Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler Read Free Book Online Page B

refused to be rushed and had put on makeup, dressed stylishly and carried handbags. Men were in a variety of casual dress. Several wore sport coats over Bermuda shorts. Only one young couple came prepared to jump. They were wearing their swimsuits. But the one thing they all had in common was a fear of death.
    Kelly pushed her way through the throng until she reached the railing, then hung on to it in a death grip. It was still dark as she stared down at the whirling foam. In the predawn darkness under the ship’s floodlights, the wake was visible for two hundred yards. Beyond, the black sea blended into the black horizon still quilted with stars. She wondered why the ship did not stop.
    A woman was moaning hysterically, “We’ll be burned alive. I don’t want to die in a fire.” Before anyone could stop her, she climbed over the rail and jumped into the sea. Stunned faces watched as she sank. All they caught was a fleeting glimpse of her head when it bobbed to the surface before she became lost in the darkness.
    Kelly began to fear for her father. She was contemplating going back to their staterooms to look for him when he reappeared, carrying a brown leather case. “Oh, Dad,” she cried. “I was afraid I’d lost you.”
    “It’s bedlam, absolute bedlam,” he gasped, short of breath, his face flushed. “It’s like a herd of cattle stampeding around in circles.”
    “What can we do?” she asked anxiously. “Where can we go?”
    “In the water,” answered Egan. “It’s our only hope to stay alive as long as we can.” He looked solemnly into his daughter’s eyes. They sparkled like blue sapphires when the light hit them just right. He could never help marveling at how much she looked like her mother, Lana, at the same age. Their height and weight and body shapes were identical: both tall, finely contoured, with the near-perfect proportions of models. Kelly’s long, straight, maple-sugar brown hair framing a strong face with high cheekbones, sculptured lips and perfect nose were a mirror image, too. The only difference between mother and daughter was the suppleness of their arms and legs. Kelly was the more athletic, while her mother had been soft and graceful. Both Kelly and her father had been devastated when Lana had died after a long battle with breast cancer. Now, as he stood there on the burning ship, his heart felt an indescribable heaviness at realizing that Kelly’s own life was in dire jeopardy of being cut short.
    She smiled at him gamely. “At least we’re in the tropics and the water will be warm enough for a swim.”
    He squeezed her shoulders, and then looked down into the sea that was rushing past the great hull nearly fifty feet below. “There’s no reason to jump until the ship stops,” he said. “We’ll wait until the absolute last minute before we go over. There are bound to be ships coming to rescue us.”
     
    O n the bridge, First Officer Sheffield gripped the bridge rail and stared at the red glow reflecting on the waves like a kaleidoscope. The whole midships were ablaze, with flames pouring out like fiery rivers through the ports and windows that had burst open from the intense heat. He could hear the groan of protest from the mighty cruise ship as she succumbed. It seemed inconceivable that before another hour would pass, the Emerald Dolphin, the pride of the Blue Seas Cruise Lines, would be a burned-out hulk, drifting dead and aimless on a turquoise sea. His mind had long ago shut down to any thoughts concerning the lives of the 2,500 passengers and crew.
    He gazed unseeing over the darkened sea. If there were lights from other ships, he was blind to them. He was still standing there when McFerrin burst onto the bridge. The second officer’s face was blackened, his uniform scorched, his eyebrows and much of his hair singed away. He grabbed Sheffield by the shoulder and roughly swung him around.
    “The ship is maintaining cruising speed directly into the wind. The