“I will leave you to your search, officer. I must get the men and equipment loaded. We are on a tight schedule and we do not have much time.”
The man looked at him for a moment, then nodded. “Please keep a lookout. If you see any small boat out there, radio it in. Use channel twenty-six. We’ll be monitoring it at all times.”
Gunter nodded. “I wish you luck.” He started back up the path, but not before he saw the officer turn toward the wharf and lift his radio to his mouth. He knew the man would check with the crew boat, but that was not a concern. The crew-boat captain knew nothing other than the fact that he was picking up a group of men. His arrival had helped to confirm Gunter’s story, but they needed to move fast, before the coast guard decided to check out that registration number.
The canisters were lined up against the wall, closed and locked. The metal surfaces had a dull gleam, probably from their immersion in salt water, and a network of scratches showed as lighter glints. It made them appear old and well-used, and as he looked at them, Gunter realized they were going to provide reinforcement for his story and be a benefit rather than a risk as the men loaded them onto the crew boat. They were exactly what would be expected from a group of research personnel who would have to have some highly technical and very sensitive equipment with them.
The men had followed him inside, and he beckoned to Alex and Marty. “Is all the equipment in there?”
Alex answered. “Yeah, but it ain’t pretty. We just shoved it in wherever it would fit.”
“That is not important. We can correct it later. Now we have to leave.” He explained the story he had given to the coast guard. “Have the men carry the containers down to the crew boat and load them on. Tell them what I have told you. They are exploring for metal deposits. You go with them. Marty stays with me, but we will be only a few minutes.”
Alex gave him a thin smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Gotcha.” He moved over to the group of men standing near the door. “Okay, boys, let’s lock and load.”
Gunter turned to Marty. “Where is he?”
Marty nodded at a door that led off the main room. “He’s in there. I tied him up so he couldn’t make a noise.”
“Do you have a silencer?”
Marty shook his head. “Not on me. It’s packed with the other stuff.”
Another thing gone wrong. Gunter thought for a moment. “We can not risk a gunshot, but we must stop him from getting their attention. Knock him out. Hit him hard. Make sure he stays out long enough for us to get away from here. After that, it will not matter. And be quick!”
Marty nodded and opened the door. There came the brief sound of his voice, followed by a sharp crack and the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor, and then he came back out, closing the door behind him. He looked at Gunter and shrugged. “He should be out for a long time. Maybe forever, if we’re lucky.”
Gunter nodded. “Good. Now we leave.”
The coast guard lieutenant watched them go as he waited for his team to finish its search of the bay. “Those guys look okay to you?” He was using his radio to talk to the pilot waiting in the chopper.
“Pretty standard bunch of loggers.”
“Yeah, but they’re not loggers. That white-haired guy said they were miners, some kind of researchers, looking for mineral deposits.”
“Huh. Pretty late in the season to be out looking in this area. That stuff takes months.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. And that white-haired guy was a bit odd. Cold. Sort of automatic. He was sure in a hurry to leave. Maybe too much of a hurry. Had an accent of some kind, maybe German or Austrian or something.”
“Want me to call the ship and have them check them out?”
The lieutenant thought about it. What was it about the men that bothered him? He looked around the bay again and his eyes settled on the big tender that was still sitting at the wharf.
“Whitey told me they were sending some of the guys out, not all of them. It’s odd they would leave the tender there and all take off in that crew boat. Can you read the registration on that tender? Might help to know who it belongs to.”
“You got it.”
The lieutenant caught the glint of sunlight on binocular lenses as the pilot leaned out to scan the lettering on the bow of the tender.
“Let me know when you have it. I’m going to go check out the building. Maybe there’s something up there that can tell us a bit more.”
THIRTY-ONE
“Let’s get out of here.”
Dan pushed the dinghy out from the rocks and started the motor. He and Claire had watched the coast guard helicopter disappear over the top of Spider Island and the crew boat vanish around the bend of the channel that led to Shoal Bay, and now everything had fallen silent again.
“I figure even if Ponytail and White Hair both took off in that first chopper, the rest of them should be tied up there for quite a while. They couldn’t take all those canisters with them. I wouldn’t mind being over there myself to see what’s happening with that crew boat.” Dan was shouting over the sound of the motor, and Claire leaned toward him in an effort to hear what he was saying.
“Can you monitor the coast guard radio from your boat?” she yelled.
Dan shook his head. “No. They’re on a different frequency.”
His words were drowned in the rush of water and the howl of the motor, but the meaning was clear. She shook her head and touched her ear to show she couldn’t hear him, then turned away to look out over the bow, watching the shore slip past and the channels open up as they ran south toward Dreamspeaker.
The cove he had anchored her in opened up, and they saw Walker even before they saw his canoe. He was sitting on the swim grid, his feet dangling above the water, watching their approach.
“Thought you must have got lost.” He took the line Dan passed him and tied it off to the cleat.
“Nice to see you too, Walker.” Dan pulled himself up onto the grid, then reached for Claire’s hand and helped her out. “Did the boys all make it back home safe and sound?”
“Yep. They were all eating breakfast when I left. Percy sent some along for you.” He lifted up what looked like a piece of cedar bark and passed it to Dan.
“What, you want me to eat trees now?”
Walker shook his head. “You’ve got to learn to look a little closer, white man. Look inside.”
“Inside?” Dan turned the square of cedar in his hands and found the opening. It was a bag, made of thin strips of cedar bark, folded and woven with exquisite care. He slid his hand into the opening and brought out two strips of dried salmon. He passed a strip to Claire, who promptly chewed a piece off and said around a mouthful, “This is fantastic. Thanks, Walker.”
“Yeah, thanks, man.” Dan was enjoying his own mouthful. “And thank Percy for me.”
“Will do, but it might be a while before I see him again.” Walker smiled.
“Who’s Percy?” Claire was looking back and forth between them. “And who are these boys you two are talking about?”
Dan stepped up onto the stern deck. “I’ll let Walker fill you in. I’ve got to get on the radio.” He walked away before either of them could protest. No way was he going to be the one to explain it all to Claire.
It took both persistence and time to reach Mike. Rosemary said he was in Vancouver overseeing security for some conference they were having there, and she patched him through to the temporary office that had been set up for the purpose. The desk guy at that office said Mike was over at the conference center and couldn’t be reached. Dan said it was urgent, lied a little by giving his old rank, made a couple of vague threats, and was finally patched through to Mike’s cell. By that time there was so much static on the connection that he could barely hear anything, but it was better than nothing.
“Dan? Where the hell are you? I can hardly hear you.”
“Still up north. Look, we’ve got a major problem up here.”
“You have a pro
blem?” Mike was shouting into his phone, and behind him Dan could hear the sound of heavy traffic and people talking.
“Yeah. Two men dead, maybe three.”
“What?”
“Murder.” Dan spoke as clearly as he could, keeping it simple and hoping Mike could make it out.
“Murder? Did you say murder?”
“Yeah. Listen, can you get back to your office? We need to talk.”
“You serious?”
“Yeah. Go. To. The. Office.”
“The office? Oh, yeah. Okay. Give me five minutes, okay? Five minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll call you in five.”
Five minutes later, Mike picked up the phone on the first ring.
“What the hell is going on? Did you say you had a murder up there?”
“Yeah. Actually, two of them and maybe a third.”
“You gotta be shitting me! Are the marine boys there?”
“No, but they sure as hell should be. The coast guard’s on site though.”
Dan told Mike what had happened, giving him the sequence of events as he knew them but omitting the part about Walker and his friends maybe playing a role in sinking Snow Queen. He wasn’t sure that had actually happened, and even if it had, he wanted to keep Walker out of it. His involvement would only confuse the issue.
“So where is this white-haired guy now?”
“I think he probably took off in that helicopter. You might be able to track it. It was blue, real dark blue, on the top, with a silver belly and a couple of turquoise stripes between. Had a bunch of lettering over the registration number, so I think it was a charter. Came in from the southwest and headed out in the same direction, so probably based on the north end of Vancouver Island.”
“Okay, I’ll have the guys check it out. What time did it take off from Spider Island?”
“Around two o’clock. The other guy might be in it too. The dark guy with the ponytail. He’s the one who shot Harry, and he took the captain with him at gunpoint when he left Snow Queen.”
“Shit! This is something I don’t need right now. It’s crazy down here.”
“What’s happening that’s got you so worked up?”
“Hell. It’s one of those United Nations/G8 things. Got everybody but God himself arriving here today, and all their goddamn lackeys and mumbo-jumbo artists got here last week. Even got a bunch of superstar assholes going to be doing a concert over at Rogers Arena in a couple of days. All we need now is for Oprah to drop in and really turn it into a circus.”
“Sounds like you’re having a good time.”
“Yeah, right. Anyway, back to your stuff. You said the coast guard was there now?”
“They were when I left. They arrived about the same time as the crew boat and about five minutes after the blue chopper left.”
“Huh. I’ll call them and see what’s happening. Stay by your radio. I’ll call you back.”
Dan stood and stared out over the water, the phone in his hand. Talking to Mike, giving him the basic facts of what had taken place over the last few days, had felt good. It had made him feel important, although that was too strong a word. Needed, maybe. Part of a team. It had taken him back all those months to when he had been a member of the force, one of the guys, contributing to something. It was a good feeling and he enjoyed the buzz it brought, but at the same time he realized it was a life he no longer wanted. And it wasn’t because of Susan and the searing memories that anything to do with his old life usually evoked. It was more about Walker and Claire sitting out there on the stern. Even Annie and Tom were in there somewhere. They had taught him something. Changed something. He couldn’t put it into words just yet, but it was there all the same. Something quiet and solid.
The radiophone chimed, interrupting his reverie. It was Mike.
“You got your VHF turned on?”
“Yeah.”
“Switch to 83A. The coast guard wants to talk to you. Leave this open and we can have a three-way.”
Dan turned the VHF to 83A. “Dreamspeaker.”
“Dreamspeaker, this is the coast guard. Is that Dan Connor?”
“Yeah. Got Mike on the radiophone too.”
“Okay. You reported a possible kidnapping. I think we’ve got the guy you said was kidnapped here with us. He says he’s the captain of Snow Queen.”
Dan inhaled a sharp breath, and a smile lit his face. “Is he okay?”
“Got a hell of a big lump on his head and a headache to go with it, but we’ve got him up and walking around. Took a while to figure out who he was, but now he’s madder than hell.”
“Can’t say I blame him. You got anyone else there?”
“No. There was a bunch of guys here when we arrived. Odd-looking guy in charge. Had real white hair. Said they were doing some mining research. They looked okay, so we let them go. A crew boat came and got them.”
“Shit! You know where they went?”
“No, but we’re sure as hell going to find out. We’ve got the guys back at base trying to track the crew boat now, see where it came from.”
“They have any canisters with them? Metal things maybe two, three feet long? Kind of bullet shaped?”
“Yeah.” The guy’s voice sounded wary. “We thought they were instruments of some kind. You telling me they’re not?”
“I’m not sure what they have in them, but it’s not instruments. More likely weapons.”
“Guns?”
“Maybe. They looked like they were rehearsing some kind of raid when I was there, and it sounded like weapons being assembled.”
“Don’t have any bullets though.” Walker had come into the wheelhouse so quietly that Dan hadn’t heard him.
“What? How do you know that?”
Walker held out a bundle that was wrapped in a striped blanket. “Took these from the canisters they left on the wharf.” He put it down on the floor.
“Who’s that you’re talking to?” asked Mike.
“Hang on,” Dan said to Walker. This was turning into a circus. “His name is Walker,” Dan said to Mike. “He’s the guy who called me.”
“He was there with you? You didn’t tell me that.”
“No, he wasn’t there. He . . . ah, shit! I’ll let him explain later, but he’s got a bunch of stuff here he says he got from some of the canisters.” Dan glared at Walker as he spoke and received a raised eyebrow and a quiet smile in return. He shook his head in disgust. Walker had always had a knack for driving him crazy. He bent down and opened the blanket. A handful of bullets, all different calibers, gleamed brightly in the sunlight streaming in through the windshield, and a grenade lay beside a small metal canister. In the center was a bottle of what looked like cooking oil, a small spray bottle and a short fuse.
“What the fuck is this?” Dan couldn’t quite understand what he was seeing.
“I asked the boys to keep one of everything and bring it all to me when they were done. This is it.”
“The boys?”
“What have you got there?”
“Who’s Walker?”
It was chaos. Everyone was talking at once, and Dan had no hope of figuring out who was who, let alone answering.
“Okay. Okay. Hang on a minute. I’m not quite sure what we’ve got here, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll figure it out and let you know, but right now the priority has to be finding these guys and stopping them before they kill anyone else.”
“Yes, you’re right.” It was Mike speaking. “But you’ve got some explaining to do once we’ve got this sorted out. And make sure you stay put. We need you to show the marine guys where this Robbie guy is stashed.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m not going anywhere. Just find these assholes before they do anything else.” Dan reached over and turned all the switches to standby.
THIRTY-TWO
“They did what?” Dan lifted his gaze from the blanket with its weird array of objects to Walker’s face. He had that Alice in Wonderland feeling again and he was the rabbit, falling
down that fucking hole. Walker just grinned.
“You’re telling me a bunch of punk kids sailed into Shoal Bay in the middle of the night, in a storm, and just emptied out all this shit into the water?”
“Paddled.”
“What?”
“They paddled, not sailed.”
“Jesus! Fine. They paddled. And then what?”
Walker shrugged. “They went home.”
Dan let his breath out in a thin stream, fighting to retain both control and sanity.
“Okay. Fine. And what about Snow Queen? They sink her too?”
“No, that was me.”
“That was you.” God, he was back to the repeating thing. “What exactly did you do? Paddle up and pull the plug?”
“Nah. Stuck a knife up into one of the through-hulls. Jammed it open.”
Dan shook his head, trying to clear it. “Walker, the through-hulls are underwater.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Damn near froze to death.”
Dan stared at him. “You swam out to it? Are you nuts? You could have died. You should have hypothermia.”
The three of them were sitting around the chart table in the wheelhouse, the items from the canisters spread out in front of them.
“Percy pulled me out and fixed me up.”
Claire’s face was painted with a mixture of amazement and disbelief, her eyes dark with concern. “You really swam out to that ship?”
Walker nodded. “Yeah.”
“Was it you who wrapped that kelp around the prop?” she asked.
He grinned again. “Yeah. Worked, huh? Wasn’t sure it would. Those were some crazy propellers. They were hung off some kind of pods. Looked a bit like those canisters, only bigger.”
“Pods?” Another memory of the silent ship that had slipped past when he was anchored up north ran through Dan’s mind. “I’ve read something about that. Some kind of new propulsion system. It’s electric. Run by generators instead of a diesel. Bet that’s why it was so quiet.”
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