Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

Nowhere to hide on the dock—

Instead she leapt down the nearby stairwell, landing hard at the bottom as a gunshot cracked from above. She threw open a door and rushed inside.

‘No, don’t shoot her!’ Trakas barked at the trigger-happy sailor. ‘Get after her, catch her!’ The man ran to the stairwell.

‘You want her alive?’ Axelos asked as the group reached the dock.

‘She might be useful,’ said the tycoon thoughtfully, before his attention returned fully to the situation at hand. ‘Put them in the launch. Keep them well guarded,’ he ordered, before having a partial change of mind. ‘No, the girl comes in the speedboat with me.’

‘Ana!’ yelled De Klerx as he and Anastasia were separated. He lunged at the man holding her, but another crewman dragged him back.

‘What about me?’ asked Spencer.

‘You come with me too,’ Trakas told him. He looked back at Rouphos on the upper deck. ‘That one as well!’ he shouted, pointing at Eddie. ‘Bring him—’

A loud, deep whump from somewhere within the Pactolus shook the deck — and a moment later a second explosion erupted into the open as a section of the starboard side amidships blew apart. Everyone staggered—

De Klerx smashed an elbow into the gut of the man holding him, folding him double. Before anyone could react, he vaulted off the launch’s bow into the sea, bringing up both arms to enter the water in a dive.

Two crewmen fired after him, bullets smacking into the waves as the dark figure dropped beneath the surface. ‘Rutger! No, stop!’ Anastasia cried from the speedboat.

Axelos ran to the end of the dock. The yacht was rapidly pulling away from the expanding splash marking the Dutchman’s landing, still making almost ten knots. ‘I don’t think we got him,’ he reported. ‘He went deep enough for the water to stop the bullets.’ He looked back at Trakas. ‘We can go after him in the boats when he surfaces.’

Another blast from the ship’s innards made everybody turn. A noxious black cloud was now boiling from the ruptured hull. ‘What the hell?’ gasped Lonmore as fire whipped past. The sea itself was alight, the Pactolus leaving a ragged trail of flame in its wake.

‘The fuel tanks!’ Rouphos cried. ‘We’re leaking fuel!’

By now the sailor had brought Eddie to the aft deck. ‘Abandon ship!’ Trakas ordered. ‘Everyone get off while we can!’

‘The fire control systems should be able to handle it,’ Rouphos insisted.

‘If they could stop that , they already would have!’ Trakas pointed at the mainmast. The fire swirling from the hole in the yacht’s side had swept up to reach the sails. ‘We leave, now!’

‘What about him?’ asked Axelos, pointing after De Klerx.

‘Forget him! We need to get to shore.’

Eddie didn’t understand the exchange going on between the Greeks, but the combination of the renewed rush to board the boats and the flames licking along the yacht’s starboard side meant that he got the gist of it very quickly. ‘Where’s Nina?’ he demanded as he was ushered at gunpoint to the dock. ‘Where is she?’

‘She went back inside!’ Petra cried from the launch.

‘What? Then bloody get her out of there!’ he yelled at Trakas.

The magnate waited for the Englishman to be put into one of the speedboat’s rear seats beside Anastasia before boarding himself. ‘I have sent one of my men after her. If he finds her, they will follow in the last boat.’ He glanced up at the remaining craft, still on the hoist. ‘If he does not, then she will either swim — or burn!’

The fire swirling around the mainmast deterred Rouphos from returning to the wheelhouse to sound the evacuation alarm. Instead he jumped down to the aft deck and went to open a wall panel in the gym, revealing a control board inside.

He flicked a switch to sound the general alarm, then activated the PA system. ‘Abandon ship!’ he snapped in Greek. ‘All hands to the boats!’ It was not standard procedure, but given the circumstances — gunfire was still being exchanged further forward — it was the best he could manage. Job done, he ran back to the stern to assist with the untying of the two boats, hoping the rest of his crew would reach them in very short order.

Had the captain gone to the bridge, though, he would have immediately spotted a new danger.

He had deactivated the autopilot to make the sharp turn that had taken Eddie out with the boom, then re-engaged the system as he hurried back to help secure the prisoner. The yacht had still been turning as he did so, but now it had settled on to its new course.

Straight towards a small uninhabited island, a ragged line of cliffs rising out of the sea like a rotten tooth.

Nina ran through the lower deck, hearing chasing feet behind her. Unlike the single central corridor bisecting the main deck, this was a minor maze of much narrower passages, winding past the engine room, holds and crew cabins.

And while her pursuer knew his way around, she had no idea where she was going.

She rounded a corner — only for flames and smoke roiling from an open hatch ahead to bring her to an abrupt stop. No way past. But a steep companionway to one side led back to the deck above. She hesitated, knowing that Trakas and his men might still be up there, but then her pursuer appeared behind her.

He shouted in Greek, but she was already haring up the ladder. Throwing open the hatch at its top, she emerged to find herself on the starboard-side deck. Thick smoke swirled past her, making her cough. Going forward would take her deeper into the choking miasma; her only options were to head aft or jump overboard.

A glance at the oily rainbow sheen on the water put her off the latter choice. The yacht was leaking fuel, lots of it, and fires were spreading over the surface. She wouldn’t be swimming from the Pactolus , at least not from this side.

A recess housed a cabinet of emergency equipment. She pulled it open, hoping to find something she could use to jam the hatch shut behind her, but found only first aid kits, survival blankets, rope… and distress flares. She grabbed one — not to summon help, but to ward off the crewman — and hurried back towards the stern.

The two boats had gone.

The launch and the speedboat were pulling away from the stricken yacht, swinging hard to its port side to avoid the floating fires in its wake. Both vessels were full to the point of overloaded, Trakas’s remaining crew having crammed aboard. She saw Eddie in the speedboat with the Greek. Other men were in the water, their wetsuits revealing them as members of De Klerx’s team. Some had grabbed life vests before leaping over the side, others simply taking their chances and hoping their comrades would come to their aid.

But no one was coming to hers.

She looked at the last boat, still swinging from the hoist over the stern. How long it would take her to get it into the water she had no idea. And a bang from behind warned that even if it only took seconds, it would not be fast enough. She spun to see the sailor emerging from the hatch.

Nina backed on to the aft deck and raised the flare, pointing it at him. His reaction was almost amusement. ‘I’ll do it!’ she warned, hooking her index finger around the pull-tab in its base. ‘I’ve done it before. Back off!’

His mouth curled into a grin, and he lifted his gun—

She yanked the tab.

The flare shot from its tube with a muffled bang and crossed the gap between them in an instant, hitting the sailor in the chest. He shrieked, stumbling backwards as his clothing was set alight, and fell over the railing into the ocean below. The sizzling flare went with him…