Wolf

“What are you doing?”

Frankie reached for the woman’s shoulder, but wasn’t nearly tall enough. They came to a standstill in the kitchen hallway, the Captain looking down on her with a shadowy expression once Katie caught up. The anger on her face hid an expression of helpless terror.

“Let me cut… to the chase.” Frankie panted. “Labor… does not suit me. Or my sister.” Katie nodded in agreement. “But we’ve seen some shit… and gotten through it all. I’d be willing to bet me and her can get you out of whatever mess you’re in. Wouldn’t that be a better way to pay for our ride?”

“He’s untouchable.”

Hannigan huddled up in her jacket, trying to hide her tears.

“There’s nothing you can do.”

“Not until we know what’s keeping you here. Tell me- why is it that you don’t quit?”

The captain was infuriated by this. All she wanted was to forget. To act like it wasn’t hanging over her. But now she was being asked. And the only way she was getting help was if she spilled her guts out for two random teenage girls.

She turned to them with dark, narrow pupils under furrowed brows.

“I will make you understand.”

2004 NGP.

Ceannasóir Hannigan was cleaning the ship that morning, then simply called the Spearhead. It was far outside her duties to do so, but she loved this boat. The janitors were happy to have her around. When the brass wasn’t looking, she was a very kindhearted sort of woman. She still had her sense of humor back then, and the core of her world kept life feeling more than meaningful- that person being her one and only son.

She only saw him now and again, the biggest regret of her life- after so long focusing on work, even she of all people had somehow managed to become a mother. The thought always made her laugh. Once upon a time, all she’d expected for herself was a life on the water- but that paled in comparison to what she had with that boy. She hated that she as his only parent wasn’t as present as she’d like to be- but this never affected how she treated others or went about her job.

That day felt like an infuriating fever dream, one she wouldn’t stand for. The head of the Irish Defence Forces herself gave the issue: the entirety of the Naval Services were to be disbanded. And with them, Hannigan would be out of a job.

Or so she thought.

She immediately looked into getting reassigned to another branch or, more importantly, finding out a way to stop these bastards clawing a chunk of her nation’s military away- to somehow convince those in charge that the funds they’d been offered weren’t worth it, that Wolfcorp, this virus of a company, wasn’t worth their time- but it was already too late. As the Spearhead was packing up, men in suits analyzing its potential for something it was never intended to be- she happened to meet him.

She didn’t know it, but he already saw her as a threat. Trying to create the same squeaky-clean image Kidney had was all but an impossibility with people like her around. He knew the second he set eyes upon her that she wouldn’t let this stand. She was a threat that had to be nullified. So, like a hunter, he stalked his prey.

Wolf introduced himself politely as he could, being the one taking away everything she had. To his great surprise, it actually went well. Angry as she looked, the woman was falling apart inside. She wept to him. Confided in him. Begged him to reconsider, sure, but never threw a punch or even so much as an insult. She did everything she could to convince him. Soon he learned about her life. About her home.

About her son.

When he finally proposed the idea, on that late day when the ship was all but refitted into yet another cookie-cutter park, like everything the dreaded Traumkäufer touched. She might’ve accepted her fate, but something told her to keep fighting.

“Excuse me?”

He asked it like it was nothing- her staying on the ship to promote it. It sounded degrading. He’d taken her second favorite thing in the world, the Spearhead- and he dismembered and reassembled it, then called it the Lucky Pearl. What a joke.

“No… no thank you.”

“Why, don’t you want to stay with your ship?” He questioned, or something along those lines.

“That’s not my ship… anymore.”

“I can offer you money.” He tempted. There was a price attached to his offer- a very high one, at that. Her upper lip shook in place. She could put Francis through college with that. And get them a new home. And take more vacations. And live a better life…

She refused almost instantly.

Wolf had never seen such bizarre behavior from a human being. Either he’d never felt the love that drove her to so passionately stand up to him, or he’d long buried the emotion under piles of money and attractions. He didn’t understand the thing. But as a businessman, he did know this- if by chance someone does not desire something new, then they are satisfied with what they have. And as a business… this absolutely cannot be allowed to happen.

All it took was saying her beloved son’s name in the same breath as a threat so vague not even the greatest prosecutor could use it against him in a court of law. She bowed down to him that very second, a willing pillar of his growing empire. To him, it felt like a satisfying victory against a troublesome opponent. Before he left the park to Hannigan, he promised her that Francis would be safe… for now.