The Wharf Man usually preferred letting others do the dirty work for him. He used his men as puppets to spread fear of his name all throughout Jamaica until he was an enormous looming shadow on all coasts. That was usually enough. He didn't even have to raise one of his pudgy little fingers.
Surprisingly, the Wharf Man's head appeared and he squeezed his large body through the hatch and heaved himself up onto the submarine. Oniel emerged behind him, keeping close like a very loyal bodyguard. As tough as Oniel was, his skill in combat wouldn't make much of a difference against the pearl's power. Purdue could sweep both him and his boss aside into the sea with a thought if he wanted to. The two criminals didn't seem nearly as scary as they used to.
The Wharf Man clapped his big hands together. They made fleshy, squishy sounds when they connected. Despite the round of applause, he didn't look very amused. “You are full of surprises, Mr. Yesterday. Every time I think I have you ... poof ... you do something new.” The Wharf Man tapped his foot on the submarine's roof. “But just how did you do this, hmm?”
“That's my little secret,” Purdue said and kept the pearl safely tucked within his clenched fist. “But I will tell you this ... you may have been a bit too obsessed with getting the wrong treasure. You lost. Get over it. Now go home to Jamaica and be content being the king of the criminals there. Run along and stop this feud before you lose anything else.”
“Big words for such a little, little man.”
The Wharf Man took a step forward. Compared to him, yes, Purdue was quite the little man. The Wharf Man pointed a fat finger at the sea. “Tell me how you are doing this!”
“Doing what?” Purdue laughed. “The oceans really are so unpredictable, aren't they? Again ... go home now or the water is about to get even harder to predict. The people I'm really against, my real enemies ... they are a lot worse than your gang. I don't have time to waste on you.”
The Wharf Man looked livid. By this point, Purdue knew exactly how to push his buttons. The Wharf Man was a powerful man, that was undeniable, but he hated that there were those with more power than him. He hated feeling inadequate and he hated being treated like he was nothing. Now that Purdue had this pearl, there was no denying who was stronger between them and that was driving his enemy crazy.
“You know what you remind me of?” Purdue asked casually, like they were about to have a nice, pleasant conversation. “You have become like an old ex lady friend of mine. She refused to admit we weren't together anymore after I dumped her. She kept following me. Trying to convince me to change my mind. It was all ... a bit sad, if I'm being honest. Sometimes it's best to just accept when something is over and move on. It will be better for all of us. So I will say to you what I said to her ... someday you'll find someone. Stop crying.”
The Wharf Man let out a booming laugh but his eyes showed a much angrier reaction than his mouth. “You are still a funny man. A funny, funny man but you can't just push me aside. I am not one of your women, you little shit. You and I are not done while there is still bad blood—”
“Oh please,” Purdue said, rolling his eyes. “But, let me guess, the only way to get you to move on is by spilling more blood, aye? How boring.”
“You killed Alton.” The Wharf Man glanced to Oniel beside him. Oniel, as usual was quietly listening and just staring at Purdue. “And you still need to answer to his brother for that.”
Oniel flashed his knife threateningly. That same quiet wrath lingered on his face, looking like he wanted to see Purdue's insides more than anything. There wouldn't be any chance of reasoning with him. He couldn't try and talk him down like he was trying to do with the Wharf Man. Violence was the only language he knew.
Purdue sighed, knowing that this could only end one way now. “I gave you a chance. Please remember that.”
He turned away from the two criminals and started walking back toward the Deepsea Challenger. He was almost to the edge of the submarine when he heard feet clattering on metal behind him. He turned and Oniel was nearly upon him, his knife raised.
Purdue's instincts kicked in and he squeezed the pearl in his palm. The first thought that crossed his mind was transformed into reality as a wall of water swept out of the ocean, coming between him and his assailant. The water draped over Oniel, wrapping around him from all directions. It formed a sphere of rushing water, trapping the mute killer in its epicenter. Oniel flailed around inside of the water, his eyes wide with shock.
The splashing sphere raised into the air. Purdue was surprised by how closely the seawater followed the images in his imagination. The Wharf Man gaped up at the orb of ocean that his underling was drowning inside of. No doubt, he'd never seen anything like it.
“Enough!” the Wharf Man bellowed. “That is enough!”
Purdue wasn't sure if he agreed but he loosened his grip on the pearl. The sphere of water levitating in the air fell apart. It rained down on the submarine, dumping Oniel with the rest of the water. He gasped for air, choking on the water that filled his insides. If it were most other people, Purdue would have felt bad for nearly drowning the man, but he didn't feel any guilt for that sadistic psychopath. He would have—and probably should have—let Oniel drown just so he could never try and hurt anyone else.
“I know you think you have the bigger guns...” Purdue raised his hand and finally showed the Wharf Man the pearl. “But I think it's very obvious that you don't. This was your last warning. Come after me again...” Purdue pointed at the boat that Sam, Aya, and the others were on. “...or any of them ... and you are going to really wish that you hadn't. Now if you'll excuse me, I have bigger things to worry about than your petty vendetta. Get the hell out of here.”
Purdue turned away again.
He could practically feel the heat from the Wharf Man's fury boiling the air behind him. He had been defeated, humiliated, and now completely disregarded. No one had probably ever dared treat him that way and Purdue was glad that he could be the first. Horrible people like him needed to be put in their place, to be reminded that they didn't control everything. The Wharf Man once proclaimed that the seas were his, since his crime ring operated so effectively on the water, but it was probably clear to him now that he had no sway over the ocean ... none at all.
Purdue was nearly to the Challenger when he heard a shout from the ship.
“Purdue!” Aya shouted. “Behind you!”
Purdue didn't even look back. He didn't know if the Wharf Man was coming at him or what but he immediately thought about the submarine being sunk. The ocean pulled the metal hull downward, sucking it into its bowels. Purdue leaped onto the Deepsea Challenger and only then did he turn around. He saw the Wharf Man stumbling on top of the submarine, a pistol flailing out of his hands. So that was his plan ... to shoot Purdue in the back.
The submarine was sinking rapidly, the sea itself dragging it downward. The criminal underlings inside the sub were probably panicking again, but he could only see the Wharf Man and Oniel who both tried to steady themselves as the structure they were standing on gave way. Oniel, still coughing on sea water, jumped off the roof of the submarine, out into the water on the other side of it. The Wharf Man looked like he was trying to get off but was too clumsy and tripping about. He rolled off as the submarine disappeared beneath the sea, splashing down hard into the water.
Purdue watched it all from the Challenger as the submarine vanished completely from view, brought down and engulfed by the sea. The only things still visible were Oniel far away, floating in the water, and the Wharf Man thrashing his wide arms about nearby, desperately shouting out for him. He was kicking hard, trying to keep his big head above the water.
“Please.” As the Wharf Man tried to speak, sea water slipped into his mouth. “Please help me. I can't ... I can't ... I can't swim! I can't swim!”
He looked so small in the water. He was nothing like the massive rhinoceros of a man that controlled all of the crime in Jamaica. For someone who had so many illicit projects carried out at sea
, it was surprising that he didn't have any ability to swim. All of his boats must have always stayed afloat then.
Purdue crawled into the Deepsea Challenger and brought it closer to the Wharf Man, who was just barely managing to stay afloat. Purdue imagined that great big body of his was acting like a balloon of sorts. It probably wasn't ... but it was a fun image to think about.
Once he was closer to him, the Wharf Man reached one of his pudgy hands out for Purdue to take. Purdue didn't hold his own arm out immediately. It was undeniable that the world would be just a little bit safer without a mob boss like the Wharf Man in it. He could be doing everyone a favor if he just kept his hand to himself.
The only problem was that he couldn't quite bring himself to just stand there and watch him drown right in front of him. He didn't mind letting the ocean deal with the others, because he didn't have to watch them all flounder in front of him. All of them deserved to be punished for all of the atrocities they committed, but it was harder to have to see when they were reaching out for you, begging for your help, and looking at you straight in the eyes.
Purdue almost reached out but then hesitated. He had all of the bargaining chips now. “You need to stop coming after me!” Purdue shouted over the Wharf Man's pleas. “You hear me! You need to end this because obviously ... obviously this isn't going very well for you, is it?!”
The Wharf Man's hatred had been washed away, replaced by complete focus on his own survival. At the end of the day, his vendetta meant nothing if he didn't survive. He was in a situation now, where if he didn't put aside this feud, he was going to die. This was the perfect opportunity to get him to calm down and see some sense.
“Fine!” He spat, forcing some salt water out of his mouth. “Fine! Just get me out! Get me out now!”
Purdue finally extended his arm out to help the massive man out. He hoped that he could even help pull him out. A man of his size might sink him and the Challenger along with him like an anchor. The Wharf Man's chubby fingers wrapped around Purdue's wrist. Purdue expected to have to heave as hard as he could but instead, he found himself being yanked the other direction by the Wharf Man. He glanced at the Wharf Man and saw that utter malice return to his face. There wasn't any fear or panic anymore—just hatred.
The Wharf Man pulled Purdue forward with his far greater strength and Purdue plunged into the water beside his enemy. The enormous man didn't seem to have any problem with staying afloat now, and those beady eyes were brimming hunger for blood like a shark's.
Purdue did his best to keep himself afloat, kicking his legs, but was being tugged around by the arm. The Wharf Man tried to grab his other hand that held the pearl, smacking at him. One of his strikes connected and knocked the pearl out of Purdue's grasp and it plopped down into the water. Purdue tried to snatch it back as it slowly descended under the surface but the Wharf Man pulled him away and took hold of his scalp.
“That pirate's treasure was mine! Mine! All of it! All of it!”
Purdue struck the Wharf Man's chest but his hefty body served as surprisingly capable armor against the blow. He tried not to lose sight of the shining pearl as it sunk but was struggling through the pain of his head being squeezed.
He could hear Sam, Aya, and the others yelling from the nearby ship. He really wished one of them had a gun or something to get this bear of a man off of him. Or at least, that someone could dive into the water and pry him away. Did they not see that he was being throttled?
The Wharf Man's overwhelming size made it difficult to grapple with him. He pushed Purdue's head down, dunking him under the water. Purdue did his best to hold his breath and even tried to see where the pearl had fallen. He could still see it, slowing glinting as it floated downward. He had to get it soon, or it would be lost to him again, taken by the currents.
Purdue wouldn't let the Wharf Man drown him and forced his head back up. His enemy was waiting for him in the fresh air and smashed his head against his. Purdue ignored the pain, focusing on taking in as much of a breath as he could. When the Wharf Man dunked his head again, he kicked hard at his opponent's body, breaking out of his grip and propelling himself down toward the drifting pearl. He swam as hard as he could toward the pearl, as quickly as he could.
In the middle of his strokes, something above grabbed his leg. He looked back and saw the wide outline of the Wharf Man floating behind him. He had dived after him, not letting him get away. He was trying to reel him back up. Purdue kicked desperately at his pursuer but the Wharf Man was practically fastened to his ankle.
He reached out toward the pearl but was being held back from swimming any closer. The little pearl with its blue markings floated right past his fingertips.
Damn, he thought. That was his last chance. He hadn’t come this far, spent so much of his newly found money, and gone to the very deepest bottom of the ocean just to let his prize literally slip through his fingers.
He could feel himself running out of air. He wouldn't be able to hold his breath any longer. It was now or never.
Purdue used his last remaining energy to throw his body forward in the water, just far enough that his hand managed to wrap around the pearl. His mouth fell open from the strain and bubbles erupted from his mouth. He was almost out of time. He held the pearl hard in his grip and imagined the water getting him out of this.
Sure enough he felt the sea around him push him upward, back toward the surface, dragging the Wharf Man up with him. The ocean was practically working as a turbine for his own body as it launched him straight up. He broke through the surface and immediately gasped, trying his hardest to take in as much air as he could. It felt so amazing to be able to breathe again.
The Wharf Man emerged beside him, also trying to catch his breath. Purdue wasn't going to fight with that man anymore. He wasn't going to wrestle in the water and he wasn't going to risk letting that monster drown him again. He gave the Wharf Man one last glare and his enemy looked back at him with that same avarice that he always had.
“Give me that pearl—”
The sea snatched the Wharf Man back under its surface and he vanished from sight. To the rest of the world, he would have disappeared beneath the currents but Purdue knew exactly where he was going. He willed the ocean to take that crime boss back down to the Mariana Trench, buried far away where he could never hurt anyone ever again. He was on his way down there right now, straight down to where he would rest close to hell, where he probably belonged.
12
CHAPTER TWELVE – THE DROWNED MAN
The Wharf Man was sinking and he could feel his survival instincts screaming at him to get out of the water, but he couldn't. He desperately swung his arms forward, reaching for the dimming light of the surface above him. The sea water had coiled around his leg and was dragging him down.
That little pearl Purdue had really could control the ocean. He wouldn't have believed it at first but he'd seen and experienced enough now to know it was the truth. He had spent his whole life looking at the sea and he had never seen it do the things he had seen in just the last few minutes. It had to be some kind of magic, and that magic was coming from that tiny pearl. That was the only explanation for the sea to be behaving like that; bending to the will of just one man.
He thought about the way it deflected those torpedoes, how it had trapped Oniel in an orb of water in the air, swallowed his submarine whole with the crew still inside in an instant, and was now dragging him so viciously to his death.
The Wharf Man had spent his whole criminal career using the sea as a tool and a weapon; but now that weapon was being turned on him, sharper than ever before.
It was all because of that damn pearl Purdue had in his hand.
Another thought came to him, one that he may not have thought of if he wasn't running out of strength to hold his breath. Yes, Purdue's pearl obviously played a part but maybe that wasn't the only thing that had put him in this unbelievable situation. This could all be the sea's way of getting back at him for all of th
e crimes he had committed over the years of playing pirate. It was getting retribution for all of the men he had drowned and bullet-filled corpses he had dropped into its briny bowels. The water had seen all of his sins, and rather than wash them away, it was going to make him remember each and every one of them. The ocean would make him face his victims at the bottom of the sea.
He could practically see them floating around him; floating carcasses all around him. There was his first victim, the man his dad had him drown on the dock. There were all of the business partners he'd executed after failed negotiations. There were the women who had bored him. There were the rival gangs he had silenced and made disappear. There was Akoni and his crushed skull, still begging for forgiveness for leaving him.
He knew which ghost he would see last. He knew who was waiting for him at the very bottom of the sea—his father, still strapped to an anchor, his flesh torn off by the hungry sea life. He was probably still looking at his boy with that same disappointment he saw cross his face in those final moments.
The Wharf Man couldn't face him.
He couldn't go to the bottom.
He kicked feverishly, reaching up for the blurry silhouette of David Purdue, treading water a short way above him, but he was growing farther away by the second. The Wharf Man wanted to at least bring that bastard down with him, but it was impossible. He was running out of energy and he couldn't break free from the pull of the ocean's depths.
The Wharf Man regretted ever meeting David Purdue. He should never have bothered with a nobody like him, but all of his talk of treasure and gold was too enticing to ignore. He should have, though, then he would still be up there and sitting comfortably where he could breath. Instead, he was in the middle of drowning.
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 10 Page 13
