THE PRICE SHE'LL PAY: For the secret she never knew she had...

by Cara Charles

  ‘Damn you!’ she screamed in her head. Her fingers so numb they were useless.

  With the jerk of her head, the knot was loosening. She pulled her head back with all her might and shook it loose as it threatened to re-tighten. She shook her head again. The damn knot was re-tightening. She jerked her head back and to the right, again and again. She felt the give.

  It was free! Elise opened her palm and let the fouled line slip through her fingers as another line floated down, she crawled to the surface with her hand on her prize.

  ‘Breathe.’

  Elise gulped air. Her chest was heaving. She calmed her adrenalin and breath. She floated on her back. Now the motor sound came to her. She pulled her ears out of her headgear and spun in the water to get the direction. It seemed to be northwest of her, but going away to Vancouver. She was relieved.

  Elise surveyed the Kayak wondering about her strength. She’d have to pull herself into it. Not an easy thing to do. It took her several minutes to get into the kayak with her dry suit on. She was exhausted and laid back on the stern.

  It was then she noticed the paddles had been tied on. There was a rope attached to the stern. She pulled it up. It was heavy. There was a dry sack. She opened it. It was a survival kit.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  High energy bars, she’d have one in a minute, a headlamp she put on, gloves, hurray. She turned on the light, a GPS, a compass, space blanket, water bottle, water purification tablets, waterproof matches, a knife. Wow!

  The GPS said she was in the Strait, a busy shipping channel. Any minute without warning, an ocean liner or tanker could run her over, so no time for grateful tears.

  ‘Being run over is not going to happen.’

  Elise ate one of the high-energy bars. It tasted heavenly. She washed it down with a mouthful of water full of vitamins she could taste. She warmed it in her mouth before swallowing. She didn’t want to drop her core temperature. Elise looked into her sack. Her headlamp spotted something, a small plastic Ziploc bag. A note written in Sharpee was inside.

  -Get home safely. Love you honey. Sam, Dez, Sid, Dave, Mac, Iain, Eamon, Buddy, and Deedee and Stan-

  Elise laughed and cried at the same time and shouted, “Yahoo! TEAM!!”

  A sense of joy invaded her. She was turning away from death to her new life with the power of purpose. With every stroke, she felt truly alive in this beautiful place. This was a moment she would treasure for the rest of her days.

  Stroke upon stroke she was charting her way back, feeling her life return with every stretch of open water she crossed. Yes, there was grieving ahead, emotional storms to weather. But there would be sunny days too.

  Elise was heading, ‘Home.’

  CHAPTER TEN -- TO LIFE…

  ELISE LOOKED BEHIND HER, seeing her trail through the water, in the newly brightening night, praying a tanker or ocean liner was not bearing down on her.

  You couldn’t hear them until they were right on you. She said a silent prayer to the guide in the moonlight, praying some watchful Captain in a wheelhouse would see her little headlight that she now wore one headlight, backwards. She had a long way to go to get home to Friday Harbor. Happy, she paddled east. Suddenly, fear blind-sided her.

  ‘What if Mavra Kimirov came back to see if any evidence had floated to the surface? She was one thorough bitch,’ Elise gave her that.

  She planned for that and sought the closest shoreline. Why disrespect the gift she’d been given? No need to flirt with her own death, again. By some miracle, she’d been saved, reborn to fight again. She’d keep her lamps on until she heard a plane.

  Ahead of her, the parting clouds and emerging full moon cast a silver pathway on the water leading her exactly where she needed to go. Home. The islands stood silhouetted against the moonlight.

  “Thanks my loves,” Elise cried out to Tom, Lara, and Boogie.

  As Elise paddled along the silvery path, Tom’s favorite song came to her, the song they sang on road trips.

  “All the Roadrunning” by Mark Knopfler and Emmy Lou Harris.

  She began to sing with Tom and Lara, because she could feel them with her.

  She’d fought her way out of the watery tomb when she could have waited for the water to take her. Their message was loud and clear. With tears rolling down her face, Elise sang to them in the moonlight. Elise sang endlessly, remembering what the words meant to her family.

  “Not to be afraid of choosing a dangerous life…”

  “That’s right, honey. Your lives have not been lived in vain,” Elise said back to Tom, who was out there somewhere in the moonlight with her.

  Tom entered her mind, ‘You’ll carry on, El. Carry on your father’s mission, passed down to all of us, to make the world a better place. Be their voice. We’ll always be beside you...’

  Far ahead, she thought she heard an engine. The wind shifted, in her face now. She listened behind her. Nothing. She cautiously paddled on with her headlights on front and back.

  Elise tried to remember what she could have said to the Doctor. Whatever it was Mavra and Dimitri had celebrated then left. Elise prayed the mis-information she and Dez planted in her subconscious satisfied the impatient billionairess. Mavra Kimirov was heading into their trap.

  Elise smiled thinking of facing her, wearing her ‘I’ve got you now’ smile, as Mavra tried to chew her own leg off.

  The water began to roll from waves. Fear stabbed at her. To her right, she heard the tolling of a buoy bell. Then, she heard it.

  Behind her. Cutting the water.

  Barreling down on her was a huge oil tanker.

  She flashed them with her headlights. She doubted they could see her.

  Elise paddled for her life, her shoulder screaming with the strain, south across its path to the buoy. It would not come close to the buoy marking the shallows.

  Elise was directly in its path.

  Silently it came on, three hundred yards away and closing with no sign from the wheelhouse. In her left ear she heard the plane, its lights marking it in the sky, coming from the east. She was wiggling her head to attract the Captain’s attention.

  The huge tanker began deviating to the north.

  She pulled at the kayak paddles as hard as she could.

  ‘God, I can’t get run over now!’

  Closer and closer the engines warned her ‘move it’. Thirty yards, twenty, miraculously the bow wave lifted her toward the buoy. She pulled hard to keep in the wave.

  The plane turned on a spot light and searched the water.

  Elise turned off her lamps, and found the buoy by sound and moonlight and the grumbling seals beached on it.

  The plane was approaching.

  Dez and Sid watched the radar. Elise’s GPS signal was going south. The currents or bow-wave from a tanker could be sloshing her body south.

  The Kimirov plane had returned.

  Sid put a hand on the small of Dez’s back, as tears ran down her cheeks.

  “Steady my love. Steady.”

  Dez nodded and made sure their team didn’t see her abandon hope.

  Mavra saw a light on the water south of the tanker as they flew over it.

  “It was a light. Go back.”

  “I see moonlight and the tanker, maybe it was a tossed cigar from the ship.”

  “Go around, pilot.”

  The pilot did as he was told and banked north to go around.

  Elise watched the plane turn. The tanker blotted the plane out, if she couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see her. She turned on her headlight to see the buoy. Seals on the platform noisily protested getting back in the water. Her light scared them off. She turned it off.

  The plane came around just as she reached the buoy.

  The seals surfaced to watch her. Elise had seconds to get out of the kayak and hide in the water. The seals were milling around, the males hissing at her.

  “You annoying bitch!” Elise screamed through her teeth. Her heart sank as she
realized the color of her dry suit was too red to blend in with the rusty buoy. A better idea hit her.

  Elise took five deep breaths, flipping the kayak with her paddle to stay upside down in the frigid water, holding her breath, sticking the paddle into the buoy to keep her from drifting away, praying her strength and instructions for righting it would work, without having practiced it.

  The plane was over her in an instant, going round and round her. She was running out of breath.

  Underwater, the curious seals had gathered around her looking at her, nudging her, nudging her survival sack. Bored with her, they jumped back on their perch.

  ‘Fuck off, you bitch!’ Elise thought.

  “Two abandon kayaks in one night?” Mavra argued with Dimitri.

  “The storm season, love. Probably been floating out here for a couple of months, tangled around the buoy. The seals wouldn’t be sleeping there if any humans were around. Fly back to Boeing Field, pilot.”

  “Ma’am?”

  “Yes, go on. No one can hold their breath that long.”

  Elise was sure she heard the plane get further away. She tried to right the kayak and failed. Again she tried, again and again. She was out of air. Nearing panic, she tried to push herself out of the kayak. She was stuck in it, hard. She’d try one more time.

  “Come on, El! Do this! You’ve got work to do! Like, get this bitch, Mom!”

  Elise felt the shift of weight. She’d flipped the kayak upright and gulped air.

  “See you soon, bitch!” Elise screamed at the eastbound seaplane.

  The seals barked agreeing with her, but weren’t about to give up their perch again.

  “Thank you, friends. You’ve been a fine audience.”

  The seals grumbled, and went back to sleep as Elise paddled, northeast.

  “Look!” Dez hugged Sid. The GPS signal they were watching was veering northeast.

  “Eamon? Steer to this heading. Hey Sultans, our girl is coming this way,” Sid said.

  Everyone cheered and slapped each other on the back, as Sid took the other thermo-scope and the men took positions on the bow.

  Elise was paddling east now, skirting the Olympic side, surveying each cove for hiding places, if the seaplane came back. A thick fog was forming. She had to take the risk and cross over now. She turned north and began crossing over digging in and pulling hard. Her plan was to skirt the Vancouver Island inlets then, dash across Haro Strait, back to the beach they took her from, and she’d be home. She had a long way to go.

  ‘Home, sounded so good.’

  The wind shifted coming from the north into her face, again. ‘Not good, it brought really bad weather,’ the gathering clouds reminded her.

  Elise heard a boat motor in the growing fog. She was out in the middle of the Strait now, with nowhere to hide. If Mavra’s men were hunting her again, they wouldn’t know who she was until they were right up on her. Once they had her again, there would be no escaping.

  Elise kept her headlight off, but kept up her pace. She was closing the gap between her and the boat sound. She prayed they were friendly. Sound carried a long way out here.

  Eamon steered their boat as Mac, Dave, and Sam looked through their thermo-binoculars. Dez and Sid read the radar and guided Eamon to the GPS.

  “Anything?” Sid asked. Did the scope pick up on something, low in the water?

  “Nothing. Or… she’s out there dead ahead and coming.”

  “Let’s use Morse code. She’s read the manual,” Dave said.

  “Hot damn, man! Get on it,” Mac said pounding him on the back.

  “Great, Dave! I know she knows it. Elise is relentless when she’s learning,” Sam said.

  “Hit the gas and the lights, Eamon,” Dez said.

  Dave got on the bow and started flashing the strong flashlight with Elise’s new code name, “Boogie” in Morse code.

  Although they were closing in on her GPS signal, they couldn’t get a visual.

  Fog was forming on the surface, obscuring anything on the water.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN -- TO THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS…

  “COME ON ELISE! Where are you?” Dave fretted.

  “She’s smart, Dave. She’s hiding in the fog,” Sid smiled at Elise’s ingenuity.

  “She doesn’t know if we’re friend or foe,” Dez said. “Anything on radar?”

  “The spotter plane took a heading toward Boeing. Probably Kimirov.”

  “When our girl sees us flashing the code word at her, she’ll know,” Dave said.

  Sam shook his head. “Not so fast, Dave. You don’t understand. Elise doesn’t trust anyone. We’ve got to add something only I’d know, add… ‘Loves cantaloupe.’”

  They all laughed as Dave added ‘L-O-V-E-S—C-A-N-T-A-L-O-P-E.’ Over and over Dave signaled ‘Boogie loves cantaloupe.’

  Elise was tiring. She was paddling hard toward Vancouver Island. She had half of one high-energy bar left and one-third of her water. She had made it past the center of the main channel remembering big ocean liners and oil tankers turned left at Vancouver Island to head in to B.C. and to Anacortes for the refinery.

  Elise was behind the land mass and out of line for the thermoscope, making her rescuers nervous but the GPS was viable so they kept coming very slowly.

  Elise reached the Canadian Island, and was now skirting the shoreline of Vancouver Island, soon she’d cross Haro Strait and arrive home, rationing her energy to get her there. She knew not to stop. She’d get dangerously chilled and risk hypothermia. That’s where they’d pick her up, praying Mavra didn’t decide to resume looking for her, again. Her ears were tuned to any sound. The wind shifted.

  Sounds of a small motorboat were coming closer as she turned east now. It was time to cross, but now she couldn’t. That is why she was hiding but trying to push east too while crawling up the B.C. coastline. She was worried about recapture and hypothermia. It must be in the high thirties on the water. She was wet inside but her exertion had warmed her up. She had to keep a balance between exertion, fuel input, and exhaustion.

  Elise concentrated on her visual course back. She was doing well. Elise looked at the moon, with her once more. It was parting the fog.

  She picked a point on the eastern horizon and paddled to it, slowly catching her breath in the slowed pace. As she rounded a rocky point, ahead of her about a mile away, she saw running lights from a slow moving large fishing boat emerge from the fog bank ahead of her. And… O-P-E!

  She had to be sure, so she waited. They’d repeat it. There it was, beginning again. ‘B-O-O-G-I-E—L-O-V-E-S—C-A-N-T-A-L-O-P-E.’

  Elise turned on her head lamp and flashed back ‘–A-N-D- -I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M’

  “There!” Eamon shouted from the bridge and pointed near the shoreline.

  Dave laughed, and everyone cheered.

  “Dave? What did she say?” Sam wanted to know as Eamon pointed, again.

  “And ice cream.” Dave said.

  “That’s right! They ate ice cream with their cantaloupe. That’s my incredible sister!” Sam said.

  Everyone cheered. Dez and Sid put their arms around Sam.

  Desiree said, “Wait, Sid. We can’t jump the gun, here. Dave? Kimirov or her man could have done some deep research. What kind and brand of ice cream, Sam?”

  “Dreyer’s Dulce de Leche.” Sam breathed a sigh of relief. “I should have listened to Carl my stockbroker and taken out stock in Dreyer’s. Boogie would meet me at the door, she’d always know. God. I’m gonna miss her.” Sam’s face ran with happy and sad tears. “She’s going to be OK. Right Doctor?”

  “I’m confident she’ll heal, and so will you,” Dez rubbed his back.

  “O.K. Dave… Ask her.”

  Sid had joined Dave on the bow.

  “B-R-A-N-D—A-N-D—K-I-N-D” Dave watched as Elise spelled out her reply.

  “D-R-E-Y-E-R-S –D-U-L-C-E--D-E--L-E-C-H-E…”

  “Let’s go get our girl,” Sid said to Eamon, who gunned the motor and they
sped toward her.

  “Easy, Eamon.”

  “My gut says we’d better get her on board,” Eamon said. Looking at his radar.

  “Fog’s building and so is the urgent message in my gut, too. Blip on radar approaching from Whidbey,” Iain said.

  “Hurry on then. Eamon’s gut is to be respected, Sid,” Dez said.

  “Feeling the eye myself lad,” Sid looked at Dez and her smile started to fade.

  John called Dez on her cell, “Spotter plane again, coming your way.”

  “Thank you John. John confirms a plane is coming our way.”

  “Hurry, lad. You’re right. Company’s coming.”

  Everyone snapped their heads to where Sid and Dez were pointing.

  “Lock and load, boys. Get to her Eamon. She’ll hide if we don’t get there first.”

  Sid and Iain passed out the rifles.

  “Either it’s a Coast Guard spotter wondering why the sub is stationary or it’s our little sorceress and her monkey boy, coming back to follow up on her instincts. Grab the thermoscope rifle, Iain or Dave and find her.”

  Dave and Mac searched the shoreline. Sid prepped the life ring and went starboard. Iain kept his favorite rifle with the night scope, searching at 100 feet.

  Eamon cut the lights, took a heading on Elise’s headlights, and pushed it. “There to starboard,” Eamon said having the highest vantage point.

  “Pull alongside her. So they can’t see her.”

  “Aye, sir.” Eamon swung the wheel, to come alongside Elise’s starboard.

  “H-U-R-R-Y--T-O--U-S--- P-L-A-N-E—I-N-B-O-U-N-D—” Dave flashed back.

  Elise signaled O-K, and kept signaling, as a fog plume enveloped her. They headed toward Elise as the seaplane Sid heard was closing fast.