Blue Gold

"Kicking it up to one-thirty," Austin said.

The hard shocks coming through the steering wheel indicated that the wave height was growing. Zavala had observed white flecks in the water and a distinct marbling to the seas that told him the wind was up.

"Don't know if we should," Zavala yelled over the shriek of the engines. "Picking up a slight chop. Where's Ali Baba?"

"Practically in our back pocket!"

"He's crazy if he makes his play now. He should just lie back and let us take the lumps like he's been doing, then go for the home stretch. Sea and wind are too unpredictable."

"Ali doesn't like to lose." Zavala grunted. "Okay. Take it to one twenty-five. Maybe he'll back off."

Austin pushed down with his fingertips on the throttles and felt a surge of speed and power.

A moment later Zavala reported: "Doing one twenty-seven. Seems okay."

The gold boat fell back, then speeded up to keep pace. Austin could read the black lettering on the side: Flying Carpet. The boat's driver was hidden behind the tinted glass, but Austin knew the bearded young Omar Sharif look-alike would be gri

Ali came within a whisker of beating Austin at the Dubai Duty Free Grand Prix the year before. The loss in his own back yard before his home audience was particularly galling. Ali had beefed up the power in the Carpet's twin Lamborghini engines. With improvements in its power plant the Red Ink squeezed out a few extra miles per hour, but Austin estimated Ali's boat was a match for his.

At the prerace briefing Ali had jokingly accused Austin of calling in the National Underwater amp; Marine Agency to quell the seas in his boat's path. As leader of the Special Assignments Team for NUMA, Austin had the resources of the huge agency at his command. But he knew better than to play King Canute. Ali had been beaten not by engine power but by the way Austin and his NUMA partner clicked together as a team.

Zavala, with his dark complexion and thick, straight black hair always combed straight back, could have passed for the maitre d' in a posh Acapulco resort hotel. The slight smile al ways on his lips masked a steely resolve forged in his college days as a middleweight boxer and honed by the frequent challenges of his NUMA assignments. The gregarious and soft spoken marine engineer had thousands of hours piloting helicopters, small jets, and turbo-prop aircraft and easily switched to the cockpit of a race boat. Working with Austin as if they were parts in a precision machine, he took command of the race from the second the referee raised the green starting flag.

They were up on plane at a near-ideal angle and blasted across the start line at one hundred and thirty miles per hour. Every boat had hit the finish line with throttle straight out. Two hard-driven competitors blew out their engines on the first lap, one flipped on the first turn, probably the most dangerous part of any race, and the rest were simply outclassed by the two leaders. The Red Ink rocketed by the others as if they were stuck on fly paper. Only the Flying Carpet kept pace. During the first Catalina Island turn, Zavala had maneuvered the Red Ink around the buoy so that Ali went wide. The F7~ing Carpet had been playing catch-up ever since.

Now the Carpet had taken wing and was coming abreast of the Red Ink. Austin knew of Ali's last-minute switch to a smaller propeller that would be better in rough seas. Austin wished he could trade in his large calm-water propeller. Ali had been smart to listen to his weather sense rather than the forecast.

"I'm cranking her up another notch!" Austin shouted.

"She's at one-forty now," Zavala yelled back. "Wind's up. She'll kite if we don't slow down."

Austin knew a high-speed turn was risky. The twin catamaran sponsons skated across the surface with practically no water resistance. The same design that allowed for high speed over the wave tops also meant wind could get under the hull, lift it in a kiting motion, or, even worse, flip it back onto its deck.

The Flying Carpet continued to gain. Austin's fingertips played over the tops of the throttle levers. He hated to lose. His combativeness was a trait he'd inherited from his father along with the football player physique and eyes the color of coral underwater. One day it would get him killed. But not today. He eased back on the throttles. The maneuver may have saved their lives.

A white-crested four-foot rogue sea was racing in off the port bow, practically snarling as it bore down on them. Zavala saw it angling in, prayed they'd clear it, knew instantly that the timing was all wrong. The wave hooked one of the sponsons like a cat's claw. The Red Ink was launched spi

Ali slowed down, but once he saw they were all right, he gu

"Sorry about that," Zavala called out. "Caught a wave."

"Great save. Let's go for second place."

Austin pushed the throttles forward, and with a scream of the engines they were off in hot pursuit.

High above the race course the Italian TV cameraman had spotted the dramatic reversal of the lead boats. The chopper swooped out in a wide circle and came back over the flotilla to hover at midcha

to get his bearings and saw wavelets outlining a large, shiny, grayish object mounding at the surface. A trick of the light. No, there was definitely something there. He caught the attention of the pilot and pointed straight down. "What the hell is that?" the pilot said.

Pozzi aimed the camera at the object and zoomed in with the touch of a button.

"It's a balena," he said as the object came into focus.

"For God's sake, speak English."

"How you say? A whale. "

"Oh, yeah," the pilot replied. "You see them migrating. Don't worry, he'll dive when he hears the boats."

"No," Carlo said with a shake of his head. "I think he's dead. He's not moving."

The pilot put the chopper at a slight angle for a better view. "Hell, you're right. There's another one. I'm counting three-no, four. Damn! They're popping up all over the place."

He switched to the hailing cha

A voice crackled over the radio. "Coast Guard station at Cabrillo Point. Go ahead."

"I'm seeing whales in the race course."

"Whales?"

"Yeah, maybe a dozen. I think they're dead."

"Roger," the radio man said. "We'll alert the cutter on scene to check them out."

"Too late," the pilot said. "You've got to stop the race."

A tense silence followed. Then: "Roger. We'll try."

A moment later in response to a call from the station, the Coast Guard cutter moved from its post at the turn buoy. Orange signal flares blossomed against the blue sky.