The Tikka Masala Escape – Mega Short Story

Photo by: Matthew Wright

The Tikka Masala Escape

Monique was deeply flattered that Josea Hornsby chose to escape with her. Pulling away from New Zealand’s Mount Victoria where the HyperTech Design labs were secreted, Josea’s top-secret boat design proved his brilliance. Most of the boat cruised above the water. Computer-controlled “wings” held it steady aloft. Only two supercavitating pods remained submerged and propelled the boat at the shocking maritime speed of 160 knots. Most boats maxed at about 30 knots.

But then, the genius’ sanity remained in question.

“Ah, Josea,” said Monique. “Why did you quit your prestigious engineering job anyway?”

Josea pushed aside the curly locks that attracted Monique so much. “Well, here’s a lot of stuff, but the real kicker was when they stopped bringing in Indian food. I love Tikka Masala, you know.”

Yep. There’s that sanity issue.

“Seriously? You’re quitting because of that?”

“I love Tikka Masala!” he looked away. “Of course there’s the thought they might try to kill me if I left the lab. All because I know too much. That’s a biggee too.”

Bloody off his rocker. What a shame.

Decision made, Monique scanned the waters with binoculars, looking for a safe place to jump out and swim to safety. That’s when she sighted the submarine’s periscope…and the tell-tale wake of a supercavitating torpedo headed straight towards them.

Who’s crazy? Josea or HyperTech Design?

“Josea!” she shouted. “Torpedo! Port quarter.”

Josea heaved the wheel over, deftly dodging the torpedo charging them at 200 knots. Josea grinned. “I designed those. Pretty cool, eh?”

Three other torpedoes raced after them in succession. Josea dodged them and then something went “ker-thunk!”

“Are we hit?” screamed Monique.

Josea grinned boyishly. “I just fired my own torpedo.”

“Can they evade it?”

“This one’s new. It has stealth characteristics. They won’t know it’s in the water until…”

A huge column of water exploded 300 yards away, hurling chunks of submarine into the air.

Josea finished. “…Until that happens.”

Josea reduced speed to a relatively modest 40 knots. “We can easily make it to Melbourne. A friend will keep us safe. Still want to escape with me?”

Monique winced. “A powerful defense-contractor is trying to kill you. I’d be crazy to.”

“Yeah. And…?”

Monique grinned. “How’s their Tikka Masala?”
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Author’s Notes:

Supercavitation and supercavitating torpedoes sounds like science fiction, but it’s not. They’re already out there.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-06/supercavitating-torpedo
http://defensetech.org/2009/11/17/super-cavitation-and-the-truth/

Written for Matthew Wright’s Mega Short Story Challenge. Join us and write your own flash fiction. Look here for the original prompt: https://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/this-weeks-mega-short-story-challenge-7/