Laura 02 The God Code (36 page)

“Give me your belt,” Victor commands.

Without questioning, the man removes his belt and hands it to Victor, who presses himself against the wall and uses the shiny buckle as a mirror. The room has a number of tables and 30 crew are sitting in groups all over the room. Two exits at the back lead from the room to the sleeping quarters, with the missile room next, followed by the bridge, the forward storage areas, and bow torpedo rooms.

Two armed men are standing guard at each exit to the forward compartments, with an additional guard right next to the entry Victor is sitting at. Victor judges that there must be another guard at the entry leading to the starboard side battery and engine room. Five crew men are busy playing cards, with one of the men having a direct view of the entry Victor is at. Victor leans his head just far enough into view for the man to see him, but not the guard at the door. Placing his finger on his lips, he indicates for the man to say nothing.

The man responds with a very slight head nod, continuing his card game, but looking up every now and again towards Victor’s direction. Victor has no means of communicating with Ernest, as there were no waterproof communicating devices on the ship. However, even if he had a communicating device, he is not going to risk giving away that he is still alive, in case Ernest was caught.

When the crew member looks up towards Victor again, Victor indicates that he wishes to crawl to the other room and that the man must start a fight. Victor hopes the man to be too important for the guards to just start shooting. A few seconds later the man yells to his buddies that they are cheating and jumps up, grabbing one by the collar. The two then start throwing punches. Victor was hoping for a word exchange, but this will do just as well.

The guard at the door runs towards the commotion, trying to break up the fight. Victor quickly crawls beneath the table next to the door. There are a few men sitting there, and he has to push their legs out of the way to move to the next table. Victor has two more tables to go before he is at the entry to the starboard battery room.

Victor looks to his right while crawling to the hatch. Boots are coming his way just as he passes from one table to the next, totally exposed. The guard is almost directly in the aisle that Victor is in, if he looks down he will surely see him. As quickly and as silently as Victor can, he tries to get under the table. The guard is now at the passage, with Victor’s feet hanging out.

Victor tries to move, but cannot. He is stuck, his shirt caught on a loose screw under the table.

Suddenly two sailors jump up right in front of the guard and start a fight, blaming each other that their friend cheated. The other fight had already been broken up at gunpoint. Victor thinks of pushing forward hard, hoping the guard does not hear his shirt rip, when someone grabs his shirt and pulls him back. Shit, they have me. Suddenly someone unhooks him, and as soon as his shirt is free the person lets go of him. Quickly Victor continues crawling underneath the last tables, getting the all okay from one of the sailors before sliding on his belly into the battery room. The second he stops, someone puts a gun to his head.

“Shit, I could have shot you!” Ernest pulls his pistol back.

“Good to see you too! Anyone alive back there?”

“Yes, a technician. Tied him up and gagged him.”

“And you say I should show respect, what did you tie him up for?”

“Didn’t trust him.”

“Well, go back and untie him, then ask him to disable the alarm that will indicate to the bridge that the engine has stopped and they are running on battery power. Then have him disable the engine, switching over to battery power and also have him hook it up that the batteries only run for 15 minutes, we are going dark.” Ernest nods then silently disappears.

Two minutes later he joins Victor again, giving a nod that it is all set.

“I make six guards in the room. As soon as the lights go out, I will take the one by the door here, then move over to the other door and take the guard there.

“When I go, move forward and we will each have two more guards. Use your knife, I do not want to risk any crew getting killed.”

“How do you know the guards will not just blindly start shooting in the dark?”

“Because they need these men, and they will be afraid of hitting each other. Furthermore, there are flashlights on the wall near the front, I reckon they would go for them before randomly shooting.”

Ernst nods his agreement, hoping Victor is right. The two men wait in silence, with Victor noting the time on his watch. Just before the power is about to fail, Victor slowly moves to the door, getting ready, with Ernest right behind him.

Suddenly everything goes dark, and an eerie silence fills the ship. Victor immediately jumps up and enters the mess hall, turning left towards the guard. He bumps into the first guard and instinctively stabs up, driving his knife into the man’s throat, then twisting the blade before pulling it out and stabbing the man in the heart. Victor then makes his way to the other guard by feeling his way along the wall.

“Everyone stay where you are or we will shoot!” comes the order from one of the guards in front. Ernest is crawling along the floor towards them. Victor finds the second guard at the entrance to the port battery room and stabs him in the heart, covering his mouth with his hand, then quickly cuts his throat. Feeling his way along the tables, Victor moves to the front of the mess hall. One of the guards finds a flashlight and pulls it off the wall. As he switches it on, he turns around to scan the mess hall.

The guard’s muscles tense and desperately he tries to force his body to react, but it is too late.

A knife slices through the air and rips into his throat. Blood spurts out of his neck arteries, cut open by Victor in one move. The guard frantically grabs his throat to stop the bleeding, just as Victor brings the knife back and stabs the guard’s buddy next to him in the neck. Victor quickly pulls the knife out of the second guard’s neck and stabs the first guard in the heart. The second guard’s wind pipe is damaged, and blood runs down it, choking the man. As the guard falls back against the wall, trying to breathe, Victor pulls the knife out of the first guard and stabs the second guard in the heart. The second guard slowly sinks to the floor, dying beside his colleague. It is all over in three seconds, and the first guard’s flashlight rolls on the floor, having been dropped by the man as he grabbed his throat. The flashlight rolling on the floor confuses the other two guards, giving Ernest an opportunity.

Ernest jumps forward when one of them goes for the flashlight. Ernest hits the man in the face with his elbow, which he then uses to push the guard backwards as he blocks off his airway. While pushing forward, Ernest stabs the man several times, then pulls his elbow back and swings the knife around, cutting the man’s throat. The last guard lifts his weapon to shoot, aiming for Ernest’s head, but several sailors tackle him, stabbing him in the throat and heart with kitchen knives, and wrestle the pistol from him before he can fire a shot.

Picking up the flashlight, Victor addresses the first two sailors closest to him. “There is a bag by the door at the back, it has two guns in, take it and guard each of the doors.” He gives the flashlight to one of the men, and then addresses Ernest. “You take the starboard side, I will take the port, meet up in the missile room.”

Victor and Ernest both feel their way around as they pass through the deserted dark sleeping quarters. Stopping at the exit from the sleeping quarter, Victor peeks into the blackness of the missile room. A number of missile tubes are faintly visible in the darkness, illuminated by a guard walking around with a flashlight, searching the area. A second guard walks up to the first, starting a conversation.

“What happened, why did the lights go out?”

“Not sure, total power loss. I’m on my way to check the engine room. Stay on guard.”

Quickly Victor goes back into the sleeping quarters and climbs onto the top bed of the first bunk. Pulling the curtains closed, he waits for the guard to walk past. Carefully the guard starts to enter the room, but stops in the doorway. Shining his light over the bunks, the guard searches the room. Suddenly his flashlight shines over the drawn curtains where Victor is hiding. Victor holds his breath and freezes as the guard keeps the light on the curtains. Suddenly the man draws his pistol and aims at the curtain. Did he see something? Victor’s diaphragm spasms, urging him to breathe, but he dare not. The guard listens for 30 seconds more, while Victor is still holding his breath. Slowly the guard lowers his firearm, satisfied that all is clear, and walks forward, right into Victor’s knife that takes him under the soft of the chin.

Victor drives the knife hard up and twists the blade. As the man chokes on his own blood and tries to pull the knife out, Victor grabs his head and pulls the back of the man’s neck against the edge of the bed. Victor leans on the man’s head until he hears the snapping sound of the man’s neck breaking. The guard’s body goes limp and Victor lets it drop to the ground. He quickly jumps out of the bed, and drops down next to the body. Bending over the body, he switches off the guard’s flashlight that has dropped to the floor. Victor pulls his knife out of the dead guard’s throat, and cleans it on the guard’s clothes.

“Hey Bart, are you okay?” the second guard calls to his colleague while making his way over, having seen the flashlight drop and go dead. Before Victor can react, the guard shines his flashlight into the room, right onto Victor. Victor quickly draws his pistol, but the man already had his pistol drawn and pulls the trigger. Fear fills the guard’s body as the gun misfires. Looking down at the pistol, a lump forms in his throat. A hand is covering the back of his pistol. The hammer is biting into the flesh, having stopped the hammer from hitting the firing pin. Footsteps in front of the guard cause him to look up, just as a knife is driven into his heart. Victor had already closed the distance between him and the guard, and covers the guard’s mouth, preventing him from raising the alarm, while driving the knife deep into the man’s chest.

Ernest holds the guard from behind. Together the three men go down, and as soon as the man stops moving, Victor lets go and pries the gun from the dead man’s hand, then pulls the hammer back, freeing Ernest’s hand.

Blood freely flows from a hole in Ernest’s hand where the hammer of the gun cut into it.

“Thanks, owe you one,” Victor comments as he tears a strip of material from the dead man’s shirt and starts bandaging Ernest’s hand.

“What are you doing? That’s a dead man’s shirt.”

“So, he is not going to need it anymore. Now hold still.”

Suddenly three bullets hit Victor in the chest, and he slides over the floor from the impact. Ernest quickly kicks the flashlight away and fires in the direction the shots came from while diving for cover. A man screams as Ernest scores a direct hit.

“Intruders, intruders!” someone screams in the bridge.

Ernest peeks around a missile tube he is hiding behind, trying to pinpoint the enemies’ position. Subtracting the men they killed from the number onboard the technician gave, there should still be seven hijackers left. Ernest ducks behind the missile tube as a flashlight from inside the bridge shines in his direction. Both entrances to the bridge are covered. There is no way he can get near the bridge without being seen and possibly shot. Ernest steals a glance in the direction of Victor. Victor’s body is lying somewhere in the dark on the opposite side of the path. Ernest cannot safely cross the path to help Victor without being seen. Stealing a look again at the closest door, Ernest is greeted with a volley of gunfire. Quickly he pulls back, then sticks his machine gun around the missile tube and empties a clip in the direction of the door where the shooting originated.

There is a scream as Ernest hits someone, however he does not know if he killed or wounded the person. Reloading, he again aims the machine gun around the missile tube, firing in the general direction of where he thinks the men are. Suddenly the machine gun is ripped from his hand as a bullet strikes it, while at the same time a bullet catches Ernest in the left shoulder, spinning him round, causing him to hit his head against the missile tube, knocking him half unconscious. Dazed, Ernest crawls away, trying to get behind another missile tube, closer to his lost machine gun.

“Hold it!” A gun barrel is pressed against Ernest’s head. As Ernest freezes, two men grab him and lift him up. He can feel he is searched while someone shines a flashlight in his eyes, blinding him. The men drag Ernest towards the control room where he is dumped on the ground and kicked twice in the stomach and then in the face.

“Guard the door,” One of the men orders, as Ernest tries to get his breath back. Everything is spinning and his ears are ringing.

“How many men are with you? And how many of my men have you killed?” Ernest is kicked hard in the side, causing him to slide a few feet across the floor until he hits the legs of the chart table.

“There must be at least two, I got one,” someone comments.

“You screwed up our plans, taking out my boat and men, but not to worry, I have enough men here to keep the crew under control and take the submarine to where I can get more men. You, on the other hand, will die here today.

“Kill him, then go take control of the crew. Watch out, they may be armed.”

The steel is cold as the barrel of a pistol is pressed against Ernest’s right temple. The click sound of the hammer being pulled back fills his ears.

“Wait.” Ernest starts to slowly turn as he speaks, having been lying on his stomach.

“Why?”

“Because I want to look you in the eye as you kill me.”

“Suit yourself.”

Ernest looks up at a bearded Mexican man in his early thirties, holding a gold plated Smith and Western .45 ACP, pointed at Ernest’s head.

“Nice gun.”

“Thank-” The back of the man’s head explodes as a bullet rips through it, then suddenly there is blood and brains being spattered all over the place as bullets cut the men down, five in total. When the shooting stops, Ernest cranks his head to look behind him at the door while still lying on the floor. Victor is hanging upside down from the outside wall, his upper body in the doorway, a smoking pistol in each hand. Rolling over, Ernest comments, “I thought you were dead.”