The Lost Island

30

Gideon remained prone in the bow, switching the M4 to automatic and unleashing a blast at the two men manning the 50-caliber machine gun. He was well within range, but the heaving of the deck made it hard to aim, and the burst went wide. Still, it had an excellent effect: it sent both men diving to the deck. And Amy had scored big-time with the H&K sniper rifle.

Now Amy gunned the engine. The Turquesa headed straight for the Horizonte. Remaining prone on the deck, legs splayed, Gideon held his fire as they surged forward, narrowing the gap between the two boats in a matter of seconds. Confusion reigned on the Horizonte: the two men at the 50-caliber were still on the deck; there was consternation in the pilothouse, no one at the wheel, throttle at full speed. The bow turned in to a cresting wave that burst over the forecastle. The two men at the machine gun, clinging to the mount, temporarily vanished in a frothing mass of water.

The Turquesa was now just seconds from impact with the Horizonte. One of the gunners managed to get on his feet, pulling himself up by the handles of the 50-caliber, swinging the gun toward them.

Gideon fired again as the gunner, for his part, let fly a deafening burst; the brutal stream of fire raked the Turquesa, churning up the fiberglass deck like a chain saw as it swept past. The Turquesa checked its course at the last minute, blasting past the other vessel with only a few feet of separation and then swerving away. Gideon could see a grenade canister, tossed by Amy, tumbling into the rear cockpit of the Horizonte.

The man at the machine gun let loose another desperate blast, the rounds ripping through the aft section of the Turquesa—and then came a deafening explosion as the grenade detonated within the Horizonte. A ball of fire, orange and yellow and black all roiling together, punched up into the teeth of the storm, the sound of it booming across the water, along with a huge fountain of flaming debris. The initial blast was followed by a string of thunderous secondary explosions, lofting more wreckage into the air. Their fuel lines had ruptured. Within moments the entire superstructure of the Horizonte was splayed open, one long mass of fire. As Gideon watched — rooted in awe and horror — the boat wallowed in the foaming sea. There was another explosion, and a comber burst over the listing vessel, obscuring it as it fell into a trough. And as the swell rose again, all that could be seen was a great fiery slick, sprinkled with burning wreckage.

The Horizonte had utterly vanished.