The Worthless Son-In-Law's Trillion Dollars Secret

Chapter 9: Nowhere to Hide

Romeo's Point of View

I pushed Emma and Margaret down into the boat cabin as the first helicopter began firing. The sound was thunder, loud and awful and misplaced. Bullets screamed through the air above, tearing through the old warehouse like paper. Federal agents on the dock fired back, but there were too many helicopters, too many men. It was like fighting the sky.

"Start the engine!" I was yelled at by Sarah Chen. She was firing at the helicopters, distracting them. Her team was doing likewise around her, but I could see they were being pushed back. They were in danger.

 "Go!"  "Get out of here!"

 I ran to the engine and turned it on as quickly as I could.  Suddenly, the boat lurched forward, and I had to grab the wheel to stay upright.  A bullet went through the windshield right next to my head, leaving a hole with cracks spreading out from it like a spider's web.  I ducked down and kept the boat moving away from the dock and out into the open water.

 "Wait a minute!"  I yelled at Emma and Margaret.  I could hear them moving around in the cabin, looking for something to hold on to as the boat sped through the water at a dangerous speed.

 The fight on the dock was getting worse behind me.  The helicopters were landing now, and a lot of soldiers were getting out.  Sarah Chen and her team were being surrounded.  I wanted to go back and help them.  I wanted to fight.  But I knew that if I did, I would be throwing away the chance that my grandfather, Vincent, and everyone else had worked so hard to give me.

 The boat sped across the water.  I couldn't see the city behind me anymore.  I couldn't see the helicopters either, but I could still hear the sound of their blades cutting through the air.  They were behind me.  They were, of course, following me.  David Black wanted me.  They all wanted me as a prize.

 Emma climbed up from the cabin, holding on to the railings to keep her balance.  Her face was pale, but her eyes were set on something.  "What are we doing?" she asked.

 "I said, "Away from here."  "Far away as possible."

 Emma said, "That's not a real answer."  Even though the boat was bouncing over the rough water, she came closer to me.  "Romeo, we need a plan.  We need to know what we're up to.  "We can't just keep running."

 She was correct.  It wasn't going to work to run forever.  We would eventually run out of places to go.  We would have to fight someday.  But first, we had to stay alive.

 The radio on the boat started to work.  There was a voice that sounded distorted and static-y, but I could still make out the words.  Vincent was there.  He was still alive.

 "Romeo, can you hear me?"  Vincent's voice sounded tired.  "The safe house is gone.  It is under the control of the Shadow Syndicate.  But I got out.  I got most of the important files out.  "I'm going north with the rest of the security team."

 "Vincent!"  I took the radio.  "Where are you?  How do I get to you?

 Vincent said, "Your boat's computer already has a location programmed into it."  "Years ago, your grandfather set it up.  It's a cabin by a lake, far away from the city.  Get there.  We'll see you there.  Let's get back together.  "We'll figure out what to do next."

 The radio stopped working.

 I looked at the boat's control panel.  I hadn't seen the small screen before.  I pushed a button, and a map popped up.  It showed where we were on the water and a target point far to the north.  It was a long way.  It would take a long time to get there.  Hours spent outside in the open.  Hours when the Shadow Syndicate could follow us.

 I told Emma, "We're going to that cabin."  "Vincent will be there."  We can work this out together.

 But Emma didn't look at me.  She was staring at the sky above me.  I turned to look at what she was seeing, and my heart sank.  The helicopters were still there.  They were still behind us, far enough away that they couldn't reach us but close enough to see where we were going.  We couldn't get away from them.  We could only show them the way to where we were going.

 Emma said, "They're herding us."  She spoke softly but steadily.  "They aren't trying to catch us right now."  They're pushing us toward a certain place.  They want us to go somewhere.

 She was correct.  As soon as she said it, I knew it.  David Black didn't have to catch us on the water.  He could catch us anywhere.  But he was letting us go.  He made us think we were getting away.  He was leading us somewhere.

 "We need to change course," I said.  I began to steer the boat away from the planned destination and toward a different one.  But as soon as I did, one of the helicopters shot a warning shot into the water right in front of us.  It was clear.  We had to go up north.  We had to go to that cabin.

 Margaret said, "It's a trap."  She had climbed up from the cabin as well.  She was watching the helicopters from the railing.  "David Black is making a trap.  He knows we're going north.  He is aware of the cabin.  He'll be waiting for us there.

 I said, "My grandfather built that cabin."  "It should be safe."  It should be safe.

 Margaret said, "Your grandfather's plans don't matter anymore."  She spoke with anger.  "I gave them a hand.  I helped David Black understand how your grandpa did his job.  I told Marcus Black everything he was doing.  And Marcus probably told David about them.  David Black knows about everything your grandfather built and planned.  Because of me."

 Emma took hold of her mother's arm.  "Stop," she said.  "Don't blame yourself.  We need to stop thinking about what came before and start thinking about what's next.

 I was thinking quickly about what to do.  We couldn't go to the cabin if it was a trap.  But if we didn't go there, the helicopters would kill us.  We were stuck between two choices that were impossible.

 Then I noticed it.  A small river flows through the mangrove trees along the shore.  It was small and hard to see.  Our boat is probably too big to fit through it.  But I wasn't driving a regular boat.  This was a Phoenix Empire boat that could handle anything.

 "Wait a second," I said.

 I turned the wheel sharply and aimed the boat straight at the river.  I didn't stop even though the helicopters shot warning shots.  The boat hit the space between the trees hard, and the hull scraped against the banks.  I thought we were going to get stuck for a second.  But the boat was smaller than I thought it would be, or the river was wider than it looked, and we got through.

 The helicopters behind us couldn't keep up.  They were too big.  They could only fly around and watch us disappear into the trees and water.

 I looked at Emma, and for the first time in hours, I thought we might have really gotten away.  We might have really found a way out.

 After that, the boat's engine stopped working.

 The lights all went out.  The radio stopped working.  The engine just stopped working.  We were drifting now, moving slowly through the dark water. We had no power and couldn't start anything up again.

 Emma asked, "What happened?"

 I looked at the console.  There was nothing alive.  No electricity.  No systems.  Nothing.  But that couldn't happen.  A Phoenix Empire boat had backup power systems.  It had more than one engine.  It shouldn't just stop like this.

 Unless someone turned it off on purpose.  Unless someone messed it up before we left.

 "They planned this," Margaret said in a low voice.  "David Black came up with the whole thing.  He already knew about every choice we made and every direction we ran in.  He sent us here on purpose.  To this spot.  "Where we can't get away."

 I was about to say something when I heard a noise that scared me to death.  A motor.  Getting closer.  Coming through the mangroves.  A different boat.  And then one more.  And one more.

 We were surrounded by the Shadow Syndicate.

 And we had no other choice but to run.

 Someone stood up in the first boat.  I could see the scarred face even from far away.  But it wasn't the face of David Black.  There was a new person.  A person I had never met before.

 The figure said, "Hello, Romeo."  His voice was calm and patient as it travelled across the water.  "Thomas Black is my name.  I am the Black brothers' youngest brother.  David told me to come get you.  And I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice this time.

 There was one more Black brother.

 And he was here to put an end to this once and for all.