Page 112 of Heart of the Deep

“They’re diving suits. Pre-colony tech. And we’re going to talkhere.” Larkin pulled away from her father, taking a few steps back.

“Aymee!” came another voice from the crowd. A man and woman pushed their way through the rangers — Doctor Kent Rhodes and his wife, Jeanette. They didn’t stop until they reached their daughter, dragging her into their arms. Aymee released a softoomphand put her arms around them.

“I thought you were dead,” Jeanette wailed. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” Aymee said. “I wish I could’ve sent word.”

Nicholas had released Randall and turned partly to watch the scene unfold. “These are the missing girls,” he muttered.

“That ranger, Cyrus, said they were injured trying to save you from a kraken on the beach,” the Doctor said, “but Randall told us you went with him willingly. We knew Arkon wouldn’t hurt you, but we didn’t know what was happening, didn’t know if you were safe. Didn’t know where you were.”

“Arkon was trying to save me,” Aymee said. “Cyrus would have killed both of us if we hadn’t left.”

“What?” Nicholas demanded. “That’s a direct contradiction of Cyrus’s report, and I won’t have you—”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that.” Aymee glared at Nicholas, pulling away from her parents to face him. “You should ask your son exactly the kind of person Cyrus was.”

“A monster, Dad.” Randall met his father’s gaze unflinchingly. “He was insubordinate, violent, made inappropriate advances toward Aymee and several other women, shot me with the intent of assuming command of my unit, and was ready to murder Aymee and Macy to lure out the kraken.”

Nicholas’s face paled as his features hardened. The nearby rangers — one of whom was Jon Mason, the man who’d run Cyrus’s report back to Fort Culver — exchanged uneasy looks.

“You should tell us, Jon,” Larkin leveled her eyes on him, “about the drawings Cyrus stole from Aymee’s home. Or how about his plans torelieve Randall of command?”

“I didn’t know where he got the drawings from,” Jon said, jaw muscles ticking. “And he sent me home right after shit went down on the beach. I wasn’t involved in any of that stuff.”

Larkin lowered her brows. “But you knew about it.”

Nicholas stared at Jon, betraying his fury only through a slight flaring of his nostrils.

Jon’s face reddened. “That wasn’t supposed to be how it turned out! I didn’t know he was going to shoot him. Randall was too busy chasing local pussy to focus on the mission, and he was fucking us over at every step. How the hell else were we going to get anything done?”

“We were dealing with the unknown,” Randall replied through clenched teeth. “I was trying to figure out what the hell it was we were hunting! That means asking questionsbeforewe shoot!”

“Disarm him,” Nicholas said, gesturing to Jon.

Jon Mason’s struggles meant little; three other rangers pried the rifle from his hands and divested him of his pistol and knife before they grasped his arms and forced them behind his back.

“I witnessed Cyrus shoot Randall,” Macy said. “He and the other men who were with Randall grabbed us and used us as live bait to goad the kraken into an attack. They weren’t gentle.”

“Take him back into town and restrain him,” Nicholas ordered. Two of the rangers hauled Jon along the dock, through the crowd. When Nicholas turned back to Randall, he wore the stoic mask of the commander, that old hardness having returned to his eyes. Larkin knew how much of a sham it was by now. A final, desperate layer of defense against everything that had torn apart the man’s life.

“I sent you out here to hunt sea monsters, ranger. How the hell did that turn into a mutiny?” the commander demanded.

Behind him, several more rangers forced their way to the front of the dock.

“Because they’re not monsters,” Randall replied. “You sent me out here because there was no way the stories were true, there was no way we’d find anything dangerous. Because you thought this was safe. Well, we found the source of the stories, and they’repeople. The only monster was the man you sent along with me.”

“They are animals with above average intelligence,” Nicholas said. “Elle, explain the situation to your brother.”

“I already have,” Larkin said. “About how I helped capture them, and how they were tortured.”

He glared at her. “I don’t care for your tone, ran—”

“It’s time for you to shut your mouth and listen,” Larkin snapped, stepping toward him. “No more krullshit, Dad, or commander, or whatever you want to be called right now. Those kraken that you had caged werepeople. Intelligent beings who were made byus. They share human DNA, they can talk and reason and feel, and all they wanted was to live their lives in peace before you sent Randall out here to hunt them down.”

Larkin glanced at Macy, Aymee, and Randall. “We are here to tell you tostop. This needs to end. They are not monsters, but they aren’t going to remain idle while you hunt them. You are going to stand down,commander,before it’s too late.”

“What the fuck is this?” Nicholas asked in a low voice. “My own children turning on me? You tell me Cyrus was a traitor, and then you try to do the same thing to me?”

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