Mega 3: When Giants Collide (Mega Series) (8 page)

“Tease,” Max said.

“I was all hot and bothered and now I’m just bothered,” Shane said. “You, sir, have bothered me.”

“The elves are working hard on duplicating the technology,” Ballantine said. “Hopefully we will have more very soon.” He glowered at Carlos. “Or at least one that’s field ready.”

“Don’t call us elves,” Carlos whispered through gritted teeth.

“Okay, so no heavy ordinance to kill the giant shark?” Shane asked.

“They give us hope then take that hope away!” Max exclaimed. “Why? WHY?”

“Are we finished here?” Ballantine asked as his phone rang. “Carlos?”

“Yes, please,” Carols answered.

“Good, then we should adjourn to the briefing room for today’s update,” Ballantine said, “and someone let Gunnar know, please.” He answered the phone. “William? Good, good… Protocol Fifty-four? Excellent… They know? Even more excellent…”

Ballantine turned and left. Everyone focused on Ingrid.

“Show us that again,” Thorne said.

“Ballantine said there was an update in the briefing room,” Ingrid replied.

“Show us again,” Thorne said, “this time don’t dumb it down. We need details and we need to know the pros and the cons of this weapon for when we can use it. Educate us.”

Carlos snorted then pretended he stifled a sneeze when he received a roomful of glares.

“Go ahead,” he said to Ingrid, “I have something else to do, uh, somewhere else.”

He hurried through the shelves, leaving Ingrid alone with Team Grendel.

“Phew,” Max said, “I thought he’d never leave.”

“Let’s kill some atoms,” Shane almost giggled.

***

“I should be down there with them,” Mike said as he sat on a stool in the corner of Gunnar’s lab. “Technically, I’m part of Team Grendel.”

“So am I,” Gunnar replied as he stood in front of a counter, a tablet in his hand, “but we have work to do.”

“You have work to do,” Mike said as he rapped his knuckles on one of his robotic prosthetic legs. “I’m just here for maintenance.”

“Which you wouldn’t need so often if you’d listen to me and keep your legs from getting wet,” Dr. Morganton said as she rolled a cart of equipment into the lab. “I am getting tired of telling you that, Michael.”

“We live on a ship,” Mike replied. “It’s a little hard to keep my legs dry.”

“Which is why I am trying to develop a prophylactic that will do the job for you,” Dr. Morganton said as she stopped the cart next to Mike and opened a large case on top. “This should be the answer.”

“Prophylactic?” Mike asked. “You want to put rubbers on my legs?”

“Yes, Michael, I want to put rubbers on your legs,” Dr. Morganton replied.

She pulled out a long piece of skin tone rubber and smiled at him.

Gunnar looked over his shoulder and laughed. “I heard the sarcasm in your voice, Lisa, but that does look suspiciously like a leg rubber.”

“It’s synthetic skin,” Dr. Morganton replied. “If you’ll extend your left leg, Michael.”

He looked at Gunnar, but all he got was a shrug.

“Fine,” Mike said, “rubber me up.”

Dr. Morganton rolled the synthetic skin then proceeded to slide it up and over Mike’s left leg. It extended past the prosthetic by several inches and bunched around Mike’s thigh. He looked down at the wrinkled skin and frowned.

“I look like I have elephant skin,” he said.

“That will be fixed shortly,” Dr. Morganton stated as she grabbed what looked like a basic taser.

“Whoa!” Mike exclaimed. “You are not going to tase me!”

“Actually, I am,” Dr. Morganton replied, “but the current will be set to a low level and you shouldn’t feel much discomfort.”

“Much?” Mike asked.

“Shouldn’t?” Gunnar smirked.

“I haven’t had a chance to try it on a living person,” Dr. Morganton said.

“That sentence brings up so many more questions,” Gunnar said as he turned and leaned back against the counter, his arms folded across his chest. “First being, so have you tried it on a non-living person?”

“Yes, of course,” Dr. Morganton replied. “Ballantine has been very forthcoming in procuring cadavers as I need them when we have been in port.”

“Right,” Gunnar laughed, “of course he has.”

“We have cadavers on board?” Mike asked. “Where?”

“My lab,” Dr. Morganton said, “or the less than adequate space Ballantine has given me to use as my lab.”

“I told you we can share,” Gunnar shrugged, “but Ballantine wants you working alone.”

“Yes, I am painfully aware of that,” Dr. Morganton said then smiled at Mike. “Ready?”

Before Mike could answer, she activated the taser and the synthetic skin on Mike’s leg began to contract. In seconds, the skin had fitted itself around the prosthetic and looked completely real. Except that, it was a different shade than Mike’s true skin color.

“Yes, I can see the issue,” Dr. Morganton said before either Mike or Gunnar could point out the color discrepancy. “I’ll have to incorporate a skin tone matching element.”

“Hey, that actually looks like skin,” Mike grinned. “Gun? Look at this!”

“I see it, Mike,” Gunnar said. “You are almost a real boy.”

“You are already a real asshole,” Mike said. Then he frowned. “Hey, Doc? Should my leg hurt?”

“How do you mean hurt?” Dr. Morganton asked.

“Like with pain,” Mike replied as he winced. “That kind of hurt. Ow. It burns. Ow! Hey! Shit!”

The leg started to twitch and then kicked out uncontrollably. Mike’s foot hit Dr. Morganton in the hip, causing her to bend over, then nailed her in the forehead, sending her falling backwards onto the floor.

“Shit,” Gunnar snapped as he rushed over.

He grabbed a screwdriver from Dr. Morganton’s cart, and jammed it into Mike’s knee while also dodging the flailing leg. He ripped the skin free, inserted the screwdriver into a small slot on the inside of the knee, gave it a couple twists, and then slammed the end of it with his hand. Mike’s leg froze in mid-kick.

“Thanks,” Mike said, sweat dotting his brow. “That fucking hurt like hell.”

“You alright?” Gunnar asked as he knelt next to Dr. Morganton.

“I’m fine,” she said. “The electrical charge must have shorted something in his prosthetic. I’ll need to work on the insulation levels in the skin so that doesn’t happen again.”

“Good idea,” Gunnar said as he helped her to her feet.

“Everything okay in here?” Kinsey asked as she walked into the lab. She gave Gunnar and Dr. Morganton a concerned look. “What happened?”

“My rubber broke,” Mike said.

“Never mind,” Kinsey said, “I don’t want to know.”

“What’s up, Kins?” Gunnar asked as he assisted Dr. Morganton with stripping the rest of the synthetic skin off Mike’s leg.

“Ballantine is calling a briefing,” Kinsey said. “I was sent to fetch you.” She nodded to Dr. Morganton and Mike. “All of you, actually, so it’s a good thing you’re all right here.”

“We’ll be up in a minute,” Dr. Morganton said. “Just let me recalibrate Michael’s prosthetic.”

“Don’t take too long,” Kinsey said. “We’ve already kept Ballantine waiting while we played with the elves’ new toy.”

“They hate it when they’re called that,” Gunnar said.

“Carlos hates it,” Kinsey replied, “and fuck him.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Gunnar smiled. “We won’t be longer than five minutes.”

“Cool,” Kinsey smiled. “I’ll let big bossman know.”

As soon as she was gone, Dr. Morganton looked at Mike. “So much for the leg rubber,” she sighed. “You’ll just have to promise me you’ll make sure your compression suit is sealed before you get in the water, and then dry before you get out of it, okay?”

“Okay,” Mike nodded.

***

Everyone filed into the briefing room, chatting and laughing as usual. At least until they saw the look on Ballantine’s face, and the shattered sat phone on the table.

“That wasn’t a good phone call,” Thorne stated.

“No, Commander, it was not,” Ballantine replied then waved towards everyone. “Don’t bother sitting, the briefing is postponed for now. We have a bigger task at hand.”

“Such as?” Thorne asked.

“We have to double check this ship to make sure there are no tracking devices or locating beacons,” Ballantine said.

“I thought that had been done,” Thorne said.

“As had I,” Ballantine replied, “but the information I just received proves otherwise. Apparently, while I was conversing with my acquaintance, something began to broadcast our location.”

“Just now?” Darren asked. “How?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Chambers,” Ballantine sneered. “If I did, then this wouldn’t be so distressing, would it?”

“Back off, Ballantine,” Kinsey said. “Same team, asshole.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry,” Ballantine said then sighed and leaned back in his chair as Carlos, Ingrid, and Moshi arrived at the briefing room’s doorway. “What can you tell me?”

All three of the techs held modified tablets in their hands. Moshi looked at Ingrid and Ingrid looked at Carlos.

“The armory is clear,” Carlos said.

“Toyshop,” Max said under his breath.

“As I knew it would be,” Carlos glared. “All company tech has been removed from every single device. There isn’t a piece of hardware down there that is connected to the company in any way. They’d have better luck tracking a single drop of seawater than tracking us.”

“Do you have more scanners?” Ballantine asked.

“As many as needed,” Ingrid said.

“Good, then assign one to each member of the crew and break the ship up into grids,” Ballantine ordered. “We shut down the power until we find what is giving off the signal.”

“Shut down the power?” Darren asked.

“That way we don’t have any interference from the B3,” Ingrid said. “If our scanners pick anything up, then we’ll know it’s not tied into the ship and could be the tracking device.”

“You want us to be sitting ducks while we have ships on our ass and a giant shark hunting for us?” Thorne growled. “At what fucking point does that make sense?”

“It makes sense because where we are going, no one can know about,” Ballantine said. “I would rather risk those ships and that shark catching up to us than exposing our destination.”

“Is it a secret clubhouse?” Max asked.

“No girls allowed?” Shane asked.

“There better be girls allowed,” Kinsey said.

“How about no little dicks allowed?” Lucy asked.

“Max will be fine then,” Darby said.

Everyone turned and looked at the Reynolds brother. He just winked and gave a thumbs up.

“GODDAMMIT!” Ballantine roared as he slammed his fists down on the table. “This is fucking serious! I am tired of the constant jokes and sarcasm! From now on you act like fucking professionals or I throw you off my ship!”

“Marty is captain of the B3,” Darren said, “it’s his ship, not yours.”

“Don’t test me, Mr. Chambers,” Ballantine snapped.

“Don’t test the chain of command on a ship at sea, Ballantine,” Thorne said as he stepped in front of the group, taking Ballantine’s focus all on himself. “Things fall apart very quickly when that chain of command is fucked with. It’s there for a reason.”

“Captain Lake works for me,” Ballantine replied. “There’s your chain of command.”

“Everyone out,” Thorne said.

“Yes, everyone out,” Ballantine said. “You have scanning to do.”

Carlos, Ingrid, and Moshi left immediately, but no one else moved until Thorne looked over his shoulder and nodded. They were reluctant, and made sure Ballantine was very aware of that, but they departed and left Thorne and Ballantine alone in the briefing room.

“This isn’t all about a tracking device,” Thorne said. “We’ve always known we’d get caught at some point, so tell me what really has you pissed off.”

Ballantine opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it, then sighed and shook his head.

“We’ve been let go,” Ballantine said. “Officially.”

“Let go?” Thorne asked as he took a seat at the table. “By the company?”

“Yes,” Ballantine said. “As of an hour ago, the Beowulf III, its crew, and Team Grendel are officially free agents. We have no country and we have no company to fall back on. We are alone.”

“Good,” Thorne said.

“I’m sorry?” Ballantine asked. “Did you just say that’s good?”

“I did,” Thorne said. “I never liked working for your company, and since I’m disavowed by the country I have spent my life protecting and bleeding for, then I’d rather we were cut loose and on our own. Simplifies things.”

Ballantine studied Thorne for a long time then took a deep breath.

“Simplifies things,” Ballantine smiled sadly. “If only that were true. Without the company’s protection, we are now open game for every enemy we’ve made. Plus every enemy I’ve made.”