by Peter Vegas
Then Sam bared his teeth with a huge grin. “Hey, Mary,” he called out. “I think I found us a ride out of here.”
28
SUBDUED
THE UNDERWATER ROLLER-COASTER RIDE lasted less than thirty seconds. Sam kept his eyes open, watching for danger, but he was being pulled through the water so fast he couldn’t see a thing. The fact it was pitch-black didn’t help either.
When the blackness lightened a shade, he knew they had made it out of the tunnel. When the ride came to an end, Sam was relieved to discover the water was only a few feet deep. Standing up, he saw the riverbank in the moonlight and waded toward it.
Mary’s voice greeted him in the darkness. “Were you being chivalrous letting me go first, Force? Or was I the guinea pig?”
“Ladies first,” he answered smugly. “That’s what we’re taught at St. Albans.”
“But you knew it was safe, right?”
“Not really,” Sam confessed. “I don’t think Elio’s ever towed someone through an underwater tunnel in a crocmersible before.”
Sam was rewarded with a playful but painful punch on the arm as the crocodile submarine cruised toward them. It stopped a few feet from the riverbank, then bubbles erupted around it as Elio emerged from the water.
“How did you find us?” Sam asked as the boy stepped onto dry land.
“After I gave the police the slip at Xibalba, I came back for a Jet Ski to come and find you. But I saw that,” he said, pointing to the croc sub. “Azeem must have left it out. I knew it would be faster. When I got in, I found the GPS programmed for the tunnel at Lamanai. I followed the line all the way.”
“So, that trick where you towed us out by the tail. Have you done that before?” Mary asked.
Elio shook his head. “Oh no,” he said earnestly. “I have never been in this machine before. Only Azeem was allowed.” He looked confused as Mary punched Sam again. “But you are glad I came?” he asked.
“Totally,” Mary said. “You saved us, Elio. I’m Mary, by the way. We were in such a hurry to get out, I never introduced myself.”
“You guys can get to know each other on the ride back,” Sam said. “Can you take Mary to the hideout?”
Mary cut in before Elio could answer. “Hang on. What are you going to do?”
“I have to go after Felix. I need that dagger. That’s the clue my parents were following. It’s my best . . . my only chance to find them.”
“I want to help.”
“You can’t. Not with your foot the way it is.” As if to prove Sam’s point, Mary winced in pain as she stood up.
“So I’m supposed to ride on the tail of that thing all the way back to Orange Walk?”
“No,” Sam said as he checked his phone. “Elio will take you on the Jet Ski I rode here.”
“And what are you going do?”
“Go and get your phone,” Sam replied.
He watched her trying to formulate an argument, but then she said, “My iPad is back at the shed. E-mail me and let me know you’re okay. And be careful!”
IT WAS LIKE DRIVING A spaceship. But it felt like he was doing it in a sleeping bag. There was only room for one inside, so Elio had given Sam a brief description of the controls, then helped him put the dive mask on and guided him under the craft.
Sam slid up through a slit in the rubber skin and crawled forward until his head and shoulders were in the cockpit, behind the mouth of the crocodile. Elio had explained that the space filled with water when the crocmersible dived, and to breathe Sam would have to use the mouthpiece attached to the roof.
He hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
In front of him were two joysticks and a series of buttons arranged around a small screen. Sam hit the red one, and his dive mask glowed as the heads-up display filled the glass in front of him with numbers for speed, depth, and fuel levels. Elio had been right: the system was state-of-the-art.
Next, the screen between the joysticks lit up, showing an image from the night-vision camera on top of the machine. In the soft green glow, Sam watched Elio helping Mary along the riverbank toward the spot where he’d hidden his Jet Ski. They would be speeding back to the boat shed in Orange Walk in no time.
Sam was going the other way.
He placed his phone next to the screen and turned the craft away from the jungle. For some reason, Felix had gone up the New River. But not too far. Thanks to Mary’s phone, Sam could see exactly where he was: less than a mile from Lamanai. Felix had stopped in the widest part of the river. Sam had no idea why he was there, but he knew the man wouldn’t hang around. This would be his only chance to get the dagger.
Sam nudged the joysticks forward and, just as Elio had described, he felt the vibrations of the electric turbine motor. Sam couldn’t hear a thing; only the picture on the screen of the craft racing across the water gave away the speed he was doing.
Sam’s biggest worry was that he would find Mary’s phone but not Felix. What if the man had discovered it? The small dot on his phone showed Mary’s device was getting closer. When he was three hundred feet from it, he eased back on the joysticks, slowing the craft to a crawl.
Nothing showed up on the night-vision camera. With less than one hundred feet to Mary’s phone, Sam pulled the joysticks back to a full stop and watched the screen. After a few moments, he saw a flash of light. He pushed the plus button under the screen and was amazed how well the camera zoomed in. The outline of the black speedboat appeared on the screen, and it was as if he was parked right next to it.
On board, he could see Felix moving about with boxes and bottles. From his vantage point, Sam saw the man lifting items, walking to the far side of the boat, and returning empty-handed.
Keeping his eyes on the screen, Sam used the right-hand joystick to move his craft around Felix’s boat in a wide arc. Despite Elio’s assurances that the machine was totally silent, Sam watched for signs Felix had heard him, but the man continued his work.
From his new position, Sam understood what was happening. Felix wasn’t dropping things overboard. He was transferring them to another craft. This one was long and thin and incredibly low in the water. At first Sam thought it was a raft, but as he watched another box disappear, he got it.
Felix had a submarine.
It was small, only twice the length of the speedboat, but it was the perfect getaway vehicle.
There was no sign of anyone else, and Sam watched Felix struggling with something heavy. He zoomed in tighter with the camera and recognized the chest from the chamber. Instead of dropping it inside the sub, Felix lowered it onto the hull, then climbed on beside it and pushed his boat away. Next he took something from his pocket and pointed it at the boat. Another remote. The man loved his gadgets. Sam heard a dull pop and saw a small explosion at the waterline, then the boat began to sink.
Felix climbed inside the sub and Sam watched him pull the chest off the hull and disappear inside. At the same time, the dot on Sam’s phone showing the location of Mary’s device disappeared. He panicked as he saw his chance of retrieving the dagger slipping away. If Felix submerged, he would be gone forever.
Sam leaned on the joysticks and felt the nose of his crocodile craft dig into the water then pop up as it closed the gap to the glowing green outline of Felix’s sub. It wasn’t moving—Felix was getting himself organized before he set off—but Sam knew that it could be any moment. He stopped the crocmersible behind the sub, took off the goggles, then slid back and down through the slit in the rubber.
The freezing water outside the craft cut through Sam’s clothes with a burning sensation. Ignoring the discomfort, he paddled to the sub and slid along the slender hull, feeling for a handhold. Unlike sub 518, this craft didn’t have a tower, just a small dome with a hatch on top and a stumpy periscope.
Sam’s hands found a row of narrow rungs and he eased himself up onto the sub, just behind the hatch. A gentle tug told him the hatch was secured, and then he felt the hull begin to vibrate.
F
elix had started the engine.
From the back came the sound of churning water. Sam crawled along the spine of the sub toward the tail. The craft lurched forward, and Sam slipped, hitting the deck painfully. Ahead he could see a propeller encased in a cage. The unit turned from left to right then stopped. Inside, Sam imagined Felix sitting in the pilot’s seat, testing the steering wheel. In the next few seconds, he would speed up and then take the sub down.
Sam had run out of time.
He pulled off his shirt and began feeding it through the bars of the cage to the propeller. It sucked the fabric in like a hungry animal, but as the last of it was ripped from Sam’s hands the blades locked up. Through the hull, Sam could hear the whine of the engine as it strained against the stoppage, then suddenly there was a dull clunk.
Sam had no time to admire the damage he’d done. Another thump from underneath told him Felix was coming. The water was even worse the second time. Sam bit his lip as he slid off the hull and pulled himself back toward the ladder.
The hatch swung up and fell against the side of the sub, the blow softened by two rubber stoppers. Felix grunted as he heaved himself up the stairs. His head popped out like a mutant meerkat, his bulky body blocking most of the light from inside. With his attention focused toward the rear of the craft, he didn’t see Sam hanging on to the rungs, or the hatch being lifted from its resting spot.
At the last moment, Felix sensed the movement and turned, but it was too late. Sam pushed the hatch down, hitting Felix in the head. Stunned, the man let go of the side of the ladder and fell back inside. The crash of his body hitting the steel floor was followed up by the clang of the hatch slamming shut. Sam leapt up and heaved it open.
Five feet below, Felix was sprawled in a heap, unconscious.
It was like climbing down into a cigar tube. Sam stepped over Felix’s body. The man had fallen off the ladder and hit the back of the pilot’s seat. In front of it was the tiny cockpit, full of monitors and panels of colored buttons.
Felix had crammed the tube-shaped interior of the sub with his most precious possessions. Art, plastic boxes of clothes and jewels, containers of food and water. At the far end, Sam spotted his target, sitting in front of a small door. He ran to the chest and opened it. The dagger was on top. Sam grabbed one of the bags of gold coins and tipped it out. The noise of the gold pieces pouring into the chest sounded like heavy rain in the small space. Sam couldn’t help running his fingers through the coins, admiring they way they glittered like a tiny yellow waterfall.
The bag was thick canvas, and Sam slipped the blade into it and tucked it into the waist of his pants. He ran back up the sub and stepped over the unconscious Felix and onto the ladder.
He knew he’d made a mistake before his foot hit the first rung. The body had moved. Felix’s head had been on the ground, between the seat and the wall of the sub, but on Sam’s return the man’s head was directly behind the seat. He had straightened himself and waited for Sam to return.
These thoughts flashed through Sam’s mind in the fraction of a second before he felt the huge, pudgy hand slap onto his ankle. Sam was straddling Felix’s body, with one foot on the bottom rung, when the man reached up and pulled it off. Sam would have toppled over if he hadn’t had a firm grip on the top of the ladder.
“Why won’t you die?” Felix bellowed. “I should have killed you properly when I had the chance.” He grabbed Sam’s pants with his other hand. Sam knew if the man made it to his feet he was dead. He swung his free foot backward, catching Felix in his stomach, then released one hand from the ladder and swung his elbow back, smashing into Felix’s forehead. The man grunted in pain and fell back over the seat into the cockpit.
Sam began climbing again, but suddenly the whole world twisted around him.
It felt as if the rules of gravity had been changed. One second, Sam was going up the ladder; the next, he was getting heavier and falling onto it. As loose items began sliding down the length of the sub, he realized the tail of the craft was dropping to the bottom of the river. The high-pitched hiss of air tanks emptying filled the cabin, then an alarm went off, adding to the noisy madness.
Felix roared, and Sam twisted to see him frantically pushing buttons. The panel he’d fallen onto had smashed and sparks were spitting out of the cracks. Then the sub’s angle got steeper, and Felix forgot about the buttons as he scrambled for something to hold on to.
The sub was almost vertical, and Sam struggled to pull himself along the ladder. Felix screamed as he lost his grip on the instrument panel. He grabbed wildly for a handhold as he slid past. The floor of the sub had become a steep slide, and the huge man crashed into the pile of loose boxes at the tail end of the craft.
The sub lurched, and Sam almost slipped off the ladder, which had become a narrow bridge. There was a thirty-foot drop below him now. He edged forward inch by inch, but a roaring sound made him raise his head, just in time to see a wall of white foam.
Water was coming in through the hatch.
The blast pushed Sam off the ladder, at the last second he gripped the side of it and found himself hanging in a vertical chamber under a waterfall that was filling the submarine fast. The water hit Felix, and Sam stared as he watched the man come to again. He had a horrible gash on the top of his head, and the water around him turned red. The man got to his feet, dazed and disorientated, then he looked up, and his eyes locked on to Sam hanging in midair.
Felix stared at him like a predator eyeing his prey. “This time you will die!” he raged.
The sub was filling fast. The bloodred water was already up to Felix’s waist, and then the man began to climb, using the compartments that ran the length of the craft.
Spurred on by this new threat, Sam pulled himself up onto the ladder. The water was gushing in at a steady rate now, and Sam struggled to fight against the pressure. Below, he saw Felix, clambering up the flooding space, covered in blood.
The hatch was straight ahead, but the power of the water was growing. Sam tucked his head down and edged along the narrow gangplank. It felt as if he was crawling through river rapids. Water rushed around him, filling his nose, blocking his eyes, he could take only small gulps of air through his mouth. Through the rungs of the ladder, he could see Felix was only a few feet away. Sam forced his body through the wall of water and into the hatch. He grabbed the edge of the opening, then forced his other arm through and heaved his body out of the sub. A watery cloak of chilled water enveloped his body as he slid out into the river.
Emergency lights had lit up all over the sub, casting a yellow glow into the river, so bright Sam felt like he was swimming in a well-lit pool. The sub gurgled and belched as the last of the air was expelled and the river took over. With a final blast of air and bubbles, the sub’s nose sank beneath the surface.
As the glowing tube dropped, Sam saw a red stain leaking from the hatch—the bloody water from inside. Then, from out of the red clouds, a darker shape—a body.
Sam kicked frantically as he saw Felix swim up from out of the bloody haze toward him. The man broke the surface a few feet away, his face red and shiny from the bleeding wound on his head. He roared as he swam toward Sam, his clenched fists beating the water. Sam turned to swim away from the threat, but before he could build up any speed, the man had him.
Felix grabbed Sam’s ankle and hauled him in. Sam wasn’t ready for the sudden change in direction; the force of the pull blasted water up his nose and into his mouth. He coughed as he went under and felt the deadly embrace of Felix’s thick arms. The man thrust him down; Sam felt a boot on his shoulder, and he went deeper. Off to one side, the glowing sub stood on end like a fat underwater Christmas tree lighting up the darkness. Sam could see Felix above him, kicking down with his legs. Sam tried to move, but a boot connected with his head, snapping it back viciously.
Dazed and sore, Sam knew with aching certainty that he had run out of oxygen. The silhouette of the Felix’s kicking legs and swinging arms flickered above him in a
red haze. Then another dark shape came gliding toward him.
The long scaly body twisted and turned in the water as it sped toward Sam. The mouth opened to reveal the pink, fleshy mouth and rows of jagged, uneven teeth. There was nothing at the back of the mouth this time, except death.
The beast came at him, and he did nothing. He had nothing to give, no way to avoid what was about to happen. He had become a spectator in his own death. There was flash of white as the crocodile suddenly veered away. It moved straight up past Sam, the white belly just inches from his face. He saw the beast rise over his head and collide with Felix. Sam saw legs and arms and tail become one dark shape. Through the water, he heard a dull crunching sound, new spurts of deep red stained the water, and then the mass of man and crocodile moved off into the darkness.
Sam reached up with one arm into the red haze above him, willing his legs to kick him to safety, but they wouldn’t move. He felt himself sinking deeper; the sub, sticking vertically from the bottom of the river pointed down, like a signpost to his final resting place.
A new shadow passed over him.
This was it.
The thought dribbled lazily into his mind. He glanced up again as the limbs and body swept toward him.
But it wasn’t teeth that grabbed him. They were hands, in thick rubber gloves that bit into his skin. He felt himself being shoved upward. His head broke the surface, and he opened his mouth, sucking in air and ignoring the tart taste of blood on his tongue.
The strong hands pushed him up and over the edge of an inflatable boat. He collapsed on the wooden floorboards as another figure climbed onboard. In the rising light of dawn, he saw two white eyes set in the blackest face. Words were being spoken, but they were muffled and far off. Sam tried to focus but felt a darkness coming over him that he was powerless to stop.
29
SLEEPOVER
THE MUFFLED WORDS FLOATED AROUND Sam, but the pain in his head made it impossible to focus. He felt the sun’s rays on his skin and slowly opened his eyes.