Offshore (34 page)

Who had
the last laugh now?

He
sniggered to himself as he laid his prize on the floor of the
utility closet and closed the door, jamming a broom stave solidly
into the hook of the handle. Confident of their security in their
hidey hole, he then sat beside her and listened for activity in the
corridor outside.

Chapter 39

Eddie
arrived first, blasting his way through the swing door and into the
empty medical suite.

“
Lydia!”

He
barrelled into the small office at the rear.

“
Lydia Ellis!”

The
adjustable poise lamp stood at a crazy angle, disjointed like a
broken elbow, its bulb casting a harsh white circle on the
ceiling.

Her
laptop stood open, a colourful screensaver whirling and dancing on
the screen, and beside it on the desk, her radio handset. Switched
off.

Elsewhere papers were scattered on the floor, as was a kidney
dish, tipped upside down. The scent of something sickly and
volatile hung in the air.

No
blood, thank God.

Also no
sign of Lydia Ellis.

The
handset of the phone rested on the floor at the end of its coiled
cable. Eddie retrieved it and put it to his ear. Hearing nothing at
the other end he replaced it in its cradle, just as Cameron and
Shaw arrived, both breathless from running.

“
What’s all the panic about, boss?” wheezed
Cameron.

“
He’s got her,” Eddie said.

“
Who’s got who? What’s–? Where’s Miss Ellis?”

“
Brewer’s taken her.”

“
Brewer?”

“
Aye. You were right Matt. It is the quiet ones you have to
watch closest.”

“
I think you need to explain, guv, ‘cos you’ve lost me
already.”

Eddie
scrubbed at his hair, saying, “Something happened earlier,
something Brewer did … to Craig. I caught him in the act you might
say. He legged it and I called Lyd … Miss Ellis, to warn her he’d
gone mad, to stay out of his way. As I was talking to her, I heard
it all through the phone – he snatched her.”

“
What did you see, guv? What did Brewer do to Craig? Where
is he? What’s happened?”

“
Craig’s dead, Matt.”

Shaw
looked as dazed as Eddie felt. “Dead? How? When?”

“
Brewer … he killed him, during the blackout. Sliced him
open. I came across them in the locker room, after he’d...” He
swallowed down a rising gorge. “ …after he’d cut out his liver. He
was eating it, and Craig, he was –”

For Christ’s sake, don’t be sick!

“–
he was still alive while he did it. He died a few minutes
later. There was nothing … nothing I could do for him.”

Both men
looked at Eddie as if he’d lost his mind. Maybe he had and this was
all some horrible waking nightmare.

“
Four out of nine,” said Cameron, quietly. “He’s picking us
off one by one. First Lummox, then Reynolds, Jock, and now Craig.
One man responsible for all four deaths? It’s a fucking duck
hunt.”

“
But why? And what does he want Miss Ellis for?” asked
Shaw.

Eddie
shivered and wiped away a stray trickle of rainwater from his
hairline. “I have no idea.”

“
You don’t think he’s going to do the same to
her?”

“
NO!” Without warning, the memory of Reynolds’ charred and
blistered body grinning up at him from the floor in the welder’s
hut flashed into Eddie’s head and made bile rise in his throat.
Except the body was not Reynolds’ but Lydia’s, her slender stomach
split asunder, her roasted innards spilling out.

Nauseous
and light headed he bent over, his hands on his knees, breathing in
and out through his nose. He swallowed hard. It wouldn’t be fitting
to vomit over his boots in front of his men.

Shaw
laid a hand on his back. “Hey, you okay guv?”

Eddie
waved him off.

“
Aye. Give me a minute.” After a moment he stood, and with a
swift kick launched the metal dish across the room, clanging it
against the wall. “SHITE!”

“
Guv?”

“
This is all my fault,” said Eddie. “I put her in this
situation. If I hadn’t–” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “If
I hadn’t told her on the first day we got here that if she was in
trouble or needed someone to stand up for her, she should turn to
Brewer, she wouldn’t be where she is now. Out of all of us I
thought he would be the most trustworthy.”

“
You weren’t to know,” said Shaw, offering a grain of
comfort to his ailing chief. “Nobody knew. So let’s not let the
situation get any worse. Let’s get out there and find them. They
can’t have gone far.”

Eddie
eyed him keenly. “Did you forget where we are, Matt? There are a
thousand places he could take her, a million places to
hide.”

“
We’ll find her. We’ll split up and comb this place from
flare jet to sandy bottom if we have to. I promise we’ll find her.
Scout’s honour.”

“
Thanks Matt,” said Eddie, buoyed a little by the young
man’s loyalty.

“
What about him?” said Cameron. “What do we do with him when
we find him? We don’t have any weapons.”

“
Use whatever you can put your hands on,” said Eddie. “I’m
giving you the authorisation to use whatever force you have to,
lethal if necessary, to get Lydia back in one piece.”

“
Well then, back in a mo.”

Shaw
then left the room.

Seconds
later came the sound of breaking glass in the corridor. He returned
with a long handled fire axe balanced in his hands. “This’ll do
me,” he said. “If he so much as breathes on me, I’ll cut him in
two.”

Eddie
punched Shaw’s lean shoulder lightly. “Well done mate. Right, let’s
get going. Keep your steps light and your radios on at all
times.”

“
Won’t he be able to hear us if we do?”

“
Then he’ll know we’re after him, won’t he. If you see him,
don’t make any sudden moves, I don’t want him hurting Lydia. We’ll
take him out, but only when she’s safe. Got it?”

In
unison. “Got it.”

“
Okay. Cam, take the habitat. I know there’s a lot, but do
your best to check every cabin. Don’t forget the gym, the lounge
and the games room. Matt, check out the equipment stores, the labs
and the lifeboat stations. He might try to take her off the
platform.”

“
In this weather? He’d be crazy to try it. Where does he
think he’s going to go?”

“
He is crazy, Matt. Stark staring fucking brain fried
mental, and he won’t care, and that means he’s as dangerous as a
rabid dog with dynamite up its arse. Don’t give him any chance to
fight. Strike first, ask questions after.” Eddie, still saturated,
his clothing more water than fabric, set to a violent
shivering.

“
Leave it to us, boss,” said Cameron. “You go and get
changed and dry off. Can’t have you croaking on us too.”

“
I will. On your way.”

At the
sickbay door, the trio exchanged supportive nods and went their
separate ways.

Eddie,
mindful of every niche and corner the beast Brewer could be hiding
ready to spring out on him, made a detour to his cabin to change
his clothes, before heading for the control room to re-activate
every CCTV feed on the platform.

On his
way, he couldn’t help wondering … if he’d done it after Reynolds’
death, as he told Lydia he would but never got around to, would any
of this have happened?

Of
course it would.

One man
alone couldn’t spend 24 hours a day watching screens and recordings
on the off chance of something happening right in front of them. So
what use the electronic eyes now? Probably not much. As the saying
went, he was a day late and a dollar short.

Brewer
waited in the dark of the utility closet, the now unconscious Lydia
hugged close to him, the hand with the pad hovering close to her
face ready to smother her cries should she wake and kick up a
fuss.

How long
should he give them to make their search of the section and be on
their way - five minutes, ten?

He
started as the door handle rattled, being tested from the outside,
and he kept his eyes on the broom stave.

If his
makeshift locking device should give way and they found him in
there with the woman, he was a dead man. He held his breath and
clutched Lydia ever tighter.

It
stayed put and the door remained firmly closed, and he praised the
good quality of the implement.

For a
further ten minutes he sat motionless, hearing tuned intently for
more sound from outside.

Hearing
nothing, he felt it safe to crack the door open and peer cautiously
out to a clear coast.

Behind
him, freed from the doping effect of the ether pad, Lydia stirred
and moaned, consciousness returning. With time now of the essence
he pulled her to her feet and into his arms, dislodging his radio
handset in the process, and carried her back to sickbay.

Switchback complete.

Capstan
and his little gang fooled. Just him and her - alone at
last.

Eddie
scanned each of the screens, eyes tuned for the slightest
movement.

What was
that? Someone moving down habitat level D corridor? Cameron
checking cabins. He kept that screen on, following Cameron’s
progress.

Where
was Shaw? He flicked through various screens until he spotted him,
out on the deck heading for the container compound, swinging the
axe like a lumberjack.

Don’t
let either of them out of your sight.

Where
was Brewer … and Lydia?

He
switched to the camera covering the long corridor outside sickbay.
Seeing nothing he then changed to the one outside the locker room,
missing Brewer’s exit from the utility closet by mere
seconds.

He
continued to stab at the control buttons for the other CCTV
cameras, cycling through all of them, and back again. Nothing
moved. Anywhere. Not even a rat!

Where
had everybody gone? He went back to the screens he had been
watching before.

Nothing
moved. He had lost Cameron and Shaw and a momentary panic overcame
him.

He
lifted the radio to his ear and pressed the button. “Cameron! You
there? Over.”

Silence.

“
Cam! Respond! Over.”

Static.
He put his mouth closer to the mike. “CAM!”

“
Yeah, I’m here. No need to yell. Over.”

Thank
God.

“
Any sign? Over.”

“
Not a dickie bird. Wherever they are, they ain’t up here.
Over.”

“
Okay, move on to the next section. Keep looking.
Over.”

“
Will do. Over.”

“
And keep in touch for God’s sake. Over and out.”

Pause.

“
Shaw! You there? Over.”

“
Yep.”

“
Anything? Over.”

“
Nope.”

“
That’s nope, over, Matt. Use proper radio procedure.
Over.”

“
Nope over. Over.”

“
Don’t be a dickhead.”

“
Shouldn’t that be don’t be a dickhead, over?
Over.”

“
Alright smartarse, no need to get cocky. Keep your eyes
peeled and your mind on the job, and don’t start pissing
about.”

Dammit. Way too harsh. He’s as scared as you are. He didn’t
deserve that.

“
Sorry, Matt.”

“
It’s okay, boss. Don’t worry about it. Over.”

“
Thanks Matt. Over and out.”

Brewer
couldn’t simply have vanished. They had searched high and low for
him and Lydia. Shaw had reported all the lifeboats accounted for
and empty, so wherever he had taken her, he was still on
board.

“
If I were him, what would I do? Where would I take her?
Think man!”

It came
to Eddie like a slap upside the head - the one place they had
already searched of course. The one place they were least likely to
return to.

He was
on his feet, mashing at the button to switch between TV screens,
looking for the one that showed sickbay. Pointless. There wasn’t a
camera there. Lydia and her sodding confidentiality.

He
reached for the radio to call Cameron and Shaw and let them into
his hunch, and hesitated, his thumb poised over the transmit
button.

What if
he was wrong? They would be pulled away from their search for
nothing, and precious time would be wasted. Worse, what if Brewer
heard and ambushed them?

He would
check it out for himself first, and call them as backup if he
needed them.

Leaving
the monitors playing to an empty room, he made his way down three
flights of stairs to jog along the walkways to the entrance to the
habitat block, and edged his way along the main corridor to the
double swing doors to Sickbay. He pressed his back against the wall
and sidled close to risk a glance through the small clear circle in
the obscured glass.