Within the Water

by Kelly Fallows

  ‘Who are you?’ Zhe returned the question without answering it first.

  ‘If you were who I was looking for, you’d know,’ the woman said stepping forward into the light.

  ‘Melanie.’

  ‘Then you are…’

  ‘Zhe, yes.’

  ‘And you have what we need?’

  Zhe nodded cautiously.

  ‘Then let’s get moving,’ Melanie said striding off.

  ‘Who’s with you?’ Zhe asked without moving off with Melanie, instead she stared at the shadows.

  ‘No one’s wi— Damn it, Estelle,’ Melanie interrupted her denial, when she saw Estelle materialise out of the shadows.

  ‘You didn’t think I was going to let you run off by yourself, did you now?’ Estelle asked condescendingly.

  ‘We don’t need you, so run off back to your Houses.’

  ‘I think you’ll find that you do need me. How were you planning to get Theo to work for you otherwise?’

  Melanie’s glare only proved Estelle’s point, but her pride wouldn’t let her admit it aloud.

  ‘Let’s all get going,’ Zhe spoke from the sidelines feeling as though she'd been dropped in the middle of a minor war that Duncan had forgotten to mention.

  As they moved off, Zhe decided not to mention the other shadow trailing them. She was certain that it was that Joseph, who had made a brief appearance in Duncan’s communiqué earlier. Estelle glancing in his direction before they moved off confirmed Zhe’s suspicion and, as the general feeling was that they could trust Estelle more than Melanie, she decided to leave well enough alone.

  The group’s movement across the western sector of Abantos was much faster than Zhe’s had been over her comparatively shorter trip there. The difference was easily attributed to Melanie and Estelle’s knowledge of the best passageways to use. Rarely did they have to stop and get their bearings, instead, both forged on, seemingly determined to outdo the other. All of which left Zhe feeling rather inadequate next to them.

  ***

  ‘You know, I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I think I prefer the captain’s crazy-arse schemes!’ Ash hissed to Duncan as they marched down the corridors of Kristoff’s HQ, escorted by Wilks and half a dozen other guards.

  ‘I’ll be sure to mention it to him later.’

  ‘If we ever get a later!’

  Duncan’s short glare stopped Ash from any further complaints. They were sailing pretty close to the wind on this one, and Duncan didn’t want anything triggering Wilks’ memory again before they got on more hospitable ground; the middle of Kristoff’s HQ didn’t even come close.

  With one final look of warning, Duncan suddenly collapsed sideways into Ash.

  ‘Shit! Dunc!’ Ash’s cries drew the attention of everyone who wasn’t already looking.

  ‘Yeeeah.’ Duncan slurred his response slightly, as he leaned on Ash.

  ‘What’s wrong with him?’ Wilks demanded.

  ‘Well, it just might have something to do with the bash he took to his head.’ Ash’s sharp reply was laced with sarcasm, which earnt him an elbow to the ribs from Duncan.

  Wilks glared at Ash before turning to Duncan pulling him up slightly by the arm, ‘You all right?’

  Duncan blinked owlishly at him. ‘Fine,’ he said after a pause that was slightly too long.

  ‘Damn it,’ Wilks cursed.

  ‘It’s… fine, we can go after the… um… the… disks,’ Duncan told them, doing a fine job of faking a head injury.

  ‘Like hell we can, you can barely stand!’ Ash told him.

  ‘All right. We’ll take him to the infirmary and then continue,’ Wilks decided. ‘You know where the disks are, right? And can get them?’ he asked Ash.

  ‘Sure, well… I know where they are, but not sure how well the rest of the crew will take it.’ He shrugged as best as he could with Duncan leaning heavily on him.

  ‘I don’t give a damn how they’ll take it; we’re having them and that’s final. Let’s move.’

  Wilks hustled them along back the way they had come and deeper into HQ. This was the part of the plan that Ash had objected to the most; why did they need to go deeper when all they needed to do was get out, he had demanded repeatedly of Duncan and Ben. And while both had answers for him, he still didn’t like it.

  ***

  ‘All you need to do is issue a couple of commands, look coldly at anyone who stops us and keep going. I’m going to be right with you the whole way,’ Ben coaxed Sophie.

  ‘I’m not a child,’ she snapped at last. While she didn’t relish playing the part of her sister, Ben’s constant reassurance was wearing on her already fraying nerves.

  ‘Aha, there she is; that’s my little spitfire of a pilot.’ Ben grinned at her.

  Sophie merely huffed, having realised that, once again, she'd fallen in with his plans while trying to avoid them. He has an irritating ability to do that to a person, she thought to herself before taking a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and turning to face the door.

  She tried to mimic Melanie’s posture and expression. The posture was relatively easy, if she could remember to keep it up, just stand as straight and tall as possible, suck in her gut to make her look thinner and stride with confidence. The expression, she could tell by Ben’s own expression, wasn’t quite right. Giving up, she glared at him instead.

  Her glare promptly disappeared when Ben declared, ‘That’ll do.’

  ‘Try not to look too surprised, Sophie. Cold indifference is, thankfully, beyond your ken, but glowering will do well in its place. People will assume that you’re having a bad day and steer well clear of you.’

  ‘Wonderful. Shall we?’ Sophie gestured to the door that Elise had used earlier. They were banking on the fact that there would be fewer people in her office than out in the hall, and, despite Ben’s outward confidence that Sophie could pass for her sister, they both knew that it would only work from a distance and for those who didn’t know Melanie well.

  Elise turned her head in their direction, hands stilling over her keyboard, as they moved out of Kristoff’s office and entered hers, her sightless eyes staring at them.

  ‘Kristoff’s having a fit in there, so I’d take care next time he buzzes for you,’ Sophie told her stopping by the edge of her desk.

  Elise merely inclined her head in acknowledgement and recommenced her typing, and Sophie, unable to think of a further stalling tactic, walked over to join Ben by the side door. He was attempting to open it silently and gauge what awaited them in the corridor without causing Elise alarm, for while she couldn’t see them Ben was certain that she would be acutely aware of their presence and he didn’t want to linger any longer than necessary.

  Sophie waited anxiously as Ben chanced a glance out into the corridor. He nodded sharply once, which Sophie took as her cue to go out ahead of him.

  Once in the corridor, it was plain to see that their caution had been unwarranted. While there were guards by the main door, they couldn’t have been said to have been alert. Sophie and Ben walked away from them at a confident pace, as fast as they could without attracting undue attention. After all, people running always attracted the attention of guards, even those who were only half awake. Fortunately, the guards’ complacency worked in their favour and they were able to disappear into the less-well-travelled corridors.

  ‘Now where?’ Sophie hissed, not having been able to memorise the map she had found on Kristoff’s own system as effectively as her captain; she was far too used to running things from the Coelacanth’s control room, in which she could consistently refer back to plans and maps.

  ‘Left, then the second right and the third door on the right,’ Ben murmured back.

  Sophie didn’t bother with a verbal reply but simply followed his directions, bringing them to a rather unremarkable empty room. Sophie turned a
nd raised an eyebrow at her captain as he locked the door behind them.

  ‘Don’t worry, Soph, we’ve brought everything we need,’ Ben told her as he pulled a couple of charges from his coat.

  ‘And just what good are they going to do in here? There’s nothing here!’

  ‘No, but below us is one of the server rooms and above is one set of guard’s barracks, so an explosion here will create plenty of chaos,’ he explained as he set the charges.

  ‘Done?’ Sophie asked impatiently, like Ash, she too wasn’t a fan of this part of the plan.

  ‘Yeah, we’re good here.’

  ‘Marvellous. Let’s get out of here.’

  ‘Don’t get too ahead of yourself, there’s still one more stop before freedom, I’m afraid,’ he told her, causing her to sigh heavily.

  ***

  Duncan did a great job of pretending to be slightly concussed on the way to the infirmary. His erratic behaviour allowed him to discreetly leave a trail of charges, all primed and ready to go off, in his wake. After all, if he needed a moment to lean on the wall to regain his balance or perhaps wander off slightly in the wrong direction, who was to blame him? He obviously didn’t know what he was doing.

  Ash also played his part well, considering how much he detested this kind of tomfoolery. He managed to quite neatly keep the attention on him by complaining loudly, and berating Duncan and Wilks for the whole thing. He also, conveniently, always managed to place himself between Duncan and the guards, which prevented them from being able to see him prime the charges.

  ‘Jameson!’ Wilks shouted as he barged his way into the infirmary. ‘Jameson!’ His second shout produced a rather wan-looking man, who was balding, in his early fifties and wearing round-rimmed spectacles.

  ‘Yes Major?’ he responded in an overly tired tone, wiping his hands on a piece of cloth.

  ‘Patient for you.’ He thumbed in Duncan’s direction.

  ‘Really, I’m fine,’ Duncan protested again, but a little more coherently this time.

  Wilks levelled a glare at him. ‘Yeah, that’s why you’ve been stumbling about all over the place.’

  Duncan held his hands up in mock surrender and sat on the gurney in the centre of the room. ‘All I’m saying is that I feel better,’ Duncan continued, keeping the focus on him while Ash moved freely around behind the group. ‘I can only see two of you now,’ he grinned.

  ‘Right, let’s have it then,’ Jameson said coming to stand in front of Duncan. ‘Well?’ he prompted when Duncan didn’t provide an explanation.

  ‘Just hit on the head a couple of times, Doc,’ Duncan explained briefly. ‘Right at the back there.’ He directed Jameson to the real wound he’d received at the butt of Joseph’s gun; the rest were only skin deep to provide enough blood to support the illusion he’d been beaten.

  ‘Hmm, yes,’ Jameson murmured feeling the back of Duncan’s head.

  ‘Hey!’ Duncan didn’t have to pretend too hard when flinching away from Jameson’s hands as he probed the injury.

  ‘Yes, what?’ Wilks cut in from the back wall where he and the other guards had taken up spectator’s positions.

  ‘He has a head injury.’

  ‘That’s it?’ Wilks exploded.

  ‘I don’t know what you want me to do, Major. He has been bashed on the head; it’s not life threatening and he is already recovering from the worst of the effects,’ Jameson told him plainly.

  ‘And that’s all you can do?’

  While Wilks was getting more and more irate at the doctor – who, it was plain, didn’t like the major – Duncan could only just refrain from kissing him in exuberance. Not even if they’d had good ole Dr Crippen examining him could they have got a better report; it was as though the old man was in on it, Duncan thought cheerfully.

  ‘He needs rest.’

  ‘Well, tough luck; if he ain’t dying, he’s coming with me,’ Wilks declared grabbing Duncan’s arm, and hauling him off the gurney and through the hatchway back into the main corridor.

  The rest of the guards joined them in their forced march back the way they had come; Ash melting back into the group before he had even been missed. He and Duncan briefly exchanged nods – everything was set.

  ***

  ‘Graves!’

  Ben and Sophie were similarly set until a voice rang out down the corridor they were currently taking. With no way to feign not hearing without being suspicious, they were left with no option but to turn around and face the caller.

  Sophie watched the man as he approached, wondering how best to play it. However, not knowing how to greet him, especially as she was missing vital information such as his name, she settled for raising an eyebrow in question.

  Ben stayed a little behind and to the right of Sophie, letting her body block the man’s view of his left arm, which currently gripped the butt of his gun loosely, ready for action. He used the few moments it took for the man to reach them to assess him. He was tall, although shorter than Ben, and well built; he was obviously the muscle of some kind around here, but there was an intelligence to his face, particularly his eyes. Ben had a foreboding feeling that this man was going to be hard to fool; he hoped Sophie was up to the task.

  ‘Heard you were captured,’ he said by way of opening.

  ‘Damn fools left me behind,’ Sophie responded, glad that she and Ben had come up with a brief outline of what to say if someone mentioned the fact she should be busy being held hostage elsewhere.

  ‘Shouldn’t have thought Wilks would’ve got away with that.’

  ‘A small matter of priorities, I hear; Kristoff was all for the mission objective being completed and I wasn’t it,’ she explained.

  ‘That so?’

  ‘It is,’ Sophie responded tersely, she couldn’t decipher his change in tone, but she had the horrible feeling that he was onto her.

  ‘Shouldn’t have thought I’d see the day.’

  ‘That I wasn’t his number one priority?’ Sophie queried.

  ‘No, that you’d explain so much,’ he said with a shark-like smile, letting her know where she'd gone wrong, but before either of them could so much as blink he was hailing a group of guards who were coming up from behind Ben and Sophie.

  ‘Hey guys, look what I found here,’ he called to them. ‘I should think that’ll even the odds with that semiautomatic you’ve got hiding there,’ he told Ben cheerfully as the four guards jogged up to meet them.

  Ben tipped his head in acknowledgement, but made no other move.

  ‘Unless, of course, you plan on shooting through our dear Graves?’ he asked with a smirk.

  But still Ben made no reply.

  ‘Ah, gentleman, let me introduce you to our fake Graves and unknown associate.’ He made the introductions; his enjoyment of the situation was shining through. ‘You know you picked a poor day to try your little charade; Graves is currently off base.’

  ‘Oh, we know.’ Ben grinned, ‘how do you reckon we got her face?’

  Ben received looks of stunned disbelief for that particular comment. One of the guards even peered closer at Sophie as if to see where the scars of the face graft were.

  ‘Idiot,’ the man hissed at the guard, whacking him up the side of his head before turning back to Ben. ‘A highly amusing ploy, but I doubt Kristoff will share my amusement,’ he threatened.

  ‘I doubt so too,’ Ben agreed amiably.

  ‘And just what makes you so confident with four assault rifles pointed at your heart?’ he demanded when his threat had no effect.

  ‘You know, that’s a little bit of overkill even for me.’

  ‘And just who are you?’

  ‘Captain Benjamin Daniels.’ Ben executed a mocking half bow with the pronouncement of his name.

  ‘You lie.’

  ‘Suit yourself,’ Ben shrugged casually. ‘Ah, Luc
ifer and I haven’t had a good chat in ages,’ he told them in response to their tightening their grip on their rifles and the steadying of their aim.

  Fortunately, Ben was at that moment relieved of having to come up with another stalling tactic as an explosion shook the base. Sending out a prayer of thanks that Duncan was on schedule, Ben used the momentary confusion to shoot two of the guards as Sophie took down the third.

  Unfortunately, the remaining guard and Muscles were still left standing, and had an assault rifle and an automatic pistol aimed at Ben and Sophie, who, in turn, were each aiming a semiautomatic pistol at them.

  ‘Well, we seem to be at a standoff here,’ Ben commented, silently counting down until the next blast. He figured they still had at least ten seconds left.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ Muscles demanded.

  ‘I believe it’s what’s commonly called an explosion,’ Sophie supplied helpfully.

  ‘Let’s hope it didn’t do any major damage,’ Ben added.

  ‘You mean like damaging the hull integrity?’ Sophie asked, helping Ben to play for time.

  Ben nodded gravely, ‘Could’ve sprung a leak already.’

  ‘Nah, the loss in pressure would’ve caused her to start sinking first,’ she argued.

  ‘No, I’m telling you first there'd be a leakage.’

  ‘Can’t—’ Sophie didn’t get a chance to finish her rebuttal as two more explosions happened in quick succession.

  This time, the blast did knock them all off their feet as it burst down the corridor behind them. In the scrambling act that followed, Sophie reached for the same gun as Muscles, and Ben decided to forgo firearms and ran the other guard through with his sabre. He turned in time to see Muscles wrench the rifle from Sophie’s grasp. Wasting no time in looking for the semiautomatic pistol he’d dropped, Ben reached for his trusted revolver and fired two shots into Muscles forehead, killing him instantly.

  ‘You good?’ he asked as he pulled Sophie to her feet, sliding the revolver back into its holster, out of sight, and picking up the assault rifle along with extra clips from the guards.