‘You have to promise them safe passage,’ Spinner said.
‘“Safe passage”—what does that even mean in such dangerous waters?’ Beckett said, toying with him for a moment, then: ‘Agreed.’ He turned to one of his men. ‘Sergeant, collect the prisoner.’
‘Spinner, don’t go!’ Will said fiercely.
‘I have to,’ Spinner said.
‘You can’t!’ Annalie cried.
‘I have no other choice,’ Spinner said. ‘Be safe. Take care of each other. I’m so proud of you both.’
Annalie threw herself at him, hugging him so tight she almost squeezed the breath out of him.
‘Time to go, Spinner,’ Beckett drawled.
‘I’m not giving up!’ Will said ferociously.
As an Admiralty inflatable came towards them, Will pushed the engine as hard as it would go and the Sunfish leapt forward.
‘This is pointless!’ Beckett shouted. ‘You can’t get away!’
‘You reckon?’ Will muttered.
‘Will, what are you doing?’ Spinner shouted.
‘Trust me,’ Will said. ‘Graham, where’s that spiky buoy?’
Graham, aloft, called, ‘Left!’
Will motored on, the Raptor coming up on them on one side, the inflatable swinging round to cover them on the other.
‘Stand down immediately or I will open fire!’ Beckett bellowed.
‘Come on…just a little bit further…’ Will muttered.
The inflatable broke off and swung away from them.
‘Will, stop! I think he really means it!’ Annalie cried.
‘It’s not worth it, Will!’ Spinner said.
Essie was standing in the bow. Suddenly she shrieked, ‘Will! Look out! There’s a mine dead ahead!’
‘No kidding,’ Will said, still not altering his course. ‘Are they still coming at us?’
‘I can see the guns. They’re about to fire!’ Pod shouted.
‘Will!’ Essie shouted. ‘You’re going to hit it!’
At the last possible moment, Will turned the wheel. The Sunfish skimmed dangerously close to the mine, their wake setting it bobbing vigorously.
The Raptor was close.
They heard the order: ‘Fire!’
And suddenly the world erupted in a blinding, roaring flash.
The Sundians
The Sunfish heeled over as if it had been swatted by a giant. Everyone was thrown to the deck. Essie almost fell overboard through the gap in the deck railing. Then the shockwave rolled away, the Sunfish righted herself, and they began to realise that perhaps they had not been blown up after all.
‘Did they hit us?’ Pod cried.
Will was the first to clamber to his feet. ‘No,’ he crowed. ‘We hit them!’
They turned to look at the astonishing sight. Smoke was pouring from a great hole in the Raptor’s armour plating. Alarms and sirens were blaring and the crew was scrambling to save the ship.
‘Did you just lead them into a mine?’ Pod cried.
Will grinned. Pod high-fived him.
Spinner was aghast. ‘Don’t ever do anything like that again,’ he said, white-faced.
‘We should get out of here,’ Essie said.
‘Shouldn’t we stop and render assistance?’ Annalie asked, looking at the Raptor uncomfortably.
‘Are you nuts?’ Will said. He grabbed the wheel and set sail once again.
‘Other buoy just ahead,’ Graham reported.
Will sailed on while the others watched the Raptor dropping behind. He watched the signal buoy go past with pleasure. ‘That’s it,’ he called, ‘we’re in international waters.’
‘And look!’ Pod cried. ‘Here come the Sundians!’
Coming up from the south, astonishingly fast, was another vessel. It was just as big as the Admiralty ship, but it travelled under a kind of sail that was quite unlike anything Will had ever seen before. Ignoring the Sunfish, it was making directly for the Raptor.
An announcement boomed across the water. ‘Attention unauthorised warship. You are in Sundian waters. Stand down immediately or face the consequences.’
‘I don’t reckon they’re going anywhere,’ Will chortled.
He set sail for the south. They watched the Sundian ship sail past them, heading north. A Sundian coastguard officer in a dazzling white uniform looked at them through binoculars, then a voice came through a loudhailer: ‘All right down there?’
Will gave them a cheery wave while Annalie took down the distress signal.
‘I hope they don’t notice we’re not Sundian,’ Annalie said.
‘They’ve got bigger fish to fry,’ Will said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
Will kept sailing south while the others watched the action from the stern.
‘The Admiralty boat isn’t going anywhere,’ Essie reported. ‘The two ships are right alongside each other now. The Sundians have small boats in the water…I think they’re boarding the Admiralty ship…I’m losing them over the horizon now.’
‘Let’s hope the Sundians sink them,’ Will said venomously.
‘Not Cherry,’ Annalie said.
‘Or the rest of the crew,’ Essie said.
‘Okay, just Beckett then.’
‘Do you reckon the Sundians can take them?’ Pod asked.
The two ships had now vanished almost entirely over the horizon.
‘’Course,’ Will said. ‘Now that we’ve softened them up.’
The last leg
They did not see either of the two ships again. But even now, their troubles were not over.
Their course took them into the South Outer Ocean, which was known for the ferocity of its storms. A week into their journey, they were caught in a huge, horrible storm that battered and tossed the Sunfish for a day and a half. They battened down and prepared to ride it out, but they hadn’t reckoned on the damage done by the Raptor’s grappling hook. It had ripped away a section of the Sunfish’s railing and a small portion of the deck too; Will had patched the hole in the deck, but the repair wasn’t strong enough to keep out a storm. Waves pounded the boat, surging repeatedly over the deck until the patch washed away, and then they kept beating at the hole, sending water pouring in below decks, eating away at the structural integrity of the boat. They did what they could: they manned the pumps and they rode out the storm; but when it finally passed, they found that an even bigger section of the deck had broken away and the stormwater had worked its way into the freshwater storage tanks in the hull.
Will built a solar still and they rigged up a device for catching rainwater. TheSunfish sailed on. But the water kept coming in. There were leaks they couldn’t find or plug. They had all the pumps going all
