Part of him knew that was rarely the case.
Nothing was ever easy.
Chapter Three
Ship of Fools
The men dropped anchor and two jumped off the boat. Gus heard them assigning tasks. One went to look for food; another left to look for supplies and fill the water jugs. There continued to be no indication that they were looking for him, which lowered Gus’ alarm even more. Until they mentioned where they would sell the women. Time slowed for Gus for a couple moments, and he wondered whether he had heard correctly.
As Nick interpreted, Gus learned more of these men who had boarded a ship this morning, taking the owner and his family and friends captive.
The cavalier attitude the men had with slavery in this modern day took Gus’ brain a bit to process. One of the men ranted about how even though they kept them all together in one room without conveniences, the younger girls had covered themselves in feces to avoid being violated. The other trafficker laughed, saying that wouldn’t stop him.
Gus realized that he had to do something. Reality slapped him full in the face. Part of his mind was hesitant to take action, worrying about the possible ways it would reveal his location and result in the loss of the island. The stronger half asserted that if he didn’t help these people, he deserved to lose the island, and he would be one of those supers. The selfish ego-tripping individuals who only looked out for number one. Now was time for action; he could philosophize later.
Gus toggled his display and saw six men in infrared. Two on the beach and four remaining on the ship. The ambient heat made it too bright to hold this view for long. He saw no evidence of the captives. They must be deeper onboard—possibly masked by walls or water, or in some kind of hold that would block their heat signature.
He would have to separate these guys, and not let them warn each other or harm the hostages. Sweat beaded on his forehead at the very real stakes involved. He tracked one of the traffickers as he stepped out of sight of his crew, exploring deeper into the forest that lined the beach shortly after the sand ended. It was the first time he had an opportunity to incapacitate someone rather than kill them outright, and he fumbled at what skills he should use. Wreck-luse would be nice if it didn’t have its deadly toxic effect. Maybe some kind of Ether Weaving to prevent him from crying out and from firing a shot at the same time? It was worth a try.
Waiting for the heavyset man to put some distance between the ship and himself, Gus readied his weave. He had a bandana-wide swath of ether prepared, and snuck up behind the man. With a quick snap he swung it over and enveloped the man’s head. At the same time, he used two tendrils of ether to plug the barrel of the gun as well as fill the trigger guard so the man could not fire a shot to warn his friends.
The man was startled and the gun wrenched easily from his hands. It was odd to see his hands fly to his face and pull at the invisible and incorporeal ether that displaced and sealed out oxygen. Try as he might, the man found no purchase on the material and struggled to regain the ability to breathe. Since he wasn’t in the best physical condition, the pirate passed out quickly. Gus half-dropped, half-carried the man to the ground as he collapsed.
Gus reformed the ether, making it into a gag. He pulled the man twenty feet off the trail and fashioned arm and leg restraints out of ether lashes. Gus marveled at how ether reacted with regular matter. Without the ability to shape it, there was no way the man could untie himself and get free. He would feel that he was bound by something as incorporeal to him as air. Gus doubted he could even bruise or chafe if he struggled against the bonds.
Securing him to a tree out of sight of the trail, Gus made his way back to the beach, trying to find out how to distract the others and get them off the boat if at all possible. It only would take one slip-up and people could be hurt by his incompetence. When he reached the boat, the four men were still on board, and the other man who had disembarked was nowhere to be seen.
He could see the footprints on the soft white sand, trailing away from the boat. He followed them warily, intermittently changing filters on his display in order to distinguish where the man was. Gus had no luck until he came to a wide opening. The path spilled out to a taller area overlooking a pool. A waterfall dumped noisily nearby, into a calm pool beneath.
A man stood peering over the edge, surveying the scene, two large water jugs at his side. He appeared to be looking for a safe way to get down to the pool below to refill his water jugs.
Gus realized that he was too far away to risk sneaking out in the open, but if he could approach without being noticed, he could take this man down as he had with the first.
Gus floated an inch off the ground with Basic Flight, then triggered Slide. Gus glided silently over the ground towards the man, but his aim was off. He almost overshot
