Dark Moon Walking

by R. J. McMillen

  “You still at Shoal Bay?” He needed to be absolutely sure Dan was close enough to be able to reach them quickly. It was the least he could offer Claire as reassurance.

  “No. I’m in a cove on the north side of Midsummer Island. I’m pretty well out of sight. If Mike can get the marine guys to come, they’ll probably come down from the north, through Wells Passage. Maybe anchor up in Kingcome somewhere and send in a couple of guys in one of the inflatables to take a look.”

  “We might need you here if the guys from the black ship come sniffing.”

  “I’ll keep the radio beside me, and the outboard is already mounted. Tell me again exactly where you are.”

  Walker listened to the sound of paper rustling as Dan hauled a chart out and followed the route he gave him. He wondered about the kind of strings Dan would have to pull to get the marine division to divert one of its big catamarans to come and check things out. He knew from talk back in the village that the division was stretched pretty thin, with only thirty cops spread between four boats, patrolling an area that was about six hundred miles long as the crow flies and stretched from Vancouver in the south to Stewart, on the Alaska–British Columbia border, in the north. And if that wasn’t tough enough, the deep, twisting inlets and over forty thousand islands that formed the complicated coastline of the land his people had called home ever since the ancestors had arrived made the actual distance closer to seventeen thousand miles.

  Whatever Dan said—or promised—would have to be pretty spectacular, and Walker was pretty sure that if he did manage to pull it off, there would be some form of payment extracted from him when he returned to his home down south. But Dan didn’t seem to be bothered by the possibility and Walker guessed it would simply be something the ex-cop would deal with when the time came. For now, he just sounded glad for any help he could get.

  “Okay. The radio is on and the dinghy is in the water and ready to go. I’ll call you as soon as I get through to Mike. I don’t need to wait for the marine guys to get here. If they come, they’ll do their own thing. They won’t need me to help them out. I’ll just give them the information and tell them where to look. And you call me if it even looks like someone is coming your way.”

  “Okay. How long will the batteries last in this thing?”

  “They’re good for at least a couple of days with the spares I gave you. I’ll be there long before that.”

  Walker turned the radio to standby and put it back into the bag that hung from his belt. He would have to move the canoe before it got light, but that would wake Claire and it could wait for a few hours. He settled himself more comfortably against the tree and closed his eyes.

  The Great Bear constellation hung far to the west when he nudged Claire awake and slid down the bank. Another hour and the first pale fronds of dawn would stain the horizon. Enough time to find a hiding place for the canoe and something to eat. A fish would be easy, but he could not risk a fire, and no fire meant that most of the roots and bulbs he could collect were also off the menu. He had seen a sea cucumber and a few sea urchins clinging to the rocks, but he doubted he could reach them unless he dove for them, which meant a long, hard scrabble back up. That left the oysters and mussels that were clinging to the rocks, and there were plenty of those. Plus, he could see kelp floats undulating just off the shore and they would be easy to pull. There was dulse too, and rice-root lilies in the clearings between the trees, as well as ripe berries on the wild lily of the valley that grew in the shadows. They wouldn’t go hungry.

  “Walker!” Her voice was low. “There’s another boat coming!”

  The urgency in her voice jarred him. He had been so busy thinking about starting to collect food for their meal that he had not heard her approach. Earlier, they had decided to split up, each finding a spot with a good view of the black ship but on opposite sides of the island. That way, if either of them spotted one of the dinghies returning, or anything else, for that matter, he or she could alert the other. It was a good plan, but it required patience, and he had allowed himself to be diverted while he got caught up in planning their meal.

  “A boat or a dinghy?” He pulled himself to his feet.

  “A boat. Looks like a crew boat or a water taxi or something. It’s fast. I think it’s going to the black ship.”

  He sent her back ahead of him, knowing he would slow her down. “Keep your head down.”

  She gave him a quick smile. He knew she hated being in sight of the black ship, but when he had suggested staying there, she had immediately understood the reason. Now perhaps it was paying off.

  By the time Walker caught up with her, he could see that it did look like a crew boat with its aluminum hull and narrow decks. The new boat was throttling back, the bow wave moving forward as the hull settled deeper into the water. The roar of big diesels dropped to a rich purr as it slid easily up to the side of the black ship. Two men came out of the cabin and reached out to grab the bumpers that were already hanging from the railings. The newcomer had obviously been expected.

  Walker and Claire lay and watched as a steady stream of men emerged from the new arrival and stepped onto the deck of the black ship. They clustered together for a few minutes and then there was a brief flash of movement in the cockpit as someone came out and called them in and they all moved aft and disappeared. The black ship lay quiet yet again. After watching for a few minutes, Walker pulled out the tiny radio once more. He needed to let Dan know that something was going on.

  TEN

  Javier Fernandez checked his men again. He had to admit, Harry’s idea to dress them as loggers and put them in a crew boat was brilliant. It provided the perfect cover. Who would question seven loggers heading back from camp?

  Gunter and Trip had been searching for three days and had come up empty. Likely the girl had drowned or was holed up somewhere. Either way, they were not going to find her in time. So far it appeared no one was checking on her absence. That could change at any time, but at least with the crew boat, the danger of discovery was not so high.

  He glanced up at the wheelhouse, where Harry stood watch. Fernandez had told him to call Gunter and Trip and the other two back an hour ago, and they should be arriving anytime now. They were already a day behind schedule. They had lost hours of daylight and the few left would not give them enough time to retrieve all the canisters safely. With the girl still missing, he could not risk Snow Queen being seen in Shoal Bay. It would raise too many questions and put the whole operation at risk. They would have to rely on the crew boat, and it did not have winches and lights. That meant they could not work at night. They would have to haul the last of the canisters in the morning and it would take the rest of the day to assemble and test the equipment. That left less than two days to rehearse the attack. It was tight, but it was doable.

  Almost two hours after it arrived, Claire and Walker watched the crew boat leave again. They were too far away to see any of the men who had gone aboard it in detail, but there had been a lot of them. They had also seen the two dinghies return, and the four men in them had joined the others. The dinghies were both still floating off the stern of the black ship.

  “It’s heading your way,” Walker told Dan. The roar of the crew boat’s engines had faded enough to allow him to speak at a reasonable volume, although the wake was still pounding along the shore.

  “Damn. We need to know if they’re going to Shoal Bay,” Dan replied. “I got hold of Mike and he’s going to pass everything we’ve got so far on to the marine division. He can’t promise they’ll act on it, but he thinks they will at least call me.”

  He snorted. The sound transmitted through the radio as an explosive burst of static.

  “Knowing Mike, that means he’s probably going to really put the screws to them, but it may take a while and until I hear from them, I’d rather not stray too far from the radio unless I have to.”

  Walker grimaced as he heard the words, knowing what was coming and feeling the twist of guilt in his gut as he
thought about what he would have to ask Claire to do.

  “Look,” Dan continued, “I know it’s asking a lot from both of you, much more than I damn well should, but do you think you might be okay there for a while longer?”

  Walker glanced over at Claire. She had lost some of the tension he had seen when he’d first found her, and while she wasn’t completely back to being the confident girl he knew from Shoal Bay, she was much more alert. “Think you could handle another night here?” he asked.

  A shadow crossed her face, but she quickly masked it. “You fixing supper?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Sea cucumber coming up.” Then he said to Dan, “Yeah. No problem.”

  The call Dan was waiting for came less than an hour later. The police boat was under the command of a sergeant by the name of Carl Hargreaves. Dan had never met him, but he knew him by reputation; the marine-division guys who had worked with him said he was a hard-ass, but good at his job. Hargreaves didn’t sound happy about talking to a civilian, and Dan quickly realized that he wouldn’t welcome too much in the way of input or suggestions. Dan would have to be careful with what he said and even more with how he said it. On the other hand, Dan had information that Hargreaves needed.

  “The thing is, they couldn’t see who was in it,” Dan said as he told Hargreaves about the crew boat leaving the black ship. “They’re too far away. But it looks as if it’s headed in this direction. If you come here, you need to stay out of sight.”

  “Yes,” Hargreaves agreed, “and you need to stay where you are.” The message—and the caution it contained—was unmistakable.

  “Not a problem,” said Dan, working to make his voice amiable. “But Walker and Claire are out there alone, keeping an eye on that black ship. If they need me, I’m going—and I won’t be asking permission.”

  There was silence, and then Hargreaves grunted. Dan took that as acceptance even if it wasn’t exactly agreement.

  The police boat Hargreaves commanded, the Lindsay, was a sixty-three-foot catamaran with a top speed of almost thirty knots. Hargreaves told Dan they were heading south down Laredo Channel and were due to dock at Shearwater in a couple of hours. Even if she was not held up there, it would take several more hours for her to reach Dan—if she did. More likely Hargreaves would stop at Ivory Island or Bella Bella and launch the big rigid inflatable boat, or RIB. It could hold several men and, at forty-five knots, could travel much faster than the catamaran. It was also much easier to hide.

  An hour after their first conversation, Hargreaves called him back. “I’ve got three guys headed your way in the RIB. I’m putting them onto Dowager Island, just north of Thistle Point. There’s a beach they can haul out on there and it looks like they’ll be able to walk over to the south shore and get in behind a group of offshore rocks. Should be able to get a good view of Shoal Bay from there.”

  Dan smiled with relief. Not only was Hargreaves sending the troops, but they were going to the same spot Walker had chosen to watch from. It was better than he could have hoped for. “Thanks, man. Any idea of the ETA?”

  “Well, it depends on how easy the walk is. They should be on the island about half an hour from now. Maybe a half-hour walk?”

  “Great. I really appreciate this.”

  Hargreaves grunted again. Dan was beginning to think that might be his normal form of communication.

  It was a little over two hours later when Dan heard from him again.

  “That crew boat your people saw just arrived in Shoal Bay. The guys have it tied up at the wharf.” Hargreaves was on the phone with Dan and he was relaying the information from his team on the ground.

  “They see that guy with the short white hair?” Dan asked.

  “Hang on. I’ll check.”

  This three-way relay thing was not the most direct method of communication, but it was the only one that ensured privacy.

  “Nope. They’ve got seven guys who look like loggers. They’re all standing out on the wharf,” said Hargreaves.

  “Watch for the guy with white hair,” Dan said. “If he’s there, there’s a good chance those guys aren’t loggers.”

  “Okay. I’ll tell them.” There was a pause, then Hargreaves cut the connection.

  Dan called Walker back. “The crew boat’s in Shoal Bay. They’ve got seven guys that look like loggers out on the wharf.”

  “They got the white-haired guy there?”

  “Nope. Just the loggers. Think they could be the real thing?”

  Walker looked at Claire. He knew she had heard. He had seen the quick clench of fear when he mentioned White Hair. He raised his eyebrows in query. She shook her head.

  “Don’t think they’re loggers,” he replied.

  “Yeah. That’s my guess too,” Dan said. “Those two dinghies still with the black ship?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. Call me if anything changes. If we can put White Hair in Shoal Bay, it might be a good time for me to come and get you, but if he’s still there, I think you’re better off staying put.”

  Walker and Claire stared at the black ship. Walker had collected some berries and he still had some dried salmon left, but the planned meal of oysters and mussels had not happened. They had both lost their appetite with Dan’s call.

  “None of this makes sense,” Claire said, looking at Walker. “They can’t be loggers. What would loggers be doing at Shoal Bay? Why would they come and visit the black ship?”

  Walker shook his head. He had asked himself the same questions and he hadn’t been able to come up with answers.

  Dan was frustrated, and being frustrated made him restless and impatient. He didn’t like being a bystander. He didn’t like knowing the action was just a few miles away and having no role in it. He didn’t like having a growing list of questions he couldn’t find the answers to. And he hated the thought of the girl being out there on her own—or almost on her own. He didn’t know her, had never met her, but the knot in his gut was growing bigger every second, and memories of Susan were impossible to still. He hadn’t been there when she needed him. He couldn’t let it happen again.

  Even knowing Walker was with her didn’t help, because he didn’t feel right about Walker being there either. The man might be superb at looking after himself in this environment, but that didn’t mean he was equipped to take on a group of armed thugs. Apart or together, neither Walker nor the girl had any way of protecting themselves if things went wrong. That was his job—or at least it had been—and here he was, sitting on his ass doing nothing. Waiting for Hargreaves to tell him what was happening in Shoal Bay. Waiting for news on White Hair. Waiting for Walker to report on the black ship. Waiting, waiting, waiting. The need to act vibrated through his brain and ricocheted down his nerve endings. It swam through his blood, heating it to fever pitch as it throbbed below his skin and snaked along his muscles. It was going to drive him crazy.

  Half an hour later, he had the answers he needed. White Hair was in Shoal Bay. Hargreaves had called him back with that information after the guys had seen a man matching the description coming down the wharf from the old lodge. And the black ship was still anchored. He had checked that with Walker. Now he was in the Zodiac, throttle open as wide as it would go, heading for the island that matched the description and location Walker had given him. It was the best chance he had of getting Walker and the girl off that island and into relative safety on Dreamspeaker, and he was going to use it.

  Running flat out, Dan figured he could reach them in maybe thirty minutes. There was some risk involved, because he had no way of staying in contact with either Walker or Hargreaves while he was on the water—he only had one hand-held radio, and he had given that to Walker—but he figured he was okay. White Hair was accounted for and from what Hargreaves had told him, it seemed likely that both he and his “loggers” were going to be at Shoal Bay for a while. Besides, until he reached the island Walker and Claire were on, he was just a guy out fishing. Once he was there he would see for himself
how things were, and he would have the radio. Unless, of course, things had changed. Unless Walker and the girl were not there when he arrived.

  It took him nearly an hour. A heavy chop in the channel slowed him down and he had to cut the engine when the island came into view. He needed to see if there were any signs of trouble, and he didn’t want to create a wash that could alert someone on the black ship. Staying close to the shore as he approached would have given him some protection and allowed him to check for signs of activity, but there was maybe a mile of open water he had to cross. No choice but to crank up the motor again.

  He made it with no problem. The island was like all the other islands off this part of the coast: lichen-covered rocks with patches of moss, tufts of grass, the odd clump of dark shrubs, and a few wind-twisted trees. There was a slight breeze, but it was barely enough to stir the leaves. Dan coasted in and let the inflatable bump gently up to the rocky shore. He couldn’t see any sign of either Walker or the girl, but there was no point in getting out. If they were still here, they would come to him. If they weren’t, or if someone else had got to them first, there was nothing he could do here that would help them. Either way, it wouldn’t take long for him to find out.

  His ears were just getting used to the quiet after shutting off the motor when Walker spoke.

  “Nice boat.”

  The disembodied voice came from above and to the right, and even though Dan had been hoping to hear something, it jolted him.

  “Jesus! You scared the hell out of me,” he said as he scanned the rocky slope above him. “Where are you?”

  “Up here.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Black ship still there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Any activity on it?”

  “Nope.”

  Dan shook his head. Getting information out of Walker was like shucking wild oysters for pearls: a lot of work with little chance of reward. He wasn’t even sure he needed more information. What he did need was to get Walker and the girl back to Dreamspeaker.