She thought about leaving Amanda behind. She could move through the ship much faster if she didn’t have to worry about supporting Amanda along the way. But then if she did leave the weakened girl behind, she would be completely helpless if anyone managed to get to her. The logical conclusion was obvious. Ansuya wrapped her arm around the girl’s midsection and helped her to walk out into the large cargo container hold of whatever vessel they were on.

  Ansuya walked slowly but kept a steady pace. Amanda’s body seemed to be coming around, the girl was able to support more and more of her own body weight as they traveled. Ansuya had to push the girl up the steep ladder wells of the ship, as the stairs were too narrow and steep for her to maintain a side-by-side posture with the girl.

  As they moved up through the ship, Ansuya was able to detect the strong scent of blood. It was faint but as they rose higher and higher in the ship the smell grew more and more sharp. Ansuya grew more and more apprehensive as the smell grew stronger.

  She helped Amanda hide in a corner as she moved forward and up another ladder well. She moved with her usual grace and silence. The smell of blood hung thickly in the air. Even Amanda would have been able to smell it now. She crept along the bulkheads, trying to make herself as small a target as possible.

  She slid through a hatchway and saw the bodies and blood-streaked walls and deck. The combat must have been fierce indeed, but also ended very quickly. She did not recognize any of Aceso’s pack among the dead, they were all of Chinese descent.

  She pushed the hatchway open and was almost blinded by the pure bright sunlight that flooded into what must be the bridge. She ducked down and threw herself behind a bank of equipment. Blinking furiously, she tried to regain her vision as she listened carefully for any movement. She inhaled deeply and caught the scent of one other person on the bridge

  “Ansuya? Is that you?!”

  The Indian woman recognized the voice but did not stand up right away. “Charles, is there anyone with you, or anywhere near here? What’s my last name?” The caution of passwords and security was something that could not be ignored, she couldn’t be sure her senses were one hundred percent accurate and she would not let herself be careless.

  “Your name is Ansuya Das, the only people who has been in this room in the last three hours has been me,” Charles responded with a certain air of confidence and patience.

  Ansuya stood up cautiously, letting her eyes scan the bridge before rising completely from behind the bank of equipment that she had been hiding behind. She looked at the much younger Tracker and noticed that he looked extremely tired and worn. His features were a bit ashen from exertion.

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  “What happened, Charles?”

  The young Tracker related everything that had happened. How they had rescued both her and Amanda from the Whyte Plain, their escape into the ocean. How they had started swimming west trying to reach land and how they had been picked up by this Chinese cargo vessel. How they had been able to sell their services as labor for the voyage. And how they had been drugged and gassed as the crew had tried to capture them.

  “I assume you already saw the results of that attempt outside,” Charles asked with a nod.

  “Yes, I had, you can smell the blood throughout the ship,” Ansuya replied.

  Suddenly an ear-piercing scream rang out through the bridge and the passageway outside. Ansuya rushed out the hatch and jumped over the dead bodies as she swept up Amanda in her arms and held the young shocked girl close.

  “Amanda, it’s all right,” The girl in her arms was rigid with fear. Ansuya pushed the girl away from her and looked her dead in the eye. “Amanda, look at me… LOOK at me!”

  The frightened girl’s brown eyes slowly moved and focused on the elder standing in front of her. “They are dead, they can’t hurt you or anyone else anymore. What had to be done has been done. Just breathe.” Ansuya pushed a few pheromones at the girl to calm her. Ansuya used a very gentle touch. She didn’t want the extremely susceptible and weakened girl to fall in love with her, but she didn’t need the girl falling to pieces either. After a few moments Amanda’s breathing did slow down and she visibly relaxed under the Elder’s gaze.

  Once Ansuya was satisfied that Amanda was calm and wouldn’t scream again, she turned back towards Charles, “Are there any crew members left alive?”

  He nodded, “They’re a few, William wrapped up two and threw them into some room somewhere on the lower decks. I left the head Engineer tied up with some metal pipe in the Engine room. The captain of the ship is down in the cargo bay tied up. Other than that, everyone else is dead, except for maybe some of the galley staff. I didn’t go back in there. With William passed out due to exhaustion,”

  “Exhaustion?!,” Ansuya interrupted him.

  Charles nodded, “Yes, William had to fight off some sleeping gas by flooding his body with natural Adrenaline and testosterone. But he had to keep it up for a long time, till his body just passed out from under him from the strain.”

  That sounded like William all right. He would rather die himself than let anything happen to those around him. “Where is he, Charles?”

  “I left him down in the cargo hold. I had to come back here and see if I could figure out where we were going and how I could help us get there in one piece.”

  Ansuya nodded, “Well he should be ok for now. What’s our heading?”

  Charles nodded back toward the bridge, “It’d be easier to show you.” The tall man led the two women past the pile of dead bodies into the bridge towards the helm wheel.

  Ansuya helped to guide Amanda onto the bridge. They followed Charles to the helm.

  “We are currently heading one hundred and ten degrees east from what I can tell. According to the map and our current location we are about three hundred miles from California.” Charles paused and looked out the bridge windows at the clear blue of the sky and the calm waters. “It looked like they were planning on pulling into either San Francisco or Los Angeles.”