Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) (22 page)

Esther wanted to
throw her own oyster shell but resisted. She folded her arms. “After I came
halfway across the rusting sea for you, it’s pretty rich of you to act so
clueless.”

“How have I
betrayed you?” David said, then whirled to face her. “You mean with
Chelle
? You haven’t exactly laid a claim
on me.”

“That answers one
thing then.” Now Esther did slam the empty oyster shell down on the deck.

“You’ve barely
spoken to me since you got here, Esther! What am I supposed to think?”

David strode back
and forth in front of the engines. His hair stood up from his forehead. He
pulled his sleeves up to his elbows, then tugged them back down again.
Suddenly, he rounded on Esther.

“When you turned
up in my cell,” he said, “I wanted to hold you and kiss you and never leave
your side, but you’ve been completely cold. I thought for a minute you actually
came to save me just because you wanted to, not as some sort of payment for my
help back on the
Galaxy
.”

He seemed to want
to say more, but he stopped abruptly and kicked one of the oyster shells across
the engine room, breathing hard.

Esther stood
bolted to the deck. David was just out of reach, his face flushed. She had
never seen him lose control like this. It nudged something in her, like an odd
gear clicking into place.

Finally, she
whispered, “I did.”

“You did what?”

“I did come for
you, not just to pay back a debt. I was terrified you would be hurt the entire
time. It still makes me queasy, thinking about how worried I was.” Her voice faltered.
“I would have done anything to get you back, but when I got here you seemed . .
. I wasn’t sure if you were happy to see me.”

In answer, David
closed the gap between them and brought his mouth to hers.

The kiss was
insistent at first, desperate. Then their mouths slowed as they held each other
close. Esther’s head swirled with heat and vertigo and relief. Gently, David lowered
her back down to the ground. She hadn’t even noticed him lifting her into the
air. His hands found her waist, her arms. She gripped his shoulders and the
smooth planes of his neck. His broken glasses tipped sideways on his face. At
some point Esther remembered to breathe. Cold metal touched her back; David had
pressed her up against the engine. She twisted her fingers into the knit of his
sweater and tugged it upward as he slid his hands beneath her belt.

A horn blast
shattered the air.

“Huh, what?” Zeke
called out from his stupor.

The horn split
through the room again, and Esther pushed David away.

“We’re under
attack!” Zeke shouted, then cursed as he lost his balance and fell heavily on
the metal catwalk. “They’ll need me on the
Charley
.
Help me up.”

David regained his
senses a half second faster than Esther did. He straightened his clothing and
squeezed her hand. “This might be our opening. Stay close to me.”

He ran lightly up
to the catwalk, where Zeke was struggling to maintain his footing. David
steadied the bigger man and turned him toward the door. “I’ll take your charge
back to the big house, mate. Go to your ship. Don’t worry about her.”

“You’re a good
man,” Zeke slurred. “She’s a good girl. She won’t cause you any trouble.”

Zeke lurched along
the walkway and out of the engine room.

Esther, barely daring to
breathe, was filling her belt with any tools that could double as weapons.

Chapter 29—Attack

Seconds later, Esther
and
David were running up a metal
service stairwell. The emergency horn grew louder. David talked quickly as they
climbed.

“We need to make
it look like I’m really taking you back to the workshop, in case anyone sees
us. Could be a false alarm.”

“I can’t believe
Zeke. Good thing you’ve been making friends,” Esther said, keeping pace with
David easily. She felt foam-light, almost drunk with adrenaline. The feeling of
David’s hands was still pressed into her body, bright like an afterimage.

“Told you I was
working on our exit strategy. I scoped out the living quarters of Burns’s inner
circle. They have a meeting room on Level 1. I’m almost positive your sat phone
ended up in there. We can slip in while everyone’s distracted.”

“Should we just
make a break for it? Jack one of the smaller boats?” Esther said as they dashed
out onto the deck of the
Sultana
.

The sky was an
angry gray, and rain misted down over the Island. Shouts and the roar of
engines echoed across the harbor.

“Depends what’s
going on,” David said.

The steep hillside
at the harbor’s edge boiled with activity. Crewmen for the
Charley
,
one of the Calderon attack ships,
ran
along the concrete pathway and down the steep staircase, some still stuffing
the last of their lunches into their mouths. Already more people were on the
move than Esther had seen on the Island since the Fourth. Smaller speedboats
sputtered toward the mouth of the harbor. A siren blared from the roof of the
facility.

“This way,” David
said. “Try not to look like you’re about to kill someone.”

Esther put the
heavy wrench she’d been brandishing back into her belt. They climbed down from
the deck of the
Sultana
and ran along the dock toward the facility. It
swayed beneath their feet. Calderon men dashed past, but no one did more than
glance at them.

David caught Harry’s
arm as he rushed by. “What’s going on?” David asked.

“Harvesters
attacking!” Harry said, his hazel eyes shining. “They brought reinforcements
and snuck around to the north. They’re fighting our patrols.”

“Where’s Burns?”

“Out on the
Juliet
.
Why?”

Harry didn’t wait
to hear the answer. He ran out to meet the attack, David and Esther already forgotten.

“This is it,
Esther!” David crowed, reaching down to squeeze her hand. “The perfect
opening.”

She held onto him
as they jogged up the stairs and headed toward the compound. Their boots
slipped on the steps. The rain fell harder. Esther’s heart and brain were on
overdrive. They couldn’t mess this up. This might be their only chance.
      

At the doorway to
the facility, they stepped aside to let more Calderon men out, keeping their
heads down, and then slipped inside. The siren still wailed. David led the way
down the corridor.

“What’s the
security like here?” Esther whispered.

Her boots slipped
and squeaked on the linoleum floor. The lights blazed.

“There are usually
people around, but they’re not guarding anything. The Calderon people trust
each other. I’d probably have free rein in another week or two if I kept at
it.”

David rounded a corner
and arrived at a blue door. The corridor around them was deserted.

“This is the one.”

He listened for a
moment, then pushed open the door.

“You’d think a
group of pirates would at least keep their doors locked,” Esther said as she
followed him inside.

A big oval table
took up most of the room. The walls were unadorned, except for a collection of
charts on the right side. Boxes were stacked along the back.

“They’re not that
bad, the Calderon guys. They help each other out, kind of like on the
Catalina
, and share their spoils equally
,”
David said. “Let’s check the boxes for Neal’s phone.”

He moved the top
ones down so Esther could reach, and started ripping them open.

“But they still
attack other ships,” Esther said, “and kill anyone who gets in their way.”

David nodded.
“That is probably a deal breaker. It’s too bad. I wouldn’t mind living on an
island like this. You’d be happy too with a huge workshop and lots of different
ships coming into port. I know you get bored on the
Catalina
.”

Esther smiled at
him. She liked that he was interested in what would make her happy. It was
almost like he’d suggested they could live in a place like this together.

“Well, my boredom
led to the creation of the energy tech in the first place, so it can’t be all
bad,” she said.

“True. Here’s
another one.”

The boxes were
filled with miscellaneous flotsam: books, bits of electronics, a pair of
heavy-duty storm goggles.

“These are mine!”
Esther said. “This must be stuff they take off their captives.”

Esther put the
goggles around her neck and continued to dig.

“You have any use
for this?” David held up a pink plastic lunchbox with a decal that had faded to
splotches of pink and purple.

“We can carry
stuff in it if we need to,” Esther said, setting the box aside and continuing
to dig frantically for the phone. “I used to have one like that, but it was
blue with superheroes on it.”

“Why am I not
surprised?” David said. “I had a retro lunch pail when I was little, then a
real Hugo Boss messenger bag.”

“I don’t even know
what those words mean,” Esther said. “Maybe we can find you some new glasses so
you don’t have to look at everything through a crack.”

“I barely notice
it anymore.”

The facility had
grown still. Apart from the distant siren, they couldn’t hear any voices. Everyone
must have gone out to meet the attackers. Still, they were running out of time.
What if David was wrong about where the satellite phone had been stored?

Then Esther
reached beneath a salt-stained hat and her fingers met a familiar shape. “Got
it!”

Triumphantly, she
pulled the contraption out of the box.

“Does it still
work?” David stepped close, resting his hand on the small of her back.

She straightened
out the fat antenna and hit the dial button. The device emitted a cough of
static.
Right, it won’t work inside
.

Then the door
opened.

“There you are.
Salt, rust, and oil dust, man! I been lookin’ everywhere for you.”

It was Monty, the
crab-like guard who had been on cellar duty when Esther first arrived.

“How are you,
Monty?” David stepped forward smoothly, blocking the phone in Esther’s hand
from view. “Shouldn’t you be heading for the ships?”

“Naw, still on
probation till I kick the habit. Supposed to be on guard duty now. Lucky I saw
you and yer lady friend booking it along the dock. Gotta say, I thought I’d be
following you back down to the cellar exit, not into Burns’s war room here.”

“We’re just
exploring,” David said. “I thought I’d take Esther on a tour, as I’m hoping to
join the Calderon Group. You know that, right? Your life here is quite civilized.
Protected from storms, a strong fleet keeping you supplied with all the oil and
sink you need. Speaking of which . . .”

David drew a
packet from his pocket. He was like the magician Esther had watched on the
boardwalk as a child. Always full of surprises.

“Didn’t know you
touched the stuff, Hawthorne,” Monty said, grinning widely. “Good on you. You
need to relax a bit, man.” He started to raise his hand but then dropped it.
“Ah, I’d better not. I’m on duty and all, but you go ahead. Your girl won’t mind.
Ain’t that right?”

Monty stepped
closer, studying them a little too shrewdly.

Esther was too far
away from the stack of boxes to hide the satellite phone. She tucked it into
her belt, hoping he wouldn’t notice, hoping it wouldn’t make any noise.

“Speaking of
which,” Monty continued, “you two are up to somefin’. I’m not stupid when I’m
sober.”

He took another
step, his wasted features twisting into a smile that bore no friendship for
either of them.

“We don’t think
you’re stupid at all, Monty,” David said. “Truth is we just wanted to talk in
private.”

Monty’s smile
didn’t waver. “Whaleshit, Hawthorne,” he said. “This island is half-empty, and
you know it. You can talk in private anytime.”

“Of course. But
you know how it is. We were, uh . . . we were . . .”

David seemed to be
at a loss for once. Esther realized he was reaching his hand back toward her.
Without stopping to think, she pulled the wrench from her belt and slapped it
into his hand. As soon as the metal connected with his palm, David swung the
wrench up and lunged toward Monty.

Metal met skull,
but Monty was quick. He ducked, and the blow glanced off his head. David lost
his balance for a second. Monty pulled a switchblade from his pocket.

Time slowed.
Esther might have shouted. Electric light glinted on the blade.

David regained his
footing. He raised the wrench again and swung around.

Monty drove the
knife toward David’s stomach.

Esther threw
herself forward. Her body connected with Monty’s shoulder. He stumbled back.
Slashed again. A strip of red came away on his knife. Not clear whose blood.
Esther wrapped both her hands around his knife arm. Held on. Saw a flash of
metal and heard a crack. Monty went limp, and they tumbled to the ground.

Shaking, Esther
kneeled over Monty’s prone form. His legs sprawled like a crustacean’s. Strong
hands helped her up. There was blood on them.

“Are you okay,
Esther?”

“What?” She seemed
to be having trouble hearing. Was that David’s voice? Was he okay?

“Esther. Look at
me,” the voice said again.

She felt like she
was crawling through a wind tunnel. She found David’s face and sound returned.

“I’m fine,” Esther
said, shaking her head to clear it. “What happened?”

“You don’t think
before you jump, that’s what happened,” David said. He wore a grim smile.

“Did he stab you?”
Esther asked, grabbing David’s red-stained hand. “You’re bleeding.”

“That’s your
blood, Esther. He cut your face after you threw yourself into him. Got part of
your ear too.”

David put his hand
gently to her cheek. She felt a warm trickle and finally, pain.

“Rust. You got him
with the wrench, though?”

“Yeah,” David
said, looking down at the unconscious Monty. “We need to make a run for it now.
We won’t be able to hide him.”

“We can do it,”
Esther said. “We’re not a bad team.”

“I guess not.”

David leaned down
and planted a soft kiss on her lips. There was a trace of blood on his mouth
when he pulled away.

“You’d better cut
a piece of that sweater and help me clean this up,” Esther said.

The pain increased
by the second, burning a line from her cheekbone to her ear. Blood dripped down
the curve of her face.

“Yes, ma’am.”

He picked up the
switchblade Monty had dropped and set to work on the bottom edge of the sweater
Chelle had given him. Esther couldn’t help feeling smug as he ripped a length
off it.

 
As he prepared the bandage, Esther
reached for the satellite phone in her belt. “Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“It’s not
working.”

“The phone?”

Heart sinking like
metal in the sea, Esther turned it over and saw a jagged crack in the plastic.
“Monty must have stabbed it when I jumped at him. Thought it would be more
durable.”

She punched the
buttons on the front panel, but all of the electronic components stayed silent.

“You can fix it,”
David said. “You’re a genius.”

He pressed a
folded piece of sweater fabric to the cut on her cheekbone and ear, then wound
a long, thin strip under her jaw and around her head to hold it in place.

“You don’t
understand,” Esther said as she pried the cracked plastic panel off the back of
the phone. “This isn’t just a matter of putting things back together. See this?
It’s the battery. Monty’s knife went right into it, and we don’t have a
replacement.”

“I’m sure in your
workshop—”

“We don’t have
time to get down to Level 7 if we want to get out again.”

David let out a tense
breath. “How long was it on?”

“Thirty seconds.
Maybe a minute,” Esther said.

If the phone
hadn’t been there, the knife would have gone straight into her gut. Monty
wouldn’t have needed the second swipe at her face. She put a hand on the
makeshift bandage wrapped around her head. It must look ridiculous, but that
was the least of her worries.