Veronica Stone

Pt. 8

The blur of a woman grinned sickly. This was how it had to be. 

“Veronica. Ah get wuh yuh trying to do but dis is-”

“Officer Chong, there’s an overdoser near the foremast, take care of it and Trevor he’s immobilized.”

“I’LL GET ON IT...AS SOON AS I CAN!” Officer Chong hollered over the popping of her machine pistol. 

Chong was clearly busy but Veronica fought back her pangs of worry and convinced herself Trevor would be fine. 

He’d probably get out of there before she even arrived. 
 
She thought, trying to smother over her feelings of hope with confidence as if hiding it from the blurry woman.

All tings considered tings gine well…you got dis girl, you are a Commander...This is what he really wants...he just won't admit it...Commander Stone Commander Stone Commander Stone Commander… 

Her scope poured over the deck checking in on her men as she internally rehearsed her mantra. Keeping her mind distracted.

“Mohammed, toss a flash at your three, over the container, Lim and the rest will thank you.”

“Yes maam!”

“Lim, they’re blind, give em hell girl.”

“Roger!”, Officer Lim’s voice rasped with an unfamiliar energy. 

Veronica shook her head, she remembered when Officer Lim would sing to wake the crew up during training. Cigarettes eased her nerves after they lost Officer Tan out near Pangkor. Bullet ricocheted and got her through the eye. They were like sisters. Whether intentionally or not Lim stopped singing in the mornings as her voice grew rougher and rougher from the cigarettes. She splattered bits of dazed pirate everywhere with her Bren-gun and Veronica caught a slight grin. No one had told her anything about the smoking, there was an unspoken understanding that Lim was going until she burnt out one way or the other. Bullet or cigarette or both. It warmed Veronica seeing her enjoying herself in the moment for once, but it was only a flash. Soon she was back to her dead faced stare, taking out the next unlucky man to dash around the corner with an unenthused knife to his chest. 

Going through the motions.

A razor-sharp pang of guilt pierced Veronica's chest.

Sain bout me an sisters nuh…

They weren’t even real sisters but Veronica had convinced herself of the connection. Hating herself was even easier when she shoved things together to make sense. The effigy of a woman just tilted her head, and scowled in response. Veronica saw it somehow even if she couldn’t make out features. It was the same way she knew who the blur of a woman was. But it shouldn’t scowl. She was putting her foot down. She was getting it together now. Right? 

Veronica pulled her eye from the scope to get a view of the whole ship. A good commander couldn’t miss the forest for the leaves, and that's when she spotted Madness laying prone atop a container waiting patiently with some sort of long barreled gun for someone to pop out from cover. She was keeping quiet for once, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. One of the pirates was scaling the side of Madness' container. Veronica zoomed in. Officer Yusof had his pistol aimed at the climbing pirate when the bang of a frag grenade stole his attention. Soon he was caught up looking for cover from the pirates who came after the grenade. The pirate was atop the container now, Madness was firing below. If she were hardears before she couldn’t hear a thing now. Veronica was the commander, she should have been thinking of a solution, a maneuver, a command to save Madness but she was frozen again. The only thoughts in her head were the words Trevor said before she cut him off. The pirate stood triumphantly pointing a handgun at the back of Madness’ head, probably thinking of his buddy who got piledrived into a puddle earlier. Mansa Musa’s barrel was already lined up to take the shot but Veronica was torn  the blurry woman watching to see what she’d do. The betrayal in Trevor’s voice rang in her head, she thought of Abdul's silent response to her rant. Then scenes of what Madness had done for her in the finals played over everything. If she stepped in now after all that, what would the rest think of their Commander? 

Her mouth dried up again.

I leff he wid da overdoser but this-

BADANG!

Instantly, the man with the handgun turned into a spray carried through the air by a violent shockwave. Veronica's body had moved on its own. The shockwave knocked Madness off the container and down into the fray with Yusof and the pirates on the other side. She scampered for cover, which puzzled Veronica. Then she somehow appeared behind the pirates stabbing two in the neck and blowing the heads off the other two with her monster handgun, the one with the locket holding embarrassing pictures of her and Veronica. 

The effigy of a woman frowned. She was soft, hesitant, emotional. 

Weak.

Her chest stung. It was shame or embarrassment. She could have radioed Madness and warned her. That would have been the correct thing to do, but something came over Veronica. She just couldn’t leave it to chance. She grit her teeth.

Sain bout me an sisters nu-

“RAHHHHTEEEEDDDD ME ‘EAD ONLY NOW START TO ‘AVE WORD! MAN YUH FLING ME AFFF DEY AN EVERYTING GET HAZY AN START TO SPIN MI MUSS ‘IT MI ‘EAD!”

“Sorry Madness.”, Veronica tried to remain firm. She had really waited too late. It was only thanks to Madness’ physical fortitude that the shockwave blast didn’t knock her unconscious, but it must have seriously dazed her. She smirked. It now made sense to Veronica why she ran for cover instead of taking out the pirates one time as she landed. The thought that her weapon could rattle someone like Madness the way it did felt good.

“Ah nuh reg’lar Enfield dat?”

“You not de only one wid custom guns ya know!”, Veronica boasted. She was glowing and couldn’t help it.

“Where you get dem?”

She froze. Then she lied.

“De company gimme. A token ah appreciation.”

“WA!? De COMPANY ah give yuh dat!? Where me affi sign up!?”

She lied badly.