Linda followed its flight path and paled when she saw what was behind her.
She hoped Eric and Murph’s decoy beacon was going to work because more than twenty Kuyogs were heading toward them in a side-by-side formation to deliver the coup de grâce. The Oregon didn’t have nearly enough firepower to take them all out before they ripped it to pieces.
• • •
“NO!” Locsin screamed when the feed from the observation drone cut out. He grabbed Tagaan by the shirt. “Get it back! I want to see the Oregon die!”
Tagaan shoved the hands away. “I can’t. There was a flash on the ship’s deck before we lost it. They must have shot it down.”
“Then turn us around!”
He lunged for the fishing boat’s pilothouse, but Tagaan stepped in his way and pushed him back.
“Comrade!” he yelled. “We have what we came for! The Oregon will be destroyed. Even if it isn’t, it’s severely damaged. We need to get this supply of Typhoon to safety before the storm comes.”
Locsin was shocked by Tagaan’s pushback. He had never defied an order before, and the insubordination threatened to send Locsin over the edge. He very nearly grabbed one of the assault rifles to shoot Tagaan where he stood, until his right-hand man continued.
“You have your victory,” Tagaan said. “You outwitted Juan Cabrillo. Savor it. And when we take over the country and have factories churning out Typhoon pills, you will have whole armies at your disposal. No one will be able to stop us.”
Locsin took a deep breath and saw that Tagaan was right. The Typhoon pills he had in hand and the search for the orchid used to make it were the highest priorities. He straightened up and told the man at the wheel to keep heading for home.
Besides, he’d seen the last two dozen Kuyogs racing in for the killing blow. The Oregon would sink, he was sure of it. Cabrillo himself might survive the attack if he was too cowardly to go down with his ship, but if he wasn’t killed, he would have to live with the fact that Locsin had beaten him.
But Locsin knew it was even worse than that for Cabrillo. The former CIA agent was pointlessly bound by an overdeveloped sense of ethics. He didn’t have the unflinching long-term vision that Locsin possessed. That vulnerability had been Cabrillo’s undoing, and the memory of these events would haunt him for the rest of his life. It would always be the day that he’d failed to save the lives of twelve hundred souls.
57
From the supply drone’s camera feed, Juan could see that it flew mere feet above the whitecaps lapping at it from below. Gomez Adams, now at his remote flight station in the op center, was doing a remarkable job keeping it from being swamped while Murph picked off the last few Kuyog stragglers that preceded the final wave of twenty-four that were nearing the ferry’s stern.
“You’ve got to keep it right above the water,” Murph said to Gomez. “Otherwise, the sensors might not pick up the supply drone’s beacon.”
“Easier said than done,” Gomez said without breaking his concentration on the controls. “How close do I have to get to these Kuyog things?”
“I’d say less than a hundred yards. More than that and they might not break the lock they have on the Oregon. Think of it like the countermeasure flare a fighter jet uses to fool a heat-seeking missile into diverting from the jet’s hot engine exhaust.”
Gomez shook his head. “Except this fighter jet weighs over eleven thousand tons and is towing a huge ferry.”
Murph shrugged. “I didn’t say the analogy was perfect.”
“How long until we are in danger of beaching ourselves, Stoney?” Juan asked. He was happy to see that
Raven Malloy was watching everything in silence, letting them do their work without interrupting.
“We’re less than a mile away,” Eric said. “Then we’ll have to disengage from the ferry.”
Juan looked at the ferry they were dragging. Its gunwales were perilously close to the water. They’d have to time this perfectly to have a chance of succeeding.
“Once the Kuyogs have locked onto the beacon,” Murph said to Gomez, “no jerking movements or they’ll break away and head back for the Oregon. Right now, they’re all grouped together, so this is our best shot at having them all follow the supply drone together.”
“If this works,” Gomez said, “just remember what happened when they didn’t pay the piper.”
“If this doesn’t work,” Juan said, “I have a feeling the annual bonus will be sharply reduced this year.”
“Living is better than dying,” Gomez said with a sly chuckle. “Got it.”
When the Kuyogs were less than a football field’s length from the supply drone, the ones at the outer edges turned toward it. Gomez matched their speed and began flying backward in the direction of the ferry.
“It looks like they have a lock on the beacon,” Murph said. “They’re following you past the starboard side of the ferry. Now you’re going to have to fly the supply drone right past the Oregon. Otherwise, their sensors might detect they’re being redirected away from the real target.”