“We’re fucked now for sure, aren’t we?”

“No, we’re not, if we keep working together. We still have sail. You can maneuver the boat, if you do what I tell you.”

“That’s what you like. I knew there was a catch. Let me look you over first. There’s a little more blood on your knee, but that was to be expected. There were splints and a sling in the first-aid kit, but you’re probably better off waiting until we get to the cutter.”

“I can do that.”

“How do I maneuver the boat?”

“There’s extra line in the cockpit locker, and the spinnaker down here. Roll the spinnaker up in a tube as well as you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Tie two lines to the pointiest end and run them over each side, port and starboard, around the mainsail winches, then pay the spinnaker out aft so you still have the forward end in the boat, lines extending out to the pointiest end.”

“Kind of like the tail of a kite, only backwards.”

“Yes, more or less.”

“Commander Merrill? A man asked. It was the radio.

“The cutter. Better tell them we have problems.”

She picked up the microphone and pressed the Talk button. “This is Mrs. Merrill —”

“Mrs. Merrill, this is Captain Hanson aboard the Cutter Donald Mollicone. The other boat is now on our radar, four miles west southeast of your position and headed in your direction.”

“Tell him to hang on,” Sam said. “I can talk to him. You’ve got to get this boat moving again.”

“Hold on,” Amy said into the microphone.

“Like a kite,” Sam grasped. “Leaving it out straight will let the boat go straight, more or less. When you want to go starboard —”

“To the right.”

“Right.” His broken arm flopped in his lap while he demonstrated with the other. Her mouth was open again. This was a man who sometimes thought he was going to die from an ingrown toenail. “That way. Pull in the sheet around the starboard winch. The spinnaker will curve and the boat will swing around with it.”

“I got it. You know some weird stuff, Merrill. Is this one of those ancient sailing maneuvers I read about?”

“The PR people made that up. Sam gave her a shit-kicker’s grin. She kissed him. Cradling his arm, he moved to get the navigator’s station. Amy wanted to kiss him again. She waited for him to settle in before she dragged the spinnaker up to the cockpit. The sky was brightening and the boat was swinging around to the west. To port. At least the boat was blowing out to sea. They were more than a half-mile out now. Amy could see the high-rises on the peninsula and the wall of the old city to the east. Apartment lights were lit from one end of the peninsula to the other.