Chapter Nineteen

SAMANTHA

I clung to the branch for dear life, my feet scrambling to get a hold. Soon I stood firmly on the huge branch, holding on tightly with my arms. I turned to look at Jori. He had a big smile on his face, though there was worry in the back of his eyes.

"You did it," he said. "I know you can do the rest, too. When it gets difficult, remember I believe in you."

I wished I could touch him. Instead, I merely nodded, blinking back my tears.

"Jori…" I started but he interrupted me.

"We will see each other again, Sam. I promise."

"You shouldn't make promises you may not be able to keep," I said, my voice choking up in spite of myself.

"I'll keep this one," he said. I knew that he believed it. "I'll see you soon enough," he said. "Now go."

I gazed at his handsome face one last time before I turned and began climbing down the tree. Going down was a nightmare. Every time my foot slipped, I thought I was going to fall to my death. My hands were covered in sweat and I wondered if I would tumble down out of the tree. When my feet finally touched the ground, I gave a huge sigh of relief.

But it wasn't over yet. I looked up at the window and waved. I thought I saw movement but I wasn't sure. Then I turned resolutely and started running, keeping myself covered by the shadows of the trees as Jori had instructed me. It only took me a few minutes to find the hole we had gone through the last time.

It was filled in.

My heart sank. I dropped to my knees and started to dig with my hands.

I didn't get very far before I saw that someone had half-heartedly tried to cover it. The hole was still there. It only took a few minutes to empty the hole. A new dread began to fill me as I contemplated wriggling through it again and getting stuck.

My heart pounded. I don't know how long I sat there without moving. The noise of an animal growling got me off my butt. I remembered that Jori thought I could do it. I began to wriggle through the hole lying down on my stomach.

Just like before, when I got halfway through, my hips became stuck. In the future, I might appreciate them but right now I was cursing their width. I twisted, trying to get free but this time I was tightly wedged between the falls. Last time Jori had given me a push to set me free. He wasn't around to help me now.

The noises got louder and I worried that a Vandwan land animal would attack my legs. Shit. What could I do? I needed to be thinner, but I wasn't going to lose five pounds in the next two minutes.

I could lose about a quarter of an inch if I took off my pants. I began wiggling again, but this time I didn't worry if my pants were pulled off my legs. I had to leave my pants behind but it was enough to let me free. I scrambled out the other side, feeling relief flooding me again.

How had I got myself into all this? This was the last time I did an arranged marriage to a secret agent. I didn't regret marrying Jori, even if he had come with unusual baggage.

I was so happy I escaped I was practically dancing as I pulled my pants back on. I took off running to find Nathaniel.

"Jori said you would help, no questions asked."

"I didn't have any questions for Jori the convict, but I have several questions for Jori the secret agent." Nathaniel stared at me. The morning sun through the porthole lit his face as it rose over the ever-present ocean. We were in the captain's cabin on the Dream, where I had caught them as they were docking. "All this time?"

"It was an act. He saved those children. He's a hero, Nathaniel. He hated having to deceive you, but he did everything for the kids. We don't have time to talk about it right now. Jori can explain everything once we get him away from Harrington. Can you track him?"

Nat opened his computer and entered a long password. He pressed his thumb onto a fingerprint identifier, and he scanned his retina. "They're moving him," he said, staring at the screen.

"Where?" I said, struggling to keep fear out of my voice.

"They're on the ocean." He turned to me. His expression was concerned. "They're heading out towards The Barrier."

"We have to catch them, Nathaniel. Can you intercept them before they get to The Barrier?"

"I don't know, Sam. They couldn't beat the Dream in a race, but they've had quite a head start."

He ran out of the room, calling for his first mate, Vess, and shouting that all hands were needed on deck. If anyone could get us there quickly, it was Nathaniel with his high-speed ship.

I remembered Jori had said Harrington liked to drown his enemies. I desperately hoped the Dream would get us there in time.

JORI

I was on a ship heading out to sea. They had tied me up and gagged me, throwing me belowdecks. Now some of Harrington's henchmen were dragging me back up onto the deck. I wasn't making it easy for them. One of them kneed me in the guts, taking the wind out of me. Another punched me in the face. I guessed I would have a black eye and bruised cheekbone.

I wasn't sure why I struggled. I was restrained and couldn't fight properly. Resisting them made me feel better and in control of my situation. They took a few more shots at me and finally pulled me onto the deck.

Harrington stood there, looking smug and confident. I wanted to punch the bastard's smile off his face.

One of the men removed the gag. I tried to get some saliva back into my dry mouth.

"You need to know, Jori, that I am the most powerful man on Vandwa. I've been making my living doing this for years and I've never been caught. A young pup like you is not going to be able to take me down. You're going to die for your trouble."

"If I don't take you down, someone will," I said, thinking about my tracking device.

"You have nothing on me."

"How do you know I haven't recorded our conversations?"

He rolled his eyes and I knew that I was in bigger trouble than I had imagined.

"Are you referring to your little tracking device?" he said.

How did he know about it?

"How do you think they're going to get the evidence if it's in the belly of a rogahz?" he said, tilting his head and using a high voice. He was mocking me.

I tried not to show my fear but my heart sped up.

One of his men stepped forward with a knife. I backed away but I hit the main mast. He held my arm and made a slash across my bicep. I pressed my lips together. I hardly noticed the pain because I was panicking, but I didn't want to let it show. That would only give Harrington satisfaction.

When I spotted The Barrier coming up ahead of us, I began to hyperventilate. He was going to drop my bleeding body over The Barrier. Any Vandwan in his right mind would be scared now. I didn't want to be torn apart by the sea.

"That's right, Jori. All your work was for nothing. I'm going to go free. And you're going to suffer death by rogahz."

Another of his men approached me with a needle. I fought them but ended up with more bruises and ringing ears for my trouble. The men injected something into my thigh and stepped back.

"What are you doing to me?" I asked.

"That's VD-162. It takes about twenty minutes for an injection to make someone unconscious. You won't be able to breathe anymore. You'll have time to think about how you're going to be devoured or drown. Maybe both. There will be no one left to protect your beautiful girl."

I lunged at him but one of his minions stopped me and threw me to the deck, kicking me three times in the stomach. I felt a stab of intense pain and knew that I had broken ribs. He walked over to me and squatted down. I held my sides, trying to get air into my lungs.

"I'm going to find her, Lachlan. I'm going to hurt her. I'm going to enjoy her body. In the end, I'm going to drown her, just like you. You won't be able to do anything to stop me because you'll be dead."

He smiled.

"Good-bye, Jori. Nice try."

Three of his men grabbed me. I struggled against them. They were too strong for me, and I was still tied. They lifted me over the rail and dropped me like a bag of garbage. I fell and hit the ocean with a hard belly flop. I sank beneath the waves on the wrong side of The Barrier.

I flipped my inner eyelid and took a deep breath through the skin of my torso. I could see brown liquid seeping from the wound on my arm and I knew it was only a matter of time until a rogahz or something more terrible beyond The Barrier consumed me. I settled on the bottom of the ocean and tried to calm myself. I could see the shadow of the ship's hull moving away.

All I could think about was Sam. She had been brave going into the manhole and climbing out the window. She was scared out of her mind, but she took action. That was real courage.

I remembered how she moaned and writhed beneath me when I made love to her. I remembered her eyes when I had told her that I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life.

I had been with her up until the last few hours of my brief lifetime. My only regret was that I didn't get to tell her I loved her. I should have told Nathaniel the truth about me. I felt sleepier and sleepier as the minutes ticked by. I fought to stay awake until I saw dark forms approaching me from the depths of the ocean. I let the darkness take me. It was better to be unconscious when the animals ripped me limb from limb.

SAMANTHA

I was monitoring Jori's tracker when it did something odd that I didn't understand. Nathaniel was on deck with Vess attempting to squeeze every last little bit of speed out of the wind. I don't know how they did it, but we were moving over the water faster than I ever had before.

"Nathaniel!" I yelled as loud as I could. He was down the stairs in a heartbeat.

"What is it?" he said. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know. The monitor did something strange."

He moved closer and examined the screen. He looked frightened for a moment, but his expression changed almost immediately. He tried to make it seem as if I shouldn't worry.

"Look, it's no big deal. He's at the bottom of the ocean."

"No big deal?" I said, my voice rising.

He winced.

"Sam, calm down. He's Vandwan. He can breathe underwater."

"Jori told me that Harrington drowns everyone. Even Vandwans. He must have a way."

Nat raised his eyebrows. "Well, if we're unconscious we can't breathe underwater," he said. "I suppose he could knock everybody out before he tosses them overboard."

"Fuck," I said. I felt tears starting to form in my eyes.

He looked back at the screen. "It appears they've dropped him over The Barrier."

"The Barrier? The one that keeps out all the dangerous sea life?"

Nathaniel nodded. "I hope he's not bleeding," he said, heading back up on deck. I heard him giving orders. I'm not a religious person, but that's when I started to pray.

It seemed that I watched Jori's blinking dot on the computer screen for an eternity before I felt the ship slowing down. The blip turned yellow and I went up on deck to ask Nathaniel what it meant.

"Are we there yet?" I asked, finding Nathaniel in the middle of a group of scurrying sailors.

"We've reached his coordinates."

"What does it mean if the dot turns yellow?" I told him.

His face went white and he started pulling off his shirt. "It means he's unconscious." Nathaniel was clad only in his boxers. A knife appeared in his hand by the time he hit the rail and dived into the ocean.

"Where's Nat," Vess, the first mate asked, coming over to me.

"He jumped overboard," I said. "Jori's unconscious."

Vess was out of his clothes and into the water as quickly as Nathaniel. I ran to the railing, peering over the edge, trying to see what was going on. There were dark shapes under the water and it seemed there was fighting going on. After a minute, three people broke the surface of the water. A shout went up among the sailors and they pulled in Jori first, followed immediately by Nathaniel and Vess.

I went to Jori immediately, scared out of my mind. Nathaniel was beside me in a heartbeat, dripping everywhere. When I touched Jori's hand it was cold and lifeless. I sucked in a breath. Under the bruises, his face was pale and white. Had he left me already?

Nathaniel leaned over me and checked to see if Jori was breathing. He wasn't.

I covered my face with my hands and wept.