Authors: R. D. Ronald
Urgent footsteps heavily descended the stairs. The cloud of steam was quickly filling the engine room. Tazeem, cradling his scalded hand, regained enough composure to lurch forward towards the gun. A bullet ricocheted off the riveted, steel-panelled floor just inches from his grasp. Tazeem shrank back. He knew he was defeated.
Mangle was oblivious to Decker’s shouts from behind as he ran on board in pursuit of Jupiter. He had to find Tatiana and get her off the ship before anything terrible happened. Skidding a little as he rounded the corner, Mangle grabbed the railing and took a second to regain his balance. The hollow sound of a gunshot echoed coldly through the ship. Decker had closed the gap between them and Mangle started down the stairway after the surprisingly agile Jupiter.
Sounds of movement, possibly a struggle, came from the bottom of the boat as Mangle took no more than a brief glance around the middle deck. He turned to the stairs again as another shot was fired. Mangle’s heart lurched and he plunged down around the final turn. Jupiter stood just below him, a gun aimed at a figure on the ground roughly 20 feet away, but Mangle couldn’t make out who it was through the heavy curtain of steam.
He sprang onto Jupiter’s back. The crook of his elbow tightened around a neck as thick as a tree trunk, and he attempted to cut off the air flow as he’d watched Decker do once before.
Jupiter reached back and plucked Mangle off as easily as swatting an annoying insect and threw him down onto the deck. Mangle flailed an arm out just in time to brace his fall. He landed next to Tazeem, no more than a few feet from the source of the steam. The jet billowed insistently beside him, soaking his clothes and scalding his skin.
Jupiter raised the gun again and stepped towards them. He looked determined that the next shot wouldn’t miss. A sound from behind, and the instinct for self-preservation caused Jupiter to turn his head just in time to see Decker as he approached. Decker lunged for the bigger man, preventing him from getting a clear shot with the gun. He grabbed Jupiter’s solid forearm and forced his thumb into the pulse pressure point, causing him to drop his weapon. Thinking he had the upper hand, Decker relaxed his grip and made to grab Jupiter and put him in a choke hold.
Jupiter reached behind him and grabbed a handful of Decker’s shirt with one hand and Decker’s left wrist with the other. He dropped to a knee and spun Decker over his shoulder. Jupiter kept hold of his wrist and twisted as Decker was in mid-air. Decker let out a scream as his shoulder was torn out of its socket, and he crashed down onto the steel deck.
A menacing, gleeful expression lit Jupiter’s face from within like a Halloween lantern. The scars on his face glistened in the flickering light, milky, like candle wax, as he slowly bent down to retrieve his gun. The pale man had slithered across the floor and sought protection behind the burgeoning presence of Jupiter.
‘And order is restored,’ Steiger said, stepping around the billowing steam from the broken pipe.
‘Not yet, it isn’t,’ Tatiana said from behind him.
Steiger turned and saw she had again picked up one of the explosives. She held it, weary yet determined, like a player in some barbaric futuristic sport. Tazeem shuffled over next to Mangle and tugged him towards Decker by the stairs. Everyone had forgotten about Jupiter, who stood there uncertainly, the gun clasped in a giant fist that now hung loosely by his side.
Steiger laughed at the simplicity of Tatiana’s cognitive process. ‘The activation button doesn’t work, my dear. Have you forgotten already?’ he jibed.
Tatiana pulled the lank strands of hair out of her face and turned directly towards him. ‘I’ve forgotten nothing, you bastard. Perhaps you lose track of something, though.’
Uncertainty swept the room like a forest fire. Steiger, the captain, Jupiter and the hooded man were caught up in flames of doubt. One by one their eyes fell upon the forgotten girl who remained chained and bleeding in the corner. In one grimy hand was clasped the fob that the hooded man had gloatingly flaunted moments before.
Jupiter turned and began running up the stairs two at a time. His pale companion, seeing which way the wheels of fate had turned, was just a second behind him. Tazeem tugged again on Mangle’s arm and tried to help Decker to his feet.
Steiger took a step towards the gun that Tazeem had dropped.
‘If you move once more I will take out this whole fucking room,’ the girl in the corner said. Her strained voice was barely audible above the engine drone.
‘Get out now,’ Tatiana said to Mangle, who stood with Tazeem supporting Decker as he got painfully to his feet. Tazeem turned and began towards the stairs.
‘Put it down and come with us,’ Mangle pleaded.
Tatiana shook her head. ‘I knew when I stepped on board that I wouldn’t be getting off again.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Mangle pleaded. ‘The girls got away, and we’ll make sure the men all pay for what they did. You don’t have to do this.’
‘It is the only way to be sure.’
Tatiana turned her back on Mangle and moved beside her chained friend on the floor who struggled to maintain consciousness; her face was now syrupy red with blood from numerous head wounds.
‘Come on, Mangle,’ Tazeem said, ‘we have to go.’
Reluctantly, Mangle took hold of Decker and they began their ascent. Decker’s left arm was useless. Any contact with it sent shockwaves of pain through him, so Tazeem gripped tightly onto the waistband of his pants and helped haul him along. They passed the middle deck and climbed again. Mangle repeatedly cast looks behind them, in case Tatiana had decided to follow.
They struggled out onto the top deck. Jupiter and the hooded man had already disappeared. Tazeem moved onto the gangway and they began to help Decker across.
The whole boat shook violently from the magnitude of the blast. The gangway unhooked and Tazeem was pitched headfirst into the water. Decker fell forwards, grinding his damaged shoulder against the gunwale and let out a ragged scream. Mangle scrambled back to his feet from where he’d fallen, and looked for any sign of hope that Tatiana could have survived. Flames lapped greedily up onto the deck on the starboard side of the ship. The smell of scorched metal and blistering paint permeated the air.
‘We have to get off,’ Decker said through clenched teeth. ‘If the fuel tanks go up we won’t stand a chance.’
Mangle knew he was right. He seized Decker by his good arm and managed to get him to his feet. The boat was taking on water from the explosion, and began to tilt drunkenly. The deck lurched suddenly and Decker began to slide. Mangle secured one arm around his friend’s waist and hoisted him over the edge. Decker let out a surprised yell as he fell into the water below.
Mangle cast one last hopeful look around the ship before he jumped over the side, just as the air around him reverberated with the intensity of another explosion. He plunged into the freezing water, and quickly surfaced, gasping for breath. He splashed around, looking for Decker. The burning shell of the boat began to sink into the water behind him, creating an under-current that tugged insistently at Mangle’s legs.
Tazeem reached out an arm from the dock above and shouted to him, ‘Give me your hand.’
‘I have to find Decker,’ he yelled, and spun around again in
the water. Pieces of burning debris fell like meteors all around. There was the sound of loud coughing and desperate gulping for air behind him as someone broke the surface. ‘Decker,’ Mangle said as he reached him.
Decker allowed Mangle to guide him to the quayside, clinging to a charred piece of crate. Between them Tazeem and Mangle managed to hoist Decker out of the water, as the sound of distant sirens diluted the bonfire crackle of the burning ship.
19
Sadiq woke in a small dark room, covered in a cold sweat and surrounded on three sides by looming pieces of heavy furniture. Panic caught in his throat, before memories of the previous day flooded his consciousness and he remembered where he was.
After being outplayed by the Mayor’s henchmen, he had instinctively run back towards his old apartment block. No one would look for him here, at least not immediately, but he still couldn’t chance returning to the apartment itself. With nowhere else to turn, he pressed the buzzer for Mrs Altrecht, and once admitted, stopped on the first floor landing and again knocked for Mr Petrov.
The old man looked surprised to see him, but not fearful, so Sadiq assumed that after their last meeting Petrov hadn’t turned him in to the police. He concocted a quick story and promised the old man more money if he let him stay a few days. Sadiq didn’t plan on being there that long. He just needed enough time to think and plan his next move.
After a few hours’ rest Sadiq knew what he had to do. All of his bridges had been burned and he had no one left to turn to. There was just one last limb he could crawl out onto, and if it
broke, that would be the end of him. He reached for his phone and turned it back on. It was only 5 a.m., but he dialled the number for Raymond Burgess.
‘Raymond,’ Sadiq said as soon as the call connected.
‘Is this who I think it is?’ The voice was gruff and thick with fatigue.
‘Well played yesterday,’ Sadiq said, inadvertently answering the question. Silence echoed down the line. ‘I know, despite taking receipt of both parcels you still may feel you have some unfinished business with me, yeah?’
‘You could say that,’ he confirmed.
Sadiq thought he heard a hint of curiosity in Raymond’s voice, which was about the best he could hope for. ‘The Mayor isn’t out of the woods yet. This whole thing could still come down with him in the middle of it.’
More silence.
‘I’m handing myself in to you. I don’t want more money. I just don’t want to spend the rest of my days running, yeah? If I can help, then I will.’
One of the bound men on the floor of the cab groaned, but didn’t try to get up.
‘Not long now dick-head,’ Brian said with a smile, and prodded him sharply with the toe of his shoe.
Tony didn’t take his eyes off the road, fully focused on getting them to the Channel 10 News building. The youngest of the girls in the back continued to weep.
‘You think we’ll meet Kasey Haugh?’ Brian asked.
‘I dunno,’ Tony said.
‘Although yeah, I guess we probably will. She always takes the lead on the biggest stories.’
‘You reckon I’ll have a chance?’
‘With Kasey? No way,’ Tony laughed.
‘What would she see in a bum like you?’
‘Well, there’s the hero factor, what with us bringing all these girls to safety, out of the clutches of evil and shit.’
‘Yeah, you’re right, she will see that. Course then she’s gonna look right past you and see me, your better-looking friend who also happens to be a hero.’
Brian laughed, and it felt good. They didn’t know what else would happen back at the docks, but their part had now been played. All that remained was to drop off the girls, give their statements to the police, and hope that everything would turn out OK.
A blue light behind caught Tony’s attention.
‘Are you speeding?’ Brian asked, spotting the squad car in the side mirror.
‘No, I’ve kept it just under the limit all the way.’
‘There’s no reason for them to pull us over, then. What do we do?’
‘We have to let the truth come out. It would have been better to get to the news station first, but we can’t risk running from a routine stop or we’ll look guilty, which puts us right back in the shit again,’ Tony said, slowing the van and pulling in under the glowing yellow arches of a fast food restaurant. Despite the unsociable hour, a queue had already formed at the drive-through for breakfast.
‘We just tell them what we know and let them take it from here.’
‘How do we know they’re on the level? Decker said Steiger has cops on his payroll.’
The police cruiser stopped a few car lengths behind and two officers got out.
‘There are witnesses,’ Tony said, gesturing towards the restaurant beside them. ‘It isn’t like they could just do away with us.’
‘Witnesses to the van, yeah. And to us. But if these guys are on the take, and we get bundled into the back of the squad car, then one of them drives the van away, it’s gonna be our word against theirs that the girls even exist,’ Brian exclaimed. He pulled off his jacket and used it to cover the two bound men by his feet as best he could.
Tony looked uncomfortable. He checked the mirror again.
The officers were almost at the van. He turned the ignition key, killing the engine, tossed the keys into the back of the van and looked over his shoulder at the women sitting behind. ‘Unlock the back door, quickly. When I tell you, get out of the van but don’t run. Stay in sight of the people at the restaurant. Do you understand?’
A number of blank faces stared back at him, but one woman nodded her understanding and crouched to pick up the keys.
Three taps on the driver’s side window and Tony turned, saw the stern face of the officer and wound down the window at his instruction.
‘What are you doing in this part of the city?’
‘What?’ Tony asked, surprised by the question.
‘You’ve been told to keep the vans away from the city centre. Why are you so far off the normal route?’
‘Now!’ Tony yelled to the women, who immediately began to scramble out of the van.
There was no doubt that these officers were part of the conspiracy, but once the women were out in plain sight of so many witnesses there would be no way to perpetuate the cover-up. Tony blasted the horn three times to attract as much attention as he could. He smiled back at the startled officer, whose hand hovered uncertainly over his service revolver.
‘Hold still, you idiot,’ Ted Hamilton snapped impatiently as he tried to manoeuvre himself into position by Decker’s shoulder.
‘It’s easy to say “hold still,” but this hurts like a motherfucker.’
‘It’s gonna hurt you a whole lot more if I don’t get this right.’
Decker gritted his teeth and braced himself, then howled as Ted pulled out the dislocated joint, twisted the arm and dropped it into place in a roughly fluid movement.