Blood Ocean

by Weston Ochse

  In no time, they’d changed the odds from five to two to even.

  Lopez-Larou staggered, and Kavika caught her. They armed themselves with the fallen Boxers’ machetes and advanced together.

  The last two Boxers fought desperately, but it was nothing compared to Kavika’s and Lopez-Larou’s pure outrage exhibited. It was only moments before the five Boxers lay dead or dying on the deck.

  They wordlessly dispatched the living, stepped over the bodies, and wound their way back through the maze of false walls and cargo containers. When the maze opened onto the main deck area, they found more Boxers waiting for them.

  Fifteen of them, this time.

  These had heard the battle and were more reckless. Anger flashed from their eyes. They held their machetes tightly, white-knuckled grips eager to rend and hew.

  “Fuck,” Lopez-Larou whispered.

  Kavika nodded. His thoughts exactly. “Well I guess we’re going to have to—”

  He never finished his sentence. Kaja appeared on the deck before him, gripping a bungee with one hand and a deck rivet with the other.

  “Grab on, brother.”

  Another two Pali Boys appeared, grabbing onto Kavika and Lopez-Larou. Kaja grabbed Kavika as well, and all five of them sprung into the sky.

  The Boxers screamed their frustration in Chinese.

  They soared into the rigging, and Kavika reached out with the others and grabbed at the empty bird nets above the ships of the People of the Sun. He held on, then glanced over at Lopez-Larou to make sure she was okay. She was grinning, her anger gone, as was he. They were happy to be alive.

  But they weren’t done with their revenge just yet.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  AN HOUR LATER, they were at the morgue ship. Kaja and Ivanov stood by as Kavika presented the head of their dear friend to her brother. The head was still wrapped in Song’s shirt. Respecting the somberness of the moment, everyone except for Chito had their heads lowered. Chito stood, straight-shouldered, angry tears trickling over his cheeks.

  “Was this all you found?” he asked.

  Kavika nodded. He swallowed, trying to find just the right words.

  “What happened to her killer?” Chito asked.

  “Dead,” Lopez-Larou said.

  Chito nodded. “Thank you for that.”

  He took Spike’s head and held it to his chest, hands lovingly embracing it. Anguish clouded his eyes. Everyone gave him respectful quiet, each person experiencing the same loss in different degrees. Finally he spoke, his voice low and thick.

  “We knew about them.”

  “What do you mean?” Kavika asked.

  “He means that they knew about the cannibals,” Ivanov said flatly. “They’re Water Dogs. They had to have known.”

  Chito shook his head. “We don’t stop people from doing things. There is so much evidence we find in the water of what other people do to each other. Too much. We... we don’t judge people. We let them live.”

  His voice quavered with barely contained emotion. Kavika blinked away his own tears.

  “I could tell you about the murderers and the molesters. We know about evil. Everything ends up in the ocean. Everything.”

  “Yet you don’t do anything,” Ivanov said.

  “We don’t. We never have. It’s our contract with the city. Give us everything you have to give us and we’ll ask no questions. We take it, remake it, and recycle it.”

  “And so people like them exist,” Lopez-Larou said.

  “It’s not your fault,” Kavika said, feeling the hollowness of the words even as they left his lips. Lopez-Larou gave him a look that told him that she felt the same way. Still, he let the words hang there, if only to comfort Chito.

  “No. But it is our fault that they are allowed to continue doing what they are doing.” He held the wrapped head to his chin and kissed the fabric. “And now I’m paying for it. Correction—Spike paid for it.”

  “Leilani,” corrected Lopez-Larou.

  Chito paused; then, as if it had cost him whatever self-control he had, he added, “Leilani.” He broke into tears.

  Kavika turned to the others. “We have the power to do something, you know?”

  “The power to do what, exactly?” Ivanov asked.

  “Everything. Anything we want. The Pali Boys own the air and the Water Dogs own the ocean. All that’s in dispute is in-between, aboard the decks.”

  “That’s a whole lotta space,” Lopez-Larou said.

  “Sure, but that’s not where the battle needs be fought.”

  “What battle?” Ivanov seemed vexed. “What are you talking about, boy?”

  “What’s the greatest fear someone has aboard a ship?”

  “Fire,” Ivanov said immediately.

  Kavika shook his head. “Fire is bad, but you can survive a fire. No—sinking. Sinking is everyone’s greatest fear. And who has control of the water? Who is capable of bringing down any ship they desire?”

  Lopez-Larou grinned and pointed at Chito. “The Water Dogs.”

  “You’re crazy, boy.” Ivanov shook his head.

  “Am I? What about all those movies you like to watch? You told me all about Kelly’s Heroes and how a bunch of misfits no one wanted were able to kill so many Nazis. What about A Bridge Too Far? Isn’t that one of your favorite movies?”

  “Those are just movies,” scoffed Ivanov.

  “That’s not what you said before.”

  “There was some kind of rational thought behind the plan to save Kavika. Hell, had I known that he’d come back and want to destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to build, I might have had second thoughts.”

  “What are we destroying that doesn’t deserve to be destroyed?” Kavika turned to address them all. “There’s a conspiracy of blood rape and monkey-backing occurring on this ship, that are an affront to humanity. There are cannibals who’ve been eating our friends and loved ones for Pele knows how long. There are the Real People who have held us hostage in this city just so we can be their private farm animals. Which one of these is something you worked so hard to build? Which one of these things is something you don’t want to see destroyed, Ivanov?”

  All eyes turned to the Russian and pinned him to the spot. He stood uncomfortably, trying to gauge what support he might have among the others, but none was forthcoming. “I still think you all are trying to bite off more than you can chew. You mentioned A Bridge Too Far. Well, this just might be that bridge.”

  Kavika shrugged. “Then I suppose it is. I suppose we should lie down and take it, right? We should just give up right now. I mean, it isn’t so bad, right?”

  “What’s a little blood rape between friends?” Lopez-Larou said, dryly.

  “Yeah,” Kavika continued. “What’s a dozen people farmed to give blood to the old white folks, except for a way for us to show our appreciation for all they’ve done for us?”

  “Hey Kavika, want to know what I’m looking forward to?” Lopez-Larou asked.

  “What?”

  “Being eaten, buffet style, by a bunch of nutritionally-challenged Koreans.”

  Ivanov held up his hands, shaking his head and frowning. “Enough, already. Jesus, but you kids have a black sense of humor.”

  Kavika gave the Russian a deathly stare. “Who says we’re joking? Isn’t this what you’ve worked so hard for? Isn’t this what you’re unwilling to fight against just because you might not succeed?”

  Kaja laid a hand on Kavika’s arm. “I think Ivanov agrees, Kavika. He’s just cautious. It’s probably something they taught him in Russian submarine school.”

  “Da.” Ivanov nodded.

  Kavika felt his heart hammering, and his face tingling. He knew his cheeks were red, but there was nothing he could do about it. He’d come a long way from the scared kid he’d been a few weeks ago. Being afraid of failure was no longer an option. There was work to be done, and they needed his energy to keep going.

  “What’s the plan?”

 
Kavika looked blankly at Lopez-Larou. He had no idea, but given time, he was sure they’d come up with a doozy.

  FOUR HOURS LATER Victor Ivanov returned to his submarine. He was in such a hurry, he cracked both of his knees and an elbow into the piping as he slid into the ship and hurried to his quarters. He needed two things.

  First, he needed a bottle. He found it beside the others, freshly distilled and placed in the bottom drawer of his desk. He spun the cap free with two fingers and upended it into his mouth. His throat burned, but it was a good burn. One that reminded him of the Siberian winds twisting on the Kamchatka Peninsula, back when Vladivostok used to be a city. He’d had to pull guard duty for so long in such bad weather that at times it was as if his voice had frozen.

  Then he thought of the second thing. It was a wish, rather than a reality. Hell, it really wasn’t even a wish. At this point there was nothing to be done about it. Kavika’s idea had taken hold with the others. If it had only been the boy, maybe Victor would have done something about it. By now, too many people had been brought into the plan.

  He slammed another length of bottle.

  Had the status quo been that bad? Sure, there were the unfortunate few who were selected for monkey-backing. And he felt bad for them, he really did, most of the time. But not everyone was destined to make it. Some had to die. What did the Americans say? You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs?

  The boy had come up with a good plan. The ringer for them all had been the zeppelin, but Kaja had devised a way to deal with that, too. There was a balance of power that had remained in the floating city for decades, a balance that had allowed Ivanov to survive despite himself. Now the balance was on the brink of being destroyed. All it needed was for someone to give it a nudge, and that someone looked like it was going to be Kavika.

  Victor sat back, holding the bottle to his chest, and thought about everything, past and present. He’d lost his own sense of balance in the universe. His decisions had been formed by relationships and promises he’d been forced to make in order to survive.

  Like father like son. Kapono had been the same way. He’d discovered that Victor had been working with the others and had threatened to tell everyone about it. On the outside, Victor had feigned indifference, but on the inside, he’d been worried about the Japanese needing to find someone else to deal with. And as long as they had the grain and potato that he needed to create his absolution, he needed to remain their trusted man.

  Kapono was as trusting as his son. Both cut from the same cloth, both wanting to believe the best of people. Didn’t they know that people only showed what they wanted others to see—what they could afford to reveal?

  Valeri opened the door and slid into the empty seat across from Victor. He had a cup of steaming coffee, smelling of burned seaweed.

  “What are your orders?” he asked.

  “Forty degree down bubble and then level off.” Victor grinned at the idea of just leaving. He had enough power to go. Even though he had nowhere to go it just might be worth it, especially if he could rig some way to see the faces of the Nips when they realised that their secondary power source had disappeared.

  Valeri smiled wanly. “If only we could leave. We wanted to years ago.”

  “We should have,” Victor admitted.

  “It’s really too late for that, I think.”

  “Nothing’s stopping us. We could close the hatch, vent the air, pressurize and dive. There’s nothing that could stop us.”

  “Abe wouldn’t appreciate that,” Valeri said.

  Victor stared at his second in command. “How long have you been—”

  “A few years now.” Valeri reached out and snatched the bottle of vodka. “None of us have a future here. We’re just trying to hold onto what was.”

  “So you decided to find your own future.”

  Valeri smiled sadly.

  “What happened to chain of command? What happened to following your captain?”

  “Don’t sound so hurt, Victor. We’ve ceased to be a ship for some time now.”

  Victor knew the truth when he heard it. “Why them? Why not the Nips?”

  “The Japanese have limited scope. Besides this and another half dozen floating cities, their ability to hold other locations is tenuous at best.”

  “So The Real People?”

  “Rediscovered Dawn. They’ve been around since The Cull. They have their fingers in everything. There’s nowhere where they don’t have someone waiting.”

  “Waiting for what?” Victor eyed the closed door and noticed that it was locked. Valeri held the coffee in one hand, but his other was hidden beneath the table. “I’ve spoken to Abe at length, but he’s never asked me to do anything on any scale.”

  “That’s because he had me. What does he need with an alcoholic washed-up submarine captain?”

  Victor snatched the bottle back from Valeri and took a swig, grimacing. He could feel the coming of the end; he was being out-maneuvered, running out of space.

  “So what are your orders?” Victor asked.

  “Find out what that rag-tag group of yours has decided, then have you foil their plans. The Rediscovered Dawn survive best when people don’t know where they are. They are more powerful as an idea than as a reality.”

  “And you expect me to tell you?”

  “Why, of course, Victor. Why wouldn’t you?” Valeri smiled maliciously. “After all, we’re shipmates.”

  “What if I was to tell you I am also in the employ of The Rediscovered Dawn?”

  Valeri’s smile faltered. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Victor shook his head.

  “Then I’d have to ask to see your tattoo.”

  “Yours first,” Victor said through clenched teeth. “Abe doesn’t like it when people pretend to be one of us.”

  For the first time Valeri appeared to be unsure of himself. He placed the coffee on the table, then brought up the hand that had been in his lap. He peeled back the sleeve of his left arm to reveal the symbol of The Rediscovered Dawn. The scarlet semi-circle was vivid against Valeri’s white skin.

  Victor nodded. “Good. I’d figured he’d convinced you, too, but I couldn’t be certain.”

  “Now you,” Valeri said, carefully rolling his sleeve back into place.

  Victor adjusted his grip on the bottle. “Hold this,” he said.

  Valeri leaned forward, reaching for it, but instead of handing the bottle over, Victor brought it around in a savage arc, smashing into the side of Valeri’s head without breaking. Valeri slumped sideways on his seat, his head falling against the bulkhead.

  Something metallic clattered to the floor. Victor set the bottle down and reached under the table; Valeri had been concealing a knife, the kind formerly worn by Russian marines.

  Victor had always regretted doing the Corpers’ dirty work and getting rid of Kapono. One of the main reasons he’d taken his boy under his wing was to try and make up for his disloyalty. But now things were coming to a head—he’d made too many deals with too many people, and now he was being asked to choose sides.

  Who he’d end up with, he didn’t know. He had to take things one at a time. His first order of business was to remove Valeri. Victor hefted the knife, then tested the edge with his thumb. It would do. He pulled Valeri off the chair and onto the floor, and straddled the other man. He had his knife ready, but first he needed to remove some clothing.

  Something about dismemberment helped take the edge off.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  THEIR PLAN WAS equal parts insanity and genius. It required cooperation and trust, something that had been in short supply in the floating city. This was something the Japanese and the Real People had long capitalized on; if they were able to keep people at odds with each other, then they could remain relatively unnoticed as they went about their business. Until Leilani. Her life and death had galvanized the outrage of her friends and family alike, bringing them together in a way that had never occurred befor
e.

  Kavika and Lopez-Larou’s first stop was the silver and black barge that Donnie Wu had taken him across. Lopez-Larou and Chito had known it was a slaver, but Kaja had had no idea.

  “What’s a slaver ship doing in the city? Some of our own are working there. I’ve seen them.”

  “Wu sort of explained it to me,” Kavika said. “Those without family, those with no affiliation, those without living space were sent to the slaver barge, where they indentured themselves of their own free will. In exchange for making rice in the holds and other odd jobs, they were given a place to stay and sustenance. Anything they earned over and above that went to their home ship.”

  “I can’t believe Princess Kamala would allow that,” Kaja said.

  “Do you really find it so hard to believe, Kaja? After everything she said to me?”

  Kaja frowned. “I suppose not. It’s just so damn depressing to think that we have to do this to our own people.”

  The evacuation took place under the cover of the deepest part of the night. Clouds shrouded the moon. Leb opened the doors to the Sky Winkers’ ships to allow the evacuees a temporary place to stay. It was important that no one in the zeppelin or Freedom Ship had any idea that the slaver ship was empty; it would be needed later on.

  The Water Dogs had their own preparations to make, as did Los Tiburones. Kavika didn’t envy Lopez-Larou’s job. She had to sell the plan to Paco Braun and Sanchez Kelly. Not only was it going to be a dramatic shift in their customer base, but the very nature of the chit would be redefined.

  As a part-time Pali Boy, Kavika had never had any use for chits. All of his food, lodging and the everyday things he needed to survive were provided by the Princess and her staff, down to and including medicine for his sister. Sure, he was aware of chits, and what they meant to others aboard the floating city, but he’d never thought he’d be in a position to care beyond that.

  It was Lopez-Larou who finally explained it to him. Pali Boys, Water Dogs, Sky Winkers and all the other groups had the potential to operate without chits, but Los Tiburones were utterly dependent on them. They could provide drugs, but they needed something of value in return. There was enough food to go around, and no-one tolerated hoarding. Drinking water was plentiful, provided by the Freedom Ship and the submarine, which had the means to desalinate seawater.