by Craig Boldy
For a second I wondered if I had known this particular piece of information myself, or whether it was part of my host’s memories. I passed the weapon over to Yegor and turned to look at the crew. Not one of them had turned to look at the weapon as I carried it along the deck; none of them had even flinched at the gunshot and continued to work even as Yegor emptied the rest of the magazine into the water. In fact, a few came up to the rail hoping for a turn with the weapon; so, not oblivious civilians after all. Yegor handed the weapon to one of the deckhands who eagerly took up the same position I had. I walked away as I heard the click of the empty rifle and they began to laugh at him. Now they were distracted I could put my plan into action.
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Chapter Six
First, I needed to have unsupervised access to the wheelhouse. I walked into the ship and up the set of steps. I wasn’t surprised to see one of the junior deckhands resting, half asleep at the controls. The trawler’s navigation was mostly automated, and the deckhand’s only real job was to keep the boat on a line generated by an electronic map on one of the screens.
I greeted him and he seemed to come awake slightly. I wasn’t sure whether it was boredom or the work that was making him sleepy, either way, I told him to go and get some rest while I took over. My memories quickly told me that this was a common occurrence and Grigory could often be found at the wheel.
I looked around as I tried to figure out controls and noticed a map on a desk behind the captain's chair. It showed the current patrols of the government vessels. If this ship passed close enough to a coastguard, and I could find a way to make a disturbance, they would board and search the ship, and my mission would be complete. I spent a few moments working out distances and speeds before turning back to the controls. As I turned, my hand caught something hard and metallic, knocking it off the table in the process. I looked down at the clatter and saw a multi-tool on the floor. I figured it could come in handy so I picked it up and pocketed it.
I tried to search Grigory’s memories for how all of the gadgets in front of me worked, but the only things coming back were visions of him stood holding the wheel, not the information I needed. I tried to make a few slight adjustments to the system to put us directly in the path of one of the government vessels, but everything I tried just came up as invalid. Apparently, I would have to do this old school and just turn the wheel. I made the change a little at a time so as not to forewarn the crew that our heading was changing. The last thing I wanted was one of them coming up and figuring out what happened.
The next thing I needed to do was to make sure nobody could make any course corrections. I used the multi-tool I had found on the ledge to unscrew the wheel. The screwdriver on the tool was not the right size for the screw heads, but I made do. I pulled out the last screw with my hand and lifted the wheel from its mount.
Now I had to do something with it. It was not a small thing to hide in the sparse compartment, but I had an idea. I walked over to the door leading out onto a gantry over the side of the boat and opened it, intending to deposit the wheel in the ocean. I pulled the handle down at the same time as the door swung outwards on its own. The other side of the threshold was the man who had been standing at my door, back in the cabin. The cigarette in his mouth dropped lazily to the floor as his gaze swept from my face to the wheel in my hand.
“Grigory! What are you doing?” His hand moved up to the sheath of the large knife on his hip almost automatically as his stance changed.
We stood for a second, staring intently at each other as I tried to think of something believable to explain what I was doing. As soon as I saw him unclip the sheath, I knew my time was up. He pulled the large knife from the holder and lunged towards me. I instinctively lifted the wheel to protect myself and felt the jolt as the blade slipped through one of the spaces in the wheel but luckily, the handle was too big to get through. I twisted the wheel around in an attempt to rip the blade from his hand, but he must have been thinking the same thing as he pulled it free as I began to twist. This left me slightly off balance as I had put too much strength into the move and, with no resistance, I almost cannoned into the wall.
I dropped my eyes to the floor to regain my balance and just looked up in time to see him reeling back to slash at me. I barely had time to raise the wheel for the slash I anticipated, but it did not come. Instead, the man had reached out to grab at the wheel, yanking it from my grasp and throwing it behind him, all in one move.
We stood for a second, not taking our eyes from each other as I tried to think. I raised my fists and waited for him to make the next move. He was waiting for me to try to take the knife from him; I could see it in his eyes. There was no way I was going to attempt that. It was much easier to defend against someone wielding a knife than it was to attack. There would be a split second where I could judge where the blade was going. You didn’t get that if you were the one on the offensive.
I saw him twitch the knife as he tried to goad me into rushing him, smiling all the time. I wondered why he hadn’t shouted for anybody to come and help. The room was barely more than a narrow corridor, and I wouldn’t be able to defend against someone in front and behind at the same time. I could only conclude he had a personal grudge against Grigory and was using the opportunity to exact revenge.
I saw the click in his eyes before he started to move. I had seen it before many times. It was the moment when someone commits to something. He lunged forward and slashed at my chest. I immediately jumped backwards, almost falling down the stairs in the process.
He saw my slight stumble and lunged again, this time striking at my stomach with a direct stab. I was ready this time. I grabbed his wrist with my left hand as it thrust towards me and pivoted to the side, pulling his outstretched arm forwards. I continued to spin around as I held his wrist, forcing his elbow to lock and, as he took a clumsy step forward to keep from falling, I twisted backwards to smash my elbow into the back of his head.
The force of the blow jarred my arm and sent tingles all the way up to my shoulder and down to my fingertips. I heard the knife clatter to the floor almost at the same point as his head hit the metal wall of the cabin and a groan left the man’s lips. He buckled under his own weight and slid to the floor. I tried to rub some feeling back into my arm, as I wondered why I hadn’t just let the man stab me. It was not as if I was in any peril, safe under the amplifier back in the lab. That wasn’t me though. I wanted to get through this with all of the smugglers in prison, not cold in the ground.
I kneeled down to check the man was still breathing. Thankfully he was, if a little shallowly. Now all I had to do was move him out of the way. I picked his limp, unconscious body up and deposited him in the chair. I reclined it as far as it would go and picked up one of the caps hung on the wall, laying it over his face. If anyone were to come up, they would assume he was asleep and leave him alone.
I was ready to move on with my plan when I noticed a small notebook jutting from his pocket. I pulled it out and quickly thumbed through the pages. It contained a list of dates and times when the ship would be able to dock with the right security guards on duty. There were even a few names and brief descriptions on the guards in their payroll; valuable evidence.
One name appeared more often than the others did and often had large amounts next to it and the same location. There was even an entry for today
‘Neil Crossley - 10:20pm - $20k - harbour bar'
I memorised the information and placed it back in his pocket. I had been told I would be able to retain a small amount of information back in my own body and this was it. The coastguard could arrest everyone onboard, but none of the crew would give up their contact. With this, the Agency would be able to take down the corrupt official allowing these shipments to enter the country.
I walked back out on deck. Yegor had disappeared; he had propped the sniper rifle in the back corner of the ship, clearly out of ammunition. He must have grown bored and gone back to the woman warming his bed.
I looked around at the crew tending to the ship. One of them walked in front of me and bent down to pick up a coil of rope. There, in the back of his waistband was a pistol; a Glock. I hadn’t really looked closely at them before when I had assumed they were civilians. Here and there, through their overalls and under jumpers, I could just make out the unmistakable bulge of concealed weapons. Everyone on board was armed. I couldn’t risk the coastguard dropping on them and there being a firefight. I needed to think of something fast.
Helpful as ever, the memories supplied the location of the armoury aboard the ship, and I smiled when I thought of something very devious.
I began by challenging the crew on deck to target practice old west style; throw a can into the air and see if you could keep it up with the bullets. Grigory was equally renowned for his accuracy with a weapon and his wild boasting. Overall, it took less than 15 minutes for me to make sure nobody had any rounds left under the guise of having a little fun. As far as everyone knew, we were safely miles away from anyone else, so nobody was overly eager to go down to the armoury and restock.
I picked up the rifle and went back up to the wheelhouse. There was a set of binoculars hung from a nail, which I used to scan the horizon in front of me. Before long, I could just make out the silhouette of one of the government ships.
I hung the binoculars back on their nail and walked out onto the gantry, sniper rifle on my back. Behind the door was a set of metal rungs set into the wall of the wheelhouse. I gripped the one in front of me and climbed up onto the roof. Once up there I crouched down and lay flat. I was in a small area obscured from the deck behind and the stern in front, perfect for what I had planned.
I left the rifle there and walked back down to the deck, checking on my assailant as I walked past, and continued down to where they stored the ammunition. I was surprised to see the door open and unguarded.
I searched around the inside of the room and through the meagre boxes of ammo. There were plenty of replacement clips and spare bullets for the handguns, but no .338's for the rifle. They must have been kept in the locked, secret room with the rest of the rifles. I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the single .338 round I had managed to palm when I made a show of checking the rifle after Yegor handed it to me, and sighed. This would have to do, I thought.
All I needed now was a distraction, something significant enough to ensure the entire crew would be distracted. I walked down into the bowels of the ship. I didn’t need Grigory’s memories to tell me where I needed to go, I only needed to follow the noise. The deep rumble of the engines I had heard in the cabin was the merest whisper to the wall of sound in the room. I picked up a set of ear defenders from the rack and put them on before walking into the compartment.
The two large diesel engines, one either side of the room, were vibrating slightly as they performed their task of pushing us through the water. Even with the protection, the noise was almost unbearable.
I searched around for my target and eventually found it hidden away on one of the walls, the ships master fuse board. There was a small padlock holding the thin metal door closed. I looked around for something to smash it open with and found the biggest wrench I had ever seen, propped up against the side of a workbench. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone hearing me battering the lock.
I swung the heavy tool around and was just about to deliver the blow when I noticed the padlock was open. Clearly, someone had put it through the metal loops but not clicked it closed. I put the tool back where I found it and took a few deep breaths.
I lifted the padlock out of the loop, and the door swung open on its own. I had no idea how the electronics inside worked, and neither did Grigory. I carefully pulled two of the more insignificant fuses and went to work shaving the protective coating of the now dormant wires. I found an oily rag lying on the workbench and wedged it between them, then placing the fuses back in their sockets.
I watched for a moment as the wires sparked onto the oily rag and closed the door once I was satisfied it would catch alight. I put the padlock back into its loop and walked out of the room as smoke began to plume from the edges of the box.
The moment I stepped into the main corridor the ship alarms began to sound. I had to put some distance between the engines and myself; I didn’t want a repeat of the wheelhouse incident.
I ran along the corridors and just happened to be running past my room when I saw another person. I made it look like I had just come out of the room and gestured towards the top deck and he ran on down the stairs without incident.
I climbed the stairs and up into the wheelhouse. Red and Yellow warning lights were flashing all over the console as the siren sounded. I peered out of the windows and down to the empty deck, happy my distraction was working.
Walking out onto the gantry, I could see the black smoke billowing out of the rear of the ship. The oily rag would smoke like crazy once ignited, but wouldn’t pose too much of a danger to the ship, or the crew.
I climbed up onto the roof and lay in position, setting the rifle into a firing position and looked down the telescopic lens. Off in the distance was the government ship I had changed course to intercept. I watched the crew until I saw one of them notice the smoke from our ship, pointing it out to the captain. I saw the glint of the binoculars in the sun as she looked at us.
Before long, I heard a voice on the radio. "Vessel in distress, this is the United States Coast Guard. May we render assistance?"
The same call came through a couple more times, and I watched as the captain gave the order to change course. They were now heading straight for us.
I waited for them to get closer, taking deep breaths to calm myself from the run. Grigory hadn’t been the fittest of people, so it took a little while longer than I expected. I only had one chance at this, and I couldn’t risk hurting someone in the process so, once the coastguard was close enough, I took my eye from the scope and dug the bullet from my pocket. I pulled back the bolt and racked the bullet into the chamber, closing it with a snap.
The bob and sway of this ship coupled with the same from the other made targeting a tricky task. I exhaled as much air as I could from my lungs and held my breath, allowing my heartbeat to slow down. Once more, the message came over the radio, and the moment I heard the click, I fired the rifle.
The shot didn’t go quite as I was hoping. I had wanted to put the bullet through the bottom corner of the window next to the captain of the other ship without endangering anyone who might be there. The shot did indeed go through the window, but not the bottom corner. It smashed through, dead centre, narrowly missing two of the crew in the process.
The second the window broke everyone dropped to their knees and the coastguard boat became a flurry of activity. Within the space of a couple of minutes, two fully equipped teams were in speedboats and dropped into the water, flying towards us at top speed.
I heard the radio blast out a message telling us to prepare to be boarded, and I stood up. I needed to be quick now, I had to finish my plan before the coastguard boarded otherwise everything might go wrong.
I quickly dropped from the roof and back into the cabin, rifle on my back once more. I hoped nobody had heard the shots or the message and was just about to smash the radio when I realised this was the receiver allowing me to control Grigory. I left it intact but turned the volume as low as it could go.
I looked out of the windows again; everyone was still below deck tending to the emergency. The speedboats were about to pull up at the side of the ship, I was running out of time.
Quickly running back down to the armoury, I closed the heavy door behind me and pulled the rifle from my shoulder. I gave it two hard whacks against the wall until I was convinced I had bent the barrel enough for it to no longer fire and wedged the remains through the opening mechanism for the door, jamming it shut.
It didn’t take long for the coastguard to get onto the ship. I sat and listened to the loudspeakers shouting orders to this ship. There
was a flurry of footsteps in the corridor outside as the crew of this ship came out of the engine room and up to the deck to find out what was happening. Silence fell for a few crucial seconds, then shouting and the sound of someone trying and failing to open the armoury door.
I smiled as my plan went perfectly until I heard a few gunshots. I hoped they were warning shots from the coastguard and not this crew firing on them with weapons I had missed.
It did not take long for the coastguard team to secure the ship. They were looking for the rifle; I could hear them questioning the crew further down the corridor. After a short wait, I hear rhythmic boot steps outside, and an officer attempted to open the door. I stood and looked through the circle of glass at the man, who instructed me in no uncertain terms to open the door.
I removed the rifle from the mechanism and called out to say it was clear to come in, and I was unarmed. I dropped to my knees, put my hands up behind my head and just had time to see the door swing open and the coastguard pour in before pressing the recall switch hard.
The second I felt the slight crunch, everything went dark. I held the information I needed at the forefront of my mind as the familiar routine of growing smaller and exiting the room into my mental corridor concluded.
I opened my eyes a few seconds later, relieved and excited to see the amplifier above me. I could already feel the memories slipping away but the most important one held firm and, before anyone had a chance to talk, I made them take down the information about the corrupt official. Neil Crossley was going to have a big surprise when he saw agents waiting in the bar rather than the $20k he was expecting.
Filch stood at one of the consoles and mouthed ‘well done’ at me, through the crowd. She had a wry smile on her face and came over once I had finished giving the information.