by Paul Aertker
“Just hold on!” Astrid called out.
Within moments seven flashlights lit up, and their beams crisscrossed the room. As far as Lucas could tell, everyone was hugging a mattress and pillow. Mac’s face was green like he was going to be sick.
Normally ships from Rome to Barcelona traveled a northern route. But whoever was guiding this drone vessel from elsewhere must have known the weather was bad. The ship turned and angled southward to avoid the storm. Instead of heading directly to Barcelona, it powered toward North Africa.
Seawater now blasted the side of the hull as walls of wind and rain continued to pummel the cargo. There came a series of unreal groaning sounds, followed by loud bursts. The storm was ripping some of the metal boxes to shreds, and their steel doors were crashing onto the ship’s deck. Containers screeched as they tore away from the moorings that held them in place. Some of the cargo boxes on deck spun out of control and then crashed through the railing and slipped into the sea.
Soon the weather calmed, and the kids let go of their pillows and relaxed. Outside, the containers that had broken loose were still sliding and spinning around on the deck. Then, just as the rain seemed to be easing up, another massive wave hit and washed over the bow. Water flooded the deck, sweeping some of the loose containers directly into the Mediterranean.
For thirty minutes the storm tossed the ship around, and then, just as quickly as the tempest had come, it moved on, and the Leviathan continued toward Africa’s northern shore.
A few minutes later Mac got up and got some water from the minifridge. He addressed the whole group. “Can we get on with this already?”
Lucas knew that the cargo his mother had sent out some twelve years earlier was on the ship with him. Unless of course it had just been tossed into the sea. But he had to agree with Mac. It was time.
“The moon should be out in a minute,” Travis said. “Let’s go find this famous container.”
“More like infamous,” Mac said. “I mean, Lucas’s mother stole it.”
“When you take something that belongs to you,” Jackknife said, “it’s not stealing.”
“And,” Travis said calmly, “if Ms. Günerro gets hold of this container, then the Good Company will be able to kidnap more and more children and sell them into slavery.”
“You are all idiots,” Mac said. “The Good Company is a giant company. They’re not going away.”
“Maybe not the company,” Astrid said. “But if we can show that Ms. Günerro and Bunguu are working together, then she might go to jail. In fact I can’t wait to make this call.”
Astrid grabbed her phone. “Wait,” she said. “My cell phone’s dead.”
Mac reached under his pillow. “No service for me, either.”
“Could be the storm,” Travis said.
Lucas tapped the monitor on the wall and opened the doors.
A waning gibbous moon floated across the night sky. Lucas turned off his flashlight. The air was cool, and he guessed it was about twenty-two degrees Celsius, seventy-two Fahrenheit. The wind blew slightly, and there was a hint of salt taste to it.
A block of containers leaned against the wall across from them. Some columns were six cubes high, while other stacks had only two or three. Lucas jumped over the gap and onto the next container roof. The others followed. There he found a metal ledge that they used as a step. The storm had created odd-shaped formations of containers, creating canals and channels.
Lucas hopped over an edge and shimmied down between two boxes to the next level. His feet found a tiny lip at the corner of each container, and he straddled the space between them. They worked their way through this maze of metal, and in a few minutes came to the deck.
The front of the ship looked like a tornado had hit it.
The contents of the containers were scattered pell-mell. Several doors had blown off, and the cargo had spilled out onto the deck. There were clothes and shoes everywhere. A clump of lawn mowers and generators jammed together next to couches and tables and chairs. Colored plastic toys blanketed the area.
Lucas spun around and faced everyone. “Okay, guys,” he said. “Let’s find this container and see what it really has in it.”
Mac huffed. “Who died and made you captain of this ship?”
Astrid picked up the argument. “Lucas’s mother, his birth mother, started the demise of the Good Company twelve years ago.” She pointed an index finger at Mac. “So I think the logical person here to lead us today is that mother’s son.”
“And,” Jackknife added, “it’s his grandfather’s diamonds that are in the container.”
“Unless of course it’s missing,” Travis said. “I mean, more than sixteen hundred containers are lost at sea every year.”
“Okay, okay,” Mac said. “Since you’re the boss, then what exactly are we looking for?”
Travis said calmly, “The container is intermodal.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mac asked.
“It means,” Travis explained, “the container can be transferred easily from different modes of transportation, like from a ship to a train to a truck.”
Mac said, “So what are you trying to say?”
“It should be a small container,” Jackknife explained. “About twenty feet in length, about six meters.”
“Half the size of the bunk room,” Alister said.
“Let’s think,” Travis said. “If we off-load in Barcelona, then the container would be up front, wouldn’t it?”
“Sounds reasonable,” Kerala said.
Lucas asked, “What side do we dock on in Barcelona?”
“In that port this ship will dock on the . . .” Jackknife gestured toward the left-hand side of the ship. “We’ll dock on the port side. Unless they make special provisions for drone ships.”
“So,” Lucas said, “we’re looking for a twelve-year-old, twenty-foot container on the front-left side of the ship.”
Kerala asked, “What’s the number again?”
“TNRU three three zero eight one six dash one,” Travis said.
Lucas said, “Let’s spread out a little.”
The moon cast a bright light across the deck where the kids muddled through the debris.
Lucas and Jackknife broke off from the group and skittered around a pool of glass marbles. They stopped at the first door and checked the numbers. HAMBURG SÜD VANU 105491-8.
Nope.
Their eyes flashed from the numbers on one container to the next. Lucas and Jackknife quickly got into a rhythm as they zigzagged back and forth, deeper and deeper into the canyon of metal boxes.
They traversed a whole section of canals and rounded a corner in the middle of the ship. There they met up with Mac, Alister, and Travis at a pile of twenty-foot containers that were stacked like logs on a campfire. The doors had been blown off, and the contents, mostly electrical machinery and equipment, had spilled out onto the deck.
Mac shuffled away by himself, kicking some deflated footballs into the sea. Alister rummaged through piles of electrical equipment and generators, and he picked up what looked like a gun.
“What’s that?” Lucas asked.
“It’s a plasma torch.”
“Oh yeah,” Travis said, touching a cart loaded with equipment. “That’s used for welding.”
Alister’s eyes lit up, and his bow tie rose under his chin. “But a plasma gun is way better,” he said. “I love this machine. It can slice and dice anything.”
Just then a big wave knocked into the side of the boat, and ocean spray showered them. Lucas peered into the next container.
“I wouldn’t get in there,” Alister said. “These doors came off because the container couldn’t handle the pressure. If it falls, you’ll be crushed to death in a second. And I do not want to see that.”
The metal support beams in the ceiling were slanting to the right. These old containers wouldn’t hold long. The phi container must be close.
Jackknife walked past Lucas and stepped
inside.
He kicked something. “Hey,” he said. “There’s camping stuff in here.”
Lucas shone his flashlight into the container.
“Look at this!” Jackknife said. “There’s all kinds of stuff in here.”
The metal box made a groaning sound as the ship rocked across another big swell.
“Get out of there!” Astrid said as she and Kerala joined the boys.
Travis stepped into an opening that had been blasted in the side of the next container. He panned his flashlight across the space. “This is so cool! There’re surfboards in here. And Windsurfers. A whole bunch of them. And kite boards too. This stuff is going to California—my home.”
“It’s not your birthday,” Astrid said. “And we’re not going surfing. Now get out!”
Travis and Jackknife crawled out, looking like they had just gotten in trouble.
Lucas kicked some clothes into a huge pile as they moved to the front of the ship.
Kerala pointed a flashlight on the next clump of old twenty-foot containers. This geometric pile of metal boxes looked as if the storm had been building something. The containers were stacked vertically and horizontally.
“It looks like Stonehenge,” Alister remarked.
Mac snarled, “You mean the prehistoric monument in England? Hardly!”
Astrid said, “Good eye, Alister. It does look like Stonehenge.”
Lucas pointed his beam of light, and they read the numbers on the doors. The first read CMA CGM CAPE TOWN | CMSU 810983-9. The next read APL NEW YORK 009 | APZU 532501-4. Lucas kept scanning the numbers with the flashlight, and then he stopped.
Hidden behind the Stonehenge group he spotted an old container, the oldest he had seen. It was leaning at a forty-five-degree angle against the others in the pile. The doors were facing down, and Lucas pointed the flashlight on the side wall. He cocked his head sideways.
There in the top right-hand corner was the symbol Φ.
“That’s the letter phi,” Lucas said.
He pointed the beam of light on the other side. At the top there was a number all by itself: TNRU 330816-1.
The same number of his birth chart.
“That’s it,” Lucas said. “We found it!”
THE SEA AT NIGHT
Earlier that evening, a group of small rubber boats, dinghies, had departed ports in North Africa.
One boat left from Tripoli, the capital of Libya, two from the Tunisian resort town of Hammamet, and a fourth from the dock in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.
Each boat contained four Curukians.
All four vessels were aimed at a tracking device located inside the New Resistance container.
Hours later, deep in the middle of the Mediterranean, they came together and waited for the cargo ship, the Leviathan.
UNBREAKABLE
Lucas crawled over a pile of clothes and under the Stonehenge stack of containers. He looked up at the two doors. Even if they could tip the phi container on its side, they would still have to deal with the locks.
“We just saw a ladder,” Astrid said.
She and Nalini took off and in a few seconds came back with a long telescoping ladder. Mac helped them lean it against the phi container, and then everyone turned and looked at Alister.
Alister pocketed his lock-picking tools and climbed up.
“Uh-oh,” he said.
“What is it?” Travis asked.
Alister shook his head. “Some of these latches are sealed with metal dowels that have to be cut off just to make the hinges work. Then some of these padlocks are made with iron-alloy shackles. But worse than that . . . all of the keyholes have been filled with liquid steel.”
Astrid said, “That would explain why it’s never been robbed.”
“So what do we do now?” Mac asked.
“Well,” Alister said, climbing down. “We’re not getting in this container through the doors.”
Lucas moved around the side, letting his hand trail along rough metal bumps. Rust spots dotted the walls of the metal box. Years of sea salt caked the rim.
Lucas ducked underneath. In the floor he spotted a tiny hole about the size of a little finger.
“There’s a hole in it,” Jackknife called out as he crawled under with Lucas.
The others gathered. Lucas beamed light into the hole while Jackknife and Alister squatted next to him.
Astrid asked, “Did someone drill the hole?”
“No,” Jackknife said. “It’s rusted.”
Mac knelt underneath and started banging on the bottom of the container. A few seconds later Kerala noticed something and put a light on it.
“Look,” she said picking it up. “A diamond!” She rolled it between her thumb and index finger. “Now, this is beautiful.”
Everyone moved in closer and marveled at it.
“That could be a Kapriss diamond,” Travis said.
Mac said, “And Ms. Günerro’s coming to get it.”
“How do you know?” Astrid said.
“You think she’s just going to let this go?” Mac asked. “She loves diamonds and ivory, and there are elephant tusks in there. Right?”
“If there is ivory in there,” Astrid said, “then it’ll be turned over to Interpol, and they’ll destroy it all.”
“That’s a waste!” Mac said. “You don’t want the elephants to have died for no reason.”
“You don’t get it,” Astrid said. “If you destroy the supply of ivory tusks, then people can’t buy it. If they stop buying, then the poachers will stop killing elephants.”
“Rich people like Ms. Günerro always get what they want,” Mac said. “That’s why I want to be rich.”
“Like Ms. Günerro?” Travis asked.
“Why not!” Mac said.
The Leviathan turned west and slowed its speed. The storm had passed, but from this direction the wind was stronger and more humid. A little chilly. The swells were much bigger, and more spray came over the sides.
A clump of lingering clouds floated across the sky and dimmed the moonlight. Lucas and Alister crawled out from under the metal box and stepped back several feet to study the arrangement of containers.
It did look like Stonehenge.
Lucas glanced at Alister. His father and Lucas’s mother had plotted to stop the Good Company. For a dozen years they had at least kept the pressure on Siba Günerro and slowed her down.
Alister went back to the container and jabbed his fingers into the rust that ran across the bottom. He grinned at Lucas and gave him a quick knuckle punch, and they returned their attention to the others.
“Let’s get back to the bunk room,” Lucas said.
“Yeah,” Astrid said. “We found what we were looking for, and as soon as my phone starts working again, we’ll call it in.”
Back at the bunk room they sat around Kerala’s and Astrid’s beds and played cards. Lucas tried, but he couldn’t concentrate. He was still too distracted by the container they had found.
He wondered if he would learn more about who he was if he knew who his grandfather had been.
At that moment Lucas felt like a sardine crammed into a metal tin. He lost his third hand in a row and decided to make a change.
“I’m sleeping outside tonight,” Lucas announced to the group.
Before anyone could say anything, Lucas tossed his cards on the bed and unlatched the door. He scrambled down a canal to a container filled with dry sleeping bags and camping pillows. In a few minutes he was back at the bunk room. There he climbed on top of the container and laid out his sleeping bag next to the solar panels.
Lucas breathed in the night air and let out a sigh. It was over. He had found what he had come for and connected with his mother and his grandfather. In his mind he spoke to them.
He stared up at the starry Mediterranean sky and listened to the hum of the engines rumbling away. The Leviathan lowered its speed again, and Lucas felt like he could finally relax.
Or so he thought.
CAMPING OUT
The sea that night was dark and had finally calmed down, and the sky was full of stars.
It isn’t so bad, Lucas thought, to be this far out in the middle of nowhere, all alone.
The Mediterranean Sea was for a long time the intersection of the known earth. Medius means “middle” and terra means “earth.” The area was the center of trade, with goods and produce shipped back and forth from the Middle East to the Atlantic Ocean and all points between.
Some of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known bordered this wide expanse of water-Rome, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Greece.
There was history here.
Lucas’s family history was here too. The lights of the African cities to the south and the sparkling stars in the sky . . . his mother’s secret messages . . . his grandfather’s precious diamonds.
A long time ago the southern part of the Mediterranean Sea harbored some of the world’s most notorious pirates. The Barbary Coast was at one time populated with “barbaric” bandits. The US Marine Corps fought its first land battle on foreign soil there in response to pirate raids.
Lucas’s thoughts returned to his family. His mother had set this whole plan in motion a dozen years earlier. A hotel cleaning lady had beaten Ms. Siba Günerro, the Good Company, and the Bunguu family at their own game. Lucas’s mother and grandfather might actually be the ones who had the last laugh.
Lucas curled his sleeping bag up around his neck and got comfortable for the night. The rumble of the ship’s slow engines churning through the water lulled him to the edge of sleep.
As the Leviathan motored into the full Mediterranean Sea, she cut through the waters between the Italian island of Sardinia and the continent of Africa.
Centuries before, the Phoenicians were the great sailors of this region.
When they sailed afar, they stopped in Carthage, in what is now Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, where the Afri people lived. Sailors called this dusty part of the Sahara “Afar,” which later may have given us the name for the entire African continent.
Regardless of how it was named, Africa was still a land afar.
Unfortunately for Lucas, as he dropped into sleep, Africa was not far enough away.
