She got back to her feet and pulled her top straight. “In that case, I forgive you.”
Cade shook his head and muttered something under his breath before spinning the wheel back around and teasing the throttles back a little to pull away from the wake.
“They’re getting even further away!” Riley shouted.
“Not on my watch,” Cade said.
It turned out Cade Thurman’s serious mode included the best yacht driving any of the Avalon crew had ever seen. He spun the wheel around and pushed the throttles forward with a cool efficiency before coming around behind the tender. Keeping its wake off to the portside, he powered the massive engines of the Holcan even harder and gave a loud whoop of joy as he punched the air.
“Damn it, I love this thing!”
“We’re gaining on them,” Atticus said, hanging on to the helm, his face turning green. “This is most exciting. I think I’m starting to love it too, even with the seasickness!”
Cade laughed. “You are gold dust, man. Twenty-four carat.”
“Don’t speak too soon,” Decker said. “Check out the chopper.”
Cade and the Avalon crew looked through the yacht’s shattered windshield and watched helplessly as a Bell 206 Long Ranger swooped out over the water and hovered above the tender. A rope ladder tumbled out of its side and the Snake King climbed up inside the cabin. Then Tarántula fired on the yacht as the Mercado brothers and Diablo tied the capstone to a hook-mounted hoist and winched it up inside the aircraft.
“Hurry, Cade!” Selena said. “We can still reach them in time!”
Now, the Mercado brothers forced Diaz up the rope ladder and followed him up. Next was Diablo. Tarántula was last, firing haphazardly on the yacht with one hand as he grabbed hold of the ladder. The chopper rose up into the air with him still at the bottom of the ladder, firing on them. Then it swooped down over the causeway and disappeared over Miami’s Upper East Side.
Inside the wheelhouse, Decker saw Cade slam his fist down on the helm and curse.
“We lost them!” Selena said.
Cade blew out a breath. “Sorry guys, I screwed up and let them get away.”
“No way, mate. A chopper? That’s just cheating,” Riley said.
Selena watched the Bell recede into the sky over Pelican Island, and with it, her hopes of retrieving the Xunantunich capstone. She wandered outside the bridge and slumped down against the bow rail and felt like crying. “It’s over.”
“Why is it over?” Atticus said, following her outside.
She turned to her father. “Sorry?”
He gave her a warm smile. “I asked why you said it was over.”
“Because Nate Sodding Danvers, the Snake King, just flew away with the capstone in a sodding helicopter and he still has a hostage! That’s the end of the chase, Dad! Unless this yacht is so fantastic it has special little wings as well?”
“But we don’t need to go after them, my dear!” he said.
All faces, inside and outside the bridge, turned to him, aghast.
“What?” Decker asked through the broken bridge house windshield.
Atticus shuffled his feet, color gradually returning to his face. “Well…”
Selena’s hands were on her hips again. This usually meant trouble. “Dad, why did you just say that?”
He scratched his head and looked sheepish. “Because I know where they’re going.”
Inside the bridge, Cade kicked the platform of the ship’s wheel and cursed. “If you know where they’re going, professor, why the hell did we just spend a half hour chasing them up and down Biscayne Bay and getting shot at?”
“I thought maybe it would be a better idea to bring them into custody or something. The sooner or better, as it were. They still have poor Salvador!”
Decker’s sigh was covered up by Riley’s loud, honest laugh. “Fucking fantastic,” the Aussie said. “I love it.”
“Into custody?” Cade said. “We’re not the coast guard.”
“But you were all having so much fun,” Atticus said. “I didn’t want to spoil it.”
“All right,” Decker said, unsure exactly what to say. “May I ask where they’re taking the capstone?”
“To New York City, of course!” Atticus said. “Danvers is under the impression the only way he can appease Huracan is by destroying the entire city.”
“New York,” Selena said. “I was afraid of that.”
“This is terrible,” said Decker. “There are nearly twenty million people living in New York!”
“You have some pretty crazy friends, Professor,” Cade said. “Snake kings, Hurricane gods… Jeez. And I thought my friends were nuts because they get smashed and go gator fishing.”
“Yes, it appears Danvers is quite out of his mind,” Atticus said. “Such a shame. He had such a brilliant mind, too.”
Decker put his gun in his holster and picked up his hat. Brushing it clean, he put it back on his head and sighed. “He might have had a brilliant mind once, Atticus, but he's well and truly out of it now. We have to stop him before he commits genocide.”
“How quickly can the Avalon get us up to New York City, Mitch?” Selena asked.
“Five or six hours.”
“Do you know where they’re going to set up the capstone in New York?” Riley asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Atticus said. “They’re planning on using somewhere called the Central Park Tower. Apparently, Danvers bought the penthouse suite there just so he could access the roof without hindrance.”
“Then we have a new mission,” Decker said. “We fly to New York and get to Central Park Tower as fast as possible.”
“But if they’re in a private jet they’ll be there in under two hours!” Cade said.
“Not exactly,” Decker said. “They have to get to an airfield first, then they have to land in an airport in New York. Allow an
