Plain Bad was showing us he wasn’t Plain Bad at all. He stood right in front of the windshield with a gun trained on us. He flicked his gun from me to Mackenzie as if he was deciding who to kill first. Mackenzie yanked me to the floor as bullets peppered the glass.

Oh, how I wished I hadn’t underestimated Plain Bad.

Tiny shards rained down. I checked the windshield. The glass must be bullet- and shatterproof because it didn’t break. It cracked from edge to edge, but it provided a barrier between us and Plain Bad.

Mackenzie jumped up and slammed the accelerator on the control panel forward. The jolt sent me and Plain Bad flying. She grabbed the wheel and jammed it to the right. Then she cranked it as far as it would go to the left. Plain Bad was shrieking and thudding against the bridge and deck. She zigzagged through the sea at top speed.

“Where did you learn how to drive a ship?” I asked Mackenzie as I was bashed around the bridge like a human bumper car.

“I had a lot of time to study the nav equipment,” Mackenzie said, twisting the wheel again. “I’m good with computers.”

“Oh,” was all I could manage, because my stomach was turning inside out.

“Hold on!” Mackenzie shouted at me. I pounced on the captain’s chair and hugged it.

Smack! Plain Bad connected with the windshield and then bounced backwards.

“Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh!” he cried as he flew off the deck and plopped on to the slick nose of the ship. He juddered off and splashed into the water. We raced away full speed ahead.

I staggered over to Mackenzie, steadying myself on the control panel. The thrill of surviving was clouded with my overwhelming need to vomit. “Could we slow down?” I asked.

“Oh, um, yeah,” she said, seeming to come back to her senses. She slowed the ship to a stop. She hugged me. “Thank you. You didn’t have to come back for me. You’d saved my life twice.”

When she said it like that, it sounded crazy. I blushed. “We did it.” Looking at Super Bad passed out on the floor. I couldn’t believe we’d actually defeated the bad guys. Maybe I was part criminal and part hero after all.

“Remind me never to make you angry,” Mackenzie said.

“Remind me never to let you drive,” I replied, and we burst out laughing. We clutched each other and convulsed with laughter. It felt amazing.

Our laughter fizzled into sighs. “I will never be able to thank you for saving my life,” she whispered and absent-mindedly touched the scar on her neck. “I thought you were some goofy American. Was I ever wrong about that! You were bloody brilliant.”

“I thought you were some geeky, snobby Brit who’d never eaten a cookie and was preoccupied with manicures and make-up. You need more cookies, but otherwise you’re OK.” I held her at arm’s length. “Are you really a princess?”

Mackenzie shook her head. “My dad is Prince Arthur.”

“Are you heir to the throne?” I asked with a curtsey fit for a queen.

She laughed. “No, I’m illegitimate, which means I’ve got no claim to the throne.” She suddenly became serious. “I’ve never even met my dad. I wouldn’t be a welcome surprise to the future king.”

And I thought I had parent problems.

We were startled by the ringing of a phone. My brain couldn’t process this normal, everyday sound at this anything-but-ordinary moment.

A phone?

“Hello?” Mackenzie answered the phone that was embedded in the control panel. She held the phone between us so I could hear. It was probably the coastguard or the…

“C-C-Charlotte?” a voice stuttered on the other end of the line.

“Ariadne?” How could she know where I was and how to call me unless…

“Are you girls OK?” Ariadne asked.

“Yes, you should have seen us – bad guys nil, Chase and Mackenzie four!” Mackenzie recounted how we outsmarted and overpowered the bad guys, but my mind was busy putting the puzzle pieces together, and I didn’t like the picture it was forming one bit. If Ariadne called the yacht, she had to be mixed up in the heist and kidnapping. Is that why she didn’t want me here? Is that why she was so cold to me?

“I knew you girls could take care of yourselves…” Ariadne’s voice trailed off.

“Ariadne, are you all right?” Mackenzie asked.

It was too crazy to think that my grandma was one of the bad guys. But what other explanation could there possibly be?

“Yes and no,” Ariadne replied after a long pause.

I wanted to say something, but how do you ask your grandma if she is a criminal like her daughter? How do you ask if she tried to kidnap Mackenzie and kill me? I staggered away from the phone.

Mackenzie glared at me in confusion. She hadn’t put it together. She was glad to hear Ariadne’s voice, the voice of someone she thought was a friend. “Have you called the police?” Mackenzie asked.

Ariadne’s reply was simple and told me everything I needed to know. “No, I haven’t contacted the police. No one is coming to help you.”

Her words hit harder than any blow I’d received today. My own gran threw the knockout punch.