Vengeance Read Online Free

noticed it. His focus was on his scopes.
    “Okay, we’re going back for another look,” he said. “Reduce speed to seven hundred, descend to one thousand. We’ll go low and slow, see if the scopes can pick up a better image.”

    “Ship she is getting real close,” Monster said.
    “How close?” Price asked.
    Monster pointed to the north. A large black shape was blotting out the stars on the horizon. Price could hear it now, a low dull throb.
    “Tsar, if it stays on its current course and speed, how close is it going to get?” Price asked.
    “Too close,” The Tsar said. “We’re drifting right into its path.”
    “Damn!” Price said. “Can we raise the sails yet?”
    “Just waiting for those jets to clear the area …” The Tsar broke off. “No. They’re coming back. Descending. Guess they want a closer look.”
    Price glanced back at the ship. A scorched wreck, but one that would smash their little yacht to matchsticks and plough the debris under the furrows of the ocean if they got in its way. Yet if they raised their sails they greatly increased their radar area and their risk of detection by the air patrol.
    “What are your orders, LT?” Monster asked.
    Again Price played it safe.
    “Do nothing,” she said. “We wait. We have no choice. Let’s just hope our guardian angels have got their eyes open.”

    Zane’s enemy aircraft warning indicator went off as they lined up on the floating shipwreck and the faint radar signature nearby.
    “What the hell?” he said.
    Six enemy aircraft had appeared to the east, right on the edge of their radar.
    “Time we were gone,” Shelz’ah said.
    “They’re a long way off,” Nikoz said. “And even if they get close, we can outrun them.”
    “We’ll take one more look at this anomaly,” Zane said. “We’ll disappear long before those planes get within missile range.”
    He called in the position, and a brief report on what they had seen, as they continued to descend and slow for their next pass.
    “Light it up,” he said. “Let’s get some high-res shots of this thing.”
    “I think we should get out of here,” Shelz’ah said.
    She seemed nervous for someone who had earned the Bzadian Sash.
    The fast little Razer had a top speed of more than mach 3. The fastest human fighters were less than half that fast.
    “This won’t take long,” Zane said. “Switch on your floodlights … now.”

    Three new stars winked into existence in the sky to the north. Bright spots, moving rapidly against the silky back cloth of the night sky.
    “Dammit,” Price said.
    “They’ll see us for sure,” The Tsar said.
    “We gotta move,” Wall said.
    “Move where?” Barnard asked.
    “Raise the sail,” Price said.
    “But …” The Tsar began.
    “Just raise it,” Price snapped. “There’s no time to argue.”
    Wall and Barnard were already pulling on the sheets. The sail rustled as it rose up and the air pressed into it.
    “Monster, can you get us across in front of the ship?” Price asked.
    “Can try,” Monster said.
    “Then tack behind it,” Price said.
    It was going to be close, whatever happened. The derelict, smouldering ship was almost upon them, but the air patrol was coming in fast.
    The yacht was moving now but not quickly enough, Price could see that. The ship was too close, the bow cutting through the water directly at them. The yacht was only just beginning to accelerate.
    “We’re not going to make it,” Wall said.
    “We have to make it,” Price said.
    “We’re not going to,” Wall said.
    The ship seemed so close that Price could almost reach out and touch it. A large black hull, unlit, blotting out the stars, the water splitting into two dense swells at the vee of the bow. The superstructure was gone. What was left was a twisted, smoking skeleton. The hull was scorched but intact.
    The clean ocean breeze was tainted by an acrid stench of burning oil and metal, and something else that Price didn’t want to think