Chapter 16

We arrived at our destination the next morning, passing a few lonely spits of land before we abruptly stopped. These islands looked more like I had expected from the media; the tiny sandbars were either completely barren, or home to a few palm trees.

Once we had eaten in the small mess and gotten ready for the day, we found our normal spot taken. The little section of deck was a whirl of activity as the crew sprang into action, readying the salvage crane and the other gear.

“That’ll be the end of our lessons for now,” declared Lieutenant O’Connor as we dropped anchor. “Are you ready for your mission, Cadet Cooper?”

“Yessir,” I said, returning his salute. I had changed to my woolen uniform, though reluctantly. The heat wasn’t too bad in the early morning, but I knew I’d be suffering by noon. “There won’t be so much as a raindrop until we’re done.”

“I like the sound of that,” said Captain Zhang, seeming to appear out of nowhere. “If it can be done.”

I felt a chill, in spite of the balmy tropical air. So much for my mood. “Is something the matter?” I asked, bristling at his presence.

“I don’t know, is it?” asked Zhang, gesturing towards the busy crewmen. “You keep the wind at bay and we’ll be good.”

“We wouldn’t want her to do too much of that, yeah?” said Zack, chuckling awkwardly. “A little breeze wouldn’t be so bad.”

Zhang cracked a grin, to my complete shock. “Maybe a bit, Leftenan. Still, my gut tells me the other shoe’s about to drop. The Spratlys have been bad luck for years. I’ve heard tell of storms that come out of nowhere, and ships losing control before their comms cut out. I worry that one girl’s not going to be enough to fight that off.”

“You’ve never seen me in action before, Captain,” I said, trying to sound more cheerful than challenging. I don’t know that I succeeded; I was done with Zhang’s attitude.

“No, I haven’t,” he replied, his good cheer vanishing. “They tell me the last weather wizard they sent down fell victim to the same curse, so I’m not sleeping easy. However, orders are orders.”

“I…” I nearly let him have an earful, before I remembered O’Connor’s warnings about ‘accidents.’ Darn it, why does he have to have a point?

“Good morning, Captain,” said O’Connor as he came up behind us, stepping around a sailor as he tied down a rope to secure… well, I wasn’t quite sure what. The American had his laptop under one arm, and some printouts under the other. “Why did we stop? Did we find the wreck right away?”

“If we’re lucky, yes,” he replied. “This is the last known location of the Hercules, but who knows where it might have drifted to?” He nodded to the center of activity on the deck. “Ah well. That’s what the drones are for.”

I could finally tell what the crewmen had been setting up. One was an air drone with a tilt-wing setup, one of the Harasser class. The agile craft could float like a helicopter, or level out its propellers for high-speed travel. I recognized them from the news, though these had exchanged their weapons pods for high powered cameras and other sensors. The League probably wouldn’t let civilians have anything more heavy duty.

Another vehicle resembling a submarine was taking shape next to it as a half-dozen sailors assembled the parts from storage and made their last checks. It didn’t look like a combat design at all, though the metallic claws on the front could have probably done some damage. Both the Harasser and the submersible were too small to carry a person, so I assumed it would be remote controlled.

“That’s a lot of hardware,” I said, feeling impressed. “Those look like they’re pre-Horde, right?”

Captain Zhang nodded. “Yeah, that’s right about the Harasser. They don’t make them like that anymore.”

“Not since the Horde overran the plant in Texas. They’re the peak of American engineering,” said O’Connor with obvious pride. “Lousy primitive idiots. Thank God they couldn’t figure any of it out, or we might’ve been in more trouble.”

“Either way, those are on loan from the League,” said Zhang. “If I lose them, well, I had better go down with them.”

“No worries, Captain, that’s what we have Rose here for,” said O’Connor, clapping me on the back. “Are you ready for duty?”

“Yessir!” I said, snapping a salute. “Where do you want me?”

“That’s up to the Captain,” replied O’Connor. “He’s the one in command of this operation. If you need me, I’ll be in the comm room.”

“You will be?” I asked, worry creeping into my voice.

“This was all pretty impromptu,” O’Connor said. “I just have to hope the satellite uplink is good enough for me to get my regular work done.”

“Oh,” I said, deflating a little. At least I still had Zack backing me up. I turned to Captain Zhang, pasting a smile on my face. “Then I’m at your disposal, sir!”

Zack and I ended up at the ship’s bow with a set of binoculars and walkie-talkies.

“Stay here unless we call for you,” said the captain. “Let’s keep those eyes clear, if you please?” He didn’t wait for my response before jogging away.

Once he was out of earshot, I couldn’t help but sigh. “What do you bet he just wanted to get me away from his gear?”

“This is the higher ground,” Zack said. “We should have a better view from up here.”

“I don’t hear you disagreeing with me,” I replied.

“I’m not,” he said, lowering his binoculars. “I’m going to say something that I shouldn’t, because I think it’s just going to make you cross. I think you deserve to know. Zhang’s been trying to recruit me. ‘Our type’s got to stick together, when there’s magic about,’ he said. ‘I pay your salary with taxes, after all.’”

“Oh, he did, did he?”

“He’s an oaf, but let’s try to be a little fair, yeah? His whole ship’s riding on this. Heck, his life’s on the line. I don’t blame him for being paranoid, all things considered. Especially if he knows about some of the incidents you told me about.”

“Me either,” I said, once again hating that the sexist had a point. I hoped he didn’t have an inkling of some of my mishaps in Iceland or Japan. Zack only knew because I’d told him. “It would be nice to have somebody speak to me like I wasn’t about to explode all the time.”

“You’ve moved up from bad luck charm, at least,” he replied.

“Lucky me,” I said. “Well, it’s time to get to work.”

**************

The afternoon sun beat down on us, making me think that all the fuss and bother about tropical storms was overblown. If anything, they could have used a few extra clouds. We could see for kilometers all around us, not that there was much to see.

“My turn! I spy with my little eye something that starts with a ‘d,’” I said. We had resorted to the game after the first hour, since it wasn’t like there much else to do.

“A ‘d?’” Zack scanned the horizon, his mouth curled into a thoughtful frown. “I see some driftwood.”

“Nope, it’s better than that,” I said, turning back to my find. It was nice to see that something was having fun.

“Dolphins?”

“Yup!” A pod of them cavorted in the distance, in the shallows of one of the islands.

Zack came into view, looking a bit cross with me. “C’mon, Rose, play like you mean it! You keep picking obvious stuff.”

“I’m not playing to win,” I retorted. “I pick interesting things like dolphins, and you keep going for boring rubbish like kelp.”

“You’re just sore because I’m ahead,” he said, his expression shifting to a playful smirk.

I crossed my arms across my chest and stomped my foot. “You should be glad I’m playing with you and not against you! What if you’d missed the dolphins? Aren’t they adorable?”

“I guess,” he said. “I’ll take them as a good luck charm.”

“Is that a sailor thing?” I had a half memory of that being mentioned in a book I had read once.

He shook his head. “Nah, it’s a common sense thing. They wouldn’t be playing here if there were any meridraken around, yeah?”

“Good point,” I said. “Well, I guess it’s your—”

I was cut off by a squawk from my walkie-talkie. “Leftenan, come in. Leftenan bin Ibrahim, please report to the bridge. Bring Cadet Cooper with you. We found the Hercules!”

“… turn,” I said. “I guess that’s the end of our game.”

“Just as well, I was ahead,” he replied with a wink.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Zack was lucky he was cute; he enjoyed pushing my buttons a bit too much.