EMP Sabotage, page 23
He looked left and right, spotted his father in the chair, and went toward him. Breathless, eyes red in the backwash of the flashlight, he looked like he was going to try to throw his arms around his father. Ruth made a sharp little sound, and he realized what she was doing and came to a stop.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. The corner of the bandage on his head was coming loose, and he pressed it back into place. “Dad, you’re alive! They tried to kill you and failed.”
“Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” John replied, sucking in his breath as Ruth tied off the final stitch that now held his wound shut.
More people came into the room then. First, Stella rushed in, moving low and fast, as if she thought even now that she might get attacked. Then Kay stepped into the room, scowling darkly, and pushed the door shut behind her.
“What’s going on?” Kay said. When she saw John sitting in the chair, she gasped and backed away until she bumped into the stacks of supplies. “Son of a gun, you really did find him. He’s alive!”
Ruth pressed a bandage over the stitched wound, gave John’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, and turned to Kay. The small, stocky woman’s eyes flitted from John to Ruth and back to John. She seemed genuinely shocked.
“Please, someone tell me what’s going on,” Kay said. “Where did you find this guy? What happened to him?”
Ruth sighed and went to lock the door. Then she set her back against it. “Well, the good news is, I’ve ruled you out as the prime suspect in our recent disturbances,” she said to Kay. “At worst, you may be working with our saboteur. At best, you’re a complete innocent. Either way, you didn’t attack John because you were outside when it happened.”
Kay’s expression hardened. “Who was it?”
Ruth reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the folding knife. “This belongs to Parker. It’s the knife that stabbed John in the back, which he pulled out himself after surviving a fall into the ocean.”
“Parker.” Kay said the name softly, as if testing the sound of it. Ruth studied the woman’s face as she said it. If she was working with Parker, she’d expect to see some guilt there, some hesitation, some fear. Instead, her eyebrows lowered, her lips pressed tightly together, and her breathing become fast and loud. “Are you telling me Parker is the one who made Clark disappear? Parker is the one who killed Dennis?”
Ruth nodded. “He stabbed John in a surprise attack right here in this room, chased him outside, and threw him over the railing. Through sheer tenacity, John managed to swim to his fishing boat and climb on deck.”
Kay bared her teeth, her hands clenching into tight fists. “Parker told me to go out and check on the ham radio antenna,” she said. “It was his idea. He’s the reason why I went to talk to Curtis. I told him we were supposed to stick together because of the buddy system, and he told me, ‘Oh, I have to use the restroom. You said we weren’t going to follow each other into the restroom.’ He also said, ‘Be extra friendly for once. Don’t be your usual surly self. That kid’s working hard to help us.’ He just wanted me out of the way so he could attack this man.”
“That would seem to be the case,” Ruth said.
Curtis was kneeling beside his dad, Stella standing in the corner, but Ruth could feel the tension in the room. It mostly emanated off Kay. Her whole body was shaking now, not with fear, but with rage.
“He’s always smiling,” Kay said in a low and threatening voice. “Always everybody’s friend. I should have known it was all an act. Nobody is that happy-go-lucky during a terrorist attack, smiling while people are dying around us.” She swung a fist in the air, as if striking an invisible enemy. “We have the knife. Let’s expose him. This guy killed Dennis. He belongs at the bottom of the sea, and he can take all the damned smiles down with him.”
Ruth held up her hands. “No, wait, wait, we have to handle this wisely. He’s dangerous, that’s clear, but he’s also well-liked by the workers. I want to check one more thing before we confront him in front of everyone. I have to know why he did this, who is he connected to.”
“We have to move against this guy soon, though,” Curtis said. “If he realizes he failed to kill Dad, he might try again.”
Ruth considered their options. “Okay, here’s what I think we should do,” she said after a moment. Anxious, she couldn’t stand still, so she went to pack up the first aid supplies while she spoke. “Curtis, you’re going to take your father and find a good hiding spot for him. He needs to rest and recover, and we’re not going to let our killer make another attempt on his life.”
“You got it,” Curtis replied, jamming the baseball cap back onto his head. “If he tries again, we’ll be ready for him.”
“Remember, hiding is the key here,” she said, pointing at him. “The confrontation is going to happen, but not just yet.” She turned to Kay.
The woman was still furiously scowling, her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. “Parker would have let me take the fall for what he did,” she said. “He knew suspicion was on me, didn’t he?”
“Yes, more than that, he agreed with putting you at the top of the suspect list,” Ruth replied, “but I need you to do something really difficult right now. I know you’re angry, but I need you to contain yourself, go to him, and distract him somehow. Tell him I gave you two an assignment and keep him busy for a while. Can you do that?”
Kay sniffed, smacked her own cheeks a couple of times, and blew her breath out. This strange ritual seemed to take some of the rage out of her. “Yeah, I can handle it. I’ll keep him busy as long as you want.”
“Can you suppress your anger when you’re that close to him?” Ruth asked.
“I was angry anyway,” she said with a wave of her hand. “He won’t be able to tell the difference.”
“Okay, good.” Finally, Ruth turned to Stella. Her granddaughter was standing near the console, hands clasped to her backpack straps. “Stella, you’re coming with me. While Kay keeps Parker busy, we’re going to search his room. We need to find something that provides some evidence of his motivation. Come on.” She clapped her hands. “Okay, everyone, you know what you have to do. We’ll meet back here in an hour.”
Kay headed out first, unlocking the control room door and flinging it out of her way. She strode down the hall, her footsteps particularly loud. Curtis helped his father stand up, and they went next. As they stepped into the hall, they turned left, heading away from the rec room.
“Parker’s been so nice to us,” Stella said in a sad voice. “I just can’t believe he’s a killer. I mean, I don’t doubt it, but I never saw the evil in his eyes, you know? Somehow, that makes it even worse.”
“Yes, I know, dear,” Ruth replied, and again, she felt a twinge of sadness. Why Parker? Why did it have to be him? “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We have to uncover the truth and confront him. Let’s get this done.”
Before heading out of the room, Ruth pulled the crowbar out of the loop on her jacket. Then she beckoned her granddaughter and headed out of the control room, locking and shutting the door behind her. She was exhausted after days of dealing with this ever-worsening situation, but she pushed through it. Moving fast, she headed to the entry hall, then turned a corner and went past Clark’s old office. Though the candles weren’t lit, a faint mixture of smells lingered around the door.
“So Clark went into the ocean like John,” Stella said. “Only he didn’t survive the fall.”
“That seems most likely,” Ruth replied.
“But why? Why would he kill Clark?”
“Clark must have seen something he wasn’t supposed to see,” Ruth said.
“Maybe the cutting of the wires in the console?” Stella suggested.
“Maybe.”
They headed down another hall and arrived at the crew quarters. Two rows of doors stretched out into the gloom. Fortunately, she knew which one was Parker’s. About a quarter of the way down, close to the exterior door that led to the bridge. She’d seen him coming and going from it.
“What if he attacks us while we’re searching his room?” Stella asked.
“If he attacks, run as fast as you can and get help,” Ruth replied. “I’ll try to hold him off. Bring as many workers as you can. Shout his name. Let everyone know.”
She tested the door latch to Parker’s room and wasn’t surprised to find it locked, so she raised the crowbar and worked the tip between the door and frame. They were flimsy doors, made of thin, hollow metal, but Ruth wasn’t at full strength. Still, she gave the crowbar a pull and felt the door dent ever-so-slightly against the shaft of the crowbar.
“Let me help,” Stella said. She moved up beside Ruth and grabbed the crowbar. There was just barely enough room for both of them to hold it.
“On three,” Ruth said. “One. Two. Three.”
She pulled. Stella added her strength. And suddenly, the door popped open with a loud snap. It whooshed into the room. Because of the momentum, Ruth stumbled forward and dropped the crowbar, which thumped against the floor. She quickly stooped to retrieve it, then stepped fully into the room. Stella came behind her, swinging the door shut behind them.
“We did it,” Stella said.
“Let’s move quickly,” Ruth replied. She’d tucked the flashlight into her armpit, and she pulled it out now, shining it across the small room. “We don’t know how much time Kay will be able to buy us.”
Parker’s room was cluttered. His dresser was covered in a pile of clothes, his desk hidden beneath stacks of papers and books. His bed was unmade, and he had a stash of granola bars and candy bars on a shelf. A large metal footlocker sat on the floor at the end of the bed.
“That seems like a good place to start,” Ruth said, approaching the bed and easing herself down in front of the footlocker. She found it latched and locked. “Well, I guess we’re breaking it open. What else can we do?”
She jammed the end of the crowbar into a spot where the lid met the box, but the locker was sturdy and well-built. Additionally, Ruth was exhausted, and she just couldn’t put a lot of force behind it. She tried a few times, but all she managed to do was make a bunch of noise.
“Let me try, Gran,” Stella said, holding out her hand.
Ruth handed her the crowbar and eased back to give her room. Stella knelt in front of the footlocker, braced herself against the wall with one foot, then pressed the sharp end of the crowbar against a corner of the lid. She pushed, rocking it up and down slightly as she did so, and eventually the end of the crowbar worked its way between the box and the lid.
Gradually, she forced the lid up, and finally, the lock gave a loud crack. Stella set the crowbar down and lifted the lid of the footlocker, and Ruth shone the light inside. Unlike the rest of the room, the space inside the footlocker was half empty, but what was in there had been neatly arranged. First, she spotted some framed photographs stacked at one end. She looked through them. Most of them were of a young woman, probably college age, who bore a striking resemblance to Parker. Minus the beard, of course.
“I take it this is his daughter,” Ruth said.
“I didn’t know he was married or had any kids,” Stella replied.
“I think he may have mentioned her once or twice over the years, but he doesn’t talk about her. And I notice he doesn’t keep any of the pictures out in the open. I’m guessing their relationship isn’t the best.”
The last picture was of his daughter standing on a pier. She wore a shirt with an acronym on it. AILS. She showed it to Stella, who gasped loudly.
“So his daughter is a member of AILS?”
“That’s what this seems to suggest, anyway.”
She pulled out the papers and beneath it was a folder, which she began to go through. “Look at all of this.”
Diagrams of the Mako oil platform, email exchanges, detailed plans, financial information. It was all right there, spelled out as clear as day. Though Parker wasn’t mentioned by name, the plan was clear.
“AILS seems to want to take control of the Mako platform,” Ruth said. “It’s not clear why. Maybe they want to use it as a staging ground for attacks, or maybe there’s some other connection. Anyway, they’re relying on Parker to take control, prevent outside intervention, then get it up and running before they arrive.” She showed a few of the pages to Stella: printouts of emails, text conversations, diagrams of various parts of the oil platform, the new console, a map that showed the location of the oil platform off the Atlantic coast. “Some of it is coded language, but not enough to hide their intent.”
“So he’s trying to kill everyone who seems like a threat,” Stella said. “When his terrorist group shows up, they’ll capture or kill the rest and take the platform.”
“That seems to be the plan,” Ruth said. She put the papers back into the folder. “We can’t let him do it.”
She shut the folder and was about to reach back into the footlocker when she heard a soft creak from across the room. Rising, she turned the flashlight beam toward the door, her heart racing. A figure was standing in the open door. He was well-muscled, with a broad, angular jawline and a neatly trimmed black beard. His hair and jacket were disheveled, and his face was twisted in either pain or horror.
“Parker,” she said, breathing his name.
He had a small black object in his right hand, but it was partially hidden behind the folds of his jacket. Stella whipped around to face him, then grabbed the crowbar off the floor and held it up.
“Did you…did you break into my room?” he said, out of breath. His right hand came out from his side, and the object revealed itself to be a small handgun. “What did you see? What are you holding?”
Ruth held up the folder. It was all the answer he needed.
“If you shoot that gun, everyone on board will hear it,” she said. He hadn’t raised the pistol yet, but he’d made sure they’d seen it. “Every worker will come running. And you know that. Otherwise, you would have used it before when you tried to kill John.”
“Will they come running?” he replied. “Will they?” His eyes went from Ruth to Stella, and for some reason, they locked there. Ruth saw a panicky light in his eyes. Despite the gun in his hand, he looked like a cornered animal.
Suddenly, he pushed off the doorframe with his free hand and took off running.
“No, no, he can’t get away,” Ruth replied.
She rose to her feet. Flashlight in one hand, folder in the other, she rushed to the door, but she could hear Parker’s footfalls moving swiftly down the hall. She made it through the door just in time to see him racing around the corner, heading in the direction of Clark’s office. She took off after him. Stella easily kept pace, still clutching the crowbar.
“He’s going outside,” Stella said. “He’s trying to escape.”
“I don’t think so,” Ruth replied, running as fast as she dared. “If I had to guess, I’d say he’s headed for the control room.”
30
They caught sight of him again as they approached Clark’s office. He appeared to have fumbled for a few seconds trying to get the door open that led into the front hallway. As Ruth shone the flashlight at him, he looked at her, wild-eyed.
“I’ll shoot if you come any closer,” he shouted hoarsely. “I swear I will.”
Stella tried to push past Ruth at that point, but she thrust an arm out and held her granddaughter back. If someone was going to take a bullet, it was going to be Ruth.
“Stay behind me,” she barked at her granddaughter.
Stella allowed herself to be moved behind Ruth, but Parker never raised the gun at them. Instead, he used the few seconds of confusion to get the door open and lunge through it. He was moving fast. By the time Ruth got to the door and through to the front hall, he was already disappearing into the entry room.
He didn’t shoot us, she thought. He had the gun in his hand, and we had no way to defend ourselves, but he didn’t shoot. He knows it’ll draw everyone else. Maybe he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else.
She hoped that would make chasing him just a little safer. As she stepped into the entry room, she spotted Kay, who was standing there, her mouth hanging open in shock. Parker was already headed down the hall toward the control room.
“That was him,” she said as Ruth passed by. “He ditched me!”
“Come on,” Ruth replied.
Kay fell in beside them as they ran down the hall, but Parker was already inside the control room. Just before they got there, he kicked the door shut. As Ruth reached for the handle, she heard the lock click on the other side. She tried anyway, turning it in vain, as Kay and Stella came up on either side of her.
“Where did he go?” Kay said. “I turned my back for two seconds, and he was gone. What’s happening?”
Stella raised the crowbar and moved toward the door, but Ruth held up a hand and shook her head.
“No, I don’t think you’ll get it open with that,” Ruth said. “And we don’t want to risk damaging this door beyond repair.”
Stella lowered the crowbar, but then with her free hand, she began pounding on the door. The room beyond served as a kind of resonance chamber, making an incredibly loud sound. She kept this up for a few long seconds until Ruth signaled for her to stop.
“We have to get him out of there,” Stella said. “He’ll trash the whole system
“He’s not going anywhere,” Ruth replied. “There’s no other exit.”
“He has most of the supplies in there with him,” Kay noted. “He could last a long time. I think breaking down the door is your only option.”
“Most of the food and water is in the kitchen,” Ruth reminded her. Stella raised her hand, as if to knock again, but Ruth shook her head. “Let me try talking to him. Despite this madness, we do have a professional relationship that goes back a few years. I might be able to reason with him.”
“He’s not who you thought he was,” Kay reminded her.
