“Are you all right?”
“The back of my chair sacrificed itself for me.” The thick leather had absorbed three rounds. “How about you?”
“Not a scratch.”
Juan bent down and saw that Reed had lost consciousness during the battle.
“How does he look?” Max asked.
“Not good.”
“I’m giving it all she’s got, but if the engines seize up, we’ll have to wait for rescue.”
“Reed doesn’t have that much time. Try the radio again.”
The whine was gone. They were out of range of the jammer. Max sent a distress call out on the emergency band. The reply surprised both of them.
“Max, it’s Linda. Are you guys okay?”
“Juan and I are fine, but we’ve got a serious injury on board.”
“We left port fifteen minutes ago to come get you.” She didn’t have to say that the Oregon located them by homing in on their subdermal tracking beacons, which were inserted into the thigh of every crew member. “I’ve got the RHIB in the water. You should see it any minute.”
Juan and Max looked at each other with concern. If the Oregon had left port so abruptly, there must be more going on than they were being told, but there could be no discussion about it on an open line.
“Copy, Linda. We’ll fill each other in when we see you. Tell Julia to be ready for the casualty.”
“Understood. Over and out.”
The rigid-hulled inflatable boat raced toward them, closing the distance in a hurry. When it pulled alongside, Max shut down the Cast Away’s coughing engines.
MacD and Trono vaulted onto the fishing charter.
“Looks like you saw some action, Chairman,” MacD said as he surveyed the damage.
“We did, but you should see the other guys.”
“I think we can,” Trono said, pointing at a trail of smoke nearing the shore. “Is that them?”
Juan nodded. “Is Gomez getting the chopper ready?”
“Since we were in port, he was doing routine maintenance on it this morning. It’ll take another half hour before he can take off. You want us to go after them ourselves?”
“No, we need to get the boat’s captain back to the Oregon ASAP. He’s been shot.”
As gently as they could, the four of them lifted Reed into the RHIB.
When he was settled, Juan said, “MacD, stay with the Cast Away. We’ll send a couple of technicians back to get it moving again. Then we’ll figure out what to do with it.”
The RHIB took off, skipping across the waves.
“I can’t wait to hear how you took on someone who plastered your boat with that many bullet holes,” Trono said as he tended to Reed.
“I want to know why the Oregon departed early,” Max said.
“You two weren’t the only ones to be attacked today.”
“Any casualties?” Juan asked.