Hell Divers (17 page)

Magnolia launched into the sky, screaming her lungs out. X went next. Reaching over his shoulder, he punched his booster. He gripped his rifle tightly as the balloon exploded out of the pack, inflated with helium, and hauled him up into the sky.

The moment he was off his feet, he shouldered his rifle and took aim at the Sirens. Several of them had broken off from the right side of their formation and were already swooping toward Magnolia. Behind them stretched a wall of clouds as far as he could see. Lightning streaked across the swollen edges of the storm.

He lined up the sights and fired a volley of shots at the creatures. The bullets found targets, tearing through wings and torsos and sending the Sirens spiraling or tumbling back down to the surface. But the kick from the gun also jolted him backward in his harness, so that his feet rocked up in front of him.

Swinging back upright, he aimed again, this time squeezing off single shots. The rounds ripped through the torso of one of the creatures, and it flapped spastically away, losing altitude with every wing beat.

Gunfire cracked below, and three more of the Sirens fell from the sky. But others were quickly closing in, and bullets didn't seem to deter them much.

X looked to his HUD. Five minutes had already passed since the message from command, and they were only seven thousand feet in the air. Even if they could hold back the Sirens, he wasn't sure they would make it back to the ship in time. He twisted his body around for a better view of the storm expanding to the west. The clouds churned, the electrical flashes providing a snapshot inside the belly of the storm.

A voice broke over the flurry of static. “X! This is Captain Ash, do you copy?”

“We're on our way back!” X quickly replied.

“Do you have the cells and valves?”

X hesitated, knowing his response could lead Ash to abandon them. “Negative. But we have something else: a map that shows where the cells and valves are.”

There was a terrible pause.

“You've got ten minutes to get up top before we have to get the hell out of here,” Ash said. “Make it work.”

“Understood.”

The distant sound of thunder boomed over the whine of the Sirens. Two were sailing toward Magnolia, and three swooped down on Murph and Sam. X twisted in his harness to focus on the two making a run at Magnolia. Aiming at the leader's wings, he fired off a short burst. A gust of wind threw off his aim in the last second, and the rounds went wide, narrowly missing Magnolia.

Cursing, X grabbed a toggle to steer his balloon with his right hand. He raised the rifle with his left and, leading the Sirens with the muzzle, squeezed off another volley. This time, one of the monsters' skulls exploded.

There was no time to celebrate. A scream erupted over the comm channel, and X glanced down just as a Siren crashed into Sam. The creature wrapped its wings and legs around him, then began slashing at his helmet with the talons on its hands.

“Sam!” X shouted. He trained his gun on the blur of armor and flesh but knew he couldn't risk firing. Helpless, he watched predator and prey tumble away through the clouds.

Another Siren came whistling through the sky as Sam vanished from sight. X raised his rifle and fired two shots. The first took off the creature's jaw, and it spun out of control, its wings narrowly missing the suspension lines to X's balloon.

Magnolia, firing wildly, held off the other Siren above. Then, at fifteen thousand feet, the last few of them wheeled away, returning to a surface that X could no longer see.

“Sam,” X said over the comm. “Sam, do you copy!” He searched the clouds for any sign. Sam's beacon was still active on X's HUD, but he wasn't responding.

“Where's Sam?” Magnolia said, the trepidation in her voice weakened by static.

“They got him,” X replied. “The bastards fucking got him.” He continued to scan below his feet. Murph looked up at him, his mirrored visor hiding his eyes.

The team continued their ascent in silence. Hope for Sam faded as the beetle shape of the
Hive
came into focus. The edge of the storm was closing in.

Above, the oval doors in the belly of the ship separated, revealing the small recovery room. Magnolia tugged on her toggles and steered her balloon inside. Her feet disappeared as her balloon pulled her to safety. X used his toggles to adjust his own ascent. With one eye on his HUD and the other on the recovery bay, he followed Magnolia.

A blip on X's HUD pulled his attention to his visor. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Sam's beacon rising a few thousand feet below. X glanced down as he was pulled into the ship. Magnolia dangled a few feet away, where her balloon rested against the translucent domed ceiling. As soon as Murph joined them, the ship began moving.

X bumped his chin pad. “Captain, Sam is still down there!”

The metal walls of the recovery space groaned as the ship's turbofans flared to life. He blinked, realizing that Captain Ash wasn't abandoning Sam; she was maneuvering into position to pick him up.

“Where is he?” Magnolia said.

“We're picking him up,” X replied.

The three divers probed the clouds below. As the ship moved, a tiny blue dot rose into the sky.

“Sam, you're almost here. Just hang on!” X shouted.

The diver didn't reply, and as he got closer, X saw that his head was bowed to his chest. His balloon pulled him into the reentry bay right in front of X. Blood flowed from Sam's cracked visor, spreading over his vest and armor. Steam rose off it. There was too much blood—an impossible amount that left no question: Sam was dead. The doors clamped shut, and X reached forward to pull Sam's right hand outside his vest. Even in death, he was protecting the map, clutching it so tight, X had to pry it from his bloody fingers.

“All clear,” Ensign Ryan shouted. “The storm is below us.”

But not a soul on the bridge was listening. Everyone, including Captain Ash, was huddled at the porthole windows before the bridge. Where they had known only darkness, they saw light.

With no time to outrun the storm, Ash had used the turbofans to rise above it. Silence washed over the room as the ship ascended higher into the sky. Ash squinted and shielded her face from the dazzling glow. They were looking at a sight that none of them had seen in years: the sun.

The ball of fire hung suspended in an ocean of blue. The clearest, most beautiful blue that Ash had ever seen in her life. High above the dark morass below, thin yellow clouds drifted, their translucent outlines fired with golden light.

But overshadowing the beauty was the failure of Raptor's mission. Still without the cells and parts, she would be forced to send all three teams down to Hades.

Jordan cupped his headset and pivoted away from the view. “Captain, I just got a message from Ty …” He paused and caught her gaze. “We have a casualty.”

“I thought all four divers made it back,” Ash said, keeping her voice low. Ryan and Hunt looked in their direction but didn't speak.

Jordan shook his head. “I'm afraid Sam Baker was killed, but we did manage to recover his body.”

Ash allowed herself one final look at the sun before turning away. “I'm going down to the HD facility.”

“Wait, Captain,” Jordan said. “Samson also sent a message. His team managed to get one of the reactors up and running. It buys us a bit more time.”

“How much time?”

“Not much, but enough to give Raptor a breather.”

Ash looked at her watch. It was almost noon. Raptor had been gone only a few hours. She considered sending Apollo and Angel to Hades now but didn't want to risk maneuvering into the storm twice. “Send out the message. All three teams dive at four o'clock p.m.”

Ash was already moving up the stairs before Jordan could reply. Her escorts waited outside the bridge, though she wasn't sure she needed them, considering how empty the corridors were on the way to the HD facility.

The other teams were already at the launch bay when Ash arrived. Word of Sam's death had traveled fast. The divers had crowded around the plastic dome of the recovery room, eager for any tidbit of news.

A heavy cloud filled the dome as the surviving members of Team Raptor held out their arms and turned slowly under the cleansing misters. Below them, a body lay on the floor, as inert as the deflated balloons around it.

Ash moved past Cruise and his team and stood on the redline border surrounding the dome.

A remotely operated chain with a grappling hook dropped from the ceiling and latched on to the top of the dome. Sharp clicks rang out as the locking mechanisms unlatched.

“Back up!” Ty shouted, waving the crowd of divers and technicians away.

Ash followed them back to a safe distance. For a moment, she didn't feel much like a ship's captain, because there wasn't much she could do right now to help.

A subtle shift in the
Hive
's course rumbled through the launch bay. Ty waited for the turbulence to pass before giving the all clear. The grappling hook lifted the dome into the air, spilling mist from beneath it, which the floor vents sucked away.

X was first to stumble out. His dented black armor, spotless from the rigorous reentry cleanse, sparkled under the bright LEDs. He took a moment to scan the room, found Ash. He pulled off his helmet, set it gently on the floor, and came over to her.

“We didn't find any fuel cells or valves,” X said. “But we did find this.” From his vest, he pulled out two laminated pieces of paper—maps, by the look of them. One was covered in drying blood. He handed her both of them. “At least we'll know where we're heading when you send us to Hades.”

“Thank you,” Ash said. “I'll get these to Samson immediately for review.” X ran a hand through his sweaty salt-and-pepper hair. He muttered something under his breath, then said, “When do we dive again?”

“Samson was able to get one of the reactors back online,” Ash said. “Bought us some time, but not much.” She turned to face the divers who had huddled around. “Go and rest; spend some time with your families. Meet back here at three o'clock. You all dive at four.”

Teams Apollo and Angel left the launch bay in relative silence, but Ash could hear their silent protests in her mind. She was about to send them to an almost certain death. Cruise stopped in the doorway to stare at Sam's body, glared at Ash, and stalked out of the launch bay.

“Promise me something, Captain,” X said.

Ash turned back to X and the remaining members of Raptor. Heartsick already at having lost a diver, now she was about to lose many more. Under the glow of the LEDs, X looked twenty years older. He had wrinkles she never noticed before, and a streak of gray that the light seemed to accentuate.

“Sure, Commander,” she said. “What is it?”

“Promise me someone will look after Tin when I'm gone.”

“I promise. I'll send someone to your room as soon as you dive.”

X shook his head. “No, Captain. I mean when I'm gone for good. Promise me Tin will be taken care of if anything happens to me.”

She put her hand on his shoulder. He seemed to sink under the weight of her touch. “I promise you, Tin will be taken care of.”

X turned to look at Sam's broken body. Magnolia was sobbing, and Murph put an arm around her. No others words needed to be spoken. Like Cruise, everyone on Team Raptor knew they were likely to join their comrade soon enough.

* * * * *

X wandered the halls on his way back to his apartment. The ship was on lockdown and eerily quiet. He walked with his flashlight shining down the dark, empty corridors. An odd feeling that he couldn't place came over him. He breathed in the cold air and studied the paintings on the next bulkhead. The longer he looked at them, the stronger the feeling grew. Sam was dead, but X had never felt more alive.

And he hadn't even had a drink.

Seeing the newfound strength in Tin had inspired something inside him that he hadn't even known still existed. For the longest time, the guilt over not being able to save those he loved most had haunted him, leaving a scar that only he could see. So he had poisoned his body with 'shine, wishing deep down that his luck would finally run out on a dive. Now he had a chance to redeem himself. If he could save the
Hive,
he could save Tin and fulfill his promise to Aaron.

When X arrived at his apartment, he knocked hard and twisted the knob. The door creaked open to the flickering of a candle near the end of its wick. His eyes gravitated to the curled-up silhouette of Tin on the living room floor.

“Hey,” Tin whispered. He rubbed his face and took a seat on the couch. A mess of mechanical parts from some new project littered the floor.

“Are you okay?” Tin asked, looking him up and down.

“Yeah,” X lied as cheerfully as he knew how. “You hungry?”

“Kinda.”

“Should still be leftovers,” X said, grabbing a bowl of apples and a bottle of water from the kitchen and returning to the living room. He set the bowl on the table in front of Tin. The boy's eyes searched the fruit, but instead of grabbing an apple, he stood and wrapped his arms around X.

“Thanks,” Tin said. “For looking after me.”

Not knowing what to say, X patted the boy's back. In that second, time seemed to slow. His senses picked up every detail around him: the sounds of the rattling ceiling fan and the cough of the wall heater. He saw the wax crawling down the stump of gray candle as it hardened into a puddle on the table. He caught the sour whiff of his own sweat, and the sweetness of the apples. He wanted to remember it all exactly this way. It was the moment that he realized he loved the boy as he would love his own son. He had always known that he would gladly give his life to keep Tin safe, but now he felt it in his bones.

Instead of filling him with despair, it made him smile. He flicked the tip of Tin's foil hat, and they both grinned.

They ate in silence for several minutes. X felt every second, each one bringing him closer to the dive that would take him to Hades. He hadn't even told Tin he was going yet. On his walk from the launch bay, he had reflected on the things he would tell Tin, knowing that whatever he said would likely stick with the boy for the rest of his life. But now, with the shadows closing in around the faltering candlelight, X didn't know what to say.

“X?” Tin whispered. “What's wrong?”

“Sorry. Just …” He shook his head and sat forward on the edge of his seat. It was time to tell the boy the truth.

“I have to dive again in a few hours—this time to Hades.”

Tin tilted his head ever so slightly. Studying, scrutinizing.

“I won't lie to you. Hades is a very dangerous place. That's why Captain Ash is sending in all three teams instead of just one: we'll have better odds of success.”

“You don't think you're coming back, do you?”

X's heart sank. “I'm not sure anyone will make it back, but as long as we send the crate up with the parts …”

Tears welled in Tin's eyes.

X reached out and said, “I've already made arrangements with Captain Ash. You'll be looked after. You'll be fine.”

Tin stood up, pulling away from X's fingertips. “Who else is going to look after me? Huh? Who?”

“I'm not sure,” X replied. “But Captain Ash reassured me—”

“I don't want someone else to look after me!”

X rose to his feet. “Tin, I will do everything I can to come back.
Everything.
I promise.”

“That's what my dad always said. But he didn't come back, and you couldn't save him.”

The words stung, but X didn't blame the boy for saying them. “Tin, please. I'm doing this for you and everyone else on the ship. Just like your father did.”

Tin tightened the string of his hat around his chin. “Why do the people I love always have to be the ones to die? Why can't someone else dive?” He wiped a tear away and sucked in a long breath.

“Because there aren't many people left who can do what your father did or what I do,” X said. He kept his voice as calm as he could, hoping the boy would understand.

Tin shook his head. “There are plenty of people on this ship, but it's always the ones I care about that die.”

X reached out, but Tin ducked and stormed away to the bedroom. He stopped outside the door and said, “I'll be better off on my own. Better off looking after myself.
Everyone
I ever cared about has died anyway. And now you're going to die, too.”

X slowly walked over to him, but Tin slammed the door between them. X pressed against the door with both hands and lowered his head. “Tin, please. Please don't make me leave this way. I'm doing this for you. For the
Hive
!”

The only response was the faint sound of sobbing. X backed away, his mind racing. Only a few hours remained before the dive, and everything he had begun to rebuild with the boy was wrecked. He was tempted to go find a drink to take his mind off things, but instead he wrapped himself in a blanket and lay down on the couch, hoping Tin would someday forgive him for what he had to do.

* * * * *

X slept fitfully for the next hour. His thoughts were scattered and chaotic. He finally gave up trying to rest and relit the candle on the table. Then he padded over to the bedroom and gently pushed the door open. The glimmering golden light illuminated Tin's still body through the open door.

X slipped inside and knelt beside the bed. The boy's eyes flicked and quivered beneath the lids. He was in deep sleep. The events of the past few days had worn him out.

“I'll save the
Hive,
Tin,” X whispered. “I'll make sure you get to grow up. And someday, you'll be an engineer, or maybe a farmer. You'll do great things. I know it. You'll build things and help people. And maybe someday you'll understand why your dad and I had to keep diving until it killed us.”

He put his hand gently on Tin's shoulder for a moment. For the past year, X had done his duty and dived without much thought beyond a hangover and a death wish. But feeling the boy's back move up and down reminded him that there was something in this world still worth living for and protecting.

* * * * *

An hour later, X was suiting up in the HD facility. Tony and Cruise were already there, checking their gear and loading two plastic crates in the center of the room. Both team leads were freshly groomed, their shaved heads glistening under the bright LEDs. It was a ritual for them. Pretty silly in X's opinion, but if it helped psych them up for the dive, it was fine with him.

“You guys ready?” X asked.

Cruise ran a finger back and forth over his jaw. “What do you think?”

X looked Cruise up and down. “I think you better down some electrolyte tablets. You look like you had a few too many last night.”

Tony let out a snicker. “I told you not to get so stupid, man.”

“I'm fine,” Cruise said. “You pick your poison, X; I'll pick mine.”

“Last I checked, I'm not hungover for this dive.”

Cruise tilted his head at X as if trying to get a read, but X turned his back, bending over the boxes to examine the contents. They were filled with assault rifles, magazines, flares, medicine, food, water, climbing gear, and extra boosters.

Cruise hovered over him. “You think we really have a chance down there?”

“If we make it through the storms, yeah, maybe,” X said, double-checking the gear.

“At least we got some real firepower for this dive,” Cruise said. He crossed his forearms, which made his biceps bulge. “We run into any of your Sirens, I'll blow 'em to itty bits.”