Page 150 of Kai
“You’re right. We can’t.” A semblance of a smile twitched on Kai’s lips as he rubbed my hand. “But we don’t need to.”
“What?” I stared at the man who never lost his cool—well, unless a certain sick merc threatened me or I went overboard. Kai may be keeping his cool now, but he’d lost his mind. “Say that again?”
“I’m trained to identify every arsenal in the fleets of every country in the world,” he explained, following the boat with his gaze even as it slowed down to a crawl. “We’re looking at a Virginia-class fast attack submarine.”
“How the fuck did Li get his hands on a fast attack submarine?” I raged inside at the injustice of this all, cursing a universe in which the good guys died, and the bad guys won.
“He didn’t.” Kai’s face relaxed into a genuine smile as the sub came to a stop. “Judging by its numerical designation, that’s an active duty submarine, and it belongs to the United States Navy.”
I opened my mouth and closed it. “Did you just say theUnited States Navy?”
Kai nodded.
“But…” I was no closer to making sense of anything. “The Navy helped us?”
“Aye, aye.” He studied the machine. “That sub downedthe NWO’s missileandthe helicopter attackingSerenity.”
“Oh, my God. So that’s what happened!” Two swooshes. Two explosions. Now things made sense. One stealth hunting machine had taken out the other. “But the US Navy? How the hell?”
“Dagger has friends in high places.” Trying to hide a wince from me, he pushed to his feet and waved his arms in the air. “Battle Brothers has an expansive, influential network, and we often partner up with the US government. Someone must’ve called in a favor. I bet this was Omega’s extraction plan all along.”
Moving slower than before, he picked up the paddle and set a course toward the giant floating among the waves.
“I don’t understand.” I turned around and faced Kai. “We missed rendezvous. It’s a big ocean. How did they find us?”
“I’m sure they were around by the time the helicopter made an appearance.”
“But how?”
“Tracker.”
“Serenityhas a tracker onboard?”
“She does, but I deactivated it before starting the mission to prevent anyone from stalking her. They homed in onmyintradermal tracker.”
I gaped. “You…?”
“Me and everyone who works for Tracker Team.”
“It gives a new meaning to the ‘leave no one behind’ motto.”
“It does.” He kept paddling, ignoring the blood dripping down his chest. “They must’ve been a tad confused when my signal was not aboardSerenity. Once in the neighborhood, they probably detected the helicopter and took care of business. After that, it was just a matter of coming to periscope depth and locking in on me, on us.”
“But Bozeman said we’d be on our own if we missed the deadline.”
“Bozeman always says that.” Kai’s stare remained focused on our destination. “Tracker Team does not abandon its people. Speak of the devil.”
I turned around and watched as the first person appeared atop the tower, dressed in a neon yellow wetsuit that was impossible to miss. As he climbed down, another similarly dressed figure followed, and then another. By the time we approached the visible surface of the submarine, several men stood on the outer deck, atop the tower, and at the edge of the hull.
“Grab the leash,” Kai called out, unfastening the cuff from his ankle and tossing it to one of the men in yellow.
“Got it.” The man pulled hand over hand until the surfboard bumped softly against the sub. Kai stretched out his arm, and another man caught it. Together, they brought the surfboard parallel to the sub.
“I’ll balance the board.” Kai crouched down to do just that. “You go.”
I stood on shaky legs, accepted a hand from the second man, and with a grimace, stepped onto the sub.
“Welcome aboard, Sorceress.” Javier Guzman steadied me and immediately led me away from the water. “A truce. Okay?”
