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“You should go outside and watch,” Indiana said in a tone that showed her gentle side. “It’s pretty fascinating.”
“Are you sure I can’t help?”
“Go watch, Kingsley, ya pain in the butt.” Despite her words, she grinned. She must be exhausted, yet somehow, she looked magnificent. Indiana drew some kind of energy from this work, or maybe it was Rhino.
I, on the other hand, would give anything for a few hours’ sleep.
I brushed my hand over her arm and was surprised when she didn’t pull back. “Sing out if you need me.”
“I won’t.” She indicated to the door with her head. “Go, before you miss the action.”
After one last glance at her, I strode out the door and headed for the rear dive platform where Chui’s semi-submerged yacht towed behind us.
The gantry crane sprang to life above me, shifting closer to the wreck. Rhino shuddered beneath me, signaling that the droning engines had been turned off. New sounds took over the night. The rumbling of heavy machinery somewhere else on the wharf. The whirring of the crane above. Shouts from the men on either side of the channel.
With a series of mechanical clicks, a heavy-duty sling was lowered down from the crane’s towering frame, positioned behind Chui’s yacht. A large, heavy-duty sling, attached to steel cables that glinted in the blazing lights, descended into the water. The entire crane moved forward, positioning the sling beneath the yacht’s hull.
A double dose of anticipation and apprehension surged through me.
Two smaller boats drove into the channel on either side of the yacht, each with two men wearing Hi-Viz uniforms. Working in tandem, they removed the cable tethering Rhino to the yacht.
They drove forward and hooked the cables onto Rhino. As they raced away, the noise of the crane changed. The steel cables reversed, slowly hoisting the yacht out of the water with a steady, controlled motion.
As the yacht rose higher, water and debris gushed from every exit. The yacht hung suspended in midair, the harbor lights flickering and dancing across its hull, and I got my first look at the massive luxury yacht that held something that some trigger-happy bastards were willing to kill for.
We had better figure out what that was, or all this effort was for nothing.
A din erupted from the crowd. When people pointed at the rear, I assumed they were getting their first glimpse of the massive crater in the hull caused by Viper’s C4. Even once his intentional detonation to breach the wall Chui was hiding behind had failed, nobody had anticipated the yacht sinking with Chui inside.
Although Chui was gone forever, the criminal legacy he left behind continued.
Movement shifted out of the corner of my eye, and I turned to Indiana as she wrestled with the cable crank beneath the crane.
Annoyed that she didn’t ask for my help, I raced to her side. “I’ll do that.”
She didn’t argue and stepped back.
I gripped the handle. “Tell me when to stop.”
“Just stop when the cable is all the way in, nice and tight. The hook can stay where it is. I’ll do the other one.” She took long strides to the opposite side of Rhino.
As I wound the cable in, which was damn tiring and took forever, the crane noise changed again. Chui’s yacht moved sideways onto dry land and was lowered onto another set of heavy-duty slings that were attached to a piece of machinery that looked like something NASA would use. That machinery was attached to a bulky towing vehicle with tires as tall as the men walking alongside it. The yacht was gradually towed away.
My arms were killing me by the time the cable finally reached full tension. I turned toward Indiana, but she was gone.
As I went to find her, Rhino’s engine rumbled beneath my feet.
I stepped onto the bridge. Indiana was behind the wheel, following the small tugboat that guided her out of the channel.
“I’ll let you off once we get out of here,” she said, shooting a glance my way.
A wave of sadness washed over me that was as sudden as it was confusing.
“You want to kiss me goodbye, don’t you, Officer Fancy Pants?” She wriggled her brows.
I chuckled.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I joked.
