The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus, Volume One by Jonathan Green

Author:Jonathan Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd

WITH, AS SEEMED likely, the double murderer and his accomplice secured away and with an armed guard on them, Captain Connor McCormack organised certain members of the remaining group of survivors into three separate search parties. And although he now had Ulysses and Nimrod imprisoned, the atmosphere of distrust, that the attacks and the killings had engendered in everyone, had not entirely lifted.

So, just to be sure, with that doubt planted in his mind and wondering if there was someone else lurking within the base, the stowaway that Selby assured him did not exist, McCormack made sure that as many people as possible were armed before they set out to look for Haugland. The leader of each party was given a pistol and ammunition taken from a secure locker on board the Ahab. The rest had to make do with what could be procured from the divers prep room. Inside one of the storage lockers, the purser had found a number of cumbersome, hand-held harpoon guns, bolts already loaded, a pair of fire-axes, and even a number of sticks of dry dynamite, although these were not considered an appropriate means of defence. Every other weapon, however, was gratefully accepted by their recipients.

“Right, are we ready then?” Major Horsley asked in his customary bellow, as the group began to divide up.

People were naturally gravitating towards those they most trusted or who they perceived as being most like themselves.

“Ready?” Horsley asked again, looking round the group. “Tip top,” he said beaming, apparently concluding that they were indeed all ready. “Let’s be on our way then, what?”

He set off towards the door that led out of the dive prep chamber and into the rest of the complex beyond, harpoon gun held high before him.

“Major, wait!” Captain McCormack called after him. “We need to plan the search carefully.”

“Haugland could be lying somewhere, bleeding to death! What more do we need to know? Time’s a-wasting.”

And with that, he was gone.

McCormack shook his head wearily and muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath.

“So, what now, McCormack?” Carcharodon said in that oh-so irritating, wheedling tone of his.

“Well, sir, I would suggest that you stay here, along with Miss Celeste. You’ve both had a nasty shock.”

“Don’t patronise me!” Carcharodon snarled. “Talk about pot and kettle! What about you? If you’re fit to run around playing heroes, on some wild goose chase looking for Haugland, then so are we.”

“But I didn’t think you’d want to,” the captain threw back, almost defeated by the shipping magnate’s constant harping criticism.

“Who are you to make such a judgement of me?” Carcharodon tore into the near-exhausted McCormack. “I’m not going to sit around here, like an idiot, waiting to be attacked again! I want to know what’s going on as much as you do. It’s bad enough that I’m an invalid, stuck in this chair. I am not going to be treated like a vegetable as well! I have never stood for that, and I’m not about to start now!”

“I meant no offence, sir. I was merely suggesting –”

“Suggest all you like.

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