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“Get up, you imbecile,” he said.
The mechanic gingerly got to his feet and surveyed the supply ship that was now partially underwater. He smiled timidly at Tagaan. “At least the Kuyogs worked.”
Tagaan gave him a withering look and barked at him through clenched teeth, “We’re leaving. Now! Get the drivers to their trucks.”
“Yes, comrade.”
While his orders were being carried out, Tagaan checked the approaching cargo ship on the feed from his airborne drone, which was following her on autopilot. Now that she was closer to coming around the point of the bay, he could see how dilapidated the ship was. If she was equipped with a missile battery and carried a submarine, he wondered what other secrets she held. If only he had more Kuyogs with him, he’d test out her defensive capabilities.
The mechanic came running back to him.
“Comrade Tagaan, the lead truck’s radiator is damaged, and the fuel tank is punctured. It will take an hour t
o fix them enough to drive.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“Should I move its cargo to another truck?”
Tagaan grabbed the mechanic’s shirt and screamed in his face, “I told you we’re leaving this minute!” Then he shoved the man away. He hated to leave so much of their precious cargo behind, but he couldn’t risk losing the entire shipment instead of just half. He’d also have to abandon the drone.
Tagaan took one last look at the unassuming cargo ship racing toward them and said, “Now, get me a lighter.”
• • •
TEN MINUTES LATER, the Oregon stopped just long enough for the Gator to surface inside the moon pool and to pluck Eddie, MacD, and Murph from the water. Juan was the first out and he made a beeline for the op center, with Murph tagging along behind, still turning the Kuyog imaging sensor over in his hands. He reclaimed his chair from Max, who returned to his customary position at the engineering station. Murph handed the sensor to Eric and sat at the weapons console, tapping away at the tablet holding the data from the Magellan Sun’s navigation system.
“What’s this?” Eric said, inspecting the object.
“That’s one of the items in the shipment,” Juan said.
“Imaging tech,” Murph added absently without looking up from his handheld computer. “Chinese-made. Can’t wait to take it apart and check out what they came up with.”
“Anything salvageable from the Magellan Sun?” Juan asked Max.
Max shook his head. “Went up like a Roman candle. Linda said you found Semtex on the truck. That must have been what cut it in half. Straight to Davy Jones’s locker.”
“Then that’s our only insight into the Kuyog’s design,” Juan said, first pointing at the sensor, then nodding at the big screen.
The feed from the deck camera showed the dock and road where he and Linc had infiltrated the truck. The supply ship was gone, and so were all but one of the trucks. The remaining truck, still parked near the end of the road, was ablaze. The Semtex wouldn’t be detonated by the fire, but it would probably burn brightly all through the night, reducing the truck and its contents to molten slag.
Max raised an eyebrow at Juan. “Please don’t tell me that’s the truck you planted the tracker on.”
“Okay, I won’t,” Juan said with a resigned look.
“But it is.”
Juan nodded. “So we have no way to follow where those trucks are going.”
“That’s a bigger problem than you think,” Max said.
“What do you mean?”
“Raven called a few minutes ago. She said Locsin kidnapped Beth Anders.”
While Max summed up what happened to Beth and Raven, Juan rubbed his temples, sick at the thought of what she must be going through.
“And now we have no way to find him,” Juan said.
