We Had Flags (Toxic World Book 3) (25 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The freighter was slow to accelerate and The Doctor’s motorboat soon overtook it. As he came up on the stern, a group of curious sailors gathered at the railing to stare at him. One had a pair of binoculars. The Doctor waved and cut the engine, idling well away from the ship. He didn’t want any of the more trigger-happy in the crew to get ideas.

After a minute, a pair of sailors lowered the gangway on the port side. The Doctor put the engine on quarter speed and moved slowly towards the freighter. He studied the ship, trying to discern where the bomb was.

It took him a moment to spot it. Clyde’s team had done a good job, tucking it below a curve in the stern where it was invisible to the sailors on deck. They’d painted it the same red color as the lower part of the ship, even going so far as to chip the paint here and there to make it better blend in with the old vessel. The Doctor would have never noticed it if he hadn’t been looking for it.

Should I warn them? Not until I can get Yu-jin here. I don’t want “there’s a bomb stuck to your hull” to be lost in translation. Since we’re out of range it can wait.

He cut the engine and coasted in for the last few meters. He tossed a rope to the sailor waiting at the bottom of the gangway, who pulled him in and tied the line to a bollard.

Gebre Selassie hurried down the gangway. “What you do here?”

The Doctor held up the medical kit. “Trade.”

Gebre’s eyes widened in recognition of the emblem of the Red Cross, Crescent, and Star. The sailor with him said something angrily in Chinese. Gebre cut him off with a curt reply.

“You hurt Asian.”

“It was a riot.”

“Ryot? What’s ryot?”

“Criminals. Bad men. Not my fault.”

Gebre still looked confused.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just take me to Captain Wang!”

That got him moving. He led The Doctor up the gangway, where a small group of armed sailors waited for them. Sub-lieutenant Yu glowered at him. The Doctor glowered back.

That led to more gabbling. The Doctor watched with increasing impatience as the translator and the sub-lieutenant wasted his time. Gebre won this argument too, and finally they headed to the ship’s central tower, but not before Yu gave him a pat down.

Once again he was led through the ship’s labyrinthine interior. The sailors with the AK-47s kept him surrounded, with Sub-lieutenant Yu right behind him giving him an “accidental” prod with the barrel of his gun every now and then. The Doctor controlled an urge to smack him.

They met in a smaller, more private room this time. The rusted walls had no decoration but The Doctor’s heart leapt when he saw a tea set sitting on a table at the center of the room. The captain greeted him courteously and they sat. One of the sailors moved to serve but the captain waved him off and served the tea himself.

They drank the tea in thoughtful silence, punctuated only by Captain Wang’s hacking cough. Mooring in Toxic Bay had obviously made his condition worse. After they were done, The Doctor called Gebre over to translate as best he could.

It took a whole five minutes and a complete inspection of the medical kit to make the captain understand that he wanted to give him a checkup and cure his lungs.

“What trade?” Gebre asked.

“No trade,” The Doctor replied.

Gebre and the captain consulted.

“The captain happy to trade.”

“He can trade his friendship.”

When Gebre translated this the captain’s face went serious and some of the sailors exchanged looks. The Doctor got the feeling that he had asked for something important, and perhaps had made a cultural gaff. Had the question been rude?

If it had, the captain took it as it had been intended. He gave his assent. As The Doctor readied his medical kit he was astonished to see everyone else clearing the room. Sub-lieutenant Yu gave him a stern look and stood right outside the door as he closed it.

Yeah, yeah, one shout from your captain and you’ll come in here and blow my head off. I should introduce you to Clyde. You two would get on like a house on fire.

Captain Wang took his shirt off and The Doctor gave him a full checkup. He was in worse shape than he looked. In addition to lung cancer, he had a heart murmur, arthritis, and showed signs of exhaustion. He was at the end of his tether, obviously holding it together for the sake of his ship.

He had no medicine for the arteritis or the heart murmur, but he could do something about the lung cancer. The kit had a rigid plastic mask with a canister attachment. The selection of canisters was small and he had been rationing them, giving them only to children. This was important enough to make an exception. He selected a canister filled with anticancer agents and another with a mucous membrane restorative.

He snapped the anticancer agent into the mask and had the captain put it on, which he did without the least hesitation.

The reputation of the Red Cross, Crescent and Star is still worth something in China, eh? Good.

After Captain Wang had breathed in the medicine for a few minutes, The Doctor had him remove the mask. He looked at The Doctor curiously. Understandable. The anticancer would take a few days to take effect, so at the moment the captain didn’t feel any different.

“Just be patient,” The Doctor said, snapping in the mucous membrane restorative.

The captain put the mask on again and after the first breath his eyes lit up. The wheezing grew softer and softer and by the time he had inhaled all the medication he was almost breathing normally.

“Some things from the Old Times are worth keeping,” The Doctor said with a smile.

Captain Wang put his shirt back on, looked The Doctor in the eye, and shook his hand. He then called in the men waiting outside. When his crew saw he was obviously better there was an excited conversation and much smiling in his direction. The Doctor was urged to sit and a sailor brought more tea.

Sub-lieutenant Yu asked his captain something and got a nod in return. With great solemnity, the sub-lieutenant poured some tea for The Doctor.

I don’t need to ask Yu-jin the significance of this,
he thought, giving the sailor a respectful nod in return.
Here’s hoping he stays friendly after hearing about the bomb.

Gebre entered the room and spoke with the captain for a minute before turning to The Doctor. “All good now. Friends now.”

“Yes, yes, friends now.”

“Asians safe?”

“Don’t worry, they are under my protection.”

“What?”

“Yes, safe.”

Gebre translated for the captain.

“We see soon,” Gebre said.

“Um, yes.”

“Trade now?”

“Sure. We can trade. That’s all I wanted.”

Gebre nodded and smiled. “Good! We sail back and greet your people. Ship coming in bay now.”

The Doctor leapt out of his seat.

“No!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“What do we do?” Pablo asked.

He and Hong-gi, huddled behind the foundation of a wall, had seen Kent run by. They had heard Mom’s voice in the distance so they knew she was all right after the gun battle, but they were confused about why she and that Asian scavenger weren’t following Kent.

“We need to go after Kent and stop him blowing up the ship!” Hong-gi said.

“But what about my mom?”

“She’s all right.”

“Then why isn’t she here?”

“Maybe they went the wrong way.”

That made sense. So Mom was OK. What a relief! But if Kent got close enough to the ship to blow it up…

“Where do you think Kent is going?” Pablo asked. “I don’t know how to track someone.”

He felt bad to admit that, because he liked being a scavenger, but this was too important to pretend about.

Hong-gi thought for a moment. “The ship is too far away to blow up by radio, that’s why he wanted us to call it back. So what can he do?” Hong-gi said, looking relieved, then he got a scared look and snapped his fingers.

“Boats! There are boats back in New City. He’s going to get a boat and follow the freighter.”

Pablo was doubtful. “There are boats down at Toxic Bay too. He could take one of those.”

“Oh yeah, but could he catch up to the ship? Wait! The motorboat!”

“That’s right!”

Pablo remembered now. They’d only seen it twice, both times when Kevin or Rachel drove it around near the shore to test the engine. It was
totally
cool. Fast, too.

“Let’s go,” Hong-gi said. They ran towards New City.

They didn’t get far before they saw Mr. Cooper lying against a rock. One hand clutched his chest, where a widening bloodstain dampened his filthy shirt. The other hand held a can to his nose. His glassy eyes fixed on the boys and he let out a wild cackle. He raised his bloody hand and gave them a thumb’s up sign. They made a wide circle around him and kept on going.

Half a kilometer further on they spotted Kent. As they climbed the sides of a stony ridge they saw him standing on top of it, looking out towards the ocean they couldn’t see yet.

The boys stopped and hid behind one of the few sickly bushes clinging to the gritty soil.

“What’s he doing?” Pablo asked.

“I don’t know,” Hong-gi said, shaking his head.

Kent hurried off to the left, in the direction of the sea. Once he was out of sight, the boys scrambled up the bare slope. At the top they could see the ridge led to another spine of rock heading out to sea and forming the narrow stone peninsula that cut off the entrance to Toxic Bay. Kent was almost a kilometer ahead now, a small dot heading for the tip of the peninsula.

Out to sea, in the low evening sun, they could see the silhouette of the ship on the reddening water. Its prow faced the entrance to the bay. As the boys continued after Kent, they could see the distance between the ship and the peninsula narrowing.

“We got to stop him before it gets too close,” Hong-gi gasped as he ran. Pablo didn’t reply because he was gasping too.

Kent had stopped at the end of the peninsula, a little tip of rock at the end of a narrow spine a few meters wide at the end. They were almost there.

Now what?

Pablo glanced behind him and saw a flicker of movement among the rocks.

“Someone’s coming about half a kilometer behind,” he said. His voice sounded as bad as Hong-gi’s.

“Who?” Hong-gi’s question came out more as a choke than a word.

“Dunno.”

They kept running. The ridge was dotted here and there with bushes and two or three low trees. Sometimes large boulders hid their view of the sea and every time one did Pablo almost panicked, thinking the next time the ship came into view it would be a sinking, smoking wreck.

They got to the last area with cover before the ridge flattened out and opened up. Kent was only a couple hundred meters away. The boys paused and looked back. If the person coming up from behind was another guard, they didn’t have much time.

“Stay here,” Pablo told his friend. “If Kent sees you he’ll shoot you for sure.”

Pablo took a deep breath and stepped forward.

“Wait!” Hong-gi whispered.

Pablo didn’t listen to his friend. When he got about ten meters behind Kent, the guard turned.

Kent raised a hand with his palm towards Pablo, who stopped. The guard’s other hand held a black box with a couple of buttons and a little radio antenna.

Pablo glanced at the ship. How far could a little antenna like that transmit?

“Stay there, kid. It will all be over soon.”

“Stop it! Why are you doing this?”

Kent looked at the ship again, then down at a little dial on the transmitter.

“You can’t blow it up!”

Pablo took out the clasp knife Mitch had given him and opened it.

Kent turned back just as he did. The glare Kent gave him almost made him step back.

“Drop it,” Kent ordered.

“No.”

“I said drop it.”

Pablo felt like he was stuck to the ground, like he was some little boulder jutting out of the peninsula. He didn’t want to use the knife, didn’t even know how. But this was the only way to get Kent’s attention.

“Make me.”

“I got better things to do,” the guard said, turning half back to the ship. “Once I’m done I’ll take you back to your mom. She can deal with you.”

“Mom’s on my side.”

Kent shook his head, acting like he regretted it more than he probably did. “That won’t be good for your mom.”

Pablo glanced over his shoulder. Hong-gi stood where he had left him, looking uncertain. Beyond him there was no movement. How long before that other person got here? They would be trapped in a minute.

But what if it was Mom, or that scavenger? They could shoot Kent right off the end of this rock.

Pablo needed to get out of the way. If they were sneaking up they wouldn’t have a chance to warn him to duck. He had to get to one side of Kent so they could get him.

But the spine of rock they stood on was really narrow. The only way to get to one side of Kent was to get right next to him.

Coming closer would distract Kent too. Pablo licked his lips and crept forward.

He got a few steps before Kent looked back at him again.

“Damn it, kid.” Kent closed the antenna and put the little transmitter in his pocket. For a moment Pablo was worried he was going to pull out the M16 strapped to his back, but instead he balled up his fists.

Pablo edged closer, trying to get out of the way of whoever was coming up behind him. He wanted to look for them, but that would give away what he was doing.

But what if it was another guard? Then they had lost and there was nothing they could do.

Pablo held out the clasp knife and edged towards Kent.

Kent whipped his arm forward, the edge of his open palm hitting Pablo’s wrist. The knife clattered to the ground.

Pablo hissed with pain, tears filling his eyes. He doubled over and held his wrist.

“Man up, kid. I didn’t break it. Now get back with your Chink friend and stop causing trouble.”

Pablo edged further onto the end of the promontory, getting out of the way of whoever was coming up behind.

“I said beat it!” Kent grabbed him and swung him around, pushing him towards the base of the peninsula and getting him in the way again.

Sunlight flashed off of something metal in the rocks behind Hong-gi. Pablo dropped to the ground.

Kent noticed it a moment later. He unslung his M16 as an arrow shot down the length of the peninsula and hit him in the leg.

Kent grunted and fell on the ground. A moment later another arrow hit him in the shoulder and the M16 fell with a clatter.

Pablo leapt up and tossed the M16 over the edge. As Kent groaned, Pablo pulled the pistol out of his holster and tossed that away too. Kent reached for the clasp knife but Pablo was faster. He knocked it away, his gut wrenching as he saw Mitch’s gift arc into the water. Then he went for the pocket that had the transmitter.

Kent recovered enough to struggle. Just as Pablo pulled out the transmitter, Kent grabbed his wrist with his good hand. The two played tug-o-war for a moment. Kent tried to reach up with his wounded arm but winced in pain as the arrow in his shoulder shifted with the movement of the muscle.

As Pablo tried to pull away, the Kent tried another tactic. He squeezed with all his strength on Pablo’s wrist. The boy yelped in pain but didn’t drop the transmitter. He heard running feet approaching fast. All he had to do was hold on another few seconds.

Kent wrenched his wrist and the transmitter fell to the ground, landing on its buttons. Pablo cringed and looked at the ship. It didn’t explode. Then he looked down at the transmitter. Kent reached for it, his face beaming with triumph.

Hong-gi dove in and grabbed it. Kent lunged for him. He missed by a centimeter and fell on his front, twisting the two arrows in his body and crying out with pain.

“Hold it right there!”

The Asian scavenger stalked up to them, her bow drawn back. Her face radiated rage and the wind blew her long black hair behind her. Pablo gulped. He was sure glad that anger wasn’t for him.

The two boys scurried behind her. Hong-gi fiddled with the transmitter.

“Careful!” Pablo said.

“I’m not touching any buttons,” his friend replied. After a moment he figured out how to remove the battery and held it up with a grin.

“We won!” Pablo whooped.

“You little idiot,” Kent growled. He had managed to sit up, his tightly clenched teeth bared in pain and anger. “I was trying to save you.”

The scavenger shook her head. He turned to her, staring her down along the length of her arrow’s red shaft.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Get it over with.”

The scavenger seemed to consider for a moment before saying, “There’s an old Chinese expression parents use on their children, ‘when will the iron be forged into steel.’ It means that the child needs to toughen up. My father always used to say it to me when I cried. He stopped saying it when I killed my first bandit. It felt like I had passed some sort of test, but I always regretted killing that man. I can still remember the look on his face. Oh, I didn’t have a choice, just like I didn’t have a choice when I killed one of your men back there. But that’s going to hang on me as much as the bandit I killed. I don’t want to be steel all the way through, not if it means I can kill people and not regret it for the rest of my life. People like that, people like you, are the reason we’re scavenging through ruins and soaking up contamination every time we drink a cup of water.”

She eased her bowstring forward and put the arrow back in her quiver.