Bloodsucking fiends: a love story

big diesels on either side of his vault roared to life. Another toggle and an electric winch began grinding in the anchor.
    "Move, move, move!" Tommy shouted into the cabin. "The engines started."
    Barry came through the hatch carrying a bronze statue of a ballerina. Tommy waited at the stern of the yacht with Drew. Troy Lee, Lash, Jeff, Glint, and the Emperor and his troops were already in the raft, trying to find room to move around the paintings and statues.
    "Over," Tommy said, taking the statue from Barry as the squat diver went over the side into the arms of the waiting Animals, almost capsizing the raft. Tommy threw the statue down to the Emperor, who caught it and went to the floor of the raft with its weight.
    Tommy threw a leg over the railing, and looked back. "Light it, Drew. Now!"
    Drew bent and held his lighter to the end of a wax-coated strip of cloth that ran across the stern deck and through the hatch to the main cabin. He watched the flame follow the trail for a few feet, then stood and joined Tommy at the rail. "It's going."
    They went over the rail backward and the Animals obliged them by stepping aside and letting them both hit the floor of the raft unimpeded. The raft lurched and righted itself. Tommy fought for breath to give a command.
    "Paddle, men!" the Emperor shouted.
    The Animals began to beat the water with their paddles. There was a loud clunking noise from the yacht as the transmission engaged and the raft was rocked as the twin screws engaged and began pushing the yacht away from them.
    "Rivera," Rivera said into the cell phone.
    "The yacht is moving," Cavuto said. "I think I just aided these guys in looting it." He unzipped a leather case on the car seat, revealing a huge chrome-plated automatic pistol, a Desert Eagle.50-caliber. It fired bullets roughly the weight of a small dog and kicked like a jackhammer. One shot could reduce a cinder block to gravel.
    "I'm on my way," Rivera said.
    "What about the girl?" Cavuto slammed a clip into the Desert Eagle, dropped another one into his jacket pocket.
    "She's – she'll be fine. I'm at Van Ness and Lombard. I'll be there in about three minutes. Don't call in backup."
    "I'm not – oh Jesus Christ!"
    "What?"
    "The fucking thing just blew up."
    A fountain of flame shot from the stern of the Sanguine II , a second passed, and the rest of the yacht disappeared in a cloud of flame that rose into the sky above her. She had cleared the breakwater and was perhaps three hundred yards out into the bay when the fuse reached Drew's incendiary cocktail.
    The raft had just made the dock when the explosion went off. Tommy leaped onto the dock and watched the mushroom cloud dissipate. The shock wave rolled in and Tommy reached back to the raft and caught the Emperor before he went into the water.
    Debris rained down around them. A pool of fire and unexploded diesel fuel spread out across the water, illuminating the whole area with a dancing bright orange.
    "Is this a party boat, or what?" Drew shouted.
    The Animals scrambled out of the raft onto the dock and began handing up the objets d'art. Tommy stood aside and watched the burn. Bummer cowered in the Emperor's arms.
    "Do you think we got him?"
    Jeff handed the Degas ballerina to Troy and looked over his shoulder. "Fucking A, we got him. Nice mix, Drew."
    Drew took a bow and almost went over the edge of the dock.
    The Emperor said. "I can't help but think that the explosion may have attracted the attention of the authorities, gentlemen. I would recommend a speedy retreat."
    Drew looked at the burning slick. "I wish I had some acid. This would be great on acid."
    Jeff jumped down into the raft and handed up the last painting, the Miro. He looked past Troy Lee, who was wrestling up the heavy frame, and said, "Whoops."
    "What?" Troy said.
    Jeff nodded past him and the Animals turned around. Cavuto had a very large, very shiny pistol pointed at them.
    "No one move!"
    They didn't. The spearguns were stacked on the dock. Glint held the shotgun loosely at his side as he prayed. He dropped it.
    "Drop it," Cavuto said.
    "I did," said Clint.
    "That's true, he did," Tommy said. "And before you asked. He should get extra credit for that."
    Cavuto motioned with the pistol. "Everybody down. On your faces. Now!" The Animals dropped. Lazarus barked.
    The Emperor stepped forward. "Officer, these young men have -"
    "Now!" Cavuto screamed. The Emperor dropped to the dock with the Animals.
    The screens went dark an