“It means you’re my mother and father?” he asked.
“Nobody can take the place of a mother and father,” I said. “That’s a biological connection. But we can be a stand-in mom and dad for you. If that’s what you want.”
Finn and Woden joined our little circle, both nuzzling Alberto, as if they understood what was going on.
“Really?” Alberto asked, as a single tear dripped down his left cheek.
“It’ll probably take a while for all the paperwork,” I said. “But this letter approves us, and we can start the process right away.”
He put his little arms around my neck and held on as if his life depended on it as he sobbed against my shoulder. Savannah leaned in and made it a group hug.
Finally, we stood and Alberto wiped the tears from his eyes, then looked up at Jack. “When do we leave, sir?”
“It’s a rising tide,” Jack replied. “And high tide’s in an hour. The ship will be ready then.”
“Well, we’d best not keep Nils waiting,” I said.
We’d already shipped several things over and had only a couple of suitcases on the plane. We retrieved them, and a ground crewman wearing coveralls with the word ARMORED across the back and Armstrong’s logo below it helped us load everything into the truck.
“ARMORED?” I asked Jack.
“Reorganization,” he said. “You and Ambrosia have been assigned to Armstrong Research’s Mobile Operational Readiness and Expeditionary Division.”
“Still a mouthful,” I said.
“Michael will put your bird in the hangar,” Jack said. “She’ll be secure there. Will the dogs be okay riding in the back of the truck?”
I lowered the tailgate and pushed our suitcases to one side. “Oben,” I commanded Woden.
He instantly leapt into the bed of the truck, and Finn jumped in next to him.
“German commands?” Jack asked. “Very impressive.”
Jack rode in front with the driver, and the three of us got into the spacious backseat. The ride to the shipyard took only a few minutes. When we arrived, the truck drove out onto the concrete dock to a large helipad and stopped.
Ambrosia’s gangplank was flanked by several crewmen, with Nils standing at the gate. He came toward us as we got out of the truck, and two crewmen rounded the back to retrieve our luggage.
“You don’t know how happy I am to see you, Captain,” Nils said, extending his hand for a hearty handshake. “And you too, Mrs. McDermitt.”
“Nils, meet Alberto,” I said. “Our soon-to-be adopted son.” Then I looked down at the boy. “Alberto, this is Nils Hansen, Captain of Ambrosia.”
Nils bent and shook hands with Alberto, who was obviously impressed by his uniform.
“I have some work to attend to in the yard,” Jack said. “Nils will get you settled in and we’ll be underway shortly.”
“Please follow me,” Nils said, as he walked up the plank.
We followed and I heard the click of a PA speaker onboard. The ship’s bosun stood at the top of the plank along with four side boys. A fifth crewman held a microphone extended toward the bosun, who put his whistle to his mouth and piped the attention call.
The four crewmen at the top of the plank snapped to and the bosun piped the side, a series of low, high, then low whistles, and announced into the mic, “Captain McDermitt, arriving.”
But really just a pause.
Jesse has a whole new adventure ahead of him in the next book in the series, Steady As She Goes.
I’m writing this on February 11, 2021, more than two months before this book will be released. My family and I were hit by the ChiCom Crud right at the end of 2020, all of us showing symptoms by New Year’s Eve. It’s always a struggle to work through an illness, but it’s the only way I know. However, I wasn’t equipped or ready when my wife had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. She developed Covid pneumonia and was hospitalized for four days.
I think those were the hardest four days of my life. She wasn’t allowed visitors, and even the nurses and doctors only checked on her periodically, as they had to don hazmat suits to enter her room. Thankfully, her stay was short, and she received excellent care. We’re all fully recovered now, and things are pretty much back to normal for us. But I don’t mind telling you, on the day we brought her home, I sobbed with relief as I was able to hold her once more.
I fell behind in my writing in January but got a surge of renewed motivation when she came home. I worked in our new upstairs studio throughout January, to stay close. That’s where our daughter, Jordan, and I livestream a monthly video podcast on YouTube, called Talk Write. If you’d like to subscribe, go to www.youtube.com/waynestinnett.
So many of you wrote to me about Owen “Tank” Tankersley, who appeared in the first book in the series, Fallen Out, and later in Fallen Pride, as well as in the book just before this one, Rising Moon. Very few know this, but Tank is based on a real-life hero, right down to his comment, “They thought I knew where the mines were.” The real “Tank” passed away seventeen years ago. His friends called him Mike.
As always, I give thanks to my family for their support and especially to Lowcountry Jack, who was the template for Alberto Marco in this book. They say that being around young people will keep you young, so I felt Jesse needed Alberto in his life. I know I have a lot of fun sitting in the sand pushing trucks around with Jack.
Tomorrow, which will be February 12th, my beta team will receive this manuscript. This motley crew is made up of a bunch of individuals, some of whom would likely never have known one another, had I not asked them for advice and brought them together via Facebook. Many thanks to Dana Vihlen, Rick Iossi, Alan Fader, Katy McKnight, Debbie Kocol, Drew Mutch, Glenn Hibbert, Rafael Olivieri-Geigel, Jason Hebert, Kim DeWitt, Chuck Höfbauer, Mike Ramsey, Tom Crisp, and Dave Parsons, the folks who ensure that all the details I know y’all enjoy are correct.
We’re trying an experiment with this new book, turning more of the sometimes-tedious work of converting a manuscript into a novel over to Aurora Publicity. This simplifies things for me, as I only have to schedule a single entity to do what was done by three. Their team has done such a great job with many other tasks I’ve had them do on my behalf that I felt comfortable taking this next step. The only thing I don’t have them doing for this book is the editing, final proofreading, and narration of the audiobook. These tasks will stay in the capable hands of Marsha Zinberg, Donna Rich, and Nick Sullivan.
This novel is the twentieth in the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series. The first ten were quickly dubbed the Fallen Series by my readers and the next ten the Rising Series. But all twenty are part of the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series.
John D. MacDonald wrote twenty-one Travis McGee novels and for the last couple of years, I’ve struggled with whether or not I would match that number, out of respect for the man I consider the world’s best storyteller.
I have decided that there will be a twenty-first novel in the Jesse series, and God willing, quite a few more. Randy Wayne White has already shattered the Travis McGee ceiling and I make no effort to hide the fact that I try to follow Randy’s path in making decisions.
So, the title of the next Jesse book will be Steady as She Goes. But I’m not married to the idea of ten more with Steady in the title. We’ll see how that goes.
Finally, I owe a great deal of thanks to you, my loyal readers. You’ve been with Jesse for—believe it or not—twenty-two years of his life, though it’s only been a little over seven years in the writing of the stories. Fallen Out started in the spring of 1999, when Jesse retired from the Marine Corps. During the ensuing time, you’ve seen his daughters grow up, sometimes rather quickly, as I adjusted the time setting to catch up to current time. You’ve seen Jesse move from one relationship to another, sometimes with tragic consequences. For those of you who have stayed with us through it all, you have our undying gratitude.
ayne Stinnett, Rising Tide
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