Order of the Black Sun Box Set 10

by Preston William Child

  The next day, they shipped the Deepsea Voyager out of the facility. The engineers were going to be bringing it to a large ship that would carry the submersible out to the proper location, far out at sea. Purdue and the others would hitch a ride on that ship until they were in the right spot and then Purdue would get into the Challenger and begin his dive.

  At least the sea voyage would give him some more time to prepare himself for the dive. He watched the Challenger get loaded into a large trailer truck, on its way to the ship, when Dr. Volpe approached him.

  “Are you nervous?”

  “Not yet,” Purdue said. “But I might be soiling myself once I'm out there and inside of that thing. Only time will tell, aye?”

  “Think you remember everything with how it works?”

  “No,” Purdue said bluntly. “Maybe the basics.”

  “Only time will tell,” she repeated back to him with a smile. “Only thing to do now is see what happens when we get there. I'm going on ahead to see that it's loaded onto the ship properly. You and the others will meet us at the dock this afternoon?”

  “Aye,” Purdue said. “We'll see you then.”

  Sam, Aya, and the others asked him if he wanted to get some lunch but he declined their generous offer. He needed some time to himself; to walk the streets and stretch his legs. For all he knew, it could be his last time ever on solid land. He might be spending the rest of eternity rotting in a metal tube at the bottom of the sea.

  He walked past so many people who were in the middle of their busy days. Some looked happy. Some looked miserable. Some laughed and some cried. None of them, though, were about to travel to the very deepest parts of the ocean. They didn't have to face that coming darkness that he knew was down there.

  These people didn't know how lucky they were.

  He hardly would have noticed them before, but since losing everything, he always looked at other people a bit more closely. For all the damage losing everything caused him, he had to admit, the experience did help humble him a little.

  Purdue passed by an alleyway, and out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a face looking at him. He turned and stared down the alley. There was a tall, lanky man standing at the other end of the alley. Purdue had a strange feeling looking at the man. There was something familiar about him but he couldn't quite make out his face.

  He took a couple steps into the alley to try and get a better look.

  The moment he was out of view of bystanders on the sidewalk, something smashed hard against the back of Purdue's skull and he felt himself falling. The world around him blurred and grew hazy. Then everything went black.

  INTERLUDE: THE WHARF 2

  Delroy Campbell had a lot of love for his father growing up. He was the man he always looked up to, admired, and tried to mold himself after, despite Dedrick Campbell being half his size. It would be difficult to mold him down into something that much smaller.

  Most other people usually would define Dedrick as a nobody. To them, he was just a simple dock worker trying his hardest to feed his wife and son, and of course they mocked him about how much food he probably had to buy to feed his big-boned offspring. Dedrick didn't seem like anything special to anyone else. To the young Delroy, he was the greatest man to ever walk the Earth.

  But, as with most children, he didn't know all about his father's faults yet. He had no idea about all the arrests, the drug peddling, and the street fights. He didn't know about the gambling, the whoring, and the lies he would tell Delroy and his mother. He couldn't see that Dedrick was leading a much darker double life when he wasn't at work at the shipping yards.

  He only started to see that man the day that his father pulled him aside and asked if Delroy wanted to help him at work. It was a dream come true; he'd always wanted to help his father at the docks. He could put his strength to good use lugging cargo around, but when they got to the shipping yard, it wasn't anything like Delroy expected it to be. It was the middle of the night and the only worker was a man tied to a chair on the pier. He had a gag in his mouth and Delroy recognized him as one of his father's co-workers. He'd seen him around town every so often. He couldn't understand why he was strapped down to a chair like that but his dad didn't seem scared by it, which made Delroy feel a little better.

  “You see this man, D?” Dedrick asked, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. “Do you see that man right there?”

  Delroy nodded.

  “That man stole from me,” his dad muttered beside him. “And he will not give what he stole back. When someone steals from me, they are not just stealing from me. It means they are stealing from you and your mother too. He took from our family.”

  The man made noises through the gag in his mouth and his eyes were huge with panic. Delroy could barely look at him but he didn't want to look scared in front of his father.

  “Stealing is bad,” Dedrick said. “Very bad. It cannot be tolerated or he will do it again. Do you want him to keep stealing from me? To keep stealing from you? From your mother?”

  Delroy wanted to say no, but all he could manage was shaking his head.

  “I did not think so,” Dedrick said and his voice sounded different than he usually sounded. There was so much menace behind his words. He didn't sound like the father that Delroy knew growing up. He sounded so different. “There is only one way to stop someone from taking from you.” Delroy glanced back uncertainly at his father beside him but Dedrick just smiled back. “You have to protect what is yours, and when someone does take from you, you cannot ever let them do it again.”

  Dedrick walked over to the man tied to the chair and completely ignored his hysteria. He cut him loose from the chair, punched him in the gut, and then threw him down in front of Delroy. “I asked you to return what you took from me.”

  The man tore at the gag over his mouth and managed to pull it off. “I did not take anything from you! Nothing!”

  “You see, son?” Dedrick said, pointing at the man crawling in front of Delroy. “When they know they are caught they will lie. They will lie and lie until people let them get away with it. You cannot let them get away with it! In some places, they cut off the hands of thieves. That is not good enough, though. They have another hand! And they still have their lying tongues!”

  Delroy was quivering but tried so hard to steady himself. He was feeling so much fear, but now there was anger leaking in. He looked down at this thief and liar who had taken from his father, who was stealing from him and his mother. He couldn't stand that he was trying to get away with it, even now when he had been caught. The thought didn't occur to him that they should contact the police or some kind of law. He had known some police that could not be trusted, certainly not more than his father. He had seen plenty of men with badges do bad things. His father knew best, and he knew how to handle people like this thief.

  “I did not take from you!” The man hissed.

  “Lies will not help you here, my friend!” Dedrick grabbed the man's leg and dragged him over the shoreline, where the pier met the black sea. “You will not give back what you stole, then you will have to be punished!”

  The man punched at Dedrick and caused him to stumble back a step. Delroy ran to his father's aid. He knew he could move that man better with his help. He was stronger and bigger than his father. This thief would be no trouble for him to handle. With Delroy's assistance, father and son moved the man to the edge of the water and Dedrick took hold of his curly hair and pushed his face into the shallows. After a few seconds, he pulled it up.

  “You stole from me! Admit it!”

  “I did not—”

  Dedrick dunked him again. “You did!”

  The man's body flailed around in his panicked attempts to get out of the danger he found himself in. Delroy followed his father's lead and kept the man pinned. He wanted to hear him confess too. He wanted his father to be validated and he wanted him to be justified. He wanted this liar to pay for what he did, and his father was making sure that happened
.

  The man broke free of Dedrick's grasp, raising his head out of the water and tried to squirm away. Delroy took charge of the situation as best he could and put his big hand on the back of the man's head, shoving his face back into the water. He held it there, pinned beneath the surface, and wouldn't let him get away again.

  “Good work, boy!” His father gasped beside him. “Keep him down. He has to be punished!”

  The man's arms splashed and thrashed around, trying to pull him back up for air but Delroy was far too strong for him. Delroy felt a surge of confidence, knowing that he was doing a better job at keeping this thief down than even his father had.

  He waited for his father to give him the signal to pull his head back up for confession but Dedrick never said a word. The resistance eased and the man stopped his squirming around. Delroy would never forget the feeling of the man going limp under his hand, his head bobbing lifelessly in the water. Delroy looked at his father who was still smiling down on him with so much pride.

  Delroy quickly realized that the thief was dead—and he had killed him.

  He trembled and pulled his great, big hand away from the man's head, leaving it submerged as the rest of his body lay on the pier. He wanted to apologize, to start bawling his eyes out, but his father's smile kept him from breaking down.

  Dedrick put a hand on his shoulder and said, “People who take what is yours need to be punished. You do not just take back what they stole. No. You take everything. Everything they have. The moment they took something from you is the moment they lost any right to have anything at all. That is the only way that they will know to never touch what is yours again.”

  Even with all the confusion and trauma welling up in his mind, those words seeped into the young Delroy so clearly, lacing themselves through his very being.

  He knew he'd done something that most people would consider wrong. His mother would probably be angry with him ... but his father wasn't. How could it be so bad if it made his father so happy with him? He had never seen his father look so proud, not ever.

  It was the first time he'd killed anyone, right there on that wharf.

  It felt justified.

  5

  CHAPTER FIVE – LONG OVERDUE BUSINESS

  Purdue didn't know how long it had been when his body started to come back into consciousness, but he was swaying, rocking back and forth. Slowly, he opened his eyes and was greeted by the big, fat face of the Wharf Man.

  It was a face he was really hoping to never have to see again.

  “There you are, Mr. Yesterday.”

  Purdue wasn't fond of the name the Wharf Man had given him, but the crime boss seemed to think it was hilarious, the pinnacle of comedy. It was all because Purdue had been trying to repair his life that the Wharf Man thought he was fixating too much on the past. Of course he was. He'd lost everything that he had. So, in the Wharf Man's eyes, he was dubbed Mr. Yesterday—a man who needed to start thinking more about today and tomorrow.

  Purdue realized he was suspended off the floor. Chains were wrapped around his wrists and he was hanging by his arms. His shirt was gone and he was soaked with water. He noticed a couple of empty buckets at the Wharf Man's feet. So that was how they stirred him awake.

  “It has been too long, hmm?”

  Purdue groaned, his head still spinning. “Not really. I could have done with a few more decades, if I'm being honest.”

  The Wharf Man let out a low, booming laugh. “You really thought you could get away. I told you, you would not. You should have taken me more seriously, hmm? What was it you said to me? Good lucking finding me? That was it. Well, thank you for your good luck, because I have finally found you.”

  They were in some kind of warehouse, and from the sounds of seagulls outside ... it was a warehouse by the sea. It was entirely empty except for the long chain hanging down that was suspending Purdue by his wrists. It was just as well that the place was so empty; he doubted they could fit much more with the enormous criminal standing in front of him.

  “You know ... Aya was worried that you would catch up to us. I've got to say ... I'm impressed. I didn't think you would ever find us. How did you pull that off?”

  “I asked around,” the Wharf Man said. “Only took a few bodies to figure out where you had run off to with my old crew.”

  Purdue remembered the missing members of Aya's crew, the former workers of the Wharf Man. So he really had gotten to them. That's why they were missing. He felt a bit guilty that he hadn't taken Aya's concerns more seriously at the time. Her comrades really were gone. The Wharf Man had no doubt killed them for deserting his ranks, just like he was probably planning to do to the rest of the crew after he was done with Purdue.

  There was someone standing right behind The Wharf Man and Purdue discovered that it was another familiar face—another one he never wanted to lay eyes on again.

  Oniel.

  The tall, lanky man had been the Wharf Man's right hand, along with his twin brother, Alton. They were his loyal enforcers who would murder and butcher people on a whim. During the time when Purdue worked with the Wharf Man, searching for Admiral Ogden's gold, Purdue had seen just how vicious those twins were. Purdue had no choice but to kill Alton after they found the treasure and Alton tried to stab him in the back.

  After his brother was dead, Oniel had made his contempt for Purdue and his desire for vengeance quite clear. He couldn't exactly voice it, since his tongue had been ripped out long ago, but Oniel did his best to still be heard. Purdue hadn't forgotten that hollow gasp that came out of Oniel's tongueless mouth. He could still hear the words he had tried to form: “Ki ... oo...”

  The threat had been more than clear. He wanted Purdue dead for his brother's death and now he had a chance to get his retribution. Given how ruthless he'd seen Oniel be to regular bystanders, Purdue knew that he was in for a whole world of pain. There wasn't going to be any chance for mercy, so he needed to brace himself for the worst.

  After their particularly violent falling out, Purdue had left Oniel tied to a tree on the island that hid Ogden's treasure, right beside his brother's body. He told the Wharf Man where to find his subordinate, but he was honestly hoping the Wharf Man wouldn't bother recovering him. Unfortunately, the Wharf Man decided on saving him ... and now Purdue was going to pay for that.

  “You two have history, hmm?” The Wharf Man's chubby cheeks parted ways to show a cruel grin. “Most of the time, the best way to settle bad blood is to spill it. To purge it from the body.”

  Purdue remembered how deadly Oniel was with that knife in his sleeve but Oniel wasn't reaching for it.

  “But that can make a mess,” the Wharf Man continued. “And bodies run out of blood so quick. So very, very quick. I want this to last. So does Oniel, don't you, boy?”

  Oniel gave a firm nod, his hollow eyes still lingering on Purdue like he was trying to determine what he looked like with his skin peeled off.

  “You killed Alton. You stole from me and took the crew I loaned you. You took the treasure that was mine.”

  “It wasn't yours. How many damn times do I have to tell you that?”

  The Wharf Man growled. “Silence. Or I will remove your tongue to make it so.”

  Purdue looked at Oniel, who knew all about the Wharf Man's methods of shutting someone up. It was still baffling that Oniel followed the Wharf Man so obediently after the crime boss mutilated him and took his tongue. Then again, that pain and fear he instilled with that act might have been exactly what was needed to gain Oniel's loyalty. It practically guaranteed that Oniel would never dare go against him again.

  “You and those traitors like Aya ... you all took what was mine. There will be punishment. I can promise you that. We will make it hurt and we will make it last.”

  Oniel put on some large rubber gloves and then reached into a bucket, pulling out a metal rod. Purdue suddenly realized the real reason he was drenched in water. As soon as the realization came, Oniel held out the metal rod and spar
ks of electricity ran along the tip of it. Oniel put it against Purdue's chest. Electricity surged through his body and every fiber of his being was screaming. He writhed around uncontrollably, from where he was suspended in the air. In the brief moments that he could form coherent thoughts, he could only think about how much pain he was in.

  Oniel stepped away as lingering shocks left Purdue's muscles spasming. He could barely think and his heart was pounding his chest like it was going to punch its way out. He felt like he was burning inside, and his body was still twitching from the pain.

  The usually grim-faced Oniel cracked a smirk, obviously enjoying the pain he was inflicting.

  “Sadistic bastard,” Purdue tried to say but wasn't sure if the words even left his mouth. His body didn't feel like it was under his control at all anymore. It was at the mercy of the electricity dancing through him.

  “So where are they hiding? The rest of those snakes who stabbed me in the back after I kept them fed? After I gave them work and homes and lives? Where are they, hmm?”

  Far away from you,” Purdue managed to gasp out. “From what I heard ... from what they all were saying ... you are not the best boss to work for. I mean, come on, you have to at least give your employees some benefits, aye?”

  The Wharf Man gave a lazy wave of his hand, signaling Oniel to shock Purdue again. The mute man did so with obvious satisfaction. Purdue tried to ready himself this time but it didn't do any good. The shocks bounced through him and sent his body into just as much of a panic as before. This would have nothing to do with his mindset. This was all about his muscles and how much they could endure before they broke.

  “Where are they?” The Wharf Man's voice boomed over Purdue's screams. “Little Tevin. Lovely Aya. Where are they?”