Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) (7 page)

The canteen
emitted the same fishy odors that filled the
Catalina
’s own galley, but it also smelled of unusual oils and
delectable spices. The
Amsterdam
kitchens were famous for recreating the flavors of a bygone era through careful
preservation of their spice supply. It was this, almost as much as the trade
opportunities, which brought people back to it so regularly.

At the first food
stall, a man with a large hooked nose sold fish balls dipped in a pungent
curry. Esther traded a spare gear for the meal. She had no qualms about giving
away a bit of metal in exchange for the wondrous burning sensation on her
tongue. She had hoped to share this experience with Cally. That’s what she got
for running off into the bazaar with Dax.

Esther leaned
against the food stall and tuned in to the big-nosed curry vendor’s
conversation with the next customer, a man with leathery skin and ears like
razor clams.

“The Harvesters
have their work cut out for them with Calderon. Don’t I know it.”

“They gonna come
to a fight?” asked the leather-faced customer.

“Not likely.” The
curry vendor continued to stir the vat of sauce as he spoke. “Them’s cowards,
if you ask me. No way Calderon will want to deal with the Harvesters head-on.”

“Don’t know who
made them the arbiters o’ justice anyway.”

“Better’n nothing.
No one else can do anything about the sneaky bastards. They come at you from
all sides and melt away into the waves. Colin thinks they have a sub, but I say
that’s whaleshit. Anyway, the Harvesters have got an aggressive recruiting campaign
going. They want a fair fight, but them Calderons is anything but fair.”

“You think they’re
pirates? That’s what Hugh was saying last time he was in port.”

“No skin off my
nose if they are. Both of them buy my fish balls and leave the
Amsterdam
alone. That’s all that matters
to me.”

“Ain’t that the
truth!” The man raised his half-eaten fish ball in the air.

Esther finished
her snack and left the vendor to his conversation. She wondered about all this
piracy talk. Rachel had mentioned the Calderon Group and the Harvesters too.
The
Amsterdam
was a good place to
have rumors fleshed out, but it was hard to tell what was true and what was exaggerated.

She bought a small
bag of chocolate-covered squid from another stall. Anything made with chocolate
was exceptionally expensive; cocoa was rarer than oil in their world. She would
save them for Cally and Dax in case they didn’t find their way to this part of
the bazaar. She hoped they hadn’t gotten themselves into trouble. She felt
responsible for Cally, mostly because her mother would string Esther up by a
length of durable denim if anything happened to her daughter. After a moment’s
hesitation, Esther bought a second bag for David.

She explored the
familiar corners of the bazaar alone that afternoon. The
Amsterdam
had been her primary source of contact with other
survivors through much of her life. She tried reliving those wide-eyed days,
but some of the magic was missing and she wasn’t sure why.

Eventually, Esther pushed her way back out of the short corridor to the
outer platform. The sun sat low on the horizon, and the sea was restless. Back
at the
Catalina
, a sulky Gracie
Cordova had replaced Judith at the shell station. Whenever someone came aboard,
she moved their shell from one bucket to another with a petulant clink. She
informed Esther that Cally and Dax had not yet returned. Esther settled down
cross-legged beside the gangway to wait for them.

Chapter 9—Night

Esther hung out by
the platform as the sun went down and the other
Catalinans made their way back to the ship. They chattered animatedly, their
arms filled with purchases: colorful scarves, books, cigarettes and soap,
teacups marred with shatter patterns. Judith’s arms were empty. Apparently, she
had taken David’s advice to delay any major transactions. Dirk stuck doggedly
to her heels.

Zoe and the others
returned promptly at sunset, when the last rays were setting the oil rig
alight. Esther promised to meet them in the Mermaid Lounge after Cally was
safely on board. She kept an eye on the gangway to the
Lucinda
as she waited. David was also late returning home.

Eventually, Gracie
got fed up.

“You can keep
track of the stragglers if you’re going to hang out here anyway,” she said.
“It’s bad enough I only got a short visit to the bazaar today. I’m not going to
sit here in the cold.”

She tossed her
thick hair and flounced up the gangway into the ship.

It grew colder.
Esther wrapped her arms tighter around her legs. The sounds drifting from the
bazaar had gone from bustling to raucous. The sky changed from feather gray to
charcoal.

Esther was
fiddling with the rubber rim of her storm goggles when she heard a series of
giggles, one high, one low. Cally and Dax must have returned at last. Two
figures came closer to her and stopped to smooch in the dim lighting. Esther
was chilled and stiff by this time, and she wished they’d get it over with. She
was just about to interrupt their tryst so she could go back inside when her
father and Penelope Newton came into view. Penelope let out another giggle like
a schoolgirl. Esther scowled at them as they crossed over to the ship, but her
father didn’t even notice her sitting in the shadows.
Why can’t they go back to having a secret romance?

And still Esther
waited. She was starting to worry. She didn’t think Cally would venture to the
darker parts of the
Amsterdam
, the
corners around the old drill, where some of the more illicit activities took
place. She didn’t know much about them, but Frank had always warned her to keep
to the bazaar.

Lights had started
to frost the oil rig with patches of illumination when David appeared. He
staggered across the dock to the
Lucinda
,
steps weaving. Esther stood as soon as she saw him, the sweets she had bought
clutched in her hand. Was he injured? Then she realized he was leaning against
a slim figure with flowing copper hair. She tried to make out their
conversation, but the hiss of the water against the ships swallowed their
voices. From what she could tell, their words were friendly as they tottered
down the gangway and disappeared onto the
Lucinda
’s
deck.

Esther paced in
front of the
Catalina
’s own gangway,
trying to sort through the tangled ropes of her feelings. David was bringing a
woman back to his ship. So that was it. He was someone who picked up strangers
and took them to his cabin, nothing more.

Esther thought of
her own visit to David’s cabin on the
Galaxy
Mist
, her belief that they’d shared a connection.
Stupid.
The ships creaked, metal against metal. A handful of lights
burned through portholes.
Lucinda
drifted up and down in the restless water. Esther shook her head at the shifting
gangway, pushing away the knot in her windpipe. If that was how it was, then
fine
. At least she knew the truth. She
opened the bag of chocolate-covered squid and popped the first chewy sweet into
her mouth.

It was pitch black
by the time Cally and Dax finally appeared, and Esther was in a foul mood. She
was halfway through the second bag of sweets. The teenage couple ran hand in
hand toward the ship.

“Esther! We lost
you!” Cally said, her face flushed pink like a sunset cloud. “You won’t believe
the day we’ve had!”

“I don’t give a
rusty damn about the day you’ve had,” Esther snapped.

“But—”

“Don’t even start.
You were supposed to stick with me and take notes. It’s your duty—
salt
, Cally, you’re making me sound like
Judith.”

“We have something
to tell—”

“Get on board and
get to bed. We have work to do tomorrow, and you’d better be up bright and
early. And Dax, you should stay on the
Catalina
tomorrow and make yourself useful.”

“But Esther, it’s
about David—” Dax began.

“I don’t want to
hear it. Onto the ship. Now.”

Cally and Dax hung
their heads as they crossed the gangway and headed toward the main doors.
Esther felt a little sorry for snapping, but it was cold, and David’s guest
hadn’t left yet.

Cally and Dax were
the last Catalinans to return, so Esther hauled the bucket of shells back onto
the ship. Instead of going to her cabin, she stomped up to the Mermaid Lounge
and joined Zoe, Anita, and Toni at their booth.

Zoe and Toni
talked over each other about their encounters from the day.

“We met the most
interesting sea captain!”

“There’s a crew
that’s talking about doing salvage runs on
land
.
Says he knows a safe harbor.”

“The guy might be
a charlatan.”

“But think of the
adventure!”

They rehashed the
rumors they’d heard that day and made plans for who to talk to next. Esther’s
responses were noncommittal. She’d tell them about the Metal Harvesters some
other time. She couldn’t shake the image of the tall woman leaning against
David’s arm at the Rusty Nail and the way his steps had weaved as he led her up
the gangway to his ship.

Esther felt the
sting of tears in her eyes, and it made her furious. She felt angry, hurt. She
swallowed the last of the chocolate-covered squid and curled up in the corner
of the booth. She let her friends’ chatter lull her to sleep.

After midnight an alarm sounded. The Mermaid Lounge was dark and at
first only a groggy rustle followed the piercing of the siren. Then a red light
swept across the floor from the windows.

“Esther, wake up.
Something’s happening.” Zoe crouched by Esther’s side, prodding her with the
handle of her pocketknife.

“What? Is that our
horn?” Esther rubbed her eyes as the red light swept over them again, flashing
like lightning in Zoe’s hair.

“It’s coming from
the
Amsterdam
. I think there’s a
fire,” Zoe said.

Esther fought
through her fatigue, remembering with dread the last time she was awakened by
the smell of smoke. A fire on an oil rig was nothing to shrug off, even though
the drill was long silent. Esther pulled on her boots and joined Zoe, Anita,
and Toni at the window.

“What’s going on
out there?” Toni said.

From their angle,
they only had a partial view of the oil platform. Their window was on the
starboard side, facing the open sea. Small, dark boats skipped past in the
darkness. The shadows thrown onto the waves by the red searchlight made them
look larger than they actually were. The siren wailed.

“I think people
are fighting over there.” Zoe pressed her face against the thick glass, trying
to see sideways to the hulking platform.

“Isn’t this
neutral territory?” Toni asked.

“What do we do,
Esther?” Anita whispered.

The other two
turned and looked at her too.

“We need
information,” Esther said. “We can’t get mixed up in someone else’s fight.”

She remembered
what the big-nosed food vendor had said about the Calderon Group and the Metal
Harvesters. They shouldn’t get involved with anything between those two.

“Let’s go to the
bridge,” Zoe said.

They pulled on
their jackets and dashed out of the Lounge. That’s when their own horn blasted:
two calls, as if they were facing a riding storm. That would summon only the
people who were on duty that night. Hopefully the others would remain safely in
their cabins.

Judith, Dirk, and
Neal were already in the bridge when they arrived.

“What’s going on?”
Esther asked.

“Looks like some
sort of skirmish,” Neal answered, pulling back one ear of his headphones. He
wore sweatpants and no shoes.

“Any danger to
us?”

“I don’t know. I’m
trying to raise someone over on the
Lucinda
.
They might have a better view.”

Esther felt a
sliver of ice in her chest. “
Lucinda
isn’t answering?”

“I’m sure
Hawthorne’s fine,” Neal said. “Don’t worry.”

“We have other
people on the
Lucinda
besides
Hawthorne,” Esther said. “What does the
Amsterdam
say?”

“They keep telling
us to stand by.”

Dirk and Judith
were engaged in a fierce, quiet argument. They hadn’t acknowledged the
newcomers. Dirk’s shoulders tensed, and he glowered alternately at Judith and
the
Amsterdam
.

Outside the
forward windows, the rigging looked strangely still in the red of the
searchlights, despite the alarm bells ringing around the Coalition.

Then a blinding
fireball ignited atop the oil rig. The sky erupted in an explosion, and a
rumble like thunder rattled the heavy windows of the bridge. The
Catalina
rolled in the shock wave,
knocking them off balance.

“Salt! What was
that?”

Esther shook her
head to clear the fuzzy ring of light from her eyes. A fire burned in one
quarter of the platform. Pops rattled through the night.

“News coming in
from the
Amsterdam
,” Neal said. He
listened to the headphones for a second. “We’re under attack! The rig rep says
to send crew to the deck to ward off boarders.”

“Dirk, get the
crew armed,” Judith said, pulling herself up. “Make sure everyone else stays
below.”

“We can run to the
cabins to warn any stragglers,” Toni said.

She and Anita
darted for the door.

“We should get
down to the deck, Esther!” Zoe said, tugging on her arm. “We can fight.”

But there was a
commotion outside the port window. Esther rushed to the far side of the bridge.
Beyond the
Catalina
’s foredeck,
people darted back and forth across the
Amsterdam
platform. Esther pressed her hands against the glass, focusing on the patrol
ship bobbing beside the
Catalina
.
Dark figures were boarding the
Lucinda
.
They scuttled across her narrow prow like crabs. Where were their defenders?

David had better be out of bed
, Esther thought, fear gripping her like a vise. He
had to be okay.

“Let’s go,
Esther!” Zoe shouted.

“Right.”

“Be careful,”
Judith called as they dashed from the bridge.

Esther and Zoe ran
down the stairwell and out onto the foredeck. The night was cold as a razor.
The siren wailed a warning. A dozen skirmishes had broken out around the oil
platform. People fought with pipes and clubs. Knives flashed in the
searchlights. Boots pounded on the decks of the surrounding ships.

None of the
fighting had made it onto the
Catalina
yet, but their gangway still connected them to the platform. They rushed forward.
They had to get it up before anyone came aboard.

“Look out!” Esther
grabbed Zoe, pulling her to the ground as a ball of fire flew toward them.

“What was that?”

“Flaming oil!”

Another fireball
streaked through the night. Liquid light spread in a patch on the deck.

“Get back inside!”

“We have to put
out the fire,” Zoe said.

“It’s not
catching,” Esther said. “The deck is fine. We have to move!”

They clambered
backward to shelter in the forward entryway. Esther pulled the heavy steel door
most of the way closed. The metal rattled as something collided with it,
launched from the darkness.

Esther peeked around
the edge of the door. Men were climbing onto the
Catalina
across the gangway they hadn’t been able to pull up in
time. Their weapons glinted in the light from the fireballs streaking through
the air.

“We’re being
boarded,” Esther said. “We have to do something!”

“This should
help.” Dirk had appeared behind her with a machine gun.

“Where did you get
that?”

He ignored her and
shoved the barrel through the gap in the doors. “Get ready for anyone who tries
to sneak around the side,” he said, and then he let loose a round.

The gunfire
rattled Esther’s ears. She couldn’t see anything. More shouts from outside. A
woman shrieked. Esther pulled a heavy wrench from her tool belt.

A metal-hafted
hammer swung around the edge of the door, wielded by a ropy pair of arms. A man
had managed to get around the side of the ship out of Dirk’s line of fire. The
hammer pounded down on the barrel of the machine gun, throwing Dirk off
balance. He cursed as the hammer swung again, this time directed at his head.