The Dead Sea

by Andrew Jackson

"This is the ship we are looking for. It was flying the flag of Belize, so there's a chance it's already far out to sea, but we've time to kill until I can get my hands on a boat to take us out to where we saw it last night. So it's worth a look."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Longing to return home and leave behind his growing problems, Lucas made his way topside to the upper decks, to supervise his ship safely out of the busy harbour and home to his family who lay half a day's sailing to the north.

  As soon as he reached the deck he knew something was wrong. Too few men tended their duties and a small group had gathered on the starboard side, watching over the rails in silence. He looked and listened for Erico as he made his way over to the group, but the little man's voice was not to be heard as it usually was, cursing and spitting at the crewmen as the ship was being readied to sail.

  Lucas shouldered his way through the group to the handrail, which overlooked the busy market and the warehouses that bordered the docks. Hovering on the edge of the group of men, who were whispering amongst themselves like schoolgirls at Lucas' arrival, he found the gangster, Miguel. He also looked down into the crowded docks where crewmen, merchants and businessmen plied their trades.

  "I thought I was rid of you! What is happening here?"

  Miguel barely acknowledged Lucas' presence, further infuriating the big man and losing him face in front of his crew.

  "Damn you! Answer me!"

  Lucas could hear the group at his back shuffle further along the handrail, sensing violence, they put distance between their captain and the newcomer.

  With his sleeves now rolled up, Miguel stretched out his arm to point, placing his heavily tattooed arm on display. Lucas took note of the gangland ink that marked him out as a Tercerio Commando, a timely reminder to curb his anger and tread carefully with this man.

  Following his finger, Lucas focused on a group of three men who were making their way away from the ship towards the market. He recognised Erico and was about to call out to him when Miguel spoke.

  "By chance the whale woman has come to us. I spotted her on the dockside as I spoke with your First Mate."

  "And? What has that to do with us? You said you would handle it!"

  "It seems that some people are more committed to our business venture than others, Captain Machado. Erico was keen to help. I think he might like a ship of his own someday."

  The threat was not lost on Lucas, but he let it pass as he fixed his eyes on Erico, who was carving a path through the crowd towards the whale woman.

  She was standing at the mouth of the market where the crowd was thickest, her long red hair easily marking her out. She was holding a camera up to a man with a patch over his eye. Lucas had never seen the man before. He looked solid and strong, and stood protectively next to the woman. The moving mass of people stepped cautiously around him. Something in the way he looked told Lucas he was dangerous.

  "What is he doing?"

  "He is retrieving the camera. The one she used last night to photograph your ship. With luck she has not downloaded the images already. That will be one less problem to deal with."

  "And the woman?"

  "Just a warning. We do not want someone such as her to come to any harm just yet. It would bring unwanted attention upon us. If she is smart she will listen."

  "And if she doesn't?"

  Miguel never answered. He just slipped Lucas an evil look that answered his question.

  Back on the dockside, Erico had reached the woman.

  # # #

  For a moment, Dan took his eye away from the crowd to study the images on the small camera screen in Heather's hands. It was at that very instant he was shouldered to the side and knocked off balance. He heard Heather cry out and looked on helplessly as a figure darted in and snatched the camera from her hands.

  Dan regained his balance and stepped forward to give chase to the thief, but two men blocked his path. He could see the glint of a blade in the hand of the smaller of the two as he spoke with Heather.

  "No good will come of those pictures. Be gone from this place woman. This is your first and last warning."

  Dan could see the anger boiling in Heather as she clenched her fists and squared up to the pair in retort. He laid a calming hand on her shoulder and stepped forward to place himself between them, but Heather pushed his arm away, her cheeks flushed with anger.

  "Who are you? How dare you take my property. Give it back!"

  The figure who had taken the camera was long gone, melting into the crowd seconds after he'd snatched it. The camera was probably already settled on the sea bed at the bottom of the deep harbour basin. Right now, Dan was more concerned with the two men confronting them and the blade in one of their hands. It was on show for a purpose. The people in the marketplace had seen it and all now gave a wide berth around them, casting wary glances as they passed.

  In her rage, Dan didn't think Heather had even noticed.

  Before he could warn her, she lunged forward and around him to push the smaller man on the chest. Quick as a flash the man's arm snaked out, cutting Heather's hand as she drew it away. In an instant, all hell broke loose on the dockside.

  The larger of the two, similar in size to Dan but younger and more heavily muscled, and who had remained quiet until now, swung a right-handed hay maker punch towards Dan's head. He stepped outside of it, caught hold of the arm as it narrowly passed by the side of his head and twisted it savagely behind the man's back. Off balance, the younger man stumbled forward and Dan pushed him face down onto the concrete floor with his arm still hauled fully up and behind his back. Dan extended the arm, slid his own hands up to the wrist for better control and twisted it some more. He placed a foot on his now squealing opponent's shoulder to pin him to the ground, then he took a moment to look around.

  The knife man was advancing on Heather. The knife was held out now in front of him and the blade smeared red with blood from its first cut. Heather backed away, holding her injured hand in the other, close to her chest. The space around them had emptied, the once boiling crowd now thinned out to a few brave spectators who watched on from a distance. None stepped forward to help them and Heather only had seconds before the knife man would reach her.

  With all his might, Dan twisted the man's arm further still, stopping only when he felt the bone in the joint of his shoulder snap. The sound of it echoed off the warehouse walls, shortly followed by screaming.

  Dan dropped the limp arm from his grasp and flung himself towards the knife man. Barrelling into him from behind after a few powerful steps, Dan wrapped his arms around him to contain the knife in his hand and the two of them fell to the ground.

  When they'd stopped rolling, the knife man lashed his head backwards. The thick hard bone of his skull connected with a crunch against Dan's nose and almost caused him to black out. He released his grip and fought back waves of pain and nausea as he struggled to focus. The knife man was up on his feet quickly and already advancing when a loud voice cut through the fog in Dan's head and stopped the knife man in his tracks.

  "That's enough!"

  Scrambling backwards to put distance between himself and his opponent, Dan came to a stop with his back to a thick pillar that served as part of the gateway leading into the market. Heather ran over to kneel beside him and help him to his feet as a giant of a man came striding into view.

  "Get back to the ship. Now!"

  The knife man paused, glaring at the newcomer with the blade still showing in his hands. Tension began to build and for a second, Dan thought the two would fight. But when the huge man stepped forward and bellowed his commands once more, all sign of resistance disappeared and their attacker sloped away without a backwards look at Dan or Heather. The newcomer waited for him to leave before he moved in closer.

  Dan was on his feet by now, using one hand to stem the flow of blood from his nose and the other to steady himself against the pillar. He was in no fit state to defend himself. The sharp blow to his head had made his l
egs weak and his mind foggy, but even so, he pushed Heather behind him again and shuffled unsteadily forward.

  The big man stopped a few feet away and took a long hard look at them. He must have been close to seven feet tall, with a muscled bulk that warned of prodigious strength. He wore plain working men's clothes that were near threadbare at the cuffs and elbows. Patches of oil and years of hard labour stained a craggy, weather beaten face.

  To Dan's surprise it was Heather who spoke next.

  "I know you. You were on the ship last night."

  "I don't know what you are talking about, but hear me. I may not be able to save you next time. Do as they say. It is out of my control now."

  He turned and strode away, but Heather called after him.

  "And what about the sea? What about the creatures that live in it and the people that depend on it?"

  He paused mid-stride just long enough to answer quietly over his shoulder.

  "People like me you mean?"

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Back at the cafe, where he'd first saw Heather, Dan cleaned away the last trickles of blood from his nose and marvelled at his ability to find trouble wherever he went. He'd only just arrived where he wanted to be and already bones had been broken.

  It seemed to Dan he was incapable of living a normal life, void of confrontation and violence. Although his real problems only surfaced when he embraced it; when he gave in to buried feelings of frustration and anger, letting loose the demon sulking deep within him. For Heather's sake he tried not to give in, but she was so good at finding trouble herself that Dan wondered if it were some sick joke being played on him. Some horrible twist of fate, or karma, paying him back for previous transgressions. Where would it end? With Dan's death? Or Heather's?

  He knew Heather had only just begun in her new crusade. Nothing was going to stop her. Even after all they'd been through in Asia and Africa, she was still willing to rush head long into danger, mortal danger, and all for her love of wildlife.

  When they'd limped away from the fish market, Heather had been more furious than he'd ever seen her before. It was only the free flowing blood from the cut to her hand and the firm grip that Dan had on her shoulder that prevented her from storming off after the big man.

  "He's got to be the captain of La Mujer Codiciosa, Dan. Did you see how the others reacted to him? He was on board her last night. He's the one who fired the shots at us. He..."

  "He what? He shot at you?"

  "Yes, but he missed. Obviously!"

  "Heather, at what point where you going to tell me that little nugget of information? Slip your mind did it? I would never have let you go to the market if I had known."

  She sulked then, and they walked from the market back to the cafe in silence.

  Running his fingers along the crooked length of his nose, Dan tried to recall if it was the third of fourth time it had been broken, but couldn't remember. He'd been in so many scraps and fights over the years it was hard to pinpoint which injury had happened when. Although, there would always be one injury he would never forget. And as usual, by force of habit and every time he thought of it, his hand moved across his face to rub at the empty eye socket that had changed his life for ever.

  He gave up on his musings, when Heather burst out of the Fortaleza Sea Tours office and marched towards him. She had that look in her eyes again that could only mean trouble. Curiously, her injured hand had been wrapped in a clean bandage and in her good hand dangled a small set of keys she hadn't carried before. She wore a scowl, but a rogue strand of hair swung carelessly across her face as she approached and it brought a smile to Dan's face as he watched her wrestle with one hand to fix it back into place, knowing all too well it would be free again in a matter of minutes.

  "I've got us a boat. Are you coming, or have you lost your nerve?"

  Dan let out a weary sigh when she stopped in front of him, hands on hips and mouth set in a determined frown. He stood up to greet her.

  "Where are we going now?"

  "Out to sea. I want another look in the area where we found the fishing boats last night. Isaac says that it has already been checked, but I don't trust him."

  "Was it Isaac who dressed your hand in that bandage?"

  She looked down at her hand and for a second her eyes drifted away, deep in thought. But she bounced back with a smile on her face, hiding whatever thoughts had surfaced.

  "It was. He's a good man, I like him, but there's another who works for him, or at least I think he does - Miguel. There's something about him I don't like. Miguel was supposed to have checked the reserve first thing this morning, and found nothing. The local fishermen have told me time and time again that the big ships leave a trail of dead in their wake, from dolphins to turtles, and anything else big enough to get caught up in their nets. Why would there be nothing this time?"

  She turned and pointed out to sea, beyond the harbour to where the deep blue water met the towering coast in the distance.

  "This is the first time I have witnessed the ships for myself, Dan. They were just out there. Three of them. Without my photos I've nothing rock solid to place La Mujer Codiciosa inside the reserve, except my word, which we both know can be worthless in a court of law. But if there were bodies there now, creatures that have died because of the fishing, it might be something. Enough to persuade the police or the government to get involved or take a closer look at the very least."

  "Maybe."

  "Maybe is all I have right now, Dan."

  "What about the crew? If they were the men from last night then their ship could be docked in the harbour right now. They could have been unloading whatever they caught in the reserve."

  "Exactly! I put that theory to Isaac and he reacted very strangely. Tried to tell me there was no way that could happen and that the catches are strictly regulated. He said that only legal and registered ships can sell fish, so that the catches can be controlled and the fleet can avoid overfishing. That means they can then comply with international standards and the fish can be sold at a premium all over the world as 'sustainable'. So why were the crew of a pirate ship there? It's something that needs looked into later. For now, we need to get out to the scene of the crime."

  There was no way Dan was going to let her leave on her own, and she knew it as well as he did. He made light of it, cracking a joke to distract himself from his fluttering heart that skipped a beat every time she looked at him.

  "I'm not great at sea. I hope this boat has plenty of sick bags."

  # # #

  From the window of his first floor office, Isaac Garcia watched Heather, and her new strange one-eyed accomplice, as they climbed into the rib and raced out of the harbour. He stood and watched until they were nothing but a small black dot on the distant horizon, before taking a seat behind his desk to set to work on the mounds of paperwork and bills that had piled up.

  He was startled to find Miguel leaning lazily against the door frame opposite, quietly watching him.

  "What do you want now?"

  Miguel entered the room with a sly smile on his face, seating himself in a comfortable chair in the corner without saying a word. He toyed with a mobile phone he held in his hand, spinning it on the arm of the chair repeatedly until Isaac became annoyed.

  "Well? Can I help you with something? I have work to do here you know."

  The Tercerio Commando smiled again, placed the phone into his pocket and studied Isaac through narrowed eyes for another few long and excruciating minutes.

  Isaac could do nothing but sweat. He was an entrepreneur and a businessman, not a gangster. He was unused to dealing with men such as this. Merely being in Miguel's presence, to see and feel the tension and violence that oozed from his very being was enough to unnerve Isaac.

  "Sometimes I wonder what it is that you want, Isaac."

  Leaving his question to hang menacingly, Miguel stood up and sauntered over to the window, where he took his own turn to stare out towards the sea in silence.


  "What sort of question is that? You know what I want. I am a businessman, Miguel. Peace and quiet to make money. And a fair chance! That is what I want."

  "That is why I am wondering, you see. A businessman should know a good deal when he makes it. So why would a businessman risk that good deal over something so very small and insignificant?"

  Isaac's hands began to shake with nerves and he placed them on his lap, holding them together so Miguel might not see. He knew to what the gangster was referring.

  "You've given the woman a boat and she is now heading out to sea. To gather more evidence she will try to use to hinder our operations. Why would you do that? We agreed you would tell her there was nothing to see."

  "I did tell her that. I couldn't stop her! She has a mind all of her own you know."

  Miguel took a long slow breath before turning away from the window to face Isaac.

  "Our business together can only flourish if we all have peace and quiet. The woman is disturbing that peace. If she continues with her antics then we will have no option but to kill her. Our fishermen are growing nervous, and we do not control everyone in Fortaleza. There are those that would do us harm and..."

  "Harm? Your ships are destroying the reserve and killing everything they come into contact with! That is why she is here in the first place. Whale numbers are plummeting in these waters and my business is almost in ruins!"

  Isaac swiped a hand across his desk in bad temper, scattering some of the papers across the floor in front of him. Immediately regretting his outburst, he knelt and began wearily picking them up again. His argument defeated before it had even begun.

  Miguel stood and watched until Isaac had settled back into his seat.

  "It was you who brought this woman to us, Isaac, and it will be you who helps us get rid of her. If you value what is left of your business, and you still want the compensation the Tercerio Commandos have offered to pay you for your downturn in trade, then you will do as you are told. That is the last time we will speak of it."