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Reht she held he saw her shake her head He could see the anxiety in her eyes through her ently, took her hand, and aiht at the propeller They both knew that if the ine, Sam could be chopped to pieces in seconds
Sam proceeded methodically First, he found the cotter pin and removed it from the nut with a pair of needle-nose pliers He used the pliers to lift the tabs that held the locking ring, returned the pliers to his net bag, and wedged a wrench between a propeller blade and the stern to keep the propeller fro while he used an adjustable wrench to reainst the stern and pulled the bronze propeller off its shaft, then carried it a distance into the deeper channel before he dropped it
He returned to the stern of the yacht and surfaced cautiously He took off his flippers, his tanks, and histhem on the bare propeller shaft and cliet aboard
Just as he reached the rear deck, his eye caught a sudden movement to his left He spun and saw awhat looked like a pipe He ducked into the ave the man a quick jujitsu punch to the jaw, and held hith of rope on a cleat, used it to hog-tie hi
Sam saw the wooden crates on the rear deck covered with a tarp He pulled back the tarp and quietly lowered ten of them into the lifeboat at the stern They were heavy, and it took nearly an hour of backbreaking work Then Sam draped the bow rope in the water and freed two pins on the davits to lower the boat to the river The lifeboat made an unexpectedly loud ratchet sound as it hit the water with a splash Behind Sa feet and a call: “Stashu?”
Sarabbed his tanks, mask, and flippers from the propeller shaft and put them on and cleared his mask as he sank deeper
Remi had seen the loose bow rope and now she held it out and they both grasped it and pulled She and Sa the surface above the behind them and around the yacht to be sure none of the creere ju into the water after them
First came the muffled sounds of shots from the yacht above the surface, but with each shot they heard a chuff sound as a bullet plowed under, leaving a line of churned water and bubbles behind it Each one pierced straight into the water until it exhausted its momentum at about four feet, then simply sank into the dark water below them
Next Saine start and knew the propeller shaft was spinning freely Without the propeller, the engine was just noise The helunned the engine harder and louder while the crew at the bow used a power capstan to weigh anchor
As soon as the anchor was off the bottoht the current or to steer The anchor kept rising nonetheless, and the boat drifted farther and farther froine stopped, but by then its noise was so far away that Saines above theain, but the yacht was too far away to pick out in the murky water
Sam and Remi arrived at the shore and hauled the lifeboat up onto the mud Al the heavy crates out and loading them into the back of the truck Sam and Tibor joined them The crates were heavy with precious met
al, but ten crates took no ot in the back, the boys got into the cab with Tibor, and the truck ru, busy city
As Reear aside to put on street clothes, she said, “We’re not done yet, you know We’ve still got to find the raves”
“Let’s hope the ones waiting for us there are Albrecht’s professor friends and not Arpad Bako”
THE NORTH SHORE OF THE DANUBE