“Okay, hang in there. Genevieve’s in the armory finding a sniper rifle and we’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“All right, we’ll see you soon.”
Guinevere stepped into the pilot house. “They’re trying to board again.”
Sam shrugged. “So stop them.”
“With what? I’m out of ammo.”
“Find something!”
Guinevere ducked below, returning with a boat hook. It had a metal hook attached to a telescopic aluminum pole.
Sam glanced at her. “That’s the best you can find?”
“This is it, unless you can work out how to increase the maximum traverse angle for the R2D2.”
“All right. I’ll try my best to keep them off the boat!”
Sam made another sharp turn, trying to shake their pursuers.
He came around the next corner and straightened up as he rounded the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. Robins Island came into view on his left, and the Cascade Locks to the far right.
The massive Cascade Locks opened up, to reveal a sleek, dark, vessel that looked like a predator.
Sam grinned. He’d never been so happy to see the Tahila.
He looked across his shoulder trying to find a sign of the two jet ski riders. He frowned. They had disappeared.
Behind them, both jet skis were floating in the water, without their riders.
Sam asked, “Where did they go?”
Guinevere lifted her finger to her lips to quiet him. She gripped the boat hook, like it was a spear, ready to take on the single boarder.
On the semi-armored deck above, she heard the movement of the boarders.
Sam held his breath, ready to change direction sharply, in the hope of knocking them off the boat. Guinevere readied herself to jab at the attacker’s legs.
And in the distance, Sam heard the loud report of a sniper rifle being fired in rapid succession.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Sam slowly brought the Navy jetboat alongside the Tahila.
The two mercenaries who had tried to board their ship were now floating in the water. Both dead. Clean headshots.
Sam tied the Navy boat’s mooring line to the Tahila. Genevieve and Tom came to greet them along the bow.
Genevieve was still holding an M24 sniper rifle.
Sam looked at her. “Thanks, Gen. Nice shooting.”
“You’re welcome.”
Sam said, “Tom, Gen, this is Guinevere.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Tom and Gen said.
Genevieve glanced at the pole Guinevere still held like a weapon. Her brow furrowed with curiosity. “Just out of interest, what were you going to do with that?”
Guinevere made a coy grin. “I have no idea. But I’m glad we didn’t have to find out.”
Sam said, “I don’t know. I still would have placed money on you with a boat hook over the mercenaries with Uzis…”
Caliburn wandered out of the Jetboat and gave a short bark.
Sam said, “And this is Caliburn. He’s as smart as he is cute.”
They helped lift Caliburn up onto the Tahila’s deck.
Tom gave him a good pat and the dog mewled with pleasure at the attention. A moment later, the dog bared its teeth.
Sam said, “What is it, Caliburn?”
The hair on the dog’s back spiked straight up. Caliburn barked ferociously. There was terror in his bark.
Its fur turned gunmetal gray to match the deck of the Tahila.
Sam swore.
And another sniper shot fired.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Everyone hit the deck hard.
Guinevere looked up, trying to gauge where the shot had come from. As soon as her head became visible, another shot fired.
She ducked back down.
Tom exchanged a glance with Sam. “Where are the shots coming from?”
Sam said, “I don’t know. Not from the water. That was a downward shot.”
Gen took a shooting position on her belly, searching the nearby landscape of Robins Island with its riflescope.
Sam asked, “You got anything?”
“Not yet,” Gen said. “Wait. There’s a man sitting inside that black Range Rover!”
“Can you take the shot?” Sam asked.
Gen shook her head. “Not from this position. It would be a lucky shot at best.”
Guinevere shuffled back toward the US jetboat.
Sam said, “Where the hell are you going?”
“To get rid of the man in the Range Rover once and for all.” Then, to Gen, she said, “Can you give me some cover fire until I get back in the jetboat?”
Gen nodded. “I’ve got it. Go!”
There’s no time like the present. Guinevere slid to the side of the deck, and then jumped down onto the jetboat.
Gen opened fire at the Range Rover.
Guinevere climbed inside the jetboat, down into the aft weapons section.
The computer screen for the Phalanx CIWS had identified the black Range Rover as a threat. The monitor now flashed –
TARGET ACQUIRED.
CONFIRM KILL ORDER?
Guinevere hit the fire button.
The R2D2 system came alive, and the radar-guided 20 mm Vulcan autocannon swiveled into position, with the electric whiz of automated mechanisms.
It opened fire, sending more than six hundred rounds down its barrel in a matter of seconds, reducing the Range Rover to burning scrap metal and embers of molten steel.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
No one knew if Excalibur had survived the hit. From what Sam had seen of him when they were trying to escape Mike’s house in Tualatin, Excalibur was barely slowed by multiple direct shotgun hits. He wasn’t sure if anyone could have survived the damage done to the Range Rover, but nor could he imagine anything killing Excalibur.
Instead of waiting to find out, he ordered Matthew to navigate the Tahila downriver toward Portland. Let the local authorities investigate the wreckage. Excalibur wasn’t after them. He was after Caliburn. That much was clear. Besides, they had a US Navy boat to return.
Sam stepped into the communications room on board the Tahila.
Elise looked up from her laptop. “You’ve been busy making friends again I hear.”
Sam’s lips curled upward. “Sometimes you just have to stand up to the bully in the playground.”
“Rough playground.”
“Yeah.” He handed Elise the USB flash drive that he’d gotten from Caliburn’s dog tag. “I’ve got a bet with Tom that you can crack this within an hour.”
“What is it?”
“We found it on a stray dog’s collar near where we were first attacked in the Tillamook State Forest. It has a military grade encryption code that I need you to crack. We’re hoping it might have some answers about how to defeat whatever military experiment went wrong, leaving us with this incredibly violent and dangerous hunter.”
Elise took it, inserted it into her laptop USB port, grinned, and said, “I’ll see you in half an hour.”
“I never doubt you, Elise. Never.” Sam said, “There’s one more thing I’d like you to run a search for while you wait for your program to break that code…”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Guinevere’s brother left her a fairly cryptic message telling her to locate King Arthur’s first sword, Caliburn. In his clue, he gave three locations — Glastonbury, England, Jerusalem, Israel, and the Dragon Breath Cave, Majorca. I need you to run a search, in all known archeology journals, and newspaper articles, to see if there’s any connection with the fabled sword, and any of those places. I’m interested to see it, no matter how tenuous the connections.”