More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) (39 page)

“I’ve got death. What you getting, Echo?”

“Unfriendly. Curious. Suspicious. Make the mayday call now, Rupert.”

The speedboat cut its engines when it was about fifty yards away. Rupert had just brought the radio to his mouth, and lowered it before saying anything.

“Go below,” I said to Cindy. She nodded and then slowly went down the ladder, looking over the side of the boat at the speedboat floating closer to us, eyeing us, weighing their options.

“Put the radio down,” I ordered Rupert when I was hit by their dark energy.

“Nice boat!” yelled the driver of the speedboat as he pulled alongside us. The two other men on board wore postures of aggression. They were about twenty feet away now. The driver was a Caucasian male of about twenty-five, heavyset and wearing clothes that weren’t right for sailing. He had on a brown leather bomber jacket, jeans, steel-toed boots and dark glasses. His right hand rested inside his jacket. Every alarm in my body was going off, so I reached for Rupert’s hand and gave him a quick squeeze. Luckily, he had replaced the radio before they saw him.

We were in trouble. We both knew it too.

“Thank you. Is there something we can do for you?” Rupert asked. I was really, really wishing that my bag was up here with me so I had the little gun Danica had given to me. I thought about releasing Rupert’s hand and making a run for my bag, but I’d never make it.

“Mind if we come aboard? Never been on a yacht like that baby, and I’m thinking of buying one.”  As the man moved to get onto the hood of his speedboat, I saw the shoulder holster and butt of his weapon.

“Actually, I don’t let strangers board my boat. Terrorism and all that. Sorry old chap.”

“Aw, come on, man. We’re just a bunch of guys out here partying. We don’t mean no harm. I’ll bet your daughter would like to see the speedboat, wouldn’t you, hon?”

Rupert and I turned our heads just a fraction, and there stood Cindy at the railing glaring down at him. She had just come back up from down below and was standing at the railing staring at the speedboat with an intense gaze I found hauntingly familiar.

“Shit,” Rupert uttered under his breath. “No,” he said to the thug, “She’s seen plenty, actually.”

“Don’t make this hard, old man,” the driver said, reaching into the bomber jacket for his weapon. This was the moment when everything slowed down to the slowest motion imaginable. As he grabbed the butt of his gun, a huge ball of fire came out of nowhere and crashed into his chest, sending him sprawling back onto the deck of the speedboat engulfed in flames. His gun hung in midair for a moment before kerplunking into the water, his screams reverberating through the air.

The thug was completely enveloped in flames, and without a single hesitation, Rupert grabbed the
Necromancer’s
controls and pulled away from the speedboat as fast as the yacht could go. As I turned to get Cindy,
I knew.
And by the looks of what was happening to her now, I also knew what she was
going
to do.

And I couldn’t have stopped her even if I wanted.

“We can’t outrun them!” I yelled to Rupert.

“I know. But I got a mayday call in and maybe we can play some cat-and-mouse before the cavalry gets here. How is she?”

Already, there was a strange bluish glow around both of her hands. The air around her was like the heat of a motorcycle pipe and made a crackling, staticky sound. Before the speedboat’s engine could turn over to give chase, Cindy raised her hands and threw what looked like two miniature balls of sun at the bow of the speedboat. The speedboat, and the two remaining men on it blew about one hundred feet in the air, sending flaming debris everywhere. Rupert closed the controls and slid down the ladder to help me put out any of the small flaming pieces landing on the deck.

When we had stamped out them all, Rupert looked to Cindy and then to me. “Well, I guess we know what her powers are now, don’t we?”

Nodding, I knelt in front of her. I was surprised by how calm she was. I had never actually seen a pyrokinetic before.

“You okay?” I asked, looking for some signs of trauma. I mean, she had just killed three people; one of them directly from a burst of flame from her own hands, and she was completely calm about it.

She nodded and looked at her hands. She knew what she had done. It was no accident. She had manipulated the energy around us and created a weapon that had blown the speedboat to smithereens and she felt not one drop of remorse.

“I’m going to send out another mayday, Echo, and move us away from that boat. Where one speedboat is, others are sure to follow. We have got to get the hell out of here.”

I nodded, only half hearing him. “So...that’s what you’ve done that scares people, huh?”

Cindy shook her head and then held up her index finger. A flame jumped from it. She blew it out and shrugged.

“Someone saw you manipulating fire once.”

Nod.

“And those fireballs you just threw. You’ve made them before. It’s not the first time.” Nod.

I sighed and rose. There was one last question I had to ask. It’s not that the answer mattered; it would help me understand her better. “You’ve  accidentally killed somebody before, haven’t you?”

She looked at her hands and nodded.

“Oh hon, I’m so sorry. That must have been awful.”

Slowly, she nodded, then she pointed to herself. “Cinder,” she whispered softly.

I frowned as I felt the yacht picking up speed. “What?”

She pointed to me and said, “Echo.” Then to herself. “CindER.”

Oh crap. Her name wasn’t Cindy, it was CindER...as in ashes...as in a fire...as in firestarter. “All right, then, Cinder. I suppose I should be angry with you for what you just did, but the fact is you just saved all of our lives. Those fireballs were…well…in a word, amazing.”

She nodded and held out her hand. With very little effort, she manipulated another, smaller fireball. Then, she closed her hand and the ball vanished. I have to admit...I was impressed.

“I got a distress call out, Echo, but it looks like we’re about to have more company. I’m not sure blowing up their boat was such a great idea.”

Cinder and I looked over the bow and saw two more speedboats racing toward us. The cargo ship had pulled up anchor and was beginning to make its way out of the bay.

“Gee, you blow up one little speedboat and look what happens,” Rupert said. “Think she’s got any more firepower left? Because if she doesn’t, we’re screwed.”

“Rupert! I’m not going to ask her to kill any more people.” I turned and found Cinder had already started manipulating the energy around her, so I put my hands on her shoulders and shook my head. “No more, Cinder. I appreciate what you’ve done, but
no more
. This is not your battle.”

“Yeah,” Rupert added. “They say killing is bad for your soul, and I should know. Well, Echo, any ideas about how to get out of this one without using the kid’s power?”

“Can you outrun them?”

“In those boats? Not a chance. We’re either going to have to turn and fight or—”

“Or what? Rupert, we can’t ask her to kill people for us. She’s too young and untrained. If she could just dismantle the boat, that’s one thing, but she’s like a baby rattler. They shoot all their venom in one bite.”

“If she doesn’t bite, Echo, we’re gonna get creamed.”

The moment I took my eyes from her, she scooted across the deck away from me but closer to the oncoming boats. Before I knew it, she had thrown two more fireballs at the closest speedboat. It managed to get out of the way without getting hit.

“Cinder, stop!”

Suddenly, bullets bounced off the railing, and I ran to get her.

“Let her do her thing, Echo! We’re sitting ducks out here!”

Rupert was right. Cinder’s powers were the only ones that could save us. But how do you ask a child to blow someone to bits?

“Here comes the third one, Echo.”

I looked over and saw the third speedboat drop alongside the one trailing us.

“
It’s now or never, kiddo. Let her kill them before they hurt you. You can’t stop the inevitable.
”

I looked over at Rupert and knew he hadn’t said that. It was Tip from somewhere deep in my brain.
“I can’t.
”

“You sure as shit can! I leave you alone for one minute, and you get yourself in this kind of trouble? Let the kid do it. She has the power...and the experience. If she’s all you’ve got, use her, but don’t get killed because of some sort of fucked-up ethical issue. Kill the bastards!”

“What are you saying?”

“You know what I’m saying. Save yourselves at any cost. She’ll get over it. She already has.
”

She’d not only gotten over it, she was ready for round two, and before I could stop her, she sent two more balls of flame in the direction of the nearest speedboat. The first one caught the driver on fire, and he leapt off the ship and into the water. The second hit the speedboat dead-on and the whole thing blew to bits, killing everyone on board. The man in the water was subsequently run over by the trailing boat, which I am sure Cinder would have also destroyed, had she not been distracted by an odd sound from overhead.

The loud beating sounded like the blades of a helicopter. Looking up, I spotted a Coast Guard helicopter making haste for the cargo ship.

“Well, slap a diaper on me and call me Grandpa! It’s the goddamn Coast Guard!” Rupert picked up his binoculars and looked at the cargo ship. “Holy crap, Echo, people are bailing left and right out of that cargo ship. Rats jumping from a sinking ship, I guess. Where in the hell did the Coast Guard come from?”

“I thought you said you sent out a Mayday?”

“I did. They never get here that quick unless...”

Cinder pointed to the table where we had been eating. Sitting open was the vidbook. “Yo, Princess!” shouted Carl. “Say something, man, or the Boss is gonna start throwing things!”

I turned to Cinder and smiled softly. “Is this what you did when we told you to go below?”

She nodded.

Picking up the vidbook, I saw the boys’ worried faces anxiously staring back at me.  “Tell Dani we’re all okay and her vidbook is a huge success.”

“Hell, Princess, we knew that. With the GPS system, we’ve had you in our sights all day long. Once the kid came on with this horrified look on her face, we called the cavalry. You sure you’re okay?”

I put my hand on Cinder’s head. “We are now.” I turned and saw three Coast Guard ships cutting through the water like torpedoes. I mean, they were hauling ass and meaning business. Then, I turned back to Carl, only it wasn’t Carl, it was Danica. She was whiter than I had ever seen her.

“You know I’m gonna have to kick your ass, right? I can’t believe—” She shook her head. “Are you all okay?”

“We’re fine.”

“And the homeless guys?”

“From what I can see, a lot of them are still alive, but I don’t have any confirmations yet. My…uh…emotions are all over the place.”

“Good job, then, Clark. I mean it.”

I watched as the Coast Guard boats cut off the third speedboat. “How did you get the Coast Guard here so quickly?”

“Don’t thank us. Thank that Detective Jardine. We made one call to him the moment we knew you were at the marina, and he was all over it. Of course, with the GPS system, we knew exactly where you were and gave him perfect directions. You are in such big fucking trouble!”

“From?”

“Everyone!”

I said a few more words of thanks to her and the boys before signing off. She could have my head later.

“More incoming!” Rupert announced, only this time, he meant that a Coast Guard ship was pulling alongside us. “Um...Echo...is there anything else I need to know? The girl wasn’t... you know...”

“Kidnapped? Not hardly. Everything is in order, Rupert. Don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? Honey, you’re a danger magnet walking around with a kid who is her own army troop.”

“
Attention all hands aboard the
Necromancer
. This is the Coast Guard. Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded.
”

Rupert did as he was told and then the three of us stood on deck waiting for the Coast Guard to come aboard.

“Ready, ladies?”

I looked down into Cinder’s face. She looked so young and innocent. “It’s okay to feel sad that you had to do that.”

She shook her head, and I knew from reading her she didn’t feel the slightest bit of remorse.

“Well, these are the good guys, so keep your fireball hands to yourself, okay? Number one rule of being one of us is you don’t show
them
our powers, okay?”

Nod.

When I glanced over at the Coast Guard ship, I was stunned to see a familiar face. It was Darryl Jardine and he was boarding the
Necromancer
.

“Why did I know this is how it would end?” he said as he stepped on board.

I couldn’t help myself. I ran over to him and hugged him. “Boy am I glad to see you!”