by Stuart Woods
“Follow me,” he said, as he reached Holly, “and don’t ask questions.” He escorted her to the ladder, and they climbed aboard.
“What was that about?” Holly asked.
“Very large shark on the bottom,” he replied.
“Oops.” A crewman bearing their Bloody Marys approached. “Not to worry,” he said, “that’s a nurse shark. They spend most of their time on the bottom, and the only danger is stepping on one.”
“Hold those drinks,” Stone said, grabbing Holly’s hand and jumping back into the water.
“Where is it?” she asked.
“That way,” he said, pointing.
She ducked under the water for half a minute, then emerged. “It’s not moving,” she said.
“Nurse shark,” he replied. “The only danger is stepping on it.”
“Gosh, you know everything, don’t you?”
“Nearly everything.”
They frolicked in the water for another twenty minutes, then climbed back aboard and found their robes. Bloody Marys in hand, they greeted their fellow cruisers. Peter and Celeste dropped their robes.
“Large nurse shark over there,” Stone said, pointing. “It won’t be interested in you, unless you step on it.”
“Stone knows everything,” Holly said.
“Nearly everything,” Stone added.
They dove into the water. By the time they returned, Will and Kate had joined them for breakfast.
“Haven’t I been here before?” Kate asked, “and with the same people?”
“Nurse shark over there on the bottom,” Stone said. “It won’t bother you unless you step on it.”
“It seems to me I’ve heard this song before,” Holly said.
“Stone knows everything, doesn’t he?” Kate asked.
“Nearly,” she replied.
—
After breakfast Stone and Holly went back to their cabin and showered together, then got interested in each other. When they had made love for a while, they both fell asleep and didn’t wake until nearly lunchtime.
“So, is this our routine?” Holly asked. “Swim, eat, fuck, sleep?”
“Then start over,” Stone said. “It’s all there is to do.”
“I brought a book.”
“Good luck with getting it read.”
—
After lunch and a nap, Kate said, “Will and I are taking the tender over to Loggerhead Key.” She pointed. “I hear it has the best beach in the world, and there’s nobody there.”
“Want some company?” Stone asked.
“Nope,” she replied. “And we’re taking only one agent.” She pointed at a young woman standing by. “You. Can you drive a boat?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied.
“Then get one in the water, please, and we’ll leave.”
—
The only thing on the island was a lighthouse, way down the beach. “You remain here,” Kate said to the agent, “and turn your back. We’re going to take a walk, and we’ll whistle if we need you.”
“Ah, ma’am . . .”
“Stay here with your back turned, or I’ll have you shot,” Kate said firmly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kate and Will tossed their robes and swimsuits into the boat and, hand in hand and quite naked, they began their stroll up the beach.
The agent stood, uncomfortably, looking away from them.
—
Aboard Ciao, Bobby Marks was watching through his longest lens. “Two people have left the big yacht,” he said, “and they’re naked. They’ve gone to Loggerhead Key, over there.” He handed Gloria the camera, and she looked.
“I think it’s Stone and Holly again,” she said, handing him back the camera.
“No, this guy’s not as tall as Stone.”
“Okay, take some pictures.”
Bobby snapped away.
—
They passed a clump of bushes with a palm in the middle, and Kate dropped to her knees in the sand and held out her arms. “Come to me, Mr. President,” she said.
He came to her. “Gee, that’s what you used to call me.”
“It always turned you on,” she said, and they fell into each other’s arms.
—
The couple went behind some bushes and didn’t come out,” Bobby said.
“You think they’re fucking?”
“There’s nothing else to do on that island,” he replied.
“Well, the magazine’s not going to run pictures of people fucking, no matter who they are.”
“So I can have a drink and take a nap, then?”
“Why not, it’ll be my watch for a while.”
Bobby snagged a rum and tonic and stretched out on a sofa in the saloon. Soon, he was snoring gently.
Gloria picked up his camera, sighted in the clump of bushes, and focused. The couple must still be at it, she thought. She sat down on a chaise and put the back down. Soon she was sleeping, too.
—
Kate and Will emerged from behind the bushes and strolled back toward the yacht’s tender, dusting off the sand on their bodies. The agent was sitting on the sand, wearing a straw hat, but her back was still to them.
“Don’t move,” Kate called out. She retrieved their suits and robes, and they dressed.
“Okay,” Kate said, “back to the yacht.”
The agent waited for them to get in, then shoved the boat free of the sand, got in, and started the engine.
Kate put on a straw hat and her sunglasses, and Will put on a baseball cap.
—
Gloria was awake again, and she saw the people returning in the boat. She looked through the camera.
Bobby approached her from the saloon. “Who are they?”
“Beats me,” she said. “Just some other couple from their party, I guess. Of no interest.”
48
At lunch, Kate suddenly said, “I like it here. I don’t want to go anywhere else until nearly the end of our cruise.”
“I think this is the most interesting place we could go,” Stone said. “We should probably visit the fort and take the tour.”
“This is where Dr. Samuel Mudd was imprisoned, isn’t it? After setting John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg after the assassination?”
“It is,” Stone replied, “and he became a hero after putting down an epidemic of yellow fever on the island.”
“I’ll have the Secret Service arrange a tour, at a time when there aren’t many people there.”
“I should think we could go whenever you like—everybody is pretty much home for the holidays.”
“Oh, Stone,” Kate said, “I forgot to mention that on our next-to-last night, I’ve arranged something special for us. It’s a secret.”
“I’ll look forward to it, whatever it is.”
“I promise you, it will be a memorable occasion.”
They spent a lazy week, doing all the things Holly had enumerated. They also watched a couple of movies on DVDs, played charades, and indulged in some card games and chess.
On their fifth night aboard, they went to bed late, and everyone slept soundly. In the middle of the night Stone woke to hear the engines starting. Probably charging batteries, he thought, then he fell soundly asleep again.
—
He woke to a slight motion of the boat, got up and looked out a porthole. All he saw was sunlight on a calm sea. They appeared to be moving faster than on the trip out.
“What are you doing?” Holly asked.
“We’re moving,” he said. “This must be Kate’s surprise.”
“Come back to bed,” she said huskily, and he did.
—
Gloria woke shortly after dawn, got into her swimsuit, and went on deck. It took her a momen
t to realize that Trafalgar III was gone. She ran to the pilothouse and found the captain drinking a cup of coffee. “Where’s Trafalgar III?” she demanded.
“Over there in the lagoon,” he said.
“She’s not, she’s gone.”
The captain had a look. “You’re right.”
“Where?”
He switched on the radar. “There,” he said, pointing at a blip. “She’s about twenty miles out, and she’ll be off our radar in a moment.” With that, the blip disappeared.
“Which direction?”
“South, more or less.”
“Get this thing started and follow her,” Gloria said.
Judy entered the wheelhouse with the captain’s breakfast. “What’s going on?”
“We’re weighing anchor,” the captain said. “Trafalgar III is headed south, and we’re going to catch her.”
“South? There’s nothing out there.”
“Get on deck and stow the anchor,” the captain said, starting the engines and pressing the switch for the windlass that raised the anchor.
Fifteen minutes later they were headed south at twenty-five knots. “We can’t keep this speed for more than an hour or two,” the captain said to Gloria.
“Why not?”
“Because she uses more than twice the fuel at this speed than at our normal cruise. We want to be able to get home.”
—
An hour and a half later the captain pointed at the radar. “There she is,” he said, slowing down. “We can keep her in sight on the scope, but we can’t follow her all the way.”
“Why not?” Gloria asked.
“Because we don’t have the paperwork to arrive legally in Cuba.”
“Cuba?”
“They’re headed directly for Havana.”
“Why the hell would they go to Havana?”
“Beats me. Look, we’ve got a second blip. The nearest one must be Scout, and the bigger blip is Trafalgar III. Ah, I get it now—the British don’t have the same restrictions as we do, with regard to Cuba.” He pointed at the radar. “Ship to our east,” he said, picking up the binoculars. “Coast Guard cutter,” he said, “on the same course as the yachts. Beyond that, visible on radar, is something bigger, maybe a Navy destroyer.”
“Are they being chased? Drugs, or something?”
“They appear to be keeping pace, but on the yachts’ course, at a distance of about ten miles.”
“This gets weirder and weirder,” Gloria said.
“Maybe not,” Bobby chimed in; he had just entered the wheelhouse.
“Why not?”
“If we’re right, and there’s some British dignitary on board Trafalgar III, maybe the Coast Guard and the Navy are playing the mother hen.”
“How far can we follow them?” Gloria asked.
“I don’t want to get any closer than thirty miles from Havana. The legal border is the twelve-mile line, but the Cubans have been known to treat that loosely. I don’t want a shot across our bows from some patrol boat.”
“Well, shit!” Gloria said.
—
Stone and Holly surfaced for breakfast and were joined by the others.
“Don’t ask questions,” Holly whispered to him.
“Why not?”
“Kate told you—it’s a secret.”
“We appear to be headed for South America,” Stone said.
“Relax, and enjoy the ride.”
Kate and Will joined them. “We’ll be having guests for lunch,” she said. “I’ve spoken to the captain about that. We may need to lunch from a buffet.”
Stone didn’t ask questions, but he knew their table would seat twelve. Who was coming aboard?
“I’d like you to dress nicely for lunch,” Kate said. “Suits and ties for the gentlemen.”
—
At around eleven o’clock Ciao began to turn, and Gloria went forward to find out why.
“This is as close as I want to get to Havana,” the captain said, pulling the power back. “Trafalgar III is only about half an hour out of Havana now.”
“Where are we going?”
“To Key West—that’s all there is. We have enough fuel at our normal cruising speed of ten knots.”
“When will we get in?”
“After dark.”
—
Everybody went below to change clothes, and when they came up, Stone pointed. “Morro Castle,” he said. “I’ve seen pictures. We’re about to be in Havana Harbor.”
“I know,” Holly said.
“You’re in on this?”
“I follow my leader.”
“Why are we here?”
“Official business,” Holly replied.
They slowed as they approached the harbor limits, and Kate addressed them.
“Thank you for being such good sports and not asking questions,” she said. “We will shortly be taking aboard the president of Cuba and his party.”
49
The Cuban party were traveling aboard a naval patrol boat, dressed with all her signal flags for the occasion. Stone looked up and saw that Trafalgar III had dressed ship, as well.
The launch drew alongside in the approaches to Havana Harbor, and the two crews made her fast, and Trafalgar III lowered her boarding ladder. Two Cuban naval officers were first aboard, then two policeman-looking types, then a pair of gentlemen in suits and ties, followed by the Cuban president.
The two presidents shook hands and exchanged warm greetings, then Kate introduced her party, and the presidente his. She escorted him to the dining table, where two stacks of documents and pens were laid out. The two presidents sat down and, at Holly’s instructions, each began signing a stack, then they exchanged stacks and started again, while Secret Service agents photographed and videotaped their progress. When they were done, the two of them met on one side of the table, and Kate escorted everyone into the saloon, where champagne was being poured.
“What just happened?” Stone whispered to Holly.
“The United States’ embargo on Cuba has been lifted, and the two countries now have full and normal diplomatic relations. One of the Cuban suits is the new ambassador to the United States. Kate is still in the process of appointing ours to them.”
They returned to the dining room, where the table had been set for lunch, and for the next hour there was cheerful conversation among the lunchers, while the photographers covered everyone.
At the appointed hour, the presidente and his party rose, said their farewells, and carrying a briefcase full of signed documents, returned to their naval vessel and were cast off.
Trafalgar III’s engines were started, her anchor weighed, and the yacht left Havana Harbor and turned to the north.
Half an hour later her passengers were scattered around the yacht in their usual cruise wear—swimsuits or shorts.
An hour after that a United States Navy destroyer hove into view, and the two ships lay, dead in the water, thirty yards apart, while a Secret Service launch delivered a package to the destroyer, then the two vessels got under way again, and the destroyer resumed its station just over the horizon.
“What was that all about?” Stone asked Holly.
“They were delivering the photographs and videos to the Navy, who will upload them to a satellite, which will beam them down to the Pentagon and the White House, which will release the story to the media and the press.”
“It’s all terribly efficient, isn’t it?”
—
Ciao reached Key West just after dark and put into the Galleon Marina, on the outside line of berths, near the main channel into the harbor. On the passage back, Gloria had written a piece called “Mystery Yacht,” which she e-mailed back to Hazel at Just Folks.
She and Bobby Marks were having a before-dinner cocktail wh
en their captain came into the saloon. “Trafalgar III is passing in the channel just now,” he said.
They went into the aft cockpit to watch her pass and turn into the Coast Guard docks, followed closely by Scout.
Judy, the cook, came up from below. “Turn on the television,” she said.
They went back into the saloon, and the captain switched on the satellite TV. A banner, “BREAKING NEWS,” filled the screen, and an anchorwoman was reading from a sheet of paper in her hand. “This afternoon, aboard a British vessel in Havana Harbor, the American and Cuban presidents signed an agreement establishing full diplomatic relations between the two countries, and, more importantly, ending the United States’ embargo on trade with Cuba. From noon on January first, there will be free and open trade between the two countries, and American citizens will be able to travel to Cuba without a visa, requiring only an American passport for entry into Cuba and for returning to the USA. Today’s act ends more than seventy years of official enmity between the two countries.”
“Jesus Christ!” Gloria said. “We’ve been had! At least we have those photographs.” Her telephone rang.
“Hello?”
“Gloria? It’s Hazel. I got your stuff, and it’s a sweet story, but we can’t publish nude photographs of the President of the United States and the secretary of state.”
“What?”
“Why are you shocked? That doesn’t fit with our new, more sophisticated format, and anyway, the secretary is in the company of one of our owners, Stone Barrington. Remember him?”
“Are you telling me those naked people on Loggerhead Key were the Presidents Lee?”
“I am. Surely you knew that.”
“I didn’t know it until this minute. Have you been watching TV for the past few minutes?”
“No.”
“Well, in the middle of last night, Trafalgar III weighed anchor and headed south. We followed as soon as we could, but we didn’t have the paperwork for Cuba, nor the fuel to go all the way.”
“She went to Havana?”
“Yes, and President Lee and the Cuban president signed a document ending the Cuban embargo and establishing full diplomatic relations.”