The next morning was temperate but to a surprisingly pleasant effect. Perhaps my system had warmed up to the cold. On the starboard side of the viewport, fog barely obscured the coastlines as we cruised past and approached one of the entrances that would take us to Håkøya.
The sky above harbored clouds that serenely floated past, blocking out enough sunlight that it didn't overwhelm the surroundings with glare, but didn't completely mute it as to make the scenery gloomy.
It was just…calm. In a wonderful way. Inwardly, I wondered if there was any other place on earth that had an allure quite like a foggy morning next to the Norwegian fjords.
I caught sight of a little speaker perched in front of one of the windows and an idea struck. I looked at Howe, who was sitting next to me with her legs propped up on a table, leaning laxly in her seat and gazing out at the marvelous view before us. Making sure not to distract her, I discretely took hold of the cable connecting to the device and plugged it into my mobile.
I pulled up Coldplay and started scrolling through their discography, scratching off songs that I recognized as I went.
Parachutes. The first record, apparently, and the one that played host to Yellow.
Viva la Vida. This was the one we listened to last night, right? Maybe some other time.
A Rush of Blood to the Head. The songs that stuck out to me on here were The Scientist and Clocks. I was about to dismiss it when something caught my eye.
Green Eyes.
Hm. Taking my chances, I played it and waited to see how she'd react.
Well, I was curious how I'd react, too. This would be the first time I've listened to it. The first time I've even come across it, really.
A soft guitar came in with a voice singing over the top of it. Howe seemed to take the music as a welcome addition to the scenery outside, as she didn't seem to question it all that much.
While she did that, continuing to admire the nature around us while listening to the song, I decided to pay closer attention to the lyrics.
"Honey, you are a rock," the singer sang, "upon which I stand."
"And I come here to talk."
"I hope you understand."
I discerned that he was most likely talking to his love, or someone close to him that he knows.
"The green eyes, yeah, the spotlight shines upon you."
I didn't notice myself smirk as the line came through. When I looked at Howe, she'd taken on a soft smile on her lips with perhaps a faint blush. Her green eyes remained focused on the viewport, and they began to sparkle.
"And how could anybody deny you?"
How could anybody deny you, I asked Howe fondly in my head.
"I came here with a load and it feels so much lighter now I've met you."
That made me raise my eyebrows.
It also made Howe look right at me. I felt a little rush of blood to my head as she asked in apparent realization, "Oh, were you the one that put this on?"
"Uh," I hesitated, "Yeah. I got curious and thought it would fit the mood. D'you wanna change it?" I asked, maybe a little too hastily.
"No, no, no," Howe giggled as she waved her hand frantically in the air. "It's…it's perfect. So perfect, I thought I was just hearing it up here," she gestured to her head.
Inclining mine, I replied, "Can't say I disagree."
"And honey, you should know that I could never go on without you."
"Green eyes…"
"Honey, you are the sea upon which I float."
Nope, I affirmed myself. I cannot disagree. Though, I couldn't shake the sense that maybe it was just a little too perfect.
"And I came here to talk."
"I think you should know."
Just then was the cue for the whole band to come in. The drums went off on a pleasant swaying triplet shuffle. A very disciplined lead guitarist danced around the rhythmic foundation that the acoustic guitar had laid down. And the bassist tied everything together nicely into a neat bow.
"The green eyes, you're the one that I wanted to find."
"And anyone who tried to deny you must be out of their minds."
My face had gone properly hot now, and it didn't help when Howe started giggling merrily.
"Oh, James," she said as she looked at me from her seat once again, shaking her head. "You could have just told me all this directly, you know?"
"I—," I chuckled, "I was not expecting this song to be so…"
She giggled again when I lost my words.
"…Yeah, you get it," I finally conceded, slumping in my seat and palming my face, feeling like I wanted to shrink into it.
"'Cause I came here with a load and it feels so much lighter since I met you!"
"Honey, you should know that I could never go on without you."
"Green eyes…"
I let the song just play out the rest of the way, biting my lip anxiously the entire time and wanting it to end as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, on the exact flipside of the coin, Howe seemed to be savoring every second of it, swaying her head to the beat all the way until the last repetition of the song's mantra.
"Honey, you are a rock upon which I stand."
We locked eyes as it faded out. She gave me a little grin that I thought would actually set my cheeks on fire. "That was really sweet, James," she nodded. "Thanks."
"Yeah," I cleared my throat, "No problem. It was a cool song, too."
My heart was about to leap out of my chest. Thankfully, before I had to pull a desperate escape by excusing myself to grab a snack, Vampire's voice came over the comm with good news.
"Captain," the destroyer began, "We art on final approach. Shalt we beginneth making our preparations?"
Eagerly seizing the microphone capsule to Howe's amusement, I sat up in my chair and nodded. "Yes, Vampire, please. Thank you."
"Und'rstood. Doth we has't thy p'rmission to use rigging?" She asked.
"Yes, all clear. Rigging free," I affirmed.
"Aye, sir."
A brief crackle indicated the connection had been cut, and that was that.
I drew in a breath and looked at Howe for one more time. Now, both our expressions held an edge of determination. "Here we go."
"Indeed," she replied, cracking her knuckles. "Let's bring a family back together."
It was, as some may refer to it, the dream execution.
The sail up to the island was roughly forty-five minutes, which put us fifteen minutes behind schedule on projections. But it took me those fifteen minutes to get suited up, anyway.
Once I was ready, it was a matter of powering up all my tools, tethering me to the ship, making sure the oxygen was being circulated in the suit as intended while ensuring the reliability of the fallback plan—two medium backup tanks on my back—and waiting for the status updates from the rest of the squad saying I was clear to drop and let Howe handle things administratively from there.
While waiting, Howe stood in front of me on the deck the whole time, refusing to go back to the bridge where it was warmer and she'd be able to communicate easier.
"Are you sure you're fine waiting out here?" I asked, concerned. Thankfully, the suit had some insulation, so it was actually kind of warm, but Howe had to be bundled up the old-fashioned way.
"Yes, yes," she replied, doing her best not to shake her voice. "Everything should be prepared up there already anyway. I should ask you if you're feeling alright. You've got this?"
"Yeah," I nodded, my eyes adjusting to look at the simple heads-up display that the admirals had indicated. "I can do this. Thirty-odd minutes, in and out. I could do it in my sleep."
She chuckled. "Alright, then."
Before I could say anything else, she made a motion as if she were listening to someone.
"Oop! They say they're all set up and we're green for action," she reported.
"Alright," I said, getting ready to hop off the deck and dive into the waters.
"Wait, wait, wait," Howe yelped, stopping me in my tracks. "One final check."
I laughed and nodded. "Go ahead, mum."
She rolled her eyes at the joke while patting me down and giving everything one last inspection. "I'm just trying to keep you safe, alright," she retorted. "It would…it would suck if something happened to you."
My heart did a little skip as I replied, "Well. Thank you for being so meticulous about my safety."
"Of course," she said before seeming to finish her inspections and stepping back to give me a thumbs-up. "Alright, you're all set."
"Cool!"
"I would hug you, but I don't want to risk fumbling anything," she joked. "Just get going. You said it yourself, the timing must be airtight."
"Yep," I said, turning around and facing the sea below. Here we go.
When I made contact with the water, it was immediately clear to me just how specialized the suit had been engineered. The heating kicked up just as I dove in, and for a split second, I felt a touch of how cold the water was before things warmed up. Wow, this thing is like magic.
As I swam for the Tirpitz's wreck, I noticed that it was less a full ship and more a scattered, sprawling graveyard. Mounds of metal and stacks of steel were splayed all about the floor, and I started getting a little nervous about finding Wisdom Cubes in the mess, even though they were bright, blue, and glowy.
I also now fully understood Howe's apprehension when it came to qualifications for the job. Something like this would definitely have been better reserved for experienced dive teams and not some shipgirls and an officer whose experiences underwater were...limited at best, by comparison.
"James?" Howe's mildly staticky voice came through my earpiece.
"Yep," I replied.
"Alright, nice. Everything's looking solid up here," she reported. "Good visibility, audio's loud and clear, and I can even see your vital signs and stuff. This is actually ruddy brilliant."
I chuckled as I swam. "I can imagine. It's cool being down here, too, right on top of the wrecks and such," I said. "I feel like a living witness to history."
"Yeah, it must be fun, swimming around our 'dead bodies,'" Howe joked drily.
I had to crack a little chuckle at her unexpectedly morbid humor. "Right, right, forgot about that. Anyway, is there any chance you can help me with finding Wisdom Cubes in all this?"
"Yes, according to Eugen," Howe replied. "I can see it now, too. I've got a general array scanner that works via sensors in your suit. We've got some properly professional equipment, I'm thinking."
"You think?" I joked, "We better not break any of this stuff."
"Absolutely," she replied. "Not just the damages because of it, but that might mean you'd be in trouble, too. Can't have that."
"Guess not," I said, grinning to myself.
After swimming around a little more, reaching out with my hands to try and move some large fragments of interior walling around, Howe suddenly chirped.
"Ooh! I just got a ping from the GAS!"
"Ah," I replied, feeling some of her excitement bleed into me, too. "Where?"
"A few metres to your left. It's highlighted for me, I'll see if can show it to you on your HUD," she explained.
Sure enough, it took about fifteen seconds as I swam in the general direction before a floating green square on the visor marked the fragments ahead. "Wow, that is bloody cool," I blurted. "How far technology has come, eh?"
"Indeed," Howe giggled. "Are you getting anything from there?"
I snuck a glance at the mission time elapsed at the top left corner of my eye. Thirteen minutes, forty-six seconds. "I hope I will," I said.
My eyes did their very best to focus on any strange illumination that might radiate from the fragments, but the mist in the water was making it just a little difficult. At least the water was mostly greenish, so the distinct blue of a Cube would be starker to make out.
At last, from three metres away, I saw the signature bluish-white rays peeking through some cracks.
"Got it!" I declared, perhaps a little too loudly, into my mic.
"Yes!" Howe cheered, equally as excited.
I smiled to myself. I was at least able to match her bubbly energy for once. Then, I put my cutting tool to work.
I was able to marvel at the advancements made in technology once again at how smoothly the superpowered device made short work of the thick plating, giving direct access to, not one, but two Cubes. One had the more visible blue glow from earlier, but the other had a curious, less visible purple glow. I surmised that one of them housed the rigging component and the other, the person herself. Perhaps one would not be capable of materializing without the other.
So that's what Eugen was talking about, I thought to myself in my head. "Howe, I think I've figured out what Eugen was talking about!"
"Hm?"
"When she said Tirpitz's ship wouldn't be an issue! We can summon Tirpitz herself now, and then the rigging later," I explained.
"Ooh," she hummed enthusiastically. "Interesting! But why not just summon both of them back home? At least that way we won't even have to worry about Tirpitz."
"First of all, wow, that is mean," I joked. She chuckled as I added, "Second, she's imprisoned, remember? This is the only place on the literal planet where we can set her free. Eugen mentioned it at our initial briefing before we left."
"Good points," Howe tittered. "And it sounds like I need to double-check my notes from that briefing. Anyway, I guess you just...grab them and go! Then we can worry about the Sakura and finally completing the mission."
"Right," I said, remembering we were on a clock for a very serious reason and tunnel visioning my focus on the task at hand.
As Howe started chattering on about things we should do to keep in touch once we got back home, I reached out with a special grabbing armature to take the first blue Cube and place it neatly into a case that was strapped underneath the backup tanks. Then, with a deep breath in anticipation of the accomplishment of our primary mission objective, I took the second purple Cube, too.
And then, I blacked out.
I was standing in a field, amidst stunningly pleasant countryside. There was something deeply nostalgic and dreamlike about the way the sights and sounds seemed to radiate at me.
Strangely, I wasn't in a daze. I wasn't disoriented. I felt like I knew exactly where I was. The sun rose to the east, washing everything in a very evocative golden glow. The clear blue sky above made me feel infinite. Wonderful grasslands punctuated with treetops and serene natural beauty stretched on around me.
The wind was fresh and felt like heaven on the skin. Around, among the flat grassy stretches, were windmills. Not wind turbines that generated power, but real, classic windmills. I wondered who owned and operated them.
Then I noticed something in the distance when I looked ahead. When I squinted and peered, I was stunned.
It was a platform. A train station.
Behind me, I heard the train coming up. Fast. I whipped around to see its front approaching, becoming larger, louder, and closer. My eyes followed the tracks back to the platform. Then, I noticed something else on it.
Movement. A figure on the platform. Someone there.
I ran a short distance, just to get a closer look, maybe to see who it was.
And there stood Tirpitz.
She was dressed to the nines in a long, flowing black and red dress. It had a slit down the sides, giving a narrow view of her legs, and her short hair was adorned with a gold ornament going from the front to the back along one side. She had brown furs around her arms that extended down to the ground. Her blue eyes sparkled in the sunshine as she waited patiently for the train.
She looked stunning.
She looked alone.
Come to think of it…I pivoted to check if there was anyone else on the platform and saw no one.
I looked at the train as it passed by me, and every carriage, every last seat, was empty.
I looked out at the grasslands and windmills, searching for someone, anyone…nothing. Not even an animal.
She was wholly, completely, absolutely alone.
And then, a familiar line echoed in my head that gave me goosebumps.
Tell that princess down by the train she'll never be lonely again.
A fire lit up inside me, and before I knew it, I was running. Running like I'd never run before.
I got to the platform just in the nick of time. The train had stopped. As Tirpitz was about to get on, she froze when she saw me staggering and panting, feeling as if my lungs would deflate then and there.
"Goodness," she said. Her voice was smooth, calm, controlled. Empty. "How fast did you run?"
I gestured tiredly at the train. "Fast enough."
Tirpitz narrowed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. "Why?"
I waved my hand to signal her that I was still catching my breath. When it was caught a few seconds later, I had a question for her. "Are you not surprised to see another person? I mean…it doesn't look like there's anyone else around."
"A very astute observation," she said snarkily. "Maybe I should be surprised. But…" Then, her expression hardened, and her breathing stiffened. "…Then again, my mind has been playing tricks on me ever since. I will see you around."
Just before she could walk towards the doors, I exclaimed, "No, wait!"
She stopped and looked at me with a raised brow.
"I'm here to get you out."
She scoffed and looked at the ground. "Just leave me be. You're not even real. And even if you are…what is the point? I'm doomed to be alone. First abandoned in the north, never to see action. Sinking without any form of expectation realized. Then…in insidious deception. I'm afraid this curse is here to stay. So, I will fight it no longer. Leave me be."
"No, but—!"
"The Ironblood has already been disgraced. My sister has fallen ensnared by those devils. No one will trust us any longer," she protested, her tone becoming stronger. "Leave me be."
"Okay, if you would just—,"
"Mein Gott, you are stubborn, aren't you?" She'd suddenly gone from dejection to a bubbling frustration. Surprising, if anything, for the Queen of the North. But, perhaps, after all this time…even she'd get a little angry.
I admittedly got just a bit scared and felt the reflex to step backward when she walked up to me, clearly livid.
"What do you want? To drive the dagger deeper? Go ahead! I already passed on long ago, du verdammt—" She grabbed my collar and pulled me towards her in her frustration.
I froze.
Her eyes grew wide. She stared at her own hands gripped tightly around my shirt.
Interesting, I thought to myself, maybe paying attention to the wrong things at that moment. I was wearing what looked like a farmer's attire.
Abruptly, she let go. She started shaking. She looked at me. Her frustration slowly began to subside.
Seeing the opportunity, I breathed out and said, "I can't just leave you be. Look at me. Listen to me. I'm here. I'm real. I don't know how I got here, or what this place even is, but I did."
She was speechless, breathing growing heavy.
"I'm a British officer. From the Royal Navy. I'm on a mission that your sister called because they want you back. She wants you back. Desperately enough that it's softened hearts enough for a joint operation. The first joint operation between us and the Ironblood since the Azur Lane fractured."
Tirpitz's eyes suddenly grew misty. Her lips were quivering. She cupped her mouth to conceal it.
"You were betrayed. Yes. You were dealt a terrible, terrible hand. I don't quite grasp the weight of the full story, but either way, I doubt anyone of us will ever be able to cover the cost you've unfairly had to pay," I continued. "But they're—we're ready to give it a try. To keep giving it a try. It's the least we can do."
She took a hesitant step forward. "You're," she stuttered, "you're…"
I took one look at the ghostly empty train. I looked at her. I peered into her eyes. I gave her the most reassuring smile I could. This is it, I urged her with my inner voice. Your chance to escape this curse and leave it dead in the water! "Everyone's been waiting anxiously for you. Your family, your friends…they all want you home."
She fell into my arms. I caught her and ran a hand on her back.
"You'll never be lonely again."
"James? Captain! Sir! Captain! Buttercup!"
My alertness sprang to full capacity at the last word Howe called through the earpiece. "Yes! Howe, this is me!"
"What the hell man, you were blank for way too long! We were debating forcing the tether to reel you back in, it's something that Eugen wrangled me not to! I thought we lost you for heaven's sakes," she exclaimed, the wave of relief washing over her audible even through the remote channel. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," I said, reorienting myself and regaining my bearings. When I saw the second Cube in its receptacle, I noticed it had gone from purple to a vibrant orange. "Just something really trippy. But I think it's mission success."
"You think it's mission success?" Howe asked, her adrenaline from the 'close call' still apparent.
"Yeah. I'd say ninety percent sure."
A silence. "Alright. Well, start heading back already, we've got to get to the others soon and we still have to summon Tirpitz first."
"Copy that," I replied dutifully. Securing the case onto my person, I said, "Clear for return trip. Reel me in."
The trip was roughly two minutes and a half, and all the while I was exhilarated by the rush of zooming through the water at a speed I could never reach by swimming alone. Perhaps it fit my mood rather well, as I couldn't help a sense of fulfillment—even though we hadn't summoned Tirpitz yet—knowing that the mission had been accomplished.
Finally, I was hoisted up on deck and greeted by a Howe who was not worried in the slightest about me being soaking wet in frigid water.
She threw herself on me before I could react and I had to take extra care not to let the knockback knock me back into the waters. I felt her weight suddenly kick against my body and her arms wrap around my waist. I felt my core well up with warmth.
"Good to see you too, Howe," I chuckled, hugging her and patting her on the back.
"Next time," she spoke into my chest while wrapping her arms tighter, "I'm doing the dirty work."
I grinned softly and rested my chin on her head. "Alright."
It took us a blistering three minutes for me to suit down, get washed and changed, and ready to stick the orange cube into the resonance chamber. I hadn't noticed, but Howe had apparently been wearing an overcoat on top of her layers when we hugged, so all she had to do was get rid of that and the outermost layer and wash her face after.
When I walked into the room, she was peering curiously at the orange Cube through the glass of the chamber. "That is trippy, huh? I've never seen one in orange before."
"Neither have I, I can assure you," I chuckled. "It looks wizard."
"For sure," she agreed. Making for the console, her fingers flew across buttons and toggles for maybe half a minute before she turned to look at me with a thumbs-up. "We're good to go. Pop those goggles on, and I can start the sequence."
"Ah, goggles?" It took me a moment to see the protective equipment hanging on the wall to the side of the door. Swiftly, I took one and handed the other to Howe. When we were both kitted up, I nodded. "Alright, let's do this."
"Copy that. Three, two, one."
The room flashed a soft orange, and I was tempted to take a closer look inside the chamber as the Cube within started to float. Thankfully, I resisted myself just in time as the light abruptly grew blinding. I thanked Howe for reminding me about the goggles because if they hadn't been on, I probably would've gone blind.
Gradually over the course of fifteen seconds, the orange faded to a brilliant blue, and finally white. I observed that there was no heat or even a shockwave of any sort. The only thing that made me step back was the sheer brightness of the light bombarding everything in the room and through the windows to the environment beyond.
Finally, the light ceased.
"Okay, we're safe. According to the computer, it was a success," Howe chirped, unfazed by the awesome summoning process that I'd just experienced firsthand for the first time. "Let's have a look!"
I took my goggles off and let them hang around my neck. Squinting for my eyes to adjust to the light, I refocused my vision on a figure that was now standing in the glass chamber. And for the first time, Howe and I saw Tirpitz with our own eyes.
Tirpitz herself was no longer in that banquet gown from earlier. She had a white jacket over a black shirt, a matching short black skirt covering the rest. I snickered at the gold and red stripe running down one side of the skirt, forming the colors of the German flag. On her legs were white boots with some grey plating. On her head sat a white officer's hat, and running over her shoulders to her back was a covering of some sort that sported red and gold accents. Her hair was still the same short, milky white, and her blue eyes stared down at her gloved hands in disbelief.
Then she looked at us.
Howe and I froze in our tracks, exercising some polite extent of caution. "You...don't have your rigging on you, do you?" Howe asked.
Tirpitz was breathing heavily, perhaps still processing that she was here again, but shook her head nonetheless and replied, "N-nein."
We relaxed our stances and exchanged glances. I nodded and went to open the door. As my hand worked the locking mechanism, I said, "Welcome back."
I probably shouldn't have said that then, because the moment Tirpitz stepped out, she grabbed me before I realized and started crying into my shoulder. I would've been okay with it, but it was incredibly awkward with Howe standing off to the side, simply having to watch.
I looked at her, then down at Tirpitz, then back at her. Then, I put one hand on Tirpitz's back and used the other for nonverbal communication. I moved the free hand to gesture for Howe to come over here and help me, yeah?
She raised her brows and nodded dutifully. Right, right, she mouthed.
The three of us proceeded to seize the opportunity for a breather. I maintained one arm around Tirpitz while Howe contributed with some pats on the back.
Mission success, Howe mouthed at me brightly.
I nodded and gave her a soft grin.
Finally, Tirpitz broke away and put a palm over her face, perhaps to conceal the raw emotion and also to dry her eyes however much she could.
"Would you like some tissues, Miss Tirpitz?" Howe asked courteously.
"Danke," Tirpitz said, "but I will be alright. I just…needed to do that." She looked at me with pure gratitude in her eyes.
I returned her sentiments graciously. "Of course, absolutely. Now, I hate to cut back on this moment, but we are on the clock."
"Ah!" Howe said, hurrying to the nearest terminal to keep tabs on the mission status.
"We are in a rush, Kommandant?" Tirpitz asked, still sniffling and her tone particularly vulnerable, but she was regaining herself impressively quickly. Nothing less from the sister of Bismarck herself, I supposed.
"I'm actually a Captain," I chuckled, "and yes, we are. The Sakura Empire wants you, too. I'm assuming as a bargaining chip to sway the Ironblood back to the 'Axis,' or whatever it is they're calling themselves."
Tirpitz nodded, clearly a little surprised at that report. "Right. You informed me there was cooperation once again between our two navies. I hadn't realized it was so official."
"Well, no treaty's been properly consolidated, because the plan is to bring the whole band back together," I explained, "but it's legitimate enough to get the Sakura a little testier than usual. So that should be saying enough."
"It does," Tirpitz agreed. "Well, do not stress too much. I will do my best to stay out of everyone's way. Just inform me what you need me to do...Kapitän."
I nodded in appreciation. "Thank you. But in turn, I must request that you not worry about staying out of everyone's ways once we make it out of this mess. We're in this together now, whether it's professional or personal. We'll be here for you."
She nodded and even cracked a tiny smile. "Danke schön, Kapitän. So noted."
"Great," I grinned. "Howe, status?"
"We've still got time, according to 1206," she reported. "I suggest we haul arse right now."
I nodded. "Let's do it."
On the bridge, it didn't take long after sailing around the bend and positioning ourselves behind Prinz Eugen and Charybdis for Prinz Eugen to chime in.
"Kapitän," Eugen said through the radio, "I thought we'd have to start the party without you."
I chuckled. "Well, it would've started either way."
"Copy that," she tittered. "Is Frau Tirpitz with you?"
"Ja," Tirpitz replied before I could. "Ah—tut mir leid, Kapitän. I am here, Eugen."
I waved my hand to let her know it was fine. "We're all green light over here, Eugen. At this point, we're just waiting for—"
Before I knew it, 1206 cut into everyone's channels. "Alert! Sakura forces approaching!"
Howe looked up from her console. "They're hailing us, sir."
I nodded at her. "Put them on."
A few seconds later, the voice of whom I would peg to be Akagi took over the comms. "Allied force!"
Howe shuffled anxiously in her seat. She knew the plan. We all did. From here on out, it had to be followed to the letter.
Admittedly, I started getting the jitters myself. I curled my left hand into a fist and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and focused on trusting in them to pull the stunt off. I knew they could do it. They knew they could do it. I thought about Howe. The rock upon which I stood.
I opened my eyes. "Yes? Is this Akagi speaking?"
The voice scoffed arrogantly. "Yes! This is Akagi speaking. And you have someone we want."
"I suppose you're not going after me," I replied drily. "That wouldn't make much sense. What if…oh, are you looking for Howe? Or maybe Charybdis? Both are excellent choices." The sarcasm in my voice was dripping so much that Howe couldn't help a little snicker from her station. I wonder if the others were reacting similarly. This is an open-channel broadcast.
"Agh—" The voice blurted, agitated now. "You know who we want! Just..." We heard the sound of someone breathing deeply to control themselves before continuing, "Hand Tirpitz over, and we'll let you go! Let's make it happen!"
I looked at Howe and before we knew it, despite our nerves, we both had stupid grins on our faces. Then I looked at Tirpitz and gave her a reassuring thumbs-up. "Sorry, sweetheart," I spoke into the mic, "That's not happening."
