Shark-Killer (The Dark Sea War Chronicles Book 3) Read online

  The Dark Sea War Chronicles

  Volume III

  SHARK KILLER

  BRUNO MARTINS SOARES

  Copyright © 2018 Bruno Martins Soares

  All rights reserved.

  For Tiago, my nephew (a.k.a. Shorty).

  Content

  INTRODUCTION

  INTERLUDE e – PASSENGER

  EPISODE 9 – SHARKS

  EPISODE 10 - WRECK

  INTERLUDE f - DOUBLE

  EPISODE 11 – EQUINOX

  EPISODE 12 – BROKEN WINGS

  EPILOGUE

  ALSO AVAILABLE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to all my friends and partners who helped me so much, including:

  Luís Madeira Rodrigues

  Célia Cambraia

  Nuno Madeira Rodrigues

  Leonor Hungria

  Cláudio Jordão

  Rodrigo Martins Soares

  Rodrigo Rahmati

  Susana Almeida

  Joana Cardoso

  And many others!

  INTRODUCTION

  Kary Erbay had left us on that day in Fumu Harbor, the day of the Battle of Fumu, just outside Dock 3. He was trained to immediately lose himself in the crowd, and that’s what he did. His way of walking, the way he looked at things, it was all staged to look natural, similar to others. However, that wasn’t the easiest of things in Fumu, where everyone watched everyone, so Kary knew he had to change his clothes as well, quickly, before he got on the train.

  He wondered around the Port for a few minutes. He finally spotted a small-time addict looking for a mark, maybe wanting to score some cash to get his fix of the day. He was average built and wore a big dirty jacket. Kary passed by him looking just the right way to attract his attention. Then he went into a dark spot, between all the cargo containers. As expected, the addict followed him. The poor man never saw it coming. One well-placed strike to the throat was all it took to take him out. A minute later, Kary was wearing his jacket and moving towards the train.

  *

  The train made half its way across the bay before Kary stepped out. He was then behind Dock 2, a shitty part of town if there was such a thing. This would have been at the same time we were arriving at the ‘The Hillard,’ I think.

  There were these types of bike-riders for rent in Fumu, who could carry you anywhere for a few credits. Kary called one with a hand gesture and a hard face. The guy hit on the brakes right beside him and Erbay jumped in.

  “I’m looking for a place called Weiver. Heard of it?”

  “Sure, mister! Take you there no time!”

  Kary looked him in the eye.

  “You try to con me; I’ll break your neck.”

  “No need for that, mister! Take no time! Take no time!”

  The bike-rider sped up through the dirty irregular streets, almost crashing a couple of times. Finally, though, he came next to a bar with graffiti on the door saying ‘Weiver.’ Kary paid the guy and entered the place. As soon as he did, he seemed to change his mind and left again. He looked around, noticing no-one tailing him. He then called another bike-rider.

  “I’m looking for a place called Gara. Know it?”

  “Sure! Be there in a sec, don’t worry!”

  Another few minutes and he was entering another decadent hut of a bar. He closed the aluminium door and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. People were looking at him. Mostly drunkard. A gambler. A whore. There was a table free, and Kary took it. It wasn’t as much a table as a barrel with a board on top and half a crate posing as a bench. A dark-faced woman came to him.

  “Want anything?”

  “Sybian milk.” He said.

  The woman looked straight at him.

  “Don’t have that.”

  “Mayana milk, then?”

  “Don’t have that either.”

  “How about a Derva beer?”

  The woman sighed.

  “Okay.”

  She went behind the counter as if to serve him, but instead, she called someone through the intercom. In a moment, a young man came in through a private door and winked at her, then proceeded to manage the bar. The woman put a coat on and looked at Erbay casually before leaving the establishment. The young man came to the table with a Derva bottle.

  “That’ll be a quarter.”

  Erbay put a yellow chip on the table. The young man picked it up, lowering his voice.

  “When you leave, go right.”

  “Keep the change.” Said Erbay in his normal voice.

  Erbay sipped his beer for a couple of minutes. Finally, he got up and left, turning right. A few dozen yards, on a corner, the dark woman was expecting him.

  “Come.” She said, moving through a narrow alley. A few people were up ahead. The woman stopped, turned to Erbay, picked up his hand and pushed him gently, maybe romantically, towards the wall, asking:

  “Do you know about the Axxians?”

  Erbay kept his poker face.

  “Axxians?”

  Her voice, still low, became more urgent.

  “Do you know about the Axxians or not?”

  Erbay tried to read her. What was going on? As he wasn’t speaking, the woman sighed.

  “I figured you didn’t. Come with me.”

  She pulled him by the hand and went through another alley. She opened a wooden door. It was a small storage room with a motorbike in it. She pulled the motorbike out and mounted it, inviting Erbay to mount behind her. He did. She turned her head.

  “My name is Diddee.”

  “You can call me Kary.”

  The bike took off fast.

  *

  Diddee drove the bike at high speeds through the dirty streets, as the paths were getting narrower and narrower, in between the irregular aluminium huts. Finally, they found better and wider roads and concrete buildings. Erbay had never been here, but he knew where he was. He was in the industrial area, where they made food and water and gas and air.

  They parked the bike on a discrete corner in the back of a tall building.

  “Where are you taking me?” Asked Erbay.

  “You need to see this.” Said the woman, opening a small door. Kary stopped for a minute. Was this a trap?

  “I need to know about the woman.” Said Erbay. “You know who I’m talking about. I need to know where she is.”

  “I’ll show you.”

  Diddee waited for him to decide. Finally, Erbay picked up a gun from behind his back, attached a silencer and followed her into the building.

  It was a stairwell. Diddee started climbing and Erbay followed her. They went all the way up. Diddee opened another door and stepped out to the roof. She immediately crouched.

  “Stay down.” She went ahead towards a corner and hid behind the short wall. With his head low, Erbay followed her and got to the ground next to her.

  “What?” He asked.

  “Look down there.” She replied.

  Erbay raised his head and looked beyond the wall.

  “Fuck.”

  He almost didn’t believe what he was seeing with his own eyes.

  *

  It was a compound. A large compound. It had several buildings, concrete buildings, well made, and fuel tanks and water tanks and some structures that should be grain storage tanks. And beyond those, there was a dock. A huge dock. And there were two Axxian Silent Boats docked there. And there were people coming and going. This way and that way. And most of them had Axxian uniforms, and many of them had XX black uniforms, and most were armed. And there were dogs even, and lights and mirrors everywhere.


  “What the fuck is this?” whispered Kary.

  “You didn’t know about this?”

  “No. How long have they been here?”

  “Been building it for months. The tanks came online a few weeks ago.”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you report it?”

  “That’s the thing… We did.”

  *

  They returned to the bike, and she took him a few buildings down, where they were taken in through a garage door. And then taken by a wide-shouldered man to a dirty office where another two men were waiting for them.

  “This is Joff. That’s Ryld and Nahan.” Said Diddee. “This is Kary.”

  Erbay looked at them. They looked like factory workers. But there were blueprints, guns, ammo and explosives on the table. Nahan was medium in height, weight and everything else. Joff was big, big shoulders, big eyes, big everything else. Ryld had round glasses and dark eyes, thin, small.

  “He didn’t know about the boats.” Continued the woman.

  They looked at each other, puzzled.

  “You knew I was coming?” Asked Erbay.

  They nodded.

  “Who’s in charge of communicating with us?”

  They all looked at Ryld. He blinked several times. Erbay didn’t let go.

  “You’re a traitor. What did you tell the Axxians?”

  Ryld should have reacted immediately. He would have trained for that moment, known it would happen, should have denied immediately. But he hesitated. He hesitated a bit too long. And then it was clear to all that it was true. That he was the traitor. He moved very fast, but Kary was faster still. He went forward. Ryld picked up something.

  “Grenade!” Shouted Nahan.

  Ryld had a grenade in his hand, safety off. But before he could drop it, Kary had his hand around it as well, his other hand squeezing the kid’s trachea, pushing him against the wall. Nahan was very quick. He picked up a ballistic bag full of explosives, got the explosives out and put the bag around the two hands and the grenade.

  “I got him!!” He said to Erbay. “Take your hand! Take your hand out! The bag can take it!”

  Diddee and Joff were now also grabbing Ryld and blocking him against the wall. Kary squeezed his hand out of the bag, leaving only Ryld’s hand and the grenade. But as he did this, they all saw the bump in the bag.

  “Oh, God! I dropped it!!” Shouted Ryld, terrified. “I dropped it!”

  Erbay quickly twisted his body and threw the kid into a corner. There was a muffled bang, but the bag held, and then Ryld was crying like crazy, his hand blown to pieces inside the bag. Diddee picked up a rag and went to force it into his mouth, to shut him up, but Kary said:

  “Off. Off.” And Diddee looked at him and saw the gun and next thing she knew, Kary put a bullet through Ryld’s forehead, and everything was quiet again.

  They were all in shock. They looked at the body and at Erbay and at each other, in shock. What had just happened? What had just happened? Nahan, obviously the leader, was the first to speak.

  “We could have used him. We needed to know what they know.”

  Kary waved his head.

  “No time. It could have taken days to get him to say something useful, and he would have bled to death in a few minutes anyway. There was no time.” Kary looked at them intensely. “Listen to me. You have no time. You have an operation here, right? Do you have a plan?”

  Nahan nodded.

  “We’re going to blow the fuel tanks and the oxygen as well. Cripple them all.”

  Kary nodded back.

  “Okay. Then you have two choices. Either you abort it, and right now that’s not that bad of a choice as you don’t know what they know. Or…”

  They looked at him.

  “Or what, mister?” Asked Joff.

  “Or you go today. Right now. Before they know this guy’s dead. Either way, you have to take me inside that compound. ASAP.”

  They looked at each other.

  “What if they know you’re here?” Asked Nahan.

  “Well…” Kary opened his hands. “That’s one more reason I really have to go. I need to make sure my operation is still on.”

  They looked at each other once more and they seemed to agree. Nahan turned to Erbay.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  *

  They packed all the gear and hid Ryld’s body in a closet, then got into a lift and went underground. Erbay followed the three accomplices through a narrow and dark corridor full of cables, pipes and valves. Finally, they stopped in an area near a large pipe going into the wall.

  “This is a water factory.” Explained Nahan. “We make water from underground ice and the recycling plant. We ship it several ways. This pipe goes through the Axxian compound.”

  “Okay.” Nodded Erbay.

  Joff was turning a wheel to open a shaft. Diddee took a thin metal cable from a bag. She attached it to another solid pipe.

  “The water pressure is irregular, but most of the time it doesn’t fill the whole pipe, so we have room to go past.”

  Kary raised an eyebrow.

  “Most of the time?”

  Nahan showed him a small electronic device with a screen.

  “We have a meter checking the pressure upstream. It can give us a two-minute warning if the pressure gets too high. Two minutes should be enough for us to get to the other side.”

  “Okay. Who’s going?”

  “Well… All of us.”

  Erbay raised his eyebrow again.

  “It has to be.” Insisted Nahan. “Diddee is going to get you where you want to go, and Joff and I are both needed to set the charges. Ryld was supposed to stay behind…”

  Erbay sighed.

  “So no-one will stay on the cable? We’ll be on our own?”

  They nodded. Erbay nodded back.

  “Tell me what to do.”

  “It’s simple: we’ll suit you up with a wetsuit, and then you get attached to that cable, and you go into the water. You just need to let the current take you about 80 palms. There’s another shaft. It’s been rigged to open from the inside.”

  “Don’t tell me Ryld is supposed to have done that.”

  Nahan didn’t smile.

  “No. We’re safe. Joff did it, yesterday.”

  Joff nodded.

  “You get out and come back the same way. Here.”

  The young man gave Erbay a climbing device.

  “Attach that to the cable and it will pull you back against the current.”

  Erbay nodded.

  “Suit me up.”

  They started undressing. Kary noticed Diddee was a beautiful woman.

  *

  A few moments later, they were all in wetsuits.

  “I’ll go first.” Said Nahan. He attached his vest to the cable and went through the shaft. They could see the cable tense. After a few seconds, all they could hear was the sound of the machines and the water going through the pipe. Joff had a transmitter in his hand, and soon they heard Nahan’s voice calling.

  “Next.”

  Erbay was next. As he was attaching the vest to the cable, Joff gave him his final instruction in his bass voice.

  “Don’t let go of the cable. The device will do most of the work, but you must keep your hands on the cable for safety. I’ll tell you when to go. After my signal, you have less than two minutes to clear the shaft. Just let the current drag you and Nahan will be on the other side. Ready?”

  Erbay nodded and entered the pipe. Joff was controlling the pressure on the pipe to make sure he would have time to clear it. Diddee gave him a last smile.

  “Go.” Joff said.

  Kary slid into the freezing water. The pipe was half filled but the current was fast and it immediately became difficult to breathe and to control the movement of his body. He grabbed the cable and was letting go so the small automatic device attached to his vest would control the speed. He felt he was bumping all over the place and the ride was taking forever.

  Finally, though,
he felt Nahan’s hands grabbing his leg, and then his body. He could feel an open shaft above him, and soon he could see the lights and the shadow of Nahan’s body over him. He grabbed his hand and pulled. And next, he was out.

  “Detach it. You need to detach it now.” Nahan was whispering, but Erbay quickly gained control and detached his device from the cable, leaving it in the water for Diddee to cross.

  “Here.” Nahan passed him a Zimo submachine gun with a silencer, and Erbay looked around. They were behind a grain silo, between two buildings that gave them cover. There were clearly people around, and he could hear a dog barking nearby. They had to be quick. They couldn’t be there for long. Erbay inspected the Zimo and Nahan passed him an extra ammo clip.

  They didn’t speak. Kary had the impression that the sound of the water coming from the open shaft would be enough to reveal their presence, but he knew from experience that it was his senses fooling him. A few dozen palms away, the sound would be much less obvious.

  Diddee climbed out of the shaft breathing heavily and looking startled from the crossing. And Joff showed up a few minutes later. They all armed themselves. Nahan took the pressure meter from Joff and hid it under the pipe.

  “The first to come back can use it and hide it again for the others, agreed?” He whispered. They all agreed.

  Finally, they separated. Erbay followed Diddee to the right and Nahan and Joff went left towards the tanks.

  *

  Beyond the first buildings, Kary saw what looked like a few bungalows and an office building. There was empty space between them and the bungalows, lighted with armed guards doing rounds. Diddee guided him towards a ditch for power cables and more pipes. They had to crawl along the ditch, for 200 palms or so.

  At last, they were behind the office building. Surprisingly, though, Diddee took Erbay not towards the building, but to a bungalow. They had to crouch while they ran, but they got to it unnoticed. Diddee showed him the back entrance and then displayed considerable skill picking the lock in only a few seconds. They were in.

  The next moment they understood someone was in the bungalow. Somewhere in the front. In the living room, maybe. There wasn’t light. All the windows were seemingly closed. Some light came from the front. Electric light. Internal light. And there was movement. And people.