Sample From Chapter 24 - "Smiler's Last Grin"

The few remaining surviving pirates had surrendered. They had all been rounded up and were now standing under armed guard in the middle of the ballroom, their helmets hanging limply from the air hoses. A tight circle of troopers surrounded them. The Gift had docked with the crippled cruise liner and Fisher had made his way down from the control room. He was now standing, debriefing Dasilva and Pugh.

‘Call in the salvage team. We can claim salvage rights for the navy,’ he said to Pugh.

Pugh nodded, ‘Understood, Sir. What about the prisoners?’

Fisher gave the handcuffed pirates a foul look.

‘Have they been searched for weapons and explosives?’ he asked.

‘Yes Sir,’ Pugh replied, ‘they’ve all been scanned.’

‘Lock them in the hold until a prisoner transport can arrive to take them away,’ Fisher said in a quiet voice. ‘If any of them give you trouble,’ he said in a much louder voice, so that the prisoners could hear clearly, ‘shoot them in the knees. But don’t kill them.’

‘Aye, aye Sir,’ Pugh replied loudly with a knowing grin.

At that moment, Fisher’s cuff-link bleeped.

‘Report?’ Fisher said, curtly.

The Geordie accent of Sub-Lieutenant Sophia Scott came clearly over the communicator.

‘Sir, I’ve been attemptin’ to back-track the pirate ship's course from the data in the black box that we recovered,’ she said. ‘It’s very badly damaged and the data is very corrupted. Nothing so far.’

‘Indeed? Well let’s see what the pirate crew have to say for themselves,’ Fisher replied.

Fisher walked inside the circle of troopers towards the prisoners and stood directly in front of Smiler and Demon-face. Smiler eyeballed Fisher. He was still defiant. Demon, however, was staring at the floor in disbelief. There were the tracks of fresh tears down his dirty face. Fisher saw them and realised that this man was probably the best candidate for questioning. He addressed Demon directly.

‘Understand this. I could have you all shot now and no one would know the difference.’

Demon raised his terrified face up towards Fisher. He began to shake with fear again. Smiler was watching Demon very closely; his bound hands twitching and a mad look in his eyes.

‘No one here is going to mind if another filthy pirate disappears,’ Fisher growled. ‘Section forty-two of the criminal code allows me to summarily execute pirates, if I wish. But that would be too easy,’ he said as he looked around the room at the assembled United Worlds troopers. ‘I have a good many troopers here who had friends that were killed by you and your kind. Good friends. Good soldiers. Including Captain Collins…’ Fisher paused to let this sink in.

Fisher’s voice was becoming quieter. He had the attention of all in the room. You could have heard a pin drop, if it wasn’t for the blood-soaked carpet.

‘I could just leave you in a room with a few of them and turn my back,’ he said. Fisher leaned closer to Demon’s face and whispered, ‘How does that sound?’

Demon-face was looking very worried. He’d broken out in a sweat; the beads of perspiration running slowly down his grimy forehead, leaving clean tracks in the dirt. Fisher straightened up and folded his arms behind his back.

‘You’re going to tell me who’s running the pirate organisation and where their headquarters is. I want Harlequin’s identity. If I believe you, I may let you live,’ he said out loud so that all could hear.

Smiler piped up, ‘Go fuck yourself!’

Fisher glared at Smiler for a moment and then narrowed his eyes. He nodded at a trooper who broke formation from the surrounding circle. The trooper walked over to Smiler and thumped him across the face with the butt of his rifle. Smiler fell to the floor, the breath knocked out of him, blood gushing from his nose. Fisher walked over and stood looming above Smiler.

‘We found your helmet, Captain…’ he growled, staring down in disgust. ‘Communication with Admiral Fife has proved to be educational. Your ship matches the one that tried to capture the Might of Fortitude. YOU are wanted for the murder of Captain Bird.’ Then Fisher stooped closer and whispered. ‘Don’t worry, Captain Smiler. I’ll deal with you soon enough. I’ve promised to deliver you straight to Captain Trenchard; he’s itching to get hold of you. I realise that you’ll never talk, but perhaps one of your men will!’

Fisher straightened and motioned to two of the other troopers.

‘Hold him,’ he said, pointing at Demon-face.

Two more troopers broke formation, grabbed the terrified man’s arms and held him steady. Fisher drew his fist back and punched Demon hard in the stomach. The man dropped to his knees and was immediately violently sick on the deck. From outside of the circle of troopers, Dasilva grinned.

‘Diced carrots,’ he said, ‘why are there always diced carrots?’

With all their attention focussed on the entertainment, no one noticed Smiler. He was crouched on the floor, shaking with silent laughter.

‘Hold his arm out,’ Fisher ordered the two troopers.

The troopers pulled Demon to his feet and forced him to stretch his arm out in front of him. Fisher slowly took his serrated combat knife from its sheath on his belt and tested the blade for sharpness with his thumb. The blade drew a thin bead of blood. The light glinted off the blade menacingly.

‘One of the things that you learn in combat training, is how to catch your own food. Then you learn how to skin and gut it,’ Fisher explained. In a sudden movement, Fisher grabbed Demon’s arm. ‘Have you ever seen an animal get skinned?’ he asked threateningly.

The sobbing pirate slumped between the two troopers that were holding him. Spit, tears and vomit dripped slowly off his trembling chin. His blood-shot eyes looked up into Fisher’s. You could see the moment that the poor man’s spirit broke.

‘Okay, okay! Please don’t hurt me anymore, I’ll tell you everything you want to know.’

The trembling man stuttered into terrified silence. Fisher became aware of a strange sound. Smiler was sitting on the floor, laughing manically. He had a very strange, insane look in his eyes. Odder still, was that his laughter was punctuated by him counting backwards in a high-pitched voice.

‘He he he haaaa, five! Ehh, ho ho ha ha, four!’ Smiler laughed as he spat blood down his chin.

Fisher turned to face Smiler, annoyed. Then he noticed a dull red glow coming from inside the man’s chest, emanating from somewhere deep inside. The red glow blinked on, off, on, off…

‘Haaaaa! Three, oooh ha ha. Two!’ said Smiler between coughing fits and giggles. Smiler looked Fisher straight in the eyes. ‘Yo-ho, shipmate!’ he said quietly.

Fisher finally realised what was happening.

‘DOWN!’ he shouted, diving to the floor.

‘One…’ said Smiler quietly, his laughter spent and then he gave an exhausted sigh.

Smiler smiled a last, sad little smile, and then his chest exploded in a ball of orange fire and shrapnel. He was blown outwards from within, bone, flesh and skin flying in all directions. The pirates immediately next to him were slain, splashed across the carpet of the luxury liner like a smear of grease. Troopers dived in different directions, trying to get clear of the explosion. The trooper standing next to Smiler was dead before he had the chance to react. Fisher hit the floor with his hands clasped over his ears and his eyes shut. He felt the soft pulp of Smiler’s shattered body splash over his back and then all became still and silent.

Fisher stood up and dusted himself down, picking bits of flesh and bone off his uniform and out of his hair, his ears ringing from the explosion. Most of the pirates lay dead, including the trooper that had been standing next to Smiler. All the other troopers were stunned, but largely unharmed. All that was left of Smiler was his lower body, below the waist and a crater-like pattern that spread out across the carpet like a red rose of death. Demon lay in a pathetic heap next to him on the floor. Demon’s lower jaw had been blown clean off. Parts of the bloody bone and teeth were hanging limply from his cheeks. After a few seconds of terrified, wide-eyed shock on the unfortunate man’s tortured face, he jerked involuntarily a few times and then became still.

There was a moment of stunned silence. Fisher stood stock still for a while, his right-hand twitching and clasping furiously with frustration. Then he turned his head to stare at Dasilva who was standing next to Pugh. Dasilva shrugged apologetically under Fisher’s cold gaze. Without a word, Fisher turned briskly on his heel and stormed out of the ballroom. Pugh and Dasilva were left to exchange worried glances with each other.

‘Well that was a fucking great cock-up!’ said Dasilva with an exasperated sigh.