CASSIOPEIA WAS NEARING PANIC. HER HANDS WERE BOUND, HER body encased in iron straps. Hale’s men were busy tying a line to the top of the gibbet. She stared at Stephanie, whose eyes signaled that there was little she could do, either.
“What’s the point of this,” Shirley screamed out. “Why do this, Quentin?”
Hale faced Kaiser. “This is what pirates do.”
“Killing unarmed women?” Stephanie asked.
“Teaching enemies a lesson.”
The men securing the line stood.
Hale drew close. “Kings and governors loved to use the gibbet on us, so occasionally we reciprocated. But instead of hanging them up to die, we dragged them until they drowned. After, we cut the rope, and down to the bottom they went.”
Hale signaled and his men lifted the iron cage from the deck.
MALONE COULD DELAY NO LONGER. TUMULTUOUS EMOTIONS churned inside him. He raised his gun and prepared to fire-but before he could snap the trigger a pair of strong hands locked onto his shoulders and whirled him back from the railing.
One of the crew.
A swift kick to his right arm jarred the gun from his grip.
Fury welled inside him.
No time for this.
He planted a kick to the gut, which doubled his opponent forward. He brought his knee upward into the face, righting the man’s spine. He then jammed his elbow into the bridge of the nose, snapping the neck backward. Two swipes from his fists and the man spilled over the railing, falling the fifteen or so feet to the deck below.
The men hoisting Cassiopeia heard the thud and momentarily stopped. Hale heard it, too, and whirled, then glanced upward and spotted the source of the problem.
Malone searched for the gun.
“Toss her,” he heard Hale scream.
He found the gun, snatched it up, then leaped over the railing, dropping to the deck below. He hit, rolled, and fired at the two men with guns, dropping both.
He sprang to his feet and raced ahead.
Hale tried to cut him off, a gun in his hand, but he shot the older man once, the bullet tearing into the chest and hurling the body backward to the deck.
He kept moving.
“Go,” Stephanie yelled. “Help her.”
The four men reached the railing with the gibbet.
Too late for him to use the gun to stop them.
They tossed Cassiopeia into the sea.
WYATT RETRACED HIS ROUTE TO WHERE THE ROPE WAITED. The water had risen to waist-high. Shortly, the upper chutes would complete the flooding. Only fitting that these two meet their end here, both of them so smug. Carbonell counting on her backup to save her, Knox thinking he had an easy opportunity to eliminate two problems. Even more fitting that they were both armed with lights and weapons, neither of them any good to them.
Carbonell was responsible for the needless deaths of several agents. Knox had personally killed a few, too.
For that, they both had to pay.
Knox had also tried to kill the president. And though Wyatt wasn’t a big fan of the U.S. government, he was an American.
And always would be.
These two problems would end here. By the time they realized their dire predicament and decided to save their hides, it would be too late.
Only a few more minutes remained.
High tide had arrived.
Through the night-vision goggles, he spotted the rope.
He grabbed hold and hauled himself up.
Once there, he yanked the line from the hole and walked away.
CASSIOPEIA WAS FALLING. SHE TRIED TO BRACE HERSELF WITH her feet, anticipating the water’s impact. Her hands were of no use and she reminded herself to grab a breath and keep sucking air for as long as she could. Unfortunately, the tight confines offered her no opportunity to use her legs, each of which was encased separately. The gibbet was snug, and the latch mechanism was nowhere close to where she could reach it. Besides, it operated from the outside.
Just before they’d tossed her overboard she’d heard what sounded like gunfire and Stephanie yelling Go. Help her.
What was happening back there?
MALONE FIRED TWO SHOTS AT THE FOUR MEN, SCATTERING THEM. He then tossed the gun aside and leaped from the railing, hurling his body outward and bear-hugging the falling gibbet.
His added weight increased momentum and, together, he and Cassiopeia smacked the sea.