Distant Thunder

55

Dino tapped Stone on the shoulder and pointed toward the pass through the reef to the harbor. “Is that going to be a problem?”

Stone followed his finger and his eyes came to an abrupt halt. “Holy shit,” he said. Dino’s finger was pointing at a gigantic cruise ship entering Key West Harbor. “How did that thing sneak up on us?”

“I was wondering that, too.”

“It’s headed for the ship dock over there, right next to the channel,” Stone said, “so it will be slowing down to a crawl as it moseys up to the dock.”

“What’s that boat alongside her?”

“I think that’s a harbor vessel assigned to see that nobody gets too close to her on the seaward side.”

“Like us?”

“Yep.”

“And like the trawler behind us, too?”

“Yep. It occurs to me that they’re not going to want five hundred witnesses hanging over the rail of the ship, gawking at us both.” He pointed at the five hundred witnesses.

“So they’ll wait until we’re at the sub pen before they make their move?”

“Yeah, and it’s our only move. It’s too shallow to our left and there’s a big marina to the right of the channel. It’s the sub base or just stop dead in the water, in what you might call the ‘sitting duck’ position.”

“And how is that going to differ from our position at the sub dock?”

“Not much,” Stone replied.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Why don’t you and I each take a Winchester up to the top deck, keeping low. Maybe we can make it without the folks on the trawler seeing us.”

“Couldn’t hurt,” Dino replied, handing Stone a rifle and grabbing a box of ammunition.

As an afterthought, Stone grabbed the shopping bag holding the bomb.

“After you,” Dino said.

Stone crouched and ran along the deck to the stairs, then ran up them and hid behind a big Boston whaler the crew used for shopping ashore. He sat down and leaned against the boat and watched Dino coming his way.

“What are we going to do about the harbor boat protecting the cruise ship?” Dino asked.

“We’re going to trust the skipper not to hit it.”

“Good idea.”

Stone popped up for a quick look around. “One hundred yards to the channel,” he said. “The trawler is going to overtake us soon.”

“Are we going to fire first?”

“Are you kidding, Dino? There might be a troop of Girl Scouts aboard that boat — we don’t know, do we?”

“I guess not.”

“Then we’ll hold our fire, until they’re not holding theirs anymore.”

“I hope they’re bad shots,” Dino said.

“Jesus, the girls are on the main deck and exposed.”

“Nah, they headed below with the handguns as soon as we came up here.”

“So Vanessa is no longer a distraction?”

“No, I’m sorry to say. I was enjoying being distracted.”

“I think you can be sure that Viv is getting Vanessa dressed as we speak.”

“It’s just the sort of thing she’d do,” Dino said sorrowfully.

“I don’t know what your current standing with the Catholic church is,” Stone said, “but this would be a good time to pray.”

Dino crossed himself. “Let’s see if anybody’s listening,” he said, moving his lips silently.

Something struck the whaler and shook it.

“Too late,” Stone said.