She broke off as a violent, creaking shudder engulfed the foil, rattling the hardware until Brett thought the boat might split. Scudi immediately backed the throttle. The foil dropped off the step with an abrupt plowing motion that sent it sliding down a wave face and pitched it up the next one. Brett was hurled against his safety harness hard enough to take his breath away.
Curses and scrambling noises came from behind him. He whirled and saw Bushka picking himself up off the deck, clutching the grabs beside the couch he had occupied. His right hand still gripped the lasgun. Twisp had been dumped into a corner with the captive Merman atop him. One long arm came out of the tangle, pushing the captive aside, finding a handhold and lifting himself to a standing position at the side of the cabin.
"What's happening?" Bushka shouted. He shifted his grip to a handhold behind his couch and eased himself onto the cushions.
"We're into kelp," Scudi said. "It's fouled the struts. I've had to retract them, but they're not coming fully back."
Brett kept his attention on Bushka. The foil was riding easier, its jet only a low murmur far back in the stern. It was in Scudi's hands now and he half suspected she had exaggerated the nature of their predicament. Bushka, too, looked undecided. His large head bobbed in the constant motion of the foil as he tried to peer past Scudi at the storm. Brett was suddenly struck by how Mermanlike Bushka appeared - powerful shoulders tapering to sinewy, almost delicate hands.
The assault of the wind and waves against the hull increased.
"There's a heavy kelp bed in our path," Scudi said. "It shouldn't be here. I think it may have broken loose in the storm. We don't dare go up on the step again."
"What can we do?" Bushka demanded.
"First, we'll have to clear the struts so I can retract them," she said. "Hull integrity is vital for control. Especially if we have to submerge."
"Why can't we just clear the struts and go back up on the foils?" Bushka asked. "We have to get to the outpost before Gallow suspects!"
"Lose a strut at high speed, very bad," Scudi said. She gestured at the captive Merman. "Ask him."
Bushka looked at the man on the deck.
"What does it matter?" The Merman shrugged. "If we die in kelp we are immortal."
"I think he just agreed with you," Twisp said. "So, how do we clear the struts?"
"We go out and do it by hand," Scudi said.
"In this?" Twisp looked out at the long, white-capped rollers, the gray bleakness of the storm. The foil rode the waves like a chip, quartering into them and twisting at every crest when the wind hit it with full force.
"We will use safety lines," Scudi said. "I have done it before." She hit the crossover switch to activate Brett's controls. "You take it, Brett. Watch out at the crests. The wind wants to take it and the struts being half-out that way makes it hard to control."
Brett gripped the wheel, feeling perspiration slippery against his palms.
Scudi released her safety harness and stood, holding fast to her seatback against the roll and pitch of the foil. "Who's going to help me?"
"I will," Twisp said. "You'll have to tell me what to do."
"Just a minute!" Bushka snapped. He studied Twisp and Scudi for a long blink. "You know what happens to the kid if you cause me any trouble?"
"You learned very fast from this man Gallow," Twisp said. "Are you sure he's your enemy?"
Bushka paled with anger but remained silent.
Twisp shrugged and made his way along overhead grabs to the rear hatch. "Scudi?"
"All right." She turned to Brett. "Hold it steady as you can. It's going to be rough out there."
"Maybe I'm the one should go with you."
"No ... Twisp has no experience handling a foil."
"Then he and I could -"
"Neither of you knows how to clear the struts. This is the only way. We will be careful." Abruptly, she leaned down and kissed his cheek, whispering, "It is all right."
Brett was left with a warm sense of completeness. He felt he knew exactly what to do at the foil's controls.
Bushka checked the Merman's restraints, then joined Brett at the controls. He took Scudi's seat. Brett only spared the slightest glance for him, noting the lasgun still at the ready. Heavy seas swept them steadily sideways at every crest and the foil barely had enough headway to recover. Brett listened to voices out on the deck, Scudi shouting to Twisp. A steep swell broke over the cabin, then another. Two long rollers swept under them, then one more breaking crest curled over the plaz. The foil stood almost vertical on its stern, slapped back into the trough and the crest crashed onto the cabin-top. The boat shuddered and wallowed in a side-slip while Brett fought to bring its nose back into the weather.
Twisp shouted something. Abruptly, his voice came crying up the passage: "Brett! Circle port! Scudi's lost her safety line!"
Without any thought for whether the foil could take it, Brett cranked the wheel hard left and held it. The boat turned on a crest, slipped sideways down a wave, lifted at the stern and water washed down the long passage into the cabin. It swirled around their feet, lifting the captive and sending him against Bushka's thigh. The foil almost rolled over on the next wave. It came up broadside to the weather as it continued its mad circle. Brett felt the sea slosh through the cabin and realized that Twisp had opened the rear hatch to be heard.
Get her, Brett prayed. He wanted to abandon the wheel and run back to help but knew he had to keep the foil tight in this pattern. Twisp was experienced - he would know what to do.
A wave in the cabin broke almost up to his waist and Bushka cursed. Brett saw that Bushka was struggling to keep the Merman in one place.
Brett's mind kept repeating: Scudi Scudi Scudi ...
The storm's roar in the cabin diminished slightly and Bushka shouted, "He's closed the hatch!"
"Help them, Bushka!" Brett hollered. "Do something for once!"
The foil lifted once more over a crest, rolled heavily with the weight of the water they'd taken on.
"No need!" Bushka shouted. "He has her."
"Get back on course." It was Twisp's voice behind Brett, but Brett dared not turn. "I have her and she's all right."
Brett swung the foil's bow back into the seas, quartering into a high comber that rolled over them at the crest. Water sloshed through the cabin as the foil pitched down into the next trough. The sound of pumps chuffing below decks came clearly to Brett's ears. He risked a glance back and saw Twisp backing into the cabin, Scudi's limp form over his shoulder. He dogged the hatch behind him and dumped Scudi on the couch where Bushka had been.
"She's breathing," Twisp said. He bent over Scudi, a hand on her neck. "Pulse is strong. She hit her head on the hull as we tipped."
"Did you clear the struts?" Bushka demanded.
"Eelshit!" Twisp spat.
"Did you?"
"Yes, we cleared the damn struts!"
Brett looked at the overhead screen and brought the foil around ten degrees, putting down a surge of rage against Bushka. But Bushka was suddenly busy with the keyboard at his position.
"Finding how to retract these foils. That was the whole idea, wasn't it?" Bushka's fingers flurried over the keys and a schematic appeared on the screen in front of him. He studied it a moment and manipulated controls at his side of the board. Within blinks, Brett heard the hiss and clunk of struts retracting.
"You're not on course," Bushka said.
"As close as I can be," Brett said. "We have to quarter these seas or we'll pound ourselves to pieces."
"If you're lying, you're dead," Bushka said.
"You take it if you know better than I do," Brett said. He lifted his hands from the wheel.