“I changed my mind.”
We hauled the unconscious man up and dumped him on the dock. I checked the fuel gauge and noted that it was full.
Lev settled into the copilot seat and started flipping switches, power humming to life. The twin engines rumbled, vibrating through the hull. Lights along the console blinked to green.
Behind us, voices shouted. At first, they were distant, then closer. Someone had found the bodies.
“Time to go,” Lev said.
“Do it.”
The engines roared. The boat leapt forward, cutting through the black water like a blade. The harbor lights blurred behind us as we tore through the narrow channel, wake exploding behind us in white foam.
Gunfire cracked from the dock. Bullets sparked off the hull and I growled in annoyance. I climbed up the ladder, drew my pistol, and fired twice toward the muzzle flashes. One went dark.
“Keep her steady!” I barked.
“Always do.”
The bow slammed over a wave, spraying salt water across my face. The port fell away behind us. Ahead, open water stretched, endless and black, the stars reflecting off the surface like broken glass.
“Dmitri’s going to kill us,” Lev muttered, throttling forward.
“Dmitri’s not here,” I said. He’d stayed behind back at their compound to keep an eye on Viktor and Katya. We’d had a long, heated argument among the three of us, but in the end, he’d relented, knowing time was of the essence for Kara’s rescue, which left me and Lev to get shit done.
Lev’s jaw flexed. “You think Viktor and Katya are treating him well?”
“I’m sure that he’ll be fine,” I replied flatly.
Two blips showed up on the radar. They were coming up fast, maybe even gaining on us.
“An active pursuit,” Lev said. “Looks like ARCHEON’s patrol drones. Surface interceptors.”
I adjusted the throttle and grinned. “Then let’s give them a show.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Define show.”
I raced up to the main deck and reached for the grenade launcher. “The loud kind,” I yelled down to him.
I swung the launcher out toward the water. Over the rumble of engines and crashing waves, I could just make out the distant whine of the enemy drones closing in, and then I spotted the lights of the drones off in the distance. They were fast but fragile and I was going to take them down.
I fired.
The grenade screamed through the dark and struck the first drone dead center. A bloom of orange light erupted, painting the night in fire.
The shockwave rolled over us, rocking the boat.
“Jesus,” Lev shouted. “You trying to sink us too?”
“Collateral damage,” I yelled back, smirking. “ARCHEON started it.”
The second drone veered closer, its mounted turret swiveling toward us. I heard the hiss of rounds cutting the air and hitting the water.
“Hold her steady!” I shouted again.
Lev growled, muscles straining as he fought the current. “Do it fast!”
I sighted, exhaled, fired again.
