“They look pretty angry already,” Dino said. “One other thing, they might have a weapon that’s higher powered than ours, and I don’t think this is a good time to find out. How long till port?”
“I don’t know. A couple of hours to the harbor, I guess, then we have to slow down on the way to the sub base.”
“Should we call the Coast Guard?”
“And tell them what? That we’re being pursued by an angry lobsterman? I don’t think that would bring them, guns ablaze.”
Dino leaned in. “If they could see Vanessa, that would bring them.”
Stone looked at Vanessa, lying on her back, asleep, her breasts rolling a little with the sea.
Stone’s phone rang. Lance. “Yes?”
“You’re holding your own,” Lance said. “Keep it up.”
“We’re trying. Have you got us on satellite?”
“Yes, our camera seems to be about fifty feet above you. Vanessa looks very nice. There’s been a parade of people through here, checking her out. She’s not going to have any tan lines, is she?”
“Can you see any armaments on the trawler, or is Vanessa blocking the view?”
“Nothing as yet. I’ll call you if we see any sign of hostile intent.” Lance hung up.
“What does Lance have to say for himself?” Dino asked.
“Nothing, but a lot about Vanessa. Did she finish the bomb?”
“I guess. How are you planning to use it?”
“Just to scare them off,” Stone said. “If necessary.”
A crewman served them some chilled gazpacho, in mugs. Viv threw a towel over Vanessa, and the crewman departed, looking disappointed. Vanessa had to be awakened to take her soup.
Before Vanessa could go back to sleep, Stone asked her about the bomb. “Well, I think it’s all hooked up,” she said, opening the shopping bag and holding it up.
Stone winced. “How do we set it off?”
“The cell phone’s already been disconnected: I figure if you use it, you’ll be throwing it, so all you do is press this button,” she said, pointing at it, “and you’ve got ten seconds to get rid of it, before it goes off.”
Stone’s mouth went dry, and he lubricated it with a swig of Bloody Mary.
Dino stood up and pointed. “I think that must be Key West,” he said.
Stone looked at the lump on the horizon and nodded. “About half an hour to the channel, another fifteen or twenty minutes to the sub base.”
“Ask Vanessa if I can hold her towel for her,” Dino suggested.
“Sit down and shut up,” Stone said, “or your wife will emasculate you.”
That had the desired effect.
55
Dino tapped Stone on the shoulder and pointed toward the pass through the reef to the harbor. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Stone followed his finger and his eyes came to an abrupt halt. “Holy shit,” he said. Dino’s finger was pointing at a gigantic cruise ship entering Key West Harbor. “How did that thing sneak up on us?”
“I was wondering that, too.”
“It’s headed for the ship dock over there, right next to the channel,” Stone said, “so it will be slowing down to a crawl as it moseys up to the dock.”
“What’s that boat alongside her?”
“I think that’s a harbor vessel assigned to see that nobody gets too close to her on the seaward side.”
“Like us?”
“Yep.”
“And like the trawler behind us, too?”
“Yep. It occurs to me that they’re not going to want five hundred witnesses hanging over the rail of the ship, gawking at us both.” He pointed at the five hundred witnesses.
“So they’ll wait until we’re at the sub pen before they make their move?”
“Yeah, and it’s our only move. It’s too shallow to our left and there’s a big marina to the right of the channel. It’s the sub base or just stop dead in the water, in what you might call the ‘sitting duck’ position.”
“And how is that going to differ from our position at the sub dock?”
“Not much,” Stone replied.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Why don’t you and I each take a Winchester up to the top deck, keeping low. Maybe we can make it without the folks on the trawler seeing us.”
“Couldn’t hurt,” Dino replied, handing Stone a rifle and grabbing a box of ammunition.
As an afterthought, Stone grabbed the shopping bag holding the bomb.
“After you,” Dino said.
Stone crouched and ran along the deck to the stairs, then ran up them and hid behind a big Boston whaler the crew used for shopping ashore. He sat down and leaned against the boat and watched Dino coming his way.
“What are we going to do about the harbor boat protecting the cruise ship?” Dino asked.
“We’re going to trust the skipper not to hit it.”
“Good idea.”
Stone popped up for a quick look around. “One hundred yards to the channel,” he said. “The trawler is going to overtake us soon.”
“Are we going to fire first?”
“Are you kidding, Dino? There might be a troop of Girl Scouts aboard that boat — we don’t know, do we?”
“I guess not.”
“Then we’ll hold our fire, until they’re not holding theirs anymore.”
“I hope they’re bad shots,” Dino said.
“Jesus, the girls are on the main deck and exposed.”
“Nah, they headed below with the handguns as soon as we came up here.”
“So Vanessa is no longer a distraction?”
“No, I’m sorry to say. I was enjoying being distracted.”
“I think you can be sure that Viv is getting Vanessa dressed as we speak.”
“It’s just the sort of thing she’d do,” Dino said sorrowfully.
“I don’t know what your current standing with the Catholic church is,” Stone said, “but this would be a good time to pray.”
Dino crossed himself. “Let’s see if anybody’s listening,” he said, moving his lips silently.
Something struck the whaler and shook it.
“Too late,” Stone said.
56
Stone popped his head up and had a look to port, then drew back, but not before inviting several rounds to be fired at the whaler. “Their rounds are not penetrating,” Stone said. “There’s a layer of Kevlar in the hull.”
“Good for us.”
“Yes, but we can’t see anything. Let’s get aboard the whaler.”
“You first,” Dino replied.
Stone half stood, then drew back a leg and threw it over the side of the whaler, like a cowboy mounting a horse, and got into the boat.
Dino did the same.
Stone’s phone rang. “Yes?”
“That’s a good spot for you,” Lance said. “The hull of that boat is very tough.”
“I figured that out,” Stone said. “Do you have anything new for us?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. The trawler seems to have used its engine a little too hard. There’s smoke trailing from the on-deck engine cover. And they’ve slowed more than they needed to, while they try to figure out what’s wrong. They’re still a hundred yards behind you and moving very slowly.”
Stone popped up to look ahead of them and didn’t draw fire. “Our berth is fifty yards away, and the skipper is creeping up on it.”
“Why haven’t you been shot in the head?” Dino asked.
“Because something’s wrong aboard the trawler. Lance says they’re trailing smoke from the engine cover on deck.” He looked aft, and so did Dino.
Dino fired a couple of rounds from his Winchester into the deck, and three or four men on the trawler took cover. “That ought to slow them down with the repairs,” he said.
Breeze was in her berth now, and shore hands were securing her warps. Stone looked back and saw the trawler, maybe fifty yards back. A man in the wheelhouse was moving back and forth, pulling levers and pressing buttons.