“Well, we’ve got an hour or two before it comes back with another load. Time to build a fort on the upper deck.” She and Vanessa laughed a lot.
“I’m happy to have weapons at hand, anyway,” Dino said. “There’s something comforting about live ammo.”
“Let’s go upstairs and have a look around.” Stone grabbed two rifles and handed Dino one. The women took the remaining shotguns. “There’s no buckshot,” Viv said, “but we can make noise, I guess.”
Stone’s phone rang. “Yes?”
“It’s Lance.”
“You miserable son of a bitch!” Stone shouted into the instrument. “You poisoned my lime!”
“Nonsense,” Lance replied. “You were all worked up, and I thought you might do something crazy, so I gave you a little sedative.”
“You think I was worked up then, you should see me now, when I’m armed!”
“There’s nothing to shoot at out there except the tourist seaplane. Now, don’t you go taking potshots at that thing!”
“If you show up here again, I’ll be shooting at you!” Stone shouted, then hung up.
“I don’t think Lance is accustomed to being shouted at,” Vanessa said, “let alone to being shot at.”
“Well, he’d better get used to it,” Stone said.
“Stone,” Viv said. “Can I get you a gin and tonic?”
“That’s not funny!”
“Yes, it is,” Dino said, shaking with laughter.
“If you’re going to shake, put down that weapon!” Stone said.
Dino set his rifle on the table with the other weapons. “Sure thing, pal. I wouldn’t want you to shoot me.”
The phone rang again and Stone answered it. “You again?”
“I had hoped you might have cooled down a bit by now,” Lance said.
“Well, you can hope.” Stone hung up again.
Dino opened the upper-deck bar cabinet. “How about a Knob Creek. With no lime?” He put some ice in a glass and poured one.
“Sold,” Stone said, reaching for the drink.
53
Stone’s phone rang again.
“Lance?” Dino asked.
“Yes.” Stone picked up the phone. “Now what?”
“Calm down, Stone,” Lance said soothingly. “Anger is self-destructive.”
“Well, I’m looking for somebody else to destroy,” Stone said. “Have you got any suggestions as to who or how we’re going to be attacked?”
“Well, you’re pretty exposed out there. You could take the tourist plane back, I guess. No, wait. It’s always fully booked.”
“Anything else?”
“A moving target is harder to hit. Why don’t you weigh anchor and get the hell out of there?”
“Finally, a sensible suggestion from somebody! Captain!” Stone shouted into the intercom. “Weigh anchor and sail for Key West and the sub base! Warp speed!”
“Yes, sir!” Engines were started, and a grinding noise signaled the anchor coming up. They moved toward the channel and sailed around the fort, then headed east.
“Let’s get back to the main deck,” Stone said, gathering up a couple of the rifles. “We’re too noticeable up here.”
They all clambered down the stairs and disported themselves around the fantail. Vanessa stripped off her bikini top, and Viv got Dino with a backhand when he turned to look at the half-naked woman. Stone enjoyed the view.
Captain Todd came to them. “We’re making fifteen knots through the water,” he said, “but we’re using a hell of a lot of fuel. Shall we bear the expense?”
“Damn the torpedoes and the expenses,” Stone said, “full speed ahead!”
“I think we’ve got enough fuel to make the sub base,” the skipper said.
“Think?” Stone said. “I think we’d better know! There’s no fuel between here and Key West.”
“Okay, I know,” Todd said. “We’ll have an hour’s fuel when we get there.”
“You’d better arrange for the oiler to meet us at the sub base, in case we have to run for it again.”
“Done.” The skipper beat a retreat before Stone could think of other orders.
“This is just wonderful,” Vanessa said, leaning back to get the most sun. Stone was hoping she’d take off the bikini bottom, too, but he didn’t want to rile Viv further by asking her to.
“Wonderful,” Vanessa said again.
Stone scanned the horizon behind them. “Wonderful, except for that,” he said, nodding at a black dot behind them on the horizon. “Distant thunder.”
“What?” Dino asked. “I don’t see anything.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t get any bigger,” Stone said. Fifteen minutes later, it was bigger.
“I see it,” Dino said. “How fast do you think he’s going?”
“Faster than we are,” Stone said. “Let’s hope she’s burning fuel as fast as we are, too.”
They watched the dot grow larger, then, an hour later, become, identifiably, a boat.
“Looks like a trawler of some kind,” Dino said, holding up a pair of the yacht’s binoculars.
“Let’s hope so. Trawlers aren’t all that fast,” Stone replied.
The boat grew larger. “Dino,” Stone said, “please go below and get the bomb, and bring it and all its pieces up here.”
“Do you know how to put it together?” Dino asked.
“No, but Vanessa does.”
Vanessa opened an eye. “Did I hear my name mentioned?”
“Yes. Dino has gone to get the bomb. It will be your job to get it in working order, and pretty quick, too. In the meantime, we’ll use you for distraction.”
“Okay. You want me to take my bottoms off, too?”
“Sure,” Stone replied offhandedly, “why not?”
Viv seemed to have dozed off. Dino would be glad.
Dino made the main deck again and tiptoed to the fantail, holding a paper shopping bag by the handles. Viv dozed on.
“I’m going to need a towel and some tools,” Vanessa said. “The tools are in my ready bag.”
“Dino?” Stone said. “Ready bag?” He tossed Vanessa the smallest towel he could find, and she spread it over her lap and shook out the contents of the paper bag onto it.
Dino returned with the ready kit and handed it to her, obviously disappointed with the location of the towel.
“Now, let’s see,” Vanessa said. “How does this go?”
Stone winced. Dino looked horrified.
54
The skipper got another knot or two out of Breeze, and the trawler seemed not to be gaining anymore. Stone reckoned they were a mile or so back. He wondered how running full out was going to affect Breeze’s engines.
Vanessa was using the binoculars. “I see a man.”
“Do you recognize him?” Stone asked.
“He could be Majorov, but I’ve only seen him once before, so I can’t be sure.”
Stone used the binoculars, but the man was now obscured by the wheelhouse of the trawler. The skipper called on the handheld. “How are we doing? Are they gaining on us?”
“We seem to be holding our lead,” Stone replied. “How are our engines doing?”
“We’re running at full revs, and I don’t like doing that, but they’re new enough that they might take it without blowing up.”
“Temperatures?” Stone asked.
“Just inside the green line. We don’t want to go into the red.”
“Right.” Stone put the radio down and checked the trawler’s position again.
Dino picked up one of the rifles. “You want me to take a shot at them? It might discourage them.”
“That’s a Winchester model 1873 replica,” Stone said. “I don’t think we could do anything to them at this range, in a moving boat, and we might just make them angry.”