"Shit," he whispered to himself.
Elsa, the Professor and Shane emerged from inside the ship's cabin, their hands tied behind their backs. Shane was limping and looked as if he'd been beaten pretty badly. Elsa and the Professor looked unharmed, but certainly not out of harm's way. The three of them were being marched toward the back of the boat by Eric Landon and another disciple, both of whom carried pistols.
Will didn't waste any time.
He gunned the engines and took the Sea Ray up to full speed, launching it across the choppy waters like a rocket skimming the surface.
Marco led his mission deep into the island, past bottomless black tidal pools and naturally-formed sinkholes that gushed and sprayed with the force of the ocean that pushed and pulled its way under the island, unseen beneath them.
But it wasn't long before the spray of the sea turned into thick clouds of sulfur; before the chill of the ocean beneath them gave way to an unmistakable heat pressing toward them.
That's when Marco saw a passage ahead of them, glowing bright orange.
He grinned. "The home of fire," he whispered to himself.
"Eternal damnation," Luca whispered at the same time.
"Come!" Marco ordered.
He rushed forward and emerged onto a thin ledge overlooking a giant, slow-moving river of molten lava.
Marco's eyes widened with awe, glowing red in the reflection of the river below.
Luca appeared behind him, followed by Dominic Dixon and the other disciples.
"Blimey!" breathed the one-armed man, chuckling with wonder.
The ledge upon which they stood was narrow and ran the entire length of the bubbling, burning river, but that's not what grabbed everyone's attention; it was the two spectacular waterfalls of lava that cascaded from the wall opposite them into the river below—and in the middle of the waterfalls was a rocky ledge upon which sat an enormous, perfectly-formed, heart-shaped rock.
"This is the place," Marco smiled.
On board
Salvation
, Eric Landon smiled. "Check their ropes," he ordered his henchman, who forcefully spun Elsa, Shane and the Professor about, so they would face the back of the boat. The rain had stopped, but the black ocean still churned and lapped ferociously at the stern of the ship.
The disciple tugged on the ropes and tightened them even more. Elsa winced.
"Careful," Eric warned. "You don't want to cut off their circulation. You just want to make it impossible for them to swim."
With that, Eric stepped forward, placed one foot squarely in the middle of Elsa's back, and then pushed her clear over the stern's railing.
"Elsa!" cried the Professor.
But it was too late. Elsa screamed as she plunged headfirst over the railing, landing in the hungry waves with a tremendous splash.
Shane instantly jumped up on the railing to dive in after her, but the disciple grabbed him by the rope behind his back and hauled him back to the floor of the deck.
Shane kicked at the robed man, striking him in the kneecap and breaking it with a sharp crack. The disciple screamed and fell to the deck in agony.
He dropped his gun.
Shane dived for it, but he couldn't grab it with his hands behind his back. All he could do was kick it away.
His opponent tried to stop him, but Shane got to it first, and the gun scuttled across the deck.
Suddenly, Eric seized the Professor and pushed the snout of his pistol hard up into the Professor's chin.
Shane leaped to his feet, hands still tied.
"Hold it!" Eric shouted, his hostage firmly in hand.
Shane stopped, saw the Professor in danger, and for a moment everything fell silent.
Almost everything.
That's when they all heard the roar of a speedboat approaching fast.
Approaching
too
fast!
Eric and Shane quickly glanced to starboard.
All Shane could see was the speedboat coming at them at top speed. Then, he saw a blur as someone leaped from the boat, into the water, setting the Sea Ray on a collision course for the ship.
"Will?" he whispered.
And then—
BOOM!
The sound of the speedboat hitting the ship was like an explosion, all the more so because of the physical impact on
Salvation
. The speedboat pierced straight into the middle of the starboard side of the boat, lancing the hull and ramming half the length of its entire body in through the side of the larger vessel.
Salvation
jolted, and the starboard side lifted clear out of the water—with the speedboat lodged in its side—as though it might capsize.
The deck tilted sharply.
Shane and Eric, along with the loose pistol, slid down the deck and smashed into the port side railing.
The Professor, left blind and standing at the edge of the stern, was thrown from the boat and into the water.
The robed disciple with the broken kneecap rolled down the deck and over the edge as well.
The ship corrected itself and landed flat back on the ocean surface with an almighty
slap
!
That's when the sea began to pour in through the hole in the ship, between its own smashed hull and the slender, spearhead hull of the Sea Ray.
Shane tumbled back toward starboard, but with his hands still fastened behind his back, he was helpless to control his roll. The lunge sent him careening into the cabin and directly down a set of stairs into the lower deck of the ship.
Eric slid to a halt in the middle of the deck, his own gun in one hand as the disciple's gun skimmed along the deck and stopped directly in front of his face.
His
grinning
face.
When Will dived from the charging speedboat, the momentum of the Sea Ray catapulted him through the air and into the churning waves with incredible force, propelling him like a torpedo deep into the water, a split second before the speedboat plowed through the side of
Salvation
.
Once his momentum had stopped, the force of the waves wanted to push him back and forth like a tiny fish. The water, too, was almost pitch-dark, but the odd bolt of electricity still streaked across the sky, sporadically illuminating the vast black ocean.
In one flash, he saw the unmistakable sight of Elsa, sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Her legs were trying desperately to kick her up toward air, but her hands were tied behind her back, and her heavy, water-logged dressing gown pulled her deeper and deeper down.
As the last bubbles escaped her lungs and ascended to the air above, Will used all his strength to push himself down toward her.
The ocean went black again.
Will kicked as hard as he could.
His arms pushed through the water, parting the current as if he were parting rocks.
And then, another flash of lightning.
And something else caught his eye.
Something on the surface, near the smashed hulls of the two conjoined boats.
It was the Professor, also with his hands tied behind his back.
Worse still, there was something else splashing in the water a few feet away from him. Will quickly realized the disciple in the black robe had toppled into the water as well.
Will stopped, his lungs burning, his eyes darting from Elsa—sweet, kind Elsa, sinking quickly to the seabed—and then back to the Professor—the man who made everything happen, the man who had brought them all together, the man who strived for justice and equality—struggling on the surface.
In another flare of lightning, Will saw the disciple splashing awkwardly through the water before grabbing at the Professor, as if to keep himself afloat.
As if using the Professor as a buoy.
Dragging himself on top of the old blind man.
Kicking him down.
Sending him under.
Will had to think. He had to make a choice.
Save Elsa—
—or the Professor.
Marco himself seized the thick wire cable and grappling hook off his disciple on the ledge. He looped one end of the cable, and using it like a lasso, he hurled it wide across the river of lava.
It landed perfectly over the heart-shaped boulder, and Marco pulled it tight. He forced the grappling hook into a thin crevice in the wall behind him, and just for good measure took one of the shovels and pounded the hook into place.
He tested the strength of the cable to make sure it was taut enough, and then said to Luca, "You go first."
As if to reinforce this instruction, Dominic Dixon pulled his gun on Luca. "You heard da Holy Fadda. Move!"
Luca took a deep breath for courage and stepped toward the cable, testing it himself. It seemed tight enough, but there was only one way to find out whether or not it would hold his weight.
With both hands on the cable, Luca lowered himself, head first, over the river of lava. The cabled bowed a little but held strong. Luca hooked his feet up over the cable, taking his weight off the ground completely, and then, dangling like a cannibal's captive on a spit, he started to pull himself, hand-over-hand, over the lava and toward the rocky ledge on the other side.
He could feel the heat of the oozing magma, only fifteen feet below, scorching his lashed, bleeding back. He could hear the pop and spatter of bubbles exploding on the river's slow-moving surface. He shut his eyes and tried to push it all out of his head.
Hand-over-hand.
All he could focus on was one hand, and then the other, slowly pulling him toward the rocky ledge on the other side,
"You're almost there," he heard Marco call.
Just then, a tremor rocked the entire cavern, as though Marco's words had sent a warning to the protective volcano.
Instantly, Marco and his men backed up against the wall behind them, holding fast. Rocks fell from the cavern's ceiling and turned to red liquid as they splashed into the river.
Luca held on as tight as he could, but the tremor sent a violent ripple all the way down the cable.
His feet slipped, and Suddenly, he was dangling by his hands over the glowing river.
He didn't know how long he could hold on in the one spot. Nor did he want to find out.
The rocky ledge was close.
Luca made a break for it, swinging quickly, recklessly, from one hand to the other, his legs swinging wildly beneath him, the cable quaking in his grip, until—
He let go.
He swung his legs toward the ledge—and landed on the very edge of it.
Small rocks trickled away under him. His heels slipped off the edge, but Luca managed to pull his weight forward and dropped safely to his knees on the ledge, facing the heart-shaped rock as if he were kneeling before an altar.
The tremor rumbled back inside the mountain, like thunder rolling away.
Luca turned back to Marco, who smiled, impressed. Perhaps even relieved.
"Well done," Marco said, not loud enough for Luca to hear him.
He turned to his disciples.
"I'll go next. Then, the five of you." He turned to Dominic Dixon. "You stay here. Mind the entrance."
The one-armed man looked at him, stunned and betrayed. "But—"
"Don't be a fool! There's no possible way you can make it across with only one arm."
Dominic Dixon gestured to his missing arm. "But I did dis for Him—for
you
, my Holy Fadda!"
"Then obey my order!"
The one-armed man bowed his head, reluctantly. "Yes, my lord."
Shane crashed down the stairs into the cabin and slammed against the lower deck.
The first thought that crossed his mind was the water; the sea was gushing in through the crashed hull just ahead of him. The speedboat had completely smashed apart the suite where Elsa and the Professor had been kept and was now jutting across the corridor leading to the other suites at the bow of the ship.
The second thought that flashed through Shane's brain was:
Where's Eric?
This question was answered immediately.
The sound of a gunshot pierced the air, and the wooden panel an inch from Shane's head splintered into a million tiny shards.
Shane pulled himself frantically to his feet.
That's when the third thought entered his head. He needed his hands freed or he was a dead man.
Staggering wildly, he ran toward the incoming flood.
Behind him, he could hear the sound of Eric's footsteps crashing down the stairs before he splashed into the water.
All around Shane could hear the groan of metal and the snap of timber as
Salvation
began to sink and slowly break apart. He reached the hull of the speedboat and managed, against the rushing force of the flooding seawater, to squeeze under it, emerging in the corridor on the other side of the intruding Sea Ray.
He rushed through the first door he could find and kicked it shut behind him. He backed up against the door handle, and with his tied hands he managed to lock the door. Then, he looked around desperately for a knife, anything sharp, that he might be able to use to cut the ropes.
But there was nothing in the room but two chairs, a rope on the flooding floor, and a table with several items on it.
These weren't just items though.
It was the code book, and the two stone tablets, and another large book that when Shane rushed over to the table, appeared to be an old book of art.
It was open to a page that had printed on it a work from Videlle. An ocean cave.
Shane glanced from the art book to the stones—and suddenly, something dawned on him.
Will made his choice.
He swam upward.
He swam
away
from Elsa.
But he didn't swim toward the Professor either.
Instead he swam away from both of them, heading as fast as he could for the boats.
He reached the back of the sinking Sea Ray, protruding from the side of the ship, and pulled himself onto the dive platform at its stern, which was already half underwater. There was a compartment there, and he lifted to hatch, let the ocean rush in and rummaged through it as quickly as he could.
"Come on, come on, you gotta be here."
He found flippers, scuba masks, snorkels, and—an air tank.