Grace hesitated, her eyes still fixed on the man who had killed her contact.
“Now!” hollered Mitchell, loudly.
Grace nodded her head and began to climb down the exposed outside of the platform support.
With his pistol aimed back up to the next floor, Mitchell waited until Grace had vanished from sight before deciding that it was time for him to go. He was about to head for the ladder when he heard the sound of feet running on the metal floor above him. Mitchell edged back towards the ladder and fired off a couple of shots to keep whoever was there away from the stairs.
McMasters called out, “Give it up Mitchell, I know it’s you down there. You can’t get away.”
“Well, well, if it isn’t the man I’d love to feed to the sharks,” replied Mitchell.
“I take it Jackson is somewhere below waiting for you.”
“How astute of you,” said Mitchell as he looked around for something to help him get away. He knew the instant he began to climb down the ladder that McMasters would jump down and pick him off long before he reached the waiting Zodiac.
“Mitchell, I’ll give you to the count of ten to give yourself up,” yelled McMasters. “After that, I’m going to come down there and put a bullet between your eyes.”
Mitchell moved over to a closed metal locker and opened it up. He smiled when he saw fuel tanks for an acetylene torch stored inside. He quickly opened the valves on the tanks, stepped back, pulled off his coveralls, and bunched them up.
He could hear McMasters cheerfully counting down as if were all some big game.
Mitchell moved back towards the opening leading down to the ladder. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a cheap disposable lighter. He flicked the lighter with his thumb and swore when it didn’t light. Desperately flicking the lighter several more times, Mitchell almost jumped for joy when a flame shot out. Right away, he brought his coveralls over the flame. With his burning coveralls in his right hand, he climbed out onto the ladder and looked over at the fuel tanks spewing their explosive gasses.
“One!” yelled out McMasters. “You’re out of time Mitchell.”
“Come and get me you bastard!” retorted Mitchell as he threw his coveralls at the fuel tanks. Letting go of the ladder, Mitchell plummeted down feetfirst towards the dark waters below the platform.
Jackson had just helped Grace into the Zodiac when he looked up and saw Mitchell fall. His heart began to race. The drop was more than twenty meters. If Mitchell didn’t land right, he would seriously injure himself.
A bright fireball exploded on the platform, sending flames high up into the night sky.
Below, Jackson could feel the searing heat on his skin.
Less than a second later, Mitchell hit the water right beside the Zodiac.
Jackson turned, dropped to his knees, and looked into the black water. He was desperate to see his friend.
The pain was unbelievable. McMasters rolled on the hard metal floor as he tried to extinguish his burning clothing. Caught unaware when the gas exploded, McMasters was thrown back by the force of the blast and had cracked a couple of ribs. He was lucky to be alive.
A sudden burst of chemicals from a fire extinguisher instantly doused the flames. A pair of hands grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away from the fire still raging up through the deck.
“Are you all right?” asked a disembodied voice.
McMasters blinked his eyes a couple of times. The face of a man came into focus.
“Yes, I’m all right,” replied McMasters. “Thanks for saving me.”
The man, an off-duty cook, helped McMasters to his feet. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” lied McMasters. “Hurry and tell the control room to send the firefighting team here before this fire gets out of hand.”
The man nodded his head and ran for the nearest telephone.
Although in agony, McMasters moved to the edge of the narrow walkway and looked over the side. Lit up on the black water below the platform was Jackson’s Zodiac.
There was still time to stop them.
Cool darkness embraced Mitchell’s body. The impact had been harder on him than he had anticipated. An accomplished parachutist, he had practiced water landings numerous times when he was still in the army. He knew to detach himself from his harness at the last second; however, it had never been from such a height. His lungs ached for oxygen. He turned his head and looked up. Silhouetted by the burning oil rig, he could see a dark shape floating directly above him. He kicked the shoes from his feet, reached up with his hands and began to claw his way back towards the surface. A couple of moments later, Mitchell breached the surface. He instantly took in a deep breath of fresh air.
A pair of powerful hands reached out and took hold of Mitchell hauling him inside the Zodiac.
Mitchell grinned when he saw a less-than-impressed look on Jackson’s face.
“Permission to come aboard, sir,” was all he could think to say.
“I should toss you back in the water for that one,” said Jackson.
Mitchell got up on his knees and looked up at the burning platform. The fire had spread from the area near the support leg and was edging its way towards the crew quarters. He knew that every ship for kilometers would be speeding towards the oil rig to help put out the flames and to help with the evacuation of any casualties. They had to leave now.
“Here, take this,” said Grace, handing Mitchell an assault rifle.
“Nate, time to go,” said Mitchell to his friend.
“Happy to oblige,” replied Jackson as he turned the Zodiac away from the platform and headed as fast as he could back out into the open sea.
Mitchell sat back and looked one last time at the platform. The fire, like a living beast, was consuming everything in its path. He thought about McMasters for a moment and wondered if he had been killed in the fiery blast. His gut told him otherwise. He knew their paths would cross again.
24
McMasters left the fire-control team to fight the growing fire. He staggered back to the control room and pulled the door open. Stepping inside, he grabbed the first phone he could see and placed a call. A second later, a man answered the call.
“Listen up,” said McMasters, “I need a helicopter, and I need it right away.”
“I have one getting ready to fly emergency personnel to your location,” replied the man.
“Screw that!” snapped McMasters. “Fill it with soldiers and fly it out here immediately. The people who sabotaged this rig are trying to escape out to sea.”
“Si, señor,” replied the man. “It will be on its way in five minutes.”
“Make it two,” said McMasters, ending the call.
In the dark, bouncing across the top of the waves, Jackson gunned the Zodiac’s engine for all it was worth. Unlike the military versions of the Zodiac, this boat didn’t have a V-shaped hull that would have allowed it to cut through the waves; instead, it bounced over the top of them like a bucking bronco. He looked through his NVGs and tried to spot their fishing boat. It was going to be tough as their ship had taken refuge among a dozen or so other vessels a couple of kilometers away.
Mitchell bent forward, looked over the bow of the boat, and saw a tall, dark wave coming towards them. He barely had time to hold on before the Zodiac hit it head-on. Like a shark leaping out of the water, the Zodiac rose up nosefirst, almost flipping over. Mitchell and Grace had to hang onto the ropes running along the side of the Zodiac to avoid being sent flying into the Caribbean. Water splashed over the sides of the Zodiac, soaking everyone.
Mitchell hollered at Jackson to slow down.