"Lost at Sea" Part Two (Horizons, 1988)
Oct. 31st, 2009 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riptide_asylumTitle: Lost at Sea
Rating: NC17
Summary: A seamonster sighting leaves the Riptide detectives shaken, but when they receive a cryptic distress call they must brave the ocean and whatever beast dwells there to save Mama Jo and the grew of the Contessa.
Chapter 5
Nick paced the salon, fighting exhaustion. It was nearly an hour since night had fallen and Cody had set out in the small inflatable, using the cover of darkness to get close to the boat they sought. For the thousandth time, Nick wished he'd gone with him, wished he was beside Cody right now, keeping him safe.
Murray sat at the table, the Roboz at his side, a small control box in his hand, and Nick fought down panic. "Where is he, Boz?" he asked tightly.
"I'm not getting a reading yet," Murray said unhappily. "He can't have found a place to plant the device yet."
"What if something's gone wrong?"
"Nothing can go wrong. All Cody has to do is use his receiver and follow the transmission to the pirate boat, and then plant the listening device. And anyway, Cody's got the emergency transmitter. He would activate it if something happened, Nick, you know that."
Nick nodded. He did know that, it was the reason he'd stayed behind, able to take the Ebbtide to Cody's aid if his partner got into trouble. And that still left Murray and the Riptide as the third line of defense. But none of that could ease the tight knot of fear in his stomach. Cody had been gone too long, and there was no signal yet.
"Wait!" Murray sat forward, frowning. "Nick, something's happened! The mayday call just stopped!"
"What?" Nick leaned forward, watching as the regular wave-pattern on the screen on Roboz's midsection flattened out to nothing. "Murray, what's going on?"
"I don't know." Murray frowned, flicking switches hurriedly, but the Roboz's screen stayed obstinately blank. "Roboz, what happened to the signal?"
TRANSMISSION DOWN. SORRY MURRAY. The little orange robot turned his head from side to side, and Murray's shoulders slumped.
"Murray!" Nick nearly shouted and made a grab at the control box.
Murray whipped it out of reach and shook his head. "I'll try to fix it," he said hurriedly, pressing buttons and then reaching for the keyboard.
"Without it, Cody wont find the boat," Nick said tensely. "And he won't be able to call us if something goes wrong. Murray, you have to get it back up!"
Murray nodded without looking up, typing frantically. Roboz's status message didn't change.
At last, Murray raised his head, pushing the keyboard away. "Nick," he said in little more than whisper. "Something's burned out a circuit. It'll take me hours to fix, and I don't have the equipment. It must have been a huge power spike. I just... I just don't know what to do."
Nick turned away, slamming his fist against the hatch. He'd let himself be talked into staying behind, and now the transmitter had failed. Cody was out there alone on this black, unforgiving ocean, maybe in trouble, maybe hurt, waiting for the backup that wouldn't come.
Cold despair rose in Nick's chest and he wrenched the hatch open. "Boz," he snapped urgently, "give me a hand. I'm gonna take the Ebbtide now and find him." He was halfway to the stern, Murray clambering behind him, when suddenly, out of the night, so faint that at first Nick thought it was merely the sound of the waves slapping against the Riptide's hull, he heard the sound of an outboard motor.
"Murray! Listen!" Nick froze, urgently holding his hand up for silence.
The sound came slowly closer until at last, peering through the dark, Nick could make out the shape of a small boat chugging slowly across the calm surface of the sea. He held his breath, hardly daring to believe, until at last the approaching zodiac came close enough that he could see its lone occupant.
"Cody! Cody!" Murray waved his arms frantically as Cody brought the little craft alongside.
Nick grabbed the rope Cody tossed and made it fast to the Riptide's stern as Cody leapt onto the fantail.
"Everything according to plan!" Cody exclaimed, keeping his voice low. "Quiet, Murray, you know how sound carries at night on the water."
"Oh, yeah, Cody of course." Murray lowered his voice. "Everything according to plan? You mean - "
"I planted the tracker on the hull." Cody grinned happily, climbing onto the deck. "Are you receiving the transmission"
"You got it planted? Cody, that's so boss." Murray turned for the salon. "The Roboz's receiver's down, but I can route the bug through to the Riptide's radio, thanks to the modifications I made last month."
Nick had hold of Cody's arm, one hand resting on his back. Cody, alive and safe and back - Nick struggled to take a full breath. In his opinion, nothing about the night had gone according to plan, from the moment Cody had jumped into the zodiac alone and headed out into the dark. Somehow, despite the equipment failure, his partner had made it back safely, and right now, Nick wanted to make sure they all stayed that way.
"How'd you manage it, Cody?" Murray asked, taking the radio off its hook and flicking the channel buttons. "Roboz, radio hookup."
"Well, it was simple, Boz. I rowed the last bit so they wouldn't hear my engine, and stuck the bug right on the hull. I figured it was better safe than sorry." Cody sat down on the bench seat, tugging Nick's arm so he sat down next to him. "Take it easy," he said under his breath, for Nick's ears alone.
Nick nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak, and slid as close as he could against his partner. Cody put an arm around him, tight.
"But Cody, how did you find the boat? The receiver failed, so you didn't have the signal to follow - "
"When it failed, I just took the heading you'd given me and followed it." Cody looked at Murray, puzzled.
"But you didn't have a compass in the zodiac." Murray looked at him in surprise.
Cody grinned, squeezing Nick tighter. "Boz, I don't need a compass to follow a heading," he said, sounding amused. "All I need's the North Star and a clear night."
Nick took his first full breath of the evening, relaxing suddenly against Cody. He mistrusted the sea as much as Cody mistrusted the air, but for Cody, it was different. The sea was his friend, and he knew it and its ways the way Nick knew the skies. "So you were just fine out there, huh?" he said, striving for a light tone.
"You bet I was." Cody squeezed his shoulders again. "Missed you though," he added in a whisper, and Nick smiled.
The crackle of the radio interrupted and Nick sat forward, one hand on Cody's thigh, listening intently.
"Anyone lays a hand on any of my crew, they'll be sorry." Mama Jo's harsh tones came through loud and clear.
More voices followed, the angry tones of a man muffled by more voices of both sexes, and Nick frowned. "Well, we know Mama Jo's okay, but this is hopeless, Murray. We'll never be able to tell who's talking!"
"Well, no, we wont." Murray smiled. "Roboz, analyze!"
Cody chuckled. "We can't, but he can, right?"
"He sure can." Murray nodded enthusiastically. "See, I've programmed the voiceprints of everyone he recognizes in there." As he spoke, a list of names appeared on Roboz's screen.
MAMA JO
TAMMY
LISSA
CANDACE
"Hey, they're all Contessa crew!" Nick sat forward.
"Now he'll tell us if there are any voices he doesn't recognize. This should be the interesting part!" Murray rubbed his hands as Roboz whirred.
MALE WHITE 40+
FEMALE MEXICAN 20-25
MALE WHITE 30+
"Wow!" said Cody, impressed. "Boz, this is great!"
"I shouldn't say this," Murray said in a low voice, "but I've been approached by the Pentagon - Anyway! Look!" He pointed. "Some more of the Contessa crew!"
BAMBI
JEANNIE
In the end, Roboz identified the voices of four men and a woman that were not in his data banks and therefore were likely to be the criminals. Cody reported that the boat was a fifty-five foot motoryacht, and looked a lot like the craft they'd seen earlier in the day.
"She's anchored off the small island Grandad marked," Cody confirmed. "It's just a cluster of rocks and seabirds, really, rather than an island - there'd be no way to get ashore."
"So now what do we do?" Nick rubbed a hand over his eyes.
"Now? Now, buddy, you get the guns." Cody smiled a little grimly. "If we can get on board without them knowing, we'll have it sewn up."
Chapter 6
They took the Ebbtide with the inflatable in tow, chugging over at the lowest revs the speedboat was capable of in the interests of silence. Because the Roboz's transmitter had failed, they weren't able to keep tabs on what was happening on the pirate boat, and they rowed the last distance in silent trepidation.
"Stay here, Murray," Nick hissed, when the skinny scientist would have climbed out of the boat. "We might have to make a fast getaway. Be ready to start the boat!"
"Got it, Nick!" Murray hissed back, and put one hand on the rope Cody had used to moor the Ebbtide to the stern of the white yacht.
"The Jolly Roger," Cody whispered, pointing at the name emblazoned across the stern.
Nick gave a short, dry chuckle and turned to look back across the dark water. "Well, let's go deal with Captain Hook." The two of them swung aboard, and disappeared into the shadows.
They avoided the salon, Cody leading the way belowdecks through a small hatch. Nick followed close, a hand at Cody's hip, every sense alert. Cody stopped their progress, alerting Nick with the swing of his hip, and Nick nudged him in understanding, sliding past to cover the corridor Cody indicated. A few minutes brought them to a locked door, and Cody nodded grimly. "This'll be it," he hissed.
They forced the bolt with a brief struggle and inched the door open, not sure if a guard had been posted. Nick slipped through first, and was hit without warning from the gloom. He fell to his knees with a grunt, ready to lash out, searching the darkness for his assailant.
"It's us! It's Nick and Cody!" Cody's piercing whisper came in time and Nick dropped back on his heels. He felt Cody's hand land on his shoulder and breathed deeply, his eyes adjusting to the poor light to see Tammy wielding a chair leg like she meant it.
"Now that's the sort of reception I wish my crew gave you more often," Mama Jo said dryly. Nick struggled to his feet, and saw Mama Jo nursing a bandaged arm, sitting crosslegged on the deck a few feet away.
"Nick, Cody, I'm so sorry!" Tammy ran forward, grabbing Cody's arm.
"No time for that now." Cody shook his arm free. "Come on. Let's get out of here!"
With Cody leading, the girls slipped along the corridors and back up to the deck. Nick brought up the rear, helping Mama Jo as much as the gruff captain would let him. They made it to the stern and helped the girls into the zodiac while Nick half lifted Mama Jo to the Ebbtide. Tammy and Bambi climbed into the back of the speedboat, crouching between the seats, and slowly they pushed the boats away from the Jolly Roger.
A shout from onboard let them know the escape had been discovered and swearing, Cody gunned the Ebbtide's engine. Behind them the zodiac's outboard roared to life while from the yacht a huge spotlight stabbed out across the nighttime ocean.
"Get the monster!" shouted a voice from the boat, and Nick barely had time to wonder what they meant when the Ebbtide started to buck like an uncontrolled horse. The sea heaved around them and the girls in the inflatable screamed in terror.
Nick swung around in horror. A huge silver shape was surfacing in front of them, blocking their path back to the Riptide and freedom. The shrieks of the Contessa crew redoubled and Mama Jo drew in a long breath.
Nick didn't have the breath to scream. Cold terror gripped his gut and almost instinctively he reached forward, grabbing a handful of Cody's sweater. The roar of the Ebbtide's motor died away as Cody turned to him, his hand closing wordlessly over Nick's wrist. Their eyes met for one long moment, saying everything and nothing all at once, and Nick realized he wasn't afraid. With a quick nod, he grabbed for the high-powered rifle and saw Cody doing the same. Side by side, they brought the weapons to bear, Cody's shoulder hard against Nick's. The same way they'd faced so many threats over the years.
Cody's shoulder muscles bunched and Nick fired, their bullets hitting the monster as one. It didn't flinch. Murray shouted something incomprehensible as Nick kept firing. "What, Boz?" he shouted back, shifting his aim from the swaying neck to the water, hoping to wound the creature in the body. The neck shots were having no effect.
"Aim for the head!" Murray was shouting and Cody swung his rifle upwards, the staccato reports drowning out the voices.
Another burst of fire came from behind them and Nick realized with a curse that the pirates were firing on them. He turned and fired a round at the yacht.
Murray dived in front of Cody to the controls and sent the speedboat flying across the surface of the water, taking a large arc around the monster. Nick tried to keep one eye on the pirate boat and one on the monster, terrified of what the thing would do to a moving target.
It moved lazily through the water, cutting off their line of retreat, and Nick felt sick, watching the giant swaying neck. It looked like nothing so much as a giant snake, and the damned thing seemed impossible to kill.
The pirate boat hove back into view, and Nick realized with horror that between the monster and the pirates, they were trapped. "Murray!" he shouted, and Murray throttled the boat back, starting to turn.
Directly ahead of them, the water suddenly heaved and boiled and Murray swung the boat sharply. Screams came from the zodiac as the tiny craft bounced on the rough water in the wake of the speedboat.
Dead ahead, in the space between the pirate boat and the monster's huge head, something enormous and gray broke the surface. For an instant it was nothing but a lump and then the yacht's spotlight caught it, highlighting huge snapping jaws and a mountainous body. It looked like a giant crocodile.
Nick's stomach flopped and his hands shook so much he dropped his rifle. "Coming for Captain Hook," he muttered, and Cody reached for him again, grabbing his elbow. Nick nodded quickly, pulling himself together and picking up his gun.
"The basilosaurus!" Murray cried out, and Nick sighted down the barrel. But before he could pull the trigger, he realized the pirate yacht was turning tail. The new seamonster lunged half out of the water, its massive body shining in the spotlight, slamming back into the sea with a noise like a ten-car pile up and as the water heaved, Nick realized with confusion that the beast was not coming after them.
The Jolly Roger turned west, motors spewing white water out behind as she made all speed to leave the scene. The huge, long-necked sea serpent headed for the crocodile-jawed beast, and with a heaving of water, both disappeared beneath the surface.
Cody jerked in his seat and spun back to the controls. Murray was staring at the place where the two sea-beasts had submerged, and Cody pushed him gently aside, revving the Ebbtide's engine and sending her at full throttle towards the Riptide and comparative safety. After a moment he reached back and Nick took his hand.
Chapter 7
"I'm telling you, Lieutenant, there were two seamonsters and they had a fight!" Murray shouted, waving his hands. "It's no wonder they sank the Barefoot Contessa!"
They'd limped into King Harbor in the early dawn and seen Mama Jo and her crew installed in rooms at Straightaway's. And after a few hours sleep, Nick, Cody and Murray had headed back out on the water, guiding the police and the coastguard to the tiny islands where the whole drama had taken place.
"The thing with you dummies is, you believe anything," Quinlan said, a smirk of something like satisfaction on his face. "The Barefoot Contessa ain't sunk. Mama Jo and those girls were walked off at gunpoint as cute as you please by what they thought was a fishing charter, and we picked the boat up on her way to Mexico. The coastguard boarded her an hour ago, and took the men on board into custody. She had a pretty cargo of guns on board, and there's two guys wont be seeing the outside of a jail anytime soon." He pointed ahead to the tiny island where the Jolly Roger had been moored. "And it looks like your seamonster ain't gonna be causing any more trouble around these parts, either."
They took the inflatable ashore to inspect the huge silver thing Quinlan had been pointing at. Nick recoiled from the long shiny neck, but at Murray's excited shout, came closer, balancing on the sharp, unstable rocks.
"It's a robot!" Murray cried, peeling back the silver skin. With a gasp of shock, Nick saw a long drive shaft and familiar wires that looked almost as though they belonged in a helicopter.
"What?" he said, disbelieving.
"According to the crooks we caught on the Contessa, this here bath-toy is a thing they dreamed up to scare off fishermen," Quinlan said cheerfully. "Apparently, sailors believe anything. Ain't that right, beach boy?" He elbowed Cody in the ribs.
Cody rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir," he said.
"So where's the other one?" Murray said, poking at the long-necked form. "The basilosaurus?"
"I don't know anything about no bazasaurus," Quinlan barked. "All I know is, this here's your seamonster. But right now, I'm a lot more interested in the weapons these crooks have parked out here. And in getting a line on the location of the Jolly Roger."
Nick and Cody retreated to the deck of the Riptide, watching the police divers going down to conduct their investigation. Listening in on the radio, they realized that the pirates had been using the shallow water around these tiny islands as the perfect storage system for the weapons they were selling to South America, sinking the goods in huge watertight containers. Fishermen knew the depth and seabottom in the area was notoriously changeable and usually stayed away, providing perfect cover. Meanwhile Murray and one of the officers started the long process of dissecting the metal monster.
Nick leaned back in his deckchair, resting his elbow against Cody's. "You gonna say you told me so?" he asked, swigging his beer.
"I didn't," Cody said mildly, sipping his own beer. "I never thought it'd be a remote controlled robot, buddy."
"Guess not." Nick gave a short laugh, and relaxed as Cody reached over and rested a hand on his arm. "Ah, man... you think the other one was a robot, too?"
"The crew of the Jolly Roger didn't act like they thought it was." Cody took a drink of his own beer. "I dunno, Nick. Maybe it was a killer whale? In the dark, it was hard to see - "
"Not that hard." Nick put his beer down and put his hand over Cody's. "Whatever it was, it saved us." He took a deep breath, looking out to sea. "I dunno, man. I just can't shake the feeling that there's things out here, you know? Things down there in the dark, underneath us - "
"There are, buddy. Bass, halibut - "
Cody's grin was lazy, mischievous, and with a quick look at the police boat, Nick kissed him, hard and fast. "You know what I mean."
"Yeah, I do." Cody sat forward in his seat. "You know what Grandad always told me?"
Nick cocked his head, leaning forward too and dropping a hand on Cody's knee. Cody smiled slightly and looked out across the ocean, into the distance. Into the past. Nick followed his partner's gaze, squeezing his leg gently.
"Grandad always said there was nothing in the ocean that'd hurt you out of malice, Nick. There's plenty there will kill you or eat you if you do something stupid, or attack them first, but there's nothing out there that'll come hunting you."
Nick nodded slowly, breathing deep. Cody continued softly, "If you treat the water right it'll look after you. He told me that, and that's what I always tried to do. And maybe last night, Basil returned the favor."
"You really think that, buddy?" Nick asked softly, and Cody turned to him, a slow smile spreading over his face.
"You got a better explanation?" Cody leaned in close, sliding his arm around Nick's shoulders, and stole a kiss.
A long way out, a huge silver shape, far bigger than a dolphin, leapt and played in the sun. "No," Nick said. "No, Cody, I really don't."
Cody smiled wider and leaned back in his chair. Nick followed suit, pressing his arm close against his partner. "To Basil," he said, and raised his beer.
"To the ocean," Cody countered, and laughing, they both drank deep.
Part One
Rating: NC17
Summary: A seamonster sighting leaves the Riptide detectives shaken, but when they receive a cryptic distress call they must brave the ocean and whatever beast dwells there to save Mama Jo and the grew of the Contessa.
Chapter 5
Nick paced the salon, fighting exhaustion. It was nearly an hour since night had fallen and Cody had set out in the small inflatable, using the cover of darkness to get close to the boat they sought. For the thousandth time, Nick wished he'd gone with him, wished he was beside Cody right now, keeping him safe.
Murray sat at the table, the Roboz at his side, a small control box in his hand, and Nick fought down panic. "Where is he, Boz?" he asked tightly.
"I'm not getting a reading yet," Murray said unhappily. "He can't have found a place to plant the device yet."
"What if something's gone wrong?"
"Nothing can go wrong. All Cody has to do is use his receiver and follow the transmission to the pirate boat, and then plant the listening device. And anyway, Cody's got the emergency transmitter. He would activate it if something happened, Nick, you know that."
Nick nodded. He did know that, it was the reason he'd stayed behind, able to take the Ebbtide to Cody's aid if his partner got into trouble. And that still left Murray and the Riptide as the third line of defense. But none of that could ease the tight knot of fear in his stomach. Cody had been gone too long, and there was no signal yet.
"Wait!" Murray sat forward, frowning. "Nick, something's happened! The mayday call just stopped!"
"What?" Nick leaned forward, watching as the regular wave-pattern on the screen on Roboz's midsection flattened out to nothing. "Murray, what's going on?"
"I don't know." Murray frowned, flicking switches hurriedly, but the Roboz's screen stayed obstinately blank. "Roboz, what happened to the signal?"
TRANSMISSION DOWN. SORRY MURRAY. The little orange robot turned his head from side to side, and Murray's shoulders slumped.
"Murray!" Nick nearly shouted and made a grab at the control box.
Murray whipped it out of reach and shook his head. "I'll try to fix it," he said hurriedly, pressing buttons and then reaching for the keyboard.
"Without it, Cody wont find the boat," Nick said tensely. "And he won't be able to call us if something goes wrong. Murray, you have to get it back up!"
Murray nodded without looking up, typing frantically. Roboz's status message didn't change.
At last, Murray raised his head, pushing the keyboard away. "Nick," he said in little more than whisper. "Something's burned out a circuit. It'll take me hours to fix, and I don't have the equipment. It must have been a huge power spike. I just... I just don't know what to do."
Nick turned away, slamming his fist against the hatch. He'd let himself be talked into staying behind, and now the transmitter had failed. Cody was out there alone on this black, unforgiving ocean, maybe in trouble, maybe hurt, waiting for the backup that wouldn't come.
Cold despair rose in Nick's chest and he wrenched the hatch open. "Boz," he snapped urgently, "give me a hand. I'm gonna take the Ebbtide now and find him." He was halfway to the stern, Murray clambering behind him, when suddenly, out of the night, so faint that at first Nick thought it was merely the sound of the waves slapping against the Riptide's hull, he heard the sound of an outboard motor.
"Murray! Listen!" Nick froze, urgently holding his hand up for silence.
The sound came slowly closer until at last, peering through the dark, Nick could make out the shape of a small boat chugging slowly across the calm surface of the sea. He held his breath, hardly daring to believe, until at last the approaching zodiac came close enough that he could see its lone occupant.
"Cody! Cody!" Murray waved his arms frantically as Cody brought the little craft alongside.
Nick grabbed the rope Cody tossed and made it fast to the Riptide's stern as Cody leapt onto the fantail.
"Everything according to plan!" Cody exclaimed, keeping his voice low. "Quiet, Murray, you know how sound carries at night on the water."
"Oh, yeah, Cody of course." Murray lowered his voice. "Everything according to plan? You mean - "
"I planted the tracker on the hull." Cody grinned happily, climbing onto the deck. "Are you receiving the transmission"
"You got it planted? Cody, that's so boss." Murray turned for the salon. "The Roboz's receiver's down, but I can route the bug through to the Riptide's radio, thanks to the modifications I made last month."
Nick had hold of Cody's arm, one hand resting on his back. Cody, alive and safe and back - Nick struggled to take a full breath. In his opinion, nothing about the night had gone according to plan, from the moment Cody had jumped into the zodiac alone and headed out into the dark. Somehow, despite the equipment failure, his partner had made it back safely, and right now, Nick wanted to make sure they all stayed that way.
"How'd you manage it, Cody?" Murray asked, taking the radio off its hook and flicking the channel buttons. "Roboz, radio hookup."
"Well, it was simple, Boz. I rowed the last bit so they wouldn't hear my engine, and stuck the bug right on the hull. I figured it was better safe than sorry." Cody sat down on the bench seat, tugging Nick's arm so he sat down next to him. "Take it easy," he said under his breath, for Nick's ears alone.
Nick nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak, and slid as close as he could against his partner. Cody put an arm around him, tight.
"But Cody, how did you find the boat? The receiver failed, so you didn't have the signal to follow - "
"When it failed, I just took the heading you'd given me and followed it." Cody looked at Murray, puzzled.
"But you didn't have a compass in the zodiac." Murray looked at him in surprise.
Cody grinned, squeezing Nick tighter. "Boz, I don't need a compass to follow a heading," he said, sounding amused. "All I need's the North Star and a clear night."
Nick took his first full breath of the evening, relaxing suddenly against Cody. He mistrusted the sea as much as Cody mistrusted the air, but for Cody, it was different. The sea was his friend, and he knew it and its ways the way Nick knew the skies. "So you were just fine out there, huh?" he said, striving for a light tone.
"You bet I was." Cody squeezed his shoulders again. "Missed you though," he added in a whisper, and Nick smiled.
The crackle of the radio interrupted and Nick sat forward, one hand on Cody's thigh, listening intently.
"Anyone lays a hand on any of my crew, they'll be sorry." Mama Jo's harsh tones came through loud and clear.
More voices followed, the angry tones of a man muffled by more voices of both sexes, and Nick frowned. "Well, we know Mama Jo's okay, but this is hopeless, Murray. We'll never be able to tell who's talking!"
"Well, no, we wont." Murray smiled. "Roboz, analyze!"
Cody chuckled. "We can't, but he can, right?"
"He sure can." Murray nodded enthusiastically. "See, I've programmed the voiceprints of everyone he recognizes in there." As he spoke, a list of names appeared on Roboz's screen.
MAMA JO
TAMMY
LISSA
CANDACE
"Hey, they're all Contessa crew!" Nick sat forward.
"Now he'll tell us if there are any voices he doesn't recognize. This should be the interesting part!" Murray rubbed his hands as Roboz whirred.
MALE WHITE 40+
FEMALE MEXICAN 20-25
MALE WHITE 30+
"Wow!" said Cody, impressed. "Boz, this is great!"
"I shouldn't say this," Murray said in a low voice, "but I've been approached by the Pentagon - Anyway! Look!" He pointed. "Some more of the Contessa crew!"
BAMBI
JEANNIE
In the end, Roboz identified the voices of four men and a woman that were not in his data banks and therefore were likely to be the criminals. Cody reported that the boat was a fifty-five foot motoryacht, and looked a lot like the craft they'd seen earlier in the day.
"She's anchored off the small island Grandad marked," Cody confirmed. "It's just a cluster of rocks and seabirds, really, rather than an island - there'd be no way to get ashore."
"So now what do we do?" Nick rubbed a hand over his eyes.
"Now? Now, buddy, you get the guns." Cody smiled a little grimly. "If we can get on board without them knowing, we'll have it sewn up."
Chapter 6
They took the Ebbtide with the inflatable in tow, chugging over at the lowest revs the speedboat was capable of in the interests of silence. Because the Roboz's transmitter had failed, they weren't able to keep tabs on what was happening on the pirate boat, and they rowed the last distance in silent trepidation.
"Stay here, Murray," Nick hissed, when the skinny scientist would have climbed out of the boat. "We might have to make a fast getaway. Be ready to start the boat!"
"Got it, Nick!" Murray hissed back, and put one hand on the rope Cody had used to moor the Ebbtide to the stern of the white yacht.
"The Jolly Roger," Cody whispered, pointing at the name emblazoned across the stern.
Nick gave a short, dry chuckle and turned to look back across the dark water. "Well, let's go deal with Captain Hook." The two of them swung aboard, and disappeared into the shadows.
They avoided the salon, Cody leading the way belowdecks through a small hatch. Nick followed close, a hand at Cody's hip, every sense alert. Cody stopped their progress, alerting Nick with the swing of his hip, and Nick nudged him in understanding, sliding past to cover the corridor Cody indicated. A few minutes brought them to a locked door, and Cody nodded grimly. "This'll be it," he hissed.
They forced the bolt with a brief struggle and inched the door open, not sure if a guard had been posted. Nick slipped through first, and was hit without warning from the gloom. He fell to his knees with a grunt, ready to lash out, searching the darkness for his assailant.
"It's us! It's Nick and Cody!" Cody's piercing whisper came in time and Nick dropped back on his heels. He felt Cody's hand land on his shoulder and breathed deeply, his eyes adjusting to the poor light to see Tammy wielding a chair leg like she meant it.
"Now that's the sort of reception I wish my crew gave you more often," Mama Jo said dryly. Nick struggled to his feet, and saw Mama Jo nursing a bandaged arm, sitting crosslegged on the deck a few feet away.
"Nick, Cody, I'm so sorry!" Tammy ran forward, grabbing Cody's arm.
"No time for that now." Cody shook his arm free. "Come on. Let's get out of here!"
With Cody leading, the girls slipped along the corridors and back up to the deck. Nick brought up the rear, helping Mama Jo as much as the gruff captain would let him. They made it to the stern and helped the girls into the zodiac while Nick half lifted Mama Jo to the Ebbtide. Tammy and Bambi climbed into the back of the speedboat, crouching between the seats, and slowly they pushed the boats away from the Jolly Roger.
A shout from onboard let them know the escape had been discovered and swearing, Cody gunned the Ebbtide's engine. Behind them the zodiac's outboard roared to life while from the yacht a huge spotlight stabbed out across the nighttime ocean.
"Get the monster!" shouted a voice from the boat, and Nick barely had time to wonder what they meant when the Ebbtide started to buck like an uncontrolled horse. The sea heaved around them and the girls in the inflatable screamed in terror.
Nick swung around in horror. A huge silver shape was surfacing in front of them, blocking their path back to the Riptide and freedom. The shrieks of the Contessa crew redoubled and Mama Jo drew in a long breath.
Nick didn't have the breath to scream. Cold terror gripped his gut and almost instinctively he reached forward, grabbing a handful of Cody's sweater. The roar of the Ebbtide's motor died away as Cody turned to him, his hand closing wordlessly over Nick's wrist. Their eyes met for one long moment, saying everything and nothing all at once, and Nick realized he wasn't afraid. With a quick nod, he grabbed for the high-powered rifle and saw Cody doing the same. Side by side, they brought the weapons to bear, Cody's shoulder hard against Nick's. The same way they'd faced so many threats over the years.
Cody's shoulder muscles bunched and Nick fired, their bullets hitting the monster as one. It didn't flinch. Murray shouted something incomprehensible as Nick kept firing. "What, Boz?" he shouted back, shifting his aim from the swaying neck to the water, hoping to wound the creature in the body. The neck shots were having no effect.
"Aim for the head!" Murray was shouting and Cody swung his rifle upwards, the staccato reports drowning out the voices.
Another burst of fire came from behind them and Nick realized with a curse that the pirates were firing on them. He turned and fired a round at the yacht.
Murray dived in front of Cody to the controls and sent the speedboat flying across the surface of the water, taking a large arc around the monster. Nick tried to keep one eye on the pirate boat and one on the monster, terrified of what the thing would do to a moving target.
It moved lazily through the water, cutting off their line of retreat, and Nick felt sick, watching the giant swaying neck. It looked like nothing so much as a giant snake, and the damned thing seemed impossible to kill.
The pirate boat hove back into view, and Nick realized with horror that between the monster and the pirates, they were trapped. "Murray!" he shouted, and Murray throttled the boat back, starting to turn.
Directly ahead of them, the water suddenly heaved and boiled and Murray swung the boat sharply. Screams came from the zodiac as the tiny craft bounced on the rough water in the wake of the speedboat.
Dead ahead, in the space between the pirate boat and the monster's huge head, something enormous and gray broke the surface. For an instant it was nothing but a lump and then the yacht's spotlight caught it, highlighting huge snapping jaws and a mountainous body. It looked like a giant crocodile.
Nick's stomach flopped and his hands shook so much he dropped his rifle. "Coming for Captain Hook," he muttered, and Cody reached for him again, grabbing his elbow. Nick nodded quickly, pulling himself together and picking up his gun.
"The basilosaurus!" Murray cried out, and Nick sighted down the barrel. But before he could pull the trigger, he realized the pirate yacht was turning tail. The new seamonster lunged half out of the water, its massive body shining in the spotlight, slamming back into the sea with a noise like a ten-car pile up and as the water heaved, Nick realized with confusion that the beast was not coming after them.
The Jolly Roger turned west, motors spewing white water out behind as she made all speed to leave the scene. The huge, long-necked sea serpent headed for the crocodile-jawed beast, and with a heaving of water, both disappeared beneath the surface.
Cody jerked in his seat and spun back to the controls. Murray was staring at the place where the two sea-beasts had submerged, and Cody pushed him gently aside, revving the Ebbtide's engine and sending her at full throttle towards the Riptide and comparative safety. After a moment he reached back and Nick took his hand.
Chapter 7
"I'm telling you, Lieutenant, there were two seamonsters and they had a fight!" Murray shouted, waving his hands. "It's no wonder they sank the Barefoot Contessa!"
They'd limped into King Harbor in the early dawn and seen Mama Jo and her crew installed in rooms at Straightaway's. And after a few hours sleep, Nick, Cody and Murray had headed back out on the water, guiding the police and the coastguard to the tiny islands where the whole drama had taken place.
"The thing with you dummies is, you believe anything," Quinlan said, a smirk of something like satisfaction on his face. "The Barefoot Contessa ain't sunk. Mama Jo and those girls were walked off at gunpoint as cute as you please by what they thought was a fishing charter, and we picked the boat up on her way to Mexico. The coastguard boarded her an hour ago, and took the men on board into custody. She had a pretty cargo of guns on board, and there's two guys wont be seeing the outside of a jail anytime soon." He pointed ahead to the tiny island where the Jolly Roger had been moored. "And it looks like your seamonster ain't gonna be causing any more trouble around these parts, either."
They took the inflatable ashore to inspect the huge silver thing Quinlan had been pointing at. Nick recoiled from the long shiny neck, but at Murray's excited shout, came closer, balancing on the sharp, unstable rocks.
"It's a robot!" Murray cried, peeling back the silver skin. With a gasp of shock, Nick saw a long drive shaft and familiar wires that looked almost as though they belonged in a helicopter.
"What?" he said, disbelieving.
"According to the crooks we caught on the Contessa, this here bath-toy is a thing they dreamed up to scare off fishermen," Quinlan said cheerfully. "Apparently, sailors believe anything. Ain't that right, beach boy?" He elbowed Cody in the ribs.
Cody rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir," he said.
"So where's the other one?" Murray said, poking at the long-necked form. "The basilosaurus?"
"I don't know anything about no bazasaurus," Quinlan barked. "All I know is, this here's your seamonster. But right now, I'm a lot more interested in the weapons these crooks have parked out here. And in getting a line on the location of the Jolly Roger."
Nick and Cody retreated to the deck of the Riptide, watching the police divers going down to conduct their investigation. Listening in on the radio, they realized that the pirates had been using the shallow water around these tiny islands as the perfect storage system for the weapons they were selling to South America, sinking the goods in huge watertight containers. Fishermen knew the depth and seabottom in the area was notoriously changeable and usually stayed away, providing perfect cover. Meanwhile Murray and one of the officers started the long process of dissecting the metal monster.
Nick leaned back in his deckchair, resting his elbow against Cody's. "You gonna say you told me so?" he asked, swigging his beer.
"I didn't," Cody said mildly, sipping his own beer. "I never thought it'd be a remote controlled robot, buddy."
"Guess not." Nick gave a short laugh, and relaxed as Cody reached over and rested a hand on his arm. "Ah, man... you think the other one was a robot, too?"
"The crew of the Jolly Roger didn't act like they thought it was." Cody took a drink of his own beer. "I dunno, Nick. Maybe it was a killer whale? In the dark, it was hard to see - "
"Not that hard." Nick put his beer down and put his hand over Cody's. "Whatever it was, it saved us." He took a deep breath, looking out to sea. "I dunno, man. I just can't shake the feeling that there's things out here, you know? Things down there in the dark, underneath us - "
"There are, buddy. Bass, halibut - "
Cody's grin was lazy, mischievous, and with a quick look at the police boat, Nick kissed him, hard and fast. "You know what I mean."
"Yeah, I do." Cody sat forward in his seat. "You know what Grandad always told me?"
Nick cocked his head, leaning forward too and dropping a hand on Cody's knee. Cody smiled slightly and looked out across the ocean, into the distance. Into the past. Nick followed his partner's gaze, squeezing his leg gently.
"Grandad always said there was nothing in the ocean that'd hurt you out of malice, Nick. There's plenty there will kill you or eat you if you do something stupid, or attack them first, but there's nothing out there that'll come hunting you."
Nick nodded slowly, breathing deep. Cody continued softly, "If you treat the water right it'll look after you. He told me that, and that's what I always tried to do. And maybe last night, Basil returned the favor."
"You really think that, buddy?" Nick asked softly, and Cody turned to him, a slow smile spreading over his face.
"You got a better explanation?" Cody leaned in close, sliding his arm around Nick's shoulders, and stole a kiss.
A long way out, a huge silver shape, far bigger than a dolphin, leapt and played in the sun. "No," Nick said. "No, Cody, I really don't."
Cody smiled wider and leaned back in his chair. Nick followed suit, pressing his arm close against his partner. "To Basil," he said, and raised his beer.
"To the ocean," Cody countered, and laughing, they both drank deep.
Part One
