“Then we better do something about this boat,” I said. My brain finally seemed to be working again. “Once we’re gone— once Blair’s not standing there with a gun in his hand—they’ll manage to squeeze out a window, or at least the skinny guy will, and he’ll let the others out. We need to make sure they can’t follow us.”
“Well, let’s hope there’s engine access from out here,” Olivia said. “I don’t really feel like going inside.”
We all followed her gaze to the cabin door. “No kidding,” I said.
Olivia dropped to her knees and lifted a panel by her feet. “There it is,” she said softly.
I looked down at the engine: a big gray mass of metal and hoses and belts. Unfortunately, I’ve never been very interested in engines. “Does anyone know anything about diesels?” I asked.
“I do,” Olivia said.
The men were pounding on the door and yelling. Ignoring them, Olivia bent down. “That’s the fuel line. If we cut that, they won’t get any gas to their engine. I need something sharp.”
Joey opened a cockpit locker and rummaged around. He lifted out a toolbox and plonked it down on the floor beside Olivia.
She pulled out a utility knife and began slashing away methodically. Finally, she looked up at us. “Fuel line cut, water intake hose cut, electrical wires cut. Salty Mist isn’t going anywhere.”
“Nice work,” I told her, nodding. I was impressed.
She grinned; then she leaned over and tapped her finger against the fuel gauge. “Their gas tank’s pretty low. Let’s take the extra jerry cans, just in case,” she said.
It seemed like overkill to me, but I grabbed the fuel jugs that were strapped to the stern rail and lowered them into our dinghy. “What about the runabout? Should we take it with us?”
She hesitated. “Isn’t that stealing?”
Joey snorted. “These guys were going to kill you, Olivia. I think we can justify taking their boat.”
“Just untie it,” Blair said. “It’ll drift away pretty fast. Towing it will slow Jeopardy down.”
Joey untied the runabout, and we watched the current carry it away from us.
“Ready to go?” Blair asked, still pointing the flare gun warily in the direction of the cabin.
I looked down at the mess Olivia had made of the engine. “Yeah,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
chapter seventeen
I started the dinghy’s outboard engine, and we flew across the anchorage, pounding into the small waves and sending sheets of spray into the air.
Olivia let out a long sigh. “Thank you guys so much. I thought we were dead.” Then she frowned. “But how did you know? Did you hear Simon yell?”
Blair shook his head. “No.” Then he frowned. “Well, maybe that was what woke me. I don’t know. I heard Patrick talking to someone on the radio in the middle of the night, but I was pretty tired so I didn’t really pay attention. It was odd though.”
“I heard that too,” Joey said. “But I went back to sleep, and then something else woke me. I got up to pee, and I noticed that Olivia was gone. Then we heard her voice on the radio.”
Olivia looked puzzled. “My voice?”
“Yeah. You said something about Patrick letting some guys kill you. And then I heard those men talking and—”
“But how were we on the radio?” Olivia asked. Then she got it. She turned to me, laughing. “You pushed Transmit on that radio, didn’t you? You couldn’t talk, so you just let Blair and Joey hear the whole thing. That’s...brilliant.”
I grinned modestly. “Well...”
“Course, getting your nose broken wasn’t so smart,” she said.
Gingerly touching my swollen nose, I had to agree. “Thought I was going to drown in my own blood when they taped my mouth,” I said. I couldn’t help shuddering as I remembered how scared I’d been and how close we’d come to dying.
“Yeah. You weren’t looking too good when we arrived.” Joey shot me a sympathetic smile. “Your glasses are totally crooked, you know.”
We were drawing close to Jeopardy, its glossy hull gleaming against the darkness of the water. Above it, the moon shone silvery-bright and a million stars lit the sky. I tried to straighten my glasses, but they were bent out of shape from getting hit. There was a lump in my throat all of a sudden, and I swallowed hard. “If you guys hadn’t come... well. Thanks a lot. I mean, you could’ve been killed too. And bringing the flare gun...that was smart.”
“Saw it in a movie,” Blair said. “Anyway, it’s no big thing. You guys helped us out earlier. Olivia, you know, with making a sling for my arm; and you helped out Joey after the knock down.”
I looked at him incredulously. “It’s hardly the same.”
Blair shrugged. “It’s cool, man. We’re a team.”
My eyes were suddenly wet and I turned away, not wanting anyone to see. The thing was, since I first met them, I’d kind of dismissed Joey and Blair as the rich, take-everything-for-granted type. I’d done just what my dad always does—assumed, because of the way they looked, that they were spoiled lazy snobs. But they’d just risked their lives to save mine and they wouldn’t even let me thank them for it.
“How’s your arm?” I asked, feeling awkward.
“It’s fine.” He rubbed his wrist experimentally. “Just bruised. How’s your nose?”
“All right.” Actually, it hurt, a lot, but at least it had finally stopped bleeding.
“You look like you got stabbed or something,” Olivia said. “You’re covered in blood.” She grinned at me. “Not a good look.”
I grinned back at her. “No doubt.” We bumped alongside Jeopardy’s hull. I cut the engine, and we all scrambled aboard. Everything looked the same, safe and familiar, but I had to remind myself that the night wasn’t over yet. A couple of hundred feet away were three men who wanted us dead. I stared across the dark anchorage to where Salty Mist’s deck light still shone brightly. No sign of movement yet, but it wouldn’t be long before they managed to get out. I didn’t want to be sitting here when they did. “We better haul the anchor and get out of here,” I said reluctantly.
Blair nodded, but Olivia looked anxious. “In the dark? Can’t we call for help or something?”
Joey shook his head. “Patrick said we were out of range, remember?” He suddenly grinned. “But maybe not for my cell phone though.”
He disappeared into the cabin. We all waited, our eyes on Salty Mist.
“We don’t have to go far, but if we stay here, there’s nothing to stop them swimming over and taking another shot at killing us,” I pointed out. “So let’s go.”
Olivia nodded and hastily jumped down the companionway steps to open the engine intake. I sprinted to the bow and began hauling up the anchor. Blair started the engine and pulled out the chart and the GPS
“We can’t see much, so we’ll have to be really careful,” he said. “I’ll program in some waypoints to take us out of the harbor and back into the channel. We can head back toward Port Hardy.” He looked at his watch. “It’s almost three thirty. It’ll start getting light in a couple of hours.”
Finally the anchor was up, clunking back on its steel roller. “Let’s go,” I yelled.
Joey climbed back into the cockpit, and we all looked at him hopefully. “Any luck?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Sorry, guys. My phone was sitting in a puddle of salt water. It’s not working at all.”
It looked like we were on our own. Olivia turned Jeopardy in the direction of the harbor entrance and we were off. We all turned to take a final look at Salty Mist. Over the noise of our engine, I heard a shout. Victor must have made it out the window. We’d taken the padlock key, but they probably had a spare key inside the cabin. If Victor was free, the others soon would be too. Olivia looked at me for a second, eyes wide and scared. Then she pushed the throttle forward. Picking up speed, Jeopardy cut through the water, leaving Salty Mist and Victor’s angry shouts behind us.
I sat down in the cockpit,
suddenly exhausted. We were all silent, listening to the hum of Jeopardy’s engine and the sounds of the wind and the water. It felt odd to be out here, just the four of us, sailing into the darkness.
“Umm, Simon? Should we raise the mainsail?” Joey asked uncertainly.
I looked up at the broken spreader. “I don’t know,” I said slowly. “Maybe we shouldn’t risk it.” The wind was blowing fairly hard, and the thought of the sail filling with wind and straining against the rigging made me nervous.
“Yeah,” Blair agreed. “Let’s just motor.”
Soon we were out in the channel, Vancouver Island on our starboard side and Hope Island on our port. Not that we could see much—just dark outlines against a dark sky. “Blair, did you get those waypoints programmed into the GPS? What heading should we be on?”
“Actually, this is good as we are. Just stay on this course. It’s twenty-four miles to Port Hardy,” Blair said. He was holding a small flashlight between his teeth as he measured off the distance on the chart.
I looked down at the knotmeter. Five knots. “Five hours,” I said. “If all goes well.”
And then, without warning, the engine spluttered and died. We were drifting silently into the darkness.
chapter eighteen
Engine failure. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, we’d just managed to get away from three men who were prepared to kill us, and I figured we deserved a bit of a break. It didn’t look like we were going to get one.
To my surprise, everyone seemed to be looking to me for direction. I shrugged and turned to Olivia. “Well, you’re the mechanic. Any ideas?”
She wrinkled her forehead and started muttering something about the color of the exhaust and water in the fuel. Then she disappeared down below to stare at the engine.
I looked at Joey and Blair. “I think we’re going to have to raise the sails,” I told them. “At least the wind is coming over our starboard side, so the strain won’t be on the broken spreader.”
They both nodded. “Right. But if we have to tack...” Blair frowned.
“Yeah. Then I guess we’ll find out whether that halyard is strong enough to support the mast.” We all looked up. The thought of a forty-foot-high metal pole crashing down onto the deck was not comforting.
“Maybe Olivia will have fixed the engine by then,” Joey said optimistically. “I’ll go help her.”
Blair was still holding his injured wrist close to his side, so I suggested that he take the helm while I raised the sails. Then I scrambled up to the mast. There was a decent breeze, and I figured we wanted to make some time, so I opted for a full main and working jib. I shackled the main halyard to the top of the sail, removed the sail ties and looked toward Blair. “Ready?”
He loosened the main sheet and nodded. “Yeah. Raise the mainsail!”
I wrapped the halyard around the winch and began pulling hand over hand, raising the sail. Jeopardy had turned itself bow into the wind, so the sail began to luff, flapping noisily from side to side. Blair turned the steering wheel to bear off, turning the bow of the boat away from the wind. The sail filled with wind, and immediately Jeopardy heeled over slightly and began to move forward through the water. I grinned to myself. That moment when the engine is silent and the sails fill and lift the boat through the water... well, it’s magic. Despite everything, it felt good to be sailing. I looked back at Blair and whooped loudly.
“Spacey, you’re one crazy kid,” Blair said. He was grinning back at me though.
“Shall I raise the jib?”
“Go for it.”
Still smiling, I made my way up to the fore-deck. Holding onto the forestay for balance, I clipped the jib halyard onto the foresail; then I undid the ties that were holding the sail in a tight bundle on the deck. We should be wearing our safety harnesses, I thought. If someone went overboard in the dark, it’d be impossible to spot them. The thought reminded me of something and I laughed.
“Hey, Blair?” I shouted.
“Yeah?”
“Remember when I thought Joey had gone overboard?”
“Yeah.” He started to laugh. “That was pretty funny.”
“I didn’t think so at the time, but it was, wasn’t it?” I pictured Joey popping up from down below and telling us he’d just been taking a dump, and I started cracking up. “I guess I must have looked pretty stunned when he appeared, huh?”
“You did.” Blair’s shoulders were shaking with laughter. “Sorry we called you Spacey and all that though.”
“You still call me Spacey.”
He stopped laug hing a nd looked thoughtful. “Yeah, but...it’s different now.”
I raised the jib; then I sprinted back to the cockpit to tighten the jib sheet as the wind pushed the sail over to the port side. Jeopardy picked up speed, humming through the darkness. Blair and I were both grinning like idiots. I felt like I should say something: thanks for saving my life, maybe, or sorry I misjudged you. But then our eyes met, and he nodded, and I thought maybe nothing really needed to be said after all.
Olivia popped her head up from down below. “Umm, guys?”
“Yeah?”
“We don’t have a clue what’s wrong with the engine.”
I shrugged. “It’s a sailboat. Who needs an engine?”
Olivia flashed me a smile as bright as white sails in sunlight, climbed into the cockpit and sat down beside me. I had an urge to put my arm around her shoulder, just because I was so glad we were both still alive, but I had the sense not to. I doubted she’d appreciate it. So I just sat there, a goofy grin spreading across my face as we sailed into the velvety darkness.
It was dream sailing: calm water, a decent breeze, the wind off the beam—despite the darkness, it was about as comfortable a sail as you could ask for. Everything that had happened now seemed completely unreal. Of course, when we arrived in Port Hardy, we’d have a lot to explain...but for now, it was just the four of us, on a fabulous boat, sailing through the night.
We watched as the sky slowly brightened along the eastern horizon. The sky was a clear cloudless indigo and a lighter streak formed a sharp pale band, slowly widening. It was going to be a beautiful day.
Joey yawned widely. “Breakfast, don’t you think?” He disappeared into the cabin and re-emerged a couple of minutes later with a tray of food: a tin of cashews, some oranges, a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, some chocolate bars and a bag of sour-cream-and-onion chips.
Olivia took a Snickers bar and peeled back its wrapper. “Not exactly classic breakfast food, but I’m not complaining. In fact, I think this might be the first meat-free meal of our trip.”
I surveyed the spread and sighed. “I could’ve gone for a steak. A nice, rare, bloody one.” Olivia wrinkled her nose in disgust, and I laughed. I didn’t think I’d ever been so hungry in my life. I could barely shovel the food in fast enough. We all sat in contented silence, just the sounds of the wind and the sea, and the occasional belch from Joey.
Then I heard something else: a sound that sent a sudden flood of cold rushing through my body. An engine, thrumming in the distance. I stood up and turned around. “I hate to say this...but I think I can hear another boat coming.”
Blair and Olivia stood quickly, and we all scanned the channel behind us. A long way behind us, a small white shape was rapidly getting larger.
chapter nineteen
We all stood in the cockpit, staring over the stern. The boat was gaining on us fast.
“Olivia...could they have fixed the engine? After everything you did to it?” I held my breath.
She frowned and twisted her mouth to one side. “If they had enough spare hose and electrical wire...sure.”
“It might not be them,” Joey said.
I nodded. “It might not.”
We were all quiet for a moment.
I looked at the knotmeter. Five knots. Then I studied the sails. “We can go faster than this,” I said. I let out the main sheet slightly and pulled the jib in tighter, distrac
ting myself by fine-tuning and adjusting the sails and watching the boat respond, picking up speed. I imagined myself racing Jeopardy back home, imagined myself captain of a beautiful boat flying across the—
“Six and a half knots.” Blair looked up. “But Simon...”
“I know.” I couldn’t afford to space out now. The other boat was closer, close enough to see that it was a cabin cruiser, white with blue canvas. I didn’t need to be able to read the name on the hull to know it was Salty Mist. No amount of trimming the sails would help: A sailboat can’t outrace a powerboat.
Everyone was looking at me, and I didn’t know what to do. This sort of thing hadn’t been covered in any of our reading or lessons on how to handle emergencies at sea. Emergencies...Emergencies...Something clicked. “Call a Mayday,” I said.
Olivia looked at me. “Simon, we’re out of range, remember? We already talked about it.” She had that look on her face that meant she was thinking Spacey but not saying it.
“But it was Patrick who said we were out of range. And obviously he’d say that. You wanted to report abalone poaching.” I was talking fast, my words spilling out. I jumped down into the cabin, switched on the radio, and bringing the mike with me, climbed back into the cockpit.
She was nodding. “Of course. Besides, even if he was actually telling the truth, we’re way closer to Port Hardy now.”
I pushed the Transmit button and, with a shiver, remembered the last time I’d done that. Then I hesitated. “Should I call Mayday? Or just, you know...ask for help?”
“Mayday calls are for clear and imminent danger,” Olivia said, quoting from our manual. “I’d say this qualifies.”
I couldn’t really argue with that. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” I said clearly. “This is the sailing vessel Jeopardy. We are—” I broke off. “Where are we?”
Blair looked at the chart. “Just about eight miles north of Port Hardy, I think.”
“Eight miles north of Port Hardy,” I repeated, hoping he was right. I hadn’t been paying too much attention to the navigation. “In the Goletas Channel. We’re in need of assistance.”
Dead in the Water Page 7
