Page 39 of High Seas

A second later, Kael stepped into the hall from the dark, unblemished steel door at the end of the hall. The fluorescent lights buzzed above us as the heels from his respectable loafers rhythmically clicked down the hall. His lab coat fluttered in his wake. “How may I help you, Maru?” he asked politely, tugging on his collar.

“Victor and I just spoke. He said you couldn’t contact Eve or the others. Do you have any way to get word to them? To see if they’re still alive?”

“At this moment, I can assure you that they are all alive, though I cannot testify as to their individual state or circumstance.”

“They’re alive?” I breathed a sigh of relief, eager for details. “Do you have any idea where they are?”

“No, unfortunately.”

“Shouldn’t we mobilize a team to retrieve them? They must be in hiding. What about sending a convoy of other Assets to travel back to escort them from the gala safely?”

Kael pushed his thick eyeglass frames up onto the bridge of his nose. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

I looked further down the hall, silently cursing both him and Victor. “What if Eve and the others have been captured? What if the vamps decide to kill them? They could broadcast their executions as propaganda against Victor’s authority! The people who live outside are already beating down this door. They’re terrified. It wouldn’t take much to send them straight over the edge,” I warned.

“I’m well aware of the situation unfolding outside the Compound,” Kael snipped, “but that is neither my area of expertise, nor my concern. You’ll have to speak with Victor about the state of our city. I will say that we must be careful with every move from this point forward to avoid sparking panic,” Kael moved to block my view of the cells to my left. “I appreciate your concern, Maru, and wish there was something more I could do to help you.”

I stepped forward, craning my neck to see what was in the cells that he didn’t want me to know about.

He attempted to brush me off. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m very busy. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave,” he insisted, walking toward me and trying to herd me back down the hallway.

“Send me back,” I asserted.

“What?” His posture went rigid.

“Send me back for them. I’ll bring them home.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Maru, really. I appreciate that you’ve developed a connection with your charge, but –”

“Why not?”

He kept trying to walk me backward. “Don’t make me call security,” he advised.

I faked left then ran around him on the right, to the cells in the far-left corner. Those cells were empty of subjects, but the back walls were lined with closed circuit screens. All of them held images of dozens and dozens of… Eves, Tituses, and Abrams.

This is the army Victor was talking about! my mind raged.

“You cloned them?” I stabbed an accusing finger at the screens.

Kael stammered, “Think about how strong the top Assets are! An army of them is the only thing that could stand against an army of vampires and you know it. They can protect us. As you know, we can’t protect ourselves any longer. I’m just waiting for Victor to give me the orders to release them. They’re ready to fight and end this war for good.”

My heart pounded. “Where is Eve?”

“What do you mean? I just told you, I have no information—”

“Did you actually send the top Assets back? Or were those clones, too?”

Chapter Twelve

Eve

The sea was calm, and the sky was empty of clouds and full of more twinkling stars than I could count. Some were so far away, I could only see them when I caught them in my periphery. I sat on the railing, my back against the wood that rose with the quarter deck. Enoch had shown me around the ship and tried to help me learn the sailor jargon the crew kept spewing. It was truly a language of its own. There was the foremast, the main mast, and the mizzen mast. Every sail had its own name and purpose. Every rope and shroud. Every cannon was positioned for optimal damage and protection.

Titus scarfed down his dinner and then asked Enoch if he had a spare hammock. Some of the crew kept watch while the rest of them slept, but there were a few hammocks open. Titus was sleeping on the gun deck, which was the floor below the top deck, where all the excitement had happened earlier. There was another deck below that where Terah liked to spend time alone, adjacent to the hold that contained various ship’s supplies: plain cannon balls, pairs of cannon balls chained together to wrap around and break another ship’s mast, and hooks that were wrapped with cloth that could be lit before they were fired so they could burn another ship’s sails.

Down there, there was no bunk. No personal effects. Just her scent among the black powder and scent of bilge water lurking below her in the small compartments of ballast. Like the ammunition and unlike Enoch’s, Terah’s scent was dangerous. I could almost discern the bitter smell of her angst.

Piracy, it turned out, wasn’t about blasting another ship into oblivion. It was about weakening the ship without sinking her. That way, you could take what you wanted and go on your merry, pirate way. Or take and repair the ship itself. I had no idea time travel would make me feel like one of those stunned, weakened vessels at times, and at others, allow me to feel like the pirate who arose victorious over the watery battlefield.

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