Dead in the Water (10 page)

Olivia took a Snickers bar and peeled back its wrapper. “Not exactly classic breakfast food, but I'm not complaining. In fact, I think this might be the first meat-free meal of our trip.”

I surveyed the spread and sighed. “I could've gone for a steak. A nice, rare, bloody one.” Olivia wrinkled her nose in disgust, and I laughed. I didn't think I'd ever been so hungry in my life. I could barely shovel the food in fast enough. We all sat in contented silence, just the sounds of the wind and the sea, and the occasional belch from Joey.

Then I heard something else: a sound that sent a sudden flood of cold rushing through my body. An engine, thrumming in the distance. I stood up and turned around. “I hate to say this...but I think I can hear another boat coming.”

Blair and Olivia stood quickly, and we all scanned the channel behind us. A long way behind us, a small white shape was rapidly getting larger.

We all stood in the cockpit, staring over the stern. The boat was gaining on us fast.

“Olivia...could they have fixed the engine? After everything you did to it?” I held my breath.

She frowned and twisted her mouth to one side. “If they had enough spare hose and electrical wire...sure.”

“It might not be them,” Joey said.

I nodded. “It might not.”

We were all quiet for a moment.

I looked at the knotmeter. Five knots. Then I studied the sails. “We can go faster than this,” I said. I let out the main sheet slightly and pulled the jib in tighter, distracting myself by fine-tuning and adjusting the sails and watching the boat respond, picking up speed. I imagined myself racing
Jeopardy
back home, imagined myself captain of a beautiful boat flying across the—

“Six and a half knots.” Blair looked up. “But Simon...”

“I know.” I couldn't afford to space out now. The other boat was closer, close enough to see that it was a cabin cruiser, white with blue canvas. I didn't need to be able to read the name on the hull to know it was
Salty Mist
. No amount of trimming the sails would help: A sailboat can't outrace a powerboat.

Everyone was looking at me, and I didn't know what to do. This sort of thing hadn't been covered in any of our reading or lessons on how to handle emergencies at sea. Emergencies...Emergencies...Something clicked. “Call a Mayday,” I said.

Olivia looked at me. “Simon, we're out of range, remember? We already talked about it.” She had that look on her face that meant she was thinking Spacey but not saying it.

“But it was Patrick who said we were out of range. And obviously he'd say that. You wanted to report abalone poaching.” I was talking fast, my words spilling out. I jumped down into the cabin, switched on the radio, and bringing the mike with me, climbed back into the cockpit.

She was nodding. “Of course. Besides, even if he was actually telling the truth, we're way closer to Port Hardy now.”

I pushed the Transmit button and, with a shiver, remembered the last time I'd done that. Then I hesitated. “Should I call Mayday? Or just, you know...ask for help?”

“Mayday calls are for clear and imminent danger,” Olivia said, quoting from our manual. “I'd say this qualifies.”

I couldn't really argue with that. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” I said clearly. “This is the sailing vessel
Jeopardy
. We are—” I broke off. “Where are we?”

Blair looked at the chart. “Just about eight miles north of Port Hardy, I think.”

“Eight miles north of Port Hardy,” I repeated, hoping he was right. I hadn't been paying too much attention to the navigation. “In the Goletas Channel. We're in need of assistance.”

Olivia looked at me, eyebrows disappearing under her hair. “In need of assistance? That sounds like we're just running out of gas or something.”

“Well, what do you want me to say? That some men are trying to kill us?” I snuck a peek over my shoulder.
Salty Mist
was closing the gap fast.

“Yes!”

There was a loud explosion in my ears and my heart stopped beating for a moment. I looked around, my ears still ringing. Joey was standing at the stern rail, the flare gun in his hand, and a red plume of smoke was snaking high into the sky.

“Give us some warning next time,” I said, pressing my hand over my jack-hammering heart. Then I spoke into the radio again.
“We're setting off flares. We are being chased by a cabin cruiser called
Salty Mist
and the men onboard just tried to kill us. Umm, over.”

We all waited. I hoped Patrick had lied about us being out of range. I hoped that someone was out there, listening, and that they wouldn't dismiss our call as a prank. I hoped we hadn't escaped just to be caught again.

And then a voice responded. “
Jeopardy
, this is the Coast Guard. Please repeat your location and the nature of your distress. Over.”

Olivia, Blair and Joey all started whooping with relief and excitement, and I had to shush them before I responded. “We're in the Goletas Channel about eight miles northwest of Port Hardy...” I trailed off, reluctant to say it. I glanced over my shoulder and saw
Salty Mist
, only a few hundred feet away. “Well, the men on this other boat kind of tried to kill us, and now they're chasing after us, and they're really close. Umm, over.”

“Roger.” The operator sounded completely calm, her voice flat and nasal. I wondered if she'd actually understood what I'd just said.

“
Jeopardy
, switch to channel 83.”

I changed to 83 quickly, fighting panic.
Salty Mist
was getting awfully close. “Coast Guard, this is
Jeopardy
.”

In the same calm, flat voice, the radio operator asked for the details of our situation. Standing at the stern, Blair was signalling me to hurry up. “We were...these men were poaching abalone...Umm...”
Salty Mist
was so close now that I could see Victor standing at the bow. I couldn't think. I took my finger off the Transmit button. “Olivia? Can you explain? I'll...” I trailed off. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had to do something.

Olivia nodded, took the microphone and in a voice almost as calm as the operator's, she started to explain what had happened.

At the helm, Blair was holding us on course, his face grim. Joey was standing at the stern, loading another flare into the flare gun. “Any ideas?” I asked them.

“I was thinking about shooting a flare at their boat,” Joey said. “If it made a hole in the hull, maybe they'd sink.”

“Try it,” I said. “Nothing to lose.”

Salty Mist
was almost on top of us now, coming up on our starboard side and slowing down to match our pace. Keith was at the wheel, up top on the fly bridge. I couldn't see Patrick and wondered where he was. Joey fired the flare gun, and we all clapped our hands over our ears.

A plume of red smoke hung in the air, but
Salty Mist
didn't slow down.

“Just bounced off her hull,” Joey muttered in disgust. “Useless.”

“They're trying to get alongside,” I said. I watched Victor, standing at the bow, his eyes fixed on
Jeopardy
. “I bet Victor's going to try to jump across to our boat.”

“Well, let's make it harder for them,” Blair said. “Let's turn around or something.”

“We'll have to jibe,” I said. The easiest way to turn a sailboat is to tack—to turn the bow of the boat through the wind—but with
Salty Mist
so close on our windward side, that
wasn't an option. Jibing means turning the boat away from the wind, so that the stern of the boat moves through the wind instead of the bow. It's more difficult, but I'd done it plenty of times. I just hadn't done it on a boat with broken rigging.

Salty Mist
eased a little closer, and Victor was poised to jump. “Let's do it,” I yelled. Blair turned the wheel to port, and
Jeopardy
responded, turning away from
Salty Mist
. I held my breath. I had to wait until the wind was almost behind us—if I pulled the main sheet in tight too soon, we'd lose speed and possibly steerage, which would be a disaster in this situation. But if I waited too long, the wind could catch the boom and send it crashing across the cockpit. I
wasn't sure how much strain our broken rigging could handle.

Now. I pulled the main sheet in tight, bringing the boom across the center of the boat. “Ready!”

Blair turned the wheel further to port. “Jibe ho!” he yelled as the wind pushed the boom across the center line. I quickly eased the main sheet and the sail filled with wind. Joey released the jib and let the wind push it over; then he hauled the sheets in. We were off. I looked up at the rigging. Everything seemed to be holding together just fine.

“Nice,” Blair said, grinning at me.

Of course, powerboats like
Salty Mist
can turn on a dime, without having to worry about wind direction or sails. Within thirty seconds, it was pulling alongside again. “Now what?” Blair asked.

“Do it again,” I said grimly. “The more we move, the harder we'll be to catch.”

Blair nodded, and we repeated our maneuver, jibing again. Not quite as smoothly this time, but everything held together.

Olivia appeared beside us. “They're sending a boat, with police officers.” She stared at
Salty Mist
, which was once again trying to ease close alongside. “But it might take them half an hour to get here.”

“They're idiots if they try to do anything to us now,” Blair said, nodding at
Salty Mist
. “I mean, the cops know who they are, you've told them everything. They won't get away with it.”

“Yeah. But they don't seem to be giving up, do they?” I said. I stood on the bench and yelled as loud as I could, “The cops are on their way! Give it up!”

Victor made a rude gesture, and
Salty Mist
veered so close that for a moment, I thought we might collide.

“Again,” I said. “Now.”

Jeopardy
jibed neatly, and we were heading downwind, back on a port tack. As before,
Salty Mist
spun around and moved in again. When I looked up, Olivia's eyes were shiny wet.

“Don't worry,” I said awkwardly. I wanted to reassure her that we'd be okay but I wasn't
sure I believed it myself. “We'll figure out something.”

She shook her head. “It's the abalone,” she said. “All the live abalone hanging over the side of their boat. I'd hoped it could still be returned to the water, but if they've been dragging it along, I bet it's all dead.”

We all stared at her in disbelief. “Well,” I said finally, “how about we worry about ourselves now and the abalone later? If we're still around.”

She nodded and brushed her eyes with the back of her hand. “What's Patrick doing?”

We all looked over. Patrick and Victor appeared to be arguing about something. Finally, Victor shrugged and stepped back, and Patrick took his place on the bow. “Patrick's going to try to board us,” Olivia said. “I wonder why?”

“Jibe again,” I said wearily. “Let's do it.”

We jibed again, and again, and again. I lost count of how many times we'd jibed. We were working like a team that had been together for years, each of us doing our part. Still, I didn't know how long we could keep
this up. My shoulders were aching, and the palms of my hands were raw and blistered from hauling on the sheets. And we were going to run out of sea room—
Salty Mist
was pushing us to one side of the channel. A few more turns and we'd run into shallower water and
Jeopardy
would go aground.

Then we wouldn't be able to get away.

Salty Mist
suddenly veered closer, and there was an awful crash.
Jeopardy
shuddered as the powerboat's hull collided with its own. Joey yelled something, and there was a deafening explosion as he set off another flare. When the smoke cleared, my ears were ringing so loudly I couldn't hear a thing.
Salty Mist
had swerved away again, and Keith was leaning over the side, checking for damage.

Olivia pointed to our bow and yelled something I couldn't make out.

Then I saw Patrick, clinging to the lifelines with one arm, his body hanging over the side of
Jeopardy
's hull.

We all stood frozen for a minute.

“What should we do?” Olivia whispered.

Stamp on his fingers, I was thinking, but then Patrick let go and dropped into the water.

“Jeez. That was close.” Blair shook his head.

“Patrick wouldn't have hurt us,” Olivia said.

I looked at her. “Sometimes, Olivia, I think you're completely nuts. He was quite content to let Victor and Keith kill us, remember?”

She nodded impatiently. “Oh, I know, I know. But he wouldn't do it himself.”

A burst of static was followed by a voice over the radio: “
Jeopardy
,
Jeopardy
. This is the Coast Guard.”

Olivia ran and picked up the microphone. “Coast Guard, this is
Jeopardy
.”

I was watching
Salty Mist
. It was hanging back, a couple of boat lengths behind us. “What are they doing?” I wondered aloud.

“Picking up Patrick, I guess. Here, Spacey, take the helm.” Blair grabbed the binoculars and peered through them. “Huh.”

“What?” I held the wheel with one hand and turned to see what he was looking at.

“Victor and Keith are both up top, on the fly bridge. It looks like...well, they're just standing there. Not talking or doing anything.”

Salty Mist
suddenly turned away from us and, quickly picking up speed, began heading back up the channel, away from Port Hardy.

“That's weird,” I said slowly.