by Jordan Rivet
“All right, girls?” he said. “Cody and me are in charge of keeping you out of trouble.”
“Who keeps you out of trouble?” Zoe said.
“No one. That’s the beauty of this arrangement,” Luke said, giving Zoe a winning smile. “Come on. I’ll show you your bunks, then full steam ahead. We got a lead on where the Calderon boys are headed.”
Luke led the way onto the deck of the ship, swinging his arms wide. Cody took up the rear and offered to carry their packs. Both women declined his assistance.
Workers and equipment crowded the foredeck. They wound through the bustle toward the main deckhouse and made their way along the promenade, staying close to the upper deck to keep out of the rain. The water was still rough, but they were all used to sailing in hairy seas. They could barely see the other ships in the Coalition through the mist.
“How many ships did the Calderon Group have here yesterday?” Esther asked.
“There were two in port,” Luke said, “but we think a few swept in for the raid. That’s how they operate: attack from all sides and then melt away. Don’t know how they communicate so well. We never pick them up on radio.”
“How do we know which one to chase?”
“Beats me. But the first mate seemed pretty confident when she briefed us.”
“What’s the first mate’s name anyway?” Esther asked.
“It’s . . . it’s . . .” Luke turned around and walked backwards for a few paces, trailing his hand along the rough metal railing. “You know, I don’t think she has one. She was just born a fully formed first mate.”
“Her last name is Tchaikovsky or Tchaiklusky or something,” Cody said. “That’s why no one uses it.”
“Those aren’t even real names,” Luke said. “She’s First Mate to the likes of you and me.”
Luke and Cody took them through a hatch and into a narrow passageway. Half the lights were out. Their steps echoed in the dimness. Narrow doors, many of them open, lined the corridor, revealing bunks stacked on top of each other inside poorly lit berths. The occupants were mostly young men, clad in a patchwork of dyed green uniforms. A handful of tough-looking women shared the cabins, their hair shorn or pulled back from their faces.
At the end of the corridor they entered a portside cabin with a handful of empty bunks. Each bed had a thin, lumpy mattress, and the frames were rusted and brittle. There was a bucket in the corner, and a bedraggled green coat hung from a hook by the door. The rectangular porthole high on the far bulkhead was partially open, revealing the dreary sky outside. A gust of cold sea air cut into the dank cabin.
“You can try to get extra blankets from the quartermaster, but they’re a bit tight,” said Luke.
“Most of us sleep in everything we own to stay warm,” Cody said, fiddling with the many pockets on his jacket.
“Do these doors lock?” Esther asked.
“No, just hide your shit,” Luke said. “It’s when we’re in port that stuff walks away. Usually no one takes anything when we’re out to sea. You should be fine.”
He grinned, showing off his wide white teeth.
Esther was less concerned about their possessions than their safety if the Harvesters decided to turn on them.
A bell clanged through the trawler. The crew in the corridor whooped and hollered.
“We’re shoving off!” Cody said.
“You should stay out of everyone’s way for now,” Luke suggested. “We’ll get you to oiling gears or something once we’re underway.”
He and Cody headed for the corridor.
On his way out, Luke turned and called, “Have dinner with us later. Some of the guys can be unfriendly to newcomers.”
“Sure,” Esther said. She waited until he was well away before pulling the door closed and heaving a sigh. “Thanks for coming with me, Zoe,” she said. “I’m glad I’m not here alone.”
“You kidding?” Zoe said. “I was dying of boredom on the Catalina. This is exactly the kind of adventure we left the Galaxy for. I mean, it’s insane, but it’s an adventure.”
She claimed a top bunk and tossed her bag up. She seemed to have recovered a bit from earlier, when the man’s death at her hands had upset her so much. The task of rescuing David must have helped.
Esther sat on a bottom bunk and checked underneath for a place to hide her pack. She had to shove a disintegrating bit of cardboard and a piece of tire rubber out of the way to make room for it.
“We have to be very careful,” she said. “They were way too quick to let us chase after the Calderon Group with them.”
“They’ve been itching to start a fight,” Zoe said, leaning against the bunk and pulling out her knife and whetstone. “They were going after the Calderon boys anyway. You just handed them a bonus. They really want your tech.”
“It’s Hawthorne’s tech, remember? At least until we have him back,” Esther warned, lowering her voice. “As much as they want to fight the Calderon Group, their enthusiasm will evaporate faster than gasoline if they know they have the real inventor on board.”
“Are you sure it was a good idea for you to come?” Zoe said. “Maybe Toni or Reg— ”
“No, it has to be me, because I know how to build the system,” Esther said. “Hopefully, they won’t shoot David on the spot when they realize he doesn’t know anything if I’m right there with the real answers. This’ll all be on me, but they won’t kill me—at least until after they have the tech.”
She wished she felt as confident as she sounded. She didn’t know if the Harvesters would even give her a chance to explain when they found out David wasn’t the inventor. This could get bad faster than swimming with a shark while bleeding from the nose. And she cared about David more than any of the others did. She couldn’t ask them to risk themselves for him unless she was willing to do it herself.
The engines roared to life, vibrating through the cabin. Esther could sense that the marine diesel was old and grainy. The engines were choking on it. They wouldn’t last much longer like this. The Terra Firma needed her system to produce clean fuel as much as the Catalina did.
The ship pulled away from its dock by the cargo giant. Soon they’d leave the Amsterdam. It would shrink behind them, taking with it their last trace of familiarity. Esther pushed away her fear. She hoped the Catalina would be all right. She hoped this vessel would be fast enough. The Calderon ships couldn’t have gotten far since last night . . . as long as they chased the right one. She hoped she wasn’t making a terrible mistake.
“Check the corridor, will you?” Esther said.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a heavy chunk of plastic with a panel and a group of mismatched number buttons on it. According to Neal, this was the New Pacific’s very first satellite phone.
“All clear,” Zoe said. She stayed by the door, knife in hand.
Esther went to the porthole in the far wall and pushed it open a bit further. The portside promenade was almost empty, as far as she could tell. There were a few men toward the stern, but they weren’t looking her way. She pulled a long antenna from the top of the satellite phone and stuck it as far out of the opening as it would go. She dialed. The device emitted a high-pitched shriek. She switched it off, almost dropping it in her haste, and held her breath, waiting to see if anyone had noticed.
The promenade outside the porthole was still clear. The men had moved farther aft. Esther dialed again and pressed her face against the glass, ear to the speaker, keeping the antenna as straight as possible. After a moment there was a click and then a burst of static.
“Neal? Can you hear me?” She wasn’t sure how the device was supposed to sound. She moved the antenna as far out of the window as she could, trying to get a clear line of sight to the sky. “Neal? Do you copy?”
“Esther! This is Neal, over.”
“We’re on the Terra Firma. You got a reading?”
“Give me a sec—”
Esther felt the ship swing in a slow, wide turn.
“Okay, I got you about five miles southwest of the Coalition. That accurate?”
“No, we’re just pulling out now,” Esther said. “You might be able to see us out the window. Rust. I was hoping this would work.”
“It’s okay. Give—”
Neal’s voice was lost in the static.
“I lost you. Neal? Neal?” Esther fiddled with the antenna, wondering if she should try calling again.
The voice returned.
“. . . what I said.”
“What? Didn’t catch that. Repeat,” Esther said.
“Give me another call in an hour,” Neal said, “and I’ll see if I can plot your movements. The GPS map is off by a few miles, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use the info.”
He’d explained to her how plotting their position by layering the coordinates over the skewed satellite map would work. She wasn’t sure she understood it, but she trusted him.
“All right. Anyone know we’re gone yet?”
“Nope. I’ll wait until you’re well away before I break the news,” Neal said.
“Thanks. We owe you,” Esther said, breathing a little easier.
“Talk soon. And be careful.”
Esther switched off the satellite phone and pulled the antenna back in through the window. And not a moment too soon. A green-clad crewman stomped along the promenade toward the porthole. Esther closed it seconds before he passed.
When she had told Neal she was going to join the Harvesters to rescue David, Neal had suggested she take along one of the phones he had been working on with Marianna.
Most of the old mapping data was useless, but Neal said Esther could at least contact the Catalina in an emergency. Not that anyone on the Catalina would be able to do much for her and Zoe of course, but Neal could also relay any news of the Calderon Group to them. Maybe he’d hear something useful from one of his contacts. Esther doubted the officers of the Terra Firma would share much information with her.
She put the satellite phone deep in her pack and stuffed it as far underneath the bunk as she could reach. The choking of the engines had cleared a bit. They were underway. Zoe stretched her long limbs and returned her sharpened knife to her belt.
“Ready?”
“Yeah,” Esther said. “Let’s see how this piece of junk operates.”
Chapter 14—Terra Firma
THEY REACHED THE DECK in time to see the upper skeleton of the Amsterdam shrink behind the veil of rain. Drizzle coated Esther’s face, cold and slick. She shivered, pulling her jacket closer. There was no turning back now.
The Terra Firma pitched through the rough seas, her deck brimming with shouts and activity. The main boom had come loose, and sailors darted about, trying to secure it. The first mate yelled at them, her voice hoarse. She quivered with energy, as if she could explode at any moment. It only took two people to secure a boom, but there were four men on the job, with a fifth hovering nearby. Other sailors milled around, like Esther and Zoe, without any obvious duties. The crew seemed far too large. Esther remembered Rachel saying the Harvesters had been recruiting.
The ship felt fast after the slow drift of the Catalina, despite the seemingly poor condition of the engines. They burst over the waves, feeling the slap of the sea against the hull. The movement was exhilarating, but Esther couldn’t shake the fear that they would be too late to help David. She wanted to shoot across the water like a hydrofoil, give that Calderon ship no hope of escaping.
She wished David were here. She wanted to know whether he thought the Harvesters were trustworthy. How would he handle the first mate? What would he do to ingratiate himself with Captain Alder? She couldn’t forget the way the captain’s face had changed when she argued with him about bringing more companions. She would have to be careful around him.
Esther and Zoe stuck to the shelter of the upper deck and walked aft, hoping to avoid the first mate. Under a suspended lifeboat, they found another dice game.
“Doesn’t anyone work around here?” Esther muttered.
Luke was holding court with Cody and half a dozen other young sailors. They reminded Esther of a school of fish circling crumbs.
“Those bastards are sneaky,” one of them was saying.
“You sure Rawlins said we get to fight?”
“Come on, dude. Tell us the whole story.”
Luke held up his hands. “Now, now. One at a time.” He was obviously enjoying himself. “This is a very important mission we’re on. And don’t you forget we’d still be floating at the Amsterdam if I hadn’t brought it to the captain.”
“That’s whaleshit. You were the errand boy,” said one of the men.
Luke tossed the dice cup at him. “I’ll have you know it was my good lifelong friend who came looking for me and—”
Cody looked up then. His round face went pink at the sight of Esther and Zoe.
“It’s the girls!” he said.
“Hey, Luke. Cody.”
Esther leaned against the lifeboat winch while Luke introduced them, shifting under the open stares of the men. He rattled off a round of names, pointing at each sailor in turn, but the only ones she remembered were Terrence and Patrick, because they were the final two. All the men wore dyed green uniforms, and some, like Cody, had added pockets or patches. She guessed that the oldest of the bunch was still under thirty years old.
“Are you all settled? Is there anything we can do for you?” Luke asked, directing his question to Zoe.
She regarded him without smiling, until he blushed and dropped his gaze.
“Do you know anything about our duties?” Esther asked.
“Your first shift is tomorrow morning,” Luke said. He retrieved the dice cup from where it had rolled across the deck. “I checked. You can just chill for now.”
“Do you know how far behind the Calderon ships we are?” Esther asked.
“Patrick reckons we’ll catch ’em in a day or two.” Luke nodded toward the fair-haired, square-jawed man nearest to them.
“That’s quick,” Esther said. “The other ship had a big head start.”
“We’ve got the advantage because people don’t normally give chase,” Patrick said. He had a trace of an accent, possibly Australian. “Those Calderon guys won’t be expecting us to fight back.”
“We’ll show them who’s boss in the New Pacific,” said Cody.
“Damn right we will,” Luke said.
Patrick high-fived him, and the other men hollered their agreement.
“Good,” Esther said. At least they were enthusiastic.
“You guys have a lot of fighting experience?” Zoe asked.
A flash of color filled Luke’s cheeks. “We . . . Some of the men were involved in the territorial skirmishes before the Harvesters swamped the competition. That was before I joined up.”
“How about the rest of you?” Zoe asked.
“I’m new too,” Cody said, twirling the dice around in his fingers. The dice bore several deep scratches that must surely affect their balance.
“We’re all new recruits,” said one of the other sailors, whose name Esther couldn’t remember.
“So you don’t know how to attack and board another ship?” Zoe asked.
“Not really,” Cody said.
“And the Calderon Group does it all the time?”
“Sure seems like it,” Patrick said.
“Great. Sounds like we picked some good allies,” Zoe said.
She pulled the knife from her pocket again, tossed it in the air, and caught it nimbly by the handle.
Luke recovered his bravado and drew himself up. He was barely an inch taller than Zoe.
“Hey, we’re going to outnumber them, and we’re well armed. It’s not like you know anything about fighting. You live on a cruise ship.”
The other men snickered.
“We’ve seen a bit of action in the past few months,” Esther said.
“Yeah? What kind?” Patrick asked.
“I killed a man yesterday,” Zoe sai
d with no pride in her voice.
Luke swore. “You are a badass.”
The group fell silent, some looking to Esther for confirmation. She nodded. The men turned their attention back to Zoe as if she had transformed into some sort of tropical fish.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” she said quietly.
She looked troubled, but the men seemed to take it for stoicism. They waited for her to speak again. Esther was pretty sure Cody was holding his breath. Zoe merely continued to play with her knife.
Patrick interrupted the group’s appraisal of Zoe and came over to Esther. “I heard Rawlins say we’re after some sort of tech,” he said. “Do you know what it’s for?”
“I know the basics,” Esther said. “It uses algae to produce enough fuel for frequent travel.”
Luke shot her a look behind Patrick’s back. It was just a quick jerk of the head, but Esther realized she had said more than these men were supposed to know. Cody looked nervous too. Maybe the officers had told them not to talk about the technology. They seemed to rule with a different sort of iron fist than Esther was used to with Judith.
“What’s your stake in all this anyway?” Patrick asked, leaning against the winch beside Esther. “Rawlins said your boyfriend was kidnapped.”
“Rawlins talks a lot of shit,” Luke said loudly, rattling the dice across the deck. He still looked uncomfortable.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Esther said. “I owe him. He helped me save the Catalina a while back.”
“So . . . you don’t have a boyfriend?” Patrick asked.
Esther blinked.
“I was wondering who’d ask first!” Cody hooted.
Patrick grinned. “Well, Luke already claimed the tall one.”
“Excuse me,” Zoe said dryly. “No one claims me for anything.” She rounded on Luke. “And you’re delusional if you think you have a chance with me, asshole.”
“Wow. Hey, that’s a lot of hostility there,” Cody said.
“Look out, mate. She might stab you,” said Patrick.
Zoe threw a loose punch at him, but she was smiling again.