by Matt Lincoln
As I drove back to my boat, I went over the facts of the case as we knew them in my mind. We knew that the group from the warship were Colombian pirates. The ship they attacked was being operated by Chinese drug smugglers. As it stood, this was starting to look like a simple drug-related turf dispute, something that actually wasn’t all that uncommon at all. The only thing that set this case apart from the dozens of others that occurred in major cities between gangs all across the United States was that this particular squabble took place on the water between two international rival gangs.
I yawned as I pulled into the parking lot at the marina and got out of my car. I had a feeling I’d be out like a light as soon as I hit the bed, which was good since I wanted to be up as early as possible the next morning to get a good head start on investigating the ship captain.
As I stepped into the boat, my eyes moved instinctively to the desk at the far end of the main cabin, next to the bed. That had become the current location of all the clues I’d managed to gather so far regarding the Dragon’s Rogue. The corkboard covered in pins and strings that Holm had made was mounted on the wall above the desk, while the actual treasures were spread out on top or carefully stored inside the drawers on the sides.
I sat down on the desk chair and reached down to one of the drawers. As I pulled out the object carefully stored there, I thought with a bit of lamentation about how I hadn’t had a chance to investigate the location of the Rogue in a while. Work had been busy lately. It seemed like we had a new case the moment we finished up the one before. Heck, this time, we hadn’t even wrapped up the case we’d been working on before Diane yanked Holm and me to focus on the pirates.
I loved my job, and I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to keep busy, but I still regretted not being able to carve out even a little time to focus on the search. I knew that wherever it was, it probably wasn’t going anywhere, but what if someone else found it first? What if it got struck by lightning tomorrow and burst into flames? What if termites or sea creatures were currently eating away at it as I sat there, wearing it down until there was nothing for me to find?
Those were all mostly silly thoughts, I understood that, but knowing that didn’t stop me from worrying that every day that I didn’t find it brought me closer to the possibility that I might never find it.
I carefully unrolled the thin, delicate tube of leather that I’d pulled from the drawer. It contained a fragile piece of parchment that depicted a map, or at least part of one. I tended not to look at the original since I had a far more durable copy, but something about holding the old, worn leather in my hands made it feel more real. A long time ago, a pirate had etched the location of their treasure onto this map. He’d held it in his own hands, and now it was here in mine.
It made me all the more confident that I’d find the Rogue. After all, if I could find priceless, one-of-a-kind historical artifacts like these, surely I could find a whole boat, right?
That was the thought I held onto as I carefully stowed the map back into its drawer. I got up and changed before climbing into bed. As I’d suspected, I could feel myself drifting off just seconds after laying down, and just moments later, I was already asleep.
It felt like I’d only just closed my eyes when my alarm went off the next morning, loud and grating and incredibly obnoxious. I groaned as I rolled over and blindly fumbled with my phone until it stopped screeching at me.
The last vestiges of whatever dream I’d been having slipped away as the details of the day before came flooding back to me, and I threw the covers off of myself to get ready for the day.
Half an hour later, as I was downing my first cup of coffee, I remembered that Holm was supposed to be getting discharged that day, assuming there hadn’t been any bad developments as far his condition went. I could just imagine his reaction if the doctors told him he had to stay in there for another twenty-four hours.
“How do you go to the bathroom in there?” I muttered to myself as I wondered how he’d fared during the first twenty-four hours. I grimaced as I imagined that. However it worked, I was certain that Holm couldn’t have been happy about it. For his sake, I really hoped he’d be able to leave today.
I was also looking forward to having my partner back, to be honest. Chapman and Hills were both decent guys, but there was nothing like having someone that you knew you could count on to have your back with you.
I finished the rest of my coffee and headed out the door. It was a little early, and traffic was lighter than usual, so the drive down to the office took a little less time than it normally would have. It therefore surprised me to see that Chapman and Hills were already there when I arrived, sitting at the desks that Diane had assigned to them.
“Good morning,” I greeted them as I set my things down at my own desk a few spaces away.
“Hey,” Agent Chapman called back. “Good timing, we were just about to call our data analyst. She has some new info about the case.”
“Data analyst?” I repeated as I glanced over at Hills. “The one who sources information via dubious means?”
“What?” Chapman practically squealed as he hit the call button on the tablet in front of him. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing,” Hills replied before I could.
Chapman glared at him in annoyance but dropped it and returned his attention to the call. A few seconds later, the call connected, and a thin, short-haired woman appeared on the screen.
“Hey!” she smiled brightly. “Okay, good, so now that we’re all—oh, hello.”
She flinched as she caught sight of me standing just behind the two Vegas agents.
“This is Agent Marston,” Chapman informed her. “He’s working the pirate case with us.”
“Oh, nice to meet you!” she exclaimed warmly.
“Likewise.” I smiled back. Her cheerful demeanor reminded me a little of Bonnie. It was rare to find federal agents with that kind of sunny disposition. The job had a habit of beating that out of new recruits pretty quickly.
“Anyway,” she continued, “as I was saying, I noticed something interesting among all the pirates’ targets. The ships they attacked before they attacked the Chinese cargo ship, I mean. A lot of them were carrying goods from China. Now, that in itself isn’t all that unusual since, well, everything comes from China. But initially, there was a pretty even mix of different boats targeted. Toward the end, though, when they started actually sinking the boats, they were all carrying goods from China into the United States.”
“That seems like a pretty big coincidence,” I noted.
“Right?!” the woman exclaimed. “Anyway, it got me thinking if maybe these latest victims weren’t just hapless sailors who happened to be in the wrong part of the ocean at the wrong time. What if these were all rival smuggling groups?”
“Li said that the Colombian group had been encroaching on their turf,” I muttered. “You think that these were all calculated strikes?”
“I do,” she replied. “Before, they’d take stuff, but they wouldn’t usually sink the ships after. They didn’t even hurt anyone half the time. Suddenly, though, their MO switched, and they’re taking down every boat they hit, all coming from China.”
“That sounds like a calculated decision to me,” Hills remarked.
“Thanks, Fi.” Chapman smiled at her. “That was helpful.”
“No problem,” she replied. “I’ll call you guys back as soon as I have those details on the captain that you wanted.”
“Thanks,” he replied before ending the video call and turning to look at us. “Okay. So, this means that the attack a few days ago wasn’t some random, sudden escalation. They’ve been building up to this, taking down smaller vessels before going after the big one with the big prize.”
“So, where does that put us…?” I muttered as I leaned against the desk in thought. The night before, I’d thought that this all seemed like a simple turf dispute, albeit on a much grander scale. With this new bit of information, though,
it was clear that this was no simple squabble. It was an outright purge. The Colombian group was working hard to take out their competition.
“So, now we have two major problems,” Hills grunted as he crossed his arms across his chest. “First is these pirates, who have apparently gone on a killing rampage against their biggest competitor, and then we have the competitor, who, according to Li, might be just as powerful as this damned group of pirates, if not more so.”
He had a good point. We couldn’t ignore what Li had told us about the Chinese group. The fact of the matter was that someone with a lot of money and a lot of power had to be involved for a cargo container of that size to have been snuck on board that cargo ship. Furthermore, the fact that the entire shipment had deviated off its normal route to California and headed all the way to Miami instead without anyone apparently batting an eyelid was a clear indication that some powerful players were pulling the strings.
Whatever the truth was, if someone was importing massive amounts of controlled substances into the United States illegally, overseas, then that fell squarely into MBLIS’s jurisdiction. However, that in itself was an entirely separate issue from the one we were currently working on. First and foremost, our job was to locate the pirates that had sunk the cargo ship.
“Let’s focus on one thing at a time,” I sighed. “For now, let’s—”
“Marston, Hills, Chapman,” Diane called from the doorway of her office. I could hear the sense of urgency in her voice, and the moment I turned to look at her and saw the expression on her face, I knew that something was wrong. “I need to speak with you immediately.”
The three of us got up at once and hurried into her office. We didn’t need to be told twice to understand that this wasn’t the time to dilly dally. As we were walking, Chapman’s phone rang.
“It’s… Director Wallace,” he muttered as he turned to look at Hills.
“No chance the timing of that is a coincidence,” Hills grumbled. “See what it’s about.”
Chapman nodded and answered the call before pressing the phone to his ear. He’d barely said “hello” before he stopped speaking, his eyes going wide as the three of us stepped into Diane’s office.
“Alright,” he replied quietly to whatever his director was saying. “Yes, I think the Miami branch director is about to give us the details. Alright. I will. Bye.”
“I’m assuming you know what I’m about to say?” she asked him as he slipped his phone back into his pocket and sat down.
He frowned and nodded, the crease between his brows an obvious indication that whatever he’d just heard wasn’t anything good.
“Right, I’ll cut to the chase then,” she stated flatly as she held her tablet out to me before taking a seat herself. It was open to a video clip. I could tell from the thumbnail that I was looking at a large boat, but the still image was too pixelated for me to make out much more than that. “The pirates just struck again. Against a large cargo ship off the coast of Italy.”
“Italy?” I balked as I pressed play on the video. From the angle, it looked like it had been taken from someone standing on the roof of a building. The ocean was visible in the distance, with two hazy blobs in the distance. As the person taking the video zoomed in, it became clear that the two blobs were both ships. I could hear pops and see sparks as explosions went off between the two boats. Then the wind changed direction and the flag being flown by one of the ships became visible.
“It’s the same,” I muttered as I looked at the familiar graffiti-stained Colombian flag. “But… how? They were just off the coast of Florida three days ago. It would take, what, a month or two to sail across the Atlantic?”
“We have footage from a few more angles,” Diane explained as she took the tablet back. “It’s not the same massive warship that attacked the Chinese cargo boat. It’s quite a bit smaller, actually, which was quite fortunate for the Italian vessel. Their crew was able to fight off the attack. In this instance, it was actually the pirates’ ship that went down.”
She scrolled to another video and held the tablet toward us again. This one showed the aftermath of the battle. In it, I could see that it sure wasn’t the same ship. This one was white and a bit more dingy and beat-up. Of course, half of it was underwater and rapidly sinking, so it was difficult to determine what it had looked like before.
“So, we’re dealing with a powerful group then,” Hills muttered as he leaned forward in his seat, his chin resting on his fist. “We must be if they have the resources to have groups stationed in different areas like this.”
“You’re right,” I muttered as I drummed my fingers along the armrest of the chair.
“Isn’t it kind of dumb, though?” Chapman scoffed. “I mean, flying that flag? They were caught on dozens of videos. It’s basically like admitting that it was them.”
“That’s exactly why,” I grumbled. “They’re saying that they aren’t afraid of getting caught. They’re spitting in the face of the authorities while simultaneously letting the whole world know that they should be afraid. They want to take credit for it.” I looked back down at the tablet in my hand. “Well, they’re probably regretting that now that they’ve made fools of themselves by getting caught. You said the boat sank. Did the police manage to catch any of the attackers?”
“Last I was informed, they’re working on that now,” Diane replied. “This just went down moments ago. Things are still chaotic up there.”
“What about the men on board the Italian ship?” Hills interjected. “Are the police detaining them? We’ve pretty much conclusively established that all the recent targets the Colombian pirates have gone after were smugglers. If that’s the case, there’s a good chance a person or persons on that cargo boat are involved in something.”
“That’s a good point,” Diane replied as she reached for her phone. “I’ll get in contact with the Italian authorities and let them know about our concerns. It’s better if they keep the crew there, anyway. That way, you’ll be able to question them right away.”
“You’re sending us to Italy?” I asked.
“I am,” she replied as she looked something up on her computer before typing on her phone. “Tomorrow morning, bright and early. Agent Holm’s going too. He should be getting out of the hospital in a few hours, but I’d rather he wait for another twelve, at least, before flying.”
“He’ll be glad to hear that,” I chuckled. “I think he might have had a fit if he’d been the only one to have to stay behind.”
“Well, you’ll all be going,” she replied as she held her phone up to her ear. “It’ll be safer and more efficient that way. With any luck, the authorities will be able to apprehend some of the men, and you can question them when you arrive.”
She suddenly turned her attention to her phone call as the person she’d called answered. I overheard her telling whoever it was about our concerns that the crew of the Italian boat might be smugglers or pirates themselves. If they were, and they had been heading to the United States, then they’d also fall under MBLIS jurisdiction.
I sighed internally. It was so early in the morning, and already we’d found yet another potential smuggling group connected to the case. The more we delved into this, the more tangled and interconnected all these criminal groups appeared to be.
14
Ethan
“I’m so glad to be out of that tube,” Holm groaned as he fell into the chair beside me. “Why do hospitals only have shows about home remodeling and corny police dramas?”
“I told Diane you’d pitch a fit if you didn’t get to come on the mission with us.” I smiled in response.
“She did sound pretty worried,” he muttered as he reclined the seat backward. I was surprised to see that it laid down almost flat. That was a pretty luxurious feature and something that we certainly didn’t get a lot of when we flew commercial like we usually did.
This time, though, we were inside the Vegas branch’s jet. I scoffed internally when I remembered my reac
tion when I’d found out their branch had its own airplane.
“How come we don’t have a plane?” Holm grumbled, echoing my own internal sentiments. “We used to have a plane… we had to get rid of it when the agency ran out of money. Didn’t our financial issues get fixed when we captured the Hollands?”
“They did,” I replied. “I don’t know if they got fixed enough to afford the upkeep for our plane, though…”
“We should talk to Diane about it,” he grumbled as he sat straight up. “This is better than having to fly economy everywhere.” He turned to look at Chapman. “You guys must be doing pretty good over there in Vegas to have the budget for your own plane.”
“Huh?” Chapman muttered as he looked up at Holm. “Uh, yeah, I guess. I mean, we travel internationally all the time. All our cases involve other countries, so we must be able to leave at a moment’s notice.”
“Our cases involve other countries too,” Holm retorted as he looked around at the interior of the plane. It was small but nice, with several large, comfortable seats, a table, and even a couch that Hills was currently passed out on. He’d fallen asleep the moment we’d boarded and hadn’t moved an inch since. “We really need our plane back.”
“I guess all the budget went into the plane,” Chapman mused aloud as he set his game down and leaned back in his seat. “Since we only have eight people working at our branch, including the director.”
“Eight?” I asked, surprised at the small number. It didn’t seem like enough to run an agency.
“Yeah,” Chapman replied. “It’s not too bad. Before Charlie and I joined, there were only six for the first few months of the branch’s existence. Cases have to meet super specific requirements to fall under our jurisdiction, so it’s not like we get too many in the first place. The few of us are enough to handle pretty much everything that comes our way.”