Fiction: Group 3
Blood Sea
Kellett School, Clifford, Florence - 12, Fiction: Group 3
ar, far down below, the junk
Eye of the Sea
slid into the harbour as noiselessly as a panther, the red
sails illuminated against the dark, brooding sky. Hidden in the black, rolling clouds above the sea the
airship hovered, waiting to pounce. The red sails slipped on, the only ship on the deserted sea. Ahead
was the harbour, the other ships resting peacefully; it was empty of human life and the only sound was the
gentle slapping of the waves against the hulls of the boats. The sky above grew dark and ominous, the clouds
merging together into threatening shapes. The airship waited.
There was a slight rustling of trees. A light glimmered in the harbour. It moved, twisting and
turning down the slipway until it crossed the harbour wall, almost touching the rolling, pitching ocean. The
junk subtly altered its course, heading towards the light.
Another light crept along the harbour wall towards it. The captain of the junk frowned. He had
not known that there would be a second signalman. It might attract too much attention.
The second light clambered along the wall and stopped. The two lights made a door, a frame for
the junk to slip through, unnoticed into the harbour. The captain relaxed and altered his course once more.
Only the airship, the
Enigma Drift
, hovering in the clouds, knew that the captain had relaxed too
soon.
The
Eye of the Sea
was coming closer into the harbour, and the helmsman could make out the
familiar brass lions guarding the entrance. The formerly friendly faces of the lions were tense and angry,
bristling with rage. He shivered. Something was not quite right.
High above the harbour, at the top of the mountain, the lights in the hotel began to turn off.
Slowly, one by one, at regular intervals, so that anybody watching would not realise what was happening.
The cars in the driveway began to drive away, but the driveway was hidden by the forest, and the junk did
not see.
But nor did
Enigma
, waiting silently in the clouds.
***
Cal sat at the control desk, his hand suspended above a lever. They were stalling, trying to figure
out what was going on below them.
September stood behind him, watching the red sails creep closer and closer into the harbour, into
the area between the two lights. Those two swinging red paper lanterns were the only lights in the harbour;
everything else was shrouded in darkness. She could just make out the guardian lions in the gloom and far
away, in the distance, the city of Hong-Kong, surrounded on three sides by forest. She looked out to sea
and glimpsed the rugged islands dotting the vast ocean, the moon reflected in the water, as calm as a mirror.
Neither of them noticed the snake of cars crawling down the mountain towards the harbour.
***
Back in the hotel the bodies lay piled up on the ballroom floor.
***
Underneath the airship’s cabin, something was encased within a dozen walls, each one stronger
than the last, but the trapdoor underneath it was flimsy and would give way at the touch of a button. A
button only a few centimetres away from Cal’s hands.
The something was an unassuming glass sphere, levitating above the trapdoor. It would fit in a
child’s palm, but the slightest touch would make a catastrophic explosion.
So if it was dropped from 1500 feet up in the air, the explosion when it hit the ground would be
magnified a thousandfold.
***
The cars rolled silently down the hill and came to a halt outside the harbour. The drivers stepped
out, their deep purple livery almost as dark as the forest around them, guns at the ready,
Scourge
emblazoned on their sleeves, and they marched into the forest, calm and composed, but inside giddy with
elation that Lion Base had been wiped out, and certain that the only danger they now faced was the junk
with its precious cargo.
It never occurred to them that perhaps the only danger was in the sky, directly above them.
***
F
