Chapter 28

Shell Path, Bristol, Rhode Island

0400, October 27, 2012

Zeus slipped into the water from Shell Path, a small coastal road behind Roger Williams University that attracted little attention in normal times. Now, with the threat of Hurricane Sandy, it was deserted. He re-re-checked the load that was trailing the DPV as it struggled against the incoming surf. All was well. The small but powerful electric motor that ran the propeller was idling slowly as he worked the device out into the bay. He checked his GPS display and the red target dot that was his goal; the green dot was him.

Currently they were on opposite sides of the peninsula that was Bristol, R.I. The Sure Shot was tied up at her berth in Bristol northwest of his current position. But she had been moving, last night: getting fuel. They were going to take her out today. He goosed the DPV up to maximum, and sent a click to Io via the small microphone that they'd attached to his scuba mouthpiece. He shifted the tanks on his back, and they settled more comfortably. He had the re-breather, of course, but there was too much risk that it would be torn away in the current to rely on that small, simple device.

He moved south around the end of the peninsula, and then headed northwest-by-north, towards the private berth near the Bristol Yacht Club.

The Sure Shot, Bristol, Rhode Island

0930, October 27, 2012

The Sure Shot was a ninety-two foot motor yacht that nominally belonged to Thomas Worth, son and heir to the fortune of James Worth. Her fuel tanks were topped off and she was getting ready to make for the safety of the Atlantic. Close to shore was no place for a vessel that could handle the open ocean, and with four days head start, as of now, she should be able to make for the Azores before Hurricane Sandy even hit Washington, DC. She should be fine. A little jaunt out between Block Island and Norman's Land Island ... off Martha's Vineyard ... and then a sharp turn to port, and she'd be several hundred miles away from the fury of Hurricane Sandy.

At least, that was the plan discussed publicly in the Bristol Yacht Club.

The normal captain and crew were not going to make this trip, however. One couldn't be alerting the captain that a Federal fugitive was taking a joy ride, now could one? He might be a good Boy Scout and tell someone, maybe even the authorities. So James Worth was going to be the captain for this cruise, with Thomas his second in command. The four men who were arrested on that much cursed night in the Adirondacks, when the raid was staged on Worth's house, would be his crew. It would be tough handling the large yacht with such a small crew, but they'd manage. It did have the latest and greatest in modern equipment, and everything was almost automatic.