"Yes. The one with the red crew cut is Hendricks. He's in charge."
"I'll pay special attention to him, then," Eren growled. And it reallywasa growl; she could almost feel the boat vibrate with it.
"He turns into a tiger," Lucy added, wanting to underline this important fact.
"Tiger or man, he'll be regretting his life choices soon enough."
Lucy decided to stay on her feet. She didn't think that she'd be better off sitting down, as there was no seat belt on the bench, and she was able to keep her balance easily once she had adjusted to the movement of the boat. She kept a tight grip on the metal bar under the window.
"Brace," Eren said, and she leaned against the wall and held on to the bar as he steered theCodfathersharply toward the speedboat.
The speedboat veered wildly to avoid them. Everyone on board had to grab hold of the sides to avoid being tipped off. Lucy laughed aloud at the shocked look on Hendricks's face. "They didn't like that at all!"
"They'll like what's coming even less."
Lucy could now see the dark line of the mainland up ahead. As they approached it, the speedboat pulled ahead and turned, trying to get between them and the land to force them away. Lucy gasped and tensed, clinging to the handbar, as Eren motored straight for them. It was the speedboat that had to veer off, the pilot clearly realizing that Eren had no intention of trying to avoid them—but then Eren veered too, at the last minute. The boats jostled together, not hard, but enough to rock both of them. Lucy felt the shock of the collision vibrate through the hull, and gave an involuntary cry.
"You okay?" Eren asked, glancing around quickly.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just startled, is all."
The speedboat fell behind them as the startled men on board steered the boat through a wide turn. By now theCodfatherwas close to the land. It was all rugged gray cliffs with surf pounding against them. Eren turned the boat and motored steadily along the shore.
"They're coming back," Lucy reported, looking out the window.
"That's fine. I want them to."
Eren opened up the throttle again, speeding along. The speedboat kept pace easily.
"Do you have a plan?" Lucy asked.
"I do, actually." He flashed her a grin. "Don't forget, I grew up on this coast. I know every inch of it. But they don't. Right now, for example, we're coming up to a narrow little fjord that the locals use for a sheltered harbor if they get caught out by storms. And our friends in the speedboat are about to have an adventure in it. Hold on, it's going to get bumpy again."
Lucy clamped down on her grip on the handbar as Eren cranked the boat very sharply to turn them into the speedboat's path. The speedboat had to veer to avoid them, and as the two boats were now very close together, the only way to avoid a collision was to turn toward the rocky shore.
His timing was perfect, because as the two boats wheeled to avoid each other, they reached the fjord. It was even narrower than Lucy had imagined, little more than a cleft in the rocks with water at the bottom of it. With nothing else to do except crash on the rocks, the speedboat glided in, and the fishing boat thundered in behind them.
The men in the speedboat realized too late that they were trapped. With the fishing boat behind them in the narrow fjord, they couldn't turn around. The boat's pilot desperately tried to slow down—and Lucy was delighted to realize that, after Eren's driving lesson, she could tell exactly what he was doing—but momentum was carrying the speedboat too fast. It slammed into the rocks at the end of the fjord with a tremendous shriek of torn metal. The men in the boat were flung off their feet.
Meanwhile, Lucy almost lost her balance too, as Eren shed all of the fishing boat's momentum by wheeling the boat in a shockingly tight turn. The boat lurched underfoot as a wave smacked into them, and Lucy suddenly realized what Eren had meant when he had warned her of waves swamping the boat if they stopped too suddenly—it was the boat's wake hitting them. Water washed over the deck.
The entire process carried the fishing boat around in a dizzying 360-degree revolution. They were now pointed toward the shore again, where the men were scrambling out of the crashed speedboat and running along the rocky coast, trying to get to the fishing boat. The fjord was so narrow that Lucy could see there was a definite possibility they might be able to jump on board.
"Eren!" she said.
"I see 'em."
Eren started motoring out backward, but the waves washing into the narrow fjord were causing the fishing boat to turn sideways in the channel. Meanwhile, on shore, Hendricks tore off his jacket and shirt.
"Eren! He's changing!"
"Shifting," Eren said. He struggled with the boat's controls, turning it in a tight circle so their nose was pointed out toward open sea again. "It's called shifting. Aha, here we go." He started to open up the throttle.
In one smooth movement, Hendricks shifted into a tiger and leaped from shore onto the fishing boat's deck.
"Eren!" Lucy cried.
The fishing boat was picking up speed, leaving the other two men behind—but they were carrying Hendricks with them. He whacked the door to the pilothouse with one tremendous paw. It was latched shut, not locked, and the door slammed open and rebounded off the wall, narrowly missing Lucy.