Project: Stingray Chapter 19

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Bobby looks over towards his sister. She was piloting Stingray as they went down the coast looking for their missing boats.

“It’s a good thing dad tagged all the boats.” Delphine was watching and listening for their signal.

The frequency scanner in Stingray was programmed with the frequency they operated on. She was hoping that whoever took them, doesn’t find them. She had Stingray in camo mode, so she blended in with her surroundings.

“It’s not the first time, we have had boats stolen from us,” Bobby remembered when Delphine was serving in the military that they had several boats stolen. If their father hadn’t placed tracking devices in them, they would have never recovered them.

Delphine avoid some personal watercraft and a few fishing vessels. Since Stingray was in stealth mode, she had to be more alert. After three and a half hours, she finally starts getting a beeping sound.

Delphine pilots a course towards the location. She follows the beeping sound to a fish house.

“Bobby, take over and try to avoid any ships and jet skis.” Delphine puts Stingray on autopilot.

“Where are you going?” Bobby looks at his little sister.

“I’m going to scout the place out.” Delphine grabs an air tank and a speargun. She also drops a personal sea scooter from Stingray. She also takes a camera as well.

Bobby watches as Delphine steps into her dive chamber. He watches as it fills up with water and she drops down and out of Stingray. He heads back up to the cockpit and keeps Stingray where he is.

Delphine grabs the sea scooter and heads towards the old fish house. She notices that the bottom of the pilings of the old fish house had netting on it. She takes out her old diving knife and cuts the netting. She secures her sea scooter and swims through the opening she made.

She spots the boats that belong to her father, including the one she was building. There were a bunch of people near it. She surfaces and hides among the stolen boats. There had to be about nine boats like the ones they took from her father.

She tries to get as close as she could. She heard the guys talking about the boat she had been working on.

“Can’t you get this thing going?” An older Latino man was talking to a younger man.

“I’m trying everything I know. That woman has installed some sort of security feature I have never seen. The steering wheel won’t unlock, and
the ignition system is wired weirdly, that it will take me time to by-pass.” The younger guy looks up and over towards the older guy.

Delphine knew right away who it was. His name was Hector Santoro and was one of her father’s part-time workers. He had been caught stealing equipment from the boatyard and from the boats they had in storage.

The older guy, she didn’t know, and she didn’t know the other three standing around watching. She couldn’t tell if they were armed or not. She notices that the boats from her father’s boatyard were tied together. Which meant they must have towed them from the boatyard.

There was no way she was going to be able to disable all of them without being seen. She looks around to see how they got them into the old crab shack. The building had been gutted to act as hidden boat storage.

She spots two submarines they had stored in the shack. They looked to be constructed very well and she figures they could go deep to avoid detection. They weren’t in Stingray’s class, but they were good enough to avoid most helicopters and such.

She looks around for anything she could use to slow them down. The only thing she had on hand was her speargun and her diving knife. She moves closer to one of the other boats that had been taken, to see if they had anything she could use, but there was nothing.

An idea pops into Delphine’s head. She could use the thrust from Stingrays engine to knock the door down. She ducks back underwater and swims back to the hole she created. She swims back towards where she left Stingray.

Bob looks at the time readout on the console. Delphine has been gone for at least twenty minutes so far. He figures if she isn’t back in twenty minutes, he’ll call the Coast Guard.

Five minutes past, and just as he was about to call the Coast Guard, the dive chamber starts filling with water. He watches as Delphine surfaces. Once she was inside the chamber, the water starts pumping out of the chamber.

“Thank god, you’re back. Did you find the boats?” Bob moves aside as Delphine exists from the dive chamber.

“Yes, and it was Hector Santoro who helped steal them.” Delphine puts her tank back to be recharged and secures the speargun.

“So, what is your plan?” Bobby looks at his sister.

“First, we call the police. Secondly, we call the Coast Guard. Thirdly, I go and politely knock on their door.” An evil smile appears on Delphine’s face.

“What do you mean, knock on their door?” Bobby was curious about what his sister means.

“I mean, using Stingray’s powerful water jet thrusters and aim the water at the door of the shack. I designed him, so he could also help put fires out onshore and onboard ships.” Delphine walks over and sits down in the pilot’s seat.

Bobby switches the frequency to the emergency frequency and calls the police and Coast Guard. He notices that Delphine was maneuvering Stingray to shoot water from the front of him.

“Here goes nothing.” Delphine powers up the rear thrusters and starts sucking water towards the front of him.

The rear section of Stingray sinks, while the front lifts out of the water Delphine makes a few adjustments to get the right angle. She presses a button on the console and water starts shooting out at a high speed.

Hector and his friends were still trying to figure out how to start the boat when there was a loud crash. The door that allowed the boats to come and go from the crab shack was shaking violently.

“What the hell is hitting us?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go and see it.” One of the younger men walks away from the group towards the door.

Bobby looks at the huge spray coming from the front of Stingray. Stingray was channeling a lot of water from the ocean.

“Can you increase power? The door is still standing.” Bobby looks at his sister.

“No problem.” Delphine increases the power and feels Stingray vibrate slightly, as more water is pumped through his thrusters.

The young man that went to investigate hears the thundering sound of more water hitting the door. The craves and flies forward off the frame. He’s hit by a huge wave of water and sent flying backward.

The other four guys are hit by a powerful wave of water. They are knocked backward off their feet.

“I think you broke the door, Delphine.” Bobby had watched as the water that was shooting towards the shack door, went flying into the shack.

Delphine decreases the power to the thrusters and lower the front of Stingray back down into the water. A smile appears on her face, as she uses the cameras to look inside the place.

“I would say they are all washed up.” She notices the door on the other side of the building.

All the boats the group sold had some water in them. Delphine starts counting the bodies but couldn’t locate two of them.

“I’m going to pull up closer.” Delphine inches Stingray closer to the entrance.

A black and grey cigarette boat shoots out from the side of the shack. Delphine was inching closer to the shack. It goes right by Stingray and heads out towards the ocean.

“What the hell was that?” Bobby saw it as it shot pass Stingray.

“Someone getting away.” Delphine whips Stingray around and starts chasing after the boat.

Francisco looks behind him to see if anyone is chasing him. He spots something but can’t tell what it is. He does notice it was catching up to him, fast. He increases speed to try and outrun it.

“You’ll never catch him, sis. There’s no way your submarine here can go as fast as he can.” Bobby watches as the cigarette boat increases the distance between them.

“You’ll be surprised how fast Stingray can go.” Delphine increases speed.

Stingray starts raising out of the water on his foils. Delphine continues to increase the power to his jet thrusters.

“Holy shit! What did you put in this vessel?” Bobby looks at Delphine.

“Specially designed water jet thrusters.” Delphine keeps her eyes on the boat they were chasing.

“How fast can Stingray go?”

“260+ knots. I haven’t taken him up to his full potential.”

Francisco looks behind him again and the thing that was following him was gaining. He had no idea what it was, but he would be in international waters soon. He increases the speed of his boat to the maximum.

“He’s trying to outrun you.” Bobby thought it was kind of fun.

“It’s not going to happen.” Delphine increases Stingray to three-quarters of what he’s capable of.

Bobby felt the increase of speed and the distance between them and the boat was only a few feet of distance away. Delphine was trying to think of some way to stop him.

“So, what is your plan?”

“I don’t know. Stingray isn’t equipped with any weapons. However, let's see how he likes this.” Delphine closes a few intake ports and increases pressure.

“Hang on. I’ve never done this before.” Delphine increases to full power and launches right over the cigarette boat and lands directly in front of it.

She opens all the intake ports and dips the front of Stingray down. A large wave of water shots out from Stingray’s rear thrusters and sends the cigarette boat flipping up into the air. Delphine turns Stingray around to watch the cigarette boat crash into the ocean.

“I wished I had a camera to record what you did.” Bobby looks proudly at his sister.

“Thanks. I just hope I haven’t damaged anything.” Delphine hopes she didn’t damage her baby.

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Comments

Woo hoo.

WillowD's picture

Thanks for the chapter.

Missing chapter

I can't find chapter 18. Is 19 mislabeled or am I having a problem? (update) Its back. Guess it was a linkage problem. Anyway....I

Love all of your stories!!!!

Nicely Done!!!

Samantha Heart's picture

Maybe she should think about installing some kind of weapons system. Something like a micriwave jammer or an electrical system like an electric eal that can disable another boat like this the cigarette boat.

Love Samantha Renée Heart.

Dum da dum dum

Jamie Lee's picture

Gotcha! Smart idea putting trackers on those boats.

Outrun Stingray, ain't gonna happen. Maybe Delphanie needs to consider some sort of EMP device to use for disabling other boats. Or a sharp knife of some kind to cut through the hull.

Others have feelings too.