“It was their choice, Will,” Charles answered grimly. Death wasn’t something they were unaccustomed to. On the contrary, they had killed many times since the two had first met all that time ago. But those were vampires, soulless demon spawn that were a blight on the world and an insult to all living things. These were just men, misguided and evil obviously, but still men, flesh, and blood.

  “Yeah, I know, still a waste no matter how you look at it,” William replied almost bitterly. “Ok, so do you think we can get away with the same thing again? I got two more magazines.”

  “How many did we get this time around?”

  “Seven.”

  Charles nodded, “Ok so that means we have about a half dozen more to worry about. If they didn’t come up with that group of seven, then they may be waiting to hear from them, or they may be staying put where they are, perhaps guarding something.”

  “Or someone,” William caught on to his friend’s line of thought. “So, if we find these other guys, we have a pretty good chance of finding where these assholes are keeping Ansuya and the others.”

  Charles nodded, “I think it’s time we have our guest take us on a tour of the ship, don’t you?”

  William nodded and smiled. He walked to the broom closet and pulled the captain from the tight space. William held him in the same way as before, twisting his arm, wrenching it higher on his back and gripping his other wrist down by his waist. He walked the captain back toward Charles.

  Charles drew a picture on a pad of paper with a grease pencil. He drew a crude box with people inside behind what he assumed were prison bars. The drawing wasn’t good; in fact, it looked like a child had drawn it with crayons. But when Charles showed it to the captain the captain shook his head violently, appearing suddenly afraid.

  William wrenched the man’s arm further up his back, “Look, man I have no problem breaking this is four places.” William twisted the man’s other wrist. “Show us where they are.”

  The captain was being inundated with pheromones from Charles. That, mixed with the very real pain that William was inflicting on him, the captain never really had a choice or any real chance of resisting their request for long. The captain eventually nodded weakly and shoved his head towards the hatch.

  “You heard the man,” Charles said. “After you.”

  “Why, thank you kindly, sir,” William said as he pushed the captain out through the bridge hatch.

  The captain’s face held a look of stunned shock as he stepped out amidst the dead bodies that littered the throughway. He must have never seen anything like this before because William had to almost carry his suddenly limp form. The captain’s eyes lingered on each body before sliding to the next one in line. William wasn’t devoid of what the captain might be feeling. He couldn’t help but remember how he had felt when Achelois had to be put down. But these men had been given a chance, Achelois had had none. That old remembered pain of loss hardened his resolve and he pushed the captain faster through the passageway.

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  Charles took the lead and put the barrel of his weapon into the man’s side as the captain led them deeper into the bowls of the ship. The group pushed into the cargo container section and the captain led them through the labyrinth of the various containers. When they reached the far side, the captain tried to gesture around the corner. Charles took note of the very real fear in his eyes.

  Charles put his fingers to his lips as he eased his eyes out from around a container. Charles quickly ducked back around the container. He silently motioned his friend to back up farther back towards the center of the cargo container area.

  William did as his friend suggested. After a while of slowly back tracking Charles finally stopped. William asked in a whisper, “What did you see, man? What was over there?”

  “A few things, but what concerned me were the armed competent looking military types with much better weapons then these AKs. They’re wearing body armor and they are protecting a large enclosure lined with cages, protected with what I can only assume is bullet proof glass.”

  “Are the girls there?” William asked. Charles nodded.

  Suddenly a wide yawn cracked William’s face. He visibly slumped against the captain before recovering himself.

  “Are you alright?” Charles face was etched with concern.

  William stifled another yawn. “Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’m a little tired.” William blinked his eyes hard and a large yawn cracked his face open again.

  “I think you’re more than just a little tired,” Charles said.

  William shook his head, trying to clear it. “I’ve flooded my body with adrenaline a few times today and I’ve been giving my body a steady stream of the stuff just to get me through this. I guess it’s finally catching up with me.” William tried in vain to stifle another yawn.

  “This is not a good time for this,” Charles commented.

  “No, it’s no big deal, man. I’ll just give myself a little boost.” Before Charles could protest, William’s features returned to normal and his eyes focused sharply. “See? Good as a full night sleep,” he said with a wry grin.

  Charles shook his head, “I hope you don’t collapse any time soon. We do have limits, my friend.”

  William just smiled and dropped a heavy right hand on the back of the captain’s neck. The captain’s eyes fluttered and closed as he collapsed back against the enforcer’s body. William slid the captain back among the containers and, ripping the captain’s shirt into shreds, he tied and gagged him in a similar fashion he had done to the other crewmembers he had left in the rec room.

  When he was finished, he rejoined Charles as he looked out at the armed men and the enclosure they were guarding. There were six of them. Luckily there was a catwalk that ringed the container area about fifteen meters off the level they were at right now. Unfortunately, the guards had that way covered with two men, with large caliber machine guns. Charles explained the situation.

  William nodded, “Ok, why don’t I go topside and take out the two guards on the cat walk?”

  “Great, how are you going to get up there? And once there, how will you subdue two armed men with a clear shot at you, with high caliber machine guns? Unless, you can also turn invisible, that would be suicide,” Charles retorted.