The Most Dangerous Mission
Chapter 3: Taking Fire
Rico couldn't sleep. He woke up and could not return to the blissful slumber he once had, and felt an aching loneliness. He rolled over and changed positions constantly, but he getting rid of this feeling was impossible.
Rico looked at Kowalski's bunk above his, knowing that he would not hear Kowalski naming square roots in his sleep anymore.
Rico was not like the others. He didn't understand these things like they did. He did not think why Kowalski was gone. All he knew was that he was gone, and probably would be for a long time. He was confused.
Why didn't Skipper care? Kowalski had been Skipper's right-hand man for as long as Rico could remember, and he acted like he didn't care. In Rico's mind, they were like brothers and emotions could not stand in the way of what was really happening. So what. Skipper shouldn't have stormed away like that despite of Kowalski's decision.
It was so confusing.
Rico hated the silence because Kowalski wasn't there to fill it. He climbed up there and snuggled in the neat and tidy sheets that Kowalski always took pride in keeping folded. It was no surprise that he did this before he left to take on the world.
With a whimper of loneliness, he settled to sleep, thinking of square roots. Kowalski always counted to eleven before stopping.
"Progress report."
Marlene hurried across the deck to Skipper. "We are about thirty degrees in navigation."
"Right. We are on course then." Skipper pulled the lever by the steering wheel that would lock it into place. For now the ship was sailing perfectly against the gentle sea and he could leave it for awhile to rest.
Skipper, Rico, and Marlene were on a scouting mission in the sea around their base, clearing the waters of any intruders that would invade the waters. Unusually, there was a disturbance on the radar that brought the team out to investigate. It was probably nothing. In fact, it almost always was nothing, but they were not called an elite force for nothing.
It was about 0:900 in the A.M. Skipper looked out over the bow of his naval ship tirelessly, oblivious to the fact that he had been up for many hours now.
The ship was one he had borrowed from another base in Peru. The commander knew him very well, and was glad to loan him a ship for his mission to camp in the highlands of the Himalayas. It was a navy vessel, made of a rough steel, and had heavy artillery onboard that Skipper had to watch and make sure Rico didn't touch.
Dynamite sticks and smoke bombs were a different story than a torpedo or cannon.
Marlene resumed command for now. Skipper trusted her with that responsibility. From here the Himalayas looked really amazing, and kind of reminded him of his voyage to the Andes awhile back. (Pay no attention readers: Cosmo, does that ring any bells?)
All looked sound for now. Skipper listened closely and heard something. It was just a tiny little sound, but it was enough to make Skipper turn around and become more aware of things.
The attack could have caught anyone else by surprise, but Skipper was prepared. Skipper rolled away when Rico leaped out, and flipped back to his feet. Rico tried small jabs, but Skipper dodged and shoved Rico away.
Skipper felt exhilarated. That was just the kind of workout he needed. "Nice work, Rico. Nicely planned."
He beamed under the praise, and Skipper couldn't help but think of Kowalski. They used to do that together all the time.
Marlene rushed out on the deck. "Skipper, come quickly. Something is beeping, and I can't find the problem."
Beeping. That sounded bad.
Skipper tobogganed down the deck with Rico following closely behind. The control room was beeping disturbingly, and he looked around at all the high-tech controls. It could be any of these.
"Start looking for anything unusual," he ordered and his eyes passed over all the buttons, monitors, and other surplus. Then he saw it was the radar.
The green screen was blinking, and Skipper saw a brighter green dot moving across the screen, heading right for his ship.
"Something is coming toward the ship," Marlene concluded. "What is it?"
Another dot was coming up along the side, both of them centering around the ship. They were traveling in straight lines, and moved rather quickly.
"Torpedo! Take cover! Don't let them follow us!" Skipper threw himself at the steering wheel and the ship lurched around at an alarmingly fast rate, and he had to hang onto the wheel for dear life.
"Torpedo? Now?" Marlene stuttered. "They are still coming!"
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"I don't know. You are the Captain," she insisted. She dashed to the controls and started attacking the buttons and pulling all the levers like mad with no idea on what each of them did.
Rico knew Marlene and Skipper were busy, but something else came up on the radar that was disturbing. Making urgent whining noises, he tapped the screen repeatedly, trying to get someone's attention.
"Not now. We are busy!" Skipper snarled.
Rico only panicked more urgently.
"CLAM IT, SOLDIER!"
"No wait, Skipper. There is something on the radar," Marlene confirmed. "We are on a collision course."
Collision course? There isn't another base for miles! Skipper pulled down the periscope and had a look around at the waters surrounding the ship through magnification.
Right in the way was an enormous boulder jutting out of the water. It probably had the countless tales of shipwreck all over it, and they would be next.
"Right! Turn right!" Skipper shouted.
Rico looked at the torpedo images unsurely. Wasn't that suicide? "Uh uh. Left!"
"We don't have time for this." Marlene shoved Skipper aside and turned the ship left as hard as she could in hopes of dodging both the torpedoes and the boulder mountain that rose out of the water.
Then the three of them rushed out to the deck to survey the results of their actions. The ship grazed by the boulder at an alarming speed, but missed it by a few feet, and they went past it safely. Skipper then saw the dark shadows of torpedoes cutting through the water.
"Hit the deck!" Marlene commanded, obviously seeing them too.
Too late for that.
The huge boulder exploded into a million pieces right before their eyes. The explosion was red, orange, blue, and white all rolled into one, and the relentless plumes of smoke rose to the sky. The boom was so loud that it made his ears rattle, and the world felt like it was moving in slow motion now.
Rico watched it with wonder, clearly enjoying every moment of it while Skipper and Marlene were cowering with terror from the near range of the explosion. Small pebbles from the boulder rained onto the deck, and a black cloud of smoke enveloped the ship for a few minutes before clearing.
"Is it over?" Marlene stood up shakily. Her brown eyes betrayed the shock she felt.
This wasn't the first explosion Skipper had witnessed, and it would not be his last. "There are still waters. I think we are safe."
"What was that? Who sent torpedoes out to get us? That seems a little harsh. That boulder could have been us."
The team had been so close to death at that moment, and didn't even know it.
"We had better leave these waters before another one of those comes to destroy us. Still, I don't think we are finished here. That torpedo had to come from somewhere."
"I think there is something wrong with the ship," Marlene concluded.
The last thing they needed was another problem. "How can you tell?" Skipper asked. "Is this a manifestly unsafe voyage?"
"No, not that. There are bubbles coming up from the water. I think some scrap metal tore a hole in the hull."
"Ugh. We will need to check that out. Rico, where is the map of this vessel?"
He coughed it up and unraveled it, revealing a blueprint of the whole ship. Every room and pipeline was on that map.
How was Skipper supposed to know what anything was? That was why Kowalski was around. Oh yeah. No Kowalski. He would have to manage it himself.
"It looks small. We are just going to have to take it back to the base. We can fix it there. Looks like whoever is hiding from us is getting away this time, but I don't give in that easily."
