by Jordan Rivet
David lowered himself to a rickety chair between the narrow bed and a folding table. It held a deck of cards and a flimsy metal ashtray. David was barefoot, and a pair of unfamiliar shoes peeked out from underneath the bed.
“Are you okay?” Esther asked, determined not to let her voice shake.
“You’re an idiot,” he said calmly.
Esther felt a white-hot flash in her chest. “Well, I’m an idiot that’s going to save your ass, so if you don’t want me, you’d better say so now,” she snapped.
Both David and Esther herself seemed equally shocked by her tone. She didn’t mean for it to come out like that. She’d just voiced the question she’d been terrified to entertain ever since they’d met. Did he want her or not? She knew she wanted him.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” David said. “The Calderon men are ruthless. You shouldn’t have taken the risk.”
His voice lacked its usual composure. It had a ragged edge that matched his thin, wasted face.
“Do you want to come with me?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
David pushed himself out of the chair and walked slowly to her. He just looked at her, standing so close she didn’t want to breathe.
“Esther . . .”
Suddenly his arms were around her, and she was burying her face beneath the ridge of his collarbone. The rough knit of his sweater rubbed her cheek, and warmth seeped through the fabric between his body and hers. She wrapped her arms around his too-exposed ribs. He kissed her on the top of the head, then drew her gently away from him, both hands cupping her face. “I’m glad you’re here. I—”
“Blegh, that makes one of us,” Harry the guard said as he finally managed to spit the wad of cotton out of his mouth. “Let me go, you rust-loving bastard.”
“Shut up, Harry,” David said. “Esther, do you have a way out?”
“I came through a cave in the base of the island. We can get out the same way, but we need to hurry.”
It couldn’t be this simple. Esther barely dared to breathe.
“You don’t think they’ll let you get away, do you, Davey?” Harry said, struggling against his bonds. “You know Burns. You’ll be dead before the Island is out of sight, unless your girlfriend brought an armada with her.”
David raised an eyebrow at Esther. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she’d managed that.”
“No, it’s just me,” she said. “There’s a Metal Harvester ship that we may convince to come for us once we’re away from the Island. I’ve got a satellite phone, but it works sporadically at best.”
“Let me get my shoes,” David said.
He swayed for a moment as he turned to the bed. Esther caught his arm, feeling his bones beneath her fingers.
“What’s wrong?”
“I shouldn’t have stayed up all night playing cards. Just tired.”
David smiled, but the color had drained from his face.
“That’s one way to put it. Burns has been starving your boy here,” Harry said from the floor. “He won’t make it far if you expect him to do any heavy lifting.”
Esther’s gut twisted a little. “Why were they starving you?” she said, though she already knew the answer.
“Because I won’t tell them how to build my algae energy technology,” David said, shooting Esther a warning glance as he tugged on his boots.
“We’ll get some strength back in you along the way,” Esther said, faking a smile and a jovial tone.
She stooped to retrieve Harry’s gag so she could stick it back in his mouth.
The door flew open.
Esther whirled around, and Harry used that instant to roll forward and knock her off her feet. The world blurred sideways. Esther hit the ground. Shouts and curses clattered around the room. People rushed in, boots pounding the linoleum. Esther rose to a crouch, but something smashed into her back. More shouting. Within seconds Esther was facedown on the floor, pinned by an unseen captor. She struggled and swore as a heavyset guard punched David in the stomach over and over again.
“That’s enough, Zeke,” Harry said as another guard untangled him from the confines of the bedsheets.
“Where’d the bird come from?” Zeke said, letting David slump to his knees beside the bed. He didn’t bother to hold him down.
David spat blood and saliva onto the floor.
“Apparently she came through the cave,” Harry said. “Better send someone down to check on old Monty.”
“On it,” said the man who had untied Harry. “I’ll report to Burns too. He’s just back from patrol.”
He dashed out the door.
“Come on, you two lovebirds,” Harry said. “I think Burns is going to like the bargaining chip the sea-gods were kind enough to deliver this morning. You’re going to talk now, Davey.”
Esther thrashed against her captor as Zeke and Harry lifted David between them and dragged him onto the bed. He was still struggling to catch his breath, and slumped back against the wall. Then Esther was hoisted into the air for the second time in ten minutes. Her captor dumped her onto the bed beside David, banging her head into the wall and causing her vision to waver for a moment. As her sight cleared, the man who’d set her down pulled a gun from his belt. He sat in the rickety chair and pointed it in their direction.
“Don’t move,” he drawled.
Chapter 25—Burns
Esther’s muscles stiffened. She didn’t know how long they’d been sitting there. The room was cold, and the man with the gun waved his weapon menacingly every time she tried to shift to a more comfortable position. He had a thick beard and close-set watery eyes. His expression was hard. He would have no reservations about using that gun.
Without taking her eyes off their guard, Esther moved her elbow to the side and found David’s arm. She pressed against it, unsure if she was trying to give or take strength. David didn’t respond at all, and she immediately regretted the action. She pulled her elbow back, staring straight ahead.
Zeke and Harry retreated to the other side of the room, by the door, and conferred in low voices. Harry looked chastened, but he seemed to be arguing vehemently on some point.
“You shouldn’t have come,” David breathed.
Their guard gave no hint that he’d heard.
“I had to.”
Their guard stood and joined the other two by the door. His watery eyes didn’t turn away from them, but he leaned in to say something to the others. Harry appeared to disagree with him. Unlike the Harvesters, the men did not wear matching uniforms. They would have fit in easily at the Amsterdam with their random assortment of salvaged garments.
“What are you planning?” David asked. “This isn’t much of a rescue.”
“I’ll negotiate.”
“You’re not very good at that.”
“Supposedly, you are,” Esther said, “but it hasn’t been working out that well for you. You’ve been here—what?—ten days and they won’t even feed you.”
“I’ve been bluffing.” David dropped his voice even more, so Esther could barely hear him whisper when she leaned closer. “I don’t have anything to bargain with.”
“You could have told them who the real inventor is.”
“I would never do that. Do you think I wanted you to end up in this cell? Thanks for handing yourself over and undoing all my work to keep you out of this mess, by the way.”
David shifted angrily against the bare concrete wall.
“What were you going to do? Starve?” Esther said.
“I was making progress with Harry. He’s already slipped me food a few times. I’d have talked my way out eventually.”
“Not if they still think you know how to build the energy tech.”
“Shh. That secret is keeping me alive,” David said, eyes darting to the three guards by the door. “I don’t want them to know until they’re too fond of me to kill me.”
“The technology isn’t worth dying for,” Esther said. That was one thing that had become clear to h
er in this mess, even if other people didn’t see it yet. “Let’s just give it to them and be done with it.”
“I wish they’d sent someone besides you. Dirk or somebody,” David snapped.
Esther felt a sharp sting in her chest. “I’m the one who has what they want. And I decided to come on my own. Thought you might actually be happy to see me.”
“I want to see you safe and sound on the Catalina.”
Esther scowled. He doesn’t think I can do this. After all we’ve been through!
“Hey, you! The ginger one!” she shouted.
“Would you two quit jawing,” said their bearded guard, walking back toward them with his gun held low and level.
“I want to bargain,” Esther said, staring down the barrel of the gun. It looked a lot bigger from this angle. “I have something worth a lot more than two prisoners.”
“Shut up, Esther,” David hissed.
“You said yourself it’s a bargaining chip.” She had Zeke’s and Harry’s attention now too. “I want to talk to Burns.”
“You’re in luck, my dear.” The door had opened, and the man with the large holes in his ears was stepping into the room. “My name is Burns. It’s a pleasure to meet the sea demon who left such an impression on poor old Monty.”
Burns was all wrinkled skin and jagged bones. Cheeks, elbows, even his sternum seemed to stick out at odd angles. He looked taller than he had when Esther saw him on the Amsterdam by the Rusty Nail. She wished she’d paid better attention to him then.
“I’m Esther Harris. I invented the algae energy technology. David doesn’t know how to build it.”
“She’s lying,” David said. “She’s just trying to help me out.”
“No, listen.” Esther jabbed David’s side and immediately regretted it when her elbow met his terribly exposed ribs. “I have what you’re after—and I want to bargain.”
“Is that so?” Burns’s expression gave nothing away.
Esther shifted her legs in front of her, easing the stiffness in her muscles. She met the bearded guard’s eyes defiantly as she moved so she could sit straight, facing Burns head-on.
“I have some conditions,” she said. “First rule is you do nothing more to hurt David Hawthorne. If he so much as misses another meal, you’ll never get the technology, even if you hang me by the toes from a mast.”
“And what makes you think we won’t simply hang him from a mast until you tell us everything?” Burns said pleasantly.
“I’m here to get him back,” Esther answered. “I don’t give a shit about you or the Calderon Group or who gets the technology. But if you hurt him, all bets are off. I’ll choke on my own tongue before I tell you anything.”
Burns chuckled and pulled up the rickety chair. “You’ve found a rather feisty advocate, haven’t you, Hawthorne? So what’s the truth? Does she really know a few things about the energy system? Perhaps she worked on it a bit and hopes to pass off secondhand knowledge in this little plea bargain.”
“I invented it,” Esther said before David could answer. “No one can install it better than I can. You know what this technology means; otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to capture Hawthorne. I’ll give it to you here and now if you agree to my terms.”
Burns chuckled again. It sounded like an engine sucking the last dregs of diesel from its tank.
“I’ll play along,” he said. “What’s the second condition?”
Esther leaned forward. “After the tech is installed in all your ships, we get a ride off this island directly to the location of our choosing.”
Burns waved his four-fingered hand. “Of course you’ll want to be shipped off to that floating apartment block you call a ship.”
“I didn’t say the Catalina. I said the ship of our choosing.”
David shifted beside her. There’d be time to tell him about Zoe later.
“Fine. Fine. If the tech works like your salesman says it does, we can take you all the way to Panama.”
“And my third condition—” Esther began.
“Aren’t your life and freedom reward enough?”
His voice was nonchalant, but Burns was twisting his nine fingers together eagerly. He must sense he was close to victory. His foot tapped, betraying his impatience. Esther knew she could ask for any quantity of fuel or supplies and he would give it to her.
“I want Hawthorne with me at all times while I work,” she said. “To assist me.”
“Aha. So he is a mechanic after all. Very well. I think you’re full of whaleshit, Ms. Harris, and you don’t know a thing about the technology.” Burns stood, his chair squeaking against the linoleum. “Our inventor friend Hawthorne here has simply realized his little starvation game isn’t going to pan out. Convenient of you to show up as a scapegoat.” He sneered. “You are welcome to have Hawthorne ‘assist’ you, and as I have been telling him, you’ll have all the supplies you need. When we’re satisfied that the technology is all you promised it would be, we’ll ship you out of here, no harm done.”
“That’s acceptable,” Esther said. She felt like she’d been running, but she forced herself to breathe slowly.
“You see, Hawthorne,” Burns said. “That wasn’t so difficult. You should have given in to us days ago.”
David didn’t respond. Esther couldn’t sense anything from him and she wished that he were easier to read. Burns snapped the fingers on his good hand, and the bearded guard lowered his gun.
“Any chance we can get something to eat?” Esther said.
Half an hour later Esther and David were seated at the folding table, with a steaming plate of shellfish and an assortment of dark-purple sea urchins between them. A big stack of graying, pulpy paper sat beside their meal. Burns had told them to start by drawing out the design, though Esther knew she could build it without any notes.
“This is too easy,” David said after swallowing a mouthful of shellfish. Despite his extreme hunger, he maintained his impeccable table manners. Esther dug into her meal with more gusto.
“Speak for yourself,” she said through her food. “I had to fight my way through whole ships of pirates to get here.”
“I mean Burns,” David said. “He agreed to your terms too quickly.”
“Why wouldn’t he? The worst that can happen is we’re not able to complete the technology, and then he dumps us in the sea. It’s not much of a risk for him to give us a chance. And when we do build the technology successfully, he can easily drop us off somewhere. This energy tech is worth way more than one trip, and he knows it.”
Esther reached for another sea urchin.
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” David said. “There’s not a man on this island who would stop him from slitting our throats after the separator is complete.”
“I assume that has been the plan all along. He won’t want anyone else to get their hands on the tech. That’s why I said we have to stay together,” Esther said. “We need to escape, and this buys us some time. You won’t be much help building the system, so you can work on our exit strategy.”
“There will be a catch,” David said. “Something we haven’t thought of yet.”
He pushed his broken glasses up on his nose.
Esther tipped the last sea urchin onto David’s plate. “We have to risk it,” she said, “unless you have a better plan.”
David smiled, sending a warm tremor through Esther’s body. “I’ve missed your confidence, Esther,” he said. “You’re good in a crisis.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
They sat silently for a moment as they chewed the tough urchins. Esther reached forward to squeeze David’s wrist, then changed her mind halfway there and reached awkwardly for another chunk of shellfish.
Chapter 26—The Workshop
“Hand me those pliers,” Esther said.
“Sure.”
“Not those. The ones with the yellow handle.”
“These ones?” David held up a different pair.
“Yea
h. Now hold this panel out of the way for me while I adjust this tubing. Not there, just here, exactly where it is now, see?”
Esther and David moved awkwardly around each other in the cramped space. They’d been in the workshop provided by Burns for three days. Despite the coldness that hung in the mists around the Island, the workshop was stifling. Esther’s patience was wearing thin as David shuffled around her and clumsily tried to help her with the machine.
“Stop moving. I need you to be still.”
“Quit snapping at me,” David said. “You’re impossible to work with.”
“I’m the one doing all the work here. Made any progress on our exit strategy lately?”
Esther moved David’s hands sharply to the left as he let the panel drift away from its precise position again.
“We can’t get out of here without inside help.”
“There has to be a better way. Stop moving! You need to spend more time on it and less time sleeping and playing cards with Harry.” And chatting with that woman, she wanted to say.
David shook his head, and the panel in his hand slid a fraction of an inch.
“He’s still our best bet. He has a natural sense of fairness, and he doesn’t want Burns to kill us.”
“That strategy worked out so well before I got here. Let go. I’ll do it myself.”
Esther pushed David’s hands away from the machine a little harder than she meant to. He gave an exasperated sigh and went to sit on one of the cots that had been set up for them in the corner.
She felt bad for snapping at him and for giving him a hard time about sleeping. He still wasn’t in good health. They were fed regularly now, but he needed all the rest he could get before they made their getaway. When they’d moved down to the workshop on Level 7, David had crashed on a cot and slept for eighteen hours straight. Esther used that time to get a jump on the energy system, resting for a few hours at a time.
But while he was asleep, that woman had come to see him.
Esther had just woken from a quick nap on the cot beside David’s. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat, pulling her knees up to her chest. David looked so peaceful, with his blond hair pushed back on his forehead and one arm tucked underneath the thin pillow. He didn’t snore or move, breathing slowly and heavily. His sunken cheeks revealed what he had been through since being taken from the Amsterdam. Esther felt a tight pain in her chest as she watched him, listening to the quiet deep in the rock of Calderon Island. They weren’t safe here by any stretch, but they were finally together.