Fallen Hunter (Jesse McDermitt Series) (22 page)

I helped him wrestle the two scooter crates into the engine room below the salon. It was a tight fit, but stacked and lashed there was just enough room to get past them if needed.

“Come on in for a beer when you get it done,” I said. “I need to make a couple calls.”

Tina and I carried our new stuff inside and I showed her where to put the clothes, while I stowed the dive gear. Then I sat down at the settee and sent a text message to Santiago with the GPS numbers for the meet. Next, I made the first call to Trent. He picked up and said, “Hey Jesse. You wouldn’t want to trade this island for a rundown old shrimp boat, would ya?”

“You still thinking about selling the boat?” I asked.

“I’d like to, but fishing and shrimping is the only thing I know. I doubt I could find much of a job doing anything else.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “That table you built is damn sturdy. You could do something along that line.”

“You haven’t been to a construction site lately, have you?” he said. “Mostly Mexicans, getting paid cheap wages under the table. I did a little construction work once before, no way I could feed my family on what those guys are paid.”

“That’s
kind of the reason I called,” I said. “That island’s going to get crowded soon, with both people and things. I was hoping that you were actually serious about selling the boat. I’d like to hire you and Charlie as full time caretakers.”

There was silence on the phone for a few seconds. “Are you still there?” I asked.

“Um, yeah,” he said. “Are you offering me a job?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Remember talking about aquaculture? Think you could build a system like your buddy has?”

“Well, yeah,” he said. “It’s not hard to build, but the cost is pretty steep for the equipment.”

“Let me worry about that,” I said. “Think you could build three more of those tables and a house for you and your family, over by that little cove on the western side? I noticed you and Charlie kind of favored that spot.”

“Yeah,” he said, “I can do all that. Why would you want to do all this?”

“I’ll explain it all when I come up there in a couple of days,” I said. “Two more questions. Would Charlie be willing to cook for a large group of people on occasion, maybe once a month or so? And lastly, what was the best landing you ever had in a single week?”

“I’m sure she could handle it,” he said. “You’re gonna start up a fishing camp, aren’t you?”

“Something like that,” I said.

“Hmmm, my best week ever was about a year ago. Brought in a full load in five days and sold them for just over $12,000. If I remember right, I took home about $2000 after fuel.”

“Talk it over with Charlie,” I said. “If you’re willing, I’ll pay you $
50,000 a year, but you’ll have to live on the island. Room, board, and a boat, too.”

“I’ll
talk to Charlie,” he said, “and get more details from you, but I like the idea.”

“We’ll talk more when I get back up there. I’m meeting Santiago tomorrow. I’ll call you and let you know how that turns out.
I’ll be up there Monday.” We said goodbye and then I called Doc.

“Hi Gunny. Nikki and I were just talking about you. How’re things going? Will you be going out with us again next week?”

“The crew might have the week off with pay, Doc. Things with Santiago got complicated and now Trent’s thinking about selling out.”

“Selling the boat?” he asked. “Guess that’s it then. I’ve been thinking of going back in the Navy.”

“Care to listen to an alternative idea?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said, “But to be honest, I miss the action. Don’t tell Nikki I said that, though.”

“How would you like to come to work for me?”

“Work for you?” he asked. “Doing what?”

“First mate on the
Revenge
,” I said, then added in a conspiratorial tone, “Maybe a little work on the side, when it comes up.”

“Merc work?” he asked.

“Come up to the
Rusty Anchor
in Marathon, Monday morning about 0800. Know where it is?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“I’ll have someone pick you up there and bring you out to my island. Ask for the owner, Rusty, he’ll point you in the right direction. I offered Trent and Charlie jobs working here and there’ll be a few others here, too.”

“What kind of money would I be looking at?” he asked. “I gotta think about the future, too.”

“How’s $60,000 a year sound?” I asked.

Nothing but silence on the other end. Then he said, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, it’s already approved,” I said. “Come up here and meet the team. Later, you’ll have to go spend some time up in Homestead training with them. Nothing you can’t handle, though. And bring Nikki, she should know everything, if you two are serious about a life together.”

“We’re getting married in the spring,” he said.

“Congratulations,” I said. “I gotta go.”

Tina came in from the salon and said, “I didn’t mean to listen in, but it’s a small boat. Are you really hiring the Trent’s and Bob?”

“Sit down here,” I said. “I need to tell you something.”

She sat down with a concerned look on her face. “What is it,” she asked.

“That lawyer that was at the
Anchor
? The paperwork he needed me to sign? I inherited quite a bit of money from my late wife and I’m going to use it for good. Most of it will go to charities that she’d have liked. But, a large chunk of it’s going into my war chest.”

“Is that why you weren’t bothered about buying all that stuff today?” she asked.

“No, not really,” I said. “The government pays me a pretty good retirement, plus what they pay me to be on call for jobs like Monday, is way more than I need. We didn’t even put a dent in that.”

Just then Tony came in and said, “You’re all set. The bladders fit the fish boxes perfectly.”

“Thanks, Tony,” I said as
I got up and went across to the galley and got two cans of Carib lager. I looked at Tina and asked, “Beer or wine?”

“Do you have any white?” she asked.

“I have a Mondavi Moscato I think you’ll like,” I said. I handed the two Carib’s to Tony and he sat down across from Tina, while I got a bottle from the wine cooler and a corkscrew. I poured a glass put the wine bottle back in the cooler and carried it over to the settee.

“Are you and Chyrel going back to Homestead tonight, or in the morning?” I asked Tony.

“In the morning,” he said. “She’s holed up in a hotel room with her computers.”

“Think she’d do some research for me and keep it on the down low?”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “She’s a real team player. Hates Smith, probably about as much as you do.”

“I doubt that,” I said as I took out a pen and a notepad. I’d jotted down the last GPS numbers Russ had saved and pulled the sheet off the spiral binding. I wrote CSS Lynx under the numbers and handed it to him. “Ask her to research this Confederate blockade runner and see if there’s any correlation with it and that location. Tell her to call me, or better yet, since she likes to show off her tech stuff, tell her to send me a video message if she finds anything.”

“What’s this all about?” he asked. “A 140 year old wreck?”

“It’s what Deuce’s dad was trying to find when he died,” I said. “He was looking for a dozen gold bars that were supposed to be on that ship. I think he found at least one of them and that’s what got him killed.”

“Whoa,” said Tina. “Twelve gold bars? What do you think they’d be worth?”

“Gold bars are usually ten pounds,” I said. “At today’s rate maybe two million dollars. But, that’s just melt value. Intrinsic value could be twice that.”

“I’ll have her check it out,” he said.

“You seen Deuce?” I asked.

“He and Julie went out for dinner,” he said. “They should be back shortly.”

“Where you staying tonight?” I asked.

“Same hotel that Chyrel is staying at,” he said. “We’re leaving early to go back to Homestead.”

We talked a little while longer, then Tony said he had to leave, so he could get some sleep. “See you Monday morning,” he said as he left.

“I’m nervous about diving tomorrow,” Tina said. “Are you sure I don’t have to take a class or something?”

“We’ll be shallow diving,” I said. “No more than ten or twelve feet. You’ll be fine. That shallow, there’s really only two rules you need to remember.”

“What’re those,” she asked.

“First one is to always breathe,” I said. “The second one is, don’t breathe the water.” She reached across and punched my shoulder.

“Seriously,” she said. “I’m a good swimmer and all, but I’ve never even used a snorkel.”

“Look,” I said, “I’ve made over 3000 dives and am a certified civilian dive master. In the Corps, I was a Combatant Diver, too. Plus, Deuce was a Navy Diving School Instructor. Julie’s made probably a thousand dives, herself. You don’t have a single thing to worry about. Now, why don’t we take the rest of that bottle to the stateroom?”

I woke to the sound of voices. I looked over and Tina wasn’t there. I got up and put on a clean pair of shorts and walked up into the salon. Tina, Deuce
, and Julie were sitting at the settee and Tina said, “You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Come on,” I said. “I’m a light sleeper. It must have taken you a good ten minutes to get up quiet enough for me not to notice.”

She poured me a cup of coffee and I sat down next to her against the bulkhead. “Deuce was just telling me about the place we’re diving. Where you and he spread his dad’s ashes.”

“It’s a beautiful little patch reef, not far from here,” I said. “But, we have to take sort of a roundabout way to get to it. I told Santiago I’d meet him off Alligator Reef at 0900. He wants to discuss terms in person. I told him I had a dive charter near there.”

“Jesse,” Julie said. “I need to talk to you for a minute. Can we go outside?”

I went back into the stateroom and put on a tee-shirt and the two of us took our coffee up to the bridge.
I sat down at the helm and she sat on the bench seat on the port side. I could tell something was bothering her. At first I thought it might be Tina. It had only been over four months since Alex died. But, I was way off base.

“I joined the Coast Guard,” she blurted out. “I know I’ve never been a fan, but after what happened
and I saw how professional they were and well, I was impressed. I guess I wanted to do something to make a difference.”

I looked at her and tried to act surprised. “So, hassling fishermen and divers is how you plan to make a difference?”

“No,” she said. “My MOS will be Maritime Enforcement. At least it will be if I graduate the school. I’m the only woman to apply for it so far.”

I pretended to think hard about it and finally smiled and said, “You’ll set the bar for the male swabs to try to reach. I’m proud of you, Jules.”

Her face lit up. “Really, Jesse? That means a lot to me. I’ve always thought of you as my second dad.”

“What did Rusty have to say about it?” I asked.

“He wasn’t very thrilled,” she said. “I had to go all the way to New Jersey for basic training. That was scary. You know I’ve never been further north than Palm Beach. I never realized it could be so cold. He hasn’t said so, but I think he’s kind of proud of me for doing it.”

“I know he is,” I said. “So, tell me about Maritime Enforcement.”

She talked excitedly about what the school was going to be like and how she’d train to board ships and boats, from a small, fast moving boat. I could tell it was something she was really excited about and knowing her as well as I did, there was no doubt in my mind that she’d do well. Finally, she proudly said, “I graduated as the honor recruit and was promoted to Seaman Apprentice.”

“You’ll be a Master Chief in no time, kiddo,” I said and gave her a big hug. “Now, let’s go blow some bubbles. Tina’s sort of worried about this.”

“She’s nice,” Julie said. “You kind of fit together in a ying yang sort of way.”

I clicked on the intercom and said, “Y’all ready to get this show on the road? It’s nearly an hour to Alligator Reef.”

Tina joined us on the bridge as I started the engines and Deuce cast off the lines. He climbed back up to the bridge and joined Julie on the bench seat. Putting the port engine in reverse and the starboard in forward, the
Revenge
pushed her stern against the fender and swung her bow away from the barge. Then I shifted the port engine to forward and we idled down the long canal to open water. Once we were in deep water I pushed both throttles half way and the bow rose up and the big 1015 horsepower engines brought her up on plane with ease.

Tina smiled and said, “I love when it does that. It’s almost like taking off in a plane.”

Julie looked at me and said, “Well, maybe not so ying and yang.”

It was nearly 0800 and I wanted to be early, so I pushed the throttles a little more and brought her up above cruising speed to thirty-five knots. The ocean was very flat and the sun was just above the horizon. The steady hum of the engines and swish of the bow wave
continued as we enjoyed the morning drinking coffee.

Forty minutes later we were about a half mile south of the Alligator Reef light and I brought the big boat down off plane, then turned into the wind
, reversed the engines and brought her to a full stop. I dropped the anchor in about forty feet of water and reversed the engines, paying out about a hundred feet of anchor line, before I felt the anchor grab.

“We might be here a while,” I said as I switched on the radar. There were a few boats anchored on the reef line and a couple of freighters out in the straits. Then I noticed a boat moving pretty fast but still ten miles away. “Or maybe not,” I said.

Deuce came over next to me and we watched the blip on the screen. It was moving at about thirty or thirty-five knots and was a mile off the reef. “You carrying?” I asked Deuce.

“Yeah,” he said. “You expecting trouble?”

“No, but I like to be prepared.”

“Be back in a minute,” he said and climbed down the ladder.

“What do you want us to do?” Tina asked. “And before you ask, yes, I’m carrying, too.”

“You are?” I asked. “Where?”

She opened her purse and took a small .38 service revolver part way out.

“Good for you,” I said. “If you want to upgrade, I have an extra Sig in the cabin.”

“This’ll do fine,” she said.

Deuce came back up on the bridge and we watched the blip on the radar screen getting closer, still holding at thirty-two knots now, about three miles away. I looked up from the screen and out over the port side toward the northeast. I opened the small cabinet below the helm and took out my binoculars and scanned the horizon. Finally I saw it, a
beautiful wooden boat. I handed the binoculars to Deuce and asked, “What do you make it to be?”

He looked through the binoculars as I studied the radar. The approaching boats speed suddenly increased to forty-one knots as Deuce said, “Man, that’s a lot of money heading this way. It’s a thirty-three foot Riva, I think.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said. “Half a million bucks, easy. He just increased speed to forty-one knots.”

“Who in their right mind would spend that kind of money on a boat?” Tina asked.

“A drug and arms smuggler,” Deuce said.

“He’ll probably speak only in Spanish,” I said. “Pretend like you don’t understand.”

Minutes later the sleek boat came down off plane as it neared us. It was Santiago. In the cockpit with him was a beautiful Hispanic woman in sunglasses. Both of them were dressed like they were going out on the town, not out on the water.

“Buenos dias,” Santiago said as he piloted the boat up close to the side of the
Revenge.

I climbed down from the bridge and looked the boat over. It was a breathtaking piece of nautical art.
Its elegant, flowing lines reflected its owners taste for money. The decks were beautifully carved mahogany, inlaid with maple. The cockpit and dash were trimmed with real leather and the console looked state of the art.

I whistled a low appreciation and in a low voice I said, “I have a boat, he says. That’s not a boat, Santiago. This is a boat. That’s a piece of art.”

“Gracias, Capitan,” he said. “Por favor venga a bordo.”

“What’d he say, Skipper?” Deuce asked.

“Que quieres?” I asked Santiago somewhat louder.

“Parecemos estar perdido,” he said.

I looked up at Deuce and said, “They seem to be lost. I’ll be right back.” Then I stepped carefully across and down into the small cockpit of the Riva.

“Capitan McDermitt, this is Isabella Espinosa
,” Santiago said in a low voice. “Isabella, esto es Capitan Jesse McDermitt.”

“Encantado,”
she said.

I looked at Santiago and
said, “What did you want to talk about that couldn’t be done over the phone. And make it fast, before my clients suspect something.” Then I leaned over his console and pretended to be examining his GPS.

“The nature of your business with me,” he said
as he leaned over and also pretended to fuss with the equipment. “In one week, I’ll have a shipment to move out of western Cuba, to Key West. On Sunday night. I will pay you as we agreed, $40,000. This will be the same every month, if you accept.”

“I agree on one condition,” I said. “I want to be your only carrier. If I find out you’re using anyone else, I quit
.”

“Most agreeable,” he said. “I’ve been hoping to consolidate. Using shrimp boats has been a problem. They don’t always return on the day they say.”

“What’s the weight of the shipment?” I asked.

“One thousand kilos,” he said. “It could be more, but I don’t want to overload your boat.”

“She can be adapted to move twice that,” I said thinking it over. “But that would take some time. One thousand kilos she can do as is.”

“Is your boat fast enough?” he asked.

“Faster than this one,” I replied.

The smug look on his face said it all. “I doubt that, senor. You have no idea how fast this boat is.”

“Cruising speed of about thirty-five knots and a top speed of forty-one,” I said. “Watched you approach on radar, then speed up when you saw us.”

The smug look left his face. “Your boat is faster?”

“Twin one thousand horsepower engines,” I said. “Top speed is forty-five knots on calm seas.”

I could see that he was impressed. “Perhaps I could use you and your boat for another enterprise,” he said.

He took the bait, time to set the hook. “No gun running,” I said.

Again, his face showed his thoughts. The man would make a poor poker player. He recovered quickly and said, “You’ve done your homework, Capitan. I can make it worth your while.”

I pretended to think it over for a minute then said, “Maybe. Think it over and you can give me a number next Sunday when I come to Cuba. Do you still plan to ride back with me?”

“Si,” he said. “I will call you on Friday to give you the exact location. And I’ll give you
your number at that time also. Perhaps if you like the number, you can move things for me both ways.”

“Better make it a good number,” I said.
“It’d be nice if I didn’t have to lug divers and fishermen around on my boat. I’m taking these three to Cozumel from here.” I leaned on the console and using my left hand, hidden from his view, I quickly pulled the tab off one of the little resin drop looking bugs and stuck it to the underside of the dash, as I pressed a few buttons on the GPS. “That should do it,” I said loudly as I straightened up. Then turning to the woman I said, “El placer es mio.” Before he could say anything more, I stepped up on the leather edged gunwale and back over to the
Revenge.
Then turning I said, “Buena suerte, senor.”

Santiago waved then jammed the throttle, launching the sleek boat forward and turning east. I climbed back up to the bridge where I found Deuce smiling. “You’re good,” he said. “He was almost begging you to take a shipment of guns down.
Too bad you couldn’t have dropped one of those bugs while you were onboard.”

I smiled and said, “I did.
”

He looked at me surprised. “I was watching your every move,” he said.

“Hopefully he didn’t catch it either,” I said.

“Every sound on board his boat is being recorded,” he said. “We can call Chyrel later and see if anything good is picked up.
We’ll have to start making plans once we get the intel about the camp. It won’t leave us much time, though. I’m betting he’ll ride down with you too.”

“No,” I said, “I’d bet he has his new hired muscle ride down with me and the two of them ride back.”

“It’d be better if he rode down with you,” he said. “Then we could take him down at sea. On Cuban soil would bring all kinds of problems.”

“You want the terrorists too, right?”

“That’d be a bonus,” he said.

“Okay,” I said, “Let’s go diving.”

I started the engines and engaged the windlass to pull up the anchor. Minutes later, we were up on plane heading west. Twenty minutes later, we were anchored a few yards off of Conrad and climbed down to suit up.

I’d removed the fighting chair from the cockpit and put a four seat, back to back bench in its place
before leaving the island. Deuce and I brought four tanks up from the engine room, squeezing between the two stacked crates and the generator. I showed Tina how to attach her new buoyancy compensator and the first stage of her new regulator to one of the tanks, then attach the low pressure hose to the BC. I helped her get into her wetsuit, then helped her with the weight belt and fins. I didn’t think she’d need much weight on the belt, but added two extra pounds just in case. When she was all set, I had her sit on the bench and we adjusted the straps on the BC.

“Now, when you stand up you’ll have to lean forward. It’s a lot of weight and bulky, but once you’re in the water you’ll be weightless.” I inflated the BC for her and showed her how to dump air from it so she could descend. “It’s only fifteen feet here so getting neutrally buoyant will take a little practice.” I went on to explain the
Valsalva maneuver, to equalize the air in her inner ear and she’d probably only have to do it once as she went down.