Two more booms shattered the viewscreens inside the carrier. Glass rained onto the floor, and the cargo doors blew out. Small arms fire followed, the bullets ricocheting off the carrier’s broken hulk. Smoke and dust swirled around the interior, making breathing nearly impossible. A single glass canister slipped from a shelf and smashed into a thousand pieces. I couldn’t think, and I couldn’t speak. All I could do was keep my head covered and pray it would end.
Then all fell silent. I raised my head. I was alive, and so was Will. I could not see Dr. Tinker.
A loudspeaker broke the silence.
“Come out with your hands raised!” said Nasri’s amplified voice.
I looked over at Will and knew our situation was hopeless. Yet we lay there for several minutes until Nasri repeated himself and threatened to open fire again. Will raised his arms first, and I followed. We stepped over pieces of shredded metal and exited the carrier through a gaping hole where the driver’s side door used to be. Dr. Tinker was already outside with his hands clasped above his head.
“If it isn’t our little adventurers,” said Nasri.
He smiled, but he was armed and angry. One side of his face looked burned and raw, and his neck was swathed in bandages. He hopped from one foot to the other. Even his men looked frightened. He waved his gun at the three of us and indicated we should move away from the carrier and stand out in the open.
“You’re fools,” he said. “No good will come of this.”
“If you shoot us,” I said, “you’re throwing away good money.”
Nasri raised his pistol. A shot rang out. When I opened my eyes, Dr. Tinker was dead on the ground.
CHAPTER 12
This time Nasri took no chances. He tied us up in the back of the carrier, then locked us to the door. He huffed, stomped, hopped, and grumbled about how he would make us pay for destroying the other carrier and his desalinator. He didn’t seem to care at all for the men he’d lost, the man he had killed, or even his own injury—but the destruction of his machines was more than he could bear. Both Will and I knew enough to keep quiet.
We traveled until nightfall, then camped beside a rocky bed that once held a sprawling river. Now it was a gully with earthen walls, the rocks worn smooth and flat, forming a natural barrier to the east. Although there was no water, the way across was still treacherous and slow. Nasri said we would wait for morning to continue the journey.
He didn’t feed us, but one of his men took pity and gave us a few scraps and two bottles of water. We ate with our hands tied behind our backs, chewing at our food like animals. Because Will’s leg hurt worse than before, I held his bottle between my knees and opened the top with my teeth. We were too tired to talk and fell asleep huddled against each for warmth.
In the morning Nasri brought us breakfast, along with two pills for Will’s injury. His mood had improved, which made me worry. Sure enough he announced we were heading to an auction where we would fetch top dollar—not enough to replace the carrier, but more than enough for a new desalinator.
“And with the money Bluewater owes us, we’ll have another carrier in no time,” he declared.
I felt the prickly tendrils of unease on my neck. There was something unholy about the relationship between the corporate desalinator and the environmental group.
“Why does Bluewater owe you money?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” he cackled.
“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
“Should be!” He was hopping again.
“You had their desalinator, but you said they owed you money.”
“Genius! It’s a shame we had to take you out of school.”
“I thought environmentalists believed desalination was bad for the environment.”
A scowl crossed his face but then passed. “Haven’t you learned anything by now? What’s good for the environment isn’t always good for environmentalists, and vice versa.” He was in a fine mood, hopping from one foot to the other as if he were standing on hot coals.
Will had been watching our conversation carefully, like a spectator at a gaming match. Now our eyes locked, and I could see he was truly frightened. I was frightened too, but I plunged ahead. Talking was the only way I knew to keep fear at bay.
“So you’re hypocrites,” I said.
“If there’s money in it.” Nasri cackled again.
“Did you kill Dr. Tinker for money?”
“Of course. Why else kill a man?”
Then it came to me in a moment of clarity. “Bluewater paid you to kill Dr. Tinker.”
“Not enough.” Nasri stopped hopping. “Let’s just say there was some renegotiating once we had him.”
“But why?”
“Ours is not to question why,” said Nasri. “We just cash the credit chips.”
“And the dam?”
“A diversion. To spirit the good doctor away.”
“You killed all these people for a diversion?”
“Oh, and to save Earth, of course.”
The pirates, PELA, and now Bluewater all wanted Dr. Tinker. But it wasn’t Tinker they had really wanted; it was what they had thought he would lead them to. And now he was dead, which meant only one thing. I felt like I had been kicked in the heart.