Page 49 of Pax

“Seems reasonable,” said Pax.

“I agree,” nodded Moose. “Besides, this is going to be fun. Did you see those poor kids?”

“I saw,” frowned Pax. “Fucker is seriously sick, and we’re going to prove it this time.” Moose shook his head.

“We won’t need to. He’s going to die.”

Once the yacht was clear of land and darkness began to fall, Brax made his way into the bridge. The captain was giving instructions to the first mate.

“The course is charted, and we’re on autopilot. By the time we wake in the morning, we’ll be docked at Mr. Mason’s marina. Don’t wake me unless there are problems.” He turned to leave and noticed the door to the bridge open.

“I didn’t open it,” said the first mate.

Suddenly, there was a behemoth of a man standing before them, his dark eyes glaring at them as if he were cast from the sea itself.

“I opened it,” smirked Brax.

The captain tried to reach for the alarm, but Brax was far too quick. Gripping his wrist, he wrenched him backwards, slamming an elbow into his face. When the first mate started to run, Brax pulled him back by his hair, flattening him to the surface of the deck. With a knee at the base of his skull, he waited until he heard the crack and then looked at the captain.

“Wh-what do you want? Do you know whose boat this is? Do you have any clue?”

“Yep. Carr Mason. Sick fucker who kills disabled people, steals their money, and then those that he thinks he can make a dime off of, he sells to people even sicker than he is.”

The captain just stared at him. Unsure if he should say anything at all. When he tried to reach for his phone, Brax gave a twisted grin.

“Please. Please do. I’m begging you. Give me a reason to cut off your fucking hand.”

“He’ll kill all of you,” said the man. With the silencer on his weapon, Brax fired a bullet into the captain.

“Not if we kill him first.” He pushed the bodies overboard and then tapped his comms. “Control of the bridge is mine. I’m done. Quit being so slow.”

“We’ve got ten men. You had two,” said Pax.

“I’ve taken down six, Pax. Move it, brother,” said Moose.

Disposing of the crew was the easy part. The hard part was convincing the victims that they were actually victims.

“No. No, he promised that we would be taken somewhere that could help us. They would heal us,” said the young man.

“I wish that were true,” said Pax. “But unfortunately, it’s not. Listen to me. We work at a place that has the most amazing medical team in the world. They are up to date on the latest treatments for every ailment, every sickness, every disability. There is no cure for what you all have. Blindness can sometimes be helped by surgeries, but we would need to know more details. Scoliosis can sometimes be helped by surgeries or braces. There is always a little window of hope, but I assure you that this man was not going to give it to you.”

“What was he going to do?” asked the young girl, one of the blind victims.

“We think he was going to sell you to someone.”

“Someone who likes torturing sick people, right?” asked the girl. Pax said nothing, but he knew that she could hear his breathing. “I’m not stupid. My aunt tried to warn me about this. She said this didn’t make sense. She’s taken care of me since I was just a baby. I should have believed her. I should have known this was all too easy.”

“We’ll try to help you if we can,” said Moose, “but we can’t promise anything except your safety right now.”

“What about the others? They had these weird silver rings on the deck. What were they for?” asked another victim.

“Honestly?” asked Pax.

“Please.”

“We believe they were going to chain you to the deck and sink the boat. They’ve done it before, many times. We discovered all of this quite by accident but wanted to stop it.”

“Why? Are you disabled?” asked the boy.

---