Page 115 of Slack Tide Kill

Which meant…

Sally's eyes locked on the filtration tanks. They stood in over two feet of water now, but weren't floating like before, which meant–

10 yards.

She smelled it then, cutting on the cold wind, barely detectable over the briny stink of the sea but unignorable once she was looking for it. Not something she'd smelled at the hot-dock or at any of the other houseboats.

Gasoline.

The tanks weren't floating because they were full to the brim.

Five yards. Mayhew fired her PAVA spray. Sally closed her eyes, raised her arms and kept running. The spray blasted over her hands and face, then she barged into Mayhew's shoulder at full speed, sending her flying into the water.

The burning synthetic pepper spray attacked Sally's eyes and airways, but she did not slow, eyes blinking madly as she hit the houseboat's bow and vaulted aboard.

"Liam, get out!" she cried.

She rolled onto the deck, stumbled down the stairs and into the houseboat's dim, mud-smelling interior. Liam and Chakrati were shadows through a haze of red pain, moving within.

"It's a bomb!" Sally cried. "It's going to blow!"

She grabbed Liam by the arm and pulled, but he resisted.

"Stop it, Sally!" he barked back at her. "The second it's not about you, the second you fuck up, you pull something like th–"

She punched him in the gut with everything she had. The air blasted from his lungs and he bent double. Without thinking, she thrust one shoulder under his chest, took his weight across her back and staggered back the way she'd come.

"Chakrati!" she cried as she stumbled against the step, as Liam's back thudded off the doorframe. "Get out!"

She managed to feed Liam ahead of her, barely seeing anything now, barely hearing or breathing, operating on blind faith and memory. She emerged into the gray light and pummeling wind astride Liam, then dragged him sideways, tipped him into the water and flopped after him.

"It's a bomb!" she cried, splashing up and yanking Liam away, catching the gaze of DCI Mayhew briefly, soaking wet and furious. She raked at the water, backpedaling deeper against the tide. Chakrati was at the doorway now, looking back with eyes wide.

Then the houseboat exploded.

A fiery blast swallowed its many parts, driving a shockwave of shrapnel, heat and wind across Sally's face and knocking her backward. Chakrati was framed for a millisecond in flame, then she was gone, dissolved by the force of the blast.

48 COLD WATER SHOCK

Sally surged from the freezing water, lungs trying to inhale before her face was clear, sucking in sea water and foam. On her knees in the tide, she spluttered and coughed, every muscle clamping hard at once, as if the sea had tightened to wire around her ribs.

Cold water shock, she registered, combined with the wet fire of synthetic capsaicin. Her chest heaved, pulse raced, head spun. Panic hit but she rode it as best she could, keeping her head above water as her eyes burned, her nose, mouth and throat stinging like they'd been drenched with acid.

She could barely see, but the wreckage of the houseboat blazed red and yellow before her, an island of fire spreading atop the waves.

There were gasps and screams. Someone was shouting, "Chakrati!" repeatedly.

Somebody else coughed and gasped by her side. Liam. He splashed in the water. She managed to find her feet against the lash of the tide, then helped him stand too.

"Holy shit," he croaked, one hand on his stomach. "What the hell, Sally?"

Sally splashed water in her eyes. It helped a little, so she dunked her head and shook it. When she came up, she could briefly see.

"Sorry I hit you," she gasped, her breathing still short and rapid, her throat raw with every scraping word.

"How did you know?" Liam asked, staring into the fire. "Did Emily get out?"

Sally dunked her head again.