Southern Stars

by Melissa Good

  “Mom and Dad just landed at a nearby airstrip.” Dar soldiered on. “They got Alastair to fly them here. We’re going to hear all about it in about fifteen minutes.”

  “What?”

  Dar gave her a commiserating look. “Just go with it, hon. We’re lucky we kept going.”

  The waitress returned. “Oh, you’re back. What cute dogs!”

  Dar leaned her elbow on the table. “I’m back and bringing more friends. We’re going to need a bunch of steaks and a bunch of vegetables and a gallon of beer.”

  “Great!” The waitress didn’t miss a beat. “Are the friends people or more dogs? I need to know for the dishes.”

  “People,” Dar said.

  “No problem.” She whisked off and headed for the kitchen.

  Kerry managed to wrangle Mocha down to the ground. “Terrorists?”

  Dar sighed.

  “Dar those guys weren’t terrorists,” Kerry said. “Janet? C’mon.”

  Dar shrugged. “We don’t know everything. But apparently my dad has some intel so I guess we’ll find out soon as they get here.” She looked up as the waitress returned, with another young man behind her, carrying a tray with a mug of beer on it, which he put down in front of her. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. Can I pet your dogs?”

  “Sure.” Dar picked up her mug and drank from it, her eyes fastened on Kerry’s across the table as the two servers made much of their pets.

  After a moment, Kerry just started laughing, covering her eyes with one hand.

  DAR SECTIONED HER steak into neatly cut squares and forked up one of them, putting it into her mouth and chewing it. She watched Kerry leaving her own plate aside for a minute, as she took the two plastic dishes the restaurant had given them and portioned the dogs’ lunches out first.

  Mocha and Chino stood next to her, eyes glued on the plates, tails wagging in unison. “They know.” Dar commented, after swallowing.

  “Of course they know.” Kerry put the plates down and got out of the way. Then she went back to her plate and dove in herself, really glad to be eating something of her own choice for the first time in a week. “I can’t believe they dragged Alastair out here.”

  Dar chuckled. “I think retirement is boring him,” she said. “He sent me a bunch of cat videos before we left and an animated gif of a pony.”

  Kerry paused in mid cut and stared at her. Dar merely looked back at her as she chewed her steak.

  After a moment, Kerry shook her head. “This is good.” She indicated the steak.

  “Anything would be good after what we went through the last few days,” Dar said. “But yeah, it is.” She glanced up at the television on the wall, which was now showing a basketball game. “Wish they’d get here already. I want to know what the hell’s going on.”

  “Want me to call Maria and ask what’s on CNN?” Kerry offered.

  “No. I don’t want to freak her out.”

  “Mm.”

  A taxi pulled up, and disgorged three people who advanced toward the patio. Chino, seated on a chair next to Kerry sat up on seeing them and barked.

  “Ah.” Kerry lifted a hand and waved. “There they are.”

  Dar turned and then stood, as the three marched up the steps and came over to the table. “Hi, Mom.” Dar greeted the first of the new arrivals, a short silver blond woman in a colorful patchwork jacket.

  “Hey, kid,” Ceci Roberts said, as she stepped aside to let her tall husband sidle beside her. “Hey Kerry.”

  “Hallo there, Dardar,” Andrew said. “Kumquat.” He winked at Kerry.

  “Hey, Alastair.” Kerry stood as well, holding firmly onto the dog’s leashes as she extended a hand out to their former boss. “Nice to see you.”

  “Have a seat.” Dar gestured. “They’re bringing out chow.” She sat back down as Andrew picked up Mocha and set him on his lap. “So. What’s going on?”

  “What isn’t?” Ceci eyed her. “I gotta say, you kids are trouble magnets.”

  “You all do get into the damndest things,” Andrew said. “Ah swear.”

  Alastair McLean sat back and smiled. “This time, I’m just along for the ride.” He said to Kerry, who was sitting next to him. “Can’t wait to hear what’s going on. But it was nice to be able to take the plane out longer than just to Galveston.”

  The wait staff returned, with a cart. “Welcome,” the girl said. “So we have steaks, and vegetables and beer. You have anyone else coming?” She looked at all of them. “More people? Or dogs?”

  “Maybe a pony?” Her male counterpart suggested. “We have carrots.”

  “That’s all for now,” Dar said, as they put the platters down. “Thanks.”

  The servers left. There was a brief lack of conversation as the three newcomers took plates and sorted out their edibles, then Ceci cleared her throat. “Okay.”

  “Growf.” Chino barked at her.

  “Shh.” Kerry tweaked the tail of their pet.

  “We were in the office, just doing a few things when Mark comes running in, looking for Andy,” Ceci said. “Wanted to know how to geolocate someone using a sat phone.”

  “Lord.” Andrew cut his steak up into squares just like Dar’s.

  “So, of course your father asked him what he was looking for.” Ceci said. “And turned him upside down and shook him until he coughed it up when he didn’t want to tell us.”

  Dar could easily imagine the scene. “Glad we have health insurance. I’m sure he just didn’t want you to freak out.”

  “Ah swear,” Andrew said. “So then I done called some feller I knew back in the service, and he plugged in them numbers and told us where you were.”

  Kerry took a sip of her beer. “That sounds pretty simple actually.”

  “Oh, it was,” Ceci said. “What wasn’t simple was by the time we got that, and we were figuring out what to do with it, a spook arrived.”

  Dar blinked. “A spook?”

  “Somebody from the Miami office of the NSA,” Ceci said. “Who was super interested in the coordinates Mark gave Andy because they were apparently running an operation in the area. Unfortunately, he wasn’t willing to share any of his information so your father boxed him on the ear and sent him on his way.”

  “Jackass.”

  Dar rested her chin on her fist. “So then what?”

  “So then we called Gerry,” Ceci said. “Because what is the point of having a family friend who’s a general if you don’t call him when you need the army?” She shrugged seeing the wince on her daughter’s face. “There wasn’t anyone else really to call, Dar. You were lost in a national park, and the bimbos you were with weren’t answering their phone.”

  “I see,” Dar sighed. “Yeah I guess they were probably running around trying to help.”

  “They were stonewalling ev’rbody,” Andrew said. “Wouldn’t tell no one nothing.”

  “They probably didn’t know anything,” Kerry said, in a mild tone. “Except that we missed the check in call. It’s not like we were sending text messages out there.”

  “Anyhow somebody out there tipped off them spooks that them folks that ran that place were from the Middle East,” Andrew said. “And they were investigating.”

  “A lot of people are from other places, Dad,” Dar said. “It’s not against the law.”

  “No,” Ceci said. “It’s not. But the man who owns that rafting operation was housing three of the guys who hijacked those planes on 9/11.”

  Everyone sat in silence for a long minute.

  “Jesus Christ,” Alastair finally said. “Is that really true?”

  “That’s what they done told us.” Andrew looked at Dar. “Gerry called us and done told us they were taking care of all that business and to just keep still and wait.”

  Dar was blinking, her eyes wide. “Son of a bitch,” she said after a long pause. “That totally was never in the picture.” She added. “No one said anything about that to us.”

  “Not at all.” Kerry
was shaking her head. “Never would have even crossed my mind.”

  “Wow,” Alastair commented. “What are the odds, huh? What made you pick them?” He asked. “You get a recommendation from someone or what?”

  Dar sat back and thought about it. How had they come to her notice? She shook her head a few times. “It was just random,” she said. “I went through the travel agency on the island. They had brochures for a bunch of things and I picked that one. Because it had a picture of a horse on it.”

  Kerry looked over at her, eyebrows hiking slightly.

  Dar shrugged apologetically. “Really nothing more than that.

  Just that they were a full- service outfitter and it looked like fun.”

  “They seemed legit,” Kerry said. “Some of the people we were with had heard of them, had picked them because they’d been around a while and had a good rep.” She paused thoughtfully. “Most of the crew were kids. Kids from the area, matter of fact.”

  Ceci seemed pleased at the response to her news. “And how it came to light, apparently, is some of the people who worked for them got stopped crossing the border from Canada. They were on some list.”

  Dar’s jaw dropped a little, and she and Kerry exchanged looks. “Didn’t they say that jackass’s raft team was from Toronto?”

  “They did,” Kerry said. “There was this couple who were supposed to take a trip down alone so they could climb cliffs and things that weren’t on the usual program.” She explained. “But the team that was supposed to take them couldn’t make it so they ended up on our raft.”

  “Uh huh,” Andrew grunted.

  “Some rich kid and his fiancé,” Dar said. “Father’s a big shot lawyer or something.”

  “Yeah,” Kerry nodded. “He ended up dislocating his shoulder. Dar had to rescue him.” She added, almost as an afterthought. “But that was after the raft flipped, and the flash flood and the collapsed arch.”

  “And the mountain lion.” Dar looked up at the abrupt silence, to find three sets of eyes staring at her. “There was a lot going on.”

  The waitress returned. “Anything else right now for you folks?”

  Alastair folded his arms. “I think we’re going to need another round of beer.”

  “Coming right up.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “SO ANYWAY, THE first couple of days were fine,” Kerry related. “It was nice, we got some good pictures.”

  “It was getting boring,” Dar added. “But there were fun parts too, we got to see waterfalls, and do some slides and we saw a bobcat.”

  “And mountain goats, and there was an owl that landed on Dar’s arm, and all that.” Kerry went on. “But then they started to get worried about the weather.”

  “Uh huh.” Andrew grunted. “Wonder if that was all they was worried about.”

  “It started raining when we got to shelter that night, and it was pretty bad.” Kerry said. “But it was weather, you know?” She sat back in her chair. “But the next day, it got crazy.”

  “The raft flipped and we got thrown off,” Dar said. “They got everyone out, but the boat got damaged and one of the crew took a kayak to try and get help and supplies.”

  “That’s when they lost the phone,” Kerry said. “And a lot of what they brought with them.”

  There was a little silence, as the waitress brought around a platter of assorted cookies and two large dog bones. “On the house.” She smiled and put it down. “Let me know when you want more drinks,” she added, and left.

  “So you went from a posh river tour to an episode of Gilligans Island,” Ceci said, taking a cookie and nibbling on it. “Is that what I’m hearing?”

  “It was getting that way,” Kerry said. “But then it got a lot worse.”

  “Dar, at any time did you think any of this was deliberate?” Alastair asked, after being silent for a long while. “You get the feeling you were being taken?”

  “No.” Dar shook her head. “Lightning storms, floods, wild animals...no one had time to rig that. Some of the stuff at the beginning? The glass and all that? Eh.” She lifted her hands up and let them back down. “We actually thought it was the punk who joined us making trouble for everyone he could.”

  “Right,” Kerry said. “So after Doug didn’t come back, and we ended up getting the raft to the pull out near the cabin, and Josh had started up to the ranger station, we decided to go follow Josh because with all the rain and people getting hurt right and left it didn’t seem like a good idea to stay.”

  “As it turned out, would have been better if we’d stayed,” Dar said. “But we didn’t know that.”

  “No. So we grabbed all the stuff we could carry and started to hike out,” Kerry continued. “We realized there was a big cat around after we found Josh’s body.”

  There was an uncomfortable silence. “Wow,” Alastair finally muttered. “Poor fella.”

  “Yeah, there wasn’t much left.” Dar acknowledged. “Went downhill pretty fast from that point.”

  “We were scared,” Kerry said. “And it was raining, we were cold, and we were running out of supplies pretty fast.”

  “So at this point were you deciding all future vacations would be in a tent in the backyard?” Ceci asked.

  “A tent?” Dar eyed her. “How about inside our bedroom?”

  “Lord,” Andrew chuckled briefly.

  Ceci shook her head. “So then what?”

  “The cat was tracking us, I guess, because it came after us that night, in the storm.” Kerry paused. “We were under a little rock shelter and it jumped down and came at us.” She glanced over at Dar. “So Dar jumped on it and started stabbing it with her pocketknife.”

  Another short silence. “See, Dar?” Kerry turned to her. “No one at this table even looked surprised when I said that.” She lifted her hands in some small exasperation. “Not even your parents.”

  Ceci leaned forward. “Especially her parents, kiddo. We’ve known her longer than you have.”

  Alastair covered his eyes and shook his head.

  “You’re the one who told me we were the kind of people who would jump on a mountain lion and not let it eat us,” Dar complained. “What in the hell was I supposed to do?”

  “Xactly what you done,” Andrew said. “Ah woulda done it. Something looking to kill you can not be run from.” He smiled a little at Dar. “And you all do come from me.”

  Dar smiled back, and her body relaxed as she sat back, taking a moment to acknowledge the truth of all of that. She’d been fighting with herself for a month over the instinct to put herself out there, to get into scraps and defend others because it seldom ended to her advantage.

  And yet, it was part of the person she was. Part of the heritage, of the lineage she came from, inbuilt and instilled and unquestioned from a long line of people like her father who regardless of moral compass had been uncompromising scrappers.

  A long line of warriors for their own particular and often peculiar causes that weren’t always right or wrong but often graded and shaded and personal.

  She carried no weapon and served in no service but nonetheless she stood up for things she judged to be right just because that is who she was.

  Crusader. Dar smiled self-deprecatingly. Yeah, maybe. Idiotically. She imagined she could hear the echo of a rich, deep, knowing laugh back in the shadows of her own psyche. “I do.” She answered Andrew. “Thanks, Dad.”

  Andrew smiled again and winked a little bit at her. “G’wan, kumquat.”

  “So then came the avalanche,” Kerry soldiered on. “And talk about going downhill from there.”

  “YA’LL WANT ME to drive this here, Kerry?”

  Kerry settled into the driver’s seat of the RV. “Nah, I got this, Dad,” She fastened the seat belt and started up the engine. “Time to get going.”

  Behind her, Dar was filling the water dishes for the dogs, and Alastair and Ceci had settled onto the small couch across from the galley for the short drive back to the regional air
port.

  Andrew seated himself next to her in the cockpit, and extended his long legs out. “Ah do not think you all should drive all the way back home,” he said. “All sorts of things might happen.”

  Kerry chuckled wryly. “We had an uneventful trip out,” she reminded him. “It only got bad when we actually started the vacation part of our vacation.”

  “Hm.” Andrew gave her a squinty eyed look, his rugged, scarred face with all its intense character displaying extreme skepticism.

  Kerry smiled, though she kept her eyes on the road. “Thanks, Dad.” She felt Chino’s breath on her elbow as the dog came forward to peer through the window. “I’m really glad you knew what to do to help us.”

  Andy chuckled, a little. “Get a lot of practice,” he said. “Ah did not think I would have to do this near as much as ah do now after coming out of the service.”

  “We just get in a lot of trouble,” Kerry said. “I don’t know why. We even picked the most sedate rafting trip we could. They even had some Barcaloungers on there.”

  Andy folded his arms over his broad chest. “Ah do wonder if that there bunch wasn’t looking out for well off folks,” he said. “For other reasons.”

  Kerry drew in a breath, then paused. “No one brought valuable stuff on the trip. Only thing I had was my camera.”

  “Coulda kidnapped you,” Andrew said.

  Kerry considered it. “Boy would they have been in trouble.” She grinned a little. “But really, a lot of those guys weren’t super rich I don’t think. Except Todd maybe. We had some college kids who saved up, and some yuppies. No one was the silver spoon type.”

  “Could just kept their yap shut about it,” Andrew said. “Nevah know, with people.”

  “Eh.” Kerry looked both ways, and pulled out onto the road. “I don’t think so.” She thought about Sally and her sister, and PJ and the gang, and Rich and Dave, none of them seemed like anyone who might be a target. “They all seemed pretty mundane.”

  “Didn’t mean them. Meant you,” Andrew remarked. “You all kids might be interesting to bad guys.”

  Kerry blinked, then she checked the road ahead and looked quickly to her right. “Us?”