“Hunt, we need weapons, what do you got besides a knife?”
The plane was moving fast now, bounding along the waves, and Jayden almost fell off after they went over the inflatable boat’s wake. The little boat zipped in front of them and swept into an arcing turn that was no doubt designed to give its occupants the best possible shooting angle. Hunt tried veering slightly to the right — he couldn’t turn too sharply without losing all of the plane’s momentum needed for takeoff — but the nimble boat tracked them easily.
Hunt saw a muzzle flash and then a crack appeared in the plane’s windshield, fortunately on the passenger-side. The bullet glanced off, but Hunt knew their luck wouldn’t hold out for long. He reached into a storage compartment and pulled out a package.
“Jayden — here, take this!” He held the object out the window and felt Jayden’s hand grab it from his.
“Flare gun, nice! Let’s light this candle!”
“Hurry up about it, we’re taking hits!”
While Hunt steered the plane and Maddy laid low in the back, Jayden balanced on the pontoon while trying to load the flare gun. The first flare bounced out of his hand and into the water as he tried to force it into the gun when the plane launched off of a swell and smacked back down into the water. He looked at the bag — there were four of them. He got the second one loaded and then took aim with the gun at the pesky inflatable boat as it zoomed past them, no doubt intending to circle back around for another strafing pass. Then a line of bullets stitched across the water, kicking up little fountains of spray until Jayden heard the ping of lead on aluminum and holes appeared in the pontoon that was supporting him.
He aimed the flare at the small boat and pulled the trigger. He heard the familiar whooshing sound as the incendiary device lit and was then launched out of the device. A red streak cut the air until it landed in the ocean a couple of feet behind the boat’s motor.
Missed!
He steadied himself again on one of the pontoon struts and repeated the loading process with another flare. But this time Hunt changed the plane’s course erratically, nearly throwing Jayden from the pontoon and dumping the new flare into the water in the process.
One flare left!
Jayden felt the tingle of fear grip his body and pushed it away by concentrating on the task at hand. He eyed the boat, which was now circling around behind them as he had expected. He glanced to the right, saw no large waves that might bounce him around, and went ahead with loading his last remaining flare. He slid the flare into the chamber and locked it.
He couldn’t take aim yet because the boat was now on the other side of the plane. He could see it if he crouched down low and put his head sideways to look beneath the plane, while seawater splashed his face. But he had no clear shot.
Inside the plane, Hunt knew Jayden hadn’t scored a hit yet with the flares, and that he was now on the wrong side of the aircraft to take a shot. He looked back and to his right to check the boat’s position, but he couldn’t help but notice Maddy hunched down on the floor of the backseat. She had the scroll out, unrolled, staring at it while moving her lips as though reading aloud.
“Maddy, what are you doing?”
She looked up as if in a daze. “Reading the scroll. I had an idea and wanted to see if it makes sense…” She looked back down at her work, and Hunt decided to let her be. Everyone had different ways of coping with stress, he knew from experience after serving in the Navy in the middle east.
He turned his attention back to driving a plane. Seaplanes were not as maneuverable as boats when on the water; they were made mostly to go in a straight like to land and take-off, not to turn on a dime or have rapid acceleration. But he wanted to put Jayden on the same side as the boat to give him a shot. He banked the aircraft — watercraft at the moment — to the left as sharply s he dared, creating a wall of spray that washed over the plane.
That should give Jayden something to work with. But no sooner had he completed the thought than a new sound registered. Deeper, more powerful-sounding. And then Hunt flashed on the helicopter he’d seen taking off from Daedalus’ mega-yacht. It was getting closer. He wondered what its purpose was — he doubted it could be an actual gunship, but he supposed people could shoot out of it with regular guns. Or simply drop men onto the small boat and plane to fight, he thought grimly.
He heard the whoosh of one of Jayden’s flares, and then caught sight of a flaming inflatable boat fish-tailing across the plane’s nose, totally out of control.
Hit!
Hunt didn’t allow the flare-up of hope in his chest to distract him from minding the new and more formidable incoming threat, the helicopter. Where was it now? He twisted around in the pilot’s seat to see its blue undercarriage swooping in low over the water, on Jayden’s side.
Damn! They were going to catch them. Hunt nudged the throttle up, more to change their speed than to think he could outrun the helo. But then the seaplane skipped over a swell and went airborne, and Hunt remembered that besides trying not to be shot, he was also flying a plane.
The airplane returned to the water like a skipped stone, but this was to be expected. Hunt knew he just needed to control the “bounce” and make sure he didn’t dig a wingtip into the water, which would send them cartwheeling. The erratic motion also served to give the helicopter pilot pause, since the chopper dropped back a little bit out of fear of colliding, but it was enough to let Hunt concentrate.
Until Jayden climbed back into the plane, that is. “Outta flares! Any more?”
Hunt shook his head without turning around. “Negative. Shut the door, we’re going airborne.”
Jayden pulled the door shut. “The ‘copter has a gunner standing on the skids. I flipped him the bird but that didn’t seem to convince them to leave us alone.”
“If they only knew you,” Hunt called back.
Jayden looked over at Maddy, who was still on the floor. “Is she okay?” he asked Hunt.
“Yeah, she’s reading the scroll. Hold on!” The plane ramped off a wave and took to the sky for the first time, actually flying. It dipped back toward the water but this time stayed above the ocean. Hunt grinned broadly. They were flying.
As Hunt wrestled with the controls, Jayden gazed down from the window. “The helicopter is not stopping to pick up their guys who jumped off the burning boat.”
“What a surprise,” Hunt called back. “Daedalus probably told them they’re fired if they stop chasing us.”
“Planes are faster than helicopters, and we have longer range, too. Not worried about them, unless they start shoot—”
They heard the ping off a bullet bouncing somewhere off the plane’s metal. “If this thing’s got more speed to give, Carter, now’s the time,” Jayden said.
“Speed is increasing. Hang tight for a little evasive maneuvering.” Hunt suddenly banked left, and then right again before resuming an upward altitude-gaining trajectory.
Jayden looked back at the helo, nodding. “Threw them off a bit. Keep it up.”
Hunt repeated his actions on the controls, and the ‘copter dropped back a little further. “We’re pulling away from them now. Only one question…” He interrupted himself to pull back on the stick and tweak the rudder.
“What’s that?” Jayden asked.
“Where to?”
Jayden thought about it for a few seconds. “Daedalus probably looked up where we rented it from by now, so going back there is out.”