The Steel Shark

Chapter 40

Laila had a hundred-fifty-pound problem. That was easily solvable. A bigger problem was the witnesses. Aunt Bibi was standing next to her, looking at the woman dripping on the aft deck. Behind Bibi was a woman Laila knew only as Jin. Jin pointed a gun at the stranger’s chest. Next to her was Ambra, biting her lip. Lined up behind them stood four guards from Aunt Bibi’s ship. All armed. Seven witnesses.

The woman sat on a bench on the ship’s stern. She had short dark hair and wore a black wetsuit and had battered-looking scuba gear with one arm cut open to accommodate a broken arm. She looked frightened. Considering Jin’s gun and impassive expression, Laila didn’t blame her.

Ambra knelt next to the woman and started stripping off her scuba gear.

“Why were you under my ship?” asked Aunt Bibi in English.

Jin raised her gun a centimeter.

“I come to get away.” The woman had a strong Hispanic accent. She held up her arms to make it easier for Ambra, but her eyes never left the gun.

“On the bottom of the boat?” Aunt Bibi trembled with rage. Laila had never seen her so upset.

The Hispanic woman shook her head. “I hide in your boat because I hear it is going to Boston. I work for a bad man in Halifax, and I want to leave there.”

“Show me your identification,” Aunt Bibi demanded.

The woman hung her head. “The bad man, Mr. McKay, he keeps it so we can’t leave. That is why I have to sneak away on a ship like yours.”

“You bring trouble to my boat,” Aunt Bibi said. “Maybe, if you’d asked honestly, I could have helped you.”

“I ask you now.” The woman looked Aunt Bibi straight in eye. “Please help me. Take me to Boston. Let me jump off your boat, and I will swim to shore. I can swim far.”

Aunt Bibi looked torn.

“What’s your name?” Laila wanted to short-circuit any sympathy.

“Elena Torres,” the woman said. “I come from Mexico.”

“How did you get to Canada?” Laila asked.

“In a truck. I paid a man to get me across the border. For work cleaning. With thirty-five women. He took us to Canada. Not North Dakota. And not house-cleaning work.” She spat.

Aunt Bibi winced when the spit hit her clean deck.

“How would a woman like you come upon scuba gear?” Laila asked.

The woman looked down, as if she were thinking up a lie. Which she probably was. “A man who visits with me. For money. He give it to me and say I can use it to swim out to catch a boat to America. I do, and I hide away. When the boat stop, I think we are in Boston, and I climb over the side. I see no city light. I try to get back aboard, but you chase me. I swim away at first. But there is nowhere to go, so I come back.”

Unfortunate if true, Laila had to concede. The woman had terrible luck, because Laila would not let her live.

Aunt Bibi looked at Laila and spoke in Arabic. “We cannot let her go in Boston. She has seen the submarine, and she can link it to me. The family lets me be free, but if they knew I was connected to your plans, that would change. All my crew would be at risk.”

“Agreed.” Laila waited, readying her argument.

“After you leave, Jin will kill her.” Aunt Bibi looked sad.

Argument forgotten, Laila gaped. She hadn’t expected it to be this easy. “You’d have to strip her naked, throw her overboard, then put her gear in a bag with weights and dump that a few kilometers after so it won’t be connected to her.”

“I know my business,” Jin said.

What was Jin’s business? Laila wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.

“No,” said Ambra, also in Arabic. “She’s innocent, and we don’t need to kill her. After tomorrow, this is all over. Why can’t we release her then? She doesn’t know anything—”

“She’s seen the Siren!” Laila said. “And the Pearl. And all of us.”

“What can she do with the information? She’s a Mexican prostitute. No one will listen to her.” Ambra folded her arms.

“Perhaps Ambra is correct.” Aunt Bibi looked at the woman uncertainly. “Perhaps there is another way.”

Elena Torres couldn’t understand what they were saying, but her eyes brimmed with tears. She knew they were determining her fate.

“Please don’t take me back to Canada,” she said. “Mr. McKay will be very angry.”

Going back to Canada was the least of her problems.

“Maybe we should take her back to Canada,” Aunt Bibi said in Arabic. “We could dump her in the water about a mile offshore from Halifax and let her take her chances on swimming to land.”

Laila had reached a decision. “Or we could do that in the Siren.”

Ambra’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Laila couldn’t leave the woman with Aunt Bibi if there was even a small chance Aunt Bibi would let her go. She had to take Elena Torres with them. Tomorrow, after they were finished and Ambra left the sub, she’d kill this Elena Torres herself and dump her body in the sea. “Yes, Ambra. You’re right: She’s probably an innocent. We can release her after we’ve completed our mission, when she’s no longer a threat to us.”

Aunt Bibi studied Laila’s face as if deciding whether to trust her. She must have, because she turned to Jin. “Escort this woman to the submarine and make sure she is suitably restrained.”

To the woman, she said in English, “They will take you to America, but you must swim ashore yourself.”

“Yes, señora,” the woman said. “Gracias. Thank you. You are so kind to me.”

Ambra gave Laila a long look, then took the prisoner’s arm and led her across the deck. Jin followed at a distance, as if she worried Torres might attack her.

A good policy.