Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson

Author:Taylor Anderson [Anderson, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction - Sci-Fi/Fantasy
ISBN: 9781436240079
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2011-01-29T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Lieutenant Benjamin Mallory and Lieutenant (j.g.) Perry Brister sat on chairs in Jim Ellis’s cramped quarters on USS Mahan waiting for him to wake. Ellis’s fever had finally broken the night before, and Pam Cross assured them he’d be fine—he just had to sleep it off. And so they waited, playing hand after hand of acey-deucey on the tiny table between them. Eventually, a groggy groan escaped the patient and he slowly came awake. His eyes seemed confused when he saw them, but he smacked his lips and croaked: “Thirsty.”

In seconds the nurse appeared with a cup of water. “Here,” she said in her brusque Brooklyn way. “Drink.” Jim drank. When he spoke again, his voice was more normal.

“How long?” he asked simply.

“Almost two weeks since the fever hit. How much do you remember?” Brister asked.

“Not much,” Jim admitted and tried to rise, but his expression contorted with pain and he settled back. “But I do remember that crazy bastard Kaufman shot me!”

It all came flooding back: the dinosaurs on Bali, the mysterious contact in the strait, the urgent signal for him to take Mahan east—which he did, but not for long. What was the point? There were dinosaurs on Bali! He didn’t know what was going on, but there’d been no Japanese ships or planes since they came through the Squall, and he had a hunch there wouldn’t be. He decided to turn around, to go back and rejoin Walker.

Kaufman argued with him, right there on the bridge. At first he remained reasonable, advocating that they continue to the rendezvous point off Alor. But when Jim gave the order to come about, Kaufman began to insist. He said Jim was risking all their lives and they’d die if they turned around. Jim ordered him off the bridge and that’s when he just . . . lost it. He had a pistol and he took it out. Immediately, Jim and a couple of others jumped him and in the ensuing struggle, the gun went off. It probably wasn’t even deliberate. Regardless, the bullet entered Jim’s left leg, just below the knee, and exited the other side of his calf, right above the ankle. The men would have thrown Kaufman over the side right then, but he had the gun and time to talk. He said turning back was suicide; they’d done everything they could. The ship was a wreck and the men were exhausted. They deserved to live. Then Mr. Monroe, the only other officer besides Brister—in engineering at the time—took his side. He said they should listen to Kaufman, who was a captain, after all, and it was nuts to go back after all they’d been through. The crew began to go for it. They were angry about Jim being shot, but it wasn’t like he was their captain or anything. He was just a strange officer who’d been put in charge. Kaufman only wanted to do what they’d been told to do, so that’s how it was. Before Brister or Mallory even knew what happened, Captain Kaufman had the ship.

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