Chapter 17
The Cloaking
The ship was gliding through the tide, the herd of dolphins jumped near. The captain was forced to go to this trip by traffickers. He was scared to death because he heard what happened to the last ship that traveled this region. The mercenaries were ordered by the captain of the ship to patrol in groups.
However, nobody seems to think that anything is going to happen, they yawned and played cards, laughing and drinking. Sharine laughed, joining them, and earned quite amount of money from the gambling table. Agent Cyre, who was leading this mission, wasn’t too happy about Sharine, but decided that it would be more suspicious to stay quiet and gloomy; he frequently stared at the map to check the location of the ship, contacting with the base constantly.
One of the agents, Tom, went there and played with her, leaving Cyre in distress. Tom joined the table, sitting next to Sharine. The crowd gathered, cheering and betting amongst themselves.
“I met you in the bar you know,” said Sharine to Tom.
“Really?” said Tom holding up his cards.
“Yeah, you were drunk at the bar so I stole your wallet,” smiled Sharine. Tim snorted, and throwing money on the table, the crowd cheered.
She grabbed the dices, looking at the gamers with her shrewd smile. “Now you bunch of babies. Prepare to sleep on the street!” she threw the dices.
It has been seven hours since the ship left the dock. The people in the briefing room were barely hearing the radio transmission. They were sleeping, reading or chatting. Nina was matching dinosaur puzzles which she brought from her office hour ago, murmuring that playing game with Stein is not fun because he never wins.
“Maybe the thing that attacked the ship is resting,” said Captain Stein, reading a magazine. James was making a weird expression which one cannot tell whether he is relieved or worried. James was imagining having Sharine as his wife, laughing stupidly. Stein frowned, looking pitifully at James.
James and Stein wasn’t very friendly with each other, there was always an awkward air between them which hindered them from talking casually. James knew that if it wasn’t for Nina’s nagging toward Stein, James wouldn’t be in this position. Stein didn’t like the fact that James just became the Captain without any consideration of experience or skills, but sole under Nina’s suggestion. James was a rookie under Simard Polchinski as a petty officer and looked after Nina the way before she became an admiral. He always stayed loyal to her.
Nina dialed the phone and contacted Agent Cyre.
“Agent Cyre, reporting,” Cyre’s voice came from the receiver.
“Cyre, how are we doing?” said Nina.
“It is good admiral, so far everything is good. The assassin is asking every half an hour about trying out a cloaking device, we are trying to keep her from activating it,” said Cyre, angrily. Nina and Stein both sighed.
“No sign of abnormality?” asked Nina.
“No admiral, it is a typical trafficking ship, slaves are all loaded right now,” replied Cyre.
“All right agent, keep your eyes open,” said Nina.
“Yes admiral,” replied Cyre.
The night came. Nina realized she was chewing the plastic stick as the lollipop was gone. She threw the stick toward the trash can, but missed. There were eight other sticks scattered on the floor. She stretched on her chair, yawning.
“Well, I’m going to get some coffee,” Nina murmured.
She walked to the deserted hallway. The coffee shop lady, Madam Wanda, was fully awake as many officers were sitting on the table, waiting for the news whether these creatures might show up, discussing with themselves.
“As usual, Wanda,” said Nina to Wanda.
“Of course admiral, caramel drizzles with a soy shot and a cinnamon spice, coming right up! Should I put extra shot perhaps? You look tired,” said Wanda, looking at drowsy eyes of Nina.
“That’ll be great,” murmured Nina, yawning.
Espresso machine hummed softly, dripping the thick dark liquid to the shot glasses on the bottom. Wanda steamed the milk inside the metal container and steamed it. She mixed it with chocolates and gave a coffee to Nina. Captain Stein was always worried that Nina might get diabetes.
“And here’s toasted cinnamon rolls for you,” said Mrs. Wanda. Nina grabbed the cinnamon roll, biting it on the way back to the tower.
“This is gross,” Nina murmured, smelling a stench under her clothes.
She got back, but realized the coffee didn’t do any good to keep her awake; Stein was dozing next to her. Nina felt her neck sore, blurred her vision, she struggled to awake but she fell asleep.
She dreamed about her past, the memory which haunted her during her childhood. It was a beginning of the winter, when the wind turned to a shivering cold.
Nina’s grandfather, Simard Polchinski was sweating hard, his hands shaking lightly, tried to calm Nina down, and holding her. He breathed in and out, feeling Nina’s hair, slowly blinking his wrinkled eyes.
“They betrayed us… I guess my little protection failed to save me. Well, Nina, my child, you still has time to escape. I hope those bastard will not look too hard for one little girl, but I won’t take any chances. Be strong and survive, Nina, you will follow the escape route. It will lead you to the forest,” Simard gave white handkerchief to Nina. “Soak this in the water, and you will see the address written with a black thread. Go to that address. It is in the town called Oldvale. Oh, and you will need a magnifying glass to see the address written there,” Simard took off his necklaces with the oval glass to Nina, hanging it around her neck; and then he reached inside his pocket and gave her the key. Nina’s tiny palm grabbed the key tightly. He continued,
“It’s an abandoned property I bought in the past. You will find a small axe in the house somewhere. If you have found it, go to the second floor and look for the stag head on the wall. Use your axe to break the wooden wall right below it. In there, you will have some money to make living,” said Simard.
“Grandpa… I’m… I’m scared,” sniffed Nina.
“Nina, for me, you are the gift from God. Seeing you growing up gave me happiness which for so long have depleted in my life,” smiled Simard, looking into her eyes. Nina was crying, hugging Simard.
“The house has many secrets. It is like a game, Nina, go look for it! Remember the time that you told me that you always wanted to become adventurer?” smiled Simard, wiping her tears.
From outside, they’ve heard a men shouting, and it was coming near. Simard stopped and heard the wood creaking from above.
“It is time Nina, go down, now!” hissed Simard.
Simard pushed her roughly that she almost fell down on the basement. Simard had a bitter look in his face; he looked away, closing the metal door. And checked his pistol and started walking upstairs. There was a loud bang on the door at the time Simard was in the living room.
“Hello gentlemen,” said Simard.
“Mr. Polchinski, we have a reason to believe that you’re engaged in a developing WMD for revel groups in our country,” said the officer in a military uniform, grinning, taking off his leather gloves putting it into his pockets. “I’m afraid you are under arrest and we will have to search your house,”
Simard glimpsed at his yard, there were many others, fully armed.
“Quite an army you brought. Are you a fool or a coward? I’m one old man after all,” said Simard, the man scoffed.
“Your house is quite big. I don’t find it pleasant searching your stinking house,” the officer chuckled.
“Really? I guess dogs are the dogs after all,” said Simard, grinning.
The officer kicked old Polchinski on the stomach. He gasped and fell down on the floor.
“What was that, Polchinski? You pathetic old man. Go boys, search this damn fucking house,” the man spit on the floor. The soldiers went in and started to search the house. The officer took out the pistol, playing it around in his hands. Simard slowly stared at th
e ceiling.
“What are you staring, old fart?” the officer barked. But Simard was silent; the officer kicked his face. “What the fuck are you staring at? Eh?” the officer started stepping on him. Simard didn’t scream, making a muffed sound. His hand became purple and blue, shaking.
Nina was running inside the tunnel, and she almost saw the exit, she grabbed the handle and opened the gate. The wire tipped, the living room light suddenly burnt out with the blinding flesh. Simard smiled. The officer startled at this, looking around the dark room. Simard started laughing like a mad man.
“What, what is that? What is that!?” The officer suddenly got afraid of the sudden blackout in the house, held the gun out, trembling. Simard’s penguin alarm clock started quacking loudly. The officer was stuttering and cursing, demanding the answer from Simard but as he just laughed, he shot Simard’s shoulder several times.
“What the fuck is that!” bellowed the officer, panicking. Simard felt as if the fire went through his shoulder, numbingly painful. The officer grabbed Simard’s neck and held him up. Simard opened his bruised eyes, chuckling and opened his torn out lips.
“Good bye kid,” Simard grinned. The officer screeched with anger and shot Simard on his head and started running towards the exit, but suddenly the bomb got exploded, making a loud crashing sound. The officer couldn’t even scream; the house was flown to air, into the debris and ruin.
Nina was groaning in her sleep, someone shook her and she woke up. It was Stein; Nina felt horrible, shaking a little.
“Admiral, we got something,” said Stein.
In the ship, Sharine was delightful. She put the gear on and activated the cloaking device from the restroom. “What can I say, this is cool,” said Sharine standing in front of mirror, seeing nothing. She disappeared and went out the restroom. Sharine carelessly bumped with the drunken sailor with long grey hair who tried to pee, leaving her clueless and dumbfounded. Sharine jumped out the restroom and ran on the hallway.