AUTHOR: Eva
E-MAIL: eva_heimen@hotmail.com
DISCLAIMER: I've got nothing to do with Stingers at all, etc. etc...

NOTES: I think I've read somewhere that the UC's don't get close to 
the water, but anyway, anything can happen in a fan fic, so I'm 
allowed to let them get a little wet here, ain't I? Hehe... Well, I 
hope you all will enjoy reading this one, it's my first fic, but 
hopefully not my last, and please remember that English is not my 
first language, so perhaps I've made some mistakes. The story became 
quiet long, so I divided it into two parts. Hope you won't think it's 
too long. And... please send me feedback!!! Good or bad, whatever, 
but I prefer good, of course:) 

========
FAR OUT
========
Part 1 

"I've got a case for you, Pete". 
Pete turned and faced Mac. She was holding a map in her hand.
  "What's this about?" he asked, not feeling too happy about it. Some 
days ago they had solved a big murder case, which had actually ended 
with the murderer shooting himself, and Pete still had the pictures 
of it clearly on his mind. Some more days to recover would have been 
good, but things couldn't always be as he wanted when working as and 
undercover cop. He followed Mac into her office, and they both sat 
down, each at their side of the desk.
  "I know these last days have been tough", Mac started. "Both for 
you and for the rest of us."
  "Oh.. don't you worry about that Mac", he answered, not knowing if 
he meant it or not. "It's okay now."
  "All right, I believe you." She gave him a short smile. "Well, I 
guess you want to know what your job's all about." 
  "Yep, I'm waiting." He folded his arms over his chest.
  "Well, it's a case we have received from drug squad", Mac began.
  "Drugs again, eh?" Pete said, not looking too happy. But Mac 
ignored him. "It concerns three men that are smuggling drugs into 
Australia. Rumours say all the way from Europe, but we're not sure of 
where in Europe yet. But don't you worry about that, your job will be 
to offer yourself to help them, because you are supposed to have a 
lot of buyers that will pay them good if they get the drugs. We have 
made you a profile as a friend of a man called Bruce Miller, who is 
one of the guy's brother. I guess you may read the rest on your own 
hand." She handed him the map. "Sounds okay for you?"
  "Sure", Pete nodded and got up of the chair.
  "And I will inform the others about surveillance in some minutes. 
By the way, just one more thing before you go."
  "What?", Pete asked, about to walk out of the door.
  "I want you to be careful, Pete." Mac said where she stood over her 
desk. "These guys are dangerous, as you can read in the map they have 
committed several murders throughout the years." She looked at him 
for a few seconds.
  "Thanks Mac, I'll try to remember that." Pete went out and closed 
the door behind him.

He sat down in front of his desk and opened the map. As he read he 
found out that there were three men; Donald Palmero, Patrick Taylor 
and Ron Miller. The last one had to be Bruce's brother. He had 
previously been in prison for having committed one murder, and had 
several robberies and violence episodes on his record as well. The 
two other men had records looking just as bad as Miller's. Pete gave 
a deep sigh. He had to start preparing himself together with the 
others.

*

The next morning Pete was standing on the quay. He was wearing a 
checked shirt supposed to make him look more `criminal', and could 
feel the wire stick to his skin under the t-shirt. Hopefully, it 
would be safe there. In the corner of his eye, he could see a silver 
grey Mercedez being parked on the side of the street. Inside it he 
knew Oscar and Danni were sitting, listening to every word that was 
said between the smugglers and the undercover cop. Nothing much yet, 
Pete thought, but it was surely going to be said something in not too 
long.
  He walked slowly towards a dirty, old fishing boat which name 
was `Stella'. The place looked totally abandoned. All that could be 
heard was the birds screaming, the small waves that gurgled under the 
quay and the far sound of the traffic inside the city. Pete wondered 
if there were anybody on board the boat at all.
  He stopped at the edge of the quay and tried a `hello'. A tattered 
dressed man with shaggy black hair which was grey by his temples, 
showed up in the entrance to the cabin. He glanced up at Pete with 
his dark eyes.
  "Who are you?" he asked.
  "I'm Tom Williams" Peter replied, using his undercover name. "I've 
come to meet a man called Ron Miller, he's supposed to be somewhere 
around here."
  The man gave him a short smile and presented himself as Donald, but 
he was called Don by his mates. Pete stepped on board the fishing 
boat and got to see the two other men sitting around the small table 
inside the cabin. One of them, a young man with red hair was smoking 
a cigarette, and the smoke lay like a mystical fog around his head 
and under the ceiling, making him remind about some sort of wizard.
  "I'm Ron, nice to finally meet ya, Tommy." A strongly built, blue 
eyed man got up of his seat and shook Pete's hand.
  "Pleasure's on my side, Ron", Pete answered and gave the man a 
smile. He looked around in the cabin. It didn't look like there were 
much interesting there, except a bunch of papers laying on a shelf. 
They looked much like bills or invoices, and could perhaps be used as 
evidence. If he got hold of them.
  The man with the red hair presented himself as Patrick, or redhead 
Patrick, as the guys used to call him. 
  "You want a beer? And a cigarette perhaps?" Ron asked Pete.
  "Beer will be fine, thanks." Pete sat down on a free seat.
  "So, let's talk about why you're here, then", Ron said and gave 
Pete a box of beer. He looked Pete in the eyes, and Pete noticed his 
eyes were cold as ice, even though he did behave pretty nice.
  "Bruce said you wanted to help us, and that you could get us some 
good buyers" Ron continued. "Is that right?"
  "As right as I'm sitting here, mate" Pete replied, trying the best 
he could to look as confident as possible.
  "How much d'you think your customers can offer for, let's say... 
ten kilos?"
Pete took a sip of the beer, then assumed that he was pretty sure 
they could pay about seven hundred thousands or so. Ron and Donald 
both exchanged glances.
  "It's a deal" he said. "We're expecting to pick up the drugs 
tomorrow night, in the port. A big tanker will arrive from Japan, and 
we've got the gear fastened under it. Man, if that Japanese bastard 
didn't fasten it good enough and it's gone, I'll go up there myself 
and kill him with my bare hands.." Ron looked almost furious for a 
moment or two, then laughed and leaned back on his seat.
  "Japan, eh, that's heavy stuff!" Pete said, then taking another sip 
of the beer. Ron and the others nodded.
  "But I hear that you get some all the way from Europe, too, ain't 
that right?"
  "Who's told you that?" Ron's smile suddenly disappeared and he was 
looking rather angry. Pete suddenly realised that he might have been 
saying too much, and got a little at a loss. Don and redhead Patrick 
both were staring suspiciously at him.
  "Well, Bruce told me", he answered.
  "Righto" Ron muttered, and Pete hoped that they wouldn't get too 
suspicious at him. "Well, that was a pity, `cause this is sort of a 
secret, and nobody was going to know. Bruce was very strict at that 
point." Ron didn't look like he believed Pete at all.
  "Well, he told me" Pete said with a normal voice. Silence followed 
for some seconds, then Ron said: "You'd better keep that secret then, 
you understand?"
  "Sure" Pete replied, getting relieved. "Bruce said that, too."
  "That's good, it's things like that I like to hear" Ron said, 
giving the two others a sharp look. Peter wasn't in doubt of who was 
the leader of the group. It probably was sensible to keep in with 
this Ron-guy.
  "Now, let's talk about tomorrow."

"Looks like Pete got it all under control" Oscar said to Danni inside 
the Mercedez.
  "Yeah. I'm sure we'll capture these guys pretty soon" Danni 
answered.

When Pete was done with the smugglers he was met in the Com-V by Mac 
and Angie, who had sat listening. Mac took off her head-set and said 
to him:
"Well, that went brilliant! And you're going to meet them tomorrow 
night and pick up the drugs, right?"
  "That's right" Pete nodded and sat down. "They are gonna dive down 
under that Japanese tanker in the middle of the night and loosen the 
packages that are fastened to the keel. Can't understand why they 
bother themselves with that sort of crap when it's so easy to get 
caught!" He shook his head.
  "It's for the money, you moron" Angie laughed. "What else?"
  "You are not gonna dive down there, I hope" Mac said.
  "Nope." Pete whirled slowly around on his chair. "They won't leave 
that to me. It's quiet important business, you know. Don and redhead 
Patrick – I mean, Don and Patrick, are gonna do that."
  "Sounds like you are on pretty good speaking terms with them all 
ready" Mac smiled. She got up of the chair. "All right everybody, 
let's pick up the others and go grab some food, we've deserved that."
  "Yeah, brilliant idea, Mac!" Angie got up from her chair too. "I'm 
starving!"

*

It was evening and the city lights lightened up the port from above. 
Pete and the other guys stood on the quay, staring towards the big 
tanker that lay at anchor about half a nautical mile out on the sea. 
It was only visible because of the green and white lanterns.
  "It arrived here this afternoon" Ron told Pete while he was staring 
at it through his binoculars. Then he lowered the binoculars and 
looked at Pete. "Plans changed, mate. As you can see it didn't call 
at the quay, so we have to set out with Stella. The boat's over 
there." He pointed at their fishing boat laying together with some 
other boats about thirty metres away of them.
  Shit... Pete thought inside himself, but kept cool. "Sounds good", 
he answered, while hoping that surveillance had everything under 
control.
  "Let's go!" redhead Patrick suggested with enthusiasm in his voice.
  "Yeah, come on" Ron said. They walked up to `Stella' and stepped on 
board. Donald was carrying some diver equipment which he placed on 
the deck. Most of the equipment they needed, all ready lay prepared.
  "We're going out without any lanterns" Ron explained to 
Pete. "Nobody has to see us, you know."
  "Sure that's safe?" 
  "Oh, come on, don't be a looser, of course it's safe! Much safer 
than going out WITH lanterns!" Ron gave him an irritated look.
"Whatever" Pete replied, while almost feeling the weight of the 
small tracer that was hidden carefully in the inside pocket of his 
jacket. For optimal security, he had been equipped with a small 
calibre 16 gun as well, hidden carefully underneath his jacket. 
Besides he thought he had a pocket knife somewhere inside his jacket, 
but wasn't sure. It wouldn't be much of a help anyway. There was no 
doubt this had become a pretty risky undercover job, because they 
normally didn't use to go near the water at all. It would be much 
harder to get assisted by the surveillance if he needed it now, and 
he figured he'd become pretty left alone on this job. In other words, 
he had to handle this by himself now, at least think as if he had to. 
But he believed he was an experienced cop, and didn't allow himself 
to think otherwise than that he was going to handle it just fine.
They set out. Pete stood together with Ron ahead. It was colder the 
longer they came out on the sea. Pete felt his skin get cold under 
his jacket. Redhead Patrick was steering the boat, while Donald was 
preparing the diving equipment. He, Don, was going to dive, together 
with redhead Patrick. It didn't look like they had any diving suits 
to wear, and that seemed a little strange to Pete. The water was 
pretty cold out here, but that was the criminals problem, not his, he 
thought.

In the meantime, Oscar and Danni were standing at the same quay as 
Pete and the criminals had left a couple of minutes ago. They were 
waiting for a police boat that Mac had got hold of once she'd heard 
what was going on with Pete. Five `uniforms' had been put on board 
it, and it was on its way now. They were suppose to follow the 
criminals' boat and hopefully capture the criminals when the drugs 
had been picked up.
  "Mac was lucky to get hold of a police boat and five officers", 
Oscar said, while staring out over the dark sea.
  "Yep", Danni agreed, and crossed her arms over her chest, feeling 
cold and about to start freezing. She really should have brought with 
her a jacket, but anyway it was too late now. They stood waiting in 
silence on the police boat, Oscar was in secret crossing his fingers 
behind his back, hoping that everything was going to go okay with 
Pete.
  The police boat arrived, they embarked it and set out on the sea.

*

Redhead Patrick let the boat slide slowly and silently along the hull 
of the enormous tanker. It was totally silent around them, the only 
thing that could be heard was the sea and the sound of the 
ventilation system in the ship that indicated that there were people 
on board. 
  Pete breathed in the salty sea air were he was standing ahead, 
freezing a little.
  "Right Don, you got all the equipment ready?" Ron whispered to 
Donald, who gave back a nod while emptying the bottle-tap on the 
diving bottle of humidity. 
  "Torches all right?"
  "Yep. Everything's fine." Donald met Pete's eyes in a second, and 
something was showing in them that Pete instinctively did not like, 
but he couldn't put his finger on it. In the weak light of Ron's 
torch he could not see the man clearly. Donald looked down, starting 
to take off his shirt. When he had removed all his clothes except his 
underpants, he looked at Pete.
  "And now it's your turn. Come on, take your rags off and on with 
the diving bottle."
  "Hey?" Pete became speechless for some moments, while he was 
staring shocked at Donald. "What d'ya mean it's my turn? None of 
you've told me that I'm gonna dive!"
  "But we're telling ya now" Donald replied and looked at Pete with 
eyes flashing weakly in the pale light.

Angie was listening to what was said inside the earphones almost 
without breathing. She knew that Mac was doing the same.
  "Hey, he's in more trouble, Mac", she whispered. "Come on Pete, use 
your brain! I know you can get out of this!" 
  "Keep yours cool now, Pete" Mac said nervously. She sighed, and 
added: "Oh, why the hell don't we buy water resistant wires?"
  "Don't know if that exists, Mac", Angie mumbled.  

"That's strange." Ron stepped in. "Thought you liked to dive, mate. 
That's what I've heard from Bruce."
  "Ah..." Pete didn't know what to say. Come on, don't let them find 
you out, he thought to himself. You can handle this. Keep a straight 
face. Straight face, straight face, he kept telling himself inside 
his head.
  "Sure I like to dive" he told Ron. "But... just not.. without a 
suit."
  Ron gave a short laugh, looking like he tried to hide it because he 
didn't want him to see how a big sissy he thought Pete was.
  "Don't be such a loser!" Redhead Patrick shot in. "Anybody can dive 
without a diving suit! The water's not that cold!"
  "Hey, you got your period or something?" Ron asked. The guys burst 
out laughing. Pete became annoyed, and decided not to care about his 
wire.
  "Fine", he said, grabbing one of the diving bottles and starting 
taking it on over his clothes.
  The guys looked at him. Pete felt their eyes on his body almost 
tickling.
He had a bit troubles fastening the bottle, since he'd never done any 
like it before. Dammit, Mac, why didn't you tell me that I had to 
know about diving, he thought to himself.
  "Isn't it a bit strange that he doesn't take his clothes off?" Ron 
suddenly stepped towards him, a cheeky little smile showing in the 
corner of his mouth.
"Perhaps he's got something to hiide..." Redhead Patrick continued 
and gave a little chuckle.
  "Yeah, I find that very likely", said Ron while staring at 
Pete. "Hey, you got troubles fastening that bottle, eh? Wonder why?"
  Dammit, dammit, dammit... Pete thought. They had almost found him 
out now, he didn't know what to do to make him look reliable again.
  "You ain't really much of a diver, are ya?" Ron grabbed the bottle, 
tearing it off Pete's back. Then he took up a waistcoat which Pete 
hadn't seen in the dark, and threw it to him.
  "This one first, numbskull", he said. Pete hesitated. The waistcoat 
had so many straps looking much like a chaos in Pete's eyes.
  "You ain't Tom Williams, I swear", Ron said. 
  That was it. He was done. They had found him out. Shit.
  Donald and redhead Patrick laughed. "Who's he then, if he's not Tom 
Williams?"
  Pete froze, only waiting for the decisive words to come out of 
Ron's mouth. It didn't take long.
  "He's a cop, of course."

"Oh shit!" Angie tore off her head phones and looked at Mac. "They've 
found him out!"
  "And there goes the wire", Mac muttered as she could hear loud 
scratching and thumps followed by a sound as if the wire hit the 
water. Then the connection was broken. She took off her headset.
  "I'm calling the police boat" she said, grabbing the radio.

"Get the engine started!"
  "We're trying!"
  "Come on, bloody engine!"
  "What's wrong? Why doesn't it work when it has to?!"
  "Hell!"
  "Oh Lord, help us! And you over there, stop swearing!"
  A bunch of police officers were standing over the engine trying to 
find out what was wrong, while another one was standing at the wheel, 
desperately trying to make the boat drive.
  Danni and Oscar tried not to stand in the way. They were both 
scared, and thought of Pete that was out there somewhere, together 
with the offenders. 
  "Oh, I don't just want to stand here, I want to do something to 
help Pete!" Oscar whispered, half to himself, half to Danni standing 
next to him. "There's got to be something we can do!"
  "There has to be a lifeboat on board here, somewhere" Danni 
said. "Let's find it!"
  "Yeah, brilliant idea, Dan", Oscar replied and ran astern.

"You bloody bastard!" Ron shouted and gave Pete a solid punch in his 
face.
Pete stumbled backwards and hit the rail. Stars flickered in front of 
his eyes and he felt a shooting pain somewhere around his nose. Ron 
and the two other guys threw themselves over him and started beating 
him with their feet and arms. Pete tried to protect himself from the 
hard fists, and had nearly no chance to defend himself. It was three 
against one. He had no chance. The guys could beat him until they 
killed him, and probably nobody would come to help him.
  "Hey, what's going on down there??!!" could suddenly be heard from 
above, and the three offenders got in a hurry. 
  "Don, get the engine started! They've seen us!" Ron screamed. A few 
seconds later, the fishing boat started with a roar, and disappeared 
into the dark night. The sailor on duty on board the tanker couldn't 
do a thing.
  While the chaos ruled on board the fishing boat, Pete lay still 
trying to recover. It hurt everywhere, and he wished he could be in a 
hospital, or back at the factory, or home. Just not here. But if he 
got up now, this could be his only chance. The guys were busy, trying 
to get away from the tanker as soon as possible, and none of them 
were watching him. Pete stuck his teeth together and crawled towards 
the stern.
  Halfway between the smugglers and where he'd lay, he remembered 
his .16. He was filled with new hope as he put his hand inside his 
jacket and pulled it out. The guys were standing together in the 
cockpit, sounding a little shaky and worried about what had happened. 
Meanwhile, Pete with the help of the cabin wall, got to his feet and 
crept closer to the men. Without a sound he walked out of the shadow 
and pointed the gun towards them. They saw him at once.
  "Hands up, don't move!" Pete said. Two of the men stood still, but 
Ron took a few steps towards him. He didn't look too scared.
  "Just give it up, mate", Ron said with this smirk that made Pete 
feel how the fury rose inside him, making him suddenly feel a whole 
lot more stronger. He continued to aim at Ron.
  "I said give it up!" Ron said once again, and threw himself towards 
Pete.
Then the shot came. Pete didn't realise what'd happened before he 
stared at Ron's dead body laying on deck. It became silent.
  Redhead Patrick and Donald looked totally paralysed. Donald moved 
his mouth without a sound coming out of it.
  Pete pulled himself together, moved his eyes away from the dead 
body and walked up to the two others, pointing the gun at them.
  "Drive back to the harbour" he commanded with a voice sounding dry 
and a bit shaky in his own ears. The two guys didn't object, but 
looked rather unhappy. The fishing boat changed its course.

*

Back in the Com-V, Mac and Angie had started on `plan B'. They had 
been informed about the engine trouble on board the police boat, and 
were now on their way to the port, running as fast as they could. A 
small motor dinghy had been left there by the police boat in case 
anyone needed it, and now they did. The key hopefully would sit in 
the ignition lock. They ran the last few metres, then jumped on board 
the dinghy. A sound made them look up and stare out over the dark sea 
before starting the engine.
  "Listen up, Mac" Angie whispered. "Do you hear it?" Mac nodded. It 
sounded like a boat was coming. Straight in their direction.

It had happened all of a sudden, and Pete hadn't had a chance to 
avoid it. Donald had knocked the gun out of his hand and made it fall 
over the rail and into the sea. However the last thing wasn't 
planned, and Donald gave a furious roar.
Redhead Patrick had grabbed Pete's arms and wrung them behind his 
back, then pushed him on to his knees. Donald let go of the steer and 
started to help redhead Patrick. Pete fought for his life, using 
every tiny chance he had to hit them back. In small glimpses he could 
see the lights at land get closer and closer, until they seemed 
dangerously close. No one was holding the steer. He cried a warning 
to the offenders, hoping that it would make them loosen their holds 
around his arms.
  It worked a little bit. Donald reached out to the steer just in 
time, and made a sharp turn so that the boat heeled over and made the 
rail almost hit the water. 
  The boat speeded up and out to the dark sea again. Some seconds 
more, and they would have crashed into the quay and probably killed 
themselves. Pete didn't feel relieved, even if he really should. 
  When the boat was okay again, both of the men got back to Pete. 
They wrung his arms around the rail with a rope. Tightened it hard. 
So hard that it nearly wasn't bearable. Pete little by little lost 
the feelings in his hands. He felt how the blood beat inside his 
wrists. It felt terrible. After the treatment he'd had, he felt sick, 
so sick that he felt like throwing up, but he couldn't. The guys left 
him by the rail, started the auto pilot and went inside the cabin. 
Pete closed his eyes.

From the motor dinghy Mac and Angie saw how the fishing boat came 
driving straight towards them, closer and closer for every second. 
Then, when they were about to run up on the quay, the boat suddenly 
made a sharp turn and headed out on the sea again. 
  Both Angie and Mac had seen the boat clearly.
  "That was the boat, I'm sure!" Angie exclaimed. "The offenders' 
boat! Pete must be on board!"
  "Come on, Angie!" Mac said. "Let's follow them!" She started the 
engine, and the dinghy speeded up and followed in the wake of the 
fishing boat.
  There was no doubt that Mac's and Angie's dinghy went a whole lot 
faster than the other boat. But Mac didn't try to catch up on it even 
if it was possible. She kept the dinghy in safe distance to the boat. 
There was no way she would drive any closer, because the men on board 
could easily discover them. She just had to follow the boat. It was 
difficult, because no lanterns were on onboard, but she followed the 
sound of the engine.
  "You know how to drive a boat, Mac?" Angie shouted to her.
  "Well, I haven't got my licence, but that doesn't matter, hey?!" 
  Had never thought that about you, Mac, Angie thought and stared 
ahead. It was nearly impossible to see anything but darkness, but now 
and then she got a glimpse of the boat in front of them. A few 
minutes later the light came on inside the cabin, she could see it 
because it started to shine through the curtains that covered the 
windows. Now it was easier to keep an eye on the boat. It looked like 
the men onboard were inside the cabin, because no one could be seen. 
  She found some binoculars under the thwart in the bow, and raised 
them to her eyes. Now she could see the boat much clearer. 
  It looked almost like some one was laying on deck. She could see 
something dark, and the thing hanging out over the hull reminded her 
about an arm...
  By God, let it not be Pete, she prayed inside herself, feeling her 
heart starting to beat faster in her chest. Guessed she should tell 
Mac about it, but by some reason she hesitated and ended up not 
saying anything.
  Mac speeded up a little and they got closer to the fishing boat. 
Angie wanted her to slow up a bit, but she couldn't speak to Mac 
because of the noisy engine.
  Watch it now, Mac, she said to herself. Please don't do something 
stupid...

"Police commissioner, this is officer Murray. We need a new boat..."
The officers had given up the engine, and were on their way to the 
quay again. Danni and Oscar couldn't do anything while waiting for 
message from Mac but pray for everything to be all right with Pete 
and hope for a happy ending to the whole lot. They'd found a 
lifeboat, but it was of rubber and needed to be inflated. Besides, it 
only had oars. The police officer that was in command on board hadn't 
allowed them to use it. 

*

Donald had left the steer to redhead Patrick and was on his way out 
on deck. He wanted to check up on the cop, see if he was still laying 
there, looking just as half dead as he'd done last time Don had seen 
him. He might as well give him some extra punches...since he still 
felt some small rests of anger running around there, somewhere inside 
him... anger because Tom Williams had turned out to be a traitor, and 
because he'd killed Ron, his mate... It couldn't make any harm to 
push his fists up in the man's face once again, could it? Except for 
that little devil of a cop of course. He chuckled.
  He was only three steps away from Pete when he discovered the 
dinghy. What the hell, he thought to himself and felt how the fury 
rose inside him. 
  "Redhead!" he roared. "On deck, NOW!"
  Redhead Patrick came stumbling out of the cabin holding a small 
torch in his hand. When he came up to Don, Don grabbed it and was 
about to turn it on, before hesitating. He pushed Patrick down, then 
pulled him in the cabin's direction. "Get inside!" he whispered with 
clenched teeth. Patrick got in a hurry.
  Don's eyes were following as the dinghy came driving rapidly 
towards the fishing boat. He felt pretty sure about who sat on board. 
The dinghy slowed down a little, and he saw two shadows. It was 
impossible to get a clearer look at them without turning on some 
light. As the boat slid up on the side of the fishing boat, he 
thought he could hear someone shouting that they were Senior Sergeant 
Something, asking him to do this or that or whatever it was, it 
didn't matter to him.
  "Get lost, or I'll shoot!!!" he roared, holding up the small torch 
and pretending it was a gun. He knew that in the dark the cops would 
never guess it was a torch. "I'll shoot!!! I swear I will!!! So get 
outta here NOW!!!"

"He's got a gun, Mac!" Angie yelled. "Slow it down before we get 
killed!"
  So Mac did. She slowed down until the fishing boat nearly was out 
of sight, then speeded up a little so that they followed like they'd 
just done. She wasn't going to loose them, ever. No way she could do 
that to Pete. No matter how bad luck they were going to have, she 
wouldn't give it up. Mac tightened her hold around the steer, not 
taking her eyes off the fishing boat's stern.

Don watched the dinghy slow down, and got a little relieved. But he 
could see that it followed them somewhere behind there in the dark, 
not stopping. 
  "Dammit!" he muttered to himself, giving the dark heap by the rail 
that was Pete, a furious glance. He didn't know what he ought to do 
to get rid of those two cops at the back. For a little while it was 
like his mind was totally empty, until... he came to think of 
something that might work. Don nodded to himself, then went ahead. He 
gave the cop a hit with his foot when he stepped over him. He heard a 
weak moan, but much more didn't come out of the guy. 
  In the bow, he found what he was looking for between to boxes, then 
went astern again. 
  "Still life in ya, mate?" he chuckled to the cop when passing, not 
bothering to hit him once again. He didn't hear any answer.
  He lent out over the rail and prepared the thing. Like he 
remembered he had done thousands of times before. When times had been 
good, long way before all this crap had happened. If he could only 
make it out of this one, he would maybe have the chance to bring 
things back to the way they'd been. A nice thought. He threw the 
thing into the sea.

"If they will not stop, what on earth are we gonna do??!!" Angie 
shouted to Mac without getting heard.
  "I can't hear you, Ang!!" Mac yelled back, knowing it was no point 
in trying on a conversation. The waves had gone higher now, and she 
knew they were far out at sea. Probably too far, but she just 
couldn't give it up! Not now! Even if she had no idea of how it all 
was going to end.
  Suddenly something happened to the engine. The boat lost its speed. 
A few seconds later they were driving in circles, with Mac still 
twisting on the gas. The propeller span in the water, making the sea 
white with foam.
  "Oh SHIT!!!" Mac shouted. She turned off the engine. Meanwhile, the 
fishing boat continued to drive and was soon out of sight for them.
  "What's happened?" Angie said, not having any idea of what else to 
say.
  "I think something has got stuck in the propeller!" Mac was in 
despair. She put her hands in the water to try to feel what caused 
the problem. Angie followed what she was doing without saying 
anything. Some seconds later, Mac muttered something to herself, 
drawing something up from the water. It was a net.

Don had gone inside the cabin again. He had taken over the steer from 
redhead Patrick, that now sat on the table, looking a bit worried.
  "Where exactly are we?" he asked Don. Don didn't have a clue 
himself.
  "Somewhere in Port Philip Bay, mate", he answered. 
  "Yeah I know that, I'm not stupid", Patrick answered him. "But I 
asked where EXACTLY?"
  Don took a look at the GPS.
  "Aaah... We are in the middle of it, actually." He paused, thinking 
a little over their situation.
  "We have to find a place to get rid of the cop", he said while 
staring out through the window and out in the darkness.
  "AND Ron", added redhead Patrick.
  "Dammit..." Don muttered. "I'd almost forgotten about him. Bloody 
hell, we're in so big trouble now, and it's that lousy cop's fault!" 
He slapped the wheel with his right hand. "I say we dump both of them 
somewhere in the bay, then we get hold of some petrol from a boat in 
a harbour and then we leave... as quick as the boat can... to the 
Antarctic or somewhere..." 
  Redhead Patrick raised his eyebrows and put his head in his 
hands. "What a great plan, mate" he muttered. Don whirled around.
  "Hey, you got a better plan, perhaps? Or maybe not? I say you shut 
up if you haven't got any sensible to tell, right?" He gave Patrick 
an ice cold stare, then turned back to the wheel.
  "Sure mate", Patrick mumbled, not looking too scared. "Let's do 
what you say with those two bastards." He gave a little chuckle, then 
added: "Straight to the dogs... Or may I say the sharks?" He chuckled 
again, and even made Don smile.

*

"Hey, it's Mac here. Me and Angie are in trouble... the propeller has 
got stuck in a net... yeah, it might be the offenders' work. Anyway, 
can some of you come to drag us back to land? ... Oars? What do you 
mean oars? ... but... are you sure? ... okay. Bye... good luck..." 
Mac gave a deep sigh, then blinked at Angie who sat there with her 
torch.
  "Am, Ang? Don't blind me, please." 
  "Oh!" Angie turned away the torch from Mac's face. "I'm sorry. So, 
what did Oscar say?"
  "He said... and don't get panic now, okay? He said that they 
couldn't come to rescue us – yet - because they were waiting for the 
new police boat to come, and when they got started again they had to 
deal with the smugglers first. Save Pete... capture the 
offenders...you know." She paused. 
  "I see..." Angie nodded slowly. 
  "And in the meantime, we just have to use the oars", Mac 
continued. "Come on, let's get started before we drift to Tasmania." 
  "Yeah right, Mac", Angie giggled. They found the oars, laying 
attached to the deck, loosened them and put them out.
  "So... where's land, Mac?" Angie asked, looking around.
  "Aah... I myself can't see nothing, actually, but it's got to be 
somewhere out there." She was thinking for some seconds, then 
said: "Let's row in that direction." She pointed out in nowhere. 
  "Ay, ay, captain!" Angie said and laughed. Mac couldn't bare to 
smile, but pulled herself together quickly.
  "Give it a rest, Ang, you shouldn't be joking when things are like 
this."
Then she looked on the torch laying on the deck and the beam of light 
coming out of it.
  "It hasn't got foggy, has it?" she said and sniffed a little bit.
  "Oh, I really hope not", Angie replied with a shiver. She was about 
to laugh again, but bit her lip just in time, giving Pete a thought.

*

If hell did exist on earth, then this had to be it, Pete thought. He 
was slowly waking up from sleep, or coma or whatever it was that had 
made him unconscious for a while. He tried to open his eyes. They 
were a bit hard to get up, because something sticky had stuck his 
eyelids together, but he managed to open them. He tried to look 
around. His neck felt stiff and a bit painful. He couldn't feel his 
arms, they must had lost the blood circulation long time ago. Somehow 
he had lost his jacket, he guessed it had been torn off during the 
battle. It was cold. He tried to move. Every movement was a pain, but 
his legs didn't ache so badly, though. Worse was his side. It felt 
like his kidneys had been smashed, the pain was terrible. It felt 
hard to breath. He coughed. It hurt. Bloodtaste in his mouth. Sticky, 
aching nose. He felt his lower lip was burning. It hurt when he tried 
to touch it with his teeth. Had probably swelled a bit. Gee, how did 
he look like? Well, he wasn't able to think about it.
  Where were the others? Mac, Danni, Angie, Oscar... if he closed his 
eyes, he could see them clearly. Where were they? Weren't they gonna 
come rescue him soon? They had to come rescue him. He couldn't get 
out of this alone. Never ever if he could. He stared up on the sky. 
It was dark. Nothing was up there. Not even stars. A pity there 
wasn't stars tonight, or even a moon, he thought. It had to be 
cloudy. Maybe it was foggy. Cause fog did often come at sea. 
  Suddenly the cabin door was flung up. Two dark shadows came 
stumbling out, rushing past him and ahead to the bow. Pete felt how 
he tensed up for more hits as the men passed him. But thank God, they 
didn't bother. He was relieved.
  
Don was digging in one of the boxes in the bow, finding some ropes 
and heavy weights. He threw the ropes to Patrick, and placed the 
weights firmly on deck beside the box.
  "How heavy are they?" redhead Patrick asked while rolling up the 
ropes.
  "I can't see what stands on them" Don replied and lifted one of 
them up. "But let's assume they are about twenty kilos each."
  "You think that'll do?" Patrick asked with doubt in his voice.
  "Of course it'll do. This is heavy stuff, mate! Imagine!" 
  Redhead Patrick tried to imagine, but gave it up after a little 
while.
  "He's gonna sink like a stone" Don chuckled and looked in Pete's 
direction. "Both him and Ron."

Pete thought he heard something about weights and stones and froze 
immediately. He could hear the men rummaging ahead. Please, God or 
whoever, let them not dump me in the sea, he prayed inside himself. 
Please, don't let them kill me with stones or anything... Let them 
take me to land and shoot me there... At least anything but 
drowning... He felt his heart beat heavily, heavier and heavier for 
every second. He tried if he could move his arms, maybe try to loosen 
the rope, but when he didn't feel his fingers even, there was no way 
he could move them as he wanted to then. He could feel tears coming 
in his eyes, making it difficult to see, but blinked them away.
  
"Let's do Ron first, all right?" Don walked towards the dead body, 
gripped its feet and started dragging it ahead. A pool of blood was 
laying under it, looking like a dark, glistening liquid in the weak 
light. Don felt he was gonna get sick if he kept staring at it. He 
was gonna get sick of touching the dead man, too. The feet felt so 
strange. They weren't cold yet, but not warm either, like a human 
body should be. He swallowed and found it a bit hard to breath. Then 
he bumped against the rail.
  "Come on, Pat, take his arms." Patrick hesitated for a moment, 
before taking the body's arms and lifting them up. They counted `one, 
two, three' and threw the body down in the sea. They heard a big 
splash and saw the outlines of the body float in the water.
  "Oh shit, we forgot use the weights on him!" Don smacked himself in 
the head. Hell, why was he feeling so shaky and sick just for 
nothing? Now the body was going to float in to a harbour or 
something, for every cop to discover and make a big fuss about it. He 
could see the frontlines in the newspapers clearly on his mind. 
Bullshit!
  "Let's do it the right way with the cop, then" redhead Patrick said 
looking confident. His look strengthened Don as well, and they lifted 
up both of the weights and one of the ropes, walking towards Pete.
  "If we use both of these, it will take the double effect" redhead 
Patrick chuckled and looked at Don.
  "Good idea, redhead." Don smirked at him.
  They stopped in front of Pete, starting immediately with their 
plan. Redhead Patrick was about to loosen the ropes around Pete's 
arms, but Don stopped him, telling him it was best to wait until his 
legs were tied, and he was ready to go.
  Pete started to protest loudly when he realised what was about to 
happen. Every single thought about being rescued and him to be safe 
in a little while disappeared from his head, and got replaced by a 
terrible horror. In despair he tried to kick Donald with his feet – 
he hit him pretty good – but redhead Patrick came to help him, and he 
had no chance.
  "Please don't do this" he cried realising there was no 
hope. "Please! I swear I won't have you arrested! I'll give you the 
money! I'll give you seven hundred thousands if you let me live! 
Please!"
  Donald and redhead Patrick looked as if they were a little in 
doubt, and decided to let go of one of the weights.
  "We'll be kind to you, we're the last people you see, you know" Don 
chuckled and looked down into Pete's terrified eyes. "And you don't 
have any seven hundred thousands, `cause you are a cop. A cop. You 
remember?"
Pete stared at him.
  "Last wish", redhead Patrick whispered into Don's ear.
  "Yeah, of course, last wish." Don smiled to Peter. "So, what do you 
say? It's up to you. We use to let our victims have a last wish 
before we send them off. You know, as pouring them a cop of coffee, 
letting them enjoy one final joint, or whatever it is they ask us 
that we can allow them to do. So?"
  Pete stared at the two men, fighting for his breath while wondering 
what he was going to answer. They stared back at him, with evil faces 
looking like dark shadows, with eyes like dark holes and black, empty 
grins with no teeth. The boat went slowly now, but the waves were 
pretty high. Pete opened his mouth, having found a thing to ask 
about, but he couldn't make a sound.
  "Come on!" Don roared, kicking his foot. "Get it out!!"
  Pete swallowed. "A... a phone call?" he said with a hoarse voice.
  Don and redhead Patrick burst out laughing. 
  "Yeah, AS IF we'd allow you do to that!" Patrick said and laughed 
even higher.
  Pete got filled with anger when he heard what Patrick said. "Then 
don't tell me all about last wishes that you don't fulfil anyway!" he 
raged as loud as he could. "Do it! Throw me in the water and forget 
all about it!" He became silent, stared out in the air and just 
wanted to get over with it. The surveillance didn't come, no one did 
come, and now it was soon to late. He felt how the hope sank inside 
him, was about to give up for real now.
  "Sure, you treacherous cop!" Don raged back at him. His feet were 
tied together and he could hear how the men fastened the rope to the 
weight. He desperately tried to fight against the ropes, but redhead 
Patrick grabbed his feet and kept them still.
  Don loosened the ropes around his wrists. It felt wonderful to get 
the feeling back in his hands, but he'd rather want the pain in them 
than to be tossed overboard. Don held his hands hard. Pete tried to 
twist them out of the man's hand, but was so weakened because of the 
bad treatment he'd had, that he didn't own enough strength. The men 
lifted him up. He tried to twist out of their holds, but they lifted 
him over the rail together with the weight and let go. He drew his 
breath.

***

Splash, there he goes..! Hehe... I broke it up here, thinking that 
was the best place to end part one. I'll post part two soon :) Hope 
you all enjoyed reading this first fic. Pretty bad done to Pete all 
this, I know it and there's no way I don't like him, but anyway, it's 
just a story!

*** TO BE CONTINUED *** TO BE CONTINUED *** TO BE CONTINUED ***


AUTHOR: Eva
E-MAIL: eva_heimen@hotmail.com
DISCLAIMER: I've got nothing to do with Stingers at all, etc. etc...

Here comes the second part!

========
FAR OUT 
========
part II

The water surrounded Pete like a cold, wet jelly that pulled him down 
towards the empty deep. He fought with all his body, but the twenty 
kilo weight was so much stronger. It dragged him down into the 
darkness, as fast as stones falling. He tried to twist loose. He 
tried to work loose the rope around his feet with his hands. But it 
didn't work. He felt how his lungs soon would burst. Stars began to 
flicker in front of his eyes. Desperately, he searched his brain to 
see if he could think of any ways out of this. He remembered 
something, and felt on his shirt with his hand. Nothing was there. 
Then he put his hand down in the pocket of his pants. He found what 
he was looking for. It was cold, like metal. The pocket knife! 
  Slowly now, slowly now, he thought to himself. Don't loose it! He 
opened it, and bent the upper part of his body down. He found the 
rope. Started to cut. It went so slowly! He was about to loose his 
breath now. In despair he cut with all his might. Cut and cut. At 
last, the rope burst, and he was free. He started to swim upwards as 
fast as he could. It was long way up to the surface, but he felt like 
the relief of being free from the rope sort of strengthened him, and 
he fought through the last metres. 
  His head met the surface. He gasped for breath and started 
coughing, felt how he got dragged down under the water, but managed 
to keep himself up. For some seconds he fought against the deep water 
and tried to find his breath again. At last, he was able to breath 
steadily and felt fairly calm.   The water wasn't so cold now, but it 
was dark, totally dark, and he couldn't see a thing. He turned around 
by using his arms.
  Wasn't there a little light somewhere over there? He stared so hard 
that he got tears in his eyes. Maybe. He started swimming towards the 
light. It probably was too far for him to swim, but he had to make it 
a try. He didn't feel the pains on his side any more. The only thing 
that mattered, was not to drown, to stay alive and swim towards this 
light, that probably was land.

*

"God, this is really hard" Angie groaned while rowing. Mac had a rest 
at the moment. She sat in the bow, leaning her back against the hull 
with her eyes closed.
  They had taken one oar each in the beginning, but they didn't 
manage really to keep time, therefor it probably was the best if only 
one of them rowed at a time. The dinghy slid slowly through the 
water. The waves weren't just as high as before, and Angie took that 
as a good sign. Maybe they managed to reach land before sunrise, 
after all.
  "I didn't know that you could row, Mac" she said and gave Mac a 
smile. Mac opened her eyes and looked at Angie.
  "And I didn't know YOU could", she muttered.
  "I actually rowed a lot when I was a child", Angie replied. "My 
uncle had a small dinghy, pretty similar to this one." 
  Mac was silent a little while before answering:
  "You don't need to have rowed before to do it, you know."
  "What do you mean? Like you have it inherent, is that what you're 
trying to tell me?"
  Mac sighed. "Rowing isn't THAT difficult. I know a lot more things 
that are worse to do."
  "Like what?"
  "Oh, I don't know. As speaking Japanese, perhaps."
  "Well, Japanese isn't any difficult, really. It's just to say: 
Sayonara! That wasn't difficult at all, Mac."
  "Give it a rest, Ang. You're irritating me."
  "That was sort of the plan, too, you know", Angie chuckled, but was 
quiet, at least for a little while.

*

In the port, the new police boat had arrived, and the officers were 
about to enter it. Danni and Oscar started to run back to the Com-V, 
then hesitating for some moments, before running back to the police 
boat. There was nothing that could be done in the car anyway, and 
both of them wanted to be there to rescue Pete. On a screen on board 
the police boat they could follow Pete's tracking device. It was 
moving slowly towards the sound of Port Philip Bay, and if the 
smugglers got out in open sea before the police boat found them, they 
would have much less chance to capture them. The engine started with 
a roar, and they set out on the sea, doing about fifty knots.

*

"Hey, Mac? Wanna hear a joke?"
  "Jokes don't suit tonight, Angie."
  "But, I just thought... to lighten up the night, sort of. Come on, 
Mac, we both need it." 
  "The only thing that suits this must be grim humour."
  "Well, but it is!" Angie said. "At least nearly..."
  "Okay, go ahead. Get finished with it as soon as possible." Mac 
sighed.
  "All right. Let's see... Okay: There were two persons. One of them 
said to the other: `hey, did you know my brother is attached to the 
police?' Then the other one asked: `no, in which way?'" Angie paused, 
looking at Mac.
  "And?"
  "Then the other one says: `with handcuffs!'"
  Mac rolled her eyes. "Gee, that was soo funny, Ang.."
  "Yeah, I know." Angie giggled.

*

Oscar and Danni sat in front of the screen, following as the police 
boat got closer and closer to the tracking device. Some more minutes, 
and they would be there. 

*

"That was easy." Don grinned at redhead Patrick, who was steering. He 
speeded up, as fast as the fishing boat could go, and steered towards 
the sound.
  "Yep. Nice to be done with that hell of a cop now, and now we're 
just heading towards the sound and out in open sea, where we can 
disappear as easy as nothing, and the bloody cops will never ever 
find us again." He laughed. 
  "We should've had a dinghy or something, like those two cops that 
were following us had", said Don, looking at the speedometer. "This 
slow, old bitch can't do more than twenty!"
  "Yeah, it's too bad, mate", Patrick echoed the speaker. "But don't 
you worry, the sea is big and the night is dark. They'll never find 
us even with a racer boat!" He gave Don a slap on the shoulder. 

*

"We're getting closer", Danni whispered, staring as in hypnosis on 
the screen. "I guess we can see them soon..."
  "We're gonna getcha..." Oscar whispered with a smile showing in the 
corner of his mouth. "Hope Pete's all right." His smile disappeared 
for some seconds, until Danni said:
  "Sure he's all right, he always is! I doubt those three scoundrels 
have managed to do something with him. He's way to smart for that." 
  "Danni, they're dangerous people, in fact VERY dangerous." Oscar 
tried to meet her eyes. Danni looked away, not feeling half as 
confident as she had sounded.

*

The lights had definitely got stronger, Pete felt sure about that, 
and it encouraged him to swim even more. Little by little he felt he 
started to get tired, but he kept telling himself not to stop. He 
could feel the waves lifting him up and down, and sometimes they 
splashed him in the face. He found out that swimming, and especially 
crawling, in fact was very hard. 
  When he had swum for a while, he collided with a piece of 
driftwood. When he put his hands on it and realised that the 
driftwood still kept floating, he couldn't bare to laugh into the 
empty night. The relief ran through him and it felt so good, to 
finally could relax a little bit. After he'd gathered some more 
strength, he continued to swim while holding on to the driftwood.

*

"You know what, Ang?"
  "What?" Angie looked at Mac, who was rowing for the moment.
  "I think it really has been foggy, and that it's now starting to 
disappear. Look around you! Don't you see a whole lot more light than 
you did before?"
  Angie looked around her.
  "Well, it could be that we have only got closer to land", she 
suggested.
  "Anyways, it's a good sign, isn't it?" Mac smiled.
  "Sure it is." Angie smiled back.
  Mac rowed in silence for some minutes. The air was fresh and cold, 
but when she sat here, toiling with the oars, she didn't notice it. 
Angie though, looked a little like she was freezing, and Mac thought 
she'd ask her to take over in a couple of minutes. She felt tired in 
her arms, rowing was hard really, but thank God she and Angie didn't 
have to swim to land. That would have been worse, much more worse 
than this. She smiled of her own, silly thoughts.
  "Shh, Mac!" Angie suddenly said. "Listen! Can you hear the boat?"
  Mac listened. She heard a boat that sounded like it was driving 
extremely fast. They could see the lanterns from it now. The boat 
seemed pretty far away, and it went like a hurricane out towards the 
sound.
  "The police boat, I guarantee it" Angie said, staring after it with 
a quiet disappointed look in her face. "Why can't they pick US up 
first?"
  "Yeah, tell me" sighed Mac. "But they are in a hurry, you know, and 
starting looking for us could take pretty a long time in the dark."
  "Yeah, I guess so."
  Mac took ten more strokes, then she handed the oars over to Angie. 
  "Your turn now. I'm exhausted."
  "What do you think I am?"
  "You've had a rest, so don't complain. The faster we row, the 
faster we get to land." She gave Angie an encouraging smile.

"There they are! I see them!"
  Oscar and Danni were standing by the rail together with some of the 
other police officers. They saw lights from a boat, it wasn't 
lanterns, but it still was light. Looking like it came from the cabin.
  All the police officers were on deck now, getting ready with their 
weapons and took their positions. One of them was standing with a 
megaphone in his hand.
  "Hey, you two over there!" 
  Danni and Oscar turned around, facing an officer. 
  "Hide behind here, `cause it might be some shooting. And then you 
don't want to stand in the way of the shots, will you?"
  "No, of course we won't!" Oscar pulled Danni with him to behind a 
white box or whatever it was that stood between the cockpit and the 
open deck. They found their weapons and got ready like they'd been 
told to.
  The police boat slowed up and braked in front of the fishing boat. 
Danni couldn't bare to look up to see if she could see Pete, but she 
didn't see anyone yet.
  The man with the megaphone lifted it to his mouth. 
  "This is police officer Adams, please come out and surrender! I 
repeat, come out and surrender NOW!"
There wasn't any signs of people on board the boat. No one was 
standing on deck, and they couldn't see inside the cabin. The officer 
continued to speak in the megaphone while some other police officers 
got ready to board the fishing boat.
  The cabin door suddenly got flung up, and the silhouette of a man 
with something looking like a weapon in his hands became visible.
  "...I am asking you to surrender!"
  The man lifted his weapon towards the police boat. He roared 
something, but Danni and Oscar couldn't hear it clearly.
"Put your gun down! If you shoot, you are a dead man!"
  The man didn't lower his weapon, which in fact only was a torch. He 
stood motionless, just stared at the police boat. His face was 
lightened up by the sharp lights from the boat, and Oscar and Danni 
could see him clearly.
  "I'm telling you to PUT YOUR GUN DOWN!" 
  Then the man suddenly ran over to starboard side of the boat, and 
was about to jump in the sea. One of the police officers fired a shot 
just to scare the man, but didn't see were he was shooting. He hit a 
petrol can standing inside the cabin, and it exploded like a host of 
flames. Danni and Oscar could now see another man throwing himself 
out of the cabin, and both of the offenders stumbled astern. There 
they stood, leaning on to each other, and could do nothing with the 
flames. In a few seconds the whole fishing boat was in fire, and the 
two men had to jump overboard. 
  "Now will you surrender?!" a police officer roared, while the 
officer behind the steer manoeuvred the police boat close up to the 
two swimming men. They were helped up from the water by two police 
officers, while another four stood ready behind them with handcuffs.
  Danni watched everything pretty shocked, so did Oscar.
  "Where's Pete..." she mumbled, getting up from behind the box and 
staring at the fishing boat that was about to sink. She realised 
there was no hope finding him here. Pete was gone. He wasn't here, at 
least. Danni didn't know where else to look for him. He couldn't 
really be any other places, because it was this boat he'd been on 
board! As she understood all this, her eyes got filled up with tears 
that started to pour down her cheeks, and she began to weep silently.
  Oscar had a hard lump in his throat. Pretty shaky he put his arms 
around Danni, while he stared at the last rests of flames that got 
stifled by the dark sea. At the end, only a few bubbles were left. He 
stared at them for the seconds they lasted, until the water made them 
disappear. The surface became smooth again and the waves kept 
rolling. Not showing any sign of the secrets hidden underneath them.

"I can't believe you're such an idiot!" redhead Patrick spitted to 
Don, while they were pushed by the police officers inside the cabin. 
  "Shut up, you're not any better if that's what you think!" Don 
snarled back.
  "All right, that's enough" officer Baguer that was in command 
said. "You two better keep quiet. Sit down over there, and we'll rush 
you to the police station as fast as you've never gone before." Don 
and redhead Patrick were pushed down on a seat. 
  "How the hell did you cops find us out here?"
  "Oh, that was easy, we just followed the tracking device in the 
undercover's jacket" officer Murray shot in.
  "What the...?" Don stared at redhead Patrick, and both of them 
remembered Pete's jacket that had been laying on deck. Don's face 
became dark pink, and it looked like he was about to explode of 
anger. 
  "All right", officer Baguer stepped in. "First, we want to know 
what you've done to the undercover police officer that was on board 
your fishing boat. Where is he? And is he all right? Was he inside 
the cabin when it started to burn? As far as we've understood, you 
found his wire. What happened after then? Murray, will you go get the 
two other undercovers?"
  "Ay, ay Sir" officer Murray replied, looking rather mirthful.
  The two criminals stared down on their feet, with quiet unhappy 
faces.
  "Come on, speak out!"
  Silence.
  "We really need to know where this guy is, and what condition he's 
in." The police officer sighed. "Is he injured in any way?" 
Silence. "Is he... still alive?" Silence. "Is he dead?" Silence. The 
police officer gave a frustrated sigh. 
  "Why can't you just spit it out?" Oscar had showed up in the 
doorframe, staring at the two offenders with his arms crossed over 
his chest. Danni stood behind him with a handkerchief in her hand, 
wiping away some tears.
  "In case you don't know, I myself am a really good friend of this 
guy. His name's Peter, actually. We work together. And if anything's 
happened to him, then... both me and Danni here, will take it hard. 
So please tell us what you know."
  Don grumbled, realising that they would have to speak out, so he 
started to tell.
  "We found out that he was a cop, and then we threw him overboard, 
all right? That's it, we didn't do anything more."
  "And your mate here, does he agree to that?" the police officer 
asked, looking at redhead Patrick.
  Redhead Patrick shrugged, wondering if he should tell them anything 
more, but decided it was best not to.
  "Anything more you want to add?"
  "Nope."
  "Where was it that you did this?"
  Don sighed. "Jesus, do you think we know EXCACTLY where we got rid 
of him? I mean, the sea is huge and the night bloody dark! ...But 
maybe you cops are floating on a big, luminous cloud or something 
that makes you see everything as bright as the day, eh?! Sounds 
pretty much like it!"
  The police officer didn't notice him. "Was it close to the tanker?"
  "Don't think so" redhead Patrick answered.
  "So he could possibly be anywhere between the tanker and here, is 
that what you say?"
  Don and Patrick both shrugged. Oscar and Danni went out, they'd 
heard enough. They were both thinking on the same while they stopped 
by the rail and looked out in the dark; where was Pete now, and was 
he still alive?

*

Mac's mobile phone rang from inside her jacket. She didn't seem to 
hear anything where she lay in the bow with eyes closed, nearly 
sleeping.
   "Mac? Your mobile's ringing." Angie lifted one of the oars and 
pushed Mac with it. She suddenly got up and pulled the phone out of 
her jacket.
  "Hello?" 
  Angie had troubles with getting the oar in the right position 
again. She nearly lost it, but gained control in the last moment.
  "You have? That's brilliant news! ... that's great! But what about 
Pete? ... What?" Mac's face suddenly went grey like ashes. Angie 
noticed it, and felt like something tied up inside her 
chest. "But..." Mac continued. "They did WHAT? Oh my god... Okay... 
Yes, we'll be fine. Bye..." She hung up, put her mobile back inside 
her pocket and stared out in the air for some moments. Then she 
stroke her hand quickly over her eyes.
  "What is it, Mac?" Angie asked, not really wanting to hear the 
answer.
  "It's Pete", Mac said with a shaky voice. "They...they don't know 
where he is... He wasn't on board the fishing boat, and the police 
said that the offenders had confessed to have... thrown him 
overboard."
  Angie didn't know what to say, she wasn't sure her voice would have 
worked if she'd tried to either. They sat in silence for a little 
while. The boat rolled slowly on the waves, Angie had stopped rowing. 
At last, Mac took a deep sigh.
  "Oh God, Angie, I hope he's all right!" she burst out, tears 
running down her face.
  "I'm sure he is, Mac", Angie whispered to her, wanting to put an 
arm around her, but the distance was too long. They sat there in the 
dark, silently, both feeling frightened and shocked like this 
couldn't be happening for real.
  Both of them realised how much they really cared about Pete, and 
how something like this had to happen to make them actually 
understand it. Mac felt terrified of the thought that she perhaps 
wouldn't see Pete alive again - ever. She felt like she wanted to cry 
out in the dark and tell this nightmare to end. Because it really was 
like a nightmare.
  "I know we sometimes do pretty risky jobs and things like that", 
she said instead. "But... I did never think it was gonna end up like 
this! And not with Pete... I mean, Oscar did get shot and everything, 
but he survived! It's so... hopeless!" She gave a deep sigh.
  "Yeah, I know, Mac, but that's just the way it is", Angie answered, 
trying the best to comfort her. "But it's not for sure Pete is dead, 
you have to remember that! They are searching for him right now, I'm 
sure!"
  Mac nodded, looking like she was trying to convince herself that 
what Angie said, was true.
  "And we can start searching for him, too", Angie suggested. She 
rose up in the little dinghy and yelled: "PETE! Can you hear me??!! 
It's Angie!!!" This she did several times, but not a sound could be 
heard. Angie sat down again.
  "Oh, I guess he's too far away to hear me", she said, but tried her 
best to not look worried. She could see that Mac took this quiet 
hard. 
  Mac suddenly cleared her voice and said to Angie:
  "By the way, they told us to keep rowing towards land, and signal 
with the torch."
  "Oh, all right." Angie nodded. "Well, it's best that you do that, 
and so I'll start rowing again, okay?"
  "Okay." Mac took up the torch.

*

"Oh, sea, why d'ya have to be so big?" Pete groaned as he was toiling 
himself through the water. He felt so tired in his legs now that he 
mostly wanted to give up, but he had to continue. Besides, he noticed 
he started to feel a growing pain in his side, where he had been hit. 
It worried him quiet much. If it continued getting worse and worse, 
he would soon be in so much pain that he couldn't be able to swim. 
That frightened him a bit. He wondered if something was wrong. Why 
did it start to ache so long afterwards? That was strange. The pain 
felt sticking, like needles shooting trough his body somewhere 
inside. Somewhere around where the kidneys lay, he believed. He hoped 
that nothing was seriously wrong... Hopefully, it would disappear 
soon. He tried the best he could to encourage himself to keep 
swimming, not stopping. Never stopping...

*

The rescue service had been called, and they were soon on their way 
out on the sea to start look for Pete. In the meantime, the police 
boat drove back to the harbour where a police car stood ready to 
bring the offenders to the police station. After the two men had gone 
ashore, it was Danni's and Oscar's turn. Both of them complained that 
they mostly wanted to be on board the police boat, that was going out 
once again to help with the search and besides to pick up Mac and 
Angie. But officer Barguel told them not to.
  "You two have stayed up all night - it's nearly four o'clock now - 
and you'd better get some rest. That'll be the best, trust me." He 
gave Oscar a slap on the shoulder and Danni a smile.
  "Do your best to find him, then", Danni said, and the police 
officer nodded.
  They started to stroll up towards the Com-V. Both said nothing, 
were just in their own thoughts. Oscar felt how he started to get 
sleepy now when everything suddenly had got so quiet. He took a look 
at his watch. It showed twenty to four in the morning. Geez, what a 
long night this had been.
  "I say we drive back to the factory and get some sleep", he 
suggested and stifled a yawn.
  "Hmm... yeah, that's maybe a good idea" Danni said with a tone that 
sounded as she was very far away in her thoughts.
  They climbed up in the Com-V, Danni sat down in the passenger seat. 
Oscar climbed backwards to phone Mac and say that they took the Com-V 
with them. It probably wouldn't matter if they took it, because there 
was nothing that could be done here anyway by now.
  Back on the factory they went inside and started getting ready for 
bed, each of them in their couch. But Oscar did feel sort of hungry, 
so he went to the fridge to see what he could find. The only thing 
that was left there was a bit batter. He turned his head.
  "Danni, d'ya want some waffles before ya go to sleep?" 
  Danni murmured something back, sounding like a denial.
  "Okay, then" Oscar answered, feeling a little bit disappointed.
  He then took out the bowl, removed the tinfoil and looked down. His 
face
turned into a grimace.
  "Oh, YUK!" He turned the tap on and washed down all the batter.
  "What's going on over there?" Danni asked, sounding pretty 
uninterested.
  "It was totally green, Dan! YUK!"
  Danni couldn't bare to chuckle.

*

The police boat skid up in front of Mac and Angie and lay totally 
quiet some seconds later. Mac turned off the torch and Angie rowed 
towards the boat.
  "Is everything all right?" One of the officers on board the boat 
shouted. 
  "We're okay!" Angie shouted back. "Thanks for coming!"
  "Finally", Mac added for herself.
  They were helped up the ladder and over the rail. Both of them got 
a blanket, and they sat down inside the cabin. The dinghy was 
fastened to the police boat with a rope.
  "Okay, we drive you back to the harbour now, so that you can go 
back to your base or home or wherever you want to go" the police 
officer said. "But I would recommend for both of you to get some 
sleep, you've almost been up all night."
  "But I want to help searching for Pete" Mac said. "And I'm sure 
Angie wants that, too."
  "Well, we are plenty enough officers on board this boat all ready", 
the police officer said. "And besides the rescue service will help us 
as well. The best thing you two can do is go home and get some sleep, 
so that you'll be in form tomorrow. Okay?" He gave both of them a 
smile.
  "Okay", Angie sighed.
  "Promise me you'll do your best, then. All of you", Mac added.
  "I promise that." The officer nodded, then went away.
  Mac and Angie sat quiet for a while, far away in their thoughts, 
but they were both thinking on the same thing. Pete. The police boat 
drove rapidly back to the harbour, no one did bother to moor it, and 
they climbed over the rail and put their feet on the quay.
  "What a brilliant feeling", Angie sighed, and Mac agreed. The 
police boat drove off again and was soon gone.
  "Oh shit!" Mac suddenly said and got an irritated look in her face. 
  "What?"
  "I should have asked Oscar and Danni to wait for us in the Com-V 
before they drove back to the factory! Now we haven't got a car!" She 
pulled up her mobile.
  "Oh no..." Angie sighed. "Let's hope they haven't gone to sleep."
  "Don't even mention it", Mac said, dialled a number and lifted the 
mobile to her ear. She stood like that for a long time. She tried 
several numbers, but obviously, none of them worked. 
  "That was it... I'm calling a taxi", she said. After having hung 
up, Angie could see she was about to throw the mobile to the ground.
  "Can you believe it? All the taxis are busy at the moment, so I was 
told to call back in half an hour!"
  "Oh shit!" Angie said. "What do we do, then?"
  "Well... I guess we just have to wait!" Mac said and sighed. "I 
can't believe we're stuck again!" she added. "It's like everything 
that can go wrong, goes wrong this night!"
  "Yeah, I know", Angie said. "But hey, I would assume that if we 
start walking, we can be back at the factory in about half an hour, 
maybe less. It's not that far from here, really. What'd you say?"
"Walk? In this area? Angie, do you know how much crime it is around 
here? We're gonna get raped or beaten down or something if we start 
walking!"
  "It's a possibility that could happen if we stay here, too, you 
know" Angie said. "But hey, let's not be scared! We're cops, aren't 
we?"
  "Yeah, I know we are, but..."
  "No buts Mac now, all right? We're gonna handle it. Come on, let's 
walk!"
  Mac sighed. "Okay, then." 

*

Pete struggled his way through the water. It was like an endless 
fight against the deep, the pains in his side, the oppressive dark... 
everything. But he could see sharper lights now, they looked like 
pretty far away yet, but they were there, and that was the most 
important.
  He had no idea about how long he had been swimming. One hour, maybe 
two, maybe three. He would have found it hard to breath if he hadn't 
had the driftwood. On that he could put his arms, and his head got a 
little more lifted up from the water. The air was fresh, so that 
wasn't any big problem. He'd thought about sharks now and then, but 
since he still wasn't torn into small pieces, he supposed there 
weren't anyone around this night. 
  A shooting pain suddenly made him moan, and he put his right arm 
down in the water and pressed it to his side. It hurt if he pressed 
to hard. He had to stop swimming for a little while, until the pain 
had gone away. Still, he felt it ached a little bit, but he was 
capable to swim now, until the next pain would hit him, it would 
probably feel as a shot, it nearly did all ready. 
  He was pretty scared now. It was still a long way to land, and the 
pains got worse and worse. It hurt more and more. He wasn't in doubt 
now that something had to be seriously wrong. If he only could make 
it to land in time. He felt half dead all ready. The most he just 
wanted to go to sleep, but if he did that he would not survive. He 
forced himself to not think about sleep.
  Had the lights got closer? He stared at it, trying to figure out if 
they were sharper now than before. Perhaps they were. 
  The current was on his side at least. It helped carry him towards 
land. Really, it did go quiet fast ahead, considering he was 
swimming. He'd discovered he was pretty a good swimmer after all, he 
just hadn't thought about it so much before. It wasn't often he had 
the time to swim, and especially not with his kind of job. But it was 
nice exercise, though, no doubt about that.
  There were three places of light, he saw. They were probably houses 
or something. But as he slowly got closer he started to wonder if 
they were only street lamps. It looked like quiet an abandoned place 
in there. There wasn't much lights, really, it just looked like that 
from the sea. Pains suddenly shot through his side again. This time a 
lot stronger than before. He screwed up his eyes until it was over. 
He realised he shouldn't be swimming at all if he wanted this to not 
get worse, but that, he simply couldn't do. He had to reach land.

*

Mac and Angie tiptoed through the streets. It was dark, but the 
street lights made it possible to see where they were going. They 
shined down on the asphalt and made everything look like a scene from 
some gangster-movie. Mac expected black-clothed men to turn up around 
every street corner, and when she cast glances into the dark corners 
and passages it was like she could see dark, huddled figures in 
there, staring at her and Angie. She could feel her heart beat a 
little faster than normal, but when she looked at Angie she seemed 
quiet relaxed and unconcerned. Don't you worry, she told herself. 
It's probably nothing else than rubbish cans standing in there.
  She suddenly heard a sound, and froze immediately. Angie in front 
of her, did the same.
  "What was that?" she whispered, looking around.  
  "I don't know." Angie started moving again, she took a few steps 
towards where the sound had come from, and stared into the dark, 
trying if she could see anything.
  Then they heard the sound again. It came from a dark passage to the 
right of them and sounded like someone was scratching something, 
perhaps plastic. Then there was another sound, making a shiver run 
through Mac's spine. It had sounded like a misfire, coming from 
nothing but a gun.
  They stood scared stiff for some seconds, before Angie whispered so 
weakly that only Mac could hear:
  "I say we run." And so they did.
  As fast as they could they ran along the street laying opposite of 
the passage. Something moved from the passage just after they started 
running, and they could hear something following behind them while 
they ran. That only made them run even faster.
  They stumbled past some cars standing parked, up a little hill and 
around a corner. On the other side, some sacks were standing, looking 
nearly invisible there they stood, lent against the wall. Angie 
stumbled over them first, followed by Mac, who landed almost on top 
of Angie. The sacks upset, and a lot of plastic bags with something 
sticky in them came out and hit their feet.
  "Shit!" Angie yelled, trying to get to her feet, but it wasn't easy 
with Mac trying to do the same. It all ended with Mac stumbling over 
Angie and landing on the street, while Angie got up leaning on to her 
hands, and staring straight into the face of a dog. She screamed 
before she discovered that the shabby creature in front of her was 
nothing but a harmless animal.
  "Good Lord!" she moaned. "Is it possible?" She looked down on her 
dirty pants while the dog started digging in the rubbish with its 
paws.
  Mac slowly lifted her head where she lay and looked at the dog. 
  "I can't believe this is happening", she muttered. 
  "And all that running just for a dog!" Angie looked quite furious 
for some moments, before she got to her feet and helped Mac up as 
well. "Let's just forget that this has ever happened and go back to 
the factory" she sighed. "So that this dog here can continue looking 
for delicacies..." She was about to laugh, but decided not to. "Come 
on, Mac." She took a hold around Mac's arm and pulled her after 
herself.

*

Police officer Adams sat with a map in front of him at the table 
inside the cabin on the police boat. He had a deep wrinkle on his 
forehead and his pale blue eyes ran over the map, as if they were 
looking for a sensible place to start the search.
  They were on their way out now, to meet the rescue service and make 
a plan for the search. No doubt this was going to take long time, 
because they had nearly no traces to follow. Officer Adams felt 
pretty at a loss himself. No way they would manage to find a lost man 
in this huge bay. It was dark, and the undercover was probably dead 
all ready. He shook his head slightly.
  "We will have to search almost the whole bay", officer Barguel said 
from over his shoulder. "I guess the odds look pretty bad, and I'm 
really sorry for that."
  "Yeah, me too", Adams answered. "A miracle has to happen if we find 
this guy alive, that's for sure."
  "Anyway, we're not allowed to give up." The officer took a few 
hesitant steps around the cabin, then he walked out on deck. 
  "Hope you come to Heaven, mate", Adams mumbled before following the 
commanding officer outside.
  The clock on the wall showed twelve to five in the morning. It was 
ticking slowly and safely towards dawn.

*

"One hundred an' ten, hundred an' eleven... twelve... thirteen..." 
Pete counted inside his head. He'd started to count the strokes he 
took, hoping that would make him forget about the pains, the 
tiredness and the fright. He kept staring at the street lamps at 
land, so that at the end he didn't manage to focus any more. When he 
moved his eyes away, he could still se the light dance in front of 
him, in the darkness. It changed into green, then little by little 
got read and so it disappeared. 
  The street lamps were the only light in the whole world. They 
shined as strong as the sun. 
  How many metres to land now? Well, maybe a hundred, Pete wondered. 
He thought about it. No, definitely more than a hundred. He guessed 
about two-three hundred or something. For every stroke he took, he 
became surer and surer on that he was going to make it. It was as if 
the fright he felt inside him got weaker and weaker for every metre 
he swam. He was going to make it. No matter what.

*

  Mac and Angie scuffled through the car park, up the stairs and 
through the door. 
  "Finally, we're home!" Mac exclaimed and breathed. Angie sat down 
in a chair and closed her eyes.
  "Yeah, finally. Oh God, I'm tired..." She opened her eyes again. "I 
think I go to bed, Mac. Better than sitting here and be tired to 
death." Mac nodded. Angie dragged along through the office and into 
the kitchen.
  Mac sat there alone for some minutes, just thinking. The factory 
was so empty on this time of the day, so quiet. Like if nobody were 
alive at all. 
  But they were, Mac thought. She knew Oscar and Danni were sleeping 
on the couches, and she could hear thumps coming from Angie probably 
making ready her bed for the few hours that were left of the night. 
  She was standing here, leaning on to nobody but Pete's desk. Only 
he was missing. There was only a photo left of him, hanging on the 
wall, right beside the door. Mac looked at it. A hard lump in her 
throat got bigger and bigger. At last it felt like it filled all her 
throat and she just wanted to cry. 
  I have to get away from here, she thought and hurried after Angie 
to try get some sleep.

*

The feeling of the sandy bottom under his feet was the most wonderful 
feeling Pete'd ever had. He couldn't do nothing but grin, and felt so 
happy that tears made his eyes and cheeks wet. He let the driftwood 
help him the last few metres into shallow water, then he let go of 
it. 
  Exhausted he crawled up on the dry sand, with arms and legs so 
tired that they were shaking. He suddenly wasn't able to move a 
centimetre more, his arms and legs yield to the weight of his body 
and with a sigh, he collapsed on the shore, letting the tiredness 
overcome him. A few seconds later he had fell asleep.

*

Oscar woke up at 6.50. He lay still for a little while, just 
thinking. Then he decided to get up and make himself some food. 
  He tiptoed pass the others that were still sleeping and out in the 
kitchen. There he opened the fridge, and what he saw in there only 
made him remember that he had checked it when he and Danni came, and 
there hadn't been anything in it.
  "Shit, I can't make waffles without milk..." he muttered to himself 
and closed the door. He opened the cupboard to look for other 
possibilities. At last he found a dry bread and some chocolate spread.
  "Better than nothing..." he muttered and took a knife.
  He ate in silence while leaning himself on to the kitchen bench. 
The bread was hard and didn't taste very good, but the chocolate 
spread sort of removed the taste of the bread a little, so it was 
okay. In spite of all he had been starving, and the reason for waking 
up so early had to be the hunger.
  When he had finished eating, he drank a glass of water and then 
went back to bed.
  He closed his eyes and tried to sleep again, but that was 
difficult. He kept thinking on the police boat, the offenders and if 
the rescue service did a good job or not. He wondered where Pete 
could be.
  There's no point in thinking like this, he told himself, and tried 
his best not to think of anything at all. He felt he got sleepier and 
sleepier.

*

Pete was woken up of his sleep by a terrible pain coming from 
somewhere inside his side. In a second he was wide awake, and crooked 
together, begging for the pain to go away.
  When he thought he could move again, he pulled himself up on his 
hands. His whole body felt stiff and completely out of form and he 
had a terrible headache. His clothes were still wet, and he had 
sticky sand all over himself, even in his hair. I must look like a 
horrible mess, he thought, before he raised his head and looked 
around.
  He'd come to an abandoned shore, probably outside the city. Pete 
could never remember to have been here before and had no idea of in 
what direction the city was. The shore wasn't big, it was filled with 
lots of garbage, among other things empty bottles and old rests of 
ropes, probably washed ashore by the sea.
  There were three street lamps there. It looked like they stood 
along a road, but he couldn't see it properly because of the grass 
that grew like a high fence between the shore and the road or 
whatever it was.
  He stuck his teeth together, and stumbled up on his feet. He felt 
dizzy for some seconds, but regained balance and dragged himself 
along up from the shore with one hand on his side. It was a road.
  When he came out on it, he discovered a couple of cars standing 
parked on the gravel on the opposite side. Perhaps there were some 
people inside them or someone nearby, he thought, tottered over the 
road and towards the cars.
  It was very hard to walk, because the ache in his side was almost 
irresistible. He felt sick of pain, but forced himself to stay on his 
feet.
  The first car he looked into was empty, and the doors were locked. 
He then went to the other one, just to find there were nobody inside 
that one either. It was a white, dirty Toyota, he noticed, and tried 
to open the door to the driver's seat, but it was stuck. He tried 
once again, of all his powers, because it looked like the lock were 
open. The door suddenly flew up, and he fell backwards and hit the 
ground.
  "Aotch..." he moaned and lay still for some moments before he got 
to his feet again by the help of the open door. He looked inside the 
car.
  What a miracle. The key lay on the dashboard! As if it had been 
placed there by someone just for him to use it. He could hardly 
believe it and shook his head incredulously. Perhaps it wasn't the 
right key, he thought. Perhaps it belonged to the other car, which 
had its doors locked. 
  He had to try it.
  Pete sat in the car, closed the door and took the key in his hand. 
He could feel the aching in his side getting worse now, no doubt it 
would make him unable to drive if it became as bad as that pain that 
woke him up. Would be dangerous both to him and to other drivers if 
that happened while he was on the road. With an unsteady hand he put 
the key into the ignition and twisted it. The car started.
  "Yes!" he said and grinned to himself in the mirror. He lowered the 
handbrake, pressed the clutch and put the car in the bottom gear. 
Easily he raised his foot off the clutch while pressing a little on 
the gas, and the car started moving. 
  He followed the road until it reached the motorway. From here he 
knew what way to drive to get back to the city. In spite of 
everything, he'd had the luck on his side in the end, and nothing 
could go wrong now. At least that's what he thought.
  Pete drove close up to the speed limit that was eighty kilometres 
an hour. There weren't many other cars on the way now, so he pushed 
the gas pedal even more. He took a short look on the digital clock 
built-in into the dashboard. It showed 7.16.
  When he almost was inside the city and was about to turn in on the 
road leading to the centre, the pain got a lot worse. He just 
expected more pains to shoot through him and make him crash and get 
killed, because seventy kilometres an hour wasn't a nice speed to 
crash in, that was for sure. He drove the car with his right hand 
while holding forced on to his side with the other. 
  If this trip could end soon... The well-known distance into the 
city felt like a thousand miles longer than before.
  He nearly missed the slip road towards the factory. Suddenly he 
realised that he was starting to feel numb in his hands, he felt 
dizzy and it was as if he couldn't see clearly. What's happening to 
me, he wondered, feeling his heart start to pound heavily in his 
chest. The car went shilly-shally. He almost hit a truck coming from 
the opposite direction.
  I'd better slow it down a little bit, he thought to himself, not 
fully aware of that he thought so.
  At last, the car drove up beside the factory and jerked to a stop 
in front of the gate, Pete tottered out of the car and over to a 
button that he pressed that opened the gate. Pains suddenly shot 
through him, and it felt like he was about to blackout. Like in a 
dream, he staggered in to the car park where he got a glimpse of 
Oscar's black jeep standing parked on its usual place. He shouted as 
loud as he was able to: 
  "Help!"
  
*

Oscar suddenly started out in the twilight and sat up from his bed. 
It was as if he'd heard something! He wasn't sure if it was something 
he'd dreamt or if it was for real, since he'd nearly been sleeping. 
But something inside him told him that this was happening for real. 
It was worth to go check it, he thought. Better than just laying 
here, in case I actually did hear something. A thought struck him 
that it could be Pete, but he brushed it aside, didn't want to 
believe in that when he probably would get disappointed. 
  He jumped out of his bed and slipped on the floor, making Angie 
wake up, too. But Oscar was gone by the time Angie had opened her 
eyes.
  He found his way out through the office and opened the door to the 
car park. He took a hesitant step out on the stairs. 
  Then he discovered Pete, in that moment on his knees with one arm 
against the wall, that collapsed on the ground and remained totally 
still.
  "Angie!" he roared in through the door and jumped down the stairs. 
In a moment he was by Pete's side, lifting his arm to check for the 
pulse. He pulled up his mobile from the pocket of his pants and 
called for an ambulance.
  Angie got up from her bed immediately after she'd heard Oscar's 
roar. She shook Danni awake, pointing in the entrance's direction 
with a look on her face making Danni at once realise there was 
something serious going on. While Danni got up and ran out in the car 
park, Angie shook Mac awake, tore the photo of Pete which she was 
holding on to out of her hands and dragged her out of bed and towards 
the car port.
  When they got there, Mac was fully awake, and the sight of Pete 
laying still on the ground made both of them rush up to him.
  "Oh my God, it's Pete! What's happened to him?" Angie yelled, while 
Mac sat down on her knees and grabbed Pete's wrist.
  "Why's he laying all still like that, not moving?" Danni cried, 
there she stood and stared at him with a frightened look on her face. 
Oscar had started examining him, he raised his head towards Danni.
  "I don't know what's wrong with him, he doesn't bleed or anything! 
But he's unconscious, it's impossible to wake him up!"
  "Have you called an ambulance?" Mac asked. Oscar nodded. Mac bent 
down and looked at Pete's pale face that was half hidden by the 
ground. He looked so dirty and wet that he almost could be a dead 
body all ready. 
  "Please, don't die", she whispered, while tears were running down 
Danni's cheeks. Angie put an arm around her.
  "You sure he's breathing properly?" Mac asked Oscar, almost shaking 
him. Oscar bent down and put his hand in front of Pete's nose one 
more time. He nodded. Mac checked his pulse. It was beating. Like 
that they sat by him until the ambulance arrived. The people lifted 
Pete up on a stretcher and carried him inside the ambulance. Oscar 
and Mac were allowed to come with them, while Danni and Angie took 
Danni's car and drove off hard on their heels.

*

They sat in the corridor in the hospital in a long line along the 
wall, waiting. On the left side Mac with a cup of coffee in her hand, 
beside her Angie, trying to concentrate on reading a magazine, on the 
other side of the little round table sat Danni, staring at a painting 
on the opposite side of the wall, and right to her, Oscar, fiddling 
with a piece of paper. 
  They'd sat like this for eternities, at least that's how they all 
felt like. The rescuing action had been blown off. At the moment Pete 
was in the operating theatre, what the doctors did with him in there 
they didn't know for sure, but they'd been assured quiet a lot of 
times that this was going to be fine, and that the doctors would do 
their best. Like if that made them relax any more. Pete had been 
exposed to a lot of violence, the doctor that had come out a while 
ago had told them. He had inner haemorrhages, and his situation was 
serious, but stable. Besides this, he wasn't seriously injured, but 
he had quiet a lot of small wounds and bruises. At least, he wasn't 
going to die, the doctor had said, however with an uncertain look in 
his face, it seemed to Danni.
  He's gonna be all right, he's gonna be all right, Mac tried to 
convince herself while sipping to the lukewarm coffee.
  "Looks like the offenders didn't confess everything they'd done to 
him", Danni mumbled and glanced at Oscar.
  "No", Oscar answered, putting his hands on the armrest. "It's gonna 
be really interesting to hear what Pete tells when he wakes up... You 
know, they must have hit him, beaten him up and then thrown him on 
the sea... that poor fellow.." He shook her head.
  "Yeah... I feel so sorry for him. If only the police boat hadn't 
had engine trouble, then this wouldn't have happened."
  "It's a miracle he managed to get back to the factory by himself, 
you ask me."
  They sat in silence for another while, until a doctor came walking 
out of the operation theatre, heading towards them. When they saw 
him, they all stood up at the same time.
  "How is he?" was the first thing Mac asked. The doctor gave them 
all a smile.
  "He's going to be just fine."
  They couldn't bare to smile, Oscar even began laughing, he took Mac 
in his arms and hugged her. They all hugged each other, feeling how 
the relief filled them up inside, and how all the worries let go off 
their shoulders.
  "Thank God", Mac exclaimed and hugged Danni, while Angie and Oscar 
were grinning at each other, so happy that they almost were jumping 
up and down in the corridor.
  
*

In the afternoon...

Pete had woke up, and some of the guys from drug squad had been there 
to question him and make him tell them everything that had happened 
the last night. Now, Angie, Oscar, Danni and Mac had come to visit 
him. They'd been informed by drug squad a while earlier about what 
Pete had told.
  "Stonie, mate! How I'm glad to see ya!" Pete shook hands with 
Oscar, which was about to bend down and give Pete a hug, but found 
out that it would be too effeminate.
  "So, how's it going?" Danni said, bent down and hugged Pete.
  "I'll be fine, good to see ya Dan" Pete replied and let go of 
Danni. Next one to hug him was Angie, then Mac. 
  "I'm sorry that everything ended up like this" she said. 
  Pete took her hand. "It's not your fault, Mac." 
  "I know. Still... Oh, let's not worry about what could have 
happened, most important thing is you're here, and you're gonna be 
all right again." She gave him a smile.
  Pete's hand was bandaged, he had a few wires sticking out of it and 
leading to some sort of device. On his fore-head sat a big, white 
plaster, and he had a big bandage around his waist, but that was half 
covered by the white duvet.
  "Don't you feel... a little blue and black?" Angie asked with a 
chuckle.
  "Aah.. don't even mention it", Pete replied with a look on his face 
that made everyone laugh. Danni sat down on the side of the bed, 
taking a look at him.
  "You know, you are really a tough guy after all", she said. "I 
myself would never have managed to swim to land and drive back to the 
factory if I'd been beaten up like that."
  "Careful now, Dan, don't say to many nice things to him, you know 
it goes straight to his head!" Oscar said and chuckled.
  "I say you watch your mouth now, Stonie!" Pete replied. They all 
laughed.
  "But Pete", Mac said when everyone had got quiet again. "One thing 
with what happened is actually very funny." She paused, making the 
others look at her and Pete asking what that was.
  "Well, according to the rescue service, the place you came ashore 
was their old resort, not being used any more! So, if all this had 
happened, let's suggest, half a year back in time, you would've come 
just to the right place!"
  "Are you serious?" Pete had to ask. "That's hell of a bad timing!"
  "Yeah, it really is", Mac answered and couldn't bare to laugh.

==========
THE END
==========