John Avery - Black Cobra

“ HEY! ” Brandy shouted. “ What the hell are you DOING? ”

Jason started, easing his hold on Katya, and then he stood and folded his knife into his pocket. Katya jumped up and ran to Brandy, tears flowing down her face.

“You lousy son-of-a-bitch,” Brandy said, holding Katya tightly in her arms. She wanted to tear Jason’s lungs out and feed them to him with a fork.

Jason just stood there looking smug.

Brandy straightened Katy’s dress and took her by the hand. “Come, sweetie,” she said. “Let’s get you far away from this psychotic sicko .”

She led Katya out of the Captain’s Cabin and headed for the nearest watertight hatch: Compartment One, the Forward Torpedo Room.

Brandy swung the heavy hatch cover closed, and then turned to Katya, taking her gently by the shoulders. “Let me look at you,” she said, looking her up and down. “Did he hurt you? What did he do to you?”

Katya was trembling, tears and mascara streaming down her cheeks. Brandy could see that an angry bruise was forming on her upper arm. She gave Katya a gentle, swaying hug. Katya hugged her back gratefully.

“H-he had a knife,” Katya said, sobbing. “He said he would —”

“Damn him!” Brandy cried. “I’ll kill that fucking asshole.” She picked up a heavy piece of iron pipe. “If Jason Beckham is stupid enough to show his ugly face in here, I’ll crack his fucking skull.”

Just then Richard Fagan drove up and parked along the boardwalk near the Maritime Museum. His girlfriend, Martha, was in the car with him.

“You go on ahead,” he said to her. “I’ll meet you on the sub. I have to make a quick call.”

Martha did as she was told.

Fagan took out his phone and called Captain Henk Zaane, giving him the scheduled departure time for the President’s VIP tour.

“So we’re good to go?” Fagan asked.

“Affirmative,” Captain Zaane said. He would adjust Neau Islander’s departure time accordingly. “I’ll churn up some good foam for you.”

Fagan smiled. “You do that, Captain,” he said. “We can use all the cover we can get.”

He hung up and went to find Martha.

“You sit here and rest,” Brandy said, helping Katya to a seat in a corner. “Where the hell’s Aaron? Did you ever find him?”

Katya wiped the tears from her face with the backs of her fingers and then relayed everything she’d overheard about the plot to assassinate the President, telling Brandy that Jason Beckham was involved.

Brandy was speechless. Then, just as Aaron had done, she recalled the wild story Jason had told them that night down in Mexico in the Cabo Wabo Cantina.

Oh my dear God , she thought. That load of drunken crap Jason fed me and Aaron that night in Cabo was TRUE! Why did we not SEE that?

“Aaron went to see if there’s a safe way for us to get off the submarine,” Katya said. “So he’ll be looking for me. But he thinks I’m in the Captain’s Cabin.”

“I’ll watch for him,” Brandy said. She adjusted her grip on her iron-pipe club, and pulled the hatch cover open a little, leaving it slightly ajar.

“How are you feeling?” Brandy asked. “How’s your arm?”

“I guess I’m okay,” Katya said, finding that her new bruise was tender to the touch. “I just wish Aaron would come back so we can get off this god-forsaken submarine .”

“You and me both,” Brandy said.

“How long have you known him?” Katya asked.

“Aaron? Oh, just a few weeks,” Brandy said. “We sailed up here to San Diego from the Caymans together, so I got to know him pretty well.”

“Would you want him? If you weren’t already with Jason, that is?”

Brandy looked at her, surprised. “You mean as a boyfriend?”

“Yes, Brandy,” Katya said. “As a boyfriend.”

Brandy smiled to herself. Ekatarina was so young and naive. She could never understand what she and Aaron had been through together, and how close they really were.

She wanted to tell her about how whenever Jason was busy at the helm, they would sit together, just the two of them, talking for hours under a brilliant canopy of Caribbean stars.

She wanted to tell her about how Aaron had looked at her with desire in his eyes that morning on the Panama Canal, and how close they had come to making love.

But what good would it do to go on about what might have been? Aaron was Ekatarina’s man now.

“Yes, my dear,” she said at last. “Yes, I would want him.”

“I’m hoping to marry Aaron one day,” Katya said.

Brandy sighed. She could only dream of doing that. For better or for worse, she was with Jason, and she had a wedding ring to prove it.

Uri Ruden was up on deck checking out something near the stern of the boat. He saw Aaron and acknowledged him. Aaron walked over and said hello, acting as if nothing was wrong.

“Just taking a look at some of the repairs,” Uri said. “This used to be the emergency escape hatch. Not much good now, though, since they welded it shut. Wouldn’t want to try and escape from this sub.”

Aaron thought about that for a moment.

“How’s the party going?” Uri asked.

“To be honest, it’s kinda not,” Aaron said.

“Commander Fagan should be here soon,” Uri said. “He’ll get things rolling.”

“Are you expecting anyone else?” Aaron asked.

“Fagan will bring his girlfriend, Martha, of course,” Uri said, “and Captain Pankov is flying in from Russia… but I’m not sure if he’ll show tonight.”

Katya’s father’s coming? Aaron thought. It was appearing more and more unlikely that he and Katya could slip away from the party unnoticed.

“What do you say we go below and wait for them?” Uri said. “I’m ready for another drink.”

“You go on ahead,” Aaron said. “I’ll be along in a minute.”

Uri nodded and went below.

Aaron tried his cell phone, but there was still no service.

He was about to go below again to find Katya when he heard what sounded like a pair of high heels crossing the wooden gangplank. He stepped behind the fin, and when the woman stepped through the opening in the tarp he saw that she was alone.

He froze. The woman looked familiar. Oh, my God, he thought.

He blinked hard and looked again. Could it be? Her hair was different, and she was very thin, but it was definitely her. It was Aaron’s mother! Ashley Quinn!

He wanted to leap for joy and yell, Mom! It’s me. Aaron! You’re alive! Oh my God! You’re alive!

But as he stepped out from behind the fin preparing to give her a huge hug, all she did was stop and look at him.

“May I help you?” she said.

For a moment Aaron could only stand there staring. His mother had never looked at him that way before. It was as if she were looking at a total stranger.

“Y-you don’t remember me, do you,” he said at last.

“No…” she said, looking at him expectantly. “Should I?”

Is it because I’m older? Aaron thought. Or has something terrible happened to her because of the accident? Certainly she would recognize her own son — no matter how long it’s been. Has she lost her memory?

“I’m sorry,” he said. “For a moment I thought I knew you. My name is Aaron.”

“I’m Martha,” she said, relaxing a bit now.

Martha? What happened to Ashley? His mother had lost her memory.

He noticed she’d been crying, and his urge to hug her, to comfort her, grew even stronger. But he refrained.