BZRK: Reloaded (BZRK 2)

Admiral Domville was less inclined to be thinking of colorful descriptions. He was busy being sick into a plastic bucket.

“Seasickness is nothing to be ashamed of!” Pia yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Nelson was frequently seasick,” Domville yelled back during a brief moment of coherence.

Then, quite suddenly, they were through the storm, and the massive piles of dark gray clouds gave way to scattered clouds lit by a fading sun. The noise was still ferocious, and the motion of the helicopter was still erratic, but it was nevertheless a relief.

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bsp; A crewman came back and motioned to the tiny window. Pia reluctantly disentangled herself from the jump seat and stutter stepped over to look out; she saw the Albion sailing serenely below them.

She gave a thumbs-up signal.

“We can land,” the crewman said. “We won’t have to use the winch.”

“The what?” Pia asked. It was the first anyone had mentioned a winch. “Did you say ‘winch’?”

The landing was fairly smooth. The reception was Royal Navy spit and polish. Domville played his role, but as soon as was decent he drew the Albion’s captain aside. Introductions were brief and to the point.

“Captain, I’m going to ask for the loan of some of your marines.”

“Certainly, sir,” the captain said, as though nothing could be more natural than an admiral dropping out of the sky in company with a Swedish spy and demanding to abscond with a platoon of his men.

“We need to have a conversation with an LNG carrier that is rapidly approaching Hong Kong harbor.” He gave the course and position of the Doll Ship.

“We’ll have to step smartly if we’re to intercept before they reach Chinese territorial waters,” the captain said.

“Indeed.”

“Just time for a cup of tea before you go,” the captain said briskly.

Minako did not want to get her hopes up, not yet. Hope would just make her heart beat faster, and she could barely draw breath as it was. Were they really here to rescue her?

“Only two ways off this ship,” Silver said. “We take a lifeboat, or we steal that helicopter. I can fly the chopper, but it’s been a good long while, and that’s a pretty good storm raging out there.”

“It’s supposed to blow itself out,” KimKim said. “If they see us take a boat they’ll be on us in a heartbeat. It has to be the helicopter.”

“Yep,” Silver said.

Neither man looked happy about it.

With his gun hand low and out of sight, KimKim cracked the steel door and peeked out.

Minako noticed that only KimKim had a gun. Silver did not. Silver was a big man, but Minako did not believe in magic or in Jackie Chan. One man with big fists was nothing against the mad villagers of Benjaminia and Charlestown.

The prime numbers helped. But many more men with many more guns would help more.

“Down the hallway, take the stairway down two decks, out to the landing pad. We hole up in the flight tech’s quarters. If the pilot’s there, we convince him to help us.”

Silver nodded. “You’re the James Bond here, I’m just a grunt.”

“Minako. Stay close.” KimKim opened the door followed immediately by Silver and Minako.

One-two-three-four-five . . .

They clattered down and that’s when Minako saw her mother standing there, standing right there on the steps and she stopped and cried out and KimKim walked right through Minako’s mother and so did Silver.

Like she wasn’t there, no, impossible. And yet, she was.