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“Then we’ll hold our fire, until they’re not holding theirs anymore.”
“I hope they’re bad shots,” Dino said.
“Jesus, the girls are on the main deck and exposed.”
“Nah, they headed below with the handguns as soon as we came up here.”
“So Vanessa is no longer a distraction?”
“No, I’m sorry to say. I was enjoying being distracted.”
“I think you can be sure that Viv is getting Vanessa dressed as we speak.”
“It’s just the sort of thing she’d do,” Dino said sorrowfully.
“I don’t know what your current standing with theCatholic church is,” Stone said, “but this would be a good time to pray.”
Dino crossed himself. “Let’s see if anybody’s listening,” he said, moving his lips silently.
Something struck the whaler and shook it.
“Too late,” Stone said.
56
Stone popped his headup and had a look to port, then drew back, but not before inviting several rounds to be fired at the whaler. “Their rounds are not penetrating,” Stone said. “There’s a layer of Kevlar in the hull.”
“Good for us.”
“Yes, but we can’t see anything. Let’s get aboard the whaler.”
“You first,” Dino replied.
Stone half stood, then drew back a leg and threw it over the side of the whaler, like a cowboy mounting a horse, and got into the boat.
Dino did the same.
Stone’s phone rang. “Yes?”
“That’s a good spot for you,” Lance said. “The hull of that boat is very tough.”
“I figured that out,” Stone said. “Do you have anything new for us?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. The trawler seems to have used its engine a little too hard. There’s smoke trailing from the on-deck engine cover. And they’ve slowed more than they needed to, while they try to figure out what’s wrong. They’re still a hundred yards behind you and moving very slowly.”
Stone popped up to look ahead of them and didn’t draw fire. “Our berth is fifty yards away, and the skipper is creeping up on it.”
“Why haven’t you been shot in the head?” Dino asked.
“Because something’s wrong aboard the trawler. Lance says they’re trailing smoke from the engine cover on deck.” He looked aft, and so did Dino.
Dino fired a couple of rounds from his Winchester into the deck, and three or four men on the trawler took cover. “That ought to slow them down with the repairs,” he said.
Breezewas in her berth now, and shore hands were securing her warps. Stone looked back and saw the trawler, maybe fifty yards back. A man in the wheelhouse was moving back and forth, pulling levers and pressing buttons.
“They’ll have an automatic fire extinguisher in the engine bay,” Stone said.
“Then why aren’t they using it?” Dino asked.
