“You have a look on you,” Alita said with narrowed eyes, as though my body language had already given away the fact that I was after some off-the-books information.
“Do I?” I asked innocently, trying and failing to recover my poise.
“You do,” she replied, “and I know why.” I said nothing, doing what Dan had taught me to do and let others fill the silence. “You are worried about Lucien, are you not?”
I deflated. Of course I was worried about Lucien. My chest burned with pain as though my heart was going to implode whenever I thought about him and what they would do to him. I shook away that pain, that hopelessness, in case it consumed me like it threatened to and instead steeled myself for action.
“I need to know if you have any scuba gear left,” I said, my words obviously coming from way out of the blue as she seemed physically taken aback by the subject change. Her mind whirred as her mouth flapped in shock to emit only strangled sounds as they didn’t seem to be able to form any coherent sentence. “And I need you to show me how to use it,” I added. “Today.”
Alita sat, mouth still open and the rocking of the crib forgotten.
“Have you ever done it before?” she asked, surprising me by ignoring the fifty or more questions I was expecting before I convinced her to reach the training part.
“No,” I said, “but I used a snorkel once in a swimming pool…” Alita’s mouth closed a little more tightly than was natural, pressing her lips together to make a slight whitening of the olive skin surrounding her mouth. I knew that meant that my claims of snorkelling expertise were so far removed from what I was asking her to teach me, but I appreciated her not telling me.
“Scuba is…” she began, “scuba is very different. You don’t breathe the air, but have to suck it in and blow it out instead. It is not a natural thing for the body to do and you have to concentrate to not fall into the panic. Tell me what you want to do and I will tell you if I can help.”
“You promise not to tell anyone else?” I asked hopefully.
“It depends on whether you will be putting anyone else at risk with your plan. I have a conscience.”
As she said that, her momentarily forgotten infant woke with a sudden, ear-piercing shriek that stabbed through my senses and feelings, and made certain parts of my chest throb with sudden discomfort. Stifling the urge to reach inside my vest with both hands to try and sooth them, I fought internally to stop Alita from finding out the secret I, quite literally, carried with me.
~
“This,” Alita told me as she showed me a thumbs up sign, “does not mean that everything is okays.” She switched the hand gesture smoothly to an ‘o’ with her forefinger and thumb and spread the other digits out in a fan. “This means that you are okay. The other one means that you are needing to going up to the surface.”
“Roger,” I said, trying to take in a whole new world of skills in an hour. We were in a quiet part of the bay, but I soon realised there was no way of keeping what I was doing a secret from anyone. Sanctuary was effectively a very small, and very close-knit town where everyone knew everyone else and anything that didn’t happen behind closed doors was everyone’s business. Even a lot of the stuff that happened behind closed doors became everyone’s business but that was just human nature.
Suddenly deciding to use up a couple of bottles of compressed air in the midst of a full-blown crisis under the weak guise of learning something new to try and take my mind off things, was about as believable as a wolf wearing a white coat and saying ‘baaa’. A small crowd of the town’s children gathered on the sand to watch as we practised going down about a metre where I was shown via scuba sign language how to change my regulator or swap for the backup one in case there was a problem. I felt like I was doing underwater Tai-Chi as I swept my right arm around in an exaggerated loop to find the breathing thingy and put it in my mouth to blow out the salty water before I could breathe.
Alita was right; it was the most alien thing I think I’d ever done, and it took every ounce of concentration not to panic when we graduated to the deeper water further out in the bay. She taught me how to use the compressed air to fill the vest and remain at a certain depth, and the biggest problem I had then was learning how to move with the big flippers on my feet as my body seemed to just want to rotate sideways and tip me upside down which had the added bonus of terrifying me by showing the darker, deeper water that I couldn’t see the bottom of.
Three hours later, emerging from the water exhausted, I helped Alita put the equipment back on the old cart designed for just that purpose and looked up to see the bored eyes of my dog who somehow knew that she wouldn’t be allowed to play on this one. I smiled at her, my bottom lip protruding in sympathy, when I saw the scowl on the face of the woman behind Nemesis. My own face dropped as I saw Kate shooting me the dirtiest look of disapproval I had ever seen.
“A word?” she said brusquely, making it a demand and not a request.
“Just need to help Alita get th—”
“A. Word. Please,” she said, barely able to keep her words above a growl. “Unless you’d rather discuss it out here?”
I smiled, defeated by her powerful knowledge of something I didn’t want the world to know. I looked around, seeing the open door of a shed used to house various buoys and fishing net floatation things. “Please, my office…”
“Are you insane?” Kate demanded in a hiss. “You really think I believe this is just recreational? In your condition you can’t possibly think you can go swimming out there and—”
“Relax,” I said, smoothly transitioning into the lie I had decided on in the last few seconds, “it’s a defensive capability Dan and I came up with and he’s about as natural in the water as a cow is at driving.”
“What kind of defensive capability?” she asked, evidently unswayed.
“We’re looking at rigging some steel lines across the bay which will mess up their little boats if they come back.” She stopped, her mind ticking over the explanation and finding no overt dishonesty on my face. It pained me to lie to her, especially as she was the kindest, most thoughtful person I had met, who put herself in harm’s way without question just to try and save the lives of people she didn’t know and often didn’t like. Her previous occupation wasn’t just a job, but truly was her calling. Just like Dan and I were born with that internal switch that made us run towards danger, Kate was cut from that same cloth.
“You think I’m going out into deep water a mile off shore with a scuba tank on my back?” I asked, attempting to solidify my cover. “How would I even get onboard? What would I do on my own? Relax, Kate, I’m not going to do anything stupid.” She looked hard at me, deciding whether or not to play her final card.
“Do I have to tell Dan about your… situation?” she asked pointedly. My face dropped in a mask of neutrality which hid the anger and frustration I felt. Like I didn’t know? Like it wasn’t on my mind every minute of every day? She wasn’t to know that the thought of losing a baby was as terrifying to me as the thought of raising said baby without the father and only able to tell a few stories about him, eventually having to admit that I had let him get carried away by a bunch of pirates who probably chopped his head off with a rusty machete.
That was even if Sanctuary survived their presence for much longer.
“No,” I said firmly, “you do not.” She hesitated a moment longer, searching my face for any signs of disobedience, before turning and walking away.
I watched her walk away, my nose suddenly picking up the smell of tobacco and turning my head towards the source. Dan leaned against a wall, a dog at each heel as he smoked and smiled at me. The smell of his cigarette turned my stomach and I hoped he would finish it before we spoke. He did, luckily, tossing the soggy end of the hand-rolled smoke into the water and strolling towards me with the dogs silently flanking him without orders.
“Figured it out?” he asked.
“Yes,” I told him, “one part of it at least.”<
br />
“I think I’ve got you covered on the other part,” he said in a tone of voice that I feared was a little resigned. “Come on, let’s talk.”
Best Kept Between Ourselves
Other than Alita, Mitch was brought into the inner circle along with Neil. The list of co-conspirators was unsurprising, but the pain of leaving Marie out of it was a sting that both Dan and I would have to work hard to heal.
If we made it back.
Dan and I had both pulled the night shift, in theory, but with Neil and Mitch lurking to take over when we went on our way. The moon still offered next to no light but we could see well enough for Dan to pilot the small boat, towing the other, larger one that had been recovered from the outer bay and stuffed with yet more bodies of dead pirates. Given our respective numbers, we were definitely ahead in score terms. Not that it mattered, because we would be forced to leave or else starve if we didn’t get them away from our home.
I was dressed in a jet black wetsuit, the reflective strips picked off by Alita that afternoon, and I had to admit it felt quite good to be in something so form fitting for this kind of work. It also meant that my footfalls on the ship would be grippy and silent if my plan worked. I wrapped my equipment in plastic bags, sealing them in turn before adding more and more layers to keep the water out of their working parts.
I took a second bundle, a larger one containing a bag in which was stuffed Dan’s vest, shotgun, carbine and ammunition. Again something that involved the plan working as we hoped it would.
The journey out over the black water was filled with the foul smells of decaying bodies and wind whipping past us which thankfully took the stench away with it for the most part. It didn’t take long, actually it was quicker than I had hoped it would be as I had timed my psyching-up process wrong and had to condense the last few minutes as Dan backed off the throttle and made the boat full of rotting cargo bump into our stern. I fought back the urge to vomit and splashed my mask in the cold water like I had been shown before strapping it tightly over my face. I turned on the air, tied my airtight bundles to the weight belt Alita had given me, and looked at Dan for a long second before he broke and reached out to me.
The small boat rocked unnervingly as he embraced me, whispering into my ear to come back for him and make the bastards pay. I hugged him back, put the regulator in my mouth, and slipped silently into the dark water to descend before the boats moved off again.
This was the most frightening part. In fact, it was the most frightening thing I had ever done and as I worked my legs to make the flippers propel me towards the front of the ship, I was overwhelmed by the sensation of floating in space and not being ten feet below the water just off the coast of southern France. It didn’t take me long to find the ship, being like an enormous building descending far below the level I swam at, but it took me another thirty minutes to feel my way around in search of the forward anchor chain we had studied with the most powerful optic we could find that afternoon.
I was on the verge of panic when I found it, ready to kick for the surface and breathe normal air as I back-stroked for shore in shameful defeat, but the thought of Lucien and now Dan on board that big bastard boat kept me focused. Finding the anchor chain by way of banging my head into it, I struggled out of my scuba gear and attached it to the chain using the big clip on it for just that purpose. With my two sealed burdens floating silently on the surface, I peeled open my own and wrapped my legs around the huge chain to steady myself as I slipped on the vest and unwrapped the suppressed gun. Pointing it upwards and holding my breath I expected to see heads appear in the slightly lighter dark above, followed by shouts of alarm and long muzzle flashes to signify my death.
None came, and I lowered the gun to poke my toes in between the gaps of the big metal chain links as I started to climb. Halfway up I slipped, yelping involuntarily as flailed to regain my grip on a slimy piece of steel. Clinging to the chain, grateful that I couldn’t see how far from the surface of the water I was, I muttered to myself reassuringly.
“Let’s just keep that bit to ourselves, shall we?”
When I had slowed my heartrate enough, I reached up and placed a careful gloved hand over the railing to lift my head and check if the coast was clear.
~
Dan shone a torch as he approached, not wanting to startle any ill-disciplined sentry into emptying the magazine of whatever he carried in his general direction. Lights shone back from the far side of the ship: he had intentionally gone to that side to give Leah as much cover as possible, and shouts rang down to him.
“I’ve brought your people back,” he yelled up as he smiled. He pretended not to understand the accented English yelled back at him, preferring to have his discussions face to face and stalling for as much time as possible. He waited as the squeaking noise from above him manifested into a lowered wooden platform which seemed to serve as their lift to sea level. Two men rode the rudimentary elevator, both pointing weapons at him which back in the world would have bothered him but nowadays seemed par for the course of meeting new people.
“Greeting, shitheads,” Dan intoned formally, “take me to your leader!” They looked at one another, confused. “Nothing? Seriously?” Dan complained with clear disappointment. “Come on, fuckwits, take me up.” He pointed upwards, stepping up to climb on the wooden platform and being pushed back hard so that he landed hard on his back. Without the vest he usually wore to cushion the fall he felt the breath driven from his chest and pain lance up and down his spine which had already taken more than enough abuse in the years he had been on the planet.
“Ooh,” he groaned, “that’s going to cost you…” The one who hadn’t knocked him back reached down to half drag and half help him up, keeping the barrel of his rifle pressed painfully into Dan’s chest.
“I like you,” he said in an attempt at an Austrian accent, “I’m going to kill you last.”
The pirate said nothing in response as the other one had pulled back the rough canvas covering on the second boat to reel backwards yelling in obvious anger and disgust. The platform was raised and Dan took deep breaths ready to take the pain he knew was coming, hoping against all odds that Leah was winning her own battles.
~
I slipped over the railing, my body dropping silently but the bundles of Dan’s and my own equipment clanging onto the metal deck with a noise that sounded to me like the ringing of a dinner gong.
I stayed still and silent, waiting for any response to my noisy arrival but finding none. Feeling my way through my equipment with only my hands as my eyes stayed glued to the darkness ahead, I found my vest and slipped it over my head, my left hand touching all the things I would need to locate quickly. I unwrapped Dan’s bundle, fixing it to my back and pulling the straps tight. I rose, feeling the fat suppressor of Dan’s gun hit me in the hip as I moved, and stepped heel-toe, heel-toe on crouched legs towards the middle of the ship. I was exhausted in seconds, my legs already burned out from the stress of the swim and the climb. My shoulders ached from the exertion and I was forced to rest because my breath was louder than the surrounding sounds.
Inactivity was agony, but I knew stumbling into contact when I was this exhausted was a guarantee of ensuring failure. Rested, I stood and headed towards the distant lights near the middle of the big ship only to drop to one knee in silence after thirty careful paces. Voices ahead, no sound of urgency and more importantly not seeming to be searching for anything. I made out the silhouettes of two of them, their guns as recognisable as their human forms, and moved slowly to my right into deeper shadow for them to pass by my position. They moved carelessly, talking as they went and I tried to fathom how they would find any enemy unless their plan was to get one of them killed as a signal. I looked behind them, seeing no follow up patrol in case that was their actual plan, and stalked them back the way I had come.
They were heading towards the very front of the ship, so logic dictated they would turn around at some point and head back. I wanted
them stopped at the furthest point, so my stalking distance was narrowed as they reached the front of the vessel where the two railings met in a rounded point. They paused, turning slowly to begin their boring return trip, when I rose up from the shadows and drilled a three-round burst into both of them in turn. The rapid coughing noises from my weapon sounded unbelievably loud in the darkness that seemed to amplify sounds I didn’t want to make.
One crumpled where he stood, but the second one staggered backwards under the weight of the lead hitting his chest. His lower back hit the railing and slowly his upper body began the tip as physics took hold of him. I didn’t want the noise of a dead body slamming into the sea below to raise any alarms, so I rushed forwards to grab a handful of his thin T-shirt and hauled him back over the metal rail before he tipped too far and dragged me with him.
With both bodies seeping dark blood onto the deck I froze, taking a knee and keeping my gun raised in case anyone else came from the shadows ahead to investigate the sounds I had caused. I waited a full minute, counting down from sixty silently in my head until I forced myself to believe that no planned assault was heading my way.
Grabbing a bare ankle I dragged them one by one to the darkest shadow of some kind of big vent on the deck and hid their bodies against it before retracing my steps back towards the busier part of the ship.
~
Dan was jostled and pushed into what he guessed was the bridge of the ship after climbing a series of metal staircases. Rough hands patted him down and he resisted the gloating urge to laugh when their untrained hands missed three places he could have hidden a weapon. He didn’t take the risk of hiding anything on his person, trusting instead in the drive and ability of the young woman he hoped by now would be stalking the ship looking for friendly faces.
Piracy: The Leah Chronicles (After it Happened Book 8) Page 22
