Cliff Ryder - The Ties That Bind

"Where are we going?" she asked, watching the sonar as the subs gave chase.

"Anywhere but here," he said, trying to focus on maneuvering the vessel around rock clusters and large chunks of floating ice. The tide must have come in, bringing the ice with it. "For now, we just need a place to hide, but before we can do that…"

He veered sharply to the left, dodging a massive piece of ice and one of the other subs that had somehow managed to pull even with them.

"We've got to get away from these guys," he said.

Tina had been smart enough, he noted, to buckle herself in, and she'd quickly learned how to move with the craft, rather than fight against it. "If you can lose them, I think I know of a place we can hide," she said.

He was about to reply when she shouted, "Look out!"

But the warning came too late. The Scorpion clipped one of the larger pieces of floating ice, spun in the water and came nose to nose with one of the minisubs.

"Damn it!" Jason yelled. "Hang on!"

He slammed the craft into full reverse, but it was almost impossible to maneuver. His collision with the ice had damaged something, and the other sub stayed with him. Taking a risk, he extended the arms of the Scorpion to their full length, then slammed on the brakes. "Brace yourself!" he shouted.

The other sub smashed into the arms at nearly full speed. They pierced the main window of the craft, shattering it and allowing the sea to pour mercilessly inside. He could see the horror and surprise on the faces of the two men inside. Their mouths were open in screams of panic that he was grateful he couldn't hear. At least their deaths would be quick, Jason thought. That was more than they would have likely offered him if he'd been captured.

Engaging the engines once more, Jason began to back off, using the extended arms to shake the other sub free. One of them broke off completely, lodged in the metal frame of the craft. The other came free and he retracted it back to the body of the Scorpion.

He got them turned around, and dived lower, hoping that the other sub would be too busy trying to figure out what had happened to keep tracking them for at least a few minutes. Glancing at Tina, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears and her lips were moving silently.

"I didn't have a choice," he said softly. "They would have tried to sink us."

She shook her head. "I'm not…I'm not upset at you. All of this is just…it's so real…I don't know if that makes any sense or not."

"I'm not sure," he said. "What do you mean?"

Tina wiped her eyes. "Ever since we met, it's been like one long video game, you know? People shooting and dying and danger and thinking about those things, even playing games or watching movies, it's…it's not the same, is it?"

He shook his head. "No, I suppose it's not. Especially when you're not used to it."

"Trust me," she said, "I'm way beyond my depth here — no pun intended." She gestured at the murky water all around them.

He chuckled. "Fair enough," he said. "But I need you to hang in there for a bit longer, okay? There's at least one more sub out there looking for us, so if you know of a safe harbor where we can hide for a while, I'd sure like to know about it."

"I do," she said. "Can you bring up the map again?"

He tapped the controls and checked the sonar again for the other sub. He didn't want any more surprises at this point. He could handle it, but the Scorpion wasn't in great shape and Tina surely couldn't handle much more. She wasn't cut out for the life of a supersecret spy. But then again, not many people were.

"There," she said, pointing to a little inlet not far away.

"Why there?" he asked.

"Because there's nothing there," she said. "The ocean has eroded all the soil beneath the grasses, but they still float on the top of the water most of the year, except when it completely freezes. There should be plenty of hiding room beneath them."

"Good idea," he said, steering the craft toward the coordinates she'd pointed out.

Maybe she wasn't cut out to be a spy, but she was smart enough to think like one. He decided that no matter what, he did like that in a woman.

In fact, he liked her more than he wanted to admit. And that, he realized ruefully, made it personal.

He had to get her out of the way or abort, because once it got personal, almost every mission failed. Denny was right about that much, anyway.

"I think we lost them," Jason said, alternating his gaze between the view screen, which showed little but dark, muddy water and the hanging roots of the grasses above them, and the various scanners and sonar the computer was running.

"Good," Tina said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Now what?"

"We need to find a place to dock," he said, engaging the engines and easing the damaged Scorpion through the water. It lacked much of its normal grace and was running on about half its usual power. The currents that would normally be of little consequences buffeted the craft with disturbing force. Jason looked over the damage report again, and knew he needed time to do some repairs on the craft and to try to get it in a position where he had more power and control.

"We'll make port in Blue Whale Bay," he said. "I can try to make some repairs there. While I'm doing that, you need to get to the village, pick up your grandfather and get out of here."

"I think we've had this conversation before," she said.

"The last time we had this conversation, it was a discussion. This time, it's an order. I need to get you to safety."

Tina didn't protest any further, which made him automatically suspicious. He knew he was going to have difficulty getting her to comply. His only ace in the hole was that he knew she would want to keep her grandfather safe and unharmed.

They slowly glided to shallow water, and the Scorpion's legs found land. He guided the machine behind a large rock formation that jutted out into the water. The jostling was made even worse by the damage they had taken in battle. He looked at his maintenance monitor again and realized that he was leaking fluid from one of the legs and it was barely supporting any weight. Jason didn't wait for the shutdown, but ordered the internal repairs that the system could do on its own. All of the damage couldn't be righted with the repair, but he thought it should be enough to stabilize the machine.

Jason tried to scan the area for life before they left the Scorpion, but was unable to get that sensor array up and running. They'd just have to take their chances. He popped the door and he and Tina slid down to the ground. Cramped legs and freezing temperatures made them both move a little more slowly than normal. Jason scanned the water's edge, but couldn't even detect a small ripple.

"Looks like we…"

The words weren't completely out of his mouth before Tina's scream rent the air. Jason turned, poised to shoot, but paused when he saw Sheriff Giles holding a gun under her chin. Tina's struggling stopped when he cocked the pistol.

"Giles, what the hell are you doing?" she yelled.

"Let her go, Sheriff," Jason said. "She isn't a threat to you."

"Oh, I beg to differ," Chris said, stepping out of the shadows, flanked by his friend Troy. "Ever since you showed up, our little Tina has become quite the nuisance." They moved to stand next to the sheriff, both of them with guns drawn and pointed at Jason.

He didn't blink.

Jason took each breath carefully, waiting for the opportune moment. He inched forward, pressing his body weight onto the balls of his feet, seeking that minute second when he could strike.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said from behind him.

Jason glanced and saw his brother moving closer, aiming a nice new Russian assault rifle at his midsection. He turned more fully to stare past the rifle and into Jesse's eyes. He had already made the decision that he was going to have to kill him, but if they hurt Tina, he mentally promised a slow death. Surprised at the intensity of his own feelings, he pushed them aside.