dock’s transfer hose mechanism. The right showed an animated side view of the dock facility, complete with a simulated image of the approaching speedboat.
Pitt eyed a lever marked TRANSFER PUMP beside a row of dials labeled with tank numbers. He glanced at the video screen as the black speedboat came into view. The boat had been approaching the dock head-on, but now swung parallel and drifted alongside. In the gray morning light, he saw three people on the boat—a woman at the helm, a man with an assault rifle, and another woman seated behind him.
Pitt recognized all three.
The pilot and gunman were the assailants who’d tried to kill him and Elise in Dr. Nakamura’s office, and presumably had tracked him in the BMW. The woman was Audrey McKee.
The boat was docking directly in front of the transfer hose assembly. He reached to the console, randomly selecting a button marked TANK #3, and then activated the pump control lever. A whir of electric motors could be heard beneath his feet as a row of panel lights flicked on. Somewhere in the production bay, Pitt hoped, Tank #3 had something to give.
The speedboat bumped against the dock, and the pilot reached over and secured a stern line to a cleat. The gunman rose from his seat, placing a foot on the dock, when a loud gurgle erupted from the transfer assembly. He looked up as a firehose spray of bioremediation liquid came blasting out of the open end.
Standing directly in its path, the flow struck the gunman in the chest, knocking him backward. He tumbled into Audrey, both falling flat onto the floor of the boat.
As the boat filled, Pitt made his next move. He stepped laterally to a simple lever control that manipulated the dock’s elevation. He pushed up on the lever, eyeing the video screen to see the results.
Built to adjust to fluctuations in the lake, the hydraulic system allowed for an additional ten feet above the existing water level. Pitt held up the lever as the dock rose vertically in the air, drawing the security net above the surface with it. Secured tight by its stern dock line, the rear of the speedboat rose as well.
Realizing what was happening, the pilot tried to free the line, but fell forward before she could succeed. As the boat tipped forward, the pilot staggered into Audrey and the gunman. All three clung to the flooded interior as the boat nearly stood on end.
As the bow became more heavily weighted by the fluid, the boat twisted slowly toward the dock. The open cockpit collided with the dangling security net, entangling the bow and the windscreen.
Seeing the boat caught like a fly in a web, Pitt reversed the controls, sending the dock to SUBMERGE. The contracting hydraulics moved quickly, dropping the platform beneath the surface. Even from inside the control house, Pitt could hear the cries of the speedboat’s occupants as the entangled boat plunged vertically into the frigid water. Pitt caught a fleeting glimpse of Audrey on the monitor, struggling to break free of the netting, before the boat disappeared into the murk below.
The video suddenly faded to black, along with the lights on the control panel. Beneath Pitt’s feet, the electrical motors ceased their whirring. Somewhere inside the main facility, the power had been cut. Pitt abandoned the control room and ran down to the dock.
“You boys okay?”
Giordino was standing with Perkins at his side, watching a rising froth of bubbles on the water offshore. He turned at Pitt’s approach.
“Was that your handiwork?”
Pitt nodded. “I guess their security system works after all.” He scanned the nearby waters. There was no trace of the boat or its occupants.
Giordino looked at Perkins, and both men smiled.
“That it does.”
54
The laboratory’s alarms punctured the still morning air as Pitt and Giordino attended to Perkins’s wounds. He’d caught a grazing bullet to his shin and a clean perforation through his thigh. Pitt retrieved the lab coat and used its sleeves to bind the wounds.
Despite his injuries, Perkins remained alert, splashing across the flooded dock with an arm around Giordino’s shoulder. They spied the groggy guard dog, awakened after falling into the loch, paddling to shore nearby. Pitt retrieved the submersible’s painter, which had snapped during the dock’s gyrations, and they all crammed into the vessel. With seating for only two, Giordino gave Perkins the copilot seat while he perched on the hatch ladder just behind.
Pitt’s face was tense as he navigated the sub away from the dock.