The Ashes of Pompeii (Purge of Babylon, Book 5) (51 page)

Keo lowered his hand and gripped the MP5SD under water. The boat’s passengers hadn’t fired yet, so he assumed whoever was onboard wasn’t shooting on sight. That was good, because it meant he had the advantage.

Yeah, right!

He slipped his forefinger into the trigger guard but kept the barrel of the submachine gun under water as the boat neared. A little bit closer and he’d find out, once and for all, if the German gun could fire while partially submerged in water.

“Keo!” a voice shouted from the boat.

He relaxed at the sound of the voice and grinned against the spotlight. Of all the people he expected to see out here right now, she was definitely not one of them.

The vessel slowed down as it reached him, waves jostling him around and making staying in one place difficult. They angled alongside him and he saw the familiar tall blonde figure behind the steering wheel, two hands frantically trying to keep the boat from running him over and under. Keo had a sudden image of being saved, only to be accidentally shredded by the propellers. Now that would have been ironic.

The girl stopped the boat, hurried over to the portside, and leaned over. “You’re alive,” she said, grinning down at him.

“So are you,” Keo said. “I thought you were on the yacht.”

“No, we never made it.”

“That makes two of us. Who else made it?”

“Later. Get up here first.”

He grabbed her extended arm and let her pull him up. She was a tall kid, but lean and not very muscular. It didn’t help that he had been soaked in water for all this time and “gained” weight as a result. He crawled over the gunwale like a crab, snaking arms and legs over every stable piece along the boat he could find. Finally, he slumped over the side and landed on the floor, then struggled to sit back up with his back against the side, water pouring out of every inch of him.

Gaby wasn’t alone in the boat. Lara was in the back, using a second spotlight to treat Danny’s wound. It looked like a big ugly gunshot to the side. There was already a thick stack of bloodied gauze next to them, and it was clear Lara had been working on him for some time. She looked pretty shot up herself and was grimacing with every little movement she made.

“Glad you made it, Keo,” Lara said.

“You came looking for me?” he said, not able to hide his surprise.

“Gaby swore she saw someone else making a run for the water while we were fleeing down the beach. We weren’t sure if it was you or one of the soldiers, but we thought we needed to find out before rejoining the others.”

“What if I’d been a soldier?”

“Then I’d have run you over,” Gaby said.

He chuckled. “My lucky night, then.”

“You and I have very different definitions of ‘luck,’ Keo,” Lara smiled.

“Hey, any night where I’m alive at the end of it is a lucky night,” he smiled back. He nodded at Danny. “How’s Jokes-a-lot doing?”

She frowned. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll live.” She looked over at Gaby, that steely resolve he had come to respect so much returning in the blink of an eye. “Let’s find the
Trident,
Gaby. Zoe will be able to do more for Danny there.”

“We know the
Trident
made it?” Keo asked. “The soldiers didn’t attack it?”

“Not as far as we know,” Lara said. Then, “I guess we’ll find out soon.”

Gaby switched off the trolling motor, then hurried back behind the steering wheel and switched on the outboard motor. It coughed, then caught, and the sound of it powering up was like an explosion against the silent lake.

“Why the trolling motor?” Keo asked her, shouting over the roar.

“In case there were soldiers still around!” Gaby shouted back.

“And now?”

“We’ve been circling for almost thirty minutes. If they’re still around, we would have run into them by now!”

Just in case,
Keo thought, and slipped the MP5SD in front of him and looked off the side as the boat started moving.

Gaby pushed on the throttle and the stern dipped slightly as the vessel picked up speed until they were racing across open water, the spotlight at the front lighting their path.

*

The
Trident
was
exactly where it was supposed to be, drifting half a kilometer from the opening into the channel that connected Beaufont Lake with the Gulf of Mexico. He saw silhouetted figures moving on the main and upper decks as soon as they were within sight of it and wondered if one of them was manning the M240 right now, ready to blast away like they had back at the island.

The luxury yacht looked like a ghost ship afloat on the lake with all of its lights still switched off, and only the moonlight to hint at its presence. That is, until the people onboard saw the much smaller boat approaching with its spotlight shining in the darkness. The
Trident
’s industrial strength lights quickly blasted on at full intensity, nearly blinding Keo in the process.

All three of them (and Danny) had lost their radios in the rush to escape Song Island, so they didn’t have anything to contact the yacht with to let them know they were coming in. Fortunately, no one onboard had a happy trigger finger, and Keo was still in one piece when a figure on the main deck waved them in. Gaby, one hand shielding her eyes from the bright lights, guided the boat alongside the yacht and toward the back.

Two figures were waiting for them at the large swimming area as Gaby maneuvered over. There were already other crafts onboard, including the lightweight aluminum boats they had used to abandon the island. The two shadows turned out to be Maddie and Nate, and as they stepped into the large pool of floodlights, both were beaming back at them. The boy only had eyes for Gaby, who looked equally happy to see him alive.

True love in the apocalypse lives.

There might be hope for us yet, Gillian.

Gaby moved as close to the yacht as she dared before turning off the engine. They climbed out one by one, then Keo and Nate took Danny from Lara and carried him between them while Gaby stayed behind to help Maddie tie the twenty-footer up.

The ex-Ranger looked more dead than alive, and Nate knew it too when they grabbed the unconscious man. Keo didn’t realize he and Nate were rushing through the deck until he glanced back and saw Lara struggling to keep up with them, half-limping and half-running.

He looked over at Nate. The kid “got it” without Keo having to say a word, and they slowed down just enough for Lara to catch up.

“You okay?” he asked her.

She nodded, which was a big lie. He could see her trying to hide the pain. It was all over her face, even if she didn’t think it showed.

“You?” she asked.

“Better, now that I’m dry. Mostly dry, anyway.”

“Good,” she said, and looked away.

Keo didn’t say anything, but he pegged the chances that he’d be carrying both her and Danny over to Zoe in the next few minutes at fifty-fifty.

Nate’s radio squawked, and they heard Blaine’s voice. “Are they onboard?”

Nate unclipped the radio from his waist and handed it to Lara. “It’s for you.”

Lara took it and said into the radio, “We’re onboard, Blaine.”

“Thank God you guys are fine,” Blaine said. “We were seriously debating about going back there. I had the boat turned around and ready.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” She wiped at a bead of sweat and grimaced. “Is everyone onboard?”

“Almost everyone. Sarah’s here.”

“What about Stan and Roy? Danny and I sent them ahead with Sarah while we held the attackers back at the hotel.”

“They didn’t make it, Lara. Sarah said they were ambushed on the other side of the hotel, and Roy and Stan stayed behind to make sure she could reach the exit point.”

There was silence behind him. He thought about shooting one of those cursory,
“You okay?”
questions back at her, but didn’t. It would have been a stupid thing to do because she wasn’t okay. How could she be, when she had just found out two people she had sent ahead didn’t make it to their destination? Even seasoned commanders took the loss of their soldiers hard, and Lara wasn’t anywhere close to being a soldier.

He was surprised, though, that her voice was calm when she finally said, “Let’s go, Blaine.”

“Are you sure?” Blaine asked.

“Yes. Follow the plan.”

“What about Will? What about the island?”

There was a brief moment of silence before she said, “Follow the plan, Blaine.”

Blaine didn’t answer, but it didn’t take long for the
Trident
’s engine to power back on. Then the boat began turning, back toward the channel.

*

They left Danny
inside the makeshift infirmary, which was really just one of the guest cabins, with the doctor, Zoe. The rest of the islanders, who had been on the
Trident
ever since the yacht moved from the beach to its hiding place, were confined to other rooms to keep them out of the way as Keo and the others got ready for the channel.

They had to brave it, regardless of who was waiting out there, because on the other side was the Gulf of Mexico, an ocean big enough that even the yacht could get lost in it. To get there, though, they would first have to traverse a 300-meter wide section of water, which would put them easily within shooting distance of well-armed men on both sides. Given the size of the yacht, once they started through there was no turning back.

Keo climbed up to the roof of the bridge with the M240. The damn thing was already heavy, but he had to struggle with the ammo belt the entire way, too. When he finally reached the highest point on the yacht, he crawled forward and laid down near the edge, over old dried blood and bullet holes he had put there himself. He tried looking through the holes and into the bridge below, but since Blaine had turned off the lights to make himself and
Capitan
Gage into harder targets, he only saw small halos of lights generated by the console illuminating nothing in particular.

He turned his attention back to the channel and situated himself behind the machine gun, getting as comfortable as possible, which was harder than he had expected with the wind whipping at him. Unfortunately he wasn’t nearly as dry from his long swim as he had thought earlier, and the combination made for a cold night out. He perched the MG on its tripod and peered through the iron sights. It would have been nice to have a night-vision scope. Then again, it would have been nice if he could fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes, too.

He was unclipping the radio and about to set it on the roof next to him when it squawked and he heard Lara’s voice. “Keo, you set?”

“I’m set,” Keo said into the radio. “You?”

“Yeah.”

“No, I mean, can you do this?”

“Yes,” she said, with just a hint of exasperation. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who had asked that question. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. You’re the one up there in the open.”

“Thanks for reminding me. I had forgotten that I’m a goddamn idiot.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, with just a tiny hint of amusement in her voice. Then, “Blaine, maintain our current speed and keep the lights moving in case they try to put some kind of obstruction in the water.”

“Did you see any of that last time, Keo?” Blaine asked.

“I didn’t get that far,” Keo said.

“How many snipers?” Lara asked.

“Just the one.”

“But he had backup.”

“Yeah.”

“What are the chances they actually left someone behind?” Gaby asked.

“They’re not exactly tactical geniuses,” Nate said. “I think there’s a good chance they would have thrown everything they had at the island.”

“Let’s hope so,” Lara said. “Until then, everyone stay alert. No one blinks until we make it into the Gulf.”

Gaby and Nate were defending through windows on the port side, while Benny and Maddie had starboard. Lara was moving around the boat. Or limping around, anyway. Keo had caught her taking a couple of pills from a bottle after they finally delivered Danny to Zoe. He didn’t have to ask what she was taking. Lara might have been a (surprisingly) tough customer, but the way she was moving around, he kept expecting her to fall down at any moment.