فصل سی و چهارم

Chapter 34: Yachts and Fishing Boats

I’m not sure why Jaime didn’t just stay at the villa with us, but he didn’t. He usually just showed up when we needed him—like for my climbing practices. The next day we found an abandoned metal storage shed closer to the house. I went there twice a day until I got my time down to just twelve minutes. Taylor started coming with me to watch. Or maybe just to feel like a cheerleader again. She was good at that. She even made up a cheer.

Go, Michael.

Climb that wall.

Reach the top

And please don’t fall.

Goooooooo, Michael!

Then she’d do this little kick thing. Jaime just looked at her like she was crazy. Truthfully, her cheering was counterproductive. The first time she did the whole cheer, I started laughing so hard that I fell ten feet.

The next three days were an emotional roller coaster for me. At one moment I imagined us sinking the boat, escaping, and flying home, having saved the country of Tuvalu, wherever that was. The next moment the whole thing looked like a suicide mission.

On the morning of the third day, Jaime came in while we were all eating breakfast. Taylor had made French toast and fried Peruvian bacon, which was so thick it looked like ham.

“You’re early,” I said. “I thought we were going at eleven.” “Get something to eat,” Taylor said. “Help yourself, I made a ton.” Jaime looked at us seriously. “The Elgen fleet is in port.” We all stopped eating.

“All of them?” Ostin asked.

“Sí.”

“I want to see it,” I said.

“You will soon enough,” Jaime said. “When we attack.” “I need to see it before then. I need to see it in daylight.” “That is risky.”

“Unlike sneaking aboard and sinking it,” Ostin said.

“I have to see it,” I said firmly. “I need to know what I’m facing. I need to visualize the attack.” Jaime looked unsure. “I will have to see if Dodds can come.” “We don’t need Dodds,” I said. “I just want to see the boats for myself.” “Me too,” Jack said.

“And me,” Taylor said.

Jaime looked at us for a moment, then said, “Very well. I must make arrangements to capture our sailor’s uniform, then I will be back.” “Don’t forget his magnetic key,” Ostin added.

“Sí. And the key. Then we will go visit the Elgen.” * * *

Jaime returned to the house around five in the afternoon. All five of us were waiting for him in the front room and walked out to meet him before he reached the front door.

When we were in the van, Taylor said, “Jaime, did you set your sailor trap?” “Sí, senorita.”

“What are you using for bait?” she asked.

“A pretty woman, of course.” Then he added, “It works every time.” “Worked for me,” Ostin said, looking over at McKenna. She smiled at him.

“Wow,” Taylor whispered to me. “Just wow.” * * *

Jaime drove north up the Pacific coastline about twenty miles before we came to a solitary cliff overlooking the Port Callao harbor. We reached the port after the sun had begun making its descent, turning the bay a hue of golden rose.

After Jaime was completely certain that we were not being watched, he retrieved a pair of binoculars from beneath the van’s driver seat and we walked out to the edge of the cliff and got down on our stomachs. The Callao bay stretched out below us, bustling with barges and cranes, navy ships, yachts, freighters, and cruise liners.

“That’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be,” Taylor said.

“Port Callao is the largest seaport in South America,” Jaime said.

“What does Callao mean?” Ostin asked.

Jaime looked at him. “This you do not know?” “Nope,” he said.

Jaime nodded. “Neither does anyone else.” He pointed to a group of ships a few hundred yards north of us. “They are there, all together,” he said, handing me his binoculars.

Even without the binoculars I recognized the vessels. It was impressive to actually see all seven boats of the Elgen fleet together—impressive and terrifying.

The Ampere was in the middle of the fleet and wasn’t hard to pick out. It was the coolest boat I had ever seen—the kind of craft Ostin would have cut out of his Popular Science magazine and pinned to his wall.

What made it even more fascinating was knowing that Hatch was somewhere on that ship. I just wished that I could throw a massive lightning ball and blow the ship and Hatch off the planet.

“So that’s the Ampere,” I said.

“Sí,” Jaime said.

“I told you it was cool,” McKenna said.

“The space shuttle is cool,” Ostin said. “That thing is freakin’ epic.” “And we’re going to sink it,” I said. “It’s kind of sad in a way. Like blowing up a cathedral.” “More like a house of horrors,” McKenna said.

“They are docked close together for protection,” Jaime said. “You can see the guards have blocked off the entire shoreline.” Ostin grimaced. “If we scuba dived in, we’d have to swim at least a half mile underwater.” He was the only one of us who had actually scuba dived, and that was during a highly supervised excursion on a family trip to Hawaii. “That won’t be easy.” “What part of any of this is easy?” Jack said.

“I’m just saying, it’s going to add at least an hour getting there and we’ll all be exhausted when we do. And by the time we blow the ship and get back to shore, the place will be crawling with military. How will we come ashore?” “We’ll have to set a longer delay on the explosive’s timer,” I said.

“Which gives them more of a chance to find it,” Jaime said.

“And where do we put the scuba tanks while we climb the boat?” McKenna asked.

None of us had an answer.

I looked back out over the fleet. “What are those boats out there? The little ones behind the fleet.” “Fishing boats,” Jaime said.

“They’re close to the ships,” I said.

McKenna had the binoculars and was looking out at the boats. “That one’s not even a hundred feet from the Ampere,” she said.

“They don’t suspect them,” Ostin said.

Jaime smiled. “I think we just found our way to the Ampere.”