The Conduit: Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The fast attack sub was preparing to detach when Jensen, Han, Max, and the rest of them brought Jane Doe back on board the submarine. As the sub shook, echoes of impacts against the station’s undersea levels reverberating through everything attached, Jensen yelled at his men to detach the vessel. One of his men asked for a heading and he replied in his loudest command voice, “Anywhere but here!”

They broke away sharply, causing some of the men to bounce around against bulkheads as they traveled from section to section trying to get to their posts. The red alert was sounding through the internal intercom system, telling the crew of the submarine they were in danger. Nobody, not even Max and his team, knew what kind of danger they were in. Max and Han stood on the bridge, grasping the rails as the sub steered clear of the falling debris. External cameras made Max wonder what was left up above.

“Take us up!” Jensen ordered.

Max looked at him and told Jensen he needed to get aboard. Jensen promised to get them as close as possible, long enough for them to get a team onto the station to do a damage assessment and figure out what happened. He’d have the sub pull back fifty yards and wait for orders.

It was a good idea, and he knew it. Max nodded to Jensen, thanking him. He was worried about the people aboard the upper levels as well as anybody who got out of the lower levels. If they followed the evacuation protocols, there would be seventy to a hundred people that he was still responsible for. He needed to figure out who was still there, and what happened to his station.

Minutes later, the sub was at sea level and Max joined Jensen, Han, and half of the security team on top of the boat. The upper sections of the station were nearly unphased by whatever hit the station. The rough necks were putting out the fires and the medical team, other than the doctor, were working on the wounded. He hadn’t seen anything like this since the conflicts in the Middle East, and hoped he’d never see anything like this again. As the sub moved into position, Max climbed down to the launch area and took off at a full sprint. Jensen and Han hopped down and followed him to the stairs.

When they caught up with him, Max was on the upper level near the chopper pad. Shelly was there, along with several of the technicians. She noticed Max and hurried to him, throwing her arms around her boss.

“Jesus,” she sobbed, “I thought you were dead.”

“What in the hell hit us?”

Shelly shook her head. Nobody knew for sure what happened. They were having a typical day until an explosion rocked the station. Flames erupted, destroying the drilling equipment and revealing there were no operations.

“We’re exposed, Max. The entire world will see that the Oceanic is a ruse. What do we do now?”

“Jesus,” he mumbled, looking to the ground with his hands on his hips.

Even Max was at a loss. It didn’t seem like they knew what caused the explosions, their operation was compromised, and the medical team didn’t have a doctor. As he stood there, listening to Shelly, the medivac was enroute but it would take three trips to get everybody that was hurt off the Oceanic and to a hospital. He was going to have to play god and decide who went first, and if he picked wrong, that blood was on his hands.

“Is the Doctor still in lock-up?”

“Yes,” answered Shelly, “but why?”

Max motioned for Jensen and Han. He and Jensen were going to the upper level detention cells, and Han was to go back and lead the escort team with Jane Doe to the lock-up. As Han turned, Max yelled at him.

“Take no chances!” he ordered, “If she jumps the wrong way by as much as an inch, put two in that little bitches head.”

Han nodded at Max, telling him he understood. The men split apart as Han returned to the submarine. Jensen and Max rushed to the lock-up area, finding only one of Han’s men still there. As they entered, Max demanded the keys.

“Sir?”

“Keys! Now!”

Jensen looked at the security officer and shrugged, telling him, “I’d just give him the keys.”

The officer read Max’s warning and Jensen’s suggestion and handed Max the keys before excusing himself from the room. The idea that they might need help with the wounded sounded good in his head, even though he was limited to basic first aid. As the kid left, Jensen locked the door behind him.

“So, what’s the play? Are you going to use the doctor to help, maybe threaten her in case she has any ideas of escaping?”

Under normal circumstances, Max would have done exactly that. But these were unusual times and he didn’t trust Susan any further than he could throw her. He finally answered Jensen as he put the key in the door.

“Nope…”

Jensen was left to wonder, then what. But not for long. As Max entered the cell where Susan was standing, asking what happened as she saw Max, he rushed the room and wrapped his hand around her throat, forcing her into the wall. Jensen thought to himself, well, this might be interesting.

“Don’t talk! Listen! I’ve got injured people out there and the station is ruined. I know you had something to do with this! If I even think for a moment that you are lying to me, I’ll break you goddammed neck! Am I being clear enough, doctor?”

Susan, through gasped breath, nodded her head at Max.

“Did you do this!” he demanded.

Susan choked out the words not me.

“But you know something, don’t you?”

Susan was on her knees coughing and panting for air. Her eyes were still bulged from her skull and her face still bright red. She tried to squeeze the words out of her throat, but Max had bruised her larynx in his iron like grip.

“I don’t have time for this!” screamed Max, grasping Susan by the neck and putting the barrel of his sidearm to her head.

She looked at Jensen as he stood by the door, the man lighting up as he watched and sarcastically applauded Max. Susan tried to turn her head, but Max had her pinned to the steel surface. She stayed put, knowing Max was tense enough to shoot. He did not provide her with any alternatives.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Tell me!”

Susan told Max about her assignment, and how she was paid to get someone close to the station, close enough that when Jane Doe was there, they could put them together. From there, she was told she might have to do a little time in prison if American authorities took her into custody, but that they would have her extracted and moved to a non-extradition country.

“Who is he?”

“He’s called The Preacher. His real name, Joe Mazzuca,” she explained. "He spent years in prison until someone arranged an early release."

“You put this animal aboard my station!”

Han had nine of his guys with him when he brought Jane Doe from the submarine. He looked side to side. Jensen and the boss were still questioning Susan, otherwise they’d be there to supervise the transfer. Things were so weird that he could feel the hair standing on his arms. After he motioned for the team to move, Han stepped from the sub and down the ladder to the launch.

Two more men followed, then it was Jane’s time to climb down. She was warned not to do anything other than what she was told. She looked to the skies above, having not seen them for more than a month. Jane remembered the last time she saw skies over the oceans, and the beauty of a sunset over the water. It was a long time ago, much longer than she could remember, but the images were still inside her memories.

“Go,” ordered one officer.

Jane climbed down the side of the sub, her slightly weakened frame struggling to hold onto the rails of the ladder. The launch was only another ten feet away, but she feared not being able to hold herself. Jane clung to the side until Han told her she could do it. She recognized Hanson Morrow as the one with a conscience, unlike Commander Shepherd and Lieutenant Shaw.

When she finally got to the bottom and put her feet on the launch, Han took her to the middle of the deck. He held her arms as the next man began to climb to the launch. Han barely heard her mumble.

“What’s that?” he asked.

Jane looked at him, his attention still on the men in his command. She repeated what she’d said.

“I’m sorry,” she sighed.

Han's two officers on the launch heard the whispered sounds. Six more silenced whispers whipped through the air before Han fell to his knees, choking and gasping on the blood coming from his mouth. He fell into a slump, his hand still reaching for Jane. As his body hit the deck, Jane looked startled as a man in a black diver’s suit climbed aboard.

She knew his face, but this was the first time they had been close enough to see each other. Now that he was there, she knew he was the one to liberate her from her captivity. She even knew what to call him, The Preacher.

“This craft will never get us where we’re going. Fortunately, the good doctor was able to provide us with something for a lengthy journey,” he promised, looking her in the eye.

“Thank you,” she spoke back to him. “When we reach our destination, there’s much to do.”

Moments later, Joe Mazzuca, and Jane, were aboard the Starry Night and the engines were carrying them away from the Oceanic. The Preacher disabled all the ancillary craft that were still with the Oceanic, and as they reached a distance about fifty yards from the station, he pulled out a remote. The engines of the submarine would be useless without the props. Anybody in the engine room might drown, but it assured him that they were going to get away.

“Max,” yelled Jensen. “I can’t get Han or his team on the radio.”

“What about the sub crew?”

“They’re saying Han and the transfer team should be on the Oceanic,” explained Jensen.

“Everything!”

Max pulled his sidearm and aimed it at Susan’s head. He screamed for her to talk. He watched her eyes flail around the room, looking for someone to save her that would never come. Max looked over his shoulder at Jensen, who shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not so sure about the head, boss. Maybe one in the kneecap, if she doubts you’ll do it,” suggested Jensen.

Max found the idea intriguing. He needed to force the situation and get her to talk, but he wasn’t planning on killing her. He found himself flashing back to the interrogations in Afghanistan, and the horrors they committed in the name of hunting a monster. Many of them had become monsters in the process. It wasn’t what Max wanted.

“Are you going to talk before I have to put a bullet in you?”

“You can’t,” she challengingly replied.

She was right. He knew it. He could play the tough guy all day long but to execute her, or to torture her past what he’d already done, he didn’t see himself devolving that far. Frustrated, he turned his gaze until he heard a gunshot and the echo in his eardrum.

“What did you do!” Max asked Jensen.

Susan was screaming loudly, and Shelly came into the room to investigate. When she entered, Jensen and Max stared blankly at the girl as she stared at Susan lying on the floor and holding her knee. Neither of them was sure what to say. As Max tried to formulate words to explain what had happened, Jensen put his pistol back in the holster.

Jensen screamed at Susan, “TALK!”

Susan laid there, the pain in her leg more than anything she’d felt in her life. She rocked side to side until Jensen put his boot on her knee, causing the agony to triple. She nearly passed out from the pain before he moved his boot off her. Susan looked to Shelly, who turned her head from the woman’s begging eyes.

“He’s already got the girl,” sighed Susan.

“Where is he taking her?”

“After this mess,” she hesitated, “I don’t know. The plan was to get her to a major city, but there was a secondary plan.”