Chapter 8
1703 Words
8
“A good morning to you, my friend,” he greeted her. Allie’s mouth flopped open and shut, and the man’s smile widened. “Has it been so long that you’ve forgotten me?”
Allie shook herself free of her stupor and shook her head. “N-no. I mean, I’m just-um, surprised to see you here.”
“Good,” he beamed as he strode forward and looped his arm through one of hers. He smoothly slipped her out of the grasp of the officers and turned them toward the ship. “I wouldn’t mind a long chat with you in my cabin.” He leaned a little closer to her and a few whispered words from him floated down to her. “Get ready to run.”
Allie stiffened and her eyes flickered up to his tense but smiling face.
“A moment, sir,” the officer called to them. The man froze with Allie’s arm held tightly in his grasp. Allie could hear the clack of the officer’s boots on the wood boards as he approached. “If you might provide your own identification, we may let you take this young woman-”
The stranger’s hand slipped into one of Allie’s and he yanked her along with him. “Run!”
“Hold it!” the officer shouted.
Allie looked over her shoulder and watched both men pull out their guns. The cylinders lit up with an intense blue light and the lightning bounced around inside the glass like a dozen sugar-high kids in an inflatable castle. They pulled the triggers and the lightning shot out in laser-gun like blue pellets.
That’s when the pier ended. Allie let out a scream as they dropped the yard into the water. She came up sputtering water and her hair clung to her face, blocking some of her view. The man popped up beside her, and she glared at him. “What the hell are you-”
“Deep breath!” he shouted as he grabbed the top of her head and shoved her down.
Allie had just enough time to take a little gulp before water pushed against her lips. She could hardly see anything in the murky water and jerked back when a hand looped around her waist. The man’s face loomed out of the shadows and he gave her a grin before he pulled her through the water. She almost sputtered out her air at how fast they swam. It was like being strapped to an Olympic-grade swimmer. He wasn’t slowed down by her weight at all as he drew them down at an angle.
Still, it wasn’t quite fast enough.
Allie’s position in his hold meant she faced the glistening surface. The distorted forms of the officers hovered at the end of the dock. Her eyes widened as they aimed the glowing barrels at the water. The blue pellets struck the water and kept going far enough to graze past them at a speed slow enough for Allie to watch them fly by. Tiny blue sparks shot out and not only illuminated the area around them but discharged a weak electric current. The shock nearly forced Allie to cry out in surprise and a little pain, but she pursed her lips tightly together.
They swam deeper and farther, beyond the range of the officers, and the hull of the ship rose up on their left. They passed by the bow and swam around to the port side of the boat. By that time Allie’s lung screamed for more air. She thrashed in his hold to break free and swim to the surface, but he held tight. Her lips burst apart and the last of her air escaped in a short stream of bubbles.
The man got the hint and made for the surface. Allie’s lungs filled with water. The world around her began to fade. She felt a pair of warm lips on her own and the rush of water stopped. Her shocked eyes stared into the face of the stranger. His goggles were gone, and she glimpsed a pair of brilliant blue eyes. They were as blue as azure with a brilliant crystalline effect around the black pupils.
Air flooded into her mouth, but it was too little too late as she lost consciousness.
Darkness swallowed her into its cold embrace, but Allie wasn’t held for long. Movement disturbed her sleep and brief glimpses of the waking world flickered across her mind like an old television set. The sunlit ocean spread out in front of her. The groan of rope came to her ears. She swayed side-to-side atop something hard and soft at the same time. Blackness, and then sunlight again, this time above her. She lay on something hard.
Allie forced open her eyes and blinked against a weak strand of sunlight on her face. She tried to sit up, but a gentle hand pressed against her shoulder. “Not that way,” a voice whispered. “You’re not going to feel well soon and sitting up isn’t what you’re going to want to do.”
The voice was right as the world came back into view. The stranger leaned over her with concern on his face. His clothes clung to him, and he once again wore the goggles. Allie briefly wondered if she’d imagined what she saw in the water.
That’s when the contents of her stomach flipped, and so did Allie. She felt the bile rise up in her throat and quickly rolled onto her stomach. A combination of sea water and stomach fluid forced itself out of her mouth and splashed onto the familiar wooden deck of the Belmonte, though with more oil stains than she remembered. Her lungs still burned, and her body ached with cold, but those were signs that she was indeed still alive, and certainly alive enough to deal with the stranger who knelt beside her.
Allie flopped onto her side and frowned up at him. “What the hell was that?”
He flashed her a mischievous smile. “I did say deep breath.”
She choked on some more salt water and a shudder ran through her. “We-” Another fit interrupted her “-we could have drowned!”
Some of his humor faded, replaced by a pensive look. “We could have, but we didn’t. Or would you rather have stayed with those other two gentlemen?”
The thought of being dragged away to the far reaches of that foreign city dampened Allie’s anger. She dropped her eyes to the grimy deck and sighed. “I’m… I’m sorry. I should be thanking you, not yelling at-”
Allie froze as her eyes brushed over the area. They sat in the middle of a long corridor with the exterior wall being the metal sheets that made up the hull of the vessel. The wall fifteen feet opposite the other was lined with crates and worn travel trunks. Those were strapped to the wall by thick, rough nets. The floor was of rough wood stained with boots and spilled cargo long-since hauled away. Gas lamps placed every twenty feet dimly illuminated the interior, but the greatest light came at her back. The panel behind Allie had been rolled into the interior of the ship and to one side, creating a hole that allowed the sun reflected off the port water to shine in.
She returned her attention to her companion with blinking eyes and mouth slightly agape. “Where exactly are we?”
He inspected the area around them with slight bemusement. “The lower decks in one of the loading doors for supplies and where the extra luggage is stored. Not exactly a classy place, but it’s better than the water.”
“How did we even get up here?” Allie wondered as she rolled over and found herself a foot away from the edge of the ship.
Metal hooks were attached at even intervals along the floor in front of the open exterior panel. Rope wrapped around two side-by-side hooks. Allie leaned over the edge of the ship and saw a rope ladder descent all the way to the water line. She looked to her right at her companion. “Where did you get the rope?”
“From one of the old nets they tossed aside. It was too torn to haul the cargo,” he explained as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Allie squinted at the darkness and beheld a pile of disused and ragged netting. The man gave her a smile and a wink. “Always have an alternate way of escape, even off a ship.”
She blinked at him. “Then you’re a passenger?”
“In a way,” he replied as he looked her over. “What about you?”
His question set off alarm bells in Allie’s mind. “What about me?”
“I heard you tell the officers that you knew someone on the ship,” he revealed as he climbed to his feet. His goggles pointed down at her and she squinted to try to see through the thick glass, but to no avail. Even the gleam of the sun didn’t penetrate the darkness. “So, who are you?”
Allie frowned. “My name’s Allie. What’s yours?”
“What were you doing on the docks?” he inquired as he folded his arms over his chest but didn’t avert his gaze from her. At least, she didn’t think so. “You’re obviously not of this world or you would have been smart enough to avoid the port police.”
“You didn’t answer-”
“A portal,” the man guessed as he cupped his chin in one hand. “Definitely a space one, hence your unfamiliarity with the blood bonding law on Pallido. But time?” He knelt in front of her, and Allie leaned back to give herself more space. A tense silence invaded the air around them. He lowered his voice to a whisper, as though he was speaking more to himself than to her. “One who crossed time and space…”
Shouts shattered the silence.
- Writer
