Chapter 4: Overboard

Aaron had to admit there was a distinct benefit to being hunted with little possibility of survival. He recalled the Buddhist proverb of the tigers and the strawberry. Here he and Marta were, hanging by the last fiber of a failing vine above a chasm of inevitable destruction. Restless tigers paced impatiently above, anxious to pounce and devour them at any opportunity. Escape was impossible, death loomed. Yet here they were, relishing the unexpected gift of a wild strawberry, made infinitely more sweet by their precarious position.

Upon that sobering reflection, reality jolted his consciousness from blissful oblivion. Marta sensed the change and reluctantly broke their meld. Aaron leaned in and rested his forehead against hers, keeping her close while his thoughts launched forward on multiple courses, calculating.

They stood together in the dank belly of the ship, their bodies still entwined, but the previous hunger slowly subsided. Marta, too, began thinking of their dire situation with a growing desperation to solve it. She disengaged, stepping back subconsciously, as her mind filtered through the scientific data she remembered, analyzing it for anything that might help.

Registering Marta's growing distance, Aaron groaned in remorse over killing the mood. Idiot. "I should head up on deck," he sighed. "We need to flesh out a plan."

Marta nodded in agreement with a coy smile. "Still, I was hoping we could be lost for a lot longer than this."

Aaron was relieved they were back to the same light banter shared earlier on deck, when they were still feeling each other out. Marta alluded to her comment before it all blew up, about wanting to be lost with him. Thank you, Lord Jesus! That was not sacrilege – his gratitude was real.

"And that's why I need to get away from you to think," he told her. "I can't focus."

Her eyes narrowed and Marta crossed her arms. "Better?"

Aaron laughed. "No, not really." He gave her a quick, but full, kiss on her bruised lips and stepped out of the room before she could reply.

He made his way to the ship's ladder and swung around to mount the rungs. Aaron was three steps up when Marta emerged from the crew's quarters. From his perch on the ladder, bright sunlight beat directly down on him. He glanced over as she came forward.

Average eyes would not adjust fast enough to the blinding light after being in the dark substructure. In that moment, even with his enhanced sight, Aaron could only make out her face, arms and legs because of the black shirt she wore.

The fact hit him hard: His shirt.

Aaron felt an impulse to drop down and drag her back, deeper into the shadows, with him. He wanted to keep her in the safety of darkness and ignore the fact that there really was no safe place for them anywhere.

Marta walked into the stream of sunshine that filtered down to the passageway. Her green eyes, blinking to adjust to the light, found his. He was staring at her, his big blue eyes nearly translucent in the direct sun. Unable to read his thoughts, Marta fidgeted under his intense gaze.

The movement broke Aaron of his reverie. He felt a twinge of anger over their situation. Neither of them had signed up for this. Marta would have chosen to spend her life locked away in a lab, making medical breakthroughs in peace and solitude. He would have been happy soldiering away in the desert.

Though it betrayed him, Aaron had been willing to die for his country. No, he corrected himself. Only a small, corrupt part of the government had betrayed him. He still considered it an honor to serve his country – even if it called for sacrifice on his part.

It occurred to him that rooting out Byer and his National Research Assay Group would actually be exactly that – an act of service to his country. The realization set his mind spinning.

"I can't read your thoughts yet," Marta interrupted. "But I can tell when they're not good."

Aaron figured he looked crazy, hanging from the ladder, gaping at her, while competing ideas battled it out in his head. He settled on one thought and told her, "We're going to beat this."

The soldier in him steeled with determination. All he needed was a mission. Marta complicated that, though. Aaron felt his headache returning. Thoughts swung from one end of his brain to the other. They bounced from wanting to drag this woman into hiding to wanting to take on the RAG and its remaining Outcome operatives, then back to keeping Marta safe again. It was not meshing right in his head. Even with the blue pills, he struggled to work this out.

Marta's eyes narrowed for real this time. "You're not stuck with me, Aaron."

His eyes snapped open and immediately found hers. The tone of Aaron's voice reflected his annoyance. "That's not what I was thinking."

"Maybe it should be."

"No." He shook his head violently and dropped to the lower deck. Aaron reached Marta in a few quick strides and grasped her by the arms. "You said it – we're in this fight together now."

She closed her eyes against his piercing look so he wouldn't see her fear. "We don't have to be. You could escape and live out your life in freedom, free of me. We both know you would stand a much better chance without me in tow."

"Look at me," he instructed.

Marta turned her head away, her eyes still tightly closed, shutting him out.

Aaron took her head in his hands, guiding her face to his. He kissed her.

"In the Philippines, you should've left me there at the hotel when I was sick," he said. "But you didn't."

Marta's eyes opened and met his, but her look was flat.

"You refused to leave me when I was vulnerable," he explained. "And I refuse to leave you vulnerable."

"That's just it," she countered, moving free of his grip. "I am a vulnerability. You don't need me to get you into another Sterison-Morlanta facility. You don't need the medication anymore. If you felt a sense of duty to see me to safety, you accomplished that already."

"Duty?" Aaron scoffed.

Marta ignored that. "You got me out of immediate danger. All I am now is a liability."

He shrugged a shoulder like it didn't matter. "Give yourself some credit. I wouldn't have made it this far without you. That's a plain and simple fact."

"Aaron," Marta sighed, exasperated. "When it comes to you, my conscience weighs heavy enough already."

He was willing to die for his country, but Aaron certainly wasn't resigned to it. "I am planning to live through this."

"I know, but…" Their intimacy was still so new, Marta hesitated.

Thinking she doubted they could survive, Aaron took her hands in his. He hoped to reassure her. Running his thumbs over her knuckles, he reiterated, "We will beat this."

Marta hadn't hesitated because she wanted comfort. She was reluctant to repeat something Aaron had said to her, back in Manila, at the room. The statement felt too emotionally charged to say aloud, but she came out with it. "You've done enough for me."

Aaron caught the reference to him telling her to go, back at the room in the Philippines, but only considered it in the present context. "We've come full circle. You wouldn't leave me then, and I won't leave you now."

If they were rehashing past comments, he was happy to remind Marta of hers: "We're in this together."

"I will slow you down."

He didn't deny it. "We'll manage."

"You would be better off without me," Marta admitted.

Shaking his head, Aaron was honest in his reply. "No. I really wouldn't be."

Somber, she looked up at him. "Then I'll be the death of you."

In attempting to reassure her earlier, Aaron had reassured himself. There was no way he would let Eric Byer win. The RAG had taken enough from him. No more.

"One way or another, we live through this," he promised. "Together."

Aaron was so sure and determined, Marta drew from his confidence. She thought about the last few days, how much had changed, and what was happening between them.

Since the shooting at the lab, as she fled or fought for her life in the chaos, Marta instinctively relied on Aaron. She followed his directions without question. When he shoved a backpack at her and told her to walk? Down the street she went, not knowing why or what would happen next. It proved essential to her survival. She was decided.

Awash in gratitude, Marta wrapped her arms around Aaron's neck, surprising him. "Last chance," she warned in a soft voice, her mouth behind his ear. "Are you sure you don't want to take the out?"

"Absolutely not," Aaron replied, holding her in the embrace. "We've got this."

Marta leaned back in his arms to meet his eyes. Reading nothing but resolve there, she finally nodded nervously then gave him a hopeful little smile. "All right; we do it your way. Together we beat this thing, or die trying."

"Uh, No," Aaron immediately corrected her, chiding but emphatic. "There is no 'die trying' in my plan. You've agreed to do this my way, so let's stick with 'beat this thing and live through it – together.' Got it?"

Her expression reflected a bemused acquiescence.

"Now," he continued, making a show of pulling her arms from around his neck to extricate himself. "Quit with your entrapments, so I can go figure out a plan that will actually deliver on that promise."

"My entrapments?!" Marta exclaimed, pulling away in mock affront.

In stark opposition to his comment, Aaron took her hands and wound them around her back, pinning her arms behind her. He drew her in tight against his body. His big blue eyes stared into hers with mirth as he smiled down at her. "Exactly; stop ensnaring me with your womanly wiles. I need to go and work out our salvation."

Marta laughed at the ridiculous implication she was some kind of seductive temptress. "Oh, I'm the one trapping you. Hmm?" She struggled against his hold, proving her point.

Aaron grinned and leaned over her, stealing a long, deep kiss. Marta finally broke the kiss to breathe freely but he kept his face close to hers, their noses bumping gently. His big blue eyes were suddenly serious, staring into hers. "Yes."

Marta couldn't remember asking any question he was answering. She just looked back at him, not knowing what to say or how to respond as she tried to think what it was. Whatever Aaron saw in her expression made him smile. He released her arms, gave her a parting kiss and escaped up and out onto the deck above.

Standing free in the filtered light, Marta felt alone and uneasy as reality set in. The substructure of the ship took on an eeriness and a sense of dread came over her. They had made some kind of pact. Aaron would not abandon her, though he should. That made her feel more hopeful, but she didn't share his optimism. Still, they would face this together and between the two of them, maybe they could figure out a way to survive. She needed to think – but not down here.

Marta climbed the ladder and stepped through the hatch into the bright sunlight on deck. She could feel her brain churning in her skull. It was the same feeling she had when close to a scientific breakthrough. There was something there, she just had to pull the right pieces into place. She glanced to the table under the tarpaulin cover where Aaron sat, studying the maps. Instead of joining him, she took cover under the overhang of the rusting fishing trawler's bridge. In its shade, Marta sat in solitude to seek any solution from the thoughts whirling about her mind. She tried to think through and beyond the dark, foreboding cyclone taking shape there.