Jon Merz - Raider X

“You’re going to scuttle your own ship?”

“It’s either that or risk that thing escaping. I’d rather the ship went down with her on it than her being able to escape. We can’t let that happen.”

“Agreed,” said Thatcher. “So where do we put the charges?”

“In the engine room but under the main engine assembly. If we blow that, the resulting explosion will shred the ship’s engine and blow a gaping hole in our underside, armored plating and all.”

“Excellent,” said Thatcher. “We just have to make sure we don’t run into Cyra.”

Schwarzwalder frowned. “I haven’t heard any gunfire in a few minutes. Do you think everyone else is dead?”

“Yes,” said Thatcher. “We’d be fools to think otherwise.”

Schwarzwalder sighed and Thatcher knew he was feeling the loss of all of his men. He gave him a quick moment and then nudged him forward.

“We need to keep moving.”

“All right,” said the Captain. And they headed off toward the engine room.

“So what’s the truth about Adamson?” asked Thatcher. “Did you know he was spying for the British as well?”

Schwarzwalder grunted. “I knew. He’d asked me for some help and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I saw him again.”

“How did he communicate with you?”

“And old system we had worked out many years ago when we were first in the navy together.”

“You never mentioned you were in the navy together just that you were always on separate ships.”

“I didn’t know how much you might know already. Better to keep things private if at all possible.” Schwarzwalder sighed again. “In any event I wasn’t sure if I could help him. I mean my family is still in Germany. What if the Nazis found out?”

“They did find out,” said Thatcher. “Cyra is here to kill you for betraying your country.”

“But I did no such thing,” said Schwarzwalder. “I only agreed to meet with him. But by that point it was already too late. He was already dead.”

“Cyra killed him as well. Her orders come from someone in the Nazi chain of command,” said Thatcher. “And worse, she’s been sent to destroy your ship for whatever it is that you’re carrying aboard here.”

Thatcher expected Schwarzwalder to deny the fact that the ship had anything classified on it, but instead the Captain nodded slowly. “The new cipher wheels for the Enigma machine. If those fell into Allied hands then they would be able to break all of our latest codes. It could prove devastating for Berlin.”

Thatcher made a note to try to get back to the bridge before he jumped overboard. Getting his hands on one of those new cipher wheels would be a tremendous benefit and might even get Hewitt to let Thatcher go back to his old life.

“We need to sink the ship,” said Schwarzwalder. “It’s the only way to ensure the wheels are safe and that Cyra is dead.”

They moved further along the corridor and gradually drew down to the engine rom itself. The hallways were littered with the dead. The corridor had been painted in blood. Bodies torn asunder, corpses laying askew with limbs literally ripped off. Bones jutted out of pockets of skin where they shouldn’t have in the first place. And the stench of death made the place reek.

Thatcher stopped counting the dead after reaching fifty. There were scores more besides but it didn’t matter. As far as he knew, there were three people left alive on the ship: him, Schwarzwalder, and Cyra.

The only question that remained right now was whether he and Schwarzwalder would be able to scuttle Raider X and somehow make it off the ship alive before Cyra tore them apart as well.

A few gun shots echoed from somewhere else on board behind where they had come from. Schwarzwalder looked hopeful but then they heard a scream and both men knew that whoever it was was now dead also.

There was nothing left to do but finish the grim task before them.

They rushed to the engine room since it appeared that Cyra was somewhere behind them finishing off the rest of the crew. “I don’t know why bullets wouldn’t even bring her down,” said Schwarzwalder as he motioned for Thatcher to follow him across the room toward the main engine assembly. “Once it seemed apparent we couldn’t kill her, I should have given the order to abandon the ship.”

“And what good would that have done? There’d be no one left to buy us some time and she would have succeeded in killing everyone. The Loki seems doomed regardless.”

“You believe in superstition?”

“Not really. I make my own luck.”

Schwarzwalder grunted. “I would expect a criminal to say something like that, even one as talented as you are.” He suddenly saw the artillery shell and smiled. “I see what you were trying to do here but it simply wouldn’t have worked. Still, see if you can unwed that from where it is right now and bring it over to where I’ll set the charges.” He bent to work pulling the explosives out while Thatcher attempted to get the shell out of where he’d put it.

“I had a dream the night before we put to sea,” continued Schwarzwalder. “In it, I lost my ship. Everyone on it was dead. They were walking around and I knew they were all dead. Just vacant mindless eyes staring back. And they gradually realized I was still alive so they started chasing me all over the ship until there was nowhere left for me to flee.”

“That’s not a good dream to have at any point, let alone the night before you leave port.” Thatcher managed to free the shell from where he’d placed it and he carried it over to where Schwarzwalder was setting packages of some grayish material and running wires back and forth to them. “How’d you feel after having a dream like that?”

“Like putting to sea was the last thing I wanted to do. But it was my duty so I kissed my wife and children good-bye and tried to put it all out of my head. That’s what a captain has to do.”

“You’re a good man,” said Thatcher. And he meant it. He didn’t view Schwarzwalder as the enemy. This wasn’t Thatcher’s war, frankly. And if they’d met at any other time, it was likely they might have even become friends. In effect, they had over the course of a few days together. “And it’s apparent your men respect you tremendously.”

“Well, they did, perhaps,” said Schwarzwalder. “Before I let that creature aboard and she started killing them.”

Thatcher nodded at the explosives. “Are those almost done? The sooner we get out of here, the better.”

Schwarzwalder nodded. “Almost done running the detonation cord into the timer. How much time do you think we need to reach the lifeboats?”

“I’m assuming the motor launch is too much trouble to lower?”

“We’d need at least two more men to get it down properly. The lifeboats are designed for quicker launch times in case of emergencies.”

“Ten minutes?” asked Thatcher. “That should give us enough time to try to sneak quietly back to where we need to be.”

Schwarzwlader grunted and set the timer. When he was done, he stepped back and looked at the scene. Then he moved forward, wedged the packages of explosives in tighter so they almost blended to some extent with the main engine. The artillery shell was noticeable but there wasn’t much they could do about that. “All right, it’s done.”

“Let’s move then,” said Thatcher. “The sooner we’re off the boat, the safer I will feel. You know, unless Cyra has the ability to fly as well.”

Schwarzwalder sighed. “I’ve heard whisperings and rumors that there were scientists being rounded up to work on special projects for the Führer. Some of them sounded nightmarish. But they went anyway. Hitler seems to have taken advantage of the natural curiosity that drives a man of science to forget their humanity.”