Daughter of the Deep(18)

Really? I think. That’s all you’ve got, Hewett?

‘That’s right,’ my captor mocks. ‘Stand down, Mr Twain.’

Hewett narrows his eyes. ‘Caleb South, I know your voice. Don’t do this.’

Caleb curses. Apparently, he doesn’t love Hewett any more than I do.

We reach the pontoon. Another set of rough hands grabs me. The guy at the motor hauls me aboard.

‘Dave,’ my captor snaps, still in the water. ‘Keep a needle on her while I get aboard.’

Great. I’ve been abducted by two evildoers named Caleb and Dave. I wonder if the Land Institute yearbook voted them most likely to open a family restaurant or maybe a gardening centre.

My limbs still aren’t working, but I can feel some tingling in my toes. The toxin is wearing off. I try to speak. All that comes out is a gurgle.

Caleb South climbs into the boat. He pulls me over him so I’m once again blocking Gem’s line of sight. Dave scoots astern and starts messing with the outboard engine.

‘Dave, hurry,’ Caleb barks.

‘I’m trying,’ Dave mutters. ‘That stupid girl shot the motor.’

This makes me happy. I hope the engine explodes in Dave’s face.

Dr Hewett calls down from the deck, ‘Caleb, listen to me. This is madness.’

‘Yeah, I remember your lectures.’ Caleb’s tone is as toxic as his syringe of venom. ‘Our plans are madness, blah-blah. But the Aronnax is operational now and Harding-Pencroft is gone, so maybe you were the crazy one to leave us, huh?’

I don’t know what the Aronnax is. The name alone makes me shiver. It sounds sharp and heavy like a cleaver’s blade. On the other hand, the fact that I’m able to shiver is good news. I try to move my head. It lolls to one side. Any hour now, I’ll be ready for combat.

‘Your new toy is nothing,’ Hewett tells Caleb. ‘Dakkar is everything.’

‘Toy?!’ Caleb shouts.

‘After what you did this morning,’ Hewett continues, ‘to the academy, to Ana’s brother? She’s irreplaceable.’

I don’t like the way Hewett is talking about me – as if I’m a valuable commodity rather than a person. I wonder if he’ll start bargaining, maybe offer to split me in half so they can share the profits.

I can feel Caleb’s fingers trembling on my throat. He’s getting agitated, and he’s holding a needle against my carotid artery. I don’t like that combination.

In the stern of the pontoon, Dave lets out a triumphant ‘Ha!’

The outboard motor sputters to life.

‘Goodbye, Dr Hewett,’ Caleb calls as the pontoon pulls away. ‘You sucked as a teacher anyway.’

Well, Hewett may not be aiding and abetting the LI students, but he isn’t much help to me, either. I can think of only one thing to do. I gurgle loud enough to get Caleb’s attention.

He tightens his grip on my neck. ‘What’s that, Dakkar?’

I babble like I’m trying to tell him something important. I sense him leaning in. It’s human nature – he wants to know what I’m saying. I judge my timing and angle. Then I use the only weapon I have. I snap my head backwards and hear the satisfying crunch of Caleb’s nose breaking.

He screams and loosens his grip – just for a moment, but it’s enough. His wet fingers lose their traction on my throat as I twist away from his poison palm and limply topple out of the boat.

I take a gulp of air before my head goes under. My limbs are soggy noodles, but I manage to keep my chest upright for buoyancy. I bob to the surface long enough to hear the hiss of a Leyden gun from the Varuna. Dave yelps.

Caleb growls and dives into the water after me. Two shots from Gem’s M4A1 zing off the back of his wetsuit. Caleb grabs me by the hair and starts dragging me after the pontoon, which is rapidly getting away from us.

‘They told me to bring you back alive,’ he says. ‘But if I can’t do that …’

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him raise his free hand. The injector needle protrudes from the inside of a ring slipped on his middle finger. It reminds me of the gag handshake buzzer Dev used to torment me with when we were little. I don’t want that to be my last thought.

Gem fires another shot. It ricochets off Caleb’s hooded forehead and splashes a few inches from my ear. Hewett yells, ‘Stop firing!’

I try to struggle. My body won’t obey me. Caleb sneers. The blood from his nostrils makes him look like he’s got walrus tusks.

‘You’re more trouble than you’re worth,’ he decides.

He pulls back his hand to slap me with his poison buzzer ring – but help comes from an unexpected direction. Right next to us, a mass of sleek blue-grey flesh explodes out of the sea, and Caleb is body-slammed into oblivion under the weight of a six-hundred-pound bottlenose dolphin.

The resulting waves push me under. My sinuses fill with salt water. I’m sinking, flailing my weak limbs.

Then the dolphin slides underneath me, gently nudging me to the surface. I wrap my arms around his dorsal fin, which is marked with a prominent dark streak.

We break the surface. My first word is a cross between a choke and a sob. ‘Socrates?’

I have no idea how he found me, or how he knew I needed help, but his familiar clicks and squeaks leave me no doubt what he is saying. I tried to warn you, silly human.