Клайв Касслер - Typhoon Fury

There wasn’t much he could do to help Juan and Linc, but he wasn’t going to let the Magellan Sun blast Eddie, MacD, and Murph from the water right in front of him.

Using the helm controls embedded in the arm of the chair, Max pushed the Oregon to full speed on an intercept course.

“What’s our range to that ship?” he asked Eric, who sat at Murph’s weapons station.

“Five miles and closing fast,” he replied.

At this distance, their own bow-mounted 120mm cannon with its two-mile range was useless, and a torpedo wouldn’t reach the ship before it got off a dozen more shots.

“Ready an Exocet,” he said. Guided by its own active radar, the powerful French-made antiship missile was designed to skim only six feet above the water at seven hundred miles per hour.

“Aye, sir,” Eric said, falling back on his Navy training as he smoothly activated the weapons system. “Missile armed and ready.”

“Fire.”

The Oregon ’s hull reverberated with the thump of the Exocet blasting from its launch tube.

“Missile away,” Eric said. “Twenty-five seconds to target.”

Too long, Max thought as he saw another round splash into the water, this one much closer to the lifeboat. He turned to Hali at the comm station. “Tell Eddie that the cavalry is coming, but it may not arrive in time.”

• • •

“ACKNOWLEDGED,” Eddie said in response to Hali. “We’re not sticking around.”

The lifeboat was far enough from the Magellan Sun that it was out of reach of the cargo ship’s lights, and cloud cover momentarily obscured the half-moon, cloaking them in darkness. The gun had to be aimed by radar.

He looked at MacD and Murph. “Time to go, gentlemen.” He opened the rear hatch.

MacD tied off the steering wheel so that it was locked in place, and he shoved the throttle to its stops. He and Murph went to the back of the lifeboat, and they all put on life vests.

“After you,” Eddie said to Murph, who jumped through the door. MacD followed. Eddie was the last into the water.

The lifeboat continued motoring forward, quickly leaving them behind.

Eddie saw another flash of light from the Magellan Sun .

“Incoming!” he yelled.

They covered their heads, but the gesture wouldn’t do much if the gunner’s aim was off. A hit in the water anywhere near them would crush their bodies to pulp.

A second after it fired, the shell whistled overhead and landed right on the lifeboat. It blew apart in a hail of fiberglass. Pieces of it peppered the water around them, but none of them were big enough to cause injury.

Eddie thought that would be the end of it, but, a moment later, yet another round fired from the deck gun.

“Another incoming!”

“What the . . . !” MacD shouted.

“They should think we’re dead,” Murph said at the same time.

The round landed halfway between them and the lifeboat, rattling Eddie’s teeth, and showering them with water. The next one would blow them away.

At that moment, Eddie saw a red flame shooting toward them, from the direction of the Oregon , just feet above the surface of the ocean. The roar of the rocket engine reached them just before it screamed by at nearly supersonic speed.

The three of them pumped their fists and shouted as the Exocet slammed into the center of the Magellan Sun directly under the gun that had been firing at them.

The explosion rose in a fiery plume over the midship deck, surrounded by a cloud of black smoke. It was almost immediately followed by a secondary explosion. The missile must have hit the cannon’s ammunition magazine.

The gun mount was tossed into the sky and overboard, landing with a huge splash. Containers on the deck were crushed like aluminum cans and somersaulted across the deck.

But that wasn’t the end of the explosions.

Juan had mentioned over the radio that a large part of the shipment on the trucks was plastic explosives. The blast of the shipboard ammo must have been enough to set off the Semtex remaining on board because a huge explosion lit up the night sky.

Eddie could feel the heat on his face as the Magellan Sun was ripped in half as if it were made of cardboard. The entire topside was engulfed in fire.

Simultaneously, the bow and stern sections rose out of the ocean as water gushed into the exposed holds of the ship. They pointed skyward for a few seconds and then slipped beneath the surface, leaving only a burning oil slick to mark the cargo ship’s passing.

The Gator’s cupola rose out of the water next to Eddie. Linda waved from the cockpit for them to come aboard.

“Get inside, you guys,” she said. “The Chairman is in trouble.”

38

The guards checking the roofs of the trucks behind Juan and Linc were making quick work of it. They had only a minute left before a flashlight would catch them lying atop the cargo section of the lead truck.

Linc nudged Juan. “Our escape route is blocked,” he whispered.

Juan followed his gaze to the flashlights of a dozen guards scouring the jungle. And stealing the truck was out of the question since they’d have to take time to turn around and run the gauntlet of the guards behind them, all of whom were armed with automatic rifles.

Since the road ended at a rocky hill that would be impossible to climb without being exposed to gunfire, that left only one option.

“Looks like we’re going for a swim,” Juan replied, looking at the bay. He spoke quietly into his mic. “We need evac, Linda. What’s your ETA to the dock?”

“Three minutes submerged,” she said, “but we can be there in a minute if we surface.”

“No, stay under. I don’t want to tip our hand. We’ll meet you two hundred yards offshore and two hundred yards west of the supply ship.”

“Acknowledged. See you there.”

“Got your Spare Air?” Juan asked Linc as he removed a tiny air tank and goggles from his pack and stuffed them into his front pocket for quick access. The disposable tank had a mouthpiece and enough air for fifteen breaths.

Linc nodded and readied his own tank and goggles.

They edged closer to the truck’s cab, ready to climb down and make a dash for the sea, when the clouds parted. The uncovered half-moon bathed them in light.

They froze in place, but it was too late. One of the men in the jungle spotted their silhouettes through the trees and yelled to the others.

Juan and Linc tumbled onto the hood and to the ground as bullets raked the truck, smashing windows and tearing up the side of the hood. One of the rounds hit the still-hot radiator, and steam shot out of the grille. Another must have hit the fuel tank because Juan could smell gasoline, gushing onto the gravel road.

“So much for a stealthy escape,” Juan said, crouching by the hood.

“It’s a long way to the water,” Linc said. They were thirty feet from the seawall that had been built to buttress the road.

Juan took aim at the flashlights in the jungle. “I’ll cover you. You can return the favor from behind the seawall. Go!”

Juan opened up on the foliage, knowing he’d have to be incredibly lucky to hit anyone. Linc ran as Juan emptied his magazine. When he was out, he reloaded and stole a look behind him in time to see the huge former Navy SEAL dive over the seawall. Water erupted onto the rocks like he’d done a cannonball.

Then he saw Linc pop up, his submachine gun at the ready.

As Juan got into a sprinter’s stance to make his run across the open stretch of road, he looked to the dock and saw Tagaan level a scoped assault rifle in his direction.

Juan jumped back, narrowly avoiding the rounds that whizzed past. No way was he going to cross that distance without getting hit.