Tyler checked the boat’s radio while Anya drove them toward Florida and safety. “Good news,” he said. “It works.”
“Good. Call the Wall and tell him we’re on our way. Tell him our assignment was successful.”
"Really? I thought I'd tell him we had failed and these were our angels telling him that we hope he enjoys being microwaved by a half-dozen nuclear missiles."
Anya giggled. Tyler’s joke wasn’t really funny, but she was so excited that they had succeeded that she laughed anyway. Life was good right now. Perhaps not for long. Good news never seemed to last. But for right now, things were good, and she intended to enjoy that.
Tyler called the Wall and said, “Hey, boss, you’ll never guess what just happened.”
“Wolf, I’m in the middle of a major shitshow right now. The next words out of your mouth better be, we were able to stop the missile launch, and you don’t need to worry about nuclear war anymore.”
Tyler grinned. “We were able to stop the missile launch, and you don’t need to worry about nuclear war anymore.”
“Wait, seriously? Really?”
“Seriously. Really.”
The Wall was silent for a moment. “Anya, are you there? Is this true?”
Tyler frowned. “Hey, what the hell?”
“It’s true, sir,” Anya said. “We destroyed the launch panel. He has a bunch of… what is the phrase? Really expensive paperweights.”
For the first, and probably only, time, Anya heard the Wall cheer. “Hell yeah! Yes! God damn! Outstanding job, you two! Woohoo!”
"So glad Anya could confirm that for you, sir," Tyler said irritably. "That way, you don't need to rely on my lying ass."
“Oh, get over yourself, Wolf. You get an attaboy too.”
"An attaboy? We singlehandedly stop the greatest threat to the United States—no, the world—in history, and all I get is an attack?"
“I’ll buy you a steak dinner.”
“Lobster dinner.”
“Don’t push it. Where are you now?”
“We’re in a boat. We’re on our way home.”
“A boat? How did you get to the ocean so fast?”
“The launch site was located next to an estuary that reached twelve miles inland. There was a boat there, and we took it.”
Anya noticed that Tyler didn’t mention that the boat had been provided to them by her father. She decided that was for the best. They would have to address his involvement, but right now, all that mattered was that millions of people wouldn’t die in a nuclear war.
“We’re going to have a long talk about this later,” the Wall echoed, “but let’s get you home, first. Do you have fuel?”
“There’s fuel for there and back and there again,” Tyler confirmed.
“Good. Where exactly are you heading?”
“Um, north by northeast. I guess we’ll just keep going until we hit land.”
“That’ll probably be Key West. I’ll meet you there.”
“Sounds good. We’ll see you soon.”
“Damned good job you two. Damned good job.”
He switched off, and Tyler grinned at Anya. “On a side note, your dad picked a damned good boat.”
“Oh yeah? Why is that?”
“The bullet holes in the back.”
She’d noticed them. At least, she’d noticed holes. “Why do they matter?”
“Because they mean this boat was a rum runner fifteen or twenty years ago.”
“Still, why does that matter?”
“A rum runner when rum was illegal,” he said. “it’s designed to elude law enforcement.”
“Law enforcement fifty or twenty years ago? Law enforcement is faster now.”
As though to emphasize her point, a bullet slammed into the radio. Tyler fell backwards with a curse. Anya turned around and saw a speedboat approaching rapidly. She didn’t need to look closely to know that Ivan had followed them.
"Let's see if Ivan is faster," Tyler said. She intended to tell him this wasn't a game but she couldn't before he said loudly, "Hold on!" and then pulled a lever. The boat lurched forward, and the engine roared. She darted both hands out and managed to capture a rail with one.
“I guess you’re driving now,” she said drily.
“See if you can get the handheld radio to work!” he said.
“We don’t have your extra wire to boost the signal, though.”
“There’s a lot of things we don’t have, but we make it work anyway. Just try—”
His words were cut off when a wave of bullets spiked the water in front of them. A machine gun. Tyler hooked the wheel to the left, and the boat lurched out of the way. “Just call him!” he called.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll do my best.”
“That’s been good enough so far!”
She grabbed the radio and pressed the talk button. “Robert? Are you there?”
The tone of the radio was scratchy and barely understandable, but the signal went through. “I’m here. What’s up?”
“We need assistance. Ivan is on our tail.”
“Sore loser, huh? Can you outrun him?”
She looked behind. His boat had gained, slightly, but noticeably. Evidently, the old rum runner was no longer the fastest little boat in the sea. "No, sir. He's gaining on us."
“Shit. Okay, well, do your best to evade him. I’ll send help as fast as I can.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Thank me by living long enough to join Tyler and I on our romantic lobster dinner.”
More machine gun fire cut off Tyler’s celebration. He veered to the right, narrowly avoiding the stream of fire a second time. “Can you track our location, sir?”
“Keep the radio on. I’ll have backup hone in on your signal.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
“Again, thank me by surviving.”
Tyler veered away from another burst of gunfire. It occurred to Anya that their boat wasn’t actually slower. They just lost ground because they had to evade, which required far more erratic movements than Ivan’s pursuit. “We’ll do our best, sir.”
She held the radio and braced herself in a corner of the bulkhead. “Are you sure you can do this, Tyler?”
“I can do this, but it would help if you returned fire. It might slow them down and give us more time.”
She looked behind them at the pursuing boat. It was still far, well over a hundred fifty yards. Too far for her pistol to reach.
“You don’t have to hit them,” Tyler said, as though reading her mind. “You just have to make them think.”
“Perhaps they’ll think of turning around,” she said drily.
Still, she turned so that she faced the pursuing vehicle and aimed as carefully as she could. She fired once, and the boat did, in fact, veer sharply to the right. For a moment, she thought she might actually have hit Ivan or the driver, but the boat corrected a moment later and a burst of machine gun fire forced their own boat to swerve.
Still, Tyler’s point had been proven. She aimed and fired again, and once more, Ivan’s boat swerved out of the way.
Another problem presented itself, though. “I have only six more rounds in this gun.”
“Take mine too,” Tyler replied. “That’s eight more rounds.”
“That is lovely,” Anya agreed, “but still not many.”
“Everything we have right now, Anya,” Tyler replied. “We’re still eighty miles from the keys.”
“That far?”
“Well… give or take. But Nikolai said four hours to get to the Keys, and we’ve been on the water for just over one, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say we need every extra second we can get.”
“Fair enough.”
She aimed more carefully this time. Knowing that they would run out of ammo long before they would reach help, she wanted to conserve her shots for maximum effect. If only Ivan were a little closer…
Water sprayed inches to the left of their boat, and Anya decided she didn’t want Ivan closer after all. She fired and saw a spark off of Ivan’s boat.
“I hit them!” she called out, excited. “I actually hit them!”
“Great!” Tyler called back. “Hit them again.”
She grinned and fired again. No spark this time, but the boat’s evasion was far more exaggerated this time. Her near hit had gotten into their pursuers’ heads.
Unfortunately, it was the terrorists’ turn to hit them. The next spray of machine gun fire opened more holes in the boat’s hull. These holes were above the waterline, but if they adjusted their aim slightly, then they could cause serious damage to Anya and Tyler’s escape vehicle.
"Crap," Tyler said. "It would be really nice if they didn't do that again."
“Let me mention that,” Anya said drily. “I’m sure it was only an accident.”
She fired again, and the boat veered out of the way just as the gunner fired. The bullets hit the water in a semicircle behind their boat. Anya fired again, timing it so that the boat crossed her bullet’s path.
She hoped so, at least. She didn’t manage to strike the boat the way she thought she would. She frowned and fired again, and this time, she hit the boat. It veered crazily from side to side, and the distance between them increased.
It was several seconds before Ivan’s boat regained control. She was pretty sure she had killed the pilot this time.
The chase continued that way for several more minutes. Anya fired her last shot, then took Tyler's pistol. She managed to strike the boat twice more, but if she hit anyone else, she couldn't tell. There was no more loss of control, but the boat maintained a greater distance, and thanks to Tyler's expert maneuvering, they weren't hit with the machine gun again.
But eventually, she ran out of ammo. “No more ammo,” she called out.”
Tyler sighed. “Well, here’s hoping it takes them a while to realize that.”
It did take them a while, but eventually Ivan’s boat figured out that there would be no more shots coming from the fleeing CIA agents. The boat resumed its pursuit, and evidently the terrorists didn’t need to conserve ammo because the machine gun fire increased in frequency, forcing Tyler to evade repeatedly.
The terrorists closed slowly but inevitably. Soon, they would be close enough that all of Tyler’s efforts to evade wouldn’t save them for much longer.
“How are we looking?” Tyler asked.
“Not good,” Anya replied. “They will reach us soon.”
Tyler sighed. “Shit. Okay, here’s the crazy plan. If they get too close, we’ll take the radio and dive into the water. Hopefully, they’ll chase the boat and not us. Wrap it in… hell, I don’t know. Wrap it in my coat. Maybe that’ll keep the water out if we hold it above our heads or something.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“It might be better to not think about that,” Tyler replied. He took off his coat and tossed it to her. “Here. Do your best to cover it completely.”
Anya looked at Tyler. In the soft light of the moon, he looked strong and brave and beautiful. “I love you, Tyler.”
“Tell me that when we escape,” he said, just as firmly as he had before.
“I’ll tell you then and now. I love you.”
The boat lurched as Tyler avoided yet another burst of machine gun fire. “I love you too,” he said, “but don’t give up yet. We’re not done until there’s no more breath left in our bodies.”
Anya had a feeling that moment would come sooner rather than later, but if she was to die today, she was proud to die at Tyler's side after saving the world from destruction. She wrapped the radio as carefully as she could and waited for the end.