Vladimir Todorov - Archipelago N.Y. - Flynn

“I think we shouldn’t let him get away too far…” Madison said, glancing at Flynn. “They’ll be out of sight soon.”

“Not yet!” Flynn was looking up at the rooftops behind them. He knew the Watchmen were up in their towers, keeping their sharp eyes on the Departure raft. The same could be said of Van Zandt and his Government with their powerful binoculars… They were bound to be watching, Flynn thought… But it was getting dark, and soon they would all be invisible, swallowed by the night. Then it would be the time to strike… but for now they needed to wait. “Don’t worry, we won’t lose them.” Flynn dug under the seat, took out his dad’s old binoculars and glued them to his eyes. Duncan’s boat had started to make a wide turn to the east.

“Where do you think he’s going to dump them?” asked Madison, shifting nervously on her seat.

“Further east, in the Atlantic,” Flynn replied. “So the current doesn’t bring anybody drifting back in!”

As night fell, the pale three-quarter moon was now their only source of light. The Departure raft was just a silhouette, barely visible even through the lenses of the binoculars.

Suddenly, the powerful beam of the boat’s headlight went on.

“Perfect!” Flynn dropped the binoculars on the seat. “We can see them fine now and no one can see us.” He sat back and placed his feet on the pedals. “Ready Pharrell? With Duncan Roth on his own, he shouldn’t be a problem… The three of us will overpower the bastard in no time.”

“You mean the four of us,” Madison said.

“No, you’ll stay out of it.” Flynn glared at her. “And that’s an order, Miss Ray.”

“Not so sure it’ll be that easy, bro” Pharrell shook his head, “He’s armed!”

“Yeah, but he’s not expecting company,” Flynn argued. “His motor’s loud… we sneak from behind, get my dad, Tony and your parents… then we disappear and…”

“What about the others?” Madison interrupted.

Flynn shook his head. “We can’t save everybody…”

“Yes, we can!”

“Are you crazy?” Flynn snapped. “I can’t find a place to hide all of these people… that’s impossible!”

“We can try.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Hey!” Pharrell interrupted, sensing another fight boiling up between the two. “Enough! Flynn’s right… and if we don’t wanna lose them, we better get goin!”

“What happened?” Madison stood up on her seat, her voice full of alarm.

“He cut his lights off, that’s what happened!” Flynn had stopped pedaling and grabbed for his binoculars. They had been following Duncan Roth for more than an hour now. The man had abruptly changed direction twice, heading first west, then south. They had just cleared Hudson Bay and were going across the Jersey Bay, when Duncan’s headlights had suddenly gone out, as if swallowed by the ocean. They could hear the sound of his engine, though… Clearly, he was still on the move, thought Flynn, puzzled by Duncan’s new maneuver.

“Do you think he’s seen us, bro?” Pharrell whispered from his raft.

“Doubt it… We’re close, but not that close.”

“Maybe…,” said Madison, turning to look back at the Archipelago, “…he doesn’t want the Watchers to see where he’s going? Without the lights, they’ve lost him too!”

“Doesn’t make sense… Why would he hide from them?” Flynn was looking through his binoculars, searching the horizon. “Hah! There he is! He’s changed direction again… going west, now.”

“What do we do?” Pharrell strained his eyes. “I can’t see a thing!”

“We follow the sound of his engine!” Flynn lowered his binoculars and sat back behind the pedals. “C’mon!”

He began to pedal hard and steered to the left, trailing after the roar of Duncan’s motor boat. Pharrell and Clay followed. Flynn tried to keep to the same speed as before, not too fast and not too slow. Without seeing Duncan’s boat, and only using their ears, it was hard to guess how close they were to the boat ahead. They pedaled in silence for a while, when suddenly Duncan’s engine died! Flynn instantly lifted his feet off the pedals to cut out the splashing noise of the Seeker .

“What the hell…” Pharrell muttered under his breath, as he tried to kill the speed of his own raft.

Flynn stood up and listened for a moment. Nothing! No other sound, apart from that of water lapping against their two vessels. He raised the binoculars and pointed the lenses in the direction where he had last heard the motor. It was a blind search, but there was nothing else he could do.

“See anything?” Madison whispered.

“No!” he answered after a while, and lowered his binoculars.

“They can’t just disappear into thin air!” Madison hopelessly scanned the darkness ahead. She wasn’t going to give up so easily… “There!” said Madison, pointing her hand to the left.

“Where?” Flynn jerked his head, peering into the darkness… And then he saw them… the black outlines of four huge smokestacks, rising out of the water no more than a hundred feet ahead. He had missed seeing them because he was using the binoculars… and they were too close… Flynn had been looking for something much farther away. The smokestacks were so dark they had merged with the black sky. And grimy enough, for the moonlight not to bounce off them… making them virtually invisible. Duncan’s boat and the Departure raft had stopped by the fence that encircled the old Power Plant.

“Don’t make a sound!” Flynn hissed. “We’re right behind them now!” He raised his binoculars again and adjusted the focus. There was enough moonlight now for him to clearly see Duncan Roth standing up in his boat…. What the hell was he doing, Flynn wondered and then he saw the man unbuckle his gun belt and drop it inside the boat… Unarmed, the man was taking his jacket off, undressing himself in a great hurry… Duncan Roth was also saying something to the people on the Departure raft… The Seeker was now close enough for Flynn to hear the Rottweiler’s voice. He strained his ears and caught the words “get in the water!”

“Shit!” Flynn dropped his binoculars. “He’s going to drown them, right here, right now!”

“What?” Pharrell jumped up, his eyes full of horror.

“You heard me!” Flynn’s hand was clasping the hilt of his diving knife.

“Then we’re too late,” Clay moaned.

“No, we’re not!” Flynn shook his head… If ever there was an opportunity to strike down Duncan Roth, it was now… He sprang into action, slipping quietly into the water. “Pharrell, you ready?”

“Let’s do it, bro!”

Pharrell was next to Flynn in a flash. Both of them took a deep breath and dived silently in the direction of Duncan’s boat. Moments later, they found themselves underneath the hull and parted ways. Pharrell swam toward the stern. Flynn surfaced just under the bow, fighting the urge to gasp for air.

“So, this is how it ends, Mr. Roth? You’re going to drown us here, like rats?”

Flynn heard a familiar voice ring out from the Departure raft. Craning his neck out of the water, he saw that it belonged to his father… Alan Perry was the only one standing up on the raft. The rest of the group was huddled together in their seats. Although the man was just an outline in the dark, Flynn could see the defiance in his father’s pose.

“You won’t even give us the chance to die with dignity?” Alan Perry’s voice was getting louder, angrier.

“Hey, Roth, you sick bastard!” Another shadow rose next to Alan Perry. “Is that how you killed all the others before us, eh?”