Page 31 of Silk Shadow

“Oh, God.” Her hands flew to her mouth.

“Call, now!”

Emily was still fumbling for her phone as he pushed the jet ski out, leaped on, and took off after the retreating motorboat.

CHAPTER 13

Viper raced after the kidnappers, pushing the jet ski to its maximum capacity. He didn't hold out much hope, but he had to try.

They'd be taking her to a mothership, by the looks of things. They were too far away from the shore for the inflatable to make it back and their current bearing was south. There must be a bigger craft out there somewhere.

He kept the shadowy vessel in his sights as he floored the tiny engine. It didn’t hold much gas, and soon the gauge was flickering above empty. Looking up, he couldn’t see the boat. Panic threatened to surge through his veins, but he focused on remaining calm. He knew it was the only way through this. Lose it, and he’d lose Izzy.

“Come on,” he muttered, scanning the dark surface of the ocean. “Where are you?”

There!

In the distance, he spotted a murky, dark hull rising out of the water. It was swathed in darkness, all the lights off on deck, but he could make out a white bulkhead. It looked to be a commercial vessel of some kind. A fishing trawler maybe?

He grunted. Good cover. No one would look twice at a fishing boat docking in the early hours.

The jet ski's engine spluttered, then hiccupped as it jerked spasmodically. He'd never make it back to the yacht, but then he’d known that right from the start. No point in holding back, so he pushed every last inch out of the machine before it stalled.

The night was eerily silent, save for the gentle lapping of water against the jet ski. From here, he couldn’t hear the inflatable anymore, but he could make out the name on the side of the ship: Pacific Pride.

The stealthy inflatable vanished around the darker hull of the ship, and he waited, picturing them docking and forcing Izzy on board. He was just debating whether or not he could swim out to it when he heard the engines churn.

Shit, they were leaving.

With a sinking heart, he watched the white foam churn at the stern as the vessel made a lazy turn and headed south, away from San Diego. It could be going anywhere, but his guess was Mexico.

He slammed his hands down on the handlebars. Damn it. He'd lost her.

The only thing he had was a name.

Pacific Pride.

It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

The Coast Guard picked him up a couple of hours later. The jet ski had a light at the front, like a motorcycle, which he’d kept on. Luckily, they'd located him before the battery had died.

He took the GPS coordinates from the captain, knowing full well that he would have drifted over the course of the last few hours, and he gave them the name of the fishing vessel. They looked it up on their sonar, but it was nowhere to be seen.

The fishing trawler had vanished.

As soon as Viper stepped back on dry land, he called Blackthorn Security HQ in D.C. and told Blade what had happened.

There was no blame, no reprimand for losing his principal, just a terse exchange of the facts. Viper told Blade what he knew, gave him the coordinates and the name of the ship, and the Operations Manager instructed him to sit tight. They’d get back to him.

Viper paced up and down his hotel room. What an almighty fuckup. How could this have happened? Nobody had known they were going out on that yacht tonight. It had been a last-minute decision, and yet, that attack had been planned and executed to perfection. A quick, violent ambush. They’d grabbed the target and gotten out of there, all in under five minutes.

Those guys were pros. The semi-automatics they'd been using were proof of that. AK-47 assault rifles. He'd recognized the distinctive curved magazines from his time in the Middle East.

The telephone rang. It was the hotel reception asking him to come downstairs. A detective from the San Diego Police Department had arrived to interview him.

"Have you found the trawler?" he asked, as soon as the introductions were out of the way.

"Not yet." The stocky, mustached detective gestured for him to sit down. "I’d like to hear your version of the events?"