To David’s right, the massive plague barge burned on the water. Occasionally an explosion went up.
Casualties of war, David told himself. Kamau had said that they were all enemy combatants—Immari soldiers or new recruits who had pledged: loyalists. There had been no alternative.
Kate heard a series of three explosions. The room was pitch black, and inside, the only sounds were the occasional grunt or cough from Martin, Chang, and the European scientist.
Kate heard clanging at the door, and it opened just as she reached it. Shaw grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him.
She looked back, hoping Martin was behind her, but she couldn’t see anything. The smoke was too thick. It burned her eyes and filled her lungs.
She coughed and hacked as Shaw dragged her. He was going to rip her arm off.
The darkness and smoke ebbed at the intersection of the next corridor. Kate heard and felt the massive fire burning before she saw it.
The fire burned up one side of the hallway, licking the ceiling and reaching for the other side. Past the flames she could see the open air. The ship had been blown to pieces. Shaw had used grenades to clear a path. It was as though some giant creature had taken a bite out of the side of the ship, leaving a jagged hole.
Shaw pulled her toward the flames.
David leaned against the doorframe of the operations center at the top of the control tower.
One of the Berbers ripped the tape off Rukin’s mouth and shoved him toward the microphone.
Rukin eyed the chief, then David, and finally began speaking into the microphone. “Attention all Immari forces. This is Major Alexander Rukin. I am ordering you to surrender immediately. Lay down your weapons. Ceuta has fallen…”
David tuned Rukin’s words out as he surveyed the carnage the screens depicted: around the base, beyond the wall, and on the water.
What have I done? he wondered. What you had to, he told himself. Across the room, Kamau’s eyes met his. The African seemed to know what David was thinking. He gave him one slight nod.
Kate closed her eyes as Shaw pulled her past the fire, and then she was at the edge of the hall and the walls on each side of her were gone and they were falling—
She landed hard on her feet; her knees buckled and she rolled across the deck. Shaw was already getting to his feet. The guy was like a super-soldier. Above her, Kate saw Martin, Chang, and the other man fly out of the flaming opening, falling toward the deck below. They crashed down around her a second after she rolled out of the way. The three men were alive, but Kate suspected there were broken bones. She threw her backpack off and began crawling over to them, but an explosion overhead sprayed pieces of the ship into the air. The debris fell in piles, raining down on them. Kate curled into a ball, trying to protect herself.
Shaw pulled her up. “We have to jump!” He pointed at the water below.
Kate’s eyes went wide. It was twenty feet or more. A massive fire burned over the water, ringing the ship. “No. Freaking. Way.”
He grabbed her backpack and threw it over, then grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the edge. Kate closed her eyes and inhaled.
David took the Styrofoam cup of coffee from the soldier and thanked him.
He sipped it as he watched the screens around the room. The disarmed Immari soldiers were filing into the citadel. They would be the new inhabitants of the pens.
Two technicians were zooming in on the burning plague barge, assessing the damage and rate of disintegration, trying to decide whether they needed to hit it again.
On the screen, explosions blew out one side of the ship. An Immari soldier dragged a woman through the flames and threw her onto the deck below. She curled into a ball, then the soldier stood her up again.
David froze. Her hair was dark… but he knew her face. It was impossible. Yet, there Kate was. Or had David finally cracked? The pressure of the battle, of his choice, finally shattering reality. Was he seeing what he wanted to see?
He watched Kate fight with the Immari soldier, then he threw her into the water below, likely to her death.
David raced to the tech’s station. “Rewind that feed.”
The frames zoomed back.
“Stop.”
David leaned closer. He was sure of it now. It was Kate. And a soon-to-be-dead Immari soldier that had tossed her about like a rag doll and thrown her from the ship.
He spun around and said to the chief, “You’re in command until I return. Do not fire on that plague barge. No matter what.”
He was out of the control station and down the first flight of stairs in seconds.
Kamau called down to him. “David! You want some help?”
CHAPTER 55
Former Immari Operations Base at Ceuta
Northern Morocco