Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

“This is Max. Your brother looks very relieved to hear you. Where are you?”

“The bridge of the Centaurus.” She went back to Eric and glanced out at the deck. Water had covered the front half of the ship and was now starting to pour into the first open hold like Niagara Falls.

“You need to get out of there. We’re less than two minutes to midnight. Can you stop the launch?”

“No,” Sylvia said.

“Where’s Polk?”

“Paralyzed. He didn’t have the key, and there’s no app on his phone to control the rockets. I checked on my way here.”

“Then just get off the ship,” Max said.

“I can’t move them both out of the bridge.”

“I’ll see if help is on the way.”

“Tell them not to come into the bridge. There still might be residual gas in the air.”

She got Eric under his shoulders and lifted. For a slim man, he was heavier than she expected. Linc would be impossible for her to budge.

As she lowered Eric to the floor so she could get a better grip to drag him, she heard Max calling for help.

“Come in, Juan. Come in. Juan, are you there?”

SEVENTY-FIVE

Juan heard Max say that Sylvia was up on the bridge with Eric and Linc. He just couldn’t respond. The water had reached the hatch, so he was fully submerged. No matter how hard he tried to turn the latch, it wouldn’t open.

He swam over to the small bubble of air that had formed in the corner of the tilted room where Eddie and Raven stayed above the surface.

“I can’t get it open,” Juan said. He shrugged off the duffel and handed it to Eddie. “This is too buoyant for what I’m about to try.”

“What are you going to do?” Eddie asked.

“Blow the lock apart.”

“It looks too thick for your forty-five to penetrate,” Raven said.

“That’s not what I’m using,” Juan said. “When you hear the blast, swim for the hatch.”

Juan took a breath and dived back under. He paddled over to the hatch and turned upside down.

The other weapon in his combat leg was a single shotgun slug in his heel. It was only for use in dire emergencies. This qualified.

Keeping himself inverted underwater was no small task. He had to keep clearing his nose with air so that he wouldn’t inhale the seawater. And his natural buoyancy meant he had to hold on to the steel girder beside the hatch to get his foot in the right position.

He made sure his heel was snug against the latch. His lungs were screaming at him, but he wouldn’t get another chance at this. He pulled the trigger.

The shell fired with a loud thump. Juan turned right side up and inspected the hatch in the low light.

The latch was shattered. He pushed against the hatch, and after a moment of resistance, it flew open.

He kicked himself up and out and found that he was on the stern deck behind the superstructure. The surface was already awash.

He looked down at the hatch to see Eddie’s and Raven’s heads pop up. He took the duffel from Eddie and then lifted each of them out.

He shoved the duffel into Raven’s hands and said, “Help Eddie get to the Gator.”