Read Online Lost Empire by Clive;Grant Blackwood Cussler - Free Book Online

around the mangrove roots. He stopped, peeking around the edge. The Zodiac was ten feet away. Sam watched, waited until the nose of the Zodiac disappeared around the opposite side, then glanced back up the lagoon. The other two Zodiacs were a hundred yards away and still moving.
    Sam took a deep breath, ducked under with the gaff pole, kicked twice, pulled himself around the roots, and let his eyes pop above the surface. The rear of the Zodiac was five feet away, moving slowly, the driver sitting with one hand on the motor’s throttle as he leaned sideways and scanned the mangrove with his flashlight. Sam did a half kick with his feet and closed to within a foot of the Zodiac. He reached out, gently placed his left hand on the rubber side, then raised the gaff from the water, cocked it back, and flicked it forward as though casting a fishing lure. The gaff’s steel tip caught the man on the side of his head, just above the ear. He let out a gasp, then slumped over the side, his head drooping in the water. Before Sam could make another move, Remi was there, lifting the man’s head and rolling the body back into the Zodiac. Sam looked over his shoulder. Hawk Nose and his partner were two hundred yards away now.
    “Yaotl!” Hawk Nose’s voice echoed over the water.
    “Hurry,” Sam said to Remi, then climbed aboard the Zodiac and took a seat at the motor. “Stay on the port side. I’ll drag you back to the Andreyale.”
    Remi swam around and grabbed the oar hook with two fingers. Sam revved the motor, and the Zodiac glided out from behind the mangrove. Sam found the man’s—Yaotl’s—flashlight where it had fallen, picked it up, and aimed it at the other two Zodiacs, which come to a halt. Sam flashed the beam twice and raised a casual hand, praying it would be enough. He held his breath.
    Nothing from the Zodiacs. Ten seconds passed. And then the double wink of a flashlight followed by a raised hand. “Yaotl . . . ¡Apúrate! ”
    Sam guided the Zodiac to the Andreyale’s stern, using the length of the boat to hide their movements. Remi climbed aboard, and together they rolled Yaotl over the gunwale. He landed with a thump on the afterdeck.
    “Now what?” Remi asked.
    “Tie him up, hands and feet to the cleats, and search him. I’ve got to catch up with my new friends.” Remi opened her mouth to protest, but Sam interrupted: “I need my mask and the binoculars.” She went into the cabin with both items and traded them for Sam’s gaff. “Don’t worry, Remi, I’ll keep my distance.”
    “And when you can’t any longer?”
    “I’ll have a terrible mishap.”
    He gave her a wink, revved the engine, and motored away.
     
     
    HAWK NOSE and the other man had continued on. By the time Sam reached the midpoint of the lagoon, they were turning west into the inlet. Sam mentally recalled the twists and turns of the inlet, did a few quick calculations, and kept going. Fifty feet from the entrance, he slowed to idle and listened. No sound of the other motors. He revved up, kept going, and made the turn. A hundred yards ahead the other two were moving single file through the inlet. Beyond them, about a half mile away, Sam could see the inlet widening into Chumbe Island’s shoals. He lifted the binoculars to his face and scanned the channel. Nothing was moving, and no lights were visible within ten miles—save one. A mile to the southwest, a single white light hovered thirty feet off the water—the international signal for a boat at anchor. The boat itself was bow on, rake stemmed, with a gleaming white superstructure, clearly a luxury yacht. The mother ship, perhaps?
    Hawk Nose and his partner veered left and disappeared from view momentarily. Time to prepare for the mishap: Sam throttled down, veered left, and let the Zodiac ground itself on the sand. A quick glance around gave him what he needed: a dagger-shaped rock. He grabbed it, shoved the Zodiac back into the inlet, jumped aboard, and took off again.
    So