Singular

by Larry Buenafe

  There were grins all around. Dad said, “Most satisfactory. Thank you for a smooth, enjoyable trip.”

  “Yeah, thanks, Mate. The only thing that would make it better would be a few coldies. I don’t reckon ya got any of those around, eh?”

  “Sorry, my friend. You’ll be to port soon, and surely you will find plenty of ‘coldies’, as you put it. Please, enjoy the rest of your time, with my compliments. Oh, one last thing. The crew have told me of Mr. Harutyunyan’s strength, and I must say it has taken on legendary proportions. Please, could you give us a little display? If you don’t mind, that is.”

  Mr. Harutyunyan’s grin spread wider than ever, and he rubbed his hands together vigorously. “Well, as my friends know, I don’t like to show off, but just this once… please, bring me a frying pan from your kitchen, one you don’t mind losing.”

  Alexy spun on his heels and darted into the kitchen, returning quickly with an old, scarred, cast-iron pan. He handed it to Mr. Harutyunyan, who took it by the handle, his other hand on the side opposite. He held it in front of his chest, pushed the handle and other end together, and in a second the pan looked like a huge black taco with a handle on one side. Alexy’s mouth dropped open, and he applauded wildly. “So, the legend is no legend at all, is true! Very impressive, thank you Mr. Harutyunyan!”

  By now all the other crew members had gathered around, and they were also applauding. Mr. Harutyunyan stood up and bowed, and Ms. Houng rolled her eyes and covered her face with her hands. When they finally stopped, we stood and exited, the crew hollering Mr. Hautyunyan’s name as we left (Mar-DIG! Mar-DIG!).

  As we walked, dad said, “Listen, don’t get distracted. We are not out of this yet. We still have twenty-four hours to go, and a lot can happen in that time, so keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel.”

  “Time to send the message, eh, John-o? If they can send a signal, we can bloody well send one too,” Benji replied, low enough that only dad and I could hear him.

  “Yes, it’s time,” dad whispered. “Let’s take a walk out on the deck, shall we?”

  We progressed on to the main deck. It was intensely sunny, but a cool wind was blowing across the ship, making it a bit hard to get our balance. Dad headed for the back of the boat, as far as possible away from the Superstructure. There were no crew members on deck, and we gathered against the railing. Suddenly dad and Mr. Harutyunyan moved behind Benji, blocking anyone from being able to see what he was doing; he pulled out what looked like an old, single-use cell phone and turned it on. After a brief wait, he spoke rapidly in a language that I had never heard before; I doubt that any of us had. “Ava, what is he saying?” I whispered into my hand.

  “Hmm… not in my memory… aboriginal, but not a known one… clever as a fox, I’d say, using a dead language.”

  Benji was done in less than a minute, and he threw the cell phone in the churning waters behind the boat. “Crikey, this is turnin’ into quite a piss-up,” he said to no one in particular. We turned and strolled around the perimeter of the boat for a few minutes, eventually heading back down the corroded circular stairs to our cabins one deck below.

  “I could go for nap,” said Ms. Houng as we strode down the corridor.

  The rest of the group nodded in agreement, we entered our cabin, dad and Benji flopped on their bunks, and I took my spot on the floor. Within a few minutes they were both asleep, dad snoring softly and Benji snoring not softly at all. I decided that I would go up to the top deck and have a look around; maybe I would see a whale, or some dolphins, almost anything would do.

  23

  I stood at the side of the boat, gazing out at the choppy Pacific Ocean, the sun reflecting off it like a billion diamonds. I had been there for forty-five minutes and hadn’t seen a single sea creature; as I surveyed the waters, I had Ava continue to search for any signs of the ship that had been following us, but she wasn’t able to detect any. It was now about three p.m., and I was thinking about going down and waking the rest of the group when Alexy came out of the Superstructure and waddled in my direction. How could he actually gain weight on this trip? That doesn’t seem possible, but I could swear that he has…

  As he approached, he spread his arms wide and said, “So, my dear, enjoying one last view of the great Pacific before our trip has concluded, eh? Is beautiful, one of the wonders of the world. Now, please allow me to give you a little unsolicited advice. There are those who would try to take advantage of one so young and attractive as you, even in a mostly peaceful land like Australia. Stay with your papa and friends, that is the best course. The world can be a dangerous place for a pretty girl, you know. On board my ship, I can watch over you myself, make sure you are safe, and I have. I make sure my crew are respectful to you, that they leave you in peace. I heard one saying inappropriate things, and this I will not tolerate; I will personally throw him off my ship when we get to port. I have grown very fond of you, you see, in a fatherly, or maybe grandfatherly, way. You will always have a safe place on my ship, this I promise. Will you remember that, my dear?”

  He seems kind of choked up… I think that means he really means what he is saying… man, life must be tough for girls, always needing to watch behind their backs… what should I say? Oh, I know… “Thank you, Alexy. I appreciate your advice, and I’ll do as you say. And thank you for getting me from one side of the world to the other safely. You’re very kind.” There, I think that sounded pretty good…

  Alexy reached up, quickly wiped a tear from his eye, and gently patted me on the shoulder. “I had a daughter once, you know. Very sweet, you remind me of her just a little. Yes, well, anyway, I must get back to work. Remember what I say, if you ever need a safe place you come find old Alexy.” He smiled, strode back across the ancient boards, and disappeared into the Superstructure.

  I walked around the deck for the next hour thinking about what Alexy said. I wondered if something bad happened to his daughter and felt a little bit guilty for thinking that he was flirting with me when he was probably just trying to be friendly. I also thought I should feel guilty for fooling him into thinking that I was a girl and causing him to have all those feelings. My mom said that was something called empathy; as I get older, I think I understand it a little better, and it sometimes maybe helps explain why people behave in ways that might seem weird or illogical. I also wondered which crew member said the inappropriate things about me, and what the inappropriate things might be, and totally grossed myself out.

  It was now about four-thirty and I thought I better go back down and wake everyone up from their extended naps. As I walked across the deck toward the circular staircase, I had a sudden urge to see if I could jump up, do a somersault, and land on my feet. I don’t know why, it just popped into my head, and I thought if I was going to do it, I’d better make sure that the crew couldn’t see me because it might be confusing for them. I peeked into the Superstructure, and everyone in there was looking away from me. I took two steps and jumped, did three somersaults, and landed on my feet as if nothing had happened. Whoa, that was better than an Olympic gymnast… I wonder what else I can do… I guess I’ll get the chance to find out when we get to Australia, if we don’t get captured first…

  As I walked down the corridor toward our cabin, I got a strong feeling that something was wrong. I think I was hearing something so low that I couldn’t really recognize it, but it was out of the ordinary. I slowed down and spun around, looking in all directions, but didn’t see anything unusual. Then I realized it was the lighting; the one overhead bulb was off, and I had never seen it off before; I think I didn’t notice it at first because of my ability to see in relatively dark conditions. Is the bulb just burned out, or did someone put it out on purpose? I better be alert…

  When I reached the door to our cabin, I found it secured with a padlock on the outside. Uh-oh… something bad is happening here… I tapped on the door and whispered, “Dad? Are you ok?”

  From the other side of the door, I heard, “Lukey,
run! Get up to the top deck, quick! Go!”

  I turned to find myself surrounded by five crew members, and assumed they were the five mercenaries. They included Debenov; Velasquez, a short, stocky, Hispanic man with a ruddy face; and three others whose names I didn’t know. That’s what I was hearing… I heard them breathing down the corridor and around the corner… The largest of the men crossed his arms and smiled. He was huge, the second biggest person on board next to Mr. Harutyunyan; his head was completely bald, and he had a neat beard and mustache hiding most of his face. In a low, commanding voice he said, “Look, you make a very convincing girl, but we know who you are, and now you know who we are. We don’t want to hurt you; we just need you to come along with us back home. Don’t you think that would be the right thing to do? Your government needs you, and your dad and his friends. You can help make us, and the world, a safer place; we just need to figure out how you’re made. I work for the government, but the rest of these guys are just people who I have paid to help me, so if you want to blame anyone you can blame it on me. Now, we have your dad and his friends locked up, but we don’t want to hurt them either. This can all end peacefully if you just come along with us. What do you say?”

  I didn’t really know what to say; I was scared and didn’t want anything bad to happen to dad and the rest of our group. Somehow, he seemed to know what I was thinking; he said, in a friendly voice, “Hey, I know this is scary. A bunch of big men surrounding you telling you what to do and locking up your dad and friends would scare me too. It doesn’t need to be scary, though. Just come along with us and it’ll all be over, and no one will get hurt. Wouldn’t that be better?”

  He smiled again and reached his hand out to me. I quickly covered my mouth, and as low as I could, whispered, “Ava, do they have any weapons?”

  “Nothing that can stop you. There is no grey area here. Take them.”

  The big man’s expression hardened when he saw me whispering, and he tried to grab me. Then things happened in rapid succession. I grabbed his hand and twisted, and heard some bones snapping; he screamed and flipped over, landing on his back; I jumped up, kicking backward with my left leg and forward with my right leg, connecting with the faces of two more crew members, and they went down in a heap; I spun with my arms extended and smacked Velasquez and the last man in the temple area, and they both fell backward, hitting the deck with a sickening whump! This all happened so fast that they never had a chance to even move. The only one still conscious was the big man, and he grunted, “You had your opportunity. You’ll regret this, believe me.” I swung in a backhand motion and hit him across the jaw, and he didn’t say anything else because he was also unconscious. Whoa, that was weird… it felt like my legs and arms stretched out a little bit as I was kicking and hitting those guys… elongating enough to make contact with their heads…

  I heard an enormous thumping coming from Mr. Harutyunyan and Ms. Houng’s cabin; there was a huge dent in the metal door and as I watched another appeared. Man, he really is strong… that door is made of steel… I hustled over and grabbed the padlock, twisted to the left, and it snapped off; the door flew open, and Mr. Harutyunyan bolted out, ready to fight; the knuckles on his right hand were covered in blood. He gazed at the carnage and said, “You… you do this?”

  “Umm… yeah, I guess I did. They were trying to get me to go with them, and I didn’t want to.”

  “Remind me never to try to get you to go with me if you don’t want to. Let’s get your papa out.”

  I did the same thing with the padlock on our door, and dad and Benji were out a second later. Although they were shaken up, none of them were hurt. “I think we can assume that the communication we observed them making had to do with them being tipped off to the presence of the Bright Hand on board. If we go to her room, we’ll probably find Ms. Zoey Perez similarly incapacitated, and the same for Mike and the rest of the Bright Hand members,” said dad.

  Benji was huffing and puffing as if he had just run a marathon. “We gotta shoot through, check on those Bright Handers, but first we better tie up these bloody mongrels. I don’t suppose anyone has any rope?”

  A big smile split Mr. Harutyunyan’s face. “I have something even better. Two big rolls of duct tape; that will do the trick. Let’s move them into our cabin.”

  We quickly dragged the mercenaries and bound them carefully. “Better get their mouths, if they wake up, they start yelling,” offered Ms. Houng.

  After we felt they were secure, we locked them in the cabin and sprinted down the darkened corridor toward the circular staircase, down two decks and forward to the front of the boat where Ms. Perez’ cabin was. It was dark as we approached, but even from a distance I saw a padlock on her door that looked the same as the ones on our cabins. As we got closer, dad said, “Wait, have Ava check to see if there are any traps present. We don’t want to go rushing into an ambush.”

  We came to a skidding stop about ten meters from the door. “Ava, please check to see if there are any signs of a set-up, anything that could cause us problems if we go in.”

  After a moment, she said, “Beware death from above. If you enter, you’ll be crossing the rubicon.”

  “What does that mean? Please, just tell me, this is an emergency.”

  “Oh, alright. If you open the door, a canister containing poison gas is set to spray out its contents. I can sense it because it has an electronic trigger. Otherwise, that would have been all she wrote, maybe not for you, but probably for everyone else.”

  “Can you tell what kind of gas it is?”

  “Unclear but think Japanese railways.”

  “Ummm…”

  “Sarin, most likely.”

  “Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It’s not.”

  “Well, what should I do? I can hear someone in there, sounds like it’s probably Ms. Perez, and she has a gag over her mouth!”

  “We have a need, a need for speed. Have everyone keep their distance, twist the lock, and run like the wind. The dissipation will be quick like a bunny, and then we will have weathered the storm.”

  “What about Ms. Perez? Will she be in danger from the gas?”

  “If she can move, she needs to head for the hills. The further the better, then she should be able to avoid being a sacrificial lamb.”

  “Ok, I think I understand.” I hope I understand…

  I whispered what Ava had told me to dad, and said, “Have everyone back up. I’ll try to do this as fast as I can.”

  “Lukey, if what Ava says is true, it’s too dangerous. We’ll need to figure out a different way.”

  “No, I can do it. Trust me, dad. You made me like this, remember?”

  Dad smiled but seemed like he might cry. That was confusing for me. “I’m sorry, Lukey. You’re right, I did make you like this for better or worse. I trust you; I know you can do it.”

  Dad had everyone back up twenty meters or so, and I walked up carefully to the door. I tapped it lightly, and said, “Ms. Perez, if you can hear me make some sound so I know.”

  There was a thump on the floor, which sounded like a foot stomp. I took that as a sign that she could hear me. “Ok, can you move at all? If you can, hit the floor twice.”

  Thump, thump.

  “Ok, get as far back as you can. I’m going to open your door. I know about the gas, it won’t get me, but I want to make sure it doesn’t get to you either. If you can get around a corner or something like that it would probably be best. Go ahead and move and hit the floor twice again when you’re ready. Then you should hold your breath as long as you can to give the gas time to clear out.”

  I could hear her scooting along, dragging herself across the floor. After about a minute, I heard thump, thump.

  “Ok, I’m opening the door on the count of three. One, two, three!”

  I grabbed the padlock, twisted, and it snapped off; I pushed the door open and ran backwards as quick as I could; the gas canister fell, spraying what basically looked
like aerosol deodorant in all directions, although it only appeared to spread for two or three meters. After about twenty seconds there was no floating gas visible, but we waited for five minutes just to make sure.

  “Dad, I think the safest thing to do now is for me to hold my breath, run in there and carry her out. What’s left of the gas might still hurt everyone else, but I can hold my breath for a long time. What do you think?”

  “Hang on there, boyo. If that’s really Sarin, it could bloody kill ya,” said Benji, shaking his head vigorously.

  “Not if I don’t breathe it in, right?”

  Mr. Harutyunyan responded, “Is true, but is quite a distance. You think you can hold breath that long?”

  “Sure, I can probably hold my breath for ten minutes, maybe longer. While all of you are sleeping, I have a lot of time to practice stuff like that.”

  After a few moments of foot shuffling and contemplation, dad said, “Ok, Lukey, do it, but quickly.”

  I gave them all a thumbs-up and darted into Ms. Perez’ cabin. I ran directly into a table and chairs as I entered, scattering them in all directions; I couldn’t see her, but I heard her breathing; I followed the sound to a little closet to the left of the entrance, in the far corner of the room. I peeked into the closet, and she was curled up on the floor, her eyes wide and her body shaking. Her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were tied also, with a rope going up in the back from her feet to her hands to keep her from being able to get her hands in front of her body. A small towel was stuffed in her mouth with duct tape around her head holding it in place.

  I yelled, “Hold your breath!” and dragged her out of the closet; I picked her up, and although she is an average-sized woman, she felt light as a feather to me; I slung her over my shoulder and spun around; I ran out of the room, but as I got to the door, I tripped over the leg of one of the chairs I had knocked over when I entered; I fell forward, but then my body corrected and came back up to an upright position, and I dashed out of the room toward the group waiting outside.