Page 68 of Kai (Alpha Heroes #13)

Kai

“What’s happening?” Cece asked as I backpaddled with every ounce of strength I had left. “Why are we moving away from Serenity ?”

I didn’t have time to answer her question. We were well within the blast radius of any missile a helicopter carried. Instead, the distant noise clued her in. The rhythmic, blood-chilling whup-whup-whup of a low-flying helicopter alerted her to the threat.

“Is it…?”

“It can’t be anything else, given its speed.”

“The devil’s killing machine.” Her face was already pale, but now she blanched. “Oh, shit.”

Oh, shit indeed.

I had to get us out of here, and fast. A glance at my Tak reinforced my decision. Flying at low altitude, the lethal helicopter devoured the clicks that stood between it and us in a straight course toward Serenity .

My Tak flashed. The helo was twenty clicks out.

I didn’t want to attract attention with movement that might show on a radar or a thermal imaging system, but if I didn’t put a lot of distance between Serenity and us, we were toast.

“Levine is on the boat,” Cece reminded me.

“I don’t fucking care,” I snapped. “ You are on my surfboard.”

A surfboard that would offer zero protection to her as long as we were in the blast zone.

“But…” She blinked tears from her eyes. “What about Serenity ?”

The catamaran had been my pride and joy, my dream come true, but that was before I’d fallen in love with Cece.

Paddling away from Serenity , away from the fight, I felt like a traitor.

It hurt like hell that my beautiful catamaran was going to become floating splinters in a few seconds, but if Cece survived, I would cope.

My Tak alerted again. Ten clicks.

The infernal helicopter was within striking distance now.

I paddled even faster, if that was possible.

The mechanical ruckus grew as the helo approached.

Without its dampers on, the damned thing roared like a fire-spitting dragon.

Dawn’s early light gave me a chilling visual of the deadly predator—black, slick, and approaching.

Five clicks.

If the pilots were getting this close, Li must’ve required them to provide close-up footage and visual confirmation of our end.

I stabbed the paddle in the water and rode the current with all I had, tracking the helo as it swooped down.

A pair of flashes flared on each side of the helicopter, marking the moment the stealth beast fired.

The missiles ignited and streaked through the night, leaving behind a trail that looked like frozen lightning.

I caught a glimpse of Serenity ’s mast standing proudly, outlined against an indigo background where the incipient dawn challenged the night.

“Goodbye, sweet girl,” Cece whispered, her face streaked with tears.

“Thank you for your service,” I muttered, hoping I wasn’t saying goodbye to Cece right now.

A loud swoosh startled me. It disturbed the surf somewhere at my ten o’clock. The roar of a rocket motor igniting rumbled in my ears. A second later, an explosion lit the skies.

***

Cece

“Get down!” Kai dropped over me and covered my body with his.

My cheek hit the surfboard. Pinned beneath him, I glanced up.

A burst of fire illuminated the cobalt horizon.

A blotch of fiery red splotched the sky and stained what little remained of the night.

Before I could take another breath, a second swoosh broke through the surface and another explosion followed, this one larger, louder, angrier, punctuated with metallic screeches and bursts within bursts.

Kai covered my head with his hands as heat blasted over us. A scorching surge roared in my ears, popped my eardrums, and echoed in my chest. The ocean rippled violently. Wave after wave rocked the surfboard, undulating beneath us with a fury that felt a lot like indignation.

When the heat subsided, Kai propped up on an elbow and narrowed his eyes at the sky.

I peered up from under him. It looked like a planet had ruptured in the universe above us.

As if in slow motion, the fiery conflagration fell down to the sea.

The ocean hissed when the fire hit its surface.

Smoke billowed even as the Pacific licked the burning wreck.

I rasped. “What the hell?”

Kai pushed up to his feet, his shrewd gaze assessing the wreckage burning at a distance.

I lifted on my knees, unable to take my eyes off the blaze.

Fire on water. It was quite a sight. I would’ve thought it impossible, and yet there it was.

A random thought raced through my head. Kai was water, and I was fire, and yet somehow, we’d both survived.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around what had just happened.

I mumbled. “How…? What…?” I didn’t even know what to ask. “Is that Serenity burning?”

Before he could answer, I caught sight of the catamaran. Her mast was down and her sails looked shredded, but otherwise, she was still afloat. Just when I thought the danger was over, small swells rocked the surfboard.

“Keep low,” Kai warned, going to his knees and bending over me.

The swells became larger. Bubbles disturbed the surface, and the water fizzed somewhere to my left.

“Hang on.” Kai stretched out his arms and held on to opposing edges, balancing the teetering surfboard. The ocean rushed beneath us. My heart hadn’t recovered, and yet my pulse sprinted even faster, swishing in my ears and teaching me that terror had no limits.

I clung to the board as well. A bulge formed in the ocean. The bulge moved beneath the surface until…

Swoosh .

The huge fin of a black creature broke the surface, lifting from the water before it slowed down, revealing the first hints of an enormous, elegant body that was much bigger than any whale I’d ever seen.

My jaw hung. What was I looking at?

The metallic sounds and the streamlined rumble that reached my ears dissuaded me from my first impression. The rising sun outlined a tower, not a fin. Multiple antennas topped the tower. I wasn’t looking at any kind of whale. I was looking at a man-made machine.

“ A submarine ?” I squeaked, frowning at the sleek lines emerging from the ocean.

“That’s an affirm.” Awe widened Kai’s eyes as he sat up on his shins. “An attack submarine, to be clear.”

“Are you shitting me?” The shrill in my voice strummed my eardrum and echoed over the sounds of the ocean. “The NWO owns a fucking attack submarine ?”

Kai kept his focus on the new threat.

“We’re doomed.” Rubbing my tired eyes with one hand, I pushed to my knees, and leaning my back against his front, slumped against Kai. His arms came around to hold me. After defeating Levine, and dodging boats and helicopter attacks, we’d survived. But a submarine?

It was just too much!

Kai couldn’t go on like this. The wound on his chest was bleeding. He had to be in agony, and I was a rattling wreck.

“We can’t fight a fucking submarine.” I smacked my tender hand on my lap and instantly regretted it. “We can’t outrun that thing.”

“You’re right. We can’t.” A semblance of a smile twitched on Kai’s lips as he rubbed my hand. “But we don’t need to.”

“What?” I stared at the man who never lost his cool—well, unless a certain sick merc threatened me or I went overboard. Kai may be keeping his cool now, but he’d lost his mind. “Say that again?”

“I’m trained to identify every arsenal in the fleets of every country in the world,” he explained, following the boat with his gaze even as it slowed down to a crawl. “We’re looking at a Virginia-class fast attack submarine.”

“How the fuck did Li get his hands on a fast attack submarine?” I raged inside at the injustice of this all, cursing a universe in which the good guys died, and the bad guys won.

“He didn’t.” Kai’s face relaxed into a genuine smile as the sub came to a stop. “Judging by its numerical designation, that’s an active duty submarine, and it belongs to the United States Navy.”

I opened my mouth and closed it. “Did you just say the United States Navy ?”

Kai nodded.

“But…” I was no closer to making sense of anything. “The Navy helped us?”

“Aye, aye.” He studied the machine. “That sub downed the NWO’s missile and the helicopter attacking Serenity .”

“Oh, my God. So that’s what happened!” Two swooshes. Two explosions. Now things made sense. One stealth hunting machine had taken out the other. “But the US Navy? How the hell?”

“Dagger has friends in high places.” Trying to hide a wince from me, he pushed to his feet and waved his arms in the air.

“Battle Brothers has an expansive, influential network, and we often partner up with the US government. Someone must’ve called in a favor.

I bet this was Omega’s extraction plan all along. ”

Moving slower than before, he picked up the paddle and set a course toward the giant floating among the waves.

“I don’t understand.” I turned around and faced Kai. “We missed rendezvous. It’s a big ocean. How did they find us?”

“I’m sure they were around by the time the helicopter made an appearance.”

“But how?”

“Tracker.”

“ Serenity has a tracker onboard?”

“She does, but I deactivated it before starting the mission to prevent anyone from stalking her. They homed in on my intradermal tracker.”

I gaped. “You…?”

“Me and everyone who works for Tracker Team.”

“It gives a new meaning to the ‘leave no one behind’ motto.”

“It does.” He kept paddling, ignoring the blood dripping down his chest. “They must’ve been a tad confused when my signal was not aboard Serenity .

Once in the neighborhood, they probably detected the helicopter and took care of business.

After that, it was just a matter of coming to periscope depth and locking in on me, on us. ”

“But Bozeman said we’d be on our own if we missed the deadline.”

“Bozeman always says that.” Kai’s stare remained focused on our destination. “Tracker Team does not abandon its people. Speak of the devil.”