Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

“We’ll take care of them,” Womack said, nodding to her men. They fanned out across the ship. Sylvia moved to join them, but Womack stopped her.

“Just a minute,” Womack said. “I want to know more about this accident.”

“Accident?” Sylvia replied. “What are you talking about?”

“The distress call we received three hours ago said that there was an incident aboard the Namaka that caused a gas explosion, and before it sank, it released a chemical vapor that engulfed the Empiric. When we responded to the hail, we received no reply and came here at top speed.”

“Distress call? That’s not possible.” Sylvia pointed at the melted communications array and then realized that the supposed distress call must have been sent by the people on the trimaran.

“Did that happen as a result of the explosion?” Womack asked.

“No, it happened when we were attacked.”

“Attacked? By whom?”

“I don’t know. It was a trimaran ship.”

“In what way did they attack you?”

Sylvia couldn’t say that she thought it was a futuristic weapon like a plasma cannon. Womack would think she was crazy.

“I’m not sure,” Sylvia said. At least that was the truth.

“Why would someone attack you?”

“I don’t know.”

“What were you doing out here?”

“I can’t tell you. It’s classified.”

“Which ship were you on when this attack happened?” Womack didn’t mime air quotes around the word, but Sylvia heard them.

“On the Namaka.”

“And you happened to be the only one who survived?”

“I fell overboard when the trimaran started blowing us apart. The trimaran stopped alongside the Empiric before it left, then I swam over here.”

“And you wore that mask the whole time you were on board the Empiric?” Womack asked, pointing to the gas mask Sylvia was still holding in her hand.

“Well, no. I didn’t know what had happened on this ship until I found some of the crew.”

Sylvia went through the story once more, and Lieutenant Commander Womack looked as if she were restraining herself from rolling her eyes at Sylvia’s story. It didn’t help when one of the Ocean Protector crew members came up to them.

“We’re treating some injuries,” he said, “but everyone is paralyzed, just like she said. It’s difficult to communicate with them, although many of them can respond to yes or no questions. Their condition must have been caused by the chemical release during the accident.”

“It wasn’t an accident,” Sylvia insisted. “We were attacked.”

Womack and her crew member shared a knowing look.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Sylvia said, “but I’m not hallucinating or making this up.” Sylvia suddenly remembered the external cameras that the Empiric was using to record the results of the experiment. “I can prove it to you. There’s video that will show the ship that attacked us.”

“All right,” Womack said before turning to her crewman. “Begin transporting the survivors back to the Protector. We’ll evaluate them further over there. The first helicopter should be arriving any minute.”

The man nodded and left.

“Helicopter?”