Vortex of Evil

by S D Taylor

  “I can’t afford to get killed or captured, Tom. Somebody has to stick around and keep an eye on you.” She laughed for the first time in a long time and could tell that Tom appreciated it, even if his smile in return was little more than a slight change in the angle of his mouth. Megan patted him on the shoulder and got up to go check on Doug. “C’mon. Time to get back to making things happen.”

  Tom stood up and watched the beautiful woman from Boston walk back towards the tents. It was hard to imagine that it was only a little more than a week since he met her. It seemed like they had been together for years. “Wait!” Tom ran to catch up to her. He took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. Then he held her as if he was afraid she would get away.

  “What’s the matter?” Megan held him and looked him in the eye.

  “I love you. I realized just now that I had to tell you. If anything happens, I wanted you to know.”

  Megan kissed his cheek. “I think I knew. But thanks for making it official.”

  They paused, sharing one more moment in each other’s arms, knowing that they may not get many more chances like this for a while.

  “Let’s go find out how Doug is doing. It’s time we made something positive happen for a change.” Tom and Megan walked together, hand in hand, back to Doug’s tent.

  “Where is Erin?” Doug was still lying in the same position, but he was now very much awake. “What happened to her? Ying won’t tell me and she is crying. What the hell happened?”

  “What do you remember, Doug?” Tom and Megan entered the tent and sat on the floor next to Doug’s cot.

  “I was about to shoot the insect man that had Erin and I blacked out. It looked like he fired some energy beam at me, but I don’t remember it hitting me.”

  Tom tried to give him the short version. “You fell on the ground with violent spasms, the insect guy took Erin onboard their saucer and they flew away. Peter and Gaby were onboard as well.”

  “Dammit! Where did they go?” Doug was distraught at the news and at being paralyzed. Only his mouth and eyes were moving. Neither his arms nor legs seemed to work at all.

  “They took off and flew to the west. Very quiet and very fast. They are gone, Doug. Unless they come back, I don’t know what we could possibly do to find them.”

  “Did you look for a boat? Maybe we could take the zodiacs and look for a boat off to the west. That may be where that flying saucer thing is based.”

  Tom hadn’t given that any consideration, but after what had happened, chasing after an enemy that can vaporize you with the touch of a finger seemed a bit risky.

  “We haven’t really come up with a plan other than ‘see if Doug survives,’” Tom did not want to get into a priority discussion with Doug.

  “Ok. I survived. I am a little under the weather, but could you take a quick trip around the north end of the island and see if you can see a boat out to the west? If they are there, we may have a chance to save Erin and our other friends.”

  Tom suppressed his sense of irritation at this sudden pressure from Doug since he was glad Doug was alive to pressure him. “If you are ok for a little while with Ying to look after you, Megan and I will go with the Haida when they are ready to leave. We will see what we can see around the other side of the island and come right back.”

  “Sounds good. Unless Ying can carry me, I won’t be going anywhere. But before you go, Gaby told me there were some antiaircraft missiles buried over there behind the pit where the fake vortex weapon was mounted. See if you can find them. It might give us an edge if we could shoot that thing down.”

  “See you later, Doug. I am glad you are awake now. Don’t let him go anywhere until we get back, Ying.” Tom knew he needed to go before the self-appointed, bed-ridden general gave any more orders.

  “No problem, Tom, I will hog tie him if needed. That is the correct expression, right? Hog tie?”

  Doug laughed. “You have it right, Ying. I hope I have to worry about being able to leave and you trying to talk me out of it.”

  “Me too, Doug. Me too.” Ying smiled but she wondered how she and Doug would get along when the others were gone. She hoped he wasn’t too resentful of her role with the pirates.

  Doug discovered he could move his right arm, but he held back that information. He wanted to see how Ying would treat him if she thought he was still helpless. He wasn’t sure about her loyalties and thought his helpless state would allow her to try something if that was her intent. He hoped she was as nice as she appeared.

  Tom and Megan left the tent and headed to the pit. Between the pit and the trees, there were a couple of spots where the grass had been dug up. The first spot they chose to dig was a grave that they stopped digging up when they found a man’s boot with an ankle protruding from it. The hard plastic container with the small missiles was in the second spot they dug. The dirt was loose and they had it out of its grave in little time. Tom brushed away the dirt and opened the case. There were four missile tubes that resembled small bazookas. Each tube had a control box on the side, a trigger mechanism and a sight that would guide the missile to its target.

  Tom and Megan hauled the missile case back to Doug’s tent, took one missile and headed to the beach where the zodiacs were tied up. Flying Raven was supervising the loading of his canoe with the wounded. They were nearly ready to push off when Tom and Megan arrived carrying the missile tube.

  “Are you planning to go with us after all?” Flying Raven looked a bit confused by this change.

  “We are going to go look for a boat offshore to the west. Doug thinks that is where the hover vehicle may have come from.”

  “So he is awake? I am glad he has survived.” Flying Raven smiled.

  “He still can’t move, but it appears the pulse that hit him wears off eventually. I hope it didn’t do any permanent damage.”

  “I will visit him before we leave. Good luck, Tom. May your Gods smile upon you. And you also, Megan.”

  They both smiled and nodded to the Haida Chief. “Goodbye and have a safe journey.”

  Tom started the Zodiac motor and headed slowly out to sea as Megan cradled the antiaircraft missile in her arms. They also had an AK-47 just in case they ran into pirates. And the machine gun mounted on the frame. Tom thought they had it covered. He had just turned to the north when he saw the Viking ship in the distance, heading west under full sail.

  Chapter 10

  Tom and Megan stared in awe at the sight of the Viking ship. They had met the Vikings a few days earlier but the sight of their ship was quite another experience. The large square sail was filled with wind as it powered the traditional craft with the dragon’s head on the prow. They were not close enough to see individual faces, but there appeared to be a dozen or so men onboard. “I hope Arny is with them. He seemed like a reasonable guy.” Megan remembered how Arny, as they called him, had tried to understand their situation and where they came from.

  “He was well-travelled and open-minded. I just wish I could talk to him in his language. Now that John is dead, we won’t have any way of communicating. Aside from pointing and nodding that is.” Tom steered a course between the island and the Viking ship, hoping to avoid provoking or scaring them when they saw the zodiac. He needn’t have worried. Megan was looking through the small pair of binoculars and saw Arny on the deck.

  “Arny is waving. Maybe we should go closer.” Megan waved back. Tom steered the zodiac towards a point slightly ahead of Arny’s position. They would intercept the Viking ship in the passage between the main island and the small, flat island that was a mile to the north. Tom realized that small island was where the Vikings had relocated their camp after the recent fighting on the main island.

  It was a breezy day with some high clouds and good visibility. Tom wondered if Doug was right that the best chance to recover their friends was to find the boat where the strange, silent saucer was based. He wondered what kind of range it had. Doug thought it seemed like a futuristic version of a helicopt
er, not meant for long journeys. He was thinking about how it worked when Megan screamed, “Tom, it’s back!”

  The saucer-shaped craft flew in from the west at low altitude, heading straight for the Viking ship. It passed over it at about two hundred feet altitude and then turned south in a wide arc.

  “Take over, Megan.” Tom quickly reached for the antiaircraft missile and opened up the control panel and sight. The hover vehicle came around and was lining up on a course that led straight toward the Vikings. As Megan turned the zodiac around and closed the distance between their position and Viking ship, the hover vehicle must have noticed Tom’s missile lock on them because it suddenly turned straight towards them. Tom had been tracking them and squeezed the trigger on the missile. With a sudden blast of smoke and flame out the rear of the small tube, the missile shot out towards their saucer-shaped attacker. Tom had fired out of instinct, seeking to protect Megan and himself, and the Vikings as well.

  “I hope Erin and the rest aren’t still on that thing.” Megan watched the red glow of the small missile as it streaked towards its target. Tom had not even considered if their friends had been onboard. It was too late to worry about that now.

  Tom saw the orange glow on the front edge of the hover vehicle just in time to grab Megan and dive off the back of the zodiac which raced on without them. The pulse of energy struck a couple of seconds later and had they not been protected by the water above them, Tom and Megan would have been killed by the blast that destroyed their inflatable. The missile struck the hover vehicle’s shielding and exploded, knocking the saucer slightly sideways and causing it to wobble noticeably for a few seconds.

  Tom struggled to clear his head, keep his mouth above water so he could breathe and try to rescue Megan at the same time. Even so, he saw the hover vehicle speeding off to the west and on the far horizon he could see a boat that appeared to be the saucer’s destination. For now, his priority was trying to keep Megan alive while they figured out a way to get back to shore. They were at least half a mile from the rocky north end of the island.

  Megan was a dead weight and for a few frightening moments, Tom thought the blast had killed her outright. It had knocked off her precious Red Sox cap and even in the circumstance they were in, Tom knew she would want him to rescue that cap as soon as he made sure she was alive and safe. He managed to get his arms around her and pull her head clear of the water. Struggling against the light wave action to keep himself afloat, he squeezed her below her ribs to see if she would cough out the seawater she had swallowed. In a couple of seconds, she was coughing and able to catch her breath, much to Tom’s relief.

  “You’re ok. I’ve got you.” He held her with his left arm and used his right arm to tread water as best as he could.

  “What happened?” Megan felt stunned from the blast, like a horse had kicked her in the head. If Tom hadn’t been able to pull her off the zodiac and hang on to her, she would have surely died from the blast or from drowning.

  “They fired that energy pulse at us. I saw the orange glow just in time to pull us both into the water. Our missile didn’t do any real damage to them, but I managed to see their boat out to the west. They may have taken Erin and Peter there. And Gaby.”

  Megan felt dizzy but was able to start treading water and let Tom take care of keeping himself afloat. She wanted to take off her shoes so she could swim more easily but if she lost them there may not be another pair in her immediate future. “Can we make it to the shore?”

  Tom turned towards her and smiled. “We don’t have much choice, do we? Unless you want to hang out and see if Arny and his friends come this way. I don’t think the wind is with them.”

  The water was cold and Tom knew that they had a limited time to reach the shore before they ran out of energy or got too cold to go on. He figured it would be a fifty/fifty chance that they would both make it. He grabbed Megan’s cap before it floated out of reach. “Let’s swim for it while we can.”

  Megan reached out and touched his cheek. “Come on, lover. I’ll race you to the shore.”

  They turned and began swimming at a steady, measured pace. It was important to keep moving, but they had to be careful not to burn themselves out too quickly. It was a long swim and their clothes were making it more taxing as they had to carry along the extra weight. Tom knew that getting to the shore was not a guarantee of success since the rocks and crashing waves had nearly done them in the first time they reached this island in their life raft.

  Megan tried not to look at the island as they swam towards it. She knew that it would not seem much closer for a long time and she did not want that apparent lack of progress to get inside her head. She focused on staying close to Tom and swimming steadily along with him.

  Tom was likewise preoccupied with watching Megan and being sure she was doing ok as they ever so slowly made their way toward the shore. If either one of them had glanced up, the seemingly sudden appearance of the Haida Canoe and Chief Flying Raven would not have been such great a surprise since they would have seen it coming.

  “Megan! Look behind you.” Tom was smiling as he saw the Chief extending an oar in their direction. Grasping Megan’s arm he grabbed the oar and hung on while the Chief dragged them close enough to the boat that they could reach out and grasp the helping arms of the crew.

  “We meet again, Tom. Megan.” The Chief looked down at his tired and wet passengers as they sat on the floor of the canoe catching their breath.

  Tom raised his arm and managed a tired sounding “Thanks. What are you doing here? I thought you were headed south.”

  Flying Raven nodded. “We wanted to see what happened to our other canoe. Apparently, it was too damaged and sank. It is fortunate we saw you here.”

  Megan looked up at their rescuer and smiled broadly. “We thought we were in real trouble. It is good to have friends when the times get tough.”

  Yáahl Xitgáay smiled. “It is even better to have friends with boats when you are in danger of drowning.”

  Tom and Megan couldn’t argue with that. “Thank you for coming to save us.” He and Megan settled down next to the port side and tried to catch their breath and dry off.

  The large war canoe proceeded steadily south, hugging close to the island as they went. Tom watched the rocky coastline pass by and looked for a place to land. The waves crashed against the rocks and sent sprays of water skyward. Birds could be seen everywhere, along with occasional seals that patrolled these seas that were teeming with the fish that served as their primary food source.

  “What are you thinking?” Megan was leaning against the side of the canoe, looking at Tom’s windswept hair.

  “I was thinking how great it would be to go fishing here. If we were on vacation. It isn’t the same when you have to catch fish to live on.”

  “Why not? Is there some rule we can’t learn to enjoy the life we have been handed?” She raised her eyebrows and smiled. “Besides, in our time there were a lot less fish.”

  Tom turned to look at Megan. The wind was tossing her hair as well as his, but where it made Tom look messed up, it made her look like a model in a commercial for a Canadian brand of canned salmon. Tom thought they could call it “Red Beauty.” Fortunately he didn’t share that thought with Megan since she might have found his imagery a bit misguided.

  “Are we going back to the camp?” Megan noticed that the canoe were going parallel to the island but not getting any closer to shore.

  Tom got up and went over to the Chief. “Can you drop us off by the camp? We need to get back to see how Doug is doing.”

  The chief didn’t turn to look at Tom right away. When he did, he had the stern look on his face. “Can you be sure it is safe for my people to go back to that place? If that disk of flying death returns, I may lose the rest of my people. I think we need to get away from this place as quickly as possible, don’t you?”

  Tom got a sinking feeling in his stomach when Flying Raven said that. He hadn’t considered that the Chief mi
ght not want to risk another encounter with pirates who were armed with machine guns, or with the hover vehicle that was armed with something much worse. Even if the last encounter had worked out ok in the end, the Chief had suffered the greatest losses. With the hover vehicle still in the area, and the risk of pirates, the chief was clearly reluctant to go any closer to the shore.

  “Why don’t you come with us to our homeland. You will be much safer there. I can send back a war party to get Doug and the woman.”

  “We might want to do that, Chief, but we can’t leave Doug and Ying behind. Doug was badly wounded and needs our help.” Tom was rapidly considering his options. He did not think there was a way to convince the Chief to take them all the way to the shore, so he tried “closer to shore” as an option. “Can you go a little closer to the point up ahead and let us swim from there? We cannot go with you beyond that and still get back to help Doug.”

  Tom made up his mind. While the Chief turned to look, Tom grabbed Megan by the arm and together they jumped over the side and started swimming for the shore. It was closer than where the Haida had rescued them, but it would still be a tough test. Tom knew that Megan could do it after her last swimming event when John was shooting at them. He just hoped he could keep up.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” The Chief yelled at them and had an angry look on his face, but he did not change course. He had his people to think about and he realized that Tom had taken this rash course of action to avoid the Chief having to say no to his request. He appreciated Tom’s bravery, but questioned his sanity. The Chief would have left Doug to fend for himself. He didn’t need any help in the Chief’s eyes. He was a survivor and he had Ying to help him.

  Megan swam with slow and steady strokes once she got over the shock of yet another dunking with Tom. This was the fourth time in two days. “I supposed there was a really good reason for pulling me out of that perfectly good canoe to go for another marathon swim.” Megan yelled back over her shoulder as Tom was plowing through the waves trying to catch up to her.