Seabound (Seabound Chronicles Book 1) (24 page)

“Pirates?” Dax’s
eyes were wide.

“Not like Robert
Louis Stevenson pirates, Dax,” said David. “I know what kind of books you read.
But not everyone responded to the new world order with as much altruism as
these
Catalina
folks.”

“Still, that’s
scary,” Dax said. “Why haven’t we heard about it?”

“Another thing the
captains have hushed up,” Marianna grumbled.

David nodded. “The
security detail operates out of the
Galaxy
Luxe
, but their
stockpile is always guarded.”

“Isn’t the
Luxe
the one that got damaged in the storm?” Neal asked. “Maybe we could sneak in
and pick up some spare ammunition while they’re doing repairs or something.”
His face was tight with worry.

David shook his
head. “If anything, it’d be more difficult because there will be more people
around and their schedule will be abnormal.”

“So how do we
hijack the ship, even if we do manage to line up an entire crew, without
weapons?” Esther said.

For the second
time that night, the door burst open. “What in the name of all that is holy is
going on in here?” Paris stepped into the tower.

Marianna
instinctively took a step away from Neal. “Paris! What are you doing here?”

“I can’t visit my
own wife’s workplace?” Paris surveyed the speechless group. “You look like a
right group of conspirators,” he said benignly. “Planning a mutiny, are we?”
Everyone looked around at each other, still shocked by his sudden entrance.
Paris cocked his head to the side. “It seems I’m onto something. What’s going
on?”

“We’re . . . we’re
. . .” Esther didn’t know what to say.

“Just making
friendly conversation, Paris. No need to worry about us,” David said smoothly.

Esther was amazed
at how quickly he could turn it on.

“I’m not an idiot,
Hawthorne,” Paris said pleasantly.

Esther stepped
forward, recovering her voice. Paris had helped her before, and they needed a
larger crew.

“We’re making a
plan to save the
Catalina
. The captains won’t help.”

“I can’t say I’m
surprised.” He sighed. “Well, what’s the plan, and how can I help?”

“We’re going to
hijack the
Lucinda
.”

The entire tower
shook with the sound of Paris’s laughter.

Chapter 23—The Crew

Paris, it turned out,
had
a better sense of who might be dissatisfied with life on the
Galaxy Flotilla
than Dax. He was in contact with the artists and the free spirits of the
Flotilla
, the people who weren’t afraid
to question the status quo. More importantly, he was also in touch with the
people who were suffering the worst under the current regime. The workers out
on the cargo ships had been getting the short end of the stick for too long. He
agreed to get the word out to a select group and arrange a meeting.

Surprisingly, Adele
from Guest Services was the leader of the disgruntled Galaxian contingent. Like
David, she’d spent too much time extolling the virtues of the
Flotilla
. She knew the full extent of
the illusion.

It made Esther
nervous to notify all of these people about what they were up to. She didn’t
know them or why they might care about her mission. She still didn’t know if it
would work. The plan had become very big very quickly. She worried that she was
missing some key element. She talked through the steps with the others,
focusing on the practical issues, and forced down her doubts. David was all
business, giving no further hints about why he had decided to help them. They
worked late into the night, and Esther slept on the cot in the satellite center
beside a pile of
Flotilla
maps.

The group met in
the
Mist
’s theater the morning after the rendezvous. By now the injured
had moved back to their own cabins or to the medical facility on the
Crystal
. Esther stood at the front of
the theater, favoring her good foot. The conspirators trickled in. Their eyes
darted around the room as they entered. Without fail, each person looked back
at the double doors at least once.

Adele arrived
first, gliding down the aisle with her blond hair rippling like sunlight. She
smiled serenely at Esther as she took her seat. A middle-aged woman wearing a
uniform of checkered pants, a yellowing white top, and an apron followed. Dax
only managed to bring two friends: Connor from the
Crown
restaurant, and a chubby boy named Raymond. All three were
young and enthusiastic, but Esther suspected they didn’t know much about
seafaring.

Marianna came in
alone, her eyes puffy and red. Neal wasn’t far behind, but he sat down on the
opposite side of the theater, ignoring the people around him. Neither one
looked like they had slept. Neal caught Esther’s eye and shook his head. It
seemed Marianna would be staying with the
Flotilla
.

Byron the water
taxi driver strode in next, pulling his cap off as he entered. Half a dozen
crewmen from the oil tankers followed, rough men with dirty fingernails and
muscular shoulders. One, whose dark skin stretched tight over heavy-looking
biceps, sat down near willowy Adele. She nodded at him. Esther realized it was
the man who’d caught her sneaking around on the oil tanker. So this was why he
hadn’t turned her in. He wanted out too.

The majority of
the attendees were men, until four younger women arrived in a pack. The women
marched straight to the second row and immediately struck up a conversation
with Esther. The ringleader was Zoe, the protester from the gardening ship. She
had a greenish bruise under her eye and a flaky scab from a split lip.

“We were going to
join the
Amsterdam Coalition
,” Zoe
told her, a glint in her eye. “But Adele said there was something better in the
works. We’ve had it with the injustice of the
Galaxy
.”

The handle of a
knife was visible in Zoe’s waistband, and she kept reaching down to thumb it,
as if she wasn’t sure it would still be there. She had a bright purple scarf
over her straw-blond hair and wore a matching purple tunic.

Zoe introduced her
friends: two sisters, Eva and Anita, with close-cropped brown hair and pale
faces, and a lanky black girl named Toni. Toni had been part of the greenhouse
incident, as had one of the sisters, though Esther wasn’t sure which one. She
asked them why they were here.

“I’m tired of
everyone pretending we’re on vacation,” Toni said. Her brown eyes flitted
around the dinner theater. “It’s so fake.”

“I want to be able
to change things,” Anita said quietly, “and change them for the better.”

“No one listens to
us around here,” Eva said.

Anita nodded in
agreement, picking at the seat in front of her with small, pale fingers.

“I can’t promise
they’ll always listen on the
Catalina
,”
Esther said, “but they won’t lie to you.”

Zoe shrugged and
pulled her purple scarf tighter. “Fair enough. Anything to get out of this
circus.”

“What happened to
you after that thing on the greenhouse?” Esther asked.

Zoe laughed. “Have
you seen my bruise?” She gestured proudly to her eye. “That was great. We’ve
been waiting for a tour group to come through. We want people to see what the
Flotilla
is really like. Just because
they like to show off their vegetable gardens, doesn’t mean we actually get to
eat any.”

“But the guide
said—”

“The guides say
all kinds of things,” Toni said. “I used to be one. I told a group from another
ship that the vegetables are too expensive for normal people, and the captains
reserve the best of everything for themselves and their cronies. Next thing you
know, I’m working in the greenhouse with these gals.”

“So you got
fired?” Esther asked.

“Fired and fined,
yeah,” Toni said. “Now I couldn’t afford to leave even if I did think they’d
actually give up oil for chips.”

“So did you all
get fired after the greenhouse then?” Esther asked. “Or demoted? What’s the
next level down?”

Zoe chuckled.
“Nah, they brought out the big guns. Dropped me in the locker for a few days so
I could ‘cool down,’ they said.”

Esther nodded, the
pieces coming together. “So the locker is some sort of jail? Is it on one of
the oil tankers, by any chance?”

“Yeah, you’re
catching on,” Zoe said. “The entrance is in the deckhouse, but the locker is
actually one of the empty tanks in the hull. I still smell like oil.” She
sounded proud.

Eva spoke up, her
voice worried. “We’ve pushed them too far. There have been a few real
disappearances. Not too many, but enough to have us worried.”

Her sister nodded
solemnly.

Zoe grinned.
“They’re right. When we heard about this meeting, we figured it was as good a
time as any to make our break.”

For someone who’d
recently spent several days in an empty oil tank, Zoe seemed remarkably
nonchalant. All four of the women displayed the attitude Esther had just a few
months ago: the desire for something different, the thirst to prove themselves.
Now all Esther wanted was to get home. She wondered if they would feel the same
way after they left the
Galaxy
behind.

She looked around
the room, counting twenty-one people in addition to her and Neal. All had put
themselves in danger to be here. She probably didn’t know the extent of what
they had experienced on the
Galaxy
to
drive them to this decision. Some, like Zoe, must have reached a breaking
point. She hoped their plan would work.

Paris took to the
stage and coughed delicately. He smiled at the assembly. “Greetings, one and
all. Thank you for gathering here on this fine morning. We are plotting an
operation that could put each of you at great risk. If we fail, you could be in
desperate trouble with the captains.” He paused. “If we succeed, it is unlikely
you will ever see your friends and family on the
Galaxy Flotilla
again.
If you are not prepared to take that risk, then I implore you to leave now and
forget you ever attended this meeting. I won’t be offended.”

He winked, but it
was an exaggerated gesture, a bit too dramatic. Esther realized he was nervous.
Paris had decided to stay with the
Galaxy
. He’d told Esther it was where
he belonged. It struck her that Paris was taking the biggest risk of all of
them by staying behind.

She looked around
the theater, weighing the reactions on people’s faces. Zoe and Toni were more
determined than ever. The two sisters still looked worried. Byron tugged absently
at the edges of his beard. Dax’s friend Connor looked green in the face, but he
remained seated.

Paris spoke again,
voice ringing across the theater: “The
Catalina
, a stranger ship that
has been in our company for a few weeks, is lost at sea. Their water system is
damaged. There are a thousand people on board who will suffer a slow death by
dehydration if we do not come to their rescue. Our mission is to commandeer one
of the smaller vessels, a ship that is not vital to the survival of any of our
friends here in the
Flotilla
, in
order to bring help to this distressed community.”

Dax’s friend
Raymond raised his hand. “Excuse me, sir. What do you mean, commandeer?”

Paris smiled. “We
shall steal it. You’ve all contributed a lot to the
Galaxy
over the years and received precious little in return, but
now you can make a clean break. If we do this properly, you will be free from
the
Galaxy
with a ship of your own
and new allies on the
Catalina
. Now,
David Hawthorne is here to fill us in on some of the details.”

There was a stir
in the crowd as David took the stage. The oil workers grumbled, and Toni
whispered something to Zoe.

David still wore
his crisp black shirt from the night before. His handsome face was calm as he
addressed the group. “Good morning. We’ve learned that later this
afternoon—”

“Hold on a
minute,” the muscular crewman from the oil tanker said, getting to his feet.
“What the fuck is he doing here? We’ve had to listen to his lies for years. Now
we’re supposed to believe he’s one of us?”

“Dirk is right.
He’ll just go to the captains to report on us!” someone called from the back
row.

Other voices rose
around the theater.

“Paris, you
promised us this meeting would be safe.”

“Captain-sympathizing
scum.”

“Shut up,
everyone,” Byron shouted. “We’re all taking a risk being here, and we knew it
before we came. Let’s at least listen to what he has to say.”

David nodded in
thanks. He abandoned his usual speech-giving posture and sat down at the edge
of the stage, rolling up his sleeves.

“You’re right,” he
said. “I’ve been the voice of the captains for a few years now. I repeat their
words, but I don’t necessarily agree with all of them. For all their talk of a
new civilization and a more hopeful future, they just want people to work for
them and build up this city for their own benefit.” There were a few nods in
the crowd, but most faces remained impassive. He would have to give them more.
David continued: “I know you have no reason to trust me, so I’m going to tell
you something I heard the captains discussing in private recently. If they find
out I told you, I will be in worse trouble than you for being here. So you’ll
have my secret and I’ll have yours. Deal?”

One by one, the
people around the auditorium nodded. David looked each one in the eye, waiting
until even Dirk the oilman nodded and sat down. Finally, he looked straight at
Esther and continued: “For the last six months, the captains have been receiving
transmissions from land.” The word “land” sent a mutter through the assembly.
It was like a talisman. “Apparently, the weather has stabilized enough that
survivors are growing crops. It isn’t much, but there’s talk of rebuilding.
There’s even evidence that the people who survived on land are more numerous than
we first believed. The captains ordered the communications teams to keep the
reports quiet, ostensibly so that everyone doesn’t get their hopes up too soon.
In truth, they don’t want a mass return to land. They are in control here.
There’s no way to guarantee their power if everyone moves home. The captains
want to keep us in the dark, to maintain the status quo, even though there’s a
chance we could start over.” David’s voice took on a touch of the orator again.
“It’s a scary prospect, moving to land, but everyone should be able to make
that decision for themselves. People deserve the truth.” He waited a few
heartbeats. “Oh, and Eugene is the secret head of the captains’ informants, so
watch out for him.”

This time the
rumbling in the crowd lasted longer. This was real news: actual communication
with land, not just rumors and wishes. Byron twisted his cap in his hands like
he was trying to wring salt water from it. Adele’s face was perfectly still.
The four young women put their heads together, Zoe speaking in a rapid whisper.
Toni was nodding. Eva and Anita, the two sisters, exchanged glances and seemed
to come to a silent agreement.

Esther’s head
buzzed like an electrical storm. Messages from land! More people than they
thought had survived. This was game-changing news. If the weather had recovered
enough for farming, they could seriously talk about leaving the sea. Their
ships wouldn’t last forever. On land, everything would change.

David allowed the
conversations to work themselves out. He looked over at Esther again. Finally,
she smiled at him.