“Good to know.” She glanced at Benny, who sat up straighter. “Keep an eye on him. If he does anything that’s even the least bit threatening toward you or Zoe, you have my permission to shoot him in the other kneecap.” She looked back at Gage. “Who needs legs to push some buttons, right?”
Gage swallowed.
“Gotcha,” Benny said.
Lara walked back to the door, where Zoe was waiting for her. Lara was glad to see the doctor up and moving around. She might have been a third-year medical student back when the world still made sense, but Zoe was the real deal. Lara had a feeling they would need her in the days to come.
Lara nodded at the hallway outside. Zoe understood and followed her out, and Lara closed the door behind them.
“Any word from Will?” Zoe asked.
“He’s on his way back now. He’ll radio in when he’s closer.”
“Good. For a moment there, I thought he might be in trouble. Then I remember who I’m worrying about.”
“Will can take care of himself. It’s us I’m worried about.” She looked back at the door. “You have to be careful around him. Gage. He’s dangerous.”
“I know. That’s what Benny’s here for, right?”
“Benny’s just a kid.”
Zoe smiled at her.
“What?” Lara said.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“Jesus, you’re just a kid, too. All of you guys, except for Mae and Kendra, are just kids.”
Lara smiled. Zoe had a point there. “I guess I haven’t felt like a kid in a long time.”
“I know. Everyone grows up fast these days. You have to.”
We all adapt and grow, or not at all. Adapt or perish.
“Just remember not to relax too much around Gage,” Lara said. “He’s not our friend.”
“Oh, trust me, I know. I just spent an hour with that guy.”
“Good. I gotta get back to the boat and look for Boris.”
Lara turned to go, when Zoe said, “Hey.” When Lara stopped and looked back, Zoe said, “I’m glad Will’s fine, and that he’s coming home.”
“Yeah, me too.”
They exchanged an awkward smile before Zoe went back into the infirmary.
Lara continued up the hall. She unclipped her radio and keyed it. “Blaine, come in.”
“You headed back?” Blaine answered.
“I have to collect a few more bodies to help with the search. Anything happen while I was away?”
“Nothing exciting. Any word on our mystery man?”
“His name’s Boris.”
“Boris? What is he, some kind of Russian?”
“Apparently that’s just what they call him.”
“Hunh.”
“That’s what I said.”
She was halfway back to the beach when a slight echo, like a warm and wet popping sound, from far away drifted across the island. It sounded like it was coming all the way from the other side of the lake.
“Anyone hear that?” Maddie asked through the radio. “I’m pretty sure that was a gunshot.”
“Did it come from the yacht?” Lara asked, alarmed.
“Definitely not the yacht,” Blaine said through the radio. “I’m on the bridge, and it doesn’t sound close.”
“Okay, stay where you are, Blaine,” Lara said. “Maddie…”
“We can take off as soon as you show up,” Maddie said.
Lara smiled to herself and started jogging down the pathway that connected the hotel grounds to the beach.
We’re like a well-oiled machine. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but we’re definitely getting pretty good at this.
She said into the radio as she ran, “Everyone hold your positions. I repeat: hold your positions.”
Two more shots rang out, followed by a long silence, before two more popping noises echoed across the water. It had to have come from the other side of the lake. She remembered hearing the ferocious gunfire between Will and some of Kate’s collaborators months ago from the nearby marina, and those had sounded much louder.
She was halfway back to the beach when there was a long series of gunshots. These came faster and furious, the pop-pop-pop signaling the unmistakable exchange of automatic rifle fire between two sides.
What was going on out there? It couldn’t have been Will. He would have radioed as he got closer. Plus, the shooting seemed to be coming from the other side of the lake. Will had no reason to venture that far out, especially when a simple radio call would bring a boat to him.
Maddie was waiting for her on the pier, looking out at the lake with binoculars as Lara walked up behind her. “Anything?”
Maddie shook her head. “It’s too far south. The only reason we can hear it is because we’re downwind.”
“So it’s probably not meant for us.”
“I don’t think so, no.” She looked over. “What should we do?”
Lara didn’t answer right away. What should they do? If the shooting was coming from the other side of the lake, it was closer to the Gulf of Mexico than the island. Was what was happening out there worth finding out? What if it was some kind of elaborate trap to lure them out? The last thing she wanted was to send someone out there and have them be picked off by snipers along the shoreline.
What would Will do?
“Lara?” Maddie said. “What should we do?”
“I don’t—” The loud boom! of a shotgun blast cut her off.
This one was much closer to home.
The Trident.
Even as that revelation hit her, there was a second boom! and moments later, the pop-pop-pop of automatic gunfire. It sounded like they were coming from the upper parts of the boat.
The bridge.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Maddie said. “That’s him?”
“I guess,” Blaine said.
“Him” was Boris. Or a man she assumed was Boris, though she couldn’t be sure without bringing Gage over to the boat to ID him.
The man was large, almost as big as Blaine, with a bushy red beard and a very pale complexion, which was amazing given that he probably spent most of the last year on a boat, basking in the sun. Or maybe he spent most of his time in the engine room, which would explain how he could have hidden from Blaine and Roy earlier in the day.
Whoever he was, he was lying on his stomach a few feet inside the bridge. Blood pooled under him and his head was turned to one side, black eyes staring almost accusingly across the room at Blaine.
A pump-action shotgun leaned against a nearby wall where Blaine had put it. That shotgun had blasted a hole in the bridge door where the lock and doorknob used to be. Having stumbled inside, Boris (unless, of course, there was a second man running around on the Trident) had taken a shot at Blaine only to miss, sending buckshot into another part of the wraparound windshield and adding to the existing damage.
Lara looked at Blaine. “You okay?”
He nodded. “He surprised me, that’s all.”
“Man, we need to stop people from firing guns on the bridge,” Maddie said. “We’re lucky no one’s shot out the control panels so far.”
“I guess he was waiting for just one of us to be on the boat,” Blaine said. “Lucky me.”
“Or maybe he was using the shooting across the lake as a diversion,” Lara said. “Maybe he thought it was his best chance to take back the bridge.”
“Well, the poor bastard figured wrong.”
“Looks like it,” Maddie said. “So, who’s gonna clean up this mess?”