by Jordan Rivet
They had to escape now. David was doomed unless they rescued him before the Calderon Group found out the truth. Esther kicked the edge of her bunk and swore.
“Look on the bright side,” Zoe said. “Hawthorne’s probably had enough time to ingratiate himself with his captors. They’ll be paying to set him free before much longer.” She gave a thin smile.
“Why’d we get into this, Zoe? Luke was right. It wasn’t fair to risk this entire crew just for David.”
Esther felt a terrible guilt pulling down on her like a sinking bowling ball. Patrick had deserved better. Now he and his father would never make their final voyage to start a new life on land. It was Esther’s fault. She’d made one terrible choice after another, and other people were paying the price.
“They were going after the Calderon Group anyway, Es,” Zoe said. “A war was going to happen no matter what. Besides, you’re going to give them the tech as payment.”
“We won’t even get him back,” Esther said.
“You’ll figure something out. You always do.”
Esther looped a finger through the storm goggles around her neck, twisting them as she searched for a way to fix this.
“Maybe I can get them to anchor for a few days while I write out the plans. Then we can borrow a lifeboat and go after him ourselves.”
Zoe shook her head. “Did you see the way the first mate looked at you when Luke gave us away? She won’t be in an accommodating mood.”
“Maybe Captain Alder—”
“He’s worse, even if he lets her do the dirty work sometimes.”
“If I give them the tech, they’ll be done with me,” Esther said, “but I have to get to the Island before we’re too far away.”
Esther hoped they wouldn’t simply be recovering David’s bones if it came to that. She needed to get out now. Time was up.
The door opened and Cody walked in.
“They’ll never be done with you after this,” he said.
He closed the door before Esther could see if there was still a guard outside.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to take you to Captain Alder. Officially.”
Cody perched on the edge of a box near the door. His eyes were red, and grease smudged his cheeks.
“How far are we from the Island?” Esther asked.
“Far enough that you can’t swim, if that’s what you’re planning after you knock me over the head,” Cody said, smiling weakly.
Zoe put down the heavy knapsack she’d picked up from her bed. “Is it that obvious?”
“Let’s just say I’m not as naïve as I look, and you won’t get further than the door if you try it.”
“You can’t expect us to submit to Captain Alder’s torture,” Esther said.
Cody sighed, and his round shoulders slumped. “No, I don’t suppose I can. But I don’t want my friend’s death to be for nothing. I need you to give me your word that you’ll return and build the energy system for us if I help you escape right now.”
“Why would you do that?” Esther asked.
“Hey, you’re on this crazy love quest.”
Cody grinned, but the joke was forced and unnatural.
“I’m not in love with him.”
“You are,” Cody said. “No point in denying it. But no, the real reason is I can’t stand for you to be tortured, not if I can do something about it. Rawlins told me what they did with that prisoner to make her tell the location of the Island. It’s not right.” Cody dragged a sleeve across his nose.
“What—?” Zoe began, but Cody shook his head.
“I’m not going to repeat it. Ever. Now can we make a deal about that energy tech?”
“I need to give it to the Calderon Group too to get David back,” Esther said.
“I don’t care if they have it. I just want to make sure we’ll get it too,” Cody said, fixing his red eyes on Esther. “To make it worth it.”
“How can I guarantee we’ll come back?” Esther asked.
“I’ve talked it over with some of the guys,” Cody said. “I’m not the only one who doesn’t go in for torture. For starters, we’re going to keep Zoe.”
“No way.”
“It’s a better deal than you’ll get from Captain Alder,” Cody said.
“As soon as he realizes I’m gone, what do you think he’ll do to her?” Esther said. She’d had enough of letting other people get killed because of her choices.
But Zoe had folded her arms, and she was studying Cody. “He’s right, Es. I can buy you some extra time. Cody, take me to the captain while Esther’s escaping. Pretend you made a mistake and brought the wrong girl. Everything was so confusing on deck; it’s plausible. Then while you’re trekking back and forth with me, it’ll give Esther time to get further away.”
“This is not going to work,” Esther said. “What happens if I get caught? We need a better plan.”
Zoe tucked a stray hair back under her scarf. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be their insurance policy. I’m upset you’ll get to see the Island and I won’t, though. I miss having my feet on solid ground.”
“They’ll torture you,” Esther said.
“Why? I don’t know anything. I can barely say half the terms you use to talk about your system. There’s no way I can possibly give them what they want, so why would they waste time torturing me?”
“No,” Esther said. “Cody, either let us go or don’t, but this hostage idea is ridiculous.”
“Sorry, Esther. The other guys don’t trust you like I do. We need to know you’ll come back and give us the technology.”
Cody glanced back at the door, obviously afraid of being overheard.
“I’ll just write out the plans and then we’ll leave together.”
“No time,” Cody said.
“We’re getting farther from the Island by the minute, Esther.”
Zoe went to Esther’s bunk and began throwing Esther’s things into her knapsack.
“The one thing we know for sure about you, Esther,” Cody said, “is that you’ll do anything to rescue your friends.”
“This is a good plan,” Zoe said, leaning close to Esther and lowering her voice. “I’ll be fine.”
Esther wished she had more time to consider. But Zoe was right. They were speeding further and further from the Island, and every second counted.
“I was sort of counting on you storming the Island with me.”
Zoe smiled and punched her arm. “You can do it. Hawthorne needs you. I’d never be able to live with you if we don’t manage to save his sorry ass. I reckon your love-sick moping would be even worse than Neal’s.”
“All right,” Esther said. “Let’s do it.”
Moments later Cody and Esther left the cabin and passed Cody’s friend Terrence, sitting in the corridor with a gun across his knees. He looked pointedly in the opposite direction as they jogged toward the exit. They took a circuitous route through the bowels of the Terra Firma. Every few minutes Cody would nod to another crew member. Everyone on the evening watch seemed to be one of his friends. He had done his work well.
They emerged from a hatch on the aft deck. The sky was black and the mists offered no glimpse of stars or moon. A chill stung the air like during the worst of the cold years. The crane that Patrick had shown Esther swung like a large black bird above them. Beyond it, a pair of lifeboats waited.
Luke stood directly in front of them.
Esther recoiled, nearly dropping Neal’s satellite phone, which she’d tucked under her arm before leaving the cabin. Luke’s face looked awful. It was streaked with ugly brown crusts of blood, and his eyes, like Cody’s, were rimmed with red.
“Well,” he said.
“Salt.” Cody grabbed Esther’s arm, trying to make it look like she was his prisoner, but he moved too late.
“Luke, wait—”
“Shut up, Cody.” Luke’s voice was hard, like flint. “Did you think I wouldn’t wonder what everyone was up to, sn
eaking around and volunteering for the late shift? It didn’t take more than two seconds to figure out what was going on.”
“What are you going to do?” Cody said.
Luke gave a short, barking laugh, not unlike the first mate’s. “What do you think? I’m taking her straight to Captain Alder.”
Luke crossed the deck in two strides and wrenched Esther away from Cody. The satellite phone clattered to the deck. Esther struggled, but it was much more difficult to wrestle him now than it had been when they first met in the Amsterdam Bazaar as teenagers. Luke twisted her arm painfully behind her back.
Cody shoved Luke’s shoulder, but he was too small to make Luke do more than grunt.
“Hey, man,” Cody said. “She’s just trying to save her friend.”
“What about Patrick, huh? He was my friend.”
Luke’s grip on her arm tightened. Esther writhed, trying to free herself without making too much noise.
“That wasn’t her fault,” Cody said. “We were gonna fight the Calderon Group anyway, especially after they attacked the Amsterdam. You know that. She’ll come back and give us that technology. We trust her.”
“Why in the name of salt, rust, and volcanic ash would you trust her now?” Luke said.
“We have to. We can’t just give her to Captain Alder. You know what he’ll do!”
Luke stared at Cody as if he’d never quite seen him before.
Esther sensed Luke’s focus shifting and dug her heel hard into his toe. Luke swore but didn’t loosen his grip. She twisted sideways, gritting her teeth against the pain in her arm, and kneed him in the groin. The sudden violent movement surprised Cody, but he recovered faster than Luke. He jumped forward and punched his friend in the nose.
Luke stumbled backward, releasing his hold on Esther. She slipped around behind him and grabbed his arms before he could take a swing at Cody. Feet lifting off the deck, she held on like an octopus, until Cody rushed to help her. Together they forced Luke to the ground. He was cursing, his nose bleeding freely, but he collapsed beneath their combined weight.
“Just let her do what she needs to do,” Cody said, struggling to keep his hold. “She’ll be back.”
“You moron. I think you broke my nose,” Luke sputtered.
“I’m sorry,” Esther said, “but Cody’s right. I’ll come back after I get David, and I’ll give you the energy technology I promised.”
“I don’t care about that,” Luke said. “I want my friend back.” His tears mixed with the blood from his nose.
“I want my friend back too,” Esther said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
Luke slumped at her words. She stood and patted Cody on the shoulder, then turned toward the lifeboats. She found Neal’s phone and said a little prayer to the clouds that it would still work. Then she climbed into one of the lifeboats swinging over the dark waters and nodded to Cody. He hoisted Luke to his feet, and together they started the winch that would lower the lifeboat into the sea.
“Take care of Zoe, guys. I’ll be back.”
Chapter 21—The Lifeboat
THE SEA WAS EERILY quiet. After the cacophony of the day, the solitude was unnerving. Esther started the small outboard motor, grateful for the warm growl of machinery. The lifeboat chugged away from the dark hull of the Terra Firma. She scanned the ship for any sign that she’d been spotted. Lights glowed, sometimes flickering with the movement of the sailors. Once, Esther thought she saw a face watching her. She hoped it belonged to one of her allies.
Cody had told her they’d been sailing southeast ever since leaving Calderon Island, so she charted a course for the northwest and prayed she wouldn’t miss it entirely. The Terra Firma shrank behind her. Darkness pressed in close, like water. The sea was even blacker than the sky. The clouds glowed dimly from the cloaked moon, the only thing distinguishing sea and sky. The rush of the waves against the lifeboat harmonized with the hum of the engine.
Esther had never been alone on a boat before. For almost her entire life she had been at sea. She knew the feel of the waves before a storm, the sting of the wind on her face, the emptiness of a vast, watery horizon. The scents of salt and fish had been her constant companions. She’d grown up with the sound of water in her ears and the rocking of the ship in her bones. Yet she’d always had company in her seabound world. She’d lived in the cramped quarters of the forlorn former luxury ship, surrounded by her family, her coworkers, her friends. Even on her recent adventures she’d connected with other survivors across the New Pacific, from the rebels on the Galaxy Flotilla to the young sailors with the Metal Harvesters. But tonight, for the first time she felt the true isolation of the sea.
The mists contained sound, captured it, smothered it. The sea clutched at the lifeboat like oil. A crippling fear threatened to rise through Esther’s body. She tried to fight it down, and the fear lodged beneath her bottom ribs.
She’d often sought privacy on the Catalina, busy at her work, in need of peace. But this was true solitude. The solitude of a world that had lost 90 percent of its population. The solitude of the watery prison that was her home, usually kept at bay by the everyday bustle of her work.
The waves were choppy, and Esther couldn’t be sure that she was staying on course as she drove through the night. She had found a battered compass in the lifeboat’s emergency storage compartment. She kept it in her hand, wishing the first mate hadn’t taken the good one in her tool belt. She’d found a flashlight in the storage compartment too, along with a bit of clean water, a small knife, and some fishing gear.
The Harvesters didn’t seem to be pursuing her. Cody would take his time delivering Zoe to the captain, and he’d take even more time going back to their cabin to supposedly fetch the right girl. By the time he reported her missing, Esther’s lifeboat would be invisible in the vastness of the sea.
When she thought she was far enough away to risk it, she turned on the flashlight she had found, keeping the beam low in the water. She should conserve the battery, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn off the light and surrender to the ghostly, moonlit mists entirely.
Esther picked up Neal’s satellite phone, extended the antenna, and dialed.
“Neal? You there?”
It wasn’t their check-in time, but Neal rarely left his tower.
“Neal?”
She drifted forward, keeping the motor running on the lowest setting to conserve fuel until she knew she was on the right course.
“Neal?” she tried again.
It occurred to her that she was tired. The bone-deep weariness of worry cut the legs out from underneath the adrenaline that had sustained her during the battle and her escape from the Terra Firma. But she’d already rained down disaster on her family and friends once because she’d allowed herself to fall asleep. She would never do that again. David was too important.
“Neal, do you copy? Come on. I need you.”
The mists began to thin, revealing a three-quarter moon, small in the night sky.
She didn’t even know what she’d say to David when she found him. He’d probably smirk when he heard she’d gone to so much trouble to get him back. For the first time since setting out to rescue him, she realized it might actually be embarrassing to find him.
But no. As the isolation of the sea held her captive, she couldn’t push away her feelings anymore. She’d never understand why David had decided to help her escape from the Galaxy Flotilla, but she knew she wasn’t just going on this quest because of the debt she owed him. Despite how he frustrated her, how he seemed to mock her at every turn, she was drawn to him. He had threatened to consume her thoughts whenever they strayed from her work. But now that he was gone and the world was quiet, her feelings became clear. She wanted to be near him, to listen to his smooth voice, to see his passion, which came through at unexpected moments. They had been a team when they planned the escape from the Galaxy, and working together had felt natural. She wanted more of that. And she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to trail he
r hands over his shoulders and down his back. She dreaded telling him how she felt, but at the same time she prayed for the opportunity. She might drift in this lifeboat forever, but she wished only that she’d told him how he snared her thoughts into an impossible tangle. She didn’t care how he reacted. If she got out of this, she’d tell him how she felt.
Esther dialed the satellite phone again.
“Neal? You there?”
Silence. She fought the urge to throw the contraption into the sea in frustration. Then a voice crackled back.
“Esther? Were you trying to call?”
“Neal! Sweet salty ocean! Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I can hear you. It’s late. What’s up? Did something happen?”
Esther laughed. “You could say that. I need your help.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“Where am I? Can you figure it out?”
“Easy enough. Let’s see, you’re about three miles from your last position, so if our reference points are still good, that puts you four point five from where I think Calderon Island is. You guys moved further away from it?”
“Yeah. Well, I’m going back that way now. Alone.”
Esther filled Neal in on all that had happened. It was hard to believe it had only been a couple of hours since Zoe called her from their cabin at the start of the double Calderon attack.
“Wait, so now you’re assaulting the island alone? Rusty nails, Esther. You’re going to get killed.”
“Not if they don’t see me coming. Give me a heading. I need to shut this thing off again to save the battery. Is everyone okay there?”
“We’re fine. We’re staying within a day’s journey of the Amsterdam for now—Judith’s annoyed about that—and Cally and the boys have started hooking your system up in the Lucinda. She should be fully wired and operational before too much longer.”
“That’s great. And my dad?”
“Still kicking. He’s the one making sure we stay so close to the Amsterdam. Okay, listen carefully to these coordinates.”