“Are you sure you want to do this?” Mackenzie asked for the millionth time. I’d told her my idea and she’d come up with this brilliant plan. She’d sketched out a diagram on the wall of the bridge and wrote up a timeline.

“Yes!” I snatched the pen away from her. “Stop talking about it, and start doing it.”

“You know what you need to do?”

“Yes!” I shouted again, and gripped the yacht’s steering wheel until my knuckles bleached white. I had to concentrate on my part of the plan. “You’ve told me what I need to know to operate the yacht.”

“You realize that our plan is risking Ariadne’s life, right?”

“Argh!” I groaned. “Yes, but it could also save both your lives. It’s what Ariadne would want us to do.” I didn’t know Ariadne well, so I wasn’t a hundred per cent sure that was true. Mackenzie knew her better than I did.

The phone rang and we jumped.

“Hello,” Mackenzie answered flatly. She held the phone between us.

“What’s taking so long?” Artie barked.

“You think we know how to drive this thing?” I said. “We’re doing the best we can.”

“Well, speed it up!” he shouted.

“We can see the island,” Mackenzie added.

“Head for the boat dock,” Artie said. “Got it?”

“Got it,” I repeated. The phone went dead.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

“As I will ever be. In case this goes…” She gulped. “You know, I want you to know that you are the maddest, most brilliant person I’ve ever met. I would have never survived or had the courage to go through with this without you.” She dive-bomb hugged me. I didn’t have time to hug her back before she darted away.

“Hey!” I shouted. I wanted to stop her. This plan of ours was mental. Was I really willing to bet their lives on one of my crazy ideas?

“What?” She turned back to me. Tears glistened in her eyes.

“I will see you later,” I told her. I swallowed to shift the egg-size gumball of fear that was lodged in my throat.

“Yeah,” she said as one tear rolled down her cheek. “If not, tell my mum,” she wiped at her eyes, “you know.”

I shook off the sadness. “We’ve got to think positive. We won’t survive if we don’t toughen up.”

She puffed up. “Yes, sir, captain, sir!” She saluted me.

I saluted right back, and Mackenzie raced away.

*

I stood on the back deck of the yacht. The same place where only an hour earlier I’d nearly been a shark snack. Artie had called again when he spotted the yacht and told me to stop right where I was. Waiting and watching was way worse than being attacked. All night I could at least fight to survive. Now there was nothing I could do, and this helplessness was killing me.

I zoomed in with the binoculars that I’d found on the bridge and checked on Mackenzie and Ariadne. They were both in dinghies speeding in opposite directions – Mackenzie to the island and Ariadne to me.

I trained the binoculars on Ariadne. Artie had placed her at the front of the dinghy and then set the boat in motion. The waves were knocking her about, and she was springing up and down as if she was in a bouncy castle.

Ariadne’s and Mackenzie’s boats passed each other. This was the point of no return. Mackenzie kept her focus forward. Ariadne swivelled in her seat to watch Mackenzie. She was screaming something.

“What’s she doing?” I shouted even though no one was around to hear me. Ariadne was trying to stand. I adjusted the binoculars so I could see her more clearly. Her hands were tied. She was reaching for the motor. Was she trying to turn her boat around and go after Mackenzie? She didn’t know we had a plan. She stood up but the wind and the waves sent her crashing into the side of the boat. If she bounced out, she would drown for sure.

I waved my arms over my head trying to get Ariadne’s attention. “Stop it! Stay still!”

Ariadne spotted me right as her dinghy was rocked by the wake from Mackenzie’s boat. She knocked the motor, changing her course. She was slammed to the bottom of the boat, which was now heading out to sea.

I untied the remaining dinghy. I had to go after Ariadne. Mackenzie was still rocketing towards the island and Artie. Mackenzie could take care of herself, I reassured myself as I raced after Ariadne.

Ariadne had hauled herself to a sitting position. Her eyes widened in surprise when she spotted me.

She frantically waved at me. “Go back! Save Mackenzie!” she yelled.

Argh! That woman was stubborn. I drew my boat alongside hers. If she didn’t stop it, she was going to be tossed out of the boat. “Hit the kill switch!” I screamed at her.

“He’s sabotaged it!” she called to me. Artie must have made sure that Ariadne couldn’t do anything but jet helplessly out to sea. “I can’t shut it down. What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to save you,” I shouted back. I reached for her boat, but the moment my hand left the motor, my boat veered away.

I pulled up alongside her again. She’d crawled back to her engine too. “Hold it steady!”

She nodded.

I had to time this right. If I missed, I would end up in the sea, drowned by the waves of the runaway boats – or worse yet, sliced and diced in the blades of the propellers.

Dad always said picture the landing not the fall. I focused on Ariadne and launched myself at her boat. She screamed as my body thumped on to the side of her dinghy. She grabbed for me while my hands scrambled for something to hold. I wrapped my fists around the rope that was strung around the perimeter of the boat. The salty sea was smacking my face while the waves bashed my feet. I skimmed alongside the boat and held on for dear life.

Ariadne grasped one leg. The woman may be old, but she had muscles. She tugged the lower half of my body while I lifted the top half. One final burst from us both and I slipped into the boat.

I tried to catch my breath as my head was repeatedly slammed against the bottom of the boat. It took a second for me to find the rhythm of the waves and steady myself as I crawled to the motor. Something was wedged in the kill switch. I wiggled it free and then flicked the switch. The roar of the engine abruptly stopped, and the boat juddered forward. There was sweet silence, but it only lasted a second.

The air erupted in gunfire. Ariadne and I turned towards the island in time to see Mackenzie’s boat explode.

“Mackenzie!” I lunged in the direction of the blast. An explosion was not part of our plan. Ariadne locked her arms around me and held me back.

The flames shot high into the air. Mackenzie’s boat was engulfed in a black cloud of smoke. I couldn’t see her or the boat or the island.

Ariadne was wailing into my shoulder.

It was as if the smoke and flames gutted me. I stared at the place Mackenzie and her boat should be. I scanned the water for any sign of her. Our plan had gone horribly wrong. I held Ariadne as she sobbed, too stunned to feel anything.