Under Vanishing Skies (31 page)

He looked around the room and then said, “So what about your girlfriend? Did you find her?”

“
No.” I lied. How in the hell could I tell him the truth? How could I tell him that she was responsible for his dad’s death?

I needed to change the subject. 

“
Where are we?” I asked.

 “
Embudu,” he said.

I don’t know who came up with the idea to come here, but it was genius. The island had been left uninhabited after the raid. The pirates wouldn’t think to go back to an island that they already raided.

“
So everyone is here now?”

He nodded. “Everyone except for Pun. He left the island right after you did. You should have seen him. He was really mad.”

“
Any idea where he went?”

“
Nope. A helojumper came for him. I think he went looking for you.”

“
Well, don’t worry. He didn’t find me. By the way, you did a great job with the diversion.”

“
Yeah, well...I had to keep that cast on until the boat came for us. Mohamed was worried that Pun might return and see me without it. It was so itchy.”

I smiled. “Well thanks for taking one for the team. .”

“
Oh yeah!” His face suddenly lit up. “I almost forgot. I got a surprise for you.”

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his data mat. Sliding off the bed, he brought it over and held it out in front of me. “I did some coding while you were gone.”

I took the data mat and said, “Did you write a new game?”

He smiled and said, “Nope. I fixed your code.” I looked at him, puzzled, as he explained. “You remember how you couldn’t figure out how to connect to the computer because the routing strings wouldn’t fit in the fields?”

I nodded.

His smile got wider. “Well, I got it to work.”

I looked at the screen and opened the communications console. I tried to connect to the quantum computer. A message popped up, followed a second later by a command line prompt.

CONNECTION ESTABLISHED

He had actually done it.

 
I looked at him and asked, “How did you do it?”

His smile was from ear to ear now. “Remember that hidden column? The one with the four strings of numbers that we couldn’t figure out?”

He didn’t need to finish because I suddenly understood.

“
Of course. TCP/IP.”

“
What’s that?” he asked.

“
An old protocol for something called the Internet. It was before your time and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you figured it out. Now all we have to do is see if that code we wrote works.”

“
Already did,” he said. “That’s the surprise. At first I couldn’t get it to work. So I played around with your code and...well...it took me about six hours but I got it working. Look in there, the folder marked MESSAGES. I ran the algorithm against all of the ones that Jin had collected.” He pointed to the folder. “I put them in there.”

I opened the folder and started reading the messages. He’d done it. This was the evidence that we needed to stop them from sending pirates to Mars. Most of the messages were between Shannon and Jamal. Shannon had sent him the entire inhabitant spreadsheet, piece by piece. She also gave him reports on everything that went on in the Council meetings. That bitch! She even sent him reports about me, how she had me wrapped around her finger.

As I read the messages, everything came together. Shannon had used Viyaja just like she had used me, only she leveraged his political ambition to get him to overthrow Ahmed. She even smuggled him the bomb to blow up the helojumper. All I needed to do now was make sure this evidence got to the ship’s captain.

The door opened. It was Mohamed. “Glad to see that you two aren’t wrestling.”

“
Mohamed, what day is it?” I asked.

Looking a little concerned, Mohamed said, “Saturday, why?”

“
And the ship, the Mars ship...it’s here?”

Mohamed nodded. “Yes. It arrived yesterday night around seven. Viyaja sent out a message to everyone. It said a delegation from the ship had arrived in Male and they were finalizing arrangements for the transport of passengers.”

“
I’ve got to get there,” I said.

I started to sit up, but the pain punched me back down. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. You have a very serious wound. It needs time to heal. Besides, the message said that they have heightened security around Male. Only authorized ships are allowed to dock and even then, they’re not letting anyone on or off the island.”

“
What? Why?”

“
It said that it was to prevent disorder and disruptions to the transfer process.”

I tossed William’s data mat on to the bed. “Shit.”

“
What is it?” William asked.

“
Nothing. Wait! Is Anand still here?”

Mohamed nodded. “Yes, but he is getting ready to depart. He said that he must continue his supply deliveries before the MDF becomes suspicious.”

“
I need to see him. Can you get him for me?”

"He may have already left, but I'll go check.”

Mohamed left and William asked, “What do you want to see Anand for?”

He had the same worried expression that he did the night I left for the rescue mission. I couldn’t do this to him again, but I had to get to Male.

“
William, do you remember the diversion?”

He nodded.

I continued. “I need you to do it again, but this time we’re going to trick Helen and Mohamed. Okay?”

“
But why?”

“
I think I know how we can stop the pirates from getting on that ship.”

“
You’re going to Male, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“
Then I’m going too.”

 “
Absolutely. I can’t do this without you. But you have to do exactly what I say, okay?”

He nodded and said, “So what’s the plan?”

“
I’ll tell you while you help me get dressed.”

Chapter 20

Anand tried to talk me out of going to Male. But in the end, he agreed to take me. I think he realized that I was going with or without his help. He probably figured that I had a better chance of making it there on his boat instead of, say, on my kayak.

Convincing Anand was one thing, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to convince Mohamed and Helen. That’s where William came in. While Anand helped me walk to his boat, William pretended that he had hurt his leg jumping out of the palm tree. It had worked once, so we decided to try it again. Thankfully, it worked again. But this time William joined me. He told me how he had climbed out Mohamed's window after Helen had taken him to the clinic.

On the trip to Male, I explained to William what I planned to do. The kid seemed up for it. Rick would have been proud.

Just as I finished going over the details, I felt the vibrations from the engines decrease and then stop all together.

“
Something’s up,” I said. I looked at my watch. “We’re still fifteen minutes away.”

Nisha came into the room a few seconds later and said, “We must go.”

“
Go? Where? What’s going on?” I asked.

“
Quickly, into the cargo hold. We have been stopped by an MDF patrol and they are boarding us.” She looked worried. “Come, we haven’t much time.”

We followed her to the hold. I managed to walk without assistance, but each step brought a fresh surge of pain.

“
Go in there,” she pointed to a large cube in the center of the room. It was a carbon fiber bin filled with crushed coral powder. The bin was fifteen feet by fifteen feet and almost ten feet tall.

“
In there?” I asked.

“
Yes, please hurry. They rarely check the powder bin. It is too messy.” She went over to the wall and brought back a ladder. William climbed up quickly. I followed, one rung at a time. Each step felt like someone punched me in the gut. Finally, I managed to get into the bin. As I laid down next to William, I saw the top of the ladder disappear.

The bin was filled almost to capacity and a fine power hung in the air around us like smoke. I tried to keep my mouth shut so that I wouldn’t cough. Ten minutes passed and I thought that maybe they wouldn’t inspect the hold after all, but then I heard the metallic clink of the hatch. I listened as people entered.

“
You see, sir, just as I said. We are delivering fruits, vegetables, and some coral powder.” It was Anand’s voice.

An unfamiliar voice said, “Open that so I can see inside.”

“
But it is just plantains,” Anand said.

“
Open it.”

The pop of a carbon fiber lid echoed across the cargo hold.

“
You see, just plantains. Go ahead, take some.”

The voice said. “And what’s in there?”

“
Just coral powder.”

“
I would like to see for myself.”

“
Okay, but it is very messy. The powder sticks to everything and is hard to get out.”

I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards us. A few seconds later I looked up and saw the top of the ladder. My heart raced. If the MDF inspector looked in here, it would be all over. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned towards William. He looked as scared as I felt. I put a finger up to my lips and then looked back at the ladder.

“
Here, let me show you.” Anand said. A minute later, I saw his smiling face looking down as me. We exchanged a quick glance before he reached into the bin, pulled out a handful of powder and said, “See, coral powder.”

“
Yes, but I’d like to see for myself.”

“
Of course,” Anand said. He started to climb down and I heard him fumble on the ladder.

 “
Stop,” the inspector said. “Look what you are doing!”

“
I am so sorry. I told you that the powder was very messy. Oh my, you are all white, please, forgive me. Here, come with me. My wife, Nisha, will help clean you up.”

I smiled as I listened to the inspector continued to complain all the way out of the cargo hold.

When I heard the hatch close, I peeked over the edge. They were gone. I motioned for William to climb down and then I followed him. Once I reached the deck, we looked at each other and laughed. We both looked like ghosts.

“
Come on,” I finally said. “We have to get this shit off of us.”

We took our clothes off and beat them against the side of the bin for a while. A cloud of dust enveloped us.

“
This isn’t working,” William said. “I think it’s getting worse.” He began to cough.

“
You’re right. Grab your stuff and let’s—” I felt the engines start up. “Come on. Let’s go find Nisha. She’ll know what to do.”

We found Nisha up on the bridge. She laughed when she saw us. “You look like spirits,” she said.

“
Yeah,” I said. “I know. Can you help us get the powder out of our clothes?”

She shook her head and said, “Coral powder is difficult to get out. I’ll go get you some of Anand’s clothes.”

She returned a few minutes later with a stack of t-shirts and sarongs.

“
Thanks,” I said, as I reached for the clothes, but she pulled them away.

“
Not yet, first you better get that dust off of your skin.” She motioned for us to follow her. She led us upstairs to a room with a tiny shower stall. “Be quick. We are entering the port now.”

William showered first, and while he dressed, I got in. As I washed the powder off, I inspected the stitches on my side. The gash was only two or three inches long. There was a little seepage, but not much.

By the time I finished with my shower and got dressed, Anand showed up and said, “Come with me.” We followed him back up to the bridge.

The dock was busier that I had seen it in a while. There were four ships unloading their cargo. There was no place for us to dock.