by James Axler
As they passed one of the other blocked stairways, they heard shouts and banging from the other side. “We have to open it!” Mildred shouted. “I’m not going to let them drown like trapped rats!”
“Fireblast!” Ryan said as the ship settled even lower and waves broke over the deck, showering all of them in seawater. “All right, I’ve got it!” He let go of the railing and waded to the barrier. Finding the hatch, he undid the bolt and opened it, allowing even more water to pour onto the deck from inside the ship. Also inside was a packed cluster of Downrunners, all of whom tried to get through the opening at once.
“Come on, come on, move it!” he shouted, grabbing one and hauling him out. “Go, go, go!” He grabbed two more and pulled them through, then left the rest to fend for themselves.
“Thank you, Ryan!” Mildred shouted.
“Just hope it didn’t cost us our lives!” he shouted back.
The bow of the Ocean Queen was now completely under the waves, and the stern was rising into the air as they reached it. Incredibly, the escape pod was still tethered to the ship by the heavy chain, which whipped back and forth in the storm.
“We’re going to have to go hand over hand down to it!” Ryan shouted. “J.B., you and I’ll keep anyone else from following! Mildred, you first! Go!”
Gritting her teeth, the black woman grabbed the whip-sawing chain and began descending toward the pod. Her dangling weight made the chain settle down, and Ryan sent Doc after her once she had gotten about twenty feet out. Next, he brought Krysty forward and kissed her hard. “If Doc goes in, help him if you can. See you on the pod.”
“You, too.” She started to traverse the chain, which had now settled under the weight of the three people working toward the pod. Ryan let them get about halfway there, then sent Ricky and Jak down next. Once they were several yards out, Ryan turned to his oldest friend.
“You’re up, J.B.!”
Turning from where he had been guarding their rear, J.B. slung his Uzi and grabbed the chain. “You’re coming right behind me?”
“Damn right I am!” Ryan clapped his shoulder. “Go!”
The Armorer swung himself out over the wild water, swinging hand over hand. As he did, the rear of the cruise ship rose even higher in the air, exposing the huge propellers, which were still turning fruitlessly in the heavy rain.
Ryan let J.B. get out about five yards, and was about to grab the chain when he heard a shout from behind him. “Cawdor!”
It was followed by a blow to his head that sent Ryan skidding toward the ship’s edge.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The moment he heard his name, Ryan had managed to duck just enough so the blow to his head didn’t knock him out, but glanced off his skull, instead. He rolled over and regained his feet, shaking his head as he stood to face his attacker.
Captain Frost stood a few feet away, two of the modified oars in his hands. His uniform was soaked and smudged, with one sleeve half torn off. With the wind and rain lashing his face and hair, he looked like a man possessed. “You’ve ruined everything! You’ve destroyed everything that De Kooning and all of us have worked for, for the past hundred years!”
“This ship was ready to blow before we ever set foot on it,” Ryan snarled. “I’m leaving now—” He stepped toward the chain but was stopped by Frost, who stepped in front of him. Ryan’s hand dropped to the butt of his blaster, but the captain put the point of an oar to his throat.
“Touch that weapon and I’ll stab you and feed you to the sharks!” Frost screamed. “You’re not getting off that easily! The captain will be going down with the ship, but I’ll have the pleasure of taking you with me!” He tossed the other oar at Ryan, who caught it out of reflex. The stern rose even higher as he stepped away from the other man, testing the weapon for its balance.
“Do you seriously—” was all he got out before the other man was on him, wielding the oar like a staff, jabbing with the pointed end, then reversing it in a blur to swat at the one-eyed man’s head with the flat end.
Ryan parried both attacks as he took another step backward, getting a feel for his weapon and the other man’s fighting style. He dodged a jab at his hand and batted the oar out of the way, riposting with a shot to Frost’s shoulder that made him grunt in pain.
“You learn fast!” the captain shouted over the roar of the propellers below them. “But I’ve been fighting with these for years!” He reversed his oar and swept at Ryan’s feet. Although he skipped back a step, the oar caught him on the shin with a painful smack.
Limping a bit now, Ryan circled the captain until he had the man’s back to the very rear of the ship. He feinted with the pointed oar at the other man’s head, then at his hands, then brought the other end down in an overhead chop at Frost’s head.
The captain brought his oar up to block, but Ryan kept battering at his head, driving the man backward with each blow, and not allowing him any time to use a different defense. They drew closer and closer to the edge, and finally Ryan raised his oar and brought it down in a crushing blow that broke Frost’s weapon in two.
Frost drew back and threw the oar’s pointed end at Ryan, who batted it out of the way. Holding the oar end like a club, the captain screamed with rage and charged, his weapon raised overhead to smash Ryan’s skull.
Ryan met him head-on, bracing his oar and setting it against the crazy man’s charge. Seeing the danger, Frost tried to stop but his feet skidded on the wet deck, and he fell onto the sharpened end of the oar. The large spike caught him just below the heart, piercing straight through and coming out his back in a thick gout of blood.
“Cawdor...” Frost sagged against him, driving the pole even farther into his body. “My ship is lost.... End this...please....”
With a last shriek of tortured metal, the Ocean Queen began slipping under the surface of the water. Ryan pushed Frost over to the edge of the stern and held him over the whirling propellers. Frost’s head lolled on his shoulders, but at the last second, he seemed to become aware of what was about to happen, and nodded.
Without a word, Ryan let him go. He fell into the spinning blades and was chopped to the side by one of them, disappearing into the stormy ocean without a trace.
By now the stern was only a few feet above the water and sinking fast. As the propellers reentered the ocean, Ryan tried removing the pin from the link that connected the escape pod to the ocean liner, but it was bent, and he couldn’t budge it. Unslinging his longblaster, he chambered a round and shot the chain once, then again. His last shot sheared off the end, and the pin began sliding out.
Ryan slung his longblaster and grabbed the end of the chain as it pulled away from the sinking ship. He kicked with his feet, trying to put as much distance between himself and the dying ship as possible, to avoid being sucked down with it. Even so, he felt the churning blades as they chopped the water beneath him, briefly sucking him under the surface.
Swimming as hard as he could with one hand, Ryan broke the surface and felt himself being hauled through the waves. The water pounded him so hard it was all he could do to hang on as he was drawn closer to the pod. Finally, however, he saw J.B. and Krysty reeling in the chain for all they were worth.
“Hang on, Ryan—almost there!” Krysty shouted as she redoubled her efforts. Moments later, he was close enough to the side to grab their outstretched hands and be dragged aboard.
They shoved Ryan inside and closed and sealed the hatch. He fell to the floor, coughing up the seawater he’d swallowed on the way over. When his lungs were clear again, he rolled over and eyed his companions, who were gathered around him with anxious looks on their faces.
“I don’t know...about all of you,” he said between pants for air. “But I’ve had...enough of the...bastard ocean...and ships...to last a lifetime!”
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781460318812
Copyright © 2013 by Worldwide Library
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