Z-Boat

by Suzanne Robb

  "No, nothing. I only remember talking to Kramer about my family." Maxine perked up at this, the second mention of Kramer.

  "Kramer? He's the only person you spoke with?"

  "Yeah, I'm sure of it." Maxine took in this information.

  Interesting, something she would look into further. For now, she needed to determine if Tom was a danger anymore or not.

  "Great, Tom. How do you feel now? Any agitation or nervousness?"

  "Honestly, I'm still a bit nervous, but okay otherwise. I sometimes have to take stuff for my nerves."

  "I know. I saw your file. I'm going to give you something for your nerves. It's not too strong, so you won't feel groggy, though it is enough to take the edge off so you won't worry."

  Maxine went and got the syringe she'd preloaded in case Tom was still raving mad when he woke up. She gave him about one third of what was in it, and waited for it to take effect. As soon as she saw his muscles relax, she knew he was okay to untie. She undid the clasps holding him in place.

  "Okay, Tom, I think the best thing you can do right now is go back and bunk down for a bit. Come see me if you need anything."

  "Thanks, Doctor Williams."

  Tom stood up and felt a little wobbly on his legs. He grabbed the side of the cot. Maxine helped walk him to the door and opened it for him. She almost jumped back when a hand came towards her face.

  This crew is insane!

  "Oh God. Sorry, Doctor Williams. We were just about to knock." Marcus and Ally stood there.

  Maxine knew this visit couldn't be good.

  "Please call me Maxine." Ally ignored her.

  "Hey, Tom, ready for your turn later?" Ally spoke slowly and calmly.

  "What? What turn?"

  "Ally, Marcus, Mister Simon here has a bit of memory loss from the sedative we gave him for a case of the nerves. You might have to remind him about some things."

  "Can we talk later, Ally? I really think I should just go lie down."

  "Sure, Tom, we'll talk to you later." Tom started to walk away, but stumbled a bit. Marcus grabbed his arm to steady him.

  "I'm going to make sure he gets back to his bunk. I'll come right back here when I'm done."

  Maxine stood looking at Ally. She didn't like the pilot. Ally broke the staring contest by walking into the room, nudging Maxine out of the way.

  "Maxine, I'm going to be honest with you. I know all about what happened with Tom and the similarities to the contaminant spread across the Pacific Northwest years ago, and Kramer's connection to it."

  "Doctor Kramer? What do you mean his connection? His connection to what? Did he have something to do with what happened to Tom?" Maxine hoped she sounded convincing; the look on Ally's face was unreadable.

  "Long story short, Kramer created some sort of serum virus thing, killing millions. It was covered up, meant to be used as a weapon, and Tom displayed many of the symptoms. I'm assuming that since you let him go, he's actually fine and doesn't have the virus?"

  "I don't think so. No one told me about a virus. I would have checked for it, but if what you say is true, Kramer is a horrible man."

  "Right, but back to Tom. Do you think he could be contaminated?"

  "No. After his nap, he was fine. If he had a virus, there would have been no improvement in his cognitive abilities."

  "So we're clear, Tom is okay?"

  "That's right. Mister Simon is fine, just a bad case of the nerves."

  "I hope you're right. This whole situation is a clusterfu-" Marcus entered the room and grabbed Ally's hand.

  "Ally, we need to get back to the control room."

  Damn. Ally remembered they'd left Iain tied up there. He was going to be so mad.

  "You run ahead. I'll meet you there."

  "Nope, we're doing this one together." Ally sighed and nodded to Marcus.

  "Maxine, talk to you later." Ally had more to say.

  Though she still had questions, she also had a lot of information to digest. She also had to deal with Iain. She left the room with Marcus, and as soon as the door shut, they both started to run down the aisle way.

  "Man, I hope he's still out cold."

  "You better wish he is." Marcus chuckled behind her.

  Ally arrived in the control room to find Ivan kneeling over Iain. Crap, was all Ally could think. She was so screwed. Ivan stood up and helped Iain stand also.

  "You are all right, Captain?"

  "Where's Ally?" His tone was not friendly. Ally debated turning around.

  Marcus held her in place.

  "Right here." Iain and Ivan turned to look at Ally.

  Iain looked like he was going to have a stroke, and Ivan shook his head like a disappointed parent ready to punish a deviant child.

  "Shall I take her into custody, Captain?" Ivan started to advance on Ally.

  "No, but thanks for the offer." Iain dusted himself off and rubbed his wrists.

  "Captain, it is necessary. She committed treason. She attacked you and tied you up."

  "Whoa, wait a minute. I'm no traitor. If you ever call me one again, I'll kick your ass, you bastard." The fury in Ally's voice stopped Ivan's advance.

  "Look, in all honesty, it was a mistake. I came in here a bit too excited, she thought I had some virus and knocked me out to protect the rest of the crew. Right?"

  "Yep, you were acting a little nuts, so I stopped you and went to talk to Kramer to try to get a clearer picture of what was going on." Ivan stood in the middle of the room with a pale face.

  "What did you have to talk to Kramer about?"

  "Just some screw-up of his ending in the death of millions. We thought Tom might have been infected, but apparently he wasn't. Just a case of the nerves, according to Maxine." Ally tried to lighten the mood in the room, but failed miserably.

  Ivan had no idea what to do. Everything was falling apart on this job. The crew was insane. They were talking about Kramer's serum like it was a minor mistake, and now they were knocking each other out. What else were these people going to do?

  Chapter Ten

  Nina had no idea what was going on. All of a sudden, the control room seemed to be the center of attention.

  What the hell happened? she thought as she lifted her head off the table.

  One minute, she was stabbing noodles, the next she woke up face down in a pile of goop. Her head hurt like a son of a bitch, which didn't make sense, because she hadn't started drinking. Then again, maybe that was the problem.

  She wondered if someone had spiked her food. Maybe Ivan did. He seemed to have a rod stuck up his ass. She pushed away her bowl and rubbed a hand over her face to try to remove some of the clumpy mess.

  She stood up to go over to the counter and grab a rag to wipe her face when she heard the commotion coming out of the control room.

  She overheard bits and pieces, something about Kramer and his virus, Ally knocking the captain out, Ally a traitor? Then something about Tom being crazy. Did all hell break loose? She'd warned the captain about Kramer. She wondered if he actually listened to her. She ran the rag over her face and wandered into the aisle way to see if she could hear more.

  As soon as she turned the corner, she ran right into the broad chest of Ivan. He stared down at her with an expression of utter disgust.

  "You have food on your face."

  "I know."

  Ivan moved on without another word. He had things to do, like figure out how to pull off this operation with a crew of idiots. He also had yet to find Dutch, the last person he needed to talk to in order to finish compiling his information on the sub, thereby determining their chances of survival. Things didn't look promising.

  Nina watched Ivan's retreating back, thinking what an ass he was. She turned around to go into the control room and walked right into Marcus this time.

  "Hey, Nina, got some stuff on your face."

  "Yeah, I know. Fell asleep in my food."

  "No drinking on a job. You know better."

  "I wasn't drinking
. Just tired, I guess."

  "Uh huh."

  "I swear I wasn't drinking, Marcus. You know me; I'd admit to it if I was."

  "All right, then get some rest. You guys got a dive coming up in a couple of days."

  "What? All hell is breaking loose and we have a dive?"

  "What are you talking about? No hell is breaking loose."

  "I heard it all. Kramer's a mad scientist, Ally's a traitor and attacked the captain, and Tom went nuts." Marcus raised an eyebrow and gave her a look.

  "Nina, for your benefit, I'll correct you on a few things. Most important being that Ally is not a traitor. Say it again and she might kill you. Also, to summarize, captain is fine, Tom is fine- he just had a case of the nerves- and Kramer's not a mad scientist. He's just a guy who made some bad decisions. Okay?"

  "Really? Well damn, I thought this job was going to be interesting after all. Nothing on Johnny? I don't like him. Something happen to him?"

  "Nope, and you two are diving soon, so rest up. You sound like you're the crazy one, and Ally just might feel the need to tie someone up again."

  Nina grinned and turned around. She decided a nap was a good idea. She was still awfully tired, and now achy. Maybe she was coming down with something. She made her way back to her bunk room, all the while picking bits of noodles off of her face.

  Marcus watched Nina go. He was concerned. She didn't look good, and when it came to Nina, that said a lot. Things were starting to fall apart. He had no idea whom to believe or trust. Most of all, he had no idea what this job was really about anymore.

  As much as he would have liked to beat the hell out of people until he got an answer, he didn't have the luxury. Nina and Johnny were going on a practice dive soon, and there were hundreds of diagnostics to run and preparations to make on the rescue pod in case something happened.

  Marcus went down the stairway and turned left at the end. This took him into the very end of the engine area, where a special room had been made for diving preparation, and an entrance to the rescue pod from the interior of the sub. He heard a tool fall and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

  "Marcus."

  "Dutch, you got a head start on me."

  "Usually do, keeps me young."

  "Yeah, I'm sure it does."

  "Grab a tool kit. We got a lot to do."

  "Sure thing." Marcus grabbed a tool kit from the corner and started by running a set of diagnostics on the dive suits Nina and Johnny would be wearing.

  The suits were large and bulky due to the numerous pockets for samples to be stored in. A main oxygen tank, backup tank, and places for weights to keep the diver from rising to the surface contributed to the mass. The suit also contained a special field generator, which helped with the pressure of deep sea diving. This field kept the diver from essentially folding in on himself. It was not a pretty sight when it failed.

  Marcus knew that almost all diving accidents could be blamed on the power pack of the field generator. Either faulty wiring or a leak that allowed the salt water to erode the electrical circuits over time. He made the suits his priority and began by taking apart the panels to check for erosion, loose wires, and anything else he could think of.

  Dutch checked the passageway from the sub to the submersible and made sure that there were no leaks and that detaching and reattaching would not be problematic. Then he would run a systems check on how airtight the rescue pod was once it didn't have Betty Loo helping to keep it pressurized.

  ***

  Ally folded her legs underneath her as she sat in her chair looking at personnel files while Iain spoke to her in a loud voice about how annoyed and embarrassed he was at being knocked out, tied up, left alone, and then found by Ivan. She let him get it out, because God knew he had to. She didn't bother trying to talk. She'd done the right thing, and they both knew it.

  Her research didn't turn anything up. She noticed Iain had been silent for almost thirty seconds, so she took a chance and peered over at him.

  "Are you even listening to me?"

  "Yes?" Ally smiled innocently.

  "Damn it, Ally, I'm really annoyed here. You made me look like a fool in front of Ivan."

  "Look, I'm sorry. I can't change what happened. You were acting like a crazy man, and I would do the same thing again."

  "Ally..."

  "Iain, we need to be done arguing now. We have other things to talk about." Iain pouted and crossed his arms.

  After a few moments, he shrugged and nodded.

  "Fine, what do we need to talk about?"

  "The personnel files on the new crew are off. They're too perfect. Ventura is obviously not an ace diver, there's nothing about Kramer and a minor thing he did killing millions, and there's something about Doctor Williams I don't trust. Not to mention Ivan. Does he do anything other than skulk around the ship?"

  "What do you want me to do?"

  "Tell me what isn't in these files. Tell me what you're hiding."

  Iain seemed uncomfortable.

  "Can't you just hit me again?"

  "Iain." Her tone brooked no compromise.

  "All right, I got a call a few weeks ago from some guy. He didn't give me his name, just said he represented a firm that needed to do a search and rescue. He made it sound run of the mill."

  Ally focused her attention on Iain. "What kind of questions did he ask?"

  "Mainly stuff about Betty Loo, how deep she had gone, how seaworthy she was, how up to date with all the tech, basic stuff."

  Ally shook her head. "And of course, you lied. Told the guy she's been deeper than she really has, totally up to date with tech, and an all-around great sub?"

  "Okay, I might have given that impression, but we needed the job, Ally. These small jobs we're doing are barely keeping Betty Loo afloat. Never mind the fact that I haven't paid half the crew in months."

  "So what happened then? The guy hires you?"

  "Not exactly. After I spoke to him, he didn't call back. I figured he went with one of the newer subs. Then I get a digital chip sent to me full of the job details and the new crew assigned to the job. There was also mention of the amount paid if the job was successful."

  "A lot of money, right?"

  "Ally, enough money so I wouldn't ever have to work again. I retire, hand you the Betty Loo and be done with it all." "You idiot. You didn't see the set-up from the beginning. Did the file indicate how deep you would be going? Did the file indicate the necessary technology to complete the job?"

  "I figured we'd get by. I didn't think it was this serious of a job. A typical search and rescue. How hard are those? So it was deeper than usual. Who cares? We do them all the time."

  "Iain, you took this job knowing damn well we weren't prepared and would be putting ourselves in serious danger."

  "Ally, I don't have to justify the choice to you. I told you everything I know. Anything else, you'd have to ask Ivan. Now I know you and I are friends, but I'm still the captain. Don't forget that."

  "Aye-aye, Captain." Ally went to her seat, released autopilot, and took control of the sub.

  She made a small motion with her hands. The resulting tilt of the sub caused Iain to stumble.

  "Whatever. Be mad. We still have a job to do."

  Iain left the room. He thought he would feel better after telling Ally everything. Well, almost everything. He didn't. In fact, he felt like an even bigger moron. She saw the setup from a mile away. He was too drunk to notice that whoever put this job together had done just about everything to ensure that it failed. If it was successful, there would be a whole lot of casualties. This part he didn't tell Ally.

  He went to his quarters and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. As he unscrewed the top he noticed a digital chip on his desk. He raised an eyebrow, wondering how it got there. He knew it wasn't there when he left the room. A chill ran down his spine. The chip felt cold to the touch. As much as he knew he didn't want to see what was on it, he knew he had to.

  He cleared a spot and u
ncovered the display panel embedded in his desk. Iain inserted the chip into it. The first image was some sort of warning. At least he thought it was. The letters were Russian, and he was rusty at best. The image went from red to static. A grainy face spoke into a camera. The voice didn't sound human; there was something wrong about it.

  Pleassse sssend helllp... crew isss in dangerrr. The face looked different too. It seemed to be lacking in any sort of expression.

  Even for a grainy image, an S.O.S. should have some sort of urgency to it. What Iain saw was far too calm, planned almost. A man with a rigid posture, a calm whisper-like voice, and an almost seductive plea for help.

  Iain paused the image and stared at it for several moments. Someone on the crew knew what they were heading into and wanted to warn him. That or someone had no idea what they were heading into and wanted to warn him. He didn't like either one of those possibilities.

  Iain ejected the digital chip and put it in his pocket. He should show it to Ally, but she was mad enough at him for the moment. He stared at the bottle of whiskey longingly, then put it down in order to watch the video.

  He grabbed the bottle and opened the drawer next to him. With a sigh, he placed it in the drawer and shut it. He still had the image of the calm man leaning over the panel sending an S.O.S. He could hear the voice, and it sent another chill down his spine.

  ***

  Ally stabbed at the key panel. She was furious. Iain usually took jobs that stretched them to their limit; this was nothing new. He had, however, achieved an all-new level of idiocy, even for him. She knew there had to be more he wasn't telling her. There were obviously other firms involved. They worked against one another. The only thing she could do right now was wait and see what unravelled during the next few days.

  ***

  Maxine sat in the medical lab, hoping she hadn't made a colossal mistake by letting Tom go. She knew Kramer would hire himself out to anyone who paid enough money, and he had no morals about what they asked of him.

  With this new information, she was even more worried about why he had been hired for this mission, and what kind of trouble she would get from him. Hopefully, during the next few days, no one else would get sick, and her cover would remain intact.