Chapter 12 #2
She shook her head. “What do you mean? How dangerous is blowing up the engine?”
“There’s always a risk, but it will be minimal.” He winked at her and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Zoe stepped after him before catching herself from reaching out. He was trained. He’d probably blown up a million things in training and real life, making use of whatever was at hand.
Still her chest was tight as he disappeared into the cabin. She turned her attention to the capsule in front of her. She really hoped the owners of the boat had regularly serviced their life raft—if life rafts were supposed to be serviced. Zoe heard a splash behind her.
Her breath whooshed from her and she whirled around, only to find Heath on deck heading towards her.
“What was the splash?” she asked.
“Getting rid of some ballast.” He waved at her to stay there. “I’ll join you in a second.” He headed up the ladder to the wheelhouse instead of coming over to her.
She grabbed the rope she was supposed to pull and glanced at the dark water below. Anything could be under there.
Heath started the engine, and the whole boat shuddered as a loud explosion ripped down below. Zoe stumbled, and by the time she’d righted herself, Heath was by her side.
“Pull the rope.”
She yanked on it, and the canister rolled down the ramp and over the side. It burst open and an orange life raft inflated. Heath helped her down to the marlin board at the back and pulled the life raft towards them. “Get in.”
Heart racing, she did as he asked, awkwardly climbing into the smallish space and moving to the far side to make room for Heath.
There were two paddles inside and an emergency light flashed on the outside but barely illuminated the small area.
She spotted a light on the inside but couldn’t get it to turn on.
“I’ll be right back.”
Zoe gasped as Heath jogged up the steps and back into the cabin. What the hell was he doing? The boat was sinking.
Though it didn’t really look like it was sinking. She couldn’t hear any rushing water or see it listing to the side.
What if the explosion hadn’t penetrated the hull?
A couple of loud bangs and Zoe held her breath, waiting for Heath to reappear. The raft had floated away from the side of the boat, still attached by the rope, and the boat started to lean.
Definitely sinking now.
“Heath!” She grabbed the rope and pulled the raft back towards the boat, ready to climb on board.
Heath appeared on deck and jogged towards her as if he had all the time in the world. He climbed onto the raft, cut the rope tying them to the boat, and pushed them away.
Zoe sighed in relief and punched his shoulder. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“Worried about me?”
“Of course I was worried. I heard bangs. You could have been knocked unconscious.”
“The bangs were me widening the hole to make it sink faster.” He grabbed one of the oars and started rowing in the direction of the shore. “We want it to sink before someone tries to tow it to shore.”
It was impossible to see its progress as five of the six walls of the raft were completely enclosed and it was very dark now they were turned away from the vessel.
Zoe tensed, breathing slowly to keep the panic at bay.
She wasn’t completely enclosed. The entrance was right there.
She shifted closer to the small opening, but it unbalanced the boat.
“I’ve got this,” Heath said. “You can take over when I need a break.”
She shook her head and gasped for breath.
“Hey, what’s wrong? We’re safe.” Heath ran his hand down her arm. “Shit, is this too enclosed?”
Zoe nodded and instantly he shifted away from the opening, pulling her towards it. “Take some deep breaths.”
She inhaled the fresh air, staring up at the dark sky. Not enclosed. Not underground. Safe.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
He’d been vulnerable with her. She could do the same with him. She took another deep breath. “I was about ten,” she said. “Dad was working in Coober Pedy, and when he finished, we flew out to meet him and we were going to road trip home.”
“Long trip with four kids,” Heath commented.
“Yeah, but Mum and Dad knew how to keep us entertained.” She remembered the audiobooks, music and travel board games. “We went to the museum and there was a tunnel there to show what it was like for miners underground. I refused to go into it, and my sisters made fun of me incessantly.”
“Can’t say I blame you. Those opal miners were tough.” His calm tone helped to soothe and slow her heart rate further.
“We got back to our accommodation, and still my sisters kept teasing me, saying I was a scaredy-cat.” She’d wanted them to stop, to prove she was brave.
“People have fossicked for opals on the outskirts of Coober Pedy for decades. There are all these hills and holes left over from that time and my parents told us we weren’t to go anywhere without them. ”
Heath’s hand tightened for a second on her arm.
“I figured that to prove how brave I was, I’d walk into the desert.”
“Where were your parents?”
“They were finalising some things at Dad’s work.” She sighed. “I really wasn’t far from the accommodation before I fell into a shaft and the dirt collapsed around me.”
Heath swore. “That must have been terrifying.”
Her pulse hitched at the memory of the dust and darkness, of being buried alive. “Yeah. There was a small side shaft I hid in, but it took almost a day to find me and get me out. I was fortunate my sisters could pinpoint where I disappeared.”
“That’s why you’ve been questioning your instincts,” Heath said. “Because one defiance as a child buried you alive.”
She coughed out a laugh. “It was pretty traumatic.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, but you were a kid. We all do stupid things when we’re kids.”
“If I hadn’t defied Stefan, we wouldn’t be sitting in a life raft in the Persian Gulf,” she pointed out.
“And those kids wouldn’t be on their way home to their parents,” he argued. “You’ve got great instincts; convincing Ali not to take the kids, drugging your guards, shooting Ali. You need to trust yourself as much as I trust you.”
Her heart warmed and she shifted back from the entrance so he could continue to row. “You no longer consider me a pain in the arse?”
He chuckled. “Not in the slightest.”
She shrugged out of her backpack. “Thank you for everything, Heath.”
“It’s my pleasure, Zoe.”
The oar barely made a splash as he moved them through the water with fast efficiency. The quiet soothed, and the rest of the tension left Zoe’s body. She was safe here in this moment.
A few minutes later, Heath turned the raft to look back at the boat and it was already three-quarters submerged.
“Nice work,” Zoe said. Impressive really. As they watched, it sank under the inky blackness.
Heath grinned and continued paddling them towards the shore. “So tell me what backstory you came up with for us.”
***
Zoe had come up with a backstory that made sense and was easy enough to remember. They’d had a whirlwind romance when she’d gone home to visit family recently, and therefore they didn’t know much about each other. It was early days.
Perfect really. Fewer lies to be caught out on if they were questioned at all.
His muscles burned in that extended exercise way, but it was a good burn, productive. He had hoped a fishing vessel might have picked them up by now, or that one of the cargo ships might have spotted them and called out the Dubai sea rescue.
He could see the port clearly, and there wasn’t far to go.
He spun the raft around, doing a sweep of the area, and spotted a small fishing vessel heading towards them.
Zoe shifted so she could see better. “Will they pick us up?”
Heath stopped rowing and grabbed his binoculars so he could get a better look. A few men were on deck, but they weren’t armed as far as he could see. “Maybe.” He checked the multi-tool was in easy reach in his pocket. “Have you still got your tool?”
She nodded and tapped her pocket.
Good. “Can you fit it in your bra?”
She didn’t hesitate, reaching into her pocket. He turned his back to give her privacy and said, “Let me speak when they come. We don’t know how they’re going to react.”
Zoe pulled her scarf out of the backpack and covered her hair.
Heath tucked the binoculars into the bag and then waved to the vessel, calling out in Arabic. “Help. Please help us.”
The engines slowed, and one of the men at the bow threw out a rope to them. Heath caught it and tied it to the raft before pulling them in. “Thank you, thank you,” he called as they hung a rope ladder from the side.
He turned to Zoe. “Let me go first to assess the situation. Grab on to the ladder after I go up but wait until I tell you to climb.” He slipped his backpack on.
“All right.”
He grabbed the ladder and pulled himself to his feet and stepped onto the first rung.
He waited there for a second for Zoe to shift over to the entrance and then climbed quickly.
At the top he was helped aboard by two weather-worn older men.
Scanning the deck, he spotted another at the helm and one on the far side fixing a net.
He waved Zoe up and turned to their rescuers. “Thank you for your help.”
“What happened?” the man with a fully grey beard asked.
“I don’t know. We were on our way to Dubai for a holiday, and there was a loud explosion. We only just had time to get onto the life raft before the boat sank.”
The other man studied him. “Where are you from?”
“We came from Qatar today, but we’re both from Australia.” He helped Zoe onboard and slid an arm around her, holding her close. She leaned into him as if they truly were a couple, and her warmth against him felt right.
“We’re heading back to the docks,” the old man said. “You can talk to customs there.”
Heath nodded. “Thank you so much.”
They followed him into the small cabin on the boat, and Heath let Zoe sit first before sitting next to her. The cabin was well worn, smelled like salt and fish, and had nothing in it that raised an alarm.
The man left them there and went back on deck to finish packing up after their day of fishing. It was getting close to ten o’clock at night. If all went well at customs, they could be on a flight home before morning.
“What’s next?” Zoe asked, scootching closer so she didn’t have to talk loudly.
“Customs,” he said. “We’ve both got our passports, so hopefully it won’t take long.
” He wasn’t sure what the officials would want to do about the sunken boat.
They might insist on some sort of incident report or insurance claim, but the story was that he’d borrowed it from a friend of a friend who was going to be pissed off it was now at the bottom of the ocean.
He hadn’t dared to grab anything extra from the boat in case it could be traced back to the owners. Instead he took what he thought would be understandable for a day pack of doing touristy things; drink bottle, snacks, binoculars, and cash.
“And then what?”
“Then we book on the next flight out of here.”
She shifted closer, and he put his arm around her, giving her comfort. She fit so nicely against him.
“Are we safe now?”
He couldn’t lie to her. He wouldn’t consider them completely safe until they were on Australian soil. “We’re definitely safer.”
The Iranian navy might have contacts here and have asked them to be on the lookout.
It wasn’t long before the engine tone changed and they were coming into the harbour. Heath scanned the jetties and as the boat pulled into their pen, he spotted two customs officials waiting on the dock.
“Showtime.” He pointed to the men. “Let me do the talking.”
“Sure.”
Heath waited until the boat was tied up and the engine was off before he took Zoe out on the deck. He called a greeting to the officials.
“We need you to come with us,” the younger one said.
“Of course.” Heath turned to the old fisherman and shook his hand. “Thank you again for saving us.”
“Afwan.”
They disembarked and followed the officials off the docks into an office at the end.
One step closer to freedom.