Keegan went to the bridge and found Wilson and Garrison working with the crew at the control panel. He forced himself not to look at the bodies against the far wall, or the blood on the white tile beneath his boots.
“SITREP?” he asked, stopping beside Garrison.
“The dog and handler are searching for the devices. Lawrence went with the rest of the team to find the missing tango. We’re trying to figure out how to turn this bitch around, because the Captain, Staff Captain and 1st Officer are dead. The Safety Officer and Chief Security Officer are getting the life boats and crew ready for the bells.”
The woman beside Gars glanced back over her shoulder at him. “I’m the 2nd Officer, but I’m new. This is my first time doing this outside of a simulator and that was on a different vessel, and not at speed. I need to make sure I get this right or we’ll stall or ground the ship.”
“What’s the make of this ship? Type of engine?” Keegan asked, pulling out his phone.
She spouted off the specifications and he texted Greg to find someone who could call on the ship to shore radio to give her instructions. This needed to happen fast, because it wouldn’t be long until they reached Edgewater.
The control room door opened and Keegan groaned when Jules strode in, her face ravaged, but determined. His stomach fell when his phone dinged. He looked, and instead of a reply from the Commander, it was a no service alert.
“Where’s your ship to shore phone?” he asked, the hair on the back of his neck raising.
The 2nd Officer reached a few feet away to pick up the handset. She turned to hand it to him. Keegan keyed it, but it was obviously inoperable.
“They’ve disabled coms,” he said, his heart taking a plunge to his stomach. “This had to just happen because I just had a text go through an hour ago.” He handed the phone back to the officer. “Where’s the coms center on this ship?”
“Two decks down—forward. There’s a control room behind the stairs,” she replied.
“Get this thing turned around!” Keegan shouted as he took off running, because he thought he had just found their unaccounted for tango.
He heard other feet squeaking on the tile floor behind him as he pushed through the door, but he wasn’t letting her distract him. He found the stairs beside the bridge and flew down them two at a time. His heart pounded as he ran two decks down and found the control room door. Pistol in hand, he grabbed the handle and flung it open and a dark-skinned man in navy blue crew coveralls turned and fired at him. Keegan dove and his right shoulder drove into the deck when he landed. Red-hot pain blinded him as he reached for his pistol with his left hand.
Before he could, a shot rang out and he flinched as he waited for the blackness of death to claim him. When it didn’t come, he opened his eyes and saw a red-haired angel standing above him, aiming into the control room.
“I thought I told you to stay in the suite,” he growled, his blood running cold at the thought that she could’ve taken the bullet meant for him.
“You might be used to leaving your partner behind, but that’s not how I operate. I’d say that’s a good thing wouldn’t you?” Jules snarled back, melting him into the deck with her eyes.
“Go back to the room, Jules,” he grated as he sat up and held his arm to his side.
Instead of listening, she pushed the metal door back and walked inside the room. When she came back out with a small black box, her hand shook as she held it out to him in her palm.
“Is this what you were looking for?” she asked, her voice choked and her eyes wild.
Keegan vaulted up to grab it from her before she dropped it. “Yes, this looks like the detonator.” And it also appeared the bombs were on a joint timer and that time was ticking.
One hour, ten minutes and twenty-four seconds.
“Get my pistol and his, and meet me on the bridge,” Keegan said, striding to the stairway with adrenaline mixing with bile to make him want to vomit.
This was not a manual detonation device. The timers on the bombs had already been activated. Since the second tango told them the bombs would blow if the ship stopped, Keegan would bet his left nut there was a secondary mechanism in the engine room to detonate them if the engines fell below a certain RPM.
He had to get this information to the assist team now. When he walked back into the wheelhouse, he swayed back toward the door when the engine revved and the ship swayed hard to the left.
“Don’t slow down!” he yelled as he staggered over to the master panel. “Full speed turn, or we’re going to have problems.”
“What’s up?” Wilson asked. “Why in the hell did you run out of here so fast?”
“The tango is down and this is the detonator,” Keegan said, holding it out to him.
“A timer?” he asked, looking confused. “I thought this was supposed to be a manual detonation? Isn’t that what the tango you interrogated said?”
“No, he said if the ship stops, the bomb explodes,” Keegan corrected. “Which means—”
“There’s a secondary trigger tied to the engine!” Gars shouted and the ten crew members gathered at the control panel turned terrified eyes his way.
The engine revved higher, the boat groaned as it leaned far right, and he looked at the 2nd Officer. With a look of determination, she jammed a switch forward, twisted a knob, and the bow of the ship pirouetted to the left.
He imagined all of the passengers knew now that something was wrong, since they were all probably thrown across the deck when she whipped the ship around. He just hoped none of them were hurt, because this adventure was far from over.
“Do we have com with the assist team?” Keegan asked.
“Yes, they’ve found two of the devices,” Garrison replied, handing him a radio. “I’m going down there to help them find the third. You and Wilson stay up here to keep us at speed…and pray. You might want to make an announcement and lie to the passengers so we don’t have a riot to deal with too.”