فصل 51

chapter-51 The island of Hades.

We put a long chain, with a padlock, around J.D.’s neck, partially to secure him and partially so Taylor wouldn’t have to touch him to read his thoughts.

As we neared the island, Gervaso said to J.D., “You need to help us dock. Remember, if the boat sinks, you’re going down with it.” “The island is surrounded by reef,” he said. “You have to dock the boat at the dock.” “He’s telling the truth,” Taylor said.

Welch, Gervaso, Jack, and I looked over a map of Hades. “That reef will be an advantage,” Welch said. “It means they can’t run their boats in all at once. After we disembark, we’ll blow the dock. They’ll have to swim in to get us. It’s not easy to win a war waist-deep in water.” “That will slow them down,” Gervaso said. “But not much.”

“Maybe long enough for us to thin them out,” Welch said.

The island of Hades was about a mile in circumference, flat and oddly shaped, like an amoeba. The water surrounding it was light and shallow, with a wide, coral reef visible from where we were, a hundred yards out. Surrounding the island was fine white sand, dark beneath the clouds. Under different circumstances it might have been a nice place to vacation.

There was an old town on the west side of the island. At one time there had been a post office, a community center, and a church. Now it was deserted except for a few apartments kept for the guards. At one time the island had been lush, completely covered with various palms, mostly coconut and breadfruit trees, but that was before the Elgen had burned the land, clearing it for the prison. The prison sat on roughly thirty acres on the west side of the island and was surrounded with two twenty-two-foot-tall chain-link fences topped with four feet of razor wire.

About fifty yards out from the prison fence the Elgen’s GPs and slave labor, taken mostly from the Tuvaluan natives, had been forced to build an outer wall made of concrete. It was shorter than the other fence but still daunting—ten feet high with razor wire. The wall had been built for prisoners, but it had also been built as a protection from the sea and was added after a cyclone had hit the island, damaging the original construction. Its construction reminded me of what we saw in Taiwan’s Starxource plant. “Creepycrete,” Taylor called it, drab, formless construction based on the lowest denominator of function.

The entry to the prison was on the north side of the island, where the main dock was built. The Elgen guards had filled the last of the shuttles and were about to push off. To avoid them we sailed west, circling the island clockwise. As we came around the island, Jack slowed the boat down slightly. “I’ll wait until you give me the go-ahead,” he said to Ian.

“Are you sure it’s not a trap?” I asked. “Why didn’t they blow the dock?” “Why are they leaving at all?” Zeus asked.

“Maybe the dock’s booby-trapped.”

“That would be the smart thing to do,” Ostin said.

“I don’t see anything, but I’ll keep looking,” Ian said.

Gervaso looked over the island with binoculars. “No, they’re giving us the prison. Apparently Hatch wants a fight.” A few minutes later Ian said, “We’re clear. The last of them just circled the bend.” “Got it.” Jack hit the throttle, and we sped east along the north bank of the island toward the prison.

By the time we reached the dock, there was no one in sight. The dock led to a landing, with a road leading to a break in the concrete wall. There were towers on every corner of the wall, but they appeared to be deserted as well.

“Why would they just desert it?” Tessa asked.

Ian surveyed the site once more, then said, “It’s still clear.” “We’re going to have to blow the dock,” Gervaso said.

“Then I’ll move the boat after we dock,” Welch said. “Just in case we need it.” Welch took over the boat’s controls and brought us up to the dock. With the size of the waves rocking our boat, we hit the side pretty hard, throwing us all to the port side of the boat.

“Nice landing,” Tanner said.

“Like to see you do better,” Tessa said.

“C’mon,” I said.

Jack and I jumped out onto the dock, and Ian and Tessa threw us the ropes so we could tie the boat onto the cleats. One by one everyone except Welch got off.

Zeus and Gervaso, using towels from the bathroom, blindfolded J.D. and his crew. Then Jack, Zeus, and I took them off the boat.

After everyone was off, Ian and I untied the ropes, and then Welch started to pull away from the dock. Suddenly one of the crew members pulled off his blindfold, then jumped in front of the boat into the sea, which was stupid on many levels. I couldn’t figure out what the guy’s plan was. Was he trying to get cut up in the boat’s propeller? Or was he planning to swim twenty miles to another island during a raging storm?

Zeus, covered in a formfitting rain suit and two ponchos, reacted quickly and shocked the dude just as he hit the ocean. The sound of electricity striking the water was like dropping ice into a pan of sizzling bacon. The man went under for nearly a minute, then popped back up. “I give up!” he shouted. “Don’t shock me. I give up.” “Swim to shore,” Zeus said. “Next time I won’t let you surrender.” As we walked off the dock onto the island, I felt a dark, eerie feeling of desolation. A line from the Bible came to me: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil . . .

Except I definitely feared. I was terrified of the evil to come.