Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2) (51 page)

“Commander Devins is over there having an anxiety attack about not being in command. It’s Captain Marks you’re looking for.”

Weyland rose from the weapons station and stepped between us, purposely facing me. “Our mission doesn’t depend on finding the Captain.”

Something, an unknown force, squeezed my heart and lungs. Weyland was right; we didn’t need Captain Marks to get out of here. But I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t leave any member of his crew behind. Even if we got everyone else back and SeaSatellite5 was safe, losing Captain Marks was unacceptable. I shook my head slowly. “We’ll find him.”

The station rocked sideways, catching everyone off-balance. The world tilted along with the station. However the Atlanteans had us propped up, it wasn’t stable. I caught myself before the motion slammed my face into the floor and pulled myself up. Dave got free and came straight for me. I planted my feet as people shouted all around.

“You need my help,” he said, inches from my face.

I shoved him hard and he stumbled backward before coming for me again. I readied to punch him square in the jaw and said, “We have a plan to get home. Once we’re there, you can explain. Until then, back off.”

Dave towered over me in height, but I wasn’t scared. Josh was big, too. So was Freddy. Most everyone compared to me seemed like a giant, except Trevor and Helen. Dave’s glare ripped through me, but I wasn’t having it this time.

“Fine,” Dave said. “But don’t come to me if you need to know how to get back.”

So he did know how the Atlanteans managed to grab the entire station back then.
Shit, Trevor…

“We don’t need him,” Trevor said from across the Bridge. “Go find Sophia and help her look for a way back. We’ve got enough people here to prep the station.”

With Freddy back, that was true. Still, it felt like a job half-done.

I looked from Trevor to Dave and back again, my eyes lingering way too long on the man who was once mine before the station was taken. Before Josh. Before Michael died. Before Thompson screwed the both of us up for good. In this moment, none of it mattered. I didn’t want to leave Trevor alone with Dave, with an uncertain ending to this mission.

Go
, Trevor thought.
I’ll be fine
. He waved his USB drive, which happened to be green. Green meant go. “And grab Josh.”

My head lifted ever so slightly, my jaw setting.
Why?

Backup. The SeaSat5 crew and TAO soldiers need to stay here, and I don’t trust anyone else to watch your back.

I couldn’t stop myself from asking,
Really?

Trevor nodded.
Really. Go.

I wanted to tell him to stop making it so easy to walk away from him, but the words caught in my throat. He’d made it easy for me to walk away, sure, but now I had his blessing regarding Josh? It was strange and silly and stupid, and I was pretty sure he was only mocking me.

Then I understood. He thought Dave had something up his sleeve. He didn’t think we’d make it out of here alive.

I nodded to Josh and we readied our weapons. His large, warm hand closed around my smaller hand and he squeezed once. Our eyes met only briefly, his golden brown gaze completely overwhelming me like the first breath of fresh air when you thought you’d drown for good. Everything, all of it—adrenaline, anxiety, hope, fear, power—was too much, and before I let myself cry, I closed my eyes and thought of Sophia.

Everything happening outside the station was way more chaotic than inside. The second Josh and I landed next to Sophia, she shoved me down and into Josh. We fell to the floor in a heap with bullets whizzing by our heads. Josh rolled out from under me and onto his knees, returning fire. His instincts were quicker than mine, his control over his reactions better trained. It took me too many long seconds to swallow down my usual reaction to bullets and concentrate enough to do much of anything. But once those seconds were up, so was I.

I tugged on Sophia’s arm and we moved forward, Josh and the other soldiers’ cover fire at our backs. We pressed onward, foot by foot, as we took out Atlantean soldiers with fists and water and strength until we cleared the corridor.

“This is one of the few we haven’t cleared yet.” Sophia’s breathing was heavy, labored, her brow slick with sweat. Aside from the physical exertion of constant room-clearing and teleporting loads of people, something else wasn’t right with her. As she spun to take out another guard, I caught a glimpse of what that something was. I pulled her back behind Josh’s line of fire and pushed her against a wall.

“What the hell?” she snapped.

“Stay,” I said, hand held to her chest to keep her pinned. I ran my fingers over her side and up her ribcage. “You’re lucky it didn’t knick a lung.” I dug into my vest for a pad wrap like Josh had used on Trevor. Blood ran down her shirt. She’d lost her vest sometime before this. “Sophia, you should have hung back.”

Her stare sent a freezing chill down my spine. “We don’t have a Return Piece,” she said through gritted teeth as I applied the pad and tied it. She yelped when I pulled it tight. “I’ll survive this, but I won’t survive the Atlanteans if we can’t get home. You won’t, either.”

We’d probably be considered traitors and left for dead, not that it mattered if they planned to eventually kill the SeaSat5 crew anyway. I’d rather die than let them be in danger again. “Then let’s find a Return Piece, okay?”

She nodded. “We thought it might have been a crane, correct? What are the odds it’s still in the room with the station?”

I hadn’t thought of that, and I didn’t remember seeing one when we were in there before. But the lights were so bright and the adrenaline so high. “We should go back.”

“Not until we clear the rest of the rooms first,” Sophia said.

“Chelsea!” Josh had gone on ahead while I patched up Sophia. Now he yelled into his radio piece. “Get in here.
Now.
”

His insistence, the edge in his voice, made my muscles tense and a black pit form deep in my chest. Whatever he found wasn’t going to be good.

Sophia and I made our way down the corridor in the direction they went until TAO soldiers waved us on. They directed us into a holding room where some of the science staff stood on the far wall. Josh kneeled on the ground to my right, stooped over someone on the floor. He performed vigorous compressions, bending down to give breath every few seconds. The person beneath him didn’t respond.

Someone said my name, a voice I hadn’t heard in years, but my attention zeroed in on what was happening before me, who Josh was trying to revive. Compression after compression, breath after breath, and the person didn’t move. I felt helpless as Josh’s attempts became futile with every passing moment. I swallowed hard and knelt on the person’s other side.

“Wake up,” I whispered to him.

“They said he just went down during the attack,” Josh informed me. “Said they’ve been questioning him for months now. Something about a… a memory device?” Josh dove down to give Captain Marks another breath, even while his own ran ragged. “They said he collapsed when we came through.”

Obviously. But if we could get him out of here, Captain Marks would be fine. The torture would stop and it’d all be over. I survived the Altern Device, and so had Trevor…. but we’d only used it once.

He’d be fine. He had to be fine. He was the Captain for God’s sake.

I reached out and grabbed his hand. What were they using his memory to search for? SeaSatellite5 was here. They
had
the station and they knew where I was. What more could they possibly have needed?

He’d be fine. No one would die today.

Except people already had.

Captain Marks’s eyes shot open and he coughed and coughed and coughed. Josh fell back onto his ass and wiped his sweat-covered upper lip. I reached a hand behind my captain’s head and helped him sit up. When he looked at me, it was with wide, wild eyes, which startled me given all the composure he’d shown during the hijacking. Panic spiked in my system, setting my veins on fire. What else was wrong?

“Chelsea?” he asked.

Nothing. Nothing else was wrong. I wouldn’t allow it. “Captain.”

“What…?”

I shook my head. “No time. I’ll bring you right to the Infirmary.” My fingers itched up to my radio. “Captain Marks found. Delivering to Infirmary. Code red.”

Hopefully some of the medical staff would be there. Either way, he needed help. And rest.

“I don’t understand,” Captain Marks said.

My expression softened. “I know. But there’s no time. Trevor and I are here with help. We’re going to get everyone home.”

I could almost see his thoughts churning as confusion and terror danced on his features. Finally he settled on a look of determination. “You have the Comm.”

I grinned. “Already do. Devins is pissed.”

He chuckled at the thought.

’d been so focused on getting all the needed systems up and running again, I almost missed the best news since learning Chelsea made it out of bullet-wound surgery two years ago. They found Captain Marks. He was dubbed a code red, but he was found. I silently thanked any and every higher power up there for it.

Seconds later, Chelsea and Sophia appeared with the last of the crew in tow. I gave the signal for Johnston to put up the shield. We had everyone, with no SeaSat5 casualties. Two TAO soldiers didn’t make it, lost in the initial firefight.