Our boat slides into dock number three, locking into place. Naomi and Jagger motion for us to follow them below deck. As we enter the holding chamber, I watch as Faber and Cass turn off the engines and open the large door at the far end. A Regulator is standing on the opposite side, waiting for us to begin unloading our supplies onto the conveyor belt next to him. After I lift a canister onto the belt, Jagger pokes my shoulder and motions me to follow him. We head back towards the front of the boat and into a small bedchamber. Quin changes into a Regulator’s uniform that had been concealed in one of the canisters. Jagger reaches down to another canister, opening the lid to reveal the cache of weapons inside.
“We’ve been waiting for our moment,” he says, as he removes a Levin gun and hands it to me. “Now’s our chance.”
I take the gun and slip it into an empty sack. I hear Faber calling the Regulator back into the boat, saying that he needs assistance with one of the canisters, then a small scuffle occurs just on the other side of the closed door to the bed chamber. There is a soft knock on the door, which Jagger opens, and Cass shoves the dead man into the room. His head is at a grotesque angle due to his neck being broken. Quin exits the room to take the Regulator’s position while the rest of us change clothes. I put on a pair of tight black pants, a silver belt that hangs loosely from my waist, a long sleeve purple Lycra top, and a pair of black leather gloves with the fingers cut off. I decide to keep the boots, as the shoes they had acquired don’t look comfortable.
As soon as I’m dressed, Naomi grabs my arm and pulls me across the hall to a tiny bathroom. We both barely fit inside. I look at the bathroom sink in front of me and spot a small bottle filled with a black liquid and a pair of scissors.
“The minute you exit the docking area you will be recognized,” she says, shoving me down onto the toilet, grabbing the bottle, and squeezing the liquid into my hair.
She soaks my hair thoroughly after placing a filthy towel around my neck and back to keep the dye off my clothes. She leaves me to let the dye do its work while she makes sure everyone is ready to leave. As soon as Naomi returns, she rinses out my hair in the sink and begins to chop it off. She cuts my hair to the length of my earlobes, parting it on the left side.
I look in the tiny mirror hanging over the sink when she is done. I don’t recognize myself.
“How do we get out of the docking area? There are cameras and Regulators stationed all over,” I inquire, as we head back across the hall to the bedchamber.
“Faber and Cass are going to cause a distraction, which will allow the rest of us to escape. Quin will stay behind to arrest Faber and Cass. They will meet up with us in an hour.”
My nerves begin to fray. I know this plan is not a solid one; too many variables can go wrong, but they put it together, so I just have to see how it plays out. I wait in the room with Jagger and Naomi as Faber and Cass leave, heading for the docking area, their voices already rising in anger.
Canisters begin to clank onto the cement floor. I peek my head around the doorframe and see Faber push Cass hard into the conveyor belt, knocking the steel containers onto the ground, some spilling open from the force. Three Regulators are immediately there to break them up, but I can’t tell which one is Quin as they’re wearing the same outfits. Cass gets up and jumps in-between Faber and the Regulators, giving us our chance to escape.
The three of us go past them, running along the undercarriage of the conveyor belt to stay out of sight of the cameras that hang down from the ceiling. I hear shouting behind us, more scuffling. The conveyor belt takes a violent jar to the right, spilling everything onto the floor next to us. Jagger and Naomi are far ahead of me, almost out of the docking area. I turn back to look for Quin, but all I see is Faber lying on the ground with his neck torn open, blood pouring out of his wound.
I knew the plan wasn’t going to work.
Too bad about Faber. What will the others say? How will they react?
As long as there are no hysterics. I can’t stand overly emotional people.
I turn around and catch up to Jagger and Naomi. We exit the area through a small ventilation shaft, crawling on our hands and knees through dust for about twenty minutes. Naomi stops ahead of me, reaches into her pocket, and removes a small screwdriver, using it to remove the bolts of the screen covering our exit. Once the screen is removed, we step out into a small alleyway, and Jagger quickly replaces the screen as Naomi and I step out into the main thoroughfare.
The temperature is quite cold, and the air stale.
