Distant Thunder

54

The skipper got another knot or two out of Breeze, and the trawler seemed not to be gaining anymore. Stone reckoned they were a mile or so back. He wondered how running full out was going to affect Breeze’s engines.

Vanessa was using the binoculars. “I see a man.”

“Do you recognize him?” Stone asked.

“He could be Majorov, but I’ve only seen him once before, so I can’t be sure.”

Stone used the binoculars, but the man was now obscured by the wheelhouse of the trawler. The skipper called on the handheld. “How are we doing? Are they gaining on us?”

“We seem to be holding our lead,” Stone replied. “How are our engines doing?”

“We’re running at full revs, and I don’t like doing that, but they’re new enough that they might take it without blowing up.”

“Temperatures?” Stone asked.

“Just inside the green line. We don’t want to go into the red.”

“Right.” Stone put the radio down and checked the trawler’s position again.

Dino picked up one of the rifles. “You want me to take a shot at them? It might discourage them.”

“That’s a Winchester model 1873 replica,” Stone said. “I don’t think we could do anything to them at this range, in a moving boat, and we might just make them angry.”

“They look pretty angry already,” Dino said. “One other thing, they might have a weapon that’s higher powered than ours, and I don’t think this is a good time to find out. How long till port?”

“I don’t know. A couple of hours to the harbor, I guess, then we have to slow down on the way to the sub base.”

“Should we call the Coast Guard?”

“And tell them what? That we’re being pursued by an angry lobsterman? I don’t think that would bring them, guns ablaze.”

Dino leaned in. “If they could see Vanessa, that would bring them.”

Stone looked at Vanessa, lying on her back, asleep, her breasts rolling a little with the sea.

Stone’s phone rang. Lance. “Yes?”

“You’re holding your own,” Lance said. “Keep it up.”

“We’re trying. Have you got us on satellite?”

“Yes, our camera seems to be about fifty feet above you. Vanessa looks very nice. There’s been a parade of people through here, checking her out. She’s not going to have any tan lines, is she?”

“Can you see any armaments on the trawler, or is Vanessa blocking the view?”

“Nothing as yet. I’ll call you if we see any sign of hostile intent.” Lance hung up.

“What does Lance have to say for himself?” Dino asked.

“Nothing, but a lot about Vanessa. Did she finish the bomb?”

“I guess. How are you planning to use it?”

“Just to scare them off,” Stone said. “If necessary.”

A crewman served them some chilled gazpacho, in mugs. Viv threw a towel over Vanessa, and the crewman departed, looking disappointed. Vanessa had to be awakened to take her soup.

Before Vanessa could go back to sleep, Stone asked her about the bomb. “Well, I think it’s all hooked up,” she said, opening the shopping bag and holding it up.

Stone winced. “How do we set it off?”

“The cell phone’s already been disconnected: I figure if you use it, you’ll be throwing it, so all you do is press this button,” she said, pointing at it, “and you’ve got ten seconds to get rid of it, before it goes off.”

Stone’s mouth went dry, and he lubricated it with a swig of Bloody Mary.

Dino stood up and pointed. “I think that must be Key West,” he said.

Stone looked at the lump on the horizon and nodded. “About half an hour to the channel, another fifteen or twenty minutes to the sub base.”

“Ask Vanessa if I can hold her towel for her,” Dino suggested.

“Sit down and shut up,” Stone said, “or your wife will emasculate you.”

That had the desired effect.