by A. J. Roe
When she was finished, Rick tested it out. From here he could discreetly put a hand beneath his shirt to either grip the handle or draw the weapon fast, should they need to fight their way out. Not that he had a clue how he would possibly attempt to take on armed police or Japanese gangsters with a dull, six-inch blade.
For part two of the plan, Yuriko and Rick both stripped off the remaining outer layers of their wet, muddy and bloody attire. They abandoned the old clothes back in the cellar beneath a pile of old fishing nets and began to wriggle into the overalls.
Despite everything, he couldn’t help but try to take a peek from the corner of his eye at Yuriko in her underwear. It was a little disappointing to see nothing but simple white cotton. To be fair, her choice was reasonable for a professional at work, especially one who, judging by her uptight attitude, had never even taken five minutes to think about sex, let alone tried it.
Rick fought his way into the outfit. The overalls rode up way too high around his ankles and were so tight across the chest that one deep breath might cause them to pop open. He was rapidly losing faith in his own plan.
By the lack of movement to his rear, Rick sensed Yuriko was done with her final adjustments. He glanced over his shoulder and grimaced. She was at the opposite end of the scale to him with the uniform hanging off her frame. It looked more like it was dangling from a washing line than actually being worn. “Jesus Christ, this isn’t going to last long.”
“Why not?” She sounded just as pissed off as he felt.
“I’m going to be walking around with my hands in my trousers like a serial masturbator and you look like a kid in the world’s shittiest fancy-dress costume.”
“Just shut up and let's get on with it,” she snapped, tucking her hair up into the hardhat and tossing another over to Rick. “Pull it low, walk casually and it’ll be fine. Besides, this is a dockyard, it's full of perverts.” She almost managed to bring a smile to his face.
The pair of fugitives exited the building, pacing steadily with their eyes down. From the quiet corner of the dockyard, they strolled towards dual piers that jutted out into the water up ahead. The closest was lined with fishing boats unloading their catches, the second stretched further out into the choppy sea, and where it joined the main dock, had a loading bay filled with freight ready to be piled onto the back of trucks. The reek of old fish guts and salt swirled across the dock, carried in by the sea winds. The thick air sat in the back of Rick’s throat, making it a constant battle not to splutter and retch.
“Can you see the blue container beside the second jetty? It has a large black octopus logo.”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Get there as fast as you can without drawing any attention. There are police patrolling just beyond the northern gates.”
The huge steel box sat side on, about five hundred yards down the main dock, at the start of the second pier. The loading bay was piled high with colourful freight containers that creaked and strained under their own weight as cranes lifted and lowered them between ships and the awaiting vehicles.
Rick and Yuriko weaved their way through the throngs of dockhands rushing to get their merchandise enroute early this morning. An onslaught of shouted instructions and waved hand signals between colleagues helped them slip through the crowd unnoticed. Most of the workers were too caught up in their jobs to pay much attention to the supposed pervert and child labourer, in their midst.
About halfway down the stretch, partially obscured behind a truck, a security office came into view. Outside the small concrete hut were two guards, both wearing smart grey uniforms with batons and handcuffs tucked into their belts. But fortunately, no guns. Then Rick’s eyes were drawn to the exact thing he feared. To the right of the hut, behind a tall mesh fence, a group of four police officers stood rigidly at their lookout posts, scanning the faces of passers-by.
The closest officer turned, his eyes running over the dock as he moved slowly towards them. Half a second before his gaze reached Rick’s face, a small white pickup truck trundled between them, an act of serendipity for which he silently whispered thanks to the heavens. As the vehicle slowly nudged its way through the mayhem, they kept tight behind it at a fast walk until they reached their target.
At the rear of the shipping container, Rick and Yuriko waited a moment for the buzz of the dock to lull a fraction, then he heaved the huge steel door open.
Any hope of getting warm or comfortable was soon dashed as they were hit with the stench of a literal hundred tonnes of fresh squid on ice. In resentful silence, Rick ushered Yuriko inside, took a final glimpse over her shoulder to make sure they hadn’t been spotted and lugged the door closed. The outside latch thudded into position with, sealing them within the stinking, frozen, pitch-black chamber.
No more than two minutes passed before a banging echoed through the walls of their own private hell and the shouts of the workmen signalled that they were on the move. The container groaned like an old man, as a huge pair of claws locked their grip around its bulk and a crane raised them from the ground.
Rick, Yuriko and piles of the stinking icy cephalopods slid around inside as the container rocked back and forth.
Far too much time elapsed with the pair struggling to keep balance before they finally landed with a thud on what must have been the back of a truck.
With his left forearm, Rick wiped the slime from his face. An engine soon fired to life, sounding muffled and distant through the steel as their journey to God-knows-where began.
Rick spat a string of profanities under his breath, half hoping that Thyos was listening. He had no idea why she was keeping their destination a secret but right now, trusting her still seemed like the lesser of two evils. As long as they got out of the damn country. Wherever they were headed, it couldn’t be much worse than staying put. Could it?
A wave of uncontrollable shakes soon came over him. Rick’s thoughts were slowing and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. Yuriko seemed to be fairing a touch better, but not a lot.
After half an hour had passed, he was beginning to think they may actually die here when a distant memory surfaced from somewhere in the recesses of his mind. He recalled seeing an episode of a documentary once where the host had staved off the cold by making a burrow in the snow itself—apparently by digging a narrow cave at a slight upwards angle, the cold air would fall out leaving the occupants body heat to ensure the temperature rises. It wouldn’t be comfortable or pleasant but it just might keep them alive.
With their bare hands in the pile of slimy, stinking squid and ice it took only a few minutes to carve out a tunnel wide enough for Rick and Yuriko to both huddle within. Lying in the stench of the pitch-black ice cave, he stewed in anger. Fucking Thyos.
Together inside their improvised life-preserving cave, which was possibly a couple of degrees warmer than outside at best, Rick needed a distraction. “How did you end up working for Voss anyway?”
Through chattering teeth, Yuriko did her best to reply. “Honestly, I don’t know. I graduated with a master’s degree then joined my father doing research, he was obsessed with mythology and ancient cultures. When he died, I was on my own, with no money, no job and no family to speak of. The Professor read one of my papers and offered to take me on as a researcher and fund my PhD. He saved me really.”
“No family? What about your mother? Or any siblings?”
“She died giving birth to my baby brother, I hardly even remember her. Just bits and pieces really, her smile, the scent of her perfume, she always smelled like summer.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I barely speak to my brother too,” she said, “He has no care for family and I haven’t talked with him face to face in more than a decade. But it’s okay, I learned to get by on my own long ago.” Rick instantly regretted having treated her so harshly before.
After what must have been close to two hours, but felt like ten, the truck finally ground to a halt and the diesel en
gine idled, chugging for a minute before cutting out.
Half frozen, but alive, Rick and Yuriko waited as the footsteps of the driver peeled off to the left-hand-side of the container. When they were alone, he tugged on the interior release handle. It was a tiny locking mechanism in the bottom right corner of the doors, designed specifically to stop people becoming trapped inside and opened a square ventilation hatch, about two feet wide. It was pure luck that Yuriko had even found it and on his own Rick would probably have either frozen or starved to death before anyone discovered him inside.
Looking out from the hatch, he was astonished to find they were not in some random truck stop in the middle of nowhere, as he’d expected. Against all odds, they were in a place he recognised. Why in hell has she brought us here?
20
Without a doubt, across the tarmac, just a few hundred yards away, sat the same sleek white and blue striped Gulfstream G700 Rick had flown in on just a day before. Damn, he would have given anything in that moment to have been sitting in the soft, warm, leather recliner, with Cassandra pouring whiskey sours and cooking him steak. But no. I’m battered and bruised, trapped with a stuck-up Japanese academic inside a crate of frozen squid.
Rick ducked back inside the hatch and as if reading his mind, Thyos spoke. “Three hundred feet to the right, there is a Boeing 737, marked with a red, blue and white tail across the tarmac. Can you see it?”
“Where the hell were you? We nearly froze to death!”
“I have an infinite number of tasks to attend to and very limited time. If anything, the last twenty-four hours should have demonstrated that you are far more capable than you believe—this is why I chose you. I could have easily let the relic pass hands but I did not. Now, we do not have much time. Can you see the plane?”
It was obvious Thyos was just playing on his emotions, but Rick couldn’t help feeling a little buzz of pride. For whatever reason, she had chosen him. He’d always known he was different, destined for big things. Maybe now he’d finally be able to prove it.
Rick leaned forwards to re-scan the airstrip. Almost obscured by the corner of the hangar on the far left of the huge space sat the plane Thyos had described. It was parked up with the cargo hold open, still connected to a conveyor truck. There was a set of stairs attached to the passenger entrance at the front but the airtight cabin door was already sealed shut.
“I see it.”
“If you go right now, you can make it to the cargo hold before the plane leaves.”
“You’ve gotta be joking? We’ll suffocate in there.”
“It is partially pressurised. You have a good chance of surviving.”
“How good are we talking here? Like ninety-nine percent?”
“Slightly lower.”
“How much lower?” he said through gritted teeth.
“Sixty-seven percent. But you must go immediately. The container is about to be moved inside and will be inspected by customs in less than four minutes.”
Rick swallowed hard against the knot in his throat, once again he was between a rock and a hard place. He reeled off the plan to Yuriko, whose eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Sixty-seven percent? No thank you, I’ll stay here.”
“No, you damn well won’t.” A puff of anger rose in Rick’s chest. “If you get caught, they’ll know exactly where I am—I can’t take that risk. We’re going right now.”
Yuriko shifted uncomfortably on her heels, no doubt preparing to argue.
“Trust me.” Rick put a hand on her shoulder. Somehow, he’d now ended up responsible for both her physical and emotional wellbeing. “I know you’re scared but we’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Yuriko’s voice was almost inaudible. She repeated herself and nodded, this time with a little more conviction, trying to mentally prepare herself for what came next.
Rick crunched his knuckles and shook out his arms trying to restore some of the feeling back in his icy fingers. A pair of maintenance workers were pacing across the tarmac back towards the shipping container. Here we go.
Rick closed the hatch and sat back waiting for their moment. As soon as the doors of the truck slammed shut, the pair slid out, sprinting across the open strip, keeping their heads low.
They approached the passenger plane from the rear. The jet engines were already spitting out a sickly chemical stench of aviation fuel and whirring at a deafening volume, as the plane prepared to move.
Using the luminous yellow frame of the luggage transporter like a ladder, Rick climbed up and swung over onto the stationary conveyor belt. Yuriko followed suit and the pair then shimmied up the incline into the shadowy belly of the beast.
The space inside was less than five feet high and Rick had to clamber like a gorilla over neatly stacked piles of luggage. They hunkered down between a pair of metal crates near the front of the hold, where it was marginally quieter.
No more than two minutes passed before the top of the luggage feeder disengaged and the truck was driven away. The cargo bay doors then pulled up with a hiss and eventually closed, plunging the pair into darkness.
The only light came from a blinking white strip at the far end of the hold that threw out long distorted shadows. The space was illuminated just enough for Rick to make out the flimsy grey straps holding the crates on either side of them in place. If either one of the fastenings snapped, he and Yuriko would probably be crushed to death.
The entire world seemed to rock backwards as the plane began to taxi. The volume of the engines picked up to an ungodly roar. Rick braced himself with a death grip on the grey luggage straps, made of a seat belt-like material, at the end of the hold and shouted for Yuriko to do the same.
There was a sudden burst of energy and the plane lurched forwards. The colour dropped from Rick’s face. If there was anything left in his stomach he would have thrown up.
The speed picked up to such a blinding pace that he almost blacked out. A strange sensation of overwhelming pressure and release flooded the hold as the ground disappeared below them.
The snarl of engines then dropped to a deep rumble that reverberated up through Rick’s bones and into his teeth. His eyes however, stayed locked on the crates and their straining nylon straps until he was certain they weren’t going anywhere.
The worst of it was over. Now all he and Yuriko could do was wait and see if the oxygen held out.
21
The roar of jet engines eventually dropped from ear-splitting decibels to a more manageable level as they reached cruising altitude. The cabin pressure seemed to be stable; they were safe, for now at least.
A sense of relief swelled in Rick’s chest knowing that each passing minute put more space between him and Japan, between him and Sota. Wherever they landed next, he could roll up to a British Embassy, safe in the knowledge that he'd be protected from whatever that psycho could throw at him, even if they did think he was a criminal. Then in a matter of days, he could be headed home. The last step would be to unload the relic on the first buyer he found and be rid of what had fast become the bane of his life.
Rick gripped the handle, still strapped around his waist, realising he hadn’t heard anything in a while. “Thyos. Are you there?” His voice was almost lost under the noise of the engines but the volume of his words didn't seem to make any difference.
“I am here.”
“Good. Just thought I’d let you know I’m done with this, as soon as we land, I’m heading home.”
“No. You are not.” Her voice was worryingly gentle.
“What’s that supposed to mean exactly? You can’t control what I do.”
“That is true. But you have overlooked two important factors. You are still wanted for murder and innocent men do not flee after all. And, as you seem to have forgotten, we had a deal. I helped you escape, now you will hold up your end of the bargain.”
“No way. Our deal was that you got me home and you haven’t even come close so far. Every step of the way I’ve been left to face things on my own
, then you give me some cryptic bullshit about my inner strength. Well sorry, but it's too little too late. I’m out.”
Yuriko turned to him, even in the darkness her eyes were spitting fire. Rick didn’t care if she felt betrayed, the second they touched down he’d go his own way and she was free to do whatever the hell she wanted.
“Things are not that simple. Wheels have been set in motion and if you do not take your responsibilities seriously, the repercussions will be nothing short of catastrophic.”
The gnawing suspicion that had been somewhere at the back of Rick’s mind all along, was simply confirmed. Nothing is ever free.
“What the hell are you talking about? You’re gonna need to start giving me some proper answers if you don’t want me to throw the relic in the first river I see and walk away.”
“I know you Rick. You would never dispose of an item so valuable.” She had him there, the bluff had been a long shot but he needed to vent his anger somehow. “Now, I understand this has been a stressful experience for you bu-”
“-Stressful? That’s the understatement of the century. It’s been a fucking nightmare!”
Yuriko nodded glumly in agreement and he felt a stab of shame at having just outlined his plan to ditch her.
“That is fair,” Thyos said, her voice softened. “But the situation is far more complex than it seems. If you are willing to listen, then I shall explain. However, please remember that what I have kept from you so far has all been for a good reason.”
“Fine,” Rick said, feeling the last flecks of his temper fade away. It was hard to stay angry at a perfectly calm and rational disembodied voice, as much as he tried. “I need to know the full story then. You can start with exactly what you are and exactly what it is you want from me.”
“Very well. I cannot promise you will be able to grasp the enormity of the situation or if it can even be sufficiently explained with words, but I will try nonetheless. Put simply, I am a digital entity designed to monitor and preserve life.”
