UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC (book 1)

Part 31 - Orlop Deck

It began with a scintillating light so intense that it obliterated vision. A shrill noise shrieked down the audio spectrum to a rib pounding base that made breathing difficult. Three-dimensional space was seriously twisted and time was running backward. I was sliding gently sideways as everything warped like an unfolding origami. 

Then, I was awake and aware of my unrestructured image drifting like a kaleidoscope in a void. I wasn't worried, it was so beautiful, and . . . I had seen this nightmare before! 

The light and the noises vanished abruptly as I bounced off a metal railing and collapsed onto a hard cold floor that seemed to be gently swinging from side to side. My chest constricted with fear as a dry leaf brushed my face. I rubbed my eyes with a hand . . . I could not see! 

The air had a damp smoky stench of soot and sulfur, not wood smoke, and there was a steady distant roaring accompanied by intermittent rattles, groans and squeals. I staggered to my feet, bounced off a vibrating metal wall and into something warm and soft.

'Ouch!' Licia moaned. 'I can't see!'

A monstrous CLANK reverberated from the wall like a huge bell. Pacman emitted a surprised, 'wuff.' 

'Holy granola!' Miguel said in my ear. 'What was that?'

A feeling of relief flooded through my veins. I laughed. I wasn't alone. 

'That . . . was Pacman . . . Someone must have turned the lights off.'

'Ziff! This is not funny!' Licia snapped. 'It's serious. How do we get out?' She sounded scared and angry. 'What's that awful smell?'

'Sorry,' I whispered apologetically. 'Seriously.' And then I got a fit of nervous giggles.

'Quit fooling around,' Licia snapped with barely suppressed hysteria. 'Where are you? I can't see anything.' 

'I'm here.' 'Ne panique pas.' Miguel sounded like he was panicking.

'Why did I follow you two clowns?' Licia voice was shaking. 'I'm scared.' 

 'Me too,' added Miguel. There was a tremble in his voice.

'That's okay . . . I'm petrified,' I joked, sounding more cheerful than I felt. 'Anyone got a light?'

'I don't smoke,' Miguel said. 

'I meant, do you have a flashlight?' 'No. But I do have a pulley in my pocket.'

'Miguel,' Licia said, barely concealing her hysteria, 'of what conceivable use is a pulley?'

'You never know when,' Miguel drawled slowly, 'you might need to hoist somebody.'

'Beware!' I laughed nervously. 'Miguel has a pulley and he knows how to use it.'

'Do not press me too hard,' Miguel rumbled in his best Mafia voice.

Licia giggled. 'Did you just fart, Miguel?'

'That stench isn't Miguel,' I said. 'It's sulphur dioxide. Something is burning.'

'CLANG.' An ear shattering noise from the other side of the wall made us all jump in the air. We were shocked into silence, listening apprehensively for the next shock. But nothing happened.

'What was that?' Miguel asked.

'Dunc!' I exclaimed. 'Did anyone see Dunc?' 

'He was behind us,' Licia said. 

Everyone stopped talking as the floor suddenly dropped beneath us and then lifted us back up.

'The floor moved.' Licia's voice quavered hysterically. 'This place is freaky. Where are we? This is so random.'

'Licia's using the R word again,' Miguel drawled. 

'Miguel,' Licia snapped. 'You are beginning to annoy me.'

'But seriously folks,' Miguel said innocently, 'where are we?'

'We seemed to be inside a tank,' I replied. 'Inside Dr Zhang workshop?' Miguel sounded surprised. 'Where's the gun?' 

'I mean, like a water tank.' As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, a faint ghostly light appeared to be coming through a large round hole in the ceiling. It dimly illuminated a second hole in the floor directly below it and the space in between was filled with a spiral of curved railings. We were inside some sort of a crazy metal sculpture.

Licia stifled a shriek as the whole room lurched up and then down in slow motion as if we were on a mad fairground ride. 'What is going on?' she demanded angrily. 'I feel sick and Miguel thinks it's a joke.'

'Licia,' I suggested before they started fighting, 'why don't you look . . . sorry, feel along the wall? See if you can find a light switch.' We all groped around the narrow space between the cage and the cold metal walls, staggering as the floor lifted and dropped under our feet. As I edged around the cage, I noticed a second hole in the ceiling with a similar round cage. 

'Hey,' Miguel exclaimed, 'I think my receptors are picking up a few photons in the visible spectrum.' 'That means, you can see?' Licia asked sardonically.

'That's afirmativo,' Miguel replied.

'The wall is decorated with rows of hemispherical bumps,' I remarked. 'Curious.'

'Those are rivets,' Miguel said. 'Like old bridges. They used to fix the steel beams together with rivets.' Pacman's warning growl made me look down and I froze. 

Inside the second cage, just above floor level and barely visible in the ghostly light, a disembodied pair of eyes staring menacingly through the bars. 'Look!' Miguel gulped in a tremulous whisper. The eyes slowly started to levitate and, as they did, they rotated away from us and vanished in the gloom. They reappeared after a few seconds and I was relieved to see they were accompanied by a pair of large ears. A moment later I realized that they belonged to the very dirty face of a boy with short, dark hair and a skinny white neck sticking out of pathetically narrow shoulders clad in a dirty white shirt. He looked only a few years older than we were. 

Licia choked back a squeal of fright as a voice croaked something incomprehensible. 'Huh?' I enquired.

'Ow my Gor. You didn' 'alf scare me. 'Ow the 'ell did yer bugg . . . nippers get dahn 'ere?' the voice asked carefully.

'We are . . . um . . . not sure,' I stuttered.

'Do you know where are we?' Licia asked suddenly.

'Orlop deck,' the boy replied enigmatically. 

I had no idea what that meant. He rubbed a hand across his forehead leaving a smear of grease on the only part that wasn't already black.

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