“And I might know where that is,” Atticus said.
Selena turned and saw him standing in the doorway. Decker and Riley were right behind him.
“Dad!” she cried out and rushed to him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, darling.” He wrapped his arms around her and they hugged for a second. “Totally fine. Danvers just wanted me to assist him in his translation of the glyphs on the capstone.”
“And the black eye?” she asked.
“I politely declined his offer of employment, at least at first.”
She stifled a laugh, but then grew serious. “How could you be so stupid? He might have killed you!”
“He’s always stupid!” Decker said.
“Hey! And I thought you were a friend…”
“What’s that noise?” Selena asked.
Decker frowned. “What noise?”
“Like an engine,” she said.
Riley looked through the porthole and smacked his fist against the bulkhead. “Bugger it! It’s the Holcan’s tender. They’re getting away with the capstone!”
34
When they got on deck it was already too late. The ship’s powerful tender was racing away from the yacht, complete with the capstone and Professor Diaz.
“To the bridge!” Decker said.
They followed him up to the top deck and quickly reached the yacht’s nerve center. Cade fired up the engine and used the wheel to turn the boat’s bow away from a mooring pole, rapidly taking the yacht out into the middle of the marina. The Snake King and his men were already nearing the main channel. Now they turned and fired on the Holcan.
Bullets ripped into the yacht’s fiber-glass hull and punched holes in the windows of the wheelhouse. Cade ducked down behind the wheel and the rest of the Avalon crew dived to the floor and rolled away from the shattered glass spraying all over the bridge. Outside on the jetty, the man they had seen with the marlin turned to flee to the shore, but was cut to ribbons by their rounds. He fell dead into the churned up water.
Cade steered the yacht into a swerving pattern to evade as much of the fire as possible, but the heavy boat was easy to track by the men on the tender.
Decker scrambled to his feet and aimed his gun through the open window. He opened fire on the fleeing tender, aiming at the man at the helm. He missed, but hit one of the men firing off the stern. The wounded man crashed into the tender’s wake but the Snake King ordered the boat to continue at full speed.
“Don’t hit Diaz!” Selena said.
“I can see the damned capstone!” the American yelled.
“So near and yet so far,” said Riley, pulling up beside him as he smacked a fresh magazine into the grip of his pistol. “Don’t worry, Cap – we’ll get it back!”
To their left, Selena was levelling her gun through the open window and taking a few pot shots of her own. “Missed.”
“You’ll get over it,” Riley said. “Especially when I teach you how to shoot straight.”
“Hey,” she shouted. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a very cheeky bastard?”
“I’ve heard it more than ‘good morning’, mate. Why?”
Selena laughed. “Maybe take it to heart?”
“And lose the magic that is me? I can’t deprive this world of that, mate. Never.”
Selena shook her head. “Can any of that magic actually stop Danvers from getting away with my capstone?”
“Our capstone,” Riley said.
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
Cade turned hard to port and the boat tipped. The momentum of the speed and turn made the crew tumble over to the side. Each grabbed something to hang onto. Atticus, from behind them on the soft seats, said, “I think I feel sick…”
“Hey!” Cade yelled. “My driving’s not that bad!”
Selena stifled a scream. “And would someone please just take another shot at those guys, they’re getting away!”
“It’s not that easy,” Decker said. “We could hit Diaz!”
“Then aim carefully!”
Decker raised his gun and focused. With the tender rapidly tearing away from them in the channel, he raised his gun into the aim and opened fire.
The first shot found its bloody mark. The first struck Diego Novarro in the head, sending him crashing off the side of the speeding tender. The second went off course and punched a neat hole in the gas tank, but failed to ignite the fuel.
“Damn it!” Decker said. “That’s what I was talking about. You know how lucky we are that thing didn’t explode?”
Gas started spilling out of the hole and running down into the water. How soon the tender ran out of fuel was anyone’s guess, but they couldn’t count on it. Decker knew firing again could ignite the spilled fuel, and if the boat blew up, not only would Diaz be dead but the heavy metal capstone would be on the sea floor within seconds.
“We’re running out of options!” Selena said.
Atticus covered his mouth with his hand. “Is there a sick bag anywhere?”
“We can still catch them in this thing, right?” Decker asked.
Cade nodded. “It’s faster than the tender, but much less manoeuvrable. If they continue north into Biscayne Bay they could lose us around some of the artificial islands there.”
“That’s not going to happen though, right?” Selena asked.
“Not if I can help it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And can you help it?”
“Watch and learn, Professor Moore!”
She smirked at him, but her father turned in his head. “Did someone say my name in vain?”
“I was talking to the other Professor Moore,” he said. “Junior.”
“I am no one’s junior!”
Cade shrugged. “Anyway you like it, darlin’.”
“And neither am I your….”
Cade spun the wheel and tipped the boat to starboard. Seaspray whipped up in foamy arcs as they ploughed over the tender’s wake. Selena tipped over and slid down to the floor.
“You did that on purpose!”
