"We have one shot at this, Caleb." Bones looked up at the boy sitting at the wheel. "I have faith in you."
He was trying to appear confident and worthy for the sake of his uncle, father and brother, but his extreme nervousness showed through clearly. Sadly, at fourteen he wasn't much younger than many boys sent into combat the world over.
Bones waved at Pauncharillo as the lead boat broke away, slowed and came close to tie off. He noticed that the other four kept their distance from the trawler and from each other. He counted at least four armed men on each boat in addition to the drivers.
"Turn engines!" Prepare to boarded!" The thick little police officer wielded the bullhorn like a weapon.
"Ola! Come aboard." Bones coiled a tie line in his hands and tossed it at the guard standing in the stern. He prayed the man didn't know boats and would tie off the stern line. Like most men with training, the only unforgivable sin was inaction. The man slung his rifle and efficiently tied off the line to the stern cleat, appearing very competent and knowledgeable.
"Turn engines! Prepare to boarded!" Pauncharillo watched, confused and distracted by the flying lines, as his own crewman tossed the bow line to Bones. He continued to oblige his would-be boarders by pulling hard to bring the side of their boat toward the flat stern of the trawler making a T formation. Bones tied off the bow line leaving a gap of two or three feet between the two craft before giving the high sign to Caleb.
Displeasure crossed Pauncharillo's face as he was forced to walk from the prow down to the starboard side. Stepping onto the starboard pontoon, his anger and frustration grew as he was forced to jump the gap. Two of his men made to follow just as Caleb slammed the throttles to the stops and the twin Crusader engines roared to life flipping the fat cop's rigid inflatable sideways and launching the remaining men into the water.
Bone didn't have time to celebrate. The first guard to jump slammed right into him as Caleb swerved the boat hard to starboard. Bones had just a moment to note that the second guard had missed his mark and landed with his hands on the dive step. He'd be lucky to hold on at top speed. Pauncharillo had scurried out of sight.
Bones recognized immediately that he suffered a few disadvantages besides having his head slammed against a bollard in the fall. As Providence would have it, the guard landed directly on top of him. He outweighed Bones twice, seemed completely unaffected by the fall and appeared very angry judging by the flurry of punches he landed before Bones had recovered his senses. Bones did have one advantage though: he knew exactly when Caleb was going to savagely yank the wheel to port.
Bones covered up and waited as the man reigned down harder and harder blows sensing victory. He could feel the engines pushing the trawler hard to starboard until they had almost completed a full circle. Bones prepared as the guard reared up leaning into the turn to deliver the death blow.
Caleb spun the wheel to port viciously whipsawing the trawler from right to left. Bones sensed it coming and simply shifted his hips to throw the man to starboard. The move was almost unnecessary. His assailant sailed into air and over the gunwale, shock registering on his face.
That hadn't been part of the plan, but it worked. Bones shook it off and scampered up the ladder to take over the wheel from Caleb. As he crested the ladder and his foot landed on the bridge, a massive arm wrapped around his throat from behind and squeezed. The second guard had not only hung onto the dive step, but had somehow managed to work himself aboard despite Caleb's wild gyrations.
Bones couldn't see his attacker, but the look on Caleb's face told him all he needed to know. He hardly had a moment to think as vicious rabbit punches hit him repeatedly in the kidneys. Bone's face turned red with rage or imminent asphyxiation or both as he pulled on the ladder's railings with all the might his battered body would allow, trying to bring his trailing foot onto the bridge.
The guard pulled him backward, leaning out and walking his feet up the ladder on either side to push directly aft with all the strength in his massive legs. The struggle was titanic as Bone's wiry arms tried in vain to overcome the brute's massive tree trunk legs. Caleb watched as Bones gave everything he had to inch his rear foot toward the bridge, leaning and pulling forward with every last ounce of strength.
Bone's foot moved so slowly that it almost seemed to hover in mid-air. Caleb began to despair. Everything in his brain and body compelled him to get up and help, but he had learned his lesson in the incident with his father. He would hold his position as instructed. Tears sprung unbidden as he watched his uncle strangling and in pain. Caleb urged him to motion him over, to make any sign—he began to imagine him making signs… and then he did.
Bones winked at Caleb and launched himself directly backward flying off the bridge more than fifteen feet above the trawlers stern deck. Sudden sweet relief suffused him as the two men hung in the air. Bones sucked air deep in preparation.
As they slammed into the trawlers deck, Bones exhaled with force in lieu of resisting the wind being knocked out of him. His ears heard as well as felt a satisfying crunch. Getting up, he didn't even look back. The sickening sound told him all he needed to know. Scampering up the ladder, he waved Caleb away and swung the wheel starboard in a serpentine pattern.