فصل 48

chapter-48 Six hours

The boat was untied, and we pushed away from the dock into the turbulent channel. From Nike we would sail north. Hades was the Elgen’s prison island and the second-northernmost island of the Tuvalu archipelago.

Just as the weather service had predicted, the storm was getting worse and the waves were now white-capped. The boat slammed angrily against the dark waters. At twenty-five knots it would take us about seven hours to reach our destination. That would make our arrival time around noon, but considering the weather, we’d probably arrive much later. And now we realized that there was a good chance we were sailing into a trap.

“What do we do?” I asked Gervaso.

“If he’s collaborating with the enemy, we can’t let on that we know. Not yet. We’re surrounded by the Elgen’s most fortified bases. If the Elgen attacked now, we wouldn’t last five minutes.” “We could go back to Nike and attack their headquarters. If we could capture Hatch . . .” “We don’t know that Hatch is even there. And if we make J.D. turn around, the Elgen will know something’s wrong. They’ll be waiting for us.” He looked at me. “We need to talk to Welch. Get Jack, too.” I went down to the eating quarters, where Welch, Jack, Zeus, and Nichelle were sitting around Quentin at the main table. There was bread, crackers, cheese, and sliced meats, and Quentin, who was now wrapped in a dry blanket, was eating ravenously. He stopped eating when he saw me.

In the light I was stunned by how different he looked. Broken. Humble. He was anything but the cocky rich kid I’d met in Peru. I guess living in a monkey cage will do that. So will Cell 25.

“Michael,” he said, starting to stand.

I raised my hand to stop him. “Just sit.” “Thank you,” he said, slightly collapsing. “My quads are pretty cramped. Welch just told me that we’re going to rescue Torstyn and Tara.” “We’re going to try.”

“Let me know how I can help. I’m the reason they’re there.” “No,” Welch said. “I am.”

“Hatch is,” I said. “And we’ll definitely need your help.” I turned to Welch. “Gervaso needs to see you. You too, Jack. He’s on deck.” “All right,” Welch said.

They both stood, and I led them up top to Gervaso, who was standing in the dark midship beneath a canopy.

“Yes, sir,” Welch said.

“Have you talked to the captain alone?” Gervaso asked.

“Captain J.D.? No. Why?”

“He knows who you are.”

Welch’s face tensed. “Is he Elgen?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s the plan?” Jack asked.

“That’s why I wanted to see you. If this is a trap, we’ll need a solid base to fight from. Or should we go straight to the Joule?” “Not at this hour,” Welch said. “No one, not even an EGG, would visit the Joule in the middle of the night. There’s too great a chance they’ll submerge.” “Why is that?” I asked.

“Joule protocol is that a false submersion will go unpunished. A non-submersion, even in practice, when one is required, results in automatic death to the captain. The odds are that they’ll submerge and stay down for days. Maybe weeks.” “We can’t take that chance,” I said.

“What island do we go to?” Gervaso asked.

“We have three options,” Welch said. “Hades, Hephaestus, and Demeter. Hades is the prison island, Hephaestus is the Elgen manufacturing, and Demeter is agriculture.” “Which one would you choose?”

“Hades will have more stationed guards, but there will also be weapons and fortifications to dig in. We could also release the GPs and native prisoners to fight with us. Hephaestus is just factories, no food or weapons. They could quarantine the island and starve us out. Demeter has food, but it’s just fields and jungle. Little weaponry. All we’ll have to fight with is what we have on us. I’d go with Hades.” “Me too,” I said.

“Hades it is,” Gervaso said. “There’s still hope that we’re wrong about J.D.” “How are we going to know for sure?”

“Taylor,” Gervaso said. He looked around. “Jack?” “Yes, sir.”

“Tell everyone they have six hours to rest and they’re going to need it. They need to be ready for battle.” “Yes, sir.”

“At ten I’ll need you, Michael, Welch, Zeus, Ian, and Taylor to come with me to the control deck.” “Yes, sir,” Jack said again.

I went below deck to check on Taylor but found her, Nichelle, and McKenna sleeping. I lay down next to Taylor, my heart pounding wildly. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t sleep, and an hour later I got up and went back up top. In spite of the weather, Welch was sitting on a bench smoking.

I sat down next to him. For a while neither of us spoke. Visible to the east of us was a long strip of land.

“What island is that?” I asked.

“Hatch calls it Plutus. It was Nukufetau. It’s where he’s building the bullion depository, his own private Fort Knox.” Even though our visibility was limited by darkness, rain, and fog, I could see that there were cranes and massive construction going on.

“Look,” Welch said softly, pointing to a shadow in the water. “There she is.” What I saw looked like a large, rectangular buoy.

“What is it?”

“The Joule.”

I had seen the Joule only once before, in Lima, just before we sank the Ampere, only this time it was mostly submerged, exposing only the conning tower. Again it was docked close to shore.

Welch took a long drag from his cigarette and stared out in silence.

“I thought Elgen guards didn’t smoke,” I said.

“They don’t.” He offered me the cigarette. “Want one?” “I’m fifteen,” I said.

“Not tonight you’re not.”

“I’ll pass,” I said.

After a few minutes he said, “I hope I get to die slowly of cancer.” * * *

After a half hour I went back down to our quarters. Ostin was asleep and snoring loudly, which this time made me happy. It was familiar and peaceful in its own way.

I worried about him. Quentin felt remorseful that he’d dragged Torstyn and Tara to their deaths, but, in my own way, I was just as guilty. Ostin wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for me. He’d probably be graduating from Harvard at seventeen and getting a job with the highest bidder, Elgen Inc. That’s what I was thinking about when I fell asleep.