Tess knew Vance wouldn't risk moving from the cockpit. Clutching the ax with one hand and using the other to steady herself, she moved carefully across the main deck, releasing life vests as she went, hoping they might be of some use to the stranded divers.
She saw a huge wave crest over the bow and locked her arms around a railing, bracing herself as a wall of water hit her head-on and buried the deck. She then felt the deck slide away from under her as the Savanna flew off the top of the wave and rocketed down its steep back before landing heavily in its trough. She pulled herself up and, through the tangle of hair that whipped stingingly across her face, she spotted the falcon, dangling in midair several feet above the deck, swaying wildly. She scrambled toward the base of the crane and the wire rope emerging from its reel.
Reaching it, she glanced up at the window of the cockpit. Through the veils of spray, she saw Vance's alarmed face. She steeled herself, raised the ax, and swung it with all her might. She almost lost her grip as it bounced off the taut cable and looked up to see Vance rushing out of the wheelhouse and fighting the wind that plowed into him. He was gesturing wildly and screaming what looked like a continuous "No!" from the top of his lungs, but with the howling of the wind, Tess couldn't hear it. Undeterred, she swung again, steadied herself, and then swung yet again. A strand snapped, then another as she smashed the ax down repeatedly in a frenzied flurry of blows.
She wasn't going to let Vance have it. Not this way. Not at this cost.
She'd been a fool to give him the benefit of any doubt, and it was time to start making amends.
The last strand finally gave way, and as the Savanna rolled to port, the falcon suddenly dropped, crashing down heavily into the sea.
Tess clutched her way along the sloping deck, away from the pilothouse, ducking to avoid Vance's sight line instinctively. Darting a quick backward glance, she glimpsed the flotation bags emerging from the foaming water. Her heart stopped as she waited to see if they still held the falcon, then she let out a heavy breath when she spotted its dark brown, rounded shape sticking out from between the inflated balloons.
Her elation at succeeding was short-lived as, at that very moment, a staccato of small explosions rocked the Savarona. Diving for cover, Tess glanced back at the patrol boat pursuing them and was amazed to see the cannon at its bow spitting out a deadly fire.
+ + +
Lashed by the driving spray and the ferocious wind, Reilly raced after De Angelis.
The Karadeniz strained to hold its position, its rescue divers hauling one of the stranded divers onto a rigid inflatable boat, while the other man clung desperately to a life preserver until he too could be hauled aboard.
The monsignor finally reached the foredeck. Within seconds, he had positioned himself firmly between the gun's semicircular, padded-shoulder mounts. Unlocking the fearsome weapon and swinging it around with expert ease, he quickly found the escaping dive boat and unleashed a ferocious burst of incendiary 23mm shells.
"No!" Reilly yelled, climbing over the railing and onto the cannon's deck. Even with the wind screaming past his ears, the noise from the cannon was deafening.
He lunged at De Angelis, jolting the gun off course and sending the tracers arcing away from the Savarona and disappearing harmlessly into the sea. The monsignor slid one of his shoulders out from the gun's mount and grabbed Reilly's hand, twisting his fingers back to an unnatural angle before swinging a savage blow that caught Reilly in mid-cheek and sent him stumbling backward across the tilting, water-swept deck.
Unable to regain his feet, Reilly was swept across the deck and carried away from De Angelis. He tried desperately to grab something to arrest his slide. His hand caught a piece of rope and he held on. He managed to pick himself up but could only hang on as the patrol boat lurched heavily up a mountain of water. By the time it crested the wave, De Angelis had pulled himself back into position, and the diving boat came back into view. The monsignor let rip with another volley. Horrified, Reilly stared helplessly as dozens of shells traced their brilliant, deadly paths through the near darkness to rain down on the dive boat. Flames and puffs of smoke leaped into the air as most of the shells impacted on the Savanna's unprotected stern.
* * *
Crouching low behind a steel boxing, Tess felt her heart beating its way out of her chest as the Savarona shuddered under the remorseless pounding from the rapid-firing chain gun. At a thousand rounds per minute, even a short burst packed a devastating punch.
The shells were chewing up the deck all around her when a muffled explosion from deep inside the vessel rocked her, causing her to scream. Almost immediately, a cloud of black smoke billowed from the stern and out of the smokestacks on the whaledeck. The ship lurched sideways, almost as if someone had hit the brakes. Tess knew the engine had been hit. She guessed—hoped—that the fuel tank itself had been spared, as the ship hadn't exploded from under her. She counted down each passing second, waiting for it to happen, but it didn't.
But this was just as bad.
Without power, the crippled dive boat was helpless against the confused sea. Waves were coming in from all directions, pummeling the ship, and causing it to lurch and spin like a bumper car in a fairground.
Tess stared in horror as a huge mountain of sea rose up behind the Savarona, caught up with it, and broke over the pilothouse. She barely managed to clip on a lifeline to the railing and clasp her arms around it before the water avalanched over the ship, inundating the entire deck and causing the half-inch Lexan windows of the cockpit to implode.
She wiped the wet hair off her face and glanced up at the ravaged wheelhouse. There was no sign of Vance or of the others. She felt the onset of tears and crumpled herself up into a ball, hanging on for dear life. She looked to where she had last seen the patrol boat, expecting it to be even nearer now, but it was nowhere in sight.
And then she saw it. A huge, sixty-foot wave. So steep it was almost vertical with a massive trough in front of it that seemed to be sucking the Savanna in.
It was bearing down on the stricken ship across its port side.
Tess shut her eyes, tight. Without power, there was no way to turn the dive boat to either face the wave, or run from it—not that there was anyone left at the helm. Either maneuver would have caused the ship to take a big hit and be engulfed by water, but it would have still come out right side up.
This monster was about to slam into them broadside.
And when it did, it lifted the 130-ton steel ship effortlessly and rolled it over like a child's toy.
* * *
Reilly watched the shells erupting across the dive boat's stern and the black smoke spewing out from it and yelled at De Angelis as loudly as he could, but he knew there was no way the monsignor was going to hear him over the screaming wind and the clamor of the gunfire.
He suddenly felt exhausted and totally depleted, and, at that very moment, he realized what he had to do.
Bracing himself against the railing, he pulled out the automatic, steadied its muzzle against the onslaught of the wind as best he could, and pulled the trigger repeatedly. Red puffs erupted from the monsignor's back and he arced backward, then fell forward against the machine gun, tilting its barrel toward the angry sky.
Reilly tossed the Glock aside and peered out from the patrol boat's deck. Eyes straining against the squall, he searched for the Savanna, but all he could see through the sheets of rain were rampaging mountains and valleys of foaming, white-streaked water.
The rescue divers had somehow managed to make it back on board with the men they had pulled out of the sea, and Reilly felt the patrol boat turning away from its previous heading, the engines surging in an effort to hasten the turn and limit the time it would sit "beam-to" the waves and be exposed to broaching. A sense of panic gripped him as he realized they were heading back, away from the storm.