Book One.Chapter 2.

-Chapter 2

"There's men frozen in ice? I thought we were about to put out a fire?" came shouts between a petty officer and a chief amidst the confusion.

"This has been one jacked up week to have a coolant leak AND a fire within three minutes." said the petty officer. The chief was in doubtful silence until he took first glance of the anomaly on their hands.

"What the hell kind of coolant do we carry around here that does something like this?" he said. They stood in front of what appeared to be a wave of water that came over the pier and somehow froze the gang of sailors in place up to the knees.

"What the flip happened here?" the chief shouted to his shipmates. They were all quite astonished, as if woken from a dream.

"Not sure. We just found ourselves here!" they began to say, not quite convincing the chief as he made a rush to get them out as well as get their story straight...

A sailor was sitting in a shack in front of a ramp leading onto a freight ship, an open word search in front of him. He hardly noticed Agent Fly come up. Jim handed his ID.

"Don't I get some bell or whistle while I walk across, or at least some kind of salute? Anything?" he said in response to the questioning look from the watchman.

"You are not on the crew or guest list for today." explained the sailor, reaching for the phone. He stopped short when Jim pulled his gun out at him.

"Let's just take it easy, alright? See, I'm actually a CIA agent working with a classified subsidiary of the UN, and I am going to inspect the contents of this ship. Understand me?" he said. Placing the receiver back down, the sailor relented.

"Man, they don't pay me enough for this kind of BS." he said, clearing Jim to come aboard. As he did, Jim reached for the bell and rang it, the sound putting a smile on his face.

Jim was back on his phone while staring through the hatch, at the many people that were being kept in this rather small compartment for so many.

"You can call in those Navy cops now. We got something bigger than we thought, I feel." he explained as he met eyes with some of the passengers. "Card'nal, these don't seem to be human trafficking victims. I think these people are refugees."

"Astonishing. It sounds like there are far too many of them to be from North Korea."

"Who ever they are, where ever they're from, they look as though they were desperate to get anywhere else by any means. There's whole families in here... I'll try talking to them."

Agent Jim ducked into the compartment, addressing those within.

"Sukoshi te o kashite kuremasen ka. Nihongo ga wakarimasu ka...? Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?" he said, with as best pronunciation as gaijin could.

"Hai!" came a sudden female voice, turning shaky. "I mean, yes. I speak English."

"And Japanese, apparently. Where is this ship headed?" Jim said.

"I think to... the United States." She replied. The girl was young to an extent, yet she was in far better dress and condition than any of the others.

"Are you all from North Korea, by any chance?"

"I think they are from Thailand, mostly..."

Her eyes were saying she was in some amount of distress.

"And you?"

"Uh, Japan."

"So maybe this is partly a human trafficking ship, I just found-" Jim began to say into the phone.

"No!" The girl interrupted.

"Then what's your story? How did you get on here?" Jim said, being answered in silence. "I need answers if I'm going to help anyone."

"Sumimasen. Sorry. My English is not good." said the girl.

Jim let out air through his nose and stepped back out of the hatch.

"One of them is Japanese. I'm not getting any answers from her, though. When is NCIS getting here?"

"Did you ask for her name?" said Mr. Card. "...Are you still there, Jim?"

He couldn't answer as he was laid out flat by the girl, who had snuck behind and clocked him with a fire extinguisher. She made sure the man was out cold. Then the girl put her lab coat back on. Her name tag read "Alice." She turned her head back to the compartment, gazing at one particular little girl. Alice waved her hand, and the little girl's eyes went wide. Before she was able to wave back, Alice seemed to evaporate vanishing before all the eyes that were watching...