Justin

Justin

After checking out the boat on camera, finding our way down to the cargo hold was easier. Under the acrid smell there was another one forming, a gaggingly sweet smell. It was making my stomach turn worse than the other one. Jhondie was turning green. Her sense of smell was much better than mine, and I knew she must have been dying from the smell. I was glad that Dad had made me take a couple of handkerchiefs in my jacket. I gave Jhondie one, and used the other around my face to block out some of the smell. It made it almost tolerable. She flashed me a thank-you smile as she tied hers on.

We made it to the entrance to the hold when the ship suddenly lurched, knocking me into a wall. Jhondie managed to stay on her feet, but we both could feel what was going on. The boat was moving. Our eyes met, and we both had the same arguments run through our heads. Stay or go? There was still time to get back to the dock. Maybe. We were here already. There were only three of them, and the trip was twenty miles. It wouldn't be more than a few hours. There were places to hide. Without even speaking we reached the decision. Jhondie checked for a security system, and then started picking the lock.

The mysterious bags that we couldn't see were right under the camera. The captain of this boat was cautious enough to want security, but he didn't want any record of what was really going on. On the far side of the vats was enough of a walkway so whatever it was could be carried around without being seen. Close to use was a control panel that was probably used to set the pressure cookers. We glanced at each other. We could only see the edge of the bags that were stacked on top of each other. We were way too far in to stop now.

We crept over to where the bags were and I stopped short when I saw them up close. There were rectangular, seven feet long, and made out of black rubberized leather. They could more accurately be described as body bags. That sweet smell was stronger, and now I recognized it. It was decay. There were fifteen bags. I was never a math genius, but I can multiply fifteen by one thousand. It comes out to exactly fifteen thousand. As in, the fifteen grand that was getting handed over back on the pier.

"Sulfuric acid is one of the few things that can totally dissolve a human body," Jhondie whispered. I took a deep breath, held it, and used the handkerchief to pull down the zipper on the top bag.

Both of us nearly threw up right then and there. The man inside had already started to decompose slightly. The weather was hot as hell here and that wasn't good for a dead body to be lying around in. I recognized the body inside. Gorgeous George Simon wasn't looking that great anymore. The bullet hole in the side of his head just didn't look good on him. He was, had been, a small-time hood in East LA that had started to carve his way into some territories formerly controlled by Brent Lake.

The horror on Jhondie's face was evident. We zipped the bag back up. "I wonder who's in the other bags," I commented.

"I don't even want to look," Jhondie replied. "Bodies in gravel pits and forests tend to get discovered. So they dissolve them as much as they can and dump them twenty miles out."

"The pressure probably helps to speed the process," I commented. "They use a boat so nobody notices the smell in the same place all of the time and comes investigating."

Jhondie glanced up at the camera in the corner. "We can get it on tape," she said. "EO can broadcast it and show what's going on in here." Sounded like a plan to me. Jhondie crawled up the wall and unscrewed the camera from its mounts so that she could redirect the angle while I grabbed some paper and a pen out of a drawer of the control panel.

I wrote, "Welcome to the vessel The Till Man" in large letters and aimed it at the camera. Now there was some kind of record of what ship we were on. I unzipped the bag again, and Jhondie turned the camera to get the body on film. I wrote, "RIP, Gorgeous George Simon" on another sheet and held it up. Jhondie had to let go of the camera for a second because she started to giggle. It was so macabre you had to laugh.

We moved the first body, and showed the second. I didn't recognize the woman in it. She was dressed like a prostitute and her throat was cut. They obviously had a thriving little business going here. Sick bastards. We would have shown the other bodies, but we were both getting sick. When the genetically engineered soldier starts turning green, it was time to get the hell out of there. I did have Jhondie swing the camera so that you could see the vats and the sulfuric acid. There were some other chemicals in there. I wasn't sure what they were used for, but when the container says highly combustible, you don't play with them.

We put everything back where we found it. I put the papers in my jacket where they wouldn't be found and Jhondie reattached the camera. Neither of us wanted to touch the bodies, but we needed to get them back where they were. I felt a little bad they would disappear and never be seen again. Didn't some of them have families that were wondering where they were? Whoever Lake's boss was, he was probably having his victims brought here from all over the state and disposed of. It was neat and tidy. No harm done. We were going to be able to shut this part down. One tiny bit of the world made just a little bit better.

We picked up the body bag with the woman to put her back on the stack. I could tell Jhondie's thoughts were similar to my own. We shouldn't have been thinking so introspectively. We should have been listening. Jhondie would have heard the men long before we heard the door rattle.

"Who left the door open?" a man snarled. "Place stinks all over now! Gotta go down here for the Cap'n's stupid camera." My eyes met Jhondie's in alarm. The door opened, and there we were, twenty feet from them, holding a dead body. They had guns. This was not good.

Jhondie

For a moment nobody moved. The last thing they were expecting was a girl in a formal and a guy in a tux moving their merchandise around. If there had been any time at all I would have laughed till I cried. The shock on their face was absolutely priceless. Funny ended the minute the one in the front hoisted an automatic rifle. I dropped the body, and moved for them as fast as I possibly could. I jumped, running hard against the side of the wall to get around them. I heard the split in my dress rip, but I didn't care in the slightest. One of them tried to shoot at me, his bullets spraying against the controls. He wasn't expecting me to pull a human fly routine.

Justin had been dragged down when I let go of the body and took off. I caught a glimpse of him on the floor when the bullets started to fly, and then I was in the middle of them. There were two, and then another one in the hall. The crew was bigger than I thought. Crap. Oh well, butt kicking time. I grabbed the guy closest to me and slammed him into the shooter. Both stumbled for a second, and I saw a flash of Justin coming after them.

The guy in the hall raised his gun. I was beside him in half a heartbeat, and snatched the gun from his hands. I reversed it, bringing the butt hard against his head. He went down without another sound. One of the men from inside went flailing backwards into the hall, his nose spouting blood. I grabbed his arm, and flung him into the wall. He fell into a crumpled heap. I jumped back into the room, and I had to say I was pretty impressed.

Justin had disarmed them both, and did a fast spin kick into the last guy's face. I had been teaching him some moves, and he was picking up on them real well. What could I say? He had a fabulous teacher. Our eyes met, and we both grinned. Then I heard something. It was incredibly high-pitched, like the squeal of a mouse caught in a blender. It was coming from the vats.

I ran to the controls to see what was going on. "What's wrong?" Justin asked.

I looked at the controls. They were shot all to hell. Then I saw it. I pointed to the temperature gauge. It was on red. "They blew out the control mechanism," I said. "The temperature must have been hot already, and now…" the whistling was getting louder. Justin winced a little, and I knew he was starting to hear it.

"Uh, Jhondie?" he said, pointing to another control. Oh, how nice. It would seem that the short-circuiting turned everything to high. Including the pressure. Which was, of course, climbing rapidly. "Any suggestions?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Combustible chemicals. Vats with high temps and high pressure. "Run?" I suggested.

He nodded. "Running sounds very good." He grabbed my hand, and we turned to go. One of the men had staggered back to their feet, and was holding the gun on us. I could tell he was starting to hear the whistling too. I pointed to the vats.

"We got like two minutes before those things blow," I said with a smile. "Use them wisely." He looked at the vats. He looked at me again. His buddy was climbing to his feet.

"RUN!" he yelled, and took to his heels. Buddy took the suggestion, and tore off down the hall with him.

"Run now?" I asked Justin. He didn't answer, he headed to the door with me in tow.

Justin

We tore off down the hall following the crewmen. I figured they would know the fastest way off of the ship. There had to life rafts around here, or something like that. There was a Y in the hall, and they went to the right. I tried to follow, and was yanked to the left by Jhondie.

"Exit's that way!" I yelled.

"Evidence is this way!" she yelled back, and then broke free, bolting down the hall. One of these days she was going to remember genetically engineered did not mean engineered to be immortal. For the slightest second I hesitated, and then ran down the hall after her. She was moving at top speed, which meant she knew A) I didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell to catch her and B) I was going to follow her. I was only following her so I could strangle her later for putting herself in serious danger for Eye's Only. His work, our work, it didn't mean anything if it got her hurt.

I caught up to her as she ducked out of the galley. There was a flash of brown in her hand, and I was really going to kill her if she wasted time for a cookie. I wasn't sure how, but I would. A few doors up was the private room that had the computer. Jhondie kicked the door hard, tearing it open. It was a little late for subtle entrances. I was right behind her now finally.

Jhondie was so intent on getting to the computer that she didn't notice the man in the room. He was behind the door, getting money out of a safe that had been behind a picture on the wall. She ran in, and he had a second to turn around, a very large gun in hand. She didn't see him.

I'm not sure where I got the speed from or the reflexes, but I moved about as fast as I'd seen Jhondie a few times. I grabbed the edge of the door and used it as a pivot to fling myself, kicking the guy in the chest, shoving him backwards into the wall. His shot echoed through the cabin, missing Jhondie by a few inches. She spun around, her eyes huge. The guy recovered, lunging forward, right into a beautiful spin-kick performed by none other than myself. I'd been practicing what Jhondie had taught. It caught him on the side of the head, and took him down.

There was a dull boom from deep inside the ship and it listed heavily, throwing us all to the ground. The computer slid of the desk with a loud crunch of glass and electronic components. Jhondie scrambled to it, and cursed loudly.

"The drive is stuck!" she yelled.

"Who cares, let's go!" I shouted back. This thing was going to go at any minute.

"I just need a second," she said, pawing at the wreck of a computer. There was another boom, and the ship listed harder, flinging us all across the room. She wasn't staying another second, and that was final.

I grabbed her hand, and hauled her up, already running before she could get off of the ground. She yelped a little when her hand hit the desk as she was hauled up, but I was getting her out of here if I had to carry her out kicking and screaming. She wasn't fighting me, and we both ran hard to the deck. We hit the outside, and we both glanced around. No life raft looking apparatus.

Jhondie pointed over the water. "Bad guys got the ride," she said. I couldn't see a thing, but I knew to trust her vision. "Can you swim?" she asked. We looked at each other, and then the shore. There was plenty of light to guide us, but it looked a half-mile out or so.

There was a louder boom, and the ship was vibrating. "Champion distance swimmer in high school," I informed her. Ha! You don't have to be Manticore to have some neat skills. She grinned, and then we both ran hard for the rail, catching it, and diving into the water. A split second later the first explosion hit the ship, throwing up a fireball, and sending flaming debris all over the water's surface.

The fire lit up beneath the water enough for me to see. Jhondie was right there, and we started to get away from the wreckage. I was trying to stay under for as long as I could, but it wasn't going to be nearly long enough to clear the debris field. I was going to have to chance it. I started to go up, and Jhondie yanked me back down, pointing up to the fire burning over us. I pointed to my nose and chest. She got the hint. I needed air. My lungs were already starting to burn.

Jhondie suddenly grabbed my face, and pulled me to her, her mouth pressing tightly over mine. What the hell…wait, she was blowing…I forgot she could hold her breath much longer. She didn't need as much air. I accepted the gift gratefully, and we kicked off again, getting past the debris. We both surfaced, gasping for air. The ship was burning merrily, smaller explosions throwing up more fireballs and smoke. We looked at each other and started laughing.

"Champion distance swimmer?" she gasped.

I grinned. "Never tried it with human scuba gear before." I wasn't sure but I thought she blushed. In the firelight it was hard to tell. "Want to race back?" She laughed and we both headed to shore. I'd swum several miles at a stretch before in the Gulf of Mexico when I was visiting my grandparents; half a mile was nothing. This time the tide was with us, pulling us into shore, and the current wasn't very strong. It was much more tiring swimming with pants on, but I could do it. I knew Jhondie could. Watching her, I started to wonder if she had fish DNA somewhere in there. Maybe shark or something like that. A fish and a cat all in one. Talk about screwing with the food chain.

We staggered back up onto the shore finally, both of us exhausted. We collapsed in the sand, and started laughing again. The current had pulled us to the North a ways, and most of the people were towards the south, watching the burning boat. "I'll never say you don't know how to show a girl a good time," Jhondie giggled.

"I thought it was supposed to be fireworks," I deadpanned. We were both laughing. After a minute the laughing slowed. Our eyes met, and we quieted. "Don't ever risk yourself like that over nothing ever again," I said, feeling very serious. "There's not a story in the world worth losing you." I wasn't too sure, but I thought there were suddenly tears in her eyes.

"It wasn't for nothing," she said softly, and stood up. I stood up as well, wondering what she meant. She reached behind her, grabbing the back of her dress and doing a little wiggle. "If I'd known I'd be doing this I wouldn't have broken out the good underwear," she muttered. Something fell into the sand, and she picked it up and handed it to me. It was a CD in a plastic zip-lock baggie. "I bet you thought I just wanted a cookie from the galley," she said with a big smile.

I took the CD gingerly. I looked back at her, the question all over my face. How did she? "You yanked me up and I was holding the computer. It slammed on the desk, and the thing popped open," she explained. We were alive. We had the story. We had the evidence.

I let out a whoop of excitement, and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up and spinning us both around in an odd sort of victory hug. She laughed, her arms around my neck. And then…I'm not sure really how, or why for sure…but our faces were an inch apart, and the world stopped moving for just a split second as our lips touched.