by Matt Betts
“Here goes.” Tsui used Holli’s code and set off the explosives.
The Lusca shook as the explosion shook the beast, black gore spilled out of the wound and the thing’s eyes rolled up to look at the sky. It flailed its tentacles wildly and reached out for the Cudgel, locking on to the machine’s waist.
“Holy shit, hang on,” Holli shouted into her mic, but no one answered.
Linden tried next, hoping that someone was inside that ship that could respond.
As the Cudgel began to tilt, the Lusca’s appendages slipped away and the beast fell to the beach.
It was too much to hope that it was over, so Linden didn’t say a word. He was afraid to breathe, lest his expelled air knock the Cudgel over.
62
The buzzers and klaxons were still going off and adding to the chaos in the control room. Slags still climbed through the crack in the armor and into the arm casing that Ozzie had been in. The loud thuds when Jakob’s shotgun went off, dispatching the creatures whenever their undersides were exposed. Takis’s wails of despair still cut through it all. Rina wept silently next to Ozzie’s body.
Just beyond the viewport, the massive body of the Lusca lay limp in the water. The tentacles swayed with the tide.
What would have been different Cass wondered. Had they all stayed out of it? If they’d stayed with the Swansea or the Alba Varden?
Drones came toward the frozen-in-place Cudgel. They flashed lights around the area, including directly at the control area. They couldn’t see her, she knew, but she still looked away.
63
The television screen showed the Lusca was down and wasn’t getting up, so Martin flipped the channel. The next station showed the same. None of the talking heads were saying anything about the Cudgel or the crew.
“They’ll tell us what happened,” Ben said. “Just as soon as they can sort things out.”
The radios had all gone quiet just after Martin and the others transmitted the code to shut down the Lusca’s energy draining capabilities. No one could call in or out via sat phone or anything else.
Martin sat back and tried to fight the urge to sleep now that everything was done. He put his hands on his chest and stared at the screen.
64
The chaos of the rescue workers and military vehicles was overwhelming to Cass, even after she’d spent hours in front of the controls of the Cudgel with lights flashing and warnings blaring. A few miles offshore, the Adamant was moving cautiously into port. Cass could see a medical drone speeding ahead of it, lights flashing, presumably with Martin onboard. According to Ben, neither he nor the rest of the crew onboard were allowed to accompany Martin, much to their consternation. They reported that he’d been in good condition, the bandages and paste that they’d used from the Cudgel’s medical bay had held and likely saved his life.
A similar craft had lifted off from the Cudgel, taking Ozzie away. The medical team had tried to keep Takis away, but that didn’t go well for them. He shoved his way in, and planted himself next to his brother and snapped himself into a harness. The team decided there were too many people to help that day to waste time fighting a losing battle.
The carcass of the Lusca was stretched along the beach, smoldering from the open wound. Tentacles draped at odd angles, and dark fluids shimmered on the beast’s side and hardened in the sand below. The coastline was fairly trashed, but the Cudgel and the drones had somehow managed to keep the Lusca from crushing or destroying most of the civilian buildings and roads. The naval base was not as fortunate, one of the huge shipyards to the north suffered a roof collapse, and a number of the barracks were obliterated by flying debris.
Kay-Tee’s Ocean View Motel was quite safe, and turned out to be a good place to stay out of the way of the military for the time being. Takis had accompanied Ozzie’s body back to the military hospital, with Rina and Jakob riding in the transport with him. Cass had been contacted by Linden as to his location and she decided to join his small team, even if it would only be for a few moments before she went to the hospital herself.
After introductions were made, and Cass managed to take a seat and breathe a little, they talked and informally discussed the last few days. She knew there would be a more stuffy meeting-days or weeks of them, even-but it felt good to be back with someone she was more familiar with.
“I don’t know if it was the right thing to do.”
“You really didn’t have any choice,” Holli said. “It sounds like they made you go along with it and you did your best to make it work.”
It wasn’t true, and Cass knew it. “No. I could’ve stopped it. Anytime. It wasn’t like they held a gun to my head. I like them. I wanted them to succeed.”
“The Lusca was defeated. That’s important. The Oregon coast isn’t currently glowing with radiation, that’s a good thing,” Linden said. He pulled a handful of beers from the mini fridge and offered one to Cass. She waved him off.
Tsui grabbed the one she didn’t want and grabbed another. “Most importantly, I get sandwiches for the rest of my life.” He opened one beer, chugged it, and tossed the bottle into the nearest garbage can, then opened the other.
It occurred to Cass that she had no idea who the man was. “How do you fit in here?”
“He’s a scientist that we busted out of prison so he could help us.” Linden nodded and raised his bottle to Tsui.
“I’m the one who helped get Mister Punchy into the Cudgel’s hand so it could be placed properly to explode with maximum grossness.” Tsui smiled and waved his bottle around in celebration. “And effectiveness.”
“You know that drone was mine? I was kind of attached to it.”
Tsui looked to Holli and Linden. They nodded back at him to confirm she was being honest and not pulling his leg. “I was just trying to help. I mean, it was you that actually put it in place to finally explode.”
Cass didn’t even have the heart to mess with Tsui, on any other occasion she would have strung him along. “I think I’m going to try to catch a ride to the hospital. See how Martin is doing.” She took a long drink of water and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Manners and appearances had kind of gone out the window at that point.
“I have no idea what the higher-ups are going to say or do. My guess is they’ll take turns yelling at you and then praising you,” Linden said. “Either way, I think they’ll keep things as quiet as possible about the Cudgel and play up the Lusca as the boogeyman here.”
“They shouldn’t keep it quiet, I got people killed. I used horrible judgement. If I’d done things by the book, this wouldn’t have happened.” She looked at the bed in the corner and suddenly wanted sleep. It had been too long since she’d slept more than a couple of hours in a row. If she even so much as sat down on the fluffy bed, she knew she’d fall asleep. Next to the bed, Cass pulled open the drawer on the night stand and pulled out a KAY-TEE notepad and pen. She quickly wrote a sloppy letter of resignation and folded it in half. After a deep breath, she turned to find Linden with his hand out. Cass shook it and nodded. She handed him the letter before turning to leave.
Linden looked at it. “I’m not sure this is entirely legal. I don’t think I can accept it.”
“It’s legal. We had a deal.”
At the doorway, Holli called after her. “Let me come with you. No reason to go over there alone. Maybe I can help get you through the security or something.”
A quiet trip would give Cass a few moments to gather her thoughts and decide what to say to Martin and the rest of the crew. “I don’t think that’s…”
“I know, you’d rather be by yourself, but I’ll be quiet; barely know I’m there.” She scooped up her small tablet phone, disconnected it and slid it into her jacket. “I promise.” She stood next to Cass, held the strap of her tech bag close to her chest.
It was hard not to roll her eyes, but Cass said yes.
“Okay,” Holli said. She was way too enthusiastic for Cass’s tastes. They started for the stairs, and H
olli had her phone back out, typing away at the tiny keys. “Mind the steps,” Cass said, genuinely fearing that the woman might fall and break her neck since she was staring at the screen instead of watching where she was going.
“Thanks.” Holli was still looking at her screen.
They descended the staircase without incident, waved at the owners sitting in front of their bay window watching the tangled mass of ships and aircraft move through the harbor. They stepped onto the front porch and Holli stopped.
“Let’s head up this way, the military has a station for non-military personnel to check in over in the main entrance.” It took a moment for Cass to stop staring at the sea, the half-sunken ships, the dead slags that littered the beach, and the flames from destroyed ships. It was hard to overlook the giant robot less than a mile out to sea, or the smoldering carcass of the giant beast it was fighting. The aircraft and attack boats swarmed around it like bees on a honey hive.
“Hang on, stay right there.” A jet of air and a high-pitched whine followed Holli’s statement and Cass looked up to see a large drone coming down in front of their position. “What do you know? An ambulance on low power that needs to go back to the hospital to charge anyway, and it lands right in front of us.” She slid her phone in her bag and stepped into the vehicle.
“You’re quick with that tablet.”
“Thanks.”
Holli continued to tap away at her keypad as the empty ambulance lifted off. “I’m getting us clearance to land on one of the roof drone pads. We’ll need to get out quick, once the doors open. I’ve set it to return to its regular programming thirty seconds after the doors open, then it heads off to recharge. You don’t want to be there for that.”
“Thanks,” Cass said. She watched Holli zip across the tiny keys, listened to the minute clicks. The empty ambulance smelt of antiseptic and bleach, like a mini hospital room. “You work down the hall from Linden? I don’t remember that we’ve ever crossed paths.”
The tapping stopped and Holli looked up. “Yeah. I’ve been there for a couple of years. I don’t get out of my cubicle much.”
“Sound analysis?”
“Yep.”
“Interesting work?”
“It can be.”
“Hear anything interesting?”
“Usually just noises. Weird stuff that turns out to be nothing. A submarine engine can sound mysterious when it bounces off an undersea canyon or something. Whale farts. Crabs mating. Stuff like that.”
“Whale farts? Sounds fun. Ever hear electronic sounds? Ever hear a watch alarm beep and have to triangulate the location?”
Holli looked up and set her tablet phone on her lap. “What?”
“I started thinking about this contact we have that occasionally helps locate bits and bobs from history, calls herself Subtle Bagpipe. I checked on the info she’s passed on to the team. Just about all of her tips had one element of information gleaned from sound files. So many treasure hunters just use maps and rumors and whatnot, sound clues almost never play a factor. And yet here were dozens of clues based on hard to find sound files and reports.”
“That does seem odd.” Holli’s cheeks became a light shade of red.
Cass just stared at Holli as the ambulance rattled in a sudden updraft.
“One minute to base medical,” the automated voice’s words came across in the usual soothing tone, not like the terse warnings Cass heard on the Cudgel.
“Whale fart,” Cass said. “Maybe that should be your new code name?”
“Not the most flattering name.”
“Subtle Bagpipe is kinda weird, too.”
The ambulance landed with a slight bounce, jarring both of the passengers. A red light flashed over the door and it began opening. Cass remembered to gather her things and step out quickly before the drone had to take off again, following on Holli’s heels as quick as she could. They stepped on the landing pad and moved for the door just as the ambulance hatch closed and the cool breeze of the rotors began to blow a breeze across the platform. They ran toward the auto-opening doors, dodging to stay away from the doctors and nurses wheeling the injured off other ambulances, all headed for the same set of doors.
Inside, it was more chaotic, more medical professionals, more patients, less room to maneuver.
Holli was staring at her phone again. “It looks like some of the crew are up with Takis, and the others are on the forty-first floor with Martin. Room four thirty-seven.”
“I’ll head to talk to Martin first. Why don’t you go on up with the others?”
“I really don’t know any of them all that well,” Holli said. “Maybe I should come with you and wait outside the room?”
“You’ve known all of them longer than I have,” Cass hit both buttons on the elevator bank, still careful to stay out of everyone’s way. “Introduce yourself.” The doors opened and the down light blinked. Cass entered and leaned against the back wall.
“How should I introduce myself? As myself, or Bagpipe?”
“Your call, but I’d seriously consider Whale Fart.” The doors shut and Cass let her head thud against the elevator wall. Talking to Martin seemed to make sense, she betrayed the crew by being undercover and lying all that time, but she felt most sorry for deceiving him as the captain of the group.
She knew, however, that she wasn’t ready to face the others, especially Takis.
65
The room was quiet, which surprised Martin. With the total chaos out in the harbor, he’d expected to awaken to a madhouse, and yet, it was just Ben waiting for him. There wasn’t another patient recovering, no military liaisons, no navy nurses or physicians. “I thought we’d be lucky to get a room.”
“You forget you’re rich?” Ben asked. “As soon as your legal team found out you were injured, they sprang into action. You’ve got the closest thing to a private room, and you’ve got a civilian doctor. She was here volunteering to help, and apparently had gone to school with someone from your lawyer’s cousin’s son’s class.”
It wasn’t something Martin had asked for. The possibility of someone else receiving lesser treatment because he had money didn’t sit well. “That kind of sucks.”
“It is what it is,” Ben said. “You didn’t ask for it.”
A young lady in a loose white coat came in and greeted the men quickly. Her coat had small dots of red on it that Martin had to assume were blood. “Okay. These initial tests look good. The supplies that your crew used were a little out of date. That wrap technology has come a long way. Still, healing quickly, no infection that I can find, but we gave you antibiotics anyway. Blood substitute they used was a smart idea.” She pointed to Martin’s IV. “Pushing a fresh blood solution now.”
“So, I’m good?”
“I think you’ll be out in maybe a week if there are no complications,” the doctor said. “We’ll monitor everything extra closely for the next twenty-four hours. But, you lost a good amount of blood. Like, most of it? Yeah. I’d say you’re not terribly close to being good just yet.” She turned and quickly left, not bothering with niceties like a goodbye or a wave.
“She doesn’t seem too impressed with you.”
It wasn’t a surprise to Martin. He wasn’t terribly impressed with himself. “How’s the Adamant?”
“It’s fine. It might need a new coat of paint,” Ben said.
“The Alba Varden? How’s the other crew doing at the wreck site? Still bringing up treasures from the ocean floor? Anything unexpected?”
“Damn, Martin. I don’t know. We’ve been in this hospital for what? Two hours or something? There are still some of those slag things fighting on the beach. I haven’t really checked in with our treasure retrieval crew yet. I’m betting they stopped everything to see if their friends lived or died.” Ben wheeled himself to the other side of the room, to the door. “You haven’t asked about your crew. Jakob, Takis, Cass, Rina…Ozzie.”
It wasn’t something he wanted to ask, didn’t want to know. “I hear
d what was happening over there. I know it got bad over there.”
“Bad? Shit. That’s… that’s one way of putting it. You can’t always focus on yourself, Martin.”
“Focus on myself? I was slashed by some godforsaken beast that nearly killed me—you heard the doctor. I nearly died out there. I think I’m allowed to be a little self-centered right now.” It hurt to yell, his lungs ached and his abdomen was tender, so he stopped. “I don’t know what to say. They went onto the Cudgel to find supplies to help me. What would have happened if I hadn’t been injured? If we would’ve just left that thing alone?”
“Jesus, Martin…”
“All of this is because of me. All of it.”
Rina, and Jakob appeared at the doorway, interrupting Martin’s chain of thought. “Everything okay?” Rina asked. “What’re you two shouting about?”
Martin waved his hands and changed the subject as fast as he could. “It’s fine. We’re good. How is Takis?”
“He’s upstairs. They’re giving him some stitches for a cut he got trying to free his brother,” Jakob said. “He’s devastated about Ozzie. Theo and Angela are with him.”
They were all broken up about Ozzie; Martin could see it on their faces, their movements. It took him a moment, but he realized Ben had the same look as the rest of the crew in the room. Ben had never been close with Ozzie, as far as Martin knew, but there it was—that same look on his face as he wheeled himself out of the room. “I can imagine.”
Hakim picked up Martin’s medical tablet and started reading the files. “Looks like you’ll be fine.”
“The doctor told me that, but thanks for the second opinion,” Martin said.
“Yeah. No problem,” Hakim said. “I think I’ll sit with Ben. It’s getting a little crowded in here.”
“Jesus, Martin. That man is part of the reason you’re still alive today. He reaffixed your dressings and monitored your…” Rina started in, but was cut off by Martin.