The Nautilus lay docked. Everything was still. The guards positioned walked back and forth on their assigned posts, scouting out into the solid darkness. One of them, Raju, one of the youngest ones in the crew, shifted his weight from foot to foot and stared on the streets in front of him. He knew that his work was important, yet he couldn't feel too enthusiastic about it. He sighed and watched the cloud his breath made. He turned to the older man a bit away.
"I'll be back in a second." He said in their native tounge and went towards one of the houses. He walked around it and put the gun down beside him, before he started to fiddle with his belt. He heard someone behind him and sighed.
"I said I'll be back in a second. Can't I have a moment…" he started, but couldn't finish the sentence.
- - -
The old man gave Raju a tired look and raised an eyebrow.
"Back already? That was fast." He said to him. Raju shrugged.
"I said only a second, did I no?"
The old man smiled, but he wondered about the strange change in Raju's voice. Raju walked past him and towards the Nautilus.
"Raju, where do you think you're going?" the old man asked. Raju didn't even look back.
"Inside."
The man frowned and silently readied himself to fire his gun quickly. Something was wrong.
"You still have work to do out here, you know."
Raju stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"I know. I just have to take thing from me… er, home." He said and then continued on.
The old man glared suspicially after him, but decided it was best to simply leave it be. He would make a fool out of himself for raising the alarm because the boy went to get something. He continued to scout for suspicious things in the dark, but the thought of Raju still gnawed in the back of his head.
- - -
The man who called himself Raju quickly walked down the corridors. He had memorized exactly where he was supposed to go and went that way. He started to hum a melody, but stopped, worried about raising more suspicion than he already did with the clumsy performance outside earlier. He stopped when the corridor branched off into two.
After merely a moments thought, he picked the right one, quickly making his way towards the nerve centre of Nautilus. He prepared the things under his coat while whispering prayers. He found the door to the main control room and grinned, a strange glimpse in his eyes. But he didn't enter yet. He stood still, thinking. Then he looked down the corridor and went through the map he could see clearly in his head. He frowned. According to that, the captain's cabin was very close.
He was torn between paying the captain a special visit and going directly into the control room. He heard voices in the control room, he couldn't make out the words, but the laughter afterwards proved that someone told a joke. He turned around and went down the corridor. He placed himself in front of the captain's cabin door and took up a small knife and a gun. He felt the door, finding that it was open. He heard someone inside, apparently asleep. He opened the door wider and snuck in, leaning forwards like a predator.
He saw someone in the bed, but he couldn't make out anything special about the figure. He felt his heart start pounding faster, but his breath remained calm and silent. His fingers itched. He got closer to the bed by the second.
The remaining guards looked at the old man who went to the place where Raju had earlier gone. The man had made up his mind, thinking there was no harm in checking to see if there was anything weird over there. He disappeared out of sight for a short while, before he came running back.
"Raise the alarm! There's an intruder on the ship!" he cried. The guards on the docks passed the message on, and soon the alarm spread through the ship.
- - -
The man who had earlier called himself Raju heard the alarm. His head snapped up to see if anyone was there. His scouting was interrupted by a punch right in the face. The man stumbled back, stars dancing in front of his eyes, and waved his knife in front of him, hoping that he would hit something.
He felt the captain give him a hard kick in his stomach and doubled over. He readied his gun, hoping that he could shoot the captain the next time he tried anything. He did, however, just hear the sound of a sword being slowly extracted from its scabbard and shuddered. He grinned when he realized that this captain was scaring him.
He hadn't been afraid for years. He forced himself to breath slower, almost making no sound at all. The captain either stood still or moved like a cat. He tried to penetrate the darkness, hoping that he would see the captain before the captain saw him. His concentration was broken again by the sound of running that grew stronger.
"Nemo! Trouble!" someone shouted and opened the door. Light flushed in, blinding the attacker for a moment. He tried to see who was in the doorway and screamed as he saw the black coat hovering in the air.
"Nemo, what's going on?" someone asked and somehow, the light flicked on. The attacker panicked and turned to flee from this… apparition in the doorway. He didn't get far, though. Nemo's sword burst right through him. He stood there, stunned, before realizing he was dying. He groaned and felt blood bubble up in his mouth.
"At last…" he whispered, smiled and fell to the floor.
- - -
Skinner looked at the dead man on the floor, then to Nemo who was hastily wiping his sword on the dead man's coat.
"Did we miss something?" he asked. Nemo gave Skinner's coat a cold look.
"Oh, not at all." Nemo said and glared at the corpse. Skinner took a look on him and frowned.
"What are those weird bumps on his chest?" he said, kneeled down beside him and opened his coat. Nemo hissed a curse in his language when he saw what it was strapped to the man's chest.
Explosives.
