“I cared for you! Do you see what your husband did to me? The two of you have ruined my life!”

“Time.”

“Now I’m going kill you myself and take that boat!”

“Five twenty-nine.”

“He’s moving like a slug. Tell Captain Hanson to lead him by half a boat length. Start pulling that rope.”

“Line, Amy.”

“If you say so.”

“It’s your call.”

“Let ‘er rip, cowboy.” The boat began to turn to starboard. She turned to port. The cutter slowly swung into view aft of the mainsail. Chino turned the sport fisherman, too, tracking them. Its engines were screaming. The deck of the cutter winked brightly for an instant. Waiting for the sound to reach her, Amy gave Chino the finger.

The water shook. The lights on the peninsula went out and a cloud of dust rose up around the buildings. She could see glass sparkling down everywhere. The air was filled with the roar like an express train going through a tunnel. Louder than that, she realized. The loudest thing she had ever heard. Almost as an afterthought to the noise, the flying bridge of the sport fisherman blew straight into the air as the boat beneath it flew apart and disappeared in a yellow flash that seemed silent compared to the noise in the air.

Holding his arm, he struggled to get to her. “Hang on!”

He meant it literally. The boat was swinging around again. Water raced by the boat. Sam grabbed the stay with his good hand and tried to wrap himself around her. She was still holding the hailer and the gun. “Give me the gun and try to hang on to the hailer! We’re going to want somebody to hear us! He switched on the safety and put the gun in his pocket.

The water was rising in front of them, rising to a glassy blue mountain and suddenly eerily silent.

“I think I’m going to pee.”

“Might as well. You’re going to get wet anyway.”

“What is it?”

“The birth of a tsunami. A tidal wave.”

The mountain of blue water kept rising, glassy and sizzling like a million bees. Then suddenly it was flattening out and racing in their direction, forty feet high.

“We’re going to pitchpole.”

“In your dreams.”

“No, the boat is going to tumble end over end. Hold your breath. I love you.”

“I love you ever and ever.”