The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 63

'How are we supposed to take it?' I asked. 'It's not like it's easy to take a whole ship.'

'You got off the freighter,' Oliver said. 'So you can probably get back on it and help us take it.'

'I said I would help my friends who are imprisoned on that boat escape,' I said sadly. 'I promised them! And now I've just abandoned them. We won't be able to take the ship that easily. One person escaping is one thing; taking the whole boat is another.'

'I know you can help us, Aria,' Oliver reassured me. 'Ivo didn't keep you alive all those months for nothing.'

'Okay, I'll tell you what I know,' I said. 'But I'm not sure if it'll help.'

'Anything will help us,' Slade stated.

'Okay,' I started. 'Well, I know that Ivo has cameras everywhere on that boat, and on the island. There are more cameras on the land nearer the boat, too. He has men on duty across most of the corridors and on the deck, but there are less when it's their lunch break. But, there's probably more men on duty during their lunch break now, since I escaped in their break. Ivo is a scientist; the places he's most likely to be are in his quarters, in his lab or in the transmitter room. He tortures people for science, he really wants the Mirakuru-'

'Aria,' Sara stopped me. 'We already know all this. I told them all this.'

'Oh,' I said, embarrassed. 'Sorry.'

'Is there anything you can think of that only you know?' Oliver asked me.

'Er, I don't know,' I answered. 'I could tell you what Ivo wanted me to become though. He wanted to inject me with Mirakuru. So I could be great and fulfil his potential, stuff like that. He was developing this serum which behaved like Mirakuru, only it was temporary. He also had this drug, Curare, that slows down the movement of your muscles.'

'That's perfect!' Oliver exclaimed. 'I know it's a long shot, but we could try and get some of that Curare and use it against Ivo. Like, dip an arrowhead into it or something.'

'You do know I don't know where it is, right?' I asked Oliver. 'It's a great idea, but I think it would be quicker if we didn't use the Curare.'

'This still doesn't get us anywhere,' Slade said impatiently. 'You don't have anything else on Ivo, do you?'

'I know he wants to kill me,' I laughed nervously. 'I'm sorry I don't know anything else.'

---

'Just, focus on nothing but the middle of the target,' Oliver instructed as I raised my bow and steadied my aim, pulling the bowstring back. 'Keep the arrow in line with your eyes, and just let go.'

Shooting the arrow at a target Oliver had drawn on the tree in front of me, my arrow landed in the centre of the target, my hard work paying off. I had almost forgotten how to aim an arrow after not using one for so long, but now I was off the ship I could concentrate on archery instead of torture.

'I was always better at shooting with an arrow than a gun,' I smiled at Oliver. 'Thank you for teaching me, Oliver.'

'No problem,' Oliver smiled back. 'It only took you a few days to get back into it again.'

'I used to be able to hunt like this,' I remembered, thinking about the first month of being on the island. 'Being shipwrecked made me learn a lot of things.'

'Me too,' Oliver agreed. 'And now, I think you're ready to fight with us on the freighter.'

---

'Ivo's freighter is located here,' Slade pointed to an area on the map of the island. 'He keeps eight men on deck. Three on the starboard, three on the port, two up on the bridge. But our bigger concern are these GP 25 grenade launchers that they're walking around with them all the time.' He said, pointing to the gun I had stolen from the ship in my escape.

'Do they have night vision?' Oliver asked.

'Not according to blondie,' he answered, referring to Sara.

As Oliver walked to Sara, Slade turned to me.

'We need wood for the fire,' Slade told me. 'As our 'distraction'.'

'Slade, listen,' I said quietly, making sure that Oliver and Sara couldn't hear me from their new spot outside. 'I think we need to get rid of the Mirakuru. Many people are going to get hurt if Ivo gets hold of it.'

'I don't know, Aria,' Slade said. 'It gives us leverage.'

'Ivo's still going to come after us, Mirakuru or no Mirakuru,' I carried on. 'We need to destroy it. Burn it.'

'How do you know that'll work?' Slade asked me.

'Because I've done it before,' I informed him. 'You need to go and tell Oliver and Sara.'

I remembered how Peter, Hendrick and I had burned the second to last supply of Mirakuru, which got me into this mess I was in.

As Slade left, I looked at what Sara had been crushing. It smelt vile, and was a rich red colour.

'Sara, what is that?' I asked her as she came back in.

'Cocculus Indicus,' she replied, beginning to crush it again. 'Something Ivo told me about when he was performing a truth serum session in front of me on one of the prisoners, before you arrived on the ship.'

'I've seen this before,' I tried to remember. 'Oh yeah, I saw it in Starling City in one of the crime scenes I worked on. Someone used it to counteract an overdose of a barbiturate, I think it was sleeping pills. Unfortunately for them, they realised they didn't want to die and tried to use this Cocculus Indicus to save them. Obviously, it didn't work.'

'Did you enjoy working in Forensic Science?' Oliver chipped in. 'It seemed a bit depressing what you were doing.'

'No, I didn't enjoy it,' I said sadly. 'But I didn't have a choice. It was the only thing I could do in the field of science in Starling when I moved there.'

I saw Sara looking at me knowingly, making me remember what I said to her about Malcolm Merlyn.

'Don't tell Oliver about what I said about Merlyn,' I told her in a whisper. 'He can't know. No one can if I am to return to Starling.'

'Okay,' Sara answered. 'I'll keep your secret.'

---

'We'll go,' Oliver announced as Sara held the Mirakuru, and they headed off into the night to burn the supply.

'Are you ready?' Slade asked as we sat together in the hideout.

'To escape? Yes.' I nodded. 'I just want to be away from this island.'

'I'm glad you were here, actually,' Slade commented. 'You showed us that it's possible to actually escape the freighter, alive. It gave us the hope we needed.'

'I'm glad I met you too,' I said. 'And Oliver and Sara. Or else I'd have probably rotted on this island.'

'We all probably will if we don't succeed tomorrow,' Slade stated.

'What a way to kill the mood,' I laughed. 'I could really do with a drink right now, to make me feel way less nervous than I really am.'

'You're in luck,' Slade smiled. 'I have a bottle my friend, Billy Wintergreen, and I were saving, and I think we should use it now.'

'I think we should wait for the others first,' I laughed.

I was seriously laughing too much. I was just so nervous.

'To escaping this island,' Slade grinned.

'To escaping this island.'