In the next moment it did.
Spearing around the back of the superyacht, the sleek, white craft made a beeline for them. Bodie also noticed that the superyacht was moving slowly, coming about so that it faced the coastguard vessel, and was edging forward, no doubt set on auto-pilot. The yacht would serve as a distraction.
Bodie climbed out of the sub and reached down to unclip the storage bin that contained their ore as he waited. Lucie was right behind him, Jemma still watching the coastguard.
The lights curved back around more quickly this time.
And stopped.
“Shit,” Jemma said. “They’ve seen us.”
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Bodie readied himself as the coastguard vessel started toward them with a roar. It wasn’t close, but its powerful engine note carried across the waters. Their own speedboat closed in at a quick rate of knots.
Yasmine flung it around at the base of the sub, flicking a spume of water up as she came to a halt. Bodie ducked into it, drenched, but scrambling away from the sub and jumping down into the boat. Lucie came next, Cassidy catching her, followed by Jemma.
“Get a move on. They’re closing.”
Yasmine threw the speedboat forward, opening the throttle. Jemma and Lucie fell into the back seats. Bodie was swept off his feet, hitting the deck with his spine, but managing to hold on to the storage box. As they raced away from the sub, the coastguard’s lights locked on to them.
They sped around the front end of the Dooley, which continued its slow and steady eastward course. Yasmine snuck the boat back in the Dooley’s wake, giving their pursuers more problems.
Bodie struggled upright, clutching the storage bin, and put his back to one of the leather seats. The prow flew up over a wave. Bodie saw sky and then sea and didn’t dare move again in case he was flung from the boat.
The coastguard could barely keep up, their vessel already falling back. But the shore was still some distance away. Bodie knew they weren’t safe yet, as the authorities would most likely have a reception committee awaiting them. As the minutes passed, and they eased ahead in the pursuit, he yelled at Yasmine.
“They’ll be expecting us to go for Casablanca,” he said. “That’s where the boat was registered and stolen from.”
Yasmine nodded at the wheel as her hair streamed backward. “I’ll power ahead and then drift down toward Agadir. Don’t worry, the satnav’s first class on this thing.”
Bodie thanked the god of expensive boats. The wealthy really did have everything at their fingertips, it seemed and, tonight, they couldn’t have achieved what they had without millions of dollars’ worth of vessel. As the ocean smoothed out, he managed to shuffle around the slick deck.
“You two still with us?”
Both Lucie and Jemma nodded, their hair wet, faces coated with seawater. Cassidy’s urgent voice cut through the air. “Better buckle up, ladies,” she said. “It’s gonna get choppier as we near the bay.”
Bodie climbed into a seat and threw a seatbelt around his waist. The western horizon, dead ahead, was a blur of curves and lights, the port of Agadir standing out vibrantly. Yasmine guided the boat toward a bay as they all scanned warily left and right for the coastguard.
“We’ve done it,” Bodie said. “Just guide—”
Once more, a blinding light shot out of the dark, illuminating their boat. It came from a vessel floating inside the bay, sitting shrouded in dark, just waiting... waiting for them.
“That’s twice, Bodie,” Jemma complained, “You and your fucking comments.”
“Hey, I—”
Yasmine gunned the boat, slamming him back into his seat. The prow lifted, the engines roaring. There was a responding roar from the other craft as the coastguard vessel shot forward. Yasmine threw their boat sideways, angling away from the shore but still following the coastline.
“Gotta make this quick,” Bodie yelled. “It’s their radios that’re killing us.”
Yasmine nodded, understanding, and opened the throttle to its fullest. The speedboat skipped along the tops of the waves for several moments, pulling away from their pursuers.
The coastguard vessel’s occupants decided light and noise would help and turned on its sirens whilst trying to flood their vessel with their high beams, but Yasmine was quicker than they imagined.
The speedboat smashed its way through the next ten minutes of waves, the journey intensely uncomfortable, until they could take no more. Finally, Yasmine aimed it toward shore, surfing in on a crest of a wave toward a wide sandy beach.
The coastguard were far behind, just a speck in the water now. Bodie was once again grateful for superyachts and the high-powered speedboats they contained.
“Out.” Yasmine swept the boat around in the shallows, as close to shore as she dared. Bodie saw a wide beach and a thirty-foot range of hills bordering it. Hills with plenty of passes and studded by trees. They weren’t safe yet, but they could make this work.
Jumping clear of the boat, landing in water, they sloshed their way to the beach and then across it, not worrying too much about leaving footprints at this point. The boat would highlight their position anyway.
Bodie stared at the rolling hills ahead. “Not far now,” he said, breathing heavily. It felt as though they’d put everything they had into extracting the third ore sample, and they’d escaped capture by the barest breath of air.
“When we get clear,” Lucie said, panting. “It’ll be on to the fourth shrine and that one, my friends, is more than vile.”
Bodie tried not to think about it.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Heidi Moneymaker stared out the dirty car window as she, Pang and Butcher staked out the address they’d been given in Bologna. The three-story office
