Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) (20 page)

“How will you get
the phone back here? It’s pretty bulky.”

“I’ll just turn it
on and try to get a message to Neal,” David said. “We need someone to sail
closer in case we have to escape in a rowboat.”

“What if their comm
team picks up the signal? They’ll know what you’re up to.”

Esther glanced
over at the pair on the cot, but they were still occupied.

“I can’t miss the
chance to go to the upper levels of the base while Chelle is around,” David
said.

“Can’t Harry help
you?” Esther mumbled.

She sliced through
the two wires David held between his fingers.

“Chelle’s place is
only one level above the canteen on the same hallway where I think the phone
is. It’ll be easier to make an excuse to go back to her room than to wander
away with Harry.”

“You’re going back
to her room,” Esther said flatly.

“This’ll work,”
David said. “I need you to act like everything’s normal tonight during the
celebration. Don’t make a big deal about me going off with Chelle.”

“Why would I make
a big deal out of it?”

Esther sliced the
rubber coating off the wires and pulled out her lighter to burn off the remaining
threads. She held the flame a little closer to David’s fingers than was
strictly necessary.

“Perfect. Just act
natural.”

David
handed the wires back to her decorously before she could singe his fingers.

Chapter 27—The
Canteen

Harry stayed in the
workshop after Chelle returned to her duties. He was
often their only guard, though technically he was supposed to be stationed
outside the door. There wasn’t anywhere for them to go on the Island, and
security was fairly lax.

David and Harry
talked about the ships they’d met during their years at sea. Unlike David,
Harry had been doing hard labor since he was old enough to hoist a sail, but
they liked the same models, and both had strong opinions about yachts. Esther
listened to them debate the finer points of hydroplane racing while she worked.
She tried to pick up on exactly how David had managed to become friends with
his captor. He was good at keeping the conversation moving, but he still hadn’t
broached the subject of Harry helping them, and it had been days. How long
would it take?

Then almost as an
afterthought, David asked Harry if he could go to the celebration in the
canteen that night.

“Don’t see why
not,” Harry said, “so long as you don’t try to escape.”

“Of course,” David
said. “We have a bargain to uphold.”

“Damn right,”
Harry said. “Yo, Esther, you want to come too?”

“Me?” Esther
popped her head out from underneath the separator.

“Of course! Why
should Davey here get to have all the fun?”

David didn’t
react. As much as Esther didn’t like him hanging out with Chelle, she also
didn’t want to get in the way of his plans. She trusted that he knew what he
was doing, even if she didn’t like it.

“I still have a
lot of work to—”

“I think you
should join us,” David said suddenly. “You deserve a break. You must be as
stir-crazy as me.”

“You sure?”

“You don’t need
his permission,” Harry said. He stood and stretched. “I insist. Burns won’t be
there anyway, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Okay, I guess I
can come.” Esther grabbed a rag and searched for a clean section to wipe her
hands. She leaned against the workbench. “Where’s Burns?”

“Patrols. That
Harvester ship is still lurking. He thinks they’re waiting for reinforcements.”
Harry glanced at the door to the workshop. “Probably shouldn’t tell him I told
you that.”

“Our lips are
sealed,” David said. He met Esther’s eyes for an instant.

When evening
approached, Esther showered in the tiny bathroom off the workshop and dressed
in the spare clothes that Harry had found for her, tight leggings and an
oversize button-down shirt with blue and white stripes. She rolled the sleeves
above her elbows and pulled on her usual work boots. David lent her the plastic
comb he still kept in his pocket so she could smooth back her damp hair.

Harry led the way
out of the workshop. Level 7 was deep underground, and they had to take the
stairs up to the canteen on Level 2. If the facility had working elevators,
Esther hadn’t seen them. She was excited to explore more of the Calderon
Group’s base, and it was nice to be doing something besides brooding over her
machine. She kept pace with David and Harry, their footsteps echoing through
the stairwell.

“What’s the
celebration for anyway?” Esther asked.

“It’s the Fourth
of July! You wouldn’t know it with how cold it has been the past few weeks,
though.”

“It’s not exactly
barbecue weather, is it?” David said.

“Man, don’t remind
me about barbecue,” Harry said. “That’s just mean. I miss barbecue more than my
own mother.”

“We raised
livestock on one of the cargo ships at the
Galaxy
Flotilla
,” David said. “The captains held barbecues on the deck of the
Crown
every once in a while. Only for
their very good friends of course.”

“Don’t rub it in,”
Harry said. “No, the annual Calderon Fourth of July celebration will feature
fish, fish, and more fish.”

“Are there a lot
of Americans in the Group?” David asked.

“A fair few,”
Harry said. “Burns is an American. Or was. Don’t seem like the country even
exists anymore. But then we do something for Guy Fawkes, Chinese New Year, and Holi
too.”

“How about
Passover?” Esther asked. Her family was Jewish, or at least they had been back
when they lived on land.

“There’s one
family that does that one,” Harry said. “But it’s tricky, since they have to substitute
most of the food and stuff. And we pretty much have to eat shellfish.”

“Yeah . . . we eat
whatever we can.”

Esther’s father
had told her a bit about the dietary restrictions of their religion, but he’d
also encouraged her to eat anything she could get her hands on, no matter what
it was or how it tasted, when food was scarce. They had no choice in this
world. Many people still followed their religious customs in their own ways,
but they had to be flexible.

At the door to
Level 2 they stopped to catch their breath, David more winded than the other
two. He took off his glasses to rub his eyes for a moment. Esther wanted to put
her arm around him, to ask if he was okay, but she resisted, unsure how he
would respond.

There were people
around, all making their way to the canteen, talking and laughing. They didn’t
look twice at the two prisoners with Harry.

“So, just don’t
draw any attention to yourselves,” Harry said, “and Burns’ll never know you
were out past your bedtimes.”

“We’ll be on our
best behavior,” David said.

“Right then. And
please don’t run away. You’d owe me forever.”

“Of course not! We
don’t have anywhere to go!” Esther said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
She caught David grinning at her and blushed.

Harry pushed open
a pair of double doors, and they entered the canteen. It was roughly twice the
size of the Atlantis Dining Hall on the
Catalina
.
Long rows of tables with attached benches marched across the scratched linoleum
floor. Some of these had been pushed against the wall to clear a space in the
middle of the room. There were high windows in the long wall opposite the door.

“Level 2 is partly
underground,” Harry told them, gesturing to the windows. “The view’s at ground
level, but there’s not much to see in the dark.”

A few people at
the table nearest the doors glanced up at them, but most fixed their attention
on the far side of the room, where food was being brought out on
industrial-size trays. The Calderon men and women didn’t look that different
from the people of the
Amsterdam
.
Instead of uniforms, they wore mismatched jackets and patched-up work trousers.
They were a wide range of ages compared to the mostly young men and women of
the Harvesters. Esther spotted a few people with silvery hair and a handful of
children all sitting together at one table.

“I didn’t know
there were kids here,” she said.

“They can’t go out
on raids, can they?” Harry said. “We take care of ’em here while their parents
are on patrol.”

“This is becoming
a permanent settlement then?”

“That’s the idea.”

“Incredible.”
Esther still had a hard time getting used to the idea that she was on land,
even though it was just a huge hunk of rock. Being locked in the workshop felt
like being in a ship’s engine room. She still hadn’t seen a proper view of the
outside of the Island. She couldn’t let Harry think she was looking for a way
out.

They helped
themselves to steaming plates of grilled fish and found seats in the far corner
of the room, not far from one of the high windows. Esther stood on her toes to
peek out before setting down her plate. The view outside was partially obscured
by a scrubby bush. It had grown dark, so all she could see was the shadowy
outline of a spur of land curving around to the right of the facility. This
side of the island faced the opposite direction from where Esther had arrived,
so the harbor must be below the window. They were high above sea level, and she
couldn’t see all the way down to the water without being too obvious.

Chelle soon joined
them at their table. She wore a pale-green sweater with the sleeves rolled to
show off her freckled arms and her hair swept up into an intricate pile. Esther
had no idea how to do something like that. As usual, David gave Chelle all his
attention, hanging on her every laugh. He put on his best spokesman voice and
told her about the elegant parties and performances at the
Galaxy Flotilla
. She batted her coppery eyelashes at him.

David no longer
sounded like himself when he used that spokesman voice. Esther tried not to
listen. She would do as David asked and not make a big deal out of his
flirtation with Chelle. Despite how friendly their captors seemed, their
situation was precarious. They couldn’t let on that David was trying to find an
escape route.
If that’s all it is.

When they were
almost finished eating, a commotion rose near the door. A short, plump woman
with close-cropped hair and a tall man (whom Esther recognized as Zeke, the
guard from the night of her arrival) rolled some sort of low table into the
room. It had a machine on top, an old-fashioned boom box if she wasn’t
mistaken. One of the speakers had been cracked and repaired. Stacks of plastic
CD cases were piled on the lower shelf of the rolling table.

“All right!” Harry
shouted. “Best part of the Fourth. The discs won’t last forever, so we only get
them out on special occasions. We lost way too much music to the Cloud.”

Esther had no idea
what he meant by the Cloud, but she could tell he was excited. David pulled his
gaze away from Chelle to watch the pair set up the boom box. People shouted
suggestions as the short-haired woman dug through the stack of CDs and inserted
one into the device. She pushed a button.

A horrible noise
screeched from the speakers. Esther winced. That must be one of the broken CDs.

“I love this
song!” Harry said.

He bobbed his
head, thrashing like a rutting seal.

Esther could
almost discern a beat through the screeching, but she didn’t like it. The
others apparently shared her view, because they shouted for a different CD.

“Aw, come on!”
Harry said. “I was just getting started.”

The CD was soon
replaced, and this time Esther recognized the music as rock and roll. The words
were all but lost in the beat and the clatter of Calderon people singing and
stamping along. Soon they were getting up to dance, and someone turned down the
lights.

Harry jumped up on
the bench and started gyrating and hollering the words to the song.
And he was lecturing us about drawing attention
to ourselves
,
Esther
thought. She turned to say as much to David, but he was back to talking to Chelle,
leaning so close he might as well have been chewing on her ear. Chelle laughed
at whatever he was saying.

The music got
louder. More people got up to dance. The darkened windows shook with the beat.
Despite herself, Esther grinned. She liked this song. Soon she was nodding her
head along with it. Harry hollered something at her and jumped off the bench.

“What?” Esther
said.

“I said dance!”
Harry shouted in her ear, and dragged her toward the gap between the tables.

The crowd in the
middle of the canteen had thickened. They forced their way into it, stepping on
toes and dodging elbows. Esther could no longer see beyond the mob. People
flailed about, arms and legs jerking like squid in a current. There was little
sense to the dance as far as Esther could tell. She imitated the people around
her, bobbing her head and stepping in time to the beat. No one danced in pairs;
they moved from tight knots to wider circles and back again. Each time the CD
changed they’d call out suggestions, until a new one had been selected. Esther
didn’t remember many song names and just shouted wordlessly along with them.

Harry was the most
enthusiastic of them all, clearing a space with his windmilling arms and
thrashing steps. His red hair whipped about like it was in a whirlpool. The
others laughed and cheered him on.

It was
surprisingly fun. Esther found herself grinning at the unbridled joy on the
faces around her. The Calderon people were so carefree. After the stress of the
previous weeks, it was good to let loose a little. It was hard to believe these
were the same people who had so expertly attacked the
Terra Firma
.

After a while she
noticed a tall flash of white-blond hair and then a swirl of copper. David and Chelle
had joined the dancers. Esther tried to make her way closer to hear what they
were saying, ducking to avoid Harry’s flailing arms. She squeezed between Zeke
and the short-haired woman, but as she got near she could see that they weren’t
really talking. David had a hand on Chelle’s waist, and they swayed a beat
slower than the music. He put his head close to her ear and whispered
something. Esther knew David was supposed to be cozying up to Chelle to find a
way off the island, but she couldn’t push away the waves of jealousy fast
enough.
She
wanted to be the one
dancing and whispering with him. She wanted to feel his hands on her waist and
his mouth at her cheek.