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CHAPTER 42

I WAS IN big trouble.

The inflatable was pitching like crazy and rain was coming down like bullets. The wind was spinning the boat and water crashed over the sides.

I’d already thrown up my seaweed supper. Now I was just hanging on for dear life.

I was out of fuel again. Not that it mattered. There was no way I could push through this storm. I just had to ride it out and hope that I was still in one piece when it ended.

Lightning split the sky in long jagged lines. For a few seconds at a time, I could see twenty-foot waves rising and falling around me. Otherwise, it was pitch-black.

The salt spray hit my coral wounds like a sandblaster, opening up the blisters again through my shirt. I crawled forward and grabbed a filthy tarp. I bunched it into a shallow pouch and let the rainwater fill it. I put the edge to my lips and took a long deep sip. The wind ripped the tarp out of my hands. Another wave hit. The right side of the boat tipped almost vertical. I grabbed for some knotted netting and felt myself falling.

Bang!

I hit the engine housing hard and blacked out.