The Keepers by Dan Alatorre

Author:Dan Alatorre [Alatorre, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Great Oak Publishing
Published: 2020-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

In the darkness, Moray’s boat rocked gently in the waves. Louis moaned, waking up again. The makeshift bandages on his wounds were caked in dried blood, his chest slowly rising and falling.

DeShear knelt next to the Lieutenant, holding a plastic water bottle to his lips. “Here. It’s the last of our water. You take it.”

Louis sucked up the final sips, then turned his head away, his voice a whisper. “You are cruel, mister.”

Picking up a rag, DeShear wiped the sweat off the Lieutenant’s brow. “It’s cruel to save your life? You’re just tired. You’re in a lot of pain and you’re talking nonsense. When we get you to a hospital—”

“They . . . will hang me.”

“Forget about where you were taking me, and why. Nobody needs to know that now. We’ll tell them I’m just a tourist, and that I hired your boat to take me scuba diving at night. On the way, we were attacked, and we defended ourselves.”

“You know where we were really headed.” Each breath Moray took was a raspy wheeze. “You . . . could have killed me in the night. Thrown me over the side to the sharks. Why didn’t you?”

“I’m not a murderer. I told you, I’m trying to find a little girl, not kill her. I was trying to save the woman I was with, too. That should be obvious to you by now. I had every reason to kill you and I didn’t—doesn’t that at least make you think I might be telling the truth?”

The engines of the Defense Force cutter could be heard long before the boat itself was visible. DeShear jumped up, rushing to the rear of boat, waving his arms as the beam of a distant spotlight swung back and forth over the water.

“Here! We’re here!”

He knew the sailors on board the cutter couldn’t hear him, but he couldn’t help himself.

DeShear glanced at where the lieutenant lay on the deck. “It’s almost over, Louis. We’re going to be rescued. You just have to hang on a little longer.”

Moray’s head hung sideways, his cheek on his shoulder. “You . . . used the radio.”

“That’s right.” DeShear continued waving. “Now, we’re almost rescued.”

“You saved me from dying in the night.” Louis got to his feet, sagging against the railing. “So I can be humiliated and die in the daytime.”

“What?” DeShear turned around.

Groaning, Louis threw a leg over the rail. “Let the sharks take me. I’m not going like this.” He put both hands on the railing, leaning toward the water.

“No! Louis!” DeShear lunged for the lieutenant, wrapping his arms around him and hauling him in. They crashed back onto the deck. “You’re going to stay alive, Louis.” DeShear gasped. He gritted his teeth and grabbed the lieutenant by the collar. “You’re going to tell the Defense Force sailors how I bandaged your wounds and gave you water through the night and saved your miserable life!”

The spotlight bathed the deck in brightness. DeShear rolled onto his back, holding a hand up to shield his eyes.

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