Pitt had read Kung Chong's mind correctly. The Chinaman ordered his pilots to attack from a higher altitude. "I have lost one aircraft and two good men," he dutifully reported to LoHan.

"How?" asked Lo Han simply.

"By gunfire from the boat."

"Not inconceivable that professionals would carry automatic weapons."

"I am ashamed to say, Lo Han, the defensive fire comes from a woman with one automatic pistol."

"A woman!" Lo Han's voice came through Kung Chong's earpiece as angry as he ever heard it. "We have lost face, you and I. Conclude this unfortunate occasion and do it now."

"Yes, Lo Han. I will faithfully carry out your orders."

"I anxiously await your announcement of victory."

"Soon, very soon," Kung Chong said confidently. "Success or death. I promise you one or the other."

During the next three miles, the tactics worked. The two remaining ultralights pressed home their attack, weaving violently from side to side to escape the few pathetic shells sent in their direction, but making it next to impossible for the gunners to train their machine pistols. Two hundred yards away from the Chris-Craft they split apart and closed in on the runabout from two sides. It was a shrewd maneuver that enabled them to converge their fire.

Julia took her time and fired a round whenever she saw an opportunity for a remote hit while Pitt madly twisted the wheel and sent the speeding runabout zigzagging from one bank to the other in an effort to escape the sporadic spray of bullets that splattered the water around them. He stiffened when he heard the thud of strikes behind him as one burst of gunfire cut across the mahogany hatch over the engine compartment between the dual cockpits. But the big Chrysler marine engine's throaty roar never slackened. On instinct his eyes swept the instrument panel, and he noted ominously that the needle on the oil-pressure gauge was suddenly falling into the red zone.

Sam Foley will be madder than hell when he gets his boat back, Pitt thought.

Two miles to go. The stench of scorched oil began to waft from the engine compartment. The engine revolutions were slowly dropping off, and Pitt mentally pictured metal grinding against metal from lack of oil. It was only a matter of minutes before the bearings burned out and the engine froze. All the ultralight pilots have to do now, Pitt savvied, is circle over the boat and blast everyone to bloody bits. He pounded the steering wheel in maddened frustration as they came at him together, wingtip to wingtip.

They came head-on with no deviation, and much lower this time, knowing time was running out, keenly aware that once the boat and its occupants broke into the open bay, there would be spectators to report the murders.