Dead Water Zone - Kenneth Oppel [29]
He knew now what had driven him to Watertown. Not worry, not guilt. It was need. He needed Sam.
She nodded slowly and for a few moments said nothing. Then, “Do you think she’s in there, too? My mother?”
“I don’t know,” he said carefully. “Maybe.”
“I’m not sure how to get inside. It’s all bricks and boards and iron gates. We’ll need some pretty heavy tools.”
He touched her arm. “Thanks.”
She sniffed the air suddenly and turned to the back of the boat. “Piece of garbage,” she muttered in disgust. “Should have known the damn thing would seize up! Look!”
Paul turned with her to see a few tendrils of black smoke coming through the planking. Monica shut the engine down and yanked open the hatch, leaning back as dense fumes ballooned into the night air.
“This is not a good place to be dead in the water,” she said grimly. “Get the tools.”
He hefted out the toolbox. Monica was already lowering herself into the hatch, coughing away the smoke. A foghorn blasted nearby, and Paul could make out a huge cliff of metal sliding slowly through the mist. It wasn’t coming toward them, but he knew it wouldn’t be long before one did.
“How’s it going?” he asked after a few minutes.
“Not good. There’s parts all melted together.”
“You can do it.”
“No.” She hauled herself out of the hatch. “It’s fried.”
“You’re giving up?”
She offered him the hammer. “You want to try?”
“We’re going to get rammed if we stay out here!”
The mist swirled around the cabin cruiser, then opened to reveal the shape of a small motorboat drifting toward them. He half raised his arm to wave it off, but Monica stopped him.
“That’s the boat I saw at Ganymede Reach.”
It glided closer. Paul could make out two figures on board. “Cityweb,” he said, helpless.
“No,” she said. “Armitage. And Decks.”
10
“YOU SNAKE!” spat Monica as the motorboat came alongside. Armitage tried to grab hold of the railing, but Monica kicked his hands away.
“Listen to me!” he yelled up at her. “This isn’t my fault!”
For a few seconds Paul could only stare, the hammer clenched in his right hand.
“Not your fault?” he shouted at Armitage. “You called them. You told them where to find us! Sked and his friends just tried to kill us!”
“Put down the hammer, Paul,” said Decks calmly.
“And you, too,” Monica whispered at Decks.
“No.” Armitage shook his head. “Decks has nothing to do with it. They planted a bug on me.”
“What are you talking about?” demanded Monica.
Armitage offered her a coil of rope. “Look, tie us up; let us come on board.”
“No,” Paul said. “What do you mean, they had a bug on you?”
Armitage sighed. “I’m one of their spooks.”
Paul saw the shocked disbelief on Monica’s face.
“Around the time Mom disappeared, they snared me in the docklands. They knew all about the business. I was this close to getting taken in. But they made me an offer. If I spooked for them in Watertown, they’d look the other way. Said they needed people out here.”
“They own you!” Monica said with contempt. “You sold yourself—and me, too. You had no right to do that!”
“I was protecting us!” Armitage said impatiently. “Can’t you see that? They would have shut us down in a second! You’d be in some detention home in the suburbs right now!”
“So instead we’ve got glue-sniffing punks after us! Big improvement, Armitage!”
“I didn’t know they’d go this far!”
“You knew all along they were looking for my brother, didn’t you?” Paul asked. “Even before I showed up.”
Armitage shrugged. “I’m sorry, Paul. I really am. But this was business, and I didn’t know you—didn’t know why they wanted your brother. It wasn’t my problem.”
“No wonder you let me stay,” Paul muttered, ashamed of his naïveté. “You told them about the boathouse. And you were going to give them the diskette, too, weren’t you?”
“Just trying to stay afloat, like I said.” He was staring down at his shoes, but when he looked back up, there was a spark of anger dancing in