Carrier 14: Typhoon Season by Keith Douglass

Author:Keith Douglass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

0515 local (GMT -8)

South China Sea

Lady of Leisure

Martin Lee clung to the rail of what had once been the starboard side of Lady of Leisure, but now substituted for her slanted deck. He had moved to the starboard rail from the stern only when the yacht began to roll over, yet even then he had stayed as close as possible to the stern. Wait for me right there, no matter what . What a fool he was; what a brainless, unthinking lackey. Now, with one arm wrapped around an upright and his body sprawled across the yacht’s slick fiberglass flank, he pretended to be dead. It was the only thing he could think of to do.

They had already shot most of the others. First they’d blasted Lady of Leisure herself, hammering rounds into her fragile body at the waterline, until she toppled over far enough to dump most of her passengers into the sea. Then the helicopter turned its attention to them. Circling slowly behind the bright eye of its searchlight, it picked out the passengers one by one and shot them, until the water turned scarlet-and-blue.

Lee watched all this from beneath his arm as he dangled against the side of the boat. He didn’t want to watch, but closing his eyes was much worse; the noise, the screaming. . .

He saw Pablo Cheung diving under the water, pursued by silver spears where slugs yanked bubbles after them. Cheung stopped diving and turned into a red rug drifting just below the surface. Lee saw Lisa Austin, the clothing designer, raise her hands toward the flames, and disintegrate. He saw the helicopter hesitate, its searchlight beam probing the water, scanning back and forth, then sliding back toward the yacht.

He closed his eyes. Tried not to scream as the light blazed over him, turning his eyelids red, prickling his skin like the heat of the sun . . .

Then he did scream as something crushed down on him, driving the wreckage of Lady of Leisure deeper into the water, boring into Lee’s ears, then releasing them so hard they popped. Water sprayed up around him, so dense he could not breathe. He jerked erect, gasping, his blood pounding in his ears. When he opened his eyes he saw the water falling back, and beyond that the helicopter’s searchlight beam jumping erratically between the sea and the sky. The helicopter was bobbling in the air like a toy on a rubber band, the silvery disk of its rotor nearly touching the water on one side, then the other, its machine gun blessedly silent. Finally it steadied again, hovered for a moment, then pivoted, lifted its tail high and raced away to the west.

A few moments later, the air thundered again and something flashed overhead; enormous, silvery, pursued by two long cones of flame.

Even before the burnt-kerosene aroma of jet exhaust reached him, Lee knew what had passed over. Clinging to the remnants of the Lady of Leisure with one arm, he waved frantically at the sky.

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