Clive Cussler (9 page)

Casey was afraid the propeller might fly off when it came out of the water as the engine raced uncontrollably, but it held on to the driveshaft without letting go. Within minutes, the black phantom boat was nearly a quarter of a mile behind Hotsy Totsy.

"Blast those brats and their crazy boat," the enraged Boss roared, shaking his fist at Hotsy Totsy as she sped down the river toward the bay.

"We'd better forget them kids," cautioned Wrinkle Face, "and make our getaway."

"Yeah," said the Beard. "The cops will be waiting and watching for our black boat when we come into the bay."

"No!" the Boss roared. "That old boat will never last on the rough waters of the bay. It's probably already coming apart. We'll finish the brats off before they cross the finish line."

Casey and Lacey passed under a high bridge and darted into the upper part of San Francisco Bay. The wind had come up and blew in through the Golden Gate from the sea. The water became choppy and the keel began to bounce over the incoming waves.

"How many boats can you see ahead of us?" asked Casey, wiping the spray from his eyes.

Lacey squinted across the water toward the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. "I see four. Two battling for first place and two trailing in their wakes no more than a hundred yards ahead."

"I can't believe we caught them so fast." He patted the instrument panel. "Good old Hotsy Totsy, she just won't give up."

Although she had set a marvelous pace, the pressure was still on. Once they passed under the Richmond- San Rafael Bridge, the finish line was less than ten miles away. Casey kept the foot pedal pressed "to the floor. Just as they pulled up alongside a sleek green and gold boat called the Jingle Jangle, they both hit an incoming wave and were launched into the air. It was a heart-stopping few moments as Hotsy Totsy and Jingle Jangle flew nearly a hundred feet until their keels smacked the water hard.

The Jingle Jangle wasn't so lucky as one of her propeller blades broke off and the driver cut the throttle so that the boat still had forward motion but was only moving at twenty miles an hour.

The driver and his co-driver waved graciously with encouragement as the twins sped past.

The next boat in front of them was the apricot orange Rat Tat Tat. Soon they were leaping over the waves that spread behind the other boat and closing on its stern.

"Don't get too close," Lacey warned her brother.

"Never fear," answered Casey with a grin. "That's the driver who splashed us by coming too close. Now it's our turn. I'm going to show him what Hotsy Totsy can really do."

At what seemed the last second, Casey swung the wheel and whipped the boat around until he was almost on top of Rat Tat Tat's stern. Then he cut a slight turn and leaped ahead until only a few inches separated the hulls of the two speeding boats. In shocked surprise, the other driver turned and stared wide-eyed at Casey, not believing the old mahogany boat could have matched his speed.

Casey smiled and gave a short wave like a salute and shouted, "We'll wait for you at the finish."

As soon as he said the words, Hotsy Totsy leaped ahead, her bow two feet out of the water as her propeller thrust her ahead. The wash from her wake soaked the crew and drenched Rat Tat Tat in a huge sheet of water. Lacey laughed and waved at the driver and his engineer, who had no choice but to endure the tidal wave as Hotsy Totsy pulled ahead and soon left them a hundred yards behind.

Lacey pointed over the windshield as Alcatraz Island came into view. "Only two boats are ahead of us," she said in Casey's ear.

"We're gaining on them," Casey yelled back, his excitement growing.

"Yes, we are, but it's only four miles to the finish line."

"Hotsy Totsy will catch them," Casey said, his heart leaping with confidence, sure that his magical boat was up to the task.

They shot across the bay and within the next mile were only twenty yards behind the sterns of the blue-and-gold-striped Zippity Doo and the red Dragon Fire. Casey knew he could catch and pass them before the finish line. But the twins were desperately tired now after the long, hard hours of the race. The waves sweeping across San Francisco Bay were hard on the boat and their bodies. Lacey felt water over her ankles on the bottom of the cockpit. She realized the seams of the mahogany planking had taken a terrible beating and were coming loose, allowing water to seep in and slosh around the lower hull.

"We're taking on water!" Lacey shouted over the thunder of the three boats and their engines.

Casey felt the water over his shoes too and looked down. Now he could see it flowing between the loosened planks of the hull. His first thought was to slow down and save the boat.

But then he looked back across the bay and saw that the finish line was only a mile away.

"Stop, stop!" Lacey pleaded."Hotsy Totsy can't take any more. She'll surely sink before we reach shore if we don't slow down."

Casey knew she was right. "We can't risk losing Hotsy Totsy"

Just as he lifted his foot from the throttle pedal a large wave curled in through the Golden Gate and swept across the bay. The two boats ahead were thrown sideways, having caught the wave broadside. Up, up they went, tossed into the air like two toothpicks. Zippity Doo spun around and fell across the bow of the Dragon Fire in what is called a T-bone as they crashed back into the water. Dragon Fire was driven under the surface like a submarine as water gushed through her smashed bow and into her engine compartment. The shock was so heavy both men on her crew had their helmets torn away.

The bottom hull of Zippity Doo looked as if it exploded; debris flew everywhere. Her great engine was torn from its mounts and dropped through the huge gash in the hull to the bottom of the bay, still running at full revolutions as it disappeared beneath the waves.

Hotsy Totsy went over hard when the wave crashed against her starboard bow. To Lacey it all seemed to happen in slow motion, the crash of the two boats ahead, the smash of the wave against the boat. She felt the boat twist onto its side, and she thought they were going over. She clutched Floopy, who growled at the wave as though it was alive.

Casey held on to the wheel and worked hard to turn it. Amazingly, Hotsy Totsy responded, and her bow swung over the wave crest. The little speedboat was hurled into the air and fell back with a hard impact as it came to a stop in the water, which was now littered with the scattered remains of what had been two beautiful powerboats. All the crew members had been thrown from their cockpits into the water. Only one could barely raise his hand to let them know he was alive. The other three men floated in their survival gear and appeared to be unconscious.

"We've got to help them," cried Lacey.

Casey looked across the water and saw rescue boats speeding toward the crash scene. But they were more than two miles away. "Let's help the ones who look unconscious," he replied in an even tone, "before they drown."

"We're too little to drag them on board," said Lacey.

Casey shook his head. "No, we'll help keep them afloat with their heads out of the water till help arrives. We might cause them more injury if we tried to drag them into the cockpit."

Without another word, Casey steered Hotsy Totsy toward the two crew members from the Dragon Fire, who were floating motionless. Casey stopped the boat alongside, leaned over the side of the boat and helped Lacey hold the men's heads above water. Floopy even helped by clamping his teeth on one of the men's life jackets and pulling so that the man's head was clear and he could breathe without swallowing water.

Casey eased the boat toward the man who weakly waved. "Can you hold on?" he said.

"I can make it," the Zippity Doo's driver said faintly. "Save my friend."

"Not to worry," Casey assured him.

The other man was floating only ten yards away. Casey moved Hotsy Totsy alongside and eased the man's head slightly back so that his mouth and nose were out of the water.

"How are they?" Casey asked Lacey.

"Injured but breathing," she answered. "How about yours?"

"A hard knock on the head, but he should be all right in a few days."

They heard the roar from the engine of an approaching boat. Casey glanced up to see what powerboat was about to roar past. His heart skipped a beat when he recognized the black phantom boat with the Boss hunched over the steering wheel, steering in a straight line toward Hotsy Totsy.

"The Boss!" he shouted to Lacey. "He's going to ram us."

"He can't!" Lacey cried. "We're holding on to injured men."

They both knew the Boss could have cared less. He intended to shatter Hotsy Totsy and send her and the twins and their dog to the bottom of San Francisco Bay.

The Boss and his black phantom boat and evil henchmen were coming fast when suddenly a large boat came at an angle, then struck them a glancing blow and shoved them aside into clear water before they could crash into Hotsy Totsy and the injured crews.

"Put up your hands!" shouted a voice through a bullhorn from what turned out to be a big police boat. "You're under arrest!"

Seeing there was no hope of escaping a heavily armed police boat, the Boss shut down his engine and let the phantom boat drift.

"Curses!" he snarled, striking the cowling with his fist. "Foiled again."

"Oh no," moaned the Beard. "It's back to prison."

"I don't want to go back," wailed Wrinkle Face.

"The warden from the prison in Nevada where you escaped will be glad to see you robbers behind bars once again," said the policeman on the boat.

"At least it won't be Alcatraz," said the Boss, looking back at the cold, dark rock. *

"Throw over that suitcase with the bank's money," ordered the policeman. "Then come on board with your hands outstretched for the handcuffs."

"Next time it will be a different story," the Boss said wickedly, his eyes filled with menace. "Those brats will pay for standing in the way of the Boss."

Within minutes, the rescue boats had arrived, and the paramedics jumped into the water and helped move the injured powerboat crew onto stretchers before gently lifting them aboard. "Nice work, kids," one of the rescuers said. "Are any of you hurt?"

"A few bumps and bruises, but we're okay," replied Lacey.

"Can we take you on board? It looks like your boat is taking on water."

Casey stared down at the water sloshing around in the bottom of the boat. "She'll get us to shore," he answered.

"Good luck to you," the rescuer shouted, waving as his boat began speeding toward the nearest dock and a waiting ambulance.

"Are we sinking?" asked Lacey.

Casey simply nodded as he leaned over the side and gazed forward. A jagged piece of blue metal was penetrating the bow below the waterline. "It looks like we struck a piece of Zippity Doowhen she blew apart."

"So that's where the water is coming from," said Lacey, her voice touched with fear. "We must get to shore quickly."

Casey sat behind the steering wheel for a moment, his face set in grim determination. "Not before we cross the finish line," he said steadfastly. "Hotsy Totsy is going to finish the race."

He pressed the throttle and the speedboat began roaring across the water again.

"We'll sink before we reach shore," Lacey protested.

"Not if our speed lifts the bow high enough so it's out of the water."

Almost when he spoke, Hotsy Totsy's small, arrowlike bow rose slowly above the water as she bravely rushed forward in what looked like a futile attempt to keep from sinking.

Hotsy Totsy was more than a wooden watercraft with a big powerful engine. She had a heart. She vibrated with a driving spirit that would never give up. It was as though she had a life of her own. Spray from her wake flew like a cloudburst of rain. Her exhaust rumbled like thunder. She began traveling across the waves faster than she had ever soared before, plowing over the small waves while meeting the large ones head-on and crashing through their crests.

The drivers of the other boats speeding toward the finish line couldn't believe such an old boat could dart across the water in a blur of spray. Spectators lining the shore and the docks and even those on boats in the water began yelling and waving them on. Fire- boats were shooting water high into the air as the police rescue boats rushed alongside, their sirens blending with horns and whistles sounding across the bay. Thousands of people who had come to love the twins, their dog and their wondrous boat were cheering them wildly.

Casey and Lacey and their beloved boat couldn't win the race, but they could finish in grand style.

As they dashed across the finish line, a race official stood on the cabin roof of a huge yacht and excitedly waved the checkered flag. It was when Casey didn't slow down but kept Hotsy Totsyrunning at full speed that everyone realized the boat was sinking. The bow was lower in the water, and the hull was settling toward the deck cowling. A moan went up from the crowd, followed by a hushed silence as the boat raced toward a narrow beach between the marina docks.

They could see now that Lacey was madly bailing water over the side with Casey's baseball cap as fast as she could splash it into the air. The boat looked as if it was going to slide beneath the water at any minute.

The water inside the boat had risen over the twins' feet and inches away from their knees. Floopy's basset hound eyes took on a woeful look as he stood with his paws against the instrument panel so he wouldn't have to sit in the water that was coming over the seat.

"We won't make it," Lacey said gravely.

Casey stared at the beach, now no more than a hundred yards away. "Hotsy Totsy won't let us down," he said bravely. "She'll get us there."

He could see it was going to be a very near thing. The bow had fallen until it was parting the water like a cleaver and the speed had dropped off alarmingly. A boat nearly filled with water couldn't go fast despite its powerful engine, which began to cough and sputter as the water sloshed around the electrical system.

A fleet of spectator boats had crowded around the sinking Hotsy Totsy, shouting encouragement and urging Casey and Lacey to save themselves and abandon the boat. They couldn't believe the magical speedboat was thrusting forward against such unbelievable odds. Hope was in their hearts, but fear was in their minds.