“Uuuuuugh!” came the yell from Carter’s pursuer as both of them ran toward the ship’s rail. Who is this guy? Carter couldn’t help but think, even as he ran or his life. Ships’ crew weren’t exactly the upper crust of society in his experience, but this guy was a real knuckle-dragger. To make matters worse, a bullet struck the deck a few feet to his right, ricocheted, and Carter felt it lodge into the sole of his rubber boot.
From down below, Jayden called, “I’m unhooking us, let’s go!”
“On my way — bringing a friend!” Carter answered as he launched himself up and over the rail without looking back. He could feel the brute’s thundering footsteps right behind him. He heard metal clunking followed by a booming splash as Jayden untethered the tender vessel from the crane and it dropped into the water from a few feet up. Carter didn’t have the luxury of choosing the best place to land in the boat — he would simply have to hope he landed in it at all, for that matter, and pray for the best.
As he expected, the brute followed him right over the rail, intent on capturing his prey. The landing was not a pretty one, and had Jayden not had the presence of mind to kick a life jacket underneath Carter as he landed on the forward portion of the steering console, he would have broken his knee for certain. As it was, the knee screamed in pain anyway, and the right side of his face smashed into the deck hard enough for him to see an entire galaxy of stars. All this was made worse when the brute landed on top of him, limbs flailing and mouth drooling warm spit onto Carter’s neck.
Jayden was unable to help Carter with the actual fight, since getting the boat underway beneath the impending onslaught of bullets was priority number one. He was on his own with the beefy gladiator while Jayden fired up the motor, took up position behind the wheel in an awkward ducking stance to partially shield him from enemy fire, and put the tender vessel into gear. Luckily for Carter, when Jayden jammed the throttle all the way up, the sudden momentum and burst of speed caused him and his attacker to roll over one another such that Carter ended up on top, a few feet away from where they landed.
Even with bullets flying overhead, Carter wasted no time in taking advantage of the small upper hand he’d been given. He racked his left elbow into the bigger man’s ribcage, taking great satisfaction in the resulting grunt and exhalation of air. His opponent came back with a powerhouse fist meant for Carter’s temple that he ducked, sending the opponent’s knuckles into the boat’s deck. As an inflatable boat, it was a soft deck, though, granting him a bit of the luck Carter had been given earlier. He used the same balled fist to spring himself up from the deck, intending to fall back down on Carter in some kind of pseudo-pro wrestling move.
But Jayden, having cleared the vicinity of the ship where they were in imminent danger of being shot at, now came to Carter’s aid. He grabbed a nearby bungee cord that had been securing a small fire extinguisher, and used it to lash the steering wheel into position so that the boat would continue on a straight path unaided. On a whim, he picked up the extinguisher, too. Then he stepped around the console the long way to both shield himself from any further gunfire and to hide from the opponent’s view when he came in for his attack.
As he rounded the console he was distracted by a streak of white in the water — the other small boat rounding the ship’s bow and coming after them. First things first, he thought, as Carter grappled with the much bigger individual a few feet away on what little deck space there was available. Jayden pulled the pin on the extinguisher and aimed it at the head of Carter’s rival.
“Get away from him, Carter. I got this!”
Both men looked over and then Jayden blasted the brute in the face with the pressurized chemical powder from about six feet away. Not lethal, by any means, but more than enough to give the fighter pause for a few seconds, which was all Carter needed to regain his feet and kick his foe in the face. Blood splatter suddenly appeared on the boat’s PVC tubes, and then the burly crewman slumped onto the deck in an uncoordinated heap.
“Take the wheel, I got him!” Carter shouted. While Jayden retreated back around the console, Carter grabbed a life vest and strapped it on the semi-conscious man, whose eyes were open and was mumbling incoherently. Carter hefted him by the shoulders, dragged him up onto one of the boat’s buoyancy tubes, and then tossed him off into the sea. He watched to make sure the man was floating face up, and then moved to the console, where he picked up the radio. Broadcasting on an emergency channel he informed the Transoceanic that they had a crewman in the water. Then, recalling Daedalus ’ ruthlessness, he radioed his own ship as well, knowing that they would actually pick up a seaman overboard no matter what was at stake. He wasn’t so sure Daedalus would even bother to stop to pick up his own crewman.
“Pick him up first if you have to,” Carter told the Deep Pioneer’s bridge, “and then catch up to us.”
Chapter 10
Daedalus paced back and forth in the bridge of the Transoceanic. “Yes, pick up our man on the way to taking down the other tender. We don’t need to leave him to be rescued by Deep Pioneer and draw more attention to ourselves. But those two treasure hunters must not be allowed to escape.”
“Why not?” one of the bridge crew who sailed the ship asked. “We have the map. Why not just let them go rather than risk an international incident?”
Daedalus shook his head while continuing to pace. “Believe me, while what you say seems reasonable on the surface of it, I know from past experience that these two are quite capable of becoming serious thorns in our side. The implications of the discovery the map leads to are far too profound to assume that anyone privy to its existence will simply walk — or boat — away. They must be neutralized.”
The bridge officer nodded and stepped aside as he brought a radio to his mouth.
To the captain, Daedalus said, “I want the helicopter pilot on standby.”
The captain nodded and barked into an intercom. Then he turned to Daedalus. “He’ll be ready to lift off in five minutes. Really, we can call the boat off after it picks up the man overboard. The chopper will catch up to the boat and we can have a gunner on board to shoot it down.”
“As much as I would like to see that,” Daedalus said, “it will not come to pass.”
“Why not?” The captain appeared perplexed.
“Because the helicopter is to carry me and my new map to Newfoundland, so that I can begin the search for Noah’s Ark.”
Chapter 11
Jayden turned around from his position at the steering console. How close were their pursuers? The two boats were identical makes and models, including the outboard motors, so there was no inherent speed advantage to either vessel. Jayden and Carter had a head start, and as a skilled small boat pilot, Jayden didn’t intend to squander that lead.
“I’d say we’ve got half a football field on them,” Carter estimated from his sitting position on the starboard side pontoon behind Jayden. Black smoke still filtered into the sky from the fire in the moon pool.
Carter eyed their own ship, the R/V Deep Pioneer, looming not far away, still in position over the wreck site. “Try to board our ship?”
Carter eyed the vessel dubiously. “If we do, we’ll just bring the fight to them because Daedalus’ ship will follow. Advise them to get underway and they’ll catch up to us later, unless our chopper reaches us first.”
Jayden nodded and shouted the plan into the radio transmitter while steering the boat out into the open sea. Carter kept watch on their pursuers as well as the enemy ship. When he saw something moving on the Transoceanic, he stared intently at the area until he could make sense of it in the bouncing craft. The realization of what he was looking at sent a chill up his spine. “Helicopter!”