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“I just want you to know this isn’t about Maddy anymore,” Jacks said to Tom. “It’s about something that’s bigger than all of us.”
“I agree with you, one hundred percent,” Tom said. “By the way, I liked your performance with the captain today. If only I thought we could really count on you and the Angels when the chips are down. Instead of just when it’s convenient and makes for a good photo op.”
“You should be grateful—”
“Grateful that you’re doing something that is obviously your duty? If you think the demons would have just stopped at destroying humans without turning to the Angels next, you’re a fool.”
“Stop!” Maddy pressed against Tom.
“Funny, you don’t strike me as a scholar of the Book of Angels,” Jacks said.
“Stop!”
Maddy stamped her foot down on the deck. Hard.
“Stop it!” she yelled. “We don’t have time for this!”
Maddy’s eyes were wild, nostrils flared as her steely gaze moved back and forth between Tom and Jacks.
“Maddy!” Jacks said.
She merely stared forward in response.
“What is it?” Tom asked.
But it was clear that Jacks knew what Maddy knew. The color drained from his cheeks, but his face remained firm. His eyes looked to the sky.
Maddy began to draw back to her senses, slowly. “The demons. They’re almost here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A bead of sweat had formed on Maddy’s forehead. It tickled, just a bit. It struck her as almost funny that she would even notice something so small at such an intense moment as this. She swiped away the sweat drop.
Lieutenant Tom Cooper and Jackson Godspeed looked at her. In a brief moment of gallows humor, Maddy realized they’d stopped fighting for once.
“You’re sure?” Tom said.
“I think so,” Maddy replied.
“That doesn’t sound so sure,” the pilot said.
Maddy looked at him, then at Jacks, who nodded at her.
“Okay,” Maddy said, taking in a deep breath. “I’m sure.”
“Go, go!” Tom cried.
Tom smashed the safety glass of an alarm panel and pounded the button. A Klaxon began ringing across the sky, along the short, narrow hallways, out into the mess hall—all throughout the carrier. Every soul on the ship bolted up straight for a moment as he or she realized what was happening. There was an extended moment of silence as if each of them drew in a breath, and then a burst of hurried chaos as the entire ship sprang directly into action.
• • •
Maddy ran up the stairs on the aircraft carrier’s island into the combat control room, leaping up the steps.
“What do we have, Lieutenant Commander?” The captain was already there, gulping coffee from a paper cup. He was eyeballing the large vertical radar screen in the middle of the room. His face was cast in a ghostly green shade from the glow of the enormous screen. “No activity yet.”
“Good. That means you can get your forces up,” Maddy said. “But we don’t have much time. They’re planning on going”—she pointed to a spot on the map near one of the battleships—“here first.” She’d seen the big warship clearly in her brief vision.
“Okay, that’s south,” the captain said. He turned to his radioman. “Get the admiral on the radio. If Montgomery’s right we’re going to be engaging the enemy very soon. We’re going to need to throw everything we’ve got at them, and more.”
