The Athena Project

CHAPTER 9

Casey and Cooper slammed into the water feetfirst. When they broke the surface, they could see Megan keeping the security men in the palazzo pinned down with a steady stream of suppressed fire from her LaRue OBR. Chunks of stone from the library window casing were raining down into the canal.

No sooner had Casey and Cooper reached Bianchi than Julie Ericsson roared down the canal and brought her Zodiac with its enormous engine to a stop between the palazzo and her teammates.

“Move! Move! Move!” she yelled as she raised a suppressed H &K MP7 to help take out any hostiles Rhodes might not be able to see.

Cooper climbed over the side and into the boat. Righting herself, she reached down to help Casey, who was holding Bianchi, and pull him out of the water. The man had landed badly and had been knocked unconscious.

Neither of the women bothered to look up to see what was going on with the arms dealer’s security men. That was what Ericsson and Rhodes were supposed to do, and Casey and Cooper trusted them implicitly. All of their actions were synchronized. Even in the heat of battle, they never second-guessed their teammates.

Rhodes kept pounding away at the library window and Ericsson engaged two additional targets who had popped out of the front door with shotguns. She managed to nail them both before they could pull their triggers.

Cooper planted her feet and gave Bianchi once last tug, which pulled him the rest of the way into the boat. This coincided with Rhodes’s running out of ammo and needing to do a magazine change, which meant the men in the library window were free to engage.

“Go! Now!” yelled Casey from the water as she grabbed the rope that was threaded along the exterior of the Zodiac.

Ericsson tossed Cooper the MP7 and slammed the throttle all the way to the stop.

The powerful black Zodiac reared up and raced forward as Alex Cooper drilled all of the third-story windows with rapid three-round bursts.

As they sped down the canal, Casey used her exceptionally strong arms to pull herself up and into the boat.

“We’re clear,” said Ericsson over the radio to Rhodes. “At the bridge in ninety seconds.”

“Roger that,” said Megan, who had already zipped up her red-hot rifle and was exiting the apartment across the canal from Bianchi’s palazzo.

Casey reached over and checked Bianchi’s pulse.

“Is he alive?” Cooper screamed above the roar of the engine.

Casey flashed a thumbs-up and was about to say something when she noticed a boat speeding down the canal in their direction. “Contact!” she yelled.

Ericsson turned and looked over her shoulder. Closing in on them was a black Donzi speedboat. “Everybody hold on,” she said.

Casey used one hand to hold on to the boat and the other to hold on to Bianchi. As she did, two shooters on the Donzi let loose with a loud barrage of fire.

“So much for them not wanting to injure their boss!” shouted Cooper as she returned fire. She had only gotten off two bursts when her MP7 ran dry.

“Magazine!” she called out.

Julie Ericsson pulled two from the bag next to her and handed them to Cooper. “I’m going to try to lose them!”

Cooper nodded as she grabbed the mags and reloaded.

Ericsson sped even faster, dodging gondolas and other Venetian water traffic. Terrified onlookers screamed as they watched an almost fatal collision between the Zodiac and a smaller utility boat that had pulled out of a side canal, not expecting such a rapidly moving craft.

While Ericsson had managed not to hit the small boat, the Donzi slammed right into it and kept going.

“I’m in place,” said Rhodes over the radio from her position at the Rialto Bridge.

“Sit tight!” Ericsson ordered. “We’ve got company.”

Cooper let loose with another round of fire from her MP7. None of the rounds seemed to be able to penetrate the Donzi’s windshield. “I can’t drill through their glass,” she shouted.

“Keep trying,” ordered Casey, who had her free arm wrapped around Bianchi’s torso to make sure he didn’t get pitched out of the boat with all the high-speed maneuvering they were doing.

Cooper ducked as another volley of bullets let loose from the men in the boat chasing them. Preparing to return fire, she was almost tossed from the Zodiac when Ericsson spun it hard to the left to avoid hitting yet another watercraft on the crowded canal.

Ericsson spun hard left again and sent their boat flying down a different, narrower canal. The powerful Donzi followed right behind, gaining on them.

“You really need to do something about these guys, Coop,” yelled Ericsson.

“I’m trying! The bullets are just bouncing off them.”

“Well, find a spot the bullets don’t bounce off.”

“Thanks, Jules. Great idea,” said Cooper as she raised her weapon and fired again.

Casey shook her head and called out to Ericsson, “We need to go back to the palazzo!”

Ericsson spun their boat to the side in order to miss hitting a trio of gondolas. “Are you crazy?”

“It’s the only way we can get rid of that boat behind us. We’ll blow the scooters.”

Blasting down another canal, the women had to duck as they went under an extremely low bridge. Ericsson thought for sure the Donzi wouldn’t even attempt it, but she watched in amazement as sparks literally flew as the boat scraped its way underneath.

“That might have weakened their windshield,” Ericsson called out to Cooper.

“I’m on it,” she replied, lifting her weapon and squeezing the trigger. Immediately, the men in the Donzi fired back, and Ericsson jerked the boat hard to the left and then back right just in time to keep their boat from being torn to shreds.

She removed a small black transmitter and handed it over to Casey. “Palazzo Bianchi, coming up!”

Casey wrapped her legs around Bianchi so she could have at least one hand free. Putting the tip of the antenna between her teeth, she extended it to its full length and then flipped the power button. “Whatever you do,” she ordered, “don’t slow down!”

“Roger that,” replied Ericsson.

“Okay, everybody hold on.”

Cooper lowered her weapon and grabbed hold of one of the Zodiac’s grips. Their boat skidded out into Bianchi’s canal and raced toward his palazzo. They didn’t need to look behind to know that Bianchi’s men were still on their tail.

“We’ve got men on the dock! Men on the dock!” Ericsson suddenly shouted as she saw that some of Bianchi’s security team had commandeered a boat that must have just arrived at the party.

Cooper leaned over the edge of the Zodiac and strafed the security team with a burst of full auto from her weapon. She succeeded in nailing two and sending the others leaping into the canal in a desperate attempt to evade harm. Little did they know that the water was now the most dangerous place of all.

Casey tightened her grip on the transmitter and made ready. The timing of what she was about to do had to be absolutely perfect. The Donzi was right behind them now; practically on top of them. As they drew even with the dock, she depressed the transmit switch and prayed to God she’d properly judged the distance. “Everyone down!”

As they passed the pier and drew even with the doors of Bianchi’s boat garage, Casey felt a sudden surge of panic that she had pressed the button too soon. She braced for the inevitable, but it didn’t come-at least not until they had sped past the palazzo entirely.

She turned her eyes from the houses alongside the canal to the Donzi barreling down on them from behind. It passed above the submerged scooters at exactly the right moment. Attached to the bow of each propulsion device was a classified, British-made BAE Systems “stonefish” mine meant to destroy any evidence that could point back to the team if the scooters had to be abandoned.

When the explosives detonated, the Donzi was right above them, and was tossed by the concussive pressure wave. They watched as the speedboat lost control and slammed bow-first into the next pier.

Cooper let out a cheer and flashed Casey a thumbs-up as Ericsson pointed the Zodiac toward the Rialto. Hailing Rhodes over the radio, she said, “Sixty seconds.”

“Roger that,” replied Megan.

Fifty-eight seconds later, they were at Venice’s historic Rialto Bridge. Ericsson slowed just enough for Rhodes to jump in. Already they could see blue flashing lights in both directions and hear the sirens of Venice police boats. They had Nino Bianchi, but their job was only half done. They still had to get him to the rendezvous point and hand him off. And to do that, they were going to have to completely expose themselves.