Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead - By Jason Henderson Page 0,64

all of it fast and Italian and Alex wasn’t listening because he was reaching his hand for the girl. She grabbed it, laughed and shrieked, and fell back.

“Come on,” he called as genially as he could. Come on, for the love of all that’s holy, get your drunk ass off the WaveRunner.

She took his hand once more and put a bare foot on the ladder. For a second he thought she was going to lose it again but she climbed this time, and as she found herself on the dock, Alex heard the manager calling. “Attendez!”

Alex jumped on the craft, feeling it slosh down into the water with his weight. He twisted the throttle and stood still.

It was off. The guy had taken out the key when he climbed off.

The manager was coming fast now.

“Hey, I need the key!” Alex shouted to the Italian, who looked confused for a second, with good reason. Alex waved his hand at the manager, then pointed at the enormous blue float in the guy’s hand. Hanging off the float was a telephone cord and a large metal ignition key. “I gotta take it to him, gimme the key!”

The guy jauntily saluted and tossed Alex the key as the manager arrived, running full bore. Alex slapped the key into the ignition and turned it, feeling the motor rev to life, churning in the water.

“Don’t worry,” he shouted as he gunned the engine. Alex looked back as the jetty shrank in the distance, the manager’s wails of protest disappearing in the wind. Water was roaring up from the rear of the watercraft, and he picked up speed, standing tall and leaning forward, the craft bouncing high on the waves.

Soon the darkness of the water gave way to a crazy quilt of colored reflection. Ahead of him loomed the massive waterborne hulk where Ultravox was ready to make his final move.

Chapter 29

Anyone on the promenade deck who cared to look might have picked out the bright yellow WaveRunner approaching at a steady clip, but no one did. As he got closer, Alex heard calypso music streaming from above. There were teens and adults on the deck, arm in arm, looking at one another more than at the dark water.

Alex came up along the starboard side, hugging the side of the ship, scanning the white metal for any kind of access. The water was churning and he had to keep about two yards away to avoid getting swamped and sucked under. The ship was not moving fast, but it was kicking up a dangerous spray.

The Allimarc was not as large as a typical cruise ship—it was more of a giant yacht—but for a landlocked (if enormous) lake, the ship made a fantastically opulent statement. It was clearly very new, and Alex felt certain it would be outfitted with every geegaw a self-impressed ship owner would want, from HD screens in every stateroom to marine compactors for recycling glass and aluminum waste down to handy little blocks, to water purifiers to bring in lake water for use in cooking. Like the cars they were driven in, the ship was a symbol of the power of the parents of these schools’ students. The students themselves might be just kids, the ship was saying, but we the parents are powerful, even dangerous.

As he came around the curve of the hull he saw that the Allimarc had a rescue ladder near the prow, going all the way down under the waterline, cutting its own groove in the lake. Alex came up alongside, letting go of the WaveRunner, and grabbed on to the ladder. The WaveRunner whipped past his feet as he scrambled up. He heard a heavy, chunky sound as the yellow craft got caught up in the churn and disappeared beneath the ship, and Alex mentally apologized to the rental manager. The Polidorium could replace it.

Xylophone music accompanied him up the ladder. When he reached the top, he peered over the edge, keeping his head behind a huge life preserver and stanchion.

The deck at the prow was deserted. Alex scanned, seeing the lights of the bridge up above, and the tops of a few crewmen’s heads. No static. He grabbed the side and climbed, dropping onto the deck. As he hit the boards his dress shoes slid and he tumbled, crying out briefly as he fell in a mound of thick blue rope.

Alex stood up, breathing, taking in the calypso music and the cold wind leaching body heat through his jacket.