Page 59 of Reformation
Submersion … [Outside environment?]
[H20, Cl-, Na+, Mg2+, Ca+—]
Seawater. They’d hit the ocean. [Any air?]
[The top 23% of the craft is yet uncovered.]
Then they still had time to get out. The parachute that had deployed to keep them from dying when they hit the surface would double as a life raft if he could get it to inflate. Milescrawled to the hatch at the top of the pod and checked for it. Still there, still attached. Good. [Activate raft inflation.]
[Affirmative.]The raft puffed into life in front of him, and Miles breathed a little easier.
[Location of detachable emergency beacon?]It glowed into existence in his mind, much subdued compared to the motion of the other one. He grabbed it and tucked it away in a pocket. [Emergency kit?]He took it and stowed it away, then gingerly slid the boys into inflatable vests, careful not to move them too much.
[Speed of saturation is increasing. This pod will face complete submersion in thirty-four seconds.]
“Shit.” Miles wrenched the hatch open, shivering for a moment at the chill air and the splash of icy water that entered through the hole, then lifted Grennson up. It wasn’t easy, but he got the cadet onto the raft and secured with just enough time to get an arm around Darrel before the pod was completely submerged, and water filled the rest of the interior.
Miles held his breath and reminded himself not to panic. He could do this. He’d been in worse situations, and at least the chill of the water was numbing the pain in his leg.
Darrel’s vest inflated automatically, buoyant enough to lift the cadet but slim enough that Miles could still get him through the darkened porthole. He followed and pulled the lever detaching the raft from the pod before it dragged the whole thing down, then got onto the raft himself before gently lifting Darrel up after him. He secured the cadet’s vest to the raft, pulled a thin survival blanket out of the emergency gear, and after nestling in between the kids, covered all of them with it. They were both still breathing, and the beacon was going. If anybody was looking for them, they’d be found.
Before the next storm, he hoped.
Chapter thirty-four
Jonah; Berengaria
“Shit,” Agnieszka snarled against the rocky ground. “God damn fucking—” She lapsed into a language that Jonah didn’t understand, but that he assumed was a continuation of her long string of swear words. “—pirates had to follow me down heretoo?” She bucked her hips. “Getoffme, I’m going to kill him!”
“With what?” Jonah hissed, doing his best to hold her steady and keep her from damaging her shoulder any further. “With the gun you don’t have? With a bunch of angry words? ’Cause that’s not gonna cut it, kid.” He could hear the man circling, drawing slowly closer, and he scooted them more to the side, tighter against the ruined pod.
“I’m an Alliance officer,I’min control of this situation, and I demand you let go of me!”
“I’m not in your chain of command, darlin’, and thank goodness because if I was, I’d have to be real disobedient right now.”
“Let go of me!” she snapped. “Letgoof me! Let … let go of …” As quickly as it had flared up, her anger fell away, leaving her shivering against him. “I have to fight,” she whispered. “I have to, I can’t go down like that again, I can’t.”
“It’s okay,” Jonah murmured. “It’s gonna be okay, just—”
“Tell you what,” the pirate called out. “If you just give me the girl, no fuss, I’ll consider letting you leave. She and I can find a way to fill a few hours before I get tired of her.” Agnieszka stiffened but didn’t speak. “Not exactly aromanticlocale, but then I’ve never been much for romance,” the man continued. Jonah knew he was only talking in order to distract them from the fact that he was getting closer, ever closer, but it was a hell of a distraction.
“Me, I like ’em feisty and bound. That little look of hate a woman gives you when you’ve got her trussed up so tight there’s no escape … mmm, I live for it. I love watching hate turn to fear. I love the sounds she makes when I use her however the hell I want, and she can’t do nothing about it, just take it. Then when I’m done, and I get ready to cut her throat … oh, there’s nothing sweeter. Most times she starts to cry although some girls stay tough to the end.” He chuckled. “What do you think this one’s gonna do, huh?”
There was nothing left but to be reckless. Stupid and reckless and hopefully lucky. It was dark out, and Jonah had his flashlight. It wouldn’t be a permanent distraction, but if he could temporarily blind the man, then he could close the distance and … and … and dosomethingto the guy. He wasn’t the fighter Robbie was, of course, nowhere near, and he couldn’t even stand up for long to his husband, but he’d had some training alongside Cody as a matter of course after marrying Garrett. He could …
There was no more time for consideration. The pirate was too close, still burbling away about all the awful things he’d do to Agnieszka, how he’d have her sideways and upside down andeverything in-between. Jonah took a deep breath, then turned his light on full power and rolled over onto his back, away from the dubious safety of the pod’s carcass and into the line of fire. A bullet hit the ground next to his head, but after another moment, he had the beam of light focused firmly on the other man’s face. The pirate swore and ducked, and Jonah scrambled to his feet and threw himself at him.
The first thing he lost was the light, knocked out of his hand by a lucky kick. Jonah wrapped his arms around the guy’s legs and drove him to the ground, but the pirate was already reorienting on him, raining blows toward his head while swearing up a storm.
Fuck, what was he supposed to do now that the guy was down? He had to—okay, getting the fucker to stophittinghim was high up on the list.
Jonah let go of the man’s legs and climbed his opponent’s body, digging his elbows in every chance he got and biting down hard when a particularly persistent hand wouldn’t stop clawing at his face. He was bleeding—he could feel it, a thin line of heat compared to the rest of his chilly face—but he didn’t stop, hecouldn’tstop. He got on top and threw his own punches, some of them hitting, some of them going awry—fuck, he couldn’t see anything in this gloom, and his light was gone, he had to—
Their positions were reversed a second later, Jonah thrown over onto his back and straddled by the furious pirate. A fist slammed into his cheek, stunning him before the man’s other hand closed hard over his throat. The pirate bent close.
“Dumb son of a bitch, you coulda walked away. Now I’m gonna have to rape you before I rape her, tie her up, and make her watch me split you in half, then have her in a pool of your own bloo—”
Whatever else he was going to threaten was lost as a glowing wand suddenly struck the pirate in the back of the head, drivinghim across Jonah’s body and knocking his weight to the side. Jonah watched blearily for a moment before he realized that the wand was actually a light:hisheavy industrial flashlight, and the person wielding it like a club was screaming with fury.
