by Jake Bible
“Tactical nightmare,” Darby said. “I get tangled in him and someone comes down, then we are dead. I need to take point.”
“Fine, sure,” Kinsey said, looking at her cousin. “I’m going to need you to dig deep, Shane. I can’t carry your weight all on my own up those stairs.”
“If it means staying alive, then I can do it,” Shane said. “Just make sure I don’t fall backwards. My balance is off with only one eye.”
“Depth perception is shot,” Darby said, “that’ll play havoc with your shooting. You’ll have to retrain yourself.”
“Looking forward to it,” Shane said. “See what I did there? I said looking. But I’m missing an eye.”
“Hilarious,” Kinsey said, “now shut up and pay attention to each step.”
“Stay close,” Darby said. “Stay right on me. When we hit that hatch, we’ll have seconds to move.”
“Roger,” Kinsey said.
***
The truth about the elbow being the hardest part of the human body was very apparent to Jennings as he took one to the cheek. His head exploded with stars and whirls of light. He fell to a knee and thrust blindly with his machete. A grunt told him he hit his mark. The warmth of blood just reinforced that.
Jennings yanked the machete free from the man’s belly and shoved him away. The man stumbled back against the wall and stared at Jennings, as he tried to keep his intestines from slipping out of the hole in his gut.
“You…you…,” the man muttered as he slid to the floor. Then his eyes glazed over and he was silent.
It wasn’t a man at all, Jennings realized, but a boy of maybe sixteen.
The roaring sound of the diesel engines drew Jennings’s attention from the dead boy. He knew he didn’t have much time, that Kinsey was relying on him, so he shook off the pain in his head and moved as quickly as he could down the hall and towards his goal.
***
“Want me to take him?” Max asked over the com. “I have a clean line.”
“No, Mr. Reynolds,” Mr. Perry said, “I would prefer you didn’t. And yes, I have a com in my ear also. It is open to all channels. A perk of being in management. So don’t bother trying to coordinate my takedown.”
Popeye, as well as the pilot, Gunnar, Bobby, and some of the crew, all struggled to cut up and remove the whale carcass and detangle it from the helo’s skids. There was a good deal of gagging and possibly some vomiting as the stench nearly overpowered them all.
Mr. Perry, still holding a pistol to Ms. Horace’s temple, with Mr. Longbottom close at hand, stood at the base of the helipad and kept his eye on Thorne, Darren, and Mr. Ballantine.
“Where can this possibly lead, Stefan?” Mr. Ballantine said. “The company won’t stand for it. You’ll be hunted down and killed no matter where you go.”
“The company won’t know a thing about any of this,” Mr. Perry replied, “no witnesses, no problems.”
“There will be plenty of witnesses,” Thorne said.
“No, there won’t,” Mr. Perry said, “my partners will make sure of that.”
“Saying you’re going to kill us anyway undermines your leverage,” Thorne said, “you’re not very good at this, are you?”
“Oh, I have leverage, don’t I, Mr. Ballantine?” Mr. Perry smiled.
“Yes,” Mr. Ballantine said, “she’ll live? You promise?”
“It’s part of the deal,” Mr. Longbottom said, finally speaking up, “she lives or I don’t corroborate.”
“Exactly,” Mr. Perry said, “plus, you are a SEAL, Commander Thorne. Never say die, never give up. I know deep down you actually think you can survive this. Even with the overpowering threat coming towards us.”
“Yeah,” Thorne smile,. “take the shot, Max.”
“No!” Mr. Ballantine shouted. “Do not take the shot!”
“Vinny?” Max asked. “Your call.”
“Please,” Mr. Ballantine said, “don’t. There is another way. You’ll think of it. It’s why I hired you.”
“Ha!” Mr. Perry barked. “The reason I let you hire Thorne and his misfits is for the opposite reason! They are washouts. Each one of them flawed and subpar. You just keep thinking of a way to beat me, Commander Thorne. I’m counting on it.”
Thorne just glared.
“May I ask why?” Mr. Ballantine said, gesturing towards the cleanup crew. “Since we have some time before you can leave us. Why are you doing this?”
“Money,” Mr. Perry said, “a better life than just a company stooge.”
“The shark? Is that it? Who’s buying it? Which biotech company bought you?” Mr. Ballantine asked.
“Does it matter?” Mr. Perry replied.
“To me, yes,” Mr. Ballantine said, “I’ll cross them off the possible client list.”
“Ever the optimist, Ballantine,” Mr. Perry said. “How you rose in the company I’ll never figure out.” He glanced at Darren. “You can stop that, Captain. Hand signal to your Chief up on the bridge all you want, it makes no difference in today’s outcome.”
“Just flexing my hand,” Darren said, “getting it loose so it doesn’t hurt as much when I beat the shit out of you.”
“Another optimist,” Mr. Perry laughed, “a true ship of fools.”
“Stefan,” Ms. Horace croaked.
“Shut up, Diane,” Mr. Perry said, and squeezed her throat tighter, “don’t complicate this. You may get out of this alive.”
“Then you’ll have a witness,” Thorne said.
“But a well-paid one,” Mr. Longbottom said.
“She’ll live comfortably for the rest of her life,” Mr. Perry said, “but in a quiet part of the world, having retired from the company due to her grief stricken state at your death, Ballantine.”
“And knowing she has a target on her head until she dies,” Mr. Ballantine said. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good,” Mr. Perry nodded, then looked at the cleanup crew. “How close are we, pilot? The other ship has about arrived. I’d like to be gone soon, if you don’t mind.”
“Then you come clean some of this shit up,” the pilot snapped, “Asshole.”
***
“Not too close,” Daacad said as he stood on the bridge, “we do not want to be right next to it when we blow it out of the water.”
“Yes, sir.”
He left the bridge and pulled a radio from his pocket, adjusting the channel before putting it to his mouth. “Perry? Do you read me, Mr. Perry?”
“I do, Mr. Shimbir,” Mr. Perry’s voice responded over the radio, “but I would prefer if you maintained radio silence. There are ears listening.”
“We will be in range shortly,” Daacad said as he looked down at the deck below and the eight men that held RPGs over their shoulders. “Do you have the shark that killed my son?”
“That is quite enough, Mr. Shimbir,” Mr. Perry said, “please do as I ask and go silent.”
Daacad didn’t like to be ordered about like that, but he let it slide and turned off the radio. He would deal with Mr. Perry’s disrespect when the man stood before him.
***
“Aaah!” Darby hissed as the blade slid into her shoulder. “Fuck!”
She spun about, twisting the arm attached to the knife around her own arm and then dropped to her knees. Her weight and momentum snapped the arm, and she stood quickly and broke the man’s neck before he could cry out.
“Shit,” Kinsey said, “you hurt bad?”
“Not bad,” Darby said, exploring the wound with her fingers, “it won’t slow me.”
“Good,” Kinsey said, “the lifeboat is this way.”
“No,” Darby said. “The ship is turning. That side will be facing the Beowulf II. We need to be on the other side.”
“Boats on both sides,” Shane said, “boats for all.”
His head sagged and Kinsey gave him a quick slap.
“No going into shock,” Kinsey said, “you stay awake, Shane. Dig deep, frogman! This is the real shit!”
“God,” Kinsey said, “it’ll be eye puns for the rest of your life, won’t it?”
“Yes, yes it will,” Shane replied, “but since we’ll probably die soon, you won’t have to deal with them much longer.”
***
He tried to listen at the hatch to the engine room to hear if anyone was inside, but the noise was too much for Jennings to sift through, so he just opened the hatch and hoped for the best.
He got the worst.
“Who are you?” a man asked as he picked up an AK-47 that had been leaning against some machinery. “Where did you come from?”
“Shit,” Jennings said, “I, uh, well. I’m the new guy.”
“No you are the dead guy,” the man said, gesturing for Jennings to move to the side. “You stand there. Do not move.”
Jennings set his machete down, moved to the side of the hatch and stood there, his hands raised. He looked about the engine room and was glad to see that he knew the engines pretty well. If he didn’t get his ass blown off, he could shut them down permanently, and fairly easily.
But first he’d have to deal with the man with the rifle. And the six other men that started to appear from around the engines as they heard their comrade’s voice. Lucky for Jennings, the first man was the only one armed. With a rifle at least. The others had various tools in their hands that could prove quite lethal if needed.
“I know, I know,” Jennings said, “this is the hazing part, right? Give the new guy a hard time. Push him around a little.”
The man with the rifle moved closer, gripping his weapon tighter with each step.
“You shut up,” the man said, “you are not part of this crew. I know everyone on board and they do not look like you.”
“Oh, right, because I’m white?” Jennings asked. “That’s kind of racist, don’t you think?”
“Shut up!” the man yelled. His audience cringed and Jennings had to wonder if maybe the man was in the engine room not to guard the engines, but to guard the men working on the engines.
“You guys like this guy?” Jennings addressed the mechanics. “Is he a pal of yours? Or is he a dick that gets his kicks from threatening you with his little rifle?”
“I said to shut up!” the man shouted and closed on Jennings quickly. He spun the rifle and smashed the butt into Jennings’s face. “There! See! You shut up now!”
Blood spurted from Jennings’s nose and his hands went to his face as he fell to one knee. He looked up, but only saw the end of the rifle again as the man slammed it into his cheek right where the elbow had connected before. He felt the skin split open and tried to avoid the next attack, but he wasn’t fast enough as he was nailed once more with the rifle. The blow sent him sprawling on the floor.
The man laughed and kicked Jennings in the ribs.
“New guy, yes? That you?” the man laughed again, kicked again. “Why you down on the ground, new guy? You don’t like to work? That it, new guy?” He kept laughing, kept kicking. “New guy…you must think I’m stupid.”
The blows to his head had him dazed, so at that moment, Jennings didn’t know what he thought.
***
“There!” Gunnar shouted. “It’s clear enough! The helicopter can take off just fine! Leave me something!”
“More optimism,” Mr. Perry said as looked to the pilot. “Can you lift off now?”
“Yeah,” the pilot said, “not that I want to. You’ll probably just kill me.”
“I promise I won’t,” Mr. Perry said. “I’ll need you to take us from the ship to land. Can’t exactly come into port on a pirate ship, now can we?”
The pilot eyed the shark carcass on the loading deck below. “Uh, how much does that weigh?”
“Several tons,” Gunnar said.
“Several tons?” the pilot said and then laughed. “That’s not coming with.”
“I assure you the weight rating on your helicopter will allow us to fly the short distance to the other ship,” Mr. Perry said.
“At like five feet above the water,” the pilot said.
“Tow it over,” Popeye suggested, “net it, tow it through the water, and then winch it up on deck with the two loading cranes on the back of that ship.”
Everyone looked at Popeye.
“What?” he asked. “I’m the boatswain. I figure this shit out.”
“Thank you, Mr. De Bruhl,” Mr. Ballantine sighed, “that was very helpful.”
“Make it happen,” Mr. Perry said, “now.”
***
“I so want to blast a hole in that guy,” Max said as he kept his scope on Mr. Perry. “Come on, I can do this.”
“Hold,” Lucy said, “if we…”
“If we…what?” Max asked.
“Check your three,” Lucy said. “Ditch the scope and go eyes on.”
Max looked away from his scope and off to his right. “What am I looking at?”
“In the water,” Lucy said, “see that shadow moving?”
“Yeah,” Max said, “it just went under the B2. Looked big. Probably a shark coming to check out the all the chum we’ve been tossing in the water. I’ll bet we’ll see quite a few more soon.”
“That was a big shadow,” Lucy said, “and where are all the others? There should be a feeding frenzy down there with all those whale guts.”
“The little ones are hanging back,” Max said.
“Not even great whites command that respect when there’s this much blood and guts.”
“So, what? Another monster shark?”
“I don’t know,” Lucy replied, “but one of us should keep an eye on the water and one on the pirates incoming.”
***
The crew had the shark carcass netted and strapped tight. The pilot made sure the two lines were placed correctly on the hooks up under the belly of the helo.
“That’s as good as it gets,” the pilot said as he hopped into the helo. “I’ll get us started up and we can take off in a minute.”
The rotors began to spin as the pilot started the engines.
“Good bye, Ballantine,” Mr. Perry shouted over the noise. “It was good working with you. I mean that. Sorry to rain on your parade.”
“Go fuck yourself, Perry!” Thorne yelled.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Mr. Ballantine said, “thank you, Commander.”
Mr. Perry backed up to the helo and waited as Mr. Longbottom opened the side door. He took the pistol as Mr. Perry climbed in with Ms. Horace following right behind. The door slid closed and the helo started to lift from the pad, bits of whale sinew and offal dripping from the skids.
The helo angled and began to fly slowly out over the water, the lines connecting it to the netted shark going taught. Everyone could hear the engines strain as the helo pulled the shark from the ship and into the water. Water splashed everywhere and the helo bucked before regaining stability, and headed for the incoming ship. The shark was almost completely submerged making for very slow progress.
“Come on, Uncle Vinny!” Max yelled over the com. “One in the gas tank! Boom, done!”
“No,” Thorne said, “we are still alive for now. Let’s see how this plays---”
“Holy shit!” Lucy shouted over the com.
Everyone jumped and more than a few members of the crew screamed as the water exploded around the shark carcass. Massive jaws, larger than any of them had ever seen before, larger than the dead shark, chomped down on the carcass and pulled it below.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Thorne said, “what the fuck was that, Ballantine?”
“That would be the original,” Mr. Ballantine said. “I had a feeling it was still hanging around.”
The shark carcass was lost below the churning water, but the tow lines were still visible. And still attached to the helo. The machine began to strain and fight as the pilot put all the power into the rotors, trying
to gain some lift and fight the drag of the carcass. But it was too late. The helo was pulled down into the water as the monster shark dove deep.
There was a massive fireball and the sound of wrenching metal as the helicopter exploded on impact.
“Told you there was something in the water,” Popeye said, “but none of ya would listen.”
***
“What the fuck was that?” Kinsey asked.
“Take him,” Darby said as she helped Kinsey lift Shane into a lifeboat. “I’ll go for a look. If I’m not back in a minute –one minute- then you lower this into the water and get out of here.”
“That was a big boom,” Shane said, his face flushed and feverish, “big. Boom.”
“You get your ass back here,” Kinsey said, “we don’t need to see what it was, we need to get off this ship.”
“One minute,” Darby said as she held up a finger.
She took off running, ducking behind crates and random junk piled on the deck, able to avoid detection as she made her way to a clear spot by the rail. The water below was filled with debris and flaming fuel. Then the shark carcass bobbed to the surface, most of it bitten in half, held together only by twisted ropes and netting. Darby could see a distinct shadow below the carcass, circling, circling.
“Oh crap,” Darby said. “Kinsey. She can’t go into the water.”
She turned about, ready to run and warn Kinsey and Shane, but came face to face with Daacad instead.
“Little lady,” Daacad said, “you should not be here.”
***
“No more waiting,” Max said as he turned his scope to the pirate ship, “time to go to work.” He squeezed the trigger and the man’s head that had been in his crosshairs was turned to a bloody mist. “Motherfucker! Nailed it!”
Lucy didn’t argue that time and joined right in. Anyone holding an RPG was quickly dropped. And anyone standing next to them were dropped as well. The air above the pirate ship was filled with smoke from the helicopter and blood from the dead.