Liberation Day

by Dustin Stevens

  “Unless somebody was in a boat looking for them, nobody would ever even notice,” Nio replied.

  Halfway up the wall were two large clusters of tree branches jutting out from the rock wall. To a commercial trawler inching its way past, the items would look completely natural.

  For a pair of people in a fishing boat they couldn’t have been more obvious.

  The branches looked to be made from aluminum, the stock of them painted light brown. A smattering of green plastic leaves was attached at odd angles, fluttering in the breeze, doing a poor job of concealing cameras pointing in either direction.

  “Any idea what they’re watching?” Iggy asked, finishing her stretch and dropping back into her seat.

  “Not yet,” Nio replied, sending his lure hurtling towards the base of the wall. “I’m going to keep pushing north and see what we find.”

  Iggy grunted in the affirmative and dropped her line out behind the boat, watching as the purple and green jig descended into the water. The silver spoon attached to it glittered in the sun for several seconds before disappearing from sight, the dark water swallowing it up.

  “Hey, Nio.”

  “Yeah?” Nio responded without turning back, moving the reel extra slow as he scanned the wall.

  “The ocean floor just dropped away beneath us.”

  “Could be a hidden port,” Nio guessed, spinning around in the chair. He slid his sandal from his foot and pressed on the depth finder with his toe, a topographical readout of the land beneath them appearing on screen.

  “Looks like we went from eight feet to twenty feet deep pretty quick,” Nio said, turning back to the outboard motor. In the deeper water the current was much stronger, Nio angling the nose of the boat away from the wall at a forty-five degree angle to keep them moving in a straight line.

  Alternating his gaze between the wall and the current, he abandoned casting as he fought to keep the boat in line, watching for any sign of what they were looking for.

  On his third glance over he spotted it, a thin line running perfectly vertical down the sheer cliff and dropping into the depths of the water below.

  “Got it,” Nio whispered. He waited in silence a long moment, pushing the nose of the boat out to sea and taking up his rod, pretending to check the lure. “See it?

  “Looks like a damn granite garage door,” Iggy muttered behind him.

  Nio grunted in agreement, pushing them a bit further away from the wall and resuming his casting. “Keep fishing. If we stop now it’ll be too obvious.”

  “And then what?” Iggy asked, dropping her lure back into the water and letting it spool out behind them.

  “We got what we came for,” Nio said. “Once we’re out of sight we’ll loop around and head home.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  The single flight of stairs from Gold’s office had never felt so long. With each passing step Ling felt his knee tighten a little more, the acrimony within him burning hot. Forcing into place a façade of mirrored calm, he pushed his pace as fast as his leg would allow as he passed through the middle foyer of the mansion. As he made a turn down the main corridor towards the exit he could hear shouting originating from the guard’s room, the outburst doing nothing to quell his dark mood.

  “Whoo! You see the body on that thing?” one voice exclaimed.

  “Damn shame she’s with that little pencil dick,” another added. “I could show her a thing or two!”

  “Ha!” a third chimed in. “Why the hell would she want you two when she could go for a ride on a stallion?”

  With each uneven step Ling felt his insides simmer hotteer, his face twisting itself into a mask of rage. He could hear the voices grow louder as he approached, swinging out from the hallway and into the room. His sudden appearance stopped all three guards where they stood, each of them staring in abject fear at him, their mouths hanging open.

  “Are you assholes about done in here?” he seethed. “A damn army could storm the halls and you wouldn’t know it right now.”

  Mouths still agape, all three diverted their eyes like scolded children.

  Ling surveyed the room, letting them feel his glare on their skin. “Anybody want to tell me what the hell has you in here yelling like idiots?”

  The three remained silent, each of them fidgeting and avoiding eye contact. With measured hatred, Ling looked at them in turn and walked forward into the room. As he moved the three men pushed to the side, making a path to the video bank behind them.

  Gone were the images of the various cameras around the perimeter, in their place a single image of a girl in a white bikini holding a fishing pole.

  In one quick and fluid movement Ling snapped his hand out for the guard closest to him, closing his fingers around a fistful of flesh and shirt. He used the grip to draw the man close, ignoring the tiny whimper that escaped him.

  “You took down every security camera we have for this?”

  “Uh, well,” the man stammered as Ling tightened his grip and began to twist. A low moan rolled up from deep in the man’s throat as Ling turned his head and again stared at the image on the screen. He remained in the same position as recognition began to settle in. “Where did you get this?”

  The man opened his mouth to speak, but no sounds came out.

  Using his free hand, Ling smacked the man across the face, the sound of skin-on-skin contact loud in the room. Maintaining his grip he shifted his attention to the other two, both having retreated back against the wall.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “The docks,” the man on the right finally managed. “They said she went by a little bit ago and sent it up here for us to look at.”

  Shoving the man away, Ling whirled on the ball of his foot and limped away, leaving all three men terrified behind him. Raising his gait to an uneven jog he passed back into the main foyer and shot down a diagonal hallway, the corridor just one more of many extended out like spokes on a wheel.

  At the end of it he passed through a black metal door, the release latch sounding out as he pushed it open, and descended two long flights of stairs.

  The elevator would have been easier on his knee, but anger and opportunity fueled him as he took the steps two at time. At the bottom, he pushed open a matching door, emerging along the indoor dock.

  In a few quick steps he made it to the guardhouse door and burst inside, the startled guard staring at him with the same shocked expression as the men upstairs.

  “How long ago did that fishing boat go through?” Ling snapped, standing in the doorway with a hand on either side of the frame. “The fishing boat! The girl in the bikini! How long ago you idiot?!”

  The man blinked twice, his entire body rigid. “Um, not long. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  “And you didn’t stop them?”

  “We watched them the whole way,” the guard managed. “They didn’t stop or slow down at all. Didn’t even quit fishing as they went.”

  “Fools,” Ling hissed, spitting the word out at the man. “Which way did they go?”

  “Uh, north,” the guard managed, nothing more than his mouth and eyes having moved in the entire interaction.

  “What’s the fastest boat you have here?”

  The man reached up behind him, grabbing a set of keys from a hook on the wall and tossing them to Ling. “The Apache. Black one on the end.”

  “Open the gate,” Ling said, pushing himself away from the frame and heading in the opposite direction. Gone was any consideration for his knee as he strode forward, sighting in on the Apache.

  As we walked he pointed at a man scrubbing down the neighboring boat, snapping his finger over to the black speedboat on the end. “Put that shit down and get over here.”

  The man did as commanded, scrambling up onto the walkway and hopping into the boat. Ling tossed him the keys and untied the mooring line, watching as the overhead door opened before them.

  “Where to?” the driver asked, starting the engine, the entire body
of the craft vibrating with coiled power. Easing the throttle down just a bit he pushed them out of the hidden harbor, the bright afternoon sun bathing them in a golden hue.

  “North. Fast,” Ling said, removing the fedora from his head and leaning forward. The wind increased in his face as the boat picked up speed, pushing his hair back against his head.

  The front end of the boat rocked up and slammed back down into the water as pure horsepower pushed them forward along the shoreline. A large rooster tail of water shot out behind them as they picked up speed.

  It took a full five minutes, before an object took shape on the horizon before them.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “I think we’ve gone far enough to sell it,” Nio said, drawing his lure up out of the water. Saltwater dripped from the hooks dangling off the end of it as he swung it near and fastened it down. “Pull your lines and let’s head for home.”

  “Thank God,” Iggy grumbled, reeling in the last few feet of line. “I think I’m starting to get seasick out here.”

  “Yeah, it’s definitely starting to get rougher,” Nio agreed, folding his fishing seat down and pulling the outboard motor from the water. He laid his pole down and waited as Iggy did the same before putting them and the bait casters back in the holding bin.

  “How in the hell do people get any enjoyment out of this sport?” Iggy asked, extending her hands out in front of her and rotating at the waist.

  “Could be worse,” Nio said, slamming the bin shut. “We’re out in a boat on the ocean. Imagine doing this on a pond in Middle America somewhere.”

  A low chortle rolled out of Iggy as she finished her stretch, stopping halfway through her rotation. Raising a hand to her brow she peered in tight on the horizon, her body going rigid.

  “Nio.”

  “Yeah?” he asked, pocketing his phone and heading for the steering column.

  “Somebody’s coming up behind us fast.”

  Without looking up Nio twisted the key in the ignition, the V-6 rumbling to life. “So? There are a ton of ports up the coast. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more people out here.”

  Lowering the throttle, the boat pushed forward, twin streaks of white foam extending out in diagonal lines in their wake. Behind him Iggy braced herself for the movement, keeping a hand raised to her brow.

  “They’re still coming.”

  Pushing an exasperated sigh out through his nose, Nio turned over his shoulder to see a low-slung speedboat approaching. The nose of it was aimed directly for their tail, cutting right through the twin tracks of sea foam behind them.

  Feeling his pulse rise, Nio lowered the throttle, turning the wheel a quarter turn to the right. “Hold on. I’m going to change our course, see what they do.”

  The change of direction tossed Iggy down against the seats, her body slapping the vinyl. Beside her Nio braced himself against the steering column, the front end of the boat bouncing over the incoming swells.

  “Still back there!” Iggy said, raising herself up onto her knees, her torso pressed against the seatbacks.

  Pushing the throttle as far as it would go, Nio waited until the boat reached full speed before banking and making a hard right out into the ocean. Foam and water spewed into the air behind them as they made a large fish hook away from shore, turning back in the opposite direction.

  The move caught the approaching boat by surprise, the vessel roaring at full speed and unable to correct itself on the fly. For a few brief seconds the two ran parallel to each other in opposite directions, both sides openly staring at the other as they passed by.

  In unison Nio and Iggy’s jaws both fell open, realization setting in. Their heads rotated at the necks as they passed by, following their sudden intruder.

  “Isn’t that...?” Iggy said, her voice ripped away by the rushing wind.

  “That son of a bitch from the security camera,” Nio finished, leaning forward over the wheel, willing the boat to go faster.

  There was no way they could make it all the way back to the marina they had rented from. The boat behind them was too fast, the path right past their headquarters too perilous. Even if they could somehow get there, no help would be waiting nearby. The old man behind the counter would be of no service, the police miles away at best.

  “Where they at?” Nio asked over his shoulder, keeping his entire attention focused forward.

  “Just made the turn and starting to pick up speed,” Iggy said, alternating glances between the approaching boat and her brother. “Why they hell are we slowing down?”

  “I’m drawing them closer.”

  “What? Why?”

  “We’ll never make it going south,” Nio said. “I need them to overshoot us again so we can get up the coast.”

  Ripping her sunglasses off and tossing them aside, Iggy continued alternating glances. ”Two hundred yards and closing.”

  Staring straight ahead, Nio willed himself to count a full ten seconds before dropping the throttle and banking hard towards the coastline. The boat bucked beneath them, tossing them both from side to side, before catching an incoming wave and surging forward.

  For a second time the move caught their pursuers unawares, the black boat forced to swing a wide loop around them in an effort to turn. Nio glanced over his shoulder as they shot by, watching as the Asian man yelled and waved his arms overhead.

  “Where the hell are we going now?” Iggy yelled, repositioning herself on the seat.

  “I don’t know,” Nio muttered, his voice just barely audible. “First port we see. Hopefully it’s a big one.”

  “Great,” Iggy whispered, watching as their pursuer finishing the turn, having looped wide into oncoming waves.

  The incoming wind matted Nio’s hair to his head, funneling back off of his sunglasses as he peered out over the steering wheel. With each passing second they picked up a bit more speed, the front end starting to bounce from the crest of one wave to the next.

  “Faster, dammit. Faster!” Iggy yelled. “They’re catching up!”

  “I am!” Nio roared back. “This thing isn’t made for high-speed chases.”

  Ahead on the horizon the first hint of sails crested above the water, a line of uneven spikes like trees on a ridge line. The sight of them only served to raise the adrenaline within Nio, his hand again finding the throttle, pushing it downward in vain.

  “Fifty yards and closing!” Iggy reported. “If you’ve got any more evasive maneuvers, this would be the time!”

  Watching the white caps racing by on either side, there was no way Nio could try another about face. Even if the move were to catch their pursuers by surprise a third time, the sudden change of direction and the momentum of the incoming waves would flip them over, tossing them against the shore and battering them to bits.

  “Twenty yards...fifteen.”

  Nio could feel the same strain present in Iggy’s voice pulsing through him. Ahead the line of sails grew taller, now almost three inches in height, lined in perfect order.

  “Five yards!” Iggy yelled.

  Nio turned to see the boat bearing down on them, so close he could almost reach out and touch it. A young guy sat wide-eyed behind the wheel as the Asian man from the docks braced himself in the well and stared at them. The boat drew to within a few feet of their rear before nudging itself to the right, inching forward alongside them.

  As it did, the Asian man rose to full height in the well and perched himself along the side of the boat.

  “Get down, now!” Nio yelled, waiting just a split second before jerking up on the throttle. There was an ugly grinding of gears as the boat jerked to a crawl, their pursuers hurtling past.

  Once they were gone by, Nio once more dropped the throttle, taking off at an angle in their wake.

  Ahead, the row of docked sailboats and the hope it represented lay just over a mile away.

  “Here they come again!” Iggy yelled.

  “I know,” Nio muttered, trying to transfer every bit of energy h
e had into the rig beneath him. Despite his every effort, the nose of the other boat began again to creep into his periphery.

  The object flew in before either Nio or Iggy had a chance to register what it was, a simple round orb tossed by the Asian man. It made a single hollow sound as it landed along the bow of the boat, bouncing just once before exploding, a shower of wood chunks and fiberglass erupting around them.

  The front end of the boat jerked hard into the ocean, saltwater pouring up over it. Acrid smoke billowed up around them, burning their eyes and throats, blocking most of their view.

  Behind the wheel Nio tried in vain to push the engine, to jerk the wheel away from their attackers, but it was to no avail. Every form of navigation the boat employed was gone, an expensive piece of flotsam bobbing on the whim of the waves.

  Nio never saw the Asian man hop from the side of his boat onto the Tracker. He had no idea he was nearby until hearing a scream erupt from Iggy, a blur of black clothing and brown skin passing before him in the smoky haze.

  Their bodies landing in a twisted heap on the bow of the black boat was the last thing he saw before the oncoming waves overcame his own vessel, a deluge of water sending him under.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  “What have you got on that address, Coach?”

  A half dozen hours had passed since their last conversation, though Thorn had managed only a few hours of anything resembling rest. Once the call had come in from Steubin authorizing him to use the satellite surveillance system he had brought his laptop into the living room and posted up. With Abby asleep by his side and his bare feet resting on the coffee table, he had sat inert for the past three hours, trolling the grounds as best he could.

  So far, it had been little more than an exercise in tedium and frustration.

  His only hope was Ingram’s afternoon had been more productive.

  “Property has a paper trail a mile long,” Ingram began, reading the information from a printout in hand. “It’s owned by a company named Axis Industries, which as far as I can tell doesn’t exist or if it does, it’s only business transaction ever was to buy that house.”