Â
Narcisse's dishes made a superb dinner, once the cook and his mate let her take over supervision of the meals. Valentine had the galley busy, and treated Post and the rest of the
Thunderbolt
's marines to a feast. Good food and plentiful tobacco â all as night fell after an easy day's duties â made the men lively.
“How's life in the Ozarks?” a stout corporal with a stand of red hair asked. “I've heard the winters pass hard.”
“Irish, I know a lot of stories get passed around the Kurian Zone about that,” Valentine said. “There's enough to eat. Sometimes it isn't what you'd like as a first choice, or even a second, but we don't starve. You'll find out there's a lot of ways to cook chickpeas, and you'll get sick of dried fruit, I can promise you that.”
“Women?” Hurst called, and the men snickered.
“That's one thing we're not short of. Fact is, there's so many, you'll find a few in uniform. There are a lot of lonely widows, too, which makes a man think, but if any of you have a mind to be a second husband, you'll have your pick. We've got schools, roads, there's a gambling boat, show-boats, and I'm even
told
of a floating whorehouse or two on the Lake of the Ozarks. Being an officer and a gentleman, I wouldn't know details, naturally.”
The men snickered and passed around comments under their breath, like kids in school, and Valentine heard Carrasca's name mentioned.
“Enough of that,” Post growled.
A shout echoed from above. The collision Klaxon sounded. Something thumped against the ship's hull, a grinding jar that had everyone reaching for a table or a bunk brace to steady themselves.
“Vampir â ,” the squawk-box sounded, before falling silent. Valentine listened with hard ears, trying to shut out the bleating alarm, and heard the icy shrieks of Reapers.
“My God, they followed us!” Post said.
“Take arms, men â anything!” Valentine shouted. He didn't have so much as a knife on him.
“Quickwood, anyone have some?” Post asked.
The marines were already grabbing rifles and shotguns from the beckets in the wall of their quarters; a corporal coolly gave out bullets as the men took arms from the wall.
“Sir!” one marine shouted, running up to him with two of Post's screw-in pike-points. A scream, then a second, came from above â along with a smattering of gunfire.
“It'll have to do.”
“Post, take Wilde and his team and get to the Oerlikon. Ignore anything else, I don't care if she's on fire, get that weapon manned. Irish, you and the rest of the men follow me! The forward stairs, we have to get to the bridge. Hand me that machete, Torres.”
Post shoved a speedloader into a heavy .44 revolver with a trembling hand and gestured to his assigned men.
“Marines, you see a Reaper, shoot until it's down if you can. They'll have the advantage up close like this. Let me get in and get its head off, or stick it with the quickwood. If I catch it, get up to Post. Any more wood down here?”
“Here's a pike,” another said.
“Take the tip off â it's too hard to use on the pole. Ignore any wounded, don't pay attention to anything, we go to the bridge. Now, with me!”
They moved at his order into the night's chaos. Valentine rushed out into the next compartment forward and gained the stairs leading up to the main deck. A marine caught his rifle going through the doorway and tripped, but the rest jumped over him and up the stairs in a steady stream.
The compartment above opened onto the deck from doors on either side of the ship, and Valentine led his men to the door opposite from the side of the grinding collision. If he could just get them out in the open as an organized team, rather than as frightened individuals, the ship might stand a chance. The deck door on the collision side swung open, and the men brought up their guns.
“Wait!” Valentine rasped, holding the flat of the blade of the machete against the man behind him. “It's Owens.”
A sailor made it in and slammed the door shut behind. “They're everywhere â we have to get below,” he said.
“You'll come with us,” he said to the unstrung man. “Bellows and Gomez, Owens goes between you two. C'mon, the rest of you.”
They burst onto the port side of the ship, running for the stairs to the bridge. Shots and piercing Reaper screams filled the night. As Valentine hit the first step, a caped figure appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Shoot it!” Valentine shouted, throwing himself down on the stairs so the men would have a clear view.
The Reaper lunged. Shotgun blasts flashed blue-white. Even the awesome strength in the Reaper's pounce was no match for buckshot at close range, and the wounded thing cried out as it was blown back. It recovered and vaulted over the rail to drop to the deck, but Torres swiveled the mouth of his shotgun and blew it into the darkness.
It splashed into the water, and Valentine ascended the stairs. He ducked without thinking, and heard the
whoof
of a Reaper's hand cut the air where his head had been. Valentine lashed back up, driving the quickwood pike-point in his hand up like a striking cobra. It caught the Reaper under the arm and drove through fabric built to stop bullets but not an old-fashioned point. Valentine felt sticky fluid hit his hand, and he got out from under the wound.
“Marines,” he called down at the men and across the ship. His team was leaning over the rail to shoot at the Reaper that had blown into the sea; he had to keep them going to the bridge. He ran up the rest of the stairs. The wounded Reaper stood up, its jaws open in painful spasm as it clawed at the quickwood point buried in its armpit. It lost its balance and sagged against the upper deck rail.
Valentine paid it no more attention. Another Reaper, its back turned to him, tore away the metal door to the bridge, peeling it like a painter removing wallpaper.
“Aim for the face,” Valentine said to the men who joined him on the upper deck. The Reaper whirled. Valentine heard screams and shooting from the stairs below. Torres, just behind him, fired at the Reaper at the door, throwing it against the bridge-cabin. Valentine circled as the others continued to shoot, pumping round after round into the thrashing creature.
He took a good grip on the machete and gathered himself.
The men stopped shooting, hurrying to reload. He dashed forward like a cricket-bowler, catching it in the throat with the heavy blade. The head did not come off, but he damaged the nerve trunks and vertebrae enough for it to go limp. It continued to snap at him with gleaming jaws, its yellow eyes dimming.
The wound closed over the blade.
Valentine left the machete wedged in its neck and went to the rail to look at the gangway below. The Kurian death machine at the back of his men had taken its toll in the seconds it took him to deal with the other. Twisted bodies and pieces of bodies lay on the deck. Three survivors fired pistols as it advanced. The Reaper used Owen's corpse as a shield. Valentine vaulted over the rail and landed behind it.
It ignored his presence, continuing forward toward the marines. Valentine lashed out with a foot, catching it in the small of the back, but he might as well have kicked the
Thunderbolt.
He took his other pike-point in both hands and drove it between the thing's shoulder blades.
The point struck near enough to the Reaper's heart to stiffen it instantly. The Reaper arched its back, its whole body bending like a bow, and hit the deck, still clutching Owen's bullet riddled body.
He was out of quickwood and had no time to look for the other pike-point among the bodies. “Everyone to the bridge,” he said.
Irish hauled the Reaper out of the way of the damaged door. Valentine heard the welcome pounding of the Oerlikon from aft; Post must have gotten it into action. He went to the starboard rail and looked over the side. Kurian sailors were taking cover as the Oerlikon's fire moved up and down the deck of the submarine. Valentine saw a strange, thin smokestack at the rear of the ship. A snorkel on a submarine? Perhaps that was how it had crept up so close to the
Thunderbolt
without being seen. A quick rise to the surface, Reapers ready at the hatches, and all there would be to do was leap on board, an easy matter for the superhuman avatars.
There was still fighting forward. Valentine heard the Grogs screaming and a gunshot or two from the rear. “Torres, take two men and cover the men at the Oerlikon from here. They'll go for that if they get organized. Who had the other pike-point?”
“Hurst, sir. He's dead below,” Torres said. “I'll check â ”
“No, everyone stay together up here.”
The bridge door opened, and Carrasca stood at the portal, a shotgun at her shoulder. “What is it?”
“Kurians, on the
Sharkfin
. They tried to board us. Too greedy. They could have just put a big limpet mine against the side and sunk us. But Saunders wants his ship back.”
“What do we do about the Reapers still on board?” Carrasca said. “The Chief says there's some of them hammering at the engine room door. They'll get through.”
“Tell the Chief to pour it on. Let's get to the wheel,” Valentine said.
They went to the bridge, lit by a single red bulb over the map table. The instrument lights had long since gone out and never been replaced.
Valentine saw the sub making off, gathering speed as it ran. Post's Oerlikon bursts riddled the stern as it sought safety beneath the waves, explosions and smoke flying from the impact of the thirty-millimeter shells.
“We've got to get to the main gun. What a target! The Oerlikon is tearing it up,” Carrasca said.
“He's just scratching its back â the real vitals are under water. We can still get them. The prow's reinforced, you know. Icebreaker.”
“Jesu,”
Carrasca said. “If we get enough speed . . .” She went to the engine room squawk. “Chief, everything she's got. Maximum revolutions!”
“Aye aye, sir,” the Chief crackled back. “Do something about those bastards on the other side of the bulkhead â they're tearing the rivets out.”
“You want the wheel?” Carrasca said to Valentine.
“You're the better helmsman.”
Carrasca took the ship into a gentle turn, letting her gain momentum.
“Ramming speed, Hortator,” Valentine said.
A Grog lept up to the bridge window, howling in fear. A pale arm plucked it back down. Valentine heard a thud on the roof and more shots from outside.
“What's that?” the Chief said. “I â ”
Carrasca hit the collision alarm again as the
Thunderbolt
knifed through the water. She aimed for the conning tower but didn't hit it square; at the last moment the submarine must have known what was coming and turned away. The impact threw Carrasca against the wheel. Valentine hung onto the instrument panel. The Reaper on the roof of the bridge fell forward into the cannon mount.
The
Thunderbolt
ran up and over the submarine, to the sound of tortured metal breaking up. Valentine saw the stern of the sub burst from the water like a breaching whale.
“
Madre de Dios,
snapped in two!” Carrasca said.
The Reaper on the gun deck jumped from the side of the ship, plummeting into the water by the crippled sub, perhaps summoned to the aid of its Master Kurian in its final need. Valentine had one more thing to do. He took Carrasca's shotgun and went to the door.
“Stay here, and keep the doors locked. The Reapers'll be disoriented â they won't work together once their Masters are dead, but they're still dangerous. Wild animals in a trap: all confusion and pain.”
Valentine glanced down to the Grog deck, but saw no sign of Ahn-Kha or his Grogs. Just bodies. Grogs, Jamaicans, and the
Thunderbolt
's sailors were strewn in broken pieces everywhere on the deck like mannequins run over by a tractor-trailer, under blood-splashed quickwood branches. He ignored the gruesome tableau and went to the starboard arms locker, where he retrieved out one of the aged machine guns. He placed a belt into the receiver and hefted the weight. It was a more suitable weapon for Ahn-Kha, or a tripod, but it would have to do.
Another Reaper, its form misshapen by a missing leg, jumped from the stern into the water. Valentine moved forward, down to the Grog deck, and then up to the bow. He leaned over and winced at the damage to the front of the ship. Hopefully just her forward compartment was flooding. The ship could absorb this kind of damage and still proceed under her own power, were she fresh from the dockyard. Was she still sound enough to float?
The submarine was gone. All that remained of her on the surface was a fuel-oil slick, spreading across the water like a bloodstain at a murder site. And debris. And bodies. Swimming men struggled to stay afloat amidst the floating wreckage.
Valentine spotted one odd shape, a long thin tentacle with a heavy membrane attached. A Kurian, forgetting to disguise himself in his distress. Valentine loosed a burst into the struggling form. He swung the smoking barrel to the next swimmer, an oil-coated man in white, and killed him with another burst. A heavy form floated on a life preserver, perhaps dead, perhaps faking it. Valentine could not make out the features for certain, but the hair looked as though it might belong to Captain Saunders. He fired a burst into the body, which twitched at the impact of the bullets before disappearing under the oil. Another swimmer burst through the oil, taking a deep gasp of air, having miraculously escaped the sinking sub. Valentine shot him before he could draw his second breath.
The gun grew hot, and he had to slow his rate of fire. The brass casings dropped onto the deck, and hundreds lay at his feet when a hand touched his shoulder.