Z-Boat

by Suzanne Robb

  Ivan looked inside the diving room. Nina was finally out of her suit. Kramer sat there taking the samples out of the suits, listening intently as they filled him on what had happened to Johnny. He seemed only half interested, his full attention on the samples coming out of the suits.

  "Ivan, how is he?" Marcus asked.

  "He is dead. The damage was too extensive. We must move on with the operation. I will take his place as diver now."

  ***

  Nina, Dutch, Marcus, Tom, and Kramer watched as Ivan turned and left the room. Then, slowly, they started to get back into their routine. Nina broke the silence first.

  "Is it just me, or does he not seem too broken up about the whole thing?"

  "Come on, Nina, it's not like you're going to shed any tears." Kramer's tone was sarcastic.

  "Whatever. The guy just seems cold to me."

  "Well duh. He's Russian. Of course he's cold." Kramer shook his head as if she were stupid.

  "Look, all this talking isn't going to solve anything. Let's just get the work done." Marcus had had enough of their childish bickering.

  A silence fell over the group as they performed their tasks. Nina put her suit back up and helped Kramer take out the samples. Marcus and Dutch started running diagnostics on Johnny's suit to determine where the damage was and if it could be fixed.

  Tom went into the submersible to do a systems check. When he got inside, out of sight, he took out the picture of his family and stared at it. He was starting to have a bad feeling.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ally sat in the control room. She saw and heard everything. Iain stood next to her, unsure what to do. Both were in shock. It was not the first time there had been an accident aboard Betty Loo, but it was the first time someone died.

  "I suppose I should go and make an appearance. Check on the doc too. She hasn't come out of the med lab."

  "Probably a good idea."

  Ally watched Iain leave. As soon as he was out of sight, she replayed the video footage. Something didn't sit right with her. She knew Johnny had most likely wandered off to get some squish. Nina had told her he was a user. The rocks falling on top of him was an accident. Nina and Tom did what they could to get Johnny inside in a timely manner. The issue was 'Doctor' Maxine Williams.

  When Maxine first saw Johnny's body, a look of total panic crossed her face. It was almost as if she had never been in an emergency situation before. Ally froze the image of Maxine as she entered the diving room. She stared at the face. Then she fast-forwarded to when Ivan left the med lab. A questioning look on his face. She suspected all had not gone as it should have with Johnny.

  Would he talk to her about it? She doubted it. Instead, she decided to see if she could do some spying on him. From the way he'd been lurking around the past several days, she knew he was doing his fair share of spying.

  She sent a message to Tom in the submersible and asked him to take her shift. She claimed not to feel well. A few minutes later, she got a response. He would be there in five minutes.

  ***

  "Hey, Ally."

  "Tom, thanks for coming in. I just want to catch some sleep. Not feeling too great." Ally stood up and walked towards the door.

  "Sure, no problem. I got it." Ally left the room.

  Tom sat in the chair and stared at the display panel. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't remember. Instead, he took out the picture of his family and stared at it. He enjoyed the bad feeling their images stirred in him.

  He closed his eyes and saw blood-covered walls, people devouring the flesh of others. The scene was wonderful, no longer terrifying him. He had no idea why these things scared him at first. He knew better now. His fate was sealed, as well as the fate of the others. They were all going to die a bloody death.

  ***

  Ally went to the last place she'd seen Ivan on the cameras: the staircase going down to the engine room. She wondered what he could be looking for there. When she entered the area, it was empty. The sounds of water in the pipes and of electrical currents running through the wires were the only things that kept her company.

  She wasn't a mechanic, but she wasn't an idiot either. After all her time on the Betty Loo, she had a pretty good idea as to what belonged and what didn't. Glancing around, she tried to see if anything seemed different, perhaps a new wire, panel, or tank of some sort. Something not obvious at first glance.

  Her search turned up nothing, but that didn't mean anything. Ivan could be a professional, and no matter how hard she searched, she would never find what he hid in plain sight. She would have to ask Marcus to go over the area more thoroughly.

  The hairs on the backs of her arms started to rise; she could feel someone watching her. She acted casual and tried to see who it was in her peripheral vision. A shadow in the back corner? She couldn't be sure. She turned around and focused her attention on a display panel like she was reading something. Nothing there but old cigarette butts. She continued her search.

  ***

  Maxine composed herself enough to go and talk to the captain about the body of Johnny Ventura. As she left the room, she saw him walking down the aisle way towards the diving room.

  "Captain!" Iain turned to look at her.

  "Doctor Williams? I was going to come and talk to you. You okay?"

  "The loss of Mister Ventura was hard, but I did everything I could. His injuries were too extensive." Maxine tried to sound sincere, a difficult task, considering how angry she was.

  "I understand."

  "Captain, I need to know what you want me to do with the body of Mister Ventura. Do you want him incinerated? Or perhaps launched out to sea?"

  "No, Doctor Williams. In situations like this, we put the body in storage. We bring everybody back. It's standard procedure, you should know."

  "Sorry, I'm used to dealing with contagions where protocol dictated we incinerate the bodies."

  "That isn't the case here." Iain didn't like the fact the doctor didn't know standard operating procedure when it came to dealing with bodies.

  "Where's the storage, then?"

  Iain just laughed to cover up his unease. She's not a doctor, so what the hell is she?

  "For now, storage is med lab. There's a small locker off to the left you can keep him in. You should be able to find it; it's in the same spot on every sub."

  "Thanks." Her face was so tight Iain thought she might strain something.

  Obviously, the so-called doctor had not familiarized herself with her own med lab. Iain kept on his way. He would discuss his thoughts about the doctor with Ally later. Right now, he had to give some sort of speech to help with morale or some crap.

  He hated those, because he sucked at them. The door to the diving room stood ajar, so he walked in. The quicker he got this over with the better. Marcus, Nina, and Kramer looked at him.

  ***

  Maxine took a deep breath and returned to the med lab. She went to the left to see what the hell the captain was talking about. She looked like a fool, not knowing about the storage area. Some doctor she turned out to be. Fumbling around, she swore at herself for not learning the med lab better.

  There it was: a small door about waist high. She walked over to it and pressed the button to open it. The door sprang open and a platform slid out. Maxine went over and untied the stretcher that held the body, and rolled it over to the metal platform.

  She noticed a strange smell and turned her face away from the body. As she tried to manoeuvre it from the stretcher onto the metal platform, something grabbed her arm. She screamed and jumped back, breaking the grip of the hand on her.

  Underneath the sheet, she could see something standing straight up- Johnny's left arm, which was impossible, because it was broken in three places. She went to the supply closet and gave herself a shot to calm herself down. After a moment, she felt okay enough to deal with the creepy things dead bodies did.

  She pushed the body onto the platform and moved the stretcher out of the way. She went to
secure it, but heard odd noises coming from the head area. She knew gases and whatnot leaked, body parts randomly moved. However, no one told her they made gurgling noises.

  Screw this, she thought. She avoided getting any closer to the body than need be. She pushed the button to pull the platform back into the wall, and shut the door, hearing a few more noises from inside. She was starting to really hate this job.

  At least when they got to the rescue site, she knew what they would be up against. Here, everything was an unknown, and she had to act like a defenseless woman with a medical degree. Once they got to the other sub, however, things would change.

  ***

  "Hey, Captain." Both Nina and Marcus spoke at the same time.

  "I just wanted to come down here and see how you are." Everybody shrugged.

  People's dislike for Johnny Ventura was not a secret.

  "As long as people understand it was just an accident. Don't start thinking we're jinxed or anything crazy. Johnny will be missed, but we have to finish the job." He got some questioning looks at his comment.

  "No offence, but who's going to miss him?" All eyes turned to Kramer. "Hey, before you do whatever, at least be honest. The guy was an addict. Most likely that's what got his dumb ass killed, and now he's gone. It's not like he was contributing some great talent here."

  "Hey, enough. He might not have been perfect, but he was still a person. You will respect that, Doctor Kramer." Iain tried to put as much authority in his voice as possible.

  "Whatever. I'm not going to pretend to be sad for the loser."

  "You're just mad he let your secret out of the bag. Probably even a little jealous because we're bummed he died. If you died, though, you know we'd throw a damn party because a son of a bitch like you finally got what he deserved." Nina stood up and walked out of the room.

  "What's her problem? It's not like I'm not saying what all of you are thinking."

  "Shut up and do your job, Kramer." Iain walked out to catch up with Nina.

  "Nina, wait up. Don't listen to him."

  "Captain, he's an ass. This job is screwed. If we were smart, we would turn around right now."

  "There was nothing you could have done."

  "I knew he was using. I should have kept a better eye on him."

  "Stop blaming yourself. It won't change what happened. You have to pull it together, Nina. You're the only real diver left."

  "Fine, but Ivan better loosen up."

  "I'll talk to him, okay? Now go to your bunk and get some rest."

  Iain watched Nina storm off. He knew Kramer was right about Johnny, but he could have shown some tact about it. He took off his hat and rolled it in his hands, a nervous habit he started when he first became captain. Now what was he supposed to do? He kept thinking about the images and sounds on the digital chip that he'd found- or, more accurately, that had been given to him for reasons unknown.

  He hadn't watched it since the first day, but he could recall everything on it. He hadn't told Ally about it yet. With the death of Johnny, perhaps it was time to tell her. Then again, maybe not. Ally had already convinced herself the job was doomed. If he told her about the chip, she would be positive it was screwed.

  For now, he had to find Ivan... right after he got something to eat.

  ***

  Dutch stood in the diving room, looking over Johnny's suit. He could see where the umbilical had gotten caught on the rocks. He could fix the minor fraying easily enough. The control panel had a significant amount of saltwater damage. He would have to swap it out for a new one.

  Dutch walked over to the corner of the room, to the cabinet for spare suit parts. He opened it and saw that the shelves were virtually empty; there were no spare parts for the suits. He looked over his shoulder and plastered a shocked expression on his face.

  "Hey, Marcus, did you move any of the suit parts?"

  Marcus looked over from where he was testing Nina's suit. He shook his head no, because he had a tool in his mouth. Dutch looked back into the cabinet and shut the door. He went over to the cabinet where they stored the collection baskets and umbilical patches. All he found was more emptiness. Dutch walked over to Marcus.

  "Hey, boy. Get up; I need to talk to you for a minute." Marcus, not used to Dutch asking to talk to him, stood up.

  He took the tool from his mouth and put down the other one from his hand. He followed Dutch over to the suit cabinet and watched as he opened the door. At first, he waited to see what was next, then looked inside the cabinet.

  "Where are all the parts? Cabinet's always stocked."

  "That's what I was gonna ask you. Other cabinet's empty too."

  "Since when?"

  "I came in yesterday to prep for today. Had to swap out a collection port on Nina's suit. All the parts were there."

  "So sometime after that and before the dive."

  "Looks like." Dutch never talked much; this was a speech for him.

  Marcus knew that for him to be speaking so much, he must be worried. When Dutch worried, things were bad. Marcus remembered a time they had run out of air and fuel and were surely going to die. Dutch simply lit a cigarette and told him to calm down.

  Marcus shut the cabinet doors. He looked down at the lock panel. Whoever did this knew the codes or how to hack them. Why would someone do it, though? If they wanted to sabotage the job, they just had to do something to both suits. Then again, they still had the submersible to finish the search and rescue. Marcus had a terrible thought.

  "Dutch, we need to keep an eye on the submersible. In fact, we need to do a total overhaul on it. Don't let anyone near it. I need to go and talk to Ally." Dutch merely nodded, most likely already knowing what Marcus was up to.

  Marcus left the room and went straight to the control room. Tom sat in Ally's chair with his head down. Odd. It wasn't like her to not be here for her shift. She never took sick time. He went into the rec room, thinking perhaps she had gone to get something to drink or eat. Instead, he found Iain. He didn't look happy.

  "Captain." Iain looked up, but his eyes were far away.

  "Marcus."

  "I need to talk to you and Ally. Do you know where she is?"

  "Nope, but you can say what you need to." Marcus thought the captain looked as if he were bracing himself for a physical blow.

  "All the extra parts for the diving suits are gone. We only have one operational suit as of now. We know that whoever did this did it sometime in the last twelve hours or so."

  Iain sat up straighter, a concerned look on his face. "Who did it? Those cabinets have security, and we have cameras."

  "I know. That's why I need to talk to Ally. There's another thing." Iain just nodded his head.

  "I think someone might be trying to sabotage this job. If I'm right, the submersible would be the next logical target. I have Dutch looking it over, but I think it might be in our best interest to keep someone trusted with it at all times."

  "Fantastic. This day just keeps getting better. Goddammit." Iain stood up and kicked his chair.

  He threw his drink across the room, and the metallic sound of it hitting the wall echoed for a few seconds.

  "Keep someone on it, either you, Dutch, Ally, or Nina. Find Ally and go over the security footage and find out who was in that room."

  "Yes, sir."

  Marcus left the room, wondering how much more the captain could take. He seemed to be a few miles past his wits' end. One more wrong thing and he was sure the captain would become his usual drunken self. He shook it off and headed down to the bunkroom he shared with Ally. It was empty. He started to get concerned. Ally wasn't one to wander off.

  He tried the little exercise area they'd set up. He found her there doing some chin-ups on a pipe. He sighed with relief, not realizing how worried he had been until he saw her.

  "Done with the suits already?"

  "Sort of. Let's talk for a minute."

  Ally jumped down from the pipe. Marcus noticed she wasn't wearing her workout gear.r />
  "I have a better idea. Why don't me and you go take a nap? I'm totally beat." Ally didn't tell him she still felt the eyes on her.

  She'd hoped to lead whoever had been following her into this room and then kick the crap out of them. With Marcus here, she wouldn't risk talking about anything or him getting hurt.

  "Sure. Sounds good."

  ***

  The two left the room with a pair of eyes watching them. She could sense him; he could tell. He needed to be more careful. He waited a few moments to ensure the two were gone before he came out of his spot. He had gotten to know this sub well. If he did not want to be found, he would not be.

  ***

  As Ally and Marcus entered their bunkroom, Ally shut the door and raised her hand to her lips. Marcus understood what she meant. Ally started to look around the room. She lifted the mattress, unscrewed the light fixture, even emptied out their closet. He watched her move around methodically. Moments later, she stopped, turned to Marcus, and put her hands on her hips.

  "This job is screwed," she said matter-of-factly.

  "I know. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

  "Tell me what you know." Marcus sat on the edge of their bunk.

  He motioned for Ally to come and sit next to him. He needed to feel close to her. He needed to hold her, to feel like he was protecting her in some way. Ally went over and let him hold her. Marcus felt some of the tension in her body ease, but not much.

  "The cabinets we use to store the extra parts for the suits are empty. We know it happened recently. My guess is whoever is doing this will target the submersible next. The plan is to keep me, Dutch, Nina, or you watching it at all times. We also need to go over the security footage to see who was near there at the time the parts were stolen."

  "Okay. Well here's what I got. Ivan seems to know where all the cameras are, and he avoids them most of the time. He finds their blind spots and moves accordingly. The cameras for the diving room would have been hard, but Tom was on duty last night, so he might have fallen asleep. Also, I looked over the footage of Ivan leaving the med lab after Johnny died. He didn't look happy. Something about his expression and the way he skulked away bothered me. I went to try to find him, and it's like he disappeared."