“I geev you enough gas to make Saint Simons Island,” the captain said, pointing toward the horizon.
“Fifteen, maybe twenty miles northwest.”
“Thank you, thank you very much. Muchas gracias, senor.” The man bowed and waved a thank-you.
The captain ordered one of his men to take a gas can aboard the sailboat. The man went below and
emerged a few minutes later with a ten-gallon can in hand. He and one of the other crewmen
scrambled aboard the sailboat.
The captain and the mate watched from aboard the trawler.
“Messin? with trouble,” the black mate mumbled.
“No problem,” said the captain.
The two crewmen had not quite reached the stem tanks of the sailboat when the hatch to the cabin
suddenly slid back and another man jumped on deck from below. He was holding a submachine gun.
The mate uttered an oath and reached for the pistol in his belt but he was too late. The man with the
machine gun raked the deck and bridge of the trawler.
Bdddddddddddddt...
P,dddddddddddddd...
The windshield of the captain?s cabin exploded, showering glass across the deck. The first burst blew
away the captain?s chest. He flew backward through the door and landed on his back on the bridge.
His foot twitched violently for a few seconds before he died.
The second burst ripped into the mate as he clawed under his coat for the .38. It lifted him high in the
air, twisted him around, and tossed him halfway across the deck. He fell like an empty sack, face
down, most of his head blown away.
The remaining two crew members, the ones who had boarded the sailboat, turned wild-eyed toward
the gunner. The shirtless man stabbed one of them in the chest with a bowie knife. He fell across the
stern, babbling incoherently. The man with the submachine gun fired a burst into the chest of the last
crewman, who dropped the gas can and flipped backward over the railing into the sea.
The shirtless man pulled his knife free, cleaned the blade on the dead man?s pants, and tossed his
victim overboard.
The shooter sent another burst into the light and it exploded into darkness.
