Page 52 of Dauntless
Below us, a shot rang out, a short sharp crack that echoed through the tower.My heart skipped a beat, but by the time I’d registered the sound— registered it and understood it and expected to feel a sudden burst of pain—it was already over and I was still moving, and Joe was still behind me.We passed the door to the flag room.The steps were steeper here, narrower, and we raced up them.
I spilled into the lantern room ahead of Joe, riding the adrenaline burst of my panic.
“Outside!”Joe grabbed a pair of binoculars and followed me out.He slammed the door shut, twisting the handle closed and then jamming the binoculars under it.They fell straight through and hit the catwalk.
“Oh god,” I managed, gripping the rail and gasping for breath.“I thought you had aplan!”
“Thatwasthe plan!”Joe gripped the handle tightly.
“That’s a terrible fucking plan!”
“If you’ve got a better one, Eddie, now would be the time to share!”
“Can he shoot through those windows?”I asked.“Because we’re kind of trapped here now!”
“Those windows can withstand a cyclone.”
“That doesn’t answer the question, Joe!”
“I don’t know, Eddie!I’m fairly sure this is an unprecedented situation, and not one that was taken into consideration by nineteenth century lighthouse designers!”He leaned on the metal door to look through the windows to the lantern room.
Short Clarry burst into the room, clutching his chest and panting for breath.
“Go around the other side,” Joe said.“Get the flags.”
I hurried to obey.Out on the ocean there was a speck of white on the horizon.It was a boat.The police boat?It was still so far away.
Hurry the fuck up.
I managed to unknot the flags and scrambled back around the catwalk in time to see Joe gripping the rattling door handle.Short Clarry glared at us through the glass, and mouthed something I couldn’t hear, but probably wasn’t complimentary.I didn’t mistake the way that he tapped the gun against the window though.
I held up the flags tangled in their ropes.“What am I doing with these?”
“Waving them,” Joe said.“First to that police boat out there.”He didn’t let go of the door handle to point.“Then to anyone who can see you in the village.”
I opened my mouth to reply and caught another glimpse of Short Clarry and his gun through the windows.I yelped, and then dropped to my hands and knees on the catwalk.
What the hell did I know about ballistics?I could wave my flags from down there just as well.
I left Joe bracing all his weight against the door and gripping the handle so Short Clarry couldn’t open it from the inside.I crawled quickly around to the seaward side of the tower with my flags.
The speck of white on the horizon gradually grew larger and larger.
But not fast enough.
* * *
The Joe-shaped blur looked to be struggling by the time I got back to him.
“Anything from the village?”
I squinted up at him.“Lost my glasses.I can’t see shit!”
What a pair we made.If our ancestors weren’t still laughing at the irony of Joe stepping in front of a gun for me, then they were definitely laughing at our ineptitude.
Metal clanged as Short Clarry wrenched at the door again.He wasn’t really a big guy, but it turned out he had enough murderous rage to really boost his strength.
“Binoculars,” Joe said, nodding at them.