Page 60 of Invincible
Knox was reaching for Greer, who had been waiting patiently for him against the wall, when the door opened and one of the men stepped out.
Making the mistake of taking an extra second to stare at the bear of a man outside the door, the sailor found himself being jerked off his feet in a move that cut off his air supply.Knox covered the man’s mouth, locking him in a half nelson to wait for him to pass out.
The women could only look on in fear as the man finally slumped to the ground.Quickly, Knox pulled a cable tie from one of his many pockets, tying the man up.Producing a small row of duct tape from somewhere else, he placed a strip over the man’s mouth, guaranteeing he couldn’t call for help when he woke up.
Looking around, he shrugged his shoulders at Tyler before settling on a small cabinet on the side by the containers.Leaving Greer just long enough to stuff the man in the cabinet, he returned, swinging her up in his arms.With a swift, determined stride, he joined Tyler behind the next row.
“What else could you possibly have in those pants?”Greer whispered quietly in his ear.
“If we make it through this, I’d be more than happy to show you,” he said with a grin.
“I walked right into that, didn’t I?”
“More like hopped, but yeah.Now be quiet so they don’t hear us.”Setting Greer back down, he pulled her into his side while reminding his sister that they had to remain silent.
Helping Greer onto Knox’s back, Tyler watched with apprehension as he started to climb up the doors of the next stack.This row was too tall to lift anyone up, so their only choice was to climb.
Tyler wanted to laugh at the picture they made creeping forward.King Kong and his damsel, followed by a dozen barefoot women being given silent encouragement by a teenager and the circus strongman, or woman in this case, bringing up the rear.
Knox kept the motley crew heading steadily toward the bow of the ship, sticking closely to the containers in hopes they would slip past the notice of the crew.Even with the ship lit up like a Christmas tree, the view from the bridge among the stacks was hidden.
If they could just not stumble into any of the other men working on the ship, they would be able to signal for the cavalry soon.Moving so many people across a ship without being seen would be quite the accomplishment.
Tyler watched Knox drop onto the deck again for the final time.After another hour of steady progress, they had finally reached the front row of containers where they were to signal Dex.F
ollowing the end of the line onto the deck, Tyler only had a minute to take in the scene before the women came rushing to her.Quickly hustling them to the end of the row, where they huddled on the ground, she hurried onto the bow.
Greer was sitting on the ground with Mia’s arms wrapped tightly around her as Knox fought with two crew members.How could they not have noticed these men?He had a hold of one of the men’s hands, trying to wrestle a pistol out of his grip.The other crewman was struggling to his feet where Knox had obviously landed him a moment ago.
Without thinking, Tyler grabbed the bolt cutters still hanging on Knox’s pants, swinging them as hard as she could at the man’s head.With a resounding crack, she saw him slump back down to the ground.Turning around, she moved to help Knox when she saw him flip the other crewman off the front of the ship.
“Shit,” he said, looking over the side where the man had disappeared.Jogging from one side to the other, he hunted for some sign the man had surfaced.Finally giving up, he returned to the front to help Tyler get the women against the containers in the hope that the rest of the crew hadn’t seen the scuffle.
“He slipped and just went over,” he said, looking between Tyler and Greer.
“Well,” Greer said at last.“Better him than you.”Tyler nodded at him, agreeing with her friend.She wasn’t about to both gain and lose a brother in the span of a few short weeks.
Tyler had no sooner thought the words than she watched Knox fall to the ground, followed by a loud crack.Unfortunately, even though they had managed to overpower the men, they had still sent up an alarm.
