Typhoon Fury (Oregon Files 12)

“Keep a deadeye out for more.”

“They can try again, but it’ll be a huge waste of hardware for them.”

“As the wise Mr. Solo has said, Don’t get cocky.”

“Moi?” Murph said, turning to show off the black T-shirt he was wearing. The white letters on the front read Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.

“Glad to see I have a crew with their egos in check,” Juan said with a smile.

“If you want to see a bruised ego,” Eric said, “watch me kick his tail at chess.”

Before Murph could respond, the fishing boat came into view on the big screen, cruising along the opposite side of the islet.

Another fishing boat appeared. It looked just like the first one.

“What’s the double?” Murph said.

Then another one. And another. Soon, there were twenty similar boats on-screen, all motoring toward Negros Island eight miles to the west. Every one was the same color and model, though each had slight differences.

“Can anyone distinguish which was the one we were following?” Juan asked.

“Playing back the video,” Hali said. The recording of their chase came on the screen next to the live feed. None of them matched the recording.

“Did it disappear?” Max said, incredulous.

Juan frowned. “Locsin must have changed the configuration of his boat while it was out of sight, just like we do. It means we can’t tell which of the boats is the original since we don’t know what changed.”

“Can you disable all the boats with the Gatling guns?” Raven asked.

“Not without killing potentially innocent fishermen,” Juan said, “which is probably what Locsin is co

unting on. We’ll have to board them one at a time.”

“Chairman,” Hali said, “we’re being hailed. It’s Salvador Locsin. He wants to talk to us on a private channel.”

“Put it on speaker.”

Locsin’s accented but articulate voice came through with a jaunty tone. “Is this Juan Cabrillo that I’m finally speaking to after all these encounters?”

“Are you calling to surrender?” Juan said. “It’ll save us some time.”

“It’s hard to tell which boat I’m on, isn’t it? The fishermen on board the other nineteen have no idea what’s going on, of course. I was planning to use this tactic on the Philippine Navy, but I thought I’d put it to good use here. It seems to be working well.”

“Just as long as it takes us to board every fishing boat in your fleet. Odds are, we’ll get to you sooner rather than later.”

“I could simply have all the boats take off in random directions,” Locsin said. “That would slow you down.” Despite his threat, all of the boats continued on a steady pace.

The obvious boats to start with would be the ones headed to Negros since it was the closest inhabited island, but Juan didn’t mention that. “The search would take longer, but we’d find you eventually.”

“That was my conclusion, too,” Locsin said. “So I have a surprise for you. Look toward Negros Island and a little north.”

Juan nodded to Hali, who panned the camera around until it was aiming northwest. A white ship was motionless five miles away. Juan’s stomach knotted when he recognized it as a passenger ferry.

“What have you done, Locsin?”

“You have a dilemma on your hands, Captain Cabrillo. I know the type of man you are. I saw it when you rescued Dr. Ocampo and his scientists from my laboratory, despite the fact that they meant nothing to you. You can’t understand that sometimes you have to sacrifice innocents for a larger purpose.”

“Most would call it a virtue to value the lives of innocents.”