The Abyss Surrounds Us (The Abyss Surrounds Us #1)(57)
Rotors scream to my left as four glistening black quadcopters drop from the sky in formation, their hulls streaked with SRCese gold and red. A screech echoes from a set of speakers embedded in them, and in one voice the four declare, “Unregistered vessel, on the authority of the Southern Republic of California you are being ordered to stop and transfer the citizen you have unlawfully kept aboard your ship. Failure to comply will be interpreted as an act of aggression and will be met with uncompromising force.”
The all-call screams back, in a voice that’s unquestionably Santa Elena’s, “Suck my dick! Here’s your compliance!” and the whole ship rattles as the big guns unload.
The Splinters weave across the waves, rounding out on the other side of the quadcopters, their barrels pointing skywards just as the pursuit opens fire.
The quadcopters’ guns blaze as a clatter of artillery fire rains down on the Minnow’s upper decks. I roll away from the open doors, pressing myself against the wall by the hatch. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot the flash of hundreds of brass casings pouring into the sea.
The Splinters’ barrels light up, crosscutting the Minnow’s fire, and the copters’ engines shriek as they drop back. Their formation changes—they spread out around us, two of them shifting their fire to chase the Splinters, but Varma’s a step ahead of them. He disappears around the prow of the ship.
Is he using us as cover? I wonder.
Then a thud rolls through the deck beneath my feet. Phobos fired, and the copter chasing Varma takes a direct hit to one of its rotors. The whole bird screams as it tries to compensate, spinning wildly and sinking so low that its underbelly skims the top of the waves. Another shell slams into the water, and the third strikes the cockpit, exploding with a blast that casts long shadows across the trainer deck floor.
I sneak a glance outside, just in time to catch the twisted wreckage of the craft disappearing beneath the waves. One down.
But the other three are shifting their attention to the Minnow’s engines, and I’m about to be in some serious shit. The chances of a stray bullet finding me just got a whole lot better. My heart thunders in my chest, and the engines shudder below me. I raise one hand to my ear and press down. “Swift? Still alive up there?”
“Miraculously. Hold on a second.” Another thud rattles through the ship, but there’s no explosion in its wake; the shell must have missed its mark.
“If I give up my position to them, their paradigm will shift. Their infra will recognize that I’m unguarded. They’ll stop shooting at the engines and start trying to bring me in.”
“Cas—” Swift starts.
There are children on this boat. There are people on the Minnow whose only crime was being born on the fringes. The people on the copters aren’t trying to spare them, and even if they do bring me in, they won’t waste the opportunity to take out a pirate ship. There’s only one way to save everyone on the Minnow.
“I think I can get all of them right up against the water at the back of the ship,” I tell Swift. “And then I’ll light the Otachi.”
There’s a long pause. Then Swift laughs, as if she can’t believe what she’s hearing. “I’ll tell the captain. Give me a second.”
“I don’t have a second,” I hiss. The guns are swiveling around, the barrels pointing straight at the engines beneath my feet. “Make sure she doesn’t shoot me for this.”
Swift yells, “Cas, wait—”
But I’m already pushing off the wall, sprinting for the edge of the deck, my fingers fumbling with the straps of my right-hand Otachi. I strip it off, toss it over my shoulder, swing my arms up, and dive headfirst into the sea.
The water thrums with the beat of the rotors overhead, and I turn end over end, my fingertips scrabbling for the dials on my wrist. I twist them, the device comes to life, and a beam of light blasts down into the depths as the sound of Bao’s homing call rattles out after it. With the saltwater burning my eyes, I can’t keep them open long enough to see if he responds.
I can only pray now.
With two quick pumps of my legs, I break the surface again and immediately fling up my bare arm, waving it wildly back and forth. “Here!” I scream over the roar of the quadcopters. “Help! I’m here! Please!”
Their infra must detect me; the gun barrels go slack as the quadcopters pull up. The Minnow speeds away. Over the wave tops, I spot the narrow hulls of the Splinters peeling off and heading back my way as if they’re coming to collect me. I really hope they aren’t.
“Please!” I yell again. With the left-hand Otachi weighing me down, it’s getting harder and harder to tread water. I glance beneath my feet and find a familiar shadow rising fast. Up above, the copters start to sink. They’re coming for me.
No going back now.
I yank my left arm out of the sea, throwing the Otachi’s beams against the lowering hull of the quadcopter above me and twisting the dial to the aggression setting. I thrash my legs, trying to propel myself out of the way. The water beneath me swells.
I slide clear with inches to spare, caught in a tumult of water as Bao breaches clean out of the NeoPacific, his massive limbs slashing at the quadcopter above. With a crash like a freight train derailing, he bats the copter into one of its fellows, but I plunge back underwater before I can see anything else. I throw my arms up over my head, trying to protect it, trying to make myself as small as possible. In this clash of giants, I’m just a skinny blip, washed to the side by the force of the wave Bao produces when he splashes back down.