EPISODE 10
1849 Words
"Turn hard! You're going to hit the wake!"
Elias’s scream tore through the darkness of the cabin.
I gripped the wheel of the Sea Witch, spinning it violently to the right. My muscles burned.
Ahead of us, a wall of white water rose up out of the night. It was the stern wake of the Leviathan. The massive container ship was churning the ocean into a frenzy. It was like driving into a washing machine.
"Brace yourselves!" I yelled.
SMASH.
The Sea Witch hit the wake. We went airborne. For a terrifying second, the propellers spun in empty air, screaming. Then we slammed down.
Water crashed over the bow, hammering the windshield. The boat groaned. Every bolt and rivet strained.
Sarah was thrown against the dashboard. She gasped, grabbing the grab rail so hard her knuckles turned white.
"Are we sinking?" she cried.
"Not yet!" I shouted. "Elias, where are they? Where are the drones?"
Elias was huddled over his sonar screen in the dark corner. The green light illuminated his panic.
"They're circling!" Elias yelled. "The swarm is confused. My jammer is working, but only barely. They know something is here. They're hunting for a heartbeat."
"Get us closer," I ordered. "We need to be in the blind spot."
"The blind spot is right next to the hull!" Elias argued. "If you get that close, the suction will pull us under the propellers. We'll be chopped meat!"
"It's the only way to board!" I shouted. "Do it!"
I pushed the throttles forward. The Sea Witch surged, riding the chaotic waves toward the looming black mountain of the ship.
The Leviathan was terrifying. It was a thousand feet of steel, blocking out the sky. It moved with a deep, vibrating hum that I could feel in my teeth.
We crept closer. Fifty feet. Forty feet.
The spray was blinding. The noise was deafening.
"Take the wheel!" I told Elias.
The old man scrambled up to the helm. He grabbed the wheel with his greasy hands. "You're crazy, Miller! You're both crazy!"
"Keep her steady," I said. "Match their speed. Eighteen knots."
I grabbed Sarah’s arm. "Let's go. Suit up."
We stumbled down into the cabin. It was pitching violently.
We stripped off our wet jackets. We needed to move fast and silent.
I grabbed two black tactical vests from Elias’s stash. I handed one to Sarah.
"Put this on," I said. "It has a knife and a strobe light."
She pulled the vest over her head. Her wet shirt clung to her body. She was shivering, her teeth chattering from the cold and the adrenaline.
I stepped close to her. I cinched the straps of her vest tight. My hands brushed her waist, her chest.
She looked up at me. Her eyes were wide, pupils dilated.
"Jack," she whispered. "This is insane. We're going to jump onto a moving ship in the middle of the ocean."
"I know," I said. I finished tightening the straps. I put my hands on her shoulders. "Listen to me. Once we're on that ladder, you don't look down. You don't look at the water. You look at my boots. You follow me. Understand?"
"I understand," she said.
She reached up and grabbed my face. Her hands were freezing.
"If we get separated..." she started.
"We won't."
"If we do," she insisted. "Don't come back for me. Find Danny. Get the evidence. End this."
"I'm not leaving you behind," I said fiercely. "Not again."
I kissed her.
It wasn't a soft kiss. It was hard, desperate, and salty. It was a seal on a contract. We survive together, or we die together.
I pulled back. "Let's move."
We grabbed our gear. I took the flare gun and the master keycard. I checked my pocket for the lighter.
We climbed back up to the deck.
The rain was coming down in sheets. The Sea Witch was right alongside the Leviathan now. The steel hull of the massive ship rose up like a cliff face next to us, slick and black.
"There!" Elias shouted, pointing.
About twenty feet above the water, a maintenance ladder was bolted to the side of the ship. But the bottom rung was high. Too high.
"I have to get you closer!" Elias yelled.
He steered the boat in. We were surfing the pressure wave of the ship. The two hulls were inches apart. If they touched, the fiberglass of our boat would shatter.
"Get on the roof!" I yelled to Sarah.
We scrambled up onto the roof of the Sea Witch cabin. The wind tried to blow us off.
The ladder was swinging into view.
"Jump on my count!" I screamed. "Three! Two!"
The boat dipped into a trough, then surged up on a wave.
"One! JUMP!"
I launched myself.
I flew across the gap of black water. I slammed into the rusty iron rungs of the ladder.
The impact knocked the wind out of me. My boots scrambled for purchase on the slippery metal. I hung there, dangling over the churning propellers.
"Sarah!" I yelled.
She had jumped right behind me.
She hit the ladder. But her foot slipped.
She gasped, sliding down. Her hands scrabbled at the wet iron.
"I've got you!"
I reached down and grabbed the strap of her vest. I hauled her up with one arm, straining, my muscles screaming.
She found a foothold. She wrapped her arms around the rung, pressing her face against the cold steel of the ship. She was safe.
Below us, the Sea Witch peeled away into the darkness.
Elias flashed his lights once—a goodbye—and then vanished into the storm.
We were alone. Hanging on the side of the enemy fortress.
We climbed. Rung by rung. My arms burned. The wind tried to peel us off the ship.
Finally, we reached the deck railing.
I peeked over.
The deck of the Leviathan was a canyon of shipping containers. Stacks of red, blue, and green steel boxes rose fifty feet high, creating a maze of alleyways.
It was dark. The deck lights were dim yellow sodium bulbs, casting long, creepy shadows.
"Clear," I whispered.
We rolled over the railing and dropped onto the steel deck. We crouched in the shadow of a container.
"We made it," Sarah breathed. She was shaking.
"Stay low," I said. "We need to find the bridge. Or the cargo hold."
We moved through the maze. The ship was massive. It felt like a floating city.
And it was silent. Too silent.
Where was the crew?
Usually, a ship this size has a watch patrol. Crew members checking the lashings. But the deck was deserted.
We turned a corner between two stacks of containers.
I stopped dead. I threw my arm out to stop Sarah.
"What?" she whispered.
I pointed.
In the middle of the aisle, there was a puddle. But it wasn't rain.
It was dark. Thick.
I knelt down and touched it. I rubbed it between my fingers.
"Oil?" Sarah asked.
"No," I said. I smelled it. Copper. "Blood."
It was a trail. A drag mark. Someone had been bleeding, and they had been dragged toward the bow of the ship.
"Danny?" Sarah whispered, her voice trembling.
"Maybe," I said. "Or maybe someone who got in his way."
We followed the trail. It led us deeper into the container stacks.
We came to a clearing near the forward hatch.
There was a group of containers here that looked different. They weren't standard shipping crates. They were black, military-grade boxes. They were hooked up to portable generators that were humming loudly.
And they were guarded.
Two men stood by the hatch. They were holding assault rifles. They weren't wearing sailor uniforms. They were wearing grey tactical gear.
Syndicate mercenaries.
And between them... was a cage.
A large, steel shark cage, sitting on the deck.
Inside the cage was a man.
He was slumped over, his hands zip-tied to the bars. He was soaked in rain and blood.
Sarah gasped. "Danny!"
She started to surge forward. I grabbed her, pulling her back into the shadows.
"Wait," I hissed. "Look at him."
I squinted. The man lifted his head.
It wasn't Danny.
It was a stranger. He had a crew cut and a tattoo on his neck.
"That's not him," I whispered.
"Who is it?"
"I don't know," I said. "But look what's next to the cage."
Next to the cage was a table. And on the table was the heavy black Pelican case we had seen at the lighthouse.
And standing over the table... was Danny.
He looked clean. He wasn't bleeding. He was wearing a dry raincoat. He was holding a tablet computer.
He was talking to the mercenaries. He looked... calm.
"He's running the show," I realized. The sickness in my stomach doubled. "He's not a prisoner, Sarah. He's the boss."
"No," Sarah whimpered. "He can't be."
Danny tapped the screen of the tablet. He pointed to the cage.
One of the mercenaries nodded. He opened the cage door. He grabbed the prisoner and dragged him out.
The prisoner screamed. "Please! I didn't see anything! I swear!"
Danny didn't even look up from his tablet. He just waved his hand. Dismissed.
The mercenaries dragged the screaming man toward the edge of the ship. Toward the railing.
"They're going to throw him over," Sarah said.
"If they throw him over," I said, remembering the radar, "the drones will get him."
"We have to stop them," Sarah said. She reached for the flare gun in my belt.
"Sarah, no. We only have one shot."
"We can't watch a murder, Jack!"
She grabbed the flare gun. Before I could stop her, she aimed it at the stack of containers above Danny's head.
POOM.
The flare shot out. A streak of red fire.
It hit the metal container and ricocheted down, landing right in the middle of the group.
The magnesium burned blindingly bright.
"Contact!" one of the mercenaries yelled. "Port side!"
Danny spun around. He looked right at our hiding spot.
For a second, our eyes met across the rain-swept deck.
He saw me.
He didn't look surprised. He smiled. That same jagged, crazy smile from the video.
"Jack!" Danny shouted. "You made it! Just in time for the demonstration!"
He tapped his tablet.
A loud mechanical CLANK echoed from the side of the ship.
A crane arm swung out over the water. Hanging from the crane was a massive metal pod.
"What is that?" Sarah asked.
The pod opened.
Something dropped into the water. SPLASH.
"The Third Diver," I whispered. "He just released another one."
Danny's voice boomed over the wind.
"Bring them to me!" Danny ordered the mercenaries. "Alive! I want my brother to see this!"
Bullets sparked against the container we were hiding behind. PING. PING. PING.
"Move!" I yelled.
We broke cover, running deeper into the maze of the ship.
We were trapped on a floating city with a madman, a kill squad, and a swarm of robotic monsters in the water.
And there was nowhere left to run.
- Writer
