The Black Tide (Outcast 3)

Before I could react in any way, the boy with the tricolor eyes placed a hand on his shoulder and simply said, “No.”

The child blinked, and embarrassment stained his cheeks. He ducked his head away from me and slipped back down in the seat. The older boy’s strange gaze met mine. “He has it under control. Mostly.”

“Mostly is good.” But the reality of mostly also meant he’d just swap one lab for another. Nuri might have accepted my desire to raise Raela, but she would not agree to my caring for any of these children. Not until we knew exactly what had been done to them.

And, if I was at all honest, neither my bunker nor I really had the facilities to look after them all. Even little Raela was going to be a stretch.

The hauler cleared the building’s edge and continued to power forward. But these sorts of vehicles weren’t designed for speed, and with smoke trailing from at least one engine, it was only a matter of time before we’d be forced to land.

I twisted around and peered out the shattered window. The men on the roof still fired at us, but we were now too far away for them to do any damage. A couple of them were running for the scooters, but these, like the ones that had chased us out in the desert, had no weapons.

But they didn’t really need them. All they had to do was track our movements and report back until either the warehouse’s operations center or even Dream herself could get armed vehicles into the air.

“Nuri’s just given us orders to head for the southern edge of the forest,” Jonas said. “We’re to meet a surface transporter there.”

“How far away is it?”

“Twenty minutes.”

“I suspect that’s nineteen minutes too far.”

And not because of the smoking engine, but because the upper loading bay’s door was beginning to slide open. I had no doubt that whatever vehicle came out of that bay would be fully capable of shooting us down.

“Is Nuri’s diversion crew any closer?” I asked.

“Two minutes away.”

That was cutting it close. The loading’s bays door was almost fully open.

“Tell them to get ready for a fight.”

Small black crafts swarmed out of the loading bay. It took me a moment to realize what they were and I closed my eyes, battling the instinctive rush of fear.

“What?” Jonas said immediately.

“They’ve sent remotes out.”

“Where in Rhea’s name did they get those? Only the military is supposed to have them.”

“Dream obviously has some heavy-duty friends.” And it wasn’t like we hadn’t come across bits of military equipment in the other bunkers we’d investigated.

But this was certainly the first time they’d been used on us.

“It seems an odd risk to take, though,” I added. “Especially when they can simply flick the switch in—”

I paused, and glanced at the boy with the tricolor eyes. He smiled and said, “They called me Ten. I can’t remember any other name.”

“Ten is a damn number, not a name,” Jonas said. “Even the déchet were given a name.”

“Name and number,” I corrected, with a smile at the boy. “But I rather like Ten. It’s unique.”

Jonas grunted. “Maybe we’re far enough away from the warehouse that they can’t blow it remotely.”

I hoped so. These children deserved a chance at life after everything they’d gone through. I just had to hope that Nuri would ensure the life they had in whatever facility they went into at least approached some sense of normality.

I glanced back and watched the black swarm briefly circle and then move as one toward us. “They’ve locked onto us.”