“Hey, boy!” she called out.
Miles trotted over, tail wagging.
“Nice of you two to show up,” X said, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Sorry, we…” Magnolia said.
X had already turned to other things. Normally, she would have expected him to be hungover, but he hadn’t drunk a single drop last night and even looked well rested.
“I need to talk to you both,” he said. “A lot has happened since last night.”
He motioned for them to follow him over to the marina, where the Hell Divers were loading the last of the supplies to take to Discovery.
X kept walking until he got to the moored Sea Wolf. A humming sound came from inside the vessel. He hopped over the railing and into the cabin.
Magnolia and Rodger followed, passing the kitchen where she had cooked shark, and the bedroom where she had spent many restless nights. The hatch closed behind them, and X locked it from the inside.
In the control room, she was surprised to find Michael welding on a robot, so early the morning after he just celebrated his marriage. But she was even more surprised to see Layla helping.
But what shocked Magnolia was what they both were working on.
Michael stood and pushed the goggles up over his fresh crew cut. He wasn’t working on just any robot. Cricket lay on the deck, cords connecting its “torso” to the Sea Wolf ’s display panel.
“Whoa! When did the bot get back?” Rodger asked.
“An hour ago,” Michael said. “Returned on its own, and I’m trying to figure out why. I didn’t even know it was coming back until I woke up.”
“Four thirteen this morning, to be exact,” Layla said with a roll of her eyes.
“Sorry,” Michael said. “I should have checked the signal before we went to bed.”
“If it’s here, then we have no idea if the skinwalkers are still at their outpost,” Magnolia said.
“That’s true,” X said, “but we should have a ton of intel on the Outrider, including where the skinwalkers likely are, and their numbers.”
“Horn and Moreto are there for sure?” Rodger asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Michael said. “The data from Cricket’s mainframe is just now being uploaded to the Sea Wolf ’s computer system.”
“How much longer?” Rodger asked.
“I’m not sure,” Layla said. “We had a problem getting things connected, but we’re good to go now.”
“That’s her job,” Michael said. “I’m trying to fix the outside of our little friend.”
Two of the drone’s four limbs were broken, and the exterior charred and dented. Magnolia was amazed it had even made it back.
“Well, hell, that makes sense!” Layla suddenly said.
“What?” Michael leaned over to look at the monitor on the display panel.
“I figured out why it came back,” she said. “The battery unit was almost dead.”
Michael moved over to the monitor. He shook his head and frowned. “I feel pretty stupid, but now we know why the data hasn’t been uploading quickly—it’s probably on power-saving mode.”
Layla checked a few things on the monitor and nodded. “Yup, that’s exactly why.”
“Can you charge it here?” Magnolia asked.
“Yeah, it just takes longer than it would on Discovery,” Michael said while changing out wires.
“Should we tell General Forge?” Magnolia asked X.
“Not yet.”
They watched Michael and Layla work in silence. Rodger paced impatiently. He stopped as a low wail rose in the distance.
X went rigid, narrowing his brows.
“Is that the emergency siren?” Layla asked, looking up.
“Sure as hell sounds like it,” X growled. He stopped. “Michael, is it also possible Cricket returned because the skinwalkers left the Outrider?”
“Yes, but we won’t know until I get this data downloaded,” Michael said.
“fuck!” X shouted. “Michael, you and Layla get that data downloaded. Rodge and Mags, with me.”
They rushed off the ship and back to where the Hell Divers were getting out their weapons. Ted tightened a bandanna over his silver hair, and Lena loaded a rifle.
“What’s going on?” Arlo shouted.
“Trouble!” X yelled back.
Magnolia ran after X and the others, out into the sunshine. The emergency siren blasted so loud, it hurt her injured eardrum.
Two militia soldiers came running. One held a handset.
“Something set off one of our sensors on the border, King Xavier,” he said.
“Give me the radio,” X said.
The soldier handed it over, and X took off toward the end of a pier, where the armored war boat was waiting. Mac and Felipe were in the bow, feeding belts of ammunition through a hatch in the deck. Both men looked up from their work, covered in grease.
Magnolia and Rodger hopped into the speedboat with X.
“We got a major problem, Colonel,” X said to Mac. “You got those machine guns ready?”
“Almost,” Mac said.
“I need them ready in five minutes,” X said. He went to the controls and fired up the engine.
Mac and Felipe went back to work while Magnolia and Rodger helped unmoor the boat. She untied one of the ropes and tossed it to the dockhand as several militia boats full of soldiers cruised away from the piers.
She untied the last rope and threw it overboard.
“Ready!” Magnolia shouted.
X pushed down on the throttle. Miles barked as they took off, and X yelled over his shoulder for him to stay. Then he turned to Mags and Rodger.
“Get ready,” he said.
Rodger crouched and pulled his small revolver from the holster around his ankle. Magnolia had her sheathed blades and her blaster, but those weren’t going to do much good if the skinwalkers had returned.
She searched for a weapon, but all she saw were the swords and spears Mac and Felipe had placed on the deck.
“I need a…” Magnolia began. Her eyes lit on the .50-caliber machine gun installed in the bow, with a seat and lever that rotated the weapon.
She moved to the bow, past X at the controls, stopping behind Mac and Felipe, who were still feeding ammunition into an open hatch.
X held up a headset to his ear. Then he yelled, “Whatever set off those sensors hasn’t surfaced yet! My guess is subs!”
Magnolia had figured this much already, but hearing it sent a chill down her spine. She climbed into the seat and grabbed the machine gun.
“Almost ready!” Mac called out.
An explosion of water in the distance confirmed their suspicions.
The militia and Cazador vessels that had joined the hunt spread out in various directions, forming a surface net to surround the sub.
“I’ve got you now, you son of a bitch,” she muttered. Closing an eye, she focused the iron sights where she had seen the geyser of ocean water.
“Ready!” Mac said, patting her on the shoulder. He and Felipe both got off the deck and moved behind her with Rodger.
X yelled into his radio, but she couldn’t hear much over the ringing in her ears.
Another blast of water exploded into the air, rising above the militia boats, which had slowed. X also eased off on the throttle but continued straight for the target.
She moved her finger to the trigger.
One of the fishing boats suddenly rose into the air, slammed from the starboard side. The impact rolled the boat, sending Cazadores flying into the sea.
She lined up the iron sights, ready to fire on the submarine that had rammed the vessel. A wall of water rose along the narrow sub, now on a crash course with their war boat.
She pulled the trigger, sending rounds lancing into the water.