It was the eyebolt in the bow that went. I heard a horrible crack, and then it ripped right out of the mahogany. Then I heard the cable warble and looked up as the wave passed over us to see the cable fly back at the Fox. It hit her middeck with a crashing twang. We were half-submerged at that point, but thanks to the scuppers, the engine was still running, so I flipped us back into neutral and then forward, carving a big turn as we pulled away, water gradually draining from the cockpit.
“You ready to bail?” I asked.
Meryem nodded.
“Me too,” I said. “Hang on.”
Chapter 42
I carved an abrupt turn, banking high to encourage the flow of water out of the cockpit. It worked, saltwater streamed over the gunnel, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. Waves were coming at us from every direction and the sea was peppered with gunfire behind us. I turned the boat abruptly again, this time banking high in the opposite direction. More water left the boat, and as it got emptier, we got faster. I continued to zigzag like that, as randomly as I could, doing my best to make us as difficult to hit as possible.
The big rollers were good cover because they made us invisible while we were in their troughs, but I had to be careful to hit them exactly right to avoid flipping the boat. A forty-five degree angle of attack seemed to do the trick, except the waves and the bullets weren’t our only concern. They were readying the helicopter. Its top rotor had already begun to turn.
I focused my eyes ahead. The launch’s bow was seriously chewed up where the eyebolt had broken free. But we were still afloat. And the sun had begun to rise. If we could get far enough away from the Fox, we could begin making our way to land.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” I asked.
“Bodrum Peninsula.”
“Is there a torture chamber around here? A dungeon? Somewhere where in medieval times prisoners would be interrogated, maybe put to death?”
“Bodrum Castle,” Meryem said. “Its dungeon is very famous for such things.”
“That’s good news,” I said.
“Good news? Why?”
“Because if we can get there our problems may be solved.”
I glanced behind us. The helicopter, a silver Eurocopter judging by the enclosed tail rotor housing, was already aloft, speeding low over the rolling sea toward us.
“Search the boat,” I said. “We need a weapon.”
“Like the machine gun you dropped into the sea?”
“Yeah. Exactly like that.”
I glanced down at the left console and saw a red fire extinguisher clamped there. I bent down and unclasped it, feeling its weight in my hand. There was a second extinguisher tacked to the bulkhead of the boat.
“Pass me that one too!”
Meryem climbed forward and tossed me the second extinguisher. She didn’t look happy about it. She looked like she was losing faith. Regardless, I caught it and dropped it on the seat beside me. I didn’t know how much time we had. The helicopter was getting louder, its rotor wash thundering down. It was a Eurocopter. Probably a C-135. Not a giant machine, but a hell of a lot faster than our boat. A gulet was heeled in the wind in the distance. The traditional Turkish sailboat was a good seventy feet long, sunlight sparkling off her polished wooden deck. In the rising sun, she looked like a pirate ship before us. The moment I took my eyes off her, the bullets began to fly.
“Hit the deck,” I shouted.
I cut the wheel hard, powering the boat around. I was worried. Given that I hadn’t helped her, Kate now viewed me as a threat. And threats needed to be eliminated. Fortunately, though the bow of the boat flapped like an open box of crackers in the wind, we still had our maneuverability. But though we could dodge and dart through the waves, we were ultimately going to lose simply because there was nowhere to go. Not against a helicopter.
The Eurocopter came back around, strafing us again. I dived low, but both the stern and the deck took a beating. It wouldn’t be long before both the boat and our bodies would be riddled with holes. I cut the wheel hard to starboard, pulling a tight doughnut in the opposite direction to the one I had just gone. But this time I saw the water flooding the hull as we hauled over. There was little time.
The Eurocopter came around for a third pass. It lined itself up with us and I tried something new. Instead of dodging and darting, I headed directly for the helicopter. The pilot slowed two hundred feet out and we were face to face. The pilot rotated the bird a little to give the gunman a better angle. The shooter leaned out the door, one foot on the skid. From the squareness of his build I was pretty sure I was looking at Faruk. I continued to throttle forward, closing the gap.
The helicopter was in a perfect profile, thirty feet in the air, fifty feet off our bow, point-blank range. The pilot had fallen for the bait. The rising sun was in the shooter’s eyes. I stood and waved my arms in surrender. It gave Faruk pause. And that’s when I reached behind me and took hold of the fire extinguisher.
The top rotor was a tempting target, but it was the tail rotor that I wanted. That was the blade that kept the helicopter under control. And that was where I lobbed the fire extinguisher with all my strength. When it hit at first it seemed as if I had missed entirely. There was only a metallic clunk. Then a grind. And then all hell broke loose. The rear rotor housing buckled and the chopper started to spin. As the helicopter went round and round and the gunner went round and round, dizzily spraying lead as he spun down in a thunderous crash. Water exploded in a wave of white and the bird floated there for a brief moment before slowly filling with water and sinking into the sea.
I was pretty sure I saw Faruk swimming away from the sinking helicopter, but I didn’t stick around to greet him. Instead, I pushed the bullet-ridden launch forward to the hills of the Lycian Coast beyond.
Chapter 43
We didn’t stay in the launch. The Fox may have been a large yacht, but she was no slouch. There was a good chance she could catch up with our damaged boat. So we decided to abandon ship. The trick was abandoning the launch in such a way that they wouldn’t come after us.
Of course, abandoning ship also meant that we needed a ride. Fortunately, the closer we got to Bodrum, the more sailing ships we saw. Ideally, we wanted a ship without a radio, but I knew that was probably a pipe dream, so I looked for the next best thing — a gulet, not too fancy, but not too rough — a boat that might help a backpacker out. I found what we needed as we rounded a dry, rocky point, the Fox four or five miles behind us.
She was a solid gulet. An all-wooden boat, but without the sheen of the typical tourist vessel. She was moored in a small barren cove, but she was pulling anchor, and most importantly, she looked like her captain could use the money. I pulled up beside her, hailing her captain as he minded the anchor well. Meryem did the talking. Then the captain turned to me.
“Yes, yes, no problem,” he said. “I will bring you. You come with me.”
I let Meryem off onto the gulet, then piloted the launch straight up onto a tiny sand spit between two rocky outcroppings. I could have anchored her, but she was half full of seawater now and unlikely to stay afloat much longer, and the point was, I wanted her to be seen. Once I felt the sand beneath her hull, I walked the anchor onto the beach, and trailed my footprints off into the tall grass. I didn’t think the ruse would last for long, but even if it could distract Kate and her crew for a few minutes, it would help. After I’d sufficiently cluttered the beach with footprints, I waded back into the sea and swam to the gulet. A minute later we were under way, the gulet’s diesel engine throbbing with a staccato beat.
“Thanks,” I said to the Captain. “How long until we reach Bodrum?”