Page 89 of Ground Zero

“Jimmy James, you shouldn’t be here?—”

“Boat’s tricky to single-hand if you’re not familiar with her.” He worked efficiently, not meeting their eyes. “Besides, if anyone asks, I came down to check on her after hearing about the evacuation. Found her gone. Must’ve been stolen.”

“Jimmy James—” Maverick started.

“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.” He finished with the lines and finally looked at Maverick. “I know what it looks like when a good soldier’s being railroaded. Go do what you need to do.”

Sheridan climbed aboard, immediately checking the boat’s equipment. Radio, GPS, emergency supplies—everything they might need.

“If they catch you—” Jimmy James started.

“Tell them I had a gun,” Maverick said. “Tell them I threatened you.”

Jimmy James stepped back onto the dock. “I’ll tell them I didn’t see anything.”

“Thank you,” Maverick said.

Jimmy James nodded once, then walked away without looking back. He was a man who understood that sometimes doing the right thing meant breaking the rules.

Maverick fired up the engines, the twin motors rumbling to life. “You ready for this?”

Sheridan cast off the last line. “Ready.”

They pulled out of the slip slowly, following the no-wake zone markers. But once they cleared the marina, Maverick pushed the throttles forward. The boat rose into a plane, racing across the water toward Norfolk.

The naval station was one hundred twenty nautical miles north. AtThe Wahoo’s top speed—and without any obstacles slowing them down—they could make it in just over two hours.

The question was whether that would be fast enough.

“What’s the plan when we get there?” Sheridan shouted over the engine noise and wind.

“We find the submarine pens. Stop whatever Sigma’s planning.”

“That’s not much of a plan. Plus, there will be safety measures in place at the base. I’m not even sure they’ll let me on-site, especially with the elevated security level.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

She didn’t. The odds were impossible.

But as she watched Maverick at the helm, his jaw set with determination despite his injuries, she knew they had to try. Norfolk held thousands of military personnel, not to mention the British submarine crew.

The boat flew across the waves, each impact jarring Maverick’s injured ribs. Sheridan saw him wince, but he never eased off the throttle.

She wished they could slow down. But they couldn’t.

They were running out of time, and too many lives were on the line.

CHAPTER 49

Maverick cut the engines as they approached a small inlet on the Elizabeth River, about a mile south of Naval Station Norfolk’s perimeter.

“You’re right. We can’t get on base.” He grabbed a weathered piling to hold them steady until they figured out a plan. “Every entrance will be locked down.”

“Then where?” Sheridan checked her weapon as they waited there.

Maverick’s mind raced through possibilities. “The explosives for tomorrow’s attack—they wouldn’t store them on base. There are too many security checks, too many eyes. They’d need somewhere close but off the grid.”

“Then a warehouse or storage facility, maybe?”