EXCERPT “Bring us up close,” Josh said. He stepped over the equipment in the bottom of
the Zodiac and moved to the bow. Jurgen maneuvered alongside the sailboat. Josh
grabbed the wooden rail on the gunwale and lifted himself aboard. He stumbled
over the cushions on the seat and fell to the deck. The guy in the Zodiac held a
flashlight over the gunwale, shining it down into the sailboat.
Josh was looking at a pair of deck shoes. He looked up. In the flickering light
he saw Ron Finn’s prone form laying back in the seat. His left hand still held
the rudder wheel, but his blank eyes stared up at the dark sky. In the center of
his chest was a big, red hole. Josh shivered. That Russian warship might be more
trouble than they thought.
Josh tore his eyes away and took the flashlight from the guy in the Zodiac.
“I’m gonna see what I can find. Don’t go too far,” he said.
“We’ll be right here,” Jurgen said.
Josh opened the hatch to the cabin and shined the light in. The floor was
covered with several inches of water and various things like cushions and charts
and plastic cups floated in it. Josh went down.
His heart was pounding. At any moment he expected a monster to jump out at him.
He reached under his windbreaker for his Smith & Wesson. His heart sunk when he
remembered it wasn’t there. He felt naked without it. Ahead was a low doorway
into the bow. He opened it. The bottom of the doorswirled the water around his
shoes. He shined the flashlight inside and there she was, laying in the bunks in
the triangular bow, not moving.
“Hello?” Josh said, and stepped toward her. The light shined on her legs. She
wore an old pair of jeans. As Josh got closer he saw they were much too big for
her and he guessed they belonged to Ron. She also wore one of his t-shirts, a
paint stained University of Virginia shirt Josh recognized. He had a similar
Navy shirt, spotted with the paint they used to fix up Ron’s beachfront house.
The jeans were well down on her hips and the bottom of the shirt was up,
exposing her belly button. He shined the light on her face and was startled.
This woman was a child. She had the angelic face of a girl no more than
nineteen, Josh guessed. How could a girl this young be so important to a mission
like this? How could she possibly be the evil KGB whore he came so far to
interrogate? Ron must have made a mistake. Knowing him, he probably fell in love
with this girl and tried to sneak away with her instead.
Valeria Konstantinova. Josh remembered the way Mironov spoke her name with such
venom. He caught himself staring. She was beautiful. This vision before him
shared nothing with the image of a tired, older woman he had created in his
mind. He pressed his fingers to her neck just below her jaw. She had a pulse.
Whoever she was, she was alive and he was going to rescue her.
Josh pulled her up the steps onto the open deck. She did not stir or make a
sound.
“Did you find her?” Jurgen asked.
“Yeah. Hand me that life jacket.” Josh reached over the gunwale and noticed
lights back the way they had come. Jurgen looked back as well. A huge spotlight
shined on the Monticello. Even from that distance, Josh could make out the steel
hull of the Russian attack ship from the small amount of light that reflected
off the water. There was about half a mile between the two ships.
“They just got there. We saw them getting close,” Jurgen said.
“They’ll come looking for us,” Josh said.
“Then we have to get back soon.”
Josh put the life vest on the girl. He held her up with one hand and slipped
her arms through with the other. He thought about being back on that warm, dry
ship and getting the hell out of this place. The thing he dreaded was the awful
task of interrogating this girl when they got back. Something about it did not
feel right.
A loud boom startled him. The guy in the Zodiac who had not spoken a word since
they started the trip shouted a curse. Josh looked in the direction of the
Russian attack ship. A second later, the rear of the Monticello exploded in a
ball of flames. The concussion of the blast rolled out over the water.
“They’re attacking! They’re attacking!” Jurgen shouted. The other man was
screaming a stream of obscenities.
“Settle down,” Josh shouted. He was holding the vest open with one hand and the
girl’s wrist in the other. He didn’t need a flashlight to see the look of horror
on their faces. The light of the flames on the back of the Monticello was like a
flare, even that far away.
Jurgen yanked on the outboard motor’s pull cord. “I have to get back there,” he
said.
“Wait a minute,” Josh yelled. He leaned over the gunwale and tried to grab the
one guy by the collar of his jacket, but he was just out of reach. The sailboat
keeled to the starboard side, the hull groaning as if in pain, and Josh
scrambled to keep from falling into the water.
Jurgen wasn’t listening anyway. The motor fired and he steered the Zodiac in
the direction of the Monticello, shouting something Josh couldn’t hear over the
noise of the motor. Josh watched them go, his mouth hanging open. They were just
a black blob with a bright yellow outline on the shimmering water moving toward
the burning ship.
Another loud boom startled Josh again. He saw a flash of flame from the gun on
the deck of the attack ship to the left of the Monticello. It lit the attack
ship’s hull, allowing Josh to see some details. Travis said it was small and
fast, but it looked immense compared to the Monticello.
The Monticello exploded again. The blast rocked the smaller ship and snapped it
in half. It sagged in the middle and began to sink. The attack ship moved in the
direction of the sailboat, turning toward the tiny black shape of the Zodiac
that bounced on the waves. A searchlight on the deck of the attack ship scanned
in lazy arcs over the water. The beam was so bright Josh could see it penetrate
a few feet into the greenish water.
He kept his eyes on the Zodiac and the attack ship as he struggled to get the
girl into the lifevest. He was breathing hard and his hands were shaking. The
distance between the Zodiac and the attack ship closed rapidly. He knew Jurgen
felt he had to get back to rescue anyone who might be in the water, but he
looked crazy enough to take on the attack ship himself.
The motor of the Zodiac was just a buzz. Behind it, the light from the fire on
the Monticello faded as the ship went under. The spotlight passed over the
Zodiac then backed up to find it again and stayed with it. Josh could see Jurgen
and the other guy shielding their eyes and waving and shouting. They were cut
off by the roar of a heavy caliber machine gun.
Josh watched in horror. The entire Zodiac was obscured by a thousand jets of
water that sprayed up when the large bullets struck the surface around the boat.
A second later it stopped and there was nothing in the bright, white light but
the shredded remains of the rubber Zodiac hull, which quickly disappeared
beneath the surface.
Then the only sound was the deep, low rumble of the attack ship’s diesel motors
and the only light was that of the powerful searchlight dancing over the tops of
the waves, coming closer.
Josh knew he had to move fast to get himself and the girl off the sailboat and
he only had a couple of minutes to do it. In the pitch blackness he managed to
get the life vest on the girl. Glancing back at the attack ship, he decided he
had enough time to go back into the sailboat. He remembered seeing something
down there that would be useful.
Holding his hand over the end of the flashlight to prevent the attack ship from
seeing the light, he searched through the debris. Floating in the water, which
was deeper than the last time he walked in it, was a self inflating life raft.
He grabbed it and stuffed it into his jacket, then went back up. The searchlight
was closer. He grabbed the girl, pulled her to the edge of the boat on the port
side, away from the attack ship, and lowered her into the water. She went under
briefly and the life vest brought her back to the surface, where she floated on
her back. Josh jumped in just as the searchlight passed over the sailboat and
froze on it.
Josh grabbed the girl and pulled her back into the darkness behind the sailboat
before she drifted away. The attack ship’s engines died to a quiet rumble. Josh
paddled to the front of the boat, towing the girl, and peeked around the point
of the bow where it met the water to see the attack ship. It stopped on the
opposite side of the sailboat, shining its searchlight on it like a laser beam.
Josh could see men on the deck and could hear their voices, although they were
still too far away to make out words.
The wake from the attack ship’s bow rolled toward the sailboat. Josh’s chin was
in the water, and when the wake reached him, he took a mouthful of water. The
girl moaned. He paddled back into the darkness with her in tow.
They were face to face and Josh held his hand over her mouth in case she awoke
and started screaming. Something bumped his leg under water. He looked around
but saw nothing. He reached down and felt in the water. Maybe the girl was
kicking him. Then he saw what it was and his eyes grew wide. A grey, triangular
shape stuck out of the water a few feet away, slicing silently through the
water, outlined against the black sky. It moved out beyond the bow of the
sailboat, where the glaring light of the searchlight passed over it, and Josh
saw the outline of the shark’s body under the water. His heart thumped and he
was panicking. The shark was huge, as big as a house, and it wasn’t alone.
Another dorsal fin swam near the boat, attracted by the light.
He could hear voices speaking in Russian on the attack ship. An officer ordered
two men to board the sailboat to search for survivors. They were a lot closer
than Josh wanted them to be, but he’d rather take his chances with them than
with the sharks.
The girl stirred. Josh was glad, because she was getting hard to hold. Her eyes
opened a sliver and the first thing she saw was the fin of a shark passing a few
feet away. Her eyes opened wide. Josh clamped his hand over her mouth just as
she screamed. He hoped the noise of the attack ship’s motor covered her muffled
voice.
Josh leaned very close to her ear and spoke in Russian in a whisper. “I don’t
know if you speak English but if you don’t stay still that fish will eat us and
if you don’t stay quiet your comrades will cut us to bite size pieces.
Understand?”
She stared at him with her wide eyes and nodded. Her arms wrapped around him
and she clung to him like a child, never taking her eyes off the shark. A third
one appeared and passed very close. Josh could see its black eye staring back.
He hoped they couldn’t smell fear in the water, because he was shaking as much
as the girl.
The Russian attack ship bumped against the side of the sailboat, which rocked
in the water, startling the sharks. The side of the hull banged against the back
of Josh’s head. He heard shouting and a couple of sailors jumped aboard. Through
the hull, Josh could hear their boots as they went below and opened cabinets and
doors. The sailors shouted to each other.
One came to the gunwale and shined a flashlight over the water. Josh pulled the
girl closer and pressed his back against the hull of the boat as hard as he
could, staying below the bow where it curved out over his head. The beam from
the flashlight passed over the sharks and paused on them for a moment. The
sailor came forward until he was directly over Josh and the girl.
The other sailor said to shoot one of the sharks. Josh and the girl tensed up
together. The ripping sound of a machine gun just above their heads startled
them. Sprouts of water shot up around the fin of the shark Josh was watching.
Its body rolled over in the water, showing the shredded red holes in its flesh.
The other sharks attacked the body. The calm, undulating water turned to a
violent, pinkish froth. Josh paddled away, towing the girl with him to get as
far from the sharks as he could before they were attacked as well.
The sound of the attack ship’s engine rose. It was moving off. Josh heard the
sailors’ voices, but couldn’t make out their words over the noise of the engine
and the splashing water. He did hear two distinct thuds on the deck of the
sailboat just behind them, and he had a pretty good idea what they were.
Towing the girl again, Josh paddled as hard as he could away from the boat. He
wasn’t getting far and knew he didn’t have much time.
“Hold your breath,” he said in Russian. The girl looked confused and he yelled
at her to do it. She sucked in a deep breath and he dragged her under against
the buoyancy of the lifevest. It tried to pull her back up and he pushed her
down harder.
They heard a pair of muffled explosions. The concussion of the blasts shook
them as it came through the water. The bright light of flames illuminated the
water around the sailboat like a midday sun. Josh found himself staring into the
black eye of a shark as big as a house only a few feet to his left. It appeared
disoriented by the concussion waves. Something splashed in the water near Josh,
startling him and the shark, which darted away. It was the mast of the sailboat,
cutting through the water like a knife through a cake. It dropped past Josh and
sunk into the dark water. The light of the flames faded and he and the girl were
enveloped in darkness once again.
She bobbed to the surface. Josh emerged beside her. She was paddling hard in a
panic to get away from the boat, which was engulfed in flames. She pulled off
the lifevest and started swimming. Josh swam after her.
The attack ship turned away and moved off at a slow pace. Josh could see it
clearly in the light of the fire. He decided he couldn’t wait any longer. If
they saw them and turned back, he would have to find a way to deal with their
machine guns. He pulled the folded raft from his jacket, found the cord, and
yanked. With a woosh of compressed air, the small yellow raft inflated on top of
the water.
The girl stopped paddling and looked back. Josh pulled himself over the fat,
tubular side. She turned and swam toward the raft. Josh pulled her in. There was
not much room for both of them in it, and she huddled against the side as far
from him as she could, watching him with wary eyes. Josh looked away and watched
the sailboat sink, feeling the warmth of the flames on his face until they were
extinguished with a loud hiss as the boat slipped beneath the water.
A hole broke in the cloud layer overhead and revealed a sky of stars. Josh
stared up at it. In the pitch darkness it was the only thing he could see. The
only sound was the gentle lap of water against the rubber raft, which swayed
softly on the shallow waves. He settled back and sighed, counting each tiny
point overhead. It had been a long day and he was exhausted. He couldn’t even
remember how he managed to wind up in this situation. He certainly had no idea
how he would find a way out.
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Children`s Fiction
Non-Adult Fiction
