Thanks to Will's notes on his phone, the crew had no issues locating the correct shipyard.
Rather than trying to get through the front gate, they decided to sneak around and sonic through one of the disused delivery gates around the back.
Luckily, no patrols were near the gate. Huntress opened the padlock and snuck everyone through with no issues.
Since security patrols were still operating around the rest of the yard periodically, the crew hid behind a massive wall of old crates to formulate the rest of their plan.
Huntress knelt down with the others following suit. 'This is where we split. Cassie and I will head to the main office and get our hands on the Discovery's documents. Will and Gray, take a look around. Some of these old warehouses might have something very interesting amongst them.'
'Wait a bloody minute, why do we have to look around? That seems like your MO if ya ask me' Gray interrupted.
Will shrugged his shoulders and gave a slight nod in response. 'He does have a point.'
'See? How we supposed to know what to look for? We ain't aliens!'
As soon as Gray's voice started getting too loud, Huntress dived forward and clamped her hand over his mouth whilst using the other to push down on his left shoulder. One hand to shut him up, and the other to stop him falling over. Both worked.
'Not so loud, foghorn. You want to get us caught already? We haven't even got to the fun part yet' she whispered. Afterward, she slowly removed her hand and placed her index finger over her mouth as if to say, "Don't talk."
'True, I should be snooping around. However, I need to see those documents now. It's the next puzzle piece. Besides, you can use those mobile thingies to contact me if and only when you find something massively out of place. Also, I think it's safer if Cassie were with me. So, you boys do the searching and us girls will get the paperwork. Sound good?'
No one dared talk, so everyone nodded in agreeance whilst glancing over at each other. The first to change their approving nod into a disproving shake was Gray.
'No, wait, hang on. You don't have a mobile. How we meant to contact you?' he asked.
Huntress looked around at everyone, lost for an answer. It seemed as though she didn't think that through. Definitely an awkward moment. Will's eyes lit up and he turned around to Gray. 'Gray, give her yours. We can use mine to ring your phone. And don't even argue about whose to give up, because mine's not going anywhere.'
Knowing defeat when he heard it, Gray handed over his phone to the Huntress. She looked at it and was clearly puzzled.
'How do you have a mobile? I thought I threw that in the Thames?' Huntress inquired.
Will pulled his new mobile out of his pocket and waved it in his hand. 'Kate kindly provided a new one. If there's one thing I refuse to be without, it's a phone.'
Huntress shook her head and placed Gray's mobile in one of her jacket's outer pockets. 'All well, Cassie can show me how to operate it later. Let's get moving.'
Huntress stood and started walking away with Cassie following close behind. Luckily for them, the Huntress remembered the direction of the main office. The boys meanwhile simply shrugged at each other and picked a warehouse in the distance. The older and more run down, the better.
As the two groups split up and started going their own ways, they were being watched on a form of security camera, washed in red. From their hideaway, a figure watched them closely.
* * *
With so many signs around the area, it was quite easy to find the main office in the yard. Avoiding the patrols, now that was more of a challenge. Luckily for the girls, there were plenty of shipping containers and parts laying around the yard. Littered in fact. It was just the matter of hiding and staying silent.
After the patrols changeover took place and all the guards left the office, Huntress and Cassie slowly snuck inside. The office was basically two transportable buildings put together. Small, but functional. Huntress found it odd but couldn't complain.
Filing cabinets lined the back of the building and were clearly labelled. All they had to do was look in the cabinet with documentation on the Discovery.
'I didn't ask before. Why do we even need this stuff about Discovery? What's so special about this ship?' Cassie asked in attempt to create conversation. She didn't like long silences. She lived in a house with five younger siblings, so noise was her normal.
'Well, it's logical to assume that the ships disappearance is linked with the Thames' alteration and the attack at the lab. There's gotta be a reason why that ship vanished. A fishy reason, mind the pun. Otherwise, it's too random. Logic is always present in planet-wide crisis plans, apparently. Hey, do you think they keep clothes in places like these cause this skirt is getting to ridiculous. Argh, I hate this thing!' she answered, whilst pulling and adjusting her skirt in frustration.
Mid-way through the Huntress' talk, Cassie had started flipping through papers inside one of the cabinets. Both jumped at the sound of a slamming door behind them. Both slowly turned to see a dumfounded worker staring at them.
'You two aren't supposed to be in here!' he stutters in a shout. Huntress quickly stands straight again and Cassie walks backward to quietly shut the open draw behind her. He doesn't seem to realise that she was going through the papers.
'Well, sir, we're meant to be here' Huntress responds. She fumbles around her pockets and finally pulls out a small black wallet. She opens it and faces the paper towards the man. He squints as he tries to read whatever is on it. Cassie meanwhile turns her head and tries to look at the paper.
'Oh. Oh, sorry. Uh, you two really shouldn't be in here though ma'am. I'll phone the boss now.'
The man hurries out of the room and the girls watch him out of the window, running towards a white truck nearby.
While the Huntress is watching him, Cassie slyly turns the paper towards her and reads it.
'Health Inspectors? Claire Jones and Cassie Devonport? How did you make this? Better yet, when!?'
Huntress turns back to Cassie and smiles as she shuts the wallet and waves it around in her hand. 'Psychic paper. Got a spare from an old friend. People see what I want them to see, not to mention it receives messages like your mobile devices. Without the stupid noises I might add.'
With a gapping mouth, Cassie just nods through Huntress' explanation.
Huntress takes one good look at Cassie and starts to worry slightly. 'You ok?' she adds.
Cassie simply chuckles, turns to one of the rooms chairs and sits down. 'Psychic paper. Of course its psychic paper. There's already aliens that look like water and aliens that possess people. Of course the other alien in this story owns paper that's psychic!'
'Its been a long time since you've read something fictional, hasn't it?' Huntress responds while leaning on the desk.
Cassie leans back with both arms spread out and her head shaking from side to side. 'This whole thing is too crazy for my brain to take!' she shouts back.
Huntress closes her eyes and sits with a lean on the desk, also crossing her arms. 'You think its too much now? I should've left you back at the labs, because it is not going to get any better from here.'
Cassie starts to calm and refocus on the Huntress. 'What do you mean?' she asks.
'Those fiction books and stories you all love, read over and over again and cling too throughout your childhood. How are they any different from right now? Yes, its not as magical or wonderous in terms of bright colours and happiness, but its just as exciting and enticing. That's why I'm so curious about you humans and your beliefs. This is all fiction in those stories brought to life with a hint of realism and a recipe filled with a pinch of danger and some out of this world beings. Am I the only one who sees this as a story being written that people like yourself will remember until the end of your time and one day cherish? You know what I say to this crazy story right now? Take that, three little pigs'
Cassie chuckles and smiles up at the Huntress. Her eyes have opened and her mind has eased into a more relaxed and comfortable state, finally.
'I never thought about it like that. I mean, so much happens at once that you just can't keep up with. And I must be honest, that's a scary feeling. One minute you feel like you have your grasp on the world and everything is going according to plan, the next everything is spinning into chaos and your totally powerless.'
The Huntress nods in agreeance. 'True. However, in every story I've read, the heroes are never powerless. They just have to step up and take the reins. They fight, Cassie. That's us right now. We're the heroes and we're taking the reins and leading this story onwards. We're going to solve this together and we're going to win. Cause, I mean, the moment we believe we've lost is when we have truly lost the fight.'
Before Cassie could thank the Huntress, the door opened again. Cassie shot up into a proper sitting position and the Huntress stood up from the desk.
A man wearing an expensive grey suit with a blue-and-white striped tie walked it. Product in his dark hair, a wide smile with teeth that can been seen in billboard adverts and clearly had a problem with dirt since he was as clean as a whistle.
'Ah, you two must be the health inspectors. Sorry I was out, but a yard like this doesn't manage itself from a desk. Sometimes we have to fire people in person, ha.'
Both Huntress and Cassie couldn't even manage a smile. It took everything within them to not show their disgust. They could only watch as the continuously smiling man made his way over to his desk.
If anything, the Huntress knew that it would not be easy to get the manager to leave his office. It was bad enough that he'd been glancing at her skirt since he arrived.
* * *
Warehouse 56. The fourth on the boys list. They'd looked through three already and found nothing they could call suspicious or alien-like. Just remnants of old ships in locks. All just frames. Will took the time to look at the names on the manifest near the main workstation. HMS Morning-Star, HMS Forrest & HMS Cleo.
This warehouse seemed different. Will noticed the lack of dust on the door handle. Gray on the other hand was still sneezing from the dust itself. Twice already they were nearly caught because of that alone.
Inside was another ship. This one was still in one piece and floating. The upper hull however was in ruins as well as the weapons systems and presumably the engine. Gray looked at the size and gasped.
'Bugger me, that's more like it. They look much bigger when they've got their panelling, don't they?' he commented as he looked at the vessel from front to back, or bow to stern as the sailors say.
Will slowly made his way over to the desk with the ships paperwork whilst looking back at the vessel. The fact that a ship in this condition was stored away and not taken apart or repaired seemed suspicious on its own.
'Over here. This one's called the HMS Salvation. Brought in before reaching critical in the year 2000. Deemed unworthy of repair, but not placed for scrap. They just hid her and abandoned her. Strange.'
As Gray listened, he was drawn to the walkway leading to the ship's entrance. He noticed that the main hatch was open. They could easily walk aboard.
'Ironic, isn't it? A ship called the Salvation dumped by the Navy. But this ship seems too new of a design to be from 2000. Too modern' Gray responded as his hand ran across the end of the rail on the walkway. Temptation was telling him to board.
Noticing Gray's fixation with the ship's open door, he walked over to him rather than talking from afar. 'You think we should call it in?' he asked while watching Gray closely.
Thankfully, Gray turned away from the ship to talk to Will directly. 'Huntress said to contact her if we find something "Massively out of place" and I don't think this qualifies. Unless...'
Gray's voice trailed off and Will started to get a bad feeling. Both men looked away from each other and towards the open door, then back at each other.
'Unless we look aboard to make sure' Will finished.
With what he considered verbal permission, Gray ran up the walkway and waited at the entrance for Will. 'Well, come on then! Time's wasting!'
Gray hurried inside with Will rushing to catch up with him. This fool. With our luck, there is something horrible aboard this thing and we're gonna land in massive trouble. Not to mention the fact that his picking up sayings from the Huntress already.
As Will rushed through the door and along the corridors to where Gray waited, the door behind him slowly slid shut and locked behind him. It wasn't until it locked that the boys noticed, with Will quickly turning back.
He used all of his might to try and open the door again but to no avail. Gray hurried back over with a look of concern all over his face.
'Oh no. Oh hell no. Please tell me were not accidentally locked in this thing?' he asked nervously.
Will sighed and turned to address him. 'No. We've been purposely locked in this thing. A door can't lock itself like that. We're trapped.'
Making both of them jump, the P.A. system squealed into life. Both Will and Gray covered their ears and winced. It was so loud that their eardrums stung.
The squeal finally subsided, only to change into an eerie male voice. 'Welcome gentlemen. Make yourselves comfortable. The party shall begin when everyone arrives.'
After it spoke, a breach appeared in the wall and for some strange reason, the compartment started flooding. Well above the waters level.
With no other choice, the boys ran along the corridor at full speed. They used all of their strength to open the door into the next compartment. The inside of the vessel was definitely old as the doors were like that of a submarine. Very strong, yet heavy and hard to open.
The next compartment was dry and the boys were now safe since they shut the door behind them. Both slipped into a sitting position while leaning against the door. As they gasped for breath, the male voice appeared again, but only one thing was heard. Wicked laughter.