The Stone of Archimedes (25 page)

Jake yelled at Elisa through the wind, “Get me right up their ass again. I'm gonna aim for the engine.”

Rushing forward on the patrol boat, Jake got to the bow and lay on the deck. He shoved a new 30-round magazine in and took aim as they moved straight into the fishing boat. It looked like the Yanni long-haired fellow was now piloting the boat. When they got almost too close, bullets again flew at Jake, which he ignored as he aimed low at the boat, just above the water line.

Bullets hit all around Jake.

Finally smoke started to rise from the back of the fishing boat and it seemed to be slowing down.

Elisa turned hard to the starboard to avoid crashing into them. The patrol boat quickly passed by the starboard side of the fishing boat and continued past them.

Smoke continued to rise from the boat as Elisa turned around the bow and swung back past them. The fishing boat was still moving, but at about half speed.

Jake came back to Elisa and said, “I think I took out one of their motors.”

“Now what?” she asked.

He checked both of his sub-machine guns and figured he had at least 60 rounds left between them. Then he would have to use his 9mm handgun. Not a great prospect from those distances and speed.

“Come back around behind them and we'll figure something out.”

When Elisa piloted back behind the fishing boat, the smoke had gotten more intense, with flames visible from the stern.

“We'll have to put on some more pressure,” Jake said. “They'll be busy trying to put out the fire.”

Just as he finished saying that, he saw the long-haired dude up at the wheel, his left arm wrapped around Sara's neck and his right arm pointing a gun at her head.

“Keep your distance,” Jake yelled. “They have a gun to Sara's head.”

He watched in desperation, helpless now to these men. They would just have to follow and call ahead to have the Italian authorities waiting at the dock for them. But even then Sara might be in danger. He wasn't sure any of these men remaining would want to go without a fight.

Unsure of what to do, the decision was made for him in the next few seconds as he watched what unfolded on the fishing boat. First, there was a struggle between Sara and the man with long hair. Then Sara dove from the boat into the water. The men took aim and started shooting at the water.

Elisa saw what he saw and shoved the throttle down, powering the patrol boat closer to the burning fishing vessel.

Rushing to the bow, Jake had a sub-machine gun in both hands. He wasn't aware of his surroundings as they closed on the other craft. Jake propped his feet into a secure shooting position and opened fire with both guns. Bullets from his gun peppered the other boat and he didn't stop firing until the bolts stuck back on each gun. He dropped the guns to the deck and he pulled his handgun as their boat passed alongside the boat. But he had no targets to fire upon.

Without warning the fishing boat burst further into flames, followed seconds later by a huge fuel explosion knocking Jake back onto the deck.

Elisa turned the boat to the starboard away from the flames and smoke and sharply back toward where the professor had jumped into the water.

Holstering his gun, Jake searched the water for Sara. He looked back to Elisa and raised his hands, desperate. They cruised slowly and as the boat rose and fell with the waves Jake finally saw a body in the water.

“There,” he yelled and pointed.

The boat slowly closed in and when they got close enough Jake dove into the water. He came up a few feet from Sara and grasped her just as she was starting to slip under water. With great difficulty he pulled her toward the patrol boat. Elisa was waiting at the side of the boat with a life ring, which she threw toward Jake. He grasped on to the ring and with Elisa's help the two of them were able to haul the professor aboard the old Italian boat. Jake, out of breath, gave Sara mouth to mouth and finally resuscitated her, sending a flow of salt water from her lungs. She began to cough and Jake checked over her body for any possible bullet wounds. But she had not been hit.

“Jake,” Elisa yelled. “Take cover.”

Jake looked up and saw the burning and crippled boat heading right for them. He pushed Sara into the enclosed pilot house and took out his gun, hoping the salt water would not stop it from firing.

Elisa powered up their boat just in time to avoid the collision.

Standing in the stern of the patrol boat, Jake aimed his 9mm auto at the upper deck. Just as he fired he noticed that the man who once had hair past his shoulders now had burned stubble on his head, and his face was black, either burned or full of soot from the flames. As the two boats passed each other only feet apart, Jake fired until his magazine was empty and the slide locked back. He watched behind them and saw the Greek man slumping and finally dropping to the deck, the boat now limping in a slow, long circle, flames and smoke rising into the morning air.

He went inside and found Sara Halsey Jones sitting on a bench, her arms wrapped around herself. Jake found a blanket in one of the compartments and placed it around her.

“Are you all right?” Jake asked Sara.

“I am now,” the professor said. “Thank you for finding me. Both of you.”

Elisa smiled and turned the patrol boat toward the coast of Sicily, which was just visible on the horizon now.

“Are you ready to go back to Texas?” Jake asked.

Sara nodded. “But first we must secure the stone in the catacombs.”

“Don't worry about that,” Elisa said. “I had our government secure the site just after our encounter there. Nobody has been in since we removed the bodies from the catacomb.”

Nice touch, Jake thought. He had been so busy trying to figure out how to get Sara back, he hadn't even thought about that.

They slowly made their way back toward the navy base at Augusta.

“What kind of trouble you suppose we'll be in when they see all the bullet holes in this beast?” Jake asked.

Elisa shrugged. “I'm sure I'll have a lot of explaining to do.”

Jake sat down next to Sara. “We'll get you some warm clothes and onto a flight back to the U.S. Anything else you need?”

She simply shook her head and then leaned it against Jake's shoulder. They would stay like that until they got to the port in Augusta, Italy.

Hours had passed since Jake and Elisa pulled into the Italian navy port in Augusta and turned in the old World War II patrol boat. They weren't happy with the holes in the hull, but understood once Elisa told them how things went down.

From there they had driven their acquired Fiat to Sigonella Naval Air Station outside of Catania, Sicily. A Gulfstream jet waited on the tarmac outside the operations building as evening set in.

Jake and Professor Sara Halsey Jones stood outside waiting while a couple of sailors prepped the aircraft for flight.

“Thank you again, Jake,” Sara said. “I'm sure they would have killed me if you hadn't shown up.”

On the drive from Augusta to Catania the professor had told them about her keel-hauling experience, where she thought for sure she would die. She felt guilty for actually giving in and telling the men about the stone of Archimedes.

“No problem. That's kind of what I do now.” He was never one to enjoy compliments. They made him feel too. . .normal. Jake continued, “Are they going to let you work on the Archimedes stone?”

“Thanks to Elisa,” Sara said. “She seems to have a lot of pull within the government.”

Jake looked toward the operations building, where Elisa stood against the wall talking on her cell phone.

“Why don't you go ahead and get on board,” Jake said. “The crew will be here soon.”

She smiled and then gave Jake a big hug. “If there's anything you need, just let me know. Our family has a little influence as well.”

Jake knew that first hand, having been sprung from the Tunisian prison so recently.

The good professor wandered to the jet, climbed up the ladder and stopped for a second to wave at Jake and then to Elisa.

He turned then and saw the flight crew, a man and a woman in flight suits, open the door for Toni Contardo and then strut across the tarmac to their aircraft. Toni stopped and talked with Elisa and Jake hoped like hell they were either discussing official business or exchanging pasta recipes, not exchanging notes about him. The two women smiled and shook hands. Then Toni came over toward Jake, her use of the crutches getting much better.

“Everything all right?” Jake asked Toni.

“Yeah. I just wanted Elisa to thank Svetla for all her hard work. She really took one for the team.”

“I would think so,” Jake said. “Where is she?”

“After the SEALS brought the yacht into port, they took her out drinking.”

Jake kind of wished he was with them right now. He had no idea what Toni wanted to say to him. They had been really good together years ago, but both of their careers had gotten in the way. Too much separation.

Finally, Toni wiped away a tear and said, “Jake, I still love you. You know that, right?”

He had a feeling. “I know, Toni. I still love you too.”

“But. . .”

“I don't know if we can be together. You have your life in Washington and you'd have to give me a frontal lobotomy to live there.”

“I can retire from the Agency in two years,” she said.

Behind them the engines from the Gulfstream fired up and Toni seemed like she might break down even more. Jake had heard that her divorce from the man in New York was final almost a year ago. Was she just trying to feel needed? Jake knew it was more than that. The two of them had a history under fire, and couples with that felt a connection that would last until the day they died.

“I don't even have a place to live right now, Toni. I got rid of my place in Innsbruck.”

“I don't care. I want you. I need you.”

The pilot of the jet revved the engines, like a high school boyfriend would do for his girlfriend to come out and hop into the muscle car.

“You need to catch your flight,” Jake yelled over the engine noise. He gave her a huge hug and said, “Give me a call when you get home. We can talk more then.”

She pulled away and smiled. Then she pushed herself into him and kissed him passionately on the lips. Without saying another word, she hobbled across the tarmac and got into the Gulfstream.

Jake watched the aircraft pull away and taxi toward the runway. Moments later and the jet streaked up into the air.

Elisa came to Jake and stood a respectable distance from him, her phone still in her hand.

“Everything all right?” Jake asked.

“I was on with our coast guard,” she said. “They found no survivors on that fishing boat. It did not burn completely. All but one of the men aboard were identified as former Greek military. One man they have not been able to ID, but they think he was also Greek.”

“What about the Sicilian Mafia in Siracusa?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nobody is talking there, as you could guess. One man had a bullet destroy his shoulder. He was released from the hospital and has disappeared. Another man had some burns that looked serious, but were only superficial. I didn't mention to anyone that you might have known these men.”

Jake used to have a decent relationship with the Mafia in Italy, partially due to the fact that he was friends with Toni Contardo, but now he would probably be on their hate list also.

He said nothing to her.

“Where do you go from here, Jake?” She put her phone into her pocket.

That's a question he wasn't sure he could answer properly. He had no home. Had no reason to go anywhere. “I don't know. I could go fishing in South America.”

She smiled at him. “I meant tonight.”

“Oh. What do you have in mind?”

Now she moved in closer to him. “I'm still officially on vacation. And we really didn't get to spend much time in Taormina. I say we go there and spend a little time in a nice hotel overlooking the ocean.”

He nodded approval. “It's hard to argue against that logic. But we might want to get rid of that stolen Fiat.”

The two of them wandered off toward the parking lot.

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