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

of the bridge. The Catalina rolled in the shock wave,
knocking them off balance.
    “Salt! What was
that?”
    Esther shook her
head to clear the fuzzy ring of light from her eyes. A fire burned in one
quarter of the platform. Pops rattled through the night.
    “News coming in
from the Amsterdam ,” Neal said. He
listened to the headphones for a second. “We’re under attack! The rig rep says
to send crew to the deck to ward off boarders.”
    “Dirk, get the
crew armed,” Judith said, pulling herself up. “Make sure everyone else stays
below.”
    “We can run to the
cabins to warn any stragglers,” Toni said.
    She and Anita
darted for the door.
    “We should get
down to the deck, Esther!” Zoe said, tugging on her arm. “We can fight.”
    But there was a
commotion outside the port window. Esther rushed to the far side of the bridge.
Beyond the Catalina ’s foredeck,
people darted back and forth across the Amsterdam platform. Esther pressed her hands against the glass, focusing on the patrol
ship bobbing beside the Catalina .
Dark figures were boarding the Lucinda .
They scuttled across her narrow prow like crabs. Where were their defenders?
    David had better be out of bed , Esther thought, fear gripping her like a vise. He
had to be okay.
    “Let’s go,
Esther!” Zoe shouted.
    “Right.”
    “Be careful,”
Judith called as they dashed from the bridge.
    Esther and Zoe ran
down the stairwell and out onto the foredeck. The night was cold as a razor.
The siren wailed a warning. A dozen skirmishes had broken out around the oil
platform. People fought with pipes and clubs. Knives flashed in the
searchlights. Boots pounded on the decks of the surrounding ships.
    None of the
fighting had made it onto the Catalina yet, but their gangway still connected them to the platform. They rushed forward.
They had to get it up before anyone came aboard.
    “Look out!” Esther
grabbed Zoe, pulling her to the ground as a ball of fire flew toward them.
    “What was that?”
    “Flaming oil!”
    Another fireball
streaked through the night. Liquid light spread in a patch on the deck.
    “Get back inside!”
    “We have to put
out the fire,” Zoe said.
    “It’s not
catching,” Esther said. “The deck is fine. We have to move!”
    They clambered
backward to shelter in the forward entryway. Esther pulled the heavy steel door
most of the way closed. The metal rattled as something collided with it,
launched from the darkness.
    Esther peeked around
the edge of the door. Men were climbing onto the Catalina across the gangway they hadn’t been able to pull up in
time. Their weapons glinted in the light from the fireballs streaking through
the air.
    “We’re being
boarded,” Esther said. “We have to do something!”
    “This should
help.” Dirk had appeared behind her with a machine gun.
    “Where did you get
that?”
    He ignored her and
shoved the barrel through the gap in the doors. “Get ready for anyone who tries
to sneak around the side,” he said, and then he let loose a round.
    The gunfire
rattled Esther’s ears. She couldn’t see anything. More shouts from outside. A
woman shrieked. Esther pulled a heavy wrench from her tool belt.
    A metal-hafted
hammer swung around the edge of the door, wielded by a ropy pair of arms. A man
had managed to get around the side of the ship out of Dirk’s line of fire. The
hammer pounded down on the barrel of the machine gun, throwing Dirk off
balance. He cursed as the hammer swung again, this time directed at his head.
    There was a flash
of metal. The hammer wielder beyond the door screamed and dropped the tool. A
pocketknife was embedded in his wrist.
    Esther gasped.
“Zoe! You—”
    Zoe leapt forward
and wrenched her knife from the man’s wrist. The knife dripped red. The man
stumbled away.
    “Thanks, mate,”
Dirk growled.
    “Hurry, there are
more of them,” Zoe said.
    She swiped her
knife against her leggings to clean the blade and handed the hammer to Esther.
It was cold and