Hurricane (14 page)

“
They offered Judas money, too.”

“
You’re not Christ,” she said.

“
I’m going to step out of the car,” he said, “and start running. Maybe I can get myself lost before you get to that traffic light.” He didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t hurt her, he didn’t have it in him. If he took off at an angle, away from the van, keeping it between him and the policemen down the street, and if she took off straight away for the traffic light, maybe the police would follow her thinking he was still in the car.

But he needed an edge. A few seconds was all he could ask for. Any more and the police would come looking. He took the key out of the ignition and tossed it into the back of the van. She was scrabbling after it even as he went out the door. He tried to run, but he didn’t get far. He was woozy and wobbly from the drugs the doctor must have given him and the stitches in his stomach felt like he was being beaten with a whip. Every step another lash.

The heat of the blast slammed into him before the sound of the explosion that blew up the van woke up the night. He threw his arms out to break his fall, but landed on his stomach anyway. Fighting for air, he rolled across the cool grass till his body thudded into the doctor’s front porch. He kept low and crawled around to the side of the house.

In seconds the neighborhood was up and the street was crawling with police cars, their blue lights flashing.

“
You okay, Mister?” It was Wendy, tugging on his sleeve.

“
I think so”

“
Come back inside,” she said, and he followed her up onto the porch and back into the house.

Chapter Eight

Julie slid into the water and ripples of chilling current ran from her skin to her core. This was the deep, home of the great white, the hammerhead and who knew what other species of shark. She was in their territory now. She spent a few seconds floating on the surface, relaxing her nerves and gathering her courage. It was dark down there, and cold.

She took a deep breath from the regulator and exhaled, the sound of her own breathing offered small reassurance. She was not an experienced diver, but she wasn’t a novice either. She’d been diving for the last few years, but never at night and never alone and always in calm conditions.

She yanked on the tether and was rewarded by Meiko’s answering tug. At least if she got in trouble, three rapid jerks and they’d pull her out. She took another breath and held it this time, listening to the silence and seeing the dark. She was stalling and she couldn’t do it forever, she was going to have to go down there.

They could lose the boat if she didn’t. Worse, they could lose their lives. It was up to her, all up to her. There was nobody to take care of her now. Nobody to tell her it was going to be all right. Nobody to lean on. She exhaled and bit into the regulator, took another breath, held it and dropped a few feet under the surface, into the black water.

She was alone with only the sound of her breath and her beating heart for company. She held her hand up in front of her face. She couldn’t see it. She brought it closer, till she was touching the face mask and still she couldn’t see it. She looked toward the surface, but it was gone. There was no up, no down. She was trapped in the vertigo.

She chewed into the regulator with clenched teeth, tasting salt water on her gums. Mucus dribbled from her nose over her lip. She wanted to blow it out, but not in the dark. She didn’t want the snot inside the face mask for even a second, but moving the mask away from her face to clear her nose was out of the question.

She felt the pressure building in her ears and she reached up and pinched her nostrils closed through the mask, forcing the air out through her blocked nasal passages, clearing herself. And then it hit her, something was wrong. Why should she have to clear herself? And then she understood. She was going down. She had too much weight on and she was going down.

She cleared herself again and fought the impulse to lash out toward the surface. If she was down far enough a rapid assent would be dangerous. Then she thought she felt something move by her in the dark and all she wanted was out of the water. She sucked on the regulator, filling her lungs, straightened her arms above her head, and brought them back to her sides. She moved through the water, but was she going north, south, up or down? She couldn’t tell.

All she saw was more dark and she was hyperventilating, using up the air. She wanted out. Now. She was getting too much oxygen and she wasn’t thinking. Then she remembered the weight belt and with trembling hands she managed to get it off. She let it fall toward the ocean below, feeling less confined without it and a whole lot safer as she started to float upward. But she couldn’t wait. She lashed out with a great kick toward the surface, pulling the regulator from her mouth and gasping for air as she broke through.

And then she was back under and gagging on sea water. A rolling wave pushed her against the boat and she pushed off, feeling the ablating bottom paint, slimy and slippery, as she shoved against it. A second wave rode under her and this time there was a loud thunk when the scuba tank banged into the fiberglass hull and she swallowed more water.

She was right under the boat. Safety so close and she was going to drown. She tried to call out, but only gagged on more water. She had to do something. What? The flapping regulator banged into her head. In her panic she thought it was something from the deep. She tried to push it away, but it wouldn’t go, and she finally figured out what it was. She stuffed it back into her mouth, and took a long pull on the sweet air.

She heard someone shouting, but she didn’t know from where. She tried to swim away from the boat, but she was no match for the current and the rolling waves. It was like trying to walk up a steep hill with roller skates on, no matter how fast she ran, she just slid back on the rolling wheels.

A second breath and she started to calm down. She allowed herself to float just below the surface. She was there now. No more vertigo. Her head was clearing and she was starting to think straight. She was never in danger, she had the safety line. She was never going to the bottom. She grabbed the line and jerked on it, three times.

She grabbed another breath and tried to swim alongside the boat, toward the swim ladder, but another wave sent her crashing into the hull and knocked her breath out. She swallowed water, gagged again, and felt even more air pulled out of her, as the rope around her waist tightened, and Meiko and Victor struggled to pull her from the sea.

“
The swim ladder, the swim ladder!” Meiko screamed. It finally got through to her, and she let them pull her toward it. She held on to the ladder for a few seconds, then with shaking arms, tired legs and their help, she climbed up and stepped over the lifelines.

“
Couldn’t do it. Sorry,” she said. “So dark.” She arched her back and Meiko helped her slip the buoyancy control vest and the tank off. Once the weight was off her back she started to breathe easier.

“
You couldn’t see anything?” Victor asked. He was standing with his hands in his pockets. Julie thought he looked at home on the deck of a sailing vessel. She wondered why he never learned to dive. Then she thought of Tammy. She didn’t swim, maybe her brother didn’t either. It would be just the thing a macho Trini wouldn’t want anyone to know.

“
Not a thing,” Julie said. “Too dark.” She bent low and grabbed onto the lifelines and worked her way back to the safety of the cockpit. Meiko followed with the scuba gear, setting it in on the port cockpit seat. Victor walked across the rocking, rolling, slippery deck like he was walking in the park.

“
Not even with the torch?” he said.

“
Shit.” Julie coughed. “Got scared, didn’t think.” She had the flashlight clipped on to the weight belt. It was on the bottom now, along with the Vaseline soaked rags. She felt like kicking herself for panicking.

“
You didn’t use the torch?” Victor said. He was scowling. She didn’t like the look. It was like she was a little girl and she’d done something wrong.

“
No, sorry.” And she was apologizing. She didn’t like that either.

“
What are we going to do now?” Meiko asked.

“
The leak has to be stopped,” Victor said. “It’s the only way.” He was still looking at her with that dark scowl, forehead knitted, eyes squinting.

“
I can’t go back down there,” Julie said. “I just can’t.”

“
I understand,” Victor said, “but someone has to.”

“
I can do it,” Meiko said, “I’m an excellent swimmer and I’m in great shape.”

“
No,” Julie said. “I’ll do it.” The thought of going back down there sent shivers slicing through her, but she wouldn’t let Meiko do it. No mother would. “Just give me a few minutes to catch my courage.” And gather a little common sense. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t used the flashlight, how stupid.

“
I can do it,” Meiko said. “I know I can.”

“
Your mother should be the one,” Victor said. “She’s the only one of us that’s qualified.” In her mind, Julie knew that he was right, but in her heart she hated him for saying it. He was able to fly jets during the Gulf War, but he couldn’t dive under a boat and stuff a few rags up a rudder post. It didn’t seem right.

“
Just let me have a cup of courage and I’ll go back down,” she said.

“
How? The weight belt and torch are gone,” Victor said.

“
You make the rags,” she told him. “Meiko, you get the coffee, black. And I’ll get the other weight belt and flashlight.”

“
You have another underwater torch on board?” he asked, almost like he didn’t believe it.

“
Yes, Hideo’s. And I think that this time, Victor, why don’t you stay in the generator room and keep a light shining down those holes.”

“
Good idea,” he said. She was surprised at how she was taking charge of the situation. She was beginning to feel like she really was the captain.

She drank the coffee quickly. Caffeine probably wasn’t the best thing to use to calm shaky nerves, but Julie wanted something hot in her before she went back down. Besides, she told herself, this time she wasn’t going to panic.

“
Arms back,” Meiko said. Julie obeyed and her daughter helped her back on with the BC and scuba tank. Then she slapped the back of the tank and Julie zipped up.

“
This time I stay down till the job’s done,” she said. Brave words, she thought, as she stepped over the lifelines and onto the swim ladder. Then she was in the water.

She floated, face down, staring into the dark, breathing through the regulator again, getting used to the feeling. She didn’t want to be in the water any longer than she had to be, but she didn’t want to panic again, either. She closed her eyes, then opened them, it made no difference. She reached for the flashlight, turned it on and watched the dark eat up the light. She turned it toward the boat and smiled when she saw the red bottom paint.

Then she swam under the boat, guiding her way with the torchlight shining on the keel. The boat seemed huge, larger than it did when they were on the hard. It was like swimming under a great whale.

She made her way to the stern with short strokes and rapid breaths. She shifted the light to the rudder. She knew Victor was in the generator room above with another flashlight, waiting to see if she was able to stop the leak.

The black water seemed to swallow up the small amount of light coming from her flashlight. She had to keep it pointed at the underbelly of the boat or she couldn’t see anything at all. She studied the rudder. It was swaying back and forth as the boat rocked with the waves. She grabbed onto it and looked up. She saw light shining down from above, from the holes around the rudder post. So round, so perfect, so sinister. She stared at the light for a few seconds, but the dark and the cold clouded her ability to think clearly. She wanted out of the water.

She fished in the bag tied to the weight belt, pulled out a fistful of rags and jammed them up toward the light above. After she stuffed all the rags up the tube and around the post, she let go of the rudder and kicked toward the surface, pulling on the line to let Meiko know that she was ready to come up.

She broke through and floundered against the waves with Meiko hauling her toward the swim ladder. The scuba tank pulled against her, but she didn’t want to take it off in the water, so she fought its weight and struggled up the ladder, reaching the top without any breath to spare.

“
Did you do it?” Meiko asked.

“
Yeah,” Julie answered, smiling. “I did.”

“
Atta girl, Mom,” Meiko said. Then she helped her out of the BC for the second time that night, but this time Julie felt like she was walking on top of the world. Let’s see if he’s wearing that scowl now, she thought.

Victor came up from below. “You did it,” he said. And his grin was about eight miles wide. Julie felt a glow of excitement and satisfaction sparked through her. She couldn’t imagine any better praise out of him than that smile.

“
That was the second most physically demanding thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said.

“
What was the first?” Meiko asked.

“
Having you,” she said. Meiko laughed, and so did Victor, his smile getting even wider, showing off his gleaming teeth.

“
You really did it,” he said. “I’m proud of you.” God, she was being killed with his praise.