"I'll tell Davis there was a change of plan and that she'll be waiting for them at Star Island."
"You think he'll buy that?"
"He's got no choice."
"But what if he doesn't, José?"
"Then we'll just waste them. Shut up and get to work."
One of the big V-8 engines roared to life. In seconds, it had been throttled back to an idle, the water-cooled exhaust burbling. If Martínez and Maldonado were still talking, Dani couldn't hear them over the engine. The second engine started, and ten seconds later, she heard two clunks as Martínez engaged the transmissions. She could feel the throbbing of the propellers through the water under the canoe's bottom. The vibration died out as the boat moved away.
Dani estimated the boat's displacement speed and did a rough calculation, deciding Martínez would be gone for about 40 minutes. It would be about 11:10 when he got back. Another 40 minutes for the other three boats to pick up their passengers and return would give them a comfortable margin before midnight.
She heard Maldonado moving around on one of the remaining boats. Rolling over so that she faced away from the boats, she got up into a crouch and put on the military-surplus camouflage poncho that she'd found on the second boat she had searched.
She pulled the hood up to hide her blonde hair and reached over the side of the boat. Leaning over the gunwale until she felt the bottom, she scooped up a handful of greasy mud and smeared it over her face and hands. The mud smelled of decay, but it would hide her pale skin.
She was already starting to perspire under the poncho, but it couldn't be helped. She had to cover her white clothing. Unlike in the predawn hours, the full moon was directly overhead; the boats weren't in shadow now.
She sat down in the bottom of the canoe facing the boats and leaned back against the midships thwart, adjusting her position so that her eyes were even with the canoe's gunwale. She watched Maldonado assembling his video camera; it was a big, professional-looking one, like TV news teams used.
Finished, Maldonado stood up and hoisted the camera to his shoulder, facing out toward the center of Whitewater Bay and swinging the camera back and forth. Dani picked up the pair of binoculars she'd taken from another of the boats and raised them to her eyes. Maldonado flipped out the monitor screen on the side of the camera and adjusted some controls.
She could see that the screen changed from black to a silvery gray. She couldn't make out the image, but it was clear that he had set the camera to work in the bright moonlight. Maldonado put the camera on the side deck and climbed over the side of the boat, disappearing from Dani's field of vision. She thought he must have gotten in the kayak.
In a moment, she heard another bump from the big boat, and his head and shoulders appeared, just above the big boat's gunwale. He lifted the video camera and then disappeared again. In a few seconds, Dani heard the rhythmic splashes as he paddled out several yards into the Bay.
Peering through the tall grass with the binoculars, she saw that he was sitting in the kayak with the camera on his shoulder, testing it, getting comfortable shooting from the kayak. After several seconds, he put the camera in his lap and picked up the double-ended paddle, turning the kayak around and returning to the big boat. Dani slipped back down to a more comfortable position, listening as he secured the kayak to the big boat and climbed back aboard.
With nothing to do but wait, she closed her eyes, confident that if she slept, the sound of Martínez's boat returning would awaken her. She realized that she'd been napping again when she caught herself listening to the sound of the engines, waiting for them to stop. When they went silent, she heard several men speaking in soft tones.
After a brief period, Martínez raised his voice above the others. "Silence!"
The murmurs stopped, and Martínez spoke again. "Cruz, you and your two men take those three boats back and pick up the others. When you come back, you'll see this boat waiting out in open water. Come alongside and shut down your engines. We'll drift out there until they show up."
Dani heard the other three boats start their engines and leave. As the sound faded, she heard Maldonado and Martínez talking.
"Are you ready, Willy?"
"Yes. No problem. Buena suerte, José."
"You got the extra set of keys to Ortiz's car?" Martínez asked. "It's a long walk back to Miami."
"Yeah, José. I'm good. Don't worry about me."
Dani crossed her fingers, hoping Martínez's boat would start; she didn't want him stranded so close by with ten or twelve men, even if they were unarmed. She released the breath she was holding when the twin engines rumbled to life and the boat moved away. Now she began to worry that she'd miscalculated the fuel consumption. Maybe the engines were more efficient than she thought. It was too late to change anything now. She settled back into the canoe to wait for midnight.
****
"The Coast Guard's in position," Mary Weatherby said. "They've got us on their radar."
"Good," Phillip said. "Ask them if we've got any company out here."
Mary relayed his question. She wore a headset with a boom microphone. "Nobody within ten miles," she said. "They asked how long before we reach the entrance channel. Once we're in, they're going to come in closer."
Phillip touched a couple of buttons on the GPS display mounted above La Paloma's helm. "Five minutes to Flashing Green '1' at the Little Shark River channel entrance," Phillip said.
She spoke into the microphone again and then said. "Once we're inside the entrance, they'll close up."
"Warn them that Martínez has shallow-draft boats. He may have someone with local knowledge who can lead them out one of the other channels into Ponce de Leon Bay," Phillip said.
Mary spoke into the boom microphone and listened for a few seconds. "She says, 'Roger that, captain.' They'll spread out enough to cover all the entrances, but they don't want to give the go-fast boats room to use their superior speed."
"Good for them," Phillip said. "Sharktooth, did I hear you call J.-P. a minute or two ago?"
"Yes. I asked him if he's heard from Dani. Or anybody else. Everyt'ing quiet, he say."
"Okay. I figured by now she might have decided to call one of us even with the risk that the phone could be tapped. The other side doesn't have any reaction time, now, even if they're listening. Maybe she's not where she can speak openly. Is Ortiz still there with him?"
"Yes."
"No call from Cruz? Or Martínez?" Phillip asked.
"No. Nothing."
"Damn. It's too quiet," Phillip said. "I was hoping Dani would give us a heads-up on what they're doing in there.
"Are you worried that they may have some trick planned?" Paul asked.
"They could. We should be ready for anything," Phillip said. "Hey, Sharktooth?"
"Yeah, mon?"
"Time to bring up our weapons."
Sharktooth grinned and went down into the main cabin.
"I'm good. I've got my Glock," Mary Weatherby said.
"Me, too," Luke added.
"Good, but you'll be better off with M4s, at least until we see what's up. Who's checked out on the M249?"
Connie and Liz both spoke up.
"Good," Phillip said, "but we only brought two that work. Let Sharktooth have one; he's big enough to shoot a machine gun like a rifle. The two of you take the other one. Whichever one isn't shooting can feed ammunition. I want everybody armed with a long gun, with a round in the chamber and the safety on. No pistols in a fire fight between boats, please. Save 'em for close work."
"Are you expecting a firefight?" Mary Weatherby asked.
"Yes, always. But I'll probably be disappointed," Phillip looked at her and grinned. "I hope I am, anyway." He throttled back as the banks of the Little Shark River closed in on both sides.
"We'll be into Whitewater Bay in about ten minutes," Phillip said. "Get yourselves sorted out. We'll be working our way through a bunch of little islands in a couple of minutes. Once we're out of them, the Bay w
ill open up. It's around three miles across. I'll keep heading roughly east until we spot them. That should be easy, with all this moonlight."
"I'll advise the Coast Guard as soon as we spot them," Weatherby said.
"And is the ground team listening in?" Phillip asked.
"Yes. On the same frequency. They're acknowledging right along with the Coasties."
"Okay," Phillip said. "That's good. I wouldn't be surprised if Dani has something planned; she's had all day to get up to mischief. My bet is she did something to those boats. We're probably going to need boots on the ground before this is over."
"What could she have done?" Weatherby asked.
Phillip shrugged. "Hard to say. Sharktooth?"
"Yes?"
"Weapons check, please. We're almost there."
****
Dani heard the droning sound of twin diesels approaching at the same time Maldonado began to paddle out toward the four boats in the middle of the Bay. Once she thought he was far enough away not to hear her, she got to her knees and picked up a paddle, using it to push against the muddy bottom a few inches under the canoe. She eased the canoe forward until she had a line of sight out into the Bay.
Maldonado sat in the kayak, drifting, about 100 meters out from the bank. He had the video camera on his shoulder, apparently recording. The four boats were clearly visible out in the middle of the open area. They were side-by-side; Dani surmised that the occupants were holding them together. They all drifted as a unit.
The droning grew louder, coming from the west. Dani looked in the direction of the sound and spotted what had to be La Paloma's running lights. Someone on one of the four go-fast boats flashed a spotlight briefly in the direction of the approaching craft. The running lights blinked twice in response.
As Dani watched, one of Martínez's boats separated itself from the pack. When it was a few meters from the others, it started its engines. The rumble of the exhausts drowned out the sound of the newcomer's diesels. The pitch of the engines dropped as the driver shifted into forward. The boat began moving to intercept the approaching vessel, which was now easily distinguished as a sport fisherman.
Dani wasn't surprised when the engines on the go-fast boat sputtered and died. She was now sure that it was the one carrying Martínez. It had the most time on the engines since her tampering, so it would be the first to shut down. She picked up the binoculars, curious to see what would happen next.
The man at the controls tried in vain to restart the engines. After a couple of failed attempts, he stood up and moved aft to the lift-up deck over the engine compartment. When he raised it on its hinges, there was a loud popping sound, followed by a brief hiss, and then a fireball bloomed from the engine compartment, engulfing the whole boat as the explosion reverberated across the water.
Grinning, Dani watched as the men on the other boats scrambled into action. With no idea what had happened, they cursed and shouted for several seconds as debris from the burning wreck dropped all around them. As the men who had survived the explosion discovered that they could stand up in the shallow water, they began to converge on the three remaining boats.
She lowered the binoculars a bit to check on Maldonado, who was still recording. The dull crack of a medium caliber handgun being discharged drew her attention back to the three boats. They had separated from one another, and as the last of the survivors from the wreck clambered aboard, they started their engines.
La Paloma was by now coasting to a stop within two hundred meters of the remaining boats. Dani saw Sharktooth standing on the flying bridge, holding a machine gun like it was a toy rifle. She grinned and swept the glasses over the rest of the boat, seeing Liz sitting on the foredeck with another machine gun on a tripod, Connie next to her, ready to feed the ammunition.
The three go-fast boats began to move, their engines roaring as the throttles were opened. Dani imagined the rate of fuel consumption surging, and as if in response to her thoughts, the engines began to cough and sputter. One by one, the engines died. As the boats settled back into the water, Sharktooth and Liz opened fire, churning the water around each boat into foam.
The shooting stopped, and she heard Phillip's voice booming out from a loudhailer. "Stay in your boats. Remain seated and do not move. If you stand up, you die." He repeated his order in Spanish. After a brief pause, Liz and Sharktooth fired several short bursts each, sending tracers a few feet over the drifting boats, reinforcing Phillip's threat. Silence settled over the Bay. As the seconds dragged by, Dani heard helicopters in the distance, the chopping sound punctuating the roar of big outboards closer in.
She caught a glimpse of the first Coast Guard launch coming in from the west just as she remembered Maldonado. At first, she couldn't find him, and then she saw that he was paddling along the shoreline, staying in the shadows and making for the entrance to Coot Bay. She thought briefly of alerting Phillip via the satellite phone, but then she worried that Maldonado might ditch the camera. She wanted that video.
She picked up her paddle and went after him, the longer waterline of the canoe giving her a significant advantage in speed. When she had closed to within several boat-lengths, he sensed her behind him. She saw him glance over his shoulder, and then he put the paddle down and twisted around, a pistol in his hand.
His first shot went wide, and the momentum of the canoe carried it ever closer to the lighter kayak, which was dead in the water. The slender craft rocked as Maldonado tried to bring his pistol to bear. Dani raised her pistol in a two-handed grip and took careful aim, putting a round through his right shoulder. He screamed and his pistol flew from his hand, splashing into the water a few feet from him.
"The next one's going through your other shoulder," she said.
"No, please," he said. "I surrender."
She saw him lifting the video camera with his left hand. "Put the camera down, Maldonado, or I'll feed you to the alligators like I did Santos."
"Okay, okay," he said.
"You sit very still," she ordered. "I'm going to put the bow of the canoe where you can drop the camera into it. If you do that, maybe I'll let you live. You want to take a chance on life?"
"Yes, please."
"Good boy," she said. She took the paddle in her left hand, gripping it near the throat of the blade. Her fingers extended along the paddle's surface, she used it like an extension of her hand and maneuvered the canoe into place.
"Pick up the camera and lay it gently into the canoe," she said, as the bow of the canoe touched the left side of the kayak. She kept the pistol trained on him. When the camera was safe, she backed water with her paddle, opening up a distance of a few feet.
"I need medical attention, please," he said.
"Maybe, but that's not your biggest problem right now."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you've pissed me off. I'm your biggest problem."
"How?" he whined. "I don't even know who you are."
"No?" she asked. "And here you told Martínez I was a fine, hot piece of ass."
"That was just locker-room talk. I didn't mean anything by it."
"Uh-huh. You need to learn to respect women."
"What? I -- "
She fired a round into his kayak, near where she thought his feet were. "You still want to live?"
"Yes."
"Good. Here's the deal. You pull your right foot back so your knee is sticking up in the air in front of your face."
"What?"
She pumped another round into the kayak near his feet. "Do it!"
When he had positioned himself as she ordered, she said, "The next time you feel the urge to disparage a woman, remember that she might not like it."
"Okay. But -- "
Her pistol barked and his knee exploded. She watched him, a cold look on her face, until his screams became whimpers. "Wait here," she said. "Someone will pick you up soon."
She paddled back into the tall grass and took out the satellite phone, entering Phillip's number.
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"Phillip?" she said, when he answered,
"Dani? Where are you?"
"I'm all right. Maldonado's drifting in a kayak near the entrance to Coot Bay. He needs help. He caught a couple of stray rounds. I'm going to paddle back into Coot Bay Pond and pick up Ortiz's car."
"Okay. I'll get word to the people there to let you pass. What are you paddling?"
"A dark green canoe."
"Did you do something to the boats?"
"There's water in the fuel tanks."
"One of them blew up."
"I saw that. Tell everybody not to open the engine compartments. I tried to tell you earlier, the bilges reeked of fuel."
"How did -- "
"I'm really tired, Phillip, and I feel cranky. I need a hot shower and some food. I'll tell you all about it back at Star Island, okay? Besides, I just got a low battery alarm on this phone. 'Bye."
"Goodbye."
****
Epilogue
Two days later at the villa on Star Island ...
"What time did you get in last night, Phillip?" J.-P. asked. Everyone had gathered for an early breakfast before Phillip and Sharktooth went to the airport to meet their wives. This was the first opportunity for them to talk as a group since the engagement the night before last in Whitewater Bay, and since Mario Espinosa's surprise party would be tonight, it was also their only chance to work through the remaining puzzles.
"I didn't look at a clock; I didn't want to know," Phillip said, looking around the table, his eyes bleary. "Late, I'm sure. I must have been deposed by half of the lawyers in Miami yesterday. Did they ever get in touch with you, Dani?"
"A couple of FBI agents came by late yesterday morning and questioned me, but there really wasn't much I could tell them that was new."
"What about the explosion that killed Martínez? Did they ask you about that?"
She shook her head. "No. I was surprised they didn't. I even brought it up, and they said it wasn't their job. The woman in charge said somebody might be in touch later, after the forensic technicians were finished with the boats and the wreckage. All they wanted to know was what happened to Santos. Nobody can account for him."
Bluewater Revolution: The Twelfth Novel in the Bluewater Thriller Series - Mystery and Adventure in Florida, Cuba, and the Caribbean (Bluewater Thrillers Book 12) Page 25