10:55 am.
New York Harbor, Staten Island, New York,
USA.
Aaliyah kicked a soldier in the groin and shot the one behind him. By her side, Joel twisted the ankle of a man and drew him closer, using him as a shield against the enemies’ bullets. Aaliyah ran behind Joel. Together, both ran with their human shield, shooting every Russian in their way.
“I didn’t know you were such a badass,” Joel said once they had wiped out their adversaries. He threw the dead shield to the ground and found the manhole to the engine room. It was locked with a large padlock. He began to think of how to get in.
“And I thought you were too old to be badass,” Aaliyah said as she dangled her set of pick locks. “No one knows everything.”
PART FOUR
THE END
CHAPTER TWELVE
"Enjoy your sleep..."
3rd December 2021.
11:00 am.
New York Harbor, Staten Island, New York,
USA.
Aaliyah worked carefully on the lock. She enjoyed the challenge of picking them. Their complexity gave her more satisfaction when she succeeded.
“Hurry up, Aaliyah. We don’t have forever, you know,” Joel said, looking around. In the meantime, no one had come out of the cabins; however, he knew that there were Russians there.
” Voila! Done,” she said as she took the padlock off the lock. She threw the manhole open.
“Ready to go in?” she asked.
As if on cue, bullets began to fly out from the cabin area. Aaliyah and Joel fell to the ground for cover.
Just as two soldiers began to come out of the cabin, Joel unpinned his grenade and tossed it at them. The grenade blew up before landing and killed the men. Aaliyah stood up. Her arm had taken one of the bullets, and she was in pain.
As Joel stood up, he saw the wound.
“You were shot,” he said. He began to think. The worst-case scenario was that both went into the engine room, finished the mission, and came out to meet an enemy firing squad waiting for them. He didn’t want her to die. She was too young.
Well, there are two ways to ground a ship: destroy the engine or destroy the manpower…
“Aaliyah, go down there and get the job done. I’ll ensure you aren’t disturbed. Don’t forget to get out of there and leave the ship once you’re done. You’re about to cause a major explosion,” he said.
Aaliyah smirked.
“I’d say the same thing to you. Don’t go to sleep in the cabins, okay?” she said.
Joel smiled. He loved her quirkiness.
“Go, girl,” he said as he bent and picked up a dead body as cover. Aaliyah went down into the engine room and Joel went into the cabin section.
Once Joel was inside, he shut the door. To his right, there was a circuit breaker.
He turned it over.