wrath of the Sea Queen (92 page)

"
Does your wife happen to have a sister or even a cousin?"  Jeremy ventured.

Vin merely tossed Jeremy another sandbag. 
It made him smile to know that, even on
a bad
day, C
a
eli could still turn heads.  Ben would be pleased to hear the same about Salma. 

"
Hey Maku!  There's an idea for you.  Why don't you use these two
lovely
ladies in your
S
ea
G
oddess contest?  You know Max only takes a liking to the real, pretty ladies.  He is nuts about these two.  They would certainly draw a crowd,
"
Apela suggested.

Maku knew Max very well.  Max
even
tried to set him up with a lady
once
, not as a date, but to
get
married.  The boy meant well, but did
n
o
t exactly understand the finer details of adult relationships. 

"
Well, if Max thinks so, then I
certainly
have to get a look at them. 
The boy has impeccable taste in women. 
Do you happen to know w
here
Vin is keeping them
?
"

Apela was about to answer when h
is ribs were
nudge
d by
Vin
elbow, and h
e remembered why Vin brought them to his hotel in the first place
.  H
e quickly
adjusted his intended response
. 

"
O
h,
I'm sure
it
i
s some place where
they won't let riffraff like you
step foot
.  You
wi
ll have to wait with the rest of the media vultures to catch a glimpse
of them at the conference
.  Or, if you
a
re lucky, you might be able to convince Vin to bring his lovely wife and her aunt out for a drink one night this week.  Otherwise, you
wi
ll probably have to pester my sister again.
"
 
Apela
hoped
that Maku would conclude that they were staying at the conference hotel where D
r. Erickson would be speaking.

Apela
went on to relate to Vin how his sister, Lorrie,
had been
crowned
the previous
festival
winner.  She was a pretty
woman
, but
could
n
o
t seem to find the right sort of guy to
give her cause to
settle down.  Lorrie insisted
that
all the good ones were taken.  Now it was Jeremy's turn to have some fun with Apela, and Vin
welcomed
the
change in the
conversation before he
had to answer
any more
direct
questions.

"
Maybe it's you, Apela.  Maybe you scare all the good ones away.  You
woul
d certainly scare me off,
"
Jeremy joked.

"
I wouldn't have to
scare you away
.  You
could
only wish
that
my sister would go out with you.  Sea
G
oddesses don't dally with sea rats,
"
Apela returned, laughing.

"
What exactly is a
S
ea
G
oddess anyway?
"
  Vin asked.

"
Oh, it's part of the festival we host every five years. 
In fact,
Maku is in charge of picking the
female contestants
who will be the main characters
in the contest
.  We call them
S
ea
G
oddesses.  He will film
some candid moments
, usually on the beach,
of
several
lovely ladies during the week
.  Each night, some of the footage is aired on television
during the local news
and people vote for a winner.  It's a
huge
marketing event.  At the end of the week, there is a final vote, filmed live at a local
landmark
. 
I think it will be held at the lighthouse this year.  Anyway, o
ne of th
e ladies is named the festival
S
ea
Q
ueen. 
There's a crown and prizes and all sorts of free stuff provided by the festival sponsors. 
It's generally a lot of fun,
"
Apela explained.

"
I would certainly vote for Vin's wife,
"
Jer
emy replied enthusiastically.

Vin smiled and tossed him another sandbag.

Moments later, a
bright flash
,
followed by a
n explosion
,
rocked the area where they were working.  Most of the islanders knew instinctively to drop flat onto their stomachs.  This
had been
i
ngrained in their culture
over centuries
of living in a volcanically
charged
region.  The foreigners, however, including Jeremy and Vin, did not know how to react
.  They
stood
their ground
, trying to keep their footing.

The
strong explosion
came
from somewhere below the gap they
were attempting to
clos
e in the flood wall
.  As fate would have it,
the ground where
Maku and the other man in front of Jeremy
were standing crumbled, and they
fell over the edge
.  B
oth managed to find
sturdy branches and
vines in the cliff wall to
prevent them from falling into the sea
.  The ground continued to shake and Jeremy was jostled closer to the
precipice
.  A
nother flash streaked across the inlet followed by yet another
explosion
, only a minute after the first
.  This one
sent
the guardsman
tumbling over the edge and plummeting into the rushing waters below.  Vin, unable to reach
Jeremy
before he fell, dove in after the young Lieutenant without hesitation.

Apela and the others pulled Maku and the
first
man to safety
as t
hey
watched
Vin dive in after Jeremy
.  They
alerted the rescue swimmers immediately.  Watchers tried to keep an eye on the two from above, hoping not to lose sight of them
in the rapid waters below
.

Vin
could
not
reach Jeremy right away, but tri
ed
to close the distance
between them
.  He saw the young man get pulled under twice and then lost sight of him entirely.  As Vin himself was pulled down at the next strong
turn of the
current, he caught sight of Jeremy
right next to him.  Vin managed to grab hold of Jeremy's arm, and then get his left arm around the younger man's chest.  At least they would not get separated.

Vin struggled to get
himself and
Jeremy
to
the surface.  Once
Vin accomplished
that, Jeremy drew air into his lung
s, sputtered and flailed
.  It was all Vin could do to get him to calm down and stop fighting against him.  Vin was having enough trouble
dealing
with the
powerful
current. 
As Jeremy calmed down, a
large
wave forced them up against a
towering
rock
. 
Vin's right arm smacked
forcefully
against the stone.  As bad as it hurt,
Vin
thought it must
certain
ly
be broken.  There was nothing he could do
about
it now.  Thank goodness Vin was left-handed and still held Jeremy
securely
with his left arm.

Rescue lines were tossed at them as often as possible, but the strong current prevented either man from grabbing hold of them
before they were swept out of reach
. 
T
he
two
were
rapidly
being pulled farther away from the land.  Vin made a valiant effort to regain some of the distance, but
he
was losing
the
battle.  If Jeremy couldn't help, and the rescue swimmers couldn't reach them
against the current
, Vin began to doubt whether
or not
they would get out of this. 
Vin briefly
considered
not being able to return to C
a
eli
and
doubly
renewed his determination.  He would not put C
a
eli through that experience again.