Juan poked his head over the ocean-side wall and said, “Eddie isn’t here yet. Tell him we’re ready for our water taxi. Where are you?”
Linda checked the Oregon’s position. “Less than four miles out.”
“Get here as soon as you can. We might need our own cover fire once we get in the water.”
“Understood,” she said, and looked at Max. “How much reserve do we have left in the engines?”
“I can give you a bit more juice, but we won’t be able to maintain it for long without damaging them.”
She turned to Eric, who was at the helm. “Mr. Stone, push it to the limit.”
“Aye, ma’am,” Eric replied, and the Oregon trembled as the output of her magnetohydrodynamic engines churned over the redline.
—
Eddie knew they were late getting the RHIB back into the water, but they’d been busy. The spike strips had stopped the first two police cars to cross them. A truck behind the cars had swerved in time to avoid blowing out its tires and stopped to disgorge a dozen officers in full tactical gear. The officers were about to remove the strips when he, Linc, and Trono had opened fire to pin them down and stop them from reaching the castle.
Simaku’s backup might be late to the party, but the corrupt police were returning fire in disturbing quantity, if not accuracy. Eddie knew the Chairman didn’t have time for his team to get stuck in a prolonged gun battle.
“Smoke grenades out,”
Eddie ordered.
The three of them pulled the pins on their grenades and tossed them onto the road. The thick gray smoke obscured the vehicles’ headlights, creating an eerie fog punctuated by sporadic gunfire now that the police couldn’t see what they were shooting at.
“Come on,” Eddie said, and they left their ditch to scramble down the slope to the boat.
By the time they reached the rocks, the police had stopped firing altogether. Only their own heavy breathing and deadened footfalls pierced the misty silence.
Linc leaped onto the RHIB and took the helm, ready to start the engine the second the boat was in the water. Eddie took one side of the bow and Trono took the other to push it out. With a single heave, the boat slid into the sea.
Linc started the engine, and Eddie boosted Trono aboard. Trono reached down to help Eddie up but let go abruptly and emptied the rest of his magazine into someone on shore. The few rounds that the attacker was able to get off merely sliced into the water around them.
Trono yanked Eddie over the gunwale, who then took position next to him to repel any other assaults.
“I owe you one,” Eddie said.
“Are you kidding?” Trono replied. “I completely missed him.”
“You were supposed to. The Chairman wanted us to avoid killing cops, even crooked ones.”
Trono gave him a knowing grin. “Oh, right. I guess you do owe me.”
Linc wheeled the RHIB around to race toward the castle, and they were out of sight before any other policemen got a chance to practice their sharpshooting.
—
We’re trapped!” Erion Kula shouted. Simaku’s men were exchanging fire with Juan, MacD, and Gretchen as they crept along the top of the castle wall walkway. It was only a matter of time before Simaku could get into position to rush them. “How are we supposed to get out of here?”
“That is a good question,” Juan said between shots. “Murph, would you like to show him the answer?”
Murph, who had pulled the top off the container that the cargo drone had deposited, nodded and said, “With pleasure.”
He pushed it over to the edge of the wall, quickly clamped the container to the stone with a hammer and pitons, and then pulled its rip cord. A rush of gas began to inflate the contents of the container. In seconds, a yellow bag ballooned up and over the side of the wall.
The fabric continued to inflate until it was clear what the object was: an emergency slide, like the ones used to evacuate airplanes. Max had acquired it over a year before, not knowing what kind of escape they might use it for. Now they finally had a chance to put it to the test.
Ten seconds later, the slide was fully deployed. Murph looked over the edge.