Splashdown

Начало книги

Juan Diego de Guerrero emerged from his cabin onto the stern deck of the Nuestra Señora de la San Pedro and narrowed his eyes against the driving rain. It was not the precipitation that concerned him, however, but the wind that drove it and the sea’s response to that steadily increasing force. He frowned, wiping cold salt spray from his weathered face as he gazed out on the marching waves, a single terrifying word dominating his mind: Huracán.

I should have known.

Upon waking with the sunrise he’d been pleased to see that they were beyond sight of land, well underway across the great Atlantic to his Spanish homeland. But even then he’d noticed the unusual conditions — the decreasing interval between swells, the electric tang in the air. Now these were undeniably magnified. It was like the hand of God pulling him back from his goal. Had he done something wrong?

“Captain, I was just coming to find you.” Luis López de Olivares, Guerrero’s first mate, skidded to a halt on the damp decking. His deeply tanned face was pale, and his calloused fingers worked with nervous energy. “The weather is turning against us.” He gave Guerrero a meaningful look, knowing he did not need to finish the thought.

Читать дальше →