The Apocalypse Ocean by Tobias S. Buckell, Pablo Defendini

coming for June? How?”
    “It was a guess,” Kay said. “I’ve been studying it a bit. It’s hard. I can’t even get a good picture of it because cameras fail around it. But like any other thinking creature it has habits. It has motivations. And with enough time, it betrays some of them.”
    Tiago stared at her. Most people hid at night. Stayed low. That was when the Doaq prowled and did its unearthly business. When people disappeared, you didn’t dwell on it. You knocked on wood that you would never be the one to turn a corner and see the Doaq standing there.
    But Kay. “You hunt the Doaq?” Tiago asked.
    She heard the stunned disbelief in his voice and turned to him. “It’s an alien. It’s not some supernatural creature, Tiago. It’s like the Nesaru, just more powerful. We don’t know where it comes from, but just like the other aliens, it plays on human land as if it owns it. It thinks it rules us, but it does not !”
    There was a hatred in Kay’s face. Open for the two of them to see. And she didn’t seem to care. She’d let her control slip. “I will destroy it. And then I will take the island. And after that, I will make the Nesaru leave, and the Gahe, and all the other stinking aliens that once kept us under their thumb before independence. They are not welcome here. Pepper may have failed to kill the Doaq for me. Nashara may fail yet. But I won’t.”
    She turned down another tunnel as Tiago hugged himself. This was insane. Kay was starting an all-out war with the Doaq?
    Tiago was a part of that war.
    He wasn’t going to survive that.
    He was dead. Still up and walking. But dead, at some point in the near future.
    “You did good, Tiago,” Kay said, now calm again. “You’ve gained Nashara’s trust, I think. That is not an easy thing. If she didn’t have a connection with you, she probably would just have grabbed June and made a run for her ship and left you for dead. Instead she’s battling the Doaq in place, which is fantastic. You have a place among my lieutenants and a place on this island, Tiago. You did very well.”
    Tiago swallowed and said nothing.
    That thing back there, it would keep tracking, and coming.
    There was no stopping that.
    And it didn’t matter if he were a lieutenant or just Tiago the pickpocket, none of that shit mattered if the Doaq swallowed him alive.

Chapter Ten

     
    By the time they got out of the sewers and onto the streets, Tiago couldn’t tell where in Harbortown he was. They’d doubled back, and around, and it was so late it was now probably officially early. His eyes were scratchy and his movements felt like they were delayed by a half second.
    Then he recognized the buildings around him. Market-square.
    In the early morning hush the square looked otherworldly. Fishermen were putting out buckets and trays. Stalls were getting prepped.
    Two Runners met them and guided them to a red brick two-story house by the edge of the Market-square.
    “Don’t worry,” Kay told Tiago as she led him inside past two Ox-men who stood guard near the door. “You’ll be safe here. Lots of people and activity here. And if Nashara doesn’t make it back, we’ll keep the Doaq focused on other things. I’ll keep you both safe, believe me.”
    She was reassuring, and calm.
    But Tiago fought the calmness she projected onto him. This was the Doaq. It would find them. It would hunt them. It would end them. He believed that in the core of his bones.
    Kay sensed that fight in her. She moved closer and rubbed his shoulder. “Tiago, believe me: you are both important.”
    She remained there, close and intimate, keeping eye contact, until the fear in Tiago receded. Not completely gone, but enough that Tiago was manageable again. June was still in a state of shock, following them around. A few nudges from Kay was all it took to get his compliance.
     There were Ox-men guarding the house everywhere, which should have reassured Tiago. But he’d seen the Doaq chew through them