Clive Cussler by The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy Read Free Book Online Page B

lightly as if she was sailing through a field of feathers.
    Casey didn't have to work the throttle. Hotsy Totsy controlled her speed up and down depending on the traffic while all Casey had to do was steer between the other boats.
    "She's running smooth!" yelled Casey. He saw the other boats dive into the three-foot-high waves from the wakes of the leaders. Not Hotsy Totsy. Her bow lifted over them and her V-shaped hull cut right through. But Casey almost spoke too soon. Two other boats sliced in front of him to sweep around the first marker buoy of the course.
    "They're cutting us off!" screamed Lacey as the apricot orange Rat Tat Tat zigzagged in front of Hotsy Totsy, showering the twins and Floopy in a watery surge that flooded the cockpit and soaked everyone in it. Floopy snarled at the other boats, showing his teeth, and then looked down in the water slopping around the cockpit floor as if he was searching for a fish.
    Casey was wiping his face, the salt water stinging his eyes. "I can't see, I can't see!" He was also blinded by the huge spray sent up from the propeller of Tickled Pink, which swung directly in front of Hotsy Totsy's bow. "Steer until I can see again," he ordered Lacey.
    But before Lacey could grab the wheel, the powerboat was thrown violently from side to side and it was all Lacey could do to put an arm around Floopy and hold on to the cockpit seat to keep both of them from being flung into the bay. Thank heavens for the belts and harnesses, she thought.
    The driver of Rat Tat Tat threw an insulting wave and could be seen laughing at the water-soaked twins.
    "They're doing it on purpose!" snapped Casey, his left eye beginning to focus. He shook a fist at the boats speeding in front of Hotsy Totsy that had sprayed them with sheets of water. "You'll be sorry," he muttered to himself. "Hotsy Totsy will make you sorry for being nasty."
    To the spectators, the two modern powerboats speeding around the magical powerboat hull to hull and closing in front of them at over one hundred miles an hour was a breathtaking sight. One that Casey and Lacey would always remember. Suddenly, their boat struck the combined wakes of the two boats ahead and Hotsy Totsy was spun out of control. Casey finally managed to see out of both eyes again but couldn't see through the sheet of spray that blew into them. He thought he heard Lacey screaming through the deafening sounds around him, but he wasn't sure.
    Knowing he couldn't hear her warning, she leaned over Floopy and yelled in Casey's ear, "Left! Turn left!"
    In that instant he could see they were hurtling through the water toward one of the spectator boats, a huge luxurious yacht that looked as big as an ocean liner. He spun the wheel to the left as Lacey had warned and tried but failed to pull back the throttle. The crew and guests on board the yacht looked at the boat rushing toward them with horror. There seemed no way to avoid a terrible disaster. The twins could do nothing but sit in shock before they crashed.
    But then a miracle happened.
    Hotsy Totsy drove across the wake of the powerboats, riding up the waves, and leaped out of the water skyward. The little craft soared into the air. It soared over the yacht, and the people stared in amazement as it flew over their heads. They scattered over the decks and tried to hide. The twins couldn't believe a boat could fly so high into the air and so far before it crashed down in the water, burying the bow and boring through a wall of solid liquid until the bow burst free and shot upward.
    "Hotsy Totsy truly is a magical boat," yelled Lacey excitedly as the powerboat spun around the pleasure yachts, moved past the marker buoy and took up the chase again.
    "She's as magical as Vin Fiz," Casey agreed.
    "And then some!"
    Hotsy Totsy didn't need to be told to hurry. Like a fast racehorse that got off to a bad start, she dug in her propeller, lifted her bow and took off after the powerboats like a torpedo through turbulent water. She