Laura 01 The Jaguar Prophecy

by Anton Swanepoel

  Behind the engine hatch is the steering console with a driver and crew seat. A passage is cut between the driver and crew’s seat, allowing access to the front of the boat. Behind the driver’s seat is a central bench with place holders for 10 scuba tanks in the middle and seating on either side of the tanks. The boat has a low solid platform that allows easy entry into the water and a central ladder for divers to return, the ladder can hinge up and out of the water when not in use.

  Nathaniel pushes a button on the console and the engine hatch opens. The whole floor splits in two as the hatch opens up, tilting the chairs backwards.

  Hydraulic pumps push the heavy steel lids open and once they are fully open, Nathaniel checks the oil and water levels of each engine. Satisfied that all is in order, he pushes another button that causes the hydraulics to pull the two lids back together and close the engine hatch; a unique system.

  When they are ready to go, Nathaniel quickly goes upstairs again and comes back with three sets of foul weather gear. He gives Laura and Victor each a set and takes a set for himself.

  “You’re going to need these.”

  Nathaniel starts the engines while Victor frees the ropes holding the boat to the dock. Laura takes position opposite Nathaniel on the crew seat and stares at the complicated electronic controls. Everything is digital. All the readouts are displayed on two massive LCD displays, from engine oil pressure and temperature to fuel level for both tanks. The boat even has a radar system so accurate and sensitive it can pick up boat moorings with the boat at full speed.

  Nathaniel proceeds to show Laura all the functions of the display and activates the radar system with GPS and built in maps. Switching the running lights off, they run in darkness, using the map system and radar to navigate out of the Sound, through the reef channel and into open ocean. Nathaniel shows Laura how his radar displays boat moorings and small fishing boats that are out at night without lights. He loves to do night diving, and due to the speed of the boat, the radar is a necessary addition to the boat to avoid him running into a boat mooring or over a small fishing skiff at night.

  Two hours into the trip the sea starts to become rougher, with swells in the range of six to eight feet. Nathaniel backs up on the throttle and switches on all his running and spreader lights. There is no need to run in the dark now as they are about 70 miles from Grand Cayman and do not need to worry about anyone seeing them.

  Victor had waited until they were an hour away from the island before he pulled his phone card from his cell phone and switched his phone off. He deliberately wants anyone that tracks his phone to know that he has left the island. This way, they would not interrogate his friends about his whereabouts on the island.

  There is still just over 300 miles to go and it starts to rain. Waves start to crash over the front of the boat, causing water to splash over them. Although the foul weather gear helps to keep them dry, it is still not an enjoyable ride. Both Victor and Laura are still exhausted and huddle up together next to Nathaniel on the floor, trying to keep warm and somehow out of the sea spray. Nathaniel looks down at the two sleeping people and wonders what they have gotten themselves into and why they need to get off the island and go to Cancun of all places.

  Looking up again, he focuses his concentration on keeping the boat afloat in the big waves and rain that is now pouring down. He is glad about the canopy that is fitted to the boat, giving some protection from the downpour.

  Four hours after leaving Grand Cayman and 120 miles of hard-earned travel later they are doing 30 knots with the seas calmer.

  The rain still pours down relentlessly, reducing visibility to near zero, forcing Nathaniel to run only on his GPS system.

  Suddenly a blip appears on the radar screen, dead ahead, 10 miles off. Nathaniel looks at the data the computer gives and decides to wake Victor. Slowing the boat down to five knots, he bends down to wake Victor, but before he can do so, Victor is already awake, sensing the boat slow down.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Nathaniel points at the radar screen, “We have company, fishing boat maybe.”

  “What size and speed?”

  “Not moving and same size as us.”

  “It’s Tornado, the stolen police boat. Open her up and let’s go have a look,” Victor replies while waking Laura. “You may have a chance to say ‘thank you’ to the man who put you to sleep,” he says, giving her a wink.

  Victor takes the pistol he had taken from the dead assassin out of his backpack and makes ready to go to the bow of Nathaniel’s boat as soon as they near the police boat. Taking the crew seat opposite Nathaniel, Laura stares wide eyed into the rain.

  They reach the police boat 17 minutes later, and when the search and spreader lights fall upon the boat, it is immediately visible that something is wrong with the boat. Laura recognizes the boat as the same one that was used to pick up her and Victor from the lifeboat, however the canopy and the whole structure is torn and busted. All the windows are broken, and the sliding door is half ripped open. Of the four engines, only one is still attached to the boat, the others are ripped off.

  “What happened?” Laura asks to no one in particular.

  “Must have gone too fast, not paying attention, and caught a wave wrong, causing the boat to flip and roll at high speed. Somehow the boat came to land right-side up,” replies Victor as he moves to the bow of the boat, pistol ready. He waits for Nathaniel to bring the two boats alongside each other, and before the two boats even touch, Victor jumps from one boat to the other.

  All eyes are focused on the half-open door. No one sees the shadow moving under their boat, heading towards the swim platform to climb aboard the boat behind Laura and Nathaniel. Victor tries to pull the door open, but it is stuck. He tries to see inside the cabin for a body, but can only make out papers, emergency gear and other equipment lying around. It is possible that the man is under all that stuff.

  Russtoff slowly pulls himself up onto the swim platform, hunching down, waiting for the right moment to strike. Victor strains against the door and finally it budges, sliding open. He gives one last look at Laura and Nathaniel, all seems ok, then he enters the cabin. Just the moment Russtoff is waiting for. As soon as Victor enters the cabin, Russtoff jumps up and grabs Nathaniel from behind, pulling him backwards away from the controls.

  Before Nathaniel can respond, Russtoff drops down behind him, grabbing Nathaniel’s legs while putting his shoulder under Nathaniel’s butt, he stands up, throwing Nathaniel overboard.

  Laura screams loudly when she sees Nathaniel being thrown overboard. Inside the police boat’s cabin, Victor puts five rounds at random into the pile of life jackets and emergency gear on the floor, in case Russtoff is hiding under it. He is just busy lifting a life jacket from the floor to look under it when he hears Laura’s scream.

  Before Nathaniel even hits the water, Russtoff jumps forward and puts the boat in full power to get away from Victor and Nathaniel. There are four levers on the console, two with red tabs on and two with black tabs on. Russtoff grabs the two black tabbed levers with his right hand and pushes them all the way forward while turning the steering wheel all the way to the left. However, nothing happens.

  Russtoff is unfamiliar with jet drive systems and does not know that each engine has a bucket that directs the water being pumped out. These buckets can be rotated independently of each other a full 360 degrees and although the steering turns the buckets left or right, the black levers change their position from forward, to down or backward, allowing the boat to have forward or backward motion. What Russtoff effectively has done is the same as putting an automatic car in gear while not pressing the accelerator. Russtoff glances at the console and sees the markings above the black lever which say “FORWARD”.

  Realizing his mistake, he quickly grabs the red levers and is about to push them fully forward when a small fire extinguisher hits him directly in the face, dazing him and causing him to stumble backwards.

  Grabbing onto the scuba di
ving tank racks, Russtoff steadies himself just in time to see Victor emerging from the cabin. Laura is standing by the console with a fire extinguisher in her hands, lifting it up and running forward to deliver a crushing blow to Russtoff’s head. He jumps forward, shouldering Laura out of the way and pushes the red levers as far forward as he can. The boat launches forward, crashing into the police boat and pushing it sideways into the waves.

  The police boat’s side that is in contact with Nathaniel’s boat starts to lift up until the boat flips over, causing Victor to fall backward into the cabin, sea water rushing in pinning him to the cabin wall. He struggles to breathe, yet fights his way back to the door against the incoming water.

  Russtoff is now fully in control of Nathaniel’s boat and quickly pulls the black levers backwards while turning the steering wheel all the way to the right, causing the boat to go in reverse and away from the turned over police boat.

  As soon as there is a 30 foot gap between the boats he pushes the black tabbed levers forward again, causing the boat to launch forward, and he turns sharply to the left.

  A rogue wave slams into the overturned police boat just as Russtoff steers Nathaniel’s boat past it, causing the two boats to collide and scrape against each other as Russtoff pushes past the police boat to get away.

  Victor has managed to swim out of the overturned boat and has climbed on top of the bottom of the boat. Just as Russtoff speeds past the police boat, Victor jumps towards Nathaniel’s boat, grabbing the life rope at the end of the boat that is attached to the side of the rubber pontoons and runs all around the boat. He is immediately pulled under the water and swallows a few mouthfuls of sea water before he manages to drag himself far enough out of the water and over the pontoon to roll into the back of the boat by the tank racks.

  Immediately Victor jumps up and attacks Russtoff, punching him in the kidneys from behind. Russtoff’s knees give in from the pain, and as he goes down Victor pushes the emergency stop on the boat, cutting out the engines. Russtoff turns around as he lies on the floor and kicks Victor in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards.

  Both men get up at the same time and again Victor jumps forward, this time slamming his left shoulder into Russtoff’s chest, causing him to crash painfully into the console. Two of the flip switches for the lights puncture Russtoff’s back and push into his flesh, pain fills his back and Russtoff uses his left arm to grab Victor by the throat while he pushes off the console with his right.

  While pushing himself off the console, Russtoff accidentally pushes the button that controls the opening of the engine hatches. The two heavy metal doors dutifully open as the hydraulic pistons, operated by electric pumps, push them up.

  The two men exchange blows, but neither can get a direct hit, as they are evenly matched and each one blocks the other’s blows as they are thrown.

  Suddenly a fire extinguisher comes down on Russtoff’s head, almost knocking him unconscious. Laura has managed to find it again after dropping it when Russtoff shouldered her out of the way.

  “This is for chloroforming me!” she yells as she gives Russtoff another devastating blow to the head, so hard that she loses her grip on the fire extinguisher and it drops to the floor.

  Victor makes good on his chance and grabs Russtoff by the front, pushing him backwards, between the two seats, towards the front of the boat. The semi conscious Russtoff trips over the fire extinguisher that Laura dropped and comes down in the entry way between the driver and crew’s seat, with his neck on the lip of the engine hatch.

  Victor wastes no time and is immediately on top of him, delivering blow after blow to his face, and then switches to punching him three times in the side before starting to choke him.

  Even though Russtoff is half dazed and cannot think, his training and killer instincts are still running at full speed. He automatically pulls his knife from its sheath on his belt and tries to stab Victor, who immediately lets go of his throat.

  Victor is just in time to grab Russtoff’s arm to avoid being stabbed in the neck, pushing Rustoff’s hand and the knife down and away from him. Suddenly Russtoff grabs Victor around the neck with his left arm and starts to pull him closer while pushing up with his right hand, managing to bring the knife right to Victor’s throat.

  With all his might Victor pushes with his left hand down to keep Russtoff’s blade hand down, while with his right hand he pushes off the floor, trying not to be pulled into the knife.

  Slowly, Victor is winning, pulling himself away, bit by bit; unexpectedly Russtoff brings his right knee up and knees Victor in the groin, causing pain to ripple through Victor’s body and his strength to weaken. He almost collapses onto the knife, and with everything he has he fights back.

  Victor has never had to fight so hard to stay alive as he does now; the tip of the knife is now touching his throat and nicks the skin. Drops of blood from Victor’s throat drip onto Russtoff, who gives a maniacal laugh at the sight of seeing Victor’s throat bleeding.

  “Laura, close the engine hatch!” Victor yells.

  “What?”

  “Close the engine hatch; push the big green button on the console!” Victor feels the knife cutting deeper. Laura frantically looks around on the console, but cannot make out the colors of the buttons. When Russtoff crashed into the console and the switches went into his back, the light was accidentally switched off.

  “Hurry Laura!” Victor knows he cannot hold Russtoff for much longer as the man is starting to recover from being hit on the head. Laura sees two buttons on the side of the console that are far larger than the others and reckons they must control the engine hatch. She pushes the top button, but the engine hatch only jumps up half an inch then stops.

  “Oops, sorry, wrong button.”

  Before Victor can reply she pushes the bottom button and suddenly the engine hatch starts to close.

  Victor gives one final effort and pushes as hard as he can with his left arm, lifting himself slowly away from the knife, and then bends his back upwards while pulling his right arm from the floor and grabs the edge of the right engine hatch coming down, pulling himself even further away from Russtoff.

  Slowly the engine hatch cover closes and the right engine hatch cover comes down onto Russtoff’s throat. For a moment, one can hear the hydraulics strain while the engine hatch stops moving, obstructed by Russtoff’s neck, then there is the sickening sound of flesh being torn and bones crushing, followed by air escaping past blood in Russtoff’s windpipe. The engine hatch dutifully continues to close, cutting off Russtoff’s head.

  As his body goes limp, Victor pushes himself backwards and into a seated position.

  “Shit!” is all he hears from Laura behind him. As Victor stands up and turns around, Laura screams, “You’re bleeding, your throat is bleeding!”

  The salt water and rain make it look worse than it is, and Victor struggles to calm Laura down. Nathaniel has managed to swim back to the boat and is now climbing onto the swim platform. As soon as he climbs back onto the boat, he switches the lights on and only shakes his head at the headless body while asking, “What now?”

  Victor bends down and searches the man. He finds a Blackberry cell phone and Laura’s pen in Russtoff’s pants pocket, wrapped inside two zip lock bags, still dry. Victor then takes the body and dumps it overboard.

  After asking Nathaniel to open the engine hatch, he reaches in as soon as it is open and pulls out Russtoff’s head, then throws it overboard as well. Nathaniel pulls the fresh water shower hose from its holder, normally used by divers returning from a dive to shower the salt water from their faces, and washes the deck clean, including the engines. The bulge pumps pump out the bloody water, leaving no trace that Russtoff was ever on the boat.

  After closing the engine hatch again, Nathaniel starts the engines back up and asks, “Onwards, or do you have more friends you want to say hi to?”

  “Onwards,” is Victor’s only comment. Laura had by now found the emergency kit and uses cotton puf
fs with hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound on Victor’s throat, before putting a Band-Aid over it. When she is done she gives Victor a big hug and kiss, holding him for a while before sitting down on the crew seat. Victor stands between Nathaniel and Laura, holding her right hand with his left, while his other hand holds onto the boat for stability.

  Soon they will be in Cancun, but they will need to refuel on the way using the spare diesel cans they have brought onboard.

  Two and a half hours after leaving the police boat, they are 200 miles from Grand Cayman. Nathaniel slows the boat and signals to Victor that they need to top up the boat’s diesel tanks.

  “Laura, can you take the wheel for a minute? Just keep the nose pointed into the waves.”

  Laura is a little taken aback by Nathaniel asking her to drive the boat, but seeing Victor nod his head in approval, she takes the seat from Nathaniel and control of the boat.

  Victor and Nathaniel retrieve a few of the diesel cans from the bow of the boat and bring them to the back. The internal tanks are below the steering console and the filler caps are just behind the seats, one behind the driver seat and one behind the crew seat. Victor and Nathaniel each start filling a tank from the 10-gallon diesel jugs. When they finish topping up the tanks, they store the empty cans on the bow again, securing them with ropes.

  “We’ve got around 180 miles or so to go, I think it will take us around five hours to get there, let’s break for a snack.” Nathaniel takes the wheel from Laura as he speaks and both Laura and Victor eagerly nod their approval.

  Nathaniel keeps the boat in slow idle to minimize any salt spray from the waves over the bow, while Laura retrieves the sandwiches out of a sealed cooler box. Victor pours them each a cup of coffee and when done retrieves Russtoff’s cell phone out of his jacket pocket. After taking a sip of his coffee, he opens the two zip lock bags and first takes out Laura’s pen. Removing the cap, he is relieved to see that the memory card is still inside. He replaces the cap onto the pen and puts it back into the bag, then removes the cell phone.