The brilliant-yellow Hughes 500 chopper circled once, and then stopped to hover over the flattest portion of the deck. The only one to stay standing at his post was Alexi, holding a flashlight and waving it over his deck mounted harpoon cannon. He was determined to keep the chopper as far from his gun as he could.

The chopper came down hard, as if the pilot was in a hurry and cut the power from six feet. It skidded for a moment, bounced towards one of the railings, and then gravity took over, holding it in place as the rotors rapidly slowed. Only one man leapt out.

“Hey, Milo.” Jupiter stood away from the group and waved at him. “I knew it’d be you!”

“Did you see that?” The youth put his hands to his head. “It was a fucking monster, man.”

Olander was first out to him. “Was there anyone else? You had a spare seat on board.”

Milo shrugged. “No one else wanted to come, Captain.” He shook his head. “We all thought it was a whale at first, so…”

“Big mistake, bro. It ate Annabel too,” Jupiter said.

Milo opened his arms. “But I made it.”

“Yeah, you made it, straight from the frying pan into our fire,” Regina growled.

Jupiter hunched. “Yeah man, we kinda fouled the prop, and we’re stuck here. We really fucked everything up this time.”

“Guess you did your job a little too well, huh?” Milo snorted and then turned to give Sonya an apprising once over. “Never thought I’d be saved by a whaler.”

“Saved?” Sonya’s eyes bored into him. “You put us in this mess, and one way or another, you’re going to get us out.”

CHAPTER 40

CHAPTER 40

The next impact made Jack’s teeth clack together. This time, it was followed by a slightly different sound from deep in the bowels of the ship. Somewhere else, an alarm went off.

“Look’s like our friend is back,” Regina said, gripping a railing.

“What’s that alarm?” Cate’s hands tightened into fists.

Vincent spun to race up the stairs to the bridge. “Not sure, but I’d hazard a guess and say we just sprung a leak somewhere.” He called to Drago and together they armed themselves with large flashlights and headed below decks.

Cate looked down at her feet for a moment. She laughed with little humor in it. “We’re not going to make three hours, are we?” She looked up unto Jack’s eyes.

He smiled, trying to radiate calm and confidence. “Of course we will. You just wait and see. This old hulk will stay afloat for many hours yet. And don’t worry, when the Coast Guard chopper gets here, I’ll make sure you’re first out.”

“Not without you.” She hugged him tight.

“I’ll be there.” He lifted her chin.