Matt hauled her to her feet and leaned in to inspect her wound, but she shoved him away. Grasping the side rail for balance, she blinked to clear the cobwebs from her mind and looked around. The boat still turned, but slower now, and the surge carried them along a thoroughfare through the middle of town. Buildings, half submerged, spun past, making her dizzy. She tried looking down, but the transparent bottom was little better.
“Hang on!” Willis shouted and, moments later, they careened off the top of a lamppost and crashed into a brick building. The impact jolted them, but the craft took no serious damage. “Man, this thing is tough.”
The current slowed as it swept them inland, and Willis gained control of the boat. Tam looked around, surveying the damage. She didn’t know what the rest of the key looked like, but this section was devastated. Only buildings two-stories or higher were visible. The tops of palm trees rose like shrubbery just above the surface of the water. Debris clogged the surface, and she spotted the occasional body carried along by the current. She was no stranger to death, but the sight made her wince. How could such a tragedy occur with no warning whatsoever?
“It doesn’t make sense.” Matt seemed to read her mind. “This is the twenty-first century. We detect these things ahead of time and issue warnings, but not this time. If you hadn’t noticed the drawback, no telling how many people would have been caught off guard.”
“That ain’t the strangest part.” They turned to look at Willis. “Didn’t y’all see? That wave, it wasn’t natural.”
“What do you mean?” Tam felt her insides turn cold.
“It was, I don’t know, concentrated. I could see where it ended on both sides. It was like somebody aimed a surge of water right at this spot.”
“Are you sure?”
“Definitely.”
“What could cause a phenomenon like that?” Tam mused. “Setting off a nuclear bomb underwater?”
“No.” Matt shook his head. “That would send out waves in an ever-widening circle, which isn’t what Willis saw.”
“I’m dead serious. It seemed like the devil scooped up some water and pushed it right at us.”
“I hope Bones and Maddock are okay.” Matt turned and looked back in the direction from which they’d come.
A shrill scream rang out. Tam turned and saw a woman clutching a child in one arm and hanging on to a treetop with the other. The current battered her as she struggled to maintain her grip. Instinct kicked in.
“Somebody needs help,” she barked. “Step on it.”
Chapter 5
“Muchas gracias! Dios le bendiga!” The sodden woman lay in the bottom of the boat, her body limp, but her eyes were alive with gratitude. She clutched her son, probably no more than five years old, to her chest. The boy stared up with glassy eyes, but he had no visible injuries.
“It’s fine. We just need to get you somewhere safe.” Tam didn’t know if the woman understood her, so she made sure to keep her voice calm and her expression friendly. Not her strong suit under duress, but such was life.
“I see somebody over there.” Matt pointed to woman clinging to a boogie board. “You get these two to safety while I get her.” He didn’t wait for a reply, but kicked off his shoes and dove in.
“You boys expect me to believe you were ever in the military when not a one of you knows how to take orders?” Tam glanced at Willis. “You see anywhere we can take these two?”
“How about that church over there?” Willis indicated a high-steeple white church backed by a two-story brick building. A few faces peered out of second floor windows, gaping at the devastation. Willis guided the boat to the church and pulled up next to one of the open windows. A blocky, middle-aged man stared at them with unfriendly eyes.
The man didn’t give Tam a chance to speak. “We’re full up. No room here.”
“These people need help.” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Get it somewhere else. I told you, we’ve got no more room.” He set his jaw and fixed her with a flinty gaze. Those eyes held no compassion.
“I don’t know how full the rest of your church is, but I can tell from here that the room you’re standing in is empty, save for you.” Tam pointed to the space behind him. Soft music and the aroma of fresh coffee and cinnamon rolls wafted out into the air. The people inside were having a social while the world outside lay in chaos. “You can take them in.”
“Come on man,” Willis said. “This is a church, and you’re supposed to help strangers in need. Do I need to start quoting scripture to you?”
“I don’t need a Sunday school lesson from an uppity…” The man bit off his retort and swallowed hard. He didn’t need to complete the sentence for everyone to know what he’d been about to say. “Just move along. There’s a Methodist church around the corner. They’ll take anybody.” He screwed up his face to show what he thought of the Methodists.
“I want to talk to the pastor.” Tam had to stop herself from slapping the fool look off the man’s face.
“I am the pastor.” More than anything else he’d said, this news stunned Tam. “And I will go to any length to defend my flock. He opened his jacket to reveal a holstered revolver.
Tam’s fingers twitched and she felt the lack of her Makarov, which she’d left back at headquarters. She vowed she’d never go jogging unarmed again.
“Let’s go before I take that toy away from him and give him an enema.” Hot fury burned in Willis’ words.
Tam nodded. “This is no house of God. We’ll shake the dust off our feet and move along.”
The pastor’s face turned beet red at the insult, but he didn’t reach for his weapon. Apparently, he believed Willis could, and would, follow through on his threat.
“Do you keep office hours, Pastor?” Willis asked.
“Why?”
“Because, when this is over, I just might drop by and teach you some manners. Keep your appointment book open.” Willis gunned the engine, drowning out the man’s sputtered retort.
Tam kept her eye on the pastor as they drifted away. If he wanted to shoot them, there was nothing they could do but duck, and she wanted to be ready. Thankfully, the man settled for staring daggers at them until they were out of sight.
They collected Matt and the woman he’d rescued, a Hooters girl who declared him her hero and offered to give him her number. While Matt searched in vain for pen and paper, they continued on until they came upon a group of survivors gathered on the roof of a local bar.
“Oh man, not Sloppy Joe’s.” Matt raised his hands in dismay. “Best joint in town underwater.”
The survivors atop the building welcomed the newcomers, particularly the Hooters girl, who was already eying one of the men on the roof. Their charges now safe, Tam decided they should continue to look for others who might need help, at least until they ran low on fuel.
They continued their search, finding victims, but few survivors. They passed two more churches, both packed with refugees. They were considering trying to make their way to safety when they caught sight of two men clinging to a child’s inflatable raft and struggling to keep their heads above water. Here, floating debris choked the streets. They had scarcely closed the gap between them and the struggling swimmers when a diver surfaced near the two men.
“Thank God!” one of them cried. “Can you help my partner? He can’t hold on much longer.”
Something glinted in the sunlight and the man fell back, clutching his throat as a curtain of scarlet poured from the gaping wound below his chin. He treaded water for a moment, the disbelief in his eyes evident even at a distance, and then he sank. Still clutching the boogie board, his partner managed only a startled cry before the diver’s knife flashed again and the second man disappeared beneath the water.