The boat’s engines filled the quiet night sky. Worm kept looking across at Aoife, in two minds about what he was going to do next. Seizing the opportunity, he put his hands on her arms, prompting her to face him now, rather than the ocean.
“Oh, Worm?” She was startled, “What are you doing?”
He smiled passionately, “I know how stupid this must seem but, I really like you. We’ve only known each other for a few days, but I think you and I both know there’s a connection here.”
Although in her mind she felt nothing for him, she knew that she had to play along if she wanted to get any more information from him. “…I’ve been waiting all night for you to do this.” She grabbed his face and pulled him in for a kiss.
Worm moved his arms down her body, and then felt something in her jacket pocket. Out of harmless curiosity, he slipped his hand into the pocket and pulled the object out.
Feeling this motion, Aoife broke away from the kiss.
“What’s this?” He asked her, looking down at the two small pins in his hand.
“Nothing, they’re nothing. Just leave them.” She tried to shove them back in her pocket, but they were stuck in Worm’s hand.
“Oh, go on, what are they?” He playfully prompted. “Come on, I told you about the Infected.”
“They’re nothing, just leave them.” She turned slightly serious and pulled him back into a kiss to distract him from the pins.
Becoming suspicious for real this time, he broke away from the kiss and brought the pins up to his eyes for a closer inspection.
Aoife sighed, as a look of worry came across her face.
“Aries? And Aquarius?” He enquired, feeling the two pins with this thumb.
She nodded, “Uh, yeah… Family heirlooms.” She fashioned a believable excuse.
“So, which one are you? Aries or Aquarius?”
“Aries.” She answered without a second thought.
Worm laughed, “How funny is that? You’ve got an Aquarius pin, and the boat we’re on is called…” He broke off his sentence, as his eyes flooded with awe.
“Worm? What is it?” She continued to play dumb, nevertheless.
He looked up at her, raising an eyebrow fearfully. “This was the same pin that was on Tanika’s jacket… Why do you have it now?”
She snatched the pins back from him, as he remained there motionlessly.
“One captain… One boat… This particular port… Aquarius…” He stuttered one word at a time as he fit all of the pieces together, “You knew she was here…”
“I really liked you.” Aoife told him; a phrase that was being thrown around a lot on this day.
Worm’s look of awe turned into one of fear, as he noticed Aoife reaching for her knife.
For one rather tense second, everything was still.
Then, Worm bolted. He tried to run back inside, but Aoife grabbed him and threw him against the railings. Without a second thought, she stabbed him directly through his throat, slicing his Adam’s apple.
“I’m sorry…” She whispered to him in her natural American accent.
Worm made gurgling noises as his eyes became all red and veiny, clenching the outpour of blood from his throat with a shaky hand.
Then, with both of her arms under his legs, Aoife lifted him up and over the railings, sending him plummeting down head-first into the ocean beneath.
Just seconds later, Cora, Kieran and Mac all arrived at the deck.
“Where’s Worm?” Cora asked, instantly noticing he was gone.
Aoife shrugged, “He left a few minutes ago, I don’t know.”
Cora eased into realisation and then looked back at Kieran, “Looks like you were right. A guilty conscience, perhaps?”
He nodded, “I’ll get Tanika to make an announcement.” He ran back inside, headed for the wheelhouse.
“What’s going on?” Aoife asked.
Cora sighed and put her hands on her friend’s shoulders. “We think Worm may have done something to Naomi.”
Aoife was genuinely taken back by this theory, “Oh…”
“Yeah” She nodded. “I know that you were starting to fancy him… Always the bad boys, hey?”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Aoife bantered in return and nodded. “Can I just…”
“…Just what?” Cora prompted her.
“Just have a moment, out here, alone?” She requested.
Accepting this request, Cora and Mac headed back inside.
Once they were out of sight and earshot, Aoife reached down and grabbed the pins from the floor. Just as Worm had done, she rubbed them with her thumb. Then, she slipped them back into her pocket.
She noticed blood dripping from the part of the railings where Worm had gone overboard. Using her jacket’s dark sleeve, she rubbed the liquid away. As if nothing had happened, she folded her arms and leant over those same railings, looking out across the ocean once again…
Chapter 24: The Beast
In their living room, Elliot was arguing with Gwen regarding the planned assault on Jaxon.
“I have to be there mum! I’m the one who taunted Jaxon, I’m the one who’s more than ready to deliver the finishing blow!” Elliot argued.
“You’re blind!” Gwen retorted. “I’m not losing either of my kids. Alek and Erica are more than capable of dealing with this freak. You got the liberty to finish J.V. off, that’s as far as I’m willing to let you risk your life.”
Elliot shook his head in extreme disagreement. “I enjoyed the fighting, mum! Ever since I first fought Vincent back in the day, I’ve always enjoyed it! I like being the one who fights to save people. I want to kill Jaxon myself so that I can tell Annabelle with first-hand confidence that her tormentors will never come back!” He shouted.
“Fine.” Gwen mumbled, seemingly conceding. “Tell me, have you even extracted the information from our captive yet?” She questioned, implicitly pointing out Elliot’s imprudence.
“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” James maintained secrecy whilst tied down to a chair in Erica’s basement, with her and Alek looming over him.
Erica shook her head and laughed, “You really don’t get it, do you?” She rolled her eyes and bent down to his eye-level, “Your father is dead, your brothers are dead… All because of us. You may have been able to fleece other groups, but you didn’t count on us, did you?”
James spat on her face, “Go to hell.”
Alek cracked his knuckles.
“No, wait,” Erica halted him as she wiped the saliva from her cheek. “I’m going to give you one last chance,” she warned James, “If you tell us where your last brother can be found, we’ll let you live. But if you refuse, we will beat the information out of you, and if you still don’t concede, then you’ll die. Either way, we are going to find your base, with or without your help,” she leant in a little closer, “This is just us being kind, giving you a chance to live.”
James laughed in return, “Jaxon will kill every last one of you before you get him, believe me…”
“Oh really? And why is that?” She prompted him to diverge more information.
“Now that he knows you’re on to him, he’ll be rallying up volunteers from the other groups; people who have families, people who will kill to protect those families regardless of their principles…” He began to smirk whilst explaining this.
Erica looked over to Alek.
James breathed out a sigh of relief, “Now you’re worried, aren’t you? Jaxon knows exactly where we are. He can send people here, keep people there, put people everywhere between… You’re all dead.”
“That’s it!” Alek snapped and punched James straight across the face, his nose breaking from the intensity of the force.
“Alek!” Erica expressed her dismay.
“Tell us where your scummy brother is already!” Alek grabbed James and straightened him up, only to punch him again. “Your dad is dead! Just give up the damn game already!”
“Alek, no!” She
pried him away. “This is what he wants; if you beat him to death, he’ll never have to talk.”
“He isn’t going to talk anyway!” Alek rebutted. “If just one of these brothers lives past this day, it puts countless lives in danger. If we kill him, that risk is reduced… We’ll find another way to get the last one.”
“No, you won’t!” James intervened, still laughing.
“You f--!” Alek moved in to assault him again, but Erica kept him back.
“Leave it, Alek, just leave it,” she calmed him, “Go back upstairs. Go and have a rest, ok? If he’s telling us the truth, we need every last man to be prepared for an imminent attack. You’re one of the strongest, so I need you at maximum strength, ok?”
Reluctantly, he nodded, and went back upstairs.
Erica turned back to face James and crouched down beneath him. “Alright, how about this?” She asked him calmly, preparing to make him another offer.
“Erica!” Tina suddenly came around, still on the bed in the medical bay.
“Calm! Calm!” Petra soothed her at her bedside.
“Erica? Where’s Erica?” Tina panicked.
Petra fluttered her hands about in almost hypnotic way. “Erica is ok. Everybody is ok. No… Naiser is dead.” She thought it best to be honest about the fight.
“And-d the others?” She hankered for the truth.
Petra nodded, “Your friends are ok. Annabelle, Gwen, Elliot, Alek, Nikola; Alive.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear... Wait,” she noticed that everything was quiet outside, “Is it over? Did we get them? What about the snipers?”
Again, Petra nodded and smiled, “J.V. is dead. His sons died too. Nikola got the snipers. Sadly, some of us died.” She didn’t know how to sugar-coat the concept of death in the English language; phrases such as ‘passed away’ were unknown to her.
“That’s tragic… But at least our closest friends are alright,” she remarked, not initially realising the mild disrespect this comment came with.
“There is one son.” Petra informed her. “We are going to kill him, as well.”
“Oh, good. I want to be there for that one.” Tina tried to hoist herself off the bed but winced immediately.
“No, no. You must rest.” Petra grabbed another icepack from the mini fridge.
Everything was silent between Elliot and Gwen.
“So, if we get the location out of him, you’ll let me go?” Elliot assessed.
Gwen shrugged, forgetting that he couldn’t see this reaction.
“Mum?” He prompted for a verbal response.
“…Yes.” She answered hazily.
But he didn’t need his eyes to sense how concerned she was for him. “Don’t worry, I’ll have people with me at all times; good people. I won’t let my blindness burden me any longer.”
“It’s not about your sight,” she revealed to him.
“What is it about then?”
She took a deep breath and looked to the floor. “Elliot, I saw a different side to you when you killed J.V.; a side to you I haven’t seen in years. A side to you I thought you’d left behind…”
He leant back against the sofa, “Right?”
“…Have you forgotten how you lost your sight, Elliot?” She squealed, her emotions speaking for her. “You were so determined to kill Sonia… I was all tied up against the wall, and I tried so hard to break free because I just knew it wasn’t going to end well for you.” She took a moment to compose herself. “You ran at her with your knife, but it was such a large room, and you were far enough away that she had time to prepare… I screamed your name through the piece of tape covering my mouth, but you were only seeing red.”
“I know how this story ends, mum.” He interrupted her. “I was kind of like, you know, there.” His sarcasm wasn’t appreciated.
“But you don’t know this story from my perspective. You don’t know what it was like for me to helplessly watch my best friend turn into a vengeful monster.” She elaborated. “You tried to slash her throat, but she dodged it, and snatched your knife from you… The moment she went for your eyes, I closed mine, because I was scared that you were going to die; not just die, but die as this vengeful beast, rather than the tender young man I first met by a fire.”
Elliot was silent.
“My eyes were closed for some time, and I was crying. All I could hear were your screams, as though it was your throat that had been slashed. I remember Tina trying to comfort me, but all I could hear was you, Elliot.” She became tearful. “Don’t you get it? Sonia knew she wasn’t going to kill you, but who’s to say Jaxon will be the same? When you taunted him over the radio, your vengeful side shone through… If you act in that reckless away again, what if it costs you more than just your eyes this time?”
Understanding how his mother felt, Elliot raised his hand to his face. He caressed the red scar tissue around his eyes, remembering the exact moment Sonia swiped at him.
There was a desperate knock at the door, breaking the heartfelt moment.
Gwen rubbed her eyes, “I’ll get it.”
She opened the door and was greeted with Erica. “Oh, it’s you…”
Erica smiled politely, “Look, I know I keep on apologising and then screwing up, but--”
“It’s ok.” Gwen accepted her apology in advance.
Erica nodded in acceptance before cutting to the chase. “I managed to get the location out of the son.”
Gwen squinted at her, “How?”
Erica tapped her nose, “That would be telling…”
Everybody gathered at the front of the town, preparing to track down J.V.’s final son.
“The power-plant?” Alek reacted when Erica pointed out a coal power station on the map.
“Yep.” She affirmed. “That’s where we’re gonna find him.”
“I don’t know, Erica.” He was sceptical. “Are you sure he’s telling the truth?”
“Well,” she turned around.
Two of the townspeople held James in cuffs; he didn’t have a single cut or scratch on him, only the bloody nose which Alek had caused.
“What exactly did you do?” Alek asked her now.
Just as she had done with Gwen, Erica tapped her nose and told him, “That would be telling…”
“Alright.” Elliot clapped his hands to get everybody’s attention. “Here’s the plan everyone: James here,” he nodded at him with a look of disgust, “Is going to be our leverage. We’re going to use him to get inside the power station, and then we’ll take them out from within. They won’t fire on us so long as he is in our grasp.”
James tutted.
“Don’t interrupt.” Elliot winded him with his nun-chucks; his training at the clearing was finally paying off. “Anyway, thanks to a brave effort, we now have sniper rifles in our arsenal. Nikola and Rubin will provide sniper support from a vantage point once we get there.”
They were both handed sniper rifles. Amazed, they both examined them, before quickly slinging them over their backs.
“Alek and Jázmin here are going to lead two separate teams. Alek will be the team marching in with James, whilst Jázmin’s team will sneak their way in for the purposes of phase 2 of the attack. As for me, I shall be relaying the information between the two teams as well as the snipers.”
“Elliot!” Gwen came running over to him with her hand raised.
“Ugh, sorry everybody, one minute.” Elliot remarked, assuming that Gwen as going to try and change his mind once again.
“I want to help.” She proclaimed, pleasantly surprising her stepson.
Elliot didn’t know how to react. “What about Annabelle?”
“Dawn’s with her… Look, I get it, Elliot… I can’t stop you, but you can’t stop me from being there for you either.” She smiled and patted his shoulder.
“Right then,” Elliot smirked, “Alek, how do you feel about having my mother on your team?”
He nodded respectfully, “Dobrý!”
>
Annabelle was curled up on the sofa, attempting to read a book that was in the house; it was written entirely in Czech, so it was more a case of she was just desperately passing the time.
“Do you want a drink?” Dawn called out to her from the kitchen.
“No thanks.” She responded, albeit much quieter.
“Something to eat maybe?”
“Nope, you’re alright.”
As she adjusted her position, she heard something crinkle in her trouser pocket. She put the book to one side and delved into her pocket to retrieve the object; it was a small piece of paper that had clearly been ripped from a much larger sheet.
The note read: ‘THAT’S WHAT SIBLINGS ARE FOR’.
She sulked emotionally, and then kissed the note, before holding it close to her heart…
Chapter 25: The Murderer
Kieran had explained the situation to Tanika in the wheelhouse.
“I knew it. I just somehow knew it.” She blagged. “I didn’t trust that Worm at all.”
“You knew him for less than a day,” Kieran noted, “Don’t act like a smartass.”
“Alright… Grumpy,” she jeered at him; she was feeling jovial because nobody on board suspected anything of her.
Choosing to ignore that cynical comment, Kieran raised another interesting point, “It’s weird though, how did he just disappear like that?”
Tanika shrugged, “Well, you could say the same thing about Naomi really.”
He shook his head, “No, the difference is, we’re still not sure whether or not Naomi’s even on board, but know for a fact, that Worm is. So, where is he?”
Again, she played dumb and shook her head.
“Christ, it’s like he’s hopped overboard or something.” He flippantly remarked, completely unaware that this was rather close to the truth. “So, when are we turning back?” He asked, presuming that at some point they were going back for Naomi.
“Why would we go back?” Clearly, Tanika had no intention of this.
“Uh, to see if Naomi is ok?” He patronised her.
Human Nature (Book 3): Human Nature III Page 17