David Baldacci - Hour Game

Seconds later Michelle was climbing in her truck, her phone still pressed to her ear, straining to hear anything that might help her figure out where Sean was.

Wait a minute. She heard something. What was it?

"Boat!" Sean was asking where Eddie was taking them on the boat. She heard that clearly.

She punched in the numbers on the phone she'd taken from Savannah.

"Todd, they're on a boat on the lake."

"A boat! Where the hell did Eddie get a boat?"

"There's a bunch of them at the dock here. Including a really fast one."

"Shit!"

"Todd, do you have a boat?" she asked frantically.

"No. I mean the Game and Inland Fisheries people have one, but I'm not sure where it is right now."

"Well, that's just great!" Michelle thought quickly. Idiot. Of course.

"How fast can you get here?"

"What, uh, ten minutes," answered Williams.

"Make it five and meet me at the Battles' dock. It's a hike, but there's a golf cart you can take. The path is lighted, and there are signs pointing the way."

"But what about you?"

"What about me what!" she cried out.

"Don't you need the cart?"

"It'll just slow me down. Now listen really carefully, on your way here you need to get on the horn to the Game people, find that boat and get some armed men out onto the water. Make sure you lock down all roads that have lake access. And call the FBI and the state police and get a chopper up here with a big searchlight pronto. Tell them to roll out SWAT or Hostage Rescue. We're going to need some snipers."

"That'll all take time, Michelle."

"Which we have none of, so just do it!"

"It's a big lake. Over five hundred miles of shoreline. Lots of places to hide."

"Thanks for the pep talk. Just get your ass here."

She clicked off, jumped out of her truck, ran around behind the house and raced at the top of her speed down to the dock along the lighted path. She kept listening on her phone for helpful sounds, but all she could hear was a roar. If they were in the boat, the engines would drown everything else out.

She reached the dock, hit a switch, and the entire area blazed with light. At that instant an enormous streak of horizontal lightning shot across the sky followed by a snap of thunder so loud she put her hands to her ears.

Her gaze immediately caught the empty slip. "Shit, he's in the FasTech."

She got back on the phone. "Todd, he's in a Formula FasTech. A thirty-five-footer, white with a red-"

"I know that make of boat. You got any idea of the engines that thing's got?"

"Yeah, twin Mercs, five hundred horses each with kick-ass Bravo screws. If you're not here in three minutes, I leave without you." She clicked off.

"Okay, what do we got?" she asked herself as she ran from slip to slip. Sea-Doos were nimble and fast but they had no running lights, and she couldn't exactly see big Todd being able to either hang on to her while she drove or else maneuver one by himself. Plus, after the lopsided road duel with Roger Canney, if it came down to a battle of the boats, she wanted a little more beef on her side.

She stopped at the big Sea Ray performance cruiser berthed in one slip. It clearly couldn't match the FasTech in speed, but it was a big boat with big engines-that's all she needed. She shot the lock off the storage shed, went in, found the keys for the Sea Ray and the remote for the lift the Sea Ray was on and got the boat ready.

Todd Williams came flying up in the golf cart minutes later. He grabbed a life jacket and climbed on board.

"I got hold of everybody. The Game folks are putting their boat in at Haley Point Bridge, that's fifteen miles upriver. Both the FBI and the state police are sending choppers and snipers just as fast as they can. I got roadblocks setting up at all lake access roads."

"Good. Now take this and listen carefully. Sean may give us some clues as to where they are." Williams took the phone and held it to his ear.

Michelle hit reverse throttle, and they sped backward out of the slip so fast Williams fell against the gunwale and almost pitched over the side.

Righting himself, he said, "Shit, Michelle, do you know how to drive this thing? It's not a damn rowboat."

"I'm a fast learner. Sylvia's house-tell me approximately how far it is from here and the compass heading."

Todd gave her his best estimate, and she swiftly calculated time, distance and route. Actually, while at the Secret Service she'd become quite an accomplished sailor, piloting everything from cigarette boats while guarding former presidents with a love for bone-jarring speed on the water to docile paddleboats with said former presidents' grandchildren as her very precious passengers.

"Okay, hold on."

She pointed the bow out to the open channel and slammed the throttle all the way forward. The big Sea Ray groaned a bit at first, like it was waking up. But then its props cut hard into the water, spitting it in all directions. Its bow rose up in the air like a cagey bronco ready to relieve its rider of his perch, and the boat took an enormous leap forward. They were fully on plane within seconds, and the boat blasted right through forty knots as Michelle headed directly into the jaws of the approaching storm on a twenty-thousand-acre lake without having any idea where she was supposed to be going.

"COME ON, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING us, Eddie?" King called out over the sounds of the twin Mercs mixed with the thunderstorm.

He was bound hand and foot with fishing line and was lying on his side on the deck next to the captain's chair. Sylvia sat in the stern seat, similarly bound, as Eddie drove standing up, the wind whipping his thick hair around.

"What do you care? It's not like there's a return ticket from this trip."

"So why kill us? You filled out your scorecard. You got everybody you were after."

"Not everybody, old buddy. By the way, I won the bet."

"What bet?"

"When you caught me, you said it was over, I said it wasn't."

"Congratulations."

Eddie changed course to the east, cutting across a big wave that jolted the FasTech hard. King hit his head on the molded fiberglass behind him.

"If you don't slow it down, you'll kill us long before you get to where you're going."

In response Eddie eased the throttle forward even more.

"Eddie, please," wailed Sylvia from the back.

"Shut up!"

"Eddie-," she began again.

Eddie turned and fired a bullet within an inch of Sylvia's left ear. She screamed and threw herself on the deck.

With an enormous crack a thin bolt of lightning hit a tree on a small island as they flashed by. The oak exploded, sending charred wood sailing into the water. The accompanying clap of thunder was far louder even than the Mercs.

King inched himself forward. Tied up like this, he had no chance against someone as physically strong as Battle. Even in a fair fight he probably couldn't hold his own. He glanced back at Sylvia. She still lay on the deck. He could hear her sobs over all the other sounds. He struggled to sit up, finally making it. He slid his back against the side of the boat and managed to finally hoist himself into a seat next to Eddie.

Eddie looked over at him and smiled. "You like the view from there?"

King gazed around. He knew the lake well, although as every experienced sailor knew, things looked very different in the pitch-dark. Yet at that moment they passed a landmark that he recognized, a five-story condo building built on a clay point that jutted out into one of the lake's main channels. He shouted, "Looks like we're heading east, to the dam." He prayed his cell phone connection was still open. If it wasn't and Michelle tried to call him back, he couldn't hit the answer button, and the ringing sound would give it away in any event.