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They spotted Mallet and a Coates kid lounging on the steps of town hall. Neither challenged them as they ran past.
The marina wasn’t large, just forty slips, about half of them full. There was a drydock, and the rattling, rusty, tin warehouse that had once been a cannery and now housed boat-repair shops. A lot of boats were up out of the water on blocks, looking ungainly and like a stiff breeze might topple them.
No one was there. No one was blocking their path.
“What do we take?” Sam wondered. He had reached his first goal, but he knew nothing about boats. He looked to Edilio and got a shrug.
“Okay. Something that will carry five people. Motorboat. With a full tank of gas. Quinn, take the boats on the right, Edilio, left. I’ll go to the end of the dock and work back. Go.”
They split up and started working their way along, jumping into each likely looking boat, looking for keys, trying to figure out how to check the gas as time ticked away.
In his mind’s eye Sam saw Drake searching Astrid’s house. A gun in his hand. He would be slowed down a little by fear that Astrid and Little Pete would simply teleport again. Drake wouldn’t know that Little Pete was not really in control of his powers, so he would try to be stealthy, he would be patient.
That was good. The more uncertainty Drake had, the slower he’d go.
Suddenly an engine roared to life. Sam jumped back onto the dock from the boat he’d been exploring. He raced back along the dock and found Quinn sitting proudly in a Boston Whaler, an open motorboat.
“She’s gassed up,” Quinn said over the sluggish chugging of the engine.
“Good job, man,” Sam said. He jumped into the boat beside Quinn. “Edilio, cast off.”
Edilio whipped the ropes off the cleats and jumped in. “I gotta warn you, man: I get seasick.”
“Not our biggest problem, huh?” Sam said.
“I started it, but I don’t know how to drive it,” Quinn said.
“Neither do I,” Sam admitted. “But I guess I’m going to learn.”
“Hey. Hey.” It was Orc’s booming voice. “Don’t you pull away.”
Orc, Howard, and Panda were at the end of the dock.
“Mallet,” Sam said. “He saw us. He must have told them.”
The three bullies started running.
Sam looked frantically at the controls. The engine was chugging, the boat, unmoored, was drifting away from the dock, but too slowly. Even Orc could easily jump the gap.
“Throttle,” Edilio said, pointing at a red-tipped lever. “That makes it go.”
“Yeah. Hang on.”
Sam moved the throttle up a notch. The boat surged forward and slammed into a piling. Sam was knocked almost but not quite off his feet. Edilio snatched at the railing and held on tight. Quinn sat down hard in the bow.
The bow scraped past the piling and almost by accident ended up aimed toward open water.
“You might want to take it slow at first,” Edilio said.
“Stop! Stop that boat,” Orc yelled breathlessly, pounding down the dock. “I’ll beat your stupid head in.”
Sam steered—he hoped—in the right direction and chugged slowly away. There was no way Orc could clear the distance now.
“Caine will kill you,” Panda shouted.
“Quinn, you traitor,” Howard yelled.
“Tell them I made you do it,” Sam said.
