Chapter 21
From the foyer of the ship, looking up to the upper deck where the tycoon host was entertaining his VIP guests, Lorcan could see the woman in the velvet dress. She glanced at him, nodded, and smiled. But unlike what had happened before, she remained there, talking to the other guests, and didn’t approach him.
Faye stood next to him, so Lorcan turned and asked, “Is it possible that the situation here has changed compared to what happened before because I’ve come back from Nepolymbus?”
She nodded.
This is not good, Lorcan thought. It meant he didn’t have any advantages from the come-back, and there was no way they could benefit from what he had learned before. There was one thing, however, that he was certain was unchanged, and that was his thievery mission.
He entered the hallway and used the boat’s phone to contact his client. He entered the passcode and pin number. The encoded message he received suggested that the mission was still on. He nodded at Faye, Kai, and Millie and headed downstairs. They followed him.
In the narrow corridor that led toward the compartment where he knew the tycoon kept the safe, the light flickered a couple of times and then became steady. Lorcan waited. Before the group caught up to him, a waiter carrying a tray of drinks on his hand walked toward Lorcan.
Lorcan stepped aside to let him pass. As he moved past, Lorcan noted he wore a large ring on the outside of the gloved hand with which he held the tray above his shoulder. When the hand got close to Lorcan, a needle poked out of the ring. Lorcan figured the woman’s role had been passed on to this waiter.
He grabbed the waiter’s hand with one of his own, scooped the tray away from him, and then stuck the waiter with his own needle.
The group approached him. He thrust the tray at Kai and caught the waiter as he slumped down.
“To the elevator compartment on the left, second to the last door,” he said.
He half-dragged, half-carried the waiter to the elevator compartment and squeezed him in. Then they went down a level. Lorcan navigated back to the where the explosion had occurred previously.
He pushed the waiter in.
“We need to wake him,” Lorcan said.
Kai said nothing. He picked the waiter up by the collar and punched him in the face.
Lorcan pushed Kai to the side. “That’s not how you wake a man …”
The man moaned, and his eyes fluttered open.
Lorcan rolled his eyes and searched him, pulling a gun from the waiter’s pocket.
“Did you plant explosives in here? Don’t lie because you’re going to be staying right here with us,” Lorcan said.
The waiter shook his head.
“Is there a disposable submarine attached to this compartment?”
He shook his head again.
Lorcan grabbed a rope he found behind some equipment and tied the waiter securely to a steel rail. “Where’s the safe?”
“I don’t know about any safe.”
He pointed the gun at the waiter’s head. “We don’t have time for nonsense. Where is the artifact? Tell me, or I’ll blow your head off.”
“Don’t…please. It’s here. In here. There isn’t a safe.”
Lorcan pressed the gun harder against his temple.
“It’s under the tank. In a box. Please don’t kill me. It’s just a job. Take what you want.”
Lorcan left the waiter and headed to the tank in the corner. It was empty, and from the bottom, he pulled out a large steel box with a lock.
“It’s primitive technology. Shouldn’t take long,” he muttered and quickly decoded the lock.
In a few seconds, the lock clicked open. He opened the lid and saw a time bomb staring up at him. Its clock was counting down.
“Explosives. We’ve got sixty seconds. I’m sure this is your Key of Pisces box. But I don’t have time to unlock the key box to check.”
Lorcan carefully pulled out a box with carving on top that he knew he had seen before. He thrust it at Faye.
He turned back to the bomb.
“Shouldn’t we run now?” Kai asked.
“Untie me, please. Let me go. I know nothing about this!” The waiter cried.
Lorcan gingerly separated the wires on the explosive. “You go,” he said to Faye. “There won’t be enough time to make it off the ship. But there’ll be a lesser impact from above.”
“I won’t leave you here,” Faye said.
“Let me go!” The waiter cried again.
“Look out!” Kai shouted and darted toward Faye. He pulled her toward him, the momentum pushing his body forward and copping the full impact of a blade from Millie, who was standing behind Faye.
Millie withdrew the blade, and Kai’s body collapsed to the floor.
Faye and Lorcan turned to Millie and saw that her face had turned white, and her eyes were bloodshot. One of her arms was transforming from a blade back to its normal shape, and the other was holding the key box.
“You’re that hologram,” Lorcan said.
“You’re the sea witch, Sonya,” Faye muttered.
“You can retrieve the bodies of your servant Millie and her boyfriend from the bottom of the sea.” Sonya turned to leave.
“Not so fast,” said Lorcan.
He pulled his gun and savaged Sonya’s head. He had been quick, and she hadn’t been able to use her magic to avoid the hit.
Her head and body exploded.
As the bomb ticked down to the final seconds, Lorcan pushed Faye out of the way and threw himself on top of it.
The bomb was about to explode in a few seconds.
Faye used every ounce of her power to whistle, a terrifying sound with a frequency that could cut the sea in half.
The sound penetrated the wall of the ship and opened up into the water. The sea poured inside. The liquid environment was best for her power. The power of the sound knocked Lorcan out.
She grabbed Kai’s body, and then Lorcan by the collar, and then shot through the water to move them all outside the ship.
The explosion came.
She felt the impact, but she pushed forward with the waves and the pressure. Lorcan and Kai were totally unresponsive. The ship split in half, and each side of it began to drop down into the deep sea.
People jumped and cried out for rescue. Shards of wood from the broken boat floated around her. Amid the chaos, through the layers of dark water, she could see the box with the key in it sinking in the distance.
She had to let the Key of Pisces go.
She made a mental note of its location so that she could come back later. But for now, Lorcan’s and Kai’s bodies dangled from her hands. She needed to bring them to safety.
She turned around, looking inland, where help from humans would come. She swam toward a large piece of wood from a broken door and flung Lorcan and Kai on top. She dove beneath the water’s surface, grabbed the door handle, and pushed them toward the shore.
She didn’t just swim, she surfed the currents. She commanded the waves, gathered the energy of water, and charged ahead.