Chapter 38
THIRTY-EIGHT
EDDIE
“How is my ship, Ollie?”
On the bodycam, Ollie backed away from someone he had been talking to. “We cleared out the bodies and checked the systems. They have some damage but could be repaired in dry dock.” Ollie sounded like he’d recovered from the earlier attack.
“Do not worry about that, the ship is not going anywhere.”
“What do you mean by that, Captain?”
“I need one of your team to remain in Engineering. Send everyone else to the nearest lifeboat.”
“Eddie, what’s going on?”
“The self-destruct requires someone on Bridge and someone in Engineering."
There was a pause.
“Do you need someone technical?”
Eddie shook his head, though Ollie couldn’t see it. “No.”
“Then I’ll stay. I can have my guys off the ship in 30 minutes.”
Eddie sighed in relief. He knew he could trust Ollie, but he hadn’t wanted to ask the man to stay behind when his partner had already evacuated. He also didn’t want to continue putting Jett’s closest friends in danger. “Okay, thank you. I will be in contact when it is time.”
Eddie hung up and excused himself from the Control Room for a moment. He needed space and quiet. He wanted a chance to breathe, to think without people staring at him, without constant pings, without the noise.
The image from the vision lingered, taunted him with its familiarity.
Eddie paced up and down the long window while he thought, trying to pinpoint exactly what the visions had shown him.
He knew the place, but couldn’t recall when he’d been there last, what he’d done there, or any further details.
Caine kept close by, and in the distance several other Security Officers waited at their appointed posts.
Things were quickly coming to their climax and soon Eddie would send his crew to their lifeboat, black box in hand. The Security Officers would escort them, to ensure that they and the data would safely evacuate.
But Eddie wasn’t going to be on that lifeboat. There were still things that he needed to do, to see.
He paced, up and down, up and down, mulling over a plan in his head. As he passed Cosma once more, he stopped.
“Cosma, I am going to ask you to do something very stupid. And it will be going directly against Jett’s orders to protect me.” He turned and watched her.
Cosma tensed and her eyes narrowed. “What exactly do you want me to do?”
“Once I am done setting the self-destruct, I am going down to District 3.”
She just stared at him, clenched the rifle in her hands a little tighter. “I can’t let you do that. Jett would eviscerate me if I did.”
Eddie laughed. “I know what he’d do. I need you to come with me to protect me. I’m worthless with a weapon, as Jett likes to remind me.”
She relaxed a little, sighed out the breath she held. “Why?”
Eddie turned away from her, looked at the wall. “The visions are more detailed than ever before. I do not always see the specifics, but I know them. I know things that the visions do not show me. And I need to verify how accurate they are.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I do not think that anyone would understand, not even Jett. But he would accompany me.”
A scoff broke the silence between them. “He would hogtie you and put you on a lifeboat before he let you go down there.”
Eddie turned back around. She was relaxed again, a smile on her face. “That is probably more accurate. But I could talk him into it.” He could usually talk Jett into the things he wanted to do. It was harder for Jett to talk Eddie into doing something.
Cosma nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on you, but the moment it gets dangerous, I’ll bash you over that dense head and drag you off the ship.”
Eddie shook his head. “Not without Jett. That is the other reason I need to go down there. I will not lose him again. And…” He waved a hand in the air. “I have a feeling that Captain Ro-nold is still down there, waiting to be found.”
It wasn’t a particularly good feeling, but it had been present since Augustus had disappeared. That knowledge that he was somewhere had picked at Eddie, taunted him. He needed to know before he destroyed the Neo-Tokyo.
He nodded to the door. “Let us return to the Bridge. We have much to do still.”