation. He killed three more before he was forced to replace the spent magazine. Katrina’s panicked voice crackled in his earpiece as he reached for another.
“X, get in the air!”
“I’m right behind you!” he yelled. He had to kill as many of them as he could before he hit his booster, since shooting when airborne was much trickier. He slammed another magazine into the gun, pulled the slide, and fired into the next wave until he had broken the formation.
The monsters spiraled earthward as X prepared to take to the sky. Letting out a deep breath, he reached over his shoulder and activated his ride home. The balloon exploded from the canister, filled with helium, and catapulted him toward the storm.