18

Aboard The Neptune

Philippine Sea

347 Miles Southwest of The Mariana Trench

Gale force winds whip the midnight sky into a frenzy, driving sheets of rain at the rolling, white-capped sea.  Towering cumulus clouds growl at one another, firing off rogue gunshots of thunder and brilliant bolts of lightning that ignite across the charged atmosphere like spider webs.

Twenty-to thirty-foot swells punish the Spanish galleon's keel, the undulating mountains of water raising the tall ship heavenward, only to send it plunging down steep valleys with a vengeance.

Captain Robertson and his first mate remain steady at the wheel, both men in heavy rain gear, their body harnesses secured to the main mast.  The Neptune 's topsails have all been lowered, its hatches battened down to weather the storm.

Below decks is a topsy-turvy world of darkened corridors violated by screams of Daredevil laughter and pounding heavy metal music.  Wooden beams creak with every roll, echoing the groans of the sickened crew.

Susan Ferraris tosses in bed, semiconscious after downing three sleeping pills in the last hour.  Erik Hollander is on all fours in a bathroom stall, as are most of his assistants.  Andrew Fox and his crew are riding out the storm in the galley, watching a DVD of The Perfect Storm while sipping hot tea from plastic containers.  Jonas fakes his sea legs with them as long as he can, then heads for his cabin, too sick to focus any longer on the television screen.

As he makes his way through the pitch black corridor, the Neptune suddenly rolls hard to port.  Jonas is thrown blindly against a wall as the ship continues rolling like a funhouse . . . forty degrees . . . fifty degrees . . .

Fear shoots through him as he holds on in the darkness, his mind awaiting the final deluge of sea.

A deck below, the crash of a boom box ends the music, rending the air with yelling and screams and drunken laughter as the two Daredevil teams, engages in a nude shaving cream Twister tournament, are flung head-over-heels against the far wall.  Half naked Candy Girls tumble into the flesh pile, several of the scantily-clad women vomiting blindly in the darkness as the Neptune threatens to sink beneath them.

Danielle Taylor retches into a towel, wishing the end would come faster.

Finally the great ship levels off, the bow fighting the sea as it begins its next ascent.

Alone in the corridor, Jonas drags himself to his feet, not sure if he's walking on the floor or the wall.  He hears bizarre noises coming from below and debates whether to find his daughter.

What's the point?  She's either puking her guts up or stoned like the rest of them.  Either way, I'm the last person she wants to see.

Ignoring his paternal impulse to crash the party, Jonas locates his cabin door and half tumbles through the entry, groaning as he twists his surgically-repaired left knee.

"Are you okay?"

A woman's voice, coming from inside his cabin.  "Dani?"

"Guess again."

Jonas feels for his duffel bag.  Locating his flashlight, he turns it on, aiming for the voice.

She is lying in his hammock, naked beneath an ebony Daredevils bathrobe, which remains untied and parted in the middle.

"Mia?"

"See, I knew you'd remember."

"Mia, have you seen Dani?"

"She's down below in the zoo, losing her cookies with the rest of the animals.  Let her be, she's enjoying her misery."

The bow of the ship rises beneath them.

Mia lies back in the hammock, enjoying the roller-coaster sensation.

Jonas feels the blood rush from his head to his stomach as the Neptune crashes back into the sea.  On hands and knees he searches for his water bucket.

The dark-haired, olive-skinned Italian-Filipino leaps off the hammock and lifts Jonas beneath his arms, leading him over to the viewport.  She unseals the hatch, the window immediately swinging open.

Wind howls angrily into the stateroom.  Flashes of lightning reveal the Pacific's treacherous hills and valleys.

"Breathe."  She pushes his face out the hole, the rain and sea soaking him as he inhales.  "Focus on the clouds, not the ocean."

"Okay . . . enough."  He pulls his head back inside, reseals the viewport, and wipes his face.  Vertigo reaches out for him again and he slumps down to the floor, leaning back against the wall.  "What is it you want?"

She kneels by his side, allowing her robe to fall from her shoulders.  "We could die out her tonight."

"We're not going to die."

"If you really believe that, why are you so scared?"

"I'm not Superman."

"Neither am I, but I'm not scared."

Jonas lifts his aching head to look at her.  "Okay, so what's your secret?"

"Scoot over."  She flops down next to him, leaning against his shoulder.  "About four years ago, I was diving with two friends at night.  It was raining, nothing like this, but the roads were icing up pretty bad.  Anyway, I was arguing with my friend, Beth, yelling at her to put out her cigarette, I can't stand secondhand smoke, when the car suddenly skidded sideways.  Next thing I know—bam—we hit something head-on.  My body slammed into the steering wheel so hard it bent the rim back against the dashboard, and my head went through the windshield.  I remember seeing cracks in the glass, then I blacked out."

A flash of lightning illuminates the tilting room.

Mia grips Jonas's arm.  "The next sensation . . . it was bizarre.  I woke up, feeling no pain, and then I screamed, because somehow I was sitting up, looking at the back of my head, looking at my arms sprawled across the wheel."

"I don't understand."

"I was dead, Jonas.  My spirit was sitting up, halfway out of my dead, lifeless body."

"Jesus."

"I looked around.  Beth was crumbled against the passenger door, bleeding pretty badly, my other friend was in the backseat, still in her seat belt.  She woke up, looked at me, then started screaming, ‘She's dead, she's dead.’  When I reached out to touch her, my hand passed right through her, causing her to shiver."

The Neptune 's bow rises again.

Jonas closes his eyes, bracing for the drop.  "What happened then?"

"I was scared, but not for me, for my friends.  I kept screaming at Ellie to get out of the car, that it was going to blow up.  Somehow she must have heard me because she managed to get her door open and pull Beth out through the front passenger window.  I was running behind them, at least my spirit was, and then I was hovering above the car.  I saw Ellie go back to try to get me out, and then everything went black again."

"When I woke up, I was back in my body, and the paramedics were cutting through the back door, trying to get me out.  The pain was terrible, my head pounded like it was going to explode, and I kept fading in and out.  Next thing I remember is lying on a gurney as I'm being wheeled down a hall, with doctors and nurses and bright chaotic lights.  I saw all this just for a second before I passed out again.  This time the blackness enveloped me like a warm blanket and it took away all my fear."

Mia whispers into his ear.  "I died again on the operating table.  The doctors won't admit it, but I know I did.  The next time I awoke, my spirit was looking down at my body from the ceiling of a private room.  I looked so small and fragile.  My skin was very pale and my lips were blue.  And then I saw it, a bright circle of light, hovering above me, above the ceiling, and inside the circle was the purest white light I had ever seen.  Well, I wasn't sure what to do, you know, you hear all the stories, but no one had come out to greet me, no dead relatives.  So I decided to enter the light on my own, just to see what it was all about.  Next thing I know, I'm in this rectangular room made of clouds, at least that's what it seemed like, and then I saw this figure.  It was a man, but I couldn't see his face.  My mind's racing, and I can't believe what I'm seeing, but I know it has to be Jesus, right, or maybe an angel, 'cause he's so beautiful, but not in a handsome way, more in a loving way, all warmth and sunshine."

"But now I'm scared, because I realize I must be dead, and I don't want to leave my mother all alone, so I pleaded for him to let me go back.  He wasn't angry, but I could tell he wasn't happy with that either, but he nodded, and then I was back . . . back in that hospital room, back in my body, except the pain was so great that I couldn't stay in, it just hurt so much.  I realized that's why my angel was upset, because he knew the pain I would have to endure, but then I felt him touch my soul and the pain became tolerable, and I woke up, staring into my mother's eyes."

She kneels in front of him, the storm lighting her desperate expression.  "You do believe me, don't you?"

"Yes."

She reaches out and touches his cheeks, wiping away tears he didn't know were there as he realizes that he want to believe her, that her story gives him comfort.  And then the Neptune 's bow rises once more and the ship begins to roll.

"Don't let the thought of death keep you from living."  She takes his hands, pulling him to his feet.  "Share the storm with me."

Mia leads him across the swaying floor to the hammock—

—as the cabin door bursts open.

Between flickers of lightning Jonas sees the Daredevils, each one wearing a wetsuit and a Navy-designed body harness.

"Well . . . well," Jennie laughs, "I knew someone was rocking the boat."

Evan leans inside the cabin.  "Coffey came up with a great idea.  We're going waterskiing."

"I'm in!" Mia announces, stripping off her robe to climb into an offered wetsuit.

Jonas grabs onto the hammock for support.  "You people are crazy. Don't your lives have any value?"

"Forget him," says Barry Struhl.  "I knew he wasn't one of us."

"Yes he is," Mia answers.  "Come on, Jonas, you need this.  Fergie, where's his wetsuit?"

Fergie tosses a wetsuit and harness at him.  "Yes, come on, Professor.  Show the rest of us losers what you've got hangin' between those legs."

*        *        *        *        *

Jonas and the Daredevils crouch in the companionway, waiting for the boat to level off.

"Now!"  Fergie and Coffey release the latch on the hold, then leap out into the weather, slamming the hatch shut behind them.

Doc Shinto shines his flashlight on Jonas, guiding him into the body harness.  "Relax.  Nobody here wants to die.  We're actually quite good at taking precautions, and you'll probably be less seasick out there than you will down below."

The ship rolls beneath them, nearly tossing Jonas back down the stairwell.

"As we speak, Fergie and Coffey are rigging long coils of rope that will run from the mizzen mast to your harness, so there's no way for us to lose you.  Put the life preserver on before you attach the harness, it'll keep you afloat."

Jonas puts on the neon-orange vest and clips it tightly around his waist.  "I'm still not doing this."

"No one says you have to.  Just come up on deck and make an appearance, then back down you go."

Mia helps him adjust the Navy harness over the flotation device.

Someone stamps twice above their heads.  Barry and Evan open the hatch, allowing the clip-on ends of three long tow ropes to fall into the stairwell.

Jennie, Evan, and Dee secure the rope clips to their body harnesses, and then the three leap out of the hole and into the maelstrom, whooping it up like kids.

Barry pulls the hatch closed, shutting out the storm.

Jonas covers his eyes, his heart pounding madly in his chest.  This is insane.  I'm sixty-three years old.  I'll probably have a heart attack before I even make it out there.

Mia leans into the light.  "We're all outside on the next shift.  Is he ready, Doc?"

"No," Jonas moans.

"He's ready," Doc says, checking his harness.  "Remember, Jonas, there's nowhere you can go, you're not going to drown, so just let Mother Nature do all the work and enjoy the ride."

"Wouldn't you rather drill on of my cavities instead?"

A double knock signals them from above.  Barry and Doc release the hatch.

Four ropes drop into the hole.

Mia secures one to her own harness, then clips one to Jonas's gear.

"Mia, I'm not doing this."

"Shh."  She steals a kiss, pressing her tongue into his mouth.  "See you on the other side."

She follows Doc and Barry into the storm, leaving Jonas looking up into a lightning-laced ebony sky.  The Hell with this.  He reaches up to reseal the hatch when suddenly he is yanked out of the hole by his tow rope.

The main deck is a blinding windstorm of rain and sea that drenches him within seconds.  AS he opens his eyes against the fury, he sees the Neptune 's bow rise out of the sea like a great beast, tossing him flat on his back.

Jonas flops like a fish out of water, rolling backward down the sloping wet deck.  He drags himself to his feet, just in time to see a wall of water—thirty feet higher than the upper deck—roll toward the port side of the ship.

The swell lifts, then rolls the Neptune sideways, sending Jonas sliding backward, his momentum launching him toward the starboard rail—

And then he is airborne, screaming into the night.

The he is underwater.

The high-pitched wind shear is muted by a low baritone roar and bone-chilling cold as Jonas plummets beneath the suffocating inky environment, his horrified mind  not sure which direction is up.

He flounders—is driven back to the surface by the flotation device, then forcibly yanked facefirst across a deep depression of water by the tow rope attached to his harness.

He manages to lift his head above water as lightning illuminates the silhouette of the Neptune, the ship listing on the other side of a mountain of sea.

Jonas gags and hyperventilates, his fear herding him toward a state of uncontrolled panic as he is again jerked through the water.

Grabbing the rope in both hands, he manages to roll onto his back, then he hears—"Jooo-nasss!"

He turns and sees Mia, racing in from behind him on a pair of waterskis.  She flops down on her butt next to him, wraps her left arm around his waist, then shoves an ankle collar and tow rope into his hand.

"For you, lover!"

She is back on her skis and gone before he can stammer a reply.

The valley suddenly lifts him higher and he finds himself on top of the mountain, looking down at the main deck of the Neptune as his stomach goes out from under him.

The ship yanks him forward again, but now he is on his back, collar around his ankle, reeling in Mia's rope and the big-wave surfboard.  He slips his feet quickly into the two rubber housings, pulls the board forward between his legs—

—then he is up, balancing out of the water, gripping the rope attached to his harness in both hands as he bends his knees, his surfboard slicing down an endless mountain of water.  Jonas yells at the top of his lungs until his voice gives out and the valley becomes a mountain again.

He drops his butt onto the board for the tow back up, his fear ever-so-slightly nudged aside by a bizarre feeling of pride.

He reaches the crest of the swell and stands, this time surfing the wave, no longer needing to hold onto the rope secured to his harness.

And there, beneath the lightning-laced heavens and the four-story swells, in a storm so harsh the driving rain is leaving welts on his exposed flesh . . . Jonas Taylor smiles.

*        *        *        *        *

Dawn's gray sliver appears forty minutes later, chasing the storm to the south.  The rain eases, the wind dying down to mere gusts, the waves losing their fury.

An exhausted, invigorated Jonas Taylor is hauled out of the sea to a smattering of applause.

Mia greets him as he slips out of the harness and flotation vest.  She drapes a towel around his neck and hugs him.  "Welcome back, Papa Daredevil.  How does it feel to be alive again?"

Shivering, his legs still a bit unsteady, he returns her hug.  "That was the second stupidest thing I ever did, and I loved it.  Thank you."

He looks up as groups of Daredevils and crewmen rush to the opposite side of the ship.

Jonas and Mia join them.

Coffey and Fergie are standing by the port side rail, arguing.

"You attached the tow ropes!"

"And you attached the clips!"

"Do you even know who it was?"

"I don't know.  Who's not here?"

Mia steps in between them.  "What happened?"

Coffey holds up the severed end of a rope.  "We lost somebody."

Dee Hatcher hurries over.  "The captain's turning the ship around to begin a search.  We accounted for everyone but Barry and Doc."

"Doc's below," Evan says.  "I haven't seen Barry."

"Oh, shit."  Fergie shakes his head in disbelief.  "I was with him.  We were surfing together.  He's a big guy, but the rope should've held him.  How could this have happened?"

"It couldn't," Coffey states, the anger rising in his voice.  "These harnesses are the best the Navy offers, and this rope's strong enough to haul a small truck out of the sea.  There has to be another explanation."

Jonas examines the end of the thick, nylon cord.  The edges are slightly frayed, as if the rope had been cut by a very sharp saw.