Seb’s heart hammered when he looked for Reyes. It settled to see her treading water next to the shelf. He shrugged at her. “Sorry.”
Reyes shrugged back. “Don’t be. You just saved my life.”
Seb pulled a tight-lipped smile at SA. She’d just saved her life.
Chapter 52
The water rose and Seb watched it, a shake running through him that he had no control over. Despite the crack between the shelf and the wall—the fixed platform ready to break away at any moment—it looked like the rising water would get them first. “Come on, Sparks,” he muttered to himself as he stared at the vent she’d vanished into.
When Seb looked down at the ground, he saw the bodies of the five dead or unconscious sharks. They were at least twenty metres down. A long way for him to sink if the shelf gave way.
Another crack then shook through the ledge. Seb felt the vibration of it in the soles of his boots.
SA stared down at the crack, looked at Seb, and then jumped into the water with Reyes. Hopefully it would help to take her weight off it too.
The water continued to rise, covering the platform entirely and lifting about an inch up Seb’s boots. He did his best to keep his breathing level and his heart rate steady. Five minutes, maybe ten at the most, and all of them would be listening to their lungs pop as they drowned in the dingy complex. And what about Bruke? Had the tunnel flooded too? Had he already drowned?
I’ll keep you afloat.
To look into the cool calm of his love’s eyes tore at Seb’s heart. You can’t! You’ll drown too. There’s no point in both of us checking out. I want you to save yourself. I want you to find out who put those parasites on Carstic.
But—
You WON’T be able to help me. You’ve tried once already and we needed Bruke before I could be pulled to shore. He’s probably already drowned in the tunnel.
The widening of SA’s eyes suggested she hadn’t thought about Bruke until that moment. She didn’t respond.
Promise me you won’t follow me down if this ledge goes? At that moment another snap cracked through the shelf.
Still nothing.
SA?
Fine. WHATEVER. She spun around in the water, turning her back on him. Not that he could blame her for that. He wouldn’t want to watch her drown if he couldn’t do anything about it.
The water had risen to Seb’s shins.
Another snap through the ledge. Then he felt something else. Almost a rip.
When Seb looked at the crack between the ledge and the wall again, he saw the large stone platform break away, slower than it should on account of the water’s resistance. For a moment, it looked like it might even float.
A second later, both Seb and the shelf sank.
Chapter 53
Back in slow motion, Seb still sank fast, the drag of the water pulling his hair towards the ceiling as it funnelled up his nose.
The resistance created by the large platform slowed him down enough to give him time to think, but not enough to give him time to act. Another ledge below him, Seb moved to the edge of the one he stood on. He waited until just the right moment before he stepped off.
The next shelf held, his knees taking the shock of his halted progress. Seb looked up and saw SA and Reyes. They were on the surface a good five metres above. He might as well have sunk to the floor for what good it did.
SA stared down at him. Are you okay?
No.
SA didn’t reply. What could she say? He’d simply stated the truth, and she’d promised she wouldn’t follow him down.
Then Seb heard something. A metallic voice coming through what sounded like the tannoy above. But he couldn’t hear the words. Not with all the water between him and the speakers. What’s that noise?
Sparks.
She’s on the tannoy?
Yep. You need to hang on, Seb. She’s going to drain the place.
Seb’s stomach bucked with his desperate need to breathe. His head pounded. I can’t hold on long.
It looked like SA had already sunk a little bit closer to him. Seb’s pulse ran a hard thud through his temples. His eyes stung from the pressure. Is the water lowering?
Yes. Just try to hang on. Relax, we’re coming down.
Strange sounds rang through Seb’s woozy head. Internal pops and clicks as if his innards were breaking apart like weakened seals on a failing submarine. He watched SA and Reyes get closer. Light-headed from the effort, his stomach pulled in against itself.
You’re doing so well, darling. Hold on.
SA’s legs got to within reaching distance as Seb’s world blurred. The water was still too far away. A headache crushed his skull. He just needed to hold on for a few more seconds.
By the time SA’s waist drew level with Seb’s face, he’d stood on his tiptoes, lifting his mouth and nose to the ceiling. Still not close enough to breathe. Nowhere near close enough.
Her breasts came to his eye level, the air painfully close, but still too far away. Seb’s legs buckled. She must have seen him going, because she ducked beneath the water and crouched down on the platform so he could stand on her back.
Wobbly and with very little energy left, Seb dug deep, stood on her, and gasped when he poked his head above the water. The call of his desperation echoed in the space. He saw his own fear mirrored in Reyes’ wide-eyed expression as she treaded water and watched him.
After several more greedy gulps, the water already at his chest, Seb stepped off SA’s back and pulled her to her feet. They embraced. He squeezed her like he’d never let her go again. Thank you. Thank you.
I didn’t do anything.
You kept me going. You did everything. Thank you.
The pair shared a brief kiss before Seb heard the tannoy again.
“It won’t be long before I can open up the room.”
While looking up, he said, “Thank you, Sparks.” It didn’t matter that she couldn’t hear him.
The water continued to run out of the room and Seb looked at the platforms he’d have to jump across to get down to the ground. You should let the water take you. It’ll be easier than jumping.
You sure?
Of course. Go on.
A curt nod, SA stepped backwards off the platform and fell with a splash. She treaded water as she sank with its lowering level.
Chapter 54
Seb jumped down from one of the last shelves, a splash of water kicking up from where no more than an inch-high puddle remained. The door that had let the sharks in remained open. Sparks strode through it and looked at the three of them before taking in the soaked room. Everywhere glistened with damp. A look at the dead sharks, she exhaled so her cheeks puffed out and said, “It was pretty close, then?”
“You have no idea,” Reyes said.
Neither Seb nor SA responded.
“I did my best,” Sparks then said.
Although exhausted, a headache crushing his skull, Seb nodded. “You did. And it was enough to save us. Without you, we would have been screwed.”
Another look at the sharks, Sparks raised her eyebrows. “You sure about that? Looks like you did all right on your own.”
“I was under water when your voice came through on the tannoy.”
“Oh.”
“So, thank you. I owe you big time.”
“Maybe pay me back by trusting me enough to invite me with you the next time you go somewhere, yeah?”
She had a point. “Did you find out who commissioned the parasites?”
Sparks winced. “You’re not going to like this.”
Seb let her continue.
“The Crimson Countess.”
“What?” Seb’s voice bounced off the hard and damp walls. “Not Moses?”
“No.”
“Okay, well, we need to get to her. But how the hell will we find her? We know she ain’t in her palace anymore.”
“I found that out too.” Sparks showed Seb her computer screen. “She’s living on a large spaceship. I ha
ve the coordinates for it.”
Another reminder of why he should ask Sparks along next time. “What would we do without you?”
“Drown.”
Just the mention of it raised Seb’s heart rate. His expression must have shown that.
“Sorry,” Sparks said and laughed. “Bad joke.”
A shake of his head, Seb forced a smile. “We’re alive. That’s all that matters. Have you heard from Bruke?”
The widening of Sparks’ eyes told Seb everything it needed to. “Shit!” she said. “I was so busy sorting this mess out …” She looked at the tunnel Bruke had been trapped in. The door leading to it had been opened too. It glistened with damp like the room they stood in. “I hope he’s okay.”
An anxious clench took control of Seb’s gut as he looked from the tunnel to the others and back to the tunnel again. “Yeah, me too.”
Chapter 55
Any thoughts Seb had about himself and his own exhaustion vanished as he stared down the tunnel Bruke had been trapped in. Pessimism threatened to overwhelm him. The tunnel sat so dark, he couldn’t see very far into it. Although, better than seeing Bruke’s drowned body. None of the others spoke as they ran towards it; the scuff of their feet over the wet floor was the only sound between them.
They headed down the corridor, Sparks lighting the way with her torch. Their collective sounds echoed in the tight space.
When they got to the right-angle bend, they still hadn’t come across Bruke. The first around it, Seb let go of a relieved sigh to see the shutter door at the other end. It had been forced open. His voice ran away from him. “He got out.”
No need for Sparks’ torch, Seb picked up the pace and the others followed.
Even before entering it, Seb smelled the charred foyer. Not as strong as before, but it still stank. When they ran into it, he looked at the cleaner floor from where the water had passed over it.
At the other side of the foyer first, Seb burst out through the gap in the large front doors. The sight before him ground him to a halt.
When SA, Reyes, and Sparks came out after him, Reyes voiced Seb’s thoughts. “Oh my.”
At least forty of the two-headed lion creatures lay dead on the ground. Obliterated. Some of them had one head torn clean off. Some of them had both. A complete massacre. Seb looked down at one by his feet. It looked like its front legs had been forced apart, a deep tear down its chest that exposed its huge, and very still, heart.
Then Seb saw him. “Bruke! You’re okay!”
Like he’d done inside the gene farm, Seb led the charge over to Bruke. He slalomed through the dead bodies of the beasts and the broken and ruined masonry of the city.
When Seb got to Bruke, the scaled creature didn’t look up. His attention on his bloody hands, he sat with his entire frame slumped.
Still a few metres away from him, Seb slowed down. “You know, Bruke, when you go berserk, it’s because you need to. You won’t hurt any of us when you’re doing it. You know that, right?”
But Bruke didn’t lift his head. While remaining sat on a mossy rock, he watched the ground and spoke in a deep growl. “I’m glad you trust it.”
“And you should too.” Hand outstretched to help his friend up, Seb said, “Imagine if you hadn’t cleared these creatures away for us. You’ve kept all of us from harm yet again. Come on, let’s go.”
Instead of taking Seb’s hand, Bruke got to his feet by himself. His attention still on the ground, he followed Seb’s lead back into the ship Reyes had taken from the Shadow Order. The footsteps of the others followed them in too. Bruke might be scared of his gift and what it turned him in to, but at least he’d survived. He could deal with his fear much better than he could deal with his death.
Chapter 56
The taste of the coffee he’d just drunk lay along Seb’s tongue, drying his mouth and throat, but he didn’t have it in him to get up at that moment for water. His body leaden from the effort of the past few days, he simply sat there, fantasising about quenching his thirst.
In the back of the ship with Sparks, SA, and Bruke, Seb watched Reyes guide the vessel before he looked back at Bruke. Although not quite recovered from his ordeal, he had spoken a few words since they’d been on the ship.
Seb turned to Sparks and said, “Those beings …”
“Which beings?”
“The ones on the tannoy in the gene farm.”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do to them?”
The question seemed to pique SA and Bruke’s interest too.
“Nothing,” she said, and before Seb could question that, she added, “Well, not nothing, but I didn’t hurt them, I swear.”
When the rest of the information didn’t come, Seb shrugged. “Then what did you do?”
“I cuffed them to a pipe in their control room.”
No wonder she seemed sheepish. “And left them there?”
“Why do you care about them? They tried to kill us.”
“We’re better than that.”
“We kill.”
“Only when we have no other choice.”
“Anyway,” Sparks said. “The cuffs were on a timer. We have a day and a half before they’re free. I put food and water nearby so they won’t get thirsty or hungry, but they won’t be able to move far until sometime tomorrow. And when they do, I crashed their comms, so they’ll have to go off planet to contact the Countess. Hopefully we’ll be done before that happens.”
The caffeine in Seb’s blood drove his quickened pulse when he thought about what they were heading into.
“And another thing,” Sparks said. “I found out that the Countess is behind a lot of the slavery in the galaxy. She’s the main trafficker. So if we take her down, we’ll make a big dent in that problem.”
Seb nodded at his small friend. “Thank you. And sorry, I should have trusted you wouldn’t leave them to starve or die of thirst.”
A slight twist of indignation on her small face, Sparks dipped a nod at Seb but didn’t reply. No one else spoke either.
Seb watched SA lean back in her seat and stare up at the ceiling. She looked close to drifting off, but he said it anyway. If we’re going against the Countess, don’t you think you should tell the others about your gift?
SA sat up and stared at Seb. NO. I’m not ready to show them.
But think what you could have done back there in the gene farm. You could have spoken to Sparks to let her know we were drowning. She could have spoken back to tell you where she was.
She knew the urgency of the situation. Me in her head wouldn’t have helped in any way. In fact, it probably would have stressed her out more.
What about Bruke? We needed to know he was okay.
A normally calm demeanour, SA frowned at Seb. Just leave it, yeah? Don’t make me regret showing you what I can do.
Although Seb wanted to understand more, he didn’t push it. He couldn’t lose contact with her now he had it. Reyes then cut their conversation off by calling back to them, “We’re here.”
All four of them stood up at the same time and made their way to the open cockpit. When Seb saw the Countess’ vessel, the edges of his vision blurred, his gift about to kick in because of the threat. At least twenty to thirty times the size of the their own, his mouth fell wide to look at it. “I wonder how many soldiers she has inside that thing?”
“Too many,” Bruke said.
Upon nearing the Countess’ ship, Reyes turned their engines off. She then flicked another switch.
“What’s that?” Sparks said. Any resentment she’d felt for Reyes and her ability to fly had apparently gone. Hard to be bitter when Reyes’ skills were so much better than her own.
Reyes looked pleased to be asked and bristled a little when she explained. “It’s a magnet. This will pull us close and then attach us to their ship.” After she’d pressed another button, she looked at Sparks. “This button frees a mech on the top of this ship. Almost half this vessel is made up from it.”
“I might not need it,” Reyes said, “but I’d rather be prepared than not. Right, you lot, hold on.”
Their vessel shuddered as they drew closer to the Countess’. The vibration grew in ferocity until it blurred Seb’s vision. A loud clunk then shook through the floor as the two metal hulls connected. The shuddering stopped and left an eerie stillness in its wake.
After a deep breath that did little to relax him, Seb broke the tense silence. “Looks like this is it, then.”
Chapter 57
The way Reyes attached their ship to the Countess’ reminded Seb of a leech. A metal tube poked from the bottom of their vessel. It had a ring of saw-like teeth around it, which bit into the hull of the Countess’ ship.
A circular window afforded Seb a view down the tube. He saw when they cut through, the dark circle of grey steel giving way to light. “What happens when we disconnect?”
“We can leave the tunnel behind so it seals the hole. If the Countess’ army prove to be troublesome, we can take it with us. They’ll be too busy fixing it to follow us.”
As Seb thought it over, chewing the inside of his mouth, he said, “Hopefully it’s the former.”
Reyes pressed a button that pulled the window away, and Seb went through the chute first. He landed with a slap against the hard metal floor of what looked to be a hall. They’d bored in through a side wall, so he didn’t have far to fall. Although he scanned the area—his eyes stinging from fatigue and trying to penetrate the dark corners—he couldn’t see anything.
A glance back up the tube at the others, Seb raised his thumb. “We look good for now.”
Sparks came through next, computer in hand as she landed. She already had a map of the Countess’ ship on it. As the others came through, she showed it to Seb. “We’re not far from her quarters.” With one of her long fingers, she traced the route they would need to follow. Just one corridor between them.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 95