Dmitry rammed the lifeboat into a shallow section of rocky beach outside of Unalaska. There was a deep scraping sound twice, as they bounced over taller rocks off shore. Then a booming, continuous scraping sound as the water became shallower. He left the throttle slammed wide open to keep speed. He needed to make sure the boat was securely stopped, and with shallow enough water to walk away quickly.

The impact was violent and jarring. They lurched forward as the boat lost speed, and were tossed side to side over the harsh beach. The lifeboat was a like a big, fiberglass bottle with bare walls. The sound was amplified inside, and it was deafening. They came to a stop. Dmitry's ears were ringing. Outside the boat, the rain was sideways. The small plexiglass windshield was covered in sheets of rain.

The engine made terrible clattering and screeching sounds as the propeller scraped uselessly against the rocks. Dmitry unbuckled himself and looked around. The children were all buckled into harnesses. Most of them were sitting in stunned silence. The air smelled acidic and sickly from vomit and urine, which sloshed forward in the small channels of the corrugated floor. Two of the children were unconscious. Whether they bounced their heads against the walls or passed out from stress and fear, Dmitry didn't know.

Pavel was buckled into the back row. He was supposed to keep the children in their places while they made it to shore. But, he didn't look good. They had taken his shirt off and tied it into a tight, makeshift bandage around his shoulder. The shirt was soaked through with blood, and he was pale and gray. It was clear his shoulder was ruined. His right arm was now hanging, uselessly. He held a gun in his left hand, but it was drooping to the floor. His head was lolling forward. He jerked his head back up and opened his eyes wide, then started to sink forward again.

Dmitry knew they didn't have much time. Pavel would die soon, without more blood and a proper hospital. Which meant he would probably die anyway. But that was the cost of success, sometimes. More than that, they had the FBI only a few miles away. Presumably, the lifeboat would be found quickly and swarmed with agents. It was painted a bright signal orange, and wouldn't be hard to find. All of the other launched lifeboats would cloud things, but not forever. They needed to be picked up, quickly, and hidden.

He unbuckled his harness, and fished his phone out of his pocket. He tapped a quick message.

In life boat on shore

Sending pin, get us NOW

Pavel dying maybe, lost lot of blood

He opened his maps application, and sent a location pin to Aleksandr.

A few minutes later, they heard the clatter of the old white van's diesel engine, and the slosh of tires moving quickly on gravel. Through the windshield, Dmitry could see the headlights, turned into a constellation of streaks and swirls by the rain on the plexiglass. The van drove by once, then skidded to a stop. The windshield turned red from the brake lights. He heard the whine of the reverse gear, then the headlights swung around again and pointed toward them.

Dmitry stood up, and adjusted the shoulder strap on his submachine gun. He swung it forward, and pointed it at the children. "Unbuckle yourselves, now."

There was a series of clicks. "If the child next to you isn't awake, unbuckle theirs too."

He heard the crunch of boots on rocks, and then a sharp knock on the door. "Pavel! Get the door."

Pavel shook his head to rouse himself. He stood up, unsteadily. He nearly lost his balance. He opened the door awkwardly with his left hand. Aleksandr stood outside, his rubber raincoat drenched and dripping.

Aleksandr took one look at him and said, "you don't look good, собрат."

Pavel just shook his head, wordlessly. He pushed past Aleksandr and tried to walk up the rocky shore to the van. Dmitry pointed his gun at the children again. "Follow! You will walk to the white van, and get inside."

One child started to whimper. "No complaints!"

Aleksandr stepped away from the door, and gestured the first child toward the van with his chin. The child stumbled down onto the wet rocks, and made his way slowly to the open sliding door. More children climbed out, and Aleksandr followed alongside them. A few feet ahead, he saw Pavel. He was sprawled on the rocks, inert and still.

The children climbed in the van. Dmitry whistled for Aleksandr, who doubled back and looked in the door of the lifeboat. The two unconscious children were unbuckled. Dmitry lifed one over his shoulder, and pointed Aleksandr to the other. They carried the children to the open van, and laid them down on the plywood floor inside. Then, they did the same with Pavel. They carried him by his arms and legs, and dropped him inside the van. They took his gun from his shoulder and tossed it in the passenger seat footwell.

Everyone loaded in, they slid the large door shut with a loud groan. Aleksandr put the van in drive, using a big column shifter. He pulled away with a spray of gravel. The headlights punched feebly into the pitch black night, and the wipers flailed trying to keep the windshield clear under the pounding rain..

—-------------------

Laura had tried her phone, but there was no reception in the dense metal. The guard had tried the open channels on his radio, with the same result. Just a wall of static. They knew they had to follow the blood trail in reverse. They crawled backward in the small, cramped tunnel. Laura's knees and chest were ablaze with pain. She winced as she slid back underneath the large metal pipe. But, she could holster her gun and use her hands. The progress was a little faster.

They followed the trail the way they had come. They climbed through the same small, awkward oval openings. Eventually they emerged from the trap door in the cargo hold. It was still pitch black. Laura figured the kidnapper had fled. She shone her flashlight around the big open space, and there was no sign of him. She swung her rifle from across her back, into her hands. She and the guard walked slowly around the space. It looked empty. Aside from the groaning of the ship as it rocked, it was eerily silent.

Soon, they came to the door of the cargo container. It was swung wide open. There were large, wet footprints leading up the entrance. Laura lit the interior with her flashlight, and saw that it was empty. Well, mostly empty. She walked in. There was a torn open loaf of bread, and empty plastic water bottles strewn around. She was disappointed. More than that, she was angry. She kicked one of the empty water bottles. It crunched and then skittered away, bouncing off of the far wall.

"We're too late,' said Laura.

Now above the thick metal load floor, her phone buzzed urgently. She had messages from Helen:

Where are you?

And ten minutes later:

Almost all life boats launched, mass confusion on board. We think the kids were launched in one, too. Jacqueline followed behind in her own lifeboat.

Another message from Jacqueline:

In lifeboat now, find one and follow. No time

She tapped the guard on the shoulder, and handed him her phone. His face lit up in the phone's glow. His brow furrowed as he read. "We need to go, now."

He read for a second, then nodded. "I have an idea."

They walked back to the elevator, and rode upward. The guard turned to Laura. "If all of the lifeboats are taken, we can use one of the zodiacs."

"Why weren't they launched, too?"

"Since they're just designed to take passengers ashore, only crew can launch them. They're not made for emergencies. They don't have flares and emergency food on board, or anything like that."

Laura nodded. She thought back to her trip to the glacier on board a zodiac. The sides were completely open and unprotected. She thought about the raging weather outside. "Can we even use one, in this weather?"

"You can't really sink them." He said. "I mean, look. It's not going to be comfortable, but it's probably our only option. The crew have life rafts, but they're just inflatable without a motor. We won't catch them for shit if we're paddling."

"Ok. Let's do it."

Laura pulled her phone out, and tapped a quick message to Jacqueline.

Few minutes behind you. Send location

They stopped the elevator on a crew level. The walls were drab and the lights above were bare fluorescent tubes. The carpet was low and dull gray. The guard led the way, sprinting down the corridor. His legs were long, but Laura was a strong runner. They passed locked, nondescript metal doors. The hallway looked endless. An employee emerged from one door, pushing a vacuum in front of her. The guard didn't break stride, and vaulted over the vacuum. Laura jumped over next, and they continued on. After a minute, the guard came to a stop at a locked door at the end of the hallway. He waved his badge in front of a reader, and the door lock clicked open. He pushed the door open with his hip and jogged forward. The space beyond opened up. It was the same loading dock that Laura had used to board the Zodiac with Brian.

The large exterior door was shut tight, and the ship was dry and stored on a small boom arm inside the large space. The metal walkway was folded up, resting in a small accordion shape. Laura saw a hydraulic mechanism on one side. They walked forward through the metal detector and past the empty screening desk. The detector shrieked uselessly.

Laura looked around. "You find the controls to move the boat, and I'll get the door open."

He nodded, then set off toward the boat.

Laura looked around the space. There was a small podium tucked into one end, with buttons and dials on it. She flipped one switch labeled 'lites.' The space was flooded with more fluorescent light. The row below wasn't labeled. One large knob looked like a rheostat. She turned it, and the metal walkway began to shriek and move. It started to slowly unfurl. But, the door wasn't open yet. Laura realized it would smash helplessly against the inside of the door, if she didn't get it open. She tried another switch, which seemed to do nothing. Then another, and the door began to swing slowly open. It hinged upward, like the window on a food truck. A tense moment followed, as she watched the steps nearly collide with the door. But they both opened. The air immediately coursed inside. Rain skittered across the metal floor, and laura's tattered clothes flapped in the strong current.

She jogged over to the guard, who was hunched over a small control panel at the base of the boom arm. He flipped one switch, which lit up and brought the crane to life with a small hydraulic whir. Then, he put his thumbs on two joysticks. He inched one to the left, and the boat dragged along the floor in the wrong direction. It crashed helplessly into the wall. He reversed the direction, and swung it closer to the opening. Then, he eased the other joystick forward and the arm extended. Once the boat was over the water, he twisted a small knob and the chain holding the boat unspooled. It set into the water with a splash. They both walked to the edge of the walkway, and caught their breath.

The zodiac was pitching and tipping wildly. It looked like a coin operating bucking bronco. Laura's phone buzzed. It was a location pin from Jacqueline, on the shoreline. She showed it to the guard. "Are we doing this?"

He grunted. "We got this far. We'll just have to hold on."