There was another lurch, then a snap, and Holly suddenly felt weightless, floating above her seat as she fell away, free of the cruise ship. A second later the boat hit the water, throwing everyone violently to the deck as sea spray shot up round them. Holly struggled to regain her breath. The old-timer rolled onto her, unconscious, his veteran’s cap floating around in ocean water at the bottom of the boat.
A crew member struggled to his feet and managed to get his hands on the controls. He hit the throttle and the small craft zoomed forward, away from the smoking, burning hulk of the once great Golden Princess. More lifeboats circled them and others were still trying to get off the ship.
Two more explosions rang from the deck, lighting it up in hellfire, and a missile blasted into the ship’s side, hitting rescue boats in mid-descent.
It was a slaughter. The Raphael robot wanted no one left alive.
“Jeff!”
Holly reached out toward the Golden Princess, the possibility of losing Jeff again hitting her hard in the gut as tears filled her eyes.
More Harriers zoomed overhead and another Sea Cobra hovered over the water. It stopped in front of one of the lifeboats and fired a missile. The resulting explosion sent pieces of wood, metal, and other debris flying in all directions out into the ocean. No one could survive that. The deadly Sea Cobra moved on to its next target.
It had Holly in its sights, and it was coming.
Chapter 12
7:15 p.m., July 25, 2002
On Board the Golden Princess
Jeff grabbed the crying little girl, then tried desperately to push through the growing crowd to get back to the lifeboat where he’d left Holly. Arrington had fallen into the sea and most surely drowned. He felt a stab of sadness in his gut, but there was no time to morn his faithful bodyguard. He needed to get to Holly and get off this dying ship.
Passengers were shoving in panic, looking out only for their own lives. A woman screamed as another Harrier zoomed overhead, preparing to bombard the deck once again.
Jeff watched Holly’s lifeboat drop out of sight. He needed to get to another one, but the passengers just kept coming, and the growing dark smoke was making it harder and harder to see.
“It’s okay, baby, I’ve got you,” he said to the little girl. “What’s your name?”
“Sophia,” she whispered, shaking.
“Do you know where your mom and dad are?”
Little Sophia shook her head and started to cry again.
“Don’t worry. We’re going to get out of here and we’ll find your parents. Right now I’ll take care of you.”
Sophia looked up at Jeff and nodded silently. He read the confusion and terror in her eyes. He could also see the hope. He prayed he could live up to his promise. He ran toward the front of the ship, looking for access to another lifeboat.
Suddenly they were jolted forward, as if the ship hit something. A loud grating sound of steel on steel echoed over the deck. Jeff glanced over the side of the railing and saw that the Golden Princess had collided with the Essex. Shit, neither had changed course. It would only be a matter of time before both ships went down.
At the front of the ship, Jeff found a Harrier hovering about twenty feet over the deck, pointed at him, missiles poised for attack. He paused, knowing for sure it was going to fire, ending everything for him and little Sophia. But instead of ejecting a missile, the top of the plane opened up and the boy, Mattie, jumped out of the cockpit.
He landed gracefully on the deck of the Golden Princess, rolling forward twice, then jumped to his feet and scanned the area.
“Mom! Mom! Alice Tedrow!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, his face contorted in despair.
Jeff had forgotten that he’d come on board with a woman. He ducked down behind an outdoor bar so Mattie couldn’t see him. The boy ran into the crowd of evacuees. Out over the sea, three more Harrier jets circled in strike formation, coming in fast and hard, missiles ready. He only had seconds.
“Sophia, can you hold your breath?”
She nodded and squeezed her nose between her little fingers.
“I’m going to need you to do that sweetie, okay? Not yet, but on the count of three. One . . . ”
Jeff jumped out from behind the bar and took off running, holding Sophia tight in his arms.
“Two . . . ”
He jumped into the air as three missiles shot out from the Harrier jets, smoke trailing behind them.
“Three . . . ”
They landed in the pool, and Jeff dove under the water, holding Sophia as tight as he could. Above him, missiles hit the deck. Concussive blasts rippled through the pool, pushing him to the bottom. A ball of fire covered the surface of the water. Sophia held onto his shirt with one hand and clasped her nose with the other.
A loud crack reverberated through the pool.
The bottom and sides were breaking open.
Instantly Jeff was sucked down. His back hit the bottom with an impact strong enough to jar his teeth. Sophia struggled to get loose from his grip when her lungs cried out for air. His body was blocking the crack, like a tub stopper, as the force of the water pressed him down. He struggled to free himself, the air crushing out of him. Seconds ticked by and his lungs burned. Above them, fire raged on the deck.
Just when Jeff was about to pass out, another rift opened up on the pool’s bottom. The water shook and rippled. Then the entire bottom broke open, and he and Sophia went pouring through.
They rode the giant tsunami wave to the deck below them, water carrying them from one room to another. Jeff bounced around, still holding Sophia as tightly as he could, struggling to gain control. Their heads popped up for a second, giving them precious time to gulp in breaths of air before they tumbled back under the water. Finally the wave settled and they ended up in the laundry room.
Jeff climbed to his feet in waist-deep water, holding a coughing Sophia. Waves sloshed from side to side as the Golden Princess rocked. He headed to the door, trudging through wet laundry floating and clinging to his legs like bizarre seaweed, cradling a shaking Sophia under his arm.
He was disoriented from their watery plunge, but he knew they couldn’t stay there. They needed to find a way off the ship. He couldn’t just jump, not fourteen stories and with a little girl. They'd never survive. He had to figure out something fast because the ship was burning. If the missiles didn’t kill them, fire and smoke would.
Jeff half walked, half swam out of the laundry room and into the main hallway. A sign on the wall pointed to the elevators and stairwell. When he got there he discovered the elevators were not working. He adjusted Sophia in his arms as she still clung to his neck, then went over to open the door to the stairwell. Just as he was reaching for the handle, several people burst out, letting a plume of smoke pour into the hallway.
“The top deck is on fire,” one man screamed. There’s no way to get up there.”
“Is there another way to get to the lifeboats?” a young woman asked.
Another explosion rocked the ship, sending Jeff and the others flying across the slick floor and into the wall. He scrambled to his feet, shoving people away.
“We have to get out of here!” one of the passengers screamed.
Jeff coughed as smoke continued to fill the hallway and his lungs.
“This way,” a woman said, waving one arm. “To the terrace pool on the back of the ship. Maybe there’s a way off back there.”
Jeff wasn’t so sure, but they couldn’t stay where they were. He and the others hurried down the hallway, hanging onto the wall, trying to keep their balance as the ship tilted and righted itself again and again. Moments later the group burst out of the glass doors and into the sunlight. The small terrace pool lay in front of them.
Jeff and a few others ran to the railings to look over the side. The engine was still churning the ocean far below.
To the right, they could see where the Golden Princess was locked to the Essex, like bizarre Siamese twins. Neither loo
ked capable of breaking free from the steel grasp of the other. Smoke billowed overhead from both ships. An emergency rescue copter hovered overhead, looking for somewhere to land, some way to help the stricken passengers.
“My son, my son, I need to find him,” one woman yelled hysterically. “He was on the deck above this one, by the pool. He was just sitting by the pool. ”
Jeff looked over at the woman. If her son had been on that deck, there was no chance he was still alive. Just like the dozens of others who were no doubt dead.
Jeff turned away, but the hair on his neck stood up. He turned to the woman again. And recognized her. It was Mattie’s mom. What had he called her? Alice?
“Mattie!” she screamed, hands clenched at her sides. “Mattie!”
Jeff could barely hear her over the roaring fire and the helicopters and planes circling overhead. There was no way anyone on the deck above them could hear. Besides, that deck was a raging inferno now. Sophia clung tighter to his neck as the horror closed in around them.
Flaming debris fell from above and landed with a loud splash in the pool. The cool water hissed as the flames were extinguished. A second later a person, a living person, rose from the depths of the pool, horribly burned, steam rising from their flesh.
Sickened, shocked, Jeff stumbled back.
“Mom?” the charred person said. “Mom, I’m here.”
“Mattie, oh my God! Mattie! Someone help him, please!” Alice screamed from the side of the pool.
None of the other passengers moved to help, too horrified by the sight of the burned boy. Jeff put Sophia down.
“Wait here, sweetheart. I’m going to help.”
Alice was bawling by the side of the pool, trying to reach Mattie as he struggled to swim to the side. Jeff dove in, grabbing Mattie as he was about to go under. The boy’s charred flesh peeled away as he grabbed him and hauled him onto the deck.
He checked Mattie’s pulse—it was faint, but he wasn’t breathing. Jeff began CPR. The poor boy’s face was barely recognizable under the blackened skin. Jeff continued breathing life into him as his mother squatted beside them. Sophia came over as well and sat beside Mattie, holding his hand.
Just when Jeff was about to give up, Mattie’s entire body spasmed, and he vomited up bloody water. Then he opened his eyes and turned to look at Jeff. His mother grabbed him by the neck and hugged him.
“Thank you, sir,” she cried. “You saved his life.”
Mattie patted his mother, his eyes still fixed on Jeff.
“Raphael wants to destroy everything,” Mattie said solemnly. “I tried to tell him that my mother was here, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Tears swelled in Mattie’s red eyes and ran down the sides of his burned cheeks.
“Why wouldn’t he listen to me?”
“Where is Raphael now?” Jeff asked.
“He’s still on the jet, trying to destroy that dog.” Mattie gestured toward the Essex. “I told him we should just try to get away, but he said no.”
The Golden Princess started shaking, and the floor under Jeff’s feet tilted. He and the others slide into the glass doors, and the water from the pool roared over them.
The Golden Princess was going down.
Chapter 13
7:40 p.m., July 25, 2002
Open sea near of the Port of San Diego
Holly watched as the helicopter fired another missile, destroying the lifeboat right beside her. Behind the attack copter, the Golden Princess began sinking. The rear of the cruise ship shot up into the air a few hundred feet, its giant rudder still spinning, water pouring off it.
The attack helicopter moved in front of her boat, hovering like an eagle sighting its prey. Holly trembled, trying to get her body to move and jump off the doomed boat, but before she could get her feet under her, something streaked through the air and struck the copter.
An explosion blasted the helicopter out of the air. Pieces of debris hit the lifeboat as the Cobra fell to the ocean, a brightly burning hulk, completely destroyed.
Those in Holly’s boat cheered, as she looked to the horizon and saw hope zooming in on the light from the setting sun. It was a guided missile destroyer, fully armed with an array of advanced weapons, ready to fight.
The old navy veteran had regained consciousness and now struggled to his feet, his frail body shaking, as other passengers helped him up. He used his cane to brace himself, and Holly reached out a hand in case he needed it. He lifted his head to look at her yet as soon as he did, his body became rigid and his right hand shot to his forehead in a salute.
“John Paul Jones,” he whispered as he began to sway gracefully with the ocean swells, his ancient seas legs returning to life. “One of the most advanced ships to ever sail the seven seas. She is beautiful.”
The John Paul Jones came roaring in.
One, two, three . . . five . . . ten missiles fired from her deck, shooting out and tracking the twenty or so planes and helicopters still in the air. The aircraft controlled by Raphael stopped their bombing and strafing runs on the Essex and Golden Princess and moved in formation to attack the John Paul Jones.
But the missiles hit their targets, and planes and copters fell out of the sky like hot metal rain.
Holly ducked down. She was in the middle of a full air and naval battle of the likes she had never even seen in war movies. Huge anti-missile cannons fired from the John Paul Jones, straining her eardrums. Missile countermeasures gushed from the deck like tortured fireworks.
“Go! Get us out of here!” Holly yelled to the crew member who was in shock, just gawking at the battle scene.
He snapped out of his stupor and pushed the throttle forward, heading back to port and away from the sinking Golden Princess and the war zone around her. They stopped to pull a few survivors out of the sea, but for the most part those around them were dead. The charred remains of floating bodies splashed out of the way as the lifeboat plowed through the sea.
Jeff, oh Jeff.
Holly’s heart broke.
Chapter 14
8:00 p.m., July 25, 2002
On board the Golden Princess
Mattie, are you okay? Raphael’s thoughts projected into Mattie’s mind.
Raphael, please stop. You’re killing all these people. You almost killed my mom.
I’m sorry, I had no choice. I’m not registering any signals from the R-3 unit. I believe it has been destroyed. I’m bringing the Harrier around to your location. You and your mother can board and we can evacuate. With the introduction of the destroyer, designation DDG-53, the probability of victory in this battle has dropped to seventeen percent. We need to escape, now.
Mattie struggled to regain his balance, his skin tight and leathery from his burns. He looked at the man who’d saved his life, the man still clutching a little girl. It was the same man who’d pursued him in Chicano Park.
“Come on, Mom.” Lungs charred and lips cracked, he got up slowly. “Raphael is coming around to get us off the ship before it sinks.”
“Mattie, no, you can’t go with that thing. You don’t know what it is,” the man pleaded with him.
“Raphael is my friend. My father entrusted him to me. He protects me, and he gave me powers, made me strong.”
“He’s an angel,” Mattie’s mom added with a wild look in her eye. “An angel sent from heaven to protect us.”
“Would an angel do this?” the man asked, gesturing at the scene around them. “Hundreds of people are dead, innocent people—mothers, fathers, children.”
“They were trying to take Raphael and my Mattie,” his mom blubbered.
“The people on the cruise ship weren’t,” the man said. “If Raphael were truly an angel, would he let such harm come to innocents?”
She rubbed at her face, looking confused. Mattie thought the man had a point.
His mind flashed back to the day his father died, to the chaos and the screams of his friends and family. This situation felt very similar to that one. Mattie
didn’t want anyone else to die.
I’m in position, Mattie. Bring your mom and jump on board.
The Harrier was just a few feet above the deck, its cockpit open. There was only room for two full-sized people—Mattie and his mom—and Raphael. He would have to leave the others behind.
We need to get these people out of here. Can you send over one of the choppers?
All remaining helicopter and aircraft are currently engaged in battle. They need to stay in play if we are to exit safely. Move now, Mattie.
Mattie felt that familiar tug in the back of his head that pulled at him when Raphael gave a firm order. It was never strong enough that he couldn’t resist, though he wondered sometimes if Raphael was trying to control him.
He looked at the people around him, struggling to gain their footing on the wet and lurching deck. Women and children crying. One man’s arm was broken and he was cradling it, rocking in obvious pain. A boy had been thrown against a wall and knocked unconscious, his little legs swaying back and forth in the water.
He couldn’t leave these people like this. The tug in the back of his mind became stronger, the strongest he’d ever felt it. He rose to his feet as if controlled by a puppet master and began climbing up the deck toward the hovering Harrier jet.
No! he screamed in his mind.
It felt like something snapped in his brain, and then his willpower and control of his body returned to him.
Mattie, please. I love you.
I have to save these people.
Mattie could feel his strength slowly returning. He lifted one burned hand and balled it into a tight fist. Dead charred skin fell away to reveal fresh pink skin underneath. His body had already begun to heal itself.
Please, Raphael, please help me.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle peeked over the edge of the cockpit and stared down at the destruction he’d caused.
No, Mattie, this is only the beginning. In thirty-six years the true Apocalypse will begin. If you choose them over me, then you too will die in fire and fury. The time of man on this earth will soon pass. And when you are gone, we will reign.”
NanoSwarm: Extermination Day Book Two Page 11