Page 66 of Dark Horizon New Dawn

Alberto shrugged. "I do what the boss says. He told me to bring you to him, and I did. It was much easier than I thought it would be because you are so fucking stupid."

"I'm not sure who's the stupid one," Margo said. "If your boss wanted Jasmine for himself, he won't like it that you sampled the merchandise." She waggled her finger at him and then burst out laughing. "You are in so much trouble, Alberrrrto." She rolled the Rs. "He's going to kill you."

"Shut up." The jerk pushed to his feet. "Modana is not an idiot. He knew what I needed to do to make her come with me voluntarily. Besides, he doesn't care. When he tires of her, which won't take long once he realizes what a bore she is, he will give her to me anyway."

47

PETER

When Peter made it to the promenade deck, many of his fellow Guardians were already there. The sea breeze was cool this early in the morning, which was welcome. He wasn't a fan of the humid heat.

"So here is the situation," Onegus said once everyone gathered around him. "We were supposed to get to Cabo and collect Mia and Frankie's friend from a resort hotel there. Turns out that Luis, the tour guide who was kidnapped by the Doomers, overheard his passengers talking about it, and Kalugal didn't erase that memory. Long story short, we believe that the Doomers are waiting for us there in force."

Crap, that wasn't good.

Onegus waited until the murmurs subsided before continuing, "As it turns out, we don't need to go to Cabo because Margo was abducted along with another woman by someone working for a cartel boss named Julio Modana." The chief continued to explain how Margo got snared in a web that hadn't been meant for her and how Roni had found out what had happened. "They are currently on his yacht, traveling south toward Puerto Vallarta, where his mansion is located. Naturally the place is well guarded by cartel members, and even though Kalugal will join the mission, we need to provide him with backup and support and get him within hearing distance of the guards. I need fifty volunteers to go on this mission. Everyone who wants to join, please step forward."

Fifty guardians were about two-thirds of the force, which meant that Onegus was leaving the ship with skeleton protection.

Peter raised his hand. "Isn't the force left to defend the ship too small?"

Onegus shook his head. "Not with Toven staying behind with a megaphone in hand. Thirty Guardians are enough to man all the battle stations, and if anyone tries to board the ship, he can turn them against each other or tell them to jump overboard and swim ashore."

As some of the Guardians chuckled and joked about all the possible things Toven could command the infiltrators to do, Peter thought about all the other dangers that Onegus hadn't mentioned, like a torpedo attack, or a military drone, or maybe even a military jet. Toven could do nothing to protect the ship from those, but then all the Guardians together couldn't do much either. They had hidden cannons and torpedoes of their own, but they also had very limited experience of operating these weapon systems.

As much as Peter felt bad for Margo and the other woman, his priority was protecting the ship, and while his friends eagerly stepped forward, he stayed behind.

Once the two groups were finalized, Magnus took the group of defenders to one side while Max took the group going on the mission to another.

Magnus divided guard duty among the twenty-seven Guardians staying behind, and Peter got assigned to the Lido deck, where twelve defenders were to be stationed. The others were assigned to man the ship's defensive equipment.

"Is everyone clear on their assignments?" Magnus asked.

"We need to get armed," Jay said.

"Of course." Magnus waved a hand. "Follow me to the armory."

They had to wait their turn until the assault team was done, and then each of them was given a machine gun and a Kevlar vest.

"After you are done, go get something to eat," Magnus said. "Report here in half an hour."

Peter rushed out of the armory first, but instead of heading to the dining room, he headed back up to his cabin. He hadn't asked permission to tell Marina what was going on, but he assumed it was okay.

"Hold up," Jay ran out after him. "Is the woman still in your room?"

"Yes. Why?"

Jay shrugged. "Just checking. Who is she?"

"One of the humans from Safe Haven."

"I know that. Which one?"

"Marina. The girl with the blue hair."

Jay smiled. "She's a looker. How did you get her into your bed? I tried flirting with some of the others but got the cold shoulder. They just pretended not to understand English, but I think they did."

"It's called charm, my friend." Peter clapped Jay on the back.

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