Horizon (28 page)

“Well done,” Niobe said. “That was no easy descent.”

They landed on a wide, flat rock. Niobe checked her compass and pointed. “That way, no more than two kilometers. You saw the mark on our way down?”

“Yes,” Calli said. “Thank you.”

Niobe grabbed her into a hug. Calli breathed in the woman’s scent, relished the softness of Niobe’s hair against her cheek.

“Tell High Senator Electra that I’ll do my best,” Calli said. “Tell her . . . tell her to take care of my mother for me if I don’t make it back.”

Niobe frowned. “You two can take care of the president together, after all of this is over.”

“Of course,” Calli said, forcing a smile. “But please tell her anyway.”

Niobe put a callused hand on Calli’s cheek, and Calli leaned into the warmth. “You are your mother’s daughter. Do not forget.”

Then her hand was gone. Niobe sprang into the air, her wings snapping open with military precision. Calli watched, marveling at the beauty of her flight and wondering if she’d ever see another Aviar again.

She picked her way over the rocks in the direction of the meeting spot. She hadn’t gone more than half a kilometer before the Upgrader girl Squirrel hopped onto the rock next to her.

“This way,” Squirrel said. Calli tried to follow but her legs weren’t springs, and they weren’t particularly used to rough terrains, either. “Hurry,” the girl admonished, and Calli did her best to comply.

The team was already assembled when Calli and Squirrel arrived. She stared at the familiar faces of Odd, Mags, and Pocket and introduced herself as if they’d just met. She’d been “cargo” the last time, and the formality felt right. Odd seemed a little more banged up than when she’d last seen him, but Mags, Pocket, and Squirrel seemed largely unchanged.

“What, no kiss?” another voice said.

Calli turned and found Nathif slithering out from a makeshift tent, his long tail undulating over the hard-packed dirt. A sly grin twisted on his face.

“Nathif!” Calli said, and tackled him with a hug.

“It’s not a kiss, but it will do,” Nathif said after he’d righted himself again.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Calli said. “How did you get through the army?”

“A lone snake may go where an army of hooved horse beasts may not,” Nathif said. “Oh, and Tayan says hello. She said it rather haughtily, of course, but you probably assumed that.”

“Tayan is with the army, then?”

Nathif laughed. “No. Despite her exalted status as Flame Heart Khan, she will never be fit for battle with her heart injury. I wanted to be the one to tell her, but alas, they let someone else do it.”

Calli looked around camp. “Did anyone else come? I expected to see Rollin here, too.”

“Rollin said her presence would harm us more than help us.” Nathif shrugged. “It is just as well. Her expertise is needed with the comm devices.”

“Very well. Everyone, gather around,” Calli said. “The Aviars will attack tomorrow morning at dawn, and we need to be ready to infiltrate the secret tunnel.”

She looked at each of them, spending long enough to make eye contact for a moment before moving on to the next person. She’d seen her mother do this in almost every important meeting in the war room.

“If Dash and Vachir are still alive, we’re their only hope. We’re not going to let them down.”

H
OKU TAPPED THE COMM DEVICE
on his arm. Tapping it didn’t do anything useful, but it made him feel better. Zorro, perched on his shoulder, seemed to agree.

“Still nothing,” he said. “It can’t connect with the satellite or any nearby computer systems. Almost two days! We have no idea what’s happening with anyone else.”

Aluna swam next to him, taking one powerful kick of her tail for every dozen of his ineffectual leg spasms. Daphine, Anadar, and Prince Eekikee flanked them, looking similarly sleek and effortless in the water.

Just below them, the bones of a vast ancient city slumbered in the sand. They’d been swimming through its broken towers and ruined buildings for hours, using the ruins to hide their presence. Hoku tried to estimate how many Humans had lived in the city, but got lost in the numbers. No matter how many times he did the math, the answer seemed impossibly large.

He caught Aluna stealing glances, her gaze lingering on the faint structures of the citywreck. A year ago, exploring this old place would have been their grandest adventure. But its mysteries had survived centuries, and they’d have to wait a little longer.

“We’re nearing Karl Strand’s house,” Hoku said. He’d loaded some maps into his Datastreamers just in case he lost his connection with Seahorse Alpha. Now he pulled one up and overlaid it onto the landmarks around them. “Another kilometer or two, I’d guess.”

“Oh, we’re definitely getting close,” Aluna said. She pulled to a stop and motioned for the others to do the same. Eekikee released a piercing shriek, and the Deepfell forces following behind them in a dark wave slowed.

“Up there,” she said, pointing to the surface. “I see five great whites. They probably have cameras in their heads.”

“And over there. Deepfell,” Anadar said.

“Not Deepfell,” Eekikee corrected. “Slaaaaves.”

Hoku stared at what appeared to be a kelp forest growing in the middle of the citywreck. But it wasn’t kelp. It was the sleek bodies of Deepfell arrayed in lines.

“It’s not a large force,” Anadar said, “but it’s bigger than ours.” He cursed and adjusted the borrowed breathing shell at his throat. “I wish the Elders had given us hunters. Even a few, and we’d have a far better chance.”

“I don’t like our odds,” Aluna said. “We could be fighting them for days, and the casualties . . .” She looked at Eekikee. “We can’t ask you to lose so many.”

Hoku added the sharks and Deepfell slaves to his maps, then told Zorro to project the image into the water in three dimensions. Aluna, Daphine, and Anadar were used to his tech by now, but Prince Eekikee jumped. As soon as Hoku started explaining the image, Eekikee’s mouth hung open and he swam in closer to touch it for himself.

“Strand might have more troops we can’t see, but this gives us a good idea,” Hoku said. He rotated the map with his mind and highlighted Strand’s ancestral house.

“Strand’s forces surround the house,” Aluna said. “At least we know we’re right about it being important.”

Anadar pointed. “Look. Something’s moving.”

Hoku peered into the murky distance, expecting another platoon of Deepfell slaves or a few more great whites, but the creature was something else entirely. He told his Datastreamers to magnify the image, correct for light refraction, and add it to the map at the correct scale. Everyone gasped, including Hoku himself.

It was an octopus. A giant octopus, its fleshy head inside a helmet of thick bars, its eight tentacles limber and metallic.

Prince Eekikee emitted a string of low-pitched noises, and Anadar cursed again.

“I could probe it,” Hoku said. “If it’s got a computer, maybe I can access it and turn the creature off or take control or something.” He pictured himself riding the octopus into battle, his foes scattering like fish before him.

“Will the octopus sense you doing that?” Aluna asked. “We have the element of surprise now, while we’re hidden in the citywreck. I don’t want to lose it.”

Hoku rubbed Zorro’s head and thought. “It might,” he said finally. “I haven’t had much experience with different systems. And besides, we don’t even know if it’s entirely mechanical, of if there are people controlling it like a vehicle.”

“It’s your call, Aluna and Eekikee,” Daphine said. “We’re part of your army.”

Eekikee continued to stare in horror at the image of the octopus. “No fiiiight thing is gooood.”

Aluna nodded. “I agree with the prince. See what you can do, Hoku. Just . . . be careful.”

Hoku calmed his breathing and closed his eyes. It was easier to read the output from the Datastreamers when he couldn’t see his friends staring at him, silently asking him to be brilliant. His left hand was still threaded through Zorro’s fur, and he left it there, drawing comfort from the raccoon’s tiny body and unwavering adoration.

He used his Datastreamers to search for computer signals. Maybe the octopus was being controlled from somewhere else, and he could take over the command signals. Text streamed in front of his eyes. Yes, the octopus was using a network of some sort. Hoku poked at it, looking for a way in.

“What’s he doing?” he heard Anadar whisper. Because Hoku’s Kampii tech brought the sound directly to his ears, Anadar might as well have been shouting.

“Shhh,” Aluna said.

Hoku heard a smack, like a wet fish flopping on a rock, and Anadar said, “Ow.”

Hoku found a security hole, and in a flash, he was inside the octopus. His Datastreamers had just started sending their invisible tendrils into the tasty new computer system when the octopus launched some sort of defense program. The glowing text streaming across his eyelids fell dark, replaced by only one phrase pulsing in the center of his vision:

WHY, HELLO THERE. THIS IS FATHOM. REMEMBER ME?

Hoku sputtered and snapped his eyes open, but the words still hung there. He told his Datastreamers to remove the words, to stop its attempts to connect with the octopus, and then, when he sensed Fathom was probing for him, to cut off all transmissions and lock itself down.

“What? What is it?” Aluna asked. She took his arm, gently, and he shuddered.

“Fathom,” he said. “That thing is Fathom.”

If his reaction was bad, it was nothing to Daphine’s. Aluna’s sister hugged her arms and seemed to cave in on herself. Aluna and Anadar swam to her side instantly.

“How could it be Fathom?” Aluna asked him. “We took him apart, limb by disgusting limb.”

“But we kept his brain, his consciousness,” Hoku said. He put his hand to his head and pressed his temple. He didn’t need another headache now, not when he needed to think clearly and stay ahead of Fathom. “That’s why they attacked HydroTek. They stole his brain so they could transfer it to the octopus.”

“Karl Strand loves his children,” Aluna said. “He wants them to live forever.”

Eekikee squeaked and pointed. Hoku squinted through the throbbing in his head. In the distance, the octopus and the slave armies were moving.

“Fathom noticed you, didn’t he,” Aluna said.

Hoku grimaced. “He seemed delighted by our presence.”

Eekikee began screeching to the pods of Deepfell waiting behind them.

“Daphine, you need to go back to the colony,” Anadar said. “You’re not a warrior, and you’re not up for this. You’ll get yourself killed.”

Daphine shook him off. The scope over her left eye whirred. “I’m not going back,” she said. Her voice trembled, but there was steel under it. “I’m going to make sure he stays dead this time.”

“We can’t all stay and fight,” Aluna said. “Some of us need to sneak past Fathom and make it to Karl Strand. He’s the goal. As much as we want to defeat Fathom in this battle, we can’t lose sight of the war.”

Water whooshed as the pods of Deepfell began swimming into their formations.

“Aluna and I will go for Strand,” Hoku said. “We’ve been fighting him for so long; we have the best chance against him.” He patted the satchel at his side, reassuring himself that the water safe was still inside. “Besides, I think I might be a liability in a fight against Fathom now. He knows too much about my tech.”

“Yes, Aluna and Hoku will go,” Daphine said. “And Anadar. You’ll need his skill, too. I can stay with Eekikee.”

“No,” Anadar said. “That’s not going to happen, and don’t even try to convince me. I won’t leave you, Daphine.”

Hoku watched Aluna’s face to see if she was angry, but she looked relieved. She’d always said that Daphine was the sticky jellyfish goo of the family, the only thing holding them all together. Apparently Anadar agreed.

Eekikee finished talking with his pod leaders and swam over to them. “We lead aaaarmy there,” he said, pointing. “You goooo there.” He pointed in the other direction. “Go now.”

While Aluna hugged Anadar, Hoku found himself pulled into Daphine’s arms. “Stay safe, little fish,” she said.

He smiled and said, “Show Fathom what little fish can do.”

The look in her one remaining eye turned fierce. “You can count on it.”

Aluna wanted to make good time, so she made Hoku hold on to her shoulders, as if he were drafting off a dolphin. He kept his head down and his feet out of her way and told Zorro to do the same. Even with his weight and drag in the water, Aluna was swift as a seal.

Hoku wanted to turn his head and watch the battle unfold behind him. Would Fathom the octopus cut down the Deepfell with lasers? Did he possess some secret death weapon? His heart ached for the prince and his brave army, for Anadar, and especially for Daphine.

“Am I going the right way?” Aluna asked.

Hoku looked up. They were farther from Fathom now, so he turned his Datastreamers back on and accessed the map. “Down there,” he said, indicating a squiggly line far below them that used to be a Human street. “We’re almost directly over it now.”

“No guards,” Aluna said. “Strand must think he’s hiding it this way.”