Chapter Nine

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Maybe someday I will, and this will all be made into a movie where I get to manipulate Justin Bartha to do anything I want. Sadly, that will probably not happen.

Dralx-Haha! I realize that cliffies suck as a reader, but they're so much fun to write! Especially if you have an evil complex like me! Yay you wanting more! I can do that! (wow, it's really late at night. I'm kind of punchy. sorry. :D)

Elfgirloflorien- Yes, killing off people is definitely necessary. And it's really fun to get creative in how they die. hah. I just sounded like a serial killer there. sorry.

Dragonmaster Kurai- Different things are cool! (Even though I don't exactly know what you were referring to. o well) Yay updating!

Whisperwings- I'm collecting the warm fuzzies! Goldfish are amazing. I was trying to figure out somethingClaire could eat and then I thought of the goldfish jingle. Y'know, that really catchy one that was all the rage for a summer. I love jingles. hee

A/N-I got a haircut! Erm, yes, I realize that none of you are interested in that at all, but it's like really short and supercurley now. (not that it wasn't before. arg.) Continuing with objects that actually relate to the story, (ooooo! Who's excited for the Da Vinci Code coming out! Me! Me! Who's really mad that they cast Tom Hanks for it instead of sending Harrison Ford back like ten years in a time machine! Me! Me!)I realize that I make a billion movie references in this chapter. I'm just going to make a blanket discalimer:I don't own any of them. My obo teacher's cousin was in Posiedon. That's really as close I get. Cheerio!

Don't forget to review:D

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Chapter Nine

When he was nineteen, one of Riley's friends had made him see the movie The Perfect Storm. He had come out of the movie theater swearing that he would never go on a boat ever again. He would stay in his safe little cubicle at the computer programming agency and pity those stupid enough to venture the high seas.

Obviously, he had forgotten this vow days after he saw the movie, but now, clutching his laptop in the middle of what looked like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow, Riley really wished that he had remembered.

Not even in the movies had he seen a storm progress this fast. The waves were now inundating the deck, and his feet were covered by a foot of water. Lighting lit up the sky every twenty seconds (he had counted) and rain painfully hammered his head and every other unprotected inch of his body.

At least his laptop was waterproof.

"We need to get belowdeck!" Ben yelled over the howling wind. "We can seal off the entrance and keep us from getting washed overboard."

Nodding, Riley headed cautiously towards the porthole, careful not to slip.

Ben lead Abbie in first, then started down himself, motioning for Riley to help Claire.

Handing Ben his laptop, Riley grabbed Claire's arm. "C'mon!" he yelled. "You heard Ben, we need to get down there!"

Claire didn't seem to hear him. She was staring at something behind him with huge, terrified eyes. Turning around, Riley saw a monstrous wave advancing on their ship. Like,Posiedon monstrous.

"Run!" he screamed. The two sprinted for the porthole. Claire tripped and fell hard, skidding across the deck as another wave submerged the floor.

Cursing, Riley ran to her and helped her up, glancing behind him. The wave was almost to their boat. Its white tip was curving dangerously as it arced towards them.

"Hurry!" Abbie yelled.

Claire pulled him towards the porthole. Riley ran faster than ever had in his life and silently prayed that they would make it.

They were less than ten feet away when the wave hit the ship.

Riley only felt his feet being ripped from the deck, and then he was sucked into a churning black world where he was spun and pulled around like a ragdoll. The only thing that tied him to reality was his stonelike grip on Claire's arm.

I'm going to die he realized. He felt Claire's hand squeeze his arm, as if she had heard his thought and was trying to comfort him.

We're both going to die.

The thought panicked him enough to propel him to struggle with the water and kick for all he was worth, trying to find the surface. Just when his burning lungs were ready to give out, he found himself gasping for air, his head emerging from the water. He pulled Claire up next to him, and he heard her gulp in air as she too rose to the surface.

The ship was about thirty feet away, bobbing like a cork in the deluging waves.

"Can you swim?" Claire shouted. Riley nodded, not wanting to swallow water answering. They began to struggle across the discordant water, keeping a firm grip on each other.

Riley felt rather than saw the next wave. His feet were being pulled out from behind him, and he heard Claire shout a warning.

"We need to go under it!" she screamed.

"What? No way!"

"Unless you want to get smashed against the boat, we need to go under the wave!"

Riley groaned, and promising himself that he would never even take a bath again, dived under the water. Claire tugged him deeper down, until he could only see her shadowy outline, an amorphous blob leading him into the depths of the ocean.

He felt a gigantic weight and a strong current over their head as the wave passed over them. He began to swim back up, his lungs starving for oxygen. He ignored Claire's yanking to stay down.

The force of another wave hit him squarely, and he felt Claire's arm being wrenched from his grasp as he once again cartwheeled through oblivion, clenching his eyes and waiting for everything to end.

And then it did.

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Claire whirled in the water, her eyes burning as she struggled to keep them open, searching for anything that resembled Riley.

And then a strange sense of stillness washed over her as the water turned calm.

Kicking back up to the surface, she burst out of the water and looked around.

The previously apocalypse-looking weather was gone. The ocean looked like glass and the sun was reappearing from behind the clouds, making it bright enough for her to see the ship about fifty feet away, soggy-looking but unscathed. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie:a disappearing storm.

But where was Riley?

Treading water, she turned, looking for any sign of him.

No. He can't have drowned. He's too annoying to drown!

"Riley?" she shouted, her voice carrying over the water.

"Riley?"

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Ian was pretty sure that he had broken several important traffic laws getting over to Robinson's house. Dawes' voice sounded over and over, a haunting mantra in his head.

Robinson's dead. Robinson's dead. Robinson's dead.

Pulling up to the grey stone townhouse, Ian ignored the FBI agents giving him weird looks as he parked his car and walked through the front door.

The house was dark and sparsely decorated, with large rooms and high ceilings. Most of the walls were crammed with bookshelves packed with thousands of volumes. Ian didn't have time to stop and read them, but he guessed that most of them had to do with Blackbeard.

An agent stopped as he stepped into the study.

"Sorry sir, but you can't come in here."

"It's ok Adam. He's with me." Agent Dawes called from inside the room. The agent reluctantly stepped aside, and as Ian entered, he inhaled sharply.

A charred corpse lay in the middle of the room, surrounded by ashes that were once the Oriental rug that covered the floor. The body was burned beyond recognition, the skin red and oozing body fluids.

Ian swallowed hard. "Someone did this to him?"

Dawes nodded. "I'm thinking it might have been torture, to extract information, possibly about the documents."

Ian ran a hand through his hair, worried. If Robinson was dead, that meant whoever did this got the information he was looking for.

Which meant Claire was next.

"Are you sure it's him?" he choked out.

Dawes nodded. "Most of his teeth were pulverized, but I found one that fell out. I sent it to the lab, and they just confirmed its Robinson."

Ian closed his eyes briefly. This was the guy who had been Claire's professor. And he was being identified by a tooth.

He had to call her.

Whipping out his phone, he dialed the number of the satellite phone he had insisted on buying her.

It rang ten times before the machine picked up.

"Hi Ian! I'm fine, so stop hyperventilating wherever you are and go do something productive, as long as it's not illegal."

He swore and called again. Why the bloody hell wasn't she answering?

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"Riley!" she called one last time, desperation leaking into her voice.

Claire heard a splash and turned to see Riley's head emerge out of the water, coughing and heaving in air.

"Riley! Are you okay?" she asked, swimming over to him and grabbing his arms.

"I'm fine," he gasped. "You?"

"Fine."

A peaceful silence surrounded them as they regained their breath and took pleasure in the fact that they were alive.

Riley finally grinned. "Do you believe me now?"

He winced as she punched him in the shoulder. "You almost died, you jerk, and you want to know if I believe in your stupid Bermuda Triangle theory? Are you completely insane?"

"Riley! Claire!" Ben and Abbie called from the ship.

"We're over here!" Riley yelled.

Ben tossed them a life raft and pulled them in, soaked but alive.

"Is my laptop alright?" Riley asked breathlessly as he fell onto the deck.

Abigil rolled her eyes. "We're fine, Riley, thanks for asking."

"Hey, you guys were probably just making out in the cozy, dry cabins while Claire and I were in Apocalypse Now out here." Riley accused.

Ben slapped him on the shoulder. "Good to see you're ok, Riley."

Riley grinned. "Likewise. At least now Claire has to admit I was right about the Bermuda Triangle. Appearing and disappearing crazy storms? Myth my ass! Admit it, I was right!"

"Thanks Riley. May I have two minutes to catch my breath, seeing that I almost drowned? Your compassion is overwhelming." Claire snapped.

A loud, obnoxious beeping sounded from the cabins. Riley jerked upright.

"Guys, is that a bomb? It sounds like bomb. Jeez, do we ever get a break?"

"Relax Riley." Claire said. "That's my satellite phone. Ian got it for me so he can annoy me from anywhere in the world."

Running down into the cabin, she retrieved it from her slightly damp bag.

"Hello?"

"Finally. Claire, do you realize how long I've been trying to call you?"

"Sorry." she apologized sheepishly. "We had some….. bad weather."

Up on deck, Riley reassimilated his techno-station with a few parts missing, being washed away in the storm.

"Riley, I don't mean to be rude, but if that thing can't predict storms, than what good is it?" Abigail questioned.

"Well, I figure that some storms will simply be the result of the intense El Nino year that we've been experiencing due to global warming, as the warm waters off the coast of South America have not been able to move west due to the weakening of the trade winds. Those are the storms I can track and predict. The scary appear-out-of-thin-air Bermuda Triangle storms? Can't help you."

"How reassuring." Ben quipped from the steering cabin.

"Hey," Riley protested. "I totally told you guys that going into the Bermuda Triangle was a bad idea, but did anyone listen to me?"

He trailed off as Claire reappeared from belowdecks, looking pale.

"Guys, I have some bad news."

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Sadly, as it is 11:00 on a Friday night, my brain is not functioning creatively enough to provide a cool metaphor for reviewing. So I'm going to cop one from Nike. Just Do It! (please)