Fathom by L. Standage (spanish books to read .TXT) 📕

I looked around as though a solution would wash onto the boat from the stormy waves. We had to get away. But how? Choking on my shivering sobs, I looked up at the tower where the boat controls were.

I didn’t hesitate. I stood, I slipped, I hit my head, I got back up. Someone shouted after me. I clung to the chrome railing and hurried as fast as the storm would allow. The rain blinded me, but I felt my way to the ladder.

“Stop!” the English guy growled behind me. I screamed as the boat heaved left and right and left again. Hand over hand, I climbed to the tower. Someone grabbed my heel. I kicked hard. He grabbed my leg.

“Let go!”

He laughed, pulling me down the ladder. I kicked and scratched, struggling to pull his strong hands off of me. Then, with a clang and a groan, he fell. Samantha stood behind, poised with a frying pan in her hands.

“I can’t believe that worked!”

“Thank you!” I cried, then scrambled back up the ladder and lunged for the controls. No gas pedal. How was I supposed to do this? I’d been on ski boats back at home, maybe I could…

Below, Natasha screamed. Marinus was trying to pull her to the ladder joining the ships but the waves continued to toss. I looked at the yacht where Linnaeus’s men clung to the railing with one hand and their guns in the other. I looked back at the controls. Key in the ignition, a stick that looked like a throttle next to it. Either it would work or it wouldn’t. I turned the key and pushed the throttle as far as it would go.

In the next second, the motor roared to life and lurched the Imbali into the storm. The ladder joining the boats bent and broke. The Englishman tumbled over the railing and out of sight. Samantha lost hold of the frying pan, both of her arms wrapped around the boat rail. Linnaeus and Marinus were the only enemies left on board. Marinus had finally let go of Natasha. She crawled away from him. We had strength in numbers now, but everyone was flattened to the deck of the boat and gripping whatever they could find. I looked for Calder.

There, near the edge. He clung to a deck lounge. The bolts holding it in place were breaking. I cut off the throttle, scrambled and slipped down the ladder of the slowing boat, hurled myself around the cabin, crossed the deck, and grabbed for him around the waist. The boat tumbled down a mountainous swell. The lower half of my body crashed into a rail, but my hold on Calder remained firm. I strained to help pull him away from the black, foaming maw of the angry ocean. My arms felt like they would rip from my body, until at last his knees found the deck and he held on to me.

“Linnaeus, let him go!” Eamon shouted. I looked up. Linnaeus held Seidon with a gun to his head. Cordelia was gone. Walter and Uther huddled around Natasha at the door to the cabin, trying to control her bleeding. Marinus still moaned for her to come back to him. He made a lunge for her and Uther shoved him away. Marinus slid, screeching all the way into the rush of a foaming wave.

“I’m a man of my word!” said Linnaeus, indifferent to the loss of Marinus. “If your mermaid doesn’t return in five minutes, I’m going to keep dishing out bullets, O’Dell!”

“You have to let Seidon go!” Eamon choked as another wave of water rushed over the deck. “The waves won’t calm until you do!”

“Call for them, O’Dell! Bring her back!”

“I can’t, you fool!”

Another voice joined in. “Let him go, you—” A peal of thunder roared overhead, muffling the rest. I looked around to see Samantha stagger from where I’d left her near the tower.

Linnaeus laughed.

“All right, you’ll do,” he said, eyes eyes on Samantha. “If your mermaid friend doesn’t flop back onto the deck of this boat, you’ll be the first to go and O’Dell can watch as one of his innocent friends dies.”

Seidon struggled against Linnaeus.

“Samantha, don’t!” Seidon shouted, his voice harsh with desperation. “Go back, go back!” He pushed backward, trying to knock Linnaeus into the water. Linnaeus recovered his footing, though barely.

“Try that again, dear boy, and she dies. And you’ll be the first specimen we experiment on.”

“Linnaeus!” Eamon shouted.

I watched Sam continue toward them, hand over hand along the railing.

“Sam, no!” I cried. Calder held me against his chest. Linnaeus pointed his gun and fired. Samantha buckled. I screamed, long and loud, my muscles seizing in horror as she doubled over.

“Who’s next?” Linnaeus shouted, waving his gun like a mad man.

“Enough! Leave them alone!” Eamon cried. But my eyes remained on Samantha.

She looked up, her teeth gritted and her eyes wide with rage. She held one arm over her stomach. Blood leaked from under her arm. Lightning blazed, casting a colorless flash of light on her ferocious, determined features. A crash of thunder followed, louder than gunfire.

Then, without warning, Samantha charged at Linnaeus. The gun in his hand fired twice more as he bellowed in shock and tumbled backward into the churning water. Seidon fell with them. Samantha, caught in the force of her attack, disappeared over the railing as well.

“SAMANTHA!” I tore myself free from Calder and rushed to the side of the boat where Sam had fallen. I leaned over the railing and swung one leg over, but Calder caught up with me and pulled me back. I screamed and fought while Uther and Walter grabbed a life preserver.

The seas calmed. The rain stopped and the waves settled. The boat steadied. Uther and Eamon stood at the side, holding the rope that would be Sam’s lifeline. I searched the black water so hard, my head hurt.

“Samantha!” I cried, over and over again. “Samantha!”

A flood light appeared from the tower; its beam directed at