by Jordan Rivet
Esther threw herself forward. Her body connected with Monty’s shoulder. He stumbled back. Slashed again. A strip of red came away on his knife. Not clear whose blood. Esther wrapped both her hands around his knife arm. Held on. Saw a flash of metal and heard a crack. Monty went limp, and they tumbled to the ground.
Shaking, Esther kneeled over Monty’s prone form. His legs sprawled like a crustacean’s. Strong hands helped her up. There was blood on them.
“Are you okay, Esther?”
“What?” She seemed to be having trouble hearing. Was that David’s voice? Was he okay?
“Esther. Look at me,” the voice said again.
She felt like she was crawling through a wind tunnel. She found David’s face and sound returned.
“I’m fine,” Esther said, shaking her head to clear it. “What happened?”
“You don’t think before you jump, that’s what happened,” David said. He wore a grim smile.
“Did he stab you?” Esther asked, grabbing David’s red-stained hand. “You’re bleeding.”
“That’s your blood, Esther. He cut your face after you threw yourself into him. Got part of your ear too.”
David put his hand gently to her cheek. She felt a warm trickle and finally, pain.
“Rust. You got him with the wrench, though?”
“Yeah,” David said, looking down at the unconscious Monty. “We need to make a run for it now. We won’t be able to hide him.”
“We can do it,” Esther said. “We’re not a bad team.”
“I guess not.”
David leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her lips. There was a trace of blood on his mouth when he pulled away.
“You’d better cut a piece of that sweater and help me clean this up,” Esther said.
The pain increased by the second, burning a line from her cheekbone to her ear. Blood dripped down the curve of her face.
“Yes, ma’am.”
He picked up the switchblade Monty had dropped and set to work on the bottom edge of the sweater Chelle had given him. Esther couldn’t help feeling smug as he ripped a length off it.
As he prepared the bandage, Esther reached for the satellite phone in her belt. “Oh, shit.”
“What?”
“It’s not working.”
“The phone?”
Heart sinking like metal in the sea, Esther turned it over and saw a jagged crack in the plastic. “Monty must have stabbed it when I jumped at him. Thought it would be more durable.”
She punched the buttons on the front panel, but all of the electronic components stayed silent.
“You can fix it,” David said. “You’re a genius.”
He pressed a folded piece of sweater fabric to the cut on her cheekbone and ear, then wound a long, thin strip under her jaw and around her head to hold it in place.
“You don’t understand,” Esther said as she pried the cracked plastic panel off the back of the phone. “This isn’t just a matter of putting things back together. See this? It’s the battery. Monty’s knife went right into it, and we don’t have a replacement.”
“I’m sure in your workshop—”
“We don’t have time to get down to Level 7 if we want to get out again.”
David let out a tense breath. “How long was it on?”
“Thirty seconds. Maybe a minute,” Esther said.
If the phone hadn’t been there, the knife would have gone straight into her gut. Monty wouldn’t have needed the second swipe at her face. She put a hand on the makeshift bandage wrapped around her head. It must look ridiculous, but that was the least of her worries.
“Do you think Neal got the signal? Enough to let him know we’re alive?” David asked.
“These things are supposed to have a direct line of sight to the sky. I doubt it even connected. We need a new exit strategy, and fast. Even you can’t talk your way out of cracking Monty’s skull.”
Esther winced as David adjusted the wad of soft wool on her face.
David dropped his hands to her shoulders and drew back to look at her. “How friendly are you with the Harvesters again?”
“The captain won’t forgive easily,” Esther said, “but I have a few friends there.”
“Do you think if we row out to their ship, they’ll take us on?”
Esther laughed hollowly. “Is that our best plan after all this time?”
She could see the first mate shooting them down before Cody and Luke even said a word. Captain Alder certainly wouldn’t stop her.
“You got a better idea?” David said.
“Anything that won’t involve us getting blown out of the water. And we don’t want them to hurt Zoe. She’s supposed to be their leverage to get the technology, but I wouldn’t put it past Captain Alder to do something drastic.”
“The situation is rather delicate,” David said. “We should hide old Monty. That’ll give us some time to think.”
“Wait a second! Time!” Esther would have smacked her forehead, except it would hurt her face too much. “Quick. Push Monty under that table and help me search the boxes again. We need to find your dive watch.”
Chapter 30—Escape
The watch wasn’t there. The siren pulsed through the Calderon facility. Esther felt the beating of the alarm through her body.
“My stuff was here. Where’s your watch?” she exclaimed, kicking the box at her feet.
“Why exactly do you need it?” David asked.
He shifted the last box aside. He had acquired a new coat for himself, and he found an old newsboy cap, which he set on Esther’s head. She tossed it back at him.
“It was top-of-the-line equipment in its day. I’d bet my favorite pocketknife it has the battery I need to fix the satellite phone.”
“This broken one is three times bigger than the watch itself,” David said, gesturing at the phone on the conference table. Fluid leaked out of the battery like blood.
“If we find the same type of battery, it would be better, obviously, but the one in the watch should be powerful enough for a call or two.”
“And you can make it work?”
“It’d be a hack job, but I can get a location signal out,” Esther said.
It was just electrical work. Neal knew about satellite stuff, but she could reroute power and fix circuits better than anyone. She looked around the room. The brightly lit fluorescent room. Of course!
“Hang on. I can use the wiring from the lights! We won’t be able to move with it, but we can get a message out if we can get it near a window.”
“Will that be enough?” David asked.
“Has to be. Unless we can get all the way back to the workshop. I think we crossed the point of no return when we clobbered Monty.” For the first time since Monty walked in, she smiled. “Also, the Calderon guys are probably figuring out what I did to their ships right about now.”
“Pardon?” David raised an eyebrow.
Esther grinned. “I added a glitch to the system. Felt bad messing up my good work, but they’ll be able to fix it eventually. They’ll still be better off than they were before I got my hands on their ships.”
David opened his mouth to ask more. Suddenly the sirens stopped and the lights went out. The gentle hum of electricity disappeared from the building completely. They were still for a breath.
“We need to move,” David said.
“Right behind you.”
Esther picked up the satellite phone in one hand and reached for David’s arm with the other.
“Chelle’s room is nearby,” he said, his voice floating through the dark. “We can hide there. She’ll probably come to the meeting room first when she gets back from the ships.”
Esther couldn’t help flipping the light switch a few times. The power was definitely out. Salt.
“When they find Monty, we’re dead anyway,” she said.
“Not if they can’t find us,” David whispered, and pulled open the door.
The hallway was deep-sea b
lack. Voices shouted at the far end of the corridor. Esther and David pressed their backs up against the wall, but no one came. Quick as silverfish they darted to a door ten steps away and slipped inside.
Chelle turned around at the sound of the door. She stood amidst the shadows in her room, a candle in her hand illuminating her startled face.
“David? What is she doing here?” Chelle said.
Esther had to bite her lip to keep from swearing, but David’s entire aspect changed.
“Oh. Hi, babe,” he said, a layer of calm muffling the panic in his voice. “Esther got lost. I met her outside just now. I remembered you have candles in here.”
He smiled with all his teeth. It occurred to Esther to wipe the scowl off her face a few seconds too late.
“Why is her face bandaged? And where did you get that coat?”
Chelle took two swift, dancing steps over to the intercom panel on her wall.
“Wait!” David shouted a little too forcefully.
Chelle whirled around, triumph on her face.
“I knew it!” she shrieked. “You’re still on her side, aren’t you? You’ve been different since she got here.”
Chelle may have been talking about Esther, but her eyes were on David. The candlelight made her features gaunt. Esther edged sideways toward a small table by the door. She thought she saw something, but she couldn’t make any sudden movements.
“Please, Chelle,” David began. He was too far away to reach her.
“Don’t argue,” Chelle said, voice lowered dangerously. “I can tell when a man is trying to manipulate me—and when he’s loyal to someone else. You’re escaping.”
Esther froze. Something glinted beside a collection of shells on the side table. David was still mostly blocking Esther from view.
“Chelle, please listen,” David said. “You’ve not been honest with me either. And you’re not one to talk about manipulation.”
“Ha!” Chelle scowled, the expression and the shadows disfiguring her pretty face. “You knew who I worked for that night on the Amsterdam.”
“It was a little hard to tell after you drugged me with sink,” David said.
Esther felt a leap in her gut at those words. He didn’t invite her back to his cabin after all! She took a quiet step toward the side table.
“Even so, I never kept secrets. You were thinking about joining the Calderon Group even then. Admit it. I know Burns made you an offer.”
David didn’t answer Chelle’s statement directly. “They’re not planning to let us go after Esther finishes the technology. Isn’t that true?” he said.
Chelle didn’t respond. Esther took another step.
“They’re planning to kill us,” David said, “when this is all done. Of course we’re trying to escape.”
The shadows in the room seemed to expand. Finally, Chelle answered.
“Not you,” she whispered, widening her pretty eyes. “You could stay. They don’t want the technology wandering back into the hands of the Harvesters. But you could become one of us. We’d be the most powerful company on the sea with that energy system. She’d probably want to return to that floating tub of hers no matter what, which is why they’ll prevent her departure permanently. But you’d have seen the truth soon enough. You’d be happy here.”
Chelle’s voice broke a little at the end of her speech. It might even have been genuine.
Esther stepped back from the side table and the shell collection and stood behind David’s shoulder, her hands hidden. She couldn’t see David’s face, and she almost couldn’t hear his next statement.
“I’d never be happy, Chelle, not without her.”
Esther’s fingers stopped their rapid movement. David’s words sank into her like raindrops on the sea. Then her hands leapt into action again.
Chelle laughed hollowly, her face hardening. “I’ve known since I met you on the Amsterdam that you were pining for someone, David Hawthorne. It’s a shame. We’ll have to kill you both. It’s less messy than risking you escaping and giving the tech to our enemies.”
She pressed the alarm button on the intercom. It must have been battery operated, because it gave a piercing shriek.
But another sound filled the room, pitched lower than the alarm. Crackling, indistinct, it was pure music.
The satellite phone vibrated in Esther’s hands as the signal connected. She dropped the excess watch parts onto the floor.
“What’s that?” Chelle said, stepping forward.
The satellite phone crackled, and Esther mashed the call button on the front panel, which was dangling by a few wires from the main casing, where Esther had inserted the battery from David’s dive watch. She’d spotted it lying on Chelle’s side table amidst the shells.
“You did it!”
David stared at the partially repaired device like it was his firstborn child.
“What is that?” Chelle demanded.
She rushed over, her candle flickering, but David blocked her way. He held both arms out in front of Esther.
“Back off, Chelle. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“The guards are on their way,” she said. “You’re done.”
“What guards?” David said. “Everyone’s out fighting the Harvesters.”
For a moment Esther glimpsed fear on Chelle’s face. Her hand went to her side. Then Esther leaned over David’s arm and blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness.
“Hallway. Quick,” she shouted.
She found the door and backed out of it. The corridor was still dark. David followed as the pop of a gunshot split the air.
“David!”
“I’m not hit,” David said. “Run!”
Esther took off down the hallway, David following quickly on her heels. They heard Chelle scream in frustration. Another shot rang through the darkness.
“This way.” David overtook Esther and led her down a side corridor. “That thing working yet?” he shouted.
“It better be,” Esther gasped.
She pressed the call button every few seconds, praying it would connect before sucking up the last of the power from the little battery. They needed to get outside.
They ran until they reached a doorway at the end of the corridor. It was locked, but David leaned back and kicked at the handle. Seconds later they spilled out the door into the muted daylight. The hillside dropped away beneath them. They dashed along the side of the building, staying low to the ground. At the end they rounded a corner and started climbing the rough volcanic rock.
“Is she behind us?” David asked.
Esther chanced a quick look, scanning the path and the empty windows and doors of the facility. “Not yet.”
“Good. Let’s head south. We need to stay close to the coast, but we don’t want to be anywhere near the battle.”
They climbed away from the harbor and toward the southwestern part of the island. Esther’s feet slipped and caught on the stone. She was out of practice walking on land. A strong wind pushed against them as they scrambled over the rocks. Rain swept over them in bursts. Esther protected the tatters of the satellite phone with both hands. When she lost her footing, David steadied her.
Abruptly, they came to the edge of a cliff.
“Let’s rest here,” David said. “It’ll take time for her to send people after us.”
He dropped heavily onto the rock. His face was almost as pale as his hair. He still hadn’t fully recovered from his period of starvation.
Esther looked down at the sea. The cliff wasn’t as high here as it was on the side of the island where she’d first approached in the lifeboat. This drop couldn’t be more than twenty feet. The wind howled, fierce and sharp, carrying a sound that could have been thunder, or it could have been explosions from the battle between the Harvesters and the Calderon ships. Mist coated their faces, both from the sea and the fitful rain.
The sea itself spread before them like molten steel. The clouds were feathers of iron. As they watched, the sun
dripped a string of gold through the clouds and into the sea. Esther took a deep breath. She had missed that wide, empty view.
“You okay?” David asked.
“Yeah.”
She sat beside him on the rocks, and he put his arm around her. The gesture was both awkward and familiar, as if it were something that they used to do all the time but had only recently rediscovered. She wanted to say something about what he’d said to Chelle but instead occupied herself with the shattered phone and trying to make sense of the cacophony of her feelings.
She felt a whirl of elation, almost euphoria. David had finally declared his feelings for her. She was deliriously happy, yet terrified at the same time. She attributed that to their current state of peril. They weren’t out of danger yet.
She snapped another piece of the phone back into place, guessing how it was supposed to fit together. She twisted the wire connecting the battery to the device to make sure it was tight enough.
“—er. Copppp . . . yy.”
A sound that was decidedly not mechanical came from the phone.
“What was that?” David sat up straight.
“Shh.” Esther twisted the wires again.
“Do you . . . chchchch . . . Luc—”
“Hello!” Esther shouted at the device. “Do you copy?”
She gripped the wires tight, her hands shaking.
“Esther! Do you copy? This is the Lu . . . a.”
It was Neal, his voice struggling through the mangled device.
“Neal! Neal! It’s Esther. Can you hear me?”
Finally, the voice broke through loud and clear: “Esther! This is Neal! I’m on the Lucinda. We’re almost there.”
Chapter 31—Rescue
Through broken messages, Esther and David gave Neal their position. They were standing on a spur of land sticking out from the rest of the island. It should be easy enough to spot. The Lucinda would give a wide berth to the battle between the Harvester and Calderon ships. Esther pictured her friend standing in the pilothouse of the Lucinda beside Dirk as they navigated toward the island. They’d been in the vicinity for days, searching for some sign of the Calderon facility and Esther’s signal.
They couldn’t stay on the satellite phone for long. The watch battery would run out soon. Neal called in every once in a while as he charted their progress. The bearings of the device were still off, but he made the necessary adjustments. They drew closer.
