Clive Cussler (3 page)

"Cut northwest across the bay toward the Santa Cruz lighthouse," directed Lacey. "That should save us a good ten minutes."

"Watch for landmarks," said Casey over the noise of the big Wright engine, "and let me know how we're doing timewise."

Lacey stared through the mist at the cypress and pine trees filling the cliffs above the sea. Houses that perched in rows above the bluffs came into view, their windows and porches overlooking the ocean. A roadway was dotted with cars whose drivers were taking families out for an early Saturday morning trip. The big lighthouse rose across the bay. "We're coming to Santa Cruz," she called back.

"We're going nearly sixty miles an hour," he said, his eyes darting to a speedometer on the instrument panel.

Lacey estimated their arrival. "With ninety miles to go, we should reach San Francisco Bay in another hour and a half."

Casey merely nodded as the Santa Cruz lighthouse came and went. Lacey looked up at a flight of seagulls that whirled overhead and tried to follow the boat, their wings flapping wildly to keep up. They were joined by ten pelicans who glided above them until they too were outdistanced by the speeding boat.

Dolphins jumped and cavorted as the boat shot past, but they were no match at that speed and quickly fell behind in the churning wake.

"I figure we have less than forty minutes to go," said Lacey, following the coastline on her charts.

Before they knew it, Half Moon Bay was in sight. In less than ten minutes it dropped far behind the stern. Then came the entrance leading to San Francisco Bay. From the surface of the water it looked like a canyon between two high hills. Casey swung Hotsy Totsy into the wide channel marked by buoys. The Golden Gate Bridge loomed overhead. As they passed under, they stared up at the immense structure, which was thick with cars traveling from shore to shore. The reddish orange paint shimmered in the light of an early morning sun and reflected off the great towers that supported the cables that held up the highway beneath.

Casey and Lacey had never seen the bridge before and were thrilled by the sight. They turned their attention to a mammoth aircraft carrier that was approaching with a sea of jet aircraft parked on its sprawling deck. Gazing up as they moved under and along the flight deck, they thought the huge ship looked like a giant gray mountain silently slipping through the water toward the open ocean.

Many of the sailors on board waved at the tiny boat as it sped alongside the carrier's ten-story hull.

Although they had only seen pictures of San Francisco, the twins knew its landmarks by heart. "There's the old prison on Alcatraz Island," shouted Lacey, pointing at the crumbling buildings that once housed evil criminals.

"The Bay Bridge, to Oakland," said Casey, wiping the spray from his eyes to enjoy the view.

"And Treasure Island, where the World's Fair was held."

"Do you see a cable car?"

Lacey shook her head. "Too many buildings in the way."

They gazed at San Francisco's inspiring skyline with its tall buildings and high hills. At last they caught sight of a little cable car slowly moving along shiny rails up a steep incline. Lacey tried to hear the sound of a bell, but the engine under Hotsy Totsy's mahogany cowl made too much noise.

"Let me know when you see the marina," Casey said, his excitement rising. "That's where the starting line is."

"I see an old ferryboat and a sailing ship with tall masts beside a dock off to starboard," she answered, using the nautical word for right. Then she spied a bright mosaic of color that blazed beside a long dock. "There!" Lacey called, pointing at the dock. "A whole fleet of powerboats."

The sleek powerboats were lined up at a long dock.

Several were racing around the bay, tuning their engines for the big race. They were painted in a gleaming luster of colors: bright yellows, greens, blues and reds. Some were even orange and purple. All had the numbers and names of their sponsors lettered on their graceful and streamlined hulls. They all looked as though they could go much faster than Hotsy Totsy.

Suddenly a strange-looking powerboat blasted across the water in front of their bow. It was painted jet black but wasn't sleek and graceful like the other boats. There was no lettering on its hull at all. It had the look of an eerie phantom, and it was fast, very fast. It soared over the water like a diving vulture. The vessel bullied its way through the maze of colorful powerboats preparing for the great race and soon disappeared behind Alcatraz Island and the buildings of its famous prison.

"Crazy driver," sputtered Casey as Hotsy Totsy was thrown about from the wake of the phantom boat.

"He was certainly in a hurry," said Lacey.

"I wonder if he's in the race."

Lacey looked doubtful. "He had no number, boat name or sponsor logos painted on his hull."

Casey suddenly cocked his head. "Listen to all the noise in the city."

Lacey heard it too. "Sounds like sirens."

"Must be a fire."

Then she pointed over the bow. "There's an open space along the dock," she advised him. "Pull in and we can tie up there."

Casey eased the pedal up to idle speed as he approached the dock and stared at all the boats that were going to race. Hardly an expert powerboat pilot, Casey knocked Hotsy Totsy into the tires hanging off the dock as bumpers. Lacey threw lines to a man standing on the dock, who tied the boat to cleats so that it wouldn't float away. He had on the red coveralls worn by the race boat competitors with an insignia patch identifying his boat, called Bim Bam Boom. Then the twins lifted Floopy onto the wooden walkway and climbed out of Hotsy Totsy.

"If you're coming to watch the race, you'll have to move your boat," said the race boat driver with a smirk. His unruly red hair fell to his shoulders. "This dock is for race contestants only."

"We didn't come here to watch," replied Casey, puffing out his chest. "We came to run in the race."

The man began snickering. "Ha, ha," he said in a mocking tone through teeth with a row of gold fillings. "Two little kids in an old boat racing with the pros? That's a laugh."

"Who are you?" asked Casey politely.

"I'm Charley Sploog, and I'm the new champion of powerboat racing. I have the fastest boat. It's called Bim Bam Boom.'"

"What color is it so we know when we pass you?" asked Lacey with a sly grin.

"That will be the day," Sploog said nastily. "Just so you know when you see me win the race, Bim Bam Boom is all white."

He turned and walked off laughing, shaking his head in wicked amusement at the twins, their dog and their antique boat.

"He certainly is conceited," Casey muttered.

"A snob, that's for sure," Lacey agreed.

Pretty soon four men, oozing with authority and wearing navy blue blazers, gray slacks and white shirts with bright yellow ties held by little gold powerboat clasps, walked up clutching clipboards with official-looking papers. They each wore a different- colored cap. Casey and Lacey couldn't help but wonder if they were brothers. They all had gray beards with mustaches and large stomachs. All wore oval sunglasses.

The one that Casey assumed was the head race official wore a white cap above saucer-sized ears. He stared at them with a grim wrinkled face and said, "Weren't you kids told to move your boat?"

"Yes, sir," answered Casey, standing taller than he was by lifting his heels off the dock. "But my sister and I are here because we wish to enter the race."

"That's right," said Lacey. "We came all the way from Castroville."

"You can't be serious." The white cap with big ears gasped.

"As serious as can be," said Lacey sweetly.

The second official in a pink cap stared at Floopy through eyes as droopy as the dog's. "You sailed that far along the coast with a hound?"

Casey nodded. "Floopy goes everywhere we go."

"This is one time you aren't going anywhere," said the third race official, whose beady black eyes matched the color of his cap. "Little kids with a droopy- eyed dog in a wooden boat that looks like it belongs in a museum cannot enter a Gold Cup Grand National endurance race and compete with adult professionals in powerboats that can go as fast as one hundred and fifty miles an hour."

The fourth official, who wore a green cap, pulled a ragged cigar from his mouth, smiled with more kindness than the others and said, "You kids better skedaddle home before your parents know what mischief you got into."

"We can win, I know we can win," Casey pleaded.

The official with the white cap grinned wickedly. "Have you got the thousand-dollar entry fee?" He knew very well they probably didn't have a dollar between them.

"You're telling us it costs a thousand dollars just to be in the race?" Lacey said, staring the official in the eyes, her arms clutched in front of her chest, blowing a curl out of her face. She not only looked mad, she was as angry as she had ever been, and she was a girl who was patient and considerate of other people's feelings.

"That's right, little lady," said the green-capped official. "Even if you were old enough and had a super-fast boat, you haven't got the money, and that's that."

"You might as well start for home," said the black- capped official with the beady eyes. "You should have known you couldn't possibly win the one-hundred- thousand-dollar prize that goes to the winner."

Lacey looked at Casey, tears beginning to well in her eyes. "It's not fair."

Casey shrugged and didn't appear dispirited. "No sense in hanging around, sis. We might as well start back to Castroville first thing in the morning."

"See that you're heading for home before the race starts," said Black Cap between chomps on his cigar.

Satisfied they had made their point, the four fat race officials walked away and turned their attention to inspecting a big powerboat that looked like a rocket ship moored behind Hotsy Totsy.

"I didn't think you would give up so easily," Lacey said, disappointed with her brother.

Casey gave his sister a fox-like smile. "I have no intention of giving up. We'll make it look like we're leaving for Castroville and then swing back and join the other boats when the starter flare shoots up and race them to Sacramento."

Lacey felt bad for missing her brother's intention. "You had me fooled."

Word soon spread about the boy and girl with their basset hound and antique boat wanting to run in the race. Reporters smelling a human interest story came up and interviewed them. Broadcasters with microphones and cameras asked them all kinds of questions. Satisfied with what they learned, the reporters soon slipped away in search of other stories from the racing teams.

"It's them!" hissed an evil-looking man, staring at a TV set that revealed Casey and Lacey being interviewed on the dock.

The man who spoke was tall with an oily mange of black hair and a huge walrus mustache across his upper lip. He wore black from his hat to his shirt to his pants to the boots they were tucked into. Known as the Boss by the police, he was an evil man who robbed and stole from honest people.

Two of the Boss's henchmen, who had crooked teeth and dressed all in black like the Boss, stared at a TV set in the old abandoned warden's mansion at the deserted prison on Alcatraz Island. They were hiding out there after robbing a San Francisco bank and using the race and the powerboats to cover their getaway.

One of them, a man with a wrinkled face who looked like a graveyard salesman, pointed at the screen and said, "The Boss is right. I recognized them right away."

"No, you didn't," said the one with a scraggly beard. "I saw them first."

"You did not."

"Did too."

"Not."

"Too."

"Shut up the both of you," snapped the Boss. "I recognized them before either of you."

The two henchmen looked sullen and glared at each other.

The Boss studied the image of Casey, Lacey and their dog, Floopy, on the TV and twisted the tips of his mustache. "No doubt about it. Those are the brats who caused us to be thrown in jail for holding the townspeople as slaves and making them dig in a mine for a fortune in gold. We'd have gotten away with it if they hadn't flown down in their weird old airplane and spoiled the fun. What did they call that flying antique? Now I remember. It was Vin Fiz." His eyes blazed as he watched Floopy walk up and down the pier. "I still carry the marks where that dumb dog with the leather helmet and goggles bit me."

"What should we do, Boss?" asked the bearded henchman.

"We can't do anything for a while. We just robbed five hundred thousand dollars from a bank in San Francisco. We gotta lie low and hide out here in the old abandoned prison buildings until it's safe to escape down the coast to Mexico in our boat."

Wrinkle Face said, "I can't wait to get to Mexico and spend our money."

"Later," the Boss muttered. He twisted his mustache angrily. "I want revenge on those two little brats and their stupid dog. Nobody sends the Boss to jail and gets away with it."

"How can we fix their wagon without the police getting wise?" the Beard asked.

The Boss looked out a dirty window and stared at the water in the bay. "We wait until tonight. Then we sneak over, snatch them and carry them over to our hideout on the island. They'll soon suffer the consequences of what they did to us."

"What does consequences mean?" asked a henchman.

"Something they won't want to think about," answered the Boss with a cold grin.

Lacey spent four of her five dollars from her backpack on two cups of delicious crab with tomato sauce from a huge pot on Fisherman's Wharf. Not having nearly enough money to stay at a hotel, they bedded down under a blanket on the cockpit seat of Hotsy Totsy, Lacey used her backpack as a pillow while Casey merely slouched over the steering wheel.

Floopy, finding it too crowded in the boat, curled up in a coil of rope on the dock. Within ten seconds he was fast asleep, growling in dreams only dogs can have.

Almost on the stroke of midnight the phantom black boat slipped through the inky water alongside Hotsy Totsy. She showed no lights and was barely visible under the dim glow from the lamps on the dock. Security guards patrolled along the moored powerboats, whose crews worked through the night to make them ready for the morning's start of the big race. None were near Hotsy Totsy when the Boss and his henchmen leaped aboard.