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“I pressed the button, and it was supposed to give us ten seconds.”
“Maybe you threw long, and it went overboard.” Dino pointed. “Look!”
Stone sat up and saw the trawler’s stern as it passedBreeze’s bow. “It’s still underway, and with no steerage!”
The two of them struggled to their feet and looked down the channel.
“I don’t understand,” Stone said.
Then he understood. The trawler exploded, apparently from the inside.
“Thar she blows!” Stone shouted.
“She do,” Dino agreed.
Then she blew again.
“Fuel tank,” Stone said.
“Diesel doesn’t explode like that,” Dino said. “They must have a gasoline engine.”
“And they’re welcome to it,” Stone said.
They heard a siren and turned to look aft. A Coast Guard rigid rubber dinghy of about thirty feet was backing out of the sub base and into the channel. A moment later, they were passingBreeze, headed toward the remains of the trawler, which were partly afloat but surrounded by debris and what looked like bodies, or parts of them.
“What the hell was that?” Viv yelled.
Stone turned and saw her coming up the stairs to the top deck, followed closely by Vanessa.
“That was Vanessa’s bomb going off on the trawler, followed by a gasoline explosion.”
Vanessa gave Stone a big kiss. “Did you throw the bomb at them?”
“Yes, and I think it went down the open engine hatch,” Stone said.
“I’m glad I gave you the extra time,” she said.
“What extra time?”
“I reset it to give you thirty seconds, just in case.”
“Ah, that would explain why Stone and I are still alive!” Dino crowed.
“Excuse me, people,” Stone said, “but I think we’re goingto have a visit from the Coast Guard very soon. So we should put the yacht in order.”
“What order?” Viv asked.
“Well, you could start by getting those handguns below,” he said, “and well-hidden. Vanessa, that evil bag of yours needs to disappear, too, along with anything inside it or outside it that might be bomb-related. When they come aboard, please let me do all the talking, so we won’t contradict ourselves. Just make positive noises now and then.”
“Okay, pal,” Dino said. “You can screw this up all by yourself.”
58
They were gatheredaround the dining table aboardBreeze, and as far as Stone could tell, there were present a crusty, fiftyish Coast Guard captain, a young woman who was skipper of the cutter, a couple of Key West police detectives, and two men and a woman in civilian clothes, who could be FBI or some other agency.
Ahead of them, in the channel that ran past the sub base, was a smoldering pile of floating debris that had once been a trawler. All this created a clog in the channel, and there were angry boaters lined up at both ends, waiting to get wherever they were going.
The Coast Guard captain took charge. “All right,” he said, “what the hell happened here?”
