Brother from another mother

Boat or Yacht? [Part-3]

"Uh, Alfred?" Miked asked, halfway through. He knew he shouldn't ask questions about the boat - yacht - but he was worried. "I was just wondering - who's steering the b - yacht? It's just," he pressed on hurriedly so that Hemingway couldn't glare at him, "I can't help but notice it seems to be moving more than usual."

He was the only one who noticed - the other two were firmly immersed in paperwork, and Mike was more than a little nervous on the boat - yacht - so he was paying extra attention to whatever it was doing.

Hemingway frowned. "This isn't right," he muttered, standing up and heading for what Mike was for some strange reason now referring to as the 'flight deck'.

Mike jumped up and cast a nervous glance in Harvey's direction. "Relax," Harvey said. "It's probably just an increase in wind."

Mike nodded but was suddenly thrown to the floor as there was a tremendous crash which shook the boat - and yes it was a boat - and in turn shook Mike to his very core.

"Shit!" He heard Harvey curse as he too was thrown around. The older man had been sat down, however, and remained in the seat - a little worse for wear but mostly unharmed. He got up now, though, and went over to Mike. "Are you okay?" He asked, grabbing hold of a mantlepiece as another crash shook the whole room.

Mike's nodded and scrambled to his feet, feeling himself shaking. "What happened?" He asked, looking at Harvey as if he knew everything.

"I don't know," Harvey muttered. "I'm going to see Alfred and find out what's happening - you stay here," he ordered,

"But, Harvey - " Mike tried to argue, but was silence by Harvey's glare.

"Stay," he said firmly, and left.

"I'm not a dog!" Mike called after him, but stayed where he was, clutching onto the marbled mantlepiece as he waited. Suddenly, there was yet another crash, and Mike was thrown to the floor again. He caught himself in time just before he would crack his head off the side of the fireplace. He glanced at the doorway - he hadn't heard any sound from either of the other men and bit his lip. What if one of them was injured? Screw Harvey's orders, he wasn't some puppy that could be ordered to stay just because it's master didn't want it there.

He quickly located both Hemingway and Harvey, breathing a small sigh of relief when he found that neither was hurt. He ignored Harvey's annoyed glare that clearly read 'I told you to stay' and clutched the table in the room. "What's happening?" He asked Hemingway.

"The rudder scraped on something in the water and must have snapped off," he said, pulling all sort of levers and ropes in the room. "Now I can't position her properly."

"What were the crashes?" Mike asked, trying to look outside.

"Because I can't control her, she's heading for whatever takes her fancy!" He yelled to be heard over another crash. "And she hit something - now some of the lines are split and - dammit!" He was flung to the floor as they crashed into something big - Mike thought he could see a large rock outside. Hemingway managed to pull himself up and checked something on a dashboard. "Shit!" He moaned. "We've got a leak - the lower deck's starting to fill up."

"So, what do we do?" Mike asked nervously.

"Abandon ship," Hemingway told him, patting the wheel of his prized possession. "Goodbye, Rose," he said mournfully, before realising there were more pressing matters to attend to. "Come on - the lifeboat's just at the stern, remember?" The two lawyers followed him to the back of his yacht, and watched as he untangled ropes and latches. "Get in!" He said, already getting into the boat himself.

Just as Mike was putting a foot in, there was another crash, and he lost his balance, toppling over the side. "Mike!" Harvey yelled, trying to grab hold of him, but it was already too late. He looked down and thought he could see a blonde head bobbing in the water - before it was dragged under.