‘I’ve felt better.’
‘Spinner need doctor,’ Graham said.
‘No time for that,’ he said. ‘Just get me to the Sunfish and I’ll be fine.’
Annalie and Essie gave each other worried looks, but said nothing.
Pod was looking out the back window. He saw another shape come surging over the dunes. ‘They’re coming!’ he warned.
‘How many?’ asked Will.
Pod waited for a moment, but no other vehicles followed. ‘I think it’s just one.’
‘You think we can outrun them?’ asked Annalie.
‘We can try,’ said Will.
He floored the accelerator, but the vehicle was already going as fast as it could. They roared up dunes, sometimes sailing right off the crests.
‘If we crash, they’ll definitely catch us,’ Annalie warned him.
‘Did we lose them yet?’ Will asked.
‘Nope,’ said Pod.
The desert was very dark. The moon was not yet up and neither of the vehicles had their lights on. Nevertheless, they could see that the other vehicle was beginning to catch up with them.
‘How are they going faster than us?’ Will said in frustration. ‘There’s got to be a way to make this thing go faster. Spinner, how can I make it go faster?’
Spinner peeled an eye open. ‘This is all she’s got,’ he said.
‘Will,’ Annalie said suddenly. ‘Remember the canyon?’
‘How could I forget?’ Will said, but even as he was speaking he realised what she was suggesting. ‘Are we heading in the right direction?’
Annalie checked the compass and made a slight correction to their heading.
‘I hope this works,’ Will said. ‘Tell me when you see it.’
Will kept driving, the other vehicle in hard pursuit, the gap between them gradually closing.
‘There!’ Annalie shouted.
In the darkness the canyon was not easy to see—a patch of deeper black among the shadows. Will drove straight at it, never slackening his pace.
‘Will, slow down,’ Annalie said.
‘You won’t have time to stop,’ Essie said.
‘I know what I’m doing,’ Will said, gripping the steering wheel.
‘They’re still coming,’ Pod said, looking out the back window.
‘Good,’ Will said. ‘You might want to hang on.’
He drove straight at the canyon with heart-stopping speed. At the last possible moment, he spun the wheel and skidded to a halt at the very edge.
The pursuit vehicle had no time to react. Even as it started screaming into the turn, its back wheels slid out and the vehicle skidded over the edge.
Essie turned to look back, fearing for the fate of the marines in the vehicle. Pod guessed what she was thinking. ‘These things are pretty sturdy,’ he said, patting the chassis of the vehicle. ‘And they’re wearing body armour.’
Will was already accelerating away from the scene. ‘More importantly, they’re not chasing us,’ he said.
He followed the canyon until the desert floor closed upon itself once more. Then they resumed their course for the coast. After a while, the moon appeared.
‘Still no sign of them?’ Will asked.
‘No,’ Pod said. ‘But we’re leaving tracks in the sand. If they do come after us, it won’t be hard to find us.’
Will’s mouth set into a hard line. He drove on, never slackening his pace.
At last, they reached the coast. Annalie studied the map and the coastline carefully and then directed them north to Kinle Bay. They drove for a while through sparse coastal scrub; then the trees began to grow more thickly. When they began to see large pieces of stone, they knew they’d reached their destination.
‘I hope the dog catchers have been through already,’ Will said, slowing to a crawl as he tried to drive into the ruined city. It quickly became clear they could not drive any further. He let the vehicle roll to a stop. ‘I think from here we’re walking.’
They stepped warily out of the vehicle. They had driven through the night; there was the very first hint of morning light turning the sky grey. Will and Pod slung Spinner’s arms over their shoulders and then, walking close together in a pack, they picked their way through the trees and ruins to the bay. They were alert for the slightest snap or crackle in the pre-dawn stillness, but the only sound that disturbed them was the stirring of sleepy birds. The wild dogs had vanished.
It was a relief to arrive in the cool open space of the temple, to look out over the calm waters of the bay and see the Sunfish riding tranquilly at anchor, just as they’d left it. Their dinghy, too, was still pulled up safely on the rocks above the high-tide line.
‘Sola said she was sending someone who knew how to deal with the whale,’ Annalie said. ‘But they’re not here.’
‘I wish she’d just told us what to do,’ Will said.
‘Whales don’t like loud noises, right?’ Essie said. ‘Could we make some really loud noise to scare it away?’
‘Seems a bit hostile,’ Annalie said.
‘Not as hostile as that whale,’ Will said.
‘Hello, there!’
They all jumped. A Sundian man, vast and smiling, wearing shorts and a floppy hat, was walking towards them across the colonnade, carrying a bucket.
‘You Sola’s friends?’ he asked.
‘That’s right,’ Annalie said.
‘I’m Arlo. Sola’s cousin.’ Arlo looked at Spinner and frowned. ‘You look a bit crook.’
‘I am a bit crook,’ Spinner said. ‘Be better when I get back to my boat.’
‘You sure about that?’ Arlo asked, his brow creasing.
‘Yes,’ Spinner said.
Arlo turned to the children. ‘I hear you met the temple spirit,’ he said, grinning.
‘A spirit with really big teeth,’ Will said.
‘She doesn’t like people coming to her temple without asking. But she’s really very nice once you get to know her. So, you ready to head off then?’
‘Yep,’ Will said.
Arlo nodded. He walked down the rocks and waded out until he was knee deep. Then he made a whistling, crooning sort of sound and waited. A minute passed. Then a fin broke the surface. The huge black-and-white shadow whale cruised up to Arlo and, to their surprise, put its snout up to be patted. Arlo crooned and clucked and clicked at the whale, and the whale made noises back, then Arlo reached into his bucket and gave the whale some fish. The whale snapped them up happily, then turned and slid below the surface of the water and disappeared.
Arlo splashed back up to where they were waiting. ‘She won’t give you any trouble now,’ he said.
‘Was that a lady whale?’ Will said.
‘Temple spirits always are,’ Arlo said, waving a thumb at the great statue behind him.
‘How do you know she won’t chase us again?’ Annalie asked.
‘I asked her not to,’ Arlo said.
‘Do you speak whale?’ asked Essie.
‘She speak human?’ Graham rasped.
Arlo looked at Graham with surprise, then smiled. ‘We have an understanding,’ he said. ‘Anyway, you’re leaving. She doesn’t mind people leaving. It’s people arriving that get her back up.’
They thanked Arlo for his trouble and began to get ready to go back to the Sunfish.
‘I almost forgot,’ he said. ‘You might need these.’
He handed over a first aid kit, and a piece of folded cloth. Annalie took the kit, and unfolded the cloth. It was the Sundian ensign.
‘Better fly that on your boat until you reach international waters,’ he said. ‘It won’t fool anyone up close, but from a distance, you should get away with it.’
‘Has there been any news from the Ark?’ Spinner asked. ‘Have you spoken to Sola? Is she all right?’
‘She’s fine. They’re all fine,’ Arlo said, ‘although they had to do some hard fighting to take the place back.’
‘So they did get it back?’ Annalie said, re
lieved.
‘Yes,’ Arlo said. ‘Took a few prisoners, too. But most of those Admiralty ratbags got away. So you might want to watch out for them.’
‘Sola said someone was coming to help us avoid the naval patrols,’ Annalie suggested.
‘Yeah, no,’ Arlo said, shaking his head. ‘Don’t think that’s happening. Now the Admiralty have invaded, all bets are off. You’d better just get out of here as quick as you can.’
They thanked Arlo again, and launched the dinghy with a renewed sense of urgency. He stood on the rocks and waved them off; by the time they reached the Sunfish, he’d gone.
They had to almost carry Spinner up the ladder and onto the deck; his strength was almost spent. But he still had the energy to notice the missing chunk of railing and deck that had been ripped away by the Admiralty’s grappling hook. ‘What have you been doing to the old girl?’ he said.
‘Blame Beckett for that,’ Annalie said.
Spinner looked around with obvious pleasure. ‘I thought I’d never see her again,’ he said softly. ‘She’s a good old boat.’ Then his knees buckled and he slumped against Annalie’s shoulder.
‘Let’s get him below,’ Essie said.
Fire!
Essie and Annalie settled Spinner in his old bed in the boys’ cabin. Essie cleaned the wound and dressed it using the first aid supplies Arlo had given them. They included powerful antibiotics, something their own kit still lacked.
Following Arlo’s advice, they set sail due west, the Sundian flag flying from their mast. Once they were in international waters, they would turn south for their final run down the coast, then they’d head east for Dux. What they would do once they got to Dux was another matter, but first, they had to make it out of Sundian waters without being caught by the Admiralty or the Sundian navy.
They were still in Sundian waters when the sleek shape of Beckett’s ship the Raptor appeared on the horizon and swiftly began heading towards them. Essie, Pod, Graham and Blossom joined Will and Annalie on deck.
‘Is there any way we can outrun them?’ Annalie said.
‘We’re already going as fast as we can,’ Will said. ‘And they’re going at top speed.’
‘Perhaps we could try and lose them on shore?’ Pod said.
‘You mean abandon the ship?’ Will said. ‘And then what? Go back to the desert?’
‘We could try and get back to the Ark,’ Essie suggested.
‘The Ark will be swarming with Sundian police soon,’ Annalie said. ‘If we go back, we’ll be arrested.’
‘Maybe we can hurry them up,’ Will said. ‘Graham, fly ahead and look for some of those buoys.’
As Graham took off into the sky, Will said, ‘If we trigger their alarm it might bring the Sundians. Right now, we could do with all the help we can get.’
‘I’ll run up a distress signal,’ Annalie said, and went to fetch the right signal flag.
They kept sailing west and a little south, with the Admiralty ship bearing down from the north. After a minute or two, Graham came back and reported, ‘Lots of floating buoys dead ahead.’
‘Lots?’ Will questioned.
‘Two.’
‘What did they look like? Were they the same as the one you pooed on?’
‘One same. One different.’
‘Spiky?’ asked Will.
Graham cocked his head, thinking, then nodded.
‘They’re getting closer,’ Pod warned.
Suddenly, from across the water came a boom, then a whistling sound, and then a huge detonation blew up the surface of the ocean just ahead of them. The Sunfish rocked wildly as the force of the explosion spread out through the water.
‘Did they just fire at us?’ Essie cried.
‘Yes, they did,’ Will said grimly.
There was a second huge boom. This time they saw the flash as the Raptor fired a missile at them; it screamed across their bows and hit the water even closer. The blast nearly capsized the boat, and they all had to grab onto something to stop themselves being flung into the water. Graham flew up into the air shrieking.
‘They missed!’ Pod shouted.
‘They’re getting closer,’ Will said. ‘Those were warning shots. They’re letting us know they mean business.’
‘Should we stop?’ asked Essie.
‘No,’ Will and Annalie said together.
They kept going, as hard as they could, but the Raptor kept coming, easily catching up to them, until the huge grey ship was cruising alongside, throttling back its engines to match their pace.
They heard a preliminary squawk and then Beckett’s voice came over a loudhailer. ‘This is your last chance,’ he said. ‘Hand Spinner over to me or face the consequences.’
They looked up. Beckett was standing on the deck of his ship looking down at them, flanked by a detachment of armed marines.
‘Never!’ Annalie shouted back.
‘You know what I’m capable of,’ Beckett said. ‘If you don’t obey me, I’ll destroy your boat and everyone on it.’
‘You wouldn’t!’ Essie cried.
‘Where is he?’ Beckett said. ‘I want to see him.’ He raised his voice. ‘Are you there, Spinner? Or are you going to keep hiding behind your children?’
‘Your crew wouldn’t fire on unarmed kids!’ Annalie cried. ‘What about the Admiralty oath? You’re sworn to defend us.’
‘Kids or not, you’re a bunch of criminals. You’ve had plenty of chances to avoid your fate and you refused every one of them. So now you’re going to get what’s coming to you.’
The marines cocked their weapons, ready to fire.
Beckett raised his voice again. ‘Spinner, this is your last chance! If you don’t hand yourself over, you’re about two minutes away from being blown to bits along with your children and all the strays they’ve brought with them.’
‘I’m not a stray!’ Blossom said furiously. Reaching into her pocket she hurled something in the direction of Beckett’s head. It was the glass paperweight she’d lifted from the Ark and if it had struck Beckett, it might have done him some damage, but the paperweight fell short and dropped harmlessly into the ocean with a plop.
‘Wait!’
Spinner had appeared in the doorway from the saloon. He stepped onto the deck, pale, wobbly, but very determined. ‘This is between me and you, Avery. It always was. You can do what you want with me. Let the children go.’
‘Spinner, no!’ Annalie cried.
Beckett weighed this up for a long moment. Then he smiled. ‘You’re right. They’re no use to me now. The research is gone. But at least I still have you.’
‘You have to promise them safe passage,’ Spinner said.
‘“Safe passage”—what does that even mean in such dangerous waters?’ Beckett said, toying with him for a moment, then: ‘Agreed.’ He turned to one of his men. ‘Sergeant, collect the prisoner.’
‘Spinner, don’t go!’ Will said fiercely.
‘I have to,’ Spinner said.
‘You can’t!’ Annalie cried.
‘I have no other choice,’ Spinner said. ‘Be safe. Take care of each other. I’m so proud of you both.’
Annalie threw herself at him, hugging him so tight she almost squeezed the breath out of him.
‘Time to go, Spinner,’ Beckett drawled.
‘I’m not giving up!’ Will said ferociously.
As an Admiralty inflatable came towards them, Will pushed the engine as hard as it would go and the Sunfish leapt forward.
‘This is pointless!’ Beckett shouted. ‘You can’t get away!’
‘You reckon?’ Will muttered.
‘Will, what are you doing?’ Spinner shouted.
‘Trust me,’ Will said. ‘Graham, where’s that spiky buoy?’
Graham, aloft, called, ‘Left!’
Will motored on, the Raptor coming up on them on one side, the inflatable swinging round to cover them on the other.
‘Stand down immediately or I will open fire!’ Beckett bellowed.
‘Come on…just a little bit further…’ Will muttered.
The inflatable broke off and swung away from them.
‘Will, stop! I think he really means it!’ Annalie cried.
‘It’s not worth it, Will!’ Spinner said.
Essie was standing in the bow. Suddenly she shrieked, ‘Will! Look out! There’s a mine dead ahead!’
‘No kidding,’ Will said, still not altering his course. ‘Are they still coming at us?’
‘I can see the guns. They’re about to fire!’ Pod shouted.
‘Will!’ Essie shouted. ‘You’re going to hit it!’
At the last possible moment, Will turned the wheel. The Sunfish skimmed dangerously close to the mine, their wake setting it bobbing vigorously.
The Raptor was close.
They heard the order: ‘Fire!’
And suddenly the world erupted in a blinding, roaring flash.
The Sundians
The Sunfish heeled over as if it had been swatted by a giant. Everyone was thrown to the deck. Essie almost fell overboard through the gap in the deck railing. Then the shockwave rolled away, the Sunfish righted herself, and they began to realise that perhaps they had not been blown up after all.
‘Did they hit us?’ Pod cried.
Will was the first to clamber to his feet. ‘No,’ he crowed. ‘We hit them!’
They turned to look at the astonishing sight. Smoke was pouring from a great hole in the Raptor’s armour plating. Alarms and sirens were blaring and the crew was scrambling to save the ship.
‘Did you just lead them into a mine?’ Pod cried.
Will grinned. Pod high-fived him.
Spinner was aghast. ‘Don’t ever do anything like that again,’ he said, white-faced.
‘We should get out of here,’ Essie said.
‘Shouldn’t we stop and render assistance?’ Annalie asked, looking at the Raptor uncomfortably.
‘Are you nuts?’ Will said. He grabbed the wheel and set sail once again.
‘Other buoy just ahead,’ Graham reported.
Will sailed on while the others watched the Raptor dropping behind. He watched the signal buoy go past with pleasure. ‘That’s it,’ he called, ‘we’re in international waters.’
‘And look!’ Pod cried. ‘Here come the Sundians!’
The Skeleton Coast Page 18