Read Online The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke - Free Book Online Page A

this. Cam’s lips are soft and he smells like salt water and fresh sea air. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back.
    â€œThere they are!” Hycault’s exultant shout rings out over the little cove, and we freeze. I look up just in time to see dozens of soldiers charging down the hillside directly toward us.

I STARE AT THE SOLDIERS stupidly until Cam shoves me toward the water.
    â€œRun!” he yells. Then he turns to face the rush of men. He pulls a knife from a sheath at his belt and tries to block their path to me.
    â€œCam!” I shout.
    Even as I watch, he’s hit by a blast from a solar rifle. He staggers and drops his knife.
    â€œNo!” I cry, and struggle to reach him. But someone’s holding my arms.
    â€œNere, there’s nothing we can do!” Robry yells. He and Lena are there, dragging me toward the water.
    â€œYou’ve got to come with us. He’d want you to get away,” Robry insists, but I can hear the tears in his voice.
    Somehow Cam is still standing. The soldiers are on him now. He punches the first one in the face and knocks a second one off his feet. But a third raises the butt of his rifle and slams it into Cam’s head. He crumples to the sand.
    Stumbling backward into the sea, I hear the hiss of solar shots hitting the waves all around us. It’s hard for me to see past the tears that flood my eyes. Vaguely, I’m aware that the soldiers have surrounded Lena’s parents. But where’s my mother?
    I see a soldier aim his rifle at me. His red sighting beam blinds me. I brace myself and close my eyes, expecting to be seared.
    The red light against my eyelids abruptly disappears. I open my eyes. My mother has stepped between me and the soldier. She looks over her shoulder and sends me a motherly smile with no scientist in it.
    Robry wrestles me down into the water. Before my head goes under the waves, I see the beam of killing light from the soldier’s solar rifle slice through her.
    I’m screaming and choking on bitter seawater as I dive for the bottom of the cove.
    :We’ve got to swim deeper to avoid that solar fire and get back to our equipment,:
Robry urges Lena and me.
    I barely hear his words while I swim after him. I can’t believe my mother is dead.
    We reach the equipment we stashed in a pile at the bottom of the cove. With shaking hands, I drag on the fins that Robry thrusts at me.
    :the big boat is here. divers are jumping into the water,:
Densil warns us.
:they have spearguns and tows that pull them fast!:
    :We’ve got to get past those divers and under that cutter. Our only chance to lose them is if we hide in the kelp forest outside the cove,:
Robry tells us.
    Quickly, I relay his words to the dolphins.
    :we will pull you to the kelp,:
Mariah declares, her mental voice remarkably calm.
    :we can swim faster than their tows,:
Sokya adds, smug as always.
    :your mother comes later?:
Mariah asks me. I realize the dolphins must not have seen what happened onshore.
    :She’s not coming later. They killed her.:
I’m careful to send her only the words and not the terrible image of Gillian’s death. I know Mariah loved my mother, and I don’t want that image to haunt her, too.
    I sense the shock and grief erupting in Mariah’s mind. She and five other dolphins appear moments later.
    :little one, I am sorry.:
Mariah nudges me gently with her beak.
:but we have no time now to be sad.:
    Robry hands spearguns to Lena and me.
:Clip these to your seapack,:
he orders.
:You’re going to need both hands to hold on to the dolphins’ fins.:
    I’m amazed and grateful that he is thinking so quickly. My mind feels like it’s full of sea sludge.
    I look toward the mouth of the cove. The glow of the divers’ powerful torches creates halos of brightness in the dark water. The divers are spreading out to cut off our only escape route. The cutter’s search beam flashes across the waves