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Originally my plan had been for Coop to scuttle the whole ship once the Ozma Emerald was up. But since I was here and could do it, blowing just the deep freeze would have much less impact on the local marine life.
The waterflow shifted around me again. I scanned with my flashlight, catching the shark disappearing along the opposite side of the galley island. Without waiting for her to round the bend seeking me out, I wrenched the crowbar to pry the door to the deep freeze open wider. I wasn’t able to budge it far and had to stay braced to hold it beyond the width of the crowbar itself. More water seeped in through the narrow breach as I kept prying. Fill. Damnit! I struggled against the crowbar, breathing too hard between exertion and panic. My focus held on the shark as she rounded the corner. Shit.
The door jumped open, the sudden give knocked my grip loose and sending me scrambling to grab the dislodged crowbar from the floor. The shark spotted my erratic movements, heard the clang of the metal, and smelled blood in the water. I didn’t have time to hit my comms and call anyone to my aid. I barely had time to crab crawl backward into the now-flooded deep freeze. Hooking the door with the crowbar, I pulled it shut.
Catching my breath, I waited. Safe. For now. How long I’d have to wait, I had no idea. I’d started to call in for the calvary, when something brushed against my now-bare ankle.
My heart skittered. I bit down on the mouthpiece to keep the scream I so badly wanted to make at bay. Nothing living could possibly be in the deep freeze all these years. Only ghosts come back to haunt me.
“I’m not sorry! I didn’t do anything wrong. This wasn’t my fault.”
“Wasn’t it?” Jadd mocked. “You were playing with my gun and accidently shot your father.”
“I didn’t kill Baba.”
“Don’t worry, child. You will be forgiven.”
I leveled the pistol at him. “I won’t need it.”
He laughed. “Who is going to believe you? Your prints are on the gun. You’re a child. No one in the world will believe your lies, little girl.”
When I still hadn’t budged, Jadd moved to grab me. I fired.
Keeping hold of the door, I turned and my flashlight lit up the mummified body of the man I’d murdered, Omar Zaki.
You’d be surprised,I mentally communed with his spirit. Seems the whole world believed this little girl’s lies after all.
All but one person. Coop knew the truth of who I really was and loved me anyway. Still, I had to make sure the rest of the world kept believing the illusion that I was dead and Zaki was alive. The stability of Beryl Enterprises depended on it.
There was also the very real issue of Zaki’s brothers and their extensive lineage, who would try to take away everything I’d built and worked so hard for. People who wouldn’t value and protect the technology we’d created nor the data we’d mined. People who would sell it to the highest bidder. The repercussions of which would be disastrous, personally and globally.
Which was why I did my best to ignore the very creepy DNA evidence clawing at me as I secured the explosive charge.
Coop
I’d reached my limit of patience. Not that I had much to begin with. My head was throbbing, I was tired, hungry…and for fuck’s sake, what was Zee doing down here? Putting herself at risk for who knows what? A lost teddy bear? More emeralds? Playing petting zoo with yet another jagged-toothed people-eater? For my own sanity and focus, I needed her back on the yacht, safe and sound.
It was taking everything I had to concentrate on the job at hand and not swim down into the wreckage to fish her out.
Nik cut off his torch and signaled that he was ready to set the charges. I pressed my comms button.
“Hey, Presh, gonna need you to wrap up whatever you’ve got going on. We’re about to detach from the bow. It’s going to make the rest of this rust bucket very unstable. How ya lookin’?”
“Still having trouble with the locals. I…um…I’ve been holding out in the deep freeze. Just a sec, I’ll take a peek.”
After a few seconds Zee came back on, “Yeah, shark’s still here. And um…I think she’s feeding on…something. I don’t think I can get past her without help.”
She sounded more spooked than before. “Hang tight, we’re on our way.”
I signaled Nik and he nodded, then followed as I swam to the bridge and slipped through the busted-out windows. Between our head lamps and flashlights we were able to see our way through the ship. She’d told us her position inside, so I knew we had to go down the midship stairwell to the second deck. I slowed at the base of the stairs to clear the main room, and spotted the glow of Zee’s flashlight as she waited in the opening to the galley.
She waggled her flashlight, flagging me to follow it as she silently guided my attention. The glow traveled the room, coming to abrupt stop. Jesus, fuck…is that a floating arm? Then she lit the way farther, to the detached midsection of a man. Captain Tom!
He’d never left the Zamarad. Which meant…what? He’d been murdered and disposed of?
I scanned back to Zee. She put her finger up to her mouthpiece and shook her head, then pointed up, indicating Kai could hear all our transmissions. Did she suspect him of being a part of this? Shit. Everyone on the ship could be a potential suspect.
Over the comms her voice was steady and calm, belaying the fear I easily read in her wide eyes. “She just circled past the stairwell. Problem is, I’ve got a cut on my hand. I can’t swim and keep pressure on it.”
