Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) (8 page)

There was a flash
of metal. The hammer wielder beyond the door screamed and dropped the tool. A
pocketknife was embedded in his wrist.

Esther gasped.
“Zoe! You—”

Zoe leapt forward
and wrenched her knife from the man’s wrist. The knife dripped red. The man
stumbled away.

“Thanks, mate,”
Dirk growled.

“Hurry, there are
more of them,” Zoe said.

She swiped her
knife against her leggings to clean the blade and handed the hammer to Esther.
It was cold and heavy in her palm, matching the weight of the wrench. Dirk’s
gun had jammed with the impact of the hammer. He struggled with it as Zoe and
Esther ran out onto the deck.

Two figures lay on
the deck, one moving feebly. Bullet holes pocked the deck around them. The man
Zoe had stabbed shuffled toward the gangway, clutching his bleeding wrist.
Another shape lurched toward them, taking advantage of the respite from Dirk’s
gunfire. It was a man armed with a long-bladed knife. He stalked toward them,
teeth bared.

“Take the right,”
Zoe whispered to Esther as she ducked to the left. She jabbed her knife and
danced back and forth, distracting the intruder.

Esther watched her
friend, stunned for an instant, then jumped into action.

They fought the
man together, Zoe jabbing at his arms like a stingray, and Esther swinging the
hammer and wrench to fend off the long knife. The hammer was unwieldy, but
Esther was strong from years of working with heavy machinery in the engine
room. The wrench was like an extension of her hand. She barely dared to
breathe, afraid the knife would cut through her defenses at any moment.

The man met their
blows with his blade. Then he launched a direct assault on Esther. She swung
both of her weapons forward as he attacked, striking his shoulder with a dull
thud. The man cursed, and the knife dropped out of his hand. Zoe leapt in and
held her pocketknife to his throat.

“What do you
want?” she shouted. “Why are you attacking us?”

Eyes wild, the man
clutched at his shattered shoulder. He seemed to be trying to raise his arm.
Before he could answer, another explosion ripped through the night, rocking the
Catalina
. All three of them fell
sideways. Esther’s knees slammed into the deck and she lost her grip on the
hammer. The shock wave came from the direction of the
Lucinda
this time.

Esther regained
her balance, ears ringing. She had to help Zoe! She whirled around. Her friend
knelt on the deck, staring at the man they had been fighting seconds ago. He
lay on his back with a long gash across his throat. He was dead. Acrid smoke
drifted up the side of the
Catalina
.
Black tendrils haunted the deck.

“What happened?”

“My knife
slipped,” Zoe whispered. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”

“He was attacking
our ship. He had a knife too. It wasn’t your fault.”

More of the crew
joined them. Dirk and a handful of others clattered down the gangway to the
Amsterdam
platform, weapons in hand.
Reggie and Wong prowled across the deck, prodding the fallen assailants.

“The
Lucinda
is on fire!” someone shouted.

Esther leapt up
and rushed to the railing.
David!

The fire was in
the
Lucinda
’s pilothouse, and smoke
hampered her view. Esther searched for David’s blond head and arrogant posture,
but there was no sign of him.
Where is
he?
The
Lucinda
’s
crew rushed around the deck, hauling water and emergency fire retardant to
put out the blaze. She wanted to help them, but she had to make sure the
Catalina
was safe first.

The wailing of the
alarm from the
Amsterdam
ceased
suddenly, leaving a ringing in Esther’s ears. The strangers had stopped trying
to board the
Catalina
. Fires still
burned on the
Amsterdam
, but there
were no more explosions, no more gunshots. Smoke thickened above the water. The
fighting was over.

Esther realized
her hands were shaking. She laid the hammer on the deck and returned the wrench
to her tool belt. She felt fear sinking in now that the fighting was done. They
had been attacked! Who would want to fight them? And at the
Amsterdam
no less!

She returned to
where Zoe knelt by the man she had killed. Blood stained the deck, pooling
within an inch of her purple tunic. Esther put a hand on Zoe’s shoulder. Comforting
her friend helped to calm her own racing thoughts.

“It’s okay, Zoe.”

“I didn’t mean
to.”

Zoe looked shaken,
and her usual energy had disappeared. They had seen friends killed over the
past few months, but neither Esther nor Zoe had ever taken a life before.
Esther didn’t know the right thing to say in the circumstances. How were you
supposed to respond to something like this?

“He would have
killed us,” she whispered after a while. “Come on. Let’s make sure everyone’s
all right.”

People worked to
control the fires that had spread across the
Amsterdam
during the fighting. Rain began to pour from the heavens.
Smoke billowed above the platform. More people emerged from the
Catalina
, looking confused and scared.
The crew stayed on high alert, guarding the gangway with a motley assortment of
weapons clutched in their hands.

Esther wanted to
check on David, but Reggie called for her and Zoe to help him move the bodies
to the
Amsterdam
platform. None of
their attackers had made it past the
Catalina
’s
foredeck. Two fell to Dirk’s machine gun, and the one Zoe stabbed in the wrist
had disappeared. Last was the man Esther and Zoe had fought together. They
dragged him toward the gangway by the legs, leaving a smear of blood and rain
in their wake. Esther noticed that his boots didn’t match.

Reggie kept
shaking his head. “It makes no sense.”

“I know,” Esther
said. “Who’d violate a neutral zone like this?”

“Not that,” Reggie
said. “It makes no sense for them to board the
Catalina
. Why send four people to attack an entire cruise ship?
They must have known we’d have some sort of defenses. And she’s not an easy
ship to sail, if they wanted to steal her.”

“You think they
were after something else?”

“Well, if they
were trying to hijack her, they didn’t try very hard.”

Reggie dropped the
body of a woman beside the others. Her thick black hair fanned out from her
glassy-eyed face. Reggie cursed under his breath.

Zoe bent down to
close the woman’s eyes. “We weren’t the only ones that got attacked,” she said.

“No. Looks like
they hit half a dozen ships, plus the platform,” Reggie said, coughing in the
smoke trailing over the deck. He surveyed the
Amsterdam
in the predawn haze. “Not sure about the cargo giants.
Maybe these guys were just supposed to keep us from helping anyone else.”

“The
Amsterdam
has always been a safe haven,”
Esther said. “Why would someone destroy one of the only completely neutral
places we’ve got?”

“We don’t know
that’s what they wanted,” Reggie said. “Those explosions were big, but they
were nowhere near the bazaar.”

“You think they
were a distraction?”

“Maybe, to keep us
away from whatever they were really after.”

Esther swallowed
hard. The attackers could have wanted anything from the trading hub. Fuel was
the most likely candidate, but no one would know for sure until the smoke
cleared. It was what they had done on the
Lucinda
that worried her.

As morning broke, the remaining ships took inventory,
counting their cargo and their dead. Large quantities of supplies had been
stolen from the
Amsterdam
stockpiles.
The oil platform remained intact, but tension shivered through the gathered
ships, ready to erupt like a volcano at any moment. A persistent curtain of
rain coated the sky, blocking the sun. Theories abounded over what the attack
had been about. Were they only after supplies? Was it a takeover attempt? A
provocation?

But only one thing Esther cared about had been stolen during the
attack. David Hawthorne was gone.

Chapter 10—Abduction

Esther had gone over
to the
Lucinda
as soon as she finished helping Reggie. She tramped across the platform in the
pouring rain, telling herself she was checking on the ship, but she had to make
sure David was okay too. She owed him that much. She only hoped she wouldn’t
run into his copper-haired companion from the night before. But when she pushed
open the door to David’s cabin, it was empty.

Diagrams of the
Lucinda
covered the small desk. A
hand-drawn map fluttered on the floor when she opened the door, as if someone had
tossed it aside as they dug through his papers. Esther had never been inside
this room, but she knew David was neat and organized. The bedsheets were
rumpled. She couldn’t tell if the bunk had been slept in or searched. David’s
boots lay on the floor beneath the desk, one sock hanging out of them. He only
owned one pair of boots. The room was still, quiet as a sinking ship.

Esther checked
every cabin and compartment on the
Lucinda
,
asking any crew she came across whether they had seen David.

“Not since yesterday
in the bazaar,” said Adele, one of the former Galaxians, who also lived on the
Lucinda
.

“He was talking to
the rig boss,” said another crewman, “but that was around lunchtime yesterday.
Don’t know if he came back last night.”

“Thanks. If you
see him, would you tell him I’m looking for him?”

“Sure thing,
Esther.”

She searched the
public areas of the oil platform next, though she didn’t think David would have
gone off into the
Amsterdam
without
checking in. Worry burrowed into her. What if he had been hurt in the attack?
If he went overboard, she might never know what had happened. He had to be
here. Unless . . . What if he’d been forced to leave his cabin? A grim
possibility arose in Esther’s mind, making her pick up her pace as she scoured
the
Amsterdam
for any sight of him.

There were armed
sailors everywhere, stalking through the rain and glaring suspiciously at each
other. She couldn’t get near the other ships without people shouting at her to
stay back. She asked one of the rig officials whether he had seen David, but
the man just shrugged.

“People are
staying close to their own ships,” he said. “I’d look for him there.”

“I’ll try again.”
Esther hesitated. “How about a woman with coppery hair. She’s . . . pretty, I
guess.”

Esther didn’t like
the idea of grilling David’s admirer about his whereabouts, but she had to
explore every possibility.

“She with the
Calderon Group?”

“Is she?”

“Maybe I’m
thinking of someone else. Sorry,” the rig official said. “I been running around
like an eel with my head chopped off. No time to pay attention to that kind of
thing.”

As the official
rushed off, Esther realized she wasn’t far from the old drill floor at the
center of the platform. She had always been told to avoid this area, but it was
the only place she hadn’t looked for David yet. She crept toward it, her hand
wrapped around the wrench in her belt.

Tents made from
sailcloth divided up the space. There wasn’t as much room here as in the
bazaar, and much of it was hidden behind the tents. The drill itself still rose
from the center, like a mast. Water dripped from the skeletal rig structure
with a forlorn pattering. A hacking cough came from somewhere nearby.

In the
rain-blurred morning light, the illicit place didn’t look as dangerous as she
had imagined. A man with rheumy eyes sat cross-legged beside the drill, a rifle
balanced on his knee and a pipe in his hand. He didn’t stop Esther as she
peered into the nearest tents. They contained cots, blankets, and a few
personal items, but nothing more than you would expect to see in any cabin. A
woman came out of one of the tents behind her, stretching her back until it
cracked.

“Excuse me,”
Esther said. “Have you seen a man with—?”

“Sorry, honey, we
don’t do descriptions here.”

“What?”

“You wanted to
know if your man has been here. We have a policy of not remembering what they
look like.”

“Oh . . . oh! No,
it’s not that. He went missing during the fighting, and I just want to make
sure he’s okay.”

The woman studied
her for a moment. “Go on then.” She waved a hand, a ring glinting on every
finger.

“He’s tall and
blond, about thirty years old, and he was wearing a cream sweater,” Esther
said. And after a moment, “He’s handsome—and really clean.”

“Good news, honey.
He hasn’t been here that I’ve seen.”

The woman
dismissed her with another wave and went to join the man, who handed her his
pipe.

Esther didn’t
think that was good news at all. She had checked everywhere that David could
possibly be. What had happened to him? She fought against panic. She couldn’t
allow herself to dwell on her fear, to imagine what could have caused David to
leave his cabin in the midst of the attack without any shoes. She had to
act—and fast.

She headed back to
the northern end of the platform, where Wong and Pieter guarded their gangway.
They reported that they hadn’t seen David since he left the Rusty Nail late the
night before. He hadn’t returned to the
Lucinda
either.

Back on the
Catalina
, Esther raced toward the plaza.
Her hair was still wet from the rain, but she didn’t bother to shake off the
water. Near the grand staircase she found an impromptu meeting of the most
influential leaders of the moment: Judith, Dirk, Esther’s father, and Mrs.
Cordova. They stood in a tight circle beside the old gift shop. Zoe sat alone
at a caf
é
table nearby, sharpening her knife and studying the
window of Constance Gordon’s shop a little too intently. She glanced at Esther
as she stalked up, fully alert, and then went back to her studious examination
of her blade.

“. . . doesn’t
sound like we had the worst of it,” Simon was saying.

“We got lucky,”
Judith said. “This is what happens when we meet with strangers.”

“I’ve been saying
we need to improve our defenses,” Dirk growled. He carried the machine gun on
his shoulder openly now. “We need more weapons. This might not be the last time
we face something like this.”

“We’re sailing as
soon as the entire crew is on board,” Judith said.

“We can’t afford
to be rash.” Simon met his daughter’s eyes as she joined the group. “We don’t
know what kind of dangers might be out there.”

“All the more
reason to stockpile while we can,” Dirk said.

“No more weapons
on this ship. Think of the children!” Mrs. Cordova said. Her hair had been
twisted hastily into her usual bun, pulling the wrinkled skin back on her
prominent forehead.

“I am. What if
next time they want this floating piece of scrap metal for themselves?”

“We are leaving,”
Judith said. “This is not a negotiation.”

“We can’t go yet!”
Esther said.

“Not now, Esther.
We’re in a meeting,” Judith snapped.

“Come now, Judith.
Have you forgotten how recently Esther saved this community? She deserves to be
here,” Simon said.

Judith gave a
tight nod and folded her arms over her ribs.

A bit of the
pressure on Esther’s chest eased at her father’s reassuring nod.

“Have you heard
anything from the
Amsterdam
officials
about who the attackers were?” she asked.

“The rig boss
believes it was an organization called the Calderon Group,” Simon explained.
“They’ve been trying to intimidate people for several months now. They have
reportedly taken over a ship or two, always in remote regions. They seem to be
making a statement this time.”

“I’ll make a
statement if they ever try it again,” Dirk said, tightening his grip on his
machine gun.

“They might have
been after something else.” Esther swallowed hard to keep her voice steady.
“David Hawthorne is missing from the
Lucinda
.”

Nearby, Zoe lifted
her head. Her hands on the whetstone stilled.

“Don’t be
ridiculous,” Judith said. “He’s around somewhere.”

“No, I’m sure of
it,” Esther said. “His room is messed up, and his only shoes are still there.
I’ve looked everywhere. No one has seen him.”

“What on earth
would Hawthorne have to do with the Calderon Group?” Judith said.

“I don’t know, but
he’s gone.”

“Well, good
riddance,” Judith said, reaching up to tighten her severe ponytail. “He was in
too deep with the
Galaxy
captains. I
never trusted him.”

“Judith,” Simon
said. “He did us a real service by helping Esther and Neal escape the
Galaxy
.”

“If he’s gone,
he’s gone,” Dirk said. “We can’t do anything about it. I’ll sail the
Lucinda
for now.”

“You’re not going
to help?” Esther looked around at the circle of faces. “After what he did for
us? We can’t just leave him.”

“For all we know,
he went willingly,” Mrs. Cordova said. “We don’t even know if he’s with the
Calderon Group. He might be sleeping off a hangover somewhere on the oil rig.”

So much for David’s plan to make friends with Mrs. Cordova.

“We need more
information,” Simon said. “It’s unlikely the attack was orchestrated just to
steal Hawthorne. We need to find out more from the
Amsterdam
. I’ll get Neal and go talk to the rig officials again.
Dirk, would you organize a security detail until we leave here? I think it would
be wise to delay our departure a few hours until we know what danger we’re in
at sea. If the Calderon Group is becoming more aggressive, we may not want to
be alone right now. Otherwise, let’s plan to sail before dark.”

The others nodded
and went off to their tasks. Judith gave Simon a frozen stare. He hadn’t
actually told her what to do, but then the others hadn’t waited for her
approval before they obeyed him.

Simon squeezed
Esther’s arm as the group dispersed, then walked off toward Neal’s Tower. After
a moment Judith followed. Esther watched them go, twisting her fingers around
the cold metal of the wrench in her belt. She felt a sense of hopelessness deep
in her stomach, the same feeling she’d gotten when she realized that the
Catalina
was lost without a water system
and she was stuck on the
Galaxy Flotilla
.
But hopelessness spurred determination. She had to find another way.

She turned to join
Zoe, who had obviously been listening to every word.

“We have to do
something, Zoe.”

“Do you really
think—?”

“Esther! Esther!”

Cally ran across
the plaza toward her, Dax in tow.

“Not now, Cally.”

“But Esther!
Hawthorne might be in danger!”

Cally skidded to a
stop in front of them, grabbing Dax’s arm for balance. Half of Dax’s hair was
flattened to his head, and the other half stood up like hackles.

Esther froze.
“What do you know?”

“We tried to tell
you last night. We overheard some guys talking about him in the bazaar
yesterday. They think he invented the energy system. They were talking about
how to get your plans without paying. One of them said something like ‘Maybe we
should just steal
him
.’”

“Who were they?”

“I don’t know, but
one had a really scary face, and he had these crazy earring things that made
huge holes in his earlobes.”

“Rust!” Esther
flashed back to the scene she had witnessed in the Rusty Nail. “David is gone,”
she said.

“What?” Cally and
Dax exchanged glances.

“His room on the
Lucinda
is empty, but his shoes are
still there.”

“They kidnapped
him! We have to save him!”

Cally whirled around
like she wanted to dash off immediately. Dax put a hand on her shoulder to
steady her.

“I’m glad
you
feel that way at least,” Esther said. “We need to find out where the Calderon
Group went.”

“What’s that?”

“Mercenaries,”
Esther said. “Pirates apparently. The
Amsterdam
officials think they were behind the attack.”

“We need to go
after them!”

“Someone does,”
Esther agreed. “And we’re going to need help.”

Zoe stood from the
table and shoved her knife back in her pocket. There was a light in her eyes
that had been missing since the night before.

“I’m
in.”