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With the spotlight blazing down on thehter heaved to It slowed appreciably and then ca a hundred yards to the west of the lifeboat, blocking the swells to some extent

Kurt and Joe roith great enthusiase inflatable bumped into the side of the blue-painted hull

Thirty feet above, a wide cargo hatch opened in the side of the ship and a few faces appeared A basket was lowered to haul up the injured crewainst the hull like a ladder for the rest of the survivors to climb

One by one, they went up until only Kurt and the captain remained

“After you,” Kurt said

The captain shook his head “My ship went doithout me,” Winslow insisted “The least I can do is be the last man off the lifeboat”

Kurt nodded, secured the flare gun to his belt, and clio net

He glanced down to see Winslow latching onto the net and the orange lifeboat drifting away Truth was, they’d been lucky Lucky to have survived the sinking, lucky to have avoided hypothermia, lucky to have been picked up

In fact, they’d been extremely lucky Their rescuers weren’t frouard The ship was a merchant vessel Forty feet above hi containers stacked three high

A thought began to forhtly in his weary, half-frozen brain They were a thousand miles from the nearest trade route, he told hi there?

He got part of the answer as he was pulled into the hatchway It caainst the side of his head

He looked around The other survivors were down on their knees Stern-lookingAK-47s stood around them

Captain Winslow climbed in and received the same treatment

Kurt received the rest of the answer a ot on the ship’s phone

“Da,” he said, holding the phone to his ear and turning back toward the captives “We have beenthem”