Death Echo

keep throwing up and I have to steer and I don’t know how!”
    The last words were a definite wail.
    â€œBe calm,” Demidov said. “Angle the bow east, toward shore. I’ll meet you and bring you in. Everything will be fine. Just do as I tell you. In fifteen minutes you’ll see me.”
    â€œR-really?” Emma asked, throwing in a sniff.
    â€œOf course. You’re only fifteen minutes from safety. Come to me. I will help you.”
    â€œOh, God. Thank you, I’m so—” She banged her fist against a window, yelped, and bashed the radio on the wheel. “Damn this cord! It keeps—”
    Emma switched to an inactive channel and let the microphone dangle from its cord. “Okay, we’re alone again.”
    â€œDo you believe Demidov?” Faroe asked.
    â€œDo I have a choice other than going toward shore?” she asked in her normal voice. “Obviously Demidov has a locator bug aboard Blackbird . We have to assume that he also has a radio trigger for the bomb.”
    Silence, a curse. “Agreed.”
    â€œI can’t outrun a radio signal,” she said. “If I head for deeper water and Demidov hits the button, likely at least one freighter will be taken out with us. Same thing if you call in the Coasties who almost caught us.”
    â€œAgreed.”
    â€œBut if I go toward shore, there’s at least a chance I can catch Demidov off guard. Each time we’ve been in contact with him, I’ve been in arm-candy mode. He thinks I’m dumber than tofu.”
    Faroe grunted.
    â€œIf I can’t get the job done,” Emma said, “you and Harrow will have time to set up an ambush and take Blackbird out before Demidov gets to Seattle.”
    â€œWhat makes you think Demidov will wait until then to pull the trigger?”
    â€œHe wants a big American city to hold hostage, not a nameless hunk of Canadian coast. Publicity is the whole point of ops like this.”
    â€œCan you disarm the bomb?” Faroe asked.
    She laughed a little wildly. “Can you beam bomb techs aboard?”
    â€œDo you know how to sink Blackbird ?”
    â€œHit a big rock. No rocks around here. I’m miles offshore.”
    â€œCan you launch the dinghy?” he asked.
    â€œAlone? In this water?” She laughed again, then stopped. She really didn’t like the sound of it. “Even if I could, and I somehow managed to drag Mac aboard, my fifteen minutes would be more than gone. Then Mac and I would get one hell of a sendoff.”
    â€œHow long has Mac been out?”
    â€œNot long enough to recover,” she said flatly. “He’s lost too much blood. If he hasn’t already gone into shock, he’s headed there on a fast train. I’ve done what I can, but somebody has to be at the wheel all the time.”
    Faroe said something blistering.
    She laughed oddly. “Good-bye, Faroe. It was fun while it lasted.”
    â€œWait! What are you going to do?”
    â€œFind out if Demidov is a soldier or a mercenary.”
    And scream.
    She really wanted to do that. But if she started, she didn’t think she would stop.

78
    DAY SIX
SOUTHWEST OF PORT RENFREW
9:57 P.M.
    E mma strained into the darkness. If there were any lights out there, she couldn’t see them through the hammering rain.
    The radar didn’t have a problem. It showed an endless gold mass stretching across the western half of the screen. Occasionally, just at the edge of the inlet where the waves weren’t nearly as big, she saw a separate flicker that was Demidov’s boat.
    Death echo.
    â€œOkay, Mac. We’re going to see if we can’t make that name come true.”
    She picked up the dangling microphone and switched to 64.
    â€œHello?” she asked raggedly. “Anyone there?”
    â€œBlack Swan ?” came the instant answer.
    Demidov.
    â€œHere,” Emma said. “What s-should I d-do? The waves are b-big and the rain and Mac—” Her voice broke. It wasn’t difficult to sound shaky, a woman in over her head, at the edge of drowning.
    â€œTurn the wheel toward the light I’ll show you.”
    â€œS-sure…”
    After a few moments, she saw a faint flicker, like a flashlight whose illumination was being blotted out between waves.
    â€œI s-see you,” she said in relief.
    â€œVery good. Be calm. You will be safe. When you get close, we’ll go farther into the harbor,