“The end’s in the water,” he said.
“And Eddie?” Juan asked.
“I can hear the RHIB. Should be here in less than a minute.”
“Then it’s time to go.”
At that moment, the door to the tower burst open and two Mafia soldiers ran out. The children and Kula’s aunt shrieked and ran away from them and right into Juan and MacD’s line of sight, preventing them from firing on the men. Gretchen was the only one with a clear shot.
She took one down before he could fire, but the second was able to get off a three-round burst before she put two bullets in his chest. Then she sank to the ground and grasped her right thigh.
Juan left MacD to continue the fight with Simaku’s men and raced toward her. “Murph, check on Kula’s family!”
“We’re okay,” Kula called back. “They’re just frightened.”
Juan knelt down next to Gretchen, whose jaw was clenched in obvious pain. Blood oozed between the fingers clutching her leg.
“How bad?” Juan asked.
“You mean my reaction time?” she said through gritted teeth. “Apparently, rusty.”
Juan removed a strap from the slide container and prepared to wrap it around her leg. “I’d say it’s not bad for a desk jockey. We need to keep your blood loss to a minimum until we can get back to the Oregon. This will hurt a bit.”
“So did getting shot. Do it.”
He pulled it tight, eliciting little more than a guttural groan from Gretchen. She was still as tough as he remembered. He pulled her to her knees.
“Chairman, we need to go now!” Murph yelled. “Two of the rounds hit the slide. It’s starting to deflate.”
“Kula, you first with one of the kids,” Juan said.
“We can’t!” Kula protested.
“You want to stay up here?”
“But they can’t swim!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Juan said. “We can. Murph, take one of the kids and go.”
Murph picked up the oldest child and launched himself onto the slide, enveloping the boy in his arms, while Juan and the rest of them kept Simaku and his men pinned down.
Kula followed with another child, then Kula’s aunt with a third, and finally Gretchen took the hand of the last one, a girl no older than eight. Juan helped Gretchen get on the slide, as she winced through the pain, and watched them sail down the rapidly deflating slide. It wouldn’t be able to hold a person’s weight for long.
Simaku’s quickly approaching men made the decision for Juan. He and MacD emptied the rest of their magazines in that direction, threw the guns down, and dived onto the slide, Juan going last. Rounds ripped into the slide’s fabric behind him. Air whooshed out of ragged holes.
Juan had no way to slow himself, so he tucked his arms by his sides and hoped that his ride wouldn’t end up on the rocks. At the bottom, his boots plunged into the cold water of the Adriatic Sea. He surfaced to see the RHIB approaching the splashing group of adults and kids.
He looked up at the castle. The half-moon had risen, though it remained partially hidden by the clouds, providing meager illumination of the scene. The slide had completely deflated and rested against the stone wall like a crashed hot air balloon. On the battlements above, Simaku looked down at him with a wicked smile on his face. To either side, Mafia goons had their assault rifles ready to fire. Now Juan knew what it was like to be the fish in the barrel.
Simaku raised his hand, preparing to give the order to take them out, and all Juan could do was watch.
The Mafia leader never got to say another word. The battlement blew apart without warning, taking Simaku and his men with it. No one could have survived the explosion, as pieces of stone fell into the water around Juan. The remnants of the evacuation slide fluttered to the ground.
A few seconds later came the report of the Oregon’s 120mm cannon. Linda had closed the distance enough to get within the gun’s two-and-a-half-mile range and must have seen their predicament from the observation drones.
Eddie, Linc, and Trono arrived and scooped up the children first before pulling up the rest of the group. Linc yanked Juan into the boat with a single tug. Trono and Eddie were busy wrapping survival blankets around the children.
“You all right?” Linc said.