Toy or not, it could really move. It was gaining on them rapidly.
"Eren!" Lucy exclaimed. "What do we do?"
"Thinking about it," he muttered.
Having been seen, they weren't going to be able to hide. If he'd been alone, Eren would have been willing to risk a swim with his bear, but Lucy couldn't possibly go into the water. The icy North Atlantic would kill her.
The boat pulled alongside them. It towered above theCodfather, and now Eren could glimpse a couple of rain-slickered figures on the deck, leaning into the wind. The visibility was too poor for him to be able to recognize any of them.
A voice boomed over a loudspeaker: "Slow down and prepare to be boarded."
"Prepare to be boarded—seriously?" Eren said. "What do they think they are, pirates?"
"Eren, what if I turn myself over to them?" Lucy asked. Her face was very serious, her eyes huge. "If they'll let you leave, you can come back for me back later."
"What? No!" he exclaimed in shock. "No, Lucy, don't you dare. I'm not leaving you."
"I don't think they're going to hurt me. My uncle needs me to sign the company over."
"He'll also get the company if you're dead!" Eren snapped. "No, no way. I'm not risking it."
The bigger boat swerved, knocking into their hull, and theCodfatherrocked underfoot at the impact. Eren snapped out a curse and fought with the helm as a wave washed over the deck. Water came in under the door.
"Those crazy idiots!" he yelled. "I can't believe they're doing this! If we both sink, we're going to die—don't they understand that?"
He looked up from his struggle with the steering wheel to see that Lucy was very close. Her eyes were huge. She grabbed hold of the back of his chair and gave him a swift kiss on the cheek.
"I love you," she said.
Then she turned and ran for the pilothouse door.
"Lucy! No!"
The door banged open. Lucy staggered in the wind.
"Forget it!" Eren yelled over his shoulder, suddenly out of his mind with fear for her. "Lucy, you can't give yourself up, and you can't try to jump onto that boat! Even an experienced fisherman couldn't do what you're trying to do! Don't you dare!"
The big white boat loomed out of the storm, sweeping in for a second attempt at running them down.
Lucy looked back at him. "But no fisherman can do what I can do," she said.
A look of concentration crossed her face, and then she leaped out the door.
"Lucy!" Eren screamed.
He slammed back the throttle in the desperate hope that he could stop the boat fast enough to prevent her from trying to jump. Waves washed over them, the two boats barely missed each other, and abruptly the white cabin cruiser was pulling ahead as theCodfatherrocked on the chopping sea. For a moment Eren had all he could manage trying to keep the wildly tilting fishing boat from flipping over completely.
The white cabin cruiser started a big turn to come around again.
Breathing hard, Eren looked back, and had the horrifying realization that at some point in all of this, Lucy had vanished from the deck. There was no sign of her.
"Lucy!"
LUCY
We're falling!
The thought seemed to come not just from her own mind but from somewhere inside her, as the deck reared up like a bucking bronco and Lucy dug in her claws—claws! She had claws!—in a desperate attempt to keep herself from skidding all the way across the deck and over the railing into the crashing gray sea.