They shortened the distance between them and the fleeing speedboats, as their more powerful craft jumped the waves with ease. Chen shone the searchlight ahead amazed to see the tight-knit group of three speedboats fleeing northward as the searchlight beam lit them up, when the white speedboat peeled off left and the red one right each taking a different direction.
Matthers locked onto the woman in the white speedboat, and gained on it easily. The skinny woman in the white speedboat looked over her shoulder aghast to see the naval boat had targeted her and closed the gap between them. She opened the throttle to maximum, and bounced across the waves, zigzagging in a futile attempt to lose them, she spun the wheel in desperation, but in her inexperience hit a wave sideways, the impact of the wave broadsided her, almost stopped her dead in her tracks as if she had hit a brick wall. The power of the wave practically threw her overboard.
She regained her composure, when the engine stalled. She turned the key, but it spluttered and failed to start. “Oh, come on,” she begged urgently. She wriggled the key again. The circle of the searchlight beam got larger she knew was doomed.
“Oh Christ!” she heard the rumble of the naval launch pulling alongside her. She turned reluctantly and raised her hands slowly. “Please, don’t shoot me, I’m not contaminated, I swear.” She burst into tears and sobbed heartily.
“We’re not going to shoot you,” Matthers said calmly in a soothing voice, he moved to the front of the rig.
“You’re — you’re not?” she asked nervously.
“We wanted to give you this,” the voice said. She saw the silhouette of a sailor leaning towards her and offering her a gift. She took the object and he forcefully enclosed his hands around hers. “No peeping, now, don’t spoil the surprise,” he said, as he made a signal with his arm and the naval vessel sped away.
She was shocked yet grateful to be alive, unable to believe they hadn’t shot her. When she thought they were far enough away she looked down at the object in her hand and her eyes opened in horror as her brain had half a second to register that it was a hand-grenade, moments before it exploded, shattering her body instantly and scattering the fragments of her remains into the night sky.
Jake spun a huge arc, caught up with Luke and sat behind him, riding shotgun, bouncing across their wake as they raced to the shoreline.
“Where are we going?” Sophie asked Luke as they headed straight for the beach.
“The Intracoastal Waterway,” he told her. “It’s an inland river, which runs parallel with the ocean. It links with canals and rivers, all the way up to Canada.”
I know it,” she said. “But won’t they be able to follow?”
“Yeah, but I kinda hoped to lose them in amongst the canals. We’re sitting targets out here on the ocean.” He peered at the horizon and made out the entrance to the river amongst the multitude of unlit hotels on the beachfront. He headed into the river at full speed, and took a hard right, making he and Sophie tilt with the momentum. Jake almost missed the bend and had to lose power to avoid smashing into the embankment. He turned the wheel and cursed his loss of distance. He opened the engines and roared after Luke.
“We need to hide,” Luke told Sophie.
“What about over there amongst those other boats?”
He cut the throttle and steered to where half a dozen speedboats rocked against a jetty. He turned the engine off and ducked. He peeked over the side and saw Jake had copied him on the opposite side of the river.
Moments later the naval launch hurtled past with the searchlight swinging right and left. Matthers’ blood pumped fast, adrenalin raced through his veins, as he relished the hunt, but then he cut the power. “Goddamnit!” he cursed, “They’ve got away.”
“They outrun us?” queried Chen.
“Not a chance. Not me. No way. They must be hiding.” He turned a large arc and they slowly retraced their path. The naval launch bobbed gently at walking speed as Chen shone the searchlight onto the boats and footpath, but there were no signs of movement.
Sophie held her breath as the sailors chugged alongside. “Can’t we make a run for it?” she whispered urgently.
“Not an option, they’ll cut us down with the machine-gun.” He ducked back down as the searchlight headed in their direction.
Chen detected a movement on the embankment and shone the beam on it. The machine-gunner fired three short bursts at the movement, until he realized it was a pair of rats running along.
In the black speedboat, Sophie had to cover her mouth as the bullets ripped above her head. A few birds squawked their alarm, after that all they could hear was the echo of the gunfire, before utter stillness. She knew that the navy patrol was still close by and had not left the scene.
“There they are…,” Matthers whispered quietly in hushed tones.
“I don’t seem ‘em?” machine-gunner Weston said.
“Look at the exhaust port. It’s still dripping. That speedboat has been in use in the last few minutes. Take ‘em out,” he ordered firmly.
Sophie fired up the engines. “What are you doing?”Luke asked incredulously.
“We have nothing to lose,” she said. He shrugged as if to say ‘why not?’ She turned the wheel and aimed straight at the naval launch. The black speedboat rapidly built up momentum as it propelled towards its target. “Give them a taste of their own medicine.”
“Kill the bastard sonofabitch,” Luke agreed. He squeezed her hand, and looked at her sadly, “You know, if we’d met—”
“I know,” she smiled.
“Holy shit!” Matthers gasped and took evasive action to avoid a head-on collision, the wash from the passing speedboat almost over-turned them. The sailors gripped on tight to stop themselves falling into the water. “That does it!” Matthers thundered. “Get those darkie fuckers,” he said through gritted teeth. He pulled the launch around to follow, and the searchlight picked them out. He grinned cruelly, opened up the throttle, the engines jerked them back, and the power raised the bow from the water, with a flash of red Jake cut in front of them.
Once again, the navy launch swerved to avoid a collision. “We’re the US navy and these deranged carriers are making fools of us,” Matthers cursed.
“I thought they’re meant to be dying?” said Chan.
“They’ll be dead soon enough,” he said determinedly.
Further down the river Luke dropped Sophie off at the water’s edge. He pointed the speedboat back the way they had come, quickly tied the throttle on, and as it leapt into power he bailed over the side and swam to the edge, where Sophie helped him out.
The speedboat hurtled back down the river. “Go, go,” Sophie urged it onwards, desperately hoping that it would meet its target. She bit her lip and watched as the naval launch rounded the bend in the river. The searchlight caught the moving speedboat and locked on, but within moments the speedboat crashed into a powerboat moored against a private jetty and both vessels exploded, sending thick black clouds of smoke into the night.
The navy launch slowed, and went as close as it dared, circling the burning wrecks. “Did you see ‘em?” Matthers asked.
“It was all too fast, but if I had to make a guess I’d say it was empty.” Chen answered.
“That’s what I figured. It was too neat. They were heading the wrong way, and did nothing to slow down or swerve,” he cupped his hands around his mouth. “Nice try darkies! You’ll have to try harder than that!” he turned the launch around.