Free Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) by Jordan Rivet Page A

the day.
    “We met the most
interesting sea captain!”
    “There’s a crew
that’s talking about doing salvage runs on land .
Says he knows a safe harbor.”
    “The guy might be
a charlatan.”
    “But think of the
adventure!”
    They rehashed the
rumors they’d heard that day and made plans for who to talk to next. Esther’s
responses were noncommittal. She’d tell them about the Metal Harvesters some
other time. She couldn’t shake the image of the tall woman leaning against
David’s arm at the Rusty Nail and the way his steps had weaved as he led her up
the gangway to his ship.
    Esther felt the
sting of tears in her eyes, and it made her furious. She felt angry, hurt. She
swallowed the last of the chocolate-covered squid and curled up in the corner
of the booth. She let her friends’ chatter lull her to sleep.

 
    After midnight an alarm sounded. The Mermaid Lounge was dark and at
first only a groggy rustle followed the piercing of the siren. Then a red light
swept across the floor from the windows.
    “Esther, wake up.
Something’s happening.” Zoe crouched by Esther’s side, prodding her with the
handle of her pocketknife.
    “What? Is that our
horn?” Esther rubbed her eyes as the red light swept over them again, flashing
like lightning in Zoe’s hair.
    “It’s coming from
the Amsterdam . I think there’s a
fire,” Zoe said.
    Esther fought
through her fatigue, remembering with dread the last time she was awakened by
the smell of smoke. A fire on an oil rig was nothing to shrug off, even though
the drill was long silent. Esther pulled on her boots and joined Zoe, Anita,
and Toni at the window.
    “What’s going on
out there?” Toni said.
    From their angle,
they only had a partial view of the oil platform. Their window was on the
starboard side, facing the open sea. Small, dark boats skipped past in the
darkness. The shadows thrown onto the waves by the red searchlight made them
look larger than they actually were. The siren wailed.
    “I think people
are fighting over there.” Zoe pressed her face against the thick glass, trying
to see sideways to the hulking platform.
    “Isn’t this
neutral territory?” Toni asked.
    “What do we do,
Esther?” Anita whispered.
    The other two
turned and looked at her too.
    “We need
information,” Esther said. “We can’t get mixed up in someone else’s fight.”
    She remembered
what the big-nosed food vendor had said about the Calderon Group and the Metal
Harvesters. They shouldn’t get involved with anything between those two.
    “Let’s go to the
bridge,” Zoe said.
    They pulled on
their jackets and dashed out of the Lounge. That’s when their own horn blasted:
two calls, as if they were facing a riding storm. That would summon only the
people who were on duty that night. Hopefully the others would remain safely in
their cabins.
    Judith, Dirk, and
Neal were already in the bridge when they arrived.
    “What’s going on?”
Esther asked.
    “Looks like some
sort of skirmish,” Neal answered, pulling back one ear of his headphones. He
wore sweatpants and no shoes.
    “Any danger to
us?”
    “I don’t know. I’m
trying to raise someone over on the Lucinda .
They might have a better view.”
    Esther felt a
sliver of ice in her chest. “ Lucinda isn’t answering?”
    “I’m sure
Hawthorne’s fine,” Neal said. “Don’t worry.”
    “We have other
people on the Lucinda besides
Hawthorne,” Esther said. “What does the Amsterdam say?”
    “They keep telling
us to stand by.”
    Dirk and Judith
were engaged in a fierce, quiet argument. They hadn’t acknowledged the
newcomers. Dirk’s shoulders tensed, and he glowered alternately at Judith and
the Amsterdam .
    Outside the
forward windows, the rigging looked strangely still in the red of the
searchlights, despite the alarm bells ringing around the Coalition.
    Then a blinding
fireball ignited atop the oil rig. The sky erupted in an explosion, and a
rumble like thunder rattled the heavy windows