The Bones of Valhalla (Purge of Babylon, Book 9) Read online

  “For now.”

  “Zoe’s right, you’re stuck in that bed for at least all of today,” Lara said. “Third-year medical student’s orders.”

  “The two of you’re ganging up on me, is that it?” Gaby smirked.

  “It’s for your own good. Besides, I wouldn’t call what Nate’s doing running around, exactly. More like limping around. Slowly. You guys did a good job keeping him alive out there.”

  “Danny did most of the work. I mostly just stood around getting blood on my clothes. What’s he up to since he left me, anyway?”

  “Looking for an available cabin. I had to tell him there wasn’t any.”

  “What about Gage’s? I heard he doesn’t need one anymore.”

  “I had to convert it into a makeshift brig.”

  “That’s too bad. He’s been really looking forward to that room. Mostly he’s been looking forward to us doing things down there where no one can hear us.”

  “Spare me the details.”

  “Heh.”

  “The good news is, it won’t be like this for too much longer.”

  “The Bengal Islands?”

  Lara nodded. “We’ll be back on course soon, and we have all the fuel we need to get them there.”

  “And assuming there are no bad guys waiting for us there…?”

  “Then we’ll say our good-byes to Riley’s people and we’ll have the Trident all to ourselves again.”

  “What about...,” Gaby said, but didn’t finish. She made a downward motion with her head instead—difficult to do, since she was flat on her back.

  But Lara knew what she meant: Will.

  “I don’t know yet,” Lara said.

  “Did Danny tell you? About why he came back?”

  She nodded.

  “But you haven’t talked to him,” Gaby said. It wasn’t a question.

  “No. Not yet.”

  “Danny’s convinced it’s him.”

  “What about you?”

  The teenager shook her head. “I never got the chance to really talk to him. It. Him? Are we calling it—him—a ‘him’ or what?”

  Lara shook her head too, and didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe…or cry. She said instead, “I don’t know.”

  “It’s crazy, huh?” Gaby said as she reached over and squeezed Lara’s hand.

  “Which part?”

  “All of it.” She pursed her lips. “You’re scared. That’s why you haven’t talked to him yet.”

  Lara managed a smile back at the girl. (No, not a girl. Not anymore. She hasn’t been a girl in a long time.) “What happened to you out there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve gotten smarter.”

  Gaby grinned. “It wasn’t easy, being around Danny for all that time, but I managed.” Then she was serious again—and stronger than Lara remembered. “You need to talk to him, Lara. He fought his way to get back to us. To get back to you.”

  She nodded. “I will. In time.”

  “So it’s really him,” Zoe said from the foot of Gaby’s bed.

  Lara and Gaby both turned to the doctor. They had been so caught up in their conversation Lara realized they had both forgotten Zoe was even in the room with them.

  “Will,” Zoe said. “It really is him down there. In that chest that Danny brought back with him.”

  “Yes,” Gaby said.

  “And he’s…?”

  Gaby nodded.

  Zoe seemed to lapse into her own thoughts, and Lara had to remind herself that she wasn’t the only one who shared a past with Will. Zoe had, too; even if Lara never pried into the specifics, she always suspected something had happened between the two of them out there. But by the time Zoe had shown up on Song Island, alone, it hadn’t seemed to matter.

  But now, as she watched the other woman struggling with the thought of Will’s return, Lara couldn’t help but wonder all over again.

  “We have to keep this between us,” Lara said instead. “Understand? No one can know about what’s down there. Especially Riley’s people.”

  Zoe nodded. “I understand.”

  “You need to talk to him,” Gaby said. She was staring at Lara, and might have been for some time, but Lara just now noticed. “You need to talk to him, Lara. You need to hear what he has to say. What he came all the way back here to tell us.”

  “I will.” Lara nodded, and thought, I’ll talk to him. I’ll go down there and open the door and pry open that chest and I’ll watch him climb outside—not as the man I remember, but as a creature.

  A monster.

  You’re supposed to be dead, Will. Why the hell aren’t you dead?

  You goddamn bastard, you left me alone and I moved on. I moved on…

  “There you are,” Carly said, leaning against the railing next to her. “I was beginning to think you were avoiding me on purpose.”

  “Don’t take it personally,” Lara said. “I’ve been avoiding everyone since the infirmary.”

  “Great. Now I don’t know whether to be pleased or insulted.”

  Lara smiled but didn’t take her eyes off the group of strangers milling around on the floor below them. There was a steady stream of heads coming out and disappearing back into the deck, a mixture of civilians and soldiers. At one point she was sure she saw the familiar, faded ball cap belonging to Peters.

  The Gulf of Mexico flashed by around them, the endless horizon a constant companion on all sides. She could look for miles and only see crisp blue water, which was the only thing keeping her mind even a little bit at ease, because an empty ocean meant no one was trying to sneak up on them. She’d had enough of that to last a lifetime. Except for the smaller refueling ship keeping pace nearby, she could almost believe the Trident was the last seafaring vessel in the world at this very moment.

  Of course, she knew better. But it was nice to pretend, even for a short time.

  Every now and then she found herself peeking up at the open skies, waiting for the plane she had seen last night to come back. After hearing all the stories about Mercer’s warplanes bombing collaborator towns in Texas, she had been expecting the worst, but the plane had simply abandoned its pursuit (if it had even been pursuing them in the first place) and vanished. It had never gotten close enough for them to make out what kind of aircraft it had been, so she couldn’t even be sure if it was one of Mercer’s.

  It saw us. It was searching for something, and it saw us; then it turned around.

  So why did it just leave?

  Just one more question to fill her head and make her nights more troubled, as if she didn’t already have enough even before she ran into Riley and his rebellion.

  “You’re avoiding him too, I hear,” Carly was saying beside her.

  “I’m not ready yet,” Lara said.

  “I can dig it.”

  “Can you?”

  “If Danny died, then came back as a ghoul? Oh, yeah. I can dig it.”

  “Danny’s one-hundred percent sure it’s him.”

  “Danny was one-hundred percent sure he had an alien baby growing inside him two weeks ago, but it turned out to just be a case of bad seafood.”

  “What do you think?”

  Carly shrugged. “The jackass wouldn’t even tell me what was inside that thing until we were halfway to the Trident. I guess he didn’t want me to freak out.”

  “Did you?”

  “Maybe a tad. I mean, I’ve never been that close to one of them before.” Carly went quiet for a moment. Then, “But if it is him, it would be nice having him back. Even if he’s not really…him anymore.” Carly sighed. “Is all of this as confusing for you as it is for me?”

  “It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.”

  “Glad it’s not just me, then. I haven’t told the kids, of course. Man, they are going to freak.”

  “We need to keep it in-house. Riley’s people aren’t ready. I honestly don’t know if they’ll ever be ready to find out what’s down there in the engine room.
”

  Carly shot a quick look behind them before turning back around. “Do you think it’s him? You think Danny’s right?”

  “I don’t know,” Lara said, surprised that the answer came out so quickly. The three words had simply tumbled free, but she didn’t try to take them back.

  Because it was the truth: She just didn’t know.

  “It’s complicated, I guess,” Carly said.

  “Yeah. It’s really complicated.”

  Carly reached over and put a hand on Lara’s shoulder and squeezed. “Whatever you decide, it’ll be the right decision.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why are you so sure?”

  “Because you’re Lara. You’re the boss lady. That’s why.”

  Lara gave her friend a half-smile, wishing she could be as confident.

  They didn’t say anything for a while and were content to just lean against the railing in silence and look out at the endless ocean, turning their faces into the cool wind. The peace and tranquility temporarily dampened her chaotic thoughts, though it didn’t come close to washing away her problems. Right now, that was an impossibility, and she accepted it.

  The serenity was finally broken when the radio clipped to her hip squawked and she heard Blaine’s voice: “Lara, come in.”

  “Just like Blaine to ruin a good moment,” Carly said.

  Lara unclipped, then keyed, the radio. “I’m here, Blaine.”

  “You’re needed on the bridge,” Blaine said.

  “Problem?”

  “Something you need to hear.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Lara nodded at Carly, and they headed back into the upper deck.

  “I didn’t know Blaine was back on the bridge already,” Lara said.

  “You kidding me?” Carly said. “He practically ran up there as soon as he climbed back onboard. Also, I think he and Sarah are done.”

  “What happened?”

  “Don’t know. I didn’t want to pry.” Then, when Lara flashed her an amused look, “Hey, I can be really sensitive and shit, if I try.”

  “I never doubted it,” Lara smiled.

  Blaine was standing behind the Trident’s helm as if he’d never left with Carly to go rescue Danny and the others at all. Riley was inside with him, one arm in a sling, and looking brighter and healthier than in all the other times she’d known him. The irony was that it took getting shot for the man to finally get some of the sleep he had denied himself for so long.

  “Shouldn’t you be resting?” Lara asked Riley as she entered with Carly.

  “I got plenty of that already,” Riley said.

  Lara turned to Blaine. “What did you wanted to show me?”

  “Tell her,” Blaine said to Riley.

  “Tell me what?”

  Riley said, “After you spotted that plane in the sky, I asked Marsha—”

  “Maddie,” Lara said.

  “Right, Maddie. I asked her to keep an ear on the radio frequency that Mercer’s people have been using since the attacks began. The transmission is supposed to be all in code, in case someone stumbled across it by accident.”

  “You said ‘supposed to be.’”

  “I did.” He nodded at Blaine. “Show them.”

  Blaine flicked a switch on the dashboard. “It’s a recorded message.”

  A male voice came through the speakers along the bridge’s walls. She didn’t recognize it, but the man sounded slightly…what was the word…hesitant? But tone was hard to decipher over the radio, and she could have been far off, for all she knew.

  “This is The Tide,” the man began, “to every unit still in the field. Effective immediately, you are to stand down and cease all operations. If you’re already on your way home, continue doing so. I repeat: If you’re in the middle of operations, you are to abandon them and fall back and await further instructions.”

  Blaine hit another button and the voice shut off. “That’s it. The same short message on a loop.”

  “How long has it been broadcasting?” Lara asked.

  “I don’t know when it first started, but it’s still broadcasting as we speak.”

  “What’s it mean?” Carly asked. “Are they pulling back? Giving up? That sounded pretty important.”

  “Messages don’t get any bigger than telling the kill teams to stand down and for people to come home,” Riley said.

  “So back to my original question,” Carly said. “What’s it mean? Specifically for us? Call me selfish, but I just care about our own necks.”

  Lara stared at Riley. She could see it on his face: He had been asking himself that very same question since he’d heard the message.

  “Was that Mercer?” Lara asked him.

  Riley shook his head. “No. It’s Rhett.”

  “Gone with the Wind Rhett?” Carly asked.

  “You told me about him before,” Lara said. “Rhett. He was one of Mercer’s original Four Horsemen. Along with you, Erin, and another guy.”

  “Benford.”

  “Right. Benford. So what’s it mean that it’s Rhett and not Mercer telling your people in Texas to stand down?”

  “It could be any number of things…”

  “Are any of them good for us?” Carly asked. “That’s all I care about right now.”

  “I don’t know. It would almost entirely depend on what happened to Mercer.”

  “What makes you think anything happened to him?” Lara asked.

  “Because the only way Rhett would be in any position to order a stop to the war effort is over Mercer’s dead body. I didn’t risk everything to mutiny because the man was stable, Lara. Like all fanatics, he’s committed to the war to the very bitter end. Rhett, on the other hand…”

  “Keo,” Lara said.

  Riley nodded. “It’s a possibility. It was a long shot, and I didn’t want to invest too much energy in it, but if he’s either killed Mercer or he’s incapacitated him to the point where Rhett was able to take over… That opens up opportunities that didn’t exist before.”

  “Keo,” Carly said, breaking out into a big grin. “Good ol’ Keo, always causing trouble. I love that guy.”

  “You asked me before what I would do if Keo succeeded,” Riley said, looking across the room at Lara. “I told you I never really thought about it, that getting the hell away from Mercer was always my primary goal. I wasn’t lying. I really hadn’t thought that far ahead, because I didn’t think it would ever happen.”

  “And now?” Lara said.

  “If Keo somehow actually did it, maybe we don’t have to flee to the Bengal Islands after all. Maybe the answer isn’t out there, but back home.”

  “Where is home?” Carly asked.

  “Black Tide Island,” Riley said.

  2

  Will

  He could hear them talking through the thick chest that kept the sunlight at bay. They were keeping their voices low enough that if not for his heightened senses, he wouldn’t have been able to distinguish their words from the loud roar of the engine that tried to drown out everything. The walls of the chest vibrated constantly around him and had been since they carried him onto the boat. The cramped space was a nonfactor because he had no uses for comfort anymore.

  He was awake, in the daylight. The reality of sunlight inches from his exposed skin, already so weak after his encounter with the blue eyes in Gallant, had been overwhelming at first. He couldn’t really call it fear because he was beyond that; he remembered what fear was, but to actually feel it again was something else entirely.

  He could hear them just fine, just as he could hear and feel the sloshing of the waves underneath the moving boat and taste the bitterness of the ocean on his tongue. He’d traversed it once before on a much smaller craft, but he would never become used to it. It made him uneasy being this close to something that could end him with so little effort, especially with so many things left to do.

  Mabry.

  He was ther
e, waiting.

  And vulnerable, so vulnerable.

  “But you have to be absolutely sure,” he heard Lara say now.

  “It’s him, Lara,” Danny said. “I made sure of it. He knows things only Willie boy would know.”

  How many times had he played this scenario over in his mind, during all the nights and days since his transformation? Too many, and each time the outcome was always different…and always the same.

  You’re not a man anymore. Don’t fool yourself.

  But he wasn’t fooling himself. He didn’t come here in a delusional attempt to regain his humanity. The only thing left now was action, to strike back at the enemy. To save them. Everyone.

  But mostly her…

  The grind of the door closing, then Danny, his voice clear as day even through the thick metal: “It’s a lot to take in. It took me a few days to just open the figurative door into the possibility of accepting it was even him, and I never slept with the guy—long, lonely nights in foxholes in the Stan notwithstanding.”

  “When did you know for sure?” Lara asked.

  “Not until Gallant, but I had my suspicions before then…”

  He let their conversation drift into the background in order to focus on healing.

  He was weak. Much, much too weak to do anything for them right now. If they wanted to, they could come in here and kill him. A bullet to the head. That was all it would take. It was ironic that for all the benefits of being turned, he didn’t have the near-invulnerability of the black eyes. But he didn’t have all of their weaknesses, either.

  He had reclaimed a lot of what made him him, but he would never be whole again. There were moments when the simplest things still eluded him—like the name of a book he used to love reading as a child, his favorite movie, a joke that Danny liked to tell even though it had gotten old a long time ago…

  Concentrate. He needed to concentrate on healing.

  Even with his pain receptors turned off, he could still tell how bad the injuries were. The muscles were torn and bruised and ripped, the tendons and sinews stretched beyond their abilities. There was no pain, but their current fragile state weighed heavily on his mind. Ironically, all the broken bones made lying inside the chest, crumpled up like a marionette with its strings cut, simpler.