The Seraphim Sequence: The Fifth Column 2 (26 page)

‘No.’

Damien fired another burst. Jay heard the slide lock back.

‘Then no,’ Damien said.

Jay still had Sophia’s P99 pistol but no rounds to chamber. He breathed deep to oxygenate his blood, then stepped toward the two shocktroopers. He could barely handle one and here he was approaching two. It had seemed so easy shooting them on the balcony back there, but up close and armed only with a sword was a different story entirely.

They saw him and didn’t bother reaching for their pistols. Now that they were out of the water, he had enough reach with the tachi to chop their hands off. Instead, they dived back under again. He hesitated, waiting for them to emerge.

‘Grace,’ he yelled. ‘DC’s in the water.’

Grace tightrope-walked the rope from the fishing boat to the sub. ‘Keep them busy,’ she said.

A shocktrooper emerged on the stern of the sub, UMP firing down the port side of the sail. Grace darted past just in time, unscathed. Jay pulled in behind the sail, sword in both hands, which wasn’t exactly going to stop bullets. He figured the two shocktroopers would surface on the stern side and move around the sail to take them by surprise. He hoped he could lure them around the corner, then remembered they could see through walls. Scratch that idea.

Near the bow, Damien was busy using his UMP as a shield against a shocktrooper’s knife attacks. Jay left him to that while he hurled himself against the sail, near the open door.

‘Close the door!’ he shouted.

He hoped someone was there to close it from the inside. The last thing they needed was a shocktrooper inside the submarine, ripping everyone, including a defenseless Sophia, to shreds.

He heard the door moan. ‘On it!’ Chickenhead yelled from inside.

Jay risked a glance over his shoulder. A single shocktrooper was on the fishing boat, furiously wrapping an improvised tourniquet around his severed arm. Without a firearm, he wasn’t a threat.

Jay peeked around the corner of the sail, past the closing door. A shocktrooper was there, one hand on the railing, the other aiming a pistol. He fired at Jay. Jay ducked clear before the round took his face off.

He heard the door stick and Chickenhead swear. Jay hurled himself around the corner, tachi swinging, to see the shocktrooper with one boot and elbow against the door, his exoskeleton-augmented arm keeping it half-open. He aimed the pistol inside at Chickenhead and fired.

Jay’s blade came down on the shocktrooper, who reeled, avoiding the sharp steel. His pistol dropped into the water. Jay advanced with another swing, this one lower. The shocktrooper retreated further, almost slipping into the water. Jay saw the expression on his face shift from concern to focus. Jay knew what that meant. He brought the tachi sword back over his head, seeking the shocktrooper sneaking up behind him. His blade struck metal with a resounding clang, hitting nothing but submarine. The shocktrooper behind him had withdrawn and was now aiming his pistol from the corner. Jay moved quickly toward him, his boots sliding across the sloped edge. He cut the tachi across the pistol, but the shocktrooper withdrew and rolled back.

DC surfaced, aiming his P329 at the shocktrooper, waiting for him to get back to his feet and provide a nice big target. On the fishing boat next to the submarine, Jay noticed the one-armed shocktrooper searching the deck for a weapon. Jay pointed his blade at the shocktrooper. DC nodded and disappeared under the water.

Jay moved his sword back to the shocktrooper near the sail door, keeping him from getting too close. Beyond him, Jay saw DC surface alongside the fishing boat and open fire. Rounds punched through the back of the one-armed shocktrooper’s skull and he collapsed.

The shocktrooper in front of Jay, pistol in one hand, knife in the other, tried for Jay’s exposed arm with his blade. Jay leaped from the sail, running onto the bow of the submarine. He found himself inconveniently in line with the shocktrooper Damien had been fighting. Not ideal.

Jay thrust the sword forward in a clean stab. The shocktrooper leaped to one side, avoiding him. Jay instantly regretted it. Now the knife- and pistol-wielding shocktrooper was right beside him, crouched low and pistol aimed. Jay swept his sword across. The shocktrooper pulled his pistol into his chest and rolled under Jay, kicking his feet out from under him. Jay found himself in the air, upside-down, the tachi in one hand. He extended his other hand and planted it in a handstand, then let the momentum carry his feet into the wall of the sail. He pushed off with one foot, sending him back the way he’d come. Once he was the right way up again, the shocktrooper took careful aim. But Jay had been tracking him during his airborne maneuver and knew precisely where to cut his blade—right into the pistol. The pistol bounced along the deck and teetered on the edge.

Jay was about to finish the shocktrooper where he stood, but Damien’s shocktrooper had moved in right behind him. Jay swept his blade behind, catching the shocktrooper’s knife. He pushed the knife aside and swung the sword in a savage full circle, forcing both the front and rear shocktrooper to dive clear. He watched with satisfaction as they both dived into the water.

Grace reached the side of the sub, DC coughing and spluttering beside her. He looked barely able to breathe.

‘Use your electricity!’ she yelled.

Jay grabbed DC by the arm and dragged him up the sloping edge. His body knocked the shocktrooper’s pistol into the water. Grace collected it and fired repeatedly at the submerged shocktroopers. They closed around her.

‘Hurry up!’ she yelled.

‘Get out!’ Jay yelled back at her.

She dropped the pistol into the water and climbed up DC’s leg. Jay checked around him. Damien was still fighting one shocktrooper, but the other two were in the water, each on opposing sides of the submarine. Grace’s boots were clear of the water.

Jay dunked the tip of the tachi blade into the sea. His grip clenched and every muscle in his body tightened involuntarily. Beside him, he felt Grace slip and drop down the side. DC rolled over and snatched her. The voltage shot down Jay’s sword and he watched helplessly as Damien and the other shocktrooper tumbled down the other side of the sub, into the water with an unceremonious splash. Their splash cleared, leaving both figures eerily still. They started to sink.

‘Damien!’ Jay yelled.

He dropped the sword and dived into the water. Bubbles from his nostrils obscured his vision as he propelled himself downward to the two entangled bodies. He hooked one elbow under Damien’s armpit and used his other limbs to pull him to the surface, leaving the shocktrooper to sink.

Jay broke the surface, lungs burning. He looked over to see Grace in the water, unconscious.

‘Get her!’ DC said, taking Damien from him.

Jay dived again, this time for Grace. He pulled her back to the surface. Each second felt like a minute. How long could they last before they died? A typical person, maybe a few minutes, but with the Chimera pseudogenes he had no idea. He hoped longer.

Nasira reappeared from the sub’s entrance and rushed toward a still unconscious Damien. Jay passed Grace’s lifeless body to DC, who dragged her up onto the deck.

‘Cardiac arrest,’ DC said.

Jay left him to attend to Grace and began to give Damien rapid compressions. Nasira delivered rescue breaths. He continued with the compressions: thirty on the chest.

‘They won’t make it,’ Nasira said. ‘Motherfucker.’

DC locked eyes with Jay. ‘You need to do it.’

‘Do what?’ Jay said, fingers wrinkled and trembling.

‘Defibrillate. You can control it.’

Jay shook his head. Salt water ran into his eyes. ‘No way, I’ll kill them.’

DC’s voice rose suddenly. ‘The worst that can happen is you fuck up their hearts! You’ve already done that so just do it again!’

Jay placed one hand on the right side of Damien’s chest and the other below his heart. His lips were shaking. He bit them until they bled.

‘How much?’ he said.

DC shook his head. ‘I don’t know, three hundred, maybe five hundred volts. A couple hundred joules.’

‘What the fuck does that mean?’ Jay yelled. ‘I don’t even know what that measurement is!’

‘Just a little jolt!’ DC yelled back.

‘Just a little jolt?’ Jay screamed. ‘Just a little jolt? I’ll try a little jolt then!’

He gave Damien a small concentrated zap. It seemed to have no visible effect. Damien didn’t seize up like he’d expected.

‘Did you do it?’ Nasira asked.

‘I think so.’ Jay shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’

Damien still wasn’t breathing. Jay checked his heart. ‘It’s stopped completely!’

‘That’s good,’ DC said.

Nasira gave Damien a couple more rescue breaths.

‘Go! Compress!’ DC yelled.

Jay worked the compressions. Tears mixed with salt on his face.

Damien’s eyes opened. His first breath was ragged, weak. DC and Nasira helped him upright. He coughed and spluttered water, but he was alive. Jay couldn’t believe it.

DC pulled Jay toward Grace. ‘Go! Go!’ he yelled.

Jay noticed the water rising along the side of the submarine. ‘Wait, they’re sinking. They can’t do that!’

‘That’s because I gave them a warning,’ Nasira said. ‘They’ll seal the door, now get a fucking move on!’

Jay placed his hands on Grace’s body and tried to repeat the same process. ‘Just a little jolt,’ he said under his breath. ‘Just a little jolt.’

His muscles jittered and he delivered the shock. Nothing. DC checked her pulse and gave her two quick rescue breaths. Ignoring the water as it crept closer, Jay worked the compressions, watching carefully for Grace to spring to life. She was a fucking ex-shocktrooper; if Damien could survive this then she could.

‘Save her,’ Damien said, teeth chattering.

Jay clenched his teeth. ‘I’m trying.’

He finished thirty compressions. Still nothing. Maybe he’d given her too much. He had no way of knowing. He wasn’t good at this.

DC looked alarmed. He sheathed his tachi sword so it wouldn’t submerge. ‘Go,’ he said. ‘Again!’

The submarine was sinking slowly. Jade-colored water reached Jay’s knees, soaking Grace’s back. He placed his hands in the same position again and gave her another minor shock. DC lifted her head out of the water and gave her two rescue breaths. Jay worked her chest again, his hands sloshing through the water to reach her chest.

Damien was yelling something, but he ignored it. Nasira was beside him, lifting Grace up more so she wouldn’t be submerged. Before he knew it, they were all standing, holding Grace at waist height. The water kept rising.

DC checked her pulse. ‘Fuck.’

‘Keep going!’ Damien yelled.

Jay continued compressing. She remained horribly still. Damien shoved DC aside and gave her more rescue breaths. Jay became vividly aware of the water lapping at his chest. He didn’t know whether they’d missed their chance or they could still save her. He waited for Damien to finish so he could try another jolt or compression or—

Grace’s body shuddered. Her eyes were open and she coughed repeatedly. Nasira lowered her feet, swinging her upright onto the submerged sub’s surface.

‘Inside!’ Nasira yelled. ‘Now!’

Grace grabbed Damien’s shoulder and let him guide her to the sail door.

Jay, now waist deep in water, moved for the door. It was sealed. In the distance, he could see marines spilling onto the beach.

‘Open!’ he yelled. ‘Open the goddamn door!’

The door parted and he could see Chickenhead’s sweat-slicked face. Water poured in past his legs. He stepped back, struggling to keep the door steady as Nasira stepped through. Damien and Grace staggered in after her. Jay followed, almost slipping on the rush of water. Nasira grabbed him and kept moving.

They reached the next door and Jay collapsed with exhaustion. Behind him, more and more water poured in. He rested against a bulkhead, watching as Chickenhead and DC slammed the door shut together and sealed it.

Jay exhaled slowly. He looked up to see Grace wrapping her arms around Damien.

‘Welcome back,’ Nasira said, collapsing beside Jay.

‘Hey, here’s a good idea,’ he said. ‘Let’s not do that again.’

Sophia opened her eyes. DC was sitting in the corner, watching her. She tried to sit up but her head reeled.

‘What are you, Edward the glittering vampire?’ she said.

DC looked confused. ‘You don’t know who—’

‘Never mind, it was a joke,’ she said.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked. ‘I mean, you know, considering you were—’

‘Completely fucked up?’ Sophia said. ‘On a scale of alive to dead, I’m somewhere in the middle. And even that’s debatable.’

‘Well, that’s good, I suppose.’

She wanted to shrug but it required too much energy. She settled for raising an eyebrow. ‘At least we’re alive. It just … it shouldn’t have been Benito. He shouldn’t have been dragged into this.’

‘Don’t blame this on yourself,’ DC said.

Everything surged inside her. She couldn’t hold it in. ‘I watched him die,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t save him.’

Tears blurred her vision of DC but she felt his hand across her shoulders.

‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Don’t think that.’

Tears poured down her face, mixing with snot. ‘This isn’t how it was meant to happen,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t meant to turn out this way.’

Nasira appeared in the doorway. Or maybe she’d been standing there the whole time and Sophia hadn’t noticed. She was wearing the submarine-issue overalls and sneakers.

She took Sophia’s hands, squeezed them. ‘Hey, you can do this. You’re OK.’

‘I’m not OK, I’m really not,’ Sophia said. She forced herself to smile. ‘Those overalls really suit you.’

‘Don’t push it.’ Nasira grabbed a tissue from the infirmary’s solitary tissue box and handed it to her.

Sophia blew her nose. ‘Freeman,’ she said. ‘I never got to say goodbye.’

Nasira exhaled slowly. ‘I know, honey.’

‘I watched Benito die. I wanted to save him, I wanted to save them both. But I couldn’t.’ She swallowed back more tears. ‘There’s nothing quite like death to make everything seem pointless.’

Nasira looked away. ‘I went back for Freeman, I tried to save him.’

‘They killed him?’ DC said. His eyes were glassy.

Nasira stared down at Sophia’s injured leg. ‘Yeah,’ she said.

‘I’m surprised they didn’t want him alive,’ Sophia said, sniffing.

‘If it makes you feel any better, we put down eight of those motherfuckers today,’ Nasira said. ‘More shocktroopers than we’ve killed in our entire lives.’

Sophia forced a smile. She reached out and took Nasira’s wrist. ‘You did what you could. You both did. I’d never ask for more.’

A tear streaked down DC’s cheek, touching the corner of his lips. In all his years protecting Freeman, they’d grown close.

‘You’d be saying goodbye to my sorry ass too, if it weren’t for the boys,’ Nasira said. ‘And Grace.’

Sophia heard footsteps. She knew it was Grace even before she arrived. She didn’t say anything, just stood there in the doorway. She’d changed out of her wet clothes and into overalls. Her hair was untied: two thick black ribbons that unfurled past her shoulders.

Sophia wiped the tears from her eyes. ‘You could’ve run,’ she said. ‘You could’ve left Nasira, you could’ve left me. Why didn’t you?’

‘It was my op,’ Grace said. ‘I’ve never lost an operative. And I plan to keep it that way.’

She opened her mouth as if to say something else, then decided against it and walked out.

Jay and Damien took her place.

She smiled weakly. ‘Thanks for getting me out in one piece.’

There was a long pause. Jay seemed to have run dry on words. A rare occasion.

‘Did you get what you wanted?’ Damien asked. ‘Information?’

‘Enough.’ The word was sour on Sophia’s lips.

‘Enough for what?’ Jay said.

Sophia wiped her eyes and sat upright. ‘To do what needs to be done.’

‘Freeman’s gone, Soph.’

‘The Seraphim transmitters,’ she said. It was all she had left. The only reason she still wanted to live. ‘I need to do one good thing now. You understand, right?’

‘Sophia, they’re in America,’ Nasira said. ‘No way in hell—’

‘We have the coordinates for all the transmitters now,’ she cut in. ‘That’s all we need. That’s all
I
need.’

‘What is it that you need?’ Nasira said. ‘Really?’

Sophia looked away. ‘Atonement,’ she muttered.

She tested her feet on the floor. Her injured leg was still tender.

‘You’re just going to infil all by yourself?’ Jay said.

‘You’ve done enough. You don’t have to help, no one has to. But I’m doing this.’

‘I’m coming,’ DC said.

Sophia smiled. ‘You’re relieved of your duty now. You don’t have to do anything.’

He crossed his arms. ‘Too bad, you’re stuck with me now.’

‘We barely escaped from the US just six months ago,’ Nasira said. ‘You realize it’s pretty much the most dangerous place in the world right now?’

‘Especially for you,’ Jay said. ‘No offense.’

‘Don’t even try to talk me out of this,’ Sophia said.

‘Dude, it’s a one-way ticket,’ Nasira said. ‘They’re halfway to total martial law over there. You go in, you don’t come out.’

‘We’ve done it before,’ DC said. ‘We can do it again.’

‘This whole thing started with me,’ Sophia said. ‘It ends with me.’