The Nemesis Origin

XIV

Ethan grabbed Lucy’s shoulder and pointed at the onrushing jet-skis before he pushed her upwards towards the shadowy hull of the Jest above them. He saw the panicked look on Lucy’s face as she realized that they were being pursued, but she obeyed instantly and headed towards the boat as Ethan turned to confront the machines.

Each was powered by two small motors that left a stream of bubbles behind the vehicles, and they were fronted with a Perspex bow-shield behind which the men huddled as they spread out. Ethan knew at a glance that he had no chance of defeating the three without first taking control of one of the jet-skis, and he glanced briefly at Lucy and judged the distance between her, their boat and the onrushing machines. Confident that she could reach the boat before the machines reached her, Ethan swam immediately for the shallow water atop the monument. Just a few fathoms deep, the shallow water would take the advantage away from the machines and give it to Ethan as they would not be able to climb and dive faster than he could and would be limited in their ability to attack all at once.

Ethan kicked for the temple, keeping an eye open to his left as the machines rushed in. One of the men aimed a wicked harpoon and fired, the projectile rocketing toward Ethan and leaving a thin swirling stream of bubbles behind it. Ethan rolled and turned head-on towards the projectile to minimise his profile and the harpoon flashed by scant inches from his right shoulder, close enough that he felt the turbulence of its passing ripple against his wetsuit.

Ethan reached the top of the temple and turned to see the three jet-skis fan out, one to each side of him as the centre machine rushed headlong toward him. The man in control of it aimed his harpoon and Ethan knew immediately that he would wait until the last minute to be sure of a certain hit before he fired. Ethan reached down to his belt and unclipped his oxygen tank as he faced toward the onrushing jet-ski, waiting for the operator to fire the weapon at him. The machine loomed larger and larger, and he could hear the whirring of the propellers inside the motor and could see the eyes of the man operating it behind the shield.

The harpoon fired in a cloud of bubbles and Ethan immediately dropped to his knees and crouched down as he slid the oxygen tank from his back. The harpoon rushed over his head as Ethan surged to his feet and swung the oxygen tank like a battering ram at the machine. The pilot tried desperately to turn aside but was far too slow to react as Ethan swung the oxygen tank over and down behind the shield to crash into the pilot’s head with a dull thump that smashed his forehead against the control column.

The jet-ski slammed into the surface of the temple, then twisted sideways in a cloud of dislodged sand as Ethan pulled his oxygen tank back on and strapped it in place as he swam towards the careering machine. The pilot was hanging limp in his seat, his his arms floating out to either side of his body as blood spilled from his forehead and stained the water with scarlet clouds.

Ethan grabbed the pilot and yanked him from the seat as he jumped onto the jet-ski and twisted the throttle grip. The machine surged away from the surface of the temple as the motors engaged and Ethan flew out over the deep blue abyss and dove downward as he searched for the other two vehicles.

He saw them immediately as they rushed in toward him, both of their operators moving in for the kill. Ethan kept diving as he made an effort to draw them away from Jest, one eye on his depth gauge. As he dove away he spotted the silvery glint of an expended harpoon lying on one of the narrow shelves of the monument. Ethan turned his jet-ski and descended alongside the shelf, ancient carved stone flashing by as he reached out with one hand and grabbed the harpoon before turning away from the monument and descending further. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the remaining two jet-skis still pursuing him, both of them aiming harpoons at him but too far out of range to shoot.

He twisted the controls of the jet-ski and it turned sharply to head back towards the two pursuing vehicles. Ethan tucked down behind the bow shield to prevent them from firing their harpoons at him but he knew as soon as he had passed they would probably fire over their shoulders in an attempt to injure him. But Ethan had no intention of letting them go by without further evening the odds.

The two vehicles spread apart, aiming to pass either side of him so that one or other of his assailants could take a perfect shot. Ethan waited until the last moment before he turned his machine to the right, gambling that the man on his left was likely right-handed and would thus be forced to take a more complicated shot over his left forearm where the protective screen would get in his way. Ethan aimed towards the remaining vehicle and banked his own machine hard over so that its hull protected him from being shot at close range.

As the jet-ski passed by Ethan stuck his hand out with the harpoon pointing in the same direction as he was travelling and shoved it directly down into the vehicle’s starboard turbine as he snatched his hand away. He heard a muted clattering sound as he saw the harpoon fired from the other vehicle flash by just behind and above him. Ethan grabbed his controls and turned to pursue the expended harpoon and he glanced over his shoulder to see the damaged jet-ski veering away in a tight turn as its pilot fought for control.

Above them against the shimmering surface of the ocean, Ethan glimpsed the shape of a hammerhead shark as it coasted into the cloud of blood swirling near the surface, two more joining it as they closed in on the unconscious pilot’s body.

Ethan dove after the descending harpoon and managed to snatch it in his hand as he turned back towards the remaining undamaged jet-ski. From the corner of his eyes he saw Jest’s anchor being pulled up and he knew that Lucy must now be safely aboard. The remaining jet-ski turned towards him once more, the pilot’s harpoon again reloaded as he accelerated towards Ethan at maximum velocity.

Ethan glanced at the damaged jet-ski and saw that the pilot had shut down the blocked turbine and was now turning back towards the fight. Ethan looked at the boat above and decided to take his chance. The onrushing vehicle loomed in his vision and Ethan knew that the pilot was seeking merely to maintain his attention so that his companion could close in for the kill.

Ethan held onto the controls as lightly as he could and waited. The onrushing machine loomed up and he saw the pilot’s eyes widen in shock as he realized that Ethan was not going to break off. The pilot yanked his controls to one side but Ethan simply turned to match his attacker’s course, and at the last moment Ethan pushed up and away from the jet-ski and let go of the controls. Freed of his body weight and with the passing water now dragging Ethan away, the jet-ski continued on its course for a split second before it smashed into the other machine with a cracking sound of crumpling plastic and metal as the two vehicles collided at near maximum velocity.

The pilot doubled over as the two machines spun and smashed together, the bow of Ethan’s jet-ski plunging into the pilot’s side and smashing him from his seat. The pilot’s oxygen mouthpiece and mask were ripped from his face by the force of the impact and he tumbled helplessly in the abyss, a spiralling trail of glistening bubbles behind him.

Ethan looked up and saw the sharks now tearing in a frenzy at the injured pilot’s body, a rapidly expanding crimson cloud reducing visibility at the surface. Ethan kicked off as hard as he could toward the murky shape of Jest’s hull. He reached down once again and unclipped his oxygen tank as he looked down and to his right and saw the damaged jet-ski struggling to climb towards him, its weight and that of its driver too much for the single engine. Ethan shrugged off his oxygen tank, took a last deep breath from its contents, then pulled the mouthpiece out and shoved the oxygen tank in the direction of the pursuing machine.

Freed of the extra weight Ethan began ascending rapidly towards the surface of the nearby boat, and he looked down to see the damage jet-ski swerve to avoid the tumbling oxygen tank, slowed further by the obstacle in its path before it vanished as Ethan ascended through the gruesome cloud of blood tainting the water.

To his right he saw the hammerheads thrashing around the corpse of the diver, now a shredded mess of rubber, blood and bone, the sharks entirely consumed by their feeding frenzy. Ethan looked up and saw Jest looming above him and moments later he burst onto the surface and kicked away for the boat.

‘Ethan!’

He heard Lucy cry out as he swam towards the boat and heard its engine growling as it moved toward him. Ishira was at the controls as Michael reached out with one hand toward Ethan. Ethan swam as close to the boat as he dared in the crashing waves and reached out to grab Michael’s hand as with the other he grasped the side of the boat and began hauling himself aboard.

Lucy helped as Ethan rolled onto the deck and pulled off his mask.

‘Get us out of here,’ Ethan grasped as he fought to remove his flippers.

‘It’s not just divers,’ Michael said as he pointed out across the ocean.

Ethan looked to his right and saw a speedboat rushing toward them, the sleek hull crashing through the waves.

‘Who the hell are these people?’

‘How about we have this chat later and concentrate on staying alive?!’ Michael suggested as he turned and grabbed a rifle from its case and handed it to Ethan.

‘Incoming!’ Ishira yelled.

Ethan saw the speedboat rushing toward their port hull at full throttle, two men with rifles hanging over the hull and aiming in his direction.

‘Get down!’

Ethan hurled himself flat onto the deck, his fingers instinctively finding the rifle’s safety catch and trigger in unison with the same fluidity he had once possessed as a Marine fighting in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora caves. The weapon came up into his shoulder even as he saw the first burst of muzzle flash from their attackers’ weapons as they sprayed a lethal hail of automatic fire across the boat’s deck. Ethan, enveloped in a bubble of adrenalin fuelled silence, ignored the bullets that zipped and tore into the deck around him as he breathed slowly and took aim. A Marine instructor’s words drifted unbidden through his mind.

All the automatic fire in the world is useless against one well-placed round. Shoot slow son, and you’ll shoot sure.

The shooter raked the deck as the speedboat turned away at the last moment amid crashing surf and shining metal. Ethan’s breathing stopped for a single second as he squeezed the trigger once.

The round hit the shooter low in his belly as the speedboat raced past and bounced on the churning waves. Ethan saw the man’s mouth gape open in shock as he folded over at the waist, his legs crumpling beneath him as he collapsed onto the speedboat’s deck.

Ethan looked over the barrel of the rifle and saw at least three other men in the rear of the speedboat. He stood up and rushed to the bridge, keeping one eye on the speedboat as it circled out for another pass. The adrenaline was pumping through his veins now like a freight train powering through the night as he leapt up the steps two at a time and pointed at their attackers.

‘Turn the boat around,’ he ordered Ishira. ‘Head straight for them.’

‘We can’t fight them!’

‘We sure as hell can’t outrun them,’ Ethan snapped back. He glanced out of the bridge windows to see the speedboat racing toward them again. ‘Take them down the left side!’ Ethan shouted as he jumped back down to the deck.

Ethan ran low to the stern of the boat, sliding onto his belly and aiming across the port stern. A crackle of gunfire snapped across the wind as Ethan slowed his breathing. The speedboat soared past, two men firing their weapons from the hip with aimless abandon in the hopes of catching a lucky hit. A salvo of bullets splintered Jest’s hull close to Ethan’s shoulder and showered him with debris.

As the boat thundered by Ethan aimed at one of the shooters, taking advantage of the low aspect movement now that the speedboat was moving almost directly away from him. Despite the pitching of the boats across the waves, the target was easier to track. Ethan held his breath and fired two rounds, double-tapping the trigger as he aimed for the man’s torso.

The first round missed, hitting the deck low and to the man’s left, but the second round hit him straight through the neck, a fine mist of blood spraying into the wind as the man was hurled backwards to sprawl on the deck in a tangle of limbs and spilled blood.

Ethan rolled over and shouted to Michael above the wind.

‘Turn her around!’

Michael responded without argument this time, the boat wheeling around on the churning surface of the ocean as she chugged her way back toward their attackers.

Lucy struggled across the heaving deck and hurled herself down alongside Ethan.

‘We can’t keep this up forever,’ she said. ‘Sooner or later one of us is going to get hit!’

‘They’re coming back!’ Michael shouted as the speedboat suddenly turned hard into them and rushed head-on once again.

Ethan glanced at the towering cliffs nearby and then at the surface of the ocean ahead. The waves were crashing across rock features just below the surface, and to his amazement he realized that the Yonaguni formation was large enough to breach the surface, that it was not entirely submerged.

‘Run away from them! Bring them down the port side!’ Ethan shouted.

‘I thought you told me not to run away?!’ Michael yelled back.

‘Do it, and let them see you do it!’

Ethan shifted his position slightly and aimed his rifle aft as he heard the speedboat’s powerful engines growling and the familiar rattle of gunfire as the men aboard opened up once again. The shots went wide and high, the speedboat too far away for accurate shooting and its motion through the waves spoiling their aim.

Michael threw the throttles wide open as he aimed for the rocks jutting from the ocean surface as Ethan fired two or three shots in the general direction of the speedboat and then tossed the rifle down and ran to the wheel house.

‘Don’t turn until I tell you!’ Ethan shouted above the wind.

‘We’ll hit the rocks, and they’re closing on us!’

‘Stay on course!’ Ethan roared as he looked back and saw the speedboat rushing toward them. ‘Come right, five degrees!’

Michael responded immediately, drawing the speedboat in toward Jest’s port hull, the speedboat pilot aiming for a close pass as he accelerated toward them. Ethan looked over his shoulder and saw the rocks looming large before them.

‘We’ll breach our hull!’ Michael shouted.

‘Stay on course!’

The speedboat thundered toward them, the gunmen aboard struggling to shoot their automatic rifles as the boat thumped and bounced on the waves. Ethan saw the reefs ahead, white water smashing into the ancient rocks, and then he saw the gunmen take aim as the speedboat roared alongside them.

‘Now!’ Ethan yelled as he reached past Michael and hauled the throttle closed.

The boat heaved in the waves as the thrust from its engine vanished and it heeled violently to starboard as Michael spun the wheel and ducked down as a rattle of gunfire crackled out above the roar of the speedboat’s engines.

The speedboat thundered by and hurled a wall of spray up against Jest as the gunshots flew wildly past the decks, barely a single round impacting the boat. Ethan watched as the sleek vessel crashed past them and then smashed into the reefs with a crash of shattered fibreglass and rending metal.

The hull shattered with a grinding metallic roar that Ethan could hear even above the labouring engines. The crew were hurled into the waves as the pilot’s face smashed into the windscreen with a dull thump and a puff of windswept blood. The speedboat’s hull stripped away as it careered over the rocks and its engines were ripped from their mounts. Ethan saw a thick cloud of black smoke billow from both of the speedboat’s engines as limp bodies toppled over the taff-rail into the ocean in a tangle of flailing limbs. The speedboat tumbled off the far side of the reef and began turning in lazy circles on the surface of the water, spitting flames that began to burn their way along the hull until it slowly began to sink beneath the waves.

‘That’ll do,’ Ethan smiled grimly as he lowered the rifle and stood up.

In the churning water, Ethan saw more hammerheads circling the bloodied stain where the speedboat had sunk.

Ishira began guiding the boat to shore as Lucy, clearly shaken by the encounter, moved to Ethan’s side.

‘Who are they? What do they want with us?’

‘I don’t know,’ Ethan admitted. ‘You get what you needed?’

Lucy nodded. ‘That icon we found engraved in the rocks proves that we’re on the right tracks, but this monument is simply a natural rock foundation that people later modified and built upon. Any artefacts that may have been nearby would almost certainly have decayed or been washed away.’

Ethan rubbed his temples. ‘Well I hope you have a good Plan B, because there’s no way we can stay here. They’re on to us now and we need to disappear as fast as we can.’

‘I’m all in favour of that,’ Michael muttered from the wheelhouse.

‘I’ll book a flight as soon as we get to our hotel,’ Lucy said.

‘We’re not going to the hotel,’ Ethan insisted. ‘If they found us out out here they’ll probably be waiting for us at the hotel. Where is it that you need to go next?’

Lucy sat down and pulled a laminated map from her kit that she opened out on the deck at her feet.

‘I don’t know for sure,’ she admitted, ‘but all we can do is try another site of a similar age. The icon on Yonaguni’s altar was facing east, but the altar itself was facing south-west, and the direction of sacred altars and images was important to ancient cultures.’ Lucy took a pen and sketched a line roughly heading south west from Yonaguni and out across the Malay. ‘The oldest known ruins that I can be sure rival Yonaguni in age are to be found here.’ She pointed at a spot on the map to their south west. ‘The icon at Yonaguni points out over the Pacific Ocean to nowhere, but the altar points toward this site.’

‘Mahendraparvata, Cambodia,’ Ethan read from the map. ‘What’s there?’

‘An ancient city, much older than the more famous Angkor Wat. It was only found a few years ago and I’m pretty certain that if we found that sun icon here, we’ll find it there. If we don’t, then the trail’s already gone cold.’

Ethan surveyed the coastline for a few moments before he made a decision.

‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do. We need to find a way to get to Indonesia, and from there I can find us a passage to Cambodia that won’t involve passports.’

‘How on earth are you going to do that?’

‘I do have friends too, y’know.’