Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (37 page)

“
From the Somali
or Yemeni side?”

“
Yemeni. I've
sent a drone out. But I think you need to come up here, sir.”

Jake ran up from the
foredeck to the bridge, leaving Pam lying on her lounge, studying her
journal and a stack of files.

Captain Zander stared
intently at the screen relaying the drone's observations, continuing
his running commentary.

“
Sir, he's got a
Stinger. Aiming it our way now – Zavier, get that LGM off NOW
– oh, shit; he's fired it. Brace yourself, sir. Alarm
sounding.” Two long blasts of the ship's horn blared.

Jake hollered from the
bridge doorway to the foredeck, “Pam, brace yourself!
Incoming!”

Pam looked up just as
the missile hit the yacht portside at the waterline, sending water
and pieces of the hull forty feet in the air. The explosion threw
Pam off her lounge to the deck, plastic drinking glasses scattering
around her, ashtray, her journal and the files flying, smoke and
flames erupting from the side of the yacht, and shrapnel and debris
landing on the deck.

A three-foot-long metal
shard slammed into Pam's stomach, impaling her.

Up on the bridge, Jake
and the captain were thrown off their chairs, broken glass from the
windshield flying through the air. One shard caught the captain in
the windpipe, killing him nearly instantly, but not before his blood
gushed over Jake and much of the cabin.

Clambering to his feet,
Jake grabbed the back of the captain's chair, saw that he could be of
no help to the man, then hollered into the intercom.

“
Engine room,
this is Jake on the bridge; Captain Zander's dead. Damage report?”

The chief engineer's
thick Irish brogue answered back almost immediately, “I've got
a crew checking that now, sir. The engines are still online, but
we're taking on water fast. I may be able to get 'er up on the
hydros in time to stop that, as long as the thorium reactor didn't
suffer any damage.”

“
Do that, Dillon,
and give me a full damage report as soon as you can.”

“
Roger that, sir.
Out.”

Seeing a crewman coming
up the ladder to the bridge, Jake said, “Yuric, take the wheel.
Dillon's gonna try the hydros.”

“
Yes, sir,”
Yuric replied, stepping over the captain's corpse to the wheel.
Three blasts of the horn echoed across the entire ship.

Jake hurried down the
ladder to the foredeck, where he found Pam's body. As he got close
to her, the yacht lurched forward and up, dropping Jake to his knees
as Pam slid back with Jake toward the bridge superstructure. Her body
slid over Jake, with her head coming to rest between his thighs and
her legs protruding above his shoulders, the metal shard protruding
up from her disemboweled stomach.

As the yacht rose
further and drove ahead faster, Jake latched one elbow through the
ladder and held Pam as tightly as he could with his other hand.

When the yacht settled
in on the hydroplanes, nearly doubling its speed, Jake dragged Pam as
gently as he could away from the ladder, stretching her out against
the superstructure's wall. He checked her pulse, but found none.

A few moments later,
four crewmen emerged onto the deck and helped Jake move Pam down to
the infirmary, where the doc cleaned and bandaged Jake's injuries
after confirming and pronouncing Pam dead.

“
I'm sorry, sir;
nothing I could do for her.”

“
I know, Doc.
Can I get up?”

“
I wouldn't
recommend it, sir.”

“
Then give me the
intercom.”

“
Here you go,
sir.”

“
Thank you.
Greg, Julie, meet me in the brig … now! Zavier, get ten –
no, twenty pounds of C4 and some blasting caps and fuse from the
armory, to the brig.

“
Okay, Doc. Help
me up and get me down there.”

“
Sir, I don't”
–

“
NOW!”

“
Yes,
sir.”

- 97 -

February
6, 2013
7:13
a
.m.
local time

Bonita Springs,
Florida

“
Could
you help me up, please?”

“
Sure.”

Gordy got up,
held his hands out to the elderly woman at the table next to theirs;
she grabbed them and got shakily to her feet, then leaned on her
walker as Dallas slid it in front of her.

“
Thank
you, thank you both. It's a bitch getting old.”

“
I know
what you mean,” he said.

“
Better
than the alternative,” Dallas added, smiling.

“
You got
that right, young lady,” the woman said, chuckling. “Thanks
again, and happy Ides minus nine of February.””

“
Sorry?”
Gordy said.

“
Think
about it. Working that out keeps Alzheimer's at bay for a little
while … an average of 12.57 seconds.”

“
Okay,”
Gordy said dubiously.

“
Thanks
again,” the woman said, shuffling off to the front door,
chuckling to herself.

As they sat
back down, Dallas and Gordy exchanged puzzled glances, then they
simultaneously said, “Aha; got it,” and smiled.

“
Hey,
Gordy, what'll it be?”

“
Hi,
Chel. Dallas, this is Chelsea, Chel for short.”

“
Hi,
Chelsea; nice to meet you.”

“
And you,
Dallas. That's an unusual name.”

“
Yeah;
Mom wasn't a fan of JFK.”

Chelsea
blanched and frowned.

“
Just
kidding.”

Chel kept
frowning.

“
Still
too soon?”

“
Yeah,”
Chelsea said.

“
She's
got a weird sense of humor,” Gordy said.

“
Well,
you two are like peas in a pod, then.”

Gordy chuckled
and Dallas smiled.

“
Anyhow,
what'll you have?”

They gave her
their orders, and she took them to the kitchen, returning with
Gordy's orange juice and Dallas' cranberry juice.

“
Oh,
Gordy, thank you for helping me get the job here. I'm having a great
time, and Dottie's a super boss.”

“
No
problem, Chel; you deserved it.”

“
And I've
been pushing your book here, too. But I noticed you put
in
the part about those papers I gave you and Rosemary, but nothing
about what you found on the Net about 'em.”

“
Yeah;
that was all a little too scary for me, once I saw what was there.
So I left it out.”

“
Really?
Wow. Maybe I'll have to search those myself.”

“
If you
do, be careful, okay? Don't blab that around … not even a
little bit.”

“
Oh,
geez; it's that bad?”

“
It's
pretty bad, and scary. More the second one; the first one is already
pretty public.”

“
Okay;
I'll be careful. I'll be back with your meals soon as they're
ready,
okay?”

“
Super.
Thanks, Chel.”

“
What was
that about, Gordy?”

“
I put
her in the book, in the scene at the Seabreeze Cafe.”

“
Oh,
right; she did the Elvis impression?”

“
Ah, no;
that was Beverly at the Seafood Shack.”

“
Oh.
Guess I'll have to go back and check on that. But don't let me keep
you from your reading.”

- 98 -

February
6, 2013
9:08
a.m. local time

Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant,
Wales

The Ocelot
stepped back from the window in the hotel as she saw the target
striding out of the bank beyond the car park. She watched as he went
into the post office next to the bank and a few minutes later came
back out, casually riffling through some mail. He then crossed
Market Street and went into the butcher shop, emerging several
minutes later with a small parcel tucked under his arm. Back across
Market and a quick stop at the newsagent for a paper, which he tucked
next to the butcher's parcel.

“
And now
to the market,” she said to herself.

And that is
exactly where he went next, spending several minutes inside, then
holding the door for an older woman who came out with a large
shopping bag held protectively in both arms. They chatted amiably
for a moment before shaking hands and parting ways, the woman heading
toward the bank, the target toward the hotel.

“
Time to
move.”

She opened a
small toothpaste-sized tube and smeared a dab of its contents on the
palm of her right hand, being careful not to let any get on any
unprotected skin. After closing the tube, she rubbed her palm with a
tissue, then dropped that into a plastic bag, along with the latex
glove she pulled from her left hand, sealed the bag, rolled it up and
put it in the false bottom of a can of deodorant, then screwed the
can back together.

Glancing out
the window to gauge the target's progress, she slid the can and the
tube into her overnight bag, picked up her purse and cane, hunched
her back slightly and went out the door and down the stairs to the
lobby, muttering quietly to herself.

- 99 -

February
6, 2013
7:47
a
.m.
local time

Bonita Springs, Florida

“
Delicious,
Dottie, as usual.”

“
Anything
else you want, Gordy?”

He glanced at
Dallas, who shook her head.

“
No
thanks, Dottie; we're fine. But could we get a pair of doggie
boxes?”

“
I'll
take care of it, Gordy. Be right back,” Dottie said, picking
up their plates.

“
Those
pancakes were great.”

“
Yeah,
mine, too. Dottie's got a great staff here.”

“
I
noticed her name tag read 'Dottie,' I-E, but the sign outside spells
it with a Y.”

“
Yeah,
I've noticed that, too. No idea why. I'll ask her when she
gets
back.