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Chapter 19 - Secrets out 1

Chapter 19 – Secrets out 1

Chief Song’s POV

It had been a quiet evening and a week since the last time I had seen Fedor for more than a few seconds. She was doing a good job of avoiding me and I could not blame her, I wasn’t actively searching her out either, she was glued to Carlos as he taught her more about foraging. Castle had taken over the reins from me in teaching her how to swim, I stuck to my room and the mechanical area as I focused on Martha, I wanted to add some features and remove others. That was when her alarm rang, Martha only rang her alarm when it was code red, which meant in her terms that we had hostile intruders coming our way, I used her navigation to trace where they were, the rest of the crew had gathered in the common room and waiting for my commands. I triangulated our escape routes, they were not feasible unless we tried to actively defend ourselves which would put us under the Uniform radar. The best action would be for the pirates to raid us and hope for the best, I thought about Fedor and thought against it, would I try so hard to keep Martha a secret that I would put their lives in danger? It was easy to hide some of Martha’s abilities when they were asleep and waging against the storm, adrenalin blurred the lines but this was different.

I analyzed the pros and cons, while I could trust them to work for the common goal, I could not ask them to risk their lives for my sake. What would be the point then if we all died, there was a chance that the pirates would kill us and I decided to take a leap of faith in them and hope that the years we had spent together were worthwhile. I met panicked faces in the common room, Naim was more alert than everyone else and he gave me a questioning look. “Pirates, they are five minutes away from us and based on their speed, I don’t think they are here for pleasure.”

“You look very calm for someone whose ship is about to be raided by pirates,” Carlos noted carefully.

I groaned as I clicked on Martha’s defense mode, the entire ship was covered by Numites, and she delved underneath the water, I also activated her camouflage mode and I hoped the last part went unnoticed by the rest of the crew.

“What is happening?” Castle shouted as the ship sank into the ocean.

“What…is… happening?” Naim asked in a more relaxed manner, like he knew what I was hiding. I doubted it, Naim was a good bluffer.

“We are hiding; they wouldn’t be able to find us.” I resigned to the fact that my not-so-little secret was about to become open.

“Hiding?” Kora narrowed his eyes at me.

Naim chuckled, “Yes, that’s what the Chief said, we are hiding in plain sight.”

“So this is also new for everyone else?” Fedor asked in wonder, she ran to the windows and found only the numites although they must have appeared like shades to her. “Are we underwater? Right now?” She whispered aloud in wonder.

I hid my smile and nodded in affirmation.

Kora joined her by the window and gave me a different look like he was seeing me in a different light. “Looks like our Chief has different tricks up his sleeves apart from fake alcohol.” He smirked.