around their ankles. He spun past Yusuf before he felt the sting of another cut, across his right forearm. LB worked his fingers, again testing to see how much he had left. No cords were severed in the arm, but he bled from one more gash.
In the instant Yusuf took to set himself for a last rush at LB, the chilly gulf rose to their waists. Valnea burbled, emptying herself as she dropped away below their feet. Yusuf surged at LB.
The pirate whipped the knife wildly and missed, hindered by the flooding waters. LB saw his one chance and sprang. He leaped at Yusuf before the pirate could swing his right arm back. He wrapped the big Somali in a bear hug, trapping Yusuf’s arm and the knife between them. The water climbed to their chests. LB linked hands around Yusuf Raage and squeezed with the last of his strength.
The flood reached LB’s shoulders; foam licked his chin. The pirate bellowed in anger, that he could not shake LB loose. In seconds the deck slid away beneath their feet. The two floated, locked together.
The pirate’s eyes and mouth widened with fury. LB answered with a deep breath before his head sank underwater.
Yusuf Raage kicked madly to raise his own head above the surface for one sharp gasp. LB held tight, weighing the pirate down. His own arms would fail in the next few moments. His wounds pained him enough that he could not fully feel his clasp around Yusuf. If the pirate got loose, they were in close quarters, Yusuf could stab him. One more good cut would likely be the end.
The bow slid away around them. LB kicked once with Yusuf to lift both their heads above water. The pirate, surprised, gulped air greedily. LB filled his own lungs.
The port windlass sank to his left. Without easing his clinch around Yusuf, LB lashed out a leg at the receding machine. The toe of his boot caught inside a link of the thick anchor chain. LB was hauled under, dragging Yusuf Raage down with him.
The pirate fought with everything he had left. He pricked at LB’s hip with the trapped knife, but could stab only nicks. LB rode the freighter deeper, eyes open and blurry in the salt gulf. The Somali thrashed, panicked and gaping. He worked his mouth for air that was not there while the growing depth swallowed the last of the thin light. LB clutched the pirate hard, keeping his ear pressed to the Somali’s chest. He staved off his pains, fought for focus, and preserved his air.
Yusuf Raage writhed inside LB’s grasp, his throat uttered muffled cries. With no notion of how deep the Valnea had towed them, LB pulled his boot out of the chain. The tip of the great bow slipped past in the dark, sucking at them as it disappeared.
Yusuf shuddered again. His head jerked in every direction, confounded and desperate. LB held tight until the pirate shook a last time, became sluggish, then went limp.
LB pushed the corpse away, weightless into the ghostly, tranquil water. The two drifted above the last groans of the freighter falling invisibly below them. Yusuf Raage, spread-eagled, receded into the dark.
LB followed bubbles fleeing the ship to show him the direction to the surface, but could only use his right arm to swim. His left shoulder was done.
His depth was unknown. LB kept his upward rhythm steady, expelling small breaths as he ascended. His lungs shrank, squeezing out every bit of oxygen to keep him conscious. He made his mission in the world as narrow as possible, to swim, stay alive, fight his own screaming body. Years of training lined up in his head to tell him he could do this. Memory added its images, a decade of jungle warfare, dozens of combat rescues, natural disasters, frightful conditions, always against odds. He’d done tough things in his life so that some would die and many others would live. Now was his time, LB, to take another stroke and kick upward, stroke and kick again, so that he could live.
To his salt-stung eyes, the water began to lighten. This meant starlight, moonlight, nearing the surface. LB released breath, bottoming out, easing for the last time the blaze in his lungs.
He swam as hard as he could. Behind this last push for the surface, he had nothing. Panic tripped inside his chest, his thoughts clouded. His mouth opened to draw an airless breath.
He pushed through the panic as if