by James Ponti
She came up empty.
“Karl, where have you been?” Blix asked angrily. “I’ve been trying to reach you….” His words trailed off when he noticed the man’s injuries. “What happened to your face?“
Karl tried to answer, but his tongue and lips weren’t completely functional yet so “flower sea urchin” came out “flabber bee gerkin.” Rather than try again, he simply pointed at the pictures of Alice and Judy in Blix’s hand and then at Brooklyn.
Even without words, the message was loud and clear.
Blix turned to her and said, “You know where they are.” He flashed a sinister smile and added, “How lovely.”
Brooklyn tried to talk her way out of the situation. “Well, actually, I only know—”
Karl was having none of it. He reached over and covered her mouth with his huge left paw and managed to say something resembling, “She knows.”
“Excellent,” Blix said with an evil rasp. “Take me to them. Now.”
“I—I—I ca-can’t,” she stammered.
Blix stepped closer and tilted his head down so that they were practically nose-to-nose. “Oh, but you will.”
She tried to think of a Motherism that would help, but she couldn’t come up with a single one. The best she could do was try to stall. And the best way to stall was to stop thinking like a spy and start acting like a twelve-year-old. Fake tears began welling up in her eyes.
“If I take you to them, Alice and Judy will see me,” Brooklyn blubbered. “So will they.” She nodded toward the other girls. “Everyone will know that I helped you. Do you know how powerful their families are? Judy’s mom’s an MP. Alice is a member of the royal family. They’ll ruin my life. I’ll get kicked out of school. Everything will go bad.”
Blix chuckled. “That’s not my problem.”
Brooklyn wiped some tears from her cheeks and looked away to compose herself. That’s when she remembered the tour the captain gave them just after they’d set sail from Aberdeen harbor. The inkling of a plan came to her. “I can’t take you to them,” she said, her emotion calming. Then she turned back and whispered, “But I can show you where they are.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“There’s a detailed map of the ship. Take me to that and I can point out exactly where they’re hiding. That way Judy and Alice won’t see me and nobody has to know that I helped.”
“You’re not really in a position to—”
Brooklyn cut him off. “Do you want to find them or not?”
Blix wasn’t in the mood to be told what to do by a twelve-year-old. But he didn’t have any time to waste. There were less than seventeen minutes left before the bomb was set to explode, and for his plan to work he needed Alice and Judy on the Zodiac before that happened.
“Fine,” he said. “Where’s the map?”
Now it was Brooklyn’s turn to smile, although she fought the urge. “It’s up in the pilothouse… on the bridge.” It turned out she didn’t need the crane at all. She was her own massive distraction.
EXTERIOR HULL—RV SYLVIA EARLE
Unlike the bombs in action movies, which came with nice, easy-to-read digital displays that told everyone exactly how much time they had, the limpet mine gave Sydney no indication as to when it was set to explode. She assumed the intruders would not have it go off while they were still on board, so she felt she should be safe until she heard the whine of the Zodiac’s motor. Well, maybe “safe” wasn’t the right word, but that’s what she was telling herself.
She did know, however, that there were only a few minutes of air left in her tank. The needle on her pressure gauge was now well into the red on the dial. She tried to take slow, shallow breaths as she studied the mine.
During her training, she’d worked with limpets that had been manufactured for the military, but this one looked more like it was built in someone’s garage. That was good and bad. Good because that meant it might have some sort of defect she could exploit. Bad because that meant it might go off accidentally.
It resembled a metal bowl with two long fingers that stretched out along the hull. The magnets were clamped on the fingers, and she was studying one when she heard an ominous sound. It was a clicking noise in her regulator. She’d never heard it before, but she knew what it meant.
She was out of air.
4. Boom
UMBRA WAS A GLOBAL CRIME syndicate motivated entirely by money. Even the decision to kidnap Alice and Judy was based on profit, not politics. The organization didn’t have an opinion on the British monarchy and didn’t care what party Judy’s mother represented in Parliament. It was interested solely in the fact that their families would have the means and the willingness to pay a large ransom for their return.
Blix had jumped at the opportunity to carry out the operation. Up until that point, he’d worked primarily as a smuggler carrying stolen merchandise between ports on the North Sea. This was his chance to show the higher-ups in the organization that he was capable of more.
This was a test… and he was failing miserably.
He now realized that he should’ve brought more men. There were seven on the Zodiac, but four were occupied guarding the hostages, two with each group, and another was on the bridge monitoring all communication. That left him only Karl, whose unexplained disappearance had put them behind schedule.
Blix hoped that Brooklyn was the solution to his problems. If she could direct them to Alice and Judy, then they could get back on track. As he led her up to the bridge, he was surprised to see Karl following them. “Where are you going?”
“With you,” mumbled Karl.
“Why?”
He nodded toward Brooklyn. “She’s tricky.”
“She’s twelve,” Blix sniped. “I think I’ve got it under control. Why don’t you help watch the hostages? Your face should frighten them nicely.”
Chastened, Karl nodded and went back to the marine mammal observation deck while Blix and Brooklyn went up the stairs.
“Did you do that to his face?” Blix asked, more intrigued than angry.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brooklyn answered unconvincingly.
Blix laughed. “How very interesting.”
Brooklyn studied him as they walked, looking for any details she could later pass on to MI6. He had black hair and a thick beard. There was a jagged scar behind his ear, and she noticed two tattoos: a blue-and-red wolf on the side of his neck and a cluster of three stars on the back of his left hand.
“How’d you know I was twelve?” she asked. “Do you have full biographical rundowns for everybody on board the ship?”
“No,” he said. “I have three teenage daughters. I know what twelve-year-old girls look like.” He stopped for a moment before adding, “And I know exactly how tricky they can be.”
This surprised Brooklyn. She never thought of terrorists as having children. “You’ve got kids?”
He didn’t respond, so she just kept talking. “That must make for interesting dinner conversation. ‘How was school today?’ ‘Okay, I got a good grade on my book report, but I bombed my math test. How was work?’ ‘Really good. I hijacked a ship and terrorized a bunch of girls. Can you pass the potatoes?’ ”
“My daughters are top students,” he said proudly. “They don’t bomb tests.”
“No?” asked Brooklyn. “What about you? What do you bomb?”
He gave her a dirty look but didn’t answer, and when they reached the top of the stairs, Brooklyn noticed him check his watch. It was the third time she’d seen him do it, and it reminded her of a Motherism: Look for a crack, then give it a whack. The idea was to find your adversary’s weakness, no matter how small, and use it as a point of attack. Maybe the watch was the crack.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Running out of time?”
He ignored her question, and they entered a narrow hallway that led to the bridge.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” she continued pressing. “It’s taken too
long to find Alice and Judy, and it’s messed up your schedule.”
Again he ignored the question, although Brooklyn could see his neck muscles tighten. She was onto something. She’d found the crack, so she kept whacking.
“You know, I’m sure the Navy and the Coast Guard track all the ships in British waters, which means there’s probably some group on the way to rescue us right now. If you’re still on the boat when they arrive, it’ll go badly. If I were you, I’d make a run for it, while there’s still time. You’d hate for your daughters to have to visit you in prison.”
He turned slowly and seemed to grow more menacing as he did. “I have bad news for you. Nobody is coming to your rescue. By the time the Coast Guard and Navy figure out something’s wrong, I’ll be long gone. Your fate is up to me alone. So, if I were you, I’d keep quiet.”
His eyes were a piercing shade of blue, and she knew he was serious. She responded not with words, but just a nod.
“Smart decision,” he said as they resumed.
Just before they reached the bridge, they passed the chart room, which held the maps, tables, and instruments necessary to navigate the high seas. At the moment, it also held all the adults on the trip. There were eleven in total: seven crew members, three scientists, and a documentary filmmaker. Brooklyn did a quick count and saw they were all in there. That meant whichever one of them was secretly an MI6 agent had been captured. Two of Blix’s men guarded the door. Each gave Brooklyn the evil eye as they passed.
“Where are you taking her?” demanded one of the women. “She’s just a kid.”
It was Virginia Wescott, a documentary filmmaker with the BBC. She’d come along to shoot footage for a film she was making about women in the sciences. Brooklyn had enjoyed hanging out with her and learning about her computer editing programs.
“It’s okay,” Brooklyn responded, trying to ease her concern. “I’ll be fine.”
Brooklyn and Blix entered the bridge, the nerve center for every aspect of the Sylvia Earle. It was spotless and modern, with wraparound windows that provided a view of everything in front of and on both sides of the ship. There was a massive console filled with dials, monitors, throttles, and buttons. There were two tall chairs—one for any officer who was on duty and the other reserved exclusively for the captain. Except now it was occupied by one of Blix’s henchmen.
“You’re not supposed to sit there,” Brooklyn said defiantly. “That’s just for the captain.”
The man chuckled and slid back into the seat, filling as much of it as he could. “I guess that means I’m the captain now.”
Brooklyn scanned the console and quickly spotted the SSAS button, which was hidden in plain sight in the middle of the bottom row. It was unmarked and unremarkable, no different from any of the other buttons so that no criminal or hijacker would be able to spot and disconnect it. She only knew its location because she learned it during her preparation for the mission.
Unfortunately, there was nearly ten feet between the map on the wall and the console. Brooklyn had to figure out how to get to the button and push it without anybody noticing. Once again, she decided to act like a twelve-year-old instead of a spy.
She darted across the room and grabbed the handset for the ship’s radio. “Mayday! Mayday!” she said breathlessly into the microphone. “This is the research vessel Sylvia Earle! We’ve been hijacked!”
Blix just stood there and shook his head.
“Impulsive, like my daughters,” Blix said. “Go ahead, call for help. It won’t do any good because I disconnected the radio. Like I told you, no one is coming to rescue you.”
Brooklyn knew the radio would be dead, but she had to play the part. She sighed heavily and sagged in defeat. As she did, her hand dropped down to her side, and she slyly pressed the SSAS button.
Help was on the way.
She knew the protocol step-by-step. The alarm would sound first at the nearest Coast Guard station. They would immediately send a rescue helicopter and notify the Secret Intelligence Service. The moment MI6 got word, they’d alert the Royal Navy and a team of commandos with the Special Boat Service would be deployed. The problem was that the Sylvia Earle was in a remote location, and it was going to take time for anyone to arrive.
“Playtime is over,” said Blix. “Show me where they are.”
The map of the ship was divided into six framed diagrams on the wall. She walked up to the layout for the main deck and pointed to the forecastle anchor room, an off-limits area she knew about because it was one of the rooms she and Sydney had considered using to hide Judy and Alice.
“They’re in there,” she said. “Both of them.”
“They better be,” he said.
He turned to the henchman in the captain’s chair and said, “Jakob, hurry up and go to the anchor room. Get the girls and bring them straight to the Zodiac.”
The man rushed out the door, and Blix turned to Brooklyn. “You come with me.”
“How can you do this?” she asked. “You’ve got daughters of your own.”
“None of you are going to get hurt,” he said.
“What about Judy and Alice?” asked Brooklyn. “Aren’t they going to get hurt?”
“Not if their parents pay their ransoms.” He smiled and pointed toward the chart room. “Now, you get in there.”
Blix opened the door to the chart room and signaled Brooklyn to get in. Frida Hovland, the captain of the ship, moved toward him. “I demand you return control of the ship to me.”
Blix laughed. “You are in no position to demand anything.”
She got angry, and then something very unexpected happened. They started arguing in Norwegian. Brooklyn had no idea what they were saying, and it didn’t seem like anyone in the room did, but it was heated and continued for a few exchanges until they were interrupted by a desperate call over Blix’s walkie-talkie. “Danger! Danger! You have trouble!”
Blix keyed his walkie-talkie and asked, “What sort of trouble?”
“A Coast Guard helicopter has just been sent out of Sumburgh, and Special Boat Service is on the way.”
“How?” he demanded. “Who alerted them?”
“An SSAS signal from the ship.”
Blix tried to run through everything in his head. He didn’t know how this could have happened, but then the hint of an idea came to him. He looked right at Brooklyn, and the anger in his eyes made her flinch. He stepped toward her, but someone stepped between them. It was Virginia Wescott, the documentary filmmaker.
“Don’t you have better things to do?” Wescott said coolly.
Before he could react, they were interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion.
BOOM!
5. Chaos
BROOKLYN COULDN’T TELL IF THE bomb actually caused the ship to move or if it was just her imagination. It felt like it did, but that might’ve been all the people crowded around her moving in reaction to the blast. She also couldn’t tell where the explosion took place. It could’ve been anywhere on the ship: the engine, the main deck, or worst of all, the stern thruster machine room. Was it possible that instead of hiding Alice and Judy somewhere safe, she’d endangered them? She was worried about that. She was also worried about her friend.
Where are you, Sydney? Brooklyn wondered. Why haven’t you shown up yet?
She wasn’t the only one with questions. Emil Blix was on the walkie-talkie demanding to know what was happening.
“What was that?” he yelled into the radio. “Who detonated that charge?”
There was no response, which only infuriated him more. Everything was going wrong. He couldn’t find the girls he was supposed to kidnap. The British military was racing to the scene. And now there was an unplanned explosion. He’d completely lost control of his hijacking.
“I want answers!” he bellowed.
Tentatively, a voice chimed in with a reply. “Boss.”
“Who is this?”
“Jakob.”
It was the man he’d sent fr
om the bridge to get Alice and Judy.
“I don’t know about the blast,” he continued. “But I do know those girls aren’t in the anchor room. I’m there right now, and there’s no sign of them.”
Blix spun around and stared right at Brooklyn, his face flushed with anger. She moved back and pressed herself against a wall.
Blix glared at her and took heavy breaths, his nostrils flared. He looked like he was about to say something when:
BOOM!
Another blast rocked the Sylvia Earle, and Brooklyn wondered if it were somehow the British military. It had been only a few minutes since she pushed the SSAS button. Could they have already arrived on the scene? Were they setting off explosions to disrupt the hijacking?
“What is going on?” Blix yelled into his radio.
None of his men replied, but the captain got right in his face and thundered at him in Norwegian. “Gå av båten min! Nå!”
Brooklyn expected him to lash back, but he didn’t. Blix had no idea how things had gone so wrong, but he knew there was no saving his mission. It was a lost cause. Instead of arguing with the captain, he calmly called into his walkie-talkie, “Abort mission. Abort mission. The Zodiac leaves in ninety seconds.”
He gave one last look at Brooklyn, wondering if she had somehow caused everything to unravel, and then he hurried away toward the fantail of the ship, and his escape.
The captain turned to the members of her crew. “Emergency stations. Check first on the passengers, get lifeboats and life jackets ready, then see if there is damage to the ship.”
“What can we do?” asked one of the scientists.
“Look for the girls,” said the captain. “Get them all together in the muster station next to the lifeboats.”
“They’re on the marine mammal observation platform,” Brooklyn said. “I just saw them there.”
Everyone sprung into action, but Brooklyn hesitated for a moment. She wanted to check on Alice and Judy, but she needed to make sure the threat was over. That it was okay to get them.
She stepped onto the bridge and surveyed the pandemonium through the giant window overlooking the ship. At first glance it seemed like everyone on the platform was safe. They were shaken, but it didn’t appear that any of them were hurt. She quickly scanned the group again, hoping to see Sydney, but there was no sign of her.
