Veronica Stone

Pt. 2

While Veronica dazzled Madness with grandiose military terms a freelancer like her would never actually need to know, Trevor stood on one of his “sharkos” facing his audience of soldiers, briefing them on the mission. To Veronica there was a cruel irony in how he continued to play the role of executive officer, a vacant position the higher ups ensured no one else filled. He was excellent and they did not want to insult him any further.

If anyone shuh go it shuh be me.

The thought manifested for a brief moment before being tenderized by the stream of big words rolling around in Veronica’s mind as she spoke. Madness sat in front of her, glassy eyed like a beached fish, occasionally nodding to give the impression of attentiveness. Veronica was soon finished when she noticed Trevor was turned towards her, sitting on the shark, waiting for orders. She sped up her words, (she knew madness wasn’t really listening), and perched herself on the stool to address her men. 

“WITCH UNIT ELEVEN!”

“YES MAAM”

“ARE WE READY TO TEACH THOSE BASTARDS A LESSON!?”

“YES MAAM!”

“WILL WE SHOW THEM MERCY!?”

“NO MAAM”

“GOOD, THEN LET’S MOVE OUT!”

“INSHALLAH!”

Veronica stepped down, her arms folded in satisfaction.

“Inshallah!”, Madness mouthed quietly to herself as if trying out the word on her lips. 

“Doan say tings you don’t know wuh um mean girl!”, Veronica teased. 

“Cho! Me gun call de dalphin dem ah come ya’”

Madness blew her whistle and a chunk of the sea in front of them shifted about like a cat trapped in a bag. Now the fleet was in order, they moved towards Madness’ direction and stopped a few feet in front of the whale shark’s head. 

“Yah want em to ride around getta feel far it?”

Veronica thought back to the men’s expressions as she introduced Madness.

“Nah dem does ride all de time, dolphin ennuh different.”

“If ah so you seh…”

“Ah! So! Me! Seh!”, Veronica teased mocking Madness’ accent. 

Part of her yearned to see the guys’ expression when they finally heard Madness speak. They already knew Veronica was from Barbados but they had no reason to believe Madness wasn’t just another Malaysian like them. She had the features, and even though she didn’t wear a hijab, that wasn’t that rare, plus she still covered her body, her chiseled muscles battled against the devil cloth interwoven rashguard she wore under her more revealing tactical outfit. She could pass as a rebellious muslim free of scrutiny on the high seas. Veronica amused herself imagining Ahmad dropping some corny Qua'ran based pickup line and seeing Madness' glassy eyed face before she burst out in confused patois. She snickered internally and could totally hear him call for Trevor to "translate" only for Trevor to tease and claim he couldn’t understand Jamaican patois anyhow. Then a thought flashed in her head and that sick feeling replied.

Trevor...

"Madness you waan ride wid me?", She asked, tapping the whale shark's back with her boot.

Madness shooed some delinquent strands away from her eyes and paused thoughtfully.

While she mused, Veronica shuddered at the thought of Madness and Trevor talking. He didn’t know to keep them a secret, and he really had no reason to as far as he was concerned, worse yet her men...the feminist angle wouldn’t work with them. She knew this was a whole mess, Veronica battled to stop herself from holding her breath while awaiting her friend’s answer.