“They’re leaving,” she said.
“What?” Captain Blake said, pulling at his binoculars. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“Are they retreating?”
“Giant Killer, you’re not going to believe this, but the demons are headed back,” a pilot said. The radar screen showed the knotted, dark masses of green shapes moving westward again, toward the sinkhole.
Celebrations erupted on the bridge of the ship.
Only Maddy and Captain Blake remained serious, their expressions locked in thought.
“Why?” the captain asked. “It doesn’t make sense. They were almost through.”
Maddy thought about what Sylvester had said. About someone controlling them. About a strategy.
“They were testing us,” Maddy said. “It’s like they knew the Angels were here with us. They wanted to see what kinds of defenses we had. Did you see how many they had behind their front line? Just waiting? They could have broken through. Easy.”
“Testing us?” the captain murmured. “More like they’re toying with us. Like a cat with an injured mouse.”
One by one, Angels started to land on the deck, several of them wounded.
“See where all our boys are. Let’s get them back, stat, and see where we’re at.”
Maddy strained to see Jackson and Tom come in. The sun had dropped very low in the sky, and neither of them were anywhere in sight.
“Captain Blake, all our remaining jets are inbound,” the radioman informed his commander.
“All right, get ’em all home safe now.”
A voice on the radio suddenly crackled in the control room.
“Giant Killer, I am in pursuit of a retreating demon that has separated from the main group.”
> Tom?
“Return to the carrier. I repeat, return to the carrier.”
“Negative, I think I got this one.”
The captain snatched the radio out of the sailor’s hand. “Return to the carrier, Lieutenant Cooper. That’s a direct order!”
“Giant Killer, engine number one is down!” the voice said.
“Which jet is that?” Maddy asked.
“Cooper, come in, over. Cooper, come in, over.”
“Engine number two down! Entire fuselage is on fire, Giant Killer!”
Maddy turned, eyes wild, to the crewmen in the room. “What’s going on?”
All the crewmen focused on their radios, ignoring Maddy, who was growing more and more frantic.
Blake grabbed the microphone off the flight control deck table. “Ditch the aircraft, Cooper! Eject!”
“Copy that,” the voice said before it suddenly broke off into a terrible squeal of static.
“Did he make it? Did he make it?” one of the crewmen asked.