by Rob Jones
“That’s not going to happen though, right?” Selena asked.
“Not if I can help it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And can you help it?”
“Watch and learn, Professor Moore!”
She smirked at him, but her father turned in his head. “Did someone say my name in vain?”
“I was talking to the other Professor Moore,” he said. “Junior.”
“I am no one’s junior!”
Cade shrugged. “Anyway you like it, darlin’.”
“And neither am I your….”
Cade spun the wheel and tipped the boat to starboard. Seaspray whipped up in foamy arcs as they ploughed over the tender’s wake. Selena tipped over and slid down to the floor.
“You did that on purpose!”
“I did not,” he said. “They’re firing on us! You want us to get shot? I'm taking evasive action.”
She got back to her feet and pulled her top straight. “In that case, I forgive you.”
Cade shook his head and muttered something under his breath before spinning the wheel back around and teasing the throttles back a little to pull away from the wake.
“They’re getting even further away!” Riley shouted.
“Not on my watch,” Cade said.
It turned out Cade Thurman’s serious mode included the best yacht driving any of the Avalon crew had ever seen. He spun the wheel around and pushed the throttles forward with a cool efficiency before coming around behind the tender. Keeping its wake off to the portside, he powered the massive engines of the Holcan even harder and gave a loud whoop of joy as he punched the air.
“Damn it, I love this thing!”
“We’re gaining on them,” Atticus said, hanging on to the helm, his face turning green. “This is most exciting. I think I’m starting to love it too, even with the seasickness!”
Cade laughed. “You are gold dust, man. Twenty-four carat.”
“Don’t speak too soon,” Decker said. “Check out the chopper.”
Cade and the Avalon crew looked through the yacht’s shattered windshield and watched helplessly as a Bell 206 Long Ranger swooped out over the water and hovered above the tender. A rope ladder tumbled out of its side and the Snake King climbed up inside the cabin. Then Tarántula fired on the yacht as the Mercado brothers and Diablo tied the capstone to a hook-mounted hoist and winched it up inside the aircraft.
“Hurry, Cade!” Selena said. “We can still reach them in time!”
Now, the Mercado brothers forced Diaz up the rope ladder and followed him up. Next was Diablo. Tarántula was last, firing haphazardly on the yacht with one hand as he grabbed hold of the ladder. The chopper rose up into the air with him still at the bottom of the ladder, firing on them. Then it swooped down over the causeway and disappeared over Miami’s Upper East Side.
Inside the wheelhouse, Decker saw Cade slam his fist down on the helm and curse.
“We lost them!” Selena said.
Cade blew out a breath. “Sorry guys, I screwed up and let them get away.”
“No way, mate. A chopper? That’s just cheating,” Riley said.
Selena watched the Bell recede into the sky over Pelican Island, and with it, her hopes of retrieving the Xunantunich capstone. She wandered outside the bridge and slumped down against the bow rail and felt like crying. “It’s over.”
“Why is it over?” Atticus said, following her outside.
She turned to her father. “Sorry?”
He gave her a warm smile. “I asked why you said it was over.”
“Because Nate Sodding Danvers, the Snake King, just flew away with the capstone in a sodding helicopter and he still has a hostage! That’s the end of the chase, Dad! Unless this yacht is so fantastic it has special little wings as well?”
“But we don’t need to go after them, my dear!” he said.
All faces, inside and outside the bridge, turned to him, aghast.
“What?” Decker asked through the broken bridge house windshield.
Atticus shuffled his feet, color gradually returning to his face. “Well…”
Selena’s hands were on her hips again. This usually meant trouble. “Dad, why did you just say that?”
He scratched his head and looked sheepish. “Because I know where they’re going.”
Inside the bridge, Cade kicked the platform of the ship’s wheel and cursed. “If you know where they’re going, professor, why the hell did we just spend a half hour chasing them up and down Biscayne Bay and getting shot at?”
“I thought maybe it would be a better idea to bring them into custody or something. The sooner or better, as it were. They still have poor Salvador!”
Decker’s sigh was covered up by Riley’s loud, honest laugh. “Fucking fantastic,” the Aussie said. “I love it.”
“Into custody?” Cade said. “We’re not the coast guard.”
“But you were all having so much fun,” Atticus said. “I didn’t want to spoil it.”
“All right,” Decker said, unsure exactly what to say. “May I ask where they’re taking the capstone?”
“To New York City, of course!” Atticus said. “Danvers is under the impression the only way he can appease Huracan is by destroying the entire city.”
“New York,” Selena said. “I was afraid of that.”
“This is terrible,” said Decker. “There are nearly twenty million people living in New York!”
“You have some pretty crazy friends, Professor,” Cade said. “Snake kings, Hurricane gods… Jeez. And I thought my friends were nuts because they get smashed and go gator fishing.”
“Yes, it appears Danvers is quite out of his mind,” Atticus said. “Such a shame. He had such a brilliant mind, too.”
Decker put his gun in his holster and picked up his hat. Brushing it clean, he put it back on his head and sighed. “He might have had a brilliant mind once, Atticus, but he's well and truly out of it now. We have to stop him before he commits genocide.”
“How quickly can the Avalon get us up to New York City, Mitch?” Selena asked.
“Five or six hours.”
“Do you know where they’re going to set up the capstone in New York?” Riley asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Atticus said. “They’re planning on using somewhere called the Central Park Tower. Apparently, Danvers bought the penthouse suite there just so he could access the roof without hindrance.”
“Then we have a new mission,” Decker said. “We fly to New York and get to Central Park Tower as fast as possible.”
“But if they’re in a private jet they’ll be there in under two hours!” Cade said.
“Not exactly,” Decker said. “They have to get to an airfield first, then they have to land in an airport in New York. Allow an hour either side of that and we’re looking at closer to four hours, plus they have to get across the city to the tower. It’s a couple blocks south of central park, meaning the nearest airport is La Guardia. After they land and get out of the airport that’s a lot of time burned up in traffic right there.”
“But where the hell are we going to land?” Cade said.
“We?” said Selena. “That’s a trifle presumptuous. Who said you’re coming along?”
Cade grinned. “Aw, c’mon! You’re not going to make my part in this story end right here, are you?”
She sighed. “Very well, I suppose you have your uses.”
“Thanks, man. But what about my question? How the hell are we going to get there first?”
“We might not be able to get there first,” Decker said with a grin, “but I sure know a way to cut some corners.”
“What does that mean?” Selena asked. “Just what are you planning, Mitch Decker?”
His grin broke into a smile. “I’d tell you, but you’d think I was crazy.”
35
New York City
Decker had landed airplanes in a lot of wild places. Rocky Chinese canyons and Indonesian mountain passes. Norweg
ian fjords and African jungles. Today, he decided to put the Hudson River on his resumé and see how it looked there.
But there were some technical challenges. First, the river was the border between New York and New Jersey and the airspace was busy. Second, to get the best time advantage over the Snake King, he wanted to put her down somewhere in between Union City and Hell’s Kitchen. That way they could pull in and moor near the Hudson River Park and go straight down West 57th Street.
And this was a busy stretch of the river. The busy waterway hosted several tour boat companies and private sailing vessels and even some fishing. By this time of day, the river would already be teeming with life and rife with opportunities for disaster. But the good news was, Decker knew seaplanes landed on the Hudson all the time. He dialled into the frequency of the local tower and started talking.
“Tower, this is Albatross niner-seven-four, requesting permission to land on the Hudson.”
There was a pause. Static filled the speaker as the controller checked their location on the radar.
“Copy that, turn left heading three-one-zero.”
“Three-one-zero.”
Decker banked the Avalon gently to the right and watched the nice, fat river line up in front of the aircraft. It was a clear, sunny day and he had been right about the waterborne traffic. Yachts and sailboats were dotted all over the river, bright white dashes on a blue canvas. No problem. Decker had been flying since he was a teenager. After that he had been trained by and flown for the US Marine Corp. He could land anything anywhere, just so long as the plane was in good working order. He started to relax. No problems here.
A loud explosion rocked the aircraft.
“What the hell was that?” Selena asked.
Decker gave the altimeter a gentle tap and frowned. “Problems. We got problems.”
“What sort of problems? Selena asked urgently. “Can they be fixed?”
“Fixed? She has to be finessed. She’s a yacht of the air!”
“It’s a seaplane, Mitch. It has to be fixed and operated. Fix it and operate it!”
As the aircraft juddered and moaned, Decker huffed out a cynical laugh. “I can see you know nothing about old machinery, especially vintage aircraft. The Avalon has more personality than…” he paused to search for a comparison. “Riley here, for example.”
“I heard that, Cap, and it hurts!” Riley shouted from the main cabin.
Decker pushed on. “You have to treat old machinery with respect, with love. If you do, it will love you right back. Also, technically she's an amphibious flying boat and not a seaplane because she can land on solid ground.”
The starboard engine made a deep belching noise and the plane shuddered.
“Damn it,” Decker said. “What the hell’s the matter with this old pile of…” His voice trailed.
Selena raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, what was that last bit, Mitch? I missed it.”
“Fine, sometimes she needs a little more TLC than usual. Now is one of those times. I think the repair I made to the shot-up engine back in the jungle might need a little tweaking. That is all.”
“A little tweaking? Are we safe or not?”
“More or less.”
“More or less!”
“Just take it easy. I’m going to bring her in and land on the river just like we planned. Everything is going to be just fine. You can thank me later.”
Selena looked outside as New Jersey rushed past the portside window. “Thank God.”
“Yeah, just fine,” Decker muttered. “Probably.”
*
The Snake King watched Tarántula and his men fuss around the capstone as they worked to lift the strange, heavy metal pyramid into position high on top of Central Park Tower. Years of patient planning were slowly coming together right before his very own eyes. It was almost impossible to contain his excitement, but he hadn’t reached his full destiny.
Much was left to do, including deleting most of New York City from the map. Only an attack of this magnitude would demonstrate to the American authorities that he had the power to destroy any part of their empire at a whim. After that came the blackmail and then the biggest payoff in history.
“Is it ready, Diaz?” he snapped.
The old Cuban professor fussed around inside the capstone. “Almost.”
“Good. I am impatient to show my devotion to the mighty Huracan.”
He closed his eyes and heard the voices of the ancient past. Maya priests summoning gods, the sound of the frenzied worshippers, and then the roar of the gods themselves. Only the reincarnated souls of the ancient priests could possibly experience such vivid memories. He knew he was such a man, deep in his heart. The colors and the sounds swirled in his mind. He felt the mighty power of a host of unknown gods shake the very ground he was standing on.
“Professor Diaz,” he said, opening his eyes. “Is it ready yet? I am running out of patience.”
“Yes,” he said. “It is ready, and may God forgive me for the part I have played in this disgrace.”
The Snake King laughed loudly. “Your weak and pathetic God may forgive, but mine will not. All praise the mighty Huracan!”
He stepped forward, removed the Huracan idol and activated the device. Instantly, they felt it drawing electromagnetic waves up through the skyscraper and gathering power. The building began to rumble and clouds started to swirl above their heads.
“Start the chopper, Tarántula!”
“Boss.”
“When this gets up to full power, we don’t want to be anywhere near this city.”
“I’m on my way.”
“You’re insane!” Diaz yelled, his hair whipping across his face in the gathering storm. “Crazy!”
The Snake King calmly fitted his jade mask and laughed loudly. “Huracan!” he screamed into the sky. “Huracan! Destroy this corrupt and wicked city!”
*
Smoke poured from the starboard engine as Decker brought the slab-sided seaplane around and finished the turn. Then, he reduced power to the mighty Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engines. He was judging their power by the hum but he checked it by reading the instrument panel. Extended flaps. The airplane descended like a feather, then some turbulence buffeted them up and down for a moment.
“One hundred above.”
Less power, engines down almost to idle.
Fifty, forty, thirty…
With a sailing boat on the portside and a tour boat on their starboard, he touched down on the surface. The deep-V hull sliced into the water like a hot knife through butter. Great arcs of water sprayed either side of the plane and into the air in frothy white jets. The aircraft juddered and rattled as the friction of the water against the hull slowly dragged them down to a crawl.
“Tower, be advised we’re down on the water.”
The controller directed him to moor the Avalon on the east bank. He had landed on the Jersey side of the river and gently steered the old bird to the east. The famous Manhattan skyline slowly turned into view as he slowed the revs further and then killed the engines.
Riley had already popped up in the forward hatch just in front of the cockpit. He was holding the plane’s boat hook, which he now pushed out into the water. Hooking the end around a mooring buoy, he pulled it back in. Then he grabbed the loop at the end of the heavy rope and lashed it to the mooring hook on the aircraft’s nose. As the plane drifted in closer to the shore, Charlie hopped out and ran along the jetty, further securing the plane to a mooring pole.
They were officially in New York City.
Out of the plane and over Twelfth Avenue. Traffic was busy and they weaved in and out of the cars and trucks on foot but with weapons concealed. Horns blew, drivers shouted and waved fists. Diana apologized with a wave. Charlie tried to explain. Riley laughed. Then they were on 57th Avenue. From the far western end of the avenue they could already see the colossal sight of Central Park Tower. The giant glass and steel structure rose up from the busy and expensive block in
between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.
They were already crossing Eleventh Avenue. “Just another three blocks to go!” Decker said.
“And then about another block vertically, by the look of that tower!” said Diana.
Riley laughed. “I think it’s probably got elevators.”
“It’s got elevators,” Decker said.
They ran on, dodging pedestrians ambling along the sidewalks. Another busy day in Midtown Manhattan, Decker thought. He hated this place. He was a country boy, from Monroe County upstate New York. That was where he learned to fly, in a reconditioned Tiger Moth. If he wanted a nightlife, the busy streets of Rochester were enough for him. This place was just crazy.
“Nearly there!”
Selena’s voice. He turned and watched her run beside him. Yeah, he was good at landing things, but how a guy like him had landed a woman like her was something he would never understand.
“And we’re here, folks!” Riley yelled. “Buckle up for big laughs.”
They looked up the front façade of the enormous skyscraper and saw angry, dark black clouds gathering just above the large steel spire. They began to form into a ring, and then another and another until several concentric circles of the clouds expanded above the building.
Acosta simply stared and whistled. “Are we too late?”
“It’s like what we saw back in Miami!” Diana said.
Decker looked at the clouds and frowned. “Only this time the clouds are about ten times bigger. This is going to be bad.”
“We have to get up there in a hurry, mate!” Riley said, staring up at the gathering electrical storm. But when he turned back to the American, he had already left his side and was running toward the building’s main entrance.
36
Decker burst into the lobby. “Get to a shelter! Everyone get to safety, now!”
Dozens of people stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him, a mixture of confusion, fear and ridicule on their faces. A large man in a security guard uniform strolled over slowly and raised his palms to calm them.
