“We will be deep below, Pierce! Not at the apartments!”
I shook my head. My anxiety for Imogen overwhelmed me.
“Not sure he heard me.” I craned my neck and saw the pink flare shoot up into the air.
Imogen and I dove down into darker depths, no longer in the ambient light of the destroyer. Pierce followed us down. We stopped about ten meters above the seabed. The sea was murky at this depth.
“We can’t stay down here for too long. Imogen will freeze,” I said.
“I will be o-okay, James. I am definitely not going back on that goddamn ship.”
“Give it some time, Henihan. Give McBain time to respond,” Pierce said.
I hugged Imogen, hoping to warm her somehow, which was futile. She started to shiver with more intensity.
I shook my head. I couldn’t wait any longer. I kept my embrace on Imogen. It was more of a vice-like grip, but I couldn’t have her die of hypothermia. Sirens had a higher threshold for cold water, but she hadn’t been in water for many months. She had been living like a human on that ship. The siren body had to have time to adjust to the more extreme temperatures of the deep. That, and she didn’t have a wetsuit to aid her body in maintaining warmth. Luckily, sirens are impervious to decompression sickness. Even that worried me though.
“Sorry, love. We have to risk it.”
“James…god…let me g-g-go!”
I was able to keep one arm around her and push my way through the water with my free arm and legs pumping. We ascended steadily. The spotlight from the chopper circled the spot Pierce had shot the flare from. I kept on.
Imogen closed her eyes. Her teeth chattered. The warm air was close.
The chopper’s light maintained a tight circle.
Something grabbed and then tugged at my ankle.
I looked down. It was Pierce.
Then the boom sounded and an incredibly loud creaking. As if steel were bending and breaking. The spotlight from the chopper moved away from us.
The ambient light from the destroyer flickered then faded in and out quickly. Pierce let go of my ankle.
Another loud explosion sounded from the opposite direction. The perimeter net rippled in the water and began to curl over onto itself and fall.
I let go of Imogen, and the three of us swam to the surface.
“Woo hoo!” I yelled.
The scene was glorious. The destroyer was on fire and listing to the right. The sailors aboard jumped off the deck. McBain had sunk two consecutive destroyers in the last few days. To my left, the mast on the man ‘o war that held the net was cracked in half. The part of the mast that secured must have been sinking into the deep. The big lumbering wooden ship still had some movement and was in much better condition than the destroyer had been.
I lost sight of the chopper.
“James. Let’s go!” Imogen swam with renewed vigor on the surface.
Pierce did the same.
We sliced through the water over the perimeter net and hoped to run into Captain McBain and The Relentless.
Chapter Twenty-Four
We swam away from the perimeter net and into open Mediterranean waters. I scanned the darkness in front of me, hoping to catch a glimpse of The Relentless. The moonlight danced on the sea’s surface. The eerily calm water was no cause for celebration just yet.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Let’s keep a good pace. He didn’t leave us. He saw that flare, and then all hell broke loose,” Pierce said.
A buzzing sound emanated from behind us.
“The helicopter is coming back, boys,” Imogen said.
A floating light appeared in the night sky and headed in our direction.
“Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. We will dive in a couple minutes. Imogen how are you, love?” I asked.
“I will be fine, James. I am starting to feel better. Just took some time.” She cut through the water faster than before. Perhaps her body was adapting to the water.
The volume of the rotor blades steadily increased, an ominous sound. We could easily lose them again. I still worried about Imogen heading back down into the cold deep.
WHUP! WHUP! WHUP! WHUP!
It felt like the light from the chopper was on our backs, even though it was still many meters behind us.
“Get ready to dive!” I said.
“There be no need to dive, Irish!” McBain’s smooth, cheerful voice traveled over the water.
I looked to the left. There she was. The Relentless.
“Can you keep pace with us, Fishies? We would like to keep our speed!” McBain threw over two rope ladders. We were parallel with the moving pirate ship.
“Yes, of course! Imogen, you get up there first.” I motioned with my head toward one of the rope ladders.
Imogen cut in front of me and grabbed the ladder. The pirate crew helped pull the ladder up. There was one left. I grabbed onto it. The speed of the ship increased. The water around the ship provided decent resistance. I grimaced but pulled myself up the first few rungs of the ladder. I felt like my muscles were going to pop into a bloody mess, a fine chum for sharks and whatever beasties swam underneath us.
The side of the ship suddenly illuminated, and not from cannon fire. I looked behind me. The chopper was close enough to shine its damn annoying light in my eyes.
The ladder ascended the side of the pirate ship. The crew began to pull me up.
Splinters of the ship sprayed around me as I ascended. Gunfire from the chopper pelted the ship. I kept my eyes to the deck above and the crew who pulled me up. The shooting stopped. The gunner must have needed to reload.
I reached the rail and pulled myself up the rest of the way.
“Thank you, gents!” I smiled briefly.
“Shoot that damn bird outta my horizon, Doyle!” McBain ordered from atop the helm.
Doyle reached the port-side mounted machine gun, slid the bolt back, and aimed into the night sky.
The crew had already draped some warm blankets over Imogen.
“Get below deck, love, and warm up.”
She actually listened to me and went below.
The helicopter kept pace with us and switched to the starboard side as the spotlight moved through the sails.
“Bird’s moving to the other side of the ship! Get on the starboard gun, Doyle!” McBain yelled.
I ran to the starboard gun before Doyle could even react to the captain’s orders. I put my right hand to the trigger mechanism, pulled the bolt back, buried the stock into my right shoulder, and fired. The power of the gun nearly knocked me on my ass, even with the mount absorbing most of the force.
The pings of a few bullets raked the side of the chopper. The bird’s light blinded me momentarily. I stopped firing. The chopper fired back. Bullets pelted the deck of the ship and wood splintered. Too close for comfort. I knelt.
“Fire! Boys! Fire!” McBain yelled.
A line of eight pirates lined up to starboard and fired with assault rifles. My eardrums almost burst. My heart pounded. I gathered myself and added the mounted gun to the firing line. The chopper’s spotlight dimmed and sparked off. In the loud chaos, two of the eight pirates flew back from the line, hit by the return fire.
The chopper stopped firing. It began to dip and rock back and forth. The pilot was trying to gain control. Flames burst from the rear rotor blades on the chopper. We stopped firing. The chopper slowed down enough that The Relentless began to outrun it.
The crewmembers put their rifles up in the air in celebration.
Pierce put his hand on my shoulder. His mouth was moving. I couldn’t hear shit.
He repeated himself.
Again, the same words formed from his mouth.
His voice slowly rolled back to a decent volume.
“Kamikaze!”
“Kamikaze…what?” I was so confused.
He pointed aft. Behind McBain on the helm was the flame-ridden helicopter-turned-missile making its way to crash on the deck.
McBain turned hard to starboard, but it felt like the ship took forever. Pierce and I nearly fell to the deck. Somehow the demon chopper was able to turn and keep its pursuit.
My wife was aboard this ship. There was no way in hell I was going to let that damn thing kill her.
“You have another one of those grapples you used on the cruise ship?” I asked and looked around for one myself.
“What is going through your thick Irish head?” Pierce asked.
“Do you have one or not?”
Pierce took another grapple bolt from his backpack and handed it to me. I ran away from him.
“You still need something to shoot it with!”
“I know!” I grabbed an assault rifle out of one of the fallen pirate’s hands and ran up the stairs to the helm.
“Irish, what you up to?” McBain turned from the wheel.
“Trying to get this chopper off our back. Don’t turn the ship yet.”
I flipped on the generators that powered the spotlights we’d used to find Monstro.
The lights sputtered on. The chopper was painted black, and I couldn’t see who was inside or if anyone was inside for that matter. It rocked side to side but kept pursuit. I inserted the grapple line into the barrel of the assault rifle.
I didn’t think anything. I didn’t think if it was a dumb move or if it would even work.
I jammed the grapple bolt into the type of timed explosives I used in Monstro’s mouth. I set the timer for ten seconds. The chopper gained on us. A turn would have created some additional space. I didn’t want that.
I wanted the helicopter to be closer. The butt of the rifle lay on the deck. The barrel with the timed explosive stuck straight up in the air. I started the timer and brought the rifle back to a shooting position. The digital timer ticked down as I looked down the sight of the barrel.
“Seven.”
I took a deep breath.
“Five.”
“Four.”
I squeezed the trigger. The red digital numbers became smaller and smaller. The line from the grapple unfurled in slow motion.
BOOM.
The glorious ball of fire was so large and intense I could feel the heat. I threw the rifle and line into the sea. The chopper angled to the right then spun into the water.
Another monster sent to the deep.
Chapter Twenty-Five
McBain and the crew erupted into another hollering and whooping fit as The Relentless sailed farther away from the oily and fiery helicopter crash. I used the back of my hand to wipe the sweat from my brow.
“Good work again, Irish.” McBain turned from the helm and held out his hand.
I reached to shake it when he pulled me too close to him. Yes, a pirate captain gave me a hug. A good, hearty, strong hug that lasted a wee bit longer than I’d hoped.
“All right, McBain. Enough’s enough.” I patted his back gently then increased the gesture’s intensity.
He finally let go. “Cornwallis.”
“Deceased.” I pulled out the picture from the interior lining of my wetsuit.
“Thank you to you and English. You fish have proven far more valuable than I could have ever anticipated. Thank you much.”
“My deepest and most sincere condolences about your family, sir. We had no idea until we stepped into his office.”
“That man stole the greatest treasure a pirate could muster in his short, forsaken life.” McBain held out his hand.
I placed the picture on his palm. He held the picture close to his heart. The light of the deck lanterns on either side of the ship’s wheel showed a single tear form in his left eye, then it trickled down his face.
“Speaking of family, Captain, I would like you to meet Imogen.” She emerged from below deck, and I waved her to us.
Her long hair was curly and wet, and parts of it stuck to her forehead. She had a blanket wrapped around her torso, which she gripped tightly.
“This is Imogen. Imogen meet Captain McBain.”
McBain’s face lit up. He wiped the tear from his cheek, gently grabbed the back of her hand, and kissed it.
“Pleasure is all mine. This man, James, certainly loves you. I can see why. You are a beauty the likes of which these old eyes haven’t seen in many moons.”
“Thank you for your assistance, Captain. I don’t know how to repay you.” Imogen smiled.
“No need for repayment. Finding you was repayment for a debt I owed your husband. He saved us from the depths by fending off an aggressive whale. Now, I feel as if I am indebted to him again for downing that chopper.”
“The agreement was to bring you to the stone upon our return to the ship. That is what we shall do,” I insisted.
“What stone? You mean the one the New East India Company is looking for, like I mentioned earlier? You know where it is, James?” Imogen’s eyes went wide.
“I do. I know of a stone. I don’t know if it’s the stone.”
“If we can reach the stone before Montgomery does…” Imogen said.
“We can use it as an exchange for Maggie.” I smiled at the newfound plan.
“That is if the Captain would allow us to do so. You can lift it from Monty after the exchange, of course,” I said to McBain.
“How do you two know that your wee one is still alive? How do you know Monty has her?” McBain asked.
“Frankly, we don’t, Captain. I know that part of his operation involves using small sirens to search in hard-to-reach places. Perhaps we can use James’s stone as a way to get her back, or at least get more information,” Imogen said.
“James, what properties does this stone have that would lead you to believe it’s the one Monty wants?” McBain asked.
“I couldn’t actually grasp the stone. The closer I swam to it, the more and more my heart felt like it would burst through my chest. I will need a diving suit, if you have one? Perhaps I just need protection from its power or something. It’s an emerald, as I said before. It’s in a precarious position, mounted in a throne of some sort.... A Viking Throne. A great battle took place in the cave where it’s located. Skeletal remains scattered about on the side of a fjord. I shit you not.”
“Doyle! Set our course for Submerged Norway,” McBain yelled down to his first mate then looked to Imogen and me. “We’d better get to that stone. I hope Monty hasn’t found it yet. I’ve heard of stones like these. I know you may think me a superstitious pirate bastard, but stones like that hold mysterious power, impactful power. Capable of changing things.”
“Change things…how exactly?” I asked.
“Depends on who wields it.”
Imogen walked over to McBain, hugged him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you, Captain. For helping us find our little girl.”
McBain smiled and nodded. “Don’t thank me just yet. Besides I wouldn’t want to be alone with that ugly Irish bastard my whole life either.”
She burst into a loud belly laugh, something I hadn’t heard in a long time.
“Nice. Thanks, Captain.” I shook my head.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The seas were calm in the morning, and sleep was much needed. Imogen and I shared a hammock. It felt wonderful to be close to her, but something was amiss after we woke.
She left the hammock before I could even say good morning. I found her on the foredeck enjoying the view.
“Why did you get up so quick?” I asked.
She looked down at the sea and sighed.
“Imogen, what is wrong?”
She sighed again, then looked me straight in the eyes. The type of look she gave when she was upset with me. I knew it too well.
“James, had you not been drinking that night…” She looked down again.
“I am so sorry. I know, Imogen. I know. I am sorry. I could have stopped them. I am sorry.” I wanted to puke. I deserved to feel that way.
“That word becomes pathetic with you. That word has to have meaning, James. It should me
an you aren’t going to do it again. I smelled the whiskey on your breath last night. You couldn’t help yourself at the casino, could you?”
“I…”
“It’s my time to talk. My husband was one of the toughest men on the Siren Guard, and he couldn’t fend off some humans in scuba gear because he was tossed. I fought like hell. They shot me with the tranquilizer after I took out one of their men. Did you get any? No. I am so mad at you but also so happy to see you. You make me crazy, James Henihan. You better pray to Poseidon we find Maggie.”
“Imogen. I promise I will stop. I promise. We will find Maggie, too.” My heart pumped as hard as it did around the stone. Many awful thoughts pervaded my addled mind. Would she leave me if we didn’t find our daughter? I couldn’t bear it.
“We better.” Imogen walked away.
The wind blew colder on the foredeck. I wanted to walk after her, but over time I’d learned to let her be. If I were in her position, I would be mad too. I hoped the stone was still right where I’d found it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The brisk, northern winds bore into my bone marrow. We were close to the old Siren Guard training grounds and the stone. The journey lasted a little under twenty-four hours. Imogen was civil with me throughout the trip, but, understandably, not exactly warm. The weight of losing Maggie grew heavier each day. I could only imagine a mother’s turmoil. Having carried the child for nine months and now to have lost her. I knew how awful I felt; it had to be worse for Imogen.
Our little girl was alive, we hoped. That was what kept us going. Faith that our girl was out there somewhere. There was nothing quite like the love you experience as a parent. There was absolutely no substitute nor a more life-defining moment than when you see your child for the first time. The sea had washed over our earth and forever changed it, and, well, the love that washed over me when Maggie was born forever changed me.
My little Maggie, oh my dear, we are coming for you.
“Time to trim the sails and drop anchor, McBain. We are here. Captain Nemo, dive suit ready?” I asked.
The Viking Throne: The Cursed Seas Collection Page 9