now, with a dead man on the floor beside her, it terrified her.
Looking again at Rassoulis's body, a sudden realization hit her: that she might very well die here.
And in that instant, she thought of her daughter, and wondered if she would ever see her again.
***
Reilly snapped backward as Rassoulis's voice disappeared and the radio's speaker erupted into a loud, static hiss. A shiver of dread raced down his spine. He thought he'd heard what sounded like a gunshot through the radio, but he couldn't be sure.
'Captain? Tess? Anyone?'
There was no answer.
He turned to the radioman beside him, who was already fiddling with the console's controls, shaking his head and reporting back to the skipper in Turkish.
'The signal's gone,' Karakas confirmed. 'It looks like they've heard all they warn to hear.'
Reilly stared ahead angrily out through the whirling windscreen wipers that did nothing to improve 181
the visibility. The Karadeniz was straining hard, battling the increasingly ferocious waves. All of the chatter on the bridge was in Turkish, but Reilly picked up that the gunboat crew seemed to be more focused on the raging sea than on the other boat, which still appeared to be stationary.
Although the Savarona was now theoretically in visual range, the lashing rain and the high seas meant that it came into view only every now and again, as the surging swell beneath both boats peaked simultaneously. As Reilly caught a glimpse of it, all that he could make out was a blurred distant shape. He felt a fist swell in his throat as he thought of Tess being out there on the battered vessel.
Reilly saw Karakas and the first officer exchange a few clipped words, then the skipper turned to De Angelis, deep ridges of concern lining his leathery forehead. 'This is getting out of hand. The wind's almost at fifty knots, and, in these conditions, there isn't much we can do about forcing them to follow us.'
De Angelis seemed strangely unfazed. 'As long as they're out there, we keep going.'
The skipper breathed heavily. His eyes darted to Reilly, looking for some insight into De Angelis's state of mind but not finding any. 'I don't think we should stay out here much longer,' he stated flatly. 'It isn't safe anymore.'
De Angelis turned to face him. 'What's the matter,' he said indignantly, 'can't you handle a few waves?' He jabbed an angry finger toward the Savarona. 'I don't see them turning tail and running.
They're clearly not afraid to be out here.' His mouth twisted oddly. 'Are you?'
Reilly watched as Karakas stood there, his pulse visibly quickening at the taunt. The skipper glowered at the monsignor before barking some orders at his nervous first officer. De Angelis nodded, shot a quick glance at Plunkett, and turned to stare ahead, and, just from his profile, Reilly could tell that the monsignor was grimly pleased.
***
Tess stood next to Vance, staring out, the spray raking the windshield like buckshot as rainsqualls hurled themselves at the wheelhouse from all directions. Great patches of foam were blowing in dense white streaks all around them, and the Savarond's decks were awash with water.
And then they appeared.
Three orange lift bags, off to the boat's starboard side, thrusting out of the water like breaching whales.
Tess's eyes strained, trying to cut through the lashings of rain, and then she spotted it, a large, dark balk of rounded timber bobbing between the floaters. Despite the wear of centuries, it was unmistakably carved in the shape of a bird and strongly evocative of its former glory.
She glanced at Vance and saw his face light up. For the briefest of moments, she felt a sudden thrill, a surge of excitement that eclipsed all the dread and horror she'd been feeling.
And then it all came rushing back.
'Get the divers in,' Vance yelled at the first mate, who was tending to the helmsman's bloodied cheek. Seeing the hesitation in the man's eyes, Vance extended his arm and thrust his handgun into the terrified man's face. 'Do it. We're not leaving here without it.'
Just then, a large wave slammed into the ship's stern. With the Savarona slewing heavily to one side, the helmsman staggered up to his feet and took over from the overwhelmed crewman, fighting the wheel to keep the ship from broaching and rolling over as he maneuvered it out of danger and closer to the floating lift bags. Expertly defying the waves, he maintained the battered vessel's position while two other crewmen got into gear and reluctantly dived off the deck, heavy recovery cables in their clutches.
Tess watched nervously as the divers struck their way to the rig, tense minutes ticking by agonizingly before a glimpse of a thumbs-up signaled their success. The first mate then hit a switch, and, out on deck, the winch cranked noisily to life, straining against the roll of the ship and the pounding of the waves. The figurehead, still harnessed to the lift bags, rose out of the foaming water and swung over, headed for the ship's waiting deck.
Vance suddenly frowned, his attention gripped by something beyond the suspended rig. Attal's face brightened as he gripped Tess's arm and nodded in the same direction, toward the west. She glanced beyond the bow and saw a ghostly shape in the distance. It was the Karadeniz, straining against the crushing waves and bearing down on them.
Vance spun angrily to the helmsman. 'Get us out of here,' he ordered, waving his handgun furiously.
Streaks of sweat tinged with blood streaked down the helmsman's face as he struggled to keep the ship from turning broadside to the waves. 'We have to recover the divers first,' he protested.
'Leave them,' Vance roared. 'The patrol boat will pick them up. It'll help delay them.'
The helmsman's eyes were darting around, taking in the wind readings on the weather radar. He pointed toward the Karadeniz. 'The only way out of this storm is toward them.'
'No. We can't go that way,' Vance shouted.
Tess watched the Karadeniz inch closer and turned to Vance. 'Please, Bill. It's over. They have us surrounded, and, if we don't get out of here now, the storm's going to kill us all.'
Vance flashed her a silencing glare, then shot anxious glances out the windshield and down at the weather radar. His eyes turned to ice. 'South,' he barked to the helmsman. 'Take us south.'
The helmsman's eyes rocketed wide, as if he'd been punched in the gut. 'South? That's right into the storm,' he countered. 'You're insane.'
Vance shoved his gun into the face of the hesitating man and, without warning, squeezed the trigger, nudging the gun slightly off to one side just as it erupted. The bullet just missed the helmsman and smashed into a bulkhead behind him. Vance shot a quick, threatening glance at the others on the bridge before shoving his handgun back into the shell-shocked man's face. 'You can take your chances with the waves ... or with a bullet. It's your call.'
The helmsman just stared back at him for a moment, flicked a quick eye over his instruments,
then spun the wheel and pushed forward on the throttles. The boat churned ahead, leaving the divers floundering helplessly in its wake, and plunged head-on into the wrath of the storm.
It was only when Vance finally took his eyes off the helmsman that he noticed Tess was gone.
Chapter 77
On the bridge of the Karadeniz, De Angelis stared through the Fu-jinon marine binoculars in furious disbelief.
'They've got it,' he said through clenched teeth. 'I don't believe it. They've managed to bring it up.'
Reilly had also spotted it, and a ripple of concern raced down his spine. So it was all true after all.
There it was, plucked out of the abyss after hundreds of years by one man's unwavering tenacity.
Tess. What have you done?
And with a reeling horror, he knew De Angelis would stop at nothing now.
The first officer, standing next to them, also had his eyes peeled on the dive boat but had other concerns. 'They're heading south. They're abandoning the divers.'
As soon as he heard that, Karakas began snapping orders. Instantly, a siren blasted, followed by rapid-fire commands over the gunboat's loudspeakers. Divers began suiting up immediately, while out on deck, crewmen hastily readied one of the patrol boat's inflatable craft.
De Angelis watched the frenzied activity with utter disbelief. 'Forget the damn divers,' he barked, pointing
