Chapter 6 #2
I’ve recovered from my sprint by the time he meets me. He looks no worse for the wear. His hair is neat and his suit makes him look like he’s just arrived from a nice dinner. “You’re not with Mr. Bennett?” I ask, trying not to be overly suspicious.
“My mission is tied to Lillian as much as it is to him,” he states firmly.
I make my best attempt to ignore the comment and stride toward a sign pointing down a new hallway. I can practically feel each tick of the clock, not only on Lillian’s abduction but also on the ship’s life. “I assume you ran into Ms. Williams?” I ask, keeping my focus forward on the hallway ahead.
“This way,” he states, steering me down another walkway without cabin doors.
“Ms. Williams was still gathering her things when I reached her in her cabin. She told me the same information she told you I expect.” He pauses before filling in the rest of the blanks.
“After I saw her to safety, a steward was kind enough to give me directions. I suppose he thought I was off to procure things for my client or to rob the ship blind.” James shrugs before peering down another hallway. “It should be behind that door there.”
I chuckle, recalling my own experience with a skittish steward in the halls. “Well, I am glad you are here. I have no idea how many we are dealing with. They were able to take both Lillian and Diederick, so I assume multiple assailants.”
“Shall I cover you?” James asks, confidently taking strides toward the door.
“I should like to go first,” I answer, checking that my gun’s loaded for the fourth time. “I need to see her.”
With a confirming nod, James posts up against the door.
One arm on the handle, the other holding his pistol up against his ear.
In this moment there is a distinct switch in him.
His hands are steady and his cocky smirk slinks away to reveal a clenched jaw.
Though I have little choice to trust him now, I do find that I have complete faith in him getting all of us through the situation.
James pushes open the door to allow me a step inside.
The room is revealed to us the moment we step across the threshold.
We’re high above the cargo, on a metal grated catwalk that is welded into the wall.
Though much of the space is filled with equipment and boxes that will soon shift with the weight of the ship being dragged under.
Feeling the weight of time, I strengthen my grip on the gun and swiftly glide over the walkway.
It’s not long until we stumble upon our first victim.
Shot dead, a man slumps near a bulkhead door, as if he were reaching for escape.
Another lies face-first on the grate, his blood dripping down into the shallow water below.
I glance over at James, who has come up behind me, when I see the water below. “We have time,” he states blankly, as if he’s seen this very thing before. After checking both men for any sign of life, James moves to the railing and scans the room. The lights flicker and then everything goes dark.
My eyes take a moment to adjust, but not before a flicker casts a shadow on the floor.
Whispers that could easily be the rushing water reach my ears.
James confirms my suspicions and signals us to move forward.
As we quietly descend the closest ladder down on the floor, we jump into ankle-high water that pierces my skin the moment it seeps through my boots.
“You’ve blown the damn thing too soon,” a man says in German. “You should have told the damn fools to wait. They’re not even awake yet, and we are running out of time.”
Another voice: “The ship has life to it yet. We have another hour at least.”
A third voice: “We had to knock her out. She was being much too loud. She would have given us away at some point along the way.”
My heart lurches knowing that Lillian fought them and that she would have fought them the entire way down.
The first voice speaks again. “We’ll just have to wake her now, won’t we.”
There’s muffled yelling, which I can only imagine is Diederick, and then a sharp slap that echoes throughout the chamber.
I take a forceful step forward, but James stops me by putting a firm arm across my chest. He waves two fingers toward me and then to the left and then points at himself and waves in the opposite direction. “Wait for my signal,” he whispers before disappearing into the shadows.
I’ve never been one to take orders without question, but Lillian’s life is at stake and James has taken charge without emotion. I need to cling to that if we are all to make it out.
With a deep breath and newfound center, I silently make my way around the stack of crates to see if I might find a vantage point to see the extent of our opposition.
What I see has my blood boiling red hot.
It takes every effort not to shoot the man towering over Lillian’s limp body.
Her head is slumped over; a bloodied gash cuts across her cheek where I assume the man had slapped her seconds earlier.
She’s still unconscious. Beside her, Diederick watches on with wild eyes and a heaving chest.
Diederick fights against his restraints with everything he has when the man pushes Lillian’s head up and slaps her again. This time a slight whimper escapes her gagged lips. I pull the hammer back on my gun and raise it.
Where’s the damn signal, James?
As Lillian stirs, the tallest man among them moves on to Diederick. “We don’t have time for this! The traitor didn’t give us much, but maybe he knows something she does. Only one of them is walking away from this.”
Diederick’s eyes bounce from one man to the other as his fingers clamp around the arms of his chair. The man who had been watching him the entire time pulls the gag from his mouth. “Speak, Frau Koch. Tell us where the keys are!”
“Oh, are they not in my pocket?” Diederick speaks in his native tongue.
He gets a fierce slap across the face that rivals the one just given to Lillian. I ache at the kind man’s treatment, but he’s taken the heat off Lillian. I will never be able to repay him for it.
“They were not in the girl’s trunk where we were told they would be.”
“They will be at the bottom of the ocean before too long because of you!” Diederick spits. “You have lost. What will the dear Reich Chancellor say when he hears you have failed before you’ve even begun?”
This time, a gun is drawn and placed against his temple.
“I am done playing cat and mouse with you, Diederick. You abandoned your homeland and your family years ago, and we will soon be doing it to you.” The gun relaxes then.
“Perhaps it is time to tell your dear Helen the truth?” Diederick squirms and my heart breaks.
Diederick’s wife and daughter were eternally living under the impression that he had died for his country and would never return for them.
It’s the only reason he’s fought this long in secret. But now that secret is out.
“No, Mr. Koch, no, you will not be getting a quick death, not from me. You will go to the bottom of the ocean alongside your precious trinkets. We will take the girl with us, and then we will see what becomes of your family.”
“Helen knows the truth,” Diederick says. It’s a bluff, but it does the trick. The conversation about his family is immediately glossed over.
“Which truth? That of your abandonment of our cause, or the necklace you gave up? Or perhaps the biggest truth of them all: that the girl here with us is the true key to all of this madness? So many secrets, Mr. Koch. Tell me, how do you keep track?”
Diederick does his best not to let the truth show, but his protective eyes slip. The moment his gaze darts to Lillian is the moment he’s lost the upper hand. “I’ve seen what I needed to see. Put Ms. Bach back under and let’s surface.”
Before anyone can act, a gunshot rings out and the man off to the side of the group falls like a stone to the floor. The bloodied water splashes, drenching Lillian’s gown. Her eyes jolt open as another gunshot rings out.
Return fire.
Understanding that the first shot had been James’s signal, I spring into motion. Firing from the shadows, I bury a shot into the back of the man standing over Diederick. He shuffles forward before his knees buckle.
We’ve already dispatched two of the three men. The hulking man who did all the talking has squatted behind Diederick, putting an arm around his throat; he barks at us to stop. James emerges from the smoke of his own weapon, and I slowly do the same.
Knowing James has his gun pinned on our final obstacle, my attention turns to Lillian. Tears glisten on her cheeks, glowing in the light of the only lantern propped between boxes nearby.
“Stop moving!” the German demands.