"Nice work, John B. You know these things lock from the outside, right?" JJ questioned, irritably.
"I know. Look, I was just trying to get us onto the boat, JJ," he responded, "I wasn't thinking any farther ahead."
"Yeah, well now we're stuck in here like rats."
"It's really hot in here," Coral complained, stripping off her jacket alongside Kie.
"It's like a death trip!"
"JJ, you're not really helping right now."
"You don't have a lot of room to talk right now," JJ responded to Pope, "You said you had a plan, but what happened to thinking ahead?"
"Um, when have you ever thought ahead with any of your plans? So, you don't get to bitch right now," Pope retorted, glaring at JJ.
"I thought ahead on this one. I said once we're in there's no getting out," JJ reminded them as he stripped his jacket off.
"And we said you didn't have to come!"
"Oh, will you two shut up!" Kie exclaimed.
"Really, you're like an old married couple," Coral remarked.
"We need to pull it together," Kie told them, "Now instead of bitching let's find a way out of here."
"You know in order to take the bridge we're gonna need fire power," JJ said as they searched for a way out, "I know for a fact they have an armory on this ship in case of pirate attacks."
"Pirate attacks?" Kie questioned, rolling her eyes.
"So, we need to get there and I'm not just talking about pistols," he continued as Kie shook her head.
"You lost me," she said, moving down the aisle to continue searching for a way out.
"I'm talking knives," JJ went on, ignoring Kie, "They have, like, AK's, pistols, knives, double barrels."
"Baby, killing everyone here isn't an option," Coral spoke up patting his shoulder before moving past him to follow Kie.
"Alright, we lost them, but are you with me?" JJ asked, looking at John B and Pope.
Shaking her head, Coral continued towards Kie who was busy moving the cargo around, "Any luck?"
"Well," the curly haired girl responded, pointing. Looking up at the side of the container towards a window with a grate big enough to fit through Coral nodded, "Yeah, that'll work."
"Guys!" both Kie and Coral hissed, interrupting the arguing trio.
"Did you find something?" John B whispered hurrying towards them with JJ and Pope not to far behind.
"Pretty sure we can fit through there," Kie responded, nodding up to the grated window.
"Hell yeah. Nice one, Kie."
"JJ, you got your army knife?" Coral quesitoned.
"Never leave home without it," he replied, pulling it out of his pocket. Climbing up to the window he used the knife to work the bolts loose on the grate.
"Okay, we raid the armory, get weapons, roll back here, and plot the next move," JJ told them as he worked the bolts loose, "The armory is on the third deck," he said, handing the last bolt down to Pope, "Aft, near the laundry room. Okay, let's roll."
"JJ, hold up," Pope stopped him from pulling the grate from the window, "I don't think all of us should go out there. It's to risky."
"Why?"
"Okay, I've gotta be honest with you, I think you should stay here," John B said to the blonde.
"What?"
"I have Sarah that I'm gonna go after," John B replied, "And Pope has."
"The cross," Pope chimed in.
"Yeah, let's go get it," JJ reponsded, looking between the two.
"Also, if you go out there, there's one hundred percent probability that you're gonna do something stupid."
"Okay, first of all I think the correct terminology is ballsy," JJ retorted.
"Okay, get down," Pope said, pulling on JJ's arm.
"No. Get off," JJ told him, pushing him away as he jumped down, "You know I'm a field player," he told Pope and John B.
"Right, so if we go out there and get into a bind, we need somebody to look out for us," John B said, attempting to placate JJ, "That's what we need."
"Okay. I get it. I'm on the B team," JJ responded, rolling his eyes.
"I never said B team."
"I'm sorry. Are you calling me the B team?" Kie questioned.
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you," JJ told her, sarcastically.
"Relax, Kie. I'm pretty sure the B team is the better team considering you found our way out and JJ had the necessary tools to actually get us out," Coral spoke up, glaring at both John B and Pope.
"It's alright. I know when I'm benched," JJ said before turning and walking down the aisle towards the back of the shipping container.
"Are you serious?" Coral hissed looking at the other two boys, "Everything he does is for you and for us and you make him feel like total shit."
"Look, we didn't mean it like that," John B insisted.
"Well, it came out like that. So, go find your girlfriend and go find your cross and when you two get into trouble out there I'll send JJ out to save your asses," she responded before turning and following after where JJ had gone.
Finding him sitting in the middle of a coil of hoses Coral smiled as she stepped over the hoses and sat down next to him, "They're assholes," she stated.
Snorting, he kissed the side of her head, "Ain't no secret. I do stupid shit," he stated.
"Yeah, and most times you have good outcomes," she quipped as he laughed, "Plus your heart is usually in the right place."
"That's because it's with you," he whispered.
Smiling, she turned his head and kissed him, "Always," she promised.
"So, would now be a bad time to bring up you basically making out with Pope yesterday?" he questioned with a smirk.
"I was not making out with him! I was saving his life," she retorted.
"I don't know, I thought I saw some tongue being slipped in there," he teased. Rolling her eyes she shook her head, "You're ridiculous. You should know by now you're the only one for me."
"Yeah, I do," he confirmed, "I'm just fucking with you. You know with my dad skipping out maybe I should talk to Shoupe about emancipation too. If we're both emancipated we could get married then."
"Do you really think Luke is gone for good?"
"Seems like it," he rescinded with a shrug, "And even if he does come back it's not like I'd want to live with him anyway. I was gone for months and he never came looking for me," he reminded her.
"True," she conceded, "Then yeah, you should talk to Shoupe because the faster I can change my last name the better."
"You know we're already hot and sweaty in here," he whispered, twisting his fingers into her hair as he pulled her closer to kiss her.
"Excuse me! Just a reminder you two are not alone in here," Kie reminded them loudly as she came down the aisle effectively breaking them apart.
Groaning, JJ glared at her as she jumped up onto some of the cargo to sit above them, "You know you could take yourself off to the front of the container and leave the back to us."
"You are not fucking in this container with me in it! It's bad enough you two fornicated in my mother's SUV."
"We did not!" Coral exclaimed wide eyed, elbowing JJ when he snorted out a laugh.
"You two are like rabbits!"
"Oh my God! I feel like we should just sit in silence until we need to go rescue the A team," Coral declared.
"I've been thinking," JJ said several minutes later, unable to stand the silence, "When this is all over, and we're rolling in the dough, we should get new boards and deck them out, and then go on a surf trip," he told Coral.
"Yeah? Where are we gonna go?" she questioned.
"I don't know where, but, like, the world's calling," he replied, "I don't know name a place."
"Spain."
"Then after Spain, South America or South Africa," he told her with a smile as she laughed, "Hell, maybe we'll end up in, like, Micronesia, or something, and then we'll just ride."
"Ride to wherever the wave takes us?"
"Yep," he answered, "We'll get a shack somewhere eventually; on an island or something. We'll spend our days cooking fish over the fire and surfing the waves, and spend our nights making those babies we talked about."
"Babies?" Kie questioned quietly.
Blinking as Coral forgot she was there she looked up at her friend and nodded, "Babies," she repeated, "A whole slew of them that we can teach how to surf, and to spoil and love rotten."
"Sounds perfect," Kie responded with a smile, "Any chance you need Auntie Kie to help love and spoil some mini Maybanks?"
"We'll build you a shack right next door," JJ told her nodding,
"Hey," came a whispered voice along with a low whistle.
"Shit!" JJ exclaimed before bolting down the aisle back towards the window grate.
Hurrying down the aisle too Coral sighed with relief as John B and Pope climbed back inside. Furrowing her brow at the third person coming through the window she gasped in recognition, "Cleo!"
Surging forward she hugged the girl they'd left in the Bahamas, "Cheese on bread!" Cleo exclaimed, hugging Coral back, "John B, I'm gonna kill you. He didn't say you were here too," Cleo said, pulling back to look at Coral.
"Who is this?"
"This is Cleo. The girl that helped us in the Bahamas," Coral responded to Kie.
"She's gonna help us now, too, right?" John B asked, hopefully.
"Are you out of your mind?" Cleo questioned, "The five of you, with no weapons that I see, decided you were gonna hijack this tramp steamer on your own? Do you have any idea on who these people are? Eberhimi, if he catches you, he's gonna kill you," she told them.
"So, what if we wait till we get to port?" Kie suggested, "At least then, if something goes wrong we have a place to run."
"No, no we can't do that," Pope shook his head.
"Why?"
"Because I've run the scenario over a thousand times in my head, and our best chances are on this boat," he responded, "Cleo said there's fifteen crew members and there's six of us. That's better than three to one, it's almost two to one."
"But not," Kie remarked, "For three of us it's still three to one."
"Look, it's the best it's gonna get. If we wait till we get there, they'll trap us," he argued, looking at Kie.
"There's something else. Something you all need to know," John B spoke up before looking at Coral, "Ward's alive. He's on the boat too."
"What?" she breathed out sagging back into JJ as he put his arm around her shoulders, "How's that possible?"
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!"
"It was all a set up, blowing up the boat, the confession to Shoupe. Think about it," John B said before Coral interrupted him.
"It was to clear Rafe from Peterkin's murder."
Nodding at his sister John B pointed his finger at her, "Bingo. So Ward goes to the Druther's and what's on the Druther's?"
"Scuba gear," Kie answered, shaking her head in disbelief.
"So, Ward's alive, and he has the gold, and the cross, and freaking Sarah."
"Thanks for the reminder, JJ."
"So, he's just gonna get away with everything again, huh?" he questioned, ignoring Kie, "It's not happening," he declared, "We're not watching this movie again, right Pope? You're the one who said we needed a freaking win," he reminded him, "And with her," he said pointing at Cleo, "We're going to the bridge and we're gonna take it right now."
"So, this is JJ?" Cleo asked, looking at Coral.
Smiling, she nodded, "This is JJ."
"I wanna be the one to take the bridge," Pope announced.
Scoffing, Cleo shook her head, "You wanna take the bridge? You couldn't even take me."
"Okay, first of all I was going easy on you," Pope defended himself.
"I went easy on you," Cleo retorted.
"Look, here's the plan. Coral told me about that knife you have so we use that," JJ said, pointing to Cleo, "You go up, hold it against the captain's neck and have him go over the intercom. Make him tell the rest of the crew to meet up in the forward hull. Once they're all together we lock them in there and we take back what's ours."
"I like it. It could work," Pope agreed.
"Alright, are you with us then?" JJ asked Cleo.
"No! This is stupid," she replied, going silent when they heard men shouting from outside.
"They're checking the containers!" Kie hissed.
"Cleo!"
"What are you doing?" Coral asked as Cleo jumped up and began to work the grate back off the window. Shushing them she handed the grate to Kie before shimmying her way back out of the window.
"She's gonna tell them," Pope whispered as they heard Cleo yelling for Macias.
"No, she's not," Coral whispered back listening as Cleo claimed that she'd already looked through this particular container, "I knew she was a Pogue the first time I met her."
"Okay, she's on our side. That's good," Pope said as they listened at the grate.
Hearing Cleo whistle from outside, Pope moved the grate out of the window so he could slide out of the container, "Okay, Pope. We'll wait for your signal," JJ told him as he disappeared through the window.