Free Maverick Mania by Sigmund Brouwer Page A

disappear as the Blazer drove alongside a gully that led to the lakeshore.
    I finally opened the door and hopped out.
    I took two steps. Then I thought of something.
    I turned back to the minivan. First I ran to the rear and dug around to find a tire iron. It was all I could think of for protection. Then I rummaged in the glove compartment and found a pen and paper. It took less than a minute for me to do what I needed to do.
    When I was ready, I jumped out of the van.
    Tire iron in hand, I hit the ground running.
    It was easy to follow the sandy road that led to the lake. Moonlight gave me a clearview of the desert brush on each side. Where the road dropped into the gully, I dipped in and out of dark shadows as I ran.
    It only took ten minutes to near the lake’s edge. I saw the Blazer parked at the end of the road. I expected the pontoon boat to be anchored nearby.
    I was wrong again.
    The ten minutes it had taken for me to get there had been enough time. Charlie Riggins had tied a sweatshirt around Steve’s face so he would be too blind to try to escape. Steve sat in the front of a small rubber dinghy, the one from the pontoon boat. And they were already motoring away from shore.
    The ripples looked like silver snakes on the calm dark water. I hid behind the Blazer and watched as they moved farther away. The pontoon boat, then, was somewhere on the other side.
    There is something about sound on water. People who fish will tell you that in their own boat, they can barely hear eachother above the noise of their outboard motor. So they talk louder. But for some reason, their conversation carries away from the boat above the sound of the outboard, so people a couple hundred yards away can easily hear what they’re saying.
    I heard.
    â€œJust so you know, punk, you’re going to spend some time with Caleb. About as long as it takes to sink a pontoon boat.”

chapter twenty-one
    You’re going to spend some time with Caleb. About as long as it takes to sink a pontoon boat
.
    Did that mean what I thought it meant? Was Charlie Riggins going to drown Steve and Caleb?
    Panic squeezed me. What could I do? What could I do? What could—
    I put my right thumb in my mouth and bit as hard as I could. The pain was like aslap across the face. I took a deep breath and I told myself I needed to imagine this was a soccer play. I’m the last man back with the ball. Just my goalie is behind me. Twenty guys are spread out on the field in front of me—nine on my team, eleven on the other. I see two guys coming at me to take the ball.
    Look at the situation. Make the best choice possible in the time remaining. And act on your decision.
    All right, I thought. I would give myself however long it took to come up with the best solution. Fortunately, I had more than the one or two seconds I normally have on the soccer field.
    Looking at it that way relaxed me.
    The situation was simple. Once Charlie Riggins reached the pontoon boat, he was going to find a way to sink it. I needed to be there. Without getting caught.
    Did I have a boat of my own?
    No.
    What did I have?
    A tire iron. And the Blazer parked beside me.
    Could I use the Blazer?
    No, it wouldn’t float.
    What else did I have?
    I knew how to swim.
    I gave myself another half minute to try to find another solution. I couldn’t.
    It wasn’t even a mile across the lake here. I had never swum from shore to shore, but I knew I could do it. I was in good shape from soccer, and I’d had plenty of swimming lessons. The water wasn’t so cold that it would kill me. I didn’t have to worry about sharks.
    And there definitely wasn’t time to go for help. Swimming was my only choice.
    I just had to get in the water.
    I dropped the tire iron and leaned against the Blazer as I kicked off my shoes and peeled off my sweat suit and T-shirt. It left me barefoot in my shorts.
    Briefly, I wondered about the tire iron. I told myself it was too heavy to