Page 58 of Chasing Danger

Yet, he remained alert. Terrified, but obviously alive.

Instead, his grandmother dropped dead to the floor.

“What?” Aslanov whirled around in the direction the gunshot had come from.

Alex Mariano’s familiar form sat on the railing just beyond the window, holding an impressive looking assault rifle with the other. With one hand, he gave everyone within the room a cheeky wave, then cocked the gun again and took aim.

Time was up.

Not wasting a moment, I dove across the table and killed the pair of men standing on either side of Oliver with two quick slashes of my knife. They were dead before they hit the floor and forgotten even faster.

There wasn’t time to fully untie Oliver. I cut just enough rope to remove him from the chair, then picked him up and started running. His weight bounced uncomfortably in my arms, and I could hear him shouting around the gag still in his mouth, but there wasn’t time to explain. He was just going to have to trust me.

Well, even if he didn’t trust me, he didn’t have a choice anyway. He was coming with me whether he wanted to or not.

Slamming open the door that led from the ship’s control room out on the deck, I heard gunshots behind me but didn’t stop to see who was firing. None of the bullets hit me or Oliver, so either it was friendly fire, or very badly aimed enemy fire. Either way, not my concern.

Still running, we reached the edge of the ship. There, I paused just long enough to remove the gag from Oliver’s mouth.

“Take as deep a breath as you can,” I told him, before jumping over the railing while still carrying him in my arms.

It was a long fall, and a harsh impact with the water below. To his credit, Oliver managed to not waste his air screaming, but I could feel him trembling in fear. Together, we hit the water and were immediately pulled under by the waves.

Despite the warm weather, the high seas were always cold. The temperature hit me like a punch to the gut, and I could only imagine what Oliver must be going through, still mostly tied up. Everything around us was dark, and as the current pulled us deeper, we quickly lost sight of the ship.

I pulled Oliver closer, and he curled against me. Then, with both of our lungs burning with the need to breathe, we waited.

Moments later, something grabbed my shoulder.

My initial instinct was to fight, but logic won over primal desires as a scuba mask was placed over my face. A second mask was then pressed into my hands, which I quickly slipped over Oliver’s face as well. A pair of hoses connected to the masks supplied us with oxygen, and his trembling ceased once he was able to breathe again.

The mask also allowed me to see a little better under the water. It was still dark, but I could just make out a vaguely human shape, next to something long and sleek.

It was an underwater glider, with a small engine hidden inside its sleek body to propel it forward and handles along the outer shell for divers to hold onto.

The person currently floating next to the glider couldn’t be identified in the dark, but I knew it was Eva.

Right on time, and all according to the plan.

Trying to cut off the rest of Oliver’s ropes underwater would be more dangerous than it was worth. I merely held him close with one arm while grabbing onto the glider with the other. Eva also helped to steady us as the glider carried us through the water.

We didn’t go very far before surfacing, maybe five hundred yards at most, but the glider wasn’t particularly fast, so even such a short distance took a while to cover. When we finally surfaced, I was so relieved to feel fresh air against my skin. The ocean was a terrifying place, and I didn’t like thinking about what could be lurking just out of sight in the depths below us.

A much smaller boat floated on the surface, where Gavriil waited for us. He helped get everyone on the boat, then dumped a bunch of towels on us before taking care of the glider.

I was finally able to get the rest of the ropes off Oliver, then started drying him off with the towels. He didn’t say a word and let me position him however I wanted. Once he was done and as dry as he was going to get, he pressed against my chest and stayed there. I could feel him trembling, yet he didn’t cry or even make a sound.

“What about the others?” I asked Eva as I finished drying myself off.

“Mariano’s people should be handling it. That bodyguard of his is surprisingly efficient for someone who was a civilian not too long ago.”

I checked my watch, which was luckily waterproof. “Assuming everything is still on schedule, then we should be seeing the final conclusion right... about...”

An explosion rocked the heavens and turned the surface of the ocean into a chaotic tantrum. A fireball billowed up from the Russian’s ship, illuminating the sky with orange light. The whole vessel seemed to have been practically cut in half, and immediately started sinking in a poor recreation of the Titanic.

Oliver whimpered and pressed closer to me. Although the Russian ship was at least five hundred yards away, warm firelight still illuminated the side of Oliver’s face.

Knowing how he reacted to fire, I held him closer and cradled his head against my chest so he couldn’t see the burning ship.

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