And then pain — sharp, digging pain pulled her from the stupor as her bare stomach was dragged across the broken glass rim of the windowsill. Freezing wind ripped the last of the warmth from her sweat-soaked skin as she was held headfirst over the rusting railing of the bridge deck.
Focus… breathe… but I can’t.
Somehow she sensed the emptiness below.
The pressure from her wrists and elbows released abruptly as she pitched violently forward. She felt only the briefest, sickening sensation of weightlessness, blanket falling from her face as she plunged headlong into the dark, frigid ocean.
CHAPTER 11
The Scorpion slipped through the open waters of the Sea of Japan, the rocky North Korean coastline now more than a hundred miles behind her. Jonah stood the night watch alone, giving his crew a few more hours of hard-won sleep as the submarine slowly made way towards the waiting Japanese fleet. His throbbing carbon monoxide headache had begun to settle, replaced by equally painful, cramping hunger pangs.
They all handled the two-and-a-half days without food differently. Jonah kept his silent watch, well used to the sensations of deprivation. Dalmar and Vitaly hunkered down in their quarters, conserving energy as they rested listlessly under the sheets. Alexis busied herself with engine repairs and preventative maintenance, while Marissa took over Jonah’s cabin, snapping at anyone who made the mistake of checking in on her. Perhaps Hassan handled himself best of all, retreating to the galley to produce a steady array of thin broths and juices from discarded onions, orange peels, and the coffee dust collected in the furthest reaches of the cupboards.
Light footsteps echoed down the darkened main corridor as Sun-Hi approached. She’d worked diligently to tailor her oversized, secondhand coveralls, taking in fabric from every quarter until the outfit almost fit her. The clothes she’d worn escaping North Korea were ultimately deemed unsalvageable after disintegrating under mild detergent as she attempted to launder them in a sink.
Sun-Hi held a steaming mug of over-steeped black tea in front of her, offering it to Jonah. He didn’t recognize the Chinese brand name on the dangling tag, and strongly suspected she’d carried it with her as she fled across the ice.
She stuck the mug out again and bowed slightly, proffering it to Jonah as though she hadn’t been clear enough the first time. He took it gratefully and sipped, feeling the slight caffeine boost zip along his body as welcome warmth reached his contracted stomach.
“Thanks,” said Jonah, handing the mug back to her. But, cup in hand, Sun-Hi didn’t leave. Instead, she just stood there staring at him until he felt uncomfortable. “Why don’t you take a walk around, see if anybody else wants a sip? I bet you can get a couple of cups out of that bag at minimum.”
“No. It’s for captain only!”
“On the Scorpion, if you can eat, drink, or breathe it, it’s for everybody. We don’t stand much for captain-only privileges. I’m serious. I hope you’ll consider sharing it with the crew. That being said, I’ll turn a blind eye if you want to keep it for yourself. My guess is you’ve been hungry for a lot longer than the rest of us.”
A little flash of disappointment crossed Sun-Hi’s face as she lowered the cup. Jonah frowned. She wanted something from him, something he couldn’t yet put his finger on.
“Why didn’t you leave with the rest of them?” he asked, interrupting the brief silence with a question that had weighed on his mind since her discovery. He took the mug again and allowed himself a second sip, much to her immediate pleasure.
“All my people to go to one place,” she said, eyes wide. “Maybe Osaka or Tokyo, maybe Seoul. But this ship — what you say? Scorpion? She go everywhere.”
“You don’t regret your decision? Not even after what happened to us?”
“No.” “So, you didn’t stay because you were scared of the Japanese? You stayed because you wanted to leave with us?”
“Yes!”
He handed the cup back to her. “Even though you didn’t know a thing about me or my crew?”
“No-no!” She was shaking her head now, her bowl-cut flopping one way and the other. “I know many thing about you.”
“Like what?” asked Jonah, perplexed.
“Number one thing, you very tall,” said Sun-Hi, cocking her head as she looked up at him. She offered the mug back to Jonah, who declined it more firmly this time.
“Sure, but that’s not a very good reason.”
“There are other reason.”
“Such as?” “When army come, everybody always run. Always, always. Men leave mother, even leave baby. But you stay. You fight. You brave. I brave, too. We are same, so I come with you. And I stay with you.”
Jonah couldn’t help but chuckle in baffled wonder. Even on a good day it felt like the ragtag crew of the Scorpion had joined forces as the punch line of some great cosmic joke. Other times it was more like a purgatorial prison sentence among strangers. “I’ll think about it,” Jonah grunted. “But you’ll need a job.”
“I cook! I do laundry! I clean bathroom!” began Sun-Hi before Jonah raised his hand to cut her off.
“We’ve got the doc for cooking,” said Jonah. “And we do our own laundry and cleaning around here.” It was true, mostly. Dalmar didn’t do much of anything domestic besides obsessively maintain the weapons of the forward armory. So far, nobody had been brave enough to bring up Hassan’s shipboard chore wheel assignments with the pirate.
“But bathroom not so clean?” said Sun-Hi, confused.
“Never mind that,” said Jonah, abruptly recalling that it was probably his turn to clean the head. “You want a job? Let’s get you a real job. An important job.”
“Important?” breathed Sun-Hi in hushed anticipation. Jonah paused for a moment before saying anything more. She seemed earnest enough. He didn’t exactly know what a spy or secret agent might act like, but she didn’t seem the type. Besides, there was no good way to get rid of her without locking her in a cabin or throwing her off the side. “Why not? I know you’re good with computers and radios. That’s great — I’m in need of a crewman on the communications and hydrophone console.”
“I know all about radio!” “That’s a good start, but there’s still a lot to learn. I’ll have Alexis train you on how the communication systems work aboard the Scorpion. You shouldn’t have any problems figuring it out. My guess is that most of the principal concepts are pretty similar to your old job as an announcer. The hydrophones will be more difficult. Takes a skilled ear and a lot of knowledge. I’m going to have Vitaly give you access to our computer’s sound library. You’ll need to play the sounds over and over again, eventually memorize and identify each one. I can’t stress enough how important this is. You’ll need to study very hard.”
“When I play Koppun in Flower Girl, I know every line! By heart!”
Jonah let himself smile. “You ready for your first assignment?”
“Yes!”
“Good. We’re headed back towards the Japanese fleet. I want them to hear us coming clearly from a long, long distance out so they don’t think we’re sneaking up on ’em. I figure the best way we can do that is play some loud music over the PA system.”