Chapter 16 – Nathan
CHAPTER 16
NATHAN
I t was better to break her heart sooner than later. In my experience, nothing good ever came from dragging this kind of thing out. Plus, being pissed off always seems to overwrite any fear she might be feeling. I knew as well as she did that there was something more between us than just having slept together, but we were from two different worlds and wanted very different things out of life.
The tide lapped at the Cessna's pontoons. A wave of excitement came over me as I saw the tale of her bob up and down with the small waves coming ashore. I smiled at Emma, patiently waiting in the passenger seat, but she just glared at me.
I heaved a sigh and, with great strain, my heels dug into the beach, pushing as hard as I could against the sand, shells, and sticks. The plane budged and slid backward, floating in the delicate waves.
Climbing up onto the float and getting behind the wheel, I glanced over at Emma, sitting with her eyes closed and doing breathing exercises to calm herself.
This woman really is tough… I started the engine, and the propeller roared to life. She’ll be okay.
I figured it would take more than my dumb ass to break her heart.
It was my heart that had me worried.
Taking a deep breath, I promised myself I’d make a reasonable attempt to process all this when I got home.
The task at hand, the risk of the military finding us again, even in the air... the weight of the situation numbed me to everything else. I refused to acknowledge the ache in my chest. Maybe I'll get my head on straight when my feet are back on the ground in California.
Turning around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees, I pointed the heels of the plane toward the beach and faced the waves. Here we go…
Saying a quick, silent prayer, I steeled my nerves and pushed the throttle to about eighty percent. If the breaking waves drowned the propeller, or worse, if the gum holding the make-shift fuel lines didn’t hold, we’d be right back where we started, only this time, we'd be out of range for a cell signal and have no way to contact Smitty and the team to let them know where we were.
A wave rocked us back, the tip of the plane heaving upwards and then coming down with a splash. The engine sputtered as the prop met foamy water kicked up by the pontoons.
Luckily, the engine refused to die. As the RPMs smoothed out, I accelerated, hoping I wasn’t pushing the craft too hard. Emma whispered a string of swear words, her brow furrowed and her hands balled into fists, clutching the harness at her shoulders.
Leaving the shore, the waves became a bit larger. The dark blue surface ahead dipped down and then just as quickly lifted up, rocking us back and forth as though we were riding a bucking horse.
I instinctively held my breath as a massive wall of water formed in front of us. Emma screamed as we sailed up and over the tip of the wave, barreling down the other side.
It was steeper than I expected, and I braced myself, half expecting the plane to flip forward. Shit… No, please God, not now.
Water sprayed over the windscreen as the plane sloshed forward and back, finally finding balance. If that wave had crested, we would have been goners. I looked through the wet windshield and didn't see any large waves ahead. “Hell ya!” I let out a loud whoop, laughing as we gained momentum.
Emma stared blankly ahead with wide eyes and a pale face, her head jerking forward and back as we traversed the hill-like surface of the ocean.
“Hang in there, Doc.” I reached over to pat her knee in a comforting gesture. “This time tomorrow, you’ll be sipping mojitos with your sister-in-law.”
She shot me a sideways glance, and I could tell by the green tint on her face that it didn’t make her feel any better.
“You okay?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Just keep your eyes on the–” She gasped, and her entire body went rigid as a military speedboat cut in front of us.
Gunfire ricocheted off the prop and we braced ourselves as we met the oncoming wake of the speedboat.
The massive gray brick of a cruiser stopped shooting as it made a high-speed U-turn to come back at us. Emma’s jaw dropped at the sight of the ship coming about.
“So much for coasting under the radar.” I pushed the throttle to a hundred and turned to take off down the still-ish water left in the cruiser's wake.
“There’s no way.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Nathan, we’re not getting out of this.”
“No offense, Doc, but where's your positive attitude?”
Static churned over the radio as a flat masculine voice ordered us to power down our engine.
“I’ll just turn myself in.” She shook her head. “There’s no point in us both getting killed. If I go willingly, maybe they’ll let you go. You’re a decorated veteran of the U.S. military. You could still walk away from this.”
“Sorry, beautiful.” I looked over at her. “We’re in this together, and I’m gonna need you to trust me–because you have no choice. Sound good?”
Her chest heaved with every breath, but a fragile smile quivered on her lips as she nodded yes. I swear, I could see a little sparkle of determination in her eye that sent my internal gas gauge of hope all the way to full.
“Besides…” I pulled back a little harder on the controls and my forearms bulged against the resistance as the water clung to the floats.
“Nathan…” She put her hands forward to brace herself against the dash.
The cruiser towered over the water like a skyscraper turned on its side as it charged directly in front of our path.
“I promised you a big juicy burger.” The heels of the plane broke free of the water’s surface. “And I don’t intend on being…” I strained, hoping that the force I applied wouldn’t break the control stick. “...late!”
“You had me at oniooooon riiiiings!” She screamed, covering her face with her hands as I ignored the voice shouting threats over the radio, and we lifted into the air.
I know someday, when I tell the story of how we escaped this island's military forces, I'll recall how we barely cleared the top of the ship thanks to my skill and wit.
Unfortunately, someday isn't as assured as I'd hoped.
The left pontoon met a radar dish with a thud so hard that I thought half the plane had been ripped off. The collision pulled us so hard down and to the left that the deep blue ocean was all we could see out the front window.
"Oh, fuck."
Emma screamed even louder and my white knuckles wrestled with the stick for control.
We're struck, but still have momentum. Right?
The stall alarm blared menacingly as the plane struggled to right itself. I loosened my grip on the stick, letting the plane find its own path through the air, but our weight and direction brought us barreling down to the water before it could right itself.
A chunk of the cruiser made a ghastly metallic ripping sound as it let loose from the left pontoon and we instantly straightened out, a good hundred pounds lighter.
Knowing anything was better than slamming straight on into the Atlantic, I pulled back on the stick. We're going to do whatever we can to hold off meeting Mother Earth for a while–stalling or not.
Pulling back on the stick, we proved the stall alarm who's boss, and our view went from deep dark blue to bright sky, the nose pulling up to meet the horizon just as the pontoons grazed the top of a cresting wave.
Emma let out a panicked laugh as we picked up speed, nothing but blue sky and puffy white clouds now visible through our windshield.
“Civilian aircraft.” A second voice came through the radio.
“Aw, look who it is.” I turned to look out my window at the fighter plane to the left of my wing.
“Rock your wings and return to the airfield.”
“Our old buddy that shot us down the first time.” I smiled and waved at him, tapping on my ear as if I couldn’t hear him. “What was that?”
“Rock. Your. Wings.” He repeated. “Return to the airfield or I will shoot you down.”
I tilted my head, faking a bewildered expression. The pilot pointed downward and I looked down, raising my eyebrows as if something caught my eye. I reached an empty hand down below the window and lifted it with my middle finger prominently presented.
“Have it your way, Captain.”
“My way, huh?” I said through clenched teeth. “Doc, you should probably close your eyes for this.”
“Fuck that.” Her cheeks were rosy, and all the fear seemed to have been flushed from her brain and replaced with a mixture of attitude and adrenaline. “Give that bastard a run for his money.”
“Yes, ma’am…” I grinned and did a barrel roll.
Emma squealed as our plane swirled through the clouds. My clunky little seaplane might not be the most graceful machine in the sky, but she soared and swooped like the majestic wild turkey she was. When they started firing on us, I’m proud to say I managed to avoid most of the rounds… unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
Of the hundred or so rounds he fired, only half a dozen or so hit us. But when that thirty-five-millimeter anti-aircraft ammo tore through our hull, I knew immediately that I’d been hit. There wasn’t as much pain as you’d expect for the amount of shrapnel that had bitten into my body, but the warm, tingling sensation spreading through my left side told me shock was already setting in.
The plane wobbled mid-air and my left arm had almost no strength left in it. Emma was talking to me, but all I could hear were alarms going off and my pulse rushing in my ears. One more hit, and we were surely going down. My dials spun. I struggled not to blank out as I tried to keep us in the air.
Out of nowhere, a black chopper swooped in, firing several rounds into the fighter jet. The little gray triangular aircraft spun out of control like a paper plane, trailing a spiral of smoke all the way down to the water, where it exploded in a tiny orange plume behind us.
Jax… I smiled to myself. They found us.
“Is that your team?” Emma leaned forward to look out her window as the helicopter made a giant vertical arc to circle back around, positioning itself between us and the cruiser.
I nodded.
“Then we’re gonna make it, right?” She smiled. “You’ll do another controlled crash at Martinique and–”
“I’ve...” I cut her off and she blinked a few times, confused.
“What?” She started to unbuckle herself, but I yelled for her to stop.
We locked eyes, and I swallowed hard.
"I need you to listen to me very carefully.”
“Okay?” Her voice cracked as she nodded. “I’ve got you. What do you need?”
“You’re going to…” I chuckled, but the sound was strangled by a sudden, shocking pain that bolted through every part of me. “…do a controlled water landing when you get to Martinique.”
“What?” Her eyes grew wide with panic.
I wiped at my left leg and felt stuff protruding from it. I brought my hand to my face and my fingers were completely red. I placed my limp hand back on the stick and looked at Emma.
“Stay calm.” I tried to speak reassuringly, but I couldn't feel the stick in my palm. I nodded for her to reach for the controls on her side. “Take the stick.”
Her chest heaved and her chin quivered as she took the stick between her legs, but she did as I asked.
“You’re going to hold it level until the engine gives out,” I said, my voice wavering. “Then, I want you to gently lean forward for a count of three seconds, okay? Just like this.” I demonstrated the motion, wincing in pain. “Then you level it out again. Keep doing that and coast for as long as you can. If you see land before the engine gives, pull back on the throttle and do the same thing I just told you, got it?”
“Nathan, I can’t do this.” She sobbed. “Please.”
“Yes…” I assured her, forcing a weak smile. “You can. You're tougher than you... just... fly north. You’ll see Martinique… Florida means you went...”
Delirious, the warmth in my body suddenly turned cold as the vast darkness closed in. I had her at onion rings…