A Superior Death

Damien, head bent over a compass strung around his neck on a cord, was navigating the little craft through the black and drifting waterscape. A flashlight duct-taped to the bow provided all they had of ru

“Watch it!” A

“Oops!” Damien said cheerfully as the nose of the runabout bumped into the floating obstacle. “A boat,” he a

“Of course a boat,” A

Tinker noted the cranky tone: “You’re feeling better,” she approved.

A

Standing half erect, she could see over the gunwale onto the stern deck. “It’s the Belle Isle. She must have been cut loose. Give me a boost.”

Damien wedged a shoulder awkwardly under her rump and managed to spill her over into the Bertram without overturning his own boat. Tinker and he scrambled aboard with more agility and tied the aluminum runabout to the stern cleat.

On unsteady legs, A

Tinker and Damien settled quietly on the bench across from the pilot’s and, hands intertwined, watched the drama unfold with great interest but no apparent surprise or concern. Soon A

Her mind, usually a fairly tractable organ, was hardly clearer on the surface than it had been under the confusing effects of Martini’s Law at thirty-two fathoms. Waves of dizziness shook her and it seemed as though her eyesight was blurred at the edges, though it was difficult to tell with the sinuous fog moving through her ru

Trusting the radar to keep her from ramming any night-crawling fools, she nudged the throttles further open. Never had time been so much of the essence as it had been this day. Ascent time, bottom time, decompression time, time immersed in frigid water, now-if she’d been down much too long, or come up much too fast-time till she could reach a recompression facility. For deep-water divers, tempus not only fugited but killed.

“I’ll leave you in Rock.” A

“We’ll stay till you’ve got somebody else,” Tinker said.

“You’ll get out at Rock,” A

“No.”

A

“Two-oh-two.” A

“Somebody else, then,” Tinker suggested.

Refocusing on her radar screen, A

Rock Harbor was as quiet as she had seen it since early in the season. Half a dozen boats, as still in the flat water as if they were set in concrete, lined the dock. The only one showing any sign of life was the Spirogyra. Her rear deck was strung with paper lanterns that made diffused spots of pink and yellow and green in the fog. Disembodied laughter floated from her direction.

The low growl of an engine starting up intruded. The sound was clean and high-pitched: a motor that had been souped up. “The Venture,” A

“No,” Tinker said firmly.

“Damn,” A

“Damn,” A

“Go,” Damien urged. “The Windigo has found modern form: greed. It feeds on the human spirit.” His eyes were sparkling, more boy than magician at the thought of this adventure.

“Cut that damn sea anchor loose,” A

Shifting one engine to reverse, the other forward, A

There was just the one moving blip on the radar screen. She followed. Either Patience had holed up in the few seconds it had taken to turn the Belle Isle and been replaced by another vessel, or the lime-green blot moving south down Rock Harbor was the Venture. As A

Catching Patience in the cha

If Patience realized she was being pursued, even in the close quarters of the cha

“There are a few advantages to being dead,” A

“Yes,” Tinker agreed and A

“Tinker, my three fifty-seven is just inside the door to the bow on the bench to the left under my trousers. Get it.”

Without a word, Tinker hopped down from the bench and opened the small door. Seconds later she reappeared holding the revolver on both palms like a sacred offering. “This will be a complication,” she said as A

The green mark on the radar grew larger. Reaching across Damien and his wife, curled together again like sweethearts, A

“Can either of you drive a boat?” A

“Damien can,” Tinker replied. At another time A

“Mmm,” she returned noncommittally, but she had no choices. “When I tell you, take the helm-the wheel,” she told Damien, who had crowded out past Tinker to stand near the pilot’s bench. “Do nothing till I’m clear of the deck. Then pull these back. Both of them. At the same time. All the way.” A