Clive Cussler (6 page)

The orange flare signaling the one-minute warning shot into the blue sky as the pilots looked left to right and back again, seeing how far they were spaced apart. The pack was building into a stampede across the bay. Their big one-thousand-horsepower engines roared as the drivers surged toward the starting line in the same instant the chief official in the white cap raised his hand that held the flare gun.

Unnoticed, Hotsy Totsy moved slowly behind the official yacht and approached from its stern. The race officials were looking the other way as they watched the boats gather in a rough lineup for the start. The excitement was building, but the boat pilots and the thousands of spectators failed to notice Hotsy Totsy suddenly rushing forward behind the fleet. Then the green flare was shot into the air and exploded with green streamers against a white-clouded sky.

The race was on.

Like a Thoroughbred leaping from the starting gate, Hotsy Totsy dug her stern in the water, lifted her bow and leaped over the water into the wake of the powerboats that were cutting across the bay like multicolored missiles.

As they hurtled past the official yacht, Lacey grasped one of Floopy's paws and waved it at the race officials, who were frantically trying to wave them off the course. At first it seemed as though they needn't have bothered. Hotsy Totsy was quickly being left behind in the wakes of the much-faster boats.

"She'll never keep up," cried Lacey miserably. "She isn't nearly fast enough. Maybe we were wrong to bring her here."

"She can do it," Casey said gamely. "I know she can. If Vin Fiz did it, so can Hotsy Totsy."

Lacey peered through the windshield and saw that the field of boats was halfway across the bay. "Speed!" Lacey pleaded. "Speed like the wind . . . please."

Magically, as if Hotsy Totsy knew what she must do, her big Wright engine whirled into a screeching whine and spun the bronze propeller into a blur that cut through the water at a speed that pressed the twins and Floopy against the seats. She took off like a shell out of a cannon. In almost no time she was passing the boats trailing the main pack.

"Hotsy Totsy has the same magic as Vin Fiz," shouted Casey, overjoyed.

Lacey held her arms tightly around Floopy's neck as he barked from joy. "It's so wonderful," she shouted back.

Hotsy Totsy had become a part of them. Casey and Lacey no longer had any doubts that she had a mind of her own and was going to use all her magical powers to win the race.

The pleasure boats and expensive yachts formed a corridor for the boats roaring across San Francisco Bay. Casey and Lacey were stunned by the number of people watching from their boats. Everyone was waving and cheering them on.

The gleaming white Bim Bam Boom, burst into the lead as the herd swept under the Oakland Bay Bridge and past Treasure Island. Hotsy Totsy pulled between two boats. One was rose-colored, the Tickled Pink, and the other, the Twitter Tweet, was painted a flashy lavender. The green water of the bay had turned white with froth as the spinning propellers of the boats shot it into the air in vast swirling waves. To see so many powerful boats speeding at over a hundred miles an hour was an incredible sight no one who saw it would ever forget.

The first-turn marker buoy, a yellow one in the shape of a tall glass of lemonade, was coming up, and the pilots prepared to cut a turn without slowing down. Trailing, but beginning to move up,Hotsy Totsy kissed the waves from the wakes of the front-running boats as lightly as if she was sailing through a field of feathers.

Casey didn't have to work the throttle. Hotsy Totsy controlled her speed up and down depending on the traffic while all Casey had to do was steer between the other boats.

"She's running smooth!" yelled Casey. He saw the other boats dive into the three-foot-high waves from the wakes of the leaders. Not Hotsy Totsy. Her bow lifted over them and her V-shaped hull cut right through. But Casey almost spoke too soon. Two other boats sliced in front of him to sweep around the first marker buoy of the course.

"They're cutting us off!" screamed Lacey as the apricot orange Rat Tat Tat zigzagged in front of Hotsy Totsy, showering the twins and Floopy in a watery surge that flooded the cockpit and soaked everyone in it. Floopy snarled at the other boats, showing his teeth, and then looked down in the water slopping around the cockpit floor as if he was searching for a fish.

Casey was wiping his face, the salt water stinging his eyes. "I can't see, I can't see!" He was also blinded by the huge spray sent up from the propeller of Tickled Pink, which swung directly in front of Hotsy Totsy's bow. "Steer until I can see again," he ordered Lacey.

But before Lacey could grab the wheel, the powerboat was thrown violently from side to side and it was all Lacey could do to put an arm around Floopy and hold on to the cockpit seat to keep both of them from being flung into the bay. Thank heavens for the belts and harnesses, she thought.

The driver of Rat Tat Tat threw an insulting wave and could be seen laughing at the water-soaked twins.

"They're doing it on purpose!" snapped Casey, his left eye beginning to focus. He shook a fist at the boats speeding in front of Hotsy Totsy that had sprayed them with sheets of water. "You'll be sorry," he muttered to himself. "Hotsy Totsy will make you sorry for being nasty."

To the spectators, the two modern powerboats speeding around the magical powerboat hull to hull and closing in front of them at over one hundred miles an hour was a breathtaking sight. One that Casey and Lacey would always remember. Suddenly, their boat struck the combined wakes of the two boats ahead and Hotsy Totsy was spun out of control. Casey finally managed to see out of both eyes again but couldn't see through the sheet of spray that blew into them. He thought he heard Lacey screaming through the deafening sounds around him, but he wasn't sure.

Knowing he couldn't hear her warning, she leaned over Floopy and yelled in Casey's ear, "Left! Turn left!"

In that instant he could see they were hurtling through the water toward one of the spectator boats, a huge luxurious yacht that looked as big as an ocean liner. He spun the wheel to the left as Lacey had warned and tried but failed to pull back the throttle. The crew and guests on board the yacht looked at the boat rushing toward them with horror. There seemed no way to avoid a terrible disaster. The twins could do nothing but sit in shock before they crashed.

But then a miracle happened.

Hotsy Totsy drove across the wake of the powerboats, riding up the waves, and leaped out of the water skyward. The little craft soared into the air. It soared over the yacht, and the people stared in amazement as it flew over their heads. They scattered over the decks and tried to hide. The twins couldn't believe a boat could fly so high into the air and so far before it crashed down in the water, burying the bow and boring through a wall of solid liquid until the bow burst free and shot upward.

"Hotsy Totsy truly is a magical boat," yelled Lacey excitedly as the powerboat spun around the pleasure yachts, moved past the marker buoy and took up the chase again.

"She's as magical as Vin Fiz," Casey agreed.

"And then some!"

Hotsy Totsy didn't need to be told to hurry. Like a fast racehorse that got off to a bad start, she dug in her propeller, lifted her bow and took off after the powerboats like a torpedo through turbulent water. She passed Swizzle Swish, whose pilot and copilot stared disbelieving as the old speedboat tore past. Next came Tickled Pink, whose pilot laughed as Hotsy Totsy came alongside. Casey timed it so that as soon as his stern was ten feet ahead of the other boat, he cut across its bow and let his wake drench the other crew.

"That was awfully close," said Lacey.

"A taste of their own medicine," answered Casey. "Where are we now?"

Lacey consulted her charts and compared their course with the landmarks on the shore. "We just passed the prison at San Quentin. The bridge up ahead is the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Once we go under, we head into San Pablo Bay."

A few boats were already dropping out of the race and leaving the course. Smoke was trailing from under the engine cowling on the green-and-red-striped Suzie Wuzie as she limped off the course. They roared past an upside-down Squeaky Klean. The crew were in the water as the rescue boat hurried toward them. They waved their arms and hands to signal that they were all right. Another boat with gold lightning bolts painted across the hull was stopped off to the side of the course with a dead engine.

"How are we doing?" Casey asked Lacey, unable to take his eyes off the boats ahead and around him.

Lacey did a rough count of the boats she could see through the clouds of spray. She deducted the ones she saw that had left the race and surveyed those in the front and to their rear.

"As near as I can make it, we're running in thirty- fourth place."

"Then we've passed eight boats," Casey said cheerfully. "Hotsy Totsy can do it. I know she can be the first over the finish line."

"Look!" called out Lacey. "There's an official boat ahead. Someone is waving a flag. I think they're waving at us."

"What color is it?"

"Black, it's a black flag."

"I wonder what it means."

"I think they want us to drop out of the race," Lacey said angrily.

"No way," Casey said, steadfast.

They tore by a white boat marked with a variety of flags. An official standing on the stern violently waved a black flag in their direction. Lacey simply waved back at him, secretly enjoying watching him jump up and down on the deck looking so aroused in a vain attempt to stop the twins from racing.

Hotsy Totsy gained a rhythm over the wakes of the front-running boats and gained on the leaders with every mile. She and Casey soon learned to run and drive smoothly despite the boats and their pilots blocking their passage and playing collision tactics, only pulling away at the last instant before crashing into Hotsy Totsy and crushing her wooden hull.

Casey was a fast learner and soon learned to give as good as he received. He refused to back down and dared other boats to force him off the course or drown him in their wakes. Together, he and the boat quickly figured out the race tactics that were thrown at them. They went from amateurs to professionals within twenty miles.

Hotsy Totsy and the twins were almost across San Pablo Bay when Lacey pointed over the windshield at a red buoy coming up on their port (nautical for "left") side. "There's the buoy marking the turn for the entrance to the Sacramento River," she yelled to Casey.

Abruptly, a boat in front of them began to slow down. It was a sleek red, white and blue powerboat named Uncle Sam. Its throttle cable had split apart, and the engine slowed as it fell into an idle. Casey made it past Uncle Sam but came so close he drenched the crew with a huge wake from Hotsy Totsy's stern. He lifted both hands in a helpless gesture that meant he was sorry.

The other crew understood and courteously waved as Casey shot ahead.

Casey became a little nervous since he was being pushed into a very tight turn around the buoy by three other boats battling to get around first. The orange Rat Tat Tat, white Whizzard and apple green Vroom Vroom along with Hotsy Totsy were four abreast as they entered the turn around the buoy. Casey was tempted to stay alongside the other boats and not be bullied, but they were coming closer and closer, squeezing the little mahogany boat between them. Hotsy Totsy sensed exactly what to do. Without Casey pulling back on the throttle, she slowed and let the other boats slip in front of her. Then her big Wright engine bellowed out with full power.

Hotsy Totsy darted to the outside of the pack and made a sharp turn fast and tight, coming out ahead once she rounded the buoy. It was a daring and brilliant tactic and it worked. The twins and their boat had moved up three more places. Not only had the magical little powerboat come out in front of the group, she was pulling away. The gap between them was widening, and now Casey set his sights on the crowd of powerboats still in front of their bow.

Word of the boy and girl and their basset hound running in the race with an old wooden boat swept up and down the thousands of spectators in pleasure yachts and those lining the shore. Nothing fires excitement more in a sporting event than the hope that an underdog just might win.

As they swept out of San Pablo Bay and under the bridge between Crockett and Vallejo, the twins could see crowds of onlookers waving wildly and cheering them on.

"Look, Casey," cried Lacey. "Everyone is rooting for us."

Floopy sensed the inspiration coming from the shore by the barking and yapping of the spectators' dogs. He barked back and jumped up and down with his long ears waving back at the dogs and their owners. Lacey had to clutch Floopy or he would have jumped out of the boat. He reacted wildly when a helicopter swooped low over Hotsy Totsy with TV cameras focused on the occupants of the powerboat.

It was almost as if he knew he was on camera and began acting like a human, sitting up on the seat and waving his paws.

"I hope we're not recognized," said Lacey. "Mom and Dad won't be happy if they find out what we've done."

"Don't worry," Casey replied, pulling his baseball cap low on his forehead as his fingers tightened on the steering wheel despite the fact that Hotsy Totsy seemed in complete control. "They'll never know where we could get a boat this fast. If they happen to watch the race on TV, they'll think it's some other kids with a funny dog. Just don't look up at the cameras and wave."

From then on whenever a news helicopter flew over or they passed boats hired by TV stations, they ducked down in the cockpit so their faces couldn't be seen on camera, not realizing that by hiding their faces, they created more interest. A mystery began building

around the entire country as millions of people watching the race on television sets at home couldn't help but be fascinated by the odd-looking boat and its mysterious little occupants.

"Here comes another official race boat," Lacey alerted Casey.

"Ignore them. They can't stop us now."