Hour Game

She reached the dock, hit a switch, and the entire area blazed with light. At that instant an enormous streak of horizontal lightning shot across the sky followed by a snap of thunder so loud she put her hands to her ears.

Her gaze immediately caught the empty slip. "Shit, he's in the FasTech."

She got back on the phone. "Todd, he's in a Formula FasTech. A thirty-five-footer, white with a red-"

"I know that make of boat. You got any idea of the engines that thing's got?"

"Yeah, twin Mercs, five hundred horses each with kick-ass Bravo screws. If you're not here in three minutes, I leave without you." She clicked off.

"Okay, what do we got?" she asked herself as she ran from slip to slip. Sea-Doos were nimble and fast but they had no ru

She stopped at the big Sea Ray performance cruiser berthed in one slip. It clearly couldn't match the FasTech in speed, but it was a big boat with big engines-that's all she needed. She shot the lock off the storage shed, went in, found the keys for the Sea Ray and the remote for the lift the Sea Ray was on and got the boat ready.

Todd Williams came flying up in the golf cart minutes later. He grabbed a life jacket and climbed on board.

"I got hold of everybody. The Game folks are putting their boat in at Haley Point Bridge, that's fifteen miles upriver. Both the FBI and the state police are sending choppers and snipers just as fast as they can. I got roadblocks setting up at all lake access roads."

"Good. Now take this and listen carefully. Sean may give us some clues as to where they are." Williams took the phone and held it to his ear.

Michelle hit reverse throttle, and they sped backward out of the slip so fast Williams fell against the gunwale and almost pitched over the side.

Righting himself, he said, "Shit, Michelle, do you know how to drive this thing? It's not a damn rowboat."

"I'm a fast learner. Sylvia's house-tell me approximately how far it is from here and the compass heading."

Todd gave her his best estimate, and she swiftly calculated time, distance and route. Actually, while at the Secret Service she'd become quite an accomplished sailor, piloting everything from cigarette boats while guarding former presidents with a love for bone-jarring speed on the water to docile paddleboats with said former presidents' grandchildren as her very precious passengers.

"Okay, hold on."

She pointed the bow out to the open cha

CHAPTER 96

"COME ON, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING us, Eddie?" King called out over the sounds of the twin Mercs mixed with the thunderstorm.

He was bound hand and foot with fishing line and was lying on his side on the deck next to the captain's chair. Sylvia sat in the stern seat, similarly bound, as Eddie drove standing up, the wind whipping his thick hair around.

"What do you care? It's not like there's a return ticket from this trip."

"So why kill us? You filled out your scorecard. You got everybody you were after."

"Not everybody, old buddy. By the way, I won the bet."

"What bet?"

"When you caught me, you said it was over, I said it wasn't."

"Congratulations."

Eddie changed course to the east, cutting across a big wave that jolted the FasTech hard. King hit his head on the molded fiberglass behind him.

"If you don't slow it down, you'll kill us long before you get to where you're going."

In response Eddie eased the throttle forward even more.

"Eddie, please," wailed Sylvia from the back.

"Shut up!"

"Eddie-," she began again.

Eddie turned and fired a bullet within an inch of Sylvia's left ear. She screamed and threw herself on the deck.

With an enormous crack a thin bolt of lightning hit a tree on a small island as they flashed by. The oak exploded, sending charred wood sailing into the water. The accompanying clap of thunder was far louder even than the Mercs.

King inched himself forward. Tied up like this, he had no chance against someone as physically strong as Battle. Even in a fair fight he probably couldn't hold his own. He glanced back at Sylvia. She still lay on the deck. He could hear her sobs over all the other sounds. He struggled to sit up, finally making it. He slid his back against the side of the boat and managed to finally hoist himself into a seat next to Eddie.

Eddie looked over at him and smiled. "You like the view from there?"

King gazed around. He knew the lake well, although as every experienced sailor knew, things looked very different in the pitch-dark. Yet at that moment they passed a landmark that he recognized, a five-story condo building built on a clay point that jutted out into one of the lake's main cha

"East to the dam?" he said again, even more loudly.

"You know your lake," said Eddie, who took another swig of his warm beer, seeming to savor every drop.

"I know why you killed all those people, Eddie."

"No, you don't."

"I figured it out. Tyler, Ca

"You don't know shit."

"Your father was a horrible man, Eddie. I know he drove you to this. You killed because of him, what he did to your mother, your brother."

Eddie pointed his pistol at King's head. "I said you don't know shit about why I did it."

King bit his lip, trying to keep his nerves in check, not exactly an easy thing to do right now. "Okay, suppose you tell me?"

"What does it matter, Sean? I'm a psycho, okay? If they don't burn me in the chair, they should just lock me up and throw away the key. Let somebody slit my belly while I'm asleep in my cell. Then everybody can just take a nice long breath. No more Eddie. It's cool, no more Eddie, and the world just keeps right on trucking." He eyed King and smiled. "Hey, at least whenyou die, there'll be plenty of people to mourn you. I don't have anybody."

"Dorothea?"

"Yeah, right."

"Remmy will."

"You think so?"

"You don't?"

Eddie shook his head. "Let's just not go there."

"Tell me about Steve Ca

"What's to tell?"

"You're an honorable man, Eddie. You should've lived a hundred and fifty years ago. So grant a condemned man his last request. Talk to me."

Eddie finally smiled. "What the hell? Okay, here it is. I'd just gotten back from college. My parents were on the outs again. Sava

"Was Sava