Above World (30 page)

“Fathom is redirecting the dome’s power,” he said to himself. A gout of flame shot through the room. He could feel it singe his back. A second later, a huge piece of metal clanged to the floor and the flames stopped.

Dash had a shield covering his broken arm while his sword flashed in his other hand.

“Zorro, save the Kampii. Zorro, stop sending power to Karl Strand. Zorro, shoot electricity at Fathom.”

Yellow. Yellow. Yellow.

Hoku smashed both his fists onto the desk, mashing buttons and triggering changes in the screens. He spared a quick glance over his shoulder, expecting imminent death, but saw Dash still up and fighting. Somehow, he’d kept them bottlenecked at the door.

His eye fell on Liu, still frozen. If only she’d stayed awake another few minutes. She could have told him what to do.
Think,
he told himself.
Think!

He had to restore the Kampii generators and save his people.

He had to stop Fathom so he could never harm the Kampii again.

He had to wake up the Dome Meks, rescue Daphine, and save Aluna.

Behind him, Dash yelped and dropped his shield. His left arm, the one Aluna had broken, dripped red.

But first, he had to find a way for him and Dash to survive for the next five minutes.

Hoku looked back at the crab girl.

“Zorro, wake Liu.”

Yellow.

His gaze fell to the girl’s shirt, to a number stitched along her collar. His heart was beating fast. Too fast. He only had seconds or it was all over.

“Zorro, wake technician one-zero-zero-seven-seven-one!”

Zorro’s eyes glowed green.

Liu stirred. When the first Upgrader made it past Dash and charged toward him, the Mek girl scuttled across the room, raised one mighty claw, and bashed the Upgrader in the head.

Hoku didn’t watch. He couldn’t. He had work to do.

“D
O YOU FEEL
anything yet?” Fathom asked. “Pain? Discomfort? The subtle shifting of your genetic code?”

Aluna felt the Ocean Seed inside her, but as far as she could tell, it was just sitting there in her gut doing nothing. Why wasn’t the seed working? The transformation was supposed to begin immediately. Back in the City of Shifting Tides, the Elders carried the young Kampii from the ritual dome to the medic dome as soon as they swallowed their seeds. It was an essential part of the ceremony, both symbolically and out of necessity.

Fathom wanted a show, and since Aluna wanted him to release Daphine, she had to give him one.

She faked a wince and dropped to one knee, trying to remember the time Anadar had walloped her in the stomach with the flat of his spearhead. “Barnacles,” she hissed. That sentiment, at least, did not require much acting.

“Excellent,” Fathom said, and tapped some buttons on the device attached to his arm. “Now, how would you rate the pain on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst?”

“Five,” Aluna said through gritted teeth.

“Hm,” he said, twisting his mouth into a frown. “There should be more pain. I have read all the research. Perhaps this will help.”

He pulled back one of his extended metal legs and kicked her in the gut.

Aluna tumbled across the grass, over and over, and landed on her stomach.

“Now?” Fathom asked.

“Eight,” she coughed into the ground.

“Don’t lie to me,” he said. “I may decide that I prefer my other mermaid after all. She already has a tail. It won’t be difficult to remove.”

“I’m not lying,” Aluna said quickly, and she wasn’t. She stayed on the ground and crushed her cheek against the cool earth, wondering if he had cracked any of her ribs. She tried to breathe through the pain, but breathing only made it worse.

“Aluna? Are you there?” Hoku’s voice sounded in her ear like whale song in the empty ocean. A beacon. “I’m using the computer to project my signal as far as I can. I won’t be able to hear you.”

“I’m here,” she whispered into the grass. “I’m here!”

“Tides’ teeth, I hope you’re alive,” said Hoku’s voice. “If you’re out there, please listen. I’ve almost got it figured out. Zorro and I will — watch out!”

Was he talking to Dash? He had to be. They were both alive, and they were both in the dome!

“Sorry, they’re coming too fast,” Hoku said. “But we’re sending help. Hang on, Aluna. Stay alive. Wherever you are, whatever’s happening to you, you’re not alone. Do you hear me? You’re not — no! Stop!”

His voice cut off abruptly.

“Hoku!” Aluna’s heart beat wildly.

In three strides, Fathom was hovering above her. “Who are you talking to?” he asked.

Up close, she could see spikes and scales on his belly, could smell oil and burned flesh. His so-called upgrades had ceased being functional ages ago. What he had done to himself had no reasonable explanation.

“No one,” she said, trying to scramble out of his kicking range. “I’m not talking to anyone.”

Stay alive,
Hoku had said. She had no idea where he was or what he was doing, but she trusted him. Deep down, she trusted him more than she trusted anyone in the world.

“Ah, it’s your aural communicators!” Fathom said, clearly pleased with himself. “I saw them in the schematics. I should have known you wouldn’t be so stupid as to come here alone.” He looked around the clearing. “Where are they? The range is only a few dozen meters, if I remember correctly.” He motioned to some of his waiting Upgraders. “You four. Fan out and search the woods. Kill every intruder you find.”

The Upgraders grunted and started to jog for the trees. Aluna used the distraction to maneuver into a crouch.

“Wait!” Fathom said. He turned to look at Aluna but spoke to his minions. “When you find the other mermaids, make sure they scream before you kill them. I want this one to hear every second of their suffering.”

“No!” Aluna yelled.

Her friends were somewhere in the dome, trying to save her because she was ridiculous and swam off without them. Her father had been right. In so many ways, she was still a child. Well, it was time to grow up and take responsibility for her bad decisions.

Aluna unclipped her talons and charged.

H
OKU HAD TOLD ALUNA
they were sending help. He’d told her she wasn’t alone. Now he had to prove it.

Liu swung her wrench, her claws, and even her legs. Somehow Dash was still up, fighting by her side with just one good hand. Even so, the number of Upgraders crowded around the control center door never lessened.

They needed more help than just Liu. They needed an army.

“Zorro, wake more Meks.”

Yellow.

“Zorro, retrieve the names of all HydroTek Dome Meks and wake them up. Wake them all up!”

Yellow.

Glowing words pulsed on the display screen in front of him. At the same time, an inhuman voice spoke them aloud: “Current password grants insufficient security clearance to complete that action. Level Seahorse access required.”

“Hoku,” Dash yelled. “We are losing ground. I cannot —”

Out of the corner of his eye, Hoku saw Dash crumple. Liu stepped in to cover his spot, protecting his body with her six remaining legs.

“Passwords,” Hoku muttered, and pulled out the device he’d found in the water safe. He pressed the power button, and a spinning seahorse floated into view. Sarah Jennings said she’d stored forbidden information inside the tiny box — all of HydroTek’s secrets. Well, right now, he only wanted one.

“Zorro, disconnect from the computer.”

The raccoon pulled its tail off the magnetic port and scampered out of the way. Hoku held the device over the spot and felt the familiar tug of the magnet pulling the artifact into place.

The screen glowed and the computer’s voice spoke. “Device detected. Accessing password. . . .”

Hoku held his breath. Metal clattered on metal behind him. The screen went blank.

“Password accepted. Clearance Level Seahorse. Proceeding with command.”

Lines of tiny words streamed up the screen — so many he couldn’t read them nearly fast enough:

The list went on and on and on.

A
LUNA CHARGED
, her talons spinning in tight whirls around her body.

Fathom hopped back impossibly fast on his metal legs, and Aluna heard a
snick
from behind her. Upgraders! She dodged too late. A blazing harpoon grazed her thigh and she screamed. The wound wasn’t deep, but it stung.

“Catch her!” Fathom yelled. “Damage her arms if you have to, but leave her legs intact!”

The Upgraders charged. Some headed for her, and some ran to protect their master. If Fathom hadn’t sent so many to the woods, she would have been dead in one flash of a tail. Now she had a chance.

She spun her talons faster as the Upgraders circled her. Good. They wouldn’t be able to use their missiles and their flamethrowers now, not without the risk of hitting one another. A man with a silver head stepped in swinging a glowing red sword. She sent her talon Spite to disarm him, but with a twitch, the Upgrader sliced through Spite’s chain. The tip of the talon flew off and landed out of sight. Aluna’s heart thudded faster. The man grinned. She feigned fear to lure him into a lunge, then sidestepped, letting the Upgrader behind her figure out how to deal with the tip of his blade.

A woman with spikes growing out of her arm attacked next. Aluna dodged the swing, then jumped up on the woman’s arm and vaulted over her head. The Upgraders were used to dealing with front and back, left and right. But Aluna learned to fight in the sea. She also knew how to use up and down.

She landed hard behind the woman and yelped. Her wounded thigh burned.

Sound erupted in her ear: Hoku screaming.

“No!” she yelled. The Upgraders must have found him!

“I did it! I did it!” his voice echoed in her ear.

And that’s when she saw them. A stream of people with bodies shaped like crabs and lobsters, with wrenches and pipes and bits of metal gripped in their human hands. They swarmed into Middle Green and threw themselves at the Upgraders, weapons and claws swinging.

Aluna yelled again, this time in triumph.

Cones of flame shot across the sky. Metal clanked against metal. Men and women screamed. A snake-man — the one she had seen earlier in the cage — slithered past her and struck at the Upgrader named Giraffe with fists so fast that they blurred together in the air.