Bluewater Vengeance: Mystery and Adventure in the Caribbean (Bluewater Thrillers Book 2)
Page 25
Now, after some time to consider the reactions of the man called Martinez, he wasn’t sure that he had made the correct choice. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure how much of a choice he actually had. He knew that Martinez would be back, and he worried about what would happen when he returned. A cautious man, the houngan had met with Martinez in an abandoned shack in a cane field some miles from the bateye. Martinez had been blindfolded and led through the woods for three hours en route to the shack, so the decision to meet again would be the houngan’s, but his sense of Martinez was that the man would not be easily put off.
Chapter 4
Vengeance was at anchor in the Tobago Cays. The professor was sitting in the cockpit in the shade of the awning, a rum punch in his hand. He gazed out over the reef off the bow. There was a gentle, long-period ocean swell rolling in from Africa and breaking on the reef. The breeze carried the spray from the breakers into the air, cooling it and creating a hazy transition from the turquoise water in the anchorage to the dramatic indigo of the deep water on the other side of the reef. He was alone on the boat. Some distance away, he could make out the dinghy, bobbing in the waves where the three girls had tied it to a mooring on the edge of the reef. They were snorkeling, admiring the clouds of brilliantly colored fish swimming around the coral, although they were too far away for him to spot them as they floated above the reef.
The insistent chirp of his satellite phone interrupted his idle thoughts. He sighed and put the drink down, picking up the phone to examine the display. He wasn’t surprised to see the three initials, flashing in time with the chirping. He pushed the connect button as he raised the phone to his ear.
"Good afternoon, RDF."
"Afternoon, Professor. How’s it going?"
"Oh, it’s beautiful. Vengeance is a gorgeous boat, and the two gals that run her aren’t hard to look at, either."
"Behave yourself, old man. I’ve got a feeling you’d better not cross that grad student babe of yours. She’s not like those undergraduate gals you’re used to messing with. You aggravate her, she might put a hurtin’ on you."
"Can’t believe you’re giving me advice on women – you, the queen of reality TV."
"Hey, I tried women when I was young and foolish; nice to look at, but more trouble than they’re worth. Just that some people don’t outgrow it, I guess. I’ll stick to boys. How’s your plan coming? Still thinking we can avoid having to shoot the show in Haiti?"
"Yeah, I think so, RDF. Martinique or Guadeloupe would be better places to work, I think. Difference between them and the other eastern Caribbean islands is dramatic – they’re pretty much part of the first world, and the others, well, let’s just say they’re quaint. Then you look at Haiti. Hell, Haiti is prehistoric. On TV, they’re all gonna look alike, anyway."
"So what’s the plan, then?"
"We’ve got two days of easy sailing to Martinique. I’ll have all of this data collated by the time we get there, and we’ll start out by playing tourist. Get the lay of the land; ask lots of questions. See if I can turn up anybody that’ll talk about Voodoo. Martinique may be part of France, but it’s still a Caribbean island. It’ll take a little time for folks to warm up to an outsider, like anywhere. We’ll see how it goes. If it doesn’t look promising in a week or two, we’ll go check out Guadeloupe. As best I can tell from the immigration data, there are good-sized communities of displaced Haitians in both places. ‘Course, there are probably more illegals than there are people with papers. There are also enough indigenous white people so that Lilly and I won’t stick out as much as we would on the other islands."
"Yeah. Sounds like tough work, Professor. Stay out of trouble with those women, and check in with me every so often. I got some folks doing a little research myself. I’ll call you if we find anything."
****
Jerry Smith parked his Porsche 911S and set the alarm. He glanced back at it lovingly as he walked to the elevator lobby in the parking garage a couple of blocks from Lincoln Road Mall. He was in his late 20s, but looked a decade younger, thanks to his oily, pimple-infested skin and his choice of clothing. Skinny, clad in a dirty T-shirt and grimy, ragged jeans, flip-flops on his feet, he shrugged his lanky blond hair out of his eyes as he waited for the elevator. Once on the sidewalk outside the garage, he pulled his iPhone from his pocket and checked the time. It was just 5 o’clock; he was running early. His friends wouldn’t be at the bar yet, so he decided to find a shady spot on the pedestrian mall where he could watch the girls. He turned the phone off before returning it to his pocket.
He didn’t want it ringing while he was out with his buddies. If they knew he had an iPhone instead of the regulation, hacker-approved Android, he’d never hear the end of it. The fact that his iPhone was running his own, home-brewed operating system wouldn’t matter. Unlike most of his cronies, Jerry had a graduate degree in electrical engineering and a deep appreciation for the superiority of Apple’s hardware. He could argue them down and make them see things his way, but it wasn’t worth the effort to him. They were fun to hang out with, but they were too sheep-like for him to make that kind of investment. It was easier just to keep quiet about his perverted taste in telephones.
He found a bench in the shade across from the sidewalk bar where they gathered every evening and settled down to admire the scenery walking past. Soon, he was lost in a fantasy involving an animated, octopus-like alien with a sex organ on the end of each tentacle. The creature was engaged in some incredible act with the girl sitting at the table a few yards away, and Jerry was busy figuring out how to code the creature’s astonishing series of eight climaxes. Code to animate the girl was no problem. That was practically off-the-shelf, but this liquid metal octopus would have to be programmed from scratch. He was surprised when someone shook his shoulder and called his name.
"Man, you were zoned out, Jer. C’mon over to the table. We got a cold one coming with your name on it."
"All right, Henrietta," he agreed, as the graphic images and tables of ones and zeros faded from his mind.
They sat down with the others, and Henrietta started relating her week’s adventures in the IT department of one of Miami’s international banks. After she described how the code she had written facilitated the untraceable transfer of large sums of money and answered a few technical questions from the others at the table, all eyes turned to Jerry.
"So, Jer, who’ve you been working for this week?" Henrietta asked.
"You know my rule, Hen. If I tell you that, I can’t tell you what I’ve been doing. Believe me, 'what' is way better than 'whom,' this week."
"Okay, so give us the ‘what,’ then."
"Well, I got this really mundane job; no real technical challenge, but this guy’s paying me big time. I’ve turned my little herd of search robots loose looking for all references to…anybody wanna guess?"
"Orgies with alien beings from outer space?" one of the geeks ventured.
"Close, Greg. That’s closer than you think," Jerry said, with a teasing smile.
The others sat silently, waiting.
When Jerry had milked the pause fully, he said, "Zombies," in an artificially low-pitched voice.
"Get out!" Henrietta said, punching him playfully on the shoulder. "You spent the week with your bots searching for zombies; you must have had to do some work just to store all the hits. Gotta be terabytes worth of just links, Jer!"
"Well, there were some qualifiers to narrow it a little. Like, real living creatures that you can touch and feel."
"Wasn’t there something about a guy in Haiti 25 or 30 years ago that claimed he’d been zombified and escaped, or something?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, Greg. Good for you. That’s just where I started."
"So, where’d you finish, Jer?" Henrietta asked.
"You want the ‘where’ or the ‘what,’ Hen? Can’t have both. Client confidentiality."
"What!" several voices exclaimed in a chorus.
"I got several hits. Live zombies, righ
t in the real world. Down to specific locations."
"Okay, that’s all I can tell you, guys. Your turn, Greg. Whose firewalls have you been punching holes in this week?"
****
It was much later in the evening, and the sun-worshippers of South Beach had disappeared, replaced by strange nocturnal beings. Greg Elliot kept a wary eye out as he swayed down the crowded sidewalk, avoiding the more outrageous looking creatures that leered at him suggestively. He had stayed behind when his friends dispersed earlier in the evening, moving inside to take a seat at the bar. He had been drinking more heavily than usual. He was lost in thought, pondering Jerry’s comments on the zombie search as he walked back to the condo he shared with a couple of other guys in South Beach. He had done his best not to betray his surprise at their happy hour gathering, but he had been stunned to hear about Jerry’s latest project.
While he had been in RDF’s office installing some new video editing software earlier that afternoon, he had overheard a telephone conversation. RDF was describing his next gig to someone, probably trying to raise money from the sound of it. Greg hadn’t really been paying much attention, but he couldn’t help picking up that RDF had somebody "… in the islands, checking out the Haitians. If we can’t find real zombies, well, hell, we’ll just make our own." He hadn’t thought much about it at the time; RDF was always talking about off-the-wall ideas. Now, though, Jerry was contracted to someone looking for zombies.
Greg wondered if Jerry’s client was his own employer. If so, he would be seriously pissed off. He could have been doing that search. Why would RDF hire a contract computer geek without even talking to his own in-house guy? It didn’t make sense, but it was suspicious. Greg decided that once he was home, he would log into the production company’s network and poke around in the accounting system. He knew enough about the accounting software; he had set it up. If Jerry had a contract with RDF Productions, he could find out about it. Then he would decide whether to be pissed at RDF or at Jerry. He clenched his teeth and concentrated on speed-walking the remaining mile to his place. He needed to work off his irritation. This whole thing might still just be a coincidence.
End of preview…
Bluewater Voodoo is available from the Kindle Store:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008WAEHHC
A Note to the Reader
Thank you for reading Bluewater Vengeance. I hope that you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a brief review on Amazon. Reviews are of great benefit to independent authors like me. They are a primary means to help new readers find my books. A few sentences can help others find the pleasure that I hope you found in this book, as well as keeping my spirits up as I work on the next book.
If you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy Bluewater Voodoo. It's the third book in this series, and it picks up the story where Bluewater Vengeance ends. You will find the opening chapters of Bluewater Voodoo immediately preceding this note. Bluewater Voodoo answers a few lingering questions from Bluewater Killer and Bluewater Vengeance. If you haven't read the other Bluewater Thrillers, please take a look at them. The twelfth book in the series was published in September 2016.
The Bluewater Thrillers are works of fiction. The characters and events are entirely products of my imagination. The islands actually exist, and their geography is as represented. The people of the islands are among the finest and most friendly that I have encountered, and it has been my pleasure and privilege to spend the last several years getting to know them. I hope the descriptions of places found in this story will spark your interest, and that you will seek to become better acquainted with this magical part of our world. If you're curious about what some of the places look like, there's a short video, Bluewater Thrillers (http://youtu.be/lSFyjCLA8u4) which will take you on a two-minute tour. The pictures are my own; the shots at sea are taken from my boat, Play Actor, which appears in a few of them.
I write another series of sailing thrillers: The Connie Barrera Thrillers. Connie had a key role in Deception in Savannah, my first book. I enjoyed writing about her so much that I wrote her into the Bluewater Thrillers. She plays prominent parts in both Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are a spin-off from the Bluewater Thrillers, and feature some of the same characters. Dani and Liz taught Connie to sail, and they introduced her to Paul Russo, her first mate and soon-to-be husband. If you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy them as well.
In December of 2016, I released Bluewater Revolution, the twelfth in the series. Now I've turned my attention back to Connie and Paul for the seventh Connie Barrera Thrillers adventure. You'll find progress reports and more information on my web page at www.clrdougherty.com. Be sure to click on the link to my blog posts; it's in the column on the right side of the web page. Dani has begun to blog about what's on her mind, and Liz and Connie are demanding equal time, so you can see what they're up to while I'm writing.
A list of my other books is on the last page; just click on a title or go to my website for more information. If you’d like to know when my next book is released, visit my author’s page on Amazon and click the "Stay Up to Date" link near the upper left-hand corner. I welcome email correspondence about books, boats and sailing. My address is clrd@clrdougherty.com. If you'd like personal updates, drop me a line at that address and let me know. Thanks again for your support.
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Charles Dougherty wrote quite a bit of fiction before publishing Deception in Savannah, his first novel. Most of his earlier fiction works took the form of business plans, written to secure funding for projects and startup ventures during his corporate and consulting work, but he put all that behind him when he wrote Deception in Savannah, a tongue-in-cheek crime novel.
Since Deception in Savannah was published, he has written a number of other books. The Bluewater Thrillers are set in the yachting world of the Caribbean and chronicle the adventures of two young women running a luxury charter yacht in a rough-and-tumble environment. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are also set in the Caribbean and feature some of the same characters from a slightly more romantic perspective. Besides the Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers, he wrote The Redemption of Becky Jones, a psycho-thriller, and The Lost Tourist Franchise, a short story about one of the characters from Deception in Savannah.
He has also written two non-fiction books. Life's a Ditch is the story of how he and his wife moved aboard their sailboat, Play Actor, and their adventures along the east coast of the U.S. Dungda de Islan' relates their experiences while cruising the Caribbean.
He resides with his wife aboard Play Actor, sailing wherever their fancy and the trade winds take them.
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Fiction:
Bluewater Killer
Bluewater Vengeance
Bluewater Voodoo
Bluewater Ice
Bluewater Betrayal
Bluewater Stalker
Bluewater Bullion
Bluewater Rendezvous
Bluewater Ganja
Bluewater Jailbird
Bluewater Drone
Bluewater Revolution
Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set; Books 1-3
Love for Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller
Sailor's Delight – a Connie Barrera Thriller
A Blast to Sail – a Connie Barrera Thriller
Storm Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller
Running Under Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller
Sails Job - a Connie Barrera Thriller
From Deception to Betrayal - an Introduction to Connie Barrera: a boxed set
Deception in Savannah
The Redemption of Becky Jones
Short Story:
The Lost Tourist Franchise
Non-fiction:
Dungda de Islan'
Life’s a Ditch
For more information, please visit:
http://www.clrdougherty.com/
or
http://amazon.com/author/clrdougher
ty
Table of Contents
Bluewater Vengeance
Table of Contents
The Windward and Leeward Islands
St. Vincent to Union Island
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Read a preview of Bluewater Voodoo, the next book in the series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Bluewater Voodoo is available from the Kindle Store:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008WAEHHC
A Note to the Reader
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty