Revenge (19 page)

Winter pulled Elijah's arms tighter. ‘Vulkan built this bomb, not me,' he said. ‘I just relocated it. All I know for sure is that it's going off at
midnight
and there's nothing you can do to stop it!'

‘I told you he was good,' Sligo sneered. ‘Like me, he's determined to kill for what he believes in. This—' said Sligo, shuffling under Cal and Ryan's weight awkwardly and looking around the ship— ‘was all his idea. Stealing one of my bombs from City Hall … and bringing it here …
genius
. I just had to be here to watch the beautiful mayhem unfold.'

We heard a gasp behind us. A maintenance
worker, alerted to a problem on the catwalk, had interrupted us. Her face was filled with terror and disbelief. She looked at me as I was lying on top of the globe, reaching over the wires of the plastic explosives.

‘Bomb!' she shrieked, dropping her toolbox and stumbling as she backed away from us. ‘There's a bomb on the ship! There's a bomb!'

People on the dancefloor below looked up, hearing her cries.

‘Bomb!' she continued screaming over the railings. She reached for her two-way radio, but realised it wasn't working. She threw it to the ground in frustration. ‘Bomb!' she yelled again. ‘Bomb! Security! Call security!'

Elijah smirked. ‘The more the merrier, always say.'

More and more people stopped dancing and looked up. Some people started pointing and shouting. Others started running. In seconds, the place was engulfed in widespread panic, screaming and trampling.

But Cal was distracted by something.

‘What is it?' I called out.

He pointed over to the ladder we'd come up.

I watched two small figures—one bigger than the other—in hitched-up dresses making their way up to the catwalk.

Mrs Ormond and Gabbi.

Cal jumped to his feet, leaving only Ryan to contend with Sligo. The sudden release in
pressure
allowed Sligo to twist and scramble away.

‘No, Cal!' I shouted from the globe.

But it was too late. Sligo stumbled over to Elijah and tore him out of Winter's arms.

‘Run, now,' Sligo told him. ‘You must get out of here!'

‘But what about you?' asked Elijah.

Sligo shook his head.

Winter grabbed at Sligo's shoulders, trying to pull him back.

I had to get off the globe and help my friends. I twisted my body, trying to get back onto the catwalk.

Sligo grabbed at Winter's throat and lifted her off the ground. He pushed her up on the
railing
edge and leaned her over.

‘Winter!' Cal yelled. He and Ryan burst into a run towards her but Sligo had already let her go …

‘Winter!' Cal yelled again, reaching out for her as she began to fall. He caught her right hand. Her other hand held desperately onto
Sligo's
shirt.

‘Help!' Winter cried. ‘Get me up!'

Sligo teetered over the edge himself. The
shirt tore suddenly, pulling him off balance and leaving Winter hanging onto Cal's hand. Sligo slipped forward, over the railing. His hands caught the edge of the catwalk and he dangled down, seconds from falling to his death below.

‘I've got you,' Cal said to Winter. She reached up her other hand for Ryan, carefully avoiding Sligo's swinging body.

Sligo moaned, hanging directly above the edge of the aquarium wall.

Finally, I managed to get off the globe and back onto the catwalk. I dived for Winter,
helping
the others hoist her back up.

As she swung perilously, the strap on her bag snapped and sent the contents tumbling metres to the floor below.

‘Winter!' shrieked Gabbi, running along the catwalk with Mrs Ormond. They both fell to their knees, helping us hold onto Winter. ‘Who's that?' Gabbi pointed at Sligo.

To our left, Elijah was on his knees, holding one of Sligo's hands, trying in vain to help him back up. There was no way he could do it. He was too small.

‘Go, Eli,' Sligo breathed. His face was red with strain and fear. ‘Get out of here before this place explodes. You need to get out to a lifeboat …
right now. Let me go,' Sligo pleaded. ‘You have to.'

‘I can't,' Elijah cried. ‘I can't let you go.'

‘You must,' Sligo insisted.

‘No! Never!'

And then their hands separated.

Sligo screamed as he fell. His body hit the wall of the aquarium and splashed into the water. He sank fast, like a heavy stone. We watched in horror as a flash of blue and yellow darted out at him from nowhere. Sligo twitched and kicked as he tried to get back up to the surface, but the deadly blue-ringed octopus had found its prey.

Its tentacles lashed out, smothering Sligo's face. He struggled in vain to free himself but soon the twitching stopped … and slowly he sank deeper into the tank, shifting out of sight into the wide, jagged arms of coral.

Elijah pushed past us and ran to the ladder, then disappeared from view.

I tore my eyes away from the tank and looked at Winter, finally back on solid ground with us. She was as white as a ghost. I could see Cal's chest heaving. Ryan's too. Gab and Mrs O looked horrified.

‘Ryan,' Cal shouted, ‘get them off the ship! Mum, Gab, go!'

‘But I can't leave you and—' Ryan argued.

‘You have to get them out of here!'

‘But what are you doing?' Mrs Ormond asked us. ‘What's going on? We can't leave you!' she cried.

‘Mum, I can't explain now. But you both have to get off the ship right now!'

Ryan stood still, fists tensed. I ran back to the bomb.

‘Go!' Cal ordered.

Ryan gritted his teeth and nodded. He picked up Gabbi in his arms, and he grabbed Mrs Ormond by the elbow. He turned and ran away down the catwalk as fast as he could.

‘Cal, no! Boges!' Gab cried. ‘Winter! Come with us!'

Gabbi and Mrs Ormond's cries could be heard above all the others as they were taken away.

Cal grabbed Winter's hand and pulled her to him. ‘Winter,' he said, ‘you have to go, too. Boges will get you to a lifeboat. You have to get out now, both of you. There's not much time.'

‘I can get myself to a lifeboat, thanks very much,' she snapped. She hugged him tight, stretching up on her bare feet. ‘But there's no way I'm leaving you, and I'm pretty sure Boges won't either.'

She glanced over at me and I nodded. ‘We're in this together.'

‘So what do we do?'

‘We have to figure out this code.'

I must have tried dozens of four-digit code
combinations
, but it was useless. The possibilities were just too huge. I was trying to imagine Sligo, planning this bomb for City Hall, and what he might have been thinking when he chose the four digits to arm it.

But the timer just kept on ticking. We had less than five minutes left.

Finally, I looked at my friends.

‘It's too late to run now,' I admitted.

I rubbed my face with my hands. I was
covered
in sweat. Winter fell to the floor of the catwalk and thumped it. Cal leaned against the railing and stared, glassy-eyed.

It had all come down to this.

‘That's it!' said Winter, sitting up with a jolt. ‘Down there!' I followed her finger down to the abandoned dancefloor metres below us. She was pointing at a small brown rectangle. She jumped to her feet, ran along the catwalk and dropped down the ladder.

‘What is she doing?' Cal asked me. He leaned over the railing again. ‘Winter, what have you figured out?'

She skidded beneath us, grabbed the book, and was back on her feet in one swift movement. She ran back to the ladder and climbed it like a gibbon.

‘When I found this up in the lighthouse,' she shouted as she climbed, ‘there was a page marked with the ribbon. It was a passage from Judges in the Old Testament, chapter sixteen. It's about this guy called Samson seeking revenge on his enemies, the Philistines. That's what Sligo was talking about! Samson was betrayed by a woman who stole his power. Remember how Sligo called me “little Delilah” back at Coffin Bay? He sees himself as this great hero like Samson, who was chained to huge pillars holding up a palace filled with thousands of people.'

Winter clambered onto the catwalk and opened the book, scanning the lines with her finger. ‘In one final show of strength, he pulled the columns over and brought the palace
crashing
down on top of his enemies. He destroyed them—crushed them. Just like Sligo wanted to do with City Hall!'

‘Hurry!' yelled Cal. ‘We need numbers! We're down to one minute! What have you got? You need to find the right line, the right verse number!'

‘I'm trying!' she cried.

The ticking numbers were flying down in
front of me. ‘Quick!' I shouted. ‘We have thirty seconds left before it goes off!'

‘Um-ah, um,' she stuttered. She flicked
manically
through the pages.

‘Tell me, Winter, please!'

‘Here it is! Sixteen-thirty,' she yelled. ‘One, six, three, zero!'

Single digits flashed on the clock. Seconds remained. Cal and Winter held hands and watched on, as my trembling fingers keyed in the numbers …

And so Cal was on TV once more, his face
broadcast
live across the country and the world. We had saved over ten thousand people from dying in an epic explosion at sea. We had saved Mrs Ormond and Gabbi.

The images of us being reunited with an injured, but overjoyed, Repro back on shore were shown over and over again on TV, the Internet, in newspapers, on blogs, on YouTube. Elijah Smith was arrested after he was tracked down adrift on a raft in the sea, surrounded by a ring of civilian vessels.

When a certain Melba Snipe saw the blond boy on her television set again, she smiled. She almost fell over when she recognised one of the other heroes in the background with him. A thin, wiry kind of guy with incredible hands. Shaken and battered on a stretcher, but
otherwise
in one piece after his rough helicopter landing. Someone she hadn't seen in years. Her son, Albert.

As we sped across the dark water that night, away from the
Sapphire Star
, I took a moment to myself, walking over to the edge of the police boat and peering across the choppy water. pulled the blanket the paramedics had given me tight against the wind.

‘Boges,' said Cal, walking up behind me. ‘How you feeling?'

‘Dude,' I began. I shook my head and shrugged. ‘What can I say?'

‘It's a tough job being my best mate,' he said, with an awkward laugh. ‘Look, I seriously can't believe I'm doing this again, but I just wanted to say thank you.'

Cal paused, looking up at the stars. He exhaled loudly, his eyes shining wet under the moonlight, before he spoke again.

‘Thank you for finding me when Sligo had me. Thank you for looking after everything and everyone while I was gone. Thank you for
helping
me fly the helicopter that got us out here in time. Thanks for … for never giving up. You've put your life on hold, your life on the line … you've done so much for me.'

‘Eh, it was nothing,' I said, laughing and slugging him in the shoulder. ‘Everything else can wait,' I added, thinking about how I'd go home and convince NASA to give me another
shot. Cal shoved my arm down and hugged me. Having him as a best mate had seen me do some wild things in the last two years, things people wouldn't even believe.

But sometimes that's just what a guy has to do.

The police escorted us off the boat and along the length of the pier … back to land. A million camera flashes surrounded us. In the flashes, I could see faces I knew—Cal's lawyer, Belinda Quick, his family friend and nurse Jennifer Smith, the Ormonds' neighbours, Griff Kirby. Mum and Gran were there waiting for me, tears of joy and relief streaking their faces. Everyone had come to see us return safely.

Even Maddy was there, and from the smile on her face, all was immediately understood and forgiven between us.

The police were holding the media back. The press circled like vultures, shouting
questions
, snapping photos. Amongst them was Ben Willoughby. Cal nodded to the police. ‘Let him through,' he said.

Just before we were fully immersed in the roar of the crowd, I overheard Winter whisper something to Cal.

‘It's over,' she said. ‘It is finally over.'

And for once, I believed her.