Dead Calm (38 page)

Brain's eyes flew open and he saw his friend standing
a few feet away.

Unsheathing his K-bar, Tick-Tock said, “Don't worry,
I’ll have you loose in a second.”

Tick-Tock sliced the tape and helped him stand, his
hours of being bound having caused his legs to cramp up. Tears of
gratitude and relief poured from Brain and it was a few minutes
before he could speak.

Finally, in a choked voice he said, “Thank you. I owe
you a big one. Now we have to save Tim? Did you see him
anywhere?”

Tick-Tock gave him an odd look and replied, “He’s
with Connie on The Usual Suspects.”

“Good, good,” Brain said. “He must have gotten away
then. I tried to escape but they had me taped up too tight. Is
everyone else okay?”

Wondering what Brain was talking about when he
mentioned Tim getting away, Tick-Tock replied, “We had a go with
Ricky's Head Ushers. Steve and Mary got a little banged up, but no
one's hurt bad. Steve took two in the chest but his vest stopped
the bullets. Mary just got hit by some splinters and shit.”

“What about Ricky's people?” He asked.

Tick-Tock gave him an evil smile and replied, “As we
used to say in the Marine Corps, The enemy has suffered grievous
losses.”

Filling Brain in on the events of the day, Tick-Tock
led him down the passageway. When they reached the doors leading to
the Centrum, he finished by saying, “Steve and Heather went to
check the bridge for Reverend Ricky. I checked the cabins before I
cut you loose but no one was there.” Looking at his ultra-posh
surroundings and thinking about all the cabins in the quarantined
areas, he compared them to his own accommodations and added, “I
guess you either have to be an asshole like Ricky or dead to get a
nice room on this tub.”

Tick-Tock and Brain waited at the stairs for Heather
and Steve. After they joined them, Brain gave them each a big hug,
in Steve's case a gentle one due to his injuries, and thanked them
profusely for saving him. When his gratitude had run its course,
Brain turned his attention to who had kidnapped him and said, “Now
let's find Ricky. I want his ass.”

Tick-Tock laughed and said, “Get some, Pork
Chop.”

“Won't do any good looking,” Heather informed him.
“Steve and I were talking about it and decided we'd be wasting our
time. The ship's too big and there's only the four of us. Five if
we include Susan. Ricky would slip past us too easy with all the
passageways and decks we'd have to cover. We need more people to do
a real search.”

Hearing what Heather said about not having enough
people suddenly gave Steve an idea. Surprised that he hadn't
thought of it before, but cutting himself some slack since it
wasn't every day he got shot twice in the chest, he called Susan.
After giving her the good news about Brain being freed and getting
an update on Mary; the splinters had been removed, the wounds
dressed and Sheila had given her another Valium, he told her to
send Sheila up to deck ten on the double.

Securing his radio, he said to the others with a
smile, “I know where we can find over a hundred people to help us
search. Once we tell them what's really been going on with this
ship, they'll look like a mob of villagers going after the
Frankenstein monster.”

Chapter Twenty-One

The Dead Calm:

Ricky considered his future, as he looked down from
the Crows Nest Lounge at his followers milling restlessly about on
decks eleven and twelve. Something had gone terribly wrong with his
plan and he didn't know which way to turn. For over an hour, he'd
tried to reach Brother Seth or Brother William but his calls on the
two-way had gone unanswered. He'd been told not to use the radio
lest his calling give the people waiting in ambush away, but it had
been too long since he'd heard from anyone and he was getting more
nervous by the second.

When at first he couldn't reach his men, Ricky had
considered the possibility that his Head Ushers and Steve's people
had wiped each other out. Overjoyed at the idea, he realized that
if this was the case then he could waltz on down to the pool deck,
promote a few of his Ushers to the status of Head Usher, take the
sailboat and go. But that would also mean leaving the security of
the Crows Nest armed only with the .45 he'd taken off Randy and he
wasn't quite prepared to do that just yet. Until he could be
assured that it was safe, he knew he couldn't expose himself. The
people from the sailboat knew what he looked like, and if any of
them had a weapon, they would shoot him on sight.

In that same vein, if Brother Cal or Don Parsons had
survived their respective assassins, then they would also be
looking for him. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who had ordered
their assassination. But this in itself was something that made
Ricky believe his Head Ushers had been wiped out. Whether it was to
kill him or kiss his ring, none of his people had contacted him. He
hadn't told any of them where he would be waiting during the ambush
but it would be easy to narrow it down to the ship's bridge, his
cabin or here at the Crows Nest.

And what if they all survived, Ricky wondered. His
brow furrowed as the thought of Steve's people, Cal and Don Parsons
coming after him made him shiver. With a sudden rush of fear, his
thoughts started running away from him. In a flash, he was
convinced that the men and women who he wanted killed had survived.
This was followed by the immediate belief that they were on the
hunt for him. He even started to imagine they were just outside the
closed doors of the Crows Nest Lounge, waiting for him to open up
so they could shoot him down in cold blood.

His eyes grew wide at the thought and he found the
idea utterly terrifying. Initially this had only been a slim
possibility, but now it was looking more like a reality. Besides
the paranoia and fear that the threat of death brought up, being
hated was something that Ricky found hard to stomach. He had spent
months being adored by his followers. He was the king and all those
around him were his subjects. All of them prepared to satisfy his
slightest whim.

How had he become so hated and hunted, he asked
himself.

Tears sprang to his eyes as he looked around the
dark, empty lounge for someone to assure him that everything would
be all right. Seeing nothing except his own reflection in the
mirror behind the bar, he was suddenly struck by another bolt of
fear when he realized he was all alone. This hadn't happened in
months. Normally he had at least one person with him, whether it
was one of the Hungarian sisters or one of his Ushers, so this was
an entirely new experience.

The feeling of abandonment that came to him was
almost overwhelming in its intensity. Between this and the fear of
a nasty death at the hands of whoever was waiting outside the door,
Ricky considered dropping down onto the carpet and crawling into a
corner to hide. The thought of failure had never crossed his mind
before, but now....

What can I do? He whined to himself. Who can I turn
to? I'm all alone. Everyone who I can count on has either taken off
like Sheila - Ricky conveniently forgot that she ran away because
he was trying to have her killed. Or been killed by the people who
invaded the ship - Ricky also neglected to admit the fact that he
had sent his people to kill them and take their sailboat. Or like
Cal and Don, who turned and are stalking me – ignoring that he had
set them up to be ambushed and slaughtered in the first place.

Ricky's mind spun as he tried to deal with the
situation he found himself in. He was starting to sink to the
carpet when suddenly he stopped. Standing upright to his full five
foot nine inch height, his body went rigid as he came up with a
solution.

You idiot, he scolded himself. You thought of what
you could do just a minute ago when you were hoping everyone had
gotten killed, you just need to think on a bigger scale. You've got
all the people you need. Not just to replace Seth and the rest of
the Head Ushers either. You've got over a hundred men and woman who
will do whatever you ask if you put the right spin on it.

But what's the right spin? He asked himself.

Pirates, the idea popped into Ricky's mind. That's
the threat I'll use. The people who came aboard are really pirates
who want to rape and pillage the Calm of the Seas. They tried to
kill me and take the ship and now we have to kill them before they
kill everyone like they did my Head Ushers when they murdered them
in an ambush. I'll make myself the victim and the Faithful will
rally behind me, Ricky thought with glee. A realistic threat like
this will even get those who don't believe in the rapture to
support an all out assault on the lower decks, if only to protect
themselves. And if we find the people from the sailboat dead when
we get below, then we've won. And if they're still alive, they'll
be overwhelmed by my shock troops. I can also tell the Faithful
that Brother Cal and Don Parsons joined up with the pirates and
need to be killed on sight. That way I'm protected from all
threats.

This idea coalesced with another thought. I'll have
my Faithful hide their weapons as they approach the lower decks and
then pull them out when it's time to attack. This way, the people
from the sailboat will hesitate to shoot. Those people down there
are too civilized to kill unarmed people and that's why they'll
lose.

Rejoicing at the prospect of coming out on top of the
mess that had befallen him, and too arrogant to admit that he'd
caused it, Ricky rushed to the front of the Crows Nest overlooking
the pool area. He wanted to make sure his people were still there
since he was long overdue to for his nightly sermon. Confidently
thinking that the Faithful would rally around him once he got them
worked up, this was replaced by; I am so screwed, as he looked
down.

At the far end of the pool area were Steve, Heather,
Randy and worst of all - Sheila.

***

With his M-4 held at port arms, Steve walked up to
the startled man sitting in the DJ's booth. Stopping in front of
him, he waved his rifle at the equipment stacked inside and asked,
“You got a PA system hooked up to this?”

The man looked at him in shock and wonder, surprised
to be suddenly confronted by this assault rifle-wielding stranger.
Moving his mouth like a fish out of water, he only managed to make
a slight squeaking noise.

Seeing this, Brain said, “I got it,” before going
around the soundboard and gently easing the man from his chair. He
sat down and scanned the controls in front of him before flipping a
few switches.

Twenty feet away, a brief whine of feedback came
through the amps mounted on both sides of a small stage set up for
when the cruise directors hosted activities by the pool.

Steve told Brain, “Turn it down. Remember when we
were at the rock climbing wall and it almost blew our eardrums
out?”

Brain nodded and adjusted some dials. “You're all
set,” he told Steve and then turned to the DJ and said in a low
voice, “If you touch anything, I'll cut your fingers off and feed
them to a Z while you watch.”

The man nodded vigorously at this and retreated from
the soundboard until his back hit the rear wall of the booth. There
had been rumors going around about people coming on board, but
beyond that no one knew if they were friendly or hostile. After his
first encounter with them, he decided they were hostile.

Steve climbed onto the stage and had a brief sense of
déjà vu from when he had worked as a disc jockey and done his share
of live shows. Standing in front of the microphone, a feeling of
giddiness washed through him and he was overcome with the desire to
grab the mic and say, 'And now, live and in concert, presented by
KLAM Music Radio, BLUE-OYSTER-CULT, but lost this urge when he saw
the faces of the Faithful looking at him with a mixture of fear,
curiosity and hostility.

Tighten up, he told himself.

Speaking into the microphone, he said, “My name is
Steve Wendell. My friends and I came aboard the Calm of the Seas a
few days ago. We came in peace.”

Steve almost laughed at this. I come in Peace. I
sound like an alien. But instead of ‘Take me to your leader’; it's
going to be ‘Bring your leader to me so we can kill his ass’.

Steve cleared his throat and related to those
gathered how they had come across Connie and Tim. He told briefly
about how the two young people had to go into hiding because of
Reverend Ricky. After telling them how Sheila had appeared, he
related some of what she’d told them about the things Ricky was up
to. How he preyed on the trust and fears of those around him while
using the HWNW virus to keep them terrified. As he spoke, he
noticed that the Faithful at least seemed to be paying attention.
When he mentioned Sheila, he saw some of those in the front
recognize her and point to where she stood nearby.

Then Steve hit the Faithful with the bombshells.
Ricky had conned them. There was no rapture and the ship was
sinking. He informed them that Ricky was the one who controlled
where and when the dead were released on the ship and that he was
preparing to abandon his people on the sinking ship. He tried to go
on about how Ricky planned to kill them and steal their sailboat,
but his words were met with open hostility as some of the Faithful
tried to shout him down. Knowing this might happen; he waved Sheila
on stage and turned the microphone over to her. She was his ace in
the hole to get the Faithful to believe him. She had been one of
them and had been with Ricky from the beginning.

The crowd grew silent as Sheila took the stage. This
was someone they knew and could trust and the ‘boos’ and catcalls
fell off. A few people even called out greetings to the redhead.
This was until she started to talk.

Beginning with what she knew of Ricky's past, that he
was nothing but a fast talking con-man who worked as a promoter,
craved power and wanted nothing more than to wallow in sexual
self-gratification, she laid out in detail how Ricky had conned
them by using their fears and gullibility. She knew everything
Ricky had been up to, like his pedophilia that many had turned a
blind eye to, and she pulled no punches in talking about his other
activities, including his having sex with some of the dead women
locked up in the Sounds Lounge. By the time she finished vouching
for Steve and telling the Faithful that everything he had said to
them was the truth, the crowd was completely silent.