Chapter 10

Arriving in the circuitry room, Lee gave Marty a nod of acknowledgement then moved to the engine and reactor panels to begin his repairs. Griggs walked over to the other guard and they began chatting, not particularly paying attention to what their charges were doing.

After a few minutes Landeau called out to Lee. "Hey Sherman, can you come over here and give me a hand for a moment?"

Lee looked from Landeau to Griggs and got a confirming nod. "Sure, be right there."

"I've not had much experience with these panels before. Take a look and see if this looks right," Marty said loud enough for the guards to hear.

Lee moved next to him and began scrutinizing the control panel before him. After a few minute's study he began shaking his head. "No, that's not right. See these circuits here, you need to reroute this over to this panel. Whoever wired this must have been smoking something and not sharing. Hand me the pliers and some of that wire, and I'll fix it for you."

Marty quickly passed him what he asked for and the guards momentarily looked up as Lee started to work, then quickly dismissed him and went back to their conversation. Lee rapidly set up the bypass and showed Marty what he needed to do at the appointed time. Landeau nodded his understanding.

"Thanks, Dave. That seems to have done the trick."

Lee smiled and returned to his panels. He pulled out and replaced a couple of circuit boards to make it look as though he was actually repairing something then closed the doors. "I'm done here," he announced. "Now I need to go back to engineering and see if that fixed the problem."

Griggs nodded then jerked his head in the direction of the door indicating Lee should lead the way out. Lee moved quickly out the door and made his way back to the engine room. Upon entering he walked over to the engine control panel and undid his previous hack returning engine operations back to normal.

(olooo)

It was nearly 1300 by the time Ned made it to engineering to check on his last patient. He nodded to Lee as he entered indicating everything was a go then walked directly over to Polanski. "He regain consciousness yet?"

"Nope," Lee replied. "He's been out the entire time I've been here. I checked him over briefly when I came in, he has a strong pulse and seems to be breathing okay. He really must have clocked himself hard to be out this long."

Ned completed his examination of Polanski, breathing through his mouth the entire time to avoid the smell. "His left pupil is still dilated a bit, but other than that all his vitals are fine. He should be conscious by now; I don't know what's keeping him down." Ned put his gear away and moved over to Lee. "How the hell do you stand the smell? I'm fighting a constant battle to keep from gagging and tossing my cookies all over the floor."

Lee laughed quietly. "Believe it or not I've smelled worse. Is there anything you need me to watch on him?"

"No. I don't have the equipment or drugs to do anything else. Just make sure he's breathing okay. Why do you care anyway?"

"I still don't know how he fits into this crew. I don't know if he's a conscript or a volunteer, and I won't write him off until I have a better idea what his status is," Lee explained. "Face it, he needs no guard because he would have a hard time moving through the boat, and he's equally reviled by everyone on board so there aren't many clues to his position either way. I also have a hard time believing he's really that inept as an engineer the more I get into these systems."

"Whatever," Ned responded. "Everything's good to go. During my rounds I checked on the late watch and they're down for the count. There were a couple that seemed to not be out as much as we'd like so I gave them a little something extra."

Lee smiled and patted him on the back. "Way to go."

"So what do you want me to do now?"

"Can you hang around the mess without drawing too much attention?" Lee asked.

"Yeah I think so, why?"

"You can help Peterson out once the next watch starts dropping. Assist anyone along that needs a little help going to sleep before they can raise the alarm." Lee quickly looked up at the clock on the wall. "We're a little more than hour till show time. I'll get on my way in another 30. Marty's all set up in the circuitry room so be ready for the shift at 1440."

"I'm sure I can come up with a reason to be in the galley; treating someone for burns or something. Good luck, Dave."

Lee smiled in response. "Good luck to us all. Now get going."

(olooo)

It had been nearly 20 minutes since Ned had left and Lee prepared to make good his escape from the engine room. He quickly checked over Polanski to make sure he was still breathing then grabbed the chair next to him, took it over to the air vent and placed it underneath. He climbed up on the chair and then began prying off the cover.

"What the hell are you doing?" Griggs called out having decided to check on Sherman. Lee heard Griggs pull back the slide on his automatic chambering a round. "All right, get down from there nice and slow or I'll plug you where you stand." Griggs ordered.

Lee swore mentally, not believing they had everything set to go only to have it all come crumbling down because Griggs got a wild hair up his ass to actually check on his charges for a change. He slowly lowered his hands and began backing down from the chair. As he did he heard what sounded like a hard slap, a grunt, and then a body hitting the deck.

Lee quickly spun around as soon as he hit the floor to find Polanski breathing heavily, standing over the downed guard with a large wrench in his hand. He looked at the engineer curiously for a moment. "Thanks," he finally said overcoming the shock.

"No problem. Help me tape him up then you can get on with what you're doing," Polanski wheezed. Lee galvanized into action and quickly secured the guard with copious wraps of duct tape. Once done Lee looked up at Polanski, the many questions crossing his mind were apparently quite evident on his face. "I've been awake since almost the beginning. I've heard everything you've said, what you have planned, and I want off this frickin' boat," Polanski replied to the unvoiced inquiry.

Lee nodded then stowed Griggs' gun in the back of his waistband, stood up, and moved back to the vent. "Make sure you're sitting down and braced at 1440. If you would, cut power once the boat goes back to trim." Polanski nodded and waddled over towards the vent shaft to collect his chair once Sherman was gone.

Lee hoisted himself inside the vent and began making his way silently through the shaft towards the control room. He needed to be positioned outside the con just before the roll so he could assist the men there in taking over the boat. Crawling past the mess he noticed a number of slumbering black shirts already taken out by Oscar's potent potion. He smiled and chuckled quietly to himself as he continued on towards the con; two down.

Reaching a section of passageway near the con with no sign of guards, Lee pushed open the grate and quietly lowered himself to the floor. Once on deck he inched silently forward and was able to reach the aft hatch unobserved. He stole a quick look inside and noticed that all eyes were focused forward giving him an opportunity to slip into the empty radio shack. He squeezed himself in behind the radio console so he was totally hidden from view.

Bracing himself for the impending roll he spotted a clock on the far wall. Just 2 more minutes and hopefully they would all be free. He scrunched down tighter behind the radio unit and started the countdown. '…, three, two, one.'

Right on cue the boat rolled hard right as ballast was suddenly shifted, pitching the unprepared black shirts into the bulkheads and onto the deck. Seconds later the boat shifted back and the crew sprang into action subduing the downed men and wresting control of the vessel from their captors.

Lee had pounced immediately taking out Jones as he floundered past him. He relished the surprised look on his face just as he delivered an unrestrained left hook. Jones did not get up.

Kargarov found himself on the receiving end of a number of fists and feet as the control room crew vented their anger and hatred on the man. After a moment Lee walked forward, Griggs' gun in his hand. He quietly cleared his throat which surprisingly brought the assault on Kargarov to a halt. Two men hauled him to his feet, arms twisted viciously behind his back to face the mastermind of the mutiny.

"What the hell's going on Sherman?!" blustered Kargarov not willing to accept the obvious. He was quite the sight, his nose was obviously broken and bleeding badly, his left eye was rapidly swelling shut, his bottom lip split and the rest of his face bore a number of contusions courtesy of his crew.

"Seeing how you are so fond of ancient maritime traditions, we figured we'd let you experience a good old fashioned mutiny," Lee smiled menacingly. The crew in the control room gave him a spontaneous, "Arrrrgh," which set them all to laughing in relief.

Kargarov paled as he scanned the control room and found all of his men down and incapacitated. There were no sounds of weapon fire meaning there was no one coming to rescue him.

"You two, and you two over there," Lee said indicating men restraining Kargarov and two near the aft hatch, "get him down to the brig along with Jones. Strip them down to their skivvies and secure them to their bunks," Lee ordered. "Then get the rest of the guards and make sure they don't move either."

The two men holding Kargarov smiled evilly. "Aye, aye Captain," then pushed their bloodied prisoner out of the con while the other two men none to gently peeled Jones off the deck and dragged him down the passageway.

"All right everyone back to your stations. What's our depth and depth to bottom helm?" Lee inquired.

The helmsman rattled off the current depth and depth to bottom. Lee moved quickly over to the chart table and updated the position. He smiled slightly as depth to bottom was above crush depth for the sub.

"Very well, take us up to 90 feet so we can figure out where we are and where we want to be," Lee replied.

"Aye sir," responded the men in the room as they returned to their stations and the Scourge began rising slowly towards the surface. "Sonar any surface or subsurface contacts in the area?"

"Negative Captain," Carrington replied with a huge smile.

As they began to move up Landeau returned to the control room with Whitcome. "All the hostiles are accounted for and secured," he reported with a smile. That was immediately met with a rousing cheer from the group in the con.

"Were any of our people injured?" asked Lee.

"No, everyone managed to get braced before the roll and was able to overpower the guards with relative ease. It all went down like clockwork," Ned replied. "Of course the guards were not quite as lucky both with the roll and our response. There were a couple of fatalities but they were in my mind justified."

"Understood," Lee responded, not thrilled with the deaths but given what they had all been through he could understand why. "Marty can you get the intercom operating?"

"Sure thing Dave. It's been repaired since yesterday, I just didn't let Kargarov know." He walked over to a panel in the radio shack, flipped a switch and then nodded to Lee.

"Attention all hands, this is Dave Sherman. I want you all to know that the boat is now in our control. Thank you for your assistance and support in carrying out our little mutiny here." A round of cheers and whoops could be heard throughout the boat. "That being said, we now need to get this boat back in order and get her to a neutral port where we can turn her and her crew over to the authorities. Everyone assume your stations and be ready to answer all bells shortly. Sherman, out."

(olooo)