by G. S. Fields
“I’ve got to get there,” I said.
I started to sit up, but the pain punched me back down. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. You have a very serious wound. It needs time to heal. Besides, the message said that they have heightened security around Male. Only authorized ships are allowed to dock and even then, they’re not letting anyone on or off the island.”
“What? Why?”
“It said that it was to prevent disorder and disruptions to the transfer process.”
I tossed William’s data mat on to the bed. “Shit.”
“What is it?” William asked.
“Nothing. Wait! Is Anand still here?”
Mohamed nodded. “Yes, but he is getting ready to depart. He said that he must continue his supply deliveries before the MDF becomes suspicious.”
“I need to see him. Can you get him for me?”
"He may have already left, but I'll go check.”
Mohamed left and William asked, “What do you want to see Anand for?”
He had the same worried expression that he did the night I left for the rescue mission. I couldn’t do this to him again, but I had to get to Male.
“William, do you remember the diversion?”
He nodded.
I continued. “I need you to do it again, but this time we’re going to trick Helen and Mohamed. Okay?”
“But why?”
“I think I know how we can stop the pirates from getting on that ship.”
“You’re going to Male, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
“Then I’m going too.”
“Absolutely. I can’t do this without you. But you have to do exactly what I say, okay?”
He nodded and said, “So what’s the plan?”
“I’ll tell you while you help me get dressed.”
Chapter 20
Anand tried to talk me out of going to Male. But in the end, he agreed to take me. I think he realized that I was going with or without his help. He probably figured that I had a better chance of making it there on his boat instead of, say, on my kayak.
Convincing Anand was one thing, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to convince Mohamed and Helen. That’s where William came in. While Anand helped me walk to his boat, William pretended that he had hurt his leg jumping out of the palm tree. It had worked once, so we decided to try it again. Thankfully, it worked again. But this time William joined me. He told me how he had climbed out Mohamed's window after Helen had taken him to the clinic.
On the trip to Male, I explained to William what I planned to do. The kid seemed up for it. Rick would have been proud.
Just as I finished going over the details, I felt the vibrations from the engines decrease and then stop all together.
“Something’s up,” I said. I looked at my watch. “We’re still fifteen minutes away.”
Nisha came into the room a few seconds later and said, “We must go.”
“Go? Where? What’s going on?” I asked.
“Quickly, into the cargo hold. We have been stopped by an MDF patrol and they are boarding us.” She looked worried. “Come, we haven’t much time.”
We followed her to the hold. I managed to walk without assistance, but each step brought a fresh surge of pain.
“Go in there,” she pointed to a large cube in the center of the room. It was a carbon fiber bin filled with crushed coral powder. The bin was fifteen feet by fifteen feet and almost ten feet tall.
“In there?” I asked.
“Yes, please hurry. They rarely check the powder bin. It is too messy.” She went over to the wall and brought back a ladder. William climbed up quickly. I followed, one rung at a time. Each step felt like someone punched me in the gut. Finally, I managed to get into the bin. As I laid down next to William, I saw the top of the ladder disappear.
The bin was filled almost to capacity and a fine power hung in the air around us like smoke. I tried to keep my mouth shut so that I wouldn’t cough. Ten minutes passed and I thought that maybe they wouldn’t inspect the hold after all, but then I heard the metallic clink of the hatch. I listened as people entered.
“You see, sir, just as I said. We are delivering fruits, vegetables, and some coral powder.” It was Anand’s voice.
An unfamiliar voice said, “Open that so I can see inside.”
“But it is just plantains,” Anand said.
“Open it.”
The pop of a carbon fiber lid echoed across the cargo hold.
“You see, just plantains. Go ahead, take some.”
The voice said. “And what’s in there?”
“Just coral powder.”
“I would like to see for myself.”
“Okay, but it is very messy. The powder sticks to everything and is hard to get out.”
I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards us. A few seconds later I looked up and saw the top of the ladder. My heart raced. If the MDF inspector looked in here, it would be all over. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned towards William. He looked as scared as I felt. I put a finger up to my lips and then looked back at the ladder.
“Here, let me show you.” Anand said. A minute later, I saw his smiling face looking down as me. We exchanged a quick glance before he reached into the bin, pulled out a handful of powder and said, “See, coral powder.”
“Yes, but I’d like to see for myself.”
“Of course,” Anand said. He started to climb down and I heard him fumble on the ladder.
“Stop,” the inspector said. “Look what you are doing!”
“I am so sorry. I told you that the powder was very messy. Oh my, you are all white, please, forgive me. Here, come with me. My wife, Nisha, will help clean you up.”
I smiled as I listened to the inspector continued to complain all the way out of the cargo hold.
When I heard the hatch close, I peeked over the edge. They were gone. I motioned for William to climb down and then I followed him. Once I reached the deck, we looked at each other and laughed. We both looked like ghosts.
“Come on,” I finally said. “We have to get this shit off of us.”
We took our clothes off and beat them against the side of the bin for a while. A cloud of dust enveloped us.
“This isn’t working,” William said. “I think it’s getting worse.” He began to cough.
“You’re right. Grab your stuff and let’s—” I felt the engines start up. “Come on. Let’s go find Nisha. She’ll know what to do.”
We found Nisha up on the bridge. She laughed when she saw us. “You look like spirits,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I know. Can you help us get the powder out of our clothes?”
She shook her head and said, “Coral powder is difficult to get out. I’ll go get you some of Anand’s clothes.”
She returned a few minutes later with a stack of t-shirts and sarongs.
“Thanks,” I said, as I reached for the clothes, but she pulled them away.
“Not yet, first you better get that dust off of your skin.” She motioned for us to follow her. She led us upstairs to a room with a tiny shower stall. “Be quick. We are entering the port now.”
William showered first, and while he dressed, I got in. As I washed the powder off, I inspected the stitches on my side. The gash was only two or three inches long. There was a little seepage, but not much.
By the time I finished with my shower and got dressed, Anand showed up and said, “Come with me.” We followed him back up to the bridge.
The dock was busier that I had seen it in a while. There were four ships unloading their cargo. There was no place for us to dock.
“When that ship is finished, they will start to unload our cargo. The dock workers are already on board getting ready.” Anand pointed down at four dockworkers near the bow. Two were opening the large cargo hatch on the deck.
“So how can we get out of here?” I asked.
“That is going to be the tricky part. Viyaja has imposed se
curity restrictions on all crews. We are not supposed to leave our ships. Only dockworkers are permitted to come and go. See over there?” He pointed at a gate along the perimeter fence. Two MDF guards were checking workers as they entered and left the area.
“Yeah, I see it. Is that the only way in and out?”
Anand nodded. “I am afraid so.”
“I suppose that swimming isn’t an option?” I said.
Anand shook his head. “No. They will spot you for sure.”
“Shit. So how are we going to get past the guards?”
Anand smiled and said, “I have an idea.”
I raised my eyebrows and waited.
“I thought that I could try the same trick that I pulled on that MDF inspector.”
“Huh?”
“You two just go down by the gate and wait. Act like dock workers. You’ll know what to do when the time comes.”
I looked at William. He looked as puzzled as I felt. We shrugged and thanked Anand before we slipped off the boat.
With all the activity on the dock, it wasn’t too hard for William and me to go unnoticed. We walked toward the gate and stopped by a stack of boxes. We pretended to look them over. I kept looking up at Anand’s boat, waiting for something to happen.
William asked, “What do you think he is going to do?”
“I’m not sure, but whatever it is we have to be ready to move. Okay?”
He nodded.
A small cargo crane was welded onto the deck of Anand's ship. I’d seen Anand use it to load and unload large cargo at Lohifushi. He was up in the cab now, getting ready to unload something from the cargo hold. He lowered the hook into the hold, and a few minutes later, I watched it emerge with the giant bin of coral powder. When the bin was about ten feet above the deck, Anand swung the crane arm around. The bin now hung in the air over the dock. A worker directed Anand to lower the bin. It started to descend, but stopped. A loud metallic clang echoed out from the crane. Suddenly the bin lurched hard to the right. Some powder spilled. A dust cloud drifted down over the dock workers. They turned and ran. Others noticed it. People began to yell and run. A second later, two of the four chains that held the bin broke free and the bin toppled completely over, swinging from the two remaining chains.
A massive white cloud rolled out over the dock. People ran past us toward the gate.
“Now, William. Go!”
We ran with the crowd. We fell into the mass of people who swarmed the gate. The guards tried to control the crowd, but when the cloud reached the gate, everyone, including the guards, ran out of the dock area. William and I followed the crowd for a while, but then I grabbed him and we peeled off towards the communications tower.
Anand’s diversion drew everyone’s attention, including people from across the island. People began to fill the streets to see what was going on. Everyone was so focused on the docks that William and I were able to get into the tower unnoticed.
When we reached the observation deck, my side burned like someone had stuck me with a hot poker. I looked down and saw a baseball-sized bloodstain on my shirt. William saw it too.
“You’re bleeding. What should we do?” he asked.
“Nothing, I’m fine. It’s just some seepage.” I didn’t want to worry him with the truth. “It must have squeezed out when we ran through the gate.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Maybe we should send Mohamed a message and ask what to do.”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry, it’s okay. Besides, it’s time to kick off the plan. Do you remember what you need to do?”
He nodded and said, “I wait outside the hotel.”
“Right. And then?”
“And then I find someone who looks like they’re from the Mars ship and I give them Jin’s data mat.”
“Perfect,” I said.
“But how will I know who is from the Mars ship?”
“I don’t know exactly, but they’re not going to be dressed like anyone around here. I guarantee it.”
“Will they have space suits on?”
I laughed, “Probably not, but their clothes will look different.”
“I still don’t understand why I can’t help you here first, and then we can find the Mars people together.”
“Because when those messages go out, the bad guys will try to disconnect the servers remotely. I have to keep them from doing that. When I reconfigure the servers, someone will notice and come to the tower. Luckily, the guys that I taught to operate systems are about as sharp as a coconut, so I’ll have plenty of time to get out and join you.”
William smiled.
“Once I’m done, the only way they can stop the messages from going out is by powering down the servers.”
“What will happen if they shut down the servers?”
“The whole IICN will go down. But don’t worry...they won’t do that, because I’m the only one who knows how to bring it back up.”
“What if they catch you before you finish?”
I put my hands on his shoulders and said, “William, we don’t have a lot of time for ‘what if’ questions. If we stick to the plan, everything should turn out fine. Now get going. The sooner I get started, the sooner I can get the hell out of here. I’ll see you in front of the hotel. Just wait for me there.”
He nodded, but he studied me for another few seconds before he turned and ran down the stairs. Before climbing the ladder up to the data center, I sent a quick note to Helen and Mohamed telling them where they could find William.
I climbed into the data center. The pain in my side was getting worse.
Once inside, I disabled the electronic lock on the hatch and went to work. It took me half an hour to reconfigure the servers. Besides shutting off remote administration access, I also shut down all inbound message traffic. Now the only way a message could go out was through my console. Then I downloaded all of the messages that I had copied from Jin’s data mat onto the server. When that was done, I downloaded an app that William and I wrote. The app was designed to send all of Shannon’s and Viyaja’s messages, along with an explanation of Shannon and Jamal's plan, out to every data mat. It was open kimono time.
Before pressing the SEND key, I said, “This is for you guys.” The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. I felt like Rick, Lanka, and Senil were all in the data center with me.
The app worked. I looked at the console and watched as the emails began flooding the network.
By now, Viyaja was shitting his pants. I got up and walked over to the radio relay box. I grimaced as pain shot through my side. I looked down and saw that the blood stain was getting bigger. I also saw that I had left a trail of blood on the concrete floor. It would take the app about twenty minutes to complete sending the messages. I should be able to hold on until it was finished.
I sat down by the radio relay box, turned on the external speaker, and set the radio to scan mode. From here, I could monitor all voice communications on the net. There wasn’t much chatter on the radio. Most of the calls were between the air traffic control tower and an incoming helojumper.
A high-pitched beep echoed around the data center. I looked over at the server and saw an alert indicator light up. Someone was trying to access the servers. I checked my watch. Another ten minutes and the app would finish.
Five minutes later, I heard the echo of footsteps coming up the stairs to the observation deck. I could tell there were two people. I prayed that it was some teenagers trying to squeeze in a quickie before dinner. Whoever they were, they had just reached the observation deck. I leaned closer to the hatch and listened. If they were lovers, then they were gay lovers, because the voices I heard were two men. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it sounded like they were having an argument. The argument ended and I heard the metallic sound of someone climbing the ladder.
Those technicians had never once showed up on time when I was training them. Why did they have to develop a work ethic now?
I listened to the soft
beeps as someone punched in the combination on the electronic keypad. A loud buzz let them know that the combination was invalid. He tried again. Same thing. After a short pause, there was pounding on the hatch followed by more arguing. This time I could make out some of it.
“The hatch is locked. I cannot get in,” the guy on the ladder yelled.
“Well, you better call operations and ask for instructions,” the other guy responded.
“To hell with you! I climbed the ladder. You call operations.”
The other guy called operations. I listened to him on the radio relay box. Viyaja answered the call. He didn’t sound happy. “You idiot. Break through the door and get in there.”
“I am sorry, sir, but I cannot. It is a steel door and I do not have the equipment for that.”
“Just stay there, you incompetent imbecile,” Viyaja said. “I am coming over myself.”
I smiled as I remembered the hours that Rick and I spent playing Texas Hold ‘Em. It was my turn to bet. I was all in.
Viyaja’s voice rang out from the external speaker again. This time he was on the MDF net. He ordered a helojumper to pick him and his personal guards up from the hotel roof. I checked my watch. It was going to be close.
I felt lightheaded, but I was able to write William a goodbye message.
I read it over.
Dear William,
If you’re getting this message then I guess I won't be able to keep my end of the deal and join you. I'm sorry, but it'll be okay. We did it.
I know your mom and dad are out there somewhere and they're proud of you. I'm proud too and I’m not talking about what we did today.
I’m proud of how you stood up the bad hand that life dealt you. You're are a much braver man than I ever was.
When you go to the Mars colonly, you'll do great things. I wish I could be there with you, but I promise that I'll be by your side every step of the way.