“All will be revealed,” was all her grandmother said.
Simon stepped up onto the dock and helped Holly alight beside him. Between the two of them, they handed Madam Gautier safely onto the wooden platform.
She led the way toward the utter blackness at the other end of the dock. The darkness was a solid metal wall with a metal handwheel painted the same black as the wall.
Madam Gautier waved a hand toward the wheel. “Will you do the honors?”
Simon gripped the wheel and turned it left. A watertight bulkhead door separated from the black wall and swung open. Bright light shone out on them, revealing a hallway beyond.
Holly’s grandmother stepped through the door and down a staircase.
Holly followed with Simon close behind.
The staircase led down into what could only be described as an underground bunker. Shelves full of various supplies, including canned goods, bags of dried beans, bottles of butane and other fuels, lined the tunnel they passed through. There was enough food and supplies for several people to live on for weeks, if not months.
Holly guessed the place belonged to a prepper ready for an apocalypse.
The more she studied the corridor, the more it looked like...
“This is or was a ship,” Simon said. “A small one, but a ship, nonetheless.” He pointed to the stenciled nomenclature on one of the walls they passed. “I’d bet it's either a decommissioned Navy vessel or an old Army ship.
“It’s a decommissioned 1955 Coast Guard Cutter,” a deep voice came to them from ahead of them in the corridor. “It’s been converted into a self-contained bunker with its own power source and satellite connections to allow connection to the outside world without being detected.” A man wearing Bermuda shorts and a black T-shirt padded barefoot toward them. His salt and pepper hair was buzzed to within less than an inch long on his head, though his face sported at least a day or two’s worth of gray beard. He held out his hand to Simon. “Joe Middleton,” he said. “You must be Sinclaire Sevier, former Delta Force, now working with Remy Montagne’s Brotherhood Protectors.”
Simon took the man’s hand, although hesitantly. “You have the advantage.”
“Madam Gautier has been keeping us informed of everything happening in Bayou Mambaloa, including the return of her granddaughter after a year spent in Atlanta.” Joe held out his hand to Holly. “Holly, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Holly shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’ve heard nothing about you.” She waved her hand around. “What is this place, and why are we here? And who else is here besides you?”
“Actually, this is my home. I’ve been working on it since I left the Marine Corps twenty years ago. I’d had my fill of being around a lot of people after twenty-five years on active duty. I spent some of my savings on an old boat I’d planned to strip and sell for salvage, but fell in love with her and made her my home.” His face grew serious. “As for who else is here...” He met Holly’s grandmother’s gaze for a moment.
When she gave him an almost imperceptible shake of her head, he nodded, his lips pressing into a tight line.
“Well...” he continued. “You’ll see. Follow me.” Joe turned and led the way deeper into the ship, passing closed doors until he came to what might once have been the dining hall.
On one side of the dining hall, the tables were crowded with the kind of equipment used in a biological lab like the one Holly’s parents had worked in for years, with centrifuges, microscopes, PH meters, Bunsen burners, dry ovens and so much more.
“We didn’t have a separate room we could turn into a laboratory, so we erected a wall down the middle of the dining hall and filled one side with what we needed for the lab, but still had use of the other side for meals.”
“What are you studying here?” Holly asked.
Joe waved a hand toward the dining room. “I’ll let the other members of the team brief you on that.” He stepped back, allowing them to enter the dining hall, where a man and a woman wearing lab coats rose from a table.
The blood rushed from Holly’s head. She swayed and reached for Simon.
His arm came up around her and pulled her close, or she would have fallen.
“Mom? Dad?” Tears welled in Holly’s eyes, blurring her vision.
“Holly,” they both said as one and hurried forward.
Arms wrapped around her, pulling her into embraces she’d thought she would never experience again.
“What?” Holly sobbed. “Why? I thought you were dead.”
“Oh, honey.” Evangeline Gautier brushed the hair back from Holly’s forehead. “I’m so sorry. We couldn’t contact you. We had to be dead on all accounts to continue our work.”
Holly stood back, frowning. Her gut knotted tightly. “You let me believe you and Dad were dead.”
