The Steel Shark

Chapter 35

The biggest room in the submarine was the mess hall. Most of the crew packed in, with a few left at their posts. Laila looked around at the familiar faces. The women’s hair was still short, and they wore blue overalls, but they didn’t look like generic crewmen anymore. Some wore bright headscarves, others had hair ribbons, bright colors decorated their once-identical overalls. They were a collection of individuals, not a crew. But she needed them all.

A pale and drawn Nahal stumbled in from sick bay. Her gunshot wound was not healing very quickly, and Laila wondered if Meri was doing her best. Ambra helped her through the crowd to a seat. Soon, this would be over and she could go to a real hospital.

Laila climbed on a table and cleared her throat. “I have a couple of announcements.”

The women grew quiet and looked at her. They had been quiet since Rasha’s death the day before. Laila worried that they would not believe Meri’s story, that they would mutiny and throw her out the trunk escape and into the pitch-dark water. But they hadn’t.

“First, we will be meeting with Pearl soon to load the new oxygen generators. I’m sure Aunt Bibi will have prepared a feast for us.”

Uncertain smiles. And this was the easy part.

Laila took a deep breath. “And now to the second announcement. We have located Prince Timgad’s yacht, the Roc, and we are ready to go after it. We have only two days to intercept it and destroy it.”

A whisper swept through the audience. The smiles disappeared.

Ambra stood to speak. “When you approached us, we each signed up to take this submarine.”

Nods from a few women.

“And we took this submarine because we knew the prince intended to load a weapon onto it, a weapon that could trigger the next world war. We hoped that taking the submarine and killing the prince would be enough to stop that,” Laila said.

“But we didn’t manage to kill him.” Meri climbed on the table next to Laila and smiled at her. “Yet.”

Laila wasn’t sure she wanted Meri as an ally. Laila continued speaking. “As we suspected, the prince has loaded the weapon onto his yacht, and he intends to aim it at New York City.”

Instead of trusting her, the women turned to looked at Nahal.

“It’s true,” Nahal said. “I can show anyone the proof on my laptop. To save lives, we must send his yacht, the prince, and his weapon to the bottom of the sea. If he reaches New York and triggers it, it will do millions of dollars of damage, and thousands of people will likely die. After that, it could lead to international war with untold casualties.”

“Or it might not,” Ambra said. “The weapon might not work. No one might die. Even if they do, it might not lead to war. We don’t know any of that. What we do know is that if we torpedo the Roc, we will kill most of the royal family and their retainers. Our uncles and cousins and brothers are on that ship.”

A murmur of approval at Ambra’s words ran through the crowd.

Nahal struggled to her feet. “We can’t do this without you. We need every woman in this crew to man her station.”

“Some of us just want to disappear and set up our new lives,” said Cara, a willowy cousin of Nahal’s. “We thought we would take the submarine and kill the prince and that would put an end to it.”

“Well, it didn’t.” Nahal had gone paler, but she didn’t sit back down. “We had our hopes, but it didn’t work out that way. If we stop now, everyone we have killed will have died in vain, and the blood of everyone who will die after the weapon is activated will be on our hands. An ocean of it.”

“This will spread beyond New York to the shores of our country, to the deserts of Israel and beyond once the device is activated and Israel is blamed.” Laila watched the women’s faces. “We can stop that. We have the tools. We have the knowledge. All we need is the will.”

The women looked between Laila, Nahal, and Ambra.

“I will continue,” Meri said. “I gave my oath.”

“I gave my oath.” Nahal’s legs trembled, but she stood straight and proud.

“I gave my oath,” Laila echoed.

Slowly, the words spread around the room. Woman after woman reaffirmed her oath. Even Ambra. Laila hoped that they remembered their oaths. If more than two of them decided to jump ship and stay with Aunt Bibi, or faltered during the engagement, they would all die for nothing.