I could hear the engines clearly. A few more yards and he’d be on top of me.
I took three deep breaths and dove underwater.
It was completely black and I was completely disoriented. I decided to swim back to the reef. I pulled myself along with one arm, holding tight to the spear gun with the other hand. I felt the sonic vibrations of the propeller ripple around me. Surfacing just enough to bring my eyes above water, I saw a circle of light five feet to my right. The boat was only ten feet away. I dove under the surface again. My hand hit something sharp and pain shot up my arm. At first I thought I got clipped by the propeller, but it was the reef. I grabbed it. Then I surfaced, took a deep breath, and pulled myself down as deep as I could.
Looking up, I watched the boat pass right over me. It seemed to slow down. My lungs felt like they were on fire. I knew that I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. Suddenly, the pitch of the engines increased. Looking up, I saw a vortex of bubbles and then nothing.
I let out some air, but it didn’t help. I started to spasm.
So this is what drowning felt like. It wasn’t nearly as peaceful a death as I had thought it would be.
I had no choice but to surface. My face cleared the water and I gulped in air. When I finally caught my breath, I lifted my goggles and looked around. The boat was heading back to the island. I waited, unsure of what was happening. The boat docked. After a few minutes, I heard the engines rev up again and I watched the boat as it sped away toward the east.
I waited until I was sure the boat wasn’t coming back before I swam back to North Point. I reached the shallow reef shelf, took off my fins, and climbed out. As I walked, I had to use the spear gun to steady myself. The pain in my feet was excruciating. But somehow, I managed to limp out of the water.
When I finally reached the shore, I dropped the goggles and fins on the sand. Still using the spear gun as a cane, I hobbled back to the shack and collapsed on the ground, dropping the spear gun next to me. I don’t know how long I laid there, but by the time I sat up I noticed that the sun was above the horizon.
I looked around. The food and water were gone and so was my lucky fishing pole. The ladder up to the observation deck lay smashed outside the door. At least they had left me the shack.
I looked at the palm of my left hand and saw a dozen black dots set in a concentric series of rings. Shit! I must have grabbed a sea urchin when I clutched the reef. The skin was already red and puffy. I took a quick assessment of the rest of my body. I noticed that my legs were scratched up, but not bad. I inspected the soles of my feet and saw a dozen scalpel-like incisions made by the coral. Thankfully, twelve years of going barefoot had provided me with tough feet so the coral didn’t slice through to the bone. Everything else seemed okay.
I pulled the data mat out of my underwear and shook off the water. Then I tapped the screen twice until it came to life. Using my right hand, I opened the communications panel. There was one green dot; it was the MDF patrol boat. I tapped the icon and waited. The screen flickered. I worried that the salt water had damaged it, but the flickering stopped and two video windows opened up. One was labeled MDF Patrol 743 and the other was labeled Ahmed. The window labeled MDF Patrol 743 had the image of someone in an MDF uniform, but the other one had the image of a Somali pirate. His head was shaved like most of the pirates, but I knew who it was. The scar that ran from the edge of his right eye down to his chin gave him away. It was Jamal. I’d never seen him before, but everyone knew about that scar.
The MDF officer and Jamal stopped talking when they saw me on the net. None of us spoke; we just stared at each other. Talk about your awkward moments. Before I could think of something to say, they cut the channel and the video screen went blank. Well… that was it. They’d be coming back for sure now.
With my data mat still in hand, I walked outside to wait. A few minutes passed and then I heard it, the sound of engines.
That was it. Game over. The only thing left to decide was whether I’d let them kill me or I’d kill myself. It was an easy decision
The spear gun was still on the floor back in the shack where I’d left it. So I went inside, picked it up, and carried it out to the doorway. Holding it up, I wondered if it were even possible to kill yourself with a spear gun. Fifty-fifty odds, I figured. Best odds I’d had all day.
I stared off into the distance and saw the boat silhouetted by the morning sky. It was almost to the island.
Pulling a spear from the clip on the side of the gun, I pushed it back until I heard it click. It was cocked and ready.
The boat sped toward the small stone dock. It throttled into reverse and slid up to the stone.
I flipped the spear gun around so that the tip of the spear was against my chest. It was awkward, but I was able to get my thumb in front of the trigger. I tried my best to position the tip between two ribs. It would be embarrassing if it got stuck in my ribs.
Someone jumped out of the boat. I watched as he ran towards me.
It was time. My hand was swollen from urchin stings. It made it hard to hold the gun steady, but I did my best. As I began to apply pressure to the trigger, I heard the pirate say, “Aron! Aron! Are you okay?”
I must have lost my mind. The pirate sounded just like Anand.
“Put the spear gun down. It’s me, Anand.”
Anand stopped a few feet in front of me. I stared at him. I knew who he was, but my brain was having a hard time believing it.
“A pirate boat is about a mile to the west. We have to go.”
I wondered if the urchin poison was a hallucinogenic.
Anand grabbed the spear gun out of my hands and led me back to his boat. We sped out of the harbor at full speed. I looked back and watched North Point shrink in to the distance.
Anand was talking to someone on the radio. I sat down on a cushioned seat in the back of the boat. A strong feeling swept over me, but I couldn’t place it. What was it? Relief? Gratitude? No. It was disappointment. Definitely disappointment.
Chapter 8
The boat bucked against the waves and I found myself following its movements like a cobra follows a snake charmer’s flute. Anand kept turning back to look at me, but he hadn’t said a word to me since we left North Point.
My hand vibrated. I looked down to find the data mat still clutched in my hand. I stared at it and considered throwing it into the ocean. Instead, I touched the screen and opened the message.
SUBJECT: CHANGE NOTIFICATION
THIS AUTOMATED NOTIFICATION WAS SENT TO INFORM YOU OF A CHANGE TO THE EVACUATION ELIGIBILITY LIST. THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS CHANGED:
| NAME | ISLAND | CHANGE |
|---|---|---|
| ZHOU, JIN | ERIYADOO | STATUS-MISSING |
I began to shake and I couldn’t stop. I grabbed the blanket that Anand had given me, drawing it tightly around my shoulders. It didn’t help.
Jin was missing. Missing was the status they used for people whose bodies were never found after a pirate raid. A ball of guilt rolled into my gut.
I frantically checked through my other messages, but there wasn’t anything from Jin. He had said that he had a plan, but what was it?
Jin documented everything. If it wasn’t for his insistence on writing down the location and configuration of every part of the IICN, we’d still be working on getting the network up and running. The information had to be in his data mat somewhere. It was as good a place as any to start looking.