The Storm

“I have a better idea,” Ji

He glanced at the laptop. A blinking green box on the screen told him his instructions had been sent and received. He could now take action.

He slipped the pistol from his holster, pressed the safety with his thumb until it clicked and held it tight to his chest.

“Time’s about up,” Austin informed him.

Ji

He placed the barrel of the pistol against the back of Otero’s skull and pulled the trigger. The muffled explosion blasted the computer programmer and what was left of his head out into the open space of the floor. Ji

He tossed the weapon away. “I surrender,” he said, putting his hands up.

SHIELDED BY THE BULKHEAD, Kurt watched Ji

Zarrina tossed out her weapon and put her hands up. She and Ji

“You flinch, you die.”

Kurt stepped in the room. Paul and Tautog came in next. They fa

Kurt sensed a trap. With his rifle still leveled at Ji

He found nothing out of the ordinary, but the smug look remained on Ji

“What did you do?” Kurt whispered, waiting for a booby trap to spring or an explosion to go off. “What did you do?”

Ji

Shouts drifted in through the open door from down below. They came from Tautog’s men on the zero deck.

“Something’s happening,” one of them called out. “The sea has come to life!”

Kurt stepped outside. Through the fog of the night he could see the water churning.

“Marchetti, get the lights on!”

Marchetti ran to the control panel and started throwing a bank of switches. All around the island, sections of the ocean lit up as Marchetti switched on floodlights both above and below water. Instantly, Kurt saw what was happening.

The water was stirring almost as if it was boiling over. The horde surrounding them had come to the surface and was surging toward the island.

“He’s called them in,” Marchetti whispered fearfully. “He’s called them home.”

Ji

“You will now understand what I mean by power,” he said. “Unless you release me, the horde will consume you all.”

CHAPTER 55

KURT AUSTIN HAD KNOWN THEY WERE IN DOUBLE TROUBLE as soon as he heard the madman laugh. He stormed back into the control room and jammed the barrel of the carbine against Ji

“Call them off!”

“Let us go,” Ji

“Call them off or I’ll splatter your brains all over the wall.”

“And what will that get you, Mr. Austin?”

Kurt pulled back. “Marchetti, find a computer, you’re going to have to do your code-breaking thing again.”

Marchetti raced over to another laptop, docked on the main console.

“He’ll never break it,” Ji

Marchetti looked up. “He’s right. I was able to reverse Otero’s last trick because I could access the files, but we’re locked out of everything.”

“Can’t you hack it?”

“It’s a nine-digit code protected with top-level encryption. A supercomputer couldn’t break it without a month or so to work on it.”

“You’ve got to be able to do something.”

“I can’t even log on.”

Now Kurt understood why Ji

Leilani eased up beside Kurt. “What’s happening?”

“Those things that made us sparkle, they’re all around the island, a lot thicker than they were when we saw them. Ji

“What are we going to do?” Leilani asked.

“Is there any way to stop them?” Kurt asked Marchetti.

Marchetti shook his head. “There are too many, fifty miles’ worth in every direction.”

“Then we have to get off the island. Where are those airships of yours?”

“In the hangar bay by the helipad.”

“Take that laptop and get everyone to meet us there,” Kurt said. He looked at Tautog. “Get your men up here. We’re leaving by air.”

“Not to the boats?” Tautog asked.

“The boats won’t help us now.”

Tautog went to the balcony and began yelling to his men, waving for them to come up. Marchetti grabbed a microphone and began an island-wide broadcast through a series of loudspeakers.

Kurt noticed two small radios on the flat part of the control console. He grabbed them and then shoved Ji

Moments later Kurt and his growing entourage stood on the lighted helipad suspended between the two pyramid buildings. From this vantage point the sea around Aqua-Terra looked more like solid ground covered with millions of beetles. They reflected the glare of Aqua-Terra’s floodlights in a smoky charcoal color. Streams of them could be seen coming inland like long, probing fingers.

“They look thick enough to walk on,” Paul mentioned.

“I wouldn’t try it,” Kurt said.

A hangar door opened in the side of the starboard pyramid, and Marchetti’s men began rolling one of the airships out. Two others waited behind it.

“How many people can each one hold?” Kurt asked.

“Eight. Nine at most,” Marchetti said.

“Dump out everything you don’t need,” Kurt said. “See if you can lighten the loads.”

Marchetti went to supervise. Paul and Gamay went with him. Leilani stepped over to Zarrina, who was standing against the edge of the helipad with Ji

“So you pretended to be me,” she said.

“I wouldn’t get too close,” Kurt warned.

“You’re a weak little woman,” Zarrina said. “That was the hardest part to play.”

Kurt grabbed Leilani as she went to slap Zarrina, pulling her away a safe distance.

“She’s baiting you,” Kurt said. “Go help the others.”

Leilani pouted but did as he asked.

“It’s too bad you didn’t try more to comfort me,” Zarrina said. “You might have enjoyed it.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kurt said.

Beside her, Ji

Tautog greeted the last of his men and shepherded them toward the hangar. “What about the prisoners?” one of them asked.

Kurt looked at the sadistic leader. “What’s it going to be, Ji

“Whether they live or die means nothing to me,” he said. “But perhaps you’d like to go get them since you care for them so much.”

“No,” Kurt said, “I’m not sending anyone down for them.”

“Then you are as ruthless as me.”

Kurt glared at Ji

“This is what’s going to happen,” Kurt said. “We’re going to get on those airships and fly away and you’re going to be left behind to die in a ma