“Oh, thank you, no, I’ve got to get back. Have you spoken with the Caymanian police?”
“Yeah, about an hour ago,” Boone said.
“We’re becoming quite skilled at chatting up island coppers,” Em said, tossing a smile at Boone. “So, what brings you to our little seaside table?”
“Lyra Othonos sent me. She said she thought the two of you should have this. Whatever ‘this’ is.” He pulled out an empty chair and set a familiar black case atop it. “Will I see you two back aboard the ship tonight? I’ll be playing at The Muse, and we’ll be in port until tomorrow at least.”
“Save us a table!” Emily said.
“Will do! See you then!” The young man quickly made his way back toward the piers.
Boone reached over and opened the case to reveal the contents: Nicholas’s Underwater Personal Conveyor.
“That’s mine, by the way,” Emily proclaimed through a mouthful of her third fritter.
Boone grinned. “How you figure?”
“I drove it first. And also, I used it to… oh, what was it that I did? Oh yeah, I remember. I used it to frikkin’ save the world.”
Boone laughed. “Consider it yours.”
“No consideration needed, it’s mine. Right, Brix?” Emily stuck her head under the table.
The potlicker gave a flurry of tail wags, punctuated by a joyous “woof.”
Emily came back up top. “See? Brixton concurs.”
Boone settled back in his chair, flush with contentment. Sipping the Ironshore Bock, he glanced out to sea… and nearly did a spit take of his own. “You gotta be shittin’ me…”
The cruise ship that had been on the horizon was coming into the bay, the Caribbean sun shining down on all its broken-down glory.
“Is that…?” Emily said, setting down her Caybrew.
“It is.”
Emily’s nostrils flared with anger—a look that Boone found equal parts arousing and intimidating. She reached out, beckoning with her fingers. “Put the scooter up here.”
Boone lifted it from the case and set it on the table. Emily powered it up, then plunked her lime green sunglasses down beside it, perusing the controls for a moment.
“What are you doing?”
“If Nicholas used the video to blackmail them, then he must’ve kept the video, yeah?” She tapped a few keys and a menu of videos popped up. Selecting the most recent, she pressed play. Emily’s beautiful lips curved into a wicked grin. “Gotcha,” she breathed.
“You are so sexy when you’re full of righteous anger,” Boone said, only half-joking.
Emily polished off her beer, clunking the bottle down with purpose. “Get me another, would you? Raining down justice is thirsty work. I’m going to transfer this video to my mobile.”
Boone smiled, taking the empty up to the bar and waggling the bottle when the bartender looked his way.
“Another, please.”
“And I’ll take a Strongbow,” a voice said.
Boone glanced to the side as a striking woman in polarized sunglasses approached the south side of the U-shaped bar. A bit taller than Emily, maybe a few years older, the first thing Boone noticed was a dazzling pair of tattoo sleeves: a colorful reef scene on her right arm, a black-and-gray shark on the left. Her shoulder-length blonde hair sported purple highlights, and she wore a T-shirt from a dive shop, a mermaid astride an anchor and an old-timey dive helmet dominating the logo.
The bartender smiled broadly, clearly recognizing the woman who sidled up to the bar. “aj! Good to see you! An ice-cold bottle from the back of the fridge, coming right up.”
“Thanks, Frank.”
“You want a menu?”
“No thanks, I’m just meeting Nora here,” aj said, an English accent readily apparent. She tucked her sunglasses into the neck of her dive shirt. “You be at the Fox and Hare later?”
“I will indeed,” Frank said, bringing over a pair of bottles. “A Strongbow for you…and a Caybrew for the gentleman.” With that, he hustled away to a group of cruisies that had just arrived.
aj gave Boone a polite smile and lifted her bottle. “Cheers.” She turned to go.
“You’re British,” Boone said.
“You’re tall,” she deadpanned back, before granting him another brief smile.
Boone had been around Emily long enough to see how often guys were hitting on her—”macking on her”, as she called it—and the opening salvo was frequently about Em’s accent. And this woman had a familiar “not looking for flirtation” look in her eyes. Green eyes, Boone now noticed. Much like Emily’s.
“Sorry, it’s just that my girlfriend Emily over there is a Brit.” Boone gestured back toward Em. “South London.”
aj relaxed at that, appraising Boone more closely. “You a diver?” She gestured at Boone’s Bubble Chasers T-shirt with her bottle of cider.
“Yeah… Em and I are divemasters from over in Cozumel. Bubble Chasers is our op.” He nodded toward her. “Mermaid Divers… that’s a cool logo.”
“Thanks. Friend of mine designed it for me.” She smiled, a more welcoming smile this time. “Mermaid Divers is my op.” She extended a hand. “aj Bailey.”
“Boone Fischer,” he said, shaking with her.
Boone was already planning on introducing her to Emily, but the fact that she was the owner of a dive operation on Grand Cayman gave him an even better reason to bring her over.
“Would you care to join us? Emily is gonna love you. Plus, we’ve got something you’ll probably want to see.”
aj shrugged. “Sure.”
Boone led her back to the table, where Emily was completely engrossed in her phone and the touchscreen atop the upc. He set her beer down. “Em, got someone you should meet. aj Bailey… meet Emily Durand.”
Em waved her hand at him. “Just a tick, almost got it… boom! Uploading!” She looked up. Catching sight of aj, her jaw dropped. “Crikey…”
aj raised an eyebrow and Boone laughed nervously. “Em… you okay there?”
Boone’s question rebooted her and Em gushed, “Ohmigod, I love your tattoos and your hair and I love mermaids!”
aj burst into laughter. “Boone here tells me you’re a Southie,” she said, still grinning at Emily’s outburst.
“You’re English, too? Boone, can we keep her?”
Brixton came out from under the table, tail wagging furiously.
“And who is this?” aj asked. “Looks a lot like my friend Reg’s dog Coop. A local mutt breed called a Cayman Brown Hound.”
“That’s Brixton,” Emily replied. “Brix for short. He’s a Belizean potlicker pup.”
“Hello, Brixton.” aj gave the dog her hand to sniff as she addressed Emily. “Are you from that neighborhood?”
“No, Deptford. But that would make for a terrible name for a dog. How ’bout you?”
“Sussex, originally.”
“aj here is a divemaster,” Boone said. “Mermaid Divers is her op.”
“I told Boone we should’ve put a mermaid on our logo!”
“Emily’s got a bit of a mermaid fetish,” Boone said.
“Don’t embarrass me in front of my new best friend!” Emily admonished Boone. “Besides, it’s more of a mild obsession. That, and the color green. Love your eyes, too, by the way…”
“Okay, okay, don’t scare her off,” Boone teased, offering a chair to aj.
aj gestured at the upc atop the table. “Is this what you wanted to show me? What is it?”
“It’s kind of a cross between an underwater scooter and a drone. But the scooter’s not what I wanted to show you… it’s the video Emily took with it.”
Emily smiled, understanding where Boone was going with this. “aj, how long has Mermaid been operating?”
“About five years, give or take.”
&n
bsp; “So, I’m betting you know some conservation types over here, yeah?”
aj nodded. “Casey, one of my best mates, works over at the Department of Environment.”
“Ace! Well, then… take a gander at this.” Emily slid the phone across the table.
aj watched the video, growing angrier by the moment. “This dumping… this was in Cozumel?” she said, as the video neared the end.
“Yeah,” Boone replied. “Few days ago.”
“Why are you showing this to me?” aj asked as the video came to a close, the stern of the Nordic Starr frozen in the final frame.
“Because that ship”—Emily tapped the screen—“is that ship.” She pointed out to sea at the Hygge Cruises vessel as it dropped anchor.
aj’s jaw clenched. “Can you send me that video? I’m going to call Casey, tell her to get down here.”
Boone smiled, picking up his empty pint glass and rising from the table. “I’ll get us another round. I suspect we’ll need it.”
The bar was quite a bit busier now, so Boone staked out a corner and waited patiently. As he did, his eyes took in the customers. A few locals, quite a few cruise ship passengers. Boone watched one older gentleman light up a cigar, reaching out a gnarled hand for an ashtray down at one end of the bar, sliding it closer. Boone stiffened. There, in the ashtray, were a trio of familiar golden cigarette butts.
Adrenaline surging, Boone stepped back from the bar, scanning the entire outdoor seating area. The face he was looking for was nowhere in sight. Frank, the bartender, came over.
“Another Ironshore?”
“Uh… yeah… and another cold Strongbow for aj.” As Frank started to turn, Boone continued. “Hey, weird question… that ashtray over there. It was sitting down at the end and it’s got some cigarette butts in there from a black-and-gold cigarette. Did you happen to see who was smoking them?”
“No, sorry… we had quite a lunch rush from the ships, I was swamped. But I don’t recall anyone smoking over there for the last couple hours at least. I’ll get your beers.”
Boone returned to the table, setting the drinks down.
“What’s up, Boone?” Emily asked.
Boone shook his head and smiled. “Probably nothing. How’d you do with the video?”
aj waggled her phone. “Got it. And Casey will be here at half five.”
“That’s five-thirty, Boone,” Emily said slowly, as if instructing a toddler on his abc’s. She winked at aj. “I’m training ‘im ‘ow to speak proper.”
Boone laughed. “That one I knew.” He sat back and took a swallow of his beer. “So, aj… what’s it like, diving in the Caymans?”
“Why, you thinking of coming over? Poaching my business?”
“Nah, we’re quite happy over on Coz.”
“Now, hang on,” Emily said. “We’ve just had a little… investment. What’s to stop us from expanding? Then I could hang with my new best mate!”
When aj laughed, Boone leaned forward. “She’s not kidding. She will stalk you.”
“I could do worse,” aj said.
“But seriously, what’s the diving like?”
“Well… first off, you’ve got three islands to choose from…Grand, Little, and Brac. The water is gin-clear, brilliant viz year-round. And enough dive sites, you could dive a different spot every day of the year! Now… here on Grand…”
As aj launched into a passionate rundown of some of her favorite sites, Boone gathered Brixton against his leg, sipping his beer as he looked out at the sparkling sea. He smiled. Why not?
Keep reading for The Afterword, but first:
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Boone and Emily will return in another installment of
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Finally, if you were as intrigued as Emily was by a certain tattoo-sleeved Grand Cayman divemaster, check out Nicholas Harvey’s A J Bailey Adventure Series.
It’s a very strange feeling when you finish a book, then fire up a document called “The Afterword” and realize just how many aspects of your life thudded into each other to create the novel lying before you.
Cozumel has provided some of my favorite diving experiences, and I’ve visited there several times. The first trip, we stayed in the original Hotel Barracuda (before it was destroyed by Wilma) and dived with Dive Paradise. Here’s a tidbit that’s likely to be of interest. Guess who used to work there as a divemaster? I’ll give you a hint: I narrate his audiobooks and his lead character had a cameo in Deep Shadow. Yes, action-adventure writer Wayne Stinnett used to work at Dive Paradise, pre-Hurricane Wilma. The world is a tiny place!
The second trip to Coz we decided to dive with Aqua Safari, lodging in a little room they had above the shop. I enjoyed that stay, being able to just cross the street to their pier—the same pier where Emily encounters the drone. And in a later trip, although we weren’t staying there, my “crew” and I were happy to revisit the site of the new Hotel Barracuda and have some drinks poolside at the No Name Bar crew bar. But then we scuttled on back to our hotel, because there was a hurricane on the way. We’ve had odd hurricane luck with our Cozumel trips. Every time I’ve gone, a hurricane or a tropical storm has popped up: Hurricane Chantal in 2003, Hurricane Dolly in 2008, and Tropical Storm Barry in 2013. We’d batten down the hatches and ride them out, but on only one occasion did we miss a single day of diving.
During out first trip to Coz, there were a lot of Volkswagen Things. Our second visit, we didn’t see a single one. But there were plenty of convertible VW Bugs! We rented a bright orange one, then headed off to the Mayan temple complex of San Gervasio, deep in the interior of the island. It was there that I actually saw a mated pair of cardinals! I thought that was so unusual, seeing a bird I associate with North America, that I put it into Deep Roots. Another crossover with Roots: you may remember “Boonemily” found a certain artifact associated with a Mayan goddess? San Gervasio was a center of worship for the goddess Ix Chel. And what Coz car rental day would be complete without a trip to Coconuts? Yes, those photo albums exist… we saw them, but we didn’t “see” them. A cruise ship group had them. Also, when we were there, I don’t remember much of a menagerie, but apparently there are a lot of critters there now.
Some of the best diving I’ve experienced has been on this beautiful little island. We always booked the fast-boats when available, the best sites being far to the south. And yes, much like the scene with the Lunasea racing the Barco Rápido, I remember “racing” other boats for prime moorings in the south. The currents can be tricky down there. It’s the only time I’ve had to share my octopus with someone, when powerful currents at Cedral Wall led one of our number to burn through their air. The thing I remember about that day was how chill we both were, down there at a depth of seventy feet. The sequence of signals boiled down to:
“Hey. I’m out of air.”
“Oh, you are? Okay, here. Hey divemaster, we’re going up.”
Staying calm and just following the training really pays off. Another fun memory: we shared a fast-boat with a couple and kept thinking one of them looked familiar, finally recognizing one of the pair as an actor from a hilarious show on Comedy Central, Strangers with Candy. Greg Hollimon, who had played the pri
ncipal on the show, ended up joining us for dinner at La Mission. And another actor buddy whom I have dived with several times made it into this story: Matt Boston. Matt has never read my books. So I killed him. Well, his Greek doppelganger at least, “Mattaíos.”
One of the great things about Cozumel is the plentiful selection of excellent restaurants. And I’m not talking about the ones that lurk near the cruise ship piers, where binge-drinking is the theme and waitresses blow whistles at you until you pound down a liver-killing amount of alcohol. No, I’m thinking of a number of spots where you can get some amazing local cuisine for not too many pesos. If you’ve read my other books, you know I can’t stop myself from having Boone and Emily sit down to a meal or three. I didn’t end up doing that so much in this book, so real quick, here are some of my favorite places to “grab a scrummy nosh,” as Emily would say: La Choza: home of avocado pie… very chill, not touristy, great local food. Casa Denis: A venerable establishment, set back from the main square… fantastic seafood. La Mission: Another old standby, great place to get lobster and steak… wonderful atmosphere. And Pancho’s Backyard: Lots of great dishes, and they had a jalapeño margarita I still dream about. Apparently, they’ve opened a second location down by the southern cruise ship piers, but that was after my last visit.
And on the subject of cruise ships: there are too dang many. Well, maybe not now, with COVID-19 devastating the cruise industry… but the amount of cruise ship traffic is reason enough—if you’re thinking of visiting Coz—to consider some of the resorts further south. And if staying closer to the city, pay the extra for a fast-boat. You’ll thank me when you blow past a cattle boat packed to the gills on your way south to snag the best dive sites.
Enough about Cozumel. How about another island that came into play? Nope, not Grand Cayman. When I was seven years old, my parents took my brother and me on our one-and-only trip to Europe. My father was a lover of Greek philosophy, so naturally we went to Athens… and from there, we took a ferry to Hydra; a tiny, arid island with a tiered town surrounding a beautiful harbor. We were met with a donkey, who carried our luggage up steep stone steps to our lodgings. And, being a child of seven, the foremost memory of that journey was that donkey pooping constantly all the way up to our destination. But last year, when I learned that Hydra had one of the oldest maritime colleges in the world, I knew I needed to bring it into play with Karras Othonos’s background. I was also a huge fan of Greek mythology in my childhood, so the cruise ship company’s theme was a no-brainer. Speaking of Greece… if any of you know Greek, then one of my plot’s “surprises” might not have been as much of a surprise. Lovers of all things Caribbean will hear “calypso” and think of the musical style. But Calypso is a Greek name, and it means: “she who hides.”
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